gotcha3

On 1/17/2020 at 11:41 AM, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Yes, it is possible to cancel an excursion to get a credit card refund, then re-book using OBC.

Everything I see says that if I prebook an excursion BEFORE I sail and then cancel (anytime prior to 48 hours before that excursion), the refund will go into my OBC, not back to the credit card. Is that correct? Next question will be, 'is that part of my OBC refundable post cruise?' Thank you, gotcha3

Thank you for the great help, I've sent off emails detailing the problem to several of the addresses. THAT should stir the pot!

OneTouch@Celebrity.com does not work.

I've been trying on and off for a few weeks now. The cynic in me says this is one way to save costs......keep registration numbers below 25 so...NO PARTY.

It does allow that, however, the total count doesn't change.

I've seen the email, but the count does not increase, leading me to believe there was something wrong.

I have 3 cabins reserved for a July sailing. All are family members with the same last name and 3 different email addresses and 3 different reservation numbers. I thought you used to be able to register both occupants of the same cabin at the same time, I have not seen this option. Anyway, when I try to register each person in turn, I always see the same number of people registered for the gathering....no change for the name I just added.

Is the online registration feature for the Celebrity Meet and Mingle party functioning correctly? Thank you, JD

Does anyone have experience with this excursion from Celebrity?

Hubbard Glacier Wilderness Exploration

$289.00 USD Adult

• Duration

  2 hours 30 minutes

• Activity Level

  Mild

• Restrictions

  none

•  

Overview

Your journey into wild Alaska begins the moment you board the tour vessel. Relax in the warm, comfortable cabin, surrounded by large windows, as an onboard naturalist provides compelling narration about the wildlife, geography and glaciers of the area. The waters and wilderness of this region are home to an abundance of wildlife and feature breathtaking scenery. The maneuverable, shallow-draft tour vessel provides a chance for up-close encounters and best photo opportunities of the area's animal species, in addition to exploration of the shoreline and islands. Throughout your tour, enjoy the dramatic vistas of rocky coastlines shaped by the mighty Pacific Ocean, and endless expanses of rainforest and snow-capped mountains. As you approach Hubbard Glacier, the experience captain will weave your tour vessel through a maze of icebergs, some multiple stories tall, making for amazing photos. The Hubbard Glacier is often very active, and dramatic displays of calving – one of Mother Nature's most impressive shows – can occur at any time. All in all, this tour makes for an unforgettable experience, and quite possibly, the wildlife encounter of a lifetime. HG02

What is available on the "M" Class ships? Thank you.....

50 minutes ago, VermeulT said:

In Alaska - you don't need to do the ship's tours, but you'll find them closely priced to private tours.  The big difference will be the number of people on your tour.  Jayleen's (mentioned in another thread about whale watching in Juneau) only takes 6 people per boat.  The private operators live and die by the tourists so it is in their best interest to get you back to port on-time.

 

I'll be doing the train in Skagway this summer.  I'm very excited.

Ketchikan consider the Deadliest Catch Fisherman's Tour.  While you won't really go crab fishing - you'll learn about this industry and about different types of crabs.  The tour is very informative and fun.  You won't really save anything booking on your own.  You'll have plenty of time after to walk Creek Street and go shopping.

Juneau - You didn't mention how much time you have here.  Whale Watching is great.  I'd also suggest going to Mendenhall Glacier.  Many of the tours can drop you at the park instead of the port, so you'd need to take the public bus back, which is easy enough.

Victoria - if you want to go to the gardens - you can get a tour at the port.  When I was there 4 years ago, we could have gotten a tour for near-nothing.  The tour operator was trying to add to a bus that was ready to go.  We ultimately opted not to because we were exhausted at that part of the trip.  Point here is that you can get a good deal on shore and don't need to go through the cruise line.

That's not exactly true. We're about to book  the White Pass Scenic Railway trip in Skagway. Celebrity wants $229 per adult whereas we can book directly with WPRR for $175. I'd say that's a pretty big difference. You?

Elite lounge?

On 11/30/2019 at 11:33 AM, Cherries Jubilee said:

I’ll try to condense this.

 

 My sister and I cruised on Divina in 2017. We both received our points and everything was fine.

 

We booked a cruise on Seaside for this December through a big box company. When I tried to link our Voyagers Club membership numbers to the reservation it only worked for hers. My number keeps telling me that the card number is linked to another account. I’ve only ever had this one account. I still have my welcome email and everything.

