KiRiMi

We are hoping to pack more lightly for our upcoming cruise n the Marina in July. It is our first ever cruise on Oceania,  We have booked a Concierge Cabin which I think has complimentary laundry service, a bit confused if that is one bag for each of us or only one per cabin. Is there also a self service laundry on the ship?

Thank you again for all these great suggestions and comments.  We got some great ideas, especially for making restaurant reservations.  We tend to eat late, around 8pm so from what has been said here, looks like we may have better success at getting the reservation we want since the hard to get ones are early.

We are planning to book the Norway Fjords cruise on the Marina.  There is only one sea day on this cruise so I think the spa would not be a high priority.  Priority access to restaurants might be the only perk worth booking the Concierge cabin.

Thanks to everyone that has replied!

Hi,  we are new to Oceania, looking to book a cruise for this coming July.  We are trying to decide between a standard balcony cabin or a higher level concierge cabin.  The website doesn't make it easy to compare but, so far, we don't see a huge benefit to the Concierge level given the cost.

We would love to hear from experienced Oceania cruiser about their opinions on this topic.

Best regards,

Kim and Richard

We were on the Solstice in February, Aqua Cabin.  Twice in Blu, we asked to order from main dining room menu and had no problem getting the entree we asked for.

We are considering booking a Celebrity cruise this summer and combining it with a land tour in France.  Is there a limit to how long before or after the cruise you can extend your stay?  

We will be on the Solstice, February 4, Mexican Riviera.   Thank you for your responses.  We were leaning toward Aqua Class but wanted to be convinced to upgrade to a suite.  So far, it seems like Aqua Class is a better choice.

We are trying to decide between booking a Sky Suite or an Aqua Class cabin.  We have booked Aqua Class on previous cruises and enjoyed the food and atmosphere in Blu.  How does Luminae compare to Blu.  If it isn’t much different, not sure it is worth the cost of a suite.  What would be some other benefits to a SS?

Veranda is a balcony, Oceanview is sealed window only. Azamara has a promotion going on with a double upgrade from Inside to Veranda, making the Oceanview more expensive. The promotion is not available on all itineraries.

We are thinking of booking one of these promotions. This would be our first Azamara cruise. Can anyone offer advice about V1, V2 and V3 cabins - they are all available. I am assuming that V1 is the best choice - on Deck 8?

Thank you.

Kim and Richard

Thanks for sending the link. I think I should have asked if the beverage packages are ever a perk for booking as done on Celebrity.

We have been on a few Celebrity Cruises - booked Aqua Class with the Premium beverage package. We are looking at booking a cruise on Royal Caribbean and are wondering if they have a beverage package. We have seen some good prices on several agency sites but while they offer on board credit we don't see any mention of a beverage package to select as we do when looking at Celebrity cruises.

We are taking our daughter and grandson on our next cruise and think they might enjoy Royal Caribbean more than Celebrity.

I'm surprised the pricing was so close. We've used Choice Air several times and the price has always been about 1/4 of what it would be buying directly from the airline. We are going, on way, Phoenix to Barcelona, in October, on Delta, and even with comfort plus seating, it was about $645 p.p.

We are flying to Berlin for a few days in advance of our cruise that leaves from Amsterdam. We asked them to check one way fares after they first quoted a price close to the airlines cost. They were able to reduce the cost by a couple hundred dollars and also include a flight from Berlin back to Amsterdam the day before our cruise. I don't have a problem with a schedule change that the airline makes, this does happen occasionally even when booking directly through them.

I tried to post this yesterday but it disappeared. Not sure if I posted it in the wrong forum or what might have happened to it.

Can anyone provide their recent experience using Choice Air to book flights to Europe? We are booked on the Silhouette for a Baltic cruise in July. They are quoting a slightly lower fare than booking directly through Delta. I have read posts regarding using Choice Air and it seems that some love it and others not so much.

My main concern is whether we will earn miles on Delta and having our flights change from what we book.

Thanks for your input and advice.

