CruiseOrRust

We could get off the ship. But we already spent five full days on Oahu and had all the experiences that we wanted.

Make sure that you book excursions that will fully refund if the ship doesn’t make it. We are on the POA today stuck in Honolulu because the swells are supposedly too high at Maui. Not only lost a full day experiencing Hawaii but we got stuck with nonrefundable excursion expenses.

I booked excursions yesterday for a January 2025 cruise. When the website excursion booking engine totally screwed up the pricing, I called Oceania. Excursions were priced correctly and I was given the option to defer payment until Final Payment which I availed myself of.

This happened to us in 2022 on an Alaska itinerary. When the flight schedule changed (unacceptably) and we changed flights (including airlines), the entire itinerary was repriced. No components were cancelled however. It took me several hours on the phone to get it all straightened out. Very disappointing to read that this is SOP with Celebrity. Especially since we're contemplating using FBC for an early 2025 Australia/NZ itinerary.

Just did same. Cheers!

schmoopie17, I really appreciate your feedback. I was able to get a customer service agent on the line very quickly. Contrary to your experience, he was able to adjust our fare downwards by about $1050. He said the pricing on our stateroom category has dropped significantly -- indicating to me that they are still tracking balcony pricing for the specific categories, even though they are only showing "Guarantee" on the website. Strange that specific staterooms are still available on 3rd party sites but not at ncl.com. Thanks again. Ken

We booked a cruise directly with NCL many months ago. We are three weeks prior to final payment. The balcony category on our cruise is now available only as a guarantee cabin. But the specific category that we booked is still available (with specific cabin choice) for about $1000 less on a 3rd party (big box) site. Will NCL reprice our cabin based on this 3rd party pricing (the guarantee cabin on the NCL site is also $1000 less)? Or should I plan on cancelling and rebooking through the 3rd party site? Ken

Thanks, all, for your timely feedback. It appears the best strategy is to include the air package and reevaluate when airlines publish fares for that period.

We have an O cruise booked for early 2025 (first one with O). I booked OLife but with air credit (i.e. no air purchased). My Oceania rep tells me that I can add back air later (even 18 months later) for the same amount that was credited today. Is that the understanding of experienced O cruisers?

But a very comfortable place to read or relax (if the same as in 2018/2019).

We stayed in 7208 on Millennium in June. Moved from deck 8 to be a little more removed from the Sunset Bar above (noise). We experienced no black soot at all. We really enjoyed the spacious deck. Yes, all covered but the last few aft feet.

On three Celebrity cruises (Reflection twice, Millennium once) we have had an excellent experience with the wine sommeliers (four different ones on three cruises). They were knowledgeable, respectful of our preferences, cognizant of the price thresholds of our premium beverage package and unfailingly polite and helpful. Just good luck I guess? Ken

$75 pp.

We were on Millennium sailing in concierge last month (June 10 Vancouver-Seward). There was never an invitation for any concierge lunch. On a positive note, our cabin steward graciously substituted a bottle of chardonnay for our (unwanted) bottle of bubbly.

My experience with two pending cruises, both using FBC, is that they will honor normal fare drops and cancel/rebook flights to leverage the fare difference. However, any component of a lower fare that reflects current promotions for new bookings will not be extended to already-booked passengers. Usually the promotion is clearly advertised on the FBC booking site. Maybe the fare drop you saw was entirely due to a promotion?