Boatharbour

7 minutes ago, ebslcc said:

Thanks for your link to TA.  I didn't think to look there. It is kind of sad reading it.  

If you don't know already there are 2 different ferry services to Macau, which to take depends on where your hotel is located:

https://www.nextstophongkong.com/how-to-get-to-macau/

 

Laurence

Thanks Laurence for the additional information about the ferries. We’re heading back to the ship on the Friday and will spend Saturday on Lantau Island before flying home that night.

 Seems like the situation in HK is even worse today. Very sad. 

On 11/9/2019 at 6:17 AM, bEwAbG said:

Did you ask to speak to a supervisor?  Basing all of this on talking to only one agent would be a mistake.  

I made another call today and unfortunately got the same answer. Upgrades are possible, downgrades are not.

Then I asked to speak to a supervisor and once again, same reply. He explained that the  system can’t handle a downgrade unless we cancel altogether and rebook. He looked at ways to get around it, but it came back to us losing the full payment we had already made as a penalty. For some reason however, the system can handle an upgrade without penalty...even a free upgrade. 

It still going to be a great cruise. 

28 minutes ago, ebslcc said:

Thanks for all the info posted so far.  Our upcoming cruise will arrive in HK on a Friday and staying over night. We have originally booked a hotel for 3 nights in TST.  We re-booked on the HK side at the Marriott near Admiralty (close to the peak) thinking it may be safer.  Reading this thread we are now considering to just spend 3 nights in Macau and take the Turbo Jet directly to HKIA for our flight out on Tuesday.  https://www.turbojet.com.hk/en/routing-sailing-schedule/hk-airport-macau/luggage-services.aspx

 

We can still see HK on Friday during the day time and on Tuesday during the day.

 

What's the best way to go from Kai Tak Cruise Terminal to Macau? via Taxi to one of the hydrofoil service to Macau? Is there a shuttle service available?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Laurence

Hi Laurence,

I think you’re on our roll call on Celebrity Millenium.

I asked this same question on another TA forum with the same topic. This thread has provided up,to date advice from locals in HK to tourists over the past months. You  can follow it here https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowTopic-g294217-i1496-k12734994-Is_HK_save_to_travel-Hong_Kong.html

The advice I was given was to take a taxi from the Kai tak cruise terminal to the main Macau ferry terminal and then travel by ferry. 
 

13 hours ago, bEwAbG said:

Did you ask to speak to a supervisor?  Basing all of this on talking to only one agent would be a mistake.  

Thanks for the tip. I’ll try again.
 

I’m a novice at this, but quickly learning if you don’t like the answer you get from a Celebrity rep, ring again and talk to someone else. 

3 minutes ago, Boatharbour said:

We booked directly with Celebrity. I spoke at length to Celebrity on the phone about a swap, but was told it could not be done.

 

The change is from a concierge to a family verandah of which there are still several unsold. The family verandah cost more than the concierge, but the issue is that it’s a lower category therefore a downgrade. 

Just to clarify the cost - family verandah cost more when we originally booked. It’s now considerably less than we paid for a concierge.

5 hours ago, tgg said:

 

You said you don't want a credit for the lower fare, just to change cabins. There seems no logical reason for Celebrity not to do this for you.  Did you book directly with Celebrity?  I think a good travel agent could get this done with a phone call.

We booked directly with Celebrity. I spoke at length to Celebrity on the phone about a swap, but was told it could not be done.

The change is from a concierge to a family verandah of which there are still several unsold. The family verandah cost more than the concierge, but the issue is that it’s a lower category therefore a downgrade. 

3 hours ago, dkjretired said:

That's why its called final payment....

I understand that final is final, but why is an upgrade treated differently?

A cabin in a better location than the one we originally booked has become available. We have already made final payment.

i contacted Celebrity to see if we could swap cabins. Not a problem until they realised that this would be a downgrade - concierge down to verandah. The only way to swap would be to cancel our original booking, forfeit the fully paid fare and then rebook.
 

However, if we wanted to upgrade it’s a different story. All we would need to do is pay the difference in fares.

Can any one explain the logic behind this policy? We don’t want a credit for the lower fare, just want to change cabins. 

Check the location of your Aqua cabin. Some are in less favourable locations than the concierge cabins. We originally booked Aqua on deck 11 until reading posts about the noise from the outdoor movies above. 

We are looking forward to it as well. We’re celebrating a special occasion on our cruise  and LPC will be a unique experience on the day. I agree though that once done, I probably wouldn’t want to do it again. 

Really miss not having Murano for those special occasions on board. 

3 hours ago, ShawninFL said:

 

Good to hear about your experience and how Celebrity handled it. 

Our insurance does not cover us for changes / cancellations due to civil unrest or riots so it’s good to know that there was some compensation from the company. Hopefully it won’t come to that. 

Different ship, but Le Petit Chef is coming to Millenium soon.  I was able to make a reservation  on our November / December cruise today.  We were already booked at Qsine on the same cruise, but weren’t notified of the change over. 

To date, cruise terminal facilities in Hong Kong have been operating without disruption despite the ongoing riots. However as the situation continues to deteriorate I’m wondering what will happen to future Celebrity cruises ending or starting in Hong Kong. I’ve heard of ships skipping ports where there is unrest, but that’s more difficult when that port is at the beginning or end of a cruise.

