kebrown

15 hours ago, maggipie said:

This is my PSA for those of you with lots of non refundable OBC thinking you can get an Apple something ... probably you shouldn't, especially if it's old stock. (If you do, be sure to open it up and check it out before you disembark so you can return it if it's a dud!)

 

I am just off Summit, had a lot of OBC thanks to Best Offer Guarantee, so bought a (2019) 16 inch MacBook Pro for $2199 (saved $200 with their "sale.") Reading up here on CC, I saw if available, Apple stock was mostly older products being sold, and also saw riredsox's Feb post of the drained battery on a MacBook Pro purchased on Constellation. Sure enough, the one I got refused to turn on and refused to charge. After some online research, I figured the battery can be replaced for $200 which is less than what tax would have been if I bought it at an Apple Store at home.

 

I took it into an Apple Store today and turns out it's not a simple battery replacement; after some manipulation in the store trying to reset it, it was determined it was utterly dead. Seems the drained battery was out so long that internal damage occurred, and it now needs to be repaired ... for $678. The person helping me thought I was a huge dummy to spend that much money on an older MacBook Pro when the newer/2022 MacBook Pro with a better chip was only $300 more than what I paid; my dummy status changed only a little when I told her Apple Store doesn't take OBC.

 

Also, I learned that the one year warranty for Apple products bought onboard works this way:  the clock starts when Celebrity buys it from Apple. This MacBook Pro was purchased from Apple Jan 2020, so its warranty expired Jan 2021, regardless of that fact that Celebrity is an "authorized reseller." So my Celebrity receipt stating "Manufacture warranty valid one year from date of purchase" is erroneous, since this applies only to Celebrity's date of purchase, not my date, and the link for more info on that receipt gives specific details only for products purchased from an Apple Store, not an authorized reseller.

 

Hope this helps those of you with NR OBC trying to decide between specialty dining, excursions, spa or MacBook Pro ...

 

We were on the Apex last month with a large amount of OBC.  There was a 2018 MacBook Pro for $2199 that we were going to buy with our OBC but someone else purchased it before we could get to it.  We decided to buy jewelry instead.  After reading your post, I am glad we did not buy the MacBook Pro.  i would have been extremely upset if we had purchased the computer and encountered problems once we got home.  Thanks for this information on Celebrity's Apple products.

We stayed in a Sunset Veranda on deck 12 aboard the Edge and our balcony did accumulate a large amount of soot from the smokestack.  I don't know if the lower decks have this problem but I would avoid deck 12 based on our experience with the soot. 

22 minutes ago, rcamazed said:

We did Istanbul entirely on our own and had a fabulous time.  If you walk out of the cruise port and turn left on the main road you will walk about 5-10 minutes and arrive at the tram station.  There were guys there selling stored value cards for 50 lira (which is only about 4 dollars) that you could then insert into a machine to add money.  One card can be used for multiple riders.  You can then take the tram easily to the main tourist sites (topkapi, Hagai Sophia, Blue Mosque, and Grand Bazaar).  We arrived at noon in Istanbul and spent our first afternoon at the Grand Bazaar and then spent a little time in the Archaeological museum and then Topkapi palace and then walked to a place for dinner before taking the tram back to the boat.  On Sunday morning we went out early (around 7:00 or 7:30am) and went to the Hagai Sophia and Blue Mosque.  The Hagai Sophia is open 24 hours and there were very few people there.  We then hung out in the square between the two mosques and then went into the Blue Mosque when it opened at 8:30am.  There wasn't much to see in the Blue Mosque due to the renovation.

 

It was super easy to get around by tram, and very cheap.  Highly recommend!

 

We actually did our own thing in every port except for Ephesus where we used Ephesus Shuttle (highly recommend!). 

Thank you so much for this information on doing Istanbul on your own.  We are going to follow your advice and take the tram into the main tourist area.  I really appreciate you sharing this useful information regarding Istanbul since this will be our first time visiting this city.

Did they have taxis available at the cruise terminal in Istanbul?

2 hours ago, ladylemondrop said:

We had an amazing time on Celebrity Reflection, 11 night med cruise to Italy, Greece and Turkey. We are calling this ‘3 minutes of happiness’ We hope you enjoy it as much as we did! 
 

 

Glad you had a great time.  We are doing this same cruise on the Reflection in September and I was hoping you could answer a question about the new cruise terminal in Istanbul, Turkey.  Is the cruise terminal in Istanbul within walking distance to the city center and most of the tourist sites?  Our plan is to tour Istanbul on our own and we were wondering if it is possible to walk to most of the tourist sites from the cruise terminal.  Any information you can provide regarding this would be greatly appreciated as this will be our first time visiting Istanbul, Turkey.

