Coarsegold_Mom

Call again.  We have a cruise the leaves in 5.5 weeks.  Last week we called and were able to upgrade from an Aqua Guaranty (already had a room number) to a Sky Suite Guaranty.

Most of the time they don’t sell daily passes, only for the length of your cruise.

When we were on our last celebrity cruise on the Apex, I pre-purchased online for my husband - regular price. When we boarded and took a tour the pass was being offered for less. I asked for a refund of the difference because supposedly if your pre-purchase you were to get best price. The spa gladly refunded us the difference in price.

Just for reference -  I don't think we will bid as we want to try Aqua class which we are booked in

Ship: Edge

Cruise length:  14 nights

Sail date:  30 Oct 2023

Captain’s Club Tier:  Classic (almost Select)

Booked through Celebrity Direct or via TA: TA

Current Cabin: Aqua Guaranty

Bid? Probably Not

If Yes- Bidding Details:

Cabin Category: 

Notification Date: 

Accepted/Rejected: 

General comments:

Big range for Sky Suite -  $960-2400 p/p

Big range for Sunset Sky Suite - $1210-3025 p/p

Bid range for Aqua Sky Suite - $1550-3875 p/p

Bid range for Celebrity Suite - $2090-8225 p/p

Bid range for Royal Suite - $3230-8075 p/p

Bid range for Edge Villa - $5190-12975 p/p

*It should be noted there a ton of sky suites left - Over 20 if you combine all the different types of sky suites.  There are also 3 Edge Villas left and 1 Celebrity Suite.

We are sailing on the Edge next month and are currently in an Aqua room.  We have never sailed Aqua before and since we are going w/out kids, we decided to give Aqua class a try.  My husband likes the spa and I like the idea of a smaller dedicated restaurant.  We have always traveled in veranda and sunset veranda on Celebrity but have experienced the Haven on NCL about 6 years ago.  Anyways, I'm trying to decide if we should bid on a sky suite.  I know that there is the retreat lounge and pool area....but I'm wondering about the restaurants?  How does Luminae compare to Blu?  We have never eaten in either.

Thank You!

13 minutes ago, CruiseMsclDad said:

He is massive for his age, but rules are rules! Thank you,
Mitch

My son is also a gymnast and has been allowed in the gym as long as a parent is present.  If your 14 year old looks older, he will probably be ok. They will not let your 7 year old in.  Ultimately, it is up to the person who is in charge of the gym. We also took a "note" from my son's coach saying he was in training for junior Olympics.  We were also on a longer cruise so missing 2 weeks of gymnastics was a big deal.

On 5/29/2023 at 1:14 AM, trinitygirl said:

They definitely did this - I was planning on pre-purchasing a laundry bag for my cruise and until this 'sale' happened, it was priced at $57 (AUD) with an 11% discount. Now, with the 20% discount, it is priced at $69!  I thought my memory was going, but my notes don't lie.  Now I don't know whether to jump on the special, or just leave it and hope the price goes back down again before my cruise...

I have never seen the option to pre-purchase laundry?  Where is this.  Is this only an Australian thing??  Would love that option.

@WrittenOnYourHeart - Did you try these?  I did F45 on my last cruise w/ Celebrity but this pricing seems too good to be true?  Did they really give you 4 classes for this price?

Keep checking daily as Jim_lain says. Our Oct 30 2023 Suez Canal has been sold out for months. As has the leg following. There are many people on it who must have booked through TA in Australia and are doing all 4 or 5 legs of the trip. I look every so often and there are single rooms that open from inside and concierge. But never any aqua or retreats.

10 minutes ago, JFontaine said:

Another downside - someone not feeling well and deciding to self-isolate (and not report to medical) can either  pay $12 to have a hot dog delivered, or just go to the dining room. 

So true - my son was sick on our last cruise.  (Yes - it was the dreaded Covid).  He did self isolate and we had room service brought to him many times.  I also brought food down from the buffet.....but if we were gone on an excursion, he got room service.  What a shame for future guests who are feeling ill.

We just returned from the Apex - Amsterdam, Ireland and Iceland. I think ship was pretty close to full. I felt awful for those with any time dining that didn’t make reservations. They sometimes had to wait over and hour with a buzzer. I love anytime dining but strongly recommend reservations or plan on getting a buzzer and going to get a drink. 

We just got off Apex and were in room 10280. My son thinks the balcony connected to the one on the right as you are looking aft. We didn’t have it open but it appeared to have slits and could open 

We cruise next Monday 8/1 on the Apex and I saw a Cruise Critic Party listed in the online app.  I don't know if it will really happen, but it's listed. 

Is there a support number for the app? We leave in a week and none of my reservations are showing. I have deleted and reinstalled multiple times. It knows me and my sailings. It’s just not showing my reservations. 

15 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We booked last October when the 4 cruises were first announced.  Come join the Roll Call.

I joined the roll call when we booked. But it looks like a lot of people have already organized their tours 😮 . We leave next week for Iceland/Ireland but I will start looking into tours when we get back and try to get a small group together for Petra. Yes a very active roll call. I’m jealous of all the people who are doing the 3B2Bs or is it 4?- all the way to Australia! 

