the penguins

7 hours ago, Mariettte said:

As this couple did, to no avail. Denied boarding last December in Brisbane, Australia. Royal. There was conjecture that they were chosen for bumping because there were no flights involved- they were in their home city.

 

https://au.news.yahoo.com/aussie-couples-holiday-ruined-bumped-from-cruise-before-departure-232922909.html

I have looked at the full report, and the letter, from which it would appear that:

1) the passengers affected were advised some days in advance of the situation.

2) the passenger featured chose to travel to the port in the hope that there would be a "no show" rather than taking any of the other options.

Still very disappointing but not quite how the headline looked.

3 hours ago, mcatmcat said:

Hi 

I was wondering if i can eat at blu, lets say 6pm then do my time later at 930pm on formal and regular nights?

 

Thanks 

I assume you are in Aqua in which case you can eat in Blu at any time.

9 hours ago, indy406 said:

It seems certain that large cruise ship access to Norway's fjords is going to be banned beginning in 2026. I'm wondering if Celebrity's M, S and E class ships will be allowed into the fjords in 2025? I see the itineraries but can't be sure if they're going into the fjords or are going to drop anchor or dock somewhere and it will be a bus trip to an overlook. It would be nice to know before putting down a deposit.

How important are the Fjords in your planning?

If you look closely none of the big cruise lines really do the Fjords. For example compare X's itineraries with the 12 night Classic Round-trip from Bergen on Hurtigruten (22 ports and days of scenic cruising) and you will see what I mean. No need for H's more expensive Expedition Cruise the Classic works fine.

To be clear we have done the Fjords on Royal, Celebrity and Hurtigruten - all good in their own ways but for Fjords, Scenic Cruising and a true local experience Hurtigruten is unbeatable.

9 minutes ago, Saltykitty said:

Donna thank you so much for your reply. Very helpful. I dont look forward to dealing with the insurance paperwork so the refund for yhe add ons automatically is great news. Yes I am very disappointed as i planned this for a year but there is nothing to do except go home. I know there are more vacations to come one day

You will also proably have to wait until the cruise finishes before X will issue the paperwork needed  for the insurance as they will say you could still join the cruise later.

15 hours ago, FolsomMike said:

Our Millennium cruise starts tomorrow. (Yay!) But the weather forecast for Tuesday is horrendous (1-2 inches of rain). We have a Celebrity excursion to Fuji booked. Anyone have any idea what the chances are that it will be cancelled if the forecast doesn’t improve ?

no such thing as bad weather only the wrong type of clothing. If the your goes ahead take it and enjoy.

10 minutes ago, Dr Jay 24 said:

Thanks for the tip.  I kind of thought it might be like that with the “small group.”  
 

Maybe the independent guide is the way to go.  Not sure if it lets you give names on this board, but if you remember the name of the guide would you mind sharing?  

we always book independent guides and lots of companies offer the service. We have used Toursbylocals in many countries and never had a bad guide. You deal direct with the guide all the money is handled via the Head Office in Canada, the guide only gets paid after the tour and you get a full refund if the ship doesn't dock. The best guides get booked up very quickly. We choose a guide with a vehicle that holds 6 passengers and share with one other couple from the Roll Call - we like the space.

On 5/23/2024 at 7:21 PM, mahdnc said:

The other bizarre thing specific to our sailing is that Celebrity's computers can't handle the fact that we are crossing the international date line and thus is charging us for only 16 nights (16x $27.99 = $447.84) when our cruise is actually 17 nights long.  Fri Apr 18th occurs on two consecutive days during our cruise.  This international date line problem shows up in other ways in our Cruise Planner.

 

we did the first Transpacific on Solstice - Corporate forgot about the extra day and left the Cruise Director one Guest Entertainer short. Funny thing was the CD spent several hours trying to make the numbers work before he finally realised what the problem was. He arranged for a wonderful variety show which included him being able to demonstrate his stunt man skills.

Nothing changes with X

3 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Personally, I prefer to be reachable by phone/text/email at all times. My free minutes are worthless to me.

Choice is a great thing. 

12 hours ago, markeb said:

Curious who you were trying to tip individually? Dining room, housekeeping, bartender?

