yorky

To date I have bought 2 iPads on Celebrity ships at different times and can answer several of the op' s questions.

1. Don't expect the ship to have delivery at the same time as shore based shops! It is usually months later.

2. Stock is very limited. So, choice is normally limited.

3. BUT, if you live outside the U.S.A., Apple products are cheaper because the retail price abroad is higher. So, you have the benefit of lower US prices! If I lived in America, then I would probably buy there.

I have always found something to suit my needs. Although it might not be my first choice in colour or capacity. :D

If it's months later that probably would not work for us in November, I would not purchase an iPad 2 on the ship when an ipad 3 had been released a month earlier. I can't see many paying full price on board for the older model although Apple will probably cut the price as they usually do and the ship may follow suit.

Thinking about it we are spending Two days in Miami pre cruise and one night post cruise, we might be better just purchasing there.

I would not even hold out the slightest of hopes that a newly issued device will find its way to the ships same day as the rest of the country.

 

Also, I've determined that often the items for sale tend to be the "starting" point of items, lowest RAM, smallest storage, etc.

 

I have a friend that works for Apple and have texted him photos of the prices and included options, and he's let me know I can get for same price on land, and let me know of the low-endedness of the specifications of the machines sold.

 

Also, some have stated you save taxes and duty free, but do be aware that the ship provides a list to Customs agents for anyone who spends more than some amount, I think $400, on board, so if you go thru Customs without declaring the items, they will take you aside and ensure the duty is levied, so duty savings are not really of any concern end of the day if disembarking in a US port.

 

And as others have said, selection and inventory is spotty and hit or miss at best.

We will be on the cruise probably up to a month after the general release of the IPad Air 3, custome is not an issue for us as we don't bring back anything and I think the limit before declaration in the UK is around £400 per person, and iPad air comes in at around £370.

Looks like I will pick up an iPad Air in November given its US prices. Hopefully the iPad air 3 will be released in October as usual and the cruise ship gets it in stock the same time as a U.S. store. Think that's going to be a first day purchase given it should be stocked up sailing out of Miami.

I have no idea what is going on with the cruise industry these days but whatever it is, customers are really benefiting from it. It seems that many ships sail full but yet some of the deals offered are amazing - competition must be intense.

 

Our first cruise was in 2001 on the RCL Voyager of the Seas; it cost us about $3,600 for a tiny balcony cabin and at the end of the cruise, we had an impressive bar bill to pay and of course, cash gratuities

 

Yesterday I booked a January Celebrity cruise for just about the same price for an S1 suite and it included two drink packages, paid gratuities and a $300 OBC.

 

And RCL performs well financially, the stock has appreciated about 50% in one year. Despite the incredible deals being offered, cruise lines are still coming up with new and innovative ways to entertain, dazzle and exceed expectations.

 

It is a great time to be cruising.

The cruise lines are making more money that's for sure buts it's easy to see how. Mega sized cruise ships with thousands on board as against less than 1000 when I started cruising, constant upselling when on board, lowering of food costs then selling supplements for most of the specialist food venues on board. One of my first cruises with Princess it was a case of how many top quality lobsters would you like tonight sir ? Try getting that quality in the MDR now. Crew members also seem to have far more work to do working longer and longer hours, a programme over here in the UK not that long ago went behind the fancy facade and it showed just what crew had to do and what they worked for, not pretty.

Thanks for the review and your obvious knowledge, very enjoyable.

Can't say I see many fantastic deals for us UK cruisers unless you take the chance on a last minute deal. Think prices are up a good bit over the last five years, probably around the 20% mark if you include flights. I saved on our Cruise in November by booking individual elements myself. The TA I've used in the past wanted £2200 per person for the package and I've got that down to £1600 with an inside direct with Celebrity, BA flights with just my own transfers to add. We are adding a couple of nights pre cruise and one night post cruise in Miami using our Avios points built up with mostly BA. I could probably have done the above for £1200 not many years ago.

I found the solution for the website issues. I do not book anything on the website. A simply call them. Actually did a complete check in for my boarding pass via the phone except for the credit card numbers and printing the top page.

