A1000

I know Celebrity is not really a line for kids, but is there anything to do for 6 year old on the Silhouette?

 

Thank you

After a few cruises with our son on Celebrity we tried Holland America due to a great routing offer but we're back to Celebrity. Our son has been at various ages including when he was around 6 and loved both the kids club and the wider activities. The lawn deck is a great place as they can run around a bit, put, and play boule. And they're likely to meet other kids there.

We tend to be on board during the European school holidays and usually on an S-class ship there are around 600 kids of varying ages so plenty of friends, even if there aren't waveriders, etc..

Never said they were a must have, just that they were more common years ago. Maybe it was because our children were younger and sailing with us back then. Possibly it was that in the era before prepaid grats stewards were more inclined to go the extra mile to make a favorable impression.

If you want a towel animal every night travel with a young family and be nice to your steward. We get one almost every evening ;-) When we were on Holland America they went to town overnight one day and created a zoo of towel animals around the pool area. Some pretty impressive lifesize examples.

Vaporetto is definitely the way to go. If you get on one of the lines that goes down the Grand Canal at the Piazzale Roma or Station stops then it's often the first stop and you can get one of the outside seats at the front which is one of the best sightseeing trips you can do in my opinion. It takes about 30-40 mins down to St Marks Square but great fun.

Admittedly we're in Europe and therefore may or may not be different approach.

We booked a Med cruise including flights, and the flexible flights were cheaper than the restricted ones. This I believe is because flexible flights come from the HAL block booking with an airline and therefore HAL can allocate them as they see fit up to the point that they ticket them with the airline. This is usually at final payment. Ours currently show confirmed (unticketed).

For restricted fares they are bought at the lowest price that airlines are offering them when you look, and which are non-refundable. Hence once you commit, you have to pay and can't make changes.

Our flexible fares are confirmed, and itemised on our invoice, appear in the airlines system, and so long as we don't change them are fixed at the price. I've just read our confirmation details and that is what it says for us.

As I say this may or may not be the same for those who book through the US part of HAL though.

I just talked to HAL Ship Services since we're cruising next week with the Signature Beverage Package included. To clarify, the drink-cost limit is still $8, but the service charge is included in the $50 day cost or package valuation. So your martinis and other cocktails $8 and under are covered.

I've booked other future cruises without the beverage package at lower fares because we didn't think we'd drink that much, and what we do drink will now count towards our Mariner Society $300 cruise-day spending bonus.

Thanks all for helping clarify.

As requested, here is the Bar Menu from Nov 2015:

 

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/here/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Bar-Menu.pdf

 

Since you are on the NA, here is the Silk Den Menu:

 

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/here/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Silk-Den-Exotic-Beverages.pdf

Hi there, we're going on our first HAL cruise later this year and in the past have been used to the AI approach on Celebrity and therefore looking at the drinks package.

If the package covers drinks upto US$8 (including 15% service) that means drinks priced up to $6.95 on the menu. All of the cocktails (other than cocktails of the day) seem to be ~$7.50+ so wouldn't now be included.

Is my layman's understanding correct or have the increased the $8 limit?

Thanks in advance.

If I understand your plight correctly on the upside you'd be £650 better off due to a better price for the cabin and offers. On the downside you'd be £300 down from the deposit plus a higher flight cost.

We have tended to book through an agent due to price and they have always assured us that if the price went down then they'd try and get an adjustment for us even though there's no formal price system like the US. I have to say I've never had to use it as the price has always gone up.

If you booked with Celebrity directly then you may be best off pushing them a bit and you might be able to get an adjustment, or some on board credit or an upgrade. It's down to getting the right person on the right day I get the impression though. If you're sure you're going to get a big upside for all the hassle then cancelling and rebooking's an option but you'd have to be sure of your figures!

If you booked through an agent then I'd push them to earn their commission ;-) Good luck.

Either way you'll enjoy the cruise. We've done that routing and it was great.

Agree with the various posts. It's very satisfying to get the bill at check-out and see all the zeros. We had to get our room keys refreshed with a new package sticker as the original package indicator had worn off by day 7!

One thing to be aware of (mainly in the buffet) where you're less likely to have continuity of server, if you order an espresso and a water or a glass of wine and a water they may say that you can only have one at a time. This only happened a couple of times but just meant that they had to walk to the bar twice in very close succession :) There was never any issue in the MDR and when they ran out of our preferred wine the sommelier found an alternative which certainly wasn't cheaper :D