RICCruisers

16 hours ago, chucknmarilyn said:

Their actual policy says "if needed" in regard to private transportation home. I'm not sure if that was always on there but it has been at least since last summer and well prior to any final payment dates.

I don’t have the exact date that the policy changed. I can tell you it was was included without the “medically necessary” caveat on 8/23 when we booked our Edge cruise in October. In fact it was one of the main reasons we felt comfortable booking the cruise along with the posts describing the low number of passengers and great service from the staff onboard. 
 

Prior to booking our October cruise I read several posts detailing the occasional need to transport guests from the ship to their homes via private plane. 

16 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

I am going to say that there is no reliable way to tell how many people might be on your cruise, based on the fact that if you looked at this cruise two weeks in advance it would have appeared that 1600 people would be coming. Then a week ago it dropped to 1200. Then last minute cancellations dropped it again to around 900.

 

 

If you have a chance, can you see if you can find out how many guests they are forecasting for the next cruise 1/24. We have seen quite a few cancellations on the roll call and more expected this week. Thanks for reporting on your B2B. 

1 hour ago, RichYak said:

To be fair, we're all trying to interpret passenger reports as best we can. I've read enough that I feel confident saying that standard procedure on X is to move ALL positive cases, regardless of symptoms, into cabins designated for isolation.

 

Now, is it possible that there are exceptions? Sure. Maybe X ran out of isolation space on a particular sailing, or maybe someone tested positive late on the last night of the cruise and those people were isolated in their own cabins.

 

So it's possible that bravado got the best of me when I wrote "0% chance." That said, IMO, it's pretty darn close to 0%.

@RichYakI believe you are correct. The photo from Quarantined that @cruisestich posted was from his cabin on Deck 6. His wife stayed in their assigned stateroom. I think we are having a semantic issue with the term Red Zone. The Red Zone is simply the location of where the guest is moved after testing positive. It can be on Deck 3, Deck 6 or any other deck that X has designated for infected cruisers. I only saw one possible report from a guest that may have stayed in their cabin. They tested on the final evening and were waiting for results. She was positive and spouse was negative. I believe they stayed and probably because they were getting off the next morning. 

8 minutes ago, mamaday said:

Many mixed messages on excursions in the Caribbean.  Are you required to book Celebrity excursions?  Silhouette 1/24/2022, stopping in  Nassau, Cartagena, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. We have been to these ports many times and are mainly looking for warm weather and sunny beaches. 

Current requirement is Celebrity Only Excursions in the ABC’s and on your own in Cartagena is OK. 

You just beat me Jamie. 

2 hours ago, jelayne said:

There is no deck 6  SV's  on the E class.  I would avoid deck 7 due to possible noise from Eden.  The middle deck 8 SVs would be my preference.

Thanks for the correction. I knew that but have too caught up in the Deck 6 or 3 conversations for quarantine cabins. The picture also makes it obvious. 

See this photo. The largest balconies are in the middle on Deck 6, then 7,8,9 etc. 

2 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

What are you reading that has you worried?  Genuinely curious..

Probably jumped the gun on this one. I’ll wait to see what type of relaxation X might make on what I view as important safety protocols. The issue is our cruise is 1/24 and it doesn’t leave much time to decide. 

This makes my decision easier. I will be canceling my cruise on 1/24. 

3 hours ago, RichYak said:

Since the restart, I've felt that the on board testing for International travelers to return home was an extremely generous carrot used to entice Canadians, Europeans, etc to return to cruising. Turns out that carrot has gotten awfully expensive in the last month. Like any other policy, when its cost outweighs the benefit, it's needs to be addressed.

Spoken like a true bean counter. When a company offers the carrot and guests use it to help make the decision to give the company their hard earned dollars, the company should be bound to live up to their offer. If the company wants to modify the carrot, they should make the change effective on any new reservation after a specific date or at the very least allow the guest to cancel for a full refund paid immediately to the same method of payment. 
 

I agree it was a very generous offer, but it was an offer that the guest took them up on. Reneging on that offer is truly unethical if not unlawful. Address it for future bookings. 

6 hours ago, verizon said:

There is nothing to dislike Edge class ships

I agree with about 90% of what you are saying. I’ll disagree on the IV Cabins. Simply put, we prefer the balconies on S Class ships. The other area is the Martini Bar. We like the circular bar on S Class and from what I have read about Beyond, the Martini Bar will again be circular. Well done X on 1 of my 2 issues. 

So if I had to guess why the amount was decreased from $350 to $150, here it is:

The new CEO of RCG is Jason Liberty. His previous title was CFO. Once he caught wind of the amount cruisers were receiving he clutched his chest and said who the heck decided that?  We don’t need them staying at the Ritz Carlton. Motel Six will be just fine. 
 

This may not be the exact reason, but I’d bet that whoever came up with the $350 per day probably didn’t run a spread sheet to estimate how many guests could be quarantined, for how many days and how long this situation will last and once someone did, the total $$$ came to a pretty big number. 
 

Just did a quick search and the Four Points Sheraton Airport/Cruiseport is $195/night including all taxes. That was first week of February. 

10 minutes ago, Covepointcruiser said:

No, Celebrity has always stated, as required.   You can keep dreaming of a private jet transport home but let’s hope you are never sick enough to require it.   Most ports these days won’t let a cruise ship off load any COVID positive passengers.    Quarantine on board until the home port makes sense even though it’s certainly not pleasant.   

Disagree

2 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

Did you expect that they were going to be putting people on private jets? That would cost them a fortune. I would only see that for an extreme medical situation to get the person back to an American hospital and it would probably be wherever the nearest big city is, likely Miami if it's the Caribbean, not all the way back to your home city.

