Whinenowine

Oh yes, understood. The taxes are high (to pay for all the LRH construction/expansion over the past 20-30yrs). I have no issues with that. My issues was with the BA-specific add-ons. For example when oil spiked around the time of the financial crisis in 2008, BA added a fuel surcharge too all tickets (including Avios tickets). But over the following decade when oil dropped by as much as 80% those surcharges were never removed. Working for a British company for 20+years I racked up quite a sum of Avios but never used them b/c for a JFK-LHR biz class ticket BA added $2k+ in fees/taxes above and beyond the 120k points. Out of principle that annoyed me. For economy it was 50k miles + $600! Silly. Just this year, however BA finally changed its policies--they now charge more miles per reward ticket but have cut the cash outlay (not taxes, but the excess surcharges) in half. I've already used 800k Avios this year to take advantage of this change (and before they change it again). 😉

I'm only Silver there days, so not sure status played a role. I think the mileage tickets were just refundable, which is great.

Yes this is why I've accumulated so many Avios; they made it so expensive to use them due to all the excess fees and 'taxes'. So my trip was much improved because I was able to cancel my JFK-LHR-MAD flight on BA and book a direct JFK-MAD flight oh IB for 20k few miles and $400 less fees. A win-win (mostly due to no cancellation penalties on my BA flight).

As with the others, I wholly agree with the above. One way to do the Sagrada Familia is to do a small group tour with skip-the-line entry. Regardless of whether you like the tour guide, this eliminates the wait and you can walk around all your want in/outside the cathedral after the tour. Also depending on your mobility, a sunset cruise on a sailboat is very nice--especially if it allows you to hop in the Med for a swim. This past August we stayed at the Hotel Majestic which is centrally located on Paseo de Gracia about two blocks away from both Casas Mila and Batllo. Not near the harbor, but still a good place to stay.

This could change. Happened for us this past summer when we wanted to spend a few weeks in Spain prior to our Med cruise. Nothing on Iberia so we booked through LHR on BA using Avios. Then a month before the trip, suddenly JFK-MAD on Iberia became available (outbound only)....AND it was only 50k miles and 1/3 the 'taxes' of the LHR flight. Iberia is not BA, but for the time/money/effort saved, it was well worth it. So...fingers crossed!

Good to know, thanks @Camillus112. Hopefully the soundproofing was used in cabins below PH too! 😇 I'm really looking forward to this cruise, mostly for the ship rather than the itinerary.

I've still got a few bottles of the 2011 Pappy 20yr. When prices started skyrocketing I snapped up all I could. The new stuff isn't bad....but it can't hold a candle to the original S-W material. However people today have more money than sense/taste, so they'll pay prices upwards of $2.5k for a 'new' bottle of Pappy 20yr when they can get a case of better bourbons for less (at least better to me). God bless 'em, but they've priced me out of almost everything I used to enjoy. I can still enjoy the Weller 12yr and I've taken a shine to the Blanton's Gold bottling, but that's about it. btw--those bottles of Jefferson's Presidential 17y/18y were some of my favorites a decade ago.

We're in 942 next year...hoping it's one of the rooms with little to no neighbor noise. We chose this cabin to be far away from any common areas of the ship. I'm the lightest sleeper on the planet so, fingers crossed!

Were those beers on your drinks package or did you have to pay the incremental amount??

That's exactly right @jelayne...variety is the spice of life. To each their own...and that may mean all X for some and never X for others...and occasional X for us. I've never had a bad cruise on Celebrity--hiccups for sure, but never enough to impact our overall enjoyment of the cruise. However Retreat prices have reached the stratosphere. I'll still cruise X when the price is right for me, but only then. I've been on Silversea already and have my first Regent cruise booked for 2024. I'll also check out Oceania, which has its own issues right now, but is a line about which I continue to hear mostly positive things. No right or wrong answers here.

Yup, that's why while I personally refuse to pay current Retreat pricing, I understand why they're jacking things up so high. Charge what the market will bear. Now...I DO think this is short-sighted and long-term detrimental to the brand (time will tell), but the Exec Office is much more concerned about remaining a going concern today, not what tomorrow may or may not bring.