 

 I emailed MSC and they added the number to my profile but they did NOT give me access to the VC part of the website therefore I have no idea if my points from my previous cruise are still there. MSC has not responded to my inquiries about this.

Same thing happened to me. I reached out through messenger in Facebook and was told to contact them at...

MSCVoyagersClub@msccruisesusa.com     It was unbelievebly fixed in a couple of days.

I received this reply to my question on the issue from my Celebrity cruise planner on the 11th of Dec.......

"I hope all is well.  Regarding the Summit, it looks like we are reevaluating those itineraries.  No decisions have been made though.  We hope to have an update soon."

They haven’t provided a firm date for any announcement yet.

Nobody knows.

21 minutes ago, rubens said:

It's a dimmer for public announcements

.....which doesn't work.

8 hours ago, gimletgal said:

 

Since taste in food is so subjective, when someone states "the food is awful", I just take it with a grain of salt. What is good to some, may be awful to others.  ("Awful" has certainly not been my experience on 3 cruises with MSC - Divina (1) and Seaside (2).

Some things were just better than others.  Same goes for my experience with Celebrity.

When I say the food was awful....it was awful. There is no grain of salt here. We did'nt eat in Muse the last 2 nights because of this. Maybe you've not had really good food? For the price, the food should be outstanding and it was far from it.

On 1/26/2019 at 7:13 PM, Fogfog said:

🙃🙃

Have no idea if MSC is putting out real pizzas... however

PLEASE don't put Chicago pizza and REAL PIZZA (made in Italy--- or made in true Italian style)  in the same sentence.

Having lived/worked and traveled in Italy extensively ----I can promise you the deep dish "chicago"  is NOT pizza...

Real pizza  is cooked within 90 sec in wood fired ovens over 800 degrees ...  Thin crust and is nothing like what Americans think of for pizza.

American tourists have no clue about real pizza and are often shocked to find out real pizza is not deep dish nor Dominos...

 

 

 

THANK YOU PRH for the comparison!! We have wondered whether we should try MSC in YC.

We have friends who have sailed MSC in the Med and HATED it...saying the "taxi" service between ports--sailings of 1-2 days between Med ports was a deal breaker. They didn't sail in YC and absolutely hated MSC compared to X.

 

We have other friends (he was exec in other cruise line) that tell us the only way we'd like to sail MSC is YC. 

 

Where did you get the idea that I was comparing MSC "soggy, limp" pizza to Chicago deep dish? That's not really pizza either. I am referring to good, crisp thin crust pizza. I don't believe good pizza is made to be "rolled-up" to eat, lots of people rave about that stuff, not me. Maybe the world thinks Chicago pizza is all deep dish....it is not.
 

Summit IS a Millenium class ship....they're essentially identical.

Privacy is now an issue as the recent renovations to Summit have seen the canvas awning over the Sunset Bar removed. You can pretty much look right up into the aft A1 balconies and see the door, and inside if the drapes are not drawn. Shame.

Man bun

We were on 30 Mar sailing in AQ #1141 and had hooks on the inside of the bathroom door.

8 minutes ago, warmwinds said:

 

Agree completely. Just got off the boat, cabin #1141. NO Privacy, verandah furniture basically, meh. Balcony was unusable anytime after noon as the sun/heat was awful same for the Sunset Bar. It's got me lookin' for alternatives.

Is it just me....or does the aft Sunset bar seem smaller? Bar and "bacon strips" almost touch the flag mast. I think the bar area itself has been moved aft a tad. Check out some of the old pics online and compare.

Any way I can find out who your TA is?

I always book when the cruise first becomes available to book (GO BEST) , using my Celebrity planner and a refundable deposit. As time passes, I check the big box prices online. When  find a lower price, I shoot an email to my Celebrity planner and get the price dropped (adjusted, whatever),  and get a new invoice  usually the same day. Easy peasy. To book initially, I have to contact my planner, then he manages the reservation. I was told, you almost never get an uprade or upsell dealing with a TA (big box or otherwise) because they handle so many reservations, they never check individual emails with offers for you. I'm not sure about the group rates thing (I suspect my TA's rates are group rates) and still my Celebrity planner matches them. FYI, we usually pay $1500-$1800 pp A1 with a 4 perks, plus the extra OBC.