FFMilesJunkie

41 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Our September 2022 New England/Canada cruise is no longer showing AI. We got the AI (no choice) for that cruise when we booked it on 23 Jan. 2021

Those cruises are almost completely sold out.  The only cabins available are insides and OV.  When you choose another category, they will still allow you to waitlist those categories, but the prices are standard and do not include benefits (like AI).  If you choose Inside or OV on those sailings they will show the AI.  

@Ken the cruiserHave you been contacted about how much delayed your boarding is tomorrow? Looks like she's booking it around the Florida Keys right now so may not be too delayed. (Delay is due to a medical evacuation which meant the Connie had deviate from course to get close to Miami for the Coast Guard to take the passenger off.)

I heard there's going to be a special guest speaker on our holiday cruise.  The famous world traveler and philanthropist Kris Kringle. 🎄 

54 minutes ago, lakegirl16 said:

Thanks, Everyone!  The aft cabins are booked.   I've read a lot of reviews about noise on Deck 11.  Those of you who love this deck, could you tell me what cabin numbers you have stayed in?

 

Thanks again!!

 We were in 1123.  We could only hear the movie playing if we were on our balcony and the ship was in port.  We never heard it in the cabin or while the ship was sailing.  

3 minutes ago, gerelmx said:

I have felt undecided as to whether or not to take excursions, how safe is it? Are spaces restricted? is there a healthy distance? Thinking twice right now I prefer to get off just to know the surroundings near the pier. What do you think?

For our upcoming Holiday Cruise, we are taking either private or small group tours independent from Celebrity for the sole reason of not wanting to be contact traced to a positive COVID case by someone on our bus.  We use Viator or Tours By Locals to arrange private or small group tours.  You do lose some protection that is provided by taking official Celebrity tours (like the ship won't leave without you), but we feel the value of being independent is worth the small risk of missing the ship. 

We are neighbors on the Holiday Cruise.  Well not exactly neighbors since we didn't get one of the aft facing cabins, but we are just a few cabins from the aft door and our quick access to the Sunset Bar!  I'm sure we will be down in the sunset bar most late afternoons/early evenings enjoying a sunset cocktail and a slice of pizza before heading up to the cabin to get ready for dinner.  Look forward to hear about your first leg of the B2B.  Bon Voyage!    

Forgot to add a link to the Holiday Cruise Event Schedule: 

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/flyers/10_19_Onboard_Holiday_Flyer.pdf

The holiday cruises will be much more crowded than the sailings this Summer/Fall, but nothing like years past.  Your cruise looks like there are still plenty of cabins available so I would suspect somewhere around 50-70% full. If you see someone doing a "live from" post, you can have them ask around (or ask in a current roll call thread.  Someone on board may know more precisely what the load is for your cruise.  

We really enjoy the Deck 11 cabins on the M Class ships.  The door at one end of the hall leads to the sunset bar (one deck down) and the door on the other end leads to the sun deck (same deck).  On sea days you can get back and forth to your cabin from the deck chairs in just a couple minutes.  The other nice part is the quick access to the buffet (good for grabbing a quick bite to bring back up to the room..every morning I'll pop on down and grab a couple pastries to bring back to the room for a pre breakfast snack while getting ready). 

20 hours ago, rawtravel said:

Back home.  This cruise experience was fabulous. The 7 days past very quickly. 

I understand the wine on board is mostly South American wines due to provisioning limitations.  Do you recall if there were any upcharge wines/champagne for celebrations?  Just wondering whether to purchase some nice champagne at duty free and bring on board or if there are on board options to purchase special wines.  

I understand that the wines on Flora are mostly South American and not the usual wines found on Celebrity.  This is understandable due to the complexity of provisioning the Flora.  I was wondering if they still stock a limited supply of special celebratory wines for sale like nice champagne or upsell reds for special occasions. If they don't, then I assume that a couple bottles of duty free champagne/wine can be brought on board like the other X ships. Is this correct?

21 minutes ago, jhagen said:

rpht,

I copied this from another web site and saved it to my files. Don't remember that site.

 

 

That description mirrors our experience this morning (testing for Saturday's Edge sailing).  The wait time for a proctor was less than 5 minutes.  My wife did her test right after mine.  You just need to log out of the site first and then log back in with the other person's email/password.  It was really easy.  We were both done in about 40 total minutes.  

