judatt

8 minutes ago, rucrazy said:

We cruise two lines Celebrity and Holland America Line... If Celebrity would have kept a smaller ship to do longer more exotic cruises we may have never went back to HAL... but Holland has let us do 30+ cruises to some amazing parts of teh globe!

2 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

With the exception of one family cruise on the Allure of the Seas with the kids and grandkids, all of our cruises have been on Celebrity and HAL. The easy choice then in HAL.

We’ve sailed with several cruise lines but never on HAL. We have friends who swear by them. Maybe we need to give them a shot. 

Thought I’d close the loop on this stream. As lobsternignt advised, I contacted the engagement center. Talked to a very nice, helpful lady there who said that indeed the rules had changed and FCC could be transferred under certain circumstances. Our situation did qualify.  However, i couldn’t make the request but my daughter had to make the request to transfer to me. She could make the request on her behalf as well as for her 2 daughters (my granddaughters) who were both minors at the time we booked. My daughter sent the email yesterday so we will see how long it takes. Thanks everyone for the good input. 

Every few years we enjoy going on a cruise with our kids and grandchildren. The best part for them is that grandpa pays!  We had one of these family cruises scheduled and booked for the first week of August 2020. Obviously, this cruise was cancelled. For most cabins (balconies) we received a refund. However, there was one inside cabin that had 3 in it that was not eligible for a refund. So there were 3 future cruise credits issued in the names of the occupants. I actually paid the deposits with my credit card. So, we’ve got 3 fcc’s out there for $250 each with no plans to reschedule a family cruise for a couple of years. My wife and I will be cruising several times in the near future including the Jun26 cruise out of FLL. Is there  a possibility of getting those credits changed to my name so we could use them on one of our cruises?  Any direction you might give us would be appreciated. 

33 minutes ago, kasowell2 said:

Was able to choose an arrival time after I filled in all the info for our July 17 Edge sailing. I was able to get 12:30. Has anyone gotten an earlier time slot?

1230 for us as well. 

2 hours ago, RSLeesburg said:

My wife, son, and I are all Platinum on RCI, so I know this transfers over to Elite on Celebrity, but when as I do all the cruise planning, I am the only one with an online account.  When I log into RCI, I notice that I have already been assigned a Loyalty Number for Celebrity and Azamara.  I image that my wife and son both have similar numbers assigned, but not sure how to find out what they are - do I just need to call C&A?   Our Celebrity cruise is not until Christmas 2022, so no rush, but when I was filling in their information in the cruise profile, it had a place to enter their loyalty numbers and just wanted to do that while I was thinking about it.  How have others found that? 

We did it the opposite way - we were elite on Celebrity and that transferred to Diamond on RCL. So, I’m assuming in order to get elite status on Celebrity, you’d need to be Diamond on RCL - not Platinum. 

43 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

My husband is generally not a picky person but he is picky about this.  He wants food which should be hot to be served hot.  And I agree with him -- lukewarm eggs are just not appealing.  We never had much success so now limit our breakfast items served in the suite to be hot tea, juice and so forth.

I didn’t think my wife was on this board 😎. This is my pet peeve. Hot food must be hot. On our last cruise on Freedom I had to send the escargot back a couple of times because it just wasn’t hot. They did learn 😳. 

We've been in suites before but not on a ship with Luminae and not on  ship without an assigned dining time and place.  So, my question is do people eat all their meals in Luminae, or do you pick a specialty restaurant or two for a little variety?  Thanks.

1 hour ago, marieps said:

Not just the needs...but the wants.  Cruisers WANT a vax mandate to protect their health and their vacations.  Guv, you are blowing this one.

I’m retired now, but when I was working I traveled all over the world (110 countries). I had a yellow immunization record that I always carried. In fact I still carry it.  Not often, but some countries on occasion asked to see it. I’m having a hard time seeing the difference between showing I have a Covid shot (or 2) and showing I have a cholera shot. 
yes, I’m one of those who want to sail with others who have been vaccinated. So, let’s find a solution to this. Maybe we upload the record of the immunization as a part of online checkin. Surely, there’s a way to work around this. 