Our Celebrity cruise from Japan to Hong Kong is several months away,  but after 9 weeks of riots matters are only escalating. The Australian government has  now issued a warning to travellers to exercise a high degree of caution if travelling to HK. 

Any thoughts on how Celebrity may respond if the cruise terminal is impacted or there are concerns for passenger safety on land? 

Our first cruise was in an aft corner sky suite on Solstice and we absolutely loved it. Deck 7 I think. No problems with soot or vibrations, large wrap around verandah and amazing views. 

Our next cruise was in an aft concierge cabin on the Equinox, two decks down from the outdoor area of the Oceanview cafe and about half way across the back.  Again no soot, fumes or vibrations. However there was little shade and the  balcony was also fully visible from the outdoor area of the Oceanview cafe if people looked over the railings - which they did. I wouldn’t book that deck again. 

Some complain about the walk to the lift and stairs, but we didn’t find it an issue. It was a quiet location and the views are wonderful. There is something so relaxing about watching the wake. An aft cabin will always be our first preference if available. 

Today’s  advice from the Australian government for travellers to Hong Kong-

Latest update
We have raised our advice level for Hong Kong: we now recommend you 'exercise a high degree of caution'. Protests have become more unpredictable and are expected to continue. Tourist areas have been affected. There is a risk of violent confrontation between protestors and police, or criminally-linked individuals, particularly at unathorised protests. The risk is greater at night and on weekends. We strongly recommend you avoid large public gatherings. Monitor local media and follow the advice of local authorities. See Safety and security.

We are celebrating a significant anniversary on our upcoming Millenium cruise. First time on M class and disappointed to discover there isn’t a Murano equivalent on board.

1 hour ago, Turtles06 said:

Try clearing the Cruise Critic cookies in your browser(s) and see if that helps.  If not, clear the cache.   Let us know if you are still having problems.

That worked! Thank you so much for your help.

For the past two days I have needed to log in each time I visit CC. Up until then, I was able to stay 

logged in.

ive food earlier posts about this issue in February, but this has only just happened. Does anyone have a solution ?

thank you. 

16 minutes ago, Scottygirl1 said:

Try a different browser - worked for my on Safari.  

16 minutes ago, Scottygirl1 said:

Try a different browser - worked for my on Safari.  

That worked ! I switched to Firefox and got in. 

Thanks everyone. 

7 minutes ago, mikkelhansen said:

That's a long-running error that seems to pop up for no reason. Try logging out of your Celebrity account, and access it via Incognito/Private browsing. That seems to have helped for many other users.

Thank you for your suggestions. Sadly, same message is still coming up. Have cleared cookies, cleared browsing history, ticked and unticked “stay signed in”. Also tried using Chrome.

The  only  fix that has worked in the past is ... to sit it out. For the same strange reason that the issue arises, it fixes itself eventually!

48 minutes ago, mikkelhansen said:

Got this error once yesterday. Try marking or unmarking the "Stay signed in" field (ie. do the opposite of what you normally do with the field), that worked for me. Also as already advised, using incognito/private browsing often works better than "normal" browsing.

Just tried that unsuccessfully. I can log in, but when I go to Manage Reservation, a pop up says I am blocked to protect my privacy (??) and to try again in 20 mimutes. 

2 hours ago, crazyman3 said:

Hi Shipmates

Is anyone else having problems logging into their account?

My usual password was rejected over a week ago, I changed password and for the past four days I have had a message saying that my information is there and that I need to come back later.

We're sailing on the 11th August ----thank goodness I printed out the documents a few weeks ago!

Who do I contact in the UK about my lack of access to my account? The Weybridge office?

Thanks. 

Has happened to me on a number of occasions in recent weeks. Sometimes for a few hours, sometimes a few days. I’ve been locked out since yesterday with a message saying to try again in 20 minutes...

9 hours ago, miched said:

We have had idiots that threw the dregs from their drinks over the rail from the upper decks.   Passengers like to stand along the rail and occasionally you get a loud rowdy group that like to hand out there at night and think it is funny to toss stuff over the rail and if smoking their ashes and butts

We had this experience on Equinox on a Med cruise. Someone thought it was fun to flick drink on us and our iPads while we were sitting on the balcony. Of course when we went up to the bar area, the culprit couldn’t be found. It happened  on several days and made me wonder why there isn’t an overhang to protect the exposed balconies below. 

Just bad luck and we didnt experience any of the other problems listed above. Still remains our favourite position of the ship as you can’t beat those wake views when you’re at sea. 

If it’s a choice of one, then I’d recommend Macau.

We took the fast speed ferry over, used the hop on hop off bus and walked around the old town. That night we saw the House of Waters show which was spectacular. We also enjoyed seeing the casino lights at night as we headed back to the ferry. 

Have sailed aft twice on Solstice and Equinox both times to warm destinations. We love the wake view, and have booked this area for our next trip. Didn’t find the walk to the lift onerous and found that part of the ship quiet.

No problems with soot or vibrations on either trip. The only down side was the lack of overhang on our balcony on Equinox ( mid aft). This meant the balcony was not private and in full view of people standing near the railing at the bar two decks above.