kevinyork

Booking an early saver will save you nearly £1500. Knowing a couple of cruise bargain hunters the trick seems to be to hand the head waiter a couple of hundred pounds and you'll get whatever table you want and still be £1300 ahead.

Looks like there are going to some very happy, and very rich, Head Waiters then.

Can only base this on our July Eclipse trip but twomor us were Select. We were seated immeditely on a table for two each night. No wait, no problem.

Hi Kevin,

We wouldn't eat second sitting and are still unsure if we will risk booking an early saver.

 

On Ventura there are 2 freedom dining restaurants and only 1 club dining. This means that the chance of getting the only sitting we don't want is quite small. However on Adonia it is 50/50.

 

Also the early savers are not likely to be the final reduction. The final getaway or whatever they are going to call it at the 90 day mark will get the left over dining sittings. The early savers will still get asked for their preference and if available will get it. In reality how many people are going to pay the full select fare to get their dining sitting?

 

The jury is still out for us. We are booked up now until the end of March and also for next summer so will probably wait to see how it all pans out.

 

Sue

Phew....its not just me that thinks its a strange promotion then......i can cope with being allocated a cabin anywhere in my grade, paying for shuttles but not being told when and with whom I must eat....thats not a holiday,

Been keeping an eye on an Azura 14 night cruise for next year. There is a pretty good Early Saver Fare for a cruise however, of course, you cannot choose your dining choice ( freedom or club) or time ( club early or club late). We travel as a group of four and could not do early sitting as it restricts daytime activities and were just not hungry at 6.30. Freedom always seems to be the most popular option so we would be gambling between early or late sitting.

However, to secure a choice of dining would cost us £372 per per more! That simply isnt worth it and ultimately means we will look elsewhere.

I appreciate P&O want to create some differenciation in terms of choices for Early Savers versus those who pay full whack but are there many happy eat at any time they are told to with no option to change? Other lines offer reduced guaranteed cabin bookings but no other line restricts your dining choice.

From my point of view they have shot themselves in the foot. We wont risk a poor dining allocation and wont pay nearly £1500 more as a party just to secure a dining time. Result.....we go elsewhere.

Feeling pretty fed up. We were looking at a couple of Eclipse sailings next Spring last week. Then we saw that the 1-2-3 Promo was coming this Friday for UK bookings. Great we thought. However since then the prices for obstructed balconies have increased by £500 pp on each sailing. Same thoughout the summer and autumn on all Eclipse sailings.

Clearly this is so that come Friday it looks like the price has not increased but they have included the drinks package for free. Free? Its added £500 to the price! Added to that whenever someone in here mentioned that the 1-2-3 Promo was coming to UK bookings Cruise Critic took down their post. Why even bother since waiting for the Promo would cost more!

Shame on you Celebrity.

This happened about 4 years ago and it was discussed widely and at that time you stopped tipping your drinks waiter as they got the 15% from the drinks. That is also why the bartender always gets one of the wait staff to put your order through the system even though you are at at the bar.

We sussed that too. However it can be annoying that you cant find a waiter so go to the bar only to be told to go back to your seat and wait to be served when the bar area is empty.

Not true, price for cruise was 2149$ before the Giving Thanks promotion, now it is 2409$ per person. So the price changed before the 123 promo, now they can give two perks for Europe cruise instead of one.

Well said. I had looked at pre loyalty discounted prices for the two cruises I was interested in and comparing like with like it would be less expensive to be a non loyalty customer and have booked last week and pay for a classic package than book on Friday and get the classic package thrown in.

Shame on you Celebrity. Some Promotion.

I was looking at a couple of UK departures on Eclipse for next spring. One week ago a 2D Balcony was £1580 and £1620 on the two cruises respectively. Four days before the 3-2-1 promotion starts those prices have risen to £2050 and £2150 respectively.

Clearly what Celebrity dont want is to be seen to raise prices overnight on release of the 3-2-1 promotion (otherwise the offer cannot be seen as FREE) so they are raising them in advance so the price from the day before and the day of the promotion appears not to be hiked.

They had X guarantee balconies at £1440 and £1540 a week ago (less 5% loyalty discount) where the worst allocation would be a 2D. Booking that price and paying for the classic package would have come in less than their current pricing with cash to spare. All this has made me do is play the waiting game and wait for a bargain next spring. If it doesnt happen then no problem, it wasnt to be.

Celebrity FREE is clearly not FREE.

