TGfromTX

I have not been on an E class yet, but I have one booked & was assigned a late dining time. Once you register your cruise, you can go in app and put yourself on a waiting list for anytime dining. I was moved to anytime dining after about 3 weeks.

Fort Lauderdale FL (already booked) & considering one out of Barcelona

Does anyone know if drinks get taxed extra on embarkation day? And how much that tax is? NCL charged me taxes until about 30 minutes after the ship let dock.

I haven't seen zero on sale at same time as the alcohol packages. But the packages haven't dropped below 35% until just now. Right now mine are showing a flash sale at 40%. At $14 premium drinks & $10 classic drinks, that is pretty much 4 or 5 drinks respectively to make up the cost. I splurged for premium. Fingers crossed yours is the same. Just fyi, if yours isn't on sale my cruise is about 5 weeks out for the 40% to show. It has been going to about 35% during the holiday sales & often 20% off most of the time. $27 is the lowest I've seen on the zero package on my cruise. Good luck.

My understanding is that the rain in UK will typically last for many days on end, not just small showers like some of the islands, correct?

Thanks for posting the photo - I'll address the questions about why. I am cruising in a solo IV for the first time. The solo version does not have the chaise on the left in the photo above - the room is not as deep. Without the chaise, there is nowhere to sit that I can lean back into (no upper back or head support) except for the bed. Although there are moments I like to sit upright, I don't think I want to be sitting upright anytime I enjoy the view.

I haven't visited Europe yet (I'm from US) & I was overwhelmed with researching the options. I'd like to know what everyone thinks are the must see destinations. I tried to pick out the most popular ports that Celebrity visits in each location - I may have a couple in the wrong location, but they tend to show up on itineraries to that destination (I don't know exactly which one Porto is considered for example - please forgive).. I also asked a second question if you think a Celebrity cruise is the best way to visit Europe. Thanks! May your favorite win.

Sorry if you posted this somewhere already, but what type of room are you in? I'm in an infinite veranda next month & I will be requesting a lounger but expecting to be told no.

After the experience, I'd try to fly in a day early & I'd never go on another cruise without comprehensive travel insurance. The insurance is more important than the flight in my opinion since it covers so much more that could happen. Costco is the highest value for cost in travel insurance I could find on my next trip (I found recommendation in another thread). If you have membership, I'd price it out through them - you don't have to buy the cruise through them and it was significantly cheaper - be aware they priced out more than the basic policy others provide. I think it worked out to about half the price for like policies.

Sort of the same, but we had booked flights and insurance with our trip. Insurance flew her to the next destination to catch the cruise. She didn't get any money back from the cruise. We did get around a $50 charge after the cruise, but I think it's because we did some 4 shot flights of whiskey one night and that probably broke the beverage package rules. It was low enough, I didn't ask questions since we didn't review our onboard bill before leaving the boat. I think it'd work, but you are still paying double fare and waiting for refunds on taxes and gratuity post cruise. I'd read the conditions of the '50% off 2nd passenger' deal, if I were considering a 'dummy account' for the second passenger no show. This cruise, my cabin mate backed out before the cruise - I called them to get options because I wasn't sure of policy. They aren't charging me anything extra to go on the cruise - they actually sweetened the deal if I'd switch to a different cruise. The agent did have to speak to a supervisor to get approval to make this change - I feel like they had to remove fees, but it wasn't clear what the supervisor had to sign off on. But I might be more willing to try this again & see if it works out twice for me. If someone else is willing to try it with a similar dummy account - this is something that actually has worked with a real account. And you can always cancel the cruise since there are 2 on the booking if it doesn't work out. I just don't know what/if any fees are to completely cancel a booked cruise.

I say buy a time share together before divorce. That's much more fun on Judge Judy. I didn't mean to double post... you caught my pre-delete after I saw the first edit saved.

I wonder if the Infinite Veranda accordion-like doors are pushing into the balcony space when being opened, and loungers just don't allow the doors to open and close. A regular sliding door doesn't take extra floor space to open so it wouldn't explain on those. I think most IVs show to be 42 square feet, That'd be about 6 foot by 7 foot. Assuming the balcony is 6 foot deep, I don't think loungers are shorter than that unless in upright position.

Oopsie - I thought my last post got lost. and cant delete this.

The data will be results of whatever algorithms they running to produce pricing, not how the code works to actually price things. Their AI code likely is just written to produce max profits, not make this room generate this amount of profit. How the solo rooms are priced likely has very little to do with how the doubles are priced - that'd explain why inside rooms get more expensive than the oceanview rooms sometimes. AI might look at room pricing to see how it affects what is spent onboard, but it wouldn't be coded to make it come out to the results - it's going to be coded to make max profit. Since their site doesn't do a good job in separating results when searching for solo cabins vs double cabins (I don't get the feeling many on this thread have even tried to find the solo cabins because that is just crazy what it takes to find them - and most of their agents don't know how to find them), it's very possible the code is assume these shoppers/cabins/profits are the same where they actually are not. That'd explain why this is happening in first place. But good luck getting that over to the developers to review. This is one of the worst companies for getting known issues to someone that can actually correct the base cause.

The most recent trip, we were booked in same cabin. Her plane was delayed due to snow and she missed embarkation by 30 minutes. I was on ship for hours before embarkation while she was still in the air. We purchased tickets through the cruiseline so we had a false sense of security that they'd wait for her. This is when we learned 'fly in the day before' - and "we'll take care of you if you buy through us" is little more than a sales pitch. Insurance was great though. She was in contact with the 'help' number you get provided so they may have known before I told them - but they didn't question me about anything, I was just sent onward to get onboard. This was about a month before the cruises shut down due to covid -so things could have changed since then. I wasn't even aware this was a rule until it was mentioned on this forum (I think by you). This was a couple of years ago and if someone casually mentioned it as a policy, I could have forgotten. I am in no way implying that my experience will be the same for someone else. Especially with a false person booked.

I believe you are referring to - the 'prepare for boarding day' email (attached screenshot of mine). I don't see mention of it in the FAQs link attached to my email. Enforcement could differ if all were on same flight, but I've never been questioned further once responding the rest of my party is on a separate flight. If they were going to enforce, I think it'd be more prominent than hidden in a single email. That said, I have no intentions trying this. Having to chase down refunds after a cruise feels a little extreme when there are other options. Thanks for the suggestion about pricing out packages - I haven't considered that providing an airfare discount.

I keep seeing 'connie' posted, but for the life of me I can't find anywhere saying what the tarnation it is referring to. Anyone?

Interestingly, the cheapest flights I've found (between Europe ports & US) seem to be from Barcelona back to the US. For some reason, going TO Europe seems more expensive. What means did you use to get to the airport form port, taxi? Was it under $100 USD? Thanks for all the info.

I was pricing out TA due to 0% solo supplement on a different cruise line and the cheapest flights I could find were $600-$800 USD. Is this range you are considering super cheap? Just trying to get a point of reference for a good deal since I have never flown overseas - Hawaii is as far as I've flown & it was under $300 each way.

I've had a couple of responses stating this isn't across the board, but I think I've filtered plum and ***** to look across all of Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruises with the best result being a 99% supplement fee. Same results even on their transatlantic and repositioning cruises where some other lines offer 0% and almost all other mass lines are significantly reduced supplement. I consider these 2 lines amongst worst in industry for solo travelers, but I do plan to ask onboard at the 'next cruise' desk to see if they have means to cut a deal.

Do you think the cabin attendant will complain if they are found on the bed?