 

That kind of matches what we were told on our last cruise. An additional gratuity to our stateroom attendant supposedly went to him (no one else in the pool). Same for the butler. We couldn't tip to the individual in Luminae; they split all the tips (which makes sense). The breakdown that gets posted periodically includes a $2 "other hotel services" that I assume goes to some of the back of the house people (they may get something from housekeeping?). We were able to designate the Retreat bartender; there are almost no transactions in the lounge to tip on, and I just don't carry cash on the ship.

 

And, yes, I'd assume they're required to turn in cash tips. That's the only way to make the accounting work for the auto gratuities if some people pay cash. Pooling the tip jar is pretty standard at most bars so that's not unusual. 

Correct the $2 goes to the staff you don't see (eg laundry, washroom attendants etc).

Dining is the waiter/assistant.

Cabin steward is separate.

Bars tend to pool as they work together especially places like the Martini Bar which is more like a show.

Somelliers get the tips added to each drink.

3 hours ago, asctony said:

Drink packages on Princess are cheaper than Celebrity but they have a drink maximum (alcoholic) per day where as Celebrity does not. 

Princess limit is 15 alcohol drinks per day. Plus, in Princess' Plus pkg equal to Celebrity Classis plg Princess has many high end drinks that are only in Celebrity Premium pkg.

Gratuities are included in Princess'. Celebrity use to include Gratuities, but not now! That is at least $216 for 7 days.

X doesn't have specific drink limit but it does include a condition that drinking must be responsible. We have seen passengers escorted back to their cabin being told very clearly that they must remain there until the following morning and that any attempt to leave their cabin would result in more drastic action being taken. All done very quietly and without fuss.

On 5/19/2024 at 8:08 PM, travellerin1984 said:

For couple of years ago we booked an european flight 9.15 am out of Barcelona. It was an early morning but we made it with time to spare. I think 11.15 is no problem of you disembark so early you can. 

The OP is travelling International not European. Minimum check in time for International is usually/typically 3 hours.

We would never book a flight so early as delays can happen at every stage of the journey - late arrival at Port, delayed immigration at Port, traffic to airport etc. 

9 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Drink packages on Princess are cheaper than Celebrity but they have a drink maximum (alcoholic) per day where as Celebrity does not.  If you buy a drinks package when on sale in the cruise planner, you can get a pretty good discount (on Celebrity).  Currently, the premium package is listed at 35% off, so $65 per day.  

 

MSC's drink packages are also less than Celebrity's but we've always had one included in the price of our cruise when booking Yacht club so I haven't paid a lot of attention to how it stacks up with regard to inclusions.

 

NCL's package is "free" in that you still pay taxes and gratuities...so not really free but significantly cheaper than the other cruise lines.  You can upgrade your package as well.

At the prices quoted Princess would seem to be by far the cheapest as for £50 (approx $65 ) you get the drinks, WiFi and grats plus a few odd extras like special desserts at dinner.

1 hour ago, matt'smom said:

If a excursion is sold out, is there a chance it could open once on board?

check your cruises Roll Call as there maybe private tours you can join which are usually much better value than X's offerings.

Or book your own private guide (this is our preferred option) and get other Roll Call members to share with you.

4 hours ago, zitsky said:

 

1) Yes.  Reddit doesn't read itself.

 

2) A lot.

 

3) He drinks less.  Do I still have to get premium for both of us?

question 3 - yes. 

Makes me glad our answers to 1 and 2 are no and neither of us drink any alcohol.

What we "save" on drinks/wifi we spend on private guides.

Choice is wonderful

53 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

To expand on the alcohol, you can carry some wine and "forget" that you left some wine in your checked luggage

True - but we would be carrying it for "others" as we don't drink any alcohol - perhaps we should offer this as a service for say $10 a bottle cash 🤣

6 hours ago, zitsky said:

Looking at a future Japan cruise 2026, I see extra cost for All Included is maybe $1500 for a $8000 cruise.  It seems if you wait for a sale on WiFi and drink package that Cruise only is the way to go?  It makes no sense to pay extra for basic then upgrade.

