late2cruisin

12 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

No drinks on first because they don’t offer it , plan and simply 😁

for coffee https://www.celebritycruises.com/ca/things-to-do-onboard/eat-and-drink/bars-and-lounges/al-bacio

you can get cappuccino at Elite breakfast , 

 

You can also get your cafe mocha at the Elite breakfast, every morning from 8-10. Outside of those hours, you'll have to go to Al Bacio. Elite breakfast also serves mimosas, bellinis, and bloody Marys. And smoothies. Enjoy!

7 minutes ago, gkm said:

Welcome aboard everyone. I look forward to meeting all of you at 4:30 at the Sunset Bar on Deck 18 aft.  I hope you enjoy the ship as much as I have on the last cruise.  We have a wonderful staff on board. 
 

Garry

Sorry we won't get to see you on Deck 18 aft. We'll be on Deck 10 at the Sunset Bar!😀

54 minutes ago, stellarose said:

can you really get small martinis for the classic package price? wow.

Yes, but not the "fancy" martinis at the Martini bar. 

43 minutes ago, SLOTheta said:

We will also be on this cruise. I’m new to Celebrity and also have this cruise through BCC (via MGM). Our original deal came with a free room, but we paid for an upgrade to Veranda. I was thinking of trying the MoveUl Bidding option. When I saw the aqua class rooms, it said they come with free wifi and classic package. Since you have a cruise only fair, does that mean you didn’t get these when you booked? I wonder if you get them if you bid for it 

 

 

We can’t wait for our first cruise on Celebrity! 

It's my understanding that, if you move up from a successful bid, you don't get the extra perks (wifi, bev.pkg.) only the amenities that come with the cabin (so Blu and Persian Gardens for Aqua.)

13 hours ago, tiercel said:

Of all the drink packages offered Celebrity's is my favorite.  This is simply because it includes Cafe al Bacio.  I no longer sail on Celebrity unless it is included, and now it is!  I have never felt the need to upgrade, but my taste is simple.  Wine at dinner, maybe one cocktail during the day, and always some cappuccino.  

There are other drink packages that include the ship's equivalent of Al Bacio. Princess, for example. And I believe Royal Caribbean, though I've never had that one.  There was one package that we had some years ago that didn't include coffee drinks- I think it might have been NCL but not sure.

As another poster said, it doesn't seem like you really need the alcohol package with your drinking habits. And remember, it's only "included" when you pay a higher fare...

7 hours ago, C-sea said:

Hi All,

Does Captain's Club Elite receive a discount on the drink packages, I thought I read, Elite Plus and above?

No, Elite gets a discount and so does Select (but less, supposedly)

25 minutes ago, prmssk said:

How recently?  That is what it used to cost with the loyalty discount but prices went up in the last couple months.

I upgraded a couple of weeks ago and that's what I paid too.

1 hour ago, landlocked12 said:

What does it mean when they say at the bottom of the brochure that a “service charge is added to each check”? I haven’t sailed on Celebrity before the pandemic but I do not remember them adding any service charges to drinks that were covered by the beverage package.   

That service charge is only if you're paying individually for the drink, not if you have any beverage package. If you have a beverage package, you won't get a "check" when you order a drink.

8 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

I remember when we could get sushi at OV around 5pm 

Our group would get a couple of plates of snack and head up to Sunset Bar for HH 

Yes, I used to enjoy this too. They discontinued it when they turned "Bistro on Five" into "Sushi on Five". Why give free sushi when you can charge for it?😁

9 minutes ago, UniPac said:

 

Thanks. Was cruising every year but seems I still missed that haha.

So with Classic, anything above $9 on the menu will be charged the difference to $9 only.

 

Yes, the difference plus the 20% gratuity on the difference. So a $12 drink would cost you $3.60. This applies to beer, wine, cocktails and other alcoholic drinks. It doesn't work for premium bottled waters (Evian, Pellegrino), smoothies, flavored waters/energy drinks, etc.

2 hours ago, UniPac said:

 

Is that really the case? I thought this only works for the Premium package, not the Classic. If Classic limit is $9, a $10 drink will cost $10 and not only $1.

Premium limit $15 and a $16 drink will be $1.

That used to be the case years ago. They changed it so that the Classic works like the Premium. For many people, less incentive to upgrade...

44 minutes ago, john2003 said:

Thanks for this. Our sailing will be from Sydney on the Eclipse. Maybe when I look at the bar prices they have the 20% added. 
i just looked for the MDR under wine. It lists for the Classic and Premium packages separately and the Classic is up to $11 so all looks fine. 

Yes, all of the wines you see for $11 on your sailing are covered by the Classic package, as are cocktails in that price range. I think I got confused too when I sailed on an Australia cruise years ago.

51 minutes ago, Spif Barwunkel said:

As much as I can appreciate the OP's detailed listing on how to save drink money without a drink package, the presentation seemed a bit tongue-in-cheek to me. Even if accurate, too much thinking and work to be done, for me, when I get on the ship. There is most always a reasonable price available to upgrade to a premium package, which we will do if not already included in the booking, and not just for alcoholic beverages. It is a convenience, and we never spend all of what we pay. Never try to. Sometimes value is not just what you hold in your hand or put in your mouth. Intangibles work for us as well. 

 

Did a spread sheet comparing OP's formula to what the typical drink (package) spending is for us. Too much effort required for a savings of $7.38. 

