GITC

I'm glad I read this thread or at least the last several pages.

My wife and I are in the same boat (excuse the pun) as those whose login emails return messages that we don't exist. I've seen the suggested fixes, including one I got back to my online submission to Azamara, about just re-registering and taking it from there. I think I'll wait a little while longer for them to get this sorted out as we don't have anything currently booked and, after reading what's going on here, very glad that we don't.

I've been involved in my share of these kinds of IT migrations and it strikes me that the new software being utilized likely employed a conversion program of some sort to take the RCL data and convert it to the new format. Given that this has quite clearly gone badly off the rails, I have to agree with a few of the other comments that I've seen that there is likely considerable corrupt, missing, or just plain bad data coming across. It is unfortunate, just as it seems to be with just about every software change, that the planning seems to fall well short of the execution.

Further, it sounds like the ships have the correct information and that there doesn't seem to be issues in that regard. This mess shouldn't be a reflection on Azamara, either the shoreside or shipside service, as much as this is the IT behind the scenes.

Good luck to everybody getting all their issues resolved and getting back to what we all love to do and that's just sailing and enjoying ourselves. 👍 🥂

7 hours ago, RichYak said:

You only need to match from Celebrity to MGM Gold once.

 

MGM also has a partnership with Hyatt. Status between them can be matched online and each program has different expiration dates. So match your MGM Gold to Hyatt Discoverist now. On February 1 when you lose MGM status, you can match back to Gold from Hyatt online. Then on March 1 when Hyatt expires, match back from MGM Gold to Hyatt Discoverist. 

 

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I think what you're saying is that you can avoid having to re-up with MGM by using the work around, right? Technically, you otherwise have to.

And do you mean Hyatt Explorist instead of Discoverist? I matched to Explorist from Gold. Discoverist is the match from Pearl.

I'm the only one in my household with a Hyatt account that I've had for decades. I doubt that it's worth it to sign my wife up for one just for the sake of this status match. We'll just plod along to the MGM Rewards desk as appropriate although, as I mentioned, there should be no need to do so given that Celebrity status never goes away.

I'll relay our experience with this status match although this thread is a little dated.

We were in Vegas for New Year's this last year, returned in February, and just got home from a stay last month.

We matched our Celebrity Elite status to MGM Rewards and, right, wrong, or indifferent, the lady matched both of us to MGM Platinum. We were expecting Gold. Irrespective of the mistake, Platinum doesn't do much for you that's different than Gold in terms of free parking and waived resort fees (I just can't stand resort fees...😠) but you can flash the card to use the VIP lounge at hotels, get priority access to some restaurants and clubs, and taxi lines etc. Unlike a previous poster, our online status still shows as Platinum.

What I really don't like about this status match is that, being based on Celebrity Cruises history which will NEVER diminish, MGM expires your status every year and you need to re-up. That should never have to be the case as long as Celebrity and MGM have a partnership.

2 hours ago, Retired LEO said:

Some dude that works for the cruise line mentioned the totally positive feed back regarding the change. I believe his name is Michael Bayley 😄 😂

I'm sure he is happy given that he's saving the corporation a pile of money (perhaps to help increase his bonus). I suppose I should be happier than I am about it as a shareholder but I'm not looking at it from that perspective. 

I see people are still concentrating on the 'polling' and have nothing to say about my proposed solution offered earlier. Hmm.

3 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

Voyager sails with approximately 3500 people. You polled them?

Not these days it doesn't. We sailed with about 35% of capacity and I no more polled all of them than @OCSC Mike polled everybody he referred to.

"Anecdotally" was the term used BTW.

24 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I'll gladly accept the new program vs unlimited swill in a single venue during limited hours

 

Didn't drink a lot during day, but a lot after the 8pm hours. 

 

Don't count me in on your crusade

Everyone's entitled to their opinion which is what I did along with providing some feedback from C&A loyalty about WHY the change was made. I don't think it qualifies as a "crusade"...🤨

Perhaps the solution going forward is to give Diamond members a choice between their Seapass vouchers OR the Diamond Lounge. Wouldn't that be a satisfactory outcome and make everyone happy?