I’ve got a question for which I’d like to get input from all of you experienced cruisers. We have booked guarantee cabins several times and a few times have been assigned handicapped cabins. One time we even traded our handicapped cabin to someone who needed it more than we did and we took their cabin.  We have never booked a handicap cabin. 
My question is what do you consider a handicap worthy of booking a handicapped cabin?  My wife is almost 70 and has a pacemaker and 2 stints. We’ve noted most handicap cabins seem to be near elevators so that’s helpful. We both get around fairly well although we are both diabetics - my wife on insulin and me just meds. 
Any input? 

3 hours ago, TeeRick said:

We enjoy corner aft Sky Suites on Celebrity S-Class ships.  The hump Sky Suites on M-Class ships and the spacious CS on M-Class too.  We also sail Royal Caribbean.  No reason to book a junior suite (no benefit to it).  But we go to the GS and on Oasis Class we sailed in a Crown Loft Suite on Harmony.  We loved it!

The only small benefit in a jr suite is double points 😎

On 4/12/2021 at 12:23 PM, pennys mum said:

The first time we booked a suite we were on a Baltic cruise.

we came back from a 12 hour trip to Berlin on a train with approximately 600 passengers

we were standing in a huge line to board the ship when an officer came over and told us to follow )her.

the people behind us queried this and was told    "they are in a suite so there is another line"

On the ship in 5 minutes.

did I feel bad? My head did but my feet were grateful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Similar experience on Oasis. We were disembarking and told to be in a certain lounge at 9 AM. They took us down a service elevator and our bags were in a separate room and we went through our private customs line. I looked through the curtain and saw the thousands of people in line to get their bags and go through customs and I was so grateful that it took us all of 10 minutes from leaving the lounge until we were in our taxi. 

On 5/31/2021 at 8:22 AM, TeeRick said:

It is no secret reading my posts that dw and I have only sailed suites for a number of years since we retired.  I don't think we are snobs.  Maybe others here will disagree (and have disagreed).  Don't care.  But we enjoy suites.  And we fly business class to get to the ships if the flights are long.  We choose to spend our money this way.  We worked for it.  It has become even more apparent to us since March 2020 that life is short and what we enjoy can be taken away almost overnight.  When we get back to travel and cruising we will be very grateful.  And we will do it our way.  By the way if we happen to travel with others not in suites, we dine with them in the MDR or in specialty restaurants, but we also frequently host them (and pay for them) in Luminae.  In fact Luminae (at $30 pp for guests for dinner) is the very best and least expensive specialty restaurant on the ship.

How we travel changed a few years ago based on input/insistence of our kids. We had always flown in economy and usually sailed in a balcony. When I retired we were able to do more travel for leisure. We were cruising from Seattle to Sydney and was booking the return air from Sydney to Dallas. The celebrity website gave us flight choices on 5 days and one of those had a very reasonable price for business class air. Our daughter was sitting next to me and when she saw I was thinking about the price she said “Dad, just book the business class. It’s worth it and you can afford it. Besides, it’s my money anyway, someday!”  Our son wasn’t there but he has also encouraged us to spend our money in retirement. As he often says “You earned it, spend it!”  So we enjoy business class air for international flights and we tend to book suites on cruises. Usually Sky Suites on Celebrity and Grand Suites on Royal but we’ve sailed in the Royal Suite on FOS and in a Crown Loft Suite on Oasis. Just kind of depends on what’s available at what price. Frankly, other than the cruise in the Royal Suite my favorite cabins have been aft balconies - sometimes suites sometimes just balconies. Love that view!

We sailed on Oasis last summer. As someone else said earlier, we found the shows to be very different time wise on this ship. One was cancelled entirely. 

