luv2cruisemore

On the Beyond now in an AQ cabin with no noise. Spoke to someone in a Magic Carpet suite who's having noise but wasn't aware of an issue on this ship. 

We're on the Beyond now in AQ and eating in Blu. We've now had six dinners in Blu and have never had to wait more than 5 minutes to go to our table. 

We sailed on the Silhouette over NYE five years ago in the Carribbean. Party was on the pool deck and deck above (jogging track). It was all very exciting! Lots of loud music, officers getting thrown in the pool, etc. We’re not really partiers but we had a great time. 

I called X to see if it paid to do this. They wanted $660 for the two of us for our 11-night cruise. Our premium WiFi was just $250 in total so it doesn’t pay for us. We rarely use room service and the embarcation day lunch was no big deal. 

1 hour ago, mac_tlc said:

Retreat guests can also go to Blu, at discretion of maitre’d. 
 

We will be flexible on the time. 

I’ve read several posts from AQ Blu guests complaining about long waits for dinner in Blu due to Suite guests dining there. We’ll be in Blu 3/11 and will not be happy if Suite guests are allowed in Blu and delaying our meals. Maybe they should allow AQ guests to dine in Luminae since so many Suite guests don’t “love” Luminae!

We're in AQ on the Solstice tomorrow and we were also in AQ in September on Solstice and many other cruises pre-covid. We never have had a noise problem in AQ on any S or M class ship. To us, the premium we pay if for eating in BLU.

8 hours ago, sdnich said:

We are on the same cruise next Sat. March 4 . I did a fake booking and most rooms looked booked.I did not count but definitely more the 50% . Looks to me more than 80% full! 
 

packing today and definitely adding more warm clothes!! Sail away day looks like it won’t hit 60 degrees!

We're also on the March 4 cruise and also from San Diego (brrrrr). I've been doing mock bookings over the past several weeks and it has really filled up (assuming X is being honest on their website). Last week, I counted 140 empty Concierge and Veranda cabins and now there are very few left . We're in AQ and it's almost full. A few weeks ago, there was plenty of AQ availability but I assume people "moved up". It could be that lots of Southern Californians are sick of the cold/rainy weather we've had and decided to get away. We were on the Solstice repositioning in September and it was around 67% full.

I tested positive for Covid on the third day of 10-day Princess New Year's cruise. I'm 74 and have a serious heart condition. The medical staff was terrific. They did several heart tests, had me stop my statin and a few other meds and gave me Paxlovid. I was surprised and delighted that they had it on board. I had a relatively mild case and tested negative on day 6. I was quarantined in my mini-suite and had room service. My wife was allowed to stay with me as she had had covid within three months. I missed all four ports but I'm glad I got through this relatively unscathed. I did rebound a week later for five days at home.  I'm loyal to X (Elite Plus) and I don't love Princess, but our friends were going and it was from San Diego so we didn't have to fly.

2 hours ago, harbourxie said:

Thanks - I have not seen them with $0.00 yet. I booked the cruise using Casino rate and the agent mentioned that I will have all the perks as an usual Aqua class booking, but the perks will show up in my reservation in a couple of days. 

I will give it another a couple of days and see what happens. 

We also paid for the AQ upgrade to the free Blue Chip offer and I'm pretty sure the extras (gratuities/drinks/wifi) are not included. The only benefit is the slightly upgraded AQ cabin and Blu. We did it for Blu.

On 1/25/2023 at 5:59 PM, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

 

You would have to imagine they'd waive the fee

It sounds like he was self-isolating and did not report his Covid to the medical staff. I was recently on the Diamond Princess and had Covid (discovered by the medical staff as I thought I had food poisoning), I was quarantined and they brought all my meals to me free (from their room service menu) and provided free laundry service.

We've been on the Solstice many times. Our first "post covid" cruise was in September for the repositioning from Vancouver to LA. 

We were supposed to be on this cruise, but postponed until March 4. I recently had Covid on a Princess Cruise. I was quarantined  and then rebounded once I was home. So, we decided to postpone. 

Anyway, thanks for posting. Can you tell me how many people were on board? Some friends were on the Solstice last week and it was only 1/3 full (880 passengers).

4 minutes ago, Caroldoll said:

 

 

Check out spelling!  LOL

Sorry if you misunderstood my comment. It wasn’t about you. It was about another poster who complained about “immigrants coming over the border with fentanyl and covid”. She had “teacher” in her username.  Enjoy your cruise.

16 hours ago, lobsternight said:

Wow, just wow.  Don't worry, the next time I cross the line to my US investments I will wear a condom so we can all be safe.

If she's a teacher, I wouldn't want her anywhere near my grandkids with her racist and unsupstantiated comments. 

Thank you, everybody. The car rental from Enterprise in San Pedro is $138 and hopefully they will pick me up from the ship. I’ll call tomorrow to confirm that.

We’re flying from LAX and renting a car to get there. I looked at leaving my car at LAX but the cost of parking for 12 days and then ubering back to LAX from the port is much more.

I don’t really want the hassle of getting to a train station and taking the train to San Diego. The less time I have to carry our luggage the better!