On 7/17/2022 at 3:55 PM, hmorrow said:

That , now we only have 4 drinks through out the whole day, and nite. We used to have several drinks in the lounge before dinner, and then use the 3 on the seapass for the dining room.  It just seems like taking away the all you can, or wanted to drink in the lounge, is a downgrade, in my opinion.

Agreed 100%.

2 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

Reading this forum everyday for months is my source. You don't have to believe me though.

You do realize that there are a lot of people out there that have never even heard of Cruise Critic, right? 

Anecdotally, the majority of people that I just sailed with on Voyager were opposed to the changes.

You don't have to believe me though.😉

6 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

The majority of D members have said they prefer the 4 vouchers for any drink any time over the 3 hour happy hour with the limited menu... so while you consider it a downgrade, you are in the minority.

I must have missed the survey. What is your source of this information that the "majority" are in favour of the changes or is it just in this thread which I have yet to read entirely?

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On 7/15/2022 at 3:02 PM, cruiseguy1016 said:

I don't think there were ever 4 free drinks on your Seapass AND unlimited drinks in the DL during Happy Hour, were there. I think when RCI decided to put the 4 drinks on your card, they stopped serving free ones in the DL. I know there was a time when you had 2 freebies plus unlimited in the DL.

When I was on the Radiance in February 2020, almost immediately B4 Covid shut everything down, we had hard copy vouchers for drinks (I thought it was 4 but may have been 3) for use during happy hour at any bar. These were in addition to the free-for-all Diamond Lounge happy hour which was expanded on that Australia Over-the-Top cruise because of the vast numbers of Diamond members and above. 

Just sailed on Voyager a few weeks ago and was dismayed to find the Diamond Lounge happy hour all but eliminated in favour of the four vouchers added to your Seapass. Thankfully, we were in a suite which carried on the traditional happy hour so we weren't negatively affected...this time.

I spoke with the loyalty desk about this apparent downgrade of Diamond benefits and she indicated to me that it was a change made post-Covid to keep some semblance of 'social distancing' due to larger and larger numbers of Diamond members. In other words, should things EVER return to some semblance of normal, one MIGHT expect the return of this benefit.

The more, however, that Diamond members fall into line and accept this downgrade, the more likely it is that it will never return. It's funny how the "enhancements" that all these loyalty programs come up with rarely enhance the customer experience in a positive way.

On 3/24/2022 at 7:58 PM, Whitnee1 said:

Ok so question for those who submitted upgrade. This is our first MSC cruise. Do you join the Voyager program first THEN submit the upgrade request or do you just submit the upgrade request as your initial joining and upgrade all in one? 

The form at https://www.msccruises.ca/manage-booking/msc-voyagers-club/status-match clearly indicates that you do NOT apply for a Voyageur number first. YMMV

Please do NOT submit a separate registration for the Voyagers Club if you are applying for our Status Match program.

In order to qualify for Status Match, you must apply no later than 14 business days before your cruise start date.

Conversion will be executed by MSC Cruises based on objective criteria and may only be done once per guest.
If a guest has loyalty cards with multiple companies, they will have to choose which one card to use to take part in the promotion.

We are having a great time. Last night too much of a great time. The best bar & bartenders are at Martini's.

A couple of familiar faces from the Martini bar - Aan and 'Dracula' - we loved our times on the Jade - particularly at the Martini bar.

Have to agree that Aan & Marius were by far the best bartenders we encountered on the TA. Not even a contest.

No snacks at bars.

 

 

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They used to do a jar of nibbly things at the Martini bar.

Still do. They're shown in the beer tasting pictures.

so we booked the jade last night for January after a really hard week we have decided this is what we need. We have a 17 year old that has heart disease and is in Failure... He loves Crepes.... Does the Jade still have them and where are they located... sorry for the ramble.... I guess I just do that.. Seems like on a whim I picked a perfect ship for Alex... lol he loves Medusa

The crepe station is in the Garden Buffet. As far as I know it has not been removed or replaced. You can see it in this video from last December. It is at the 5 minute, 30 second mark.

