doowopbob

Within minutes of whenever your ship is cleared by the port authorities if you are carrying your own luggage off. Customs and Immigration officials can take anyplace from an hour - lots of ships entering your port on that day or having a slow down - to walk off with nothing as in Italy. That one all depends. No idea where or when you are disembarking to give anything more definitive.

We are disembarking in Miami but will have cleared immigration in Port Canaveral previously.

Trying to find out how late you can disembark after a cruise if you are in one of the upper suites and waiting in Michael's.

Back in 1997 my wife and I vacationed in Egypt. The day after our small group visited the Museum in Cairo, terrorist through bombs into a bus filled with German tourist some of whom were killed. Two weeks after we returned home there was a massacre at one of the sites we had visited. I believe 16 tourist were murdered. As you can see this has been going on a long time. It is a shame because the Egyptian people we met were wonderful. We still consider it the greatest vacation we have ever had. That said, would we do it again? Probably not.

To StanandJim, Just curious to know whether the Prestige Bar Package also includes all the selections that are in the Martini Bar Menu. For example: The Flirtini, Le French Martini, etc. Noted that the "Big O Martini" is included in the Bar Menu, but not all the martinis. Thanks.

My wife made a point of working her way through the entire Martini menu after we went on the plan, so yes, you can get any and all Martinis :)

Curt

How late did they serve drinks in Michaels?

Had several excellent cruises on both HAL and Celebrity. We now only sail on Celebrity and Oceania due to their excellent smoking policy. The last time on HAL couldn't stay in the casino more than about 15 minutes. Since they have banned smoking in the cabins all the smokers are out on their decks. Can't see paying for a nice deck that we might not be able to use due to a chain smoker next to us.

My thoughts about the increase in the beverage package is that I do not mind since receiving it as part of the promotion. Having received OBC in addition to the classic package when many others, I read, only received one of the three offerings in the regular verandah cabins or lower. I have no cause to complain, BUT, I would strongly recommend that Celebrity increase the $ value of beverages included in each package to be commensurate with the increase, rather that be $1.00 or $2.00, that would go a long way to ameliorate some of the upset and surprize.

 

Give a little bit and the increase would be a bit more tolerable, especially for those who are paying the full freight for the packages, Classic or Premium.

 

Just my $.02 on this one.. Thanks bo1953 :D

We sail almost exclusively with Celebrity and Oceania (smoking policy). Oceania's beverage package is the same price as Celebrity's premium package before you add in the 18% (included in Oceania's). Oceania also doesn't have any price limit on drinks. You can order doubles of anything you want other than the ancient scotch that goes for about $100. I've ordered a double of an aged cognac that just about paid for my daily drink plan. Also you don't have to take it for the whole cruise. We usually sign up for the last week. I think it is ridiculous for Celebrity to raise the price on their plans and not raise the dollar amount allowed. As a perk it is a good deal but otherwise I don't believe it's worth it.

How long did it take you from the time you left MC until you got through customs? We are trying to decide when to have a car service pick us up after a future cruise. Were you able to get off when you wanted or were you assigned a time? Thanks

Access to Michael's trumps all else for us now. Hands down.

 

We just got off the Constellation yesterday, and Leo (our fabulous Michael's Club Concierge) walked us right to the customs agent at the pier in Fort Lauderdale past all of the long lines. We saved tons of time doing this.

 

Everything was just seamless.

 

Michael's adds a level of service that is well worth the extra money.

 

We also love having the separate bedroom and living area.

 

Shawn

The difference between a car sticker price and cruise line brochure fares is that you get a discount of the car sticker price. Cruise simply double what they want to get for a cruise, then tell you you are getting half off. And they keep doing it because there are enough suckers who fall of it.

So true. We had friends who awhile ago proudly informed us that they had booked a cruise on Viking. The brochure showed if they booked within the next 3 days they would get 2 for 1 fares. The TA they used backed this up. They booked and were amazed months later when I showed them a brochure for their cruise with the same 2-1 fares.

You wouldn't want your luggage sitting around in the terminal, so I would say no

Actually we were thinking of carrying our luggage off with us.

Yes, the whole ship will have to clear Immigration at both stops, Boston and Florida.

 

You should contact Celebrity and apply for a "downline disembarkation permission".

 

Last year's cruise also had both immigrations on the schedule, but then the winter weather intervened and we did not stop at Bermuda at all.

