fleckle

10 hours ago, DanaDanes said:

On deck six if sister ship infinity, they did not open. 

The balcony dividers that open on deck six of the Infinity and the other M-class ships are the ones on both sides near the back of the ship, from cabins  6143 (port side) and 6144 (starboard side) on back.

14 hours ago, Pier290 said:

Call for luggage tags....they will send u nice ones with adhesive...better than printed ones!

Or even easier, don't bother. 

The porters at the pier will attach nice ones with adhesive backing for you when you get there and check in your luggage.  It only takes them a few seconds to attach each luggage tag.

No muss, no fuss.

They fill out and attach so many of them, they can do it much more quickly and efficiently than we can do it ourselves.

1 hour ago, the_dylaness said:

We sail as a couple in a sky suite in January- hoping there is an option in Luminae for lunch on embarkation day...

Yes, Luminae should be open for lunch on embarkation day.

In the past, the major appeal of the sit-down lunch on embarkation day for many passengers was having a place to park your luggage while you ate lunch.

The menu there was always extremely limited.

Now that passengers can drop their luggage off in their staterooms, it is much easier to move freely around the ship on embarkation day, choosing the items you each like best from the various food venues.

32 minutes ago, dpm321 said:

We’re booked on our first Celebrity B2B on Summit out of San Juan in November.  I’m curious how check in works.  We have 2 separate reservations in the same cabin.  Do we get a sea pass card good for both cruises at first check in or do we have to check in again for the second one?  Any info or advice is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

 

Dave M.

Near the end of the first cruise you will receive a packet with instructions for the turnaround procedure.  They usually invite all the B2B passengers to a meeting where they will explain the procedure for your particular turnaround day.

When there are a lot of B2B passengers, they may offer special excursion options for them that day.

You each receive a transit pass, which enables you to come and go freely throughout the day as you wish, so if you leave the ship, when you return you don't need to wait in line with the new passengers who are checking in.

If you choose to remain on the ship that day, they typically have all the B2B passengers meet in the forward observation lounge, at the front of deck 11 on the turnaround day.   (Usually sometime around 9:15 to 9:45 am - -  they make an announcement when they want you to go there.)

After all the passengers who are leaving have departed, the officials come on board and process the B2B passengers right there in the lounge, so you don't need to leave the ship at all, (unless you want to do so). 

They will give you your new seapass card for the next cruise right there in the lounge.

Essentially, you "ding" out with your old seapass card and then "ding" back in with the new one and get your picture taken.

If you choose to leave the ship that day instead of staying on board, you leave with the departing passengers,  "ding" out with your old card and then receive your new card later in the day when you return. 

You will receive instructions on where to pick up your new card if you do that.

If they have a lot of unsold staterooms as the sailing date gets near, they just offer discounted prices to locals to fill them.

7 hours ago, buggins0402 said:

Edit: We have the classic included with our booking, can we just have him changed to a premium non alcoholic?

Yes.   Just go to Guest Relations and ask them to change it.

We have never had a problem doing that, but since someone else here apparently did,  I would suggest that if someone should give you a hard time about it, ask to speak to the Guest Relations Director.

27 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

....... We recently did a B2B and came back to our cabin early only to find the door propped open.  We were not happy as since we were B2B we had a number of items (Including a laptop) sitting around in our cabin.

But they leave doors propped open all the time when they are cleaning the cabins, not only on embarkation day.

4 hours ago, Fixit2010 said:

What is it that you liked in past cruises but Celebrity have stopped doing or changed for the worse and you would like to see brought back? 

"Showtime" in the dining room, where they would bring out a big tray and show you all the desserts each night before needing to make your decision of which dessert to order.

Mints supplied after dinner each night as you were leaving the dining room.

Automatically providing a water pitcher and ice bucket for each cabin that got refilled twice each day, without your needing to request them.

Some new passengers may not even realize that they are available upon request.

Supplying writing paper and pens in each cabin without needing to ask for them.  Especially handy the first day for jotting down reminders of things to ask your butler/stateroom attendant, or even for your own to-do list.  In the past, they were always provided by each telephone so you could jot down notes when you got a phone call.

Lately, this seems to be random hit or miss.

When asked why they no longer supply such items, the standard reply has been that not everyone wants them or uses them.

But they could/should at  least provide a list in each cabin of additional items that are available upon request.

They used to provide a large jar with cotton balls and q-tips for every cabin bathroom, not only for suites, which still get them.

Those tiny little cardboard boxes where you need to cut the cellophane wrapper off each individual small packet of q-tips are an inconvenient pain, besides being an enormous waste of cardboard.
 

The old piano bar in Michaels' club with the silly guy who put on a show making fun of people who have granite countertops and stainless steel appliances in their homes (don't recall his name).

Some people loved him and some hated him, but he was always a topic of discussion. 

There were other piano bar players as well, but that guy seemed to be the one who drew the most attention.

A nice touch that is no more was having a harpist playing during meals and also the string quartet (which was reduced to a string trio, and then to a string duo).

