daybrake

How do the cabins on the slant towards the front of the ship compare to those on the back "hump"? For example - Silhouette Deck 10 Concierge class cabin 1044? Thanks,

@Mikeyb78 Did you go on this excursion? How was it?

Thanks to all of you experienced Celebrity cruises for the insight. We will keep our DV and hope to be able to reprice if there is a better sale between now and our sail date -- there is still time.

I've only been on one Celebrity cruise - so trying to understand the different cabin choices. So . . . on the Silhouette a C1 (Concierge) that is on Deck 10 directly above the DV (Deluxe Verandah) would be the same cabin and verandah size? The C1 is $50 pp LESS than the DV. The C1 includes a little more in "perks" than the DV (embarkation lunch and priority embarkation). Seems like the C1 is the better value?

@gerelmx How are they bigger -- wider or deeper? We were on a Deluxe Verandah balcony on the Equinox and it was deeper. Just checked the price of a Deluxe Verandah vs. a CC on the Silhouette (one of the angled cabins on the hump) and the CC was about $50/pp cheaper than the DV which I don't understand?

@Cruising Is Bliss I was referring to cancelling before final payment date. Yesterday, I spoke to a HAL rep and he said if we did not make the final payment by the FPD -- then the cruise would auto-cancel with only $2 deposit lost.

@PROCRUISE New cruiser to HAL here - is there something about the $1pp deposit that makes it not a better way to book rather than a refundable deposit (other than losing $2 if cancelled?). Just trying to understand the rationale for going with a refundable deposit. I just booked a cruise using the $1 deposit and I specifically/pointedly confirmed with my TA that all I would lose is $2 if I cancelled and he said yes.

New HAL cruisers here -- in looking at some of the HAL excursions in the Caribbean, many snorkeling excursions have a maximum age limit of 70. My husband is 74 and in excellent health (rides a bike 40+ miles a day, no health problems, etc.) How strict is HAL on these maximum age limits? If he pre-books and pays for the excursion and then they won't let him go due to age -- will HAL refund it? Also, we will have quite a bit of OBC - can we use them to pre-book excursions or do you have to wait until onboard? If you have to pay to pre-book excursions, can you get your payment refunded once you board and have the OBC credit applied for the excursion payment at that time? Thanks for your advice!

@cw2go I have the exact same problem that you describe. It happens both on my IPhone and my IPad. I have tried all the above suggestions - nothing solved it. I called Celebrity and spoke with their tech support and was only told they are working on it. My husband’s login works fine on every device. The tech support phone call was about 2 months ago and it still does not work. I have given up and will be cruising “old school” - No tech.

I think it must require a phone call and cannot be done online via the cruise planner since the cruise planner is "locked" for any other types of reservations. Thanks.

I agree -- it seems like they are applying it to the port of embarkation. But what is really confusing is that they are also applying it to a 2023 dated excursion.

Yes --- BUT it is more than 48 hours prior to the excursion date and one of the excursions is for a 2023 date so this new cancellation policy should not apply since the new policy starts for 2024.

I received an email from Celebrity about their new excursion cancellation policy which states: "Beginning January 1, you’ll have up to 48 hours prior to arriving in port to cancel your shore excursion. This update applies to all new and existing bookings." Our cruise sail date from FLL is 12/29/2023. The date of the first excursion in Nassau is for 12/30/2023 at 9:00 a.m.. The date of the second excursion is 1/1/2024. Today is 12/27/2023. Today, when I look at our Order History in cruise planner -- the purchase receipt states: "You're good to go! Reservation is non-refundable and cannot be modified." For BOTH excursions. It is currently 3 days less 2 hours (70 hours) prior to the 12/30/23 9:00 am excursion in the Nassau port, but less than 48 hours for a FLL sail date of 12/29/2023. Seems like Celebrity is implementing their new 48 hour cancellation early AND applying it to the 2023 excursion date. Unless the 48 hour window applies to the arrival at the port of embarkation (FLL) rather than the port of Nassau? Am I not understanding something? Their email did not specify which port the 48 hour cancellation clause was applicable to -- whether it be embarkation port at the beginning of cruise sailing or the port affiliated with the excursion. This will be my first cruise on Celebrity. I already have a 2024 cruise booked on the Apex. My experience on this first cruise will determine whether I keep the 2024 booking or not.

