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Good day folks! Anyone have experience with getting a refund for cancellation 10 months before a trip. I recently cancelled a Pacific Coastal for Nov. 2019 and just wondering how long it takes Celebrity to issue the refund to my credit card?

We have been Blue Chip members for about 10 years. They keep changing the program every 2 or 3 years but we have had 5 "free" cruises with them and it was definitely worth it. The down side is that the free drink package is only available at the casino bar during casino open hours. Last year we didn't cruise due to unforeseen circumstances and they expired our Amethyst status so it's back to paying our own way but at least we can get a beverage package that is good anywhere on the ship.

Hello helpful fellow cruisers. Just wondering what the best oceanview cabins are on Eclipse? Especially the ones with the larger window.

I have heard that Celebrity train passengers do not have the dining car option, but food options for purchase are brought to the passenger's seats. Was this true for those of you who booked the train through Celebrity?

Yes, food was brought to our table. Service, food, views all great!

If you have taken this method of getting to the ship, we would like to know what the situation was for meals. Dining car? Or something else? Or must we bring our own food and drink?

They have amazing clam chowder! You'll love the trip. Scenery is unforgettable.:) Oh, and Alaska Amber is the best beer!

Pool burgers are great!:)

I am certain that you will find plenty of differing opinions about traditional vs select. Here are ours.

 

We normally take traditional. Why? We like having the same servers, they get to know what we like and what we don't. We typically travel with a few people we know so we all have a table together. We never wait for a table - we have the same table every night at 6p or 8p.

 

What don't we like - we eat at the same time every night 6p or 8p. It's not an either 6p or 8p - you pick one time for the entire trip. Depending on the itinerary, you might not get back onto the ship until 5:30p or 6:00p and rushing to dinner at 6:00p is an issue and so is waiting until 8:00p. I'll add that we are fixing this by slowing down. Done are the death march 8 or 9 hour long tours that we come back exhausted from. We see a little of the town, take shorter excursions, and relax more on the ship in the afternoons.

 

Our thoughts about select dining - we see lots of people in line waiting for a table. Some with and some without a reservation. We never had any success of being able to pick a time, say 7:00 pm, every night at the start of the cruise. The response was either that it wasn't available or we needed to just show up and wait or if we got it one night they wouldn't take any reservation for anything other than the next night. I have always suspected that we were going about this wrong and there was a better way. I just don't know what that is and I don't like to stand and wait for a table when I'm on vacation - I would like to be able to make a reservation for every night in advance and have my table ready - some will say the definition of that is traditional dining. I say why can't I have 7:00 pm every night - I'm not cruising on Carnival.

 

Just our thoughts

You can reserve a different (or the same) time for each night pre-cruise on the X website. You just have to do one night at a time which is a bit of a pain.

First time cruiser, so looking for a bit of advice. We're booked on the Celebrity Reflection and have the classic drinks package included. I'm considering purchasing a speciality dining package and wondered whether there would be a selection of wines by the glass using the classic package, whether we should upgrade to a premium drinks package or whether the wines by the glass that are available in the speciality restaurants aren't included in either package.

 

Thanks for your help

We've had the classic package numerous times and have always found reasonably good wines everywhere including the specialties. "Lights Out" Shiraz was my favorite!

All cabins on Celebrity have refrigerators. Many have them emptied of for purchase items to store personal items.

 

You can arrange a sharpie container or ask for one at the medical office. They also have a sharpie container for disposal of you syringes and needles.

 

Photo Packages - Information can be found here - http://www.celebritycruises.com/onboard-celebrity/cruise-activities-photo-packages

 

They have a package of all your photos for $225

 

Most items on room service menu are free but they do have some that they charge a sur-charge for. Late last year there were some threads that there was a fee for room service after 1AM. Not sure if this ever actually was implemented.

On Infinity last month there was a charge for room service after 11 pm

You won't see me at "Bait on Five" as it was called by another poster -- too much possibility of cross contamination and I'm allergic to fish. I would eat at Bistro on Five at least once a cruise, so this customer goes from once to never. Sushi was available elsewhere for those who wanted it, but now a viable embarkation day choice is gone for me. There were so many other things they could have chosen -- what about really good Greek food, as an example? Homage to the line's Greek heritage? That can be made with frozen meat, whereas sushi really ought to be made with fresh fish, so I'm told.

Sushi/sashimi grade fish must be flash frozen at a very specific temp in order to kill parasites.

Thank you both for amazing reviews. We are booked on the Infinity in September for the RT Vancouver Pacific Coastal Cruise.

 

We are very excited just to have a relaxing cruise on the Infinity whom we haven't sailed in over 10 years. Our daughter is going off to college and this was a good time for us to get away after she leaves.

 

We are most excited about San Francisco as my husband and I both visited but never together.

 

Our original itinerary was to stop in Astoria, which I had been excited about, but it got changed to Nanaimo and then overnight in SFO.

 

I am surprised to hear that the original poster was un-happy with his sommelier, hopefully just a one off or personalities that didn't match up. We cruise Celebrity primarily because the excellent sommelier service over Princess and Royal Caribbean, so hopefully just a one-off.

I was also surprised by the behavior of our sommelier as we've never had a bad one. I can "get along" with anyone but when I'm leaving a table with half a glass of wine in hand and he says "you're not going to pour that out are you, because I won't pour you as much next time" that was enough for me. That's just one example of Siraz rudeness.:eek:

Isn't a "light breakfast" and "eggs bennie" a contradiction of terms?:D:D

Quite correct lol! We usually start our day with fresh fruit and yoghurt but a least twice per cruise I allow myself their wonderful eggs benny. My wife is much more disciplined than me.;)

I'll start by saying we are loyal Celebrity cruisers for several reasons. We are Blue Chip Club VIPs and as such they take very good care of us. This was our 6th X cruise and our first Pacific Coastal. We chose this trip based on the itinerary and not so much on the ship. We have done Alaska on Infinity and had no complaints.

