As my cruise draws near, I do have a couple of questions for a first time Celebrity cruiser

[kywildcatfanone]

If I wanted to upgrade one wifi plan from surf to stream, am I best to do that prior to boarding or after?  I have read what seems like a discount to upgrade once onboard, but wasn't sure if  that was true or not.

 

Also, on disembarkation from FLL, with Princess, we have always done express walk off, take our own bags and leave the ship, does Celebrity do that as well?  Our flight isn't till 11:30am, so we were thinking to just stay on the ship till 8:30 or 9 and then walk off.  Is that do-able?

[39august]

Yes to walk off. I think the discounts referred to are for certain loyalty levels. So as first timer, there probably is no discount for you. However,, look at "manage my reservation" on line as there may be a discount offer for your particular cruise. 

[DCPIV]

You'll have no problem staying on board until around 9. That's pretty much when they require everyone to leave. Keep in mind, though, that you won't have any services available unless you have access to the Retreat Lounge. 

[jelayne]

The wi-fi prices in the cruise planner are lower than onboard.  The cost to upgrade will be the difference between the Premium wi-fi and the Basic, which I think is $13 or $14 per day in the planner.

[jelayne]

Deleted 

Edited September 17, 2022 by jelayne

[kywildcatfanone]

44 minutes ago, DCPIV said:

Keep in mind, though, that you won't have any services available unless you have access to the Retreat Lounge. 

Services meaning what?  I assume they will serve breakfast in the buffet that morning, and as long as I can get more coffee, I probably wouldn't be looking for anything else that morning.

[edgee]

14 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

Services meaning what?  I assume they will serve breakfast in the buffet that morning, and as long as I can get more coffee, I probably wouldn't be looking for anything else that morning.

Of course you will get a great breakfast! IMHO every morsel of food that touches your lips will be superior to what you have been served on Princess. Pizza being the only possible exception!

[kywildcatfanone]

4 minutes ago, edgee said:

Of course you will get a great breakfast! IMHO every morsel of food that touches your lips will be superior to what you have been served on Princess.

I am looking forward to trying the food on Celebrity.  I've always found Princess food to be okay, and plentiful, but not anything special.  I do like the pizza though. 

[DCPIV]

16 hours ago, kywildcatfanone said:

Services meaning what?  I assume they will serve breakfast in the buffet that morning, and as long as I can get more coffee, I probably wouldn't be looking for anything else that morning.

 

Yes, the buffet will be there, and u expect you can get all the coffee you like. 😀

 

It's that the ship won't be open otherwise. I think I was in a bit of a hurry when I posted last. I apologize if I caused alarm! 

[AstoriaPreppy]

18 hours ago, kywildcatfanone said:

Also, on disembarkation from FLL, with Princess, we have always done express walk off, take our own bags and leave the ship, does Celebrity do that as well?  Our flight isn't till 11:30am, so we were thinking to just stay on the ship till 8:30 or 9 and then walk off.  Is that do-able?

 

From our experience on Celebrity, if you’re keeping your big bags with you overnight, you are expected to do self-walkoff early around 7-7:30 am. Group numbers start getting called after that, for passengers without large suitcases. You’ll likely have to be out of your stateroom by 8 am at the latest. 

 

There’s no hard rule against it, but it’s encouraged that people *not* be rolling off their big 50 lb bags during later numbered groups. This is done primarily for efficiency and not slowing down the exit of other passengers, taking up space on the elevators or in the buffet/lounges, etc. 

 

If you’re going to wait until later to disembark, I’d recommend tagging your bags the night before. 

 

[AstoriaPreppy]

27 minutes ago, DCPIV said:

 

Yes, the buffet will be there, and u expect you can get all the coffee you like. 😀

 

It's that the ship won't be open otherwise. I think I was in a bit of a hurry when I posted last. I apologize if I caused alarm! 

 

There’s a bunch of stuff open on the ship on disembarkation day. The MDR and buffet will certainly be open for breakfast, as will Cafe al Bacio for specialty coffees. I believe there’s coffee service in the main showroom for those waiting to disembark? 

[DCPIV]

1 minute ago, AstoriaPreppy said:

 

There’s a bunch of stuff open on the ship on disembarkation day. The MDR and buffet will certainly be open for breakfast, as will Cafe al Bacio for specialty coffees. I believe there’s coffee service in the main showroom for those waiting to disembark? 

 

It's good to know that. Honestly, I didn't (obviously).  I typically just get up and head out. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

The internet is prorated by the night, so if you did a 7 night sailing, if the ship goes from FLL to Key West, you could wait until morning of day 3 and pay only for 5 nights.  Same goes for internet speed upgrades and number of devices.  On the day of disembarkment the guest internet shuts down at around 7am, but it's basically unusable from 630am, time will tell if starlink will change that.

