poffles

Maybe this is more strategic than we think. 🤔 Nah ... likley not.

... and I must be getting even older because the only reason I first tried a Celebrity cruise was because of the 1-2-3 Go promotion which was free drinks, grats and OBC. I had been watching and pondering a specific cruise and had been reading the promo was about to start (again) so I waited before booking. When the promotion finally started, to my surprise the price of my cruise did not go up a single cent ... it was totally complimentary (their words) and boy did that I snatch that up. Fast forward a few months and this did not seem to be the case as the prices shot up but boy was I a happy camper. I had never had a drinks package before and it was like having a balcony, hard to go back to not having it but I certainly will at these prices! The irony in all this, I got hooked on Celebrity and only sailed them since so really they gained, sometimes the win is not so directly in your face. Boy have times changed LOL

Ya I looked yesterday (same cruise in November) and seen that as well which makes this even more hilarious. I looked for curiosity like most here and thought hmm not a bad deal, but I have the package included and only an upgrade 'discount' would be enticing. So funny and sad.

Wow, this is a new twist on increasing base cost to offer a 'discount'. The before 'sale costs' that I now see (USD$) are a joke! Their system is clearly bonkers.

My go to at the Cafe was the berliner ... another RIP as I have not seen them for a long while. You can see them looking so good bottom right in my first pic (2015). 😞 The second pic is still pre-COVID (2019) and the berliners I recall were 'missing' then but I thought maybe just a different ship thing. I have been finding that may items there now are just variations on the same thing.

This ⬆️ Says it all really and it has taken me years to recognize that what I think I am missing out on, or even not participting in, is not really missing for me at all.

Thanks ... found my answer ... some ships no smoking others (not the case on the newest ships). HAL Smoking Policy

I sit here thinking you could be right but one idea ... maybe have someone do an onboard restaurant experience. Literally have them do a dinner sampling of a specialty restaurant or two... then do another one or two ... and so on. Not just a flash of pictures but an actual dining experience of sorts and have it longer than a flash of a scene. Just an idea as it might entice me to try one that I might not consider and it's a money maker.

As someone else said, wonderful to have choices. I think when I was in my 30s I was ready for the early to bed early to rise so I guess I'm boring 😉 I guess I partied enough in my 20s. That said, on the occasion I'm up 'later' there are many (old LOL) Celebrity cruisers that don't read the memo that they should be in bed instead of kicking it up on the dance floor LOL. I have sailed Carnival and NCL and I still have times pondering sailing on NCL again (Carnival not a thought) and then I read others reviews and see their pictures of long lines at guest service, crowds around the pool, lots of families (read as lots of children) and I stop pondering. I sail for the ship and just the calm of sailing, not for the party so it really is to each their own. I love the adultness of Celebrity and that I can go to guest services almost anytime and walk right up, or that even with pool chair games I can always find a chair and place in the pool. I love the calmness of it ... that is it's charm. Also no smoking anywhere inside the ship, not even the casino !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is this normal for all HAL ships, was it every night? I thought I read differently for HAL so I didn't realize their casinos were entirely non-smoking, I thought Celebrity was the only mainstream (large ships) that did this.

I am among the happy ones here as this officially gets me to Elite before my next cruise. Likely the tier I will remain 🙂 The video played fine for me even though, as always, I had to get the email invite forwarded to me but I'm over that LOL I will not dare complain about getting 115 club points from PUP since it started with 3 more from this webinar. Thanks Celebrity for amusing me when I can only long for my next cruise! .

Never know, you may have such an offer waiting or in your future for Celebrity. Your play definitely matters.

There is no guarantee of being notified of anything you might be entitled to with BCC. Offers are mailed out randomly, if at all, so the best advice is what Fly and Sail mentioned above which is to call BCC and ask if they have any offers showing for you, also good to ask what they show for points earned towards tier status. They will look you up based on your Celebrity Club ID. Celebrity Casino - Blue Chip Club More often recently I have 'offers' they can see but nothing mailed/emailed to me. It ranges from discounts to free cruises, discounts are often not as good as they might seem as they base them off rack rates minus any ongoing promotions. Good luck !

