gcornell

Honestly, being fortunate enough to sail on SS is already top of the class. 🤣 Excursions are easy to book and you can start as soon as you send a deposit. All the cabins are ocean view. Regarding pricing, once you add all the extras to the other lines it’s not much of a difference. In fact, if you take their Business Class upgrade you can actually save a lot of money.

I just checked my upcoming July 23 Med cruise and no bowties on the schedule.

So just a follow up on this. I repriced my Iceland 7/24 cruise and just got the confirmation. Unlike our D2D Med cruise coming this year, we had no need for the extras so the new Prepaid P2P promotion saved me $6,000 vs the original D2D with the extras backed out. I did need to pay in full and it’s non cancellable but I’ve never cancelled a trip in 50+ years and CC provides decent trip insurance.

Thanks for the reminder. I have been checking periodically but realized I haven't in a while when I read this. My 2024 Iceland cruise now has P2P available (didn't before) so this should save me $4,500. Sent a note to my agent. Thanks again

Is Kaiseki open for lunch again? When we were on last summer it was closed. Some said staffing issues but not really sure.

Hi. Traveled last year with my family. Take a look at my live trip report and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Ugh. These threads make me confused. Honest question. If tips are included and I’m clearly paying for 6* service or whatever they call it why would I tip for “good service”? I’m currently traveling around Egypt and tip stressing takes away from some of my enjoyment here and personally I’ve loved SS because the “tips are included”. 😫

I don’t. To each their own but if something is included I feel like I already paid for it and not going to pay twice.

Sorry to hear that, hope all is well and you enjoy your trip. Don’t worry about the judgement here. That’s the internet! In my experience it does not carry over to the enjoyment of the trip. We felt the same when we first starting bringing our kids with us on SS but the actual experience with others guests on board was great. In fact, someone wrote a review on CC and mentioned how they enjoyed seeing our kids have a good time.

Splendid Venice - Nice hotel, great location and moderately priced.

In my experience, the in house SS agents are really good at just one thing - taking your deposit.

In my experience, once you enter appropriately dressed no one will question you again except of course a few members here. 😉

“Kids in between 2 and 17 years old (at the time they embark) are eligible for a 50% extra saving; children below 2 years old are eligible for 75% extra saving. To benefit from the promotion children must be booked as 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th pax in suite. Guests 1st and 2nd are not eligible, regardless of age. Date of birth to be provided at time of reservation to validate eligibility. The age that will apply will be the age of the child at the time of sailing”

We’ve taken our kids on SS cruises and they always had a great time. Do it. However, i will warn you. Once you set the bar that high… 😜 Now my kids think it’s normal to have milk and cooking delivered to their room.

For the benefit of everyone: I agree and my original post did not do that. 3rd sentence " When I had SS get the flights the price from United was about $17,000 and I paid SS roughly $12,000". You doubted my numbers so provided the only proof I could find now as I can't go back in time for fares. You then took a different route to discredit my story. Anyway, I give up. You win!

Understood. But my point was SS got us great flights for a great price. Even the best fare (with a connection) is significantly more than we paid for non stop with a solid business class product. Even rearranging the dates works out much higher. I don’t recall exactly but it think we paid SS $995 + $1,600 for the upgrade, $350 fare differential + $150 deviation so about $3,100pp.

Challenge accepted. Although today the flights did drop to $40,000.

Sorry I wasn’t clear. Booking flights with SS is saving me a ton of money. Min $5,000 when I booked 9 months in advance and over $30,000 based on todays fares and still 6 months to go.

@Lois R Hope it works out and agree regarding the price difference. My family of 4 is going Athens/Venice in July. When I had SS get the flights the price from United was about $17,000 and I paid SS roughly $12,000. Those same exact flights are now $46,000 and climbing weekly and we are still 6 months out.

@kimanjo Good advice. If you get cold easily, as I do, I would also consider wearing a beanie and double up on the wetsuit. I brought a full length wetsuit and wore the shortie under it. That combined with the beanie and I was actually comfortable in the chilly water.

@chrism23 IMO, you followed the rules so now go enjoy your trip. Personally, I wouldn’t crowd source your decision. It’s no one’s business but your own at this point.

Every thread about dress codes ends up in exact same place.

I will respectfully agree to disagree

Chances are it was staff that responded. Regardless, there’s quit a few CEOs of successful companies that respond every once in a while. Musk is probably the most infamous and probably not a great example but Steve Jobs did it as well although that was before social media so he used email.

Glad that worked out and thanks for sharing. That’s my go to card. It has always been great but they keep making it greater by adding more and more perks. Although the annual fee is $550 I easily get 5x that back per year. Usually more. In fact, it’s so good I have a separate card for my wife and we double up on the benefits.