canderson

It certainly is. Unless some radical changes occur, this will probably be our last with X. ☹️ That said, it annoys me to no end that RCG is laughing all the way to the bank if we book Silversea, taking our money from one of their hands, and placing it in the other. There's no penalty for the silliness that way, and with bookings remaining high, no incentive to change anything.

That's correct. They only recently added the "Essentials" fare, which is now the one that doesn't have any refundable deposit. Port-to-Port was the NRD stepchild until "Essentials" came along. Still, if booking a suite with Celebrity, it's also going to be an NRD deposit, though not quite as large (at the usual 10%) as the 15% of the fare as is the case with Silversea.

@jelayne Bummer on the health challenge. Seems we're all accumulating a longer and longer list of "preexisting conditions" over the years. As has been noted, final is also 150 days out, an even greater argument for trip insurance to cover the contingencies.

Always ask for a copy of the Celebrity invoice as well if working through a TA and they haven't provided one. For those that have not yet tried to 'decode' their Celebrity invoice: What you're looking for will be pairs of + and - entries that offset, along with a cryptic description of what they represent. Note that if booking Royal or above, you may not see beverage or WiFi notations in your invoice because they come with the cabin. We've had some invoices that did - and some that didn't. In this example, the THW9 entry "BEVPRINGRA14" indicates the charge for 14 nights of a PR (premium) beverage (BEV) package including gratuity (INGRA). Note in the same invoice another "THW" entry ("THW8") that turns right around and deducts the same amount. Net zero. The TIR1 entry "PRWIFCHG" is for PR (premium) WiFi (WIF). Note again in the same invoice another "TIR" entry ("TIR2") that turns right around and deducts the same amount. Again, Net zero. Depending upon when you booked, you may or may not have a "GRAT" (gratuities) entry in your invoice. As is well known, they pulled the gratuities from the added perks a while back. The entries you see above were for a cruise booked after that occurred. The entry below was from a 13 night cruise booked when gratuities were still being included:

When the cruise takes a SW course, and the calendar indicates that the Summer Solstice is far back in the rear view mirror in the N hemisphere, you might want to give the sun's N/S position as much credit as you do E/W, especially early in the cruise.

Need to avoid the extra "s". silversea.com The Dawn TA is late in the season compared to previous years. Kinda jams us up close to Christmas, which is why I didn't start there for 2025: https://www.silversea.com/destinations/transoceanic-cruise/lisbon-to-fort-lauderdale-florida-da251208014.html Anyway, for Sky Suite and + Celebrity customers, Silversea is often worth a comparo look to see what options may exist. Another thing I found about Silversea was that irrespective of the actual cruise cost, the bill at the end of the cruise was less as well. While their included excursions aren't always that exceptional, they're as good as many for which Celebrity charges. My bar bill was far less because for some reason, Silversea's wine prices by the bottle are far better than I've ever encountered aboard a ship - ocean or river - for those moments when the by-the-glass options don't quite fit. Nothing I ever ordered from a bar or in the Arts Cafe coffee lounge ever incurred any kind of charge. The price for the same number of minutes for a Swedish was better. @goofysmom99 Geez. Darned near forgot about the 10% discount for being E+ on Celebrity! They'll throw in all of the free laundry and dry cleaning in a Silver Suite, but a Celebrity crossover with a status of anything from Select and above get that perk now, too. Anyway, with all of that, even if you get a close match on price, you'll typically come out ahead on Silversea.

My dermatologist would likely argue for SHOP. 😄

Wow. What's up with this? Next year's Connie TA certainly is popular! We can usually book these 15 months out, but not this time. Was looking at 2025 westbound TAs, and noticed that Constellation will be doing a 16 night (sweet!) Rome to Tampa, but Celebrity is already showing "Sold Out" for Retreat cabins. I talked to one of the bigger agencies, and they didn't have any of our preferred cabins available, and showed only one Sky Suite in inventory. Looks like we will probably be back on Silversea next year (LIS > FLL). Given what we book on Celebrity, we'd do just as well for the money in a Silver Suite on Dawn again for a 14 nt, and we have plenty of those from which to choose... and is a somewhat more interesting itinerary. For those that book Sky Suites, the Classic Veranda (it's an all-suite ship) on Dawn for the 2025 14nt TA runs $5700 pp, and provides a bigger cabin (387 sq ft is the min cabin size on this ship) and a slightly bigger veranda for those at-sea days. A Sky Suite on the 14nt 2024 Constellation TA cruise is already currently going for $5673 pp, only $27 pp less. Given the difference in food and service, it's worth a look if a smaller ship experience would be of interest. The ship (built in 2021) is ~2/3 the size of Constellation, but with only ~25% the number of passengers on Constellation, but with ~40% of the number of Constellation's crew.

