ScubesDad

I read once that the only cabins on Summit with balconies that can connect are the aft-facing aqua-class cabins on deck 11. Is it still true that those particular dividers can be removed?

We have stayed in adjoining aqua cabins on deck 11 port side, and were able to open the deck divider. I assume all the new addition cabins are similar.

Fully support this initiative; it is long overdue.

This is the full schedule from the Fact sheets

INFINITY October 28, 2018

SUMMIT January 29, 2019

MILLENNIUM May 1, 2019

CONSTELLATION May 1, 2020

SOLSTICE October 1, 2021

ECLIPSE April 14, 2020

EQUINOX April 23, 2019

SILHOUETTE January 1,2020

I would not put too much trust in this information as I suspect it is not accurate. For example Millenium is going into dry dock in January 2019 for 6 weeks.

You will not be able to confirm very much with Celebrity unless it has been previously announced to the public

I am looking to book a longer cruise. I am not asking for price protection. I will pay the going rate for the cruise. I was expecting, based on reading the letter that my OBC incentive would go with me to the new cruise.

I understand your frustration; in the past six months we have had two cruises cancelled by X - one was a charter and the second was for dry dock, the process of dealing with X can be a bit challenging. Both cruises were booked through a TA.

The first was last Sept. we received notice while we were on the Reflection that our Aug 2018 cruise was chartered, we received an email from our TA with the X letter and offer - the problem was the deadline for making the changes was so short that we wouldn't be home in time to deal with the issue. We were on a port intensive cruise and with the time change it would not have been convenient to telephone our TA to resolve the issue. I discussed it with the MCC who advised me to go enjoy my day and she would look after it. When we returned that evening, a message was waiting to meet her. She had made the changes we wanted by putting the new reservation on hold and when we met with her she called our TA from the ship and processed all the changes. The change over was seamless, all benefits of the original cruise were retained, the price was protected, and we received additional OBC for the inconvenience.

The second was this past Feb when we received notice that our Feb 2019 was cancelled due to dry dock. The options given were entirely unsatisfactory. One cruise had no available cabins in the category we were booked in. The second cruise was too late in the season and we were unable to travel at that time, and the third was an entirely unsatisfactory itinerary as it retained only a few of the original ports of call. I did my research, and found two substitute cruises that were acceptable to us and called our TA. I explained in detail why the options presented were not acceptable, and what I was proposing. I talked with my TA for about 15 minutes and explained what I would give up and what I wouldn't. The main point was that I wanted to be price protected as the original cruise was booked a long time ago and the rate was significantly lower than what the current rates were. All my solutions were for the same duration, 14 days. My TA was on with X for a total of about an hour. She kept coming back to me every 10 minutes of so with an update/progress report. It finally ended up with the "resolution group" (whoever they are). My arguments were respectful of X's offer, but realistic, and I was conferenced in for the last 10 minutes of the call where we finalized the details. I was price protected on the new cruise, all existing perks were retained; however, I did have to give up the additional OBC due to the extent of the concession X was giving me.

The point of this story:

- your TA should be fighting for your best interests,

- it is possible to deal directly with X to resolve the issue and then give it to your TA for processing,

- present reasonable and sound arguments,

- don't ask for too much (become greedy), and

- be willing to negotiate.

In your situation with a B2B2B and the middle section disappearing, a reasonable approach would be to substitute a longer duration that totals as close to your original plans as possible and then find one or two replacements that come close to what you originally had, and are satisfied with.

Good luck.

In your cabin will be a breakfast menu/order request, it is about 4" x 12" in size, fill out what you would like, indicate what time you would like breakfast delivered, the earliest is 6 am. hang the order on the outside of your cabin door. It will be picked up overnight. you will receive a telephone call about 5 minutes before your breakfast is delivered.

Check your cabin when you first board to make sure there are breakfast menus in the room, on occasion the previous occupants may have used them all. if so, just ask your attendant for some.

Enjoy your first cruise. Don't worry about asking questions, it is the fastest way to learn.

I found this link on another thread. Edge will have more than twice the number of suites as Solstice class (except Reflection) ships do, so if - as you say - they’ve designed the ship well, non-suite passengers may experience no loss of usable public space.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TfbbTSqdltFOY32GX54Qdb-Kiyomi-xd/view

Silkroad, thanks for this link. I spent a few minutes analysing it this morning and there is a wealth of information contained in it. From a competitive information point of view , I am surprised it is in the public domain, it definitely shows the future direction of Celebrity.

