Oren

3 hours ago, 39august said:

Any perk that appears when making a booking should be honored in any kind of reservation!

At the very least they should give notice that "Effective on this date, it is no longer available".

Imagine the surprise (and argument) many Elite will get when they don't read this thread and are refused entry on upcoming cruise without any warning.

As rumored, and now enforced, the Elite benefit of a one-day complimentary Port Day access to the Persian Garden has been eliminated (as verified on the Captains Club Perk list menu on the Celebrity site).  Several members on the Edge report they were refused admission on the Port Day without paying the $59 one day fee.  Sadly, there appears no notice of this change and we counted on it for a day on the upcoming Edge for use as we earned it and was showing as a perk at time of booking.  We just got off the Millenium and it was on the perk list just a couple of weeks ago (which I printed out and had with me) so they allowed us access, but no more.  To earn a benefit, have it appear at time of the reservation, and not at least have a phase out to those who counted on it, just leaves a bad feeling.  

On 12/9/2018 at 12:17 PM, WonderMan3 said:

 

So I did get an answer on this one. Even though it stated in the Edge spa FAQ that the Elite perk would be honored for the Thermal Suite it is NOT being honored on board. You can only get a 10% discount on a daily pass. That was a bummer as I wanted to try it out but have no interest in paying the prices they are charging.

That is awful.  We were counting on the traditional Port Day free access to the Thermal Suite which is an Elite perk on all other Celebrity ships but was removed, with no prior disclosure, per your experience.  For them NOT to honor a documented benefit with no advance notice is terrible P.R. and is sure to create an issue.  Perhaps the Captains Club representative who main purpose is the administration of club benefits can step in and do what is right in this case.

Your first warning that something is fishy with these "casino vault/key" games is the most land-based casinos regulators DO NOT allow the real cash version of these machines on casino floors. This is also true of the "coin pusher" games that use real money.

About 80-90% of the slots are on the smoking side of the Seaside casino (dumb decision, as least make it 50/50). We are recently off the ship and could not play on the smoking side were most of the games were because of the smoke (especially at night when it was crowded). Table games are all on the nonsmoking side of the casino (nice for the dealers). Originally this was suppose to be a 100% non smoking casino but Casino Manager has control, apparently).

The casino slot machine inventory can be found at You Tube channel search:

"You Tube Slotspert" (video dated February 8, 2018)

Unfortunately, about 90% of the slots being on the "smoking" side of the casino with the other 10% and most of the table games on the non smoking side.

Casino... was it really all smoking in the entire casino or did they give us non-smokers their own "section" ???

Does it work in reverse? In other words, if you already have a MSC Black status, can you have the Marriott hotel program match the MSC Black to their Marriott Gold Elite??? I went on the Marriott hotel site and their is no mention of this.

Some parts of the web site "check in" had my reservation while other parts of the same website "log in" access feature to the same reservation does not have my reservation. Some parts of the website showed two of us in a room for three and another part of the website showed all three of us in the room for three. This is one time I am glad I printed everything out beforehand.

Some parts of the web site "check in" had my reservation while other parts of the same website "log in" access feature to the same reservation does not have my reservation. Some parts of the website showed two of us in a room for three and another part of the website showed all three of us in the room for three. This is one time I am glad I printed everything out beforehand.

I have also had problems with MSC online access until I CLEARED OUT MY COOKIES and then everything worked fine. Try that also.

Oosterdam and Eurodam are 100% non smoking casinos. No idea why its just a few ships in the HAL fleet since, from reliable sources, the remarks on this subject matter is one of the top complaint on the post-cruise survey from the remaining ship smoking casino venues.

If you have an overnight cruise stop for the Tattoo take my advice and just stay in a close hotel overnight if you have to bus and tender back to the ship after the show. It was a disaster in the pouring rain when hundreds of cruise ship passengers tried to transport and tender back to ship this past August 2017 Celebrity Slhouette trip. Some got back at 3am and waited hours for the tenders. Best walk to hotel we stayed at was the Doubletree which is a 8 minute walk from the Tattoo.

Some on our cruise last year did not get back to the ship until 3am due to taxi & tender issues. We were very lucky that a roll call member organized 3 busses for getting into Edinburgh and back to Newhaven after the Tattoo- we were back aboard the Silhouette by 12:30 am.

 

One option that several cruisers chose was getting a hotel room within walking distance of the Tattoo.

 

Hopefully someone who took a taxi can provide you with insider tips!

Thanks for the info. I did reserve a hotel room walking distance and since the ship is staying overnight at Newhaven, I thought it would easier to stay in town then spending 2-4 hours returning/tendering to the ship with at least 1000 people afterwards. Can you really WALK from Tattoo arena to the Newhaven port easily (looks about 2.5 miles) at that time of night?

