vji6697

great advice. get them to sign up with something like credit karma or I think something that moneysavingexpert provides via experian.

I think they are referring to having a Nationwide Flex Bank (Building Society) account where you can add a package including travel insurance, mobile insurance and car recovery for a low monthly cost. I have the same and they do pay out very quickly. I lost one samsung bud headphone on a flight to FLL before our Equinox cruise last Nov, put in an online claim as soon as I arrived at my hotel. By the time I woke up the next day, they had settled the claim and the money (less the excess) was in my account. Only time I have had to use them, so cannot comment on how they would handle this type of situation

I use a UK based Celebrity TA. She is great. Example just today, I have a Norway Cruise booked for next May. She sorted out an E1 cabin for an E2 price (CC upgrade), and today I noticed a £350 price drop. Emailed her this morning and by the end of the day, I had a new invoice with the new price - so it can be done

I did this on the Equinox in November. The Bartender was Henri, think it was his last trip before moving onto another ship. It was great fun. There were around 10-12 of us, He talked for about 10-15 mins, then he made a drink, then asked for 3 volunteers to make the same drink for the guests. Once drank, he showcased another and again, 3 volunteers (including me) went behind the bar to prepare them. Then after that, a further drink. So 3 strong cocktails in about an 70 minutes and we thought it was over, but no. He then made us all the Zapaca special smokey drink. I had the same the night before and loved it. Best bit for me, one of the other guests didnt want to try it, so gave it to me 🙂 So 5 strong cocktails down in 90 minutes. Had to go back to the cabin for a snooze

Yep, as someone earlier said, you can do it online, just pay an additional amount. If the other half has a card, then you can make 2 payments of £1000 and get £300 off

Most likely, but in our case, only done 2 cruises, and only 1 on X in a Sky Suite. enjoyed it and booked another for 2025 (2023/4 plans already made), but now reading some of the things happening, am looking at Oceania/others as their prices now seem to stack up well

Just want to check if anyone has stayed in both a normal S1 suite and an S3 magic carpet suite - saw some pics earlier and the S3 balconies look much bigger,

Wow. US deals are so much better than the UK ones. At the moment we have £150 credit against £1000 spend on Celebrity. Seems to be an annual thing as took advantage of this for part payments last year for our Nov-22 cruise and so will use it again for our Jan-25 one. If things pan out, should be able to use this next year too 🙂

Thanks. I should have added/asked - are you able to get 1 or 2 proper loungers in the balcony or are you stuck with the 2 chairs ? I saw a review which said they swapped a chair out for a lounger, but ideally we would like 2

Whilst on Equinox last Nov, we took advantage of the black friday deal + future cruise offers to book an S1 for an Australia -> New Zealand cruise in 2025 (I know, a long way away). Did not think too much about cabins, so opted for deck 11 (11211). Just wondering, are all the S1s the same or are some bigger/have bigger balconies ? I know the sunset ones do (we were on a sunset suite on the Equinox) but whilst we liked the extra space, the location was just too hot for us to enjoy it.

I would then suggest the casino/slots - load it up, play some, then cash out 🙂

apologies, we were in 8345 not 8132 🙂

The anniversary thing had me remembering that our initial cruise booking was for our 30th in NZ in March this year, so there was a note on our booking and on day 1 or 2, we had a little song and the petals and cake in our room too - no balloons though 😞 🙂

Hi. My wife did end up ordering from the MDR menu a few times, but I would recommend taking the time to speak to the Maitre'd at Blu and also ask to speak to a chef and your main waiter on day 1 to explain your requirements. Once they know (and understand) they will make sure you are looked after. I think I caught one flair show at the martini bar, but to be honest, I wanted a good drink, so swiftly moved on 🙂 re the lawn area, did not spend a lot of time there, just whilst getting our daily steps in, it looked pretty quiet, though I think we had around 2000 pax rather than 2700 so there was a lot of space. Personally would not pay for the alcove/cabanas (We did not see many people in them) as there were plenty of placed to grab a drink and chill in the sun or in the shade

