scottsla

On 12/17/2023 at 1:20 PM, Cruise Gopher said:

Just book for two passengers. Take your friend George Glass who has something suddenly come up and doesn’t show up for the cruise. 

back when I single I used to do exactly this as I found as a single I was always getting the short end of the stick for a lot of stuff I booked. I did a whole 8 week vacation in Europe with everything (except flights) booked as double and it didn't cost anything extra and on a few items was cheaper.

So did they make a mistake and not show discounts or did they price jack everything. 2 excursions I booked 2 weeks ago now have 20% off, yet both are more expensive even with the discount and prices for even 50% deals seem to have been seriously hiked prior to discount being applied.

8 hours ago, trinitygirl said:

We in Australia just got the email inviting us to watch the webinar today - I have it playing in the background now.  Always interested to learn more but I have to agree with the posters above that the production values are pretty low-ball. You can see people reading off their notes and there is no discernable structure so far, just lots of talk.  but the images are nice and sharp - they do look like beautiful ships (although I prefer the smaller ships myself).

 

Yeah just watched a bit this evening, production quality has seriously nose dived, at least I can just let it run in background.

Am I imagining it or have the Celebrity excursion prices gotten even more expensive? I could swear when I looked a few months back for our Caribbean cruise they were cheaper and that is without the current sale prices. It made me do some searches for private tours and the same excursions booked independently were 50%-70% cheaper. I guess I should be thankful it forced me to check privately as while I don't mind paying a premium some of the prices now seem utterly ridiculous.

1 hour ago, gpnfish said:

Maybe some of you haven’t noticed in the message sent out today, but Celebrity  has done done wordsmithing about what happens when you contract Covid onboard.  From now on, it’s all yours baby!  Celebrity will provide options, but your wallet will be the one opening up, not theirs.  All in all though, it’s about time!

unfortunately there are a lot of selfish people out there. I expect a lot will suffer from those that fake tests because of there conspiracy theory beliefs or just not wanting to be inconvenienced and others will die or suffer for it.

Woke up this morning and got a double yolker with my eggs. thought wow this will be a lucky day, then read email my Japan Cruise has been cancelled :-(. Typical get that 2 days after booking flights.

I have a flight in March from Sydney to Hamilton Island, was booked in December and it has change 4 times now and still 2 months away (and the last change also downgraded us from business to economy at same price with no choice but to accept or go different day). Flights everywhere at the moment are completely in flux.

I can't go past a very dirty vodka martini with good vodka (I e. Grey goose etc). Though can be very hard to find a bartender that can make it well 

52 minutes ago, mek said:

While I understand wanting to pay a cruise off early, why not create a separate fund to keep the money you need and then pay it when due?  There is absolutely no way I would pay off any cruise, vacation package, etc. early even if I had insurance to cover bankruptcy.  

yeah I am now, already opened separate account just to store the funds. To be honest I just had never really thought of the risk of bankruptcy for a cruise previously, hence I had not even checked if my insurance covered that till Crystal. With two cruises booked that would be almost $30k at risk if I did my usual pay it at bonus time and while that isn't a huge disaster I would certainly prefer to not donate it to creditors if something happens so yeah I will only pay what is required going forward.

22 minutes ago, glmacruise said:

I wouldn’t trust these cruise lines at all. We are avoiding cruising until further notice.

I don't consider it about trust, more risk management. There is always a chance something can happen, just that risk is heightened during an event like a pandemic. As suggested above my risk mitigation involves keeping my deposits and money at risk to a minimum. I do need to follow up on my insurance options though.

with the current Crystal disaster it makes me think about the health of other cruise lines and how well they are surviving as well as how far in advance to actually pay for my cruise. 

What is the financial health of the RCC?

Normally I pay for my cruise quite early or put sizable deposits down more according to when disposable income hits my account (share dividends, bonus's etc), however now considering avoiding that and sticking to required deposits/payments only.

Does most Travel insurance cover insolvency? my current one doesn't so something I need to investigate.

Currently have 2 cruises booked for 2023 and 2024.

Australian here. There are actually two factors as to why we are so far behind on vaccination. The government did preorder huge amounts of Vaccine, unfortunately the 2 horses it backed in this were the Australian developed one which failed mid last year and of course AZ which due to blood clots is now only for those over 50 and even then people have an irrational fear of it.  Pfizer and Moderna had to be ordered back in march april to try and salvage this but of course we are now somewhat down the queue in receiving it so it isn't expected we will have any decent levels of vaccination till the end of the year.

