kwokpot

You may be a bit misinformed. The pastries at Cafe Al Bacio are always complimentary on all Celebrity ships. The coffees and teas are always for a fee on all Celebrity ship except if you have any kind of beverage package OR you are at the Celebrity loyalty club member, which is called Captain's Club, of Elite+ or higher( There's only 1 other tier). Elite status DOES NOT grant you free coffee or tea at Cafe Al Bacio. So if you are remembering correctly that you didn't get charged for coffee there then you had to have some kind of drink package. If you still have your room card or you go to the Celebrity website you can confirm your Captain's Club level and what rink package you had..

You don't need to worry about this, It's not true at all. You'll notice a big, big difference between Carnival and Celebrity, especially on the Beyond. Yes, the buffet can get very busy and you may need to walk around a little to find a table during peak lunch times on seadays, but what you'll be rewarded with is a food selection and quality that no other mainstream cruiseline, and especially Carnival, can compete with.

My advice is to CALL BCC. We used the automated email which asks for first, second, and third choices of comped sailings and we never received an email or call back, even after submitting it a second time through the self serve email request form. The hold for a live person was only 15 minutes. this way you're assured whether your first choice date is available or not. Last year the self service email request form worked alot more smoothly.

Thank you for posting that the comped Ascent room you booked in AQ INCLUDED Always Included. We just went ahead and also booked the Ascent for January in AQ and as you it comes with Always Included. The cabin is worth over $5,600 and we're only paying $331 for the cabin which is all in.

Good luck with that, I'm curious if you're going to be successful. As an aside my husband and I just booked a fully comped Aquaclass cabin on the ne Ascent for January with all included!

It doesn't matter who's staying in which room, I know for the fact since we did the exact thing this past February on the Solstice. Guest Relations didn't blink an rye when we asked for extra room cards for each room for access only. We just said we want an extra room card for room access only since the four of us are traveling together and we want to be able to get into each other's room. If the OP wants to have his wife pretend she's the second person booked in his room (I'm assuming the 2nd person you booked in your room is female?) for Blu and Thermal suite access I suppose that's possible and shouldn't be a problem. She'll have to decide when dining at Blu what name she's going to go by. If you're good enough friends to do this I hope you plan on eating at least one dinner in the MDR with them. When I was traveling with my parents and we were in AQ and they weren't we looked at the menus and decided to dine with them in the MDR when Blu didn't have entrees we preferred and also visa versa. (Don't miss the ribeye in Blu!)

All benefits stay with the original person. Your wife Will NOT be able to dine in Blu nor have access to the Thermal suite.

That's correct. We did a similar thing did back in February on the Solstice. My husband had a comped concierge class room with a classic drink package and booked my BIL as the second guest and I had a regular balcony and my sister as the 2nd guest. What we did was to go to guest relations and get one additional room card for each room. I used the extra card just to get into the room my husband had and the same for my BIL. Any time we needed to give the card to an employee for something or if we disembarked at a Port I used my original room card. Besides keeping track of two room cards there wasn't any other issues. Guest relations was happy to produce two extra cards that were only to be used to open the cabin.

As an aside unisex generally means for both sexes, not one sex.

On both occasions it was a casino booked complementary cruise. It didn't include a drink package or internet.

Pre Pandemic NCL had all you can eat whole Maine lobsters in the buffet! It was crazy but in a good way.

Adding another layer of complexity. Luckily we have T-Mobile and as a frequent traveler it's works flawlessly and eliminates the need for Sims and Esims

Exactly.That's what I was saying in my earlier post. We had a family member who has Verizon at home for cell service and decided to get e-sims for him and his wife for their 16 day Europe trip. He's in IT so he's tech savvy but they had problems throughout their trip with texting back home. It wasn't too much of an issue for I-phone users since I-Messages can use Wifi to send texts. Android based SMS texting only uses cellular connections and when using the esim the Iphones never correctly sent out texts to non Iphone users.

The Epic is the last NCL newbuild ship to have single sex steam AND sauna in the spa locker rooms, in addition to the rooms in the co-ed thermal suite. At least on the men's side the steam room was a nice size but the sauna is tiny, but still a men's only sauna where it isn't necessary to wrap up tightly.

Luminae doesn't have a broiled lobster tail entree similar to the MDRs; luminae's version is a poached lobster tail out of the shell which I posted two versions of the same dish from two different ships. Since I am new to Retreat Class I can't comment if previously there was an upcharge to add a broiled lobster tail to an existing Luminae entree. Not can I comment if previously they had a charge if you requested two poached lobster tails on the same plate for the Luminae's version of lobster.

Definitely without the extra sauce. The chef in Luminae on my December 2021 Apex sailing was sauce crazy on his entrees. Here is what THAT chef considered a ribeye STEAK in Luminae. At the time I posted here on CC I was quite disappointed in this particular entree since it was our first time ever in Retreat Class and I wanted a Ribeye STEAK and what I was served was two slices of a Ribeye ROAST drenched in sauce.

First photo was the lobster entree in Luminae on the Reflection March, 2022; second photo same entree on the Apex December 2021:

It works like any other location on the ship.

This is the latest email offer my husband received:

I have T-Mobile and out of the three US carriers they have the best International Roaming Data and texting plans. For high speed data, unlimited calls and texts they are three plans: $5/1day/512MB data $35/10 days/5GB data $50/30 days/15GB data I just spent 30 days in Europe on two different cruises, bought the $50 plan (While landing at Amsterdam airport) and when the 30 days were up hadn't used up my 15 GB data. And this is was while I used my phone for constant real time walking maps, literally step by step. Also for restaurant recommendations, sightseeing recommendations, etc. It was probably the BEST $50 spend for my 30 days in Europe (Last month,12nt Iceland on the Apex followed by 7 nt Greek Islands on the Odyssey of the Seas).

TRavel SIM cards aren't easy for people that aren't tech savvy. Additionally with a foreign Sim there can be issues with texting your contacts back home.

Could be as short as 3 hours. On these kinds of 'On your own' ship excursions there's a lot of hurry up and wait for everyone.There's lots and lots of wasted time.

That makes no sense. Your play is tracked via your room card for slots and account & Pit Boss observations for table games. Neither cares if your cruise booking was from BCC or through other channels.

Duplicate

In a Sky Suite? The Butlers on both the Apex and Refection were pretty consistent regarding what was free and what was chargeable. Besides the complimentary champagne all other wines and Spirits were chargeable. I did note on the Apex that I was a red wine drinker and he brought ONE bottle of red wine that was complementary. As this was our first times in Retreat Class we were VERY careful in asking what was and wasn't complementary in the cabin mini bar. At no time was it expressed that any kind of sprits were complementary. If you were given a complementary bottle of Scotch in a SS that's a gift from either your Butler or someone else but clearly not the policy of the SS in room mini bar. I did NOT have a drink package so I was always careful and asked very clearly about what was included and what wasn't. By the same token, on the Apex the Retreat sundeck all soft drinks,premiium waters and premium coffees were complimentary, but any alcohol and cocktails were chargeable. As per requirements all drinks in Michael's Club on the Reflection and the Retreat Lounge on the Apex were complementary. Alcoholic beverages including wines and beers are chargeable for dinner at Luminae. Edit: The cruise dates were Dec. 2021 on the Apex and Feb. 2022 on the Reflection.