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rM3panno

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Everything posted by rM3panno

  1. That’s not a very good promo. That’s link didn’t work for me but is it the voucher based on points earned chart?
  2. I saw some other info that echos that with a rollout of the future cruise voucher at the end of a sailing. I just got off the Solstice and earned 36,000 points which would have qualified for a sky suite based on what I saw in another place. Based on that I would always qualify for a sky suite but somehow my offers in the mailer are always only a CC or Aqua. I hate calling them because no one ever seems to have a clue what their policy is.
  3. Yea, it was more of a reference to the fact that bookings were strong pre Covid yet they still offered some discount. Now the benefit is limited to only sailings they target in the mailers.
  4. They were giving the suites discount before Covid.
  5. Just returned home from 12 nights on the Solstice and called this morning to get a price on a June 2025 sailing. When I got through to BCC they priced the cruise and only offered the discount based on most recent play. I asked repeatedly about the casino rate which for me is usually 40% off with the casino suites discount line applied. The agent had no clue what I was talking about. I hung up and called back to get a new person who at least was seasoned enough to know what I was referring to and told me that casino rates aren’t available any longer and now can only book with a specific offer? This a major change and will greatly impact my future bookings if true. Did any BCC members get notice of this? I am firmly in the Sapphire level and have been since 2 years ago but I fear the extended earning period diluted my worth to BCC. Sitting right between Sapphire and Sapphire plus with no chance to move up based on my play. What’s frustrating is we always book suites since we have 2 kids with us and the existing offers are not very conducive to booking with more than 2 guests. It also appears Patrick is no longer VP of BCC and I’m struggling to find a new contact there.
  6. Well I must have lucked out. I called in to the main # to request a refund of the Retreat Privilege Package we had paid for one my dad and stepmom’s room since their upgrade to a suite was confirmed. I figured I would ask the gentleman helping me about my issue. He said he worked in the dept. that is sometimes tasked with processing Move Up bids and would need to ask his supervisor for approval to process it but he could see that I had an approved(won) upgrade. The supervisor said no, I kept pushing and he asked a higher supervisor who also said no. I was adamant that I wanted to speak with a supervisor regarding this issue since I had even tried to pre empt the issue when I called as soon as my new card arrived. I waited on hold for 25 min while he waited for a supervisor to join the call but when he came back he said the supervisor granted approval to process the payment. Luckily, for me he had me repeat the entire CC to him because their system had somehow mixed the middle 8 digits of the card up. It was the correct digits in the wrong order. I know I typed it correctly because I have the info saved on my phone for auto fill and even triple checked it before I hit submit. I suspect I would have received another payment declined email or simply been skipped over. They sure made it really difficult to give them an additional $1,680.
  7. Not at all, we have 4 and 8 year old sons and they both like quite a few of those items so much that we tried them. The Bolognese is my go to when I want pasta and the Luminae and mdr options aren’t great. Tbh, I think the kids bolognese is the best executed pasta dish outside of Tuscan. The only exception was one time Luminae on Reflection had duck Bolognese cavtappi. It was perfection, tried it on beyond and it was inedible.🤷🏽‍♂️
  8. I posted this update in the move up tracker thread but then realized someone here may have a direct # to the move up dept. I tried calling one I found in another thread but it took me to the main line. Update, I have been trying to call the Move Up department since Monday because our credit card information was recently compromised. I didn’t receive new cards until after the bids were locked. I suspected this would be an issue and proactively tried calling X several times and Blue Chip club twice to update my payment and they advised that it wasn’t possible if you can’t access the bid. Today one of our family members was successful in a bid from concierge class to Celebrity Suite so I expected mine to process shortly. 4 hours later I received an email that payment was declined and to load a new card. Then click a link on the email to let them know it has been updated. I followed that up with a call to X and Blue Chip to see if someone could process the upgrade charge so I wouldn’t lose it as 1 of the 2 available RS had already been processed. Again ZERO help and said I have to wait 48 hours for them to try again? What kind of policy is that? I even asked to speak with a Blue Chip supervisor who gave ne the worst info yet and said Blue Chip bookings aren’t eligible with Move Up. He was adamant that the bid should have been immediately rejected 🤣. I’m not sure there is 5% of people that work in customer service that truly understand what their job is. I tried to pre empt the issue and was told there’s nothing to do since the upgrade wasn’t processed yet. Now of course it’s and issue and the dept. that would run the card “doesn’t have phones”so it is email only with an expected return time of 24-48 hours.