Being assisted with your carry-on luggage and escorted to your cabin upon embarkation was especially helpful for new passengers,  instead of the current bedlam on embarkation day with new passengers scurrying around trying to find their cabins.

Those who did not want an escort could simply decline the offer.

They also used to have an age restriction on children in the specialty restaurants (which could be a big plus or minus, depending on whether or not you were the one with the small children).

I'm glad to learn that they are again providing daily water in aqua class.  It is long overdue.

Another thing I want to add is that some of the cutbacks are not the fault of the stateroom attendant.  For example, water pitchers and ice buckets used to be provided in all staterooms. 

Some time ago, management decided to provide them upon request only, so now you need to ask for them if you want them.

Passengers who are unaware of the change in policy could easily assume that they just have a lazy or negligent stateroom attendant when such items are missing from their staterooms.

53 minutes ago, chemmo said:

 

We always tell our room attendant we will put the do not disturb sign on each night. We then let him know we will take it off as we go for breakfast so he will know we are out. Most of the time our room is done before we come back.

That is what we do as well.  I thought that was standard practice, the reason why they provide do not disturb signs.

The piece of paper in the door previously mentioned doesn't work unless there is only one person in the stateroom because when there are 2 people,  they are often going in and out at different times.

Also, many passengers order room service.

For the most part, we have been very happy with the stateroom attendants we have had on Celebrity cruises.  They seem to be eager to please. 

Part of the problem that some are having may simply be a communication problem, not letting the stateroom attendant know what you want or expect.

The best ones will replace things like toilet paper or soap before they run out so we don't even need to ask for them, but with others, all we need to do is ask for what we need and they are happy to oblige.

12 hours ago, evitacruiser said:

I was just reading about the dress code for our upcoming trip and from what I have read Formal night is no more. So is a Tuxedo not required now? It would lighten our luggage load but we do enjoy the dressing for dinner aspect. Do some cruisers still do the full-on formal attire or has it completely gone? 

It appears that you have not cruised with Celebrity recently because they did away with formal nights back in 2015.

The way it was explained at the time, they want passengers to wear whatever makes them happy and to express their individuality, not for everyone to dress alike.

By all means, wear the tuxedo, or not, as you please.  You will see a wide range of dress from one end of the spectrum to the other,  and nobody should feel out of place.  Whatever you choose to wear (within the posted guidelines) will be just fine.

If you like to stand out and be noticed, dress at one extreme or the other, but if you just want to blend in and be inconspicuous, dress somewhere in the middle.  You are likely to draw compliments if you are among those who dress up.

Here is a link to a video Alaina posted of 7003 on the Infinity, sister ship to the Summit so the room itself should be very similar, just different decor.

   Celebrity Infinity Cabin 7003 - YouTube

Also, take into account that the Summit has since been revolutionized (or whatever they call it) but it should at least give you an idea of the size of the room and the window location. 

14 hours ago, chill6x6 said:

I have an S1 booked for November aboard the Summit.  We were able to order from both the MDR menu AND Luminae menu last year aboard the Silhouette.  Will we be able to do that while on the Summit?  Thanks!

On the Summit last year in Luminae we asked to see the MDR menu one night early in the cruise, and after that they brought us both menus every time without our even needing to ask.

18 minutes ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

When you don't finish the bread basket in the MDR, do you really think they throw the partial basket of bread away?   I'll bet they just refill and put it out for the next guy.  I'm sorry they did away with the assistant waiter delivering the rolls from a tray.

Are they still putting a basket of bread on the table in the MDR?

We always wondered what they did with all the leftover bread.

(Maybe we are better off not knowing. 😉)

They didn't do that in Luminae.  Instead someone would come around with a tray of various types of bread and crackers several times throughout the meal and you would just select what you wanted.

Even in the main dining room, have you noticed the many rows of two tops side by side with only small spaces between them?

They are arranged that way to provide the flexibility of pushing them together or separating them easily into two tops, four tops, six tops...... as needed.

They will combine or separate tables in all the dining rooms to accommodate whatever the need at the time (within reason and within their limitations, of course).

But in Luminae especially they will try to do whatever it takes to make people happy. 

1 hour ago, Lady Arwen said:

Boarding passes (Set Sail Passes) are all that's necessary to print out.

Not necessary, but preferable.

So don't panic if you can't print it or can't find it.  You will still be able to board the ship, even at a port with high security.  It just may take a little longer.

On 4/9/2019 at 3:26 PM, bkbarrym said:

On our upcoming cruise I will gather up all these flyers and place them in a bag. Then I will go to Guest Services and ask them why no crosswords and news summaries. When they give me the stock answer "conservation" I will hand them the bag.

Then you will most likely receive the stock answer that those are not their flyers and if you object to them,  you need to take your objections up with the companies that provide them.

The more cruises we take, the better we become at doing those puzzles

(because they keep repeating the same ones over and over again). 😁

1 hour ago, Carnevale said:

............  From the deck plans it doesn’t look like it wraps around the back of the ship but we are not sure if it goes around at the front or not.  Is the walking area limited to going up and back on one side of the ship?  Or?.

