kevinyork

Why wouldn't luggage valet be available in FLL at the end of a transatlantic cruise?

I’m guessing it’s due to Customs. They want to see you and your baggage as they ship has cruised internationally.

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On our first Eclipse trips a few years back I had 24 hours of flu like symptoms onboard followed by a cough that stayed with me for weeks afterwards. I read about “cruise cough’ mainly caused by the nasal passages drying out making you more likely to pick up a bug so started to use saline nasal sprays on cruises. This seemed to work until our Symphony Cruise last month when I got the exact same cough which is still with me.

I’ve read other ideas such as hanging a damp hand towel in your cabin at night to keep the air moist can help stop your nasal passages drying out.

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My OH is vegetarian and we’ve eaten at Chops a couple of times either complimentary or on a BOHO.

We pointed out the menu says there are vegetarian options on request but on asking they simply point to items on the menu.

The goats cheese (as with almost all cheese onboard) contains animal rennet so isn’t vegetarian. Same with the Mac and Cheese. In the main dining room many dishes marked as vegetarian contain non vegetarian cheese so are not vegetarian. (Vegetarian = not eating anything that contains something for which an animal has died and the rennet in the cheese is derived from a calves stomach so it’s a bit naughty that they class the cheese as vegetarian.)

On Symphony Jamie’s has the widest veggie choice and they had veggie cheese on their menu and could swap non veggie cheese for veggie cheese on request. We had three lovely meals there.

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One additional point, you can go onto the airports website and book fastrack passes through security. If I remember correctly it was 5€. We skipped a queue of about 50 people.

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Interesting thread. Going to use select for the first time soon. I see where people prebook. Hi exactly do you do that? On line or TA. I just thought anytime was anytime but I would like a bit of a change. Maybe dine with other folks we meet or just pull up and say we will sit with anyone. (Maybe). :D

 

I can see the various methods everyone has written here. Any other comments or idea appreciated

 

 

 

Thanks

You can reserve Select Dining times in your planner. It’s under the dining selection. Choose the select dining option and reserve for each evening. Even if you have reserved when you turn up you can ask to share a table but you might have to wait a while for a table to fill up with others wanting to share.

When we first started cruising Celebrity Select Dining worked great, truly flexible and no need to reserve. However as our cruises have gone on we’ve experienced issues and on one cruise the Martini Bar was full of people with buzzers some waiting up to an hour. One couple we met were told there was no availability for a table for 2 for them all the Cruise unless they came when the restaurant opened which meant they shared a table every night.

We now prebook each evening in advance. We like to have cocktails before dinner and don’t want to do that, arrive at Select and given a buzzer and have to go back to a bar again.

Personally, I don’t think anyone should be able to prebook Select. Doing so reduces the flexibility for everyone else.

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We did this last month after disembarking Symphony. We had a 10.30 Flight! We self disembarked at 6.45, no queue for taxis with a huge queue of taxis waiting. Took 20 mins at the fixed price of €39. Taxis both ways punched the fare into the meter immediately at €39. Many prearranged services charged more with a couple around the same but this was very convenient even with a ship the size of Symphony. The fair includes all taxes and baggage fees and they are obliged to give you a receipt.

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If your objective is to convert your Non-refundable credit into hard cash the easiest way is on the Roulette table. Just place equal bets on RED and BLACK, you have odds of 18:1 of either red or black winning. Your winnings are CASH chips, put them aside, continue the same plan - odds are in your favour then cash out your chips.

We’ve done this both with non refundable OBC and with the free bet coupons we get with our status. Just have to hope the ball doesn’t end up on zero.

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As an alternative in Valencia we took a taxi from shipside to the City of Arts and Sciences. Sounds uninteresting but it is a stunning architectural development and next door is one of Europe’s largest aquariums which was excellent. Taxi was around €10 between us.

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Ours doesn’t show online but is confirmed on our invoice. Last year, whilst it didn’t specifically show online either it did show the ability to upgrade to the premium package online thereby confirming we had the classic package already. Unfortunately that ability seems to be missing now which is a shame.

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I am still trying to clean up a fiasco sending my kids and grandkids on a trip out of Galveston a few weeks ago. I bought beverage packages for the adults and soda packages for the grandkids but still had over $650 in charges on my CC for beverages. I have a copy of the bill but the listing on the bill states only the bar/dining room but not what was served all well under the typical $$ amount. So far Royal is trying to make amends but is taking their sweet time doing something about it. I certainly hope we can straighten this up soon.

Did you not see the charges accumulating on your onboard account? It’s much easier to resolve stuff onboard.