  9. Update, I have been trying to call the Move Up department since Monday because our credit card information was recently compromised. I didn’t receive new cards until after the bids were locked. I suspected this would be an issue and proactively tried calling X several times and Blue Chip club twice to update my payment and they advised that it wasn’t possible if you can’t access the bid. Today one of our family members was successful in a bid from concierge class to Celebrity Suite so I expected mine to process shortly. 4 hours later I received an email that payment was declined and to load a new card. Then click a link on the email to let them know it has been updated. I followed that up with a call to X and Blue Chip to see if someone could process the upgrade charge so I wouldn’t lose it as 1 of the 2 available RS had already been processed. Again ZERO help and said I have to wait 48 hours for them to try again? What kind of policy is that? I even asked to speak with a Blue Chip supervisor who gave ne the worst info yet and said Blue Chip bookings aren’t eligible with Move Up. He was adamant that the bid should have been immediately rejected 🤣. I’m not sure there is 5% of people that work in customer service that truly understand what their job is. I tried to pre empt the issue and was told there’s nothing to do since the upgrade wasn’t processed yet. Now of course it’s and issue and the dept. that would run the card “doesn’t have phones” so it is email only with an expected return time of 24-48 hours.
  10. Alex may be one of the best employees in all of X. She used to be the emergency travel dept. She assisted my family when we were booked on the April 2022 TA and 2 weeks before sailing X published a change that basically said all passengers on TAs that year needed to be vaccinated. Never mind the fact that my then 3 year was not old enough for any approved vaccine. She pushed it all the way to the CEOs office and we were allowed to sail. She was so helpful and kind throughout the entire process. I believe she is now on a different ship than Summit but I can’t recall which. I spoke to the concierge for Solstice about 7 weeks ago and they told me where but I can’t recall. Long story short if you ever interact with Alex it will likely be the pinnacle of customer service.
  11. From what I have researched it has multiple meanings. If the bid is still able to be modified then it doesn’t mean much other than there’s still a chance to get the upgrade. If the bids are locked and especially if you bid on multiple upgrade categories and one is showing “pending”and the others “expired” then there is a very good chance you have won the upgrade. The process could take from the time it is locked until 48 hours before departure to actually clear as upgraded. The first sign of the clearers upgrade is the charge on your credit card provided when you packed the bid. This it is helpful if you have alerts set for CC transactions. As a side note, as someone recently a victim and still fighting identity theft I would suggest notifications of any transactions. As a business owner get a lot of notifications but the immediate notice has proven to be a lifesaver.
  12. Officially they don’t but we often travel in large groups and Luminae usually prefers to have a standing dinner time for the larger groups so tables can be arranged.
  13. Ship: Solstice Length of Cruise: 12 Cruise Sail Date: November 16 , 2023 Date email offer received: September 2, 2023 Captain’s Club Tier [“PREVIEW” = first Celebrity Cruise]: Elite plus Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: Blue Chip Current Cabin: Celebrity Suite Bid? Yes/No: Yes If YES - Bidding Details: Cabin Category: Bid multiple suites Bid Offer: see comments Notification Date: Oct 30, 2023 Pending/expired General Comments (offer details, etc.) (All numbers pp) Was really not going to bid since there weren’t any available upgrades even after final payment. Lo and behold the last 6 weeks a Royal opened, then last week the penthouse. As of 2 days ago someone must have moved from a Royal to the available penthouse because now there are 2 Royals and 0 penthouses. Royal - min $500, moved bid all over many time ls but now locked “pending” at $840 Penthouse - min $1,000, expired at $1,740 We are really hoping for the extra half bath in the Royal with our 2 sons in our room. Hoping that @Jim_Iainexperience holds when 1 shows pending and 1 expired
  14. That’s just petty and not fair to them. Im sure they didn’t ask for the extra duties and responsibility for what I’m sure is no to very little extra pay. if like to see some reviews besides the video one from Zach in the already remote aft corner Sky suite. If the service is truly that bad then the issue should be brought up with the retreat manager and possibly the hotel director. Otherwise leave a comment in the post cruise survey because they carry a lot of weight and vote with your wallet.