It doesn't wrap either front or back.

  (Crew restricted area at front of ship and theater at back.)

But you can easily open a door and cut right across the interior of the ship to the other side, so no, you are not limited to going up and back on one side.

(In other words, you can walk almost all the way on one side, and then back in the other direction on the other side.)

Doing that on hot or cold weather itineraries is actually quite nice as it provides a brief respite from the heat or cold, as well as sheltering you from the winds often encountered when trying to walk across the ship on the open upper decks.

If smoke bothers you however,  you may prefer to avoid the smoking area of the promenade deck on the port side.

2 hours ago, Lisamn said:

One more heads up... the monogrammed bath robes are ours to keep. We saved space in the suitcase anticipating them, but had a bit of a moment at the airport. The (wonderful) robes weigh 3 pounds each. So, leave a little space when packing if you want to bring them home.

I wish they would give the option to passengers who don't want them of either getting a credit for their value, or at least substituting something else.

We really don't want them, so monogramming them for us would be a total waste.  Maybe we can just let them know we don't want them up front so they won't bother to monogram them for us and other people can use them.

We would not bring them home as we already have many more robes than we will ever need.

It looks like they have moved those old bulky, heavy white robes that used to be in the suites down to lower level cabins.  At least the new suite robes look like they would be a lot more comfortable and lighter weight.

On 4/5/2019 at 3:25 PM, wrk2cruise said:

Has anyone seen a senior or resident rate since the new pricing structure was put into place?

Yes, but they play games with you on the Celebrity website by not identifying which kind of discount they are displaying, as well as not  identifying which subcategory they are showing you.

If you care, you can usually identify the discount category shown by backing out and then putting in your eligible discount categories one at a time (with the awareness that not all available discount categories are even selectable  that way).

But as others keep mentioning, the Celebrity website can be maddening to use because it is not at all user friendly.

Rather it appears to have been sadistically designed by someone who was tying to make it as convoluted and frustrating for the user as possible. 

(Well, if not sadistic, perhaps merely incompetent.)

It is just a lot easier and faster to use a third-party website when looking for available categories and prices.

14 hours ago, lisiamc said:

LOL!  Now that really would have been helpful on a B2B where our cabin was on one side of the ship for the first cruise and on the opposite side for the second cruise.

For the first couple of days of the second cruise, I had to stop and think about whether to turn left or right each time I headed out for the dining room or the theater.

38 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

Let me repeat it one more time:

 

The TA requested the copy of the revised reservation, and was told by Celebrity that they will send it. They didn't. Nothing to do with the TA.

But in fact it is all to do with the TA.

If you use a TA, it is the TA's responsibility to obtain and send you your copy of the cruise line's invoice.

The cruise line sends the revised reservation only to the TA, not directly to you because when you use a TA, you are the client of the TA.

The TA is the client of the cruise line, and your TA is apparently trying to cop-out here by trying to blame the cruise line for their own negligence.

21 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

I do check the prices on a constant basis, along with my TA.

 

I'm in Canada. Maybe things are different in US? More competition? I had at least 3 agents in the last 15 years, I don't remember anyone offering me a different price than the official price on the cruise line website, or any extra perks. My current TA is working in a fairly large company.

I wouldn't even bother with a TA but would book directly with the cruise line if a TA couldn't offer me a better price and/or additional perks.

The only reason I use a TA is for the extras they provide that are not available booking directly with the cruise line. 

For cruises where no TA can offer anything worthwhile, or only some token minimal perk (as often happens with some of the rock bottom priced last minute closeout sales), I can't see any good reason to bother involving an unnecessary third party at all.

Now I am well aware that there will be some cruisers reading this who will immediately start thinking "Oh, but my wonderful TA does this and that for me" and I certainly am not disputing what they say.  That is fine for anyone who feels that way.

I just don't happen to be one of them as I really don't want or need the type of hand holding from a TA that some posters gush about. 

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

I understand that if you sail a lot on a specific cruise line, you will know all the nuances about the cabins and perks, but is it realistic to expect from the TA to be familiar with all cabin sizes and nuances of all cruise lines? There are at least 10-15 popular lines, each line has several classes of ships, and each ship has at least 5-7 categories. Does you agent know all of them?better agent..

Of course no one person can be familiar with all cabin sizes and nuances of all ships on all cruise lines.  (Just look at the problems even frequent Celebrity cruisers are having trying to keep up with the latest changes on Celebrity ships alone.)

But different TAs who do high volume business with different cruise lines  can offer their passengers better deals on different cruises. 

That's why it pays to compare offers and not just automatically use the same TA every time for every cruise.

It also pays to check out the cruises and offers yourself and not rely exclusively on the word of any TA. 

Someone posted about being stuck with their original high cruise fare when prices dropped dramatically after the Caribbean hurricanes.  But those of us who bothered to check received some extremely nice upgrades and perks on those cruises at that time at no additional cost.

It is also important to receive a copy of the updated invoice immediately each time when making any change so that you can look it over and have it corrected right then and there, if anything is missing or incorrect.

Those agents are only human and we all make mistakes.