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I don’t believe I’ve seen the warm pool on any X ships which is a shame because it’s the only reason I would ever buy the thermal pass. I suppose I should thank them for saving me $200 on every cruise 😂.

Looking forward to trying this in November. I think being able to text will be a big plus, but frankly I hate calling people on the phone. It’s also probably nice because they don’t have to drop whatever they are in the middle of doing (have had many butler conversations interrupted by a phone call). I’m assuming folks who prefer to call can still do so and this is just an added feature.

I think of it strictly from the value of the OBC vs the purchase price. Cruise line stocks are volatile. Additionally when I retire I’m most likely going to continue cruising so I’m very unlikely to sell it ever which makes the future gains and losses virtually meaningless to me unless there is a major unexpected life change. From that lense, I was willing to sink about $1600 into CCL and another $1600 into NCL at the time I bought them. Given that I cruise between 4 & 6 times a year it was worth it for the future OBC. When I looked RCL was about an 8K investment and today it’s closer to $16K. I would absolutely never be able to make that makes sense. Now from a financial standpoint, was this a good investment? I think most people would think that 5 to 10 years to breakeven is not a good investment strategy. I only really did it because I am a cruising nerd and love to cruise. Will I eventually get a return on my money? Most likely but again there are far better investments that would have much better returns over 10 to 20 years that it will take for me to make it washout. There is a reason the cruise lines offer this. They want you to feel locked in with cruising on them. If you own a stock in Ncl, you will be more likely to return to Ncl. The hundred dollar nonrefundable OBC does not cost very much in the grand scheme of things. But they know that people will feel like they’re getting a great value and not stopped to look elsewhere for possibly a better option (very similar to the sunken cost fallacy). I think you have to take a very hard look at your future cruise plans and your own financial situation situation to decide if it is worth locking yourself in and if it makes sense.

I still remember Brent from a princess cruise maybe 20 years ago. He is fabulous!

Disembarked Eurodam today in Seattle - not a sign of customs/immigration presence. Collected our bags and walked straight out to the pick up area. No passport check, no photos, no agents standing around looking - nada.

Make sure you tick the express box! Same day if in by 9AM (and they really mean 9AM, not 9:45 or 10). If it is after 9 you will get it back the next day. If you mark the regular box and put it out after 9 you will get it back 3 days later (yes I made this mistake once and was worried for a bit my laundry was totally lost). Because you are in RS there is no extra charge for the express service. With X I send laundry daily because I often like to sleep in a bit later so it usually is in after 9. With HAL I do more every couple days or as needed. They are much less rigid on the timing and I always get it back next day (or even same day sometimes).

If going this route I would simply say nothing at check in or a vague they are flying in seperately. No reason to open a can of worms when checking in. That being said I wouldn’t personally do this. Whether or not X is enforcing no show fees on double bookings that will now be solos is debatable, but I wouldn’t personally risk it. I’d much rather find a different line that doesn’t force me to play games.

If you want to avoid crowds there are pretty much 2 options in cruising. The first is to do a ship with in a ship type cruise (i.e.NCL Haven or MSC yacht club). Your suite is in a seperate area with its own pool, restaurant, lounge, etc and you never have to leave. They escort you on and off the ship during peak times. The only time you have to leave is if you want to go see a show or try a specialty restaurant. The advantage of these is you still get all the entertainment and dining options a big ship offers while spending most of your time away from the crowds. NCL’s newest shops even have private elevators for Haven guests. The other option is to look at luxury or small ship & expedition lines. This is a very different type of cruising, not nearly the same onboard offerings but a much higher end or uncrowded experience. Lindblad, Uncruise, etc have anywhere from 30 to 200 people onboard. Luxury lines offer a higher guest to space ratio than the main stream lines. Unfortunately all of the above options are quite expensive and may not fit into your budget. I would normally suggest mid sized older ships like the Millennium class, but you found those too crowded so I would say you probably need to be looking to higher end cruising if you want to make a cruise work for you.

I have not seen them enforced on excursions other than the obvious ones like flight tours, zip lining, etc.

Future cruise deposits offer a minimal credit. If you know the cruise you want there is often much more obc offered depending on the length of the sailing and the cabin type. Pricing is usually the same though if I remember correctly I have once or twice saved a tiny bit booking onboard. If you know what you want to do there is no downside to booking onboard provided you book with a refundable deposit). And it does transfer to your travel agent if you use one (provided you transfer within 30 days and before final payment). Personally I do like to keep a few FCDs in my account to place things on hold. They are a lot easier to track than credit card deposits and refunds.

What a cluster - another totally failed experiment by X management. Glad to see they are finally backtracking on this cut disguised as an “enhancement.” Fingers crossed that they backtrack on the solo pricing next. I wonder how much of a decline in sky suite bookings and service scores it took for them to change course on this. Of course it will take a long time for them to get all the butlers back in place even if no one left - lots of jobs to back fill. I totally understand that the pandemic was financially devastating to the travel industry, and costs increase over time, and the need to improve shareholder value, etc. X needs to figure out how to do this without alienating their customers. It’s just not sustainable to charge luxury prices far higher than any of the other premium cruise lines while cutting service levels back. There are way too many options out there (granted others made cuts too but at a fraction of the impact and price).

It is and it isn't. I can totally understand charging 200%. Cruise lines have given prices as per person for a long time to make people think it is less ($1,500 per person sounds better than $3,000 for a cabin). Essentially I think of it like a hotel room. Hilton or Mariott don't care if I am one or two people, they charge $300 for a room for one night. Unless I add extra guests and now they have to service the sofa bed or provide an extra free breakfast. The incremental cost to the cruise line of 1 vs 2 people is miniscule. I have never complained about 200%, though I am grateful when there is the occasional sale offering a discount on the supplement. Where I take offense is paying more on top of that. If it is all about onboard spending then go back to including the onboard credit - as a solo I had to use $800 of OBC by myself vs 2 people using $400 each. If I didn't spend it, then they got to keep the difference.

