Alushar

53 minutes ago, villauk said:

 

 

If that is now the case, you should still be able to keep your OBC from an onboard booking and receive the price drop. It’s the only thing that you can keep, other perks may be lost under a new promo. Did they state it was one or the other?

 

The added flexibility for how long? I remember when they used to honour price drops and then it suddenly stopped, out of the blue. Which would also concern me: for how long are they going to honour them this time around 🤔?

The flyer said ongoing change for the UK to bring it into line with US. You are probably right it was possibly OBC as a perk as I remember her saying we kept the CBP and free gratuities one way or another we lost more than the then price drop

Shortly after the this the UK website changed to the US format

We were given flyers on board our September cruise which stated flexibility had now been made available for the UK. I tried this out for my next September cruise when back but our Celebrity agent pointed out that the drop wasn't as much as the additional on board credit we had been given. We could have changed though

Following along again Jim can't wait to read your adventures and sate my desire to try a TA which has yet again been scuppered for next year by booking the Ireland/Iceland cruise

We had a great time on Equinox last month, first time on her but have sailed and loved the Silhouette, Eclipse and Millennium.

The service was good, the food was good, the drink was good. Yes we had some issues, one fairly major, but they were dealt with and didn't ruin our holiday at all.

It's the nature of the internet that it's easier to complain than praise and that happens often on here. Unfortunately sometimes the important things can get lost in the volume.

Standing on the Aurora in St Petersburg feeling the history come alive.

Fulfilling a boyhood dream of visiting the NASA Space centre

Sitting on the back of the boat for any sailaway drink in hand

We didn't like Topper/Elysium/Life first time we saw them and haven't bothered going for the last 4 or so times.

What was interesting on our recent Equinox Cruise was the production singers (6) did a song from the Shows matinee. We went and it was good there were some great voices.

They clearly have the talent and I'd love them to do some truncated Broadway shows. We've seen Rock of Ages and jersey Boys on NCL and they were good

We find our favourite place changes each cruise, One it'll be Martini Bar, another Cafe Bacio and on the Millennium in Feb in was the Enterprise Lounge!

On our last 2 cruises seats haven't been an issue at the Martini Bar for some reason.

39 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

Glad that UK travelers aren't affected by this change. I wonder why the switch to the US site?

I think our current deal lasts until mid November which is Classic Bevs, OBc and either free air or free grats depending where sailing from.

As they are now allowing us to price adjust I wonder if they are going to introduce same system as US simply showing a sterling price

I thought I'd look at the UK site to see if there were any changes. I looked at the Southampton to Ireland and Iceland Septmeber cruise as I've booked that and know the price. 

The price for the balcony cabin i have is exactly the same as last week and comes with Classic Package, OBC and free grats.

There has been one major change the site now moves you over to the US site to book but in sterling. 

12 hours ago, Hlitner said:

  For example, last minute cabins can be made available for Interline rates (these are offered to airline employees and some others in the travel industry at very discounted rates).  So if you paid $250 per passenger day for a balcony cabin you might not realize that the person next door paid $75 per passenger day for the same category.  It is the nature of the travel business.

 

Hank

We  had first hand experience of this a couple of years ago I think Eclipse out of Southampton to Western Med. We had the misfortune of sitting for two dinners and one breakfast with a couple who happily informed all around that they'd only booked on 4 days before as their daughter worked with RCCI and had got an email with mega offers. Despite being in a balcony they had no packages simple room only for peanuts in their words. They were also the most horrible people we've ever met cruising but thats by the by lol!

1 hour ago, Nymich said:

This was a quite thread to read.  I did not see one person say that they are a big drinker or a boozer while on cruises.  If this is true it makes no sense to raise the price.

Ok I'll bite lol! i have intended to contribute to this thread several times but have always edited as there a lot of comparisons on prices between a retail onshore price and what Celebrity charge. I do know the 2 mojito's we had in the Lobster Grille & Bar Miami were dearer than Celebrity's.

So our first cruise was on NCL Breakway 7 days NY to Bahamas. We didn't have a clue what we were doing. We had an inside room and bought the beverage package which cost more than the cruise as my DW prefers to pay as much as possible up front. We had a great time. I am a bean counter of sorts so I kept tally and we generally passed the daily bp cost late afternoon at their prices!

