kevanmia

4 hours ago, pumpkin 11 said:

 

What do you all think of this? I think Always Included has really muddied these waters. I am not even sure Al will stick around.

The fact that they can't even comp the full value of the specialty restaurant says everything!   $.05 and $.10!

Also, no lounge space for anyone aside from the most elite of elite tiers is the new normal.  The people thinking that Elite Plus and Zenith will have dedicated lounge space are deluded.  Honestly there are too many top tier members to make it feasible -- especially with things like Power Up, when everyone and their mother has Elite or higher it just doesn't mean much.  It's like when I am priority with the airline and 75 people still board ahead of me. 

Majesty and Monarch would often sell for these rates or lower.  Wasn't uncommon to have sub-$100 cruise fares on 3 night Bahamas.  Difference now is you have a ship that's multiple times better!

1 hour ago, CalTexCruiser said:

Thanks for sharing OP

 

I’ve been wondering… is there a Chefs Table on the Apex?

 

I see it mentioned often for the Edge but haven’t seen a mention of it for the Apex

It is bookable in the Cruise Planner so I'm guessing the answer is yes.

The Specialty Restaurant cover charge absolutely includes the gratuities.  Think of it just like AI.  If you want to leave more for exceptional service, by all means do so, but no additional tipping is expected.

On 8/13/2021 at 10:04 AM, NutsAboutGolf said:

You can win quite a bit if you do even money bets, wait for some sort of streak and bet against it.  For example, on roulette one strategy is to wait for three reds or blacks and then bet against it.  If you lose double down a certain number of times. 

You do realize that with a series of independent trials, the past results do not influence the future outcomes, right?  If the wheel as landed on red 100 times in a row, it is not "due" to land on black.

Can anyone who's been on Apex advise if Apple products are sold onboard?  The Edge class deck plans do not show a dedicated iLounge, so I'm curious if they still sell them in the retail shops.  Thanks!

On 7/31/2021 at 1:54 AM, Fly and Sail said:

 

According to this chart any tier should get these "Quarterly Offers" and I can confidently say that in 10 years with MLife I have never received a single one. YMMV.

Same.  Very frustrating to be told you needed to book under an offer when no offers were sent in the first place!

On 7/31/2021 at 3:00 PM, Fly and Sail said:

To be frank: CC is a complete joke. Even C&A with Royal is much better. You're spending thousands (until you reach a tier probably 10-20k) going on several Celebrity Cruises to end up saving what, like 20 bucks!? Nuts!

Mostly agree.  The benefits are nothing to write home about.  I don't need my laundry done.  I don't purchase photo packages (like who doesn't have a smartphone?).  With AI, small discounts on drinks or internet no longer matter.

X seems to be happy with the amount of loyalty they already have and are clearly not handing out much to grow the loyalty base.  They've also concluded that many people will keep sailing and sailing with them even if the loyalty program is worth pennies.  So maybe people need to start voting with their feet!

4 minutes ago, Searanger said:

Doing the Sept 18th single.  Yea you don't and probably won't see these rates again.  Also found a direct flight paid fully with points....another bonus.

LOL I called in the second I saw it because I thought it might have been a pricing error.  However, it's been out there for a week now so apparently its intentional to just start filling up as many rooms as they can!

On 8/2/2021 at 3:31 PM, colingu said:

I was wondering the same. When checking the terms and and conditions it states "SOBC does not have to be spent on excursions". So what's the point of having SOBC & OBC if they end up being the same?

Clearly they want you to use it on the overpriced excursions... markups on those things are nuts.

However, to confirm answers to OP, "Shore Excursion Credit" can be used on anything onboard whatsoever.  So go gamble with it!

Are they enforcing the Celebrity-curated excursion in Mykonos or can you do your own thing?

Some really rad single deals out there for those remaining Greek Isles Apex cruises - just in case you'd like to join me!

For the last two sailings in August, the single rate for Suite/AQ/Inside appears to be at 100% or less than the double rate.  When's the last time you've seen that?

I'm attaching what I just upgraded into - cheaper than Interline!

On 7/24/2021 at 2:07 AM, Torfamm said:

That’s what it says in the terms and conditions on the website as well

Update - advanced to Gold yesterday, called today to add the OBC and got denied.  Supposedly the cruise had to be booked under an "MLife offer," of which I have never even received any info.  Personally I think this recent "memo" has it wrong -the  "cruise fare trade-in value" clause should cover all non-group, non-discount bookings.   The rep was under the impression that it had to be a casino rate booking to qualify.

I also have a few RCCL cruises so maybe I"ll try with them.

On 7/22/2021 at 6:36 PM, tymike said:

Hi all!

After reading this thread I decided to give BCC a call last night to ask if my husband and I were eligible for OBC (one of us is MLife gold, the other platinum).  I was waiting for a rep for well over an hour and once speaking with a rep was told no OBC due to booking with BCC and not MLife.

 

Despite my sharing with her that there are reports of folks being granted OBC recently she stated that they received a memo two days ago forbidding this.  I asked her to send me the memo...the answer was no.  I asked for a supervisor.  Another hold time of close to an hour.  Yup....I gave up.  I shared with her that my concern was that the response from BCC when asked for OBC based on MLife status appears to be inconsistent and this is where the frustration comes in (as well as  ridiculous wait times on hold).

 

I've booked with BCC many times in the past and have never had such a frustrating experience as last nights' call.  I hope it was a fluke....

If you booked under a discounted or free casino rate, which it sounds like you did, then getting MLife offers is considered double-dipping.  I'm pretty sure that you need to be paying full fare or something like it to qualify.