Call them and see if they will upgrade you to an S1.  There's 1 aft facing S1 available right now (9306).   The S3 is sold out on your cruise, so if an S3 went out of service, the only option is to upgrade you.  

Breakfast: 7:30 - 9am
Lunch (some days) noon - 1:30p

Dinner: 5:30p - 9p

I'm on the Edge in a couple weeks and was contacted by a research company that is doing research on a new Bingo concept on the Edge during my sailing.  Wanted to know if I would be willing to give up about 90 minutes of my time to evaluate the new format. Sure, why not.  I think they are throwing in an OBC for the effort. 

1 minute ago, DawnH said:

Same.  We are traveling on the Edge on 10/2.  I have tried to book excursions in Roatan but when I log on it says it is an "at sea" day.  I really think the port is probably canceled but I can't get any technical help or answers when I call them for the information.  Maybe I will try the Chat feature as well.

I'm on this cruise also.  Roatan is not cancelled, but it's backed up 1 day (now day 3).  Costa Maya is cancelled.  The online planner might be out of sync.  

I think deck 7 is probably preferred.  On deck 6, you may have some noise creeping up from deck 5 activities and deck 10 is in the spa area which some have complained is noisy in the morning when they are setting up for the day. 

On the RCL earnings call today, they said near term bookings are being affected by the Delta variant.  I would not be surprised if there are more cancellations and delayed start ups of some ships if the current Delta wave does not subside soon. 

41 minutes ago, crusingnut said:

Thank you this is just what I'm looking for. Looks like the OBC is per stateroom not per person which used to be the case. Not much incentive to book on board when most TA's offer a pretty good OBC & same deposit.

The onboard booking gets transferred to your same TA that was used to book your current cruise.  Most (good) TA's will honor any current promo they have going on when you book on board.  For example if they are offering an additional 5% back in OBC, then your on board booking would also get the 5% extra OBC.  You can coordinate with your TA to confirm, and most will encourage you to make your on board booking for the extra perks.  It's a win/win for Travel Agents when clients book on board.  

16 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

You must hand them over to be chilled then ask for them later?

 

@terrydtx which champagne do you recommend? I have premium.

Yes, I brought them down a couple hours before dinner to be chilled. They have quick chillers. 

51 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

 I don't want the hassle of carrying champagne bottles in checked luggage, hoping they don't explode.  😞

We purchased a couple nice bottles of Champagne in duty free on arrival to Dubai before our last Connie cruise and carried them on board.  Just make a quick stop on arrival (duty free if international) and pick up a couple bottles.  They didn't charge us corkage (in Blu) since it was a special celebration and we had been buying some bottles of wine throughout the cruise.  The somm comped the corkage for us. 

On 6/29/2021 at 6:48 AM, cementhands said:

Great information, enjoy reading about your cruise!
Are the activities well attended and is there live music. I’ve read the activities scheduled and seems great but are people actually doing things in groups?

We’re looking forward to cruising again this fall. Thanks again for your wonderful information and pictures too!

The daily schedule shows one of our favorite solo guitarist Kyle Tacy is on board. We were on his last cruise on the Connie in Jan 2020 right before he was promoted to the Edge. He’s really good. He has a huge playlist you can choose from. I hope he’s still on board in October when we sail the Edge. 

1 hour ago, Ugaaucruisers said:

1123 is available on our cruise for next year.  Is the Sunset Terrace movie an issue? Can you hear it when movies are playing?

Thanks.

‘We had this cabin on a 15 night cruise on the Connie. The only time I heard the movie is when we were in port and I was on my veranda. Even then it was just when there was a loud part of the movie. Couldn’t hear anything in the cabin. Also couldn’t hear it on the veranda while at sea. 

I'm not sure how the smoke could reach the deck 11 cabins.  There isn't a smoking section even close to them.  We really enjoy deck 11.  The convenience to the OVC, Sunset bar and the pool are great. 1119 is in a good location.  We have had 1123 before (and have it again in a few weeks).  I wouldn't choose any cabin at the end of the halls since you would have some noise from the outside doors opening and closing.  

since a lot of close in cruises have had some nice price drops and included perks, will they allow cancel and re-book a cruise you still plan to take?