My first conclusion is that suite life is going to be the focus moving forward. There is a significant increase in the number of suites available onboard, particularly in the Sky Suite category with a new "S3" appearing. However, what is significant is that there are several new categories of suites which have a "-" indicating none at the present time: Celebrity Family Suite with veranda, and Sky Family Suite with Veranda, and if you check out the veranda category the Family OV with Veranda has been dropped. Targeting families in an deluxe category stateroom. That will certainly annoy a significant portion of existing client who feel children have no place on an -X- cruise.

Next the focus on Aqua Class cabins is dropping by about 30% from Reflection. Possibly over expansion of that class which has created too much supply resulting in too many "sales" to move inventory, or possible re-allocation of that space to higher yielding rooms - suites.

Concierge class remains stable; high yielding rooms based on location. Why get rid of a revenue generator.

Small decrease in Balcony rooms by 8%, again re-allocation of space to higher revenue yielding rooms.

Quite surprised that Ocean View rooms are doubling; these must be a consistent revenue generation item that they feel will be a desirable option given the drop in balcony staterooms.

Interior staterooms dropping by about 8% as well, most likely as this space is re-allocated to production/work area, as it is probably the lowest revenue space on the ship.

I think that as the Reflection was a "test" for the S class ships as the number of premiums cabins jumped by 40% from 5% of total cabins to 7%, the Edge will be the "test" to see how well the changes are received and modifications will be made to the remaining "E" class builds in the future.

If you look at the floorplan for Edge there are a few Interior cabins which are linked by connecting doors to Sky Suites, if booked by one family will that make the entire "suite" eligible for all suite benefits?

The future is Suites. When I was working we had a general guideline that 20% of our clients generated 80% of the profit, essentially meaning that 80% of the clients covered our costs. You can be assured the plan is to build high fences around the top 5-10% of the clients as they generate the high revenue desired. Those "fences" appear to be dedicated, segregated space within the ship provided for suite clients.

Also, as the remaining fleet undergoes the Celebrity Revolution we have already been told that more space is being allocated to the "suite life". The creation of the new Retreat Sundeck and Retreat Lounge has to come from somewhere and the top deck forward looks like a nice place to start...........

Whether it is Elitism or not, it is certainly the focus -X- has been placing in all their marketing for the past few years; positioning themselves as a luxury line rather than a mass market or premium.

It certainly explains why there is a significant price premium evident on future cruises.

I am in a situation very similar to you. In th past 6 months we have had 2 sailings cancelled as well, only we were notified.

Although both situations were resolved to our complete satisfaction I do intend to send letters of complaint with regard to the manner in which it was all handled.

I plan to send copies of the same letter to LLP, one to the loyalty department, and one to RCCL, the corporate owner of Celebrity.

Personally, I think you should have received first offer on the new 7 day cruise not a cancellation.

It's probably not specific to Celebrity, but I'll use them as the example: if you pay for a certain category of room you get access to restaurants or lounges that are off limits to the other passengers.

 

Does this rub anyone else the wrong way?

 

I have no problem with paying more for a room or a meal and getting a better room/meal....but getting the privilege of not having to share a space with your fellow passengers bugs me a little. Am I the only one?

When I read your first post, my original thought was, this is the ultimate concept of western society, a user pay system where you get what you pay for, as many other have indicated it is very prevalent in the travel industry. It is also very prevalent in every day life in terms of the house you live in, the car you drive and the general lifestyle you live.

I expected to be in the minority (my wife thinks I'm crazy :) ) I was just curious by how much. Like I said, I have no problem with getting a better room or better service or a better airline seat by paying more. The part that bothers me is the "nyah nyah...you can't come in" feature.

Then I read your second comment and the final sentence hit home the point you were trying to make "The part that bothers me is the "nyah nyah...you can't come in"....I agree with you, that attitude bothers me tremendously, and by definition that would be elitism.

Elitism - "the attitude or behaviour of a person or group who regard themselves as belonging to a superior or dominating element of society"

I have some very strict guidelines I follow in social situations where polite conversation is expected; do not discuss politics or money. While on a cruise there is another category: loyalty status.

