Lbicklel

Had the exact same issue… After we made final payment it was still showing a balance due of exactly the amount of the daily service charge that was part of all included. Took the travel agent quite a bit of time to get it fixed.

We have a group of five going on May 21. Three of us put in our vaccination information within the first day or two when check-in opened on April 6. One put it in on Sunday. When I looked yesterday all four are approved so I wondered if they just weren’t doing them right away.   Now to get that last person to get theirs in. Lol.

We are on the Equinox on May 21. I just noticed that everything says that our St. Thomas day is a 6:00 PM departure but on the Celebrity app it shows a 3:30 PM all aboard.   I even went in to do a mock booking to make sure it was still showing 6 PM.  Which one do I believe? It certainly makes a huge difference in planning shore excursions for the day. The excursion  I was about to book wouldn’t get back until 4:00 or 4:30.

I also noticed in the app it shows setting clocks back an hour toward the end of the cruise but it never shows setting clocks forward an hour and looking at local times I don’t see that the time ever changes between Florida and any destination.   Although the islands are on Atlantic time they don’t observe daylight savings so that would put them on the same time as Florida.

Waiting on a callback from the TA. Not specifically about this but there is a problem with the booking. We paid in full but it is showing $372 still due.  Which matches the amount of the daily service charges (but we booked under AI.) But she was thinking that the insurance had fallen off.   And if they possibly dropped the prepaid daily service charges I need to make sure they didn’t also drop the beverage package.   Her thought on the discount was a captains club discount but I thought that had been accounted for in our base cruise fare.

6 hours ago, crewsweeper said:

This may be old but gives you an idea.

Rate_Sheet.pdf (taxistmaarten.com)

 

Appears that the Taxi Association is reviewing rates.   

Dutch St. Maarten Taxi Association | Taxi Service and Tours (taxistmaarten.com)

 

These rates are regulated by the government .  Taxis don't have meters.  I believe Crown Bay is in Zone 5. on these maps.

Thank you!  This is very helpful information.

3 hours ago, ChiGal1962 said:

Were you by any chance using future cruise credit as payment? I had a FCC certificate from early in the pandemic when they were offering 125%. When applied to my upcoming cruise, the 100% part was applied as a payment, but the extra 25% was applied as a discount. 

Nope.  This will be the first celebrity cruise we’ve ever booked.

14 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

, the final payment with your TA, while being processed via your credit card THROUGH them, should not be TO them. 

Yes…that is correct. Just feels like “to” them.

I went to make final payment for my cruise today. It’s booked through a TA so the payment is to them. When I pulled up my reservation (on the TA site) it is showing a $494.00 discount from Celebrity applied on March 7.   The booking is for three people in a veranda.  We have a second booking for two people in the room next-door and there was no discount on that invoice.

I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth but any idea is what this mysterious discount would be? I don’t believe the travel agent would have automatically done a price adjustment and when I checked the other day even with the current so-called sales the price was higher than what we paid.  Also on was that all prior communication I had had said my final payment was due on March 12 which makes sense for a May 21 sailing but when I went in online it said I was overdue and the payment has been due on March 7 - oddly the same day that the discount was applied.

We are not finding any excursions in Saint Martin that are exactly what we want. So my thinking is that we would like to take a taxi over to Marigot for some shopping, then when we come back take the water taxi over to the beach and walk into Phillipsburg.

My question: How easy is it to get a taxi right at the cruise port that will accommodate five people and how much would it cost round-trip for the five of us to get over to Marigot?

We are really just interested in sightseeing and shopping in both Marigot and Phillipsburg.  

I’ll read daily when I have a cruise scheduled, but also read a lot when I’m planning a cruise. After I look at what itineraries are going on what lines/ships in whatever time frame and price range I am looking for,  then I’ll use CC to get more information about those ships to decide which cruise I want to book, and to determine if I think we’ll like a given cruise or ship. 

My issue over spring break or Easter isn’t so much the make up of the passengers on the ship, but the high cost of airfare if you aren’t close enough to drive. I made the mistake once of cruising over spring break and ended up paying about five times as much for airfare as I typically paid in that era.

My upcoming cruise in May is Caribbean and I don’t have any concerns about that at this point. But I am having my doubts about a planned September trip to Berlin. We haven’t purchased airfare yet so we’re just going to sit tight.

What decks have this issue? Just booked an aft balcony….maybe I should change back to mid-ship?

I don’t look at price per day but I do look at the grand total cost of the cruise including cruise fare, port fees and taxes, gratuities/DSC, and the cost of an alcohol package if not included.  I may find something that on the surface looks a lot less expensive for a given itinerary on one cruise line than another, but then when I add in what I might spend for non-included items on one line that are included on another with flips the scales. I do usually have a total amount in mind as a limit as well when I start looking.  That total cost will be dependent on the purpose of the trip and who I am going with.   It seems that no matter who I travel with or what type of vacation it is I am always the travel planner. Lol.

There are three of us traveling in the same cabin. None of the three of us live together and we will be meeting up at the airport (so none of us would be exposed to either of the others prior to going to the airport). We sail on a Sunday so will fly out on Saturday and get Covid test done on Friday.  Of course if anyone tests positive that person won’t even get on the plane.   In that situation would the other two of us also be denied boarding since none of us had been together? Would it be better for that third person to just be a no-show?  Obviously we would like that person to be able to get a refund if the worst happens, but we’d rather eat her fare than the others to not be able to sail.
 