  15. While I don’t like the bait and switch approach that this comes off as for some who booked when “dedicated butler service” is advertised, I do feel like there has always been a chasm between the service level in sky suites vs any other suite. That reality should really be a surprise since from the very beginning of the retreat concept, sky suites have had different access. Although it was ultimately changed that effect has lingered with the sky suites. We have sailed in inside, concierge, aqua, sky suites, celebrity suites, signature suites, and Royal suites. Without fail, the service has been a notch above when staying in a Celebrity suite or higher. My personal opinion is that X wants Sky Suites to be the equivalent of junior suites on RCL. They should either embrace it and make it a tiered suite class or step up the service to make it equal the other suites.
  16. Curious how they handle the rooms also. We were booked on August 10 Reflection sailing in a Signature Suite. That room type doesn’t exist on the Beyond… I don’t mind the ship change. Live the Reflection but sailed it 3 times over the last 2 years.
  17. I ordered them once and said never again. The “rocks” were covered in a wine reduction brownish dinner gravy. Not what I had in mind for breakfast 🤮
  18. I keep every Sea Pass and have an excel spreadsheet that tracks cruise details including # of nights, cabin #, tier credits earned , and booking #. I had been meaning to post this after our 12/31/22 sailing on Reflection but thought this thread was as good as a new thread. Our sons, ages 3.5 and 7, for the first time had a captains club tier printed in their Sea Pass cards. It wasn’t our status because my older son had Elite Plus and the younger is showing Elite. That corresponds exactly with what they have according to my spreadsheet so apparently Captains Club is tracking this in real time. I’m curious if the Sea Pass card was a mistake or a new thing.
  19. I find the food to be staff and ship specific. Keep in mind, different head chefs, directing hundreds of different cooks with varying homeports stocking thousands of products is bound to show up in the end product. Here is a brief summary of my personal experience with food quality. 2016-2 week Baltic cruise on Silhouette. All specialties and Luminae were exceptional! 2017-1 week Caribbean cruise on Silhouette…everything was average or below.. 2022-Reflection Eastbound TA. Luminae and specialities were great except Tuscan had some tough chicken and beef cuts. Buffet was the best I can remember on any sailing. Themed lunch days were executed perfectly highlighted by the British, Mexican, and Italian lunches. 2022-Apex Thanksgiving Eastern Caribbean-Luminae was pretty lackluster and the buffet was meh. 1 shining star was the Duck Bolognese in Luminae (make note of this, it was a too 10 cruise meal) 2022-Reflection Western Caribbean-Luminae was back up to my expectations but not the best. The buffet was not nearly as well executed as on the TA on this ship 8 months earlier. Imagine my excitement when I see the Duck Bolognese on the Luminae menu and Luminae as awhile is already well outperforming the Apex experience. I guess I should have known to be surprised…it was the worst meal of the week. Overcooked pasta, bland bolognese, and the duck could have been cardboard. Their motto should be expect the unexpected, unless it is Moroccan Chicken because that seems to have latched onto the ships like a stubborn barnacle. It is not good and needs to just be removed. However, I consider myself to be very lucky anytime I’m on an “X boat” as my family calls them with the ones I love most.
  20. My sons can vouch for everything on that menu except the grilled cheese. It usually arrives blackened 🤣. The fish goujons, spaghetti bolognese, and filet are the most ordered in our house. The 7 year old has now graduated to the salmon from the mdr menu
  21. This would be the first I heard of it since Covid. Previous to Covid it was available to all rooms at a rate of $19/hr. We had used it and then they limited to suites which we usually sail in and the process was the same. You have to request in advance because they typically find 2 staff members, sometimes an officer who will be in the room at all times with your child(children). These staff members take these opportunities for the extra pay which is why you have to request in advance also, they can’t always find 2 available and willing individuals. As far as what they do with your children that is up to you and them. They will read to them, play with them, let them watch tv, can take them to leave the room if you give them permission. Our sons (3.5 and 7) now live to go to the kids club but our experience with in room babysitting was always great. They always appreciate a tip as well.
  22. Generally speaking yes. I am a table player and in the Sapphire tier. Some family members in the same and lower tiers and in most cases we all get casino discount on suites. Some sailings are ineligible or in my opinion don’t have enough inventory to allow for Blue chip rates to be offered. Most of my recent sailings qualify for the net 40% discount and they apply a discount to each sailing based on the last sailings play. You will still receive whatever free play your tiers qualifies for if any on every sailing.
  23. Except Reflection where 1/3 is already gone for the Reflection suite and signature suites.
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