 

I think the OP was talking about not having ANY drink package (as opposed to not wanting to upgrade your classic package to premium.) Also, I'm not sure where you're getting your $7.38 figure from...

7 hours ago, Ruthie2 said:

My husband and I have come down with COVID. We are due to sail on October 24th and we need to get testing in Rome before boarding the ship. What happens if we still test positive even though we have no symptoms, and are not infectious and it is 2 1/2 weeks after COVID, Does anyone know Celebrity's policy?

We are in exactly the same situation- just recovered from Covid and sailing on a transatlantic on Oct. 22. If you haven't done so already, get a proctored (preferably PCR) test and print out the results. Assuming the results are positive, go to your doctor or other healthcare professional and get a Certificate of Recovery (the Celebrity website specifies what has to be included in the letter). With those 2  documents you will be able to board and be exempt from testing.

What nobody has mentioned is that they ALWAYS equated satisfaction with food in the MDR with service in the MDR. I have been told by many waiters, on many cruises, that even if I say the service was a 10, if I give the food quality any less than a 10, it will be considered a bad mark on their record. I guess the idea is that they are somehow responsible for making sure that you enjoy your dinner, even if it means taking back food you don't like and replacing it with food that you may or may not like any better. I really resent Celebrity for doing this (if indeed they do) and I refuse to give high marks to the food if it isn't that great. I usually rate our servers a 10, but the food rarely gets more than a 7 or 8, even on a good cruise. 

42 minutes ago, Cruise a holic said:

Yes.  You can either call or do on-line.  You will be given an option when you check out.  

This is only if your OBC is from Celebrity. If it's from a travel agent, you won't be able to use it until you get on the ship.

3 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

 

I guess hard copy restaurant menus will be the next to go.  There is a productivity incentive to get rid of them.

That is already happening, unfortunately. When we sailed on Princess last year, they assumed we would use the app for menus and I had to ask for a menu in the MDR. And when I asked for menus in the bars, they had to go hunting for one (grudgingly).

We were on a Royal Caribbean cruise last month (Quantum) and they expected everyone to use the app for everything. There was a tiny printed notice near Guest Relations saying that if you prefer a paper copy, you can ask your cabin steward for it. So I asked him and he gladly provided it every evening in our room. I too enjoy going through it the night before (or in the morning with my coffee) and highlighting the things that interest me. I also use the info on the app when I'm around the ship and don't have my paper copy with me (I always have my phone because it's my camera). So it's nice to have a choice. I hope Celebrity will give us that choice... I also hope they still have actual menus at the bars (Royal expected us to use our app for that too!)

This thread made me check our booked excursion for our upcoming cruise. I was surprised to see that the one we booked for $56pp was now $72pp! Glad I booked when I did.  I also noticed that an excursion that had been sold out for a while was now available to book, at the same price as before.  So it pays to keep checking...

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

My biggest problem on longer B2B's is that after while I loose track of what day it is.  

Then maybe you should try cruising on HAL or Royal Caribbean- they tell you the day of the week in every elevator!😁

8 hours ago, lhsail said:

Anyone know what brand of wines are being offered for Chardonnay, Cabernet or Merlot?  Assuming the Elegance for Chard and Cab. Like several of you, we are doing a casino cruise after having had AI on several cruises. The worst part will be we usually start our evening late. Will have to get ready early if we’re going to make the most of the cocktail hour. 🤣

I very much doubt that the Elegance chard and cab would be offered on the Elite Happy Hour menu. Those are in the "premium" category. Think "classic" wines. Probably Columbia Crest for the merlot, likely a Chilean chard or cab.

Just now, la_croisiere_s'amuse said:

We are early diners, so it's been quite some time since I've had the evening fare in the Diamond Club. But our next cruise is on the Allure (best Diamond Club in the fleet!!) so I'd like to take advantage.  Can anyone with recent experience tell me the time window for the appetizers?

Not on the Allure, but on the other ships we've been on this year it was always from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.

On 9/16/2022 at 8:31 AM, DaKahuna said:

 

 

 

 Yours is the first that I have heard of.  I would not be surprised if there were more cases but no one saying anything about it. 

 

 

  There are many more cases of Covid from our cruise. I know you don't do facebook, but if you did, you'd see many people on the Quantum Sept.5 group who have come home with Covid (or their travel companions have.)

 

We enjoyed reading your review and were onboard this past week. Did you happen to see the show called Sonic Odyssey (I think it was night 6)?  We thought it was the best entertainment we saw all week! We also enjoyed the comedian (he did a show on the last night and also an R-rated late night show earlier in the week) and Peter at the piano bar in Schooner. Also Monique (Goddess). I'm sorry we didn't get to see the Las Vegas Tenors though, like you did the previous week.

On a less happy note, my husband started feeling sick on the last night of the cruise, came home and tested positive for Covid (I'm still negative as of yesterday)

This is our first Covid experience (and we were on 4 other cruises since the re-start). We wore masks everywhere, avoided crowds, didn't do any excursions, etc.etc. I guess no matter how careful you are, eventually your luck just runs out...

Anybody else come home with a case of Covid?

3 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

Tonight’s headliner show in the theater was “Godess” the female vocalist was very good but personally I thought her band’s music overpowered the vocals in many places. 
 

We did enjoy the show but will most likely consider it another ‘one & done’ like ‘Starwater’.

 

Was "Goddess" the show with a singer named Monique (from the Philippines, if I remember correctly)? If so, we saw her twice on 2 other ships and thought she was really good. According to the app, that show won't be on for the next cruise.