BabyJane8

Just now, Seany527 said:

 

I didn't ask, but based on my research and the criteria listed onboard, I think can only be applied to the premium internet plan.

Ok thanks -- that is what I seem to be reading although have had conflicting information, particularly from phoning NCL directly -- but I do understand that they often are not aware of what happens on board, ironically, and so I come here for the most accurate information! I'll go ahead and buy it beforehand then. Happy cruising!

1 hour ago, Seany527 said:

I asked onboard-  you indeed do go through your 250 minutes of internet first and then default to your purchased package.  

 

For this sailing I had the social media package, 250 minutes with free at see and 30 minutes because I was Platinum.  

 

The internet manager allowed me to transfer the 250 minutes to another person I was sailing with.  That person under their account and log in accessed the 250 minutes and with my account used the social media package.  

 

I did not transfer the 30 minutes of platinum.  Therefore, I used the 30 minutes first even though I was on Facebook followed by the social media package.

Thanks for the information; did you happen to ask if one could use the credit from the 250 minutes to upgrade to the social media package? I believe you can for the other packages, but I just need the social one. Trying to decide if I should buy it online before the cruise. Thanks in advance for any help with this.

1 hour ago, mking8288 said:

 

I thought I've posted screenshots & pix of the various WiFi prices for the 14 days earlier, I can do that again if necessary, but FWIW ... 

For a typical 7 nights cruise, you have until 10 PM of Day 2 to upgrade & get the unlimited plan.  For our 14 nights cruise, the deadline is extended by 2 days, until 10 PM of Day 4 to upgrade & convert to the unlimited plan.  Only the FAS 250 minutes promo has a trade-up value at $125 - all this can be DIY when signed into digitalseas.io (that's the URL used) with one's info ... lines at the iCafe desk when the manager was on duty, was rather long - really unnecessary, IMHO.  Charges are posted to one's OnBoard account, and if you have any sort of refundable & non-refundable OBC to use, wait until you are on the ship - as you cannot use it with advance booking (it's discounted, good for someone with zero OBC expected).

 

The 100 and 250 minutes plan are priced the same - and the 30 minutes plan is only offered on the last full Sea Day & it wasn't even promoted or advertised on our 14 days - log into the account & it's there.  

 

Prices for the premium non-streaming plan for 14 days are based on a daily rate of $25 and for the streaming unlimited plan, higher by $5 or $30 per day - for the entire duration, you cannot buy it for 5 nights.  I am not sure about getting this on day 3 or day 4 and whether extra savings can be given/deducted - it was something that I wasn't planning for and considered getting.  I knew my 310 to 320+ minutes would be very tight for 10+ nights, but with 5 or 6 of those in ports, roaming cellular coverage was my primary mode & assurance to stay connected, somehow, and in case of truly "urgent" matters - other plans to fall back upon, for some calls & SMS/text messaging.  Staying connected 24/7 was not a priority nor essential as a requirement - and, in case of real emergencies, the costs no longer a key consideration ... just getting thru is priority #1.  

 

Here's my math for you - without accounting for possible discounts & savings, which you can always speak to the iCafe manager onboard about - worst case, s/he say no & denied.  For 14 days, social media is $15 ($14.95 rounded up) x 14 = $210.  Premium non-streaming is $25 a day ($24.95 rounded up, for shorter/7 days - it's $29.95/day) x 14 = $350 less a $125 trade-up credit, thus, net cost is $225 or only $15 more than the social media option.  

 

If you are doing one of the upcoming 12 or 14 nights saiing, ask about trading up with your 250 plan/package & see whether you can get a break and only pay ($210 - $125) $85 extra instead of full price, or get it for 2 less days by doing it ... on Day 2, 3 or 4 as permitted.  

 

Lastly, check & compare the option online as booked - do the math.  Keep in mind the system doesn't take any OBC or offset it with credits for the 250 plan, in advance.  Prices are subject to change without notice, I remain doubtful it will be lowered in the months ahead - loved to be proven wrong, but trending suggesting, to me, otherwise.  Good luck & do let us know how it go post-cruise.  

