Doubt It

OK, check this out.

I have a cruise booked in August, paid in full. Have booked the shore excursions and paid additional $ for the extra excursions over the 8 "free".

Here is what my TA was given by Oceania:

Do we want a non-refundable shipboard credit applied to the reservation for $5,940 total

Or

I can ask for a non-refundable future cruise credit, they’ll have 1 yr to book, 1 yr to sail. Same amount $5,940 total.

________________

Good God, I can not use $5,940 of anything on the current cruise - we do not drink much, do not do spa nor buy stuff, only the gratuities. 

Put I have a cruise booked in February, deposit down. Could I use the future cruise credit to pay down the total costs of this upcoming cruise?

We have to pay in Cdn $, so anything is helpful.

Would appreciate your analysis of best value to me.

Kindest Regards From A Newbie!

15 hours ago, D C said:

Celebrity seems to have an overabundance of those consumers. 

Hi DC, I agree based on the price consumers are willing to pay for suites with ever decreasing product quality. Many more posts about the decline in Luminae food for example.

But I believe that it is a Mass Psychosis purchasing situation that has occurred across North America in the past decade, with the increase in mass consumption of media.

Obedient consumers can be easily spotted at Costco for example where the sheeple go to buy vast quantities of goods that may take them quite a while to use.

This is the core of Marketing and all corporations rely totally on Obedient Consumers. 

Obedient consumers are the greatest gift to a business; the business can change key variables to benefit them but they know their beloved obedient consumers will still purchase.

Consumers need to be not obedient and focus only on what is good for them, many do not, get in a loop of repetitive purchasing and thinking points are important. 

Always look at all options and undertake a value for money analysis; financial and non financial considerations.

The price of X suites is ridiculous when you compare to Oceania, Azamara etc where the entire ship is a suite with far better food. 

18 hours ago, basenji56 said:

What are some special itineraries in Caribbean? They often seem to be the same islands. 

A suggestion is the ABC's, the most southern of the island chain that is frequented by cruise lines. They take a while to get to, so often the cruises end up being a bit longer. And the Panama Canal is amazing.

Generally though the mass cruise lines do the same Caribbean islands over and over.

19 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

You haven’t cruise Celebrity in 7 years and don’t plan to return ,

so why are you in the Celebrity section ?

All your information about Celebrity is useless to someone cruising today 

 

My are we not defensive, hummm.

FYI, I can patronize whatever boards I wish and will continue to do so.

My information is available to be used by anyone and many long time cruisers of Celebrity post and analyze the variances from the past as occurs on all the boards.

You will simply have to cope.

7 minutes ago, kjwinston2019 said:

On the Celebrity M and S classes you can have a "Sky Lounge" Forward sitting area. The inside view is great, and I spend a lot of time there. Great view but aas no outside view. Must be for the 2nd class folks, but the Bar serves my Priemum drink....LOL. Unsure of the E class for I have not sailed on them. We finally get the Edge on the West Coast, finally. Happy Cruising, and yes I still dress for any dinner. 

You both look 100% class which is rare these days in society. Compliments.

Connie is our favorite and then the Solstice, the M and S class they both have the Forward lounge and the Promenade. The vistas we have seen from the Forward lounge going around the world....gone from the newer ships. 

We have cruised since 1987, have seen much.

The mass lines are essentially all inclusive resorts with minimal reference to the sea. They are in competition with the land based resorts.

We have moved on to the Premium lines where there is a more classy atmosphere, better food and all about the Itineraries. We cruise for Itineraries. 

On 4/10/2023 at 1:24 PM, JimmyVWine said:

Good answers in this thread.  On this point above, I would note is that I just finished watching a lengthy review/tour posted on YouTube by "Ben and David" of their cruise on Celebrity "Beyond" which I think is a sister ship to Apex.  They host a terrific YouTube channel of ship reviews with unbiased and sometimes painfully honest opinions.  Interestingly, they noted this exact same point about the overall friendliness on Celebrity.  

 

The Ben and David review echoed much of this as well.

 

And one other note that may or may not make a difference to you.  With the Royal Class of ships, Princess shifted away from an "outward looking ship" to an "inward looking ship" where the focus became more on the interior (revenue generating) spaces.  You could take an entire vacation and not really appreciate that you were out on the water.  Well, the Edge Class ships on Celebrity (and probably the Sun Class ships to come for Princess) take this a step further.  Your attention is drawn to the resort-like atmosphere of the interior of the ship and is pulled away from the joy of just standing outside and admiring the quiet of the ocean.  To many that doesn't matter one bit.  To me it does. 