I get the concept of no one in the state room being allowed to sail if anyone is positive but I feel like that assumes the people would have been together in the daily life so therefore are a definite risk.  Two of us plan to completely hibernate in the two weeks leading up to the cruise but the third person won’t be able to so I’m worried about her.

Hey everyone. I thought I’d check and see if anyone here had experienced this before I spend all the time on hold with Norwegian. We had booked a cabana on GSC for a November cruise. It was $499 less the $50 short excursion credit. We were billed for $449. We canceled the cruise and the refund just came through and it was only $425. Was there a cancellation fee or something I wasn’t aware of or did they just screw up?  I know it’s only $24 but it’s the principle of the matter.  All other money came back as expected.

I just booked for May on Thursday. For five people across two cat 1A  state rooms. The price I booked at was about $600 higher total than the price when I first started looking at the cruise, but I may have originally been looking at a slightly less expensive veranda.  That was maybe a month or two ago. I was able to re-price with the new discount and saved $880 from what I booked at.  

Thanks everyone. We have definitely decided against the sky I think we’re actually going to try the equinox mainly just because it had a better itinerary for the dates that we could go.

I am new to Celebrity, having just convinced all of my travel party to book Celebrity instead of a Norwegian for our next cruise.  We are booked on the Equinox in May. Everyone getting their favorite alcoholic beverages is very important! LOL. I am a little concerned that we may need to upgrade from the classic to the premium package, for at least some of the group.
 

Some of the specific drinks important to some in the group are:  Bloody Mary’s in the morning; white Russians, mudslides, mojitos all day; and Moscato wine with dinner in MDR. Can anyone confirm if those items are available in the classic drink package, and if not, what the pricing is? None of us are picky about alcohol brands. And none of us are beer drinkers. 

Thanks!

3 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

 

I had a look at the 3 .... I'd choose Sky 9 days, hands down. Better itinerary than the other 2.

 

We have not been on the Sky but have been on all others (except Joy, as well) but we would not hesitate to book Sky, due to itinerary and size of ship, and nice pool deck with 2 large pools (larger than Breakaway!). We have been on Sky's sister ship Sun 3 times and loved her.

 

I think Sky is better suited to you all, knowing all your ages.

 

If you think the balcony cabins are too pricy, the oceanview cabins are fine. Just avoid deck 6 as access to deck 6 cabins is via stairs (cabin category OB & OH).

 

 

Thanks for the input. I absolutely agree that the Sky itinerary is the best, and the  Breakaway the least interesting. But with this group the ship is just as important.

1 hour ago, bluesea777 said:

What’s the itinerary for the 3 ships mentioned and when?

 

There are different versions I have eastern Caribbean. It’s the breakaway May 22, the sky May 16th, or the equinox May 21.

We have come to the unfortunate decision we need to postpone our November 14 Encore into next year.  We have sailed on the Escape twice previously.  I always liked the range of activities overall I would say it was too large. I know the Encore and Breakaway are similar.

For the dates and itinerary that we want our choices are the Breakaway or the Sky or jumping over to Celebrity Equinox.  I feel like the Breakaway is reasonably similar to the Escape but I can’t get a good feel for the Sky (or Equinox.)

Can anyone give me insight into the Sky? I haven’t had much luck trying to search. We are a group of three 50-something sisters and our 70-something aunt and 81 yr old Mom.  I have previously sailed on the Disney magic and did love the smaller size of the ship. We aren’t interested in mini golf or waterslides or virtual reality rooms or go carts or any of that kind of thing. We like comfortable places to hang out and visit - preferably outdoors, all the fun onboard activities especially in the evenings (not necessarily bars or nightclubs but we enjoy the shows in the atrium, bingo, deal or no deal, those kinds of things), a decent amount of sea day activities to choose from, good shows, good drinks, and very important good food.  We love the waterfront on the Escape.  We like to spend some time in the casino.

For those familiar with the Sky: does it meet those wants?

TIA!!!

Does anyone have any thoughts on if peace of mind will be extended for sailings beyond October 31?  We are on the November 14 Encore and had decided we are going to let it ride knowing we could cancel it 14 days if things are looking really bad. But then I found out that I was mistaken and the policy only goes thru Oct 31st.  We have another week or so before final payment is due and need to think long and hard about making that payment if peace of mind is not going to apply.  We’re also a bit concerned about what appears to be changes in the wording regarding being denied embarkation due to a positive test -  that it applies to everyone in the state room versus the prior wording of everyone in a travel party. There are five of us in two state rooms and if any one of the five can’t go none of us want to go, in favor of re-booking with everyone later. 

3 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

On Deck 10, I would pick 10276 or 10876 and on Deck 12, I would pick 12272 or 12872. 

I’ve been in 10876 twice…great room….convenient to elevators and quiet.

I’m on the Nov 14 Encore and still very nervous that’s it’s even going to sail. I didn’t realize it was the first cruise. I was thinking I the Encore was sailing earlier in November.  But honestly at this point I’ll just be happy if I’m able to get on that ship.