MikeandBobNC

Just saw Constellation. We are sailing from Marseille on Oceania Vista. 
 

Just saw this - dated today - 11/21/23 - quotes FDR.  Says refurbishment will be done spring of 2024 - first post-refurbishment cruise will be May 18, 2024.

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/11/oceania-marina-to-undergo-big-refurbishment-in-may-2024/?fbclid=IwAR3zdwJeGoLXC8STklYV7d9jDMUKmzMd5GlY4kyxDEayJdP9aHz4QC7MA6g

@Sthrngary - Hi Gary.  I've been following your trip since your early planning posts.  I enjoy the detail you provide and totally understand your interest in detailed planning.  We are still 127 days out from our Vista cruise in March, but I have been planning since we booked in Dec 2022.  

I know you are doing independent tours rather than O excursions.  If you will, please let me know what you did in La Spezia, and if you enjoyed it, share any tour operator you used.  I am still trying to finalize our plans for that port.

Continue to enjoy your cruise.

3 minutes ago, basor said:

If you are in a cabin (Concierge and above), you will receive several cards that are good for free pressing of one garment at embarkation.  We put one of these in the pocket of a shirt/pants we send in with the "free laundry bag" and it will come back on a hanger - ironed.

Thanks!  Good to know. Even though we have sailed O several times, not sure I knew about the pressing card. 

1 minute ago, LHT28 said:

My guess it will be per segment

Thanks, LHT - per segment kinda makes sense to us.  Just wish it were the same for the liquor setups, but I'm not going to count on that one!

We are booked on the Vista for 35 days - Miami to Venice/Trieste.  This cruise is also sold as 3 segments - Miami/Rome - Rome/Malta - Malta/Venice.  We are in an Oceania Suite that provides 3 bags of laundry.  I have searched the boards and called Oceania to ask if we will only get 3 bags of laundry for the entire 35 days or 3 bags per segment - total 9 bags for the 35 days.  I haven't found the answer on the boards and the Oceania rep first say 3 bags total for the 35-days, but then wasn't really sure.  

I suspect it may be at the discretion of the butler as to how many bags for the 35 days.  Anyone have any experience with laundry on an multi-segment/extended cruise?

Thanks in advance for replies - there is always a wealth on knowledge on CC.

Sorry about the font issue - just changed it to Comic Sans MS.  From Stumblefoot's screen shot, that clearly isn't how it came thru for him .  Lesson learned - no changing fonts in the future.

We are first time SS cruisers.  SS has us scheduled on a flight that departs Copenhagen at 8:45AM the same day we disembark.  I normally would never schedule a flight that early for same day as disembarkation.  I am researching transportation from the pier to the airport and beginning to question if I should ask SS to look at this departure time again.  Your thoughts/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I was able to see our preliminary boarding pass this morning.  It says we are to embark at Passenger Terminal Amsterdam, but no reference to Waterland or a transfer.

Thanks for all the info.  I am definitely working on a plan B.  

We are booked on B2B cruises - Rotterdam the first week - Celebrity the second.  We will board the Celebrity ship the same day we disembark Rotterdam, which means we will need to do a Binax test while on board Rotterdam.  Has anyone had any experience with trying to do a Binax test on Rotterdam?  Is the internet connection strong/good enough to pass the audio/video tests and stay connected to complete the tests?  Thanks ahead of time for any information you can share.

47 minutes ago, Lois R said:

Hi TB😀 guess what.....this morning I was in touch with the tour company I am using pre-cruise and just booked a trip to Sintra with them post cruise!😀

Enjoy your trip Lois.  If your Sintra tour includes a port tasting - DO IT!  We had some of the best port we have ever tasted on a tour to Sintra!

Mike

We are booked on Azamara Onward Athens to Venice Oct 2022.  It will be our first cruise on Azamara, but we have sailed the same ship with Oceania.  In talking to people on other cruises, we have never heard anything but good about Azamara.  Of course, that was when it was part of RCCL.  From what I have read, I get the sense that the new owner isn't really planning on changing much.  I guess time will tell.

31 minutes ago, Brentt_M said:

 

Doesn't show for me either.  Weird - video and sound are in two separate boxes.  Never seen that before.

Sorry for your loss, but I bet you will find many reasons to have fond memories.  I hope yo will be able to post some pictures of that aft Neptune.  We are booked in the same for a few upcoming cruises.

8 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

Fraud or not; it is unacceptable to permit someone to book a cruise that had already been cancelled. Whether it's an IT issue or a customer service issue or just a plain lack of communication - it needs to be fixed. You can't take someone's money for a service that you already know you can't provide. 