Mid next year I think is a worse case scenario at this point for borders opening up, they are currently looking at early next year assuming vaccinations are high enough, but without vaccinations it just isn't happening as our economy is mostly going well and people are back to normal life now that Covid is basically eliminated here (with the exception of the occassional outbreak from quarantine).

personally I hope vaccinations required for all and I certainly won't sail on a ship that doesn't require it. and no it isn't just my and others safety I am concerned with. I want my cruises to be relaxing and as low risk as possible, but just as importantly I also don't want to find the ship is banned from a port because someone unvaccinated is found to have come down with Covid a day into the sailing which then triggers a whole heap of other inconveniences or forced into a lot of other excessive safety procedures.

On 2/27/2021 at 8:38 PM, ipeeinthepool said:

 

Yes, about 8 -10% savings.  The savings may come in a variety of forms, reduced prices from a group booking, refundable OBC or gift cards at the end of the cruise.

Is this more a North America thing? I have tried shopping around the various travel agents to see if any are worth booking with and the discounts here (In Australia) vs booking direct are tiny. e.g. less than 3% and for that I would rather cut out the TA.

If anything I think his dates are optimistic, at least for anything beyond local cruising. 

2 minutes ago, Beagle5 said:

It’s already built into the pricing being displayed.

you will see a number of cabin categories with the same price - that is where it is being applied.

 

awesome thanks. 

Looking at booking my first Oceania Cruise (previously mostly celebrity). Just wanted a clarification of the new offering. i.e. the Australia Day sale offer has "Receive up to a 4 Category FREE Upgrade* plus take advantage of major price reductions with The Ultimate Sale as well as our OLife Choice package, which includes FREE Pre-Paid Gratuities, FREE Internet, plus choose one FREE amenity:" 

When they say 4 category upgrade is that already built into the pricing being displayed or does it mean if you book a concierge etc it would then upgrade you to something higher? I imagine it is really just a pricing adjustment on the various categories right rather than an actual upgrade?

Just now, LGW59 said:

Nope, not at all, very happy Celebrity cruiser, no consideration on looking elsewhere. 

and us giving honest feedback on how their decisions are affecting purchasing choices is NOT whining. I would really like to come back to Celebrity sometime in the future and want them to succeed and part of that is offering constructive criticism and feedback rather than sticking our heads in the sand and pretending nothing is wrong.

7 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

They are not bonehead prices.  They are a factor of some 600K passengers with FCCs and most of them trying to L&S.  Other lines have simply issues refunds.

Personally I think boneheaded is an apt description. Encouraging loyal cruisers like ECCruise and myself to look elsewhere due to pricing losing long term business. Up until now we would have never really looked at other cruise lines as we were happy with X, now we will be giving at least 2 other cruise lines business in the coming 3 years to try them out. I guess we maybe should be thankful that they are forcing us to try elsewhere.

Very interesting reading through this discussion, came here also looking to see if I was crazy as it seemed X prices don't make sense anymore as I am trying to book my next cruise. I am gen X and have had about 10 cruises all in Concierge to Celebrity suite range and to me it seems I just can't justify the price of Celebrity for what they offer anymore (even though I can afford it), I really like Celebrity except for the crappy waste over priced art shows but at current pricing I can't see us taking another Celebrity cruise, other lines simply offer better value.

wow that late. I guess we will have to consider something else then.

many thanks.

Sorry if this has been asked and answered (I was not able to find it so feel free to point me at it). Was looking to book holiday cruise  for Europe 2022 (we are skipping 2021 and still too much uncertainty) and have been disappointed to find there are no cruises listed on celebrity for Europe 2022, other regions have cruises listed and was wondering when we are likely to see something. We have other plans that we need to arrange so wanted to try and line up the cruise with other travel requirements.

This brings up my next question- what is the other purpose of VPN? I have only ever used one to access work.

often also used to hide/obscure your location when downloading questionable content or movies or just to ensure your local ISP/ship network admin/government can't track and record what you are doing online.

Personally I find Sushi on 5 one of our favourite restaurants when Cruising, second to the Murano. But as with anything food related it is all personal preference, we find it a relaxing enjoyable venue to have a tasty lunch/dinner and a few drinks.

personally when shopping Duty Free for Whisky I try to get the special editions that you can't buy in the general retail store. I also agree whole heartedly I would never buy a blended whisky. My last few trips the prices in the ship were simply too steep so instead I got duty free at the airport where at least the range was bigger. Last few trips I got the Mortlach special strength, Glenrothes and Glenmorangie, also got a nice 30 year old tomatin . The problem with Scotch buying though is different people have different tastes so very hard to recommend for someone else without knowing the style they like. A great education experience is a trip to the royal mile in Edinburgh where you can quickly learn what you like.