2chiefs

5 minutes ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

That makes sense if it’s a business trip because of “business need”, but choosing to work from a cruise ship doesn’t constitute “business need”. I’d have to pay for all added costs. 

Hmm...  I wonder if he can write off a portion of the cruise expense for office space rent? 🙂 

I'm retired now but my home office was a pretty nice place. A "cruise office" would have been nicer but I don't think Wifi back then would have made it possible. 🙂 

Just now, taglovestocruise said:

I saw a video this morning of a couple who spent $3800 on a Coco Cay beach club over the water cabana, they were on the island under 4 hours as it became very windy. 

To me, the cabanas are absurdly expensive, but I suppose if you have money to burn...

Been to CocoCay and Labadee many, many times. Never spent a cent.

It's a beach day. The beach is included. Food is included. Drinks are the same as on the ship (included with your drink package or same price as on the ship). Where you can spend money is on the same things you would spend at Disney or a State Fair: Rides. Also, they charge and arm and a leg for cabanas over the water. Not worth a dime to me. We like both places but we also stay on the ship many times to enjoy the ship with no crowds.

11 minutes ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

Wow, it’s impressive you were able to travel with all of that! How do you fly with your monitors? How do you not exceed the weight limit? I worked from my parents’ city and just bought a monitor to store there because I was nervous about flying with my monitors. 

The weight limit is not necessarily a restriction. They just charge an arm & a leg if you go over. If he can absorb it in the business expense and also write it off......

I was on a business trip to Russia in 2007 and when I was about to board a flight to Budapest, my bag weighed 70 lbs (the amount allowed when I flew to Russia from the US initially) and I was only allowed 50lbs for the flight from Russia to Hungary. No problem, $350 extra paid by my employer made the flight possible anyway.

5 minutes ago, jwlane said:

The routine inspections are not on a 3 year old ship.  

 

Age now is not germane.

Good answer! I also noted that the "routine inspection" requires a dry dock which I personally wouldn't call routine. The original inspection was scheduled for 2024 so my math (I'd doing this in my head) tells me routine inspections must be done every 4 years. They are rescheduling the routine inspection to 2025 (my math skills still churning in my head tell me this is 5 years).

So, I conclude:

1. 3-year reference is not germane since nothing is scheduled now

2. 4-year "routine maintenance" must be the normal periodicity for this maintenance

3. 5-year "routine maintenance tells me that if they can skip a year, then the 4-year scheduled maintenance was inappropriate in the first place, and they need to fire the person that scheduled it. (Or fire the person who re-scheduled it in the event it should have been 4-year)

10 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

I don't have a subscription either , but was able to read it.  Sorry about that.  Here is another news source on the subject:

 

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/08/murray-thrilled-with-celebrity-cruises-coming-to-port-canaveral/

Odd. Maybe it was my browser.

Anyway, I could read this one. Thanks a lot.

Cheers!

1 hour ago, PTC DAWG said:

Agree, Canaveral is about as far as I want to drive...around 480 miles from where we live.  

Agree. We drive from Woodstock. Port Canaveral and Tampa are OK but Ft Lauderdale & Miami are a stretch.

3 hours ago, Swampbabe said:

Ha, I can Uber

5 hours ago, mahdnc said:

Here is the press release in the Orlando Sentinel: 

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/08/15/celebrity-cruises-to-join-expanding-port-canaveral-linenup/

 

Couldn't read it unless I subscribed to the Orlando Sentinel.. Oh well...

26 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

Well, that might be a game-changer for us.  I'm loyal to Royal.  But, mostly loyal because of the C & A points.  So, because the vast majority of RCCL's cruises, departing from the east coast, go to CocoCay and the C & A points follow us to X, AND it looks like X will be going to Labadee instead of CocoCay and it doesn't look like X will be going to Cozumel, I may have to switch my loyalty.  My concern is the size or lack thereof of X's ships.  

 

This is potentially good news for us.

Absolutely agree. We love sailing out of Port Canaveral but lately we've been loving Celebrity Cruises which is a much longer drive for us to Ft Lauderdale. 

Deleted. 

4 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

That is correct.  They have always put charges against our non-refundable OBC first. 

We usually use OBC to tip various crew members that are not part of the standard gratuity pool, e.g. sommelier. 

Same here.

BTW, we are also Retired Navy. Sallie 1995 and me (Terry) 1989

12 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 It depends on the source of the OBC.  The OBC we receive from Celebrity for booking onboard and as part of our Suite booking is non-refundable.   The OBC we receive from our Travel Agent for having our booking shifted to them, or having our booking registered with them is refundable. 

 

Additionally, (it was our experience anyway), when you have multiple OBC's, they use your non-refundable OBC first as you are spending it. Thus, saving your refundable OBC for last in case you have any left over.

5 minutes ago, karmamule said:

In my experience the price differences between older ships and newer ships within a cruise line have grown more extreme in the last few years. We booked a suite on Icon of the Seas for next year and it was more expensive than any Celebrity cruise we've booked. I looked at older RCL ships for the same sort of length/itinerary and they would have been WAY WAY less. 

 

itinerary can still be a big factor too of course: the prices we were seeing on Summit were significantly higher than what we saw on Apex in the Caribbean because our Summit cruise was one of a handful out of Boston vs the well-served Caribbean itineraries with lots of competition.

True!!