@pete_coach Then again, some of us are just spoiled. https://www.greenbriarinn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/WineListJune2024.pdf Some of those wines probably haven't moved in years, either.

Yeah, but you've got that nifty little travel router to take care of that!

@markeb Here's a tidbit you'll appreciate. On Silversea, you'll find their prices marked up a TON less than on Celebrity. As I've noted before, some wines are at or slightly below shoreside retail. If you order a 'top end' bottle, and let them know that you don't plan to finish it in one setting, they'll apply a Coravin Timeless to the bottle for you to serve on a different night.

Probably booked a long time back, but shouldn't be hard to figure out. How many 18 night cruises does Celebrity HAVE?

Yes, but haven't we heard of people being able to successfully access directly through the portal before then?

Agree, never see the emails until somewhere within the 90 day window. Was thinking more of those who initiate the process themselves using the direct portal even earlier that I've seen posted here a couple of times. Have never tried it that way, but evidently it works for some folks.

And even then, there's no telling which agency is sitting on a block of cabins for a group, some or all of which could be returned to Celebrity's inventory at some point!

But that's not what the award was about. By the glass ... yeah ... meh.

A typical Celebrity ship has more depth and breadth in their available wines than the vast majority of restaurants. So why the surprise?

That's exactly what happens, though if unsold, the line may see that inventory again closer to sail date. As I say, in this context, Sold Out doesn't mean unavailable, but does no good if trying to reprice.

Many of the shows change from cruise to cruise as Celebrity employs many guest entertainers for very short periods of time - sometimes a single cruise. So asking "and what are" might get you the half of the entertainment made up by 'production' shows, but not the other half of what will be made available on your specific cruise.

True enough, but ... just because Celebrity doesn't have a fare up on their web page doesn't mean an agency out there doesn't still have cabins available at a price. It's a bit annoying when that happens. I know of a cruise right now that has no Retreat cabins available on the Celebrity site - "Sold Out", but I also know of an agency that can and will sell you a suite for that cruise, and I'm sure there others that can do so as well. So while there's technically no 'Celebrity published fare' with which to compare when this occurs, that's only a function of who is showing the cabin as available inventory. In other words, "Sold Out" is a rather subjective phrase in this context.

Our experience with B2B (in ports where disembarkation is mandatory) has been that all of us meet together at a set time in one location (e.g., the Blu restaurant) with the person coordinating the B2B switch - no suite/non-suite business - so that we can disembark together as an escorted group, wait in the terminal together, and return together. There was no "join the suite guests on the 2nd leg when embarking". We then all boarded together, those of us in suites, and those not, ahead of everyone else.

What I find interesting/annoying/amusing is that "To qualify for an award, a wine list must present complete, accurate information, including vintages and appellations for all selections. Complete producer names and correct spellings are mandatory, and the overall presentation of the list is also considered. Lists that meet these requirements are judged for one of our three awards." but even digital lists that don't have to be 'reprinted' that are made available to the passengers don't show proper vintages?

There was a time during "restart" bookings when Celebrity ran a "lowest price guarantee" deal. There were circumstances as part of that deal where a cruise could be repriced after final, but any difference was credited as OBC, not refunded. We had a B2B repriced 3 times, once after final. Wound up with a crazy amount of OBC in the mid 4 figures (we had booked a RS). But those days have long passed.

At 58 days out, you'd have to cancel and rebook, and the (U.S.) cancellation would cost you 75% of your original cruise fare. I doubt $2,000 would make up for that. If you were in Aus/NZ or the UK, the numbers would be different (e.g., 25% in Australia, which $2,000 might even cover with a little left over depending upon what you originally paid).

Perhaps something along the lines of the old adage "Fool me twice..." ?