the penguins

I have been watching this debate with interest and I can't see how you were "ripped off". Annoyed I get, trying to get the lower price I get, but "ripped off" - no. You chose, the itinerary, ship, date, and cabin. At that point you had the option to book or wait to see if the price would drop. You chose to book so clearly you accepted price was fair. You could have waited and by so doing risk loosing the cabin you wanted or that the price might rise but you didn't you booked. Sales happen on all, well most products and services, all the time. Relax and enjoy your cruise.

Another issue for X could well be the marketing. When S class was introduced X proudly announced that 85% of the cabins had balconies. Imagine if they now accepted that IV's weren't balconies they would have to admit that on their new class of ship only around 10% of cabins had balconies - what a PR disaster that would have been.

another option: Celebrity Apex departs Southampton 26 July 2025. It's a 12 night roundtrip but there would be 3 opportunities to disembark as follows: 1 August in Barcelona. 2 August in Cartagena 5 August in La Coruna. You would need to check if disembarkation was permitted in any of the above ports and there would be a small fee but it could work. Good luck. Geoff

Look for a TA site that lists repositioning cruises as one of its options and you may find what you want. Very little demand in the UK for cruises that start here and end anywhere in Europe and even less that start in Europe and end here.

Just that he doesn’t recognise Field Hockey so to him there is no need to add the “ice”. But yes he takes his hockey very seriously in fact so seriously that one day a week he leaves the house at 5.0 am for early morning goalie practice, plus evening training and matches. He was top of the league this season for the most Shut Outs and the best % saves to goal ratio and he will also play for any of the other local teams when they are short of a goalie. Ok perhaps we are a little biased.

I wasn't but we were discussing/ comparing "cruise" ships not " expedition" vessels. I have looked at the Octantis and Viking are very clear in their descriptions and that only 6 cabins out of a total of under 200 have walkout balconies However it remains true that Viking chose not to have any of this type of cabin on its ocean going cruise fleet.

Oh dear "teen-age" another word/phrase we can't use. Our grandson insists he will be a "teen" in June not a "teenager". Oh yes and when I ask how he got on at Ice Hockey his standard reply is "it's just hockey Grandpa".

That would go down just great with our grandson's teachers in Dallas

Why wouldn't you? It was and still is all true. 😇

I once read a novel about a guy called Bill Posters who spent his life dodging the police while he tried to find out what he was being prosecuted for. Can't remember the ending but it might be available on Kindle.

the OP is an American so I was replying in the same "language". I have this issue every day as our English son is now an American citizen, our Grandson is 100% raised in America and our grandson's mum is 100% American.

due to the Boss' mobility issues alternating isn't an option. Nor is the buffet as that's much further to walk (our preferred cabin is Deck 7 close to the midship elevator which is almost directly above Al Bacio). Of course I am talking S class no idea how E class works.

Very simple, the boss sends me to the Al Bacio.

I used to write travel brochures and every year had a number of calls pointing out errors. My standard response was "sorry you weren't the first person to spot the deliberate mistake and you don't win the prize". One of my favorite, often repeated grammatical errors, is on Posters ( Bill Boards) which reads: SALE LAST WEEK, Why do I want to know about a sale that's finished?

As we have a Texan grandson we should be used to your humour (sorry humor) by now.

you would be surprised at how hard it is to do research even when you have done a few cruises and know what to look for let alone when you are new and don't even know what to ask. We did our first Princess cruise last year and it never occurred to us that the widths of the entrance door to a standard balcony cabin would be so much less than on S Class that we would need to fold my wife's Rollator to enter and exit. Nor that the corridors are so narrow that the Rollator had to be folded every time we had to pass a Cabin Steward's trolley. Nor why Independence of the Seas has a number of "stand alone" disabled toilets whereas Silhouette has none. By "stand alone" I mean with direct access from outside without first having to go through/into the conventional single sex part. Sorry about your Michelin star restaurant. 🤣

you would. Frankly a lot of people just read the adverts and book. When in the UK you see offers for 3, 4 , 5 different ships /cruise lines/itineraries often in one full page advert and each has a price for inside, ocean view balconies and suites it's not so surprising that people think that the accommodation will be very similar. Experience tells you otherwise and indeed it's often only after passengers have done a "Cabin Crawl" or two that they begin to realise just how many options are available.

Not in our experience. We get it from X for booking onboard - and then we transfer the booking to our Agent. Refundable OBC from our Agent on every cruise. Shareholders OBC on every cruise. If things go wrong on the ship GR's solution is usually a bottle of wine (which we turn down as we don't drink) or some OBC which we readily accept.

I was referring to the class of ship rather than the cabin split. However when you look how the ship is marketed in the UK you would be forgiven for thinking that the "balconies" were exactly the same as on all the other classes of ship a decision that may come back to haunt them.

I tend to ignore the Royal ship as the decision was made at the same time and by the same senior team. However it's the scale that sets X apart - take for example the Edge which on Deck 9, excluding suites, has 12 cabins with true balconies against 162 IV's and the other decks with cabins are the same.

Sorry I didn't miss it but perhaps misinterpreted it - I read it as though you thought it was a great idea - clearly not what you meant.

Your logic is flawed. X is experiencing record bookings across the fleet I.e in all cabin classes and ships. In some markets passengers have no choice as there are only E class ships e.g. sailing from the UK. We will only know how successful the IV balconies are when X introduces it's next class of ship. To date no other line has followed X down the IV route including Viking which has many of this cabin type in it's river boat fleet but chooses not to have any in it's ocean fleet.

the daily onboard planner has so many errors it would spoil the fun if it was suddenly to become accurate.

if your don't prepay the tips they are added to your account every day. Any OBC will be set against all the charges on your account starting with non refundable OBC and moving onto refundable - all done on a daily basis.

Not the same as MDR where with Select/Anytime Dining you simply say sharing pleaze as you check in and X does it for you.