lovescarborough

I have just opened an email from one of the main online travel agencies here in the U.K. offering 'deals ' on the Edge in the Med for 2019. Deals look good with drinks packages and unlimited internet included but prices left me speechless ! Inside cabins for a 10 night trip from £1899 pp, cheapest balcony £3056pp, Aqua class £4007 and the lovely Iconic suite only £26057 pp. This is from Southampton so no flights included. The itinerary is not brilliant either. Who is going to pay these crazy prices?

Thanks for all your replies. We'll definitely try this one. Murano is still our favourite but it's nice to try something different.

We will be on Reflection for the first time early next year and I'm planning our visits to the Speciality Restaurants. We have been on many Celebrity cruises but somehow missed Reflection and Silhouette out so we have no idea what Lawn Club Grill is like. I've read some Celebrity blurb about being your own chef but my husband hates to cook on a BBQ ( I know he's probably in a minority but he does ! )and I don't go on holiday to cook either. Can someone please tell me what the menu is like and if someone else will cook it for me ! Thanks for your help.

This promises to be interesting for our Equinox Cruise in September. We have made a reservation for the first night. Then we purchased a dining package separate from the first night. This might throw them into a tizzy. Dealing with Celebrity can be so unnecessarily exciting and painful

I don't know if you realise this but there are almost always discounts offered onboard for speciality dining on the first night. 50% discounts seem to be the norm as not many people want to reserve for the first night. Worth considering !

Surely you would have been told by now if your sailing has been cancelled? The schedule for refurbishing or whatever they call it has been out for a while. Some people may even have booked flights.

When you buy a package online you have to make a reservation for either first or second night but you can't select the restaurant. You can't make any other reservations online. It's a stupid system but just how it is. Once onboard you just make your reservations to suit you. Last time we had a package we went to book the rest when we boarded and they had no record of our initial reservation!

I have never heard of dining packages being sold onboard at cheaper rates. In fact they are not always available on board if they have a large number already sold. I always book a package online as soon as they are available. Don't forget you can use OBC to pay online too.

When you book you will be given the option of booking either the first or second night. The restaurant isn't specified but as soon as you board you should find someone selling speciality dining or call at one of the restaurants and they will sort out all your table reservations. Best to do this as soon as you can as some restaurants are booked up quicker than others.

.is it worth $55 or whatever you are going to pay for the experience.

Having just watched the you tube video the answer is definitely not !

I thought this was an extension to Qsine menu but if it's a replacement then that isn't good at all. There is no real added value when the menu contains items that are available in the MDR. We feel that the food in the MDR has slowly gone downhill in the 8 years we have been sailing Celebrity and we either use Aqua Class for Blu, which is not as good as it was but still okay for us or a balcony cabin with a speciality dining package depending on prices and how we feel at the time! This change to Qsine looks like an attempt to cut costs by offering more basic food with a gimmicky video thrown in. I really hope this is not the start of dumbing down all the speciality restaurants.

But it's only $55 a person :) Celebrity is hoping it's clever enough to entice folks to trying it once. I would be pretty surprised if anyone actually dined there twice since they never change the video (or therefore, the menu). Who knows, maybe it will be a successful profit center, but I'd bet on a change within 6 months to some other type of venue. Some of us have watched the video of the meal and how it rolls out (might be youtube, I forget) and in our case, it's unlikely that we'll even try it once.

Wow. Only $55 ! We never pay that in Murano for a far superior meal. The idea of a video is just a gimmick and surely most people will see that, and why would anyone want to watch it more than once ? Sorry Celebrity but this is not one of your brighter ideas !

The "menu extraordinaire" is the menu that they show being prepared in the video presentation. You can order other items, but they aren't the ones you'll see prepared.

No way would I pay extra for this menu. The dishes sound so similar to the usual MDR food and frankly quite plain. Surely they could come up with a better menu than this ?

I don't know the answer to your question but ' menu extraordinaire ' ?? Really ?!

I had similar issue, ended up having to set up new log in ID and password. Everything is fine for me. The change was because of recent changes to privacy laws,

 

Have you checked your past history and is your Captains club details correct?

I thought I would just check that. My original username, (which it didn't ask me to change last time ) wasn't recognised so I tried again with my email address and it let me in. My Elite status is showing and my reservations are still both there. I just find it annoying that Celebrity couldn't be bothered to let people know that they had to change ID and password. Surely a simple email wouldn't have been too much trouble to send ?

I thought I would just browse the Celebrity UK website and check some excursions on our next cruise in Jan 2019. As usual I clicked on manage my booking and input my user name and password, then it all went haywire. A new page appears wanting me to change my password , complete a security question, give my phone number and click to accept and register. I did all this and nothing happened. I had to reload the website and start over and this time it worked and took me to the page listing my one future booking in 2020, with no sign of the 2019 booking ! I then had to find the reservation number and manually input this as a future reservation and finally I now have two future cruises. Then I got an email thanking me for registering with Celebrity ( I have only been registered for 10 years ) !!! Now I need a lie down ....

We have done loads of cruises from both Fort Lauderdale and Miami and have always flown into Miami. I looked into flights from UK to Fort Lauderdale, which are now available as direct flights with BA and Norwegian, but they were more expensive than flying either Virgin or BA to Miami. We always use Larrys Limos to take us from the airport to Fort Lauderdale which in my opinion is a much nicer place to stay than Miami. You can find their website online. I usually just do a live chat to get a price and book. They take your credit card details but don't charge until you take the trip. Arriving at Miami airport is stressful. It is usually heaving and there are long immigration queues so it is lovely to have someone meet you rather than trying to get a taxi. There are some lovely hotels along the beach front in Fort Lauderdale. If you search online review sites you can find one to suit your budget. The beach is beautiful and you can walk for miles along the beachfront where you'll also find some good places to eat. A taxi to the port won't cost much so don't worry about finding a hotel with a shuttle. You can also arrange for Larrys to pick you up after the cruise and take you to the airport although we prefer to add a day or two on at the end as well. If you have a lot of time to kill before your flight home you can usually take a post cruise trip organised by Celebrity or book a day room at a hotel near the airport. Have a lovely trip !