Does anyone have any recent experience (good or not so good) that they could pass on? I have been on the Choice Air Forum and it seems a mixed bag regarding experience. We are booked on the Silhouette Baltic Cruise this summer. We were quoted a slightly better price by Choice Air than directly with Delta Airlines. We have always booked directly with Delta so feeling a little nervous and uncertain about trying Choice Air.

Thanks for any input and advice you can provide to us.

I have spent several weeks in St. Petersburg, both off ship and by land. Of course my land trip mandated that I apply for the Russian Federation visa and the freedom we had to roam was enticing. But off the ship for such a brief visit the tour companies recommended on the Ports of Call forum and sister site Trip Advisor are the very best way to see as much of the city as possible.

OP, do look again for your cruise on the Roll Call. I cannot imagine that there is not a very active forum.

It is important that every visitor to a city like St. Petersburg be very aware of the limitations for the physically challenged. It is an arduous task to push a wheelchair up the river stone paths at Peterhoff. Every palace has limited facilities for access other than stairways. No palaces have air conditioning either. Those magnificent homes have thick walls that keep things cooler in the summer but you will be amazed viewing a Rubens at the Hermitage next to an open window. It's just part of the experience.

alcpa1, I checked again today and there is no Roll Call for this cruise (Silhouette - 3 July 2015). I am also surprised but at first thought it was too far away and I would need to wait until closer to the cruise for the Roll Call to be started. I know see that many of the Roll Call are started a year out so I am not sure why this particular cruise is not so popular.

We were on a Baltic cruise in 2012 and did a tour with TJ Travel. They were excellent. They took care of getting the Visa for us and it was a small group--no more than 16. Prices include lunch and you do not pay until the second day. Contact them by visiting their website tjtravel.com and they will get back to you quickly.

Thanks for the recommendation. We were hoping to join up with others on this cruise to book a tour but so far there is n Roll Call for the 3 July 2015 cruise on the Silhouette. Hope that isn't a sign that this cruise is in danger of being cancelled or not very popular!

I believe that you need visas whoever you arrange your St P trips with but if you do it with a recognised Tour firm (Red October, ALLA, whoever or X) they will provide your visas.

We booked through Red October for our St P tour on the recommendation of a friend and we were very disappointed with our guide. I guess it's pot luck as there are so many tours and the quality of guides can be a problem. But don't let that put you off. St P is a remarkable city, but as another post said, do not try and do it on your own!

Thanks for letting us know about your experience with Red October. Having read these posts, we will definitely be using a tour agency which will take care of the visa. If the tour company secures our visas, can we come and go from the ship when we choose or is the visa only good for the day/time of our agency tour?

Celebrity automatically transfers an on board booking to the TA you used for the cruise you were on unless you tell them not to. I am surprised they did it anyway. Did you find the TA you booked the first cruise with poor? When you transfer the booking you get extra OBC's, as well as what Celebrity offers so many do this.

 

We are doing the Baltic in 2015 also (Eclipse) and we will get our visa through the tour company we are using.

What kind of extra on board credit do you get when Celebrity transfers our booking to a TA? The TA we used for our first cruise was okay, everything was done correctly. We did not get anything for booking with her (wine, dining credit or OBC). The only other concerned we had was she works only a few hours a week, M-Th from 10-3 so she wasn't available much of the time.

First, it looks from what you said that Celebrity may have transferred that booking to that travel agent. Take a look at the Booking Confirmation form that you received when you booked on board. Is that travel agency listed? If so, the transfer has taken place.

 

Second, did that travel agent tell you that you would need to apply for a visa or imply that if you didn't book with that agency that it would be a lot of hassle for you? If so, change travel agencies. That information is not correct, or at least, not complete.

 

As has already been written, only if you choose to go off on your own, WHICH IS NOT RECOMMENDED, do you need to apply for a visa. If you book Celebrity tours, Celebrity gets your visa for you. If you book private tours, they get your visa for you.

I will check our booking confirmation but when the onboard agent asked us about using that TA again, we specifically said we would prefer to book directly with Celebrity. They changed the email from the travel agent to my personal email so I thought it was done correctly but maybe not. I can't imagine why else they would be contacting the TA directly.

