Jim_Iain

I was able to get a $300 savings one of my 6 reservations. Some have gone up by as much as $2,000 (what a sale).

Yes

Yes can confirm both the bottles in the Bar Setup and the Purchase from Gift Portal are 1 Liter Bottle and come with mixer. Traveling in Suites the Butler will bring you as many mixers as you need or just pickup at the retreat. They will ask you what mixers you wish. I recently cancelled the Bar Setup and Replaced with a Gift Bottle.

We were on the Iceland / Greenland cruise last year On the particular sailing Elite and above were about 80% of the ship. They had Elite and above meet in a specif place and Suites in Retreat. When tendering began they had two locations - one forward that were tendering Shore Excursions and Mid-ship for General Tendering. When first began Suite Passengers were escorted to the front of the line for tendering. Same was the procedure for Elite or above. It went fairly quickly.

Yes. Whether Guarantee or picking a room they are included. You can do a mock booking and confirm.

To the OP, I've submitted requests for cruises out 2 years and all of them have all the OBC's from the book on-board. I've received OBC's for all of them.

Go into cruise planner and select your cruise and plan you cruise - then select WiFi. There are often sales pre-Cruise. If you are Elite or above you can call in or wait until on-board and just select and your CC Discount will be applied.

I may be a bit twisted but vaping really doesn't bother me. Many of you know Iain's a smoker (oh No!) and I'm a bit anti-smoker (Quit 37 years ago). Iain does vapes and I have to say I have never smelled anything. May be it is that he smokes Juul's that don't emit much water vapor unlike some of those that belch out clouds. Not being confrontational but wondering if other's can smell Vape cigarettes. I am very sensative to smells and tell you cheap men's cologne and perfume really bothers me as well as neighbors that but those fabric softeners with scents in their dryer and wafts up to my open windows. On the Positive we live in a Townhouse in Sunnyvale, CA and they passed an ordinance 5 or 6 years ago that prohibit smoking inside your residential unit of any building attached to another unit. Our HOA which I'm President also forbids smoking anywhere on our outdoor property. He complies and smokes on the sidewalk while he takes a walk.

While a revolt is always a possible solution, I doubt many would do so with the cancellation penalties.

My experience has been that the quality of the bubbly in the Suites is dependent on the level of Suite. In a SS and CS they usually have Elegance (Celebrity Branded Sutter Home) RS and above some pretty nice bubbly. You can also have them substitute a White or Red wine.

We have stayed on-board at a number of stops but usually always get off at some of the ports. Even if just to spend an hour or so ashore. There are always a number of guest aboard and some do just what you are suggesting. Enjoy your cruise how ever you choose to enjoy. It is rather nice with much fewer passengers in port and he Spa offers special discounts on port days.

is that still the policy after the new 10% deposit system was implemented. I thought I read on the initial posting here that it would be the same for booking on-board.

I asked the same thing to the waiter in Murano. The Maitre'd came over and explained gratuities were included. It I left extra gratuities using my sea pass the amount would go to the complete ships dining pool. If you leave cash then it goes to the Murano Pool only. I didn't have any cash on us so didn't leave anything but on the next visit brought some cash and left a nice extra gratuity.

In MHO they have already devalued the CC program so much by offering Double Points, Bonus Points etc etc...That unless they create new levels their whole program is already over valued. Kinda like United Airlines Loyalty program. In Silicon Value they usually don't allow early boarding for most level or else everyone would board at the same time.

I can confirm that when traveling in an Upper Suite I was able to buy the program for my SIL and BIL traveling with us in a Aqua. There is a very limited number available and must be arranged and paid for prior to the cruise. In my case I booked it 9 months prior to the cruise. The cost is $100 pp per day for the entire cruise. We were on an 11 day cruise so was $2,200 extra. Don't recall if we had to also pay extra gratuities or not. I was hoping to get them upgraded to a SS but my bid of $2,600 was rejected - It was a British Isles Cruise and was really unusual - Except for the night they had the Officers Party where most suite passengers arrived for dinner at the same time - other nights there was never more than about 50% occupancy in Laminae. It may have been that it was an extremely port intensive cruise with only 3 sea days.

