ChucktownSteve

Understand. Thankx. From the U.S., flights a little less than 1 year out are outrageous so waiting to buy last minute flights make the cruise a non starter regardless of how cheap the cruise is. You have the advantage living closer. I prefer grabbing a specific limited availability cabin, aft facing, which sell out quickly. If you don't mind cabin position, then waiting until the last minute for a possible sharply cut rate makes sense for some..

The closer you get to a sailing date, the higher the rate. Similar to hotels, as cabin inventory diminishes, the price increases. If you want to get the best prices, you need to look at itineraries when they're first released and the ship is virtually empty. I always do that. The down side is you need to wait a year or two to enjoy the cruise. No matter what sales the cruise lines have after that, I've never been able to get a lower price because they've raised that much. That is unless a sale comes out just after booking. As an example, you can get a 12 night med cruise in a club veranda V2 for £323.31 pp/pn Sept 2025 or £3880 total pp/pn.

So I can put your statement in perspective, is that £3000 per person or for two? And which cabin level do you prefer for that price?

Food quality, properly prepared with variety are important to me as well as a port intensive itinerary we haven't experienced yet. That is why we selected Azamara. I wasn't impressed with the food and service on my December 2021 Quest cruise but realize it was just coming off Covid. There were supply chain issues and a lot of new crew who hadn't had a chance to be properly trained. I also felt that RCG was dropping the ball on caring which was later confirmed by them unloading Azamara But the time for those excuses is past. Now we will be sailing under the new owners. I waited to give them a change to get their feet wet... The time since AZ severed with RCG has not been impressive. They are however getting better so I'm glad we waited. I don't mind paying a premium price if I receive premium food and service. I truly hope that is what we will be experiencing on our two upcoming Onward sailings. Otherwise we'll need to keep looking for a line that suits us better. Deep inside though I want our go to line to be Azamara. I have optimism that Sycamore and the AZ head office are paying attention to what their base customers are telling them. Please don't let us down by becoming another Celebrity.

I'm sorry but you don't need to be sold on Celebrity. IT'S A COMP'D CRUISE!! Take it or leave it. Sounds like more bragging than really wanting to know about Celebrity. But Summit is an old, worn ship which has a strong following. You won't like it though as a high roller. My question to you is how are you only RCL Diamond with 26 cruises?

you might also consider finding a U.S. single to triple outlet plug-in. I take one of those as well as the EU adapter .

Who's cabin would you be spending the night in then? roflmao

When someone is obnoxiously playing their phone intruding on my ear space, I usually go to YouTube to find the Hombres from 1968 for their song Take My overwhelming Love. Then I put it on full volume. That works every time. 🤣 When people are speaking loudly on their speaker phone, I act as if they're talking with me and have the conversation loudly back with them stepping over who they're speaking with.

So you also like good Chinese food?

Since this is your first AZ cruise, I hope you realize it's OK to attend White Night in clothes other than white. The AZ passengers are welcoming regardless of whether you wear white, Red, Blue or Black. Just tell someone if they mention it, you're wearing white underwear! 😁 But they won't. It's about enjoying the cruise!

Thank you. I've only done it once because the numerous Celebrity cabins I have booked mostly came with the bev pkg which included water. But I don't understand the virtue signaling. Had it not been allowed, someone would have confiscated them and made us pick them up at the end of the cruise just as they do with the liquor or extension power strips.

Please show me where that official Celebrity rule is and I will believe you. Or is this just a projection of an opinion?

The porter WAS tipped. BTW the water was not HIDDEN in a suitcase. Apples and oranges. If they put the water on the bottom then it was their fault for not knowing how to stack. I trusted them to know their job! They did it well. You're welcome to carry it if you prefer. I prefer to let the porters do it.

I once brought a Costco case of water on board. I slapped a luggage tag on it which later showed up at my cabin intact.

I am so glad you're having a wonderful experience. We found that we also enjoy the smaller ships. Better service, better food, better itineraries and it's like welcome home when returning from an excursion. Out of our last five cruises within 14 months, only one was an E class with about 2,000 souls. The others were 750 and less. Our next two are on AZ. Too bad you didn't get an Azamara cruise under your belt before the split. Your current AZ level would have been carried over to Discoverer+.

So @ghstudio, Howz the cruise going for you so far?

Yep, I would be giving back 3% credit card cash back. That's why I use two TAs who do rebates. 😁

Is that like up to 75% savings? 😁

The web site itinerary shows: Wed 14-May TO Thu 15-May 2025 Venice, Italy Docked 8:00AM (May 14) 10:00PM (May 15) The itinerary on my booking confirmation shows: 14 May 2025 VENICE, ITALY 08:00 AM 15 May 2025 VENICE, ITALY 10:00 PM

In addition to the AZ OBC, we're getting a similar rebate instead of ROBC since I didn't want to carry that after the international cruise.

My TA told me in an email that We're getting $1,200 OBC for a World Class suite but the booking confirmation only says OBC coupon for each of us with no actual $ amount.

So what good is an overnight in Venice, which we have on our booked cruise, if it's not really Venice? Edited:OK I"m confused. All ports on the itinerary show an anchor symbol which I presumed meant anchored but apparently not. Do I need to bother my TA for more accurate info?

😠

If there are non refundable payments other than the cruise, the insurance should cover it i.e. hotels, air, tours etc. That's how I pay my trip insurance costs. As anything goes to payment, I increase the coverage amounts to cover it until all out of pocket is covered. I have been able to transfer some policies on trips I cancelled or moved to another trip once. I don't know if some companies will continue allowing more.

I thought they might have begun letting select smaller ships dock in Venice. Guess not.