kdkstormy

36 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Congratulations! Did you book an aft-facing veranda? For us that's the only way to cruise through the Panama Canal. 😉

 

Update: Sorry, I just noticed you later mentioned you were on the Nieuw Amsterdam and there isn't any left. We're trying HAL again as well and booked an aft-facing cabin on a PC cruise in Apr 2025 on the Eurodam which there are some left on Deck 6. 

 

We did book the last aft on deck 7 - others are available on other decks 🙂

Nieuw Amsterdam

We cruised Holland in 2014 for my hubby’s 50th to Alaska.  Since then we have been on a few Celebrity cruises.  (Enjoyed the no smoking indoors)

We have been planning a bucket list trip Florida to Vancouver for spring 2025.  Holland has had their itinerary out for a while.  Celebrity finally released theirs last week.  Did a price comparison with Celebrity, Princess and Holland.  Holland won by a landslide.

We forfeited our $200 future cruise deposit from Celebrity but saved over $3500 CDN booking with Holland.

LET THE EXCITEMENT OF PLANNING BEGIN 🙂

Thank you!  Explains why I got the last one on deck 7 for my cruise I just booked 😀

Returning to Holland after Celebrity pricing has gone crazy!  In looking at the aft verandahs on the Niew Amsterdam deck plans,are the ones towards the center bigger than the others?

Well Celebrity finally released their Panama Canal repositioning for 2025 from Ft Lauderdale to Alaska which we have been waiting for.  Did a comparison of pricing among Celebrity, Holland and Princess.  The best deal was Holland which included:

$300US each for Shore Excursions

3 Specialty Restaurant Dining each

Gratuities Included

Upgrade to Premium Alcohol Package

Upgrade to Premium Wifi

We booked a Sunset Balcony.  I will contact my Celebrity Cruise Planner to cancel my placeholder booking I had with the FCC of $200.  We will lose that but are gaining a lot more.  The savings overall are more than $3500 CDN when factoring in what we would have to spend for what's included on the Holland cruise.   

Celebrity is starting to price themselves out of market share.  

2 minutes ago, bEwAbG said:

Isn't there an insurance consideration as well?  You have so much time to get a pre-existing conditions waiver from deposit date.  

I have medical insurance through my work benefits.  I get trip cancellation separately and get that a few months before the actual travel date.  

3 minutes ago, JLMcruise said:

The "coupon" they gave you when you booked it will have the amount of time on it and your reservation number. I have one that we have 18months to book. Just email a copy of your "coupon" with the reservation number and expiration date on it and a receipt of your deposit and Celebrity will fix it for you. I would also ask when they plan to release the cruises for that time period. Just did the Panama Canal east to west and love it. Hope you get the cruise you want!

I asked my cruise planner and she said they will be released in early to mid December

28 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

I know some members on this forum have been doing exactly that for a while now.--which makes this whole 6 months, 12 months, 18 months discussion boring to them.

Yes it is a work around - unfortunately these place holder bookings take away available space for those who actually want to book those sailings.  

1 hour ago, kdkstormy said:

Hi all

 

Just got of the phone with my CCP.  She was alarmed as well.  

 

She is digging into it - she looked at my booking number and it does say one year.  She is worried the  autobots in their system are using the new 6 months on all bookings and will make sure it doesn't automatically cancel.  She will be making sure that that my one year stays in place.

 

If any of you have a future cruise booking under the previous one year timeline, watch your emails for the expiration warning!

 

Thanks to everyone for their input.  If there are any further updates, I will come back and let you know 🙂 

She just called me back.  She spoke with her supervisors and it is a system wide issue.  They recommended putting in a place holder booking with a refundable deposit and switching to the 2025 repositioning cruise I'm looking for when they are released.   

Better safe than sorry so we don't lose the Future cruise booking benefits.  

Hi all

Just got of the phone with my CCP.  She was alarmed as well.  

She is digging into it - she looked at my booking number and it does say one year.  She is worried the  autobots in their system are using the new 6 months on all bookings and will make sure it doesn't automatically cancel.  She will be making sure that that my one year stays in place.

If any of you have a future cruise booking under the previous one year timeline, watch your emails for the expiration warning!

Thanks to everyone for their input.  If there are any further updates, I will come back and let you know 🙂 

I didn’t mean to create a heated debate.  I have already sent an email to my celebrity cruise rep and will update all when I have more info.  

It was alarming to see the email.  I have been so bombarded with Celebrity emails lately I almost deleted it without reading it.

35 minutes ago, RichYak said:

So don’t you think “bait and switch” should read “mistake” in the thread title instead?

Unless they are changing the terms for previous future bookings as well.  I will update everyone after I talk to my celebrity cruise planner tomorrow 

1 minute ago, RichYak said:

So don’t you think “bait and switch” should read “mistake” in the thread title instead?