My thoughts/questions are:

1) Do you really need the Wifi? Our free Elite + Captains Club minutes are more than enough - share one lot and once that's used you will see if the second lot will last until the end of the cruise. If not use the second lot as a discount on a full package as by then there could well be a special on the remaining days. Free WiFi in every port.

2) how much do you drink? All speciality teas/coffees/chocolate are free if you are Elite+. Japan is port intensive so not much drinking time in the day. 

3) if you are a couple do you both drink the same amount of alcohol?

Do the maths (sorry math) and you may find neither WiFi or drinks packages are the best option. These products are priced to give X a profit I.e. the majority of passengers lose.

No right or wrong just personal choices.

52 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

Yes, you can bring pretty much anything other than fresh food and alcohol onto the ship.  Whether you bring it from home or buy it in port.  You can bring as much luggage as you want. The biggest limiter on luggage is just the fact that the rooms are small. Only so much room to stash your empty suitcases.

beds are high with lots of storage space underneath.

2 hours ago, Liao said:

At this point the vast majority knows this.  Nothing any of us say, one way or another, will change this.

There are always new passengers joining CC who rightly ask the same questions. There have been at least 2 other threads in the past week plus one Poster on this one who said X doesn’t publish any breakdown of the tips and clearly this is not correct.

The confusion isn’t helped by cruise lines adopting different ways to share the tips (or as Princess call it Crew Appreciation) for example with X each cruise is a cost centre in its own right whereas Princess shares the tips across the fleet - know idea how.

10 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

I was curious about lunch and breakfast meals myself. 

Also I assume they never had any sheets or towels washed and never used any of the public restrooms as staff in there are also included in the Auto Grats.

9 hours ago, rmalbers said:

X captains can DEFINITELY not do whatever they want.  They cannot deviate from the planned route unless they get approval and coordination from the team in FL.

Plus the route for every day has to be signed off by every Bridge Officer from the lowest to the Captain plus the Environmental Officer before its submitted to Corporate. A system one Captain described as planning by Committee.

2 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

What about the behind the scenes folks? 
 

Now we really are getting off track..my mistake. 🙂

no your not - it's something everyone who chooses to remove the auto grats has to accept i.e. removing the grats means some staff work for less money.

15 minutes ago, the penguins said:

it's like any other restaurant. If lots of people turn up at the same time you may have to wait. Worst case is you get a buzzer so you can wait in a bar/lounge/al bacio etc. Agreeing to share a table can also cut the wait time. We always pre book for 6.30 every night as soon as we book the cruise as we like a relaxed meal and go to the theatre for the 9.0pm show. We always share a table (ideally a 6) as this for us is one of the reasons we cruise - we eat as a couple every night at home. No right or wrong just personal choice.

a

6 hours ago, PepC450 said:

Sounds like, at minimum, make a reservation for 1st night and recommended for other nights too unless you're willing to wait. Good to know. Thank you! 

it's like any other restaurant. If lots of people turn up at the same time you may have to wait. Worst case is you get a buzzer so you can wait in a bar/louge/al bacio etc. Agreeing to share a table can also cut the wait time. We always pre book for 6.30 every night as soon as we book the cruise as we like a relaxed meal and go to the theatre for the 9.0pm show. WNo right or wrong just personal choice.

On 5/18/2024 at 7:54 PM, edgee said:

Want to cruise on Eclipse in Sky Suite. Do not want to be in cabin under pool deck, nor cabin with connecting door. Looks like there is one cabin on the entire ship that meets my criteria and it us a deck 11 sunset sky suite. We normally like to cruise forward on a ship due to less engine vibration. Any opinions on if vibration is an issue for S class rear facing cabins? Thanks.

Never had a cabin at the rear but always feel a vibration when having breakfast in Tuscan. 

10 hours ago, celebrity cruiser said:

Yes I understand it is 23 pp/day

 

What I am looking for is on a 7 day cruise what do I give the waiter, asst waiter, butler stateroom attendant and so on for the duration of the cruise that would equal to the 46 per cabin/day

X publishes the breakdown and the current figures are shown below.

If you were to remove the auto grats it would be impossible to tip all the people who woluld otherwise be covered (for example the laundry staff).