Embarkation in San Diego went smoothly and we were onboard at about 12:00pm and went straight to Bistro on 5 for a quiet lunch. We were very disappointed to see that the daily specials were gone and our paninis were just OK. At about 2:00 pm the rooms were ready and we went to check out OV 3072. We have always had a veranda or better so this was our first time trying an Oceanview and it really was fine although I do miss having coffee on the balcony or just being able to open the door and get some fresh air.

All of our port stops went fine but I would not bother getting off the ship in Astoria next time. Nothing to see or do there. San Francisco was crazy busy with an onshore event but we had fun anyways. In general, I would have to agree with many others that MDR food quality and selection has gone down but not enough for me to leave X. We dined in the MDR most nights as well as once in Tuscan and twice in Qsine. We enjoyed the specialties the most. Many people have said that in Qsine you should go with at least 6 people but we found them very adaptable for a 2 top. We tried 5 dishes the first time and another 5 the next. It's easy, push the plate away when you've had enough! Lots of fun! The only negative there was that the servers and Maitre'd checked on us so often it was a little intrusive. We only really ate in the buffet for a light breakfast and it was always good. Excellent eggs benny! If we were on the ship for lunch we ate at the pool grill. Awesome burgers! Huge thanks to Ramesh our waiter in the casino bar. He was fantastic! Another star for us was Heston, our assistant waiter in the MDR. He should be a head waiter, everyone loved him.

The Thalassotherapy pool was great and we enjoyed all of the shows we attended.

We only had one truly bad experience on the cruise and that was Siraz, our sommelier. He was rude and spoke down to us. :mad:

Just booked my annual Thanksgiving cruise on the Silhouette. For the first time will be bringing my mother in law (DMIL?). So DMIL is very excited there is a casino on the ship. She used to be a pretty sharp slot machine player back in the day. However at the tender age of 91 some facilities are not as keen as they used to be, and her eye sight is now very iffy. Since there is no cash per say that she will be using, is there anyway we could limit the amount she could loose in a day? I'm having nightmares of checking the OBC half way through the cruise and finding she is down $20K from the casino. We want her to have a lot of fun playing the slots but don't want to have to move her into the shed when we get back.

Any ideas?

Just make sure her card is attached to yours and, as you can with dependant children, put a limit on her card. You could also tell her that the machines take cash only and give her a daily limit. I would do both.;)

Beef brisket last week on Infinity was my fav entree but my absolute fav item is the frog legs! We missed frog leg night last week and they made me a special double batch the next night. Now that's awesome service!:)

Just go with Select and reserve the time you want each night. It can all be done on the website but you have to reserve one day at a time.:)

We've done 5 Alaska trips with X and Solstice was our favorite ship but the southbound trip from Seward was our fav itinerary. We've never been disappointed in the food although some meals have been better than others. Anywhere you go in Alaska will be fantastic. Icy Strait Point (Hoonah) was boring if you didn't have an excursion booked. Total native tourist trap. ;)

We always travel in the "shoulder" seasons, either May or September and the weather has generally been fine. Never saw one mosquito and in 5 trips we only had one really bad weather day (Ketchikan).

We've done a 7 day cruise each with a carry-on roller, and an over-the-shoulder beach bag for me, backpack for hubby. If the rolling bags qualify as a carry-on for the airlines, they should fit through the scanner to get on the ship. We embarked, had lunch, and as soon as cabins were ready about 1, we were in our cabin and unpacking.

That's what I was hoping to do but we're on an 11 night Pacific Coastal and one bag will just be too big to carry on along with our other carry on.

Whatever bags you bring on board have to fit in the security scanner, which is the size of the one at the airport. If it does, then you are free to drag them along with you.

Thanks! That answers my question. One of my bags will not fit so that is out for me. Just have to be patient (not my strongest quality) and wait for bag to arrive.:rolleyes:

Hi folks, I've done self debarkation before but I'm wondering about self embarkation to get your bags unpacked sooner. We'll be arriving at the ship around 1 - 1:30 pm. Has anyone done this?:)

Can't you get Gravol over the counter in Canada? It's a different drug than Bonine but treats the exact same things.

I can't use gravol, makes me feel like crap all day. Bonine is a completely different drug.

100% not available in Canada. It's not a prescription or location issue. There's a few old threads about its absence up here.

I get mine in Canada from a compounding pharmacy. No prescription need. About a dollar a pill so not as cheap as in the US but I like to have it before I go.;)

It has been a long time since we have seen anything but the entire 2nd level being Select. In fact, with Select continuing to gain steam and Traditional losing it, the smart idea for Celebrity would probably be to reverse the decks.

Several ships have already reversed the decks and select is now on the main (lower) deck. Select has become very popular since they dropped the pre-paid grats.

We've done Alaska 5 times and our fav by far was the Southbound from Seward! Fly in a few days early to Anchorage and explore, then take a stunning train ride to Seward for the cruise. Unforgettable!

Unless you feel your TA should provide you that service you can call the Captains Club desk and order your own luggage tags. I always use a TA and I called the Captains Club desk myself to order our luggage tags for our upcoming Cruise.

No TA. Blue Chip Club is Celebrity's Casino VIP club and they book us as a group booking making it apparently difficult for Captains Club to access our res. Not sure why.;)