MamaFej

I may be able to provide a bit of hope here. TL:DR maybe, if you are politely proactive, you could have a good chance of a positive outcome. On June 30, I was told I need to get an ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) for a rare, progressive, incurable genetic heart disease. I've known about the gene for 7 years, but the disease only now caught up with me. I was supposed to fly to Europe on July 5 for a 57 day trip that included 3 cruises, the first of which embarked on July 10, the second of which embarked yesterday. My TA had me write a letter (email) he could send to Celebrity and Azamara while we waited to get an official letter from the doctor after the July 4 holiday. In my letter, I suggested FCCs, and that the cruise lines could both re-sell my cabins, and insure I would return as a customer. This allowed him to get the ball rolling with his cruise line contacts. In other words, I offered a mutually beneficial solution, not just a problem. Azamara responded within minutes that they felt they could help me. I got the official letter on July 5, as I should have been leaving to the airport, and my TA submitted it to both lines. I had the procedure on July 11, and written approval from both lines for FCCs the next day. We do have overlapping travel insurance, with an annual travel policy as well as Chase Sapphire Reserve, and we could have submitted (and resubmitted after the initial, inevitable denial) claims and have eventually been reimbursed. This way was much easier, even though it meant giving two cruise lines an interest-free loan. However, having cruises already booked on both lines, we decided it was worth not having to deal with insurance for the largest costs of the trip. Keeping my stress level lower is worth it to us. My TA also got Nordic Visitor to give us a much more generous cancellation than they normally do for the self-driving tour of Sweden we had booked with them. We had not yet made final payment (it was due in two days) and they gave us half our deposit back, and the other half as a credit we need to use within three years. On our own, we got airline points credited for the long flights, and taxes refunded. We will submit the change fees to insurance for reimbursement. The shorter flights within Europe are all non-refundable. We will include them on our insurance claim. Thankfully, we keep a budget/planning spreadsheet of our trip costs, so we have an easy way to know what we need to claim. Becuase our amazing TA has such a good relationship with his cruiseline contacts at both lines, and we were willing to go the credits route, our insurance claim is a very small percentage of the total cost. However, it is more than double the annual premium. We have only had the CSR for about 5 years, and we've only been buying an annual policy for two years. I'm not in any way trying to insurance-shame anyone. I'm only saying that an awesome TA is worth their weight in gold, and we are glad we have insurance now. If we didn't travel as often as we now do, the expense might not make sense. Everyone needs to do what works for them. I wish the OP good luck with the costs. More importantly, I wish for good science, good care, and a positive health outcome.

I'm one of those who is so sensitive to them that I tend to smell smoke, vapors, fumes, aerosols, etc. long before I see them, and I'm absolutely not trying to make this anyone's problem but mine: I deliberately avoid walking by the perfume shop onboard, even when it's closed. I've been known to walk through the casino on some ships to make this happen. If vaping becomes fleet wide on X, I guess the casino won't be one of my chosen paths on my already booked cruises. I don't suppose that will bother them a bit, as the only time I ever play is when they put $5 on everyone's sea pass or I'm participating in a slot pull.

I didn't start drinking until a year after my third child was born. By the way, I don't have four children. I'm not saying there is a conclusion to be drawn here. I'm also not not saying that.

If you enjoy crisp whites, consider trying Vinho Verde.

I'm an RV-er and I totally approve this message.

I'll have to wait until the 3rd. Seems like a fun way to celebrate our 32nd anniversary!

Some people love it. Some people hate it. Zero of those people matter. Congratulations.

That's classified. I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

Yes, they've found that they save quite a bit on alcohol costs with this system.

I sincerely hope everyone gets the points they have earned. I imagine they will, eventually. I just logged in, and my points have gone up by 10. I don't know why. My last Azamara cruise was over a year ago. I imagine these unearned points will go away. I'm not going to call in and have someone spend time clawing back these points when the priority right now should be getting earned points credited correctly, especially for those who are on the cusp of moving up a level. At 884 (874) points, I'm unlikely to ever reach the next level, and I'm well past the threshold for my current level. It's not worth worrying about.

Yeah... that seems weird. I fully admit that, when I am inside, away from a window where I can see our movement relative to the ocean, I have to first think about which way is forward or aft, then extrapolate that to Port or Starboard, on the rare occasions it might be necessary. I'm guessing I'm not alone.

Y'all have me extra excited about spending 28 days on Coral later this year, cicumnavigating Australia. I'm also seeking a good family trip for June or July of 2025 to celebrate Hubby turning 60, our oldest turning 30, two Master's degrees, and a Bachelor's degree for the kids, and I get to go, too. 😉 Thanks for this thread, and the helpful information therein.

My husband was born in the last year of the last year of the Baby Boom (1964). I'm an older Gen Xer, born in 1967. I have one Millennial son, born in 1995. I have two Gen Z kids, born in 1999 and 2002. All of us have enjoyed cruising on Celebrity. Precisely none of us is in favor of indoor smoking or vaping anywhere on a ship (or hotel, theater, museum, office...)

I agree! We've sailed with Captain Leo on 4 continents (3 with you). His announcements are actually worth listening to. Earlier this year, we had Captain Leo for 3 consecutive cruises out of Sydney, diesmbarked for a wonderful self-drive tour of New Zealand, then re-boarded to find that Captain Leo had gone home and been replaced by Captain Zizis. The new captain absolutely, positively did everything necessary for a Captain to do. We never felt any less safe, for certain, though the difference in personalities could not have been more stark. Captains who clearly love their jobs certainly can enhance the experience. Life is beautiful!

