flviking

Ah, well. You have so much great insight. One minor oops.

To be sure as many report the on board staff do a great job making up for the many shortcomings of the corporate offices. The cruise director was not empowered to arrange a private transfer so at 0900 day of departure we didn’t know if we were bussing or in a car. I have let my travel agent deal with the issues. The issue isn’t bus or car. The issue is listing amenities on the web site then not delivering. It’s rather more difficult to report departure issues when the survey is required to be completed BEFORE DEPARTURE. We felt the crew members who were above and beyond earned acknowledgment. We didn’t want to sacrifice their well earned accolades for a foolish requirement to respond to your cruise experience before it is over. If you note the pictures (on the second cruise of the season) I’d suggest Scenic is aware of the problems and has no intent to fix a ship which is only 7 years old. While charging for first class we received economy plus.

We are back from our Scenic cruise. All in all it was good but not great. The final straw was when they “forgot” to book our transfer from the ship to the airport in Nuremberg. The “private transfer” met that definition. A cramped taxi which could not fit two airline size suit cases and two backpacks. The taxi reeked of smoke which aggravated my DW asthma. Best of all the driver went through three stop signs. Not a slow down and rolling stop. Just straight through. Our HVAC never worked. We gave up asking after the third day of being told to “give it some time”. Attached are two photos of the HVAC in a USD14,000 per week suite. Not my idea of a five star line. YMMV.

As I read it if they make you leave the ship due to COVID you are on your own for accommodations and travel home though you will get a refund for the days not on the ship. Not really sure how that situation fits in with our travel insurance as to is it a delay or some other definition. Additional travel costs could get expensive.

Finally got Scenic to email the documents to our TA. No idea why/if they really snail mailed the docs in March.

The saga continues for getting our cruise docs for next week. Scenic claims they mailed the docs out end of March. Not received by me or my TA. Back in February Scenic sent out an email that docs will not be mailed but rather will be emailed. Who knows what is really their process today? No explanation of why they won't email the docs out now. I sure hope the on board people make up for the circus that seems to be Scenic corporate.

Not sure if its across the board but I noticed the price of our Rhine cruise next year is up about 60%+. That would surely make that our second and final Scenic cruise. Almost $3k per day is way beyond any value calculation we would consider.

Q.When will we receive our final documents? A.You can expect your travel documents to arrive between 2 – 4 weeks prior to your departure date. When booking within two weeks of travel, your travel documents will be emailed to you to print at home. We are 10 days from departure. No travel documents and reservation is "locked" and not viewable. Travel agent is tracking it down. Is Scenic always this poor at doing what they say they're going to do?

Already lost that battle. DW is quite certain we will love the trip so we're already booked for 2024 Amsterdam to Basel with friends who have not been on a river cruise yet. We will have done our first this month. A bit longer journey from Florida than England. I am reminded the planes go every day.

Awesome news and thank you so much for all the time you so generously give to keep us informed. We are on the April 20 Scenic Budapest to Nuremberg. We rescheduled from last summer when the water levels were so questionable.

We were on Infinity last month. Due to noro the buffet was served by staff. Example of clueless/careless. A guy gets on the elevator carrying food from the buffet. Someone says something about a balcony feast. The guy says no, his wife has Covid and he's bringing her food. Unmasked. Thank you. Three of the six of us ended up with Covid within a day of returning home. Reminds me of something that Ron White said.

We were on Infinity last month in Blu. No problem with any MDR items being ordered any evening.

We were on the Jan 28 sailing. You had much better weather in Antarctica. We also missed the Falklands and there was a Norovirus outbreak. Fortunately none of our party of six contracted noro. Three of six came down with COVID within a day of getting home. We stayed next door to the Sheraton you were in at the Park Tower. Great location for walking around and to get to the port. A few things for future cruisers to consider. We live in Florida. We flew on Copa Airlines as we were able to do daytime flights to and from Buenos Aires. Avoiding the overnight flights was great. Booked with United miles and lie flat seats between Panama and BA. We went directly to the airport at cruise conclusion, got on a noon flight and were back in Florida at 10 pm. We didn't go to Iguazu as we have been to Victoria Falls previously. If anyone has visited both I'd be interested to hear if we should have gone. We changed cash to Argentine pesos at a Western Union near the hotel at 375 to a USD. Our Visa card converted charges averaging about 325 vs the official rate of 185. Amex uses the official rate. The Western Union converted USD50 for us. Many other posts I've seen suggest USD100 increments are required. ATT does not charge for use in many South American countries including Argentina so that was easy. Uber was crazy inexpensive. After doing the "drive by" on Infinity we are still unsure the expedition type ships are worth the $30k for two fits our value equation to do multiple landings on the continent. In all its a long, expensive trip but well worth doing. Thanks for all the posts. Drake Lake wishes for all the future cruisers out there.