I think we are similar to many of the responses. If someone just does their job and nothing else then we do not feel compelled to tip extra as we have already tipped as part of the tipping program. Having said that about 90%+ the time we leave additional tips for the Butler, Room Attendant, Waiter, Assistant Waiter, Bar Tender (if they have been attentive). The Retreat Hosts, I don't feel necessary to tip if they just do their job but if they go above and beyond we have often bought the host a nice necklace or other gift. The main reason for this is they have to pool tips but a personal gift they keep. I know they appreciate it as seeing a Host on a future cruise they often have it with them and come up and say --- did you see my beautiful necklaces. Usually we try to find a piece by a local artist that represent a port or country in a subtle way. I'll give you an example of something above and beyond. We were on a cruise a couple months ago and near the last day I noticed I was missing my puffer jacket. The Retreat host checked with the Front Desk and Retreat and nothing. I then remembered that at the last port I kept setting off the metal detector and they had me remove everything including my puffer. The host contacted Security and review the video and somehow (not explained to me) found my jacket and returned it to me. I had already just written it off in my mind.

Don't recall if Celebrity offered a Transfer at LAX. You should be able to go into cruise Planner or call agent or Celbrity. I've generally found that if there are two or more traveling Uber is cheaper than the person charge for a transfer. If like other airports, the transfer was only available on the day of Embarkation and Disembarkation. You meet the transfers in Baggage Terminal and they do not have accommodations for other days or to and from hotels. That would probably rule it out if your coming in a day early and staying at a hotel. We used Uber to San Pedro and found it very easy. You can be picked up curbside only if you are using Black. If using regular Ubar you just grab a shuttle in front of each terminal to the LAXiT Lot. From there there is a lane for Uber and One for Lyft. On our return the prices started surging right when disembarkation began so we just grabbed a Cab that was sitting there. Prices were about the same as Uber but less than the Surge Pricing.

I must be the exception here but when I read the announcement - I yawned and thought Ho-Hum. We would just not do a 3-4 day cruise. One reason is too short and the other is that when you live on the West Coast and it takes about a full day of travel in each direction just not worth it. Other reason is we are not big fans of Private Island Beach 'adventures' and laying out in the sun. If we were to take the longer cruises we would probably just stay on board and enjoy the peace and tranquility.

If you really want the tags in advance possibly you friends have a printer. If not you can stop into any UPS or FedEx store and can print there. They have PC's and you can just log on and print or bring on a USB drive and print. I did this recently in Amsterdam.

Crush is simply a seating area adjacent to the Martini Bar. The Martini Bar is a refrigerated top "Ice Bar" and when turned on it builds up with frost that you can play with or keep you drink cold. Crush is simply and Eye Shaped seating area that is quieter and not directly looking at the bar tenders. The center of the bar and the end cap are filled with Ice and bottles are stuck in it for decoration. Crush Martini Bar

I stand corrected. When I look at the deckplans I can understand. Silly me I never new there were rooms on deck 3.

While I generally agree with this on a recent cruise out of Amsterdam if you didn't have luggage tags there was a line with about 100 -200 waiting to get tags. They really weren't really using porters. When you came into terminal if you had luggage tags you just put luggage onto an unattended Conveyor Belt and off they went. The first time I've seen this. We originally didn't have our tags but got them a couple days before the cruise and found a copy shop in Amsterdam to print them out.

Don't want to dispute with my best friend. Are you sure? You can look up and down at least one deck down and one up.... the do have heavy glass going Dow so you can’t slip in and fall.

Chef's Market experience -

We were in Amsterdam for a full week between cruises. Since we had Iain's BIL and Sister joining us we booked an AirBnB with two full bedrooms, Kitchen, Bathrooms and private Deck. It was perfect for our needs and far less expensive then booking two hotel rooms and having to eat all of our meals out. After being on the ship for 3 1/2 weeks it was nice to just have some comfort food. In our Roll Call for the Apex TA there were LOTS of hotel recommendations.