We will be disembarking in Long Beach and want to find out the easiest way to get home in San Diego. For now, I have rented a car near the port to drop off at the San Diego airport, but it is expensive and a hassle. The cruise originates in Vancouver so I can’t just leave my car at the port.

3 hours ago, crusinthrough said:

Is it $10 pp per day or $20 pp per day to upgrade to Aqua class?  or is the cost determined by A1 or A2?  I paid $20 pp to upgrade to A1

It may depend on the Blue Chip offer you received, the availability on the departure date AND the X person you speak to on the phone. When I first booked the free cruise for October, I was told that my offer didn't include that upgrade. When I changed our reservation to January, I asked for it and they charged me $10/day/pp to upgrade to AQ.

1 hour ago, Eight_Paws said:

I am doing a BTB on the Solstice.  I was able to complete check in (select boarding time) for the Sep9 cruise nearly 2 weeks ago.  I had thought that one week after that, I would be able to select a boarding time for the Sep16 cruise-- but still no.  Even though they keep sending me emails telling me to complete my check-in!  

 

Lisa

We're also on the 16 Sept cruise and can't get a boarding time. Many people on our roll call are saying the same thing. There must be a glitch. X's IT is forever a problem. Also, there are some people on that roll call saying that US law may prohibit the B2B because Vancouver is not considered a foreign port. 

4 hours ago, rj59 said:

I yielded to temptation on Solstice, but it wasn't a good experience and felt like car buying. First, they input a lot of numbers and came out with double what I found on their own website. I showed it to them and they said 'we can match that' and they input codes and finagled numbers to come out with what I had. Then the brochure clearly says '$100 credit per cabin' for booking onboard, but they told me I was only eligible for $50 as a solo cruiser, but they would 'send in a request to a supervisor' to see if the $100 could be approved, the equivalent of 'let me talk to my manager' for a car salesman. Then my other surprise was that I couldn't use OBC towards a new cruise, which was my reason for doing it in the first place. Finally, as soon as I got home I saw the price had dropped even more, so I would have been much better off booking at home or through a TA after the cruise, instead of yielding to enthusiasm on the cruise.  That's especially true on Celebrity/RC, because their pricing and promotions change so constantly and are so complicated with various codes and discounts that it's best to have patience and get an idea for pricing trends, or to have a TA to get a good deal and negotiate a reduction if the price drops. 

You can always watch the pricing and have your TA or X change your booking. I recently did that with our next cruise (about 6 weeks before boarding) after final payment. They gave me the difference as an OBC. In one instance, after booking on board, I had them transfer my booking to a different TA but be careful, there may be a time limit in completing that.

I would call X directly before the promotion ends (28 hours from now: 4 pm Pacific time Saturday). By the time your September cruise rolls around, there may be several more promotions and this could be the best one. If there is a better one, then call again. We’re on a September 16 cruise and are fully paid up. The current promotion price was $300 lower than what we paid. I called X, even though I’m booked through a Big Box store and they gave me a $300 OBC. We are Elite + but I’m not sure if that had anything to do with it.

16 hours ago, sdnich said:

still on hold almost 5 hrs!! :0 

Did you get to pick a room  or did they just assign one?? I have had lots of time to research and have a few I would like.

12 hours ago, Jase0581 said:

I didn’t get a call back, but received an e-mail with the offer, and was given my first choice.  The offered cruise showed up as a courtesy hold and I was able to pay online.  I submitted the form about 6:00 pm MDT yesterday and got the offered cruise e-mail at 9:00 pm MDT today.

I had a choice of any 2B Veranda.

I finally got through after a 2 1/2 hour wait. I tried to upgrade to AQ but was told that was not part of my offer. So, we have a 2B veranda with select dining. If we’re not crazy about the ship after our Sept. 16 Pacific Coastal, we can always cancel and get our $285 back. We were on the Solstice several years ago and scheduled to be on the same ship from Sydney in March 2020 but that was cancelled due to covid. It is one of the ships which has not been revolutionized. But, for the price, it’s less expensive than staying home and going to restaurants around here. Also, we’re in San Diego so we can drive to the port.

It was worth the wait!

I’ve been on hold for 1 hour and 55 minutes so far so be prepared to wait and listen to the same recording over and over and over and……

2 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

Yes the restaurant “deal” probably would have been offered regardless of supposed change in status.  

They would only give the discount to my wife and I, but not to our daughter and grandsons (who had no status).

In March 2020, when our Sydney cruise was cancelled due to Covid and I couldn’t get any satisfaction with customer service, I sent a tweet to Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, the CEO. I got a call from her team within two hours. Of course, it took months to finally sort it out. I also contacted my credit card which actually made it more complicated. 

I think the OP should get the full $2500 from Celebrity (not the other airline) as that was the amount she had to pay more than she contracted with Celebrity flights.  In addition, I would also fight for a Future Cruise Credit for all the trouble and worry they went through due to X’s incompetence.

About three years ago, we were mid-cruise when we went to the next level. I spoke to the Concierge and she was able to get us the higher discount at a Specialty Restaurant. So, never say never.