We are new to cruising, only having done 1 cruise previously with RC on Voyager of the Seas (Honk Kong -> Singapore) which we loved. After a number of covid related cancellations, we booked this Caribbean cruise as I wanted to get one in this year and November was the only month we could fit it in. Initially booked the last remaining sky suite on deck 12, under Oceanview, but a month or so later, an Aft corner sky suite on deck 8 became available and moved to that an no additional cost. So, first time on Celebrity and so looking forward to it. Then Storm Nicole came.. bit of a worry as we were flying in from the UK, but I had booked out flights for the 10th, so I was confident we would make it, and indeed we did, stopped at the Best Western Plus in FLL which was ok, not flash, but had a decent breakfast. Anyway, onto my short review : Embarkation: Got off to a wobbly start as I booked a lyft and the driver was useless. I told him we were on pier 19 (i think) and he took us to 25, then dropped us off on the main road near the 19 sign. so we had to trundle our bags, on the road towards 19. Not a great start, but things started to get better from then. It was around 10:30am, there were a lot of folk milling outside who had just got off and were waiting for cabs/coaches, but we saw the porters and dropped our bags off and went thru to check in and were quickly processed and led to the retreat waiting area. Bit basic there, some pastries and some soft drinks. Laura, one of the retreat concierges was there welcoming folk. Probably waited about half an hour before we were escorted onto the ship and to our room Room: We were in 8132, a corner aft suite. Had initially booked one on deck 12, but then this one came up so switched over straight away. suite had plenty of room and storage. only 1 pole to deal with and that was on my side of the bed and I am quite proud of the fact that I did not bang into it at all, despite being a bit merry on a few days 🙂 Room Steward: Ours was great, his name was Narendra and always greeted us when we saw him, if he saw us coming back to our room he would open the doors for us etc, he is a real star Butler: a bit of confusion here to be honest, our room had cards for Mohammed, but when we got back from lunch, a chap called Izzy introduced himself as our butler. I did prepare a short list of likes which he did not read, I said that the note I just passed him had our likes for Canapés , morning coffee, drinks etc, he just put it in his pocked without reading and said they no longer do Canapés, and we just need to head to the retreat lounge for them. He called us on day 2 to see what else he could do and I asked him specifically if he had read our note (he hadn't), I just said, please read that as that will tell you what we would like. One of the major things in the note was to ensure he would check that Luminae had our list of dietary requirements - he failed on this and I had to mention in to Daria in the retreat lounge and she sorted it all out for us. As the days went on, he did get better and filled our fridge with water and beer, but I am at a loss at how clearer I could have been in terms of how he could make our stay perfect. Entertainment: We went to a few shows which were enjoyable, but this cruise for us was more about us time rather than mingling, so no real comment on other activities Food: We ate dinner at Luminae every evening, we had Jaun Pablo and Vinod as our waiters and oh my, 2 great guys, they were great each and every day. Fodd was good, they did struggle with my wifes dietary requirements and I have realised that we need to be much more specific on what she likes (I felt the chefs had no issue producing great food, just that comments from us to the waiters to the chefs got diluted). Breakfast and Lunch was in the buffet as we like choices and more informality (much to the disappointment of Vinod how seemed hurt each evening as he would say "didn't see you for breakfast today) 🙂 Cafe was great too. No complaints from us. Bars: Oh my, just how many bars are there ? we were gonna hit the sunset bar for when we left FLL but the bottle of bubbly and our balcony + the chap on FB who takes pics meant we were in our balcony for it. Before the cruise I thought our fave bar would be the martini one as I love an espresso martini, however I was dismayed by the pre-mix and felt it tasted awful, so ended up frequenting the world class bar where Hendri and Adrian kept us entertained. Even took the mixology course with Hendri and it was great fun. Enjoyed the others apart from the Ensemble lounge. My wife does not drink alocohol, so we asked them to make a mocktail, when they came, the waiter was not sure which was which, did not bother checking and when I tasted them, both had alcohol. was not impressed. Non of the other bars had issues making mocktails, indeed at the world class bar, they would ask what my wife felt like having and make something up on the fly. Didnt really drink at craft social, but always did a fly by and grabbed a couple of bottles for my room. Sky lounge was a bit hit and miss, had a great cocktail on one day by the bartender who is courting Larissa in the retreat lounge, other days, other barmen, not so great. Excursions: This was our first time in the Caribbean and to be honest was not somewhere we would normally go (this was the 3rd attempt of a cruise for our 30th due to covid cancellations). We did not really fancy any of the excursions so we just walked around the port area and beyond, Highlight was Eagle beach in Aruba where we grabbed a cab to take us to the top end (Amsterdam?) and then walked it back to the ship. We are not swimmers/snorkellers/happy to sit on a beach for hours, so this will prob be our one and only Caribbean cruise, though if we were in Florida, I can see the attraction, As it happened, some 2025 deals were released in conjuction with their black friday deals so we took advantage and booked the Edge for a Aus -> NZ cruise in Jan 2025 with a hefty OCB. Lessons Learnt : Love the brand, so am happy to stick to it. We need to be clearer with our butler from day 1 and also with Luminae (things improved after we spoke to a chef) - I will insist on that day 1 next time. Happy to expand on any point if you have specific questions.