[tfred]

I wouldn't be waking off at 830 for an 1130 flight given what is going on these days

[kywildcatfanone]

1 hour ago, tfred said:

I wouldn't be waking off at 830 for an 1130 flight given what is going on these days

Can you explain?  On most of our cruises out of FLL, we have somewhere between a 9:30-10:30 flight, so doing walk off by 7:30 made it so we didn't have to sit around too long at the airport. With an 11:30 flight, not sure i see the need to get off the ship before around 9am.  Am I missing something?

 

 

Now with that said, on our last cruise in April, we had a 9:30 flight, was told the last night of the cruise that we would be as much as 3 hours late back to dock, so we tried to get our flight changed, but nothing available.  Didn't end up getting off the ship till 8:20am, got to the airport by 8:45, and was in a long line at Delta.  A rep raised her hand if anyone was on the 9:30 flight, and we and about 3 other got her attention, and she took us to an open lane and checked us through and we made the flight.  Don't like to cut it that close, but figure if we are at the airport 2 hours before flight, that should be plenty.  I think at FLL if you get there too early they don't let you go on to the gate, not sure if that is still true or not.

[kywildcatfanone]

2 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

The internet is prorated by the night, so if you did a 7 night sailing, if the ship goes from FLL to Key West, you could wait until morning of day 3 and pay only for 5 nights.  Same goes for internet speed upgrades and number of devices.  On the day of disembarkment the guest internet shuts down at around 7am, but it's basically unusable from 630am, time will tell if starlink will change that.

We generally aren't much for onboard entertainment, normally just go back to our rooms to either watch the on demand options or stream. With Princess there are lots of on demand options, and generally could stream on the internet without much issue, but I have read on here that Celebrity doesn't have much TV options to offer, and even the stream internet isn't that good.

[kwokpot]

7 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

With an 11:30 flight, not sure i see the need to get off the ship before around 9am.  Am I missing something?

TBH you'll be hard-pressed to stay on the ship until 9; 8:30 and you'll be fine but still about the last ones off. 

[C4HCG]

21 hours ago, jelayne said:

The wi-fi prices in the cruise planner are lower than onboard.  The cost to upgrade will be the difference between the Premium wi-fi and the Basic, which I think is $13 or $14 per day in the planner.

We were quoted $45 a day to upgrade last week on the Equinox.

[kywildcatfanone]

19 minutes ago, C4HCG said:

We were quoted $45 a day to upgrade last week on the Equinox.

The cruise planner online says $30 a day to upgrade, which seems outrageous to me given people's complaints that the upgraded internet still didn't allow them to surf. 

 

That seems super high to me for an "upgrade".  I think the daily price for Princess, which is stream level is like $12 or something.

[kywildcatfanone]

43 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

TBH you'll be hard-pressed to stay on the ship until 9; 8:30 and you'll be fine but still about the last ones off. 

And that is fine, 8:30 will be fine.  We normally do express walk off, but like I said, our flight isn't till 11:30, so this will be different not rushing off the ship super early.

[C4HCG]

24 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

The cruise planner online says $30 a day to upgrade, which seems outrageous to me given people's complaints that the upgraded internet still didn't allow them to surf. 

 

That seems super high to me for an "upgrade".  I think the daily price for Princess, which is stream level is like $12 or something.

Agree entirely but that was the official cost quoted. A few days into the cruise they offered a discounted price of $35. This is the one thing Celebrity are poor on, daylight robbery.

[dlh015]

22 minutes ago, C4HCG said:

Agree entirely but that was the official cost quoted. A few days into the cruise they offered a discounted price of $35. This is the one thing Celebrity are poor on, daylight robbery.

Hmmm...seems they are quite good at it actually...LOL!!

 

Yeah, I agree those prices are pretty...well...pricey!

[kywildcatfanone]

1 hour ago, C4HCG said:

This is the one thing Celebrity are poor on, daylight robbery.

Glad it's not just me then, lol.

[kywildcatfanone]

43 minutes ago, dlh015 said:

Yeah, I agree those prices are pretty...well...pricey!

My only experience is with Princess, but everything seems higher.  Princess charges $29 for their steak house, and it looks like Tuscan grill is $49 "on sale".

[NutsAboutGolf]

32 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

My only experience is with Princess, but everything seems higher.  Princess charges $29 for their steak house, and it looks like Tuscan grill is $49 "on sale".

 

And there's now a mandatory 18% gratuity making $49 almost $58/person or $116/couple.  Used to be included before so many think it was a sneaky way to increase the price.