East Asia Cruise questions.

Good Afternoon!

I'm looking at booking a cruise on the Celebrity Millennium in Feb 2018 from Hong Kong. A few questions relating to this. There are 2 of us age 24 and 22.

1) If we are taking advantage of the free classic drinks package and $300 on board spend, how much spending money would you say is needed? Baring in mind we won't be buying any fancy drinks on board or upgrading any meals.

2) Transfers from Hong Kong airport to the cruise terminal? How is this best done? We are looking for ease, so preferably no changing on trains etc. What is the cost?

3) Same as question 2 but for a transfer from the cruise terminal in Singapore to the airport.

Sorry if any have been answered before but I struggled to find anything after 2009 on the subject.

Ryan

If you will not spend more than 300 $ OBC on specialty dining or spa etc. you probably will not need any extra money on board. Do you have the gratuities included? If not, your OBC will be used for the gratuities ( around 13$ per day per person, depending on class of stateroom).

Hong Kong: we just booked a shuttle from the airport to our hotel for less than 20 USD per person. The cruise port is not much further so add a few dollars to that.

Singapore: we paid around 17 USD for an Uber to the airport. Taxis were a little more expensive - however, still cheap.

Where are you flying in from? Are you sure you want to arrive at the day of the cruise?

If you will not spend more than 300 $ OBC on specialty dining or spa etc. you probably will not need any extra money on board. Do you have the gratuities included? If not, your OBC will be used for the gratuities ( around 13$ per day per person, depending on class of stateroom).

 

Hong Kong: we just booked a shuttle from the airport to our hotel for less than 20 USD per person. The cruise port is not much further so add a few dollars to that.

 

Singapore: we paid around 17 USD for an Uber to the airport. Taxis were a little more expensive - however, still cheap.

 

 

Where are you flying in from? Are you sure you want to arrive at the day of the cruise?

Thanks for the response! Will it just be taken off the OBC? Aren't gratuities not compulsory? Would rather just tip cash and possibly use the OBC for a spa treatment or 2.

We are flying from Manchester UK direct to Hong kong, we arrive on the first day but the cruise doesn't depart until the following day, it's a bit of a pain for us trying to arrive a day early and get a hotel due to my girlfriend's arrangements with leave in work.

The service charge is deducted from your onboard account. If you have OBC it will be used, if you do not or spend it otherwise the balance will be charged to your credit card.

The charge is not cumpulsory - as you can object to the automatically deducted gratuities. Which personally I would NEVER do.

- Gratuities are THE salary of the crew. The automatic gratuities are destributed to people doing work for you, however, never visible to you. You could never give them a cash tip.

- If anyone objects to the tips it is supposed there is a reason to do so - e.g. bad service. The crew is "held responsible" for that.

Sorry for being blunt about this. The charge is no secret. You can and IMO have to consider it a part of the cruise fare. The great service of the staff is what makes a Celebrity cruise so enjoyable for all of us fans here. I know it is a different system than in the UK. However, if you choose to cruise with Celebrity you also choose the system. If you decide to rather spend your money in the spa than paying the staff for their hard work you are hurting the crew. Please be aware of that and please do not do it!

A point to keep in mind in your planning is that any spa service has a automatic 18% gratutity added so if you book a massage that costs $125 you will be billed $147.50.

Good Afternoon!

 

I'm looking at booking a cruise on the Celebrity Millennium in Feb 2018 from Hong Kong. A few questions relating to this. There are 2 of us age 24 and 22.

 

1) If we are taking advantage of the free classic drinks package and $300 on board spend, how much spending money would you say is needed? Baring in mind we won't be buying any fancy drinks on board or upgrading any meals.

 

2) Transfers from Hong Kong airport to the cruise terminal? How is this best done? We are looking for ease, so preferably no changing on trains etc. What is the cost?

 

3) Same as question 2 but for a transfer from the cruise terminal in Singapore to the airport.

 

Sorry if any have been answered before but I struggled to find anything after 2009 on the subject.

 

Ryan

Hi Ryan, welcome to Cruise Critic

1. On board, your only need for cash is if you wish to use cash for gratuities (either in total, or in addition to auto in appreciation of superb service.) All other purchases can be made with your ship card which does double duty as a key to your cabin and an on-board charge card. At the end of your cruise any on-board charges in excess of any OBC (onboard credit) you may have will be charged to your on file credit card unless you make other arrangements.

In addition, you will need to estimate how much cash you will need in your ports of call. Depending on which countries you will be visiting, you may wish to purchase a little foreign currency in advance, although you can often use a local ATM to obtain local currency. For example, you may want to have some Hong Kong Dollars for your transfer from the airport to the cruise terminal, but major hotels and restaurants will accept credit cards. If you are going to Vietnam, you will probably not be able to purchase Dong in advance, but USD, and probably GBP, will be accepted any where in Vietnam.

2. Taxi fare from Hong Kong airport to Kai Tak cruise terminal will be around 300 to 380 HKD (30 to 38 GBP) depending on traffic and time of day.

3. Taxi fare from Singapore cruise terminal to airport will be around 25 to 40 SGD (14 to 22 GBP) depending on traffic and time of day.

Hope you have time to spend a day or two extra in both Hong Kong and Singapore; both are wonderful cities to tour. Enjoy your cruise.

Thanks for the response! Will it just be taken off the OBC? Aren't gratuities not compulsory? Would rather just tip cash and possibly use the OBC for a spa treatment or 2.

 

 

 

.

Yes, gratuities will automatically be taken off the OBC. It's best to leave the gratuities in place - it's how it's done on the ship, it's how the staff is paid, and to take them off appears as a black mark on your stewards and wait staff to their bosses - they must have done something wrong if you removed the gratuity. And I've read multiple times - don't know if it's true - that if the gratuity is removed and a cash tip is given that the staff has to turn that in, not get to keep it.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

All of the previous answers are great information.

Can only speak about Singapore since we did round trip out of Singapore on the Millennium - great vessel too.

As mentioned, hope you can stay over here for at least a day. We stayed at The Singapore Intercontinental Hotel before and after our cruise because Singapore is so fabulous. Hotel is perfectly located for walking everywhere. We took a cab both from and back to the airport at very reasonable price. Singapore Airport is quite something to see too. Enjoy!!

All of the previous answers are great information.

Can only speak about Singapore since we did round trip out of Singapore on the Millennium - great vessel too.

As mentioned, hope you can stay over here for at least a day. We stayed at The Singapore Intercontinental Hotel before and after our cruise because Singapore is so fabulous. Hotel is perfectly located for walking everywhere. We took a cab both from and back to the airport at very reasonable price. Singapore Airport is quite something to see too. Enjoy!!

Yes, I had a great time walking around Singapore one afternoon. Down by the Merlion, a bunch of local teenagers wanted to have their picture taken with 74 year old me! And of course I asked to have mine taken with them.

And I cannot say enough about the staff at the airport. We had an early morning flight and had to use a wakeup call for 3:00am; when we got to the airport, the staff was definitely more awake than we were and got us through the checkin in no time.