CruiseMelissa

5 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I have the dining time listed in my app after check in. I know it's wrong (5:30 listed, but I know it's 5pm) but it's still there.

Thanks.  Looks like I need to do some investigating!

This is happening to a few people in my FB group for our Liberty sailing next month.

In the app, there is usually a box that says your dining time.  After we checked in, the box disappeared completely.  Is this normal?   Other than hounding my TA or RC is there another way to look up and confirm what dining time they have for me?  I keep reading stories of people getting to the ship and seeing that their dining time changed, I want to stay on top of this if it's a sign.  

Pics below to show you what I'm talking about (one example is my Celebrity sailing but that's what it looked like in my RC app before check-in).  It's not wrong, the box is just gone.

On 4/1/2024 at 10:12 AM, MandL said:

 

Taxis are plentiful from Haneda, hotels, snd even if you get into a jam and need one around town in Tokyo.  They were way less expensive than pre-booking online in advance through travel sites.

 

 

Crazy-specific question about Haneda taxis... do they have different size taxis with bigger trunks?  The Haneda website made it look like there was one standard, small-ish car size, I'm wondering what our options are for a party of 4 (with luggage, obviously) if we want to just grab one when we get there?

20 hours ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

Are you sure the deposit is refunded after 6 months? I've never seen that. 6 months is the timeframe where the OBC expires, however the certificate deposit isn't refunded until it goes unused for 12 months. 

 

 

That's what I was used to seeing on other cruises so when they told us it was refundable I jumped on it.  It sounds like from other posters a call is in order.

Thanks everyone!

When we were on the Summit in August we took advantage of an offer with the future cruise desk that gave us six months to book any cruise to receive the OBC offer and if we didn't book by 6 month mark we'd receive our deposit back.  The refunded deposit part seemed pretty unique to us and we double and triple checked with them that was true before we put the deposit down.  We never found an itinerary we wanted to book and the offer lapsed a few weeks back. Does anyone have any idea when I could expect those deposits refunded to my credit card?   I'm starting to think the offer was really too good to be true and maybe those deposits hang out there indefinitely until we book again one day (without the OBC, obviously). 

I tried scanning this thread and don't think this has been addressed... from what I understand, they'll be rolling this out slowly, ship by ship.  Anyone have any guesses/knowledge from test ships how they'll move people around to get this started?  I assume they'll be a chunk of people in both the late and early time that want to move to the middle time, will they send out an email asking if you want to move? Or will we just be surprised when we board? I'm in the minority in that I love an early dinner time and currently have 5:15 on my next cruise, might I show up and have the middle time assigned to me?  (I know if that's the case there will probably be plenty of people that would be willing to swap, I just hate first-day-hassles, as do many).

50 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

There are so many adventures out there to enjoy indeed.  And with us...just trying to pack it all in as much as we can...while we can still do it.  😉 

 

Already anxiously waiting to fill up 2026...since the next two years are pretty packed in already.  😄 

Ha!  Always nice to have a full travel calendar!

9 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

We are doing the NF next year on WC Serenade.  Happy to be able to do it. 🙂 

Awesome!  We put the NF to 2025 because we got a great deal on Japan in 2024 on Celebrity.  Crossing fingers we can make NF work in 2025!

3 minutes ago, Jumping Cruiser said:

Yes, on Independence from Southampton. Itineraries are a couple of pages back.

Oops, sorry, I didn't go that far back.  Thanks so much!

No Norwegian Fjords?  I would have thought that would be a big sell with it being the last year before the restrictions start?

3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

It'd be kind of rude to the staff to just sit at the bar and watch the games when paying customers could otherwise be sitting

Couldn't this be said for all bars with chairs around a ship?  Or chairs around the pool where there is drink service?   

I know on land this is the case, the bartenders need high turnover to make $ but with C&A vouchers, drink packages, and it being a family-focused I'm not sure this applies here. 

During NFL games do you have to buy a certain $$ amount of food/drinks to sit at the bar or table at Playmakers?  I wasn't sure if it was like a land-based bar where this can be common or treated like a typical cruise ship bar where it's first-come-first-serve hang out and stay as long as you'd like?

6 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

If you search for the cruise on the main search screen and instead of pressing the book button, there is a view itinerary button.   At the very bottom of that screen there is a link to get a FBC quote without a reservation number.

Absolutely, positively brilliant.  Thanks so much, I would have never though to go that route!

Last year we booked flights to Europe with RC's Air2Sea and got a rate we were really happy with, at a price much lower than the airline site's price.  Every once in awhile I'd go to the Air2Sea site and do a mock flight booking and when I found price drops I'd call Air2Sea and they'd reprice (the fare was refundable).

When I go to Celebrity's site, however, there isn't an option to put in a mock booking, I have to put in our cruise reservation # and our current air reservation pops up, there isn't an option to do a new search to see current fares.  Our fare doesn't match the airline site's price so looking there doesn't help.  Is my only option to call Flights by Celebrity and ask if the price has changed?  That seems like such a hassle, there has to be a less time-consuming way?