Viking does a San Juan, Puerto Rico to Manaus, Brazil cruise that goes up the Amazon River. (not that I'm excited about it, or anything)

@cruisestitch, you're being paged.

I'm hoping this thread doesn't get shut down. I know that someone would start a new one, and a large percentage of what's here would be rehashed. I just think it would be more productive if those not interested skip it, and those who are interested will discuss the issues at hand kindly. If we respond to statements and answer questions, even tangential ones, without deliberately ascribing nefarious motives to our fellow posters, we might all have the chance to be heard. Heard by each other, I mean. Heard by X? That's another story.

Thank you for the new link @Stockjock. We have done Go Green several times, and have yet to notice a difference in the service (though we do keep our cabin pretty tidy). However, the extra points did get each of us the coveted second bag of laundry one cruise sooner than we would have had it otherwise, and those bags were most welcome on that cruise.

They're not significantly more expensive for my apples to apples, which might be different from yours. For example, I haven't compared them for Caribbean itineraries, which I've never done. I'm not currently looking at Alaska again, but I do know that Celebrity is offering some great rates there this summer. I have cruised to 6 continents, and cruised by Africa: pointing, gazing longingly, and saying, "So close!!" I look forward to getting my feet on the ground in several African countries in 2025, including cruise and land time. We have discovered that we really enjoy small ship cruising, in part because we get to smaller ports, we get "up the river and into town," and they have significantly more overnights and long days in port, among other reasons. The four small ship lines we have tried do not allow smoking or vaping indoors. For us, crusing is a wonderful way to get to magnificent, interesting places. Destinations are primary, food and ambiance are also important. Entertainment is less important. For many people, the ship is the destination, and they often repeat regions, such as the Mexican Riviera and Caribbean. No one way of cruising is inherently better or worse than another, just as Granny Smiths are not inherently better or worse than Galas. YMMV

The price difference between Celebrity and lines like Azamara, Viking, and Oceania have been minimized as well. I wasn't a Business major, but charging more whilst delivering less seems like an odd strategy to me. Maybe that's why their head-hunters don't have me on speed-dial. 🤷🏻‍♀️

On one hand, it does seem as if those of us not onboard are at the mercy of the folks who are onboard during the test period, and what they may or may not write in their surveys about vaping in the casinos. On the other hand, it seems pretty clear that this eight week "test" will not result in any acutally useful data. Passengers certainly did not make the decisions to book or not book these few cruises based on a vaping policy they had no way of knowing would be implemented. My second grade students understood the Scientific Method well enough to know that an experiment like this is pointless. I imagine the executives at X do as well. No matter what any feedback actually is, X can simply say, "Wow! Our passengers sure do love having vaping in the casinos, we are going to implement it fleet-wide!" I suppose that's true of any policy; it's not as though the surveys are made public. It's just more blatant in this case.

Celebrity probably purchased the bottle as a bonus for the genius executive who thought that "testing" vaping in casinos with no advance notice, so that no actually useful data could be obtained via the test, was a good idea. Then they figured they may as well try to sell it, because... duh!

In some ports, removing food or any beverage other than commercially bottled water is not allowed. Some even require passengers to go through Biosecurity (Chile, New Zealand, Hawaii...). I imagine that your butler would be more than happy to help you, if it is allowed in the particular port.

I'm going to jump in with a bit of praise for the onshore Azamara folks (and my utterly amazing travel agent). I have a very unusual situation: just a week and a half before I was to board in Copenhagen, and a few days before I was to fly to Europe, I found out I had to have a defibrillator implanted, due to a rare genetic condition. I've known I have the gene variant for 7 years, but had escaped the disease diagnosis until 14 days ago. The procedure went well, and I am recovering at home. Azamara agreed to issue full FCCs for my July 10 and 24 cruises. One has already been credited to a 2025 cruise. I could have included the cruises in my travel insurance claim, but doing it this way allowed Az to potentially resell my cabin, and ensure that I will be back. My TA was also able to get Celebrity to do the same thing, crediting my fare to a 2024 cruise. Both lines are refunding taxes and port fees. All of this happened with remarkable speed, despite the Friday diagnosis before a major holiday. This was to be a 57 day, three cruise trip. Only needing to worry about land and air stuff when it comes to my insurance claim is a big relief (as is knowing that my heart will be shocked back into sinus rhythm if necessary). All this is to say that the right TA is worth their weight in gold, and that there are people on land at Azamara (and X) who are willing to bend over backwards to help customers in unusual situations. This doesn't say anything about the website and IT issues, but it does say something about good, professional people in the travel industry.

My procedure went well, the defibrillator is responding to external commands. We stayed at a hotel near the hospital, so we wouldn’t have to make the long drive home too soon. We got a free upgrade to a huge suite due to one of our points cards, and earned more points for future, far more fun stays. Hopefully, I’ll never actually need to be shocked, but knowing that it’s there is providing peace of mind to me and my loved ones. By the way, I named it Gershwin. If I ever go into ventricular fibrillation or full arrest, it will shock me to make sure that “I Got Rhythm.” Yes, I’m a dork.