For independent Tattoo show attendees, what is the "chaos" like, after the show (11pm) to get independent transportation back to the Newhaven cruiseship tender area. Taxi lines, bus service, train, walk? It is a late time, so what is the availability of these return options given the thousands leaving the show?

Thanks.

Oren;

 

If the flight is oversold, that empty seat will be treated as a no show and will often be filled by someone on the waitlist. Your scheme only works if the flight is not oversold.

We actually buy that extra middle seat, get an extra boarding pass for that seat, and when it is scanned for boarding at the jetway, that secures the seat and no one has ever been placed in it. We have been on several flights when we had the only empty center seat on several carriers and they have never "bumped " us from the empty seat we actually paid for!

Adding to the prior excellent review of the Iceland to Greenland-- we just came back from the Greenland to Iceland portion. Here are some observations, both positive and negative:

1) Air charter on Icelandair to Greenland was on-time and coordinated nicely at Keflavik airport. It was on a 757 with the center seat left open so it was roomy with great views from the plane on the clear day of the eastern Greenland coast. WARNING: ARRIVE TO AIRPORT AT LEAST 2 1/2 HOURS BEFORE DEPARTURE IN THE SUMMER!

2) Cabins are showing their age. Only the two floors (I believe the top two floors) were remodeled and the others are in dire need of a retrofit. Staterooms would be quite warm when in port. Excellent cabin stewards and dining staff. Various main dishes were way too salty or peppered so needed to order something else several times. End of cruise lacked fresh fruit and vegetables which would be expected since it was about three weeks since the ship was provisioned.

3) Itinerary added a few extra stops (NOT MENTIONED IN THE BROUCHURE) for 1/2 day sightseeing and hiking which was nice. We had GREAT weather except for last three days causing a missed port of Westman Island due to story seas and winds. Take sea sick patch for the Icelandic Straight crossing!

4) Days at sea were boring so bring lots of reading materials and your OWN DVD's to play on the DVD player in each stateroom but they don't offer any to actually borrow on the ship.

5) We had about 75% German/25% non-German on this ship with about 130 passengers. so everything was presented in both languages at different times of the day.

6) MAIN POINT: This was a majestic sightseeing opportunity and if you have the right exceptions for an "expedition ship" and ready to accept "you get what you pay for" with the staterooms, you will have a memorable experience.

Probably the BEST review I have ever seen on this thread. Great job. We are on the Greenland to Iceland portion next week with this boat so everything you said helps a lot!... Thanks Again!

It used to be that way, but since smoking was banned on balconies a couple of years ago, the casinos rarely have smoke-free nights.

Last four Princess ships we were on were all 100% non-smoking casinos after 6pm on "Formal/Elegant" nights. SO a few other lines do have this SMART feature as who wants the smoke stench on their formal/nice clothes?

Great review... Any issues with the ongoing air traffic controllers strike in KEF airport? So many troubling stories there about that .

The lastest information from Thora at Iceland ProCruises (subject to change) is that the charter flight for our cruise on 13 August is flying us to Greenland Kanger. leaves KEF @ 17:00 and arrives at Kanger. @ 18:00. You appear to be correct as there is some other cruise in-between yours and ours.

Its hard to get information about all of this but I have been successful in getting email replies from them. This is especially true for the shore excursions.

Hello snickers01,

I had contact with Icelandpro and have got answer very quickly.

icelandprocruises.com, but I wrote with a german person in an office here in Germany.

You can book shore excursions whenever you want. I have booked two some day, then I cancelled one, booked another, and I will book the qoroc Icefjord soon, I think, this will work.

It is only a reservation, the cancellation was no problem. Payment is not in advance.

We will be on the journey on July 26th from Reykjavik to Greenland.

Christina

Keep the boat clean and tidy on that cruise, as I will be boarding that boat in Greenland when you get off! In fact, I believe our charter flight is the same plane taking all of you back to Iceland the day we arrive in Greenland!

That's odd.. I just emailed the Iceland Pro cruises office with some logistics questions a few weeks ago and got an answer within a day. Perhaps you should email the Iceland office stating your problem and frustration in reaching them (and their U.S.A. representative). I always take extra travel insurance on these expedition ship companies since they can suddenly shut down especially when you make reservations 1-2 years in advance, as I normally do.... This is the only cruise line I can get the Greenland itinerary I want and there are very few Greenland cruises.... Let me know how it works out so others can read about this communication issue.

Try calling their booking agent in the United States at 1-678-701-5830... They seem to be the contact point for my travel agent in the USA.

Leaving on the Escape (Feb 13) and got an upgrade email on Feb 8. Saw it on Feb 9th, called in to get it, and someone beat me to it. It was for a mini-suite to Haven Balcony for $750 per person. There was one cabin left which I also saw online the weekend earlier. Apparently, the upsell offer goes out to many and its first come first serve!