I shared both good and bad but we all know that this question/thread begged for this to happen ... just like pointing out the obvious is irresistible 🙂 Funny.

Dislike and would not pay ‘balcony’ pricing for this ‘verandah’. Here is my personal opinion (mini review) after my recent first time sailing in one on the Edge (10 night Caribbean) two weeks ago. Listing what I thought was good/bad about the room in comparing to my typical balcony preference (unfair I know). Some of it is perspective, some of it is just how it is. Good: • Floor to ceiling window view was nice. Sunsets oh my. • Room felt more open, spacy, and bright (blind open of course). • Reduced ‘outside’ neighbour noise. Though we did hear a baby crying from below. • Less chance of smelling smoke if someone does the naughty nearby. Bad: • It’s a window that can open … not a balcony. It is what it is. • Very noisy opening/closing, especially the blind. As someone else said here, it was bad. At times we could even hear when neighbours were opening/closing theirs. • The chairs felt wrong. It felt like they should match to a dinner height table. Padding was nice but the chairs seemed to add to the oddness we felt sitting in front of a window. • Window open – AC off. I get it, totally makes sense not to let money running the AC float out the window but no ability to enjoy sitting in the ‘veranda’ window open for an hour or so and then immediately shift to the cool of the room. We would open the window until the person not wanting to sit in the heat could tolerate it and then close again. • Inability to utilize the veranda as closed off area. This was a big one for me as an early riser, I quietly sneak out and get coffee and come back and go out to the balcony and enjoy the sun coming up. Nope, this has to be an all-party choice because not only is noise of opening the blind a problem, but you can’t close off the brightness from the room once you open the blind. The French doors are silly, and we never used them once. Also if I opened the window the room would heat up for those ‘sleeping’. • Captain can close/disable the window at any time. When we first got on the ship we were eager getting to our room and seeing this for the first time, went to open the window … nope it was closed by the Captain (it was open by sail away). Not a big deal but sucked. It was the only time on our 10 day cruise that we encountered this so no biggy. • Mechanical issues. We encountered many times when the window would just stop in the middle of opening or closing. The button was very fickle, and it became annoying at times. What I thought was lacking was the ability to push a button to auto open/close the window much like the blind. Instead, you had to hold the button the entire time and hope it didn’t stop midway (it did many times). I thought about why there is no auto button for the window, thought perhaps safety but then considered that the captain can do this remotely, so no safety thought in that. My takeaway thoughts: Not the first one to say this and it is entirely true … these staterooms should not be even slightly compared to a balcony. These really are midway between ‘ocean view’ and ‘balcony’ and if the price aligns then great. These seem more suited for a moderate to cold weather cruise. The ability to open such a large window without extreme heat filling the room would be nice. To have such a great window view without wishing you could sit ‘out there’ … imagine Alaska. We utilized this area totally different than we do a ‘balcony’, basically less. No mornings sitting 'out there' which I really missed. We would even typically go out and sit on a balcony in the evening, late at night in the dark, we did not do that once on this cruise as it just isn’t the same. The way you utilize your stateroom during a cruise will dictate your opinion. Clearly, we are all different which makes having choices a good thing. Choices are great but don’t be misled. I went in fully aware but wanted to form my own opinion and now I have, which I've now long winded shared with you LOL 🙂 .

Well that doesn't sound good, hopefully just rumours. By cuts I assume you mean to the program or do you mean staff/support ... or maybe both?

It is $10 ceiling for beer just like other alcohol. I was just on an cruise (Edge) 2 weeks ago and Stella or other beer priced at $11 were charged the $1 plus the grat. As someone else mentioned, they sometimes turned a blind eye to actually charging but any charge applied is based on $10 allowance with the classic package. It was funny because I was ordering Michelob Ultra first few days, no upcharge, and on day 3 a bartender suddenly said it would cost a $1 ???? Oddly nobody prior had mentioned this and I know I wasn't charged because you have to sign something for any charge. I found this interesting and not really about the $1 but the idea of it being comparable to other higher cost beer. Michelob was never in the higher cost category on any prior cruise but guess it is now 🤪. I think Michelob Ultra being priced like Stella is ridiculous, and I could never find it on a menu to even see what it actually cost. OH well.