The behaviour you describe is boorish, and is traditionally viewed as the behaviour of the nouveau riche.(people who have recently acquired wealth, typically those who are perceived as ostentatious, having poor taste or lacking in the social graces). I acknowledge this does not apply to all NR.........

Depending on the ship you are on the number of people in suites are a relatively small portion of the entire passenger population on board. I will use the M class as an example. The number of top end suites, PH, RS, CS are very small 18 in total, the sky suites total 32. So a total of 50 suites out of more than 1000 cabins or about 5% of the passengers are in suites. I would argue that there are most likely one or two people who have that attitude on any given cruise.

I have been known to break my own rules on polite conversation when I encounter someone who challenges me to a game of bull**it poker....and I have the bruises on my shins to prove it from when my DW realises what is going to happen and tries to shut me up.

I think what is rubbing you the wrong way, is the very small percentage of people who attempt to flaunt what they have. That annoys everyone. From my experience the absolute majority of cruisers on -X- are there to enjoy life. I cannot comment on other cruise lines as all our cruises have been on -X-, and some of those have been in suites.

Follow your DW's advice, let it go, "don't sweat the small stuff".

As promised, I am back with an update: :D

Everything worked out as I had hoped, and to be honest probably a little bit better than I hoped.

Booked the February 16/19 Hong Kong to Singapore, with an easy itinerary and lots of sea days. Singapore is an added bonus as it was going to be part of our 2020 plan as a stopover on our way to Australia.

The discussion went very well. Called my TA this morning and discussed a strategy; gave her all my arguments and she put me on hold. Came back about 3 minutes later and said there is a 15 minute wait time...no issues. She came back on at the 25 minute mark and said they have escalated the issue. At this point we agreed when they can back on I would join the call. Ten minutes later I joined the call and now we were talking with the resolution group, I took the call over and explained my issues specifically the lack of transparency and "honesty" of -X- in keeping clients advised. (What I didn't mention in my original post was that I was already convinced the cruise was being cancelled and had called -X- late November inquiring as to why the cruise had dropped from inventory on their site yet was available on TA sites - fed the standard line about inventory/revenue reviews......the same thing that happened last June, prior to the first cancellation.) Put on hold for about 5 minutes and came back with everything I wanted - a price match to the cruise I was giving up. Done. I had to concede the additional $400 OBC for rebooking because of the cancellation - no problem; -X- gave up far more than that.

We were able to rebook in the same cabin, S1 6146, adjoining the PH. While all M Class Sky suites are essentially a rectangle and about 50 sq ft smaller than an S class, the bathroom in these two units (6146 and 6145) are about three times the size of a regular sky suite bathroom with an almost full size tub, a stand alone shower unit (proper size) and two basins on the counter.

I am very pleased how receptive -X- was to a logical argument (at least from my perspective it was logical) and how willing they were to satisfy my request.

In the long term it does put future cruises with -X- in question, as we consider the cost benefit of continuing. For example our June /19 cruise has a 50% higher price on a per night basis than the average of our last 4 S1 costs. As mentioned when I strip out the cost of the "free" perks and add back what I would actually use (ie. unlimited internet is great to have - but I don't need it, premium beverage package in a suite is not necessary) there is still a significant differential in cost. As mentioned above, the bundling is able to hide some of the facts.

Once again the client facing staff were able to make it right.

If this is the start of the Celebrity Revolution dry dock upgrade process there will be plenty more people impacted in the next two years.

I will apologize up front as this may turn into a bit of a rant.....

Received an email tonight from our TA that our Feb 2/19 Hong Kong round trip Philippines, Vietnam on the Millie has been cancelled. Unfortunately cancelling cruises by - X- has recently become all too frequent. Fool me one, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me! They also cancelled our Aug 20/18 Reflection Rome round trip to the western med, last fall, on approx. the same timeline - just before airline booking open up. So I guess we are very unlucky - two cancellation within 6 months.

To add insult to injury, they have provided 3 cruise options where they will provide price protection: the first has only one suite left - Penthouse. I seriously doubt they will give us that one. The second has only two SS left, and the third sailing is just not appealing to us.