We've yet to find a perfect way to get bartenders/drink servers to take the kid's virgin drinks off THEIR vouchers and not the precious adult's alcohol vouchers when we're all in the same room.

Many servers want just the room number and wind up taking one of my kid's sodas off of my adult vouchers.  To circumvent this, we've tried "can you swipe this card for this drink, this card for this drink..." and it seems to have a decent success rate but requires so much extra communication.  At a bar, it's a little easier but they, too, often want just the room number when we say we're using the vouchers so I have to, again, go into "can you please swipe the cards instead, we don't want the kid's drinks to come off the adult's vouchers".  The only other solution I can think of is to send each person individually up there to get their drinks to avoid confusion and insist their card be scanned but that, too, seems like overkill.

I definitely think I'm doing something wrong, it can't be this complicated?   

On 9/8/2023 at 12:19 PM, monkey@cruise said:

It is recommended to arrive at HND at least 2 hours before domestic flights and 3 hours before international flights, especially a full flight.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:44 PM, ARandomTraveler said:

Not true at all! I just disembarked in Yokohama a couple weeks ago and it took 20 min to get off the ship even though we were one of the first groups allowed to leave the ship at 8am (meaning we didn't get outside until almost 8:30am). Then, if you need a taxi, the line was almost exactly 1hr long (I can't imagine how long it was for people who got off later and had to stand in a longer line).

 

The taxi ride to Hanaeda airport is about 30min (pending traffic, which could, and probably will, double that time).

 

Or, if you take a train from Yokohama Train Station to Hanaeda airport, the train will take you an hour (not including the time for the taxi to get you to the train station).
 

For an international flight, you need to get to the airport a couple hours early, so factoring in a conservative time estimate of 1.5hrs to get off the ship, another hour by taxi or train, and another 2 hours early to the airport, I wouldn't book a flight out any sooner than 1pm, and even then I'd be a little nervous. I'd be more comfortable booking a 3pm or 4pm, just to be safe.

 

 

Thank you, this is VERY helpful.  I hadn't heard that about taxis in Yokohoma upon disembarkation, reviews I've read made them seem plentiful.  Your description, however, shows possibly the worst case scenario which is very important to consider.  I really appreciate it!

15 hours ago, marwood said:

You should be able to get off the ship by 8am and be at the airport in about one hour.

Thanks.  Any insight on how long it takes to get through check-in and security at Haneda?

Has anyone that sailed Diamond Princess in Japan experienced any problems with the timing of disembarkation?  Arriving at Yokohama late, the ship clearing late, customs taking a long time, etc.?

I'm trying to time our flight home from Haneda and I know that the Japanese are extremely efficient but want to make sure I'm not cutting it too close.  We'd do self-carry for our luggage, just trying to get a feel for the general flow.

I've experienced the debarkation process many times in US and European ports and have gotten good at estimating a reasonable flight departure time for debarkation based on distance to airport and ship arrival time.

I'm wondering if there is anything to keep in mind getting off the ship in Yokohama and going right to Haneda?  Google Maps shows it's a 20-40 minute drive.  Are there factors other than that and ship arrival time I need to know about when considering flight times?  Are Haneda security lines especially hectic?

It would be early on a Monday morning in August, if that helps.  Thanks!

We sailed Freedom last year, we got to the terminal around 10:15 and boarded shortly after 11.  I don't remember what our check-in time was.

Does it still open around 10?  I've read that the earliest check-in time in the app is 11:30, 11:00 for key/suite guests which makes me think it opens later?   Unless they're letting people check in before those times?

37 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Doesn't the teen cut off vary by ship? Some 12, some 13.

Yes, this is correct, kind of. Freedom 12 year olds could go to Adventure Ocean, Explorer they couldn't, the cut off was 11. 

12 minutes ago, jelayne said:

No you don’t get a printout for the crew member but I always take Thank You cards and write a note to tge crew member with the amount of the gratuity that they should receive.

Great idea,  thank you!

On 7/21/2023 at 1:26 PM, Lastdance said:

OBC for tips is an excellent way to use OBC, IMHO; however, with all of the great ideas posted above, I am sure that you have more than enough ways to go about this...happy spending😊

I saw that this was an option on the Celebrity site, that you can allocate some of your OBC for extra tips for staff.  Do you happen to know if they give you a printout or something that you can give the crew member?  I love physically handing them an envelope and expressing how much we appreciate them.  

47 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Yes you can mix and match. Don't think of it as 2 menus. Think of it as 2 choices for each course. 

Love it, thanks!

23 minutes ago, CruiserByHeart said:

Not a silly question at all 😃

 

We enjoyed the culinary creations of the quirky small guy onboard the Reflection a year ago. Before the dinner show started, or server asked if we wanted the set menubor substitute any dishes. DW opted to substitute some of the dishes. We just asked right there and no problem getting the substitutions, which were all in an alternative menu offered. Only drawback was that the video show did not reflect the substitutions so the dish prepared by the little star chef before or eyes did not match the dish served by his IRL assistant in the galley.

Thank you!