The cabins are the same size. The balconies are larger on the cabins that are on the angle from the hump to the recess. The cabins on the flat of the hump have regular size balconies. This pic will help.

No, you wont know till you board and see the cruise overview in you cabin.

Here are some early build photos. Looks like the aft of the ship is not built, balcony's look small and see what looks like the promenade deck on picture number 12.

Really am curious as the size of the aft pool when completed.

 

 

http://cruisemiss.com/2013/11/19/building-britannia-britains-largest-cruise-ship-progress-photo-blog/

Thanks for posting. Balconies are small, a common complaint on the Royal Princess version.

I think that in terms of wines, P&O remains much cheaper compared to American lines (despite price increases over the last few years) however beer is coming pretty close to the US lines even with their service charge. Spirits are also pretty close given the measures on US lines are almost doubles.

Hope you all reflect on your luck. Here in the UK bookings are final. Once booked if prices drop then tough. Either cancel and lose your deposit or pay to upgrade. And get this, our fares are higher too.

They seem to always show the E deck balconies as Getaways however as there are only a handful then most will be upgraded. The E deck balconies are covered and as long as you dont want to sit in sun on your balcony they will be fine.

Quite a lot? Don't think so Dai. Four of us are in our mid sixties and far from heavy drinkers. We reckoned the package we had halved the cost of the drinks bill, making the drinks cheaper on Celebrity than they are on P&O.

Plus the Celebrity package includes Speciality Coffees and bottled water.

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Perhaps being a fly cruise there will be a less aged group of passengers than normal. Weve been on Ventura three times and enjoyed the mix of passengers which is generally a lower average age than the other ships in the fleet.

We docked in New Orleans a couple of years back on a cruise. Immigration had four desk to clear 3000 passengers and 1400 crew. People had to get a numbered ticket and wait to be called to attend immigration. We were lucky and were off within an hour (but had to face the most miserable of officials). As we reboarded at 4.30, they were still calling passengers to attend immigration some 8 hours later. Very poor service from US Immigration which meant some never got to see New Orleans at all.

As a contrast we did a transatlantic this year on RCI. UK officials boarded in The Azores and over the next two sea days passengers could attend the conference suite when they wished to have their documents checked prior to our arrival in the UK (by a smartly dressed, smiling official). A Canadian friend commented that he had never had a more pleasant experience clearing immigration.

Because it has been added to their account, or do club dining not have it added do they only pay cash :confused:

This was before auto grats came in.

The only time we have been club sitting on P&O our waiters had a table for ten, one for six and one for eight people to serve. The waiter advised that on the cruise just ended the whole of the table for ten were no show on the last night. So, 40% or so of their anticipated tip gone. He said he wouldnt have minded but they were a very difficult table with lots of individual needs.

Yes people may not visit the dining room on the last night as they are busy packing so why not just pop in and hand over your tip. There really are no acceptable excuses.

I should say you may tip any staff in any form of currency including coin. Realistically I would give coin to the "room service" received in your cabin. Other currency I would amalgamate into "same currency" bundles of notes and put into envelopes. Remember these amounts are in addition to the standard Auto-tip.

Im confused. P&O deal wholly in Sterling, their prices are in Sterling and tipping is in Sterling. Why would you tip in 'other currencies'? Doesnt that make it easier for the passenger but hassle for the crew member?

Well I just called my agent. They said that since Costa Concordia no changes are allowed after embarkation so we could not split the club members across two cabins then switch them when onboard....... a bit stuck now.

Doesn't look as if you are at the top tier for loyalty benifits, but if you were, by splitting the reservation to get the discount, you would have also shared the Elite lounge benefit.... not sure if that would stick when you switched the cabin contents back toyour mother and sister back together ... :confused::p

No, we are way down the tier but with the current loyalty discounts every bit helps.

Thanks all. Stops me worrying now about the Celebrity cruise police coming calling.

Oh, wait that wint work will it since our photo id wont match the card. Will they issue extra cards easily? Isnt it just one per person?

Really? It looks like a great ship but I was worried about it being too big and crowded...especially during a spring break time. We've been on the mariner of the seas and it was great but I was looking for more upscale and less kids since we will being cruising sans kiddos!

Your description fits Celebrity perfectly. Less kids, lots of space and more upscale.

Seems like RCI listened! Had the premium package on AOS this April and hated the house white wine which was the only one included. At least its now wines up to a certain value the same as Celebrity do.