Unless they are changing the terms for previous future bookings as well.  I will update everyone after I talk to my celebrity cruise planner tomorrow 

4 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Guess you’ll be making a call tomorrow. Please follow up and let us know how it pans out. 

Will update you for sure

This page clearly shows one year.

9 minutes ago, jelayne said:

What does your paperwork show as the expiration date?

 

 

 

Just checked it and it does say 12 months.

On our November 2022 cruise we put a deposit down for the choose later.  It was 12 months that we were told we had to make a booking.  
 

I just got an email that it is expiring on May 16th.

I want to book a repositioning from Florida to Vancouver in 2025 but they haven’t released those yet!

On 2/11/2023 at 3:15 AM, MISTER 67 said:

We have never been on a cruise that the port charges were not credited back to our account for missed ports.

In 2020 we missed Antigua due to wind on the Reflection.  Inquired at customer service about getting port fees refunded and was told NO refund.  

4 hours ago, aragorn764 said:

Well....sure looks like the need to be fully vaxxed is still on!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/us-extends-covid-vaccine-mandate-for-foreign-travelers/ar-AA15ZlKM

Fully vaxed to fly, driving across the border it is not required.  

Yes it has

7 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

My wife and I have talked about this.  We got Omicron in early May and by time frames can now get our 4th booster. We chatted about getting it VS waiting for a variant one. We have decided to get the regular booster and are booked for next week.  Since the wait time is 5/6 months between doses we figure it will be December when we are eligible for the next one if needed. 
 

If a variant shot becomes available this fall, we wont be eligible for some time because we are 50 and 46. There are many other age groups and demographics that will be able to have access before us.  At that rate, we decided to go with the current booster for the original Covid and take the extra coverage.  If needed we will get the variant one when we are eligible late in the year. 

We are cruising in November.  Caught Covid in May, am double vax and 1st booster.  The symptoms for me were sore throat, cough (severe for a day and a half) which lingered for weeks, no fever, but my hubby had a fever and a lesser cough when he got it a few days after me.  We live in Vancouver but are waiting for the 4th shot til the updated vaccines are available.  We can request the shot now but will wait.
 

Interestingly, When we returned from our cruise near the end of January 2020 just before Covid was a global pandemic we had pretty well the exact same symptoms.  We likely had it then too. 

8 hours ago, techteach said:

I’ve always cruised in suites, but could only get a veranda for our first cruise on Celebrity. 194 sq ft. Yikes! Yes, I’m totally spoiled. I’m hoping Move Up will get me into a Sky Suite or a Celebrity Suite. Crossing my fingers and checking twice a day. 20 days to embarkation.

Book on the slant of the hump on S class.  It’s a bigger balcony 😀

For my flights I was able to deal with Air Canada directly for our flights to Florida.  They emailed me that I needed to contact them re changed flights.  The return are with United.  My original flights were great for timelines.  They added a stop which increased the travel day by 6 hours, waiting to get that changed.  We were told the 30 day timeframe as well. Our cruise is in November 

On 6/15/2022 at 11:23 AM, kdkstormy said:

So as an update on my flight situation.  They didn't try calling again as they said they would so I called Monday morning at 8:30 and again gave my number for a call back.  They said it would be 2 to 3 hours for a return call.  They finally called me at 5pm.

 

I spent over a half hour on the phone.  I told the person I wanted the flights that were now going to Fort Lauderdale instead of Miami - she obviously wasn't listening to me and quoted me new flights completely for more money of course.  I said again I wanted the times I had originally but now going to Fort Lauderdale instead of Miami.  She finally got it.  Said she would put a request into Air Canada for the change and if approved, the change would be at no extra cost.  She then said she was having system issues and would call back in a few minutes.  She didn't call back.

 

I called again yesterday and actually got through to a person after about 15 minutes on hold.  They were able to look into it right away.  She looked at the notes and the request was put in to Air Canada and it could take up to 7 days to get a response.    

 

Now it is a waiting game.  

Further update - got a notification from Air Canada that we needed to action on our flight changes - after a few attempts calling them (they were so busy - couldn't even sit on hold) was finally able to leave call back number yesterday.  They called me back a couple hours later and I was able to change the flights to the original times departing YVR at 6am flying to Fort Lauderdale through Toronto. 

Went and checked my Tripcase app to ensure all populated - and the return flights from Miami are screwed up!  Had no notification of a change by Flights by Celebrity.  Was departure from Miami at 7am, change planes in Houston, and to YVR at 12:30pm.  Now there is an additional stop in San Francisco with arrival in YVR at 6:40pm - now to get on the phone again!