 

 

Wow, thank you so much for your detailed reply! I do apologize if you posted the prices earlier -- that's what comes from reading the posts late at night on a small tablet.... I will price everything out but at first glance I might bite the bullet and buy the social package online beforehand as it's listed as $175 at this point (we sail Feb 3 on a 14-night). I'll look everything over again and decide next week. Sadly, I find that the customer service is not very helpful as they don't seem to know and they won't state what the prices would be onboard. But I really appreciate your input!

16 hours ago, mking8288 said:

 

don't plan on upgrading $$ to the unlimited plans - trading it for the social media is NOT an option ("asked" & got the answer @ the iCafe manager's desk)   

Thank you very much for this review; in particular, I have been trying to find out if I can upgrade the 250 free minutes to the social plan and finally I have my answer (not what I was hoping but at least I know)! But do you happen to have noticed the on-board prices of the other internet plans? I've seen posts with the prices but they were for 7-night cruises. I believe that I would get $125 towards either the basic or premium unlimited plans and I would like to know if it's better financially for me to upgrade to the basic unlimited onboard or just buy the social plan online before I go -- social is all I need but whatever is cheapest wins!

Thank you!

Yes, that is my understanding that it is not available until you're on the ship; if you go to the post I mentioned above that is where I saw the information. I will try it on my upcoming cruise.

I believe there is an app called Traveller's App that you download once onboard the Divina -- there is another post about it here that began in 2013 but goes until Aug 2017 and it provides information about the app (The post is entitled New MSC Divina travellers app). It allows you to chat to others onboard using the ship's wifi (so free) and also has the daily schedules etc. Looking forward to trying it out on our upcoming cruise!

We had a similar issue and spoke with the call centre; they said to just enter the current passport information and then change it once we received our new ones. So I completed the on-line check-in. Then we just received the passports last week and I was able to modify my on-line check-in and printed out that verion. We sail on Nov 6 so all is good for us! Having said that, I don't know if we'll get our luggage tags in time but that's because we booked somewhat last minute and didn't have a stateroom number until just recently...

Unfortunately, Celebrity requires you to be packed up and out of your cabin by 8 a.m. on debarkation day (which may still be 7 a.m to you on some itineraries if you have just changed time zones).

 

As much as we love Celebrity cruises, we must admit that their debarkation morning procedures are dreadful, very hectic and disorganized with people madly rushing about to and fro.

 

If you want to have a regular breakfast, you need to go to one of the dining venues to get it because Celebrity does not offer any room service breakfast at all that day (except for passengers in top suites).

 

So you need to wake up early, get dressed, finish packing and take all your carry-off luggage to breakfast with you, even though you may not be leaving the ship for several more hours.

 

Or, the other breakfast option is to get up very early and leave your belongings in your cabin while you go to get breakfast.

The advantages of doing it that way are that you can return to your cabin to wash up in your own bathroom, brush your teeth and finish packing after breakfast.

 

But if you do it that way, then you need to work your way back to your cabin against the traffic flow to retrieve your belongings, and then start out all over again later when you may not be able to get an elevator.

 

We have tried doing it both ways (take luggage with us to breakfast, or leave luggage in cabin and go back for it). Neither was satisfactory.

 

The other options are to skip breakfast and instead settle for pastries with coffee in the departure lounge, or wait and have breakfast somewhere else after you are off the ship.

 

 

For any previous Holland America passengers who are accustomed to the civilized, orderly way that HAL handles breakfast on debarkation day, the deficiencies of Celebrity's chaotic departure day proceedings are glaringly apparent by contrast.

 

 

Thank you! Actually, on the Disney ships that we've been on the debarkation day is similar, in that you have to vacate your room by a certain time with your carry on to go to breakfast. We've done both having breakfast first and then vacating the room and vice versa. But we have to have our larger luggage packed and in the hall by 10pm the night before. So I'm familiar with that procedure, I was just surprised when the call centre told me there was no breakfast supplied. I'd be interested to hear what Holland America's procedure is.