We received ours on the cruise we passed 140. All is right with he world 😎

We use a website that enables various travel agents to compete with each other. Usually, the cruise fare is very similar but the difference comes in with OBC and other perks. For example, we are on Freedom departing December 1 and we received what I thought was an excellent cruise fare plus OBC plus a specialty dinner for 2 and a spa treatment. Would have traded the dinner and spa treatment for free grats but you get what you get 😎. 

I usually tip $5 the first evening in the diamond lounge and then $1 per drink after that. Always have a waiter looking out for us. 

43 minutes ago, Cthy651 said:

Hello Everyone,  I received an email from Royal about boarding on Dec 1

• To ensure you have a smooth experience on boarding day, plan to arrive to the cruise terminal after 3:30 PM.

Is this the norm for this ship, or wash there a health issue and the ship needs to be cleaned.

Thank you to anyone who has info.

 

 

We received an email this morning that said to arrive at 12:30. I plan to go about 11. Have a great cruise!  

43 minutes ago, Cthy651 said:

 

10 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Hibachi was covered on our UDP plan last Christmas on Allure. Royal has it listed on their Website as being covered.

 

as far as I recall it has always been included with the UDP but had never been included with the 3, 4 or 5 night packages.

We were told that it wasn’t usually included in the three night package but they were including it for us since we had already booked it. They wanted to sell us the package so were a little flexible. 

We ate there and it was excellent and lots of food. Also, we had bought the Izumi meal in advance on cruise planner and then bought the 3 specialty meal plan on board and they refunded our advance payment and allowed us to use Izumi as one of our 3 specialty meals. 

1 hour ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

 

Is this because you like a set dining time with a large table with the same table mates every night?

You nailed it. We love a large table with the same table mates each evening. 

4 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Your Fairbanks - Seward - Vancouver with train sounds a lot like what I'm toying with.  What lodging did you use?  Was it an organized tour or DIY?  

 

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts.

we booked nearly everything through celebrity with one of their cruise tours  they made all the hotel and transportation arrangements and they were great  we did contact celebrity to find out the hotel they used in Fairbanks and we contacted the hotel and booked 2 additional nights and also rented a car for those 2 nights  

everything was great  celebrity did a great job 

Just curious. I’ve done suite guarantees and junior suite guarantees but never been offered a specific category guarantee. Is that common on Oasis class ships?  Thanks. 

We did a celebrity cruise tour. Flew into Fairbanks and took 8 days to get to Seward and then a 7night inside passage Cruise to Vancouver. It was great. The lodging while not owned by the cruise line was great in every place. The viewing train from anchorage to Seward was also phenomenal. 
for what it’s worth, I’d like to try holland America sometime but have never had the opportunity. We did try princess and had a horrible dining room experience - never again. Tried NCL and it was ok but don’t think we’d like their dining arrangements they have now. 

8 days until we board Freedom

I just finished reading through this entire thread. Very interesting as we have used gty often. We sail almost exclusively with rccl and celebrity.  Thought it would be interesting to give you some of our experiences over the years. We used to do balcony guarantees and now that I’m retired we often do suite guarantees. I can remember in the old days getting an assignment and noticing there were other cabins in the same category and calling and getting switched to another cabin in the same category. Haven’t done that lately though.
Did a suite gty on celebrity and got the sky suite that adjoins the penthouse suite and is used as a second bedroom for penthouse if needed. Great suite and huge bathroom. 

did a suite gty on oasis a couple of years ago and when I looked at the app 4:days prior to sailing I saw we were assigned a junior suite. I called and told the agent I thought we had booked a regular suite guarantee and he said that’s what you got and it’s a great one. I hit the refresh button on the app and walaa we are in a crown loft suite and it was indeed sweet! Don’t know what happened and how it originally showed the junior suite. 

weve done a couple of transatlantics and a transpacific using gty and each time got a junior suite but they were all very nice with good locations. 
Overall, for us we have been very happy with our gty selections and wouldn’t hesitate to use gty on most any cruise.