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. 

On 11/28/2023 at 1:59 PM, LHT28 said:

When you book

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.

On 11/23/2023 at 7:00 AM, LadyBerard said:

I purchased the upgrade a little while ago for $13.99 pp per day and check pricing damn near daily.  Today, it dropped to $6.99 pp per day.  Check your pricing for 2025 cruises today!  Obviously, I canceled and rebooked it.

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. 

4 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Seems that their primary job is to separate you from your $$$ first then make recommendations second.  lol

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

On 7/13/2022 at 11:10 AM, Ozzmund said:

Can’t speak to an onboard crab shack, but can definitely recommend Tracey’s King Crab Shack right off the pier in Juneau. 

$75 pp.

21 hours ago, CharlieCharlieCharlie said:

In 2018 (could have been 2017, I forget which year) when sailing on the Millennium from Seward, Alaska, there was no Concierge lunch.  We were practically laughed at when we asked about it, and after the main dining room, we were sent to two different venues (one was Luminae*, where we were looked at and treated with disdain) to check on where it might be held.  One person finally told us that on that ship, it was just early access to the buffet (I dislike the buffet - any buffet.)  It was not a big deal to not have the embarkation lunch, but a disappointing and somewhat embarrassing waste of time searching. It is certainly possible that the embarkation concierge lunch is available now.

*The Luminae thing was weird, because we often sail in suites where we have been treated very well and enjoy the food in that restaurant. 

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?

Booked $25 pp deposit Black Friday 2019.  Celebrity has pushed that cruise back 3 times. Now Jan 23. 

1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Always a good thing when things go down

 

Hmm.  Not if the ship goes down (sorry, watched Titanic last night...)

On 3/22/2022 at 7:23 PM, dani negreanu said:

For me, those are the benefits --

 

On M-class -- a bigger room. 

Better location.

A concierge who can help sometimes -- invitations to the helipad, or behind the scenes/galleys.

Only if the price as a regular veranda.

 

Sailing in concierge stateroom next month (Millennium).  Fare as the same as veranda when I booked.  But later, veranda dropped about $600 and concierge did not.  Since we were in a different cabin class we could not take advantage of the fare drop.  And in my book, concierge is worth way less than $600.  

On 4/13/2022 at 2:06 PM, Purplsmurf said:

Not necessarily. On our next sailing check in didn’t start until about 6 pm. 

For Millennium (June 10 - Vancouver-Seward) check-in was available when I logged into Celebrity (PC/Windows) at 5:00 am.  All boarding times from 11:00 am and up were available.  Not a night person.  12:01 am is out.

Thanks for posting.  One less test prior to our Vancouver sailing in June..

57 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

This is common when using a TA to book flights. I have the same thing happen whenever I book flights through my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. It has never actually caused an issue when boarding flights.

Agreed.  I have seen several third party booking agencies do this.  I read long ago that it is a software issue -- something like a buffer doesn't have a middle name field so it just concatenates the first and middle.

I have never had this questioned by the TSA or the airline.  

22 hours ago, Dave from Ont said:

We staying overnight in Toronto on June 9th, flying to Vancouver on June 10th. We will be staying overnight there and boarding our cruise on June 11th. We need a covid antigen test no more than 1 day before the cruise so we can board. Does anyone have any idea on where to get an antigen test in downtown Vancouver. We will be staying near Canada Place. Would it just be better to get a

As noted elsewhere there are various locations in downtown Vancouver where rapid antigen tests are available.  If memory serves, they range from $69 CAD and up.  But the number of locations is limited contrasted with the number of cruise passengers flying in from the US that will require prior-day tests.

We fly into Vancouver on June 8 for a June 10 cruise (Celebrity).  If employing rapid antigen tests, we will need one at home on June 7 to satisfy Canada entry requirements.  Then we will need another in Vancouver on June 9 to satisfy Canada and cruise line requirements.  We can schedule the Vancouver test ahead of time but the sheer volume of testing could delay results unacceptably.

My solution will be to get rapid PCR testing (rapid RT-PCR) here in Atlanta on June 7.  It will cost about $180 pp, but will satisfy everybody's (3-day) testing requirements in order to enter Canada on June 8 and board the cruise ship on June 10.

Ken

The savings originally would have been about $300.  The male agent yesterday told me that the airfares I saw on the FBC site were only for new cruises.  I accepted that and settled for the $140 difference.  I only realized this morning that the fare he quoted me was for the wrong return flight.  And then, of course, the actual Delta fare changed overnight so by today it matched the cost of the mistaken itinerary.  So, the agent's mistake cost us about $160.  I didn't mention all this in the original post as it was just a sideshow to the points I was making.

How much in savings is worth the phone call and the hassle?  Again, next time I'll book directly with the airline.

I just had a new experience that raises the question of whether it's worth booking fights through FBC.  I called them yesterday to rebook Delta flights to/from South America next Dec/Jan to take advantage of a $70 fare drop each for two of us.  After a 2 hour wait time, the agent courteously rebooked the flights and dropped the fare (for flights) by $140 total.  Unfortunately, I didn't notice until later that he had mistakenly changed the return flight to a day later than originally booked. 

This morning I called to rectify the incorrect flight return date.  The agent courteously rebooked the flight itinerary back to the correct dates.  She then emailed a new cruise confirmation upon which I noticed that the cruise fares had increased by $1800 and the taxes/fees/port expenses had increased by $900.  After several back-and-forths these two issues were resolved.  Then I noticed a new $200 change fee had been added to the latest confirmation (wiping out my $140 flight savings plus some).  The agent told me there was nothing she could do about this one.  She then transferred me to a cruise desk supervisor who also told me it couldn't be fixed.  I told her it would be fixed or we would just cancel the cruise altogether.  After more hold time she got back on the line and told me she had reduced the cruise fare by $200 to counter the "unfixable" new change fee.

So, the numbers are now right but over two days I spent over six hours on the phone to effect $140 in flight savings.  Had I booked directly with Delta in the first place, I could have recouped the $140 as a future flight credit online in just a few minutes time.  

I've never had this issue of rebooking flights with FBC resulting in changes to the cruise charges before.  Yes, it can be fixed with enough time, patience and insistence.  But I was told by the cruise desk supervisor that this could happen any time one makes changes to flights booked through FBC.  If the flight costs drop again I'm not sure I'll even try to capture the difference.  The FBC agents and cruise desk agents are unfailingly polite and responsive to issues.  But the inability to make changes online and the seemingly arbitrary computer system have (for me) rendered any benefits to booking flights directly with the cruise line much less compelling.

All of the cruise line and passenger obligations and requirements notwithstanding, a crucial element of the announcement is the vaccination exemption for children under the age of 12.  This means that most cruises scheduled to embark or visit Canadian ports in the 2022 cruise season will be able to go forward (contrary to many alarming reports last week).