AntjeG

Yeah - today I was finally able to print my XPress Pass!

Problems seem to be Celebrity´s normal website mode. I did online check in via the phone some months ago as it didn´t work online. The rep at the phone was friendly and helpful.

Got email Dec 5 stating my XPress Pass be ready for printout. Since then, I´ve been trying 3 times per day. "We´re working to improve the website and will be back soon." I guess I will have to check in without my XPress Pass :mad:

The representative I spoke with had one suggestion for looking at the reservations -- she said to just enter the site via "already booked?" *instead* of the "my celebrity sign-in."

Doesn´t help to print XPress Pass. I´ve been trying since Dec 5th at least 3 times per day that way. "We´re improving the website and will be back soon." So if they work at the website for more than a week, why do they send emails saying "your XPress Pass is ready to be printed?".

Had to do online check in via the phone some months ago due to another website glitch. My TA was able to print my edocs for me but had to give up on the XPress Pass, too. Guess I´ll just show up for check in with my printed edocs and see what happens.

Another thought: I know that Bank of America and Deutsche Bank co-operate. Deutsche Bank doesn´t charge me if I use Bank of America ATMs. I think that Bank of America would also not charge you if you use Deutsche Bank ATMs. Deutsche Bank has blue signs.

I´d take a few Euros cash (exchange at your bank at home) and then use the ATMs in Europe to get cash. Exchange rates in the country itself are normally better than the rates offered at home. As mentioned before, the ship may charge you for currency exchange. So do most banks if you exchange cash instead of using ATMs. Credit cards like VISA are also quite common at least in western Europe but there are venues like ticket machines for public transport which sometimes don´t accept credit cards. Same for some restaurants. So you may want to have cash with you.

It's working today!

:( unfortunately, not for me. Guess I´ll have to wait until Friday

My first Celebrity cruise is still "booked" and not "sailed" but here is my wish list for a new ship:

- bathroom with shower doors, enough hooks, a clothes line

- self service laundry

- single cabins

- a Promenade deck

- a piano bar

- non smoking in cabins and public areas with the exception of one bar or other venue open for smoking

- indoor pool (heated)

- spa with direct access from indoor pool area

- different bars/venues for relaxing or chatting with other passengers and for dancing/loud music

- a bar or restaurant outside in the aft

- no fun-park at sea, please. If I fell the need for a water slide or similar venues I choose a different cruise line. Keep the "classy" and "modern luxury" concept.

Especially the fact of single cabins being available would definitely make me book more cruises. If they would take the space of 2 double cabins to make 3 single cabins and charge 50% or even 60% single supplement for these I would be happy. And I think for Celebrity this would be a good deal, too. They would make more money with the 3 single cruisers than with the 4 persons in 2 standard cabins.

If you love great architecture, art, nice landscapes, a bit of history and delicious Italian food this will be your cruise!

A few things to consider (most have been mentioned already):

Fly into Europe at least 3 days pre-cruise to get rid of jetlag. Choose a place near your embarkation port for some days with recovering from your flight and sightseeing at your own speed.

Compare different cruise lines/itineraries. Avoid cruises that consist of 2 or more short itineraries. Ports can be a zoo on those days. Plus, there are some cruise lines who want all passengers to repeat the muster drill - what a waste of time to do it 2 or 3 times on a cruise! Choose a cruise line which provides long time in the ports. Even if you don´t spend all the time ashore this would make it less hectic to leave the ship and get back on board as not all the people would want to leave/come back at the same time. For ports such as Rome or Florence with long travelling times to the actual sights long port times reduce your stress level and give you more time to explore.

After taking a long shore excursion such as Rome plan a day to relax. Either stay on the ship or do half day tours or just walk around a little bit. And/or treat yourself to a nice massage treatment in the ship´s spa. Many cruise lines offer discounts for spa treatments on port days.

Give yourself a variety of shore excursions. After great architecture and mass tourism in Rome why not plan your next excursion to be just a bus tour driving through the countryside with a photo stop every now and then and maybe a wine tasting? Not so much information to take in, lovely countryside to look at and if you feel tired you just have a nap on the way back to the ship without missing important things. If you had a guided tour yesterday plan a walk on your own today.

On the other hand a port intensive cruise with one full day excursion after the other can also be relaxing as you still do something completely different compared to your everyday work routine. So was my Western Med cruise - only one day at sea, did full day tours every day and came back with great memories and totally relaxed. But then, I fly less than 3 hrs and there is no jetlag for me if I go to the Med.

