KAE27

43 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

On NCL Breakaway/Breakaway Plus class ships, about 1/3 of the "Haven rooms" are outside the Haven proper. These include forward facing suites, aft facing suites, and some penthouses (formerly spa suites). We actually like the rooms outside the Haven courtyard because they are bigger, sometimes for a lot less money that small suites in the Haven. 

Thanks for all of this!  And this was particularly helpful to me, too.  We would be going on the Bliss for our initial foray into the Haven.  🙂

1 hour ago, Sand and Seas said:

1-   I haven't seen the MDR menus offered in the Haven, and haven't missed them.  However, when we were on a longer 12 day cruise, the Haven dining room offered some 'specials' later on in the cruise.  While the specials may have been from the MDR menu, it wasn't the entire menu.  We did enjoy Brisket one night.   Others might have a better answer for you on this.

 

2-  We have been inside and outside the Haven.  If you want to be close to the Haven bar and restaurant, inside is great.  We have also enjoyed cabins outside the are and enjoyed the walk to the Haven.    We loved our Forward Facing two room Haven.  It was less expensive than cabins inside the Haven proper, but had a great lay-out and awesome bathroom.  We also enjoyed the separate living area where the butler could set up our white tablecloth breakfast while we were still sleeping.  I would also love to try the Aft Haven suites.  

Super-helpful - thank you!

Hello all, I'm an Elite Plus cruiser on Celebrity looking possibly to jump ship (pun likely intended) to the Haven on NCL.  Celebrity's pricing has become insane, while the service being offered is declining.  I wanted to thank sincerely those in this thread who have offered solid advice for new NCL cruisers!

A couple of questions specific to the Haven:

1.  When dining in the Haven restaurant, are you able also to order from the MDR menu?  On Celebrity in the suite dining room, they will give you the MDR menus to choose from as well.

2.  I read a thread on here indicating that some suites were outside the Haven but had access to it.  Did I get that correct?  If so, are there any watch-outs on that?  And more generally, are there any "avoid" cabins in the Haven of which I should be aware?  (I do see the pinned thread on cabin choices.)

I guess that was more than a couple of questions.  🙂  Thank you!

7 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

 I usually quote any portion of a response that I’m commenting on to avoid confusion but I should have realized.

Message board confusion for sure!  Happens to all of us...  🙂

15 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

100% not true. 

Says you.  Cruises appeal to a wide variety of people for a wide variety of reasons.  

Cheers!

The poster was clearly replying to the "if true" portion of your post to reassure you that the "new hours" are not true.

Oh hell yeah.

On 8/11/2022 at 7:55 AM, latebuyer said:

If you are a last minute cruiser, looks like celebrity has some alaskan cruises with no single supplement or quite low at least, in particular, there was some really cheap seattle ones. (For this august/sept)

Not quite last minute (but close enough), but just snagged two cabins on the Celebrity October 1 Mexican Riviera sailing with a zero single supplement as well.  

On 8/14/2022 at 8:58 PM, latebuyer said:

It looks like no single supplement is back on some of the celebrity spring Caribbean cruises so if you are interested check it out.

I just booked two cabins for the October 1 Mexican Riviera as well, with no single supplement.  Amazing deal!

I'm also still waiting.  October 15 sailing, and it's still showing us on the Southern Caribbean itinerary while presumably the suites are being sold while we wait.  😞 I also see the price has gone down, but I can't take advantage of it until this is worked out.

I suppose canceling and rebooking is an option...

4 hours ago, casandbliz said:

 

 

We  are on the Oct. 15th also, and we are still on an "undefined" cruise with no cabin number.

You're not alone; we're still showing as going to Southern Caribbean on October 15 (booked Mexican Riviera).  

27 minutes ago, cruisingator2 said:

My CVP told me this morning that Celebrity is still moving guests and the Retreat has not opened up on any sailings. They can only access Aqua class and lower at this time. 

Oh, thanks for this!  Makes me feel better.

10 minutes ago, RollingMeadows said:

This is our first cruise on Celebrity. Although there will be no Retreat, we're OK with that. Am I correct in thinking the Solstice has suite butlers instead of Retreat hosts? We booked the cruise for the line and not the ship so it'll be pretty easy to adapt. 

There is still a Retreat, just not a Retreat sundeck.  You'll still have the separate Retreat Lounge that is indoors.  You'll still have a Personal Retreat Host (the new name for the butlers) plus the Retreat concierges.

6 minutes ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

We are still showing as being on Millie for our B2B and they have not moved us yet.  Frustrating part is that the sailings are now open to the public!!!  I would have thought that X would have waited to open to the public until after everyone was moved!!  I called and spoke to X and they said that not all passengers will be moved until some time in MAY!

 

I was informed to have my TA reach out to X and tell them I wish to accept Solstice and found a cabin we would like for both sailings.  We will see what happens

 

I will say I only waited less than 15 minutes to get through to X , so that was a nice change

We're still on the Millennium, too.  I'm concerned because we have two cabins that are of a type of which there are not many.

1 minute ago, craig01020 said:

Apparently we're seeing how the sausage is made. I'd prefer it was behind-the-scenes too.

Exactly!  It sent me into a panic.  This is going to be our last-ever reservation held by a travel agent that I'll never work with again due to their messing up two other changes/cancellations I'm still trying to get ironed out, and the prospect of having to try to get this fixed through them made me nauseated.

5 minutes ago, GottaKnowWhen said:

Definitely a work in progress. Don't change your airline reservations yet. Even though San Juan is a great place to sail from...

