RickT

One more as she rounds George’s Island.

Summit took a quick tour of the harbour before heading out to see. Great weather today for the passengers visiting Halifax.

This year alone, all 3 flights I’ve taken to date have had changes. These three were not cruise related and dealing with the airline ranged from simple to difficult. My upcoming cruise has air booked with FBC and I expect there to be some sort of change in routing. At this point I blame the airlines and doubt having my flights booked by FBC will be any worse.

Agree with others about finding a hotel (although many can be very busy especially on weekend departures). One of my favourites is Joe’s Diner https://eatatjoesdinerftl.com

I have to give credit when it’s due. I posted back in February that I gave up trying to upgrade my drink package after multiple calls, long hold times and needing to be transferred eventually made the potential savings not worth the effort. With another cruise coming up in October I thought I’d give it a try today. To my surprise the call was answered quickly and the rep I spoke with was able to complete the upgrade without having to transfer me to another rep. The only issue was that I had to remind the rep about the Elite discount. Not sure if I got lucky or if Celebrity has hired/trained more staff. Only wish now is that a simple transaction like that should be something I can do on their website.

I never saw the mythical “upgrade fairy” so can’t say if she’s retired or not. Suspect the Move Up bids forced her into an early retirement.

On the Silhouette in a few weeks and curious to know what bands (house and party) and musicians (guitarist, due, etc) are currently onboard. Love to listen to live music and like to check out the musicians beforehand.

The Summit arrived in Halifax this morning to grey skies and light precipitation. Hope that doesn’t dampen (pun intended) your time in my home port. Hope you have a great day in Halifax.

We are considering Aqua class for our next cruise. My understanding is that the MDR menu is also available (S-Class in case that makes a difference). - Is it correct that the MDR menu is available in Blu? - If so, does it slow down the meal or otherwise disrupt service? Always wanted to tru Blu but upon looking at their menus I suspect a few nights we’d choose MDR items. Thanks in advance for your answers.

Covid cases are on the rise in most of the world (including Canada and the U.S. Eliminating pre-cruise testing at this point would be foolish IMHO. If precruise testing stops even one positive passenger from boarding it will have huge benefits down the line. I for one will seriously reconsider going on my next cruise if the Covid numbers are this high and precruise testing is eliminated. Yes I understand precruise testing can be a pain but isn’t that better then allowing positive passengers to board? We already see Covid cases on board, without precruise testing I would expect Covid cases onboard to significantly increase.

I’m in Halifax and am pretty sure that on a sunny day when the conditions are just right you can see Horseshoe Bay and Pink Beach 😋

I’ve seen a number of posts today about long wait times, inability to talk to reps and repeatedly being transferred in order to eventually talk to a rep who can assist. Looking back at my last few calls to Celebrity (some of which went unanswered) I feel that most of my calls could have been handled via the website if Celebrity would allow it (make the transaction possible) on their website. Examples are: - Upgrading drink package from classic to premium. In order to receive my upgrade discount I need to call. On my last cruise I was never able to reach anyone and eventually upgraded onboard without receiving a discount. - Receiving the Captain’s Club one category upgrade. Unfortunately I can book a cruise on their website but in order to receive the upgrade I have to call. - Changing cabin. It would be nice if the website would allow you to switch cabins (within the same category) on an existing booking. Currently you have to call. I’m sure there are many more possibilities. It would free up reps for transactions/questions that can’t be handled online. As I often say….”Thank god their cruise experience if better then their online experience”.

I’ve had issues making even local calls due to the outage. While you wouldn’t expect X to be using Rogers lines anything is possible.

Good. Some of the Baltic itineraries that came out after St. Petersburg was removed this year were fantastic. Will have to see the new itineraries and perhaps book one for 2023.

We were on the Millennium in March. This was one of the first cruises after Celebrity made mask wearing optional. While masks can be a pain in the xxxx we felt getting Covid would be a bigger pain. We wore our masks while traveling through the ship and indoors when we weren’t eating or drinking. We had a few crew members let us know that mask wearing was no longer required but by the second of third day that stopped. We’re on the Silhouette in October and will continue to wear our masks even if not required. Just too much Covid going around at this time.

This is from an email I just received from Celebrity: As a valued Elite Captain’s Club member, you can enjoy 15% savings when you purchase the Classic or Premium drink package or 15% savings when you upgrade from Classic to Premium.Call 1-800-722-5941 to redeem your savings. Assume the rep you spoke with hadn’t yet been properly trained. Suggest you try again and hope that the next rep is aware of this change.

Beautiful Day in Halifax NS. Sun is shining, boardwalk full of people dressed in Red and White. Sadly no cruise ships in port today. 🇨🇦

Your luggage tags should be available. For my March cruise I ran into a similar issue and Celebrity had to “free” up my account. It took 24 hrs and after that all was good. No idea why my booking had to be freed up but with Celebrity IT anything is possible. As far as flights you should already have your booking code to check in directly with the airline.

I’ve only received a move up offer after final payment and much closer to the sailing date. I have a cruised booked at the end of Sept and would be surprised if I saw a move up offer before Mid August. Wondering if your sailing has a lot of empty cabins or perhaps a lot of guarantee cabins booked and X is trying to maximize revenue and/or allowing customers to pay to move up before the guarantee cabins get assigned.

You’re taking out your passport anger on the wrong company. Celebrity is a great cruise line but like any business they have rules and policies. The unfortunate issue is you are past final payment date and Celebrity is within their right to follow the payment and penalty rules. Your best hope at this point is to see if there is anything that can be done to get your renewed passport. If you have a Nexus card you can also see if Celebrity will accept that in lieu of a passport (they should). Anything our Government touches is usually horribly inefficient and our passport office is no exception (I read an article in The Globe stating the newly hired passport reps require 12 weeks of training). Good luck and hopefully your passport arrives.

Curious to see what is happening come October. I’m on the Silhouette booked in a balcony on deck 6 forward. Given the ship is currently showing zero balcony (or higher) cabins are available.

Some TA websites list all the cabins available for booking. One I’m aware of allows you to see exactly how many cabins are available in each category.

On the Silhouette in a couple months. Curious who the current musicians/bands onboard are? Realize their contacts might end before we board but curious anyway.

We had a similar issue on the Millennium in March but thankfully the sommelier in Cellar Masters was excellent and provided us with some excellent alternatives. Disappointing yes, total disaster no.

Given how bad the WiFi was on our March cruise anything would be an improvement.