2 hours ago, the penguins said:

 

We also enjoyed pirate alley with the ship constantly zigzagging. We took on a group of armed "SAS" troops which was interesting as was their departure from the ship. When their transport arrived the squad absailed down the side of the ship and quickly disappeared. 

Petra was a joy, a private excursion through Toursbylocals. We rode in on a horse drawn carriage (2 passengers to a carriage) but we're dropped off 100 yards from the last bend so we got the full experience of arriving on foot through the tiny opening in the rocks. Be sure to pre book your return carriage ride as otherwise you will be waiting in a long line - this is something your private guide will arrange.

A little confused by your description of "endless sand" as we enjoyed numerous villages, watched the local boats crossing the canal at numerous points and the armed patrol cars that accompanied us. 

Yes no locks so totally different to the Panama but interestingly both canals run North/South and not, as many believe, in the case of the Panama East/West

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

We did it a couple years ago.   We did a B2B Singapore to Abu Dhabi  and Abu Dhabi to Rome.   The Suez was interesting but nothing like the Panama  -  just hours and hours of just sand and no  locks. 

 

It is a bit interesting going through the Gulf of Aden and the pirates zone.    Ships are usually escorted and at night the ships are totally blacked out, all decks closed and security out with binoculars all night and not permitted near windows.   They use to have passenger drills to leave your room and sit in hall ways in case of an attack by pirates.

 

Having said that Sitting outside around the pool at night with no lights for 100's of miles you will see starry skies like you have ever seen before. 

 

The Abu Dhabi to Rome had very sea intensive but our Visit to Petra (private tour) was one of the highlights making it all worth while.

 

 

 

We just booked this trip last month and super excited. Amazed that the majority if rooms are already full more than a year out. @Jim_Iain and @the penguins I would love info on who you booked excursions with that you liked. 

Thanks everyone.  I sucked it up and just made a reservation for two.  It looks like it will be fun - even if I only have a few sips.

Ok - I was lazy - I just did the search and found this thread which is actually very good.  It looks like you make/they make 4 full size drinks.  So I guess the second half of questions still is relevant.  Can I join and just share the drinks with my husband?

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2818875-silhouette-mixology-101-world-class-bar/#comment-62297940

Can anyone tell me a little bit about this?  If I my husband and I want to share the tastings, can I just register one of us?  I am not a big drinker.

Thank You.

24 minutes ago, Jonnoh said:

Hi everyone, thank you so much for even spending a minute giving us your attention and helping us get some resolution.

 

It’s Sunday evening for us here and we’re drafting up our factual email to the leadership team so we can send tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed we get some traction and get this resolved sooner rather than later. 

 

I agree with everyone that it’s a weird, complicated (at least when you try to explain it to a bank), and in some ways unethical to be disputing the airline charge so it’s best that we sort this out it with Celebrity directly. While this may be the case, we did raise to the bank that this situation was happening so there was some sort of record of a duplicate payment for services rendered. It may be for nothing, but at a minimum; it’s another third party to have a record that this has happened. Worst case scenario, it may have to be handled through small claims court which I really hope we don’t need to go through.

 

Now to some of the questions:

- we booked through a travel agent but billed directly by celebrity. While I have done my best to offload the issue back on them to handle on our behalves, it’s not a productive path.. I had to make a trade off and at a minimum, I have access to voice recordings between celebrity and the travel agent about the issue and resolution.

 

- we didn’t call the emergency number from Celebrity. It wasn’t something I knew of as this was my first time booking a cruise package with Celebrity and I was trying to keep my entire party calm while making the most logical decision with the information I had in the airport at 4am. I’ll keep that in mind if I ever choose to cruise again after this one. I did the best I could…

 

- I stand corrected, my baby was not a newborn, but 6 months at the time going on her first vacation. In my mind, still a newborn (they grow up fast).

 

Thanks again for all your replies and will share an update whenever we hear back.

I suggest you also sent a certified letter with a signature receipt to an executive and the support team you are dealing with. I have found these days that certified letters with signature seem to get more attention than emails. Also let the support team know you have cc’d the executive.

I think they made updates last night to the site. I was looking at veranda rooms for a cruise and it was showing the cruise only fare the same as the fare that included tips, drink and Wi-Fi. This morning it was fixed…but I bet some people got a great deal booking last night.

8 hours ago, Surfguyxxx said:

This is one of the only things I buy while onboard.  

Why is that?  I'm wondering if I should buy before our cruise or wait.  I was thinking price would be higher once we board?

7 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

His cruise is in Spring or Summer 2023.  Certainly can get flights then.  If the pricecof flights went down you likely could rebook - BUT (always a but or two) there would likely be a change fee of at least $200 per ticket.

My cruise is in October 2023 🙂 How would I go about getting credit if airlines don’t even have their flights posted yet?

How are you supposed to get this credit if flights are not even available yet for a October 2024 cruise?

Wow - what a beautiful suite! One day maybe we will get there. We are leaving in the Apex in 3 weeks so your info about Amsterdam is helpful. If you have the chance, can you you see what the going rate for a spa pass is? I would like to purchase for my husband. I can’t believe the low capacity on the ship. I was expecting close to full for ours in 3 weeks. Enjoy the suite life. & the cruise!