17 minutes ago, Luvcrusn said:

They have gone berserk. I just did a mock booking on a cruise we have booked to check cabin  availability. I was looking for a particular cabin we like. Clicking on a cabin in our same category with all the same additions (AI, refundable deposit, etc.) the cruise priced out more than double the fare we booked back in January. There is still a very large inventory of all categories of cabins from inside to top suites showing as available. 

So much for my logarithm theory. 🙂 

We are booked on the Beyond for this coming Christmas departing Dec 22 which we booked well over a year ago. Before it was completely sold out, our cabin class had doubled in price. It doesn't even show up on the website anymore so I assume it's completely sold out. 

23 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

There are four topics I'm VERY reluctant to talk about with others I don't know on any ship:

 

• Politics
• Religion
• Sex
• Money

 

Discussing the wheres and hows of other people's bookings seems to stray into at least one of the above.

I suppose that rules out paying for a threesome with a catholic democrat and a republican protestant?

2 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

I just did a mock booking on the celebrity Edge Alaska cruise for Sept,2024.With the all In on a regular Infinity veranda the price came to $5600.00, then another $950.00 for a refundable deposit. Celebrity has gone beserk. I love Celebrity, but not at these prices. They are $2000.00 higher than Princess AND Holland America for the same package, and I get a real balcony. I've been on Princess, and like their product. Haven't tried HAL yet. I realize  the Edge is a newer ship, but so is the Discovery Princess. In fact, it's newer than the Edge. There was no Celebrity alternative from Seattle in that time frame. All the itineraries were similar, except for Glacier Bay that Celebrity can't enter.

Sticker shock usually occurs when the ship in question is getting close to being sold out. Seems that there is a logarithm in the reservation system that jacks the price up as the ship gets booked close to full. I wouldn't rule out an entire cruise line based on the pricing of a single cruise. You are smart to shop around.

1 minute ago, Bo1953 said:

2c no need to miss "traditional dining'.... just go at the time TD is usual for you... 

 

Same table and same MDR staff waiting for you...

 

There will be others, most likely, dining at the same time as you...

 

Keep the regimen and keep the time you desire to have...

 

bon appetit and bon voyage

That's what we planned on doing. 

Thanks

14 hours ago, Bo1953 said:

2c - Okay, I understand better.

 

Once you get on-board go to the Maitre d' and request anytime dining and not fixed.

 

That will be far better for you, in the long run, IMO.

 

bon appetit and bon voyage

Thanks

55 minutes ago, keesar said:

 

Traditional dining is not taking place on the Edge Class.  You just show up when you want to dine at any of the 4 dining rooms.  However, if you have found a wait staff to your liking, you can request to be seated in their section.

Like I do when I get a haircut. I have to wait longer to get the same stylist. LOL 

We will miss traditional dining!!

1 hour ago, RichYak said:

No one seems to be addressing the main point--that OP has booked the cruise with traditional late seating dining. As best I can recall, OP will not be able to make any MDR reservations in the cruise planner or app due to this.

 

Up until a few months ago, those with traditional (early/late) dining would be assigned to a single table in a single dining room for the duration of the cruise. Then, albeit unannounced, that was completely done away with on E-class and everyone had anytime dining once they boarded regardless of their booking. In a recent post, @kwokpot mentioned that Celebrity may have reverted back to traditional dining on E-class, though I don't think it was confirmed.

 

Bottom line, it's OP's best guess as to what their dining situation is and they likely won't find out until after they board.

That's correct. Thanks for the clarification Rich Yak! 🙂 

3 hours ago, Bo1953 said:

2c - I Am sure if you want an 8.30p seating for dinner, there should be no issues with just walking up and request seating...

 

Do not be confused, with Anytime Dining you can eat in any of the four (4) each night... then you can decide which you like the most, in terms of mood, decor or even staff.

 

I trust you will find that having four (4) dining venues to choose from, to be more relaxed, intimate and enjoyable.

 

bon appetit and bon voyage

My confusion was with my booking. It said I have 8:30 dining which apparently is not the case. According to all responses, I just go to the dining room and wait for a seat. Not having the same waiters or the same dinner mates which we traditionally liked. Oh well, that's the future of cruising, I guess.

We are booked on Celebrity Beyond for December. We have always had traditional dining so we booked late seating (8:30 pm). This was before we found out there were four different dining rooms on Edge class. I assume that we will not be dining at one table for the cruise so I'm wondering if we have to make reservations daily? Does this mean everyone has My Time Dining? ... Confused.

30 minutes ago, drjohn4 said:

The main dining room may be able to accommodate a request for onion rings with some advance notice.  Just ask your waiter or head waiter.  (They made my wife gluten-free mozzarella sticks for lunch one day.)   

Agree. Sometimes the MDR will bend over backwards for your special requests. We love Filipino food and they even made us to on occasion. It all depends on the ship etc...

10 hours ago, chemmo said:

The focus on RC is action and adventure whereas on Celebrity it is more on rest and relaxation.

 

If you don’t like the smaller RC ships which have less entertainment venues you may also find the Celebrity M class limited. 

 

In our opinion all Celebrity ships ‘win’ on food, relaxing bars, a quieter atmosphere and excellent service. Also generally less children on board and those that are on board are well supervised and well behaved.

 

Also in our opinion RC ‘win’ on entertainment and activities.

 

With a free cruise up for grabs why not just give Celebrity a go? If you board expecting a new experience you may find you really enjoy the differences. if you board and compare negatively with the RC big ships then you will be disappointed.

In my opinion, this is the best response for you so far. We love both lines and sail both. We don't use the casino however so no advice on that. You should absolutely try it. (If I had a comped cruise I would definitely go).