In terms of leaving behind a residual odor that would require some sort of stateroom cleaning, comparing vaping to smoking is like comparing a cup of coffee to crack cocaine.  I really can't tell the difference between a vape and my essential oil humidifier.  Especially after 30 minutes.  Teenagers who vape in the school bathroom do it because there's really no getting "caught" after you've left the scene of the crime.

Then again, if your policies can't adopt to a world of color, black and white it is.  Fair enough.

Related thought - the "bare bones" price isn't always a bad deal.  I qualify for Interline and there was a decent gap between the cruise-only fare and the Al fare.  It would have made sense to take AI only if I was planning on paying the full cost of beverage package + wifi + grats.  Since I can usually do without the wifi unless there's an emergency, it was better to take the cruise-only rate and pay for the others separately.

Definitely understand the concern of people who don't have an option in "unbundling" the AI though - wait long enough and they'll get bored with it and switch.  Except for Royal Carib's "BOGO" (inflated price for guest one + non-inflated price for guest two = same price you otherwise would have paid except for fancy marketing) - cruise line promotions have relatively short shelf lives.

8 hours ago, jelayne said:

FYI if you are booked with a TA not all TA's participate in Move Up.  

Should we interpret this as, "they aren't going the extra mile to notify you"?  MoveUp is probably non-commissionable so the big-box VTGs of the world aren't probably going to be super helpful.

I'm not convinced that the "at the time of booking" is well enforced.  I am a lowly Pearl with MLIfe but will probably hit Gold with one more trip to Vegas.  I asked the agent if I could call back once I hit Gold to update my benefits and was told, yes, by all means call back and they will change it!

6 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

October 2, 2021 is a seven day Caribbean cruise, for two, on the Edge. Concierge, with AI is $2,906.88. Concierge, with just tips, is $2,861.88. A difference of $45. Divided by 14 (seven days times 2 people) is $3.21 p.p. per day for the classic drink package and wi-fi which is less than one soda, including tip. How could a company who went several billion dollars in debt  do this? I can think of two possibilities, poor management or the cost plus profit is built into the base price. Either way, it doesn't reflect well for the line.

I just priced this sailing on Celebrity.com (no CC number, military, etc.)  A Concierge guarantee is being offered for $280 p/p less than the AI rate.  GTY is cruise-only.  Yes, when you add back the gratuities, the difference is only like $170.  So, maybe slightly appealing to a non-drinker.

However, the way I would look at this (as someone who works in revenue management for a living) is that the AI fare is the real fare with the appropriate cost of all the bennies in there, and the cruise-only fare is an inflated fare where the cruise line is very happy for you to take because even though you are nominally paying less, there is a lot less cost associated with your booking and you are probably more profitable on a pp/pd basis.

2 hours ago, Lane412000 said:

I called Celebrity Cruises to inquire about any itinerary changes for August 14th. She placed me on hold and came back to tell me we had dropped the two Israel ports and added Mykonos and Cyprus.  I told her, yes I knew about these changes and she said, no these just changed a few hours ago.  I said, okay the current APEX cruise is going to Croatia and dropped Cyprus.  She said no, the current itinerary has not changed for the July 17th APEX sailing.  I told her thank you, but I will get my information from Cruise Critic. 😁

Sounds like they were caught a little off guard by last minute restriction changes in Cyprus and Mykonos.  This is not surprising.  Municipalities are going back and forth like mad with the Delta variant now.  The only certainty is things will change.

Have a little mercy on the customer service agent for not being up to date on worldwide regulations.  There's usually a lot of deliberate decision making to change itineraries weeks in advance and I doubt Celebrity would make some sort of snap decision for a port of call that was imposing restrictions for two weeks, like the now-infamous Mykonos music ban.

If Celebrity does decide to change the itinerary in advance, you and/or your TA will be promptly notified, often before the itinerary actually changes on Celebrity.com

2 hours ago, hnm2234 said:

Giuseppe made a comment before the show tonight that there are about 700 

Things are looking up, I see!  Sure beats the 400 two weeks back!

Hey Michael Bayley and anyone else who is reading,

This has to be a sick joke, right? 

$71/day is the 20% discounted pre-cruise price for the beverage package? Pre-COVID, I don't recall it ever being sold onboard higher than $65/pp/day, though I know it varies by itinerary and cruise duration.

Seriously, though, $71/pp/pd?  At that point your financial disclosures should state that you are an alcoholic beverage vendor who has a side business in selling cruise vacations.  At least when it comes to contribution margin, there would be no lie in that.

Related question but did not want to start a new thread:

In your experience, is Celebrity "more generous" with their perks because of your MLife status,

or,

Is MGM more generous because of your CC status?  

Assume you give the casino the same amount of "action" per day on land vs at sea.

Thanks!

On 7/10/2021 at 6:27 AM, EngIceDave said:

Hi, I'm Dave, degenerate gambler

 

(hi dave)

 

I get offers from everyone, Seminole Hard Rock, Caesars, MGM, Wynn, etc....they've all dropped their offers. I used to get stellar offers, now it's not worth lifting my head to look sometimes.

 

 

 

Hi, Dave.  Welcome to the circle.

Repeat after me: pent-up demand. pent-up demand.  pent-up demand.

Sorry if this has been asked and answered...

Do guests in the Edge-Class Solo IV receive double CC points for single occ (as in all other rooms sailing solo) or not because the theoretical single supplement is reduced for these cabins?

Second question for bonus points - I am looking to advance from Classic to Select but the cabin upgrade to get me there is $400.  There is no possible way I would recoup that money in perks on the next sailing, correct?  I am 99% sure but just curious if there is a different take.  The CC benefits below the Elite tier are nothing to write home about.