Thank you! Actually, on the Disney ships that we've been on the debarkation day is similar, in that you have to vacate your room by a certain time with your carry on to go to breakfast. We've done both having breakfast first and then vacating the room and vice versa. But we have to have our larger luggage packed and in the hall by 10pm the night before. So I'm familiar with that procedure, I was just surprised when the call centre told me there was no breakfast supplied. I'd be interested to hear what Holland America's procedure is.

This plan won't work at all since there is no freezer section. :D The beverage package is honored on the island and food is included, at least it was on Labadee.

Great, thanks!

Thank you, everyone, for your replies! We were quite surprised at the answers we were getting from the call centre; they could have been misunderstandings but we were questioning their responses so I believe they knew what we were asking. Either way, you have been very helpful -- now on to the cruise!:)

Ha ha! So I guess my husband's plan of putting an ice pack in the freezer section to use in a cooler to take to the island won't work so well....

They WANT you to purchase the items in the frig, but you don't HAVE to.

 

Many people ask their room steward to empty the frig of the pay items and fill it with their own things.

 

Some just empty it frig and put the contents under the bed (or someplace) but I've always wondered if the room steward takes inventory daily and you might get charged for said items. Maybe a reversal later, but I'd play it safe and just tell the room steward to empty it - that way they know not to charge you.

Ok good, thank you, we'll probably do that! (removes temptation as well!!)

You can also bring your own soda if you want to safe even more money.:)

You can? I know I read about bringing wine, but didn't know about being able to bring soda -- cans I presume? And then if we could use the fridge that'll keep them nice and cold. Just wish we could also bring rum...! ;)

Oh, just thought of something else; you spoke of getting cans and bringing them back to your cabin -- can we use the bar fridge to keep it cold? Or is it only to hold the items they would like us to purchase?

Ok, thanks everyone. On the DCL I have only ever had free soda, but then again, I've really only had them in the dining rooms, free serve machines and of course on Castaway Cay. Never went to the bars or asked the roaming servers for a soda -- that was for other drinks! :D

I think I will pack a collapsible tote bag just in case to hold our stuff when going to Coco Cay. Looking forward to trying out a new ship line and new island!

Thanks so much for the quick reply, Don! I assume the food is also included on Coco Cay?

That makes much more sense to us -- we were very surprised about the answers we were getting from the call centre. Perhaps they might want to update their employees now! :)

Hello,

We're new to sailing with Celebrity; we have sailed with Disney a few times with our children but are taking a quick break, just the 2 of us. We booked the Infinity 3-night cruise to the Bahamas (Nov 6) and are trying to find out some information about drinks, Coco Cay, etc. However, when we spoke with a couple of people from the call centre we had conflicting answers so I thought I'd try this forum.

First of all, we're interested in getting a beverage package, but only for the pop (soda); my hubby doesn't drink a lot and I might just have the drink of the day so the alcohol package is probably not worth it. But we were wondering if the package is honoured on Coco Cay -- but when we asked this question we were told that no, it was not honoured and, to boot, the food is NOT included on Coco Cay. I thought that since it was a private island the food would have just been brought from the ship and therefore complimentary. Apparently it is for the RCL people but not for Celebrity. Any one sailed recently and found this to be true? Is is just because we're on such a short cruise?

Secondly, for debarkation day, we were told we need to be off the ship by 7 am and no breakfast is provided. Given we are used to having a sit-down breakfast on the day of debarkation we were quite surprised about this, both the time and the lack of food. Is this what people have experienced?

Finally, in an info book on Celebrity cruises it indicates that even the standard staterooms get a complimentary tote; we're just going in an inside room for this time and we've been told yes and no from the call centre. Does anyone know if a tote is provided? Just want to know if I should pack one...

Thank you so much in advance for answering these questions. Any other advice would be more than welcomed as well!