This is the answer I received. Based on flight schedules from Mumbai to US I'll be interested to see if Celebrity Air follows the same restriction meaning that a hotel night will be required after the cruise. Thank you for contacting Celebrity Cruises. First and foremost, we wish to apologize for our delayed reply. It has been a very challenging time in the travel industry, and during the past several months, we’ve been inundated with phone calls. Regretfully, our email response time has suffered as a result, and we deeply regret that prevented us from being able to respond to you promptly. We understand you wish to disembark early that the scheduled time. We will no longer allow cruise passengers to pre-plan early debark or late embarkation for any of our ships. Many countries continue to implement travel restrictions like denying non-citizens from entry, closing their borders and requiring mandatory quarantines with little or no advance notice. In an abundance of caution for the safety and security of our guests, all requests for modified guest movement will be denied. We appreciate your understanding and patience.

Agree. A real buffet can be found at Bellagio. And $100+ tickets to see Cirque. Awesomeness. But for us the flights, hotels, meals and shows can easily be double the price of a balcony. Get less, pay less. But those strip hotel rates have gone through the roof as well.

We are on Infinity in less than two weeks. One important part of the YouTube video was the changes from December to January. We had great cruises in 2022. We will soon find out how the experience and our perception of value changes with the January 2023 changes.

The dramatic rise is pricing (well above inflation) plus the decrease in value will cause us and surely others to consider alternatives. We live in Floriduh so we easily can cruise to get away, have some good live entertainment and enjoy some good food. If entertainment is diminished al a NCL and food declines booking a cruise will not be our go to answer. We tried an all inclusive near Cozumel. Nightly multiple entertainment options, seven different dining venues, 24 hour room service including bar service. Drinks included. Very good staff throughout. Lower price than a seven day balcony at current prices. When we want to splurge on a suite Celebrity price increases have brought Oceania and Seabourne into the competition. My point is Celebrity has given us a reason to look at other options. May not have been the intended consequence. We board Infinity in less than two weeks. We'll see how it goes.

Good luck. We were on Reflection in a Royal Suite in November. We booked it as the price to change our booking was only $200 above the minimum bid so well worth locking it in. The hot tub on the balcony was awesome. Best sail away venue ever.

Aviate, navigate, communicate

SusieAV8R - good for you and best wishes on obtaining your license in the near future.

Sorry you had this lack of an appropriate experience. We are only E+ and will never get to Zenith. Our experience with the airline and hotel programs is that it is not about customer loyalty but rather what have you done for me lately. As Lifetime status was reached on Delta, American and Marriott well above the entry level there is minimal benefit. So for the last ten+ years we are free agents. We buy the seat/room/cabin we want and any loyalty benefits we accrue and receive are truly bonuses. We are trying Scenic so we will see how that goes. So far totally unimpressed with the pre cruise experience. As the cost per day is well north of a Celebrity Royal Suite it better be awesome or we are one and done. We've heard varying opinions on Ponant from good to great. Though their pricing would imply great should be expected. Looking forward to following along with your cruise line sampling. Safe travels home!

SusieAV8R Have to ask, are you and aviator or more specifically an AV8 aviator?

Banker option does not come up on Reflection slots last month. Playing 3 card only the winnings were paid in "cashable" chips. I asked to trade promo chips played on each hand for "cashable" but the dealer said no. So effectively you have to play promo chips multiple times until you lose them all. Any times I've had promo chips on land they just had to be in play once.

That was us. We are traveling with friends so we are all sticking with dining together in Blu. The ship is full so no guarantees if we got the upgrade we could dine in Blu. Otherwise a strong bid would already be submitted!