bap335i

Cruise Director is Angela Clark. She just joined on 1/29 so will still be there in March. She was fantastic.

When I have used FBC there is an option to pay at final payment or pay now. Checking the box to pay later adds it to final payment. I assume you have three parties involved now - Celebrity, TA, and airline. The airline probably has your money, Celebrity was just the cost aggregator.. Good luck. It is largely a good program if you book flights you would normally take, not so good if you book an unfamiliar airline with seat fees and other unexpected rules. In this case it sounds like your TA did not choose wisely. You can potentially unwind it if was a cancellable/refundable fare. Fares can change daily so your cost may be different.

I booked FBC for a Greece cruise in October. The outgoing flight was Delta and I could book seats. The return flight was on Air Canada and I could not select seats until paid in full. I contacted FBC and got out of that set of flights to a better option for both ends using Delta and Air France. Both allowed me to select seats. The primary benefit of FBC for me is it is refundable, and Delta clearly shows that. If I see a better deal between now and next October I can cancel and book the new flight. Think of it as price hedging. If I could not select seats in advance I would not book the flight. So for those keeping score at home Air Canada does not allow you to book seats in advance, Delta, Air France, and KLM do.

We took the bus to FLL last January because we had OBC to burn. I would not recommend. I don't think there were actual chickens on the bus but it had that sort of 3rd world feel. Sat for a long time, getting dropped off at the airport was chaos. Uber or taxi is the way.

Cruise demographics are a part of this. Hard to picture passengers on any of the Celebrity cruises I have been on willing to pay a premium for the waterpark or the adventure sports. At 66 I was in the lower third of the age demographic on our Equinox cruise in February. On our Harmony of the Seas cruise with my grandchildren in March I was at the upper end of the age demographics. Almost zero kids in February, nearly half of the ship in March. We did have a fantastic time on Coco Cay with my family. Also had a fantastic time on Equinox. Totally different cruises for a totally different audience.

In many cases you can now renew a passport online. For people that travel outside of the US it is just basic blocking and tackling to renew a passport at a time when you don't need to present it and before it expires.