DYKWIA

11 hours ago, flvol77 said:

My TA just said Royal will resume operations April 11th .....

At this stage I'd suggest "is currently scheduled to resume operations" is more accurate than "will" - it's very difficult to know where the world will be in 30 days time.

Does Dr Harold Bornstein still do those Dr's Health Letter?

14 hours ago, kr00t0n said:

Fair enough, but improving fuel efficiency also have a positive environmental impact, calling it a profit grab is a bit sensationalist and emotive. 

Any suggestion by the Cruise Industry that the primary driver was the environment is Greenwash.  Cruise ships and their operations still have a colossal environmental impact; I doubt you will see Greta Thunberg on one any time soon.

They might save a bit of fuel, but they still fly food around the world to stock the ships rather than use locally sourced produce. Airlines are as a bad - on a British Airways flight from London to LA about an hour before arrival I was served a little tub of ice cream made in LA - at least 10000 air miles to give me some snack food I didn’t ask for.

Odds are getting shorter by the day 

Who is V V targeted at?

Based on Scarlet Lady, i'd say

Young wealthy skinny people, with good knees to get out of low seats, who travel with little luggage and have an aversion to swimming pools

Not been keen on the Edge class to date, but I've just watched a couple of videos showcasing Virgin Scarlet Lady.  There's a ship with some real design issues! Apparently Virgin didn't use ship designers and it shows.

It's made me realise that my worries and concerns abut edge class were nothing c.w. what Virgin have launched. 

6 minutes ago, Despegue said:

With all respect, but the name Champagne is a EU protected name and can NOT be used except for real Champagne products.

same goes for Kobe beef . Any professional company needs to respect its products and clients by not misrepresenting their offerings.

 

I'm guessing some people here wouldn't have a problem if a company passed off a cheap cheese like Monteraey Jack as Parmesan 

2 hours ago, Cruizen Susan said:

 

This issue is essentially marketing.  X is "marketing" the sliders as kobe.   We all know or should know that marketing in most contexts and businesses is synonymous with lying. Marketers imply that you're going to get the best possible product no matter how unlikely it actually is.  It's nature is to mislead.  This is basic university Marketing 101. X is doing what every other large corporation does, for purposes of profit.   *Yawn*

 

    

Maybe in your country - illegal in places like Europe.  Food provenance is important.

9 hours ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

My favorite hotel is the Hilton Molina Stucky. You can take the Alilaguna from the port to the hotel. At the end of your stay, you can take that or a water taxi from the hotel to the airport. The hotel provides a free water shuttle to Venice throughout the day. 
 

We stayed at the Hotel Moresco once, rated #2 hotel at the time. It was convenient to the port and main vaporetto station, but it wasn’t as enchanting to me as the Hilton. They did have a wonderful free breakfast and happy hour, though.  

Their shuttle isn’t free and a charge is advertised.    When checking out you may be asked if you used the shuttle during your stay , if so you are charged a one off fee, irrespective of the length of your stay and how many times you used the shuttle. it’s not very much at all - currently advertised at  8.5 euros  / person - a bargain by Venice standards - even if use it only once.

i suspect some people answer no, or aren't asked. We were aware of the charge and thought that as we were never asked for room details on the shuttle it was perhaps being waived, but on check-out the clerk did ask and billed us accordingly

the Hilton proved to be a good place to cash in Hilton Honour points for us - rates were running at about a fairly hefty (for a Hilton) 400 euros per night when we booked.  We only have Gold status but still received a good room upgrade to one of their new rooms, free breakfast and free use of the executive lounge - we saved a fortune in Aperol Spritz's

Not sure it will change with the proposed restrictions on Cruise Ships sailing into the port (all ships were tugged along the canal in August, adding to a delayed departure of several hours) but the hotel is great for ship watching - Cruise ships sail right past the hotel along the Giudecca canal and you are metres away. I even got up at 4am on the day of our cruise to watch the ships sailing in past the hotel. 

ignore.

We enjoyed our stay at the Hilton Molino Stucky.  

It's on Giudecca island not far from the cruise port and about 10 mins from St Mark's square  They run their own shuttle service to St Marks Square 1-2 times an hour (there's a very small nominal charge per stay for the shuttle that seems to work on an honesty basis).

Prices in the hotel for food and drink in the hotel are quite pricey bit when we were there they were handing out Executive lounge passes out quite liberally which saved a bit.  There's several very well priced and good restaurants a short walk from the hotel.

The hotel is also a stop on several vaporetto routes which means it's very convenient if you have luggage - No bridges and crowds to navigate

4 hours ago, Mark_T said:

 

No, X can put what it wants in the CoC it has no impact on their obligations to those who contract with them in the UK.

 

... and as Nomad already pointed out, ABTA is irrelevant when it comes to the legal rights of UK contracted guests.

Yes!

A contract doesn't give the right to someone to make it a condition that they are allowed to break the law with respect to you and your rights and neither can you give permission to break the law in your case.  If Paragraph 14567 subsection 85(J)(i) said "By signing this contract you give then operator permission to hit you on the head with a cricket bat" the fact you signed not knowing this condition wouldn't make it lawful for them to do hit you with a  cricket bat.

EU Law (Article 50) places wider requirements with respect to fairness and transparency of contracts not individually negotiated with a consumer

https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/dealing-with-customers/consumer-contracts-guarantees/consumer-contracts/index_en.htm

In this case I think Celebrity have tried to rely on the Bluff and Panic Act 

3 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Curious as to what your change fee would be assuming you could change your flight to a new destination.

  

I am not on this cruise but for my upcoming cruise I booked with Flights by Celebrity and have a cancellation or change fee is $200 US after final cruise payment.   The real kicker would be for me that the cost of a Business Class would be about $2,000 more to Dubai than Singapore (each way).  Ouch...

2000 extra passengers trying to get to Dubai, maybe a lot of them from Singapore, maybe all within a small time frame - there might not be that many seats available.  Abu Dhabi is very close that could be an alternative.

14 minutes ago, Silkroad said:

... Missed or changed ports due to weather, political unrest, or epidemics cannot be blamed on Celebrity. 

Of course not, but poor action they take as a result of that can be. 

1 hour ago, upwarduk said:

Totally agree Silkroad, we too were on that cruise and apart from getting port charges & Excursions booked via Celebrity, refunded, we got nothing.

We were told to contact our Insurance company, but of course we weren’t covered.

Because you were treated poorly in the past is no justification for it to be repeated.

Moving the port of embarkation by almost 6000km to a different country is completely unreasonable and this has been done at very short notice - Celebrity are in the cruise business and they should deal with and treat their customers properly,  they have no right to profit in all circumstances.  They are telling customers to rely on their insurance policy, Celebrity could do the same.

5 hours ago, NantahalaCruiser said:

I respect your personal choice, but fail to see the logic behind the choice. Even if the embarkation and disembarkation ports are one and the same, individual crew members may or may not receive more free time in that port than they may at an intermediate port in a different country with a different currency.

 

My choice is the ship's currency - just as is used for the auto-gratuity.

Celebrity typically has a ship based in Southampton for 7 months a year - if you Board there you will see plenty of crew coming back to the ship with bags of shopping purchased in port .  The local shops in Southampton do not take US dollars.  

The ships sailing from Southampton are often largely UK travellers sailing to European and other UK destinations-  at none of these destinations is the  US dollar acceptable. Why would these travellers go to the trouble and expense of exchanging currency to US Dollars solely for the purpose of tipping, especially when we don’t have the same tipping culture.

As for the ships currency being the US dollar - for passengers it is cashless so might as well be in Thai Baht for what difference it makes.

2 hours ago, mayleeman said:

 

.....

 

I guess the main idea is to let them know we won't be stiffing them.

 

......

We prepay our gratuities, we won't be "stiffing" them.  Some people on here say that staff know which cabins have prepaid

I don't worry if staff will or will not think we have paid it, we pay it.

13 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Bribe....

persuade (someone) to act in one's favor, typically illegally or dishonestly, by a gift of money or other inducement

 

Some here need to read the definition of Bribe...there is nothing illegal or dishonest about a tip...

That said, I’m done here, I do not care how-when-how much others choose to tip...

 

If by tipping early you expect good pours at the bar, or maybe the decent stuff on the classic package then the person you are tipping, if they action this as a result of the tip,  might be in effect be stealing from their employer 

A few years ago a couple of airline employees in the UK were accepting "tips up front" to put people on the upgrade list with the airline - they went to jail for that.  Their defence was they never guarantied upgrades - didn't work, they were stealing from their employer.

5 minutes ago, morfred said:

I tip the first day at the Martini Bar and am happy to report that this tip i.e. bribe gets me excellent service for the rest of the cruise when I tip again. Not to be a wise guy but I usually have my drinks while others are frustrated waiting and cannot understand why they are waiting so long.

Is it fair? -I don't know. I just know that I never have to wait for a drink.

It can also come down to "bar presence".  I don't usually tip extra (and never before service) and generally get served quickly at a busy bar, a friend of mine almost always struggles. 

I worked for several years in bars when I was a student in the UK.  Bribery will not work in a busy bar it upsets others and they get annoyed at the bartender for allowing others to push in.  Good friendly eye contact, an assertive focused presence and small gestures to get yourself noticed - when a bartender is looking for the next person to serve, and you know the person next to you is next , draw that fact to the attention of the bartender, you'll be thanked by your neighbour and it's an almost certainty you'll be served next. 

I've also found that if you usually have the same drink the good bar staff anticipate it.  After a couple of days on our last cruise the barstaff knew my preprandial was a Negroni and would ask as soon as I was spotted.

If you're sailing on a cruise from the UK - pounds will be fine. Euros and Dollars OK to.  I suspect a lot of people from the Europe on a European cruise aren't going to buy cash in dollars just for tipping.  Yes, the ship is in dollars but it's cashless.  Not too sure about Icelandic Krona, not a popular currency and Celebrity doesn't sail to Iceland that much for crew to use it.  Another one to avoid Croatian Kuna - only place willing to take those was the airport exchange at pitiful rates, once we left Croatia no one wanted those, even the banks in other ports.  There was a Croatian crew member on the pursars desk and she said she didn't want them either.

9 hours ago, Bo1953 said:

Maybe it will give a few of them some pause to think about it going forward???

 

Hope Springs Eternal...

 

bon voyage

Not sure what you mean by this -  your way is the right way?

We prepay gratuities and other than room service (or other services above and beyond) that's it.

Paying a premium and everyone has to have the same meal - is the chef having a night off? 

Shared Chateaubriand can be a problem for a couple if they like their steaks done differently 

We have had some good cabins (a 1A) and not so good cabins via the guaranteed balcony - although the one not so good was at a fantastic price .  (Eclipse 2nd cabin from the front deck 6, not obstructed but very noisy when coming into port )

You actually stand to get a much worse cabin if you are booking from the UK than in the states, as we are not allowed to change our assigned cabin - in the US I believe you can ask to change withing the same category.  This seems a discriminatory policy to me.

Maybe our memory is playing tricks but this year we thought the themes in the Ocean View were much less in scale than previously - this year we were on an M Class (compared with  class previously) - we recall previously there were Seafood Nights and Chinese Nights.  Not on our last cruise - I recall German Sausage Night and Risotto Night - more of a dish than a theme.