Yeah that's certainly what it first sounded like--three tiers of drink packages. Above and beyond the ridiculous wine/bourbon pricing we're now seeing on X, my major concern about that is availability. Over the past few years so much of what I wanted (and saw listed on the drink menus) wasn't actually available. It's one thing to sail in the Retreat and have the premium package already 'inlcuded' in your pricing. But to pay more for an Elevate Package and then not have confidence you can actually get what you paid extra for....that's a concern. So I'd just continue to pay the incremental $4-5/drink excess

Agreed. As I mentioned earlier, it'll be itinerary-dependent. But, for example, when I looked at a Caribbean cruise for next year I looked at X, Regent, SilverSea and Oceania...and oddly enough the Celebrity SS3 was the most expensive option. I'd have to drop to an unrevolutionized Celebrity ship to beat the lux line prices. Clearly this isn't the case for all cruises, but in the Caribbean, Alaska and the Med I've found this to be true too often to be a coincidence. But I get some want larger ships, more people, a greater variety of eating/drinking venues, bigger shows, more stable cruising, etc etc. It's a personal decision for sure and I don't think there is a generic right or wrong answer. I'm just quite surprised at the current pricing and booked that Regent cruise to take advantage of it. For me I think it's the right decision.

There's a thread on this topic on the Regent board. I think the primary problem was that the changes happened only a month or so prior to sailing, and most of the cancelled ports were replaced by additional sea days. If memory serves, Regent first offered OBC then sweetened the deal with a reasonable sized FCC (I don't know the size, but people seemed generally ok in the end).

Amen, brother.

Yup, agreed Terry...every suite I've been following is the same or more expensive now than it was 2months ago--and no OBC or tips included. I'm sure there are exceptions (after all I'm only looking at like 7 or 8 cruises), but...I haven't found them yet. All the little changes and cutbacks are annoying by themselves, but cumulatively and in conjunction with increased pricing...that bad combo is what's really chased me away. As I posted elsewhere, current Retreat pricing is often higher than comparable cabins on Regent, SilverSea and Oceania...which just ain't right. I'll still cruise X, as I've said in the past, but the pricing has to be right. My next cruise is on Regent and is quite a bit cheaper than a SS on X (oh and they threw in $1k in OBC for the Black Friday special...go figure!).

nah the 'the' is silent...

Not sure about the wines on this list, but what I drink has definitely doubled in the last 6years. It's gotten so bad that in the past 18months I've bought less than 1 case of wine tpta;. Used to do at least that on a monthly basis pre-pandemic. Agreed on mixed drinks...sad to say I always watch what is being used when I'm at the bar...harder to do when seated in a restaurant. Oh well.

Yup, in another thread a month or two ago I discussed my research for a milestone birthday cruise next year. Was able to get a Category D suite on the Grandeur (including the pre-cruise hotel but not airfare) for LESS than a standard SS on Beyond/Ascent. Plus $1k OBC, which X no longer offers. That's a win/win/win for me. And it must be a win for Celebrity too because Retreat prices keep on going higher and ships are sailing full. For the record, the Retreat was also more expensive than SilverSea and Oceania for this general itinerary.

I'm not sure I'd chalk that up to the clientele on a shorter cruse as much as those people just being crap human beings. I have no tolerance for that. I grew up in a very unspoiled part of the world, which became a tourist attraction. And over two decades I saw it slowly destroyed by people who place their own convenience above everything and everyone else. But I'm very happy you're not letting people like that ruin your vacation.

Over the past 5-7 years wine in general has gone up in price at multiples of the rate of overall inflation. I've been a wine drinker for almost 35 years and prices now are absolutely insane (and wine isn't the only thing). I just stopped buying, throttling back my consumption and living off of what I've already stocked away. I cannot in good conscience pay today's prices. When I eat out, if I cannot BYO I just drink liquor. Same on X--if I cannot find a wine I like at my price point I just switch to a better priced booze (and also BYO, which has worked out very well). Life is too short to drink bad (or even average) wine.

Haha...reminds me of our first Silversea cruise. I was in my late 30s (and DW was even younger) and clearly 20-25yrs younger than the average SS passenger. And we still had a blast.

Hi, @bitob--can you elaborate a bit on 'younger crowd'? I'm on a 7day cruise on the Grandeur next year and was just wondering if you meant 50s, 40s....younger? Just curious, thanks!

I am greatly offended by that comment! 🥸

Hey, @Zqueeze1 I'd take Bacardi over the Cruzan rum (paint thinner) I had to grow up with. And I was only 72miles away from PR.