Tony UK

thank you all for your helpful comments. we have now done lots of research so ready to make our choice when the dates come up in the next few weeks. I'll post to let you know what we end up doing!

I have spotted Norse air out of Gatwick who sell direct one way flights to the USA. Their prices are super competitive. 

Does anyone know anything about them or anyone used them?

1 hour ago, Harters said:

We are just back from a transatlantic on Oceania's Vista. Our online cruise specialist travel agency (which forum rules prevent me naming) arranged our flights. We'd also looked to sort it out ourselves but found the TA was the cheapest/easiest way forward.

 

The transatlantic was with British Airways - Manchester/Heathrow/Miami. I could not get close to the TA's price myself. But one very keenly priced option I did find was Aer Lingus - Manchester/Dublin/Miami but for a couple of reasons it just suited us to have everything in one booking with the TA, rather than a DIY thing that would have saved us literally only a few quid. Both of these would need an overnight hotel at Heathrow/Dublin because of the fairly early departure time for Miami. 

 

Return flight from Barca to Manc will be easy for you to sort out with Easyjet or Ryanair. 

Thanks so much for this. Our cruise is from port canaveral so a flight into Orlando would work best. Sadly BA fly out of Gatwick but shuttle is only to Heathrow so a trek between airports with our luggage and checking in and security twice.... at Easter lol!

We are looking at Virgin, Aer Lingus as our Manchester options! There is also Norse air who now fly out of Gatwick. You can book one way and the prices are super competitive.

1 hour ago, the penguins said:

our solution which may not help you but works for us is to do 2 TA's a year thus we buy a return air fare which works out cheaper.

Also worth exploring on the BA site is to book a return ticket where you choose say Premium economy out which includes baggage etc but the cheapest return i.e. no bags etc as you wont be using it it doesn't what the dates are. 

The cruise line may also have special one way deals.

Good idea re the return TA! 

Dont you get penalised if you don't use the return portion? It is all so stupid.....the cost of one way is double, sometimes treble the cost of a round trip!

Planning a transatlantic next spring. We will need flights to Florida one way and then back to the UK from Barcelona. Can anyone doing this type of thing this year give me any insight into flight arrangements?

One way flights are insane prices. We will need to book in the next few weeks, and we will be travelling at Easter so we will probably need to be quick, hence the research! I wonder which airlines Flights by Celebrity use?

Our preference would be Manchester or Liverpool although we can get to London airports also.

Any help much appreciated.

We are considering our first Seabourn cruise in September 2024. I'm not sure how this referral thing works. Can you use it if you book through a travel agent?

I dont think so. We travel in many different classes of rooms at different times to different places.

3 hours ago, cublet said:

Hello,

 

I cast my favours widely as you can tell from my signature. 2025 was due to be predominantly X but I am now wondering what will be left of what I thought I was going to get.

 

I think what this needs is some big American TA, or whatever you call them, to pick up the 'phone to Freedom and say something along the lines of 'we can no longer recommend X to our clients because of the diminishing standards, blah, blah etc, etc'. Perhaps then he will get the message as the complaints here will be water off a duck's back.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

The You tube bloggers are already onto cookiegate! Its making Celebrity brand a joke. The drip drip of changes is damaging the company's reputation day by day.

5 hours ago, sixpackeddie said:

We are currently on the Reflection in an upper level suite. We have sailed in upper suites before and know what has been included and what’s not.

We just pushed off Olympia Greece, tired from the sun and was hoping to order dinner from Lawn Club Grill and enjoy on our balcony. Spoke to butler and this is no longer allowed for any suites. Only room service from Lumaine is available. 
Asked about other changes an also learnt Sky suites will not be stocked with alcohol. If you order alcohol to your Sky Suite or Aqua Sky Suite you will be charged per the room service menu.

There are currently only 3 butlers on our ship that take care of Celebrity Suites and above. All the Sky suites are being taken care of by 2 Butlers from Michael’s Club. 
I confirmed that prior to this cruise there were 9 butlers in total, and have trimmed to 5, so they cut 4 total from the Solstice Class ships.

We will be considering different options going forward as we typically cruise in Sky suites 80% of the time. With these changes considering the costs of a Sky Suite we will look elsewhere.
 

What kind of suite are you in? Did you speak to the Retreat manager to confirm the changes? Very interested...we sailed Reflection in June in an upper suite and although we didnt dine in suite we had fantastic service throughout.

5 hours ago, SDWCruise said:

As newbies to the cruising life … can anyone tell me if a private taxi transfer takes you directly to Civitavecchia port terminal, or do they drop you off outside and you have to walk? There’s a lot of information out there but it’s all very conflicting .. hence my query to the people ‘in the know’ and have been there before, so to speak! Thanks in advance for any help/information re: embarkation day at Civitavecchia 😊.

Before you book ask for confirmation that they take you to the terminal ship side. If you are dropped at the gate there is a shuttle which will take you to the terminal but is is hassle if you have a lot of luggage! Similarly for your return trip.

I think the company are trying and succeeding to attract a younger demographic and yes they need to do that. The design of the e class ships is clearly with the younger cruisers in mind and reflects the way eating out drinking and partying happens in most of our cities and towns nowadays. The days of silver service, cooking tableside, the tray showing desserts etc were nice in their day but now are for the most part gone!