Our club has that policy (no cells on during dinner) and table size is now restricted to seating 8 per table. It's natural for friends wanting to be seated with friends, but it's also natural that 'the more the merrier' will result and the surrounding diners won't be so merry...LOL. On another note, I wouldn't want to be the management person to ask the large group to tone it down. There'd be a straight run to Guest Relations with a complaint against him/her. Also, it's probably a given there would be another long thread here on CC, this time re the maitre d' having the 'nerve' to ask cruisers in Luminae to not enjoy themselves (loudly). Comes down to good manners and empathy for others. Can't regulate that no matter the table size.

Why should management be afraid to ask a noisy group to tone down ? We seem to be forgetting that there are many more other people in the room who might also complain to Guest Relations that their experience was being spoilt. I would certainly complain at first to the Maitre D then escalate my complaint to the Hotel Director. Everyone on that cruise has paid for an enjoyable holiday and a group of me me me people should not be allowed to spoil things.

Never had breakfast in MDR before but menu looks good. Just wondering if it's possible to have a table for two at breakfast and not have to share a large table ? We're not antisocial but just not into much conversation in the mornings!

i dont know how this works either - we have bought the six dinner package and had to choose time for the first night reservation made for us. I emailed and asked how/when i would find out which restaurant theyd booked us in and they said they havent actually booked us in one - its just to confirm we have the package????? told to go straight to dinner reservation desk when we board and sort it out. doesnt seem to make sense to me.......

We have bought a package on our last three trips. On the first one they had assigned the restaurant for the first night, which we changed once onboard but on the last two trips they hadn't. Just approach the first person you see offering dining packages as soon as you board . They will already know what package you have bought and you can make all your reservations then. I would advise booking them all then as some times do get booked quicker than others. I find it helpful to work out what nights we want to book and jot them on a copy of the cruise itinerary then the whole process is quick. Nothing worse than standing in line behind someone who can't decide what nights to book ! Sorry to say that sometimes the way Celebrity does things doesn't always make sense but the cruise itself should more than make up for that !

We got three separate charges for $2 extra on drinks ordered on our drinks package. No idea why or how they even managed to do it as we didn't sign anything. Guest relations just removed them from our bill without any questions which did make us wonder if this happens on a regular basis and why. It certainly isn't acceptable to overcharge and leave the customer to sort it out.

Thank you for the prompt and informative responses. Trying to see if a 12:30 pm flight is possible.

The route should take between 1 hr 15 and 1hr 30 BUT traffic around that area is very difficult to predict. If there are any hold ups you could be very late. Personally I wouldn't risk a flight that early. Being from the UK I know how awful some of our motorways can be !

Hi, does anyone know of a reliable meet and greet car parking service that caters for 2 ports. (We would like to park our own car for 6 weeks while away) We are sailing outbound to Florida on Silhouette 03/11/18 and returning 08.12.18 on Queen Mary both Southampton but different docks. Any information would be appreciated.

We have used ABP on the docks before but I'm not sure how you get from one dock to the other. Wouldn't it be a cheaper option to use train to Southampton ?

Normal UK to Fort Lauderdale involve a change at Detroit, Atlanta or New York. Immigration is always carried out at the first point of entry to the US so processing you at FLL is highly unlikely. Any immigration point into the US is a major hassle which I would avoid almost at any costs.

I think you are mistaken in this. We always use direct flights which will be to either Miami or Fort Lauderdale, the latter being available since last year I think with both BA and Norwegian Air. Indirect flights use the changes you mention but of course add quite a bit of time to an already long flight. I agree immigration is never a good experience but then it only lasts for a couple of hours at most. The cruise afterwards is more important to us as it lasts a good bit longer than that !

Thanks both- I have to say I like the look of the Celebrity 10 night itinerary but would find it easier to fly to Barbados from our local airport with P & O. I read here that it can be chilly leaving Fort Lauderdale in January- did you find that to be the case?

Thanks again

Eve

We have cruised from Fort Lauderdale many times in January and the weather is usually warm and sunny. Not even the convenience of the flight to Barbados would entice me back to P & O ! However I agree the immigration at Miami is a complete pain but I believe it is better at Fort Lauderdale airport as its much smaller but there aren't flights every day from the UK. If you choose to take Celebrity you will need to fly in the day before and have an overnight stay before boarding. We like this as it helps us to get over the time difference and we're not tired when we first board. Fort Lauderdale is a lovely place to stay and we usually add a couple of days on to the end of the cruise as well . Nice to get in that last minute shopping !

We have used Azura only once 5 years ago and Celebrity many times both before and since then. There is no contest in my opinion as Celebrity wins hands down. The Azura carries far more passengers than a similar sized Celebrity solstice class ship and this causes problems with overcrowding. The buffet was impossible due to stupid layout which made everyone queue to get in and follow one line. We ended up using room service every breakfast and lunch after that. Because there are so many more inside cabins on Azura finding somewhere to sit either inside or out was impossible on a sea day as people camped out from early on. There are also far fewer spaces inside compared to Celebrity. Queues form for theatre seats well before shows start. We found the MDR food very poor although Celebrity have certainly dropped in standard of food too. The only plus point we found on Azura was the excellent speciality restaurant which was also cheaper than Celebrity then although the recent speciality dining packages are now much better value. I would definitely go for a Celebrity cruise and my preference is for solstice class ships rather than the older millennium class.