Last week on the Edge they listed the names of winners on the big screen. They were also telling people to go to the Casino Cashier to double check if they won or to get winnings but the cruise director left out the detail about after xx time. Everyone was going directly to the Casino after the game only to be told (after waiting in a line there) that they had to come back after 4pm.

Yes I connected the dots 🙂 'While horrible can be used to refer to something that is not liked or is disagreeable, horrific is a somewhat stronger adjective used to describe things which upset and frighten by their sheer mention. For example – "A horrible meal" and "A horrific war".

LOL thanks ... horrific makes it sound really bad but it really wasn't good. I hate to be so critical of things but sometimes it just is what it is. I am thinking we might try Lawn Club even if for a lunch meal.

I went to Roof Top for first time on Edge a week ago and I landed on horrible. I would never ever pay for that again and I do not consider myself overly fussy. The food was all cold, all dishes except the train wrech fries, and what should have been 'grilled' did not even appear cooked let alone grilled ... the seafood kabob OMG the scallop and shrimp I didn't even eat as they looked raw and were totally cold. The steak dish that came with asparagus, I have never seen smaller asparagus in my life, the three on my plate put together might have made one decent size one. I personally have not had a worst specialty restaurant meal than this though service was exceptional. Oh the cookie was made to order so it was hot but we weren't a huge fan of this dish, it was overly sweet but that is personal preference and I totally get why it is liked by many. The restaurant was not that busy so it made no sense but we thought it was that they put food orders in all at once and they don't coordinate making each dish and it gets 'cooked' and sits out back until they see you are ready for it? Oh the cookie was made to order so it was hot but we weren't a huge fan of this dish, it was overly sweet but that is personal preference and I totally get why it is liked by many. I have never tried Lawn Club but was assuming them to be different experiences (hoping) and was thinking of trying this on a future S class cruise but not sure now. Oh we tried Eden, it was really good but thinking a once and done for us but definitely glad we did. Food all came out (very) hot and tasty and the atmosphere can't be beat. We sat there watching the sun go down, a large cargo ship maneuver docking next to us and then our ship doing a 180 as we left the port of St. Lucia, magical.

Sorry I guess two different things and I know what you mean which would be the cruise only rate. For the purposes of these Blue Chip offers 'base' used is All In cost before any discounts or sale pricing so maybe not the best wording here. Any discount offers I've ever called about they tell you it is not usable against cruise only rate

You have to price the cruise you are interested all the way to the end, the base rate will be the initial cost shown on the first line in the summary cost. That is what they use to apply the % off, and it against All In pricing. Taxes do not seem to alter from what is shown on this page either.

I was wondering if the Tomahawk was still an option as it does not show in the menu on the app. If you were there just weeks ago it sounds like it is. Perhaps they don't show it on the app menu because it's a 'sharing' steak? Menus in the app are good but I often find myself wondering if it is listing everything. From the Grill, the app lists only two Filet Mignon and two Ribeye (different sizes).

I cannot answer the OP's question but I will be able to in less than two weeks. I expect to be torn on my thoughts about this type room knowing how I tend to utilize balcony rooms. I am an early riser while my travel partner is not so, as others have mentioned, using this to sit 'outside' in the morning behind dark curtains is just not going to work so I expect to be sad about that. I would typically go get a coffee and then come back to the room and quietly sneak out to watch the waves sail by, but this trip I'm thinking I'll have to alter my morning quiet spot. I look forward to forming my own opinion about these rooms. I don't want to prejudge but clearly there are some aspects of this type of setup that just do not live up to the use of balcony. I have been thinking that this room would be appealing for a cold weather cruise where I would not want to sit outside so much. If this thread is still floating around after my cruise I will come back and offer my thoughts (based on experience) along with others here. No matter what I feel about it, this stateroom will be better than my last Edge inside cabin 🙂