Jay Bee

8 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Thank you.  Saw a great fare for Harmony sail in December '23, but not many flights from Newark Int'l to Hobby.  But before I pull the trigger, wanted to examine pro and cons of Fl vs Galveston. 

 

Can you confirm that the ride is in the 1.20 hours.  If so, this is not too bad as the ride from Orlando airport to PC terminal is 1 hour.

 

I've never done it, but from what I've read it is very unpredictable due to traffic and construction. And during fog season the ship may be significantly delayed. RCL would not let me reserve a return if my flight was before 12:30pm.

7 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Do you have an idea what the R/T cost of RCL provided transportation to Bush Int'l.

I bought a one-way ticket last week. It was $39.95 per person and will go from the new terminal to Bush. So probably round trip is double that.

19 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

I have had this happen last fall where nothing was showing for Costa Maya.  What I did was I went into the Royal app, selected a different sailing that had the same itinerary but was an earlier sailing then mine (September instead of November) and looked at the shore excursions to get a rough idea and to start researching.  They will show up.  Mine finally did by end of August last year.  But it was a little different as cruises were starting up as were excursions.  I would think by 90 days out you should see something.

Thanks, that's both helpful and encouraging.

I posted about this in the roll call awhile back but haven't gotten an answer. We're cruising on the Allure out of Galveston January 29, 2023 which stops at Cozumel, Roatán and Puerto Costa Maya. A lot of ship excursions were posted a few months back for Coz, as well as 2 (only two!) for Roatán. There are zero posted for CM. I know that in the past many excursions have been listed for both of these ports on other cruises. The Royal agent on the phone thought it was odd, said they should have been up by now and suggested I email ShoreX (which I did and haven't yet heard back).

Has anyone else on other sailings noticed this? Or do other sailings in that time frame have a full slate of excursions offered for all the ports? Does Royal sometimes wait this late to get them up?

I know I can do private excursions, but for various reasons I like to have the ship options. Thanks for any information anyone might have.

30 minutes ago, davekathy said:

If you want to switch from TD to SD then you will need to call Celebrity and make that request. Or if you used a TA then you need too call your TA and have them call Celebrity and make the request on your behalf. Can't be done on Celebrity's website. 

I've been able to do it on the website fairly easily. Under "Manage Reservation" look for "Reservation Details". Under the dining section, click Edit and make your choice.

Thank you, all. Looks like possibly it will be March before more will be posted.

Does anyone have any idea, based on previous years, when new full-transit Panama Canal itineraries will be released for 2024? 

3 minutes ago, robmtx said:

Confirmed

😁

To confirm...there is no problem using the vouchers in the main dining room or specialty restaurants?

Thanks 🙂

4 hours ago, crusin okie said:

We have sailed from Galveston many times.  In my opinion, a taxi may be an option but a very expensive one.  There are a couple shared ride shuttles but then you need to judge what time you want to schedule.  Good luck with that.  My wife has been successful in doing that but there have been a couple times when things could very easily "gone south".  It is much easier and less stressful to simply use the cruise lines "shuttle" (bus).

Thank you. With all the things that might not go smoothly--fog, delays at customs--I was concerned about scheduling a shared ride. And I don't want to spend a week worrying about whether or not we'll make it off on time. I'm taking your advice.

2 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Go on-line to your account, in the Cruise Planner check order history and it will show your orders, which would be dinner reservations or excursions.

 

In the past when we made reservations for Anytime dining I got a email confirmation.

Thanks. Yes, they are in the Cruise Planner, but I was wondering if the app was going to populate with those reservations at some point or whether it wouldn't and then when I got on the ship, I'd have no reservations.

We're assigned to My Time Dining and on the CCL website I've scheduled times for 4 nights in the 4 different main dining rooms. However, in the app they're not showing and it says we'll be able to schedule once on board. What should I believe?

Just now, Texas Tillie said:

IAH is over 70 miles from the Galveston cruise terminal. You really need to have a plan on getting to the airport.

Yes, I know. But wouldn't taxis, etc. anticipate they could pick up fares at the port at the end of a cruise? And if I make a reservation with Lyft, for example, how do I choose a pick up time? I won't know exactly when the ship starts letting people off.

Is there a line of vans/taxis/lyfts/shuttles available as you exit the terminal in Galveston? We've never been there, but in other ports rides seem to be available without having to reserve ahead of time. 

On 7/1/2022 at 5:40 PM, upwarduk said:

Yes, I cancelled an excursion which was fully booked. It immediately became available for booking at the reduced fare, so I then rebooked.

There was a considerable reduction in price, which surprised me. 

Nice. This tells me they don't have waiting lists which makes sense since I've never seen any. I guess if you really, really don't want to chance losing the excursion, you don't risk it though.

I don't mind cancelling and rebooking, but the excursion we reserved is sold out. I'm concerned that if I cancel, I won't be able to rebook. (I know that once when I cancelled a specialty dining reservation, the time slot I had was no longer listed.) Has anyone had any experience with this?

Can anyone confirm that the Wifi for the Elevate and Indulge packages is Premium Wifi? Also I noticed that the OBC for Elevate is for Shore Excursions while for Indulge it's for Shore Excursions or onboard. Would I have any problem canceling my existing excursions and dining, and rebooking with the OBC?

I know this has been posted before but I can't find it. Does Celebrity adjust ship time to correspond to local time in ports in the Caribbean? I'm specifically wondering about San Juan, PR which is on Atlantic Standard Time. The ship leaves from FL (EST). If I get this wrong, we risk messing up an independently arranged excursion. Thanks.

10 hours ago, Coralc said:

They used to have hotel packages (way overpriced) but not for a very long time. 

I thought I remembered that🤔. It just seemed odd to me that Celebrity has all those options available for perusal and Royal doesn't. Anyway, I almost always book hotel, transfers and insurance independently, but I do like to compare. Thank you.

I'm a little perplexed about managing my reservation on the website. (I haven't cruised with Royal for several years.) My booking is over a year out so that may be part of the problem, but I see no place where I can look for pre-cruise hotels, info about transfers, trip insurance, flights or even if I want the beds together or apart. Am I missing something? Will these options show up at some point or is it necessary to call them about such things?

Thanks for the information. I read on the Celebrity site that gratuities were not included so that's a nice surprise. 

Do the specialty restaurants offer wine at $9 or under so that we won't have to pay an overcharge? Also, I understand that gratuities are not included for the specialty restaurant meals. Since tips are already part of the beverage packages, we tip only on the food, right?

I've seen several threads that re-iterate Celebrity's policy that future cruise credit from canceling a non-refundable booking has to be used within 12 months, but does this mean 12 months to a new booking or 12 months to a new sail date?

I booked a Caribbean cruise that spends a day cruising the canal (half transit from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and then docks in Colon from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. I hadn't looked at the itinerary closely enough before booking, and made the assumption that Colon would be a full day so we could tour the locks. Since the cruise isn't until 2022, Celebrity doesn't yet have information on what will be offered, but I'm not really optimistic. I seem to remember the lock area closes late in the afternoon.

Has anyone been on a similar cruise? Is it possible they'd let people off the ship during the day, if they choose to go on an excursion? What is there to do in Colon between 5 and 9 besides dinner?