I try to keep all this in perspective....when we started cruising we were some of the younger cruisers on board by quite a margin. Now we are in our 70s. Yes cruising has changed quite a lot, so have we! We want to be comfortable, have good service eat good food nicely presented. We like to watch the younger ones enjoy themselves and join in!! We dont want a ship that resembles an elders community. We like the mix of age groups, nationalities, lots of diversity....it makes for a fun time.

Companies like Virgin who have come into the market are proving sucessful and popular with their more modern approach. Maybe a little too much for me but never say never!

4 hours ago, Tony UK said:

Maybe restrict the things which we know are are requested / demanded but which push or break boundaries like having your butler to bring alcoholic drinks to suites, having the mini bar stocked when it isnt included in your suite class, having all the dining rooms menus available in Luminae, taking complimentary alcoholic drinks from the retreat lounge into Luminae / other parts of the ship when you dont have a drink package, bringing family and non suite guests into Luminae and the retreat sun deck.

I have seen all of these mentioned in posts and reviews and personally witnessed them.  Maybe just getting back to delivering what they promise well would be the way to go!

Or as I have just read...a butler said that guests in a higher suite with included laundry sent the laundry of non suite friends on board who didnt have laundry included! No wonder Celebrity are having to rein in this type of behaviour and the majority as usual tend to lose out!

Maybe restrict the things which we know are are requested / demanded but which push or break boundaries like having your butler to bring alcoholic drinks to suites, having the mini bar stocked when it isnt included in your suite class, having all the dining rooms menus available in Luminae, taking complimentary alcoholic drinks from the retreat lounge into Luminae / other parts of the ship when you dont have a drink package, bringing family and non suite guests into Luminae and the retreat sun deck.

I have seen all of these mentioned in posts and reviews and personally witnessed them.  Maybe just getting back to delivering what they promise well would be the way to go!

I hope everyone sailing soon makes full use of the facilities they believe their butler or team should provide. Use it or lose it!

If it isnt up to scratch then have a discussion with the suite manager / hotel manager.

Its the only way we will discover what is happening and whether it is true that we will be getting the same service. 

I think Celebrity could have avoided all this by being much much clearer in the past about what suite guests should expect in the differing levels of suite. There is a lot of confusion out there. Some butlers provide more some less. Some guests demand more some nothing at all.

Maybe this is an opportunity to give a clearer picture so retreat guests have an accurate expectation of what they book.

I recall they changed butler to retreat host in the past which caused much confusion! Then they changed it back to Butler!

The retreat venture has been so very successful for Celebrity I am amazed that they want to disrupt the category in any way. 

I feel so bad for the very excellent staff who have helped Celebrity recover from the covid crisis and now find themselves discarded by the company. I dont know how many will lose their jobs but hope they find a job where they are valued. 

We have loved Eden. There are some items we havent ordered but would like to try. I guess thats the beauty of a tasting menu. It encourages me to try some new things. Looking forward to it!

On the app it is showing $60 a la carte and $160 for tasting menu. Wine pairing isnt mentioned but the price doesnt make any sense otherwise!

W tend not to do wine pairing. We have a premium drink package so thats usuallly sufficient!

We really look forward to dining in Eden so I hope to try the tasting menu

On my app it s showing a tasting menu for Eden. It isnt on the online manage my booking. The price shown is much higher than the chefs table or Le voyage tasting....can that be right? Has anyone experienced it?

We wanted to leave a tip for an individual. We got a form from the retreat concierge completed it and handed it to the member of staff. It didn't come off our account.... we asked them and they explained that it was put into the pool of tips for the entire food and beverege service team even though we specified him. We got the form back and gave him cash!

Have you experienced a turkish bath in one of these locations? Is there somewhere you can recommend we'd love to try it!

Try to message via twitter or on the facebook page. They usually respond pretty quickly,

Sorry to hear you are having to cancel....such bad luck xx

not surprised....makes sense!

This is just my opinion based on personal experience. Transatlantics used to be great, same food same service, same entertainment. Lots of days at sea to take advantage of everything the ship had to offer. We loved it!

We have done a couple of Transatlantics on Edge class and a couple of Mediterranean cruises all in the retreat, and the difference was chalk and cheese! Dont get me wrong we did enjoy both, however the Mediterranean cruises were like we used to experience Celebrity, whereas the transatlantics seemed to be working on a lower budget. It felt like a lower standard was acceptable as we were on a value cruise! 

We love being at sea so still enjoy that part of the experience ! If we do another our expectations will be lowered!

19 hours ago, 4-2-N-8 said:

Tony, are you seriously seeing this?

I have seen lots of posts from people on various facebook pages enquiring about access to retreat areas and Luminae for their friends relatives etc. Even if they are willing to pay in my opinion it shouldnt happen if the retreat service for other guests is in any way diminished.

We have personally seen this happen in Luminae and also on the retreat sundeck.

There seems to be a growing theme of people booking a suite and then their daughter, sister, husband's family  best friends whoever find suites are fully booked.....however they want their whole party dining in luminae, use the sundeck etc. as they want to be together!

I always post that they can join their friends in their allocated restaurants.if they really want to be together.....but no, they want suite perks without paying the price. Celebrity need to manage this very carefully and resist these demands otherwise the retreat facilities will be overwhelmed!