We are booked on a cruise to Scandinavia and Russia in 2015 (Celebrity Silhouette - 3 July 2015). We booked on board with Celebrity so we don't have a TA, at least for now. One of our questions is, do you think for this itinerary it would be better to transfer our reservation to a TA than to leave it with Celebrity?

We booked our first Celebrity cruise this year with a TA (I wouldn't call her our TA since that is the only time we have used her and our only cruise to date). What I find odd is that I received an email from her yesterday saying that Celebrity contacted her about our upcoming cruise, even though we specifically told Celebrity that we wanted to book directly with them and not use a TA. Nothing against the TA that booked our first cruise, we just thought we would try using Celebrity this time. Now we are not sure we made the right decision if we have to apply for a visa to see St. Petersburg. Not sure how much help Celebrity would be to us in that process.

Can anyone provide personal experience regarding obtain a Russian Visa for your Baltic cruise?

When we received our final bill there were several drink charges at a couple of bars that I know were not ours due to the time of day they posted. No charge to us since we had a premium beverage package but we still wondered how that happened. I assumed that when they swiped our card, the computer read our number but from what I am reading here, the bartender has to enter the information each time.

Has anyone else had charges that shouldn't be there end up on their statement?

Yes you can use Choice Air, it doesn't matter whether your reservation is held by Celebrity or through a TA.

 

As for transferring the reservation; we recently booked 4 cruises while on board getting OBC, the drink Package, reduced deposit from Celebrity. Once we returned home we transferred those reservations to the on-line TA we normally use and received additional OBC from them. I personally prefer to have a TA handle our reservations so we don't have to deal with X's long hold times & other issues. A downside of using a TA is that if they are not open on week-ends you could miss a price drop, or see a cabin you would like to switch to but can't because the TA is closed.

 

I would suggest you check some of the larger on line TAs, many are open on weekends, to see what they will offer if you transfer your booking. Also, check to see if they charge a fee should you cancel the cruise or a change fee if you make changes to your booking.

I didn't know that you could switch your cabin or book at a lower cost once you have made your reservation. I thought we were locked into this cruise and would lose our deposit and perks if we cancelled that reservation. Would you lose your perks if you do that? We received both prepaid gratuities and the beverage package when we booked on board (it was a special promotion for booking a cruise to Europe) - we wouldn't want to lose those perks. Although if he price drop was significant it might make it worth while.

While on our cruise to Bermuda last month, we booked another Celebrity cruise on the Silhouette in July 2015 - Scandinavia and Russia. We are debating whether to transfer our reservation to a TA. We have only booked one cruise prior to this, using a TA for that one. She was helpful and efficient but did not offer us any perks for booking with her. From all the CC reviews I have read, most of you seem to get OBC or wine/dining credit. If anyone can provide advice or your experience from keeping a reservation with Celebrity versus moving it to a TA, we would very much appreciate it.

We would like to use Choice Air to book our air, very expensive tickets when I last checked so hoping we might reduce the cost somewhat using this option. Does anyone know if we would still be able to use Choice Air if we transfer our reservation?

For the money you are saving you could do the ultimate dining package of $30

Where is your cabin, a friend had a bow cabin and said it was very noise and very very bright in the morning, ( it was a eastbound TA)

Our Cabin is AQ2 on Deck 11 - cabin number 1623 on the port side. We have no idea if this is a good cabin or a not so good cabin. If we decide to stay in Aqua Class we would appreciate anyone giving us information about the cabin and its location - should we request a different cabin in AQ2?

On our first Celebrity Cruise in July we booked an Aqua Class Cabin. While on board we booked another cruise for next summer to the Baltic on the Silhouette, also in Aqua Class. We are thinking of moving to an ocean view which would save us quite a bit of money, should be enough to pay for most of our airfare. Is a balcony cabin worth it in the Baltic? We aren't sure the weather will be nice enough to use the balcony much. While we enjoyed Blu on our cruise to Bermuda, we didn't meet many people on the ship. It might be nice to eat in the MDR at least some of the nights and try specialty restaurants a few nights.

Anyone have thoughts about an ocean view vs. Aqua Class on the Silhouette?

We also aren't sure what we would have to give us to move our cabin class. we received a beverage package and gratuities for booking on board.