SmilingOctopus

Just got of the Edge 2 days ago. She is indeed going on drydock after the current cruise. So after next Saturday they'll head to Marseille, France for 2 weeks. As far as I heard no major changes, some staff mentioned basic things like technical maintenance, new carpets left and right, things like fixing up the pool areas, etc

If you're talking about the main dining room, I believe they'll just arrange a table for 10. Not really anything private as far as I know. Perhaps you could contact celebrity about their 'special occasions' offers, but I have no experience with any of those.

For the speciality dining, you can indeed cancel up to 24hr prior to the booking for a full refund. Also, with the Labour day flash sale I managed to book Eden for $44.90 instead of the original $65 I believe. So they do some good sales once in a while. If your cruise is still a while from now, I'd keep checking the cruise planner once in a while to look out for some good sales 🙂

This one perhaps gives a nicer overview of things. And given that it was sent to me by Celebrity under a month ago, I'd assume it to be more or less up to date.. Beverage_Package_Brochure.pdf

Exactly! So basically you will need to pay the difference +20% gratuities, if you are above the 10$ price point. So in the case of the 15$ cocktail you'll pay 6$ extra (5+20%)

I'll be on board in 2 weeks, if I find some differences with the reality, I'll write it here 🙂

If it's of any help, celebrity sent me this pdf some weeks ago. As far as I know this is still valid at the moment. It also states that it includes alcoholic drinks up to $10. Beverage_Package_Brochure.pdf

Exactly this. Some weeks ago I called to combine the ongoing sale with my Captain Club level and they said it's either one or the other. In my case the ongoing sale gave the better price, so I went with it. It was 9.99$ + grats per day.

Given current trends I wouldn't be surprised if the next announcement will be that they've listened to the community and that gratuities will be part of the base price starting 4 Oct 😂 It would actually be a good thing in my opinion, making things less complicated for a change..

I'm curious to see the price difference for a given cruise on October 3rd vs 4th. Will be interesting for sure 😄

It often takes a few days until the company adds all the "all included" options in your cruise planner. Last time it took something like 3 days for me. Suddenly you'll see those in your order history, and also the debt will be gone by then. 🙂 It will then look like something in the picture below. One is for the added Wifi, one for the drink package. Normally once those are done, you'll also see the gratuities added on the Manage Reservation page.

I believe that they might just be actually updating all of it. Over recent months there's been a lot of confusion (including from my side) about drink packages. Simply because the Celebrity website contradicted itself on various pages, with lots of different information on premium and classic packages. So with some luck they're just improving it to be more consistent. Obviously, given current trends from Celebrity this might be naïve and wishful thinking from my side 😄 On the other hand, this is the pdf which was emailed to my by Celebrity a couple of weeks ago, lets assume this is still valid for the time being. Beverage_Package_Brochure.pdf

Thank you so much for taking the time in your vacation to 'fact check' these things. Hope you'll feel better soon! I hope that you'll manage to make the best out of your cruise!

And nowadays, it gives you longer to see more and more good things disappear, while looking forward to your cruise 😄 Jokes aside, you make a fair point any way

In my opinion, the best for me so far has been to book early when I need to fly transatlantic to the departure port. Since flights and hotels indeed go up a lot when closer to the date. While when I'm looking for a cruise close by, last minutes have worked out quite well. Managed a really good deal just last week for a September cruise for example. It's just my way of going about it, but booking very early makes a lot of sense too, when its refundable. Especially given the current prices which are going higher then ever...

Also interesting is that without having the wifi package, the X app will allow you to chat "in-app" with persons in your party. At least a couple of months ago it worked out this way for me. and @espmass If your cruise is only in 2024 I'd take the 'risk' and wait for the next sale to come online, you might get a proper discount on the wifi. Just last week they were selling at 50%

In my experience, as long as you're going for the basics (latte, cappuccino, espresso,...) you won't really find any huge differences in quality compared to the "main" Al Bacio. Overall I enjoyed both, but the differences pointed out on top are indeed the case.

They recently do not allow to combine an online promotion with the additional loyalty discount. It's either one or the other. Last week during the online sale I called to upgrade my drink package, and I could either take the 10% from CC or instead take the 50% off from the ongoing sale at that time, not both. Honestly, if your cruise isn't in the near future, I would suggest to wait a bit and see if any new pre-cruise sales come up, since you might be able to save a lot by just being patient and checking the cruise planner once in a while.

Just allowing vaping inside the ship is not acceptable. If they would come up with some sort of solution, fully isolating vapers from other casino guests, it might have a chance. If they are serious about making such a massive change in their ships policies, they should at least be prepared to set up a fully enclosed place to avoid any of the non vaping/smoking guests having to inhale anything at all... If they would make somewhat of an effort I'm sure there could be a way to fix this. None the less the current policy worked for years and years, I personally don't see any point in changing it. Also the fire hazard pointed out by C-Dragons is a very valid argument, these devices are manufactured with nearly no regulations, using cheap and unreliable batteries. Just dangerous. I hope that the smoke detectors in the staterooms are decent enough to pick up any of this, if vape is detected immediately in airplane lavatories, I don't see why it should be any different on board of ships. Just felt like sharing my point of view 🙂

I had the exact same question, since the X website is contradicting itself on different pages. After waiting 3 weeks for an answer from the customer support by email, they replied the following: Thank you for reaching out. I am sorry for our delayed response and really appreciate your patience.The Classic Package includes both, premium coffee and teas, anyway I attached a brochure that hopefully can helps to a better understanding of the difference. The attached brochure was mailed to me yesterday. So I would assume we can trust this information, at least for now. Hope it helps 🙂 Beverage_Package_Brochure.pdf