It can work out quite a good deal to pre purchase it yourself, depending on the current exchange rates.

I agree - I was lucky to buy OBC for my upcoming cruise when the Euro exchange rate was much better than now. Another thing to consider: If your Credit Card charges you for using foreign currencies you can save that as well by buying OBC. Not sure about Australia but I was able to buy my OBC in Euros and it is going to show up on the ship in US Dollars. My Credit Card charges 1.75% if I don´t pay in Euros. So even if I would break even regarding the exchange rate I would still save 1.75% if I buy OBC pre-cruise.

We even went inside of the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio.

Lovely review - thanks. Did you tour the Palazzo Vecchio? It is really worth it.

You can make reservations for Select Dining some time nearer to your cruise. If I remember correctly I was able to make reserations for my upcoming cruise in January 2015 about 2 months ago. So yes, keep an eye on their website. Also, you can ask them (or your TA if you booked through a TA) to put you on the wait list for traditional dining for your prefered seating.

When I booked my upcoming cruise I accidently booked early seating. I then switched to Select as the late seating was not available. Some weeks ago suddenly the late seating was available and again I was able to switch. When your cruise gets closer to final payment date there are more spots available as many people seem to cancel before final payment. My upcoming cruise has been sold out for weeks and now there are lots of cabins available. So don´t worry, you have plenty of time until your cruise starts.

Did you book at a TA? In that case I´d ask them to deal with this. If you booked directly and a phone call doesn´t help: ask them by phone for an email adress where you can email them the information. Take a printout of your email with you when travelling.

I had problems with online check in myself. My birth date was "invalid" to Celebrity´s website. I phoned them and asked if they would accept a booking from people who are not born yet :D A very nice lady at their office did online check in via the phone for me.

Good luck - and a wonderful cruise to you.

Seems like X is going through some goofy times. A lot of complaining. Their website is not up to other standards, promotions cause confusion (123), they seem to go out of their way to alienate new cruisers.

 

Am I getting old and crotchety or do other cruise lines make the total experience better?

 

Thoughts?

Yes there are some more or less important glitches. But I think that people tend to complain more than to praise. So if out of 10 people let´s say 5 enjoy their cruise and 5 experience a glitch of some sort you will find 4 negative and 2 positive reviews and the rest of the people doesn´t take the time to do a review. Also, you can often find a complaint of some sort on these boards and find the efforts X takes to solve the problem only if you ask the poster in detail.

That being said, I, too, think that their long ongoing website problems are quite ridiculous given the fact that we live in internet age. But this is a good example: I was not able to do online check in due to website problems. Something I could have complained about. I called X and a very friendly lady on the phone did online check in for me. Problem solved. Yes, I had to take the time to call them. Yes, this should not have happened. But no serious damage has been done, the phone call did only cost a few minutes of my time and no money and as I said the lady was friendly and helpfull. So why should I complain? As long as there are more positives than negatives and the negatives are solved I would enjoy my cruise. I would mention the problems on the guest survey to give X a chance to do better but not complain on an internet forum about minor issues.

So I'm driving down the west side of manhattan today to work. In the distance I can see a cruise ship docked with a gigantic X on its funnel. Since X usually docks in Bayonne and it's not visible from upper manhattan I'm thinking what the heck is that. My curiosity has now taken over and for some odd reason I'm under the impression that this huge ship will magically disappear and I have to speed down the highway in order to confirm what my eyes are telling me.

 

As I get closer and closer the familiar outline of a solstice class ship starts to form in front of me,

I call my wife excitedly " honey an S-class ship is in manhattan"

Wife: "why are you not at work yet".

Me: " never mind , bye."

 

Finally I get close enough and there she is. The eclipse, the ship that provided me my first celebrity experience. I feel a smile creeping onto my face, "what is this ship doing in manhattan" I mutter to the empty seats in my car.

 

Suddenly the car behind me honks and it snaps me from my moment with the Eclipse.

 

I get to work huge smile on my face and tell everyone how great and wonderful the cruise ship parked on the westside of manhattan is, I get courteous nods and a few that's great, but no one cares. As I'm working I have a 2nd window open on my computer looking up cruises.

 

Booked the equinox in May 2016, long ways away but gives me plenty of time to plan a perfect trip.

 

Had to get my excellent start to a cold Tuesday out to someone, this forum being my only outlet.

 

Happy cruising everyone.

Thanks for sharing your morning. Here, the day is over (we´re 6 hrs ahead of you) but I went ship-spotting too. OK, not cruise ships but ferries to Scandinavia which leave my home town at the coast of the Baltic Sea daily. Here, cruise season is over.