Thanks sanger727 - you said it MUCH better than I did.  Obviously my initial frustration influenced my original post.

13 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

I don't know when exactly but I was also on the 4/2 Rio to  Lisbon cruise and received a all from from agent a couple months ago advising me it had been cancelled.    I moved that one to the FLL to Southampton.   I later moved the Rio to Buenos Aires cruise to create a B2B2B after the crossing. 

 

Personally I didn't find Celebrity fraudulent (at least to me) and were very helpful to set up my replacement cruises.

I agree with you Jim, we all know Celebrity's website is and always has been lacking.  What I find interesting about the comments made on this thread - some imply these cancellations were just made (July), but yet you say you were notified months ago as the Celebrity website indicates with the April 28 update.  In looking at it again, I suspect you are correct on the timeline because the Lift & Shift option has to be completed by August 3.  If these were just cancelled this week that is only a week to exercise a L&S option.

I will admit fraudulent was probably a poor choice of words, but it is more than frustrating to not have confidence when booking and paying for something online the information is accurate.  

Lesson learned by me in these COVID times - I will be checking the cancellation list before I pay a deposit.

14 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

Where was this posted?  
 

I agree that a cruise line should not allow people to book a cruise that has already been cancelled, just wondering where that info was showing the cruises you had booked had in fact already been cancelled. 

It's on Celebrity's website under FAQ's.  Here is the link:

https://www.celebritycruises.com/travel-alert/voluntary-suspension-of-cruising

6 minutes ago, mom says said:

Did you book through a TA, over the phone with Celebrity, or online?

I booked it and paid the deposit online.

On April 28, 2021 Celebrity posted the following cruises were cancelled (among others)

However, on 5/30/21 when I booked the 3/11 12 night Patagonia & Argentina cruise and 3/23 10 night Argentina, Rio & Sao Paulo cruise there was NO mention of these cruises being cancelled and Celebrity gladly let me pay a deposit knowing they had already cancelled these cruises.  This is fraudulent.

We also booked the 4/2 transatlantic from Rio to Lisbon, but it hasn't been cancelled by Celebrity . . .  yet.  There is no way Infinity will be making that transatlantic when Celebrity has cancelled all of the other South America cruises for Infinity in 2022.  Needless to say, I have also cancelled the transatlantic.  

This type of corporate behavior gives me serious pause to consider if I want to continue to do business with a company that operates like this.

UPDATE - my soon-to-be former travel agent has released the two bookings.  Celebrity is in the process of moving them back to Celebrity.  I was advised to give it a week or so and call back.

4 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Have you had the opportunity to check your original booking to see if it was indeed a non-refundable booking.  I know on the NRD Bookings I have there is a code NRD next to a discount line

 

Hi Jim,

First I want to say I was following your blog.  I am sorry you had to endure such an encounter.

Here is a screen shot of my confirmation - this is why I don't these are NRD bookings

Just as an update to my issue - I have asked the travel agent to release the bookings from her agency back to Celebrity so I can deal directly with Celebrity.  I don't feel my travel agent is doing all she could potentially do to resolve this.

Also, here is the wording from my Guest Confirmation.  I am pretty sure these are refundable deposits.

Thanks for the replies.  I just found (and emailed to my soon to be former travel agent) a Celebrity booking that I cancelled on 2/17/2020 and received the full refund to our credit card 2 days later.  Her statement that it has been Celebrity policy for over a year is just a blatant lie.

Like many others, I am in the process of cancelling future cruises.  I was booked on B2B on the Constellation in October in a Celebrity Suite on both cruises.  When I contacted my travel agent to cancel them, I received an email stating:

"There will be a $200 penalty on each deposit, and then you will get a Future Cruise credit for the remaining balance. "

This didn't make sense to me because I didn't think they were booked with a non-refundable deposit.  I emailed the agent back and questioned the reason for the $200 penalty and FCC.  After several exchanges I received an email stating:

"All suites are booked under the Non-Refundable Deposit and incur these fees from the point of purchase.  This has been Celebrity’s policy for over a year."

Did I miss something?  Is this an accurate statement?

No where on my Celebrity confirmation does it say anything about a non-refundable deposit.  Normally, I would expect to see something about NRD in the PROMOTIONS section.

Has anyone else experience this issue?  I truly don't feel I should incur the $200 penalty and I am trying to decide if it is worth the effort to get it back.  Also, I called Celebrity to ask if they could confirm for me if they deposits were refundable or non-refundable and they said they couldn't tell me - I would need to talk to my travel agent.  I thought this was very weird that Celebrity couldn't - or wouldn't - answer such a simple question.