A bit of background. First cruise on -X- was 2001, and up until 5 years ago the vast majority of our cruises were in the Caribbean as winter escapes. However, since our retirement five years ago we have increased our travel significantly, and travel 3 or 4 times per year for about 4 weeks at a time. All of these are land trips with a cruise attached once or twice per year. We are retired professionals, and our daughter as well as our son and daughter in law are also professionals. Both our children work abroad, one in the UK and the other in Asia. So we spend significant time travelling to visit them each once per year and they also reciprocate once per year. At the current time we have three cruises booked, one in 2018, and two in 2019 (yes one of these has now been cancelled). We generally plan longer term and have preliminary plans for 2020 underway.

The trip in August 2018 was to visit our daughter and then celebrate our anniversary on the cruise. The February 2019 was to celebrate the Chinese New Year with our Son and DIL.

We personally feel that -X- has lost the plot, and are trying so many things and making so many changes that they have started to alienate their core client group, and this has evidenced itself by the recent postings by many long time clients that they are looking elsewhere or even just taking a break for a while.

Since last fall when the first cancellation was made, we have been re-evaluating all things -X- and the assessment was lacking. While -X- professes Modern Luxury, and attempts to market as a luxury line, it is failing significantly, as is marginally able to claim the distinction of premium. Many of the onboard activities are just poorly disguised sales promotions trying to scoop some extra cash from your wallet. The $10 sales events held in the on board shops are reminiscent of the street and night markets of China; merchants trying to flog substandard "junk" to the masses. Really a $10 watch!! While food is always a subjective area, from our perspective the quality has declined, and what was once a four or five course meal is now a three course meal. The introduction of beverage packages has resulted in a proliferation of what are best described as "well" or "call" drinks. When the packages were first introduced there was a true premium option - that offered true premium spirits, many of those spirits are no longer available on board.

In an effort to save costs the number of on board service staff has declined. About 4 years ago we were having lunch in the MDR on a sea day. When we sat down I asked our waiter to send over the bar waiter or the sommelier. There was another couple already seated at the table and they indicated they had previously make the same request and no one had appeared. Our waiter came back about 10 minutes later to take our order, still no bar steward, so I requested again. Waited 5 minutes and I then excused myself asked anyone if they wanted a drink from Cellars Masters and went and picked up our drinks. When I returned with drinks, the hostess for the meal was also our regular hostess in Blu and she went ballistic, within 2 minutes we had the Matre d', assistant Maitre d', and 2 bar stewards and a sommelier. Too little too late. Unfortunately it has deteriorated even more of late and now the sommeliers in each dining room are run off their feet, and the assistant waiters have now become bar stewards.

Lately, we have switched solely to suites and I must agree that things have improved; however, there is a significant cost to that improvement. We recently decided to explore other options, and while similar concerns are prevalent across all mass market lines, -X- primary competition, as you move into the true luxury lines those concerns disappear and surprisingly the price point is not that much different.

We absolutely love the on board staff. They put their heart and soul into making your cruise experience the best it can possibly be; however, from our perspective all the irritants we have identified are a result of changing corporate policies and practices.

I have placed a hold on a cabin, on a cruise that was not offered as price protected, tomorrow will be the test to see how well -X- manages the situation. Two cruises are on the line, we will still follow through on this July's cruise as to many things have been put in place, but the others ........

Sorry for the rant, however, I know others feel the same way. I will come back and let everyone know how it goes in my discussions with -X-.

I believe Carnival uses the Erato St terminal. There are two hotels very close; Hilton Riverwalk about .5 miles away, and Marriott Residence Inn about .75 miles. There may be other independent hotels, these are the two I remember seeing.

Last week green beans were the vegetable of the day every day for every entree. Man (or Woman) does not live on beans alone. This week there was a change to “vegetable of the day”.

 

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Arno, thank you for the laugh. It brought back memories of our Feb '16 Sailing on Eclipse; we had green beans for the first 4 dinners. We were at a table of 8 and no one was very happy but wouldn't say anything. I mentioned it to our waiter who sent over the Maitre d'. We had a discussion and he said he would address it. The next night we were at a specialty restaurant but we agreed to come back for desert. When we arrived everyone was excited because the chef had come to the table to see how things were and if everything was to their liking.....no one mentioned the green beans to him; however, there were different vegetables that night. Regardless, the maitre d' stopped by to confirm that he had discussed it with the chef and that it would improve. and it did. No more green beans....until night 10 or 11 when my DW received her dinner with green beans and everyone else received something different. The whole table had a great laugh about it.