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No visa requirement as long as cruise passengers arrive and leave on the cruise ship. Section 3 of this website confirms this-

http:// https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/new/visas-and-immigration

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Our first Celebrity Cruise had 500 Brazilian Solicitors and partners onboard. Benefits were the pools were less busy on sea days, they all ate together on late seating and we were select and they had allocated bars leaving other bars less busy. Downside was some ventures were closed off for them at times and they tended to travel en masse and were quite loud so lifts could be taken over and the buffet was a struggle if they were in there.

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On a Symphony last month the seapass account shown on the TV had every drink listed under the venue name for the whole Cruise so it was possible to see how many, but not which, drinks we had ordered using our packages. The final paper bill however did not.

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Strange how on our Royal Cruise last month, our waiter asked each evening if we had any allergies. Don’t remember every being asked on Celebrity. The only way we knew about the existence of a vegetarian menu on Celebrity was through these boards.

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Just found this thread and it prompted me to review where Celebrity were with their vegetarian menu. Our emails to the UK Managing Director in advance of our June 17 cruise led to the vegetarian menus on that cruise being changed in that all cheese was removed from the dishes as they couldn't guarantee if the rennet used was vegetarian or not. We were told this was going fleetwide. Having done a quick search celebrity's site now has a revised vegetarian menu and indeed there is no cheese:

http://media.celebritycruises.com/celebrity/content/en_US/pdf/faq/celebrity_vegetarian_menu.pdf

Still not sure how the main dining room main menus are with regards to non vegetarian cheese being used in the dishes marked as being vegetarian but any recent menus I've seen posted still seem to have cheese in many vegetarian dishes.

We board next Sunday. Are there separate lines for loyalty status? Do they adhere to the check in times selected online! We have a 11.00 to 11.30 slot so hopefully that won’t be too busy.

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As well as the shuttle it’s a flat, easy walk into town if you wish. As you exit the gate on the dockside keep the sea to your right and you will pick up a waterside pathway. This will take you about 35-45 minutes to reach the centre of town. It takes you past the Sun Voyager statue which is lovely.

We joined a free walking tour in town which was excellent- http:// https://citywalk.is/

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We’ve done a boardwalk balcony on Oasis. Yes you can see the Aquashow but it’s much better to experience that from the aqua theatre seating anyway.

We found the noise resonated a lot, even with the balcony doors closed. Quiet at night though and you could get a decent view out over the back though I understand the slides on Harmony/Symphony restrict that more.

We are booked in a Central Park Balcony on our Symphony back to back in two weeks. We’ve had ocean view balconies many times and don’t really spend much time sitting out but the price was good and only a little more than an ocean view window cabin.

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If you buy say a drinks package or a restaurant or dining package there is no additional Spanish tax when onboard when you redeem those purchases.

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With the sheer number of passengers on Oasis and sisters, I can't for the life of me see how they could possibly have an omelet/fresh egg station in the WJ. The line is long enough on Radiance-class. ;p

Apparently they have one on Symphony in the WJ as she doesn’t have a wipe out cafe.

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We cruise Celebrity and Royal and have not sailed without an included drinks package for several years.

We monitor prices and only book when we think the price is right. For our B2B in Symphony next month, I checked prices for a few months whilst the drinks package was not a perk, then when the promo switched and the drinks package was offered the price difference was around £100pp. So for us that offered good value.

For Celebrity sailings Ex UK we can compare similar itineraries offered by P&O and more often than not they come in around a similar or lower price on Celebrity with the drinks package included. However, the “free” drinks package on Royal is a bit better than the free one on Celebrity with more inclusions without the need to upgrade it as we do on Celebrity.

I just checked our May 6th Symphony Cruise and that has 14 crown loft suites and 3 Aquatheatre Suites still available. That’s an awful lot of lost revenue on an early sailing of a brand new ship. That’s about $200,000 of lost revenue based on double occupancy.

Oh and the Royal Loft Suite is available on this and the next sailing. We are doing the B2B and have no problem if they need to free up our Central Park Balcony by offering an upgrade..........

Strange thing is both Cruises show as sold out on booking sites so how are they going to fill them at those prices and at short notice?

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You shouldn't feel the need to apologize at all. However it seems that especially lately the sarcasm on Cruise Critic is getting out of control...very sad indeed.

Pretty much heading the way of other social media. Been on cruisecritic 8 years and unfortunately it’s becoming less friendly on occasion.

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I really hope that isn’t true. :( I was really looking forward to seeing it and missing it by one sailing would be a bummer!

 

 

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Unfortunately that info is straight from RCI UK Executive Office after I queried why it didn’t appear on my planner. The escape room also doesn’t show and waiting to see if that’s going to be something else we cannot experience.

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I read that Flight doesn’t commence until May 20th, the day we disembark the ship.

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