cameronp12

Almost like they just heard me haha...it came in like 20 seconds ago.

Still haven't gotten my email yet...weird.

It will be interesting to see what cruise lines do now. I saw today Princess will now be allowing some unvaccinated guests, so wouldn't surprise me if others do the same. This industry is kind of "follow the leader" right now, especially with all the lines competing to fill their ships and make some money back.

Loving this live review as I will be on Infinity next April in Spain, so I can only imagine things will continue to improve until then. Thanks!

Still surprised this isn't advertised anywhere by NCL...

Anyone been successfully able to upgrade to this if you have already booked shore excursions? Thinking of trying today.

That is an interesting point too. I bet there was a major overlap with people who would be willing to spend the money for Elevate/Indulge and also those who are booking Aqua Class or Retreat and get more inclusions than base cabins anyway. The average cruiser in a regular balcony cabin probably didn't book the higher rate very often though would be my guess.

Good point. I misspoke, but yes only wifi has the pre-cruise discount. Sometimes there is a sale in the CP though, from what I have seen.

This might lead to more people upgrading drink packages, etc. on board, which I would imagine is more profitable because the pre-cruise discount for upgrading no longer exists.

I do think it's probably easier to understand now for first time Celebrity guests as well as casual cruisers. You get 2 different rates - cruise only or all inclusive. They also seem to like the strategy of having people pay to upgrade the drinks, wifi, etc. on their own. I foresee Celebrity running more sales that include onboard credit because of this. It's likely easier to get someone to pay a $300 upgrade for the premium drink package, if they already have $200 in onboard credit, for example. The extra $100 is basically all profit for Celebrity and most people won't balk at an extra $100 or so.

Please come back on here and let us know what they tell you! I would chat with them now, but am in meetings all day as well.

Thinking of upgrading to this for my upcoming cruise in September. It's a 10 day Europe cruise and I have already booked all the excursions - spending ~$1500. Anyone know if this would retroactively give me money back on those (since it now applies to guest #2 as well)? If so, this is totally worth the money to me to upgrade.

Thanks! Completed.

Sounds like we will be good for most of Europe then? I have a Northern Europe cruise in September so that’s good news as long as none of those countries require it!

Agreed the testing needs to go! I think this is a pretty low risk thing to lie about if people want to save money, considering how prevalent covid symptoms are in everyday life.

I don’t believe the results they email to you change based on whether or not you designate the test “for travel” when you sign up. If you have had ANYTHING in the last 14 days that could be considered a symptom (literally even if you’ve coughed once), go ahead and list that symptom, so that there’s a good chance your insurance will pay for it. They don’t also need to know you’re traveling

I don’t believe the results they email to you change based on whether or not you designate the test “for travel” when you sign up. If you have had ANYTHING in the last 14 days that could be considered a symptom (literally even if you’ve coughed once), go ahead and list that symptom, so that there’s a good chance your insurance will pay for it. They don’t also need to know you’re traveling.

Fair, but whether you’re paying for the test or having your insurance company pay for it, you’re still taking it. I don’t believe we have a shortage of tests right now. I know I can grab the take home ones from my work anytime I want.

Walgreens is charging for tests for travel but couldn’t you just put on the website when making the appointment that you had an exposure instead of doing it for travel, then they would run it through your insurance and it would be free? As far as I know, the results page you get after the test doesn’t specify for travel or not. However, I used the eMed proctored test for my cruise this past month and it worked really well. Didn’t have time for the Walgreens appointment and didn’t mind paying for the convenience.

Appreciate this review! We will be on the Infinity next April in Spain and booked more for the itinerary than ship, but good to see the public areas are looking good. Hopefully they will have staffing/service kinks worked out since that is still 10 months away!

Yes, the eMed test went off without a hitch for both of us. This was our first time doing it. We had gotten the Walgreens NAAT tests back in March for our cruise, but they are harder to come by in our area now, so we ordered the eMed ones to be safe and it was great.

The wife and I both tested negative this morning on the eMed proctored tests before work, so we are officially in cruise mode!

Beautiful - we have had a British Isles cruise on our bucket list for a while.

The wife and I will be on this same cruise! Looking forward to it! We are flying from Dallas to Ft. Lauderdale Friday evening.

Hopefully this doesn't mean Always Included is going away forever? I did several mock bookings for veranda cabins and AI was not an option at all. I don't want to have to pay for Aqua Class just to get AI....