Totally agree. They say it is about onboard spending. I really doubt most guests are spending the amount they are charging solos extra. For retreat cabins/Royal Suite it is as much as $3K or $6K more on a 7-10 day sailing. It comes out to anywhere from $300-800 per day. As much as some retreat folks might spend I highly doubt that is actually the average OBS of guests in suites. If they really want everyone to spend, why would they get rid of the retreat always included promotion that had $800 or so of OBC. That literally forced you to pre-pay for onboard spending and include it in the price. And if you don't they keep whatever they baked into the price for it (just like they keep whatever you don't spend on your drink package). Just took a look at a last minute cruise 1 month out (10 day on Silhouette). One would think they would be happy to sell a cabin this close in, even if it is to a single traveler - currently 8 retreat cabins and 1 guarantee verandah left. Their pricing suggests they still wouldn't want a solo. Horizon Suite $17,207 for 2 $24,528 for 1 Celebrity Suite $16,090 for 2 $22,919 for 1 Sunset Sky Suite $11,856 for 2 $17,207 for 1 Verandah Guarantee $3,815 for 2 Not permitted for 1 I also notice that even though this is all about onboard spending not taking place, we don't get a penny of onboard credit for our extra $5-7 thousand dollars. IMO it is a money grab pure and simple. And they are counting on enough people not paying attention or knowing enough to ask what the price for 2 is. I know some people say book for 2 and have the other no show...I would not want to take that risk. Who knows what sort of policies they may enforce around this. They certainly have the right to charge whatever they want, and we have right to take take it or not. I am of the mind that if my $17K for a Horizon suite isn't good enough for them, then I wish them luck with getting the equivalent off of a move up bid or couple looking for a last minute 10 night cruise...given they still have 3 horizon suites, 2 celebrity suites and 3 sunset sky suites I doubt they will fill all with couples paying rack rate. But of course what do I know? Ok, rant over.

I think the odds of anything other than a sky suite are very close to zero. I believe any cabin can bid on a higher suite also so most likely someone will pay for it. Celebrity is quite good at maximizing their revenue.

Yes, I would agree with this.

If they booked a new reservation with a refundable deposit it should be OK, the only thing is if you cancel I would suspect you may lose the $700 so I would probably just change to another refundable deposit sailing if you need to make any changes.

You can transfer as long as it is within 30 days of making the book later deposit (not when you book the reservation). I believe you should keep the benefits, but they keep changing the rules so rapidly it’s hard to say what they will do or if there is some other exclusion.

The only option to save some of your funds is to pay the 200 change fee and rebook a new cruise at the time of cancellation. Otherwise you lose everything. Note that the new booking is also non-refundable and any further changes in sailing date or ship will result in additional $100 pp change fee. sounds like the future cruise consultants got it sorted for you which is great. Glad to see they have some power to fix things. Fun story. You can technically change to the refundable price but the reservation will remain non-refundable and subject to change fees. Once had a TA mess this up before I became a TA myself and it was a royal mess.

Basically everything on X has doubled. The biggest sticker shock for me was seeing the price of X excursions compared to the exact same one on other brands. I guess good for them if they can get it.

Well, after being unsure if I would ever sail with Celebrity again I am glad to say I snagged one of their discounted solo pricing on a November 24 & February 25 sailing. Glad to see they are changing course. The 75% or sailings is dubious to me. Sounds like it will be hit or miss - guess it is definitely buyer be ware when booking!

I have split the bed on Solstice in the last year! The individual beds are small but comfortable!

It will show on your booking confirmation.

I posted on the other thread but for those that aren't on that one: Maybe positive sign - I did a few test bookings for Winter 2024 and it looks like solos are actually discounted slightly (looked at Eclipse and apex in November) and substantially discounted in retreat cabins with a 2K-3K savings. I thought maybe they backtracked but over the summer of 2024 and everything I found still has the extra surcharge for solos. Looking into 2025 summer months still have the surcharge, but winter 2025 looks to have the Also, when booking thorough the consumer website I waws not able to add a refundable deposit option to solo retreat bookings but could still do it on the TA side. Not sure if this is a glitch or an intentional change on their part, but any solos looking at winter sailings I would suggest trying to nab one ASAP. The winter sailings that have discounted solo pricing have a promo code "SINGLES" attached to it. Summer sailings have the "RET 2PK SGL" or "NOPERK SGL" promo.

Maybe positive sign - I did a few test bookings for Winter 2024 and it looks like solos are actually discounted slightly (looked at Eclipse and apex in November) and substantially discounted in retreat cabins with a 2K-3K savings. I thought maybe they backtracked but over the summer of 2024 and everything I found still has the extra surcharge for solos. Looking into 2025 summer months still have the surcharge, but winter 2025 looks to have the Also, when booking thorough the consumer website I waws not able to add a refundable deposit option to solo retreat bookings but could still do it on the TA side. Not sure if this is a glitch or an intentional change on their part, but any solos looking at winter sailings I would suggest trying to nab one ASAP. The winter sailings that have discounted solo pricing have a promo code "SINGLES" attached to it. Summer sailings have the "RET 2PK SGL" or "NOPERK SGL" promo.

100% Agree with you. It was not long ago that they were not charging solos a supplement at all due to desperation to fill cabins. I doubt that they will go back to that, but going back to standard solos pay 200% may be in the cards. I guess time will tell.