OuiOnboard

21 hours ago, Fouremco said:

Not being able to go and not being able to have travel insurance when you go are two very different things. Anyone reading these boards knows that many, many Celebrity and other cruisers never bother with travel insurance.

Yeah, the good old days. We have never bought more than full medical  coverage in the past, but would not try that approach nowadays.

6 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

I think that is true. They should have gone to the doctor first before canceling.  We didn’t even cancel our cruise. The diagnosis was two days before the sailing. We just didn’t show up. That was what our travel agent advised.  Our claim was paid. 

If you don't mind my asking, did you have CFAR?

We don't have a cruise booked now and will wait until this thing pans out. We're sure that the cruise lines won't miss our pennies. Who knows, maybe Celebrity and the others will reduce their fares and/or reverse the cutbacks such that our 3-4 cruises per year habit is reignited. Maybe not.

In any case, smooth sailing all. 

Haven't cruised much in a few years and don't have any booked right now. We were considering cruising several weeks this spring, but will wait  now to see how things progress. 

We are old school cruisers. We liked to cruise in balcony or concierge at base level and add the niceties a la carte. The lines have increased the base fares such that the all-perks deals look better compared to base-level cruise pricing.

We are cruising less these days , but we're still looking for another Celebrity cruise that rings our bell.

The laundry perk is appreciated greatly as we pack lightly and usually prefer longer cruises.

Cruising less these days....not expecting to reach Zenith in this lifetime...one or two levels of recognition between E+ and Zenith would be nice...perhaps offer a pick-a-really-free-perk on your next 7-day cruise...or such. Whatever.

In our experience, the best prices are at the very beginning of a cruise offering and after final payment. Early booking has the advantage of more choice in cabin location. After final booking one may have little to no choice. The "sales" that the cruise lines (with their computer algorithms) run between these periods are, at best, a shell-game to incentivize some to move quickly and seal their good deal.

With the introduction of  the 1-2-3-type programs, I think Celebrity (and others) increased their base fares to decrease the appeal of base-level cruises and increase the "wow-cheaper-to-keep-her" factor. We are entering the age of AI and look what we are up against already. 

I can't see it from here.

Choices. Celebrity has chosen ways of compensating people who toil on their ships. The crew have chosen to work on these ships and be compensated in ways prescribed by Celebrity. Passengers choose to participate in the compensation of the crew in various ways and to different degrees. Yes, choices. 

28 minutes ago, edgee said:

So fly to Vancouver and take the annual Celebrity repositioning cruise from Vancouver to Honolulu....

Now there is a plan that sounds good to me.

We haven't cruised in almost three years. We found cruising to be an irresistible antidote to the stress of our jobs. Now retired, we no longer need to physically escape the pressure-pot to maintain sanity. We now enjoy the water views from our oceanfront and lakefront abodes with frequent retreats to the hobby farm. Sprinkle in the odd land trip or cruise, and we are good-to-go.

Celebrity is still our favourite line, but we will check others and I am sure we'll book another cruise sooner than later. The costs of cruising, just like the cost of living in general, have risen and we all must make choices. For us, the combination of a decreased overall thrill from cruising and an increased hassle of travelling to/from the ship are larger factors in our getaway planning.

On 12/19/2019 at 11:48 AM, yorky said:

 We dine in Murano and are very happy with both service and food there so it’s all good.

Our solution also.

25 minutes ago, gfkcruiser said:

 Outraged that I was not notified by Celebrity of this error and the situation.  

Go ahead and vent...we hear you.

6 hours ago, Fla Mike said:

 

Testing quote function

me too

Variety can be great. Give Carnival a shot. You might like it.

I solve it by NEVER sitting at the pool!

Precisely.

It is always better when it's other people's money.

Some think OBC is prepaid credit.

Oh well.

In comparison, in February we bought and shared unlimited internet on 7-day Jewel OTS for $60.00, after $40.00 Diamond discount.

On our Silhouette 7-day in March, we each used our Elite+ 240 minutes FREE perk.

On Regal Princess in March, we each used our Elite 150 minute FREE perk.

In all cases, the speed was snail like.

The staff in both cases should have conducted themselves in a more professional manner...period.

In the olden days, we booked on board , early, with FCC knowing that the net fare for our Feb. mid-winter 14 day Caribbean cruises and such, would most likely stay the same or go up before sailing date.

That doesn't appear to be a winning strategy these days.

In the interest of simplicity, we built a new cottage and will cruise less.

We are just doing our part to help free up more staterooms.

Due to time constraints, we had to move our 10+11 day Equinox b2b for Dec. 2015 to Dec. 2016. WOW!!!!! The price increase was mind blowing!!!!!. We then cancelled the first cruise of our Jan-Feb. 2016 Eclipse b2b and moved the second cruise to Feb 2017. Again, a massive price increase for the same accommodations.

X has had a lock on us the past few years, but we'll be seriously looking at our options re. these Caribbean cruises.

It is great that there are so many vacation options available. I am about as loyal to X as they have shown themselves to be to me, so not an issue for me.

It seems they are recommending evening chic or dressier on the chic nights and smart casual or better on other nights in the MDR. Problem?

We are CC Elite+. We are afraid of heights, so are satisfied that Elite+ is our zenith. Time to go shopping.