I booked airfare through Flights by Celebrity a few months ago for a cruise in September.  When I booked these flights, I was told by Celebrity that if the price of the flights goes down, I could re-book at the lower fare.  I noticed this morning that Celebrity has flights at lower prices than the flights that I booked.  When I called Flights by Celebrity to re-book my flights at the lower price, I was told that the lower prices are for new bookings only.  I am very upset about this and I am seriously considering cancelling my flights before the final payment date.  Celebrity should not tell people that they can re-price their flights if they are not going to honor this service.

Covid has not affected the Elite breakfast.  We just got off of the Apex and the Elite breakfast was held every morning in the Tuscan Restaurant.

Does anyone know what the current offers are if you book a Royal Caribbean cruise while on board a cruise?

1 hour ago, mac_tlc said:

We did last November. And vice versa last August. 

Do you get any on-board credit and a reduced deposit for Royal Caribbean if you book on board a Celebrity cruise?

Does Celebrity ever offer discounts for Raw on Five onboard the Apex and Edge like they do sometimes for the other specialty restaurants?

Does anyone know if you can order more than one meat entree at the Rooftop Garden Grill on the Apex without being charged extra?  Can you order as much as you want and still only pay the $45.00 cover at this venue?

41 minutes ago, kimlovesfl said:

For $10 more per day, plus additional gratuity, you can upgrade to the premium package.

 

For me, I don't think I will need to upgrade.  Most of what I drink is already covered under the Classic Package.  However, I would like to occasionally try one of the more expensive drinks.  I think I will just pay the difference when I want to try something that is not covered under the Classic Package.

We have the Always Included Classic Beverage Package.  I know that if we were to order a drink that costs more that the Classic Package limit, we pay the difference in price plus a 20% tip.  My question is, will the 20% tip charged to us be based on the total price of the drink or will it be on just the difference in price that we are being charged for?

1 hour ago, floralscent said:

We always get a speciality dining pkg and pay pre-cruise. It’s nice to pay ahead so you don’t have to deal with it later. 
 

When purchasing you must select a first night time slot but that can be changed once onboard. Board the ship, head to a specialty restaurant and schedule your pkg as you see fit. If you have specific time requests, get the reservations completed very soon after boarding. 
 

Enjoy the great experiences!

When purchasing the 3 night package, do you have to dine in a speciality restaurant on the first night or can you skip the first night and use it later in the cruise?  Also, can you pick which speciality restaurants you want to dine in or does Celebrity pick the restaurants for you? 

1 hour ago, neverlaysup said:

Typically, I have both cruise line credit and TA OBC on my account. I know that the cruise line money is technically Non Refundable and my TA is refundable but every time I have tried this, I can cash out the money at the cashier. Give it a try.

All of my OBC is from Celebrity.  If I do not spend it all, I will try to cash it out in the casino.  I hope it works.  Thanks for this information.  I wonder if others have tried this and been successful?

When you purchase a 5 Night Speciality Dining Package through your cruise planner, do you have to pick the restaurants and nights you want to dine in at that time or can you wait until you are on the ship to reserve the restaurants on the nights you prefer?

On 1/27/2022 at 11:04 PM, neverlaysup said:

You can spend it however you wish. You can also load it all up on a slot machine, cash out and pocket the money.

I did not know you could do this.  Are you saying that if I have $300.00 in onboard credit and I load it all on a slot machine, I can cash out and get the entire $300.00 given to me in cash? 

Is it possible to get a discount of more than 10% if we wait to upgrade once we are on the ship?  Does Celebrity ever offer 20% or 30% discounts to upgrade to the premium beverage package onboard the ship?  

Does anyone know what the cost amount would be for an Elite member to upgrade the Classic Beverage Package to the Premium Package on a 14 night cruise?  I know that Elite members get a 10% discount on upgrades but I don't know how Celebrity calculates the difference in price from the Always Included Classic Package.  Also, can we upgrade through our cruise planner online or do we have to call Celebrity to get the 10% upgrade to Premium?

Does anyone know which sunset veranda cabins on the Edge have the largest balconies?  Are all of balconies on the Edge sunset veranda cabins the same size?

I do not read any of the pinned topics.  I think the active topics are the ones most people follow on a regular basis.

Thank you.

Can someone please explain to me why some of the topics on the Celebrity board are "pinned" topics?  What does pinned mean?

8 hours ago, daddcap said:

Is the Elite free internet Surf or Stream?

 

 

On our cruise last month aboard the Edge, we were told that our free Elite 90 minutes were Stream.

Does anyone know it a Future Cruise Certificate can be used to pay for airfare that was booked through Celebrity?  The balance for the airfare is currently included on my cruise invoice and I wanted to use a Future Cruise Certificate to pay the entire invoice balance in full.