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DebInAntigua

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  • Posts

    614
  • Joined

About Me

  • Location
    Antigua, Guatemala
  • Interests
    Culture, architecture, food, travel, sushi
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Celebrity
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Not sure yet!

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DebInAntigua's Achievements

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. So did anyone purchase this last season who can share whether the coupons were worthwhile or not? I too wonder if I preorder it on the Cruise Planner and feel it's not worth it when we see it in person, can we return it to guest services and get a refund?
  2. We put down a larger deposit to get the extra AMEX points. It's refundable except for the $150pp cancellation fee, so I decided why not.
  3. I just logged into the Cruise Planner tonight and the Xpass was very inexpensive for both of our Alaska cruises in May & June 2024. Also, Classic to Premium drink package upgrades were also on sale. I canceled our previous Basic to Premium internet upgrade purchases and our previous Beverage package upgrade purchases and saved $390 total. Now we get 2 devices pp Premium Wifi, a few extra services like free room service, and it cost me hundreds less. I'll take it.
  4. Yawn. I am sorely disappointed that the new ship only sails around the Caribbean.
  5. Does anyone (who is in a position to know) know if the sailings will be released tomorrow as well for the new ship?
  6. Even if you can supposedly afford business class, the pricing models lately are outrageous. I've been pricing one-way business class fares from Guatemala to Vancouver for next year's cruise. The first seat in business class on the date we want costs only $720. I put it on hold and confirmed it was the very first seat sold when choosing seats. So then I went through to put another one on hold for DH - the price for the second business class seat jumped to $3419!!! How can they possibly justify that wild of a swing in price? No other word for it than greed. And for those wondering why I went through to buy 1 at a time, I've learned that if you see "1 seat available", it will be cheaper to purchase them separately than together. I did an incognito window and a VPN for the second one but the price was still $3419. I found that by flying the day before for the same flight times, I could get tickets at $712 + $1080. Guess we're going a day earlier! 😉
  7. My husband can attest to the "hits you in the back" comment - he sat down a bit too fast on a sea day with lots of ship movement, and bruised his back so badly he had a horrible bruise for almost 2 weeks. It looked like someone had smacked his spine with a baseball bat. Luckily it looked a lot worse than it felt.
  8. One of our favorite parts of the Retreat experience was the Retreat Concierges available in the lounge. They were happy to assist with almost anything we needed - dining, excursions, scheduling a private time to meet with the Future Cruise agent in the lounge, issues with our account, etc. Two issues handled by the concierges stand out in particular: 1) Our Apex TA was a rebook of a rebook of a rebook from what was originally a Panama Canal cruise with very high port fees and taxes. Through all of the covid-related moves of our reservation from one ship to the next, Celebrity never adjusted our port fees downward to match the port fees of the Apex TA itinerary. We spoke to one of the concierge staff in the Retreat lounge the day after boarding, and asked if anything could be done. She escalated it to the landside offices at 3 different levels and got us $300 OBC added to our account to offset the higher fees our reservation carried over from the Panama itinerary. I cannot imagine that happening at Guest services if we had not been in a suite! 2) As many people know, the Retreat concierges can arrange for the excursion desk or FC desk agents to come to you at your convenience in the Retreat lounge, saving you lots of time and providing a more comfortable experience. We had tried a few times to get some assistance in the iLounge to purchase an Apple Watch (hey, I had extra OBC now! ), but the iLounge staff were always busy with lots of people in line. We asked the Retreat concierge if she could arrange a personal appointment for the iLounge like the excursion or FC desk, and they did even better. She got the iLounge manager on the phone, gave the phone to me so I could explain what I wanted to purchase, and the entire transaction was handled right then and there. Within 20 minutes an employee from the store personally delivered my new watch to me in the Retreat Lounge as I sipped on my martini. Amazing!!! Being in a suite is an experience that goes far beyond Luminae, a larger stateroom, less crowds and a butler. It gives you more time to enjoy your vacation in as stress-free and relaxing a way possible. I am not sure we can afford to sail in the Retreat every year, but I have to admit we're willing to pay quite a bit more for the luxury of time added to our vacation days!
  9. Hi, everybody - I can't think of any other board to post this question, so here goes. In 2025, my husband and I who own a business together out of NC and currently live in Guatemala (USA citizens) are interested in sailing over to Europe on a TA in the spring, staying overseas for the summer months and then returning on a western TA in the fall of 2025. We know that we can only stay 90 days in the Schengen area with that visa, which is not enough time for this type of adventure. Is it true that we can stay up 90 days in Ireland without a visa and that's outside the Schengen area so we could do a combo of these two locations without special visa arrangements? We're just now beginning to explore this idea, so would love to know which EU countries and locations are good for extended tourism stays and keeping in touch with our team remotely back in the USA? We're interesting in discovering locations that are affordable with long term rentals, good for mobility challenged older folks, fast internet, easy to get around without a car, with lots of culture like museums, good restaurants, etc.) Recommendations are very welcome!
  10. Were you "anytime" dining or fixed seating dining? And interesting that they assigned you to a table with strangers. Post-COVID I thought they were avoiding this unless requested, as many people do not want to share tables with others.
  11. I'll add my vote for that Seafood Tower. It was divine and the oysters were so fabulous there that one day I ate a dozen and a half by myself, lol.
  12. I don’t recommend it. We didn’t like it - cold food, minuscule excuses for crab legs for the appetizer, just not worth it. Enjoy a beverage on there instead sometime and enjoy Eden or another specialty twice for what they charge for Dinner on the Edge. We were very disappointed.
  13. We did the onboard Book Later which means we have 6 months to choose a cruise and lock in the lower deposit and higher OBC offer. We know we want a fall 2025 TA on an Edge class. How can we find out the day they will be released for sale?
  14. We found an online medical service that will prescribe it for travel if you are considered high risk. I probably shouldn't post it here, you can email me debcinkus [at] gmail (dot)<com>.
  15. Can't complete logging in at the Celebrity website. It routes during authentication to a page that throws a 502 error. Anyone else seeing the same thing or is it the crappy hotel internet perhaps?
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