Thanks for the info!  I've sailed from San Juan and agree.  But that's definitely not the itinerary we signed up for!  😁

16 hours ago, edgee said:

16 hours ago, cruisingator2 said:

Our cruise has changed. Still showing the Millie but out of San Juan. Seven nights to the southern Caribbean. St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados. Now I need them to load the Solstice.

Same here. We are on Oct. 15 sailing.

We are on this one, too.  So instead of moving us to Solstice, they moved us to an entirely different cruise location?  Is the expectation that this is a work in progress and it will be updated correctly?  It's worrisome.

38 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

Dang, that was fast!

 

Questions many here will have:

 1. How long ago did you book your cruise?

 2. Did you pay a refundable or non refundable deposit?

 3. If you purchased the Princess Vacation Protection insurance, was in the standard or the Platinum version, and did you buy it before your final payment?

 4. If you have PVP insurance, did you use that, or the Book with Confidence option?

 5. Was your "refund" in the form of a FCC, or credit to your credit card, or a combination of the two?

 6. What is the "use by" and "sail by" expiration dates of your FCC?

 

Congrats on getting your FCC so quick, that amazes me! Good for you and Princess!

 

Doug

I'm confused.

1 hour ago, mac_tlc said:

We booked the Transcanal on Edge on 3/27/23 while we were onboard Edge last week. Today, that same SS is $2000 higher for 2. Glad I booked it when I did, the day after the latest promo was announced. 

 

I also noticed a January 2023 Equinox cruise I was looking at went up by $1400 for an S1 between this morning and this afternoon. Looks like they kicked up some of the 2023 prices today. 

 

For some 7-day sailing in Jan/Feb/Mar 2023, the Beyond is actually cheaper than Apex. Haven't seen that before.

 

mac_tlc

Sounds like several of us got lucky on this one, before the prices went back up.  That's really surprising to hear about Beyond, too.

3 minutes ago, sdnich said:

We are on the same cruise we booked last Dec. and I was not paying attention to the emails till this morning! I texted my TA and said he would take care of it.We will save around $2700 on our sky suite !

Wow, that's fantastic!  And I can't wait for our cruise!

1 hour ago, mahdnc said:

 

You saved like a whole 'nother cruise!

I like the way you think!  😁

Wow, I sort of ignored this promo until reading this thread.  Then decided to check the Panama Canal March 2023 cruise I booked while on board last week.  It resulted in a saving of $4000 each on two Celebrity Suites.  😲  Thanks so much to the OP and the other helpful folks here.

1 hour ago, Barwick Cruiser said:

Really enjoying your postings, Jim, seems to be the only “live from” at the moment. Noticed on your dailies that you have Brent Nixon onboard as one of your Podium speakers…we really enjoyed his talks on our Solstice Alaska cruise a few years back. Have you caught any of his presentations? Is he new this leg or was he on the previous leg as well? Thought I saw Celia’s name previously but that could’ve been a different sailing. 🤷‍♀️
Cathy

One thing you might find of interest as a Brent Nixon fan is that they have put some of his evening presentations in the Sky Lounge instead of the Theatre.  I went to one in the Sky Lounge on sea otters (fantastic presentation as always), and I'm not sure whether it was a good idea.  He said the Cruise Director is experimenting with new venues for him, but couldn't do it in Alaska since it was too light in the Sky Lounge well into the evening.  The plus was that it had an intimate feel that I think enhanced the presentation.  The minus was that there were two loud groups at the bar in back, not there for the presentation, which detracted a bit.  It will be interesting to see if they continue having these up there.

Speaking of loud, @Jim_Iain, I think I came across your loud groups from Luminae last night when I was in the Retreat Lounge.  😁

35 minutes ago, hcat said:

18 hours ago, KAE27 said:

To me one of the most underrated aspects of a Celebrity cruise is the rooftop movies.  We went to the movies on our Alaska cruise several weeks ago, albeit with flannel blankets and layers, and had a blast!  Today I went to see "In The Heights" (terrific!) on the big big big screen and was the only one there.*  Please enjoy my private movie studio for the day.

 

*Yes, I realize we are docked at one of the great American cities, so I get it.

 

 

Expand  

 Beautiful area...Wondering  if sound travels to any cabins?

Good question.  I could see it possibly being a disturbance to the Aqua Class cabins on Deck 11.

16 hours ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

Oh dear.  Have you ever seen or visited a SS2?  Stateroom 6132 is so much wider and longer than one of those.  I have a hard time understanding how those SkySuites 2 can ever be described as a "suite."

Oh, you're absolutely right - I wasn't taking into account the S2s or S3s and was only referring to the general term "Sky Suite" being the lowest echelon.  Honestly I'm not sure how anything without a separate bedroom is called a "suite," yet here we are.  I was mostly expressing my appreciation for the lovely stateroom I'm grateful to be able stay in, despite minor annoyances like the awkward desk chair and the excess of bric-a-brac.  I still find it lovely.  🙂 

14 minutes ago, WNcruiser said:

Wow, 6132 looks great! Here it is pre-revolution several years ago. Dated?? 
 

Oh my goodness, yes!  Those curtains!  🤣

I do understand some of the complaints, though.  I note that in your picture the chair fits nicely under the desk.  Since I am here on a working vacation and giving the desk heavy use, it would be great to have a better-fitting chair.  I should also say that breakfast in the suite is...awkward.  But overall I love the look and feel and space of the suite as a "lowest-end" suite space.  

To me one of the most underrated aspects of a Celebrity cruise is the rooftop movies.  We went to the movies on our Alaska cruise several weeks ago, albeit with flannel blankets and layers, and had a blast!  Today I went to see "In The Heights" (terrific!) on the big big big screen and was the only one there.*  Please enjoy my private movie studio for the day.

*Yes, I realize we are docked at one of the great American cities, so I get it.