dorakk

Thanks everyone for the helpful responses.  We will go to customer relations desk for downgrade on embarkation day.

Hi,

We are sailing on millennium in a few weeks.  My booking includes classic drink package, but we can't take alcoholic drink or wine.  I wonder if it is possible to exchange for the zero proof drink package for free so that we can enjoy fresh juice, smoothies, vitamin water, and san Pellegrino?

Thanks much!

51 minutes ago, adidazzz said:

Okay so two related questions here...

 

1) is everyone thinking about this as balancing between cancelling now and (potentially) getting some amount refunded and rest as FCC vs. banking on them cancelling in which case we'd get all of it back? Obvi depends on the sail date but for example i am slated for 4/23 APEX and am definitely not going. But, I'm betting they're going to cancel and / or enough travel restrictions are put in place, as the virus gets worse, such that they have to refund us

 

2) I'm not clear why / how they can give 100% as FCC - it literally still says the following on their site: Essentially, Cruise with Confidence means that guests who cancel their cruise for sailings departing up until 7/31/2020 can do so for ANY reason as late as 48 hours before sailing and get a 100% Future Cruise Credit (good until 12/31/2021) for the full amount in penalty.

 

If they told me it would be 100% as opposed to 75%, I'd just point this out on their own website and ask them to give it as 25/75?

Yeah I’m on the same boat for #1.  Our sailing is May, debating whether to wait for better cancellation terms or cancel now.

2 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

The TA has done all the work to book the cruise for you, and now has to do the work to cancel. Meantime, the TA loses the payment it would have received from Celebrity because you've chosen to cancel. So why should the TA be out of pocket and not you, as agreed under the T&C? If you have travel insurance, you may be able to recover the cancellation fee.

I understand that TA put in lots of work for booking our cruise, I am just naive to think that the cruise line will still reward them some commission as a gesture, even if the reservation is cancelled.  

Many companies (entertainment and travel industries mainly) are being affected as a result of this virus, but most of them aren't charging their customers for cancellation / change of plan.   

This is decent customer service which encourage return business.

While TA has legit reasons to offload their loss to customers, I just don't think this is "good customer service" principal.

Haven't really check with our insurance company yet, some online sources said insurance company won't cover it because it is a epidemic.  I will need to crave out a few hours of time to contact our insurance company.

1 minute ago, Hllb said:

Some TAs have cancellation fees. Check your original receipt from them and check their online policies.

Thanks for the response.  Yea...the original TC mentioned about cancellation fee, but I didn't expect them to charge cancellation fee in the current circumstances.

This is not a "change of mind" scenario, it's more because of an epidemic and govt advisory.

Off topic...is it normal for agent to charge us for cancelling under the "cruise with confidence" policy?

Our agent wants to charge us $50pp for cancelling our May cruise for FCC.

Thank you for the response. I'll look out for any X employees trying to sell specialty dining!

Hello all,

I saw many threads with folks talking about discount to specialty dining venue on the first night.

I am planning to do so, but not sure who to get the discount from? From attendant? Or MDR maitre'd?

Also is the discount always negotiable? Or I should take whatever they offer right away?

I also see a thread talking about cancel and rebook to get a deeper discount? Is this true?

Thanks in advanced!

Thanks everyone for your advice.

For our $700 OBC, $400 is from Celebrity and $300 is from TA. Thanks to everyone's input, now we know that the first $400 has to be spent while the $300 is refundable.

We are not alcohol drinking so we will probably stay with the classic beverage package. However, we do want to try specialty dining.

Anyway, we switched to traditional dining just to be on the safe side, to guarantee the $400 will for sure be spent on gratuity.

Thanks everyone & happy new year!

On our next sailing, we will have $700 OBC; which is a lot for us given that:

- We have to prepay for our gratuities (select dining)

- We have beverage packages included

- We are planning to do excursion on our own (not a fans of cruise ship excursion)

- We aren't heavy shoppers

So we are wondering:

1) What happen to any unused OBC at the end of the sailing? Can we cash out the unused OBC?

2) If the answer is a NO to the above, then the only alternative we can think of is to switch to traditional dining; then switch back to select dining once on board? I wonder if this doable?

Thanks in advanced.

Karen

Not sure it's an extra time vs extra money argument. Not only is taking the bus and walking on the ferry cheaper, it's faster too. I'll take that challenge pretty much any weekday, especially during the summer where it's not unusual to have a 1-2 sailing wait for cars.

 

If you intend to spend time in Victoria, why not fly there to start with. Most of the time a flight to YYJ/Victoria isn't much more than a flight to YVR/Vancouver.

 

For public transportation [downtown] Victoria to [downtown] Vancouver; your choices are the PCL Bus (which doesn't always go all the way downtown), or taking the city bus on each end (bus+skytrain on the Vancouver side), which will get you to a couple of blocks from Canada Place.

 

Let me know if you need the details, but to put it in perspective, it's under $10 ea way if you do it by bus (+ferry of $15), vs $37 for the coach, or $50 ea way to take a car on the BC Ferry.

Thanks martincath & scottbee for the info! We've decided to take the public transit base on your recommendations.

Flying straight to YYJ is definitely a good idea...now I regret for booking my flight tix tix from YYZ to YVR too early:(

Work has been quite busy lately, I'm sure will do more research on Vancouver / Victoria later, maybe I'll post on this thread again to seek more more advice;)

Thanks fellow Canucks!

Btw, it's freezing here in TO (-28), please tell Mr. Warm we miss him a lot:o

Hi,

We have a two days pre-cruise trip to Vancouver, we are just debating whether to rent a car or not.

We will be arriving @ YVR on Wednesday noon time, our cruise is for Friday.

This is our 2nd time to Vancouver, but we had a rental car last time.

We are planning to visit Victoria this time around, which means we do not need a car for at least one day? (please correct if I'm wrong)

Our plan is to spend a day in Victoria. Besides that we would like to visit granville island, stanley park, downtown, possibly dinner @ aberdeen centre.

So we are debating whether we should opt out for car rental and take the public transit? We are from Toronto, where the transit system is not that friendly, just wondering how's the transit system in Vancouver like?

Thanks in advanced

Deck - 10

Cabin # -1273

Class – C3

Starboard or Port Side - Port

Bed near?(balcony or bath) – Balcony

Quiet Cabin (With comments on problems. Note if connecting. ) – Yes

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – Good, no obstruction

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - Normal

Was wind a problem? No

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? No

Any specific problems with this cabin? No