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Posts
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Joined
About Me
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Location
Hudson Valley, New York
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Interests
Reading, cooking, traveling, painting
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Favorite Cruise Line(s)
Celebrity & Princess
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Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
Europe - anywhere
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bbappel's Achievements
1,000+ Club (7/20)
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Thanks, Do you coordinate it with a computer, or do you use it only on your tablet?
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Celebrity Error - Build a "Class System" into Your Ships
bbappel replied to retiredtraveler70's topic in Celebrity Cruises
I agree with you. We are booked on our first cruise since 2017 - and we see a lot has changed. Fortunately we are booked on an S class ship. We were getting disenchanted with so much about cruising by 2017 that we found other ways to vacation. We aren't willing to spend all our vacation budget in one place, and the only way to have an excellent time, I guess, is to book a suite, and that would be it for our year. Not in my future. So we've been going to the beach for a month in the winter, where we eat better food than on the ship, drink excellent wines, and enjoy our time. We miss someone making up our room, the collegiality of other passengers at venues where you might share a drink. We like cooking, so that's why we enjoy better food. So we are experimenting with this cruise since it is a fun way to vacation with friends without being in each other's pockets. Then the rest of the year we go on 4-9 day trips where we ride bikes, and have fun. It is working, but isn't a easy to share the time with friends. As we get older, I was sort of hoping we might have more fun. Like you, we liked to get to the theater a little early, find our seats, and enjoy a cocktail or after-dinner drink. The thing that irritated us on our last few cruises was that, as early diners, we no longer had venues with music to enjoy with our pre-dinner cocktail. We are still early diners because it works better with going off-ship on tours or our own explorations and we just can't stay up that late any more. -
While this is helpful, and asked when we first tried on the iPhone, these friends who will be cruising with us use only iPads, so they don't have a computer to share from. Does it work the same on the iPad as on the computer? At the time I asked the question I didn't realize this.
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Is there a Cruise Critic App for those who use their phone or iPad infinitely more than a computer? Beth
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Does the non-alcohol drink package ever go on sale?
bbappel replied to Jomykje's topic in Celebrity Cruises
It wasn't in our Cruise Planner - maybe because we had booked the Premium package. Neither of us has the alcoholic gene (thank goodness). However, we saw the flash sale and called up to change to that pricing, and asked about the Zero Proof package, and were able to book it at 15% off (Elite status). I'm much happier now. -
Celebrity Eclipse Sky Lounge closed during 12 day cruise
bbappel replied to quicklabs's topic in Celebrity Cruises
Does anyone know a way to ascertain if our booking (Mid-September 2025) would be a Park West cruise? I enjoy sitting in the Sky Lounge reading, especially if it isn't nice enough to sit on the Veranda. I like to manage expectations if possible, to ease disappointment. Beth -
Thanks for the recommendations. However, this is our first cruise in 7 years, so there is no certainty we will be on another cruise in a reasonable time after this one. Also, i'm not sure how to pay the credit card with points. I'll have to dig deeper. I use my Hilton Honors free card most of the time because I can book hotels with points + cash and make hotels affordable while still getting some credit for traveling.
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Can you use the points to pay your bill, not just OBC? -- I'd say "asking for a friend" so I don't get greedy, but in all honesty, it would simplify our lives if we could do it that way since we would need to do fewer gazintas (my father-in-law's term for arithmetic, meaning goes into). As it stands, we have to calculate how much we have in the credit card pot, and how much we expect to spend. And so on and so forth. Our cruise isn't until September 2025, so there is plenty of time to figure it out.
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Does the non-alcohol drink package ever go on sale?
bbappel replied to Jomykje's topic in Celebrity Cruises
We haven't even been able to book a non-alcohol package for our NE-Canada cruise in September 2025. It would be our preference since we have sufficient OBC (due to the Celebrity credit card) to pay for tips and alcohol beyond the Elite evening extra. The package would let us have as many espressos and Pellegrinos as we wanted, as well as water to take on off-ship tours. We can buy water off-ship to bring on board (we think) but this would be so convenient, We are from the US. Is there a difference in availability? Or is it just timing, and they will likely open it up closer to the cruise. I feel for families who have on recovering alcoholic and one person who enjoys a drink before dinner. -
Thank you. Found it. Mine aren't active yet, since I haven't even been billed yet. And it says they are available for 5 years from earning. Probably you have to keep using the card, but that's not a problem.
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I just got a BoA Celebrity card and spent my requisite $1000 to get 30,000 points. Our cruise is not until September 2025, so will those points expire? I will continue to use the card, probably for groceries, so it won't be dormant. I know I can search through FAQs and try to discern the rules. However, someone on here, likely knows the answer, and if that person has time to share their experience, I'll be so happy, and much les frustrated. I understand most people here better than FAQ-speak. Thanks.
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Southampton Cruise Port to London Heathrow
bbappel replied to Canada17's topic in British Isles/Western Europe
We took the Celebrity transfer which took us to Windsor Castle. We also had a driver take us to Winchester Cathedral. Both gave us a place to keep our luggage while we toured. We did have to wait at Heathrow for our flight, but both were great visits. Mind you, this was a L-O-N-G time ago. -
We were babies. I wasn't even 21 yet. There is this to be said for young marriage.
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It is sadly amusing. Our first Celebrity cruise was in 2002 and on subsequent Celebrity cruises, there were difficulties with the website. My theory is that they hire tech people who got Cs and the other mistake is they didn't send them all on a cruise so they would have a clue. We haven't cruised since 2017 and I naively thought they would have fixed the recurrent issues by now. Just my opinion, I could be wrong. We finally booked a cruise is 2025 for our 60th anniversary. Our first cruise was for my husband's retirement from teaching with family and friends. I've enjoyed them all for various reasons and had a few issues along the way. Nevertheless it is great to be at sea and enjoy the time, the sea air, and the freedom from responsibility.