 

Several dozen of us had applied for, and been granted, the downline disembarkation and left the ship in Port Canaveral. We put our luggage out the night before as usual, and it was delivered to the terminal on disembarkation morning.

 

 

 

But, because we had not stopped in Bermuda, there were no Customs/Immigration formalities.

 

Entering the US in New York was bad enough that we were thankful not to have to go through it twice. And it was bad enough that I won't be on your cruise with you -- one CBP check per cruise is quite enough for me!

 

In any case, contact Celebrity for the downline disembarkation permission. And because we did not go through Customs and Immigration at Port Canaveral, we really can't give you any help or advice for how much time to allow.

Did you have to disembark in the morning or could you come back on board after immigration and leave later?

We are taking a TransAtlantic leaving from Southampton going across to Boston and than NY and on to Bermuda after which we go back to the US port of Canaveral in Fla. and wind up in Miami. We are planning on leaving the cruise in Canaveral. I know we clear Immigration in Boston since that is our first stop in the US. Does the whole ship have to clear immigration again in Canaveral after leaving Bermuda. I'm trying to figure out how long it will take so I can figure out when to book our flight.

Just went on the "new" website for the first time. Shows we have no bookings which is news to us since we have one for next April on the Marina. I put in all the info and it still only shows our cruise as saved not booked. Checked out the Captain's Club which says we have no past of future cruises so no captain's points. Also news to us as we have done 4 previous cruises on Oceania. Did as instructed to update profile. Still shows no points. Wonderful website !!!!

Tried to book a Trans Atlantic cruise for 2016. Was told in order to book a CS we would have to put down $1800 instead of $900. My agent talked to 2 different people at Celebrity who both said that was what we had to put down and it's always been like that for the deluxe suites. Interesting since we have a TransAtlantic booked this Nov in a CS and only had to put down $900. Has anyone heard of this?? Also when I went through the motions on Celebrities own website it only asked for $900.

In Albuquerque several days ago my wife and I went into a local 7-11 to buy 2 bottles of beer. When we got to the counter the girl wanted ID from both of us. My wife had left her's in the car. I said I was buying both bottles but the girl said since my wife had "touched" one of the bottles she had to show ID or we would not be allowed to buy. I offered to put the beer back and than take them out after my wife left the store but that was no good either. We would not be permitted to leave with any alcohol until my wife showed id which she finally got from the car. I might mention that we are both 67 !!

Some areas take this way to far.

I agree with these assessments. On our cruise for the first 7 days I thought she was the best CD we ever had. Mingled with the guests constantly and was always seeing how she could be helpful. Then in the second week things went downhill. Pushing the bingo was just one of many negative aspects but the worse was her increasingly bad jokes. She was only outdone in that department by her husband Tom. We thought the entertainment on this cruise was the best except for Tom's sessions.

Even with these faults she was still better than many CDs.

We have been on three cruises with Dottie and her husband, Tom. We found Dottie to be an excellent CD. The jokes she told before each show were very funny and very well received by the audience. We also never missed Tom's shows which were always very well attended. We found his humor refreshing and had everyone loudly laughing. I realize everyone has their own opinions about what is funny but judging from the audience reactions on all the shows from the three cruises you are in the minority.

We just got off the Regatta Amazon cruise and when we found out about the tax we located a supermarket in our last stop before entering Brazilian waters and purchased several bottles of wine which we brought to dinner and paid the $25 corkage fee. You do not have to pay the 25% tax on the corkage fee as this is a service not a purchase. We had liquor we has brought on board earlier which lasted us until we were out of Brazilian waters and than purchased the drink plan for the rest of the cruise without the "extortion tax"

It's about 2 to 3 days into the cruise before the option is removed. Also, we had many martinis at martinis and they were of a good size. Not sure what thimble sized drinks everyone else was being served but we didn't complain!!! :)

We were on a 14 day cruise on Regatta last Nov. We signed up for the plan on day 7 for the rest of the cruise. It use to be you could sign up anytime during a cruise for the remainder of the cruise. I hope this hasn't changed. We have two upcoming cruises and would like to sign up for the second half of each.

We are booked for 2 future cruises that we paid the deposit with out Chase Sapphire preferred card. After reading about the UAL cards insurance coverage starting Nov 1 I would be more than willing to get the card and to have that coverage. However since I already paid the deposit with my Sapphire card I wonder if I would qualify for that coverage if I paid for the rest of the cruises with the UAL card?