OP - your important point about ship design is a major reason we have cancelled Celebrity.

The lack of open space, the elimination of the forward viewing lounge (ie just how do you watch going through the Panama Canal for example).

This is all a deliberate decision by cruise lines to create revenue.

We now only cruise the Premium lines with small ships, 360 outside views, linkage to the sea, guest speakers who talk about the ocean, the upcoming ports.

We totally reject the main cruise lines. We also reject the main cruise lines due to their class Apartheid decision, not participating.

In the end, to each their own.

On 4/14/2023 at 1:49 PM, kjwinston2019 said:

Remember the Titanic...and the Class System ....IT's BACK! 

 

 

I have been saying this for years. It was the CEO Avison of Carnival way back in the early 1980's who called Cunard, the French line etc evil because of their class system. I have scrap books with articles on this and pictures of when the SS France was converted to a "cruise" ship. The cruise lines were disgusting in their hatred for Cunard etc.  The early cruise lines tooted that everyone was equal which was the case until the mid 2010's when class Apartheid commenced, mostly with Celebrity. 

And now the cruise lines are just as class Apartheid as the French line was.

Hence why I have Cancelled the mass cruise lines and only cruise premium and above so that I can access the entire ship with only a few small exceptions. Further, the premium and up lines ensure all passengers can have forward views etc, unlike Celebrities new ships. 

I cancelled Celebrity in 2016 and will not return. The dear Connie remains my favorite ship of all time.

You made a great post and thank you for the photograph - I have a water color of the Titanic signed by 3 survivors which I got at a Titanic Historical Society event near Boston just after Titanic was found. 

7 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Seems to be a lot of open capacity for the next year. These sales are wide spread across the various lines. 
 

I agree, did a "cruise" across many lines and noted the sales and gradious words....I suspect that the cost of living is catching up with everyone and cruises are not a necessity. I have one booked for August and that's it. 

Just now, MEFIowa said:

YES, call for the details. The PRICES are NOT shown on the website. You have to call them. Our $2249 B4 (from a cabin-upgrade sale in 5/22) on Riviera on 11/2023 is now a $1749 A3 on her. Plus $300 SBC, which we'll use to pay gratuities.

Thanks so much.

I will do so right now.

Thank you Flatbush Flyer for the heads up.

We are newbies to Oceania.

Does this apply to cruises after final payment?

I have the Reykjavik to New York booked and it is listed in the Extraordinary Savings.

What I see for the A1 I have booked is +2,000 Cdn above what I paid.

Should I bother to call Oceania?

Doubt It here.

I thank you all so much, hugs, for your information and support.

I am just off the phone with Oceania and everything is booked and it became very clear how the included and OS worked.

We got what we wanted, when we wanted it, so very pleased.

Your knowledge and assistance to newbies like me is so very helpful.

May everyone have a most wonderful Easter time with lots of chocolate.

Blessings to all.

Doubt It

Hello everyone.

I found this link, helpful.

I would appreciate your guidance on how to address the incredible complexity of Oceania's shore excursions. You all are SO knowledgeable, I defer to your wisdom.

We find the Oceania excursion pricing to be beyond complicated.

We are on an August cruise on Insignia from Iceland. We paid for O'Life and have 8 included shore excursions, confirmed by Oceania.

We have 4 included excursions ready to book per person, finishing off the O'Life total of 8.  We have 3 ports where we prefer the OS excursion and 3 ports where we are doing no excursions; walking ourselves as we have been there before.

_______________________________

Question #1 - There seems to be no benefit to Using the Your World option which is shown as Cdn $1,635 pp on the web site, see analysis below. Are we correct??????

Question #2 - If we book the OS excursions on our own, ie outside of the Your World, if Oceania cancels the port - do we get our $ back?

Question #3 - If we book the OS without Your World, how do we make sure the Oceania agent on the telephone understands we do not want the Your World, ie does it become automatic?

_________________________________

I did a mock booking as a previous poster kindly recommended. 

1) The 8 O'Life included excursions are in - after that, it is additional costs to us........

2) The direct costs to us of booking the 3 OS excursions:

a) (withOut the Your World) is Cdn $1,122 pp

b) (the Your World cost) is Cdn $835 pp

c) the Your World cost is a "savings" of Cdn $287 pp

Analysis................