YES!  X absolutely stated a private air transport would take place. If you read threads from the first month or two after cruising resumed you will see it happened several times. You are correct that it costs big bucks or euros or pounds but that was part of the deal initially. 

13 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

The OP was asking about changing the time of their Murano dinner, not the night. (“Can we alter our 1st night Murano time…”)  Which is why no one “addressed” changing the date. 

You are absolutely correct. I missed the word “time”. I couldn’t figure out why experienced cruisers like yourself didn’t say something. Should have reread the post. 

Back to the original topic. While I agree that making the casino smoke free for the next week or two is a great idea, unfortunately the smell of stale smoke will be quite evident in the carpets and any other cloth material. To me, stale smoke is a worse smell than “fresh” smoke. 

2 hours ago, mkam2821 said:

Sailing Silhouette Jan 4-14. Have first night booked in Murano, have purchased a 3 night specialty dining package and have select dining other nights.  Can we alter our 1st night Murano time and choose our other 3 specialty nights pre-cruise and how can we make our select dining reservations pre-cruise.

Thanks in advance

Happy Holidays

I don’t believe this point in your post has been addressed. If you booked Murano for the first night using the 30-35% discount offer you cannot change that to another night. X offers the specialty restaurant discounts on the first night to spread cruisers out around the ship. The first night in the MDR is a bit chaotic with diners getting used to how dinner works with fixed times and  select diners. The Specialty Packages really don’t work very well with using the First Night discount. 

32 minutes ago, Stealthdog said:

Mixology with Alexandra at World Class Bar.  For those going on the Beyond, you will be lucky because Alex is moving from the Silhouette to the Beyond.

When does Alexandra move?  We signed up for this class based on recommendations here. We cruise Silhouette on 1/24. 
 

Thanks for your reply.
 

It looks like you were one of the last ships to visit Bonaire and Aruba for a while based on reports I’m seeing of new protocols their governments are enacting. 

You will be getting 2,3,4 of these emails before you cruise. It doesn’t really matter if you’ve completed them or even if you have checked in for your cruise and uploaded your Vaccination Card. The emails keep on coming. I think there’s some saying about a “Left Hand and a Right Hand”. 
 

The most annoying thing about this is that as a cruiser you worry that Celebrity hasn’t received the information. What happens if I don’t complete this form each time I get it. Can they cancel my cruise?  It’s a quick deal to fill it out each time and we usually do it to “CYA” , but it also can make you dubious about their competence especially if you are new to Celebrity. 

2 hours ago, isdoo said:

Why would you re-upload if it is already showing as complete? 

 

Why would they ask if all was complete?  

@granddutchess I’m not sure which Silhouette sailing you are on. We are on the 1/24 ABC cruise. We also sailed Edge in October with about 850 passengers or about 30 % of capacity and had a great time. Many of the cruises that have taken place are at very low capacity.  This may have been reflected in some of the reviews since cruising resumed. 
 

I did a mock booking for the 1/24 cruise and it appears  that we will have significantly more passengers. My back of the envelope guess is about 75% capacity. This would equate to about 2200 passengers. Hopefully this won’t impact service, but you may not be able to count on finding a lounge chair around the pool as easily on a sea day. We need to “assume” X will staff accordingly. I have no idea how the other January Silhouette cruises are selling. Ours was a lift and shift when X changed the ship from Edge to  Silhouette. Based on the Roll Call most of the Edge passengers took advantage of the L&S. I guess time will tell how the increased passenger load impacts sailing. Either way we will have a great cruise. 
 

PS - Our October cruise was a totally spur of the moment decision based on @Ken the cruiserlive review. Thanks Ken. 

@cruiser61262Rooting for you to have your issue resolved to your satisfaction after your upcoming phone call. 

I can’t quite see where all of you are saying they rolled the dice. The OP got off the phone knowing they would be assigned an SV. Being assigned an obstructed view IV never crossed their mind. According to the OP they have been sailing with X for 30 years. Call me naive, but the OP trusted X to live up to what they promised. The best way for X to make their mistake up to the OP is to give them an upgrade to a suite. It’s really hard reading the comments from know it all cynics and X apologists who come up with cutesy phrases like “Rolling the Dice”. The OP never imagined a company like X would ever treat a customer either new or repeat in such a shabby manner. 

Here’s what happened to us on our Edge cruise in October. I went to the Retreat Concierge for the additional gratuity form and filled one out for our Retreat Host/Butler and Room Attendant. I asked when they would receive the tip and she said it would be added to their check at the end of the month. That surprised me and I asked if they be told about the tip during the cruise and she said no. She asked if I would like them to know about it and I said absolutely. I didn’t want them to think we stiffed them with no tip. This interaction was on Day 3 of a 7 Day cruise. 
 

The last day of the cruise neither the Butler or Room Attendant had said anything about it. As we were getting ready to leave I asked the Room Attendant if she had received any type of confirmation about an additional gratuity and she said no. Needless to say I was a bit annoyed and told her that both she and the Host should be receiving something. Both tips appeared on my Room Account so I know they were charged to our suite. Just my experience on this cruise. Hopefully they eventually got paid. 

1 hour ago, phoenix_dream said:

Unfortunately, my large, online not-to-be-named TA/booking agency has not changed their payment date accordingly!  

Funny. I also have an online TA. They changed my final payment to 60 days, but until I inquired about it. Most likely they would have continued the 90 day without my prodding. 

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Has the Edge crew been allowed to go ashore yet? When we were on our Edge B3B in August, they had not yet been allowed to go ashore since they first boarded.

We were on Edge last week. They had a crew excursion in Cozumel.  Not available to all crew. I don’t know how they determined who could go on the excursion. They also tested the entire crew on Thursday, 1,019 crew members. All Negative.