Ya I read that post too...

 

And got the impression that if the Traveller had a letter in hand that said Board at 4:00 PM and showed up on time as such, but infact ALL ABOARD was at 3:30 for a Sailaway before 5 PM, and therefore was REFUSED BOARDING

 

Not only would I be ticked...

 

I would be calling a lawyer

 

Cheers!

I would also call a lawyer. No matter if Celebrity themselves or the port authority sent the letter: in my opinion Celebrity is responsible to either provide correct check in times or adjust their boarding times to the times given to passengers by port authority.

But, knowing this, I will take my time to explore Sydney AND be at check in 30 min Prior to my designated check in time. Winning a lawsuit but still have my vacation ruined is not what I am in to.

Yep, here is the link to the AU Celebrity Page which has a but more details about the exceptions, including Captains Club, Suite/Aqua Class/Concierge Class and for those arriving on a Celebrity Transfer. They can all board at any time.

 

http://www.celebritycruises.com.au/content/en_AU/staggered_checkin_times.html

Thank you for this link. As I am on deck 3 this gives me nearly an additional full day in Sydney - love it. I don´t have to rush to port and spend my precious time in lines. I just explore the city for some more hours then head back to my hotel to collect my luggage and will arrive in time for my 4 PM check in. As we have 5 sea days I don´t think I will miss any ship experience.

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I guess it´s too late for me as I have already booked the Mail Run. I hope that the wind will take a break Feb 3, 2015.

No, you can just register to your cruise and look at your Online Check In.

I have never heard of ANY cruise line charging more than 200% for a single occupant in a double cabin.

Lucky you - I have experienced this quite often (not on Celebrity as my first Celebrity cruise is still waiting for me). Quite often single cruisers are not entitled to any special rates and so it happens to a single cruiser that he/she has to pay more than double price.

Example:

A cruise is 1500 $ per person double occupancy regular price. There is a special offer for 1200 $ double occupancy. So if you book for 2 you pay 2400 $ and if you book for a single you pay 3000 $ as the single cruiser can´t get the special rate and has to pay double per-person price.

I'm not sure what time the luggage drop off began, because I didn't get to the ship until 130p and of course, it had started already. The latest time was 3p. This may be different once they get the renovations completed.

Thank you.

Thank you for your review - I enjoyed reading it. And indeed I have a question:

For embarkation in Sydney at what time did they open luggage drop off? What was the latest time you had to be at check in?

Thanks again.

If you are from UK and don´t like to fly: do the Canaries from Southampton.

As you can see from my signature I do the Canaries quite often (but fly to Gran Canaria or Tenerife from Germany) and in my opinion a Canary Islands Cruise is the perfect winter escape.

Loved my Eastern Med cruise which included Istanbul and Athens but with the current tension in the world I personally would not go to Turkey right now.

I use Viator quite regularly when travelling. My experience is really good. They use good tour companies. You get your voucher with all the details emailed immediately after the booking is finished (and paid - you pay in full using a credit card). Their cancellation policy is quite generous. I just cancelled a tour which I had booked for my upcoming Australia/NZ cruise and got a 100% refund immediately. Customer Service via email answered my questions really quickly within less than 3 days.

Never had any issues on the tours. All the tours I have been on went exactly as described at Viator´s website. Prices are good. If you compare Viator´s prices to the prices shown at the tour operators themselves Viator never has prices higher than the operators when booking directly. Viator saves you the work of trying to find out which operators are at the place you are going to.

What I like about them, too, is that you can pay in a currency of your choice. I even paid my tours for the U.S. and Canada in Euros and was able to save currency exchange fees my credit card company would have charged.

And for us cruisers they have many tours with that "worry free cruise ship guarantee" which makes sure you are back at the ship in time. Some tours even have a refund with that guarantee if the ship doesn´t come into port as scheduled. Never had to give the guarantee a try but felt it was nice to have it.

So far I went on Viator´s tours in Europe, Canada and the U.S.

did you post a review of your cruise and info on ports visited. We are taking th Celebrity cruise from Sidney to Auckland Jan. 27, 2015.

I´ll be at the same cruise on the Solstice. In this live blog Terry gave lots of information on the ship and the ports. I agree it requires several evenings to read it all but: it´s fun! and made me looking forward to our trip even more.

I do not understand what is the violation. Could please somebody kindly explain where lies the problem?

See posts 27-29 on this thread.