What we can not figure out is this - is the quoted "Your World" of Cdn $1,635 pp something we have to pay over top of the O'Life to each buy into the "Your World" package?  Because the savings of $287 pp does not cover the costs of "Your World", if this is the case.

We are very confused right now, so your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Kindest Regards

Happy Easter

Greetings everyone!

Happy Halloween!

Question - Given the declining Cdn $ - does anyone know if Oceania has any incentives in their pricing for Canadians?

The Cdn $ is hindering me and numerous of my friends and acquaintances from booking cruises and other travel.

Are there any strategies you experts could recommend?

Thank you kindly.

All part of the cruise lines product downgrading which started about 2017. The degradation of food is one of the main reasons cited by former Celebrity patrons who moved to the premium cruise lines, myself included.

Celebrity used to be the Oceania of yesteryear, I was a regular patron from 1989 to 2017 when I moved upwards. 

But now I have 0 cruises booked and no plans to do so. I monitor CC to see what the cruise lines are up to.

Expect more cheap, mass market frozen everything.

Yes indeed.

* Constant downgrading of the product commencing about 2018 in particular

* Larger ships, no thank you

* Removal of forward viewing venues

* Class segregation

The above results in us and many of our friends avoiding cruise lines that practice this.

1 hour ago, lexmiller said:

Hey there, I believe I commented on one of your comments a while back, because we are also doing a multi B2B on Eclipse in the spring - and I am TERRIFIED of mandatory back to back testing, absolutely terrified - very seriously will cancel as we are not prepared to fly half way across the world and get caught in the b2b mandatory testing dragnet.  I can only imagine for instance having to miss going ashore in Tahiti because I am asymptomatic or have super mild symptoms but yet tested positive - I think I'd explode.  No amount of masking or distancing can prevent you from catching this super contagious yet super mild virus - mild if you are taking care of yourself by vaxxing and boosting.  My husband had it, had a minor sore throat, I never caught it and withholding the details, but we were as close as you can get for a few weeks.  Personally, I feel strongly that all testing must end, and I am pretty sure that the cruise lines feel the same way - since testing is mandatory, refunds are mandatory, lots of money lost.  And nowhere else is testing happening - land vacations are looking more and more appealing to us, as until testing stops for consecutive cruising, back to back cruising is incredibly risky.  

Agree. No cruising if there is testing period. There are other travel options.

Good morning.

Is there an ETA for the 2024 itineraries?

Thank you.

Good morning.

Is there an ETA for the 2024 itineraries?

Thank you.

4 hours ago, retired dude said:

good news this morning on the tampa news, the "experts" predict over a million new cases a day this fall of the covid....Instead of worrying about how much luggage to take, i think some masks and the new booster when it comes out this fall might be more useful.

Why dear?

You part of the Mass Psychosis group? Do you do independent research dear?

Simply not cruising. Nothing booked and nothing anticipated. I like cruising, been cruising since 1989, but it is passe given the complexities and lock downs in cabins. Absolutely not paying $ for that risk and experience.

Do have customized land travel trips booked with car and driver. More flexibility and personalization.

That is our reality and all of our friends who have cruised are Not cruising period.

Hope everyone's cruises go ok, wish you well.

Greetings everyone:

I am looking for a TA. I know you can not state specific TA's, but I would appreciate any advice.

I have not cruised in many years due to work and covid.

I have booked directly with Celebrity for a 2023 cruise to ensure I got the cruise and cabin I wished. Got it. Now I want to transfer to a TA for assistance, benefits etc. I also pay in Cdn $, sigh.  The booking is $15,000 Cdn.

There are good TA's out there and they often provide OBC etc. Since I have no regular TA, I would not get some of the big OBC I see others get.

Q - Are the big discount cruise TA's worth bothering with?

Any guidance would be gratefully appreciated.

How about not doing a cruise period.

Not participating in this total scam. All cruises cancelled.

Not paying after tax $ for this "experience".

Doing a driving trip and loving it right now.

Really, break out of the cruise fixation.

I note the statement about the 10 day quarantine - that is VERY significant.

That itself is enough to cancel any cruise booking. 

Are you all on this particular item?

I see nothing from any posters on this.

Not booking.

How is it on dear Regatta right now? I have very elderly friends aboard. Sigh.

Huge increase in CDC Orange level investigation. Regatta is in orange. 

Thank you all dear folks.