DebInAntigua

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? 

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.

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. 

Yawn. I am sorely disappointed that the new ship only sails around the Caribbean. 

Does anyone (who is in a position to know) know if the sailings will be released tomorrow as well for the new ship?

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! 😉

On 6/9/2023 at 10:19 AM, Jim_Iain said:

 

By the way Kelly designed the E-Class also and carried on her poor design.    Just ask anyone about the lamps over the tables.   You won't find many guests that haven't hit their heads at least once.     They have lots of Banket Seating -   unfortunately the backrests are too short and the railing hits you in the back.  

 

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. 

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!

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!

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.

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.

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. 

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?

20 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

My Doctor is excellent but told me that it was only under Emergency Approval for active cases and that he couldn't prescribe it prophetically.     He also told me he couldn't refill my sleeping pills for jetlagging after I hit 70.   It is like I magically change and an all 70 y.o. in the world suddenly may have balance issues if use it.    Oh well...  no trouble buying them in Mexico.

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>.

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?

Am I a rebel? I print out double the number of tags needed, fill in the last name field, cut them out and then put them into plastic luggage tag holders so both sides include my name. That means that the Celebrity logo and brand X is cut off. We assume that every porter knows which ship is the APEX but let me know if I'm living too dangerously. 

If you are in a suite on APEX, can you ask the butler to deliver a fresh late night pizza to your cabin?

On 3/20/2023 at 11:26 AM, JFontaine said:

You lost me on people who eat fried food and are barely able to stand. You do realize you are on a ship with thousands of people and not a yacht with your version of how people should look, right? 

Exactly. That comment changes the entire way I interpret the entire rest of the post. Oh my, I'm so sorry that other fat people like me aren't decorating your world in the way you believe you're entitled to! 

Thanks for the replies - we'll definitely prioritize the show schedule!

6 hours ago, Iriel said:

They replied through Twitter! They said they will check it and let me know. Thank you everyone for your help. I know $30 is not a lot for some people, but it's a lot for me since it's not my own currency.

I think any amount is "a lot" when you are paying for something you didn't use.

We'll be on the APEX TA next month and have heard wonderful things about the APEX evening shows in the theater. During a TA, do all the shows repeat so you have multiple chances to catch them? Or do they still only do each show once and fill the other nights with comedians and lighter entertainment?

33 minutes ago, rmalbers said:

Ya, I think staying out of the elevators and using the stairs is the best approach to avoiding 'issues'. 

Not all of us have the mobility to do that.. 😞

With the recent changes in the non-refundable rate policies, we'd like to book our 2025 cruise onboard so we can have a lower pp deposit. The catch for us is we will be on the Apex in May 2023 and we want to sail on a westbound (fall) TA on an Edge class in 2025. Those sailings haven't been released yet. 

What's the policy for how long you have to choose your sailing if you put down a deposit on a Future Cruise onboard? I've been told 60 days and also a year - what's the current policy from those onboard this month who booked?

On 3/9/2023 at 11:03 PM, cruisestitch said:

Was this a lift and shift situation ?  Or were you applying FCC to the new cruise?

 

 

We kept the same reservation number as the original cruise. It wasn’t the same destination or itinerary at all, so not sure why it was done that way. Maybe so they could waive the change fees? 

On 3/8/2023 at 4:33 PM, cruisestitch said:

The issue of port fees and whether or not they are refunded,, it’s much more complicated than it first appears.

To start with, port fees are somewhat nationality dependent. That is to say that a port might charge US citizens a certain amount, but British citizens a different amount. So you and your neighbor might have paid different port fees to start with.
 

Port fees go up and down. If at the moment you booked the port fee was, let’s say $10, and it goes up to $11, they don’t charge you extra.  If it goes down to $9 dollars, they don’t give you the dollar back either.

 

So let’s say that on some given itineraries, you paid $10 for each port for you were scheduled to visit.  But suddenly one Port decides to increase their fee to $30.  The cruise line doesn’t adjust what you pay.  But if one of the $10 ports get cancelled you will get no refund because the aggregate fee went up.

 

Because port fees go up and down, and vary by your nationality, someone else might have paid different fees initially and they might get a refund for a missed port while you don’t.

 

You seem to know a lot about this, so I'll hijack this thread a bit, cough, cough...We originally booked a cruise with a completely different itinerary and later shifted to a different cruise and ship due to the pandemic. The port fees and taxes from the original booking were much higher (Panama Canal) than our TA. I tried to get X to reduce them on a call with customer service prior to final payment, but I was told they would only adjust the port fees and taxes when we boarded. She promised that X would apply a credit in OBC if the fees were lower.

Was I told wrong? From your description, it sounds like X will keep the higher fees we paid and we're simply out of luck. It's a difference of over $200 so not exactly something I would shrug my shoulders about and ignore.