Not sure what it's like in the US but here in the UK many companies now make decent money on those phone numbers with so much per minute, you can be on hold for 25 minutes before getting through to some of them.

The thing is though it does not need to be like that, Celebrity is a fairly upmarket cruise brand but it's without doubt the worst cruise company website I've ever used from my experiences over the last month. In this day and age it's not a huge cost to develop and run a professional website, there are a huge number of competent individuals and companies out there to do it for you. It just gives a very poor first impression and I'm betting they actually lose a few potential customers because of it.

My god I hope my cruise is better than the celebrity website, it's a disaster zone just taking you around the site in constant loops most of the time, it was hard enough booking a dining package but I'm giving up trying to book excursions tonight. I actually laughed when it then stated my booking was being modified, come back in 20 minutes. They seriously need to sack their website developers.

I have been trying to purchase a 5 night dining package for the Constellation. Several times it was shown for my cruise at 129.00, every time I tried to buy it on line the price jumped to 149.00

 

Yesterday I called and explained my problem, agent said no problem, it's 129.00 BUT the system is down so you have to call back. Called back 3 hours later, different agent, yes 129.00 for the 5 nights, BUT call back cause system is down.

 

Called this AM - no one knows anything about a 129.00........................

 

FRUSTRATING!!!!! :mad:

 

thanks for listening, I feel a bit better now.........;)

Ours stated £94 but when booking ended up £101. When I phoned they said it was the exchange rate, go figure. For the difference I just booked it anyway, bigger scheme of things and all that.

There looks to be plenty on there we would drink, whether we would drink enough to justify the hike in cruise price they use to factor in the 123 deal is another matter. We went the way of an inside cabin and paying for our drinks without any restrictions as we like the look of the molecular bar rather than paying another £1400 for a cabin with a window right across from ours which included the 123 deal. I honestly could not be bothered having to work out what we can and can't have, it's a holiday and I want to order any drink I want.

We went for paying in advance for our five meal package in November, think it works out about 30% cheaper than paying the full supplement price which I'm happy with. Yes im guessing if they don't get the numbers they might slash prices by 50% on board but then again they might not. We just prefer knowing we have what we want, the first meal is already booked at a time we wanted and there is no risk of losing out. It's like booking a flight, it might go up, it might go down, it might actually just sell out, only you know what you would be happy with. I know many don't agree with the supplements and I get that, but I think spending £100 on a five dinner package is better value than say spending £70/80 on a few hours ship excursion.

The reason they are limited is because they actually reserve some tables in the restaurants for people with those packages to dine at popular times. We did something similar on RC last year and I had the same concern. They assured me that they actually block out some reservations for those with the packages to dine. On RC we ate at 7 or 7:30 every night. In general they seemed flexible for those with the packages. Hope it's the same with X.

 

 

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We have just booked the 5 dinner package on Eclipse in November, for the first dinner we only had the option of 6pm, 6-30pm, 8pm, or 8-30pm. Not sure if that's just the equivalent of two sittings so offering nothing in between given its 10 months in advance.

It's a shame to see people still worried about what to wear on a cruise given its a vacation/ holiday. We have cruised now for around 20 years on many of the cruise lines and bring the same clothes regardless of the line. I wear a tux on formal nights and a black suite without a tie on none formal. My other half wears a dress, saving the poshest one for the formal nights. That's it, no fretting regardless, it's that simple. I did notice fairly early on that a percentage of our American cousins seemed to prefer the more casual route which of course is their right but we like dressing up so I guess we don't get the stress of the whole thing.

We have visited both twice and of the two love St Kitts, one of our favourite Islands. We did the island railway trip last time and enjoyed that. The French side of St Martins and Marigots is lovely and worth a ride over, I would combine that with the beach and spend the day in St Kitts if it was me.

Thanks folks, we do enjoy the company of other guests that's for sure, we are on the 13 night cruise so it's a mix of both if we go this way, the reviews of those speciality restaurants is very tempting and in all honestly I think the price in advance is pretty decent. I see one of the supplements has just gone up from 45 to 50 Dollars so I'm guessing the package