We repeated this on our second cruise, our first on Celebrity, 14 days on eclipse to Canary islands etc. On Celebrity with Cafe Bacio we passed the daily break even mid afternoon due to Cafe Bacio etc! We learnt on this cruise about "perks" and have since always had Classic included and upgraded i still count though! 

Woof I'm a booze hound!

We were on same cruise and it was our strangest cruise for tipping. We usually tip our stateroom assistant, waiter etc, bartender in Martini.

This cruise we ate 7 times in Specialist and had bad experience in MDR so only gave minor $10 tips to a couple of waiters in LPC and Tuscan on repeat visits. For stateroom we needed nothing additional and always tidy ourselves so left basic $20. We had no outstanding server in Martini bar they seemed to change often so just put a $10 into the pot on the bar.

Lowest amount of tips given which when thinking about the cruise makes sense and we always use envelopes

on Equinox last week they were pushing Ipads for (around) $429 (128gb) and $339 (64gb) they were 9.7 not sure what model

As previously stated UK policies tend to be all in covering medical, evac, cancellation, disruption and legal. We always take an annual policy although our credit card covers some and added cruises once we started. We haven't had to use it cruising yet but did after a trip to central France and getting severe disruption for the largest snow dump in the Central Massif in 100 years which made us miss our flight and have to shuffle from France to Switzerland to get another.

It was a joy to call the Company next morning to hear "Are you ok don't worry we will sort that" and have the taxi, train and air fares reimbursed plus a per diem for food and drink and the excess waved!

Most arts organisations museums, ballet, opera, dance, music, zoos are run as non profit organisations and rely on public funding to survive. even the major ones like the Royal Ballet and Opera in London. Increasingly they are looking at increasing income and reducing funding which then becomes available to a less well known organisation. I know one ballet company has a partnership with J W Marriott and this ABT one with Celebrity should be applauded it should bring funds into the company whilst exposing more people to the art form!

Have our 5th Celeb (our first was NCL been Celeb since) coming up in 10 days so relative newcomers and very excited. We love everything about it been on 4 different ships all different itineraries. We love speaking to experienced cruisers and hearing their tales. 

We've experienced the “it’s not as good now brigade” and laugh cos it feels pretty good to us! 

Actually AC Stew under UK law 14 days notice have to be given of strike days. Without entering into whether the pilots are right or not it should be noted that other unions represnting over 95% of BA workforce have accepted the current offer.

I've been told by Celebrity that my flight is flying and if disrupted they have contingenices and to not owrry! They don't know me lol!

Love this idea would make me chose one cruise over another. Vive la difference! Hope it continues long enough for us to get on a participating cruise

If you go to your account on the Celebrity website and click manage reservation scroll down and you should see a section saying "Upgrade your stateroom". Click this and it should show you any bid you have made and staus like pending, rejected, accepted etc

Hope that helps

gWe are on a BA flight mid mornin on 11th so assume cancelled, maybe reinstated, but booked through Celebrity so they are dealing with it we don't get the emails from BA. Of course Bank Holiday in UK meant we have to wait until today for them to deal with it. At present not heard anything but the travel section of my cruise planner is greyed out. I've promised the wife I'll let them have today to sort it though it's killing me!

Jo our 2 booked cruises are showing the 3 Night ackage in sterling at 3101.91 presently.

We tend to book the 4 night package at £117.71 as this is £29.42 per meal (the 3 Night is £33.97) 

@katie64 You can book via a US TA from the UK most of the big online ones have a box to tick to say you are out of the US. Obviously exchange rates can be an issue and always check for final cost including taxes and fees.

We book with Celebrity direct as we get a 10% discount by using a Blue Light Card. If we are sailing from the UK we then transfer to our online TA as they give us port parking. We often book onboard to get some extra OBC and low deposit 

Thanks you @Icon901 that's a great guide I've been samplng Maki and Nigiri and really like it  

and of course the only shore excursion I want is the only one not reduced at the moment 

So I'm a real sushi novice (don't ask) and really looking forward to trying out Sushi on 5! However, I've no real idea what to order to get the best spread any suggestions? what are your favourites?