 

They were still making crepes there on the TA a few weeks ago.

As they say there are exceptions to every rule: You will not be able to order the Veuve Clicquot in Le Bistro and have it covered by the UBP. Reason given is that they are calling it a 'promotion'. Not sure what kind of 'promotions' are printed right on the menu? Sounds like a permanent thing to me but it is what it is.

 

Even more confusing and not available with the UBP is a long pour glass of wine.

Rochelle

Our experience on the TA on Jade earlier this month was that we regularly ordered and drank long pours of wine in the MDR. This notion of long pours being a "promotion" is ludicrous.

Don't know about the availability of Veuve in Le Bistro as we never ate thaere but based on the foregoing I'd be skeptical. We regularly saw wait staff from Le Bistro at the Mixer's/Champagne bar getting glasses of Veuve. If those weren't included under the UBP, one need only walk a few feet from Le Bistro to get one that was or pick one up on the way into Le Bistro.

Part of the delay in getting quick service is the need to chop down a tree to produce two receipts for each order, unlike Celebrity's 21st century approach of just swiping your key card. A couple of ways around this are as follows:

1. Get to know your bartenders.

2. Tip them from time to time.

3. Order the same drink so that when you take care of numbers 1 & 2, they start preparing your drink when they see you coming/make eye contact/just give them a nod.

4. Order doubles. (And before anybody says you can't do this, see points 1 & 2)

All of the aforementioned greatly enhance the experience of the PDGBP (Pretty Darn Good Beverage Package, but not "Ultimate").

The ship's currency is USD and, assuming you don't have OBC to use, your account will be settled on the last day of the cruise at the prevailing rate.

Not sure what you mean by being "locked in" but if you have some US cash that you got at your rate of 1.19 then you could pay your account in cash before the end of the cruise.

I wasn't in the market for any duty free booze from either the Jade or onshore but anecdotally this was my experience in comparison shopping for Crown Royal in St. Thomas (which may also be vastly different than other Caribbean ports from a shopping experience) on the recent TA to Houston.

A store at Havensight had three bottles of Crown Royal for $21 USD each and was throwing in a bonus bottle of CR Reserve. The pricing on the ship was $25 each for the CR and $42 for the Reserve so $63 versus $117. It pays to shop around.

I inquired onboard about price matching and was first told that the store would have to be an "approved" one but the clerk acquiesced after my question as to why and indicated they would price match if given evidence of the onshore pricing.

We debarked Jade last Saturday in Houston and I happened to be on our balcony when the first load of luggage came off the ship. The forklift was backing towards the terminal when, somewhat inexplicably, he lowered the forks on the lift and the two luggage carts' wheels contacted the concrete and came off the lift. They rolled for a bit before running into the forklift that had abruptly stopped. The result was five or six pieces of luggage coming off the second luggage cart, including what looked to be two cardboard boxes of liquor. The resulting puddle underneath the cart confirmed liquid of some sort and the unloading process carried on. No doubt some of the luggage was also made wet from the leaking boxes that were placed back on top of the pile.

The moral of the story is DO NOT entrust your fragile items to the cabin stewards/luggage handlers. Carry it off yourself lest you enjoy broken glass and soggy cardboard better than whatever it was you thought you were offloading.

To each their own but why do people think that Europe contains the only targets? These cowardly suicide idiots have threatened targets everywhere including the US of late.

The shark thing sounds over the top

 

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Swimming with sharks isn't inherently over the top. Tour companies aren't going to put people in harm's way. Further, we don't know the details behind OP's comment on this so it's unclear as to what caused this person's death.

My wife and I swam (snorkeled) with sharks in Bora Bora (blacktips) and the scariest part of that was getting out of the boat and then seeing the scuba divers below us...