Like you said, we cannot live on beans alone.

Cheers, Claude.

.......I was quite surprised to see how thin and worn out the washcloths and towels were.............I am really starting to question the value of a Celebrity cruise anymore. Is anyone else feeling the same way?

Certainly agree with you that the value proposition for Celebrity has shifted in a negative way over the past few years. We currently have 3 cruises booked; however, for the third one, June 2019, the price is totally out of line, on a cost per night basis (same category) it is 50% more than the average of the next two cruises. There has been a slow steady decline in the product that now brings the price point into question.

We have experienced some pretty questionable linens and towels; however, a short discussion with our stateroom attendant has the issue resolved.

We have started to look around at other options.

Several years ago we had a cabin crawl where the occupants of the PH opened their suite to us. They actually set up a nice reception with finger foods etc and the butler was there assisting. The piano was a hot topic and he essentially indicated the same as project gal - the piano's are significantly out of tune as they aren't serviced/maintained.

As indicated it is more of a decorative element to the suite.

meemonkee, we now live east of Toronto; however, we did live in Stoney Creek and the west side of Toronto for a number of years and DW was a teacher so we made the trip south many March breaks....

My primary choice would be 90 to 81 to 80. 90 is much flatter and always seemed to be more travelled, and always clear and well salted/sanded. 390 as previously mentioned is not really mountainous, however, it is more hilly and always seemed to be less travelled. Never did it in the winter for those reasons. I think you may find it a bit more challenging as you get further south and cross into Pa., as that does turn mountainous, again the roads are well plowed and maintained as it is one of the primary north south routes.

As previously mentioned keep a close eye on the weather and plan a second or even third route.

as bob brown mentioned above if it is widespread snow 90 straight east to 87 would be a good option.

I use the Government of Canada weather radar site (www.weather.gc.ca) and the similar national weather service site from the US (www.weather.gov) to provide a good idea of what to expect.

For example right now (Saturday @ noon) the I90 route to I81 would be best but still in the midst of a storm, the Syracuse to Binghamton portion would be bad but the rest of the way once south of Binghamton would be clear. Going east to 87 would keep you in the storm.

Be flexible. Enjoy your cruise.

We do not send anything of quality to the laundry. DW refuses to use it, I will send out t-shirts, socks, underwear etc. anything else is dry cleaned. We were warned years ago about the hot water washing. everything I send out has been laundered many times at home so no worries of shrinkage.

Abby, I have been waiting for ever for the ending of our trip.....I am glad it all turned out well....It looks like we had a good time.

Trust all is well with you and Glen.

Cheers, Claude.

I think the largest obstacle is connecting all the pieces so that they flow reasonably smoothly, trying to eliminate as many problems as possible; unfortunately I can see a few possible issues which may cause you to make a few compromises....

I would work the problem from both ends and then fill in the middle. As Keith1010 indicated I would do the Cunard sailing into New York. Spend a few days in NYC, and then take Amtrak from NYC to Toronto (The Maple Leaf) it is a 12 hour trip, all daylight and would give you a good viewing of upper New York State. The Canadian leaves from Toronto, there are three departures per week, to Vancouver. One downside of the Canadian is that part of the travel through the Rocky Mountains is at night. An option would be to switch to the Rocky Mountaineer (a private company) for the trip through the mountains as it is all conducted in daylight; they do have trips that end in Vancouver. Once in Vancouver do a r/t Alaskan cruise, or even one that returns to Seattle. Either way it is relatively easy to get from Vancouver to Seattle. Amtrak runs the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Los Angeles. You could switch to the Sunset Limited from LA to New Orleans. From New Orleans, the "City of New Orleans" would take you to Chicago. From Chicago there are many options on Amtrak to get you to south Florida, I believe all routes go through Washington, DC. On to the Caribbean cruise from Miami/Ft. Lauderdale for the last cruise of the season, and then a TA back to Southampton.

You would want to do it later in the season, say August, the weather is still very pleasant that time of year, aim for a later season Alaska cruise and then work your way south.

The Amtrak and VIA Rail websites will provide you with a great deal of information for planning. I know there is a north American travel agency that focusses on rail travel but I can't find them....sorry.

Good luck. It seems like a wonderful adventure.

For all of the members with Celebrity suite-life experience, do you have advice for a first time Suite experience? In particular, how can we maximize our experience with butler service?

I thought about this for a few minutes, and the only advice I can give you is that the butler is there to make your cruise as enjoyable as possible. I will preface my comments with the disclaimer that we are very low maintenance people and never use our butler to their fullest potential.

However, I will give you a few examples of our last cruise. I was recovering from a knee injury and after an active day of walking I needed an ice pack for the knee. We worked out an arrangement: when I returned to the ship I would locate a house phone and call our butler who would then deliver the ice to our room. This gave me time to pick up a beverage to enjoy while I was icing my knee. Win Win ! I was also using a trekking pole which was damaged one day - he took it "somewhere" and it was returned that evening fixed - better than new.

The butler will introduce themselves quickly on embarkation day, and we always have a quick chat, and if I have any reservations I need or other requests I give them a little note...and it all gets done.

Previously, our butlers have all touched base a couple of times per day to ensure all is ok. This may happen in the hall, a quick telephone call, or even when you are in Michaels club.

We're in a Sky Suite for the first time in May. Will our butler be able to bring us a glass of wine with our afternoon snack? I know they can bring specialty coffees but I have never read about wine.

 

 

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By afternoon snacks,if you are referring to the afternoon tea cart that was previously delivered to the suites, the process has changed to an afternoon tea served in Michaels Club, with the butlers serving tea.

Delivery of any other snacks would have to be arranged through your butler, or ordered through room service; however, as Don replied earlier the wine would not be covered and would be a chargeable item.

I have never made it back to the ship in time for the afternoon tea, nor have I attended on any sea day.

The cigar factory you are looking for is actually located in Granada, Nicaragua.

When I read the first few posts on this thread last week, based upon the OP’s comments I went and looked at the other two posts on other threads, and my initial reaction was “sometimes things get screwed up” and off I went. Although I am a long time follower (lurker) on cruise critic, I use the boards as a resource board searching for info, consequently I post very infrequently, I drop in once every few weeks and when I was working I would go for months between visits.

However, this morning when I was watching the news and drinking my coffee, and not being particularly motivated to do anything, I came back to the boards, and low and behold this thread has exploded….so I read the entire thing.

My conclusion is that I believe everything has occurred as the OP has described.

I also find the attitude of many of the posts to be a form of electronic bullying– folks, we are no longer in high school, you have nothing to prove. There have been many posts of support, many posts of advice by what I personally think of as the “elder statesmen” of the boards (I know when I come across one of their posts in my research quests, I am going to get some good advice), and the vitriolic rants of a few whoare unfortunately becoming common place on the boards, and IMO add very little if anything to the discussion.

As I understand it there were initially three issues, and then 2 more were later disclosed, a total of 5:

-mishandled birthday celebration, including no recognitionon actual day, apathy by guest relations staff, cake delivery the following day at dinner, and subsequent delivery of a bottle of champagne by stateroom attendant,

-requesting chips off the seapass card in the casino, and the snarky reply by the croupier “Because that is the way it is”.

-the special needs request of extension cord for CPAC, and the faulty cord supplied,

-room service/housekeeping ignoring the DND sign,

-bingo prize.

Ok, my thoughts in no particular order. As stated by previous posters a few of these instances are the result of assumptions being made, based on previous experience. As this was the OP’s first -X-cruise, and probably his last based upon his treatment here, that accounts for some of the issues. As far as bingo goes, never played, never will; however, if I was going to pay out a significant sum of money to play a game, I would at least want to know what I was playing for.

On the issue of the DND sign, if I was having a mid morning nap, or whatever, and the DND sign was on the door I would expect it to be respected. What is missing is the experience from the housekeeping staff’s side; what were they told to do, get all the room service trays, don’t come back till you have them all….maybe in the past they have respected the DND signs and someone has complained their tray wasn’t picked up, people often leave the DND sign in place and leave the room – maybe all the previous calls to rooms have resulted in empty rooms. I don’t know I wasn’t there.

As far as the dealer’s comments on the casino, that could be interpreted as being rude; certainly it was very brusque and straight forward. Experienced cruisers know there is a fee attached to such requests. In this circumstance as the OP used the term croupier, I am assuming (we all know where that can lead) that he was asking at the table rather than at the cashier, I have never charged chips to my card so I don’t know what is involved, at the very least the dealer has to stop the game and fill out “some paperwork” and get a signature, disrupts the game and the flow…maybe it was the 50th request this shift, more likely it was someone whose first language was not English – our DIL is Asian, English is her second language, she often phrases things very bluntly. The answer was correct if rather indelicate.

As far as the CPAC fiasco goes, what can I say. I have personally witnessed our stateroom attendant using the extension cord for his vacuum and it had more repair tape on it than the full roll I have in my workshop; is it safe, probably: would I use it probably not. We all “know” you cannot bring on certain items, and power boards with GFCI or breakers are not allowed, yet we all know many people do it each cruise. If my life depended on my CPAC to get me through the night I would be concerned about the power cord I was forced to use being reliable, if I couldn’t use my own. If the OP says it was cobbled together, based upon what I have personally seen, it probably was.

Finally the big one. Based upon my PERSONAL experience, my conclusion was the special gift arranged by the TA was the bottle of champagne. Several years ago DW and I celebrated a milestone anniversary with a combination land trip and cruise. This was prior to our retirements and prior to beverage packages. On embarkation day, upon returning to our room after sail-away celebrations, we were greeted with a row of wine bottles lining the counter, each was accompanied by a little card with Happy Anniversary or some such comment and the name of the person providing the gift. Several of our family friends and colleagues had gone through the effort of providing us with gifts. My take on the entire process is that the “card” made it to the room but the bottle didn’t… the stateroom attendant rectified the situation the next day when the mistake was discovered.

I agree with many comments that the original tone of the thread was negative. I agree that the use of the word “Pitiful” to describe the thread was not the best. Pitiful is a judgemental word, a fact if you will. From my perspective a better word would be “Disappointed”. Disappointed describes the emotion and feeling the OP experienced and more accurately reflects his experience.

Is the above accurate, I have no idea, it could be a total work of fiction or pretty close to the truth. Only one person knows and that is the OP. We can all agree that every one of these situations is the exception rather than the rule. For each exception above, I may get 100 replies stating it didn’t happen that way for me; that’s why they are exceptions. This was a holiday cruise, never taken one probably never will based upon comments I have read over the years about the things that can happen on holiday cruises.

All I know is that the OP was disappointed with the cruise. His expectations were not met, and he felt frustrated by the experience.

People get over it. The OP provided his experience in an effort to assist others. There are bigger problems in the world.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a troll from Celebrity. I am not a troll hired by the OP. Our first cruise on -X- was in 2001 and we have completed 18 enjoyable cruises with -X-. We have experienced a few issues none of which we have declared to be significant and very few of which I can recall. And, because it is important to some people to prove my creds…I am Elite Plus.

Miaminice - just to muddy the waters! We don't have flight details as this was an add-on package by our t/a and there is no guarantee we would have direct flights. Would you happen to know if we were allocated indirect flights from London, for example London/Hong Kong/Shanghai if we would still use the 144 visa rule? Thanks again for your help.

Sure, Hong Kong would not be a problem since Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are regarded as a third region in terms of transit issues. Any other stop outside China would also not be a problem. A stop within China (Beijing, for example) would not work.

Not sure this will qualify. In post #8 OddCouple indicated the first port of call after leaving Shanghai would be Hong Kong, would not be able to fly in from HK and then have it as first port of call..........

not negative...amazed....average Canadian income is about $35,000 USD...so surprised to see that they could make as much or more than that...just in "tips" alone...didn't realize just how much those tips add up to!

I'm surprised by your response. The average CDN work week is 35 - 40 hours per week over 4 or 5 days, not 90 - 100 hours over 7 days continuous for a 6 month or longer period. also, consider how many gratuities are removed by passengers for whatever reason. I would calculate a 6 month contract at around $20,000. ($3.59 x 2 x 7 x 15 x 26 double occupancy, 15 staterooms 6 months)

I really cannot see the price premium holding for the Edge. I just priced a comparison for Feb 2019, Sky Suite, 7 night Edge Eastern, and 11 night Reflection Ultimate - the per night cost Edge vs Reflection was 196%. I cannot rationalize/justify that differential; however, Edge is selling.