@d9704011Thank you so much!

We will be sailing on 12/29 on our first Celebrity cruise on the Equinox out of Ft. Lauderdale-Port Everglades. I have completed check-in, printed our boarding passes with the bar code express pass, printed our luggage tags, and downloaded our cruise documents. I must be blind because I cannot find anything on any of these items which terminal to go to for embarkation. Will we get this information via an email closer to sailing or am I missing seeing the terminal number on the documents somewhere? Thanks!

I booked a December 2024 cruise in the Retreat in May 2023 when the Retreat AI included prepaid gratuities. The invoice detail shows the pre-paid gratuities for a Sky Suite as $147 pp (so a total of $294 for 2 people in cabin). This amount is then credited on the invoice since AI included pre-paid gratuities. Now, since prepaid gratuities are no longer part of AI for the Retreat when I do a mock booking for the same cruise/same date in a Sky Suite at the screen where it gives the option to prepay the gratuities - the amount shows as $322 (for 2 people in cabin). Since I booked the cruise when pre-paid gratuities were included in AI at a rate of $294, will any increase in gratuity charges per cabin be added to my onboard account when the cruise sails -- or is my reservation locked in at the per cabin rate when the reservation was booked? BTW -- I have been checking on this same cruise itinerary price/cabin selection since Celebrity has made the changes to AI, and the cruise is more costly, plus the gratuities now have to be added, and has a loss of the Retreat OBC that used to be included.

Posted by @Lv2cruisgrl on a different thread titled "Check-In Time": "We sail Monday out of Ft Lauderdale and received this email from Celebrity. It is extremely important to arrive during your pre-selected arrival time on boarding day. Space in the terminal can only accommodate a specific number of guests, so it's critical that you adhere to your arrival time. Those who arrive sooner will be turned away to avoid an overcrowding of guests at the terminal and asked to return during their scheduled time." And, posted on the same thread by @the penguins: "If you arrive early accept you might have to wait or even be asked to return at the correct time. If you arrive late accept that you might have to wait until the end or at least until there is a break in passengers arriving. Above all remember that the staff are employed by the port not by Celebrity and those staff are only following the instructions they have been given."

So . . . on the Apex - SS cabins in the number range of 10151, 10153, 10155, 10157: No pole would be in 10151 (our suite)? If so, we got lucky and did not even know it. Thanks for the info.

@go.without.you I checked the excursions for our sailing on the Equinox (sailing 12/29/23) and the Small Group Luxury Catamaran/Snorkel is still not available. So . . . I'm guessing the vendor did cancel due to Jan. 1 being a holiday. @neverlaysup I have never sailed with Celebrity before and part of the reason I chose them is because of the small group excursion offerings. We have another small group excursion (max 6) reserved for fishing next year in Basseterre/St. Kitts for our Apex sailing. If it is only a 6-pack fishing boat -- I'm thinking Celebrity will have to keep it to the specified "small group" size. Time will tell.

@NMTraveller Thanks for posting this info. I just rebooked my December 2023 excursions and saved $93.

Thank you. Yes - the OBC was missing from both profiles. I called the Mariner Club and they told me to send an email to the same email addy above. Once it does get reinstated, I feel like I am going to have to keep checking our profiles periodically just to be sure HAL's computer system does not mysteriously drop it off again.

We will be going on our first Celebrity Cruise in a Veranda stateroom and have the Classic beverage package. I understand that bottled water is included in the Classic package. I drink a lot of water. Does our room attendant bring bottles of water to our stateroom or is there someplace I need to go pick up the bottled water so that I have 6-8 bottles available in my cabin?

We are new to HAL and just within the past month got the verification stuff done to receive OBC for AARP ($50) expiring 12/30/2027), Military ($100) expiring 12/30/2025, and Teacher ($100) expiring 12/30/2025. All of these were showing up in our profile as OBC. Today, when we log onto our Mariner account all of the approved OBC (AARP, Military, Teacher) are now missing from our account profile. They had not expired yet and we haven't booked a cruise yet to use these. When we tried to re-apply for the Military OBC, we received a message that we had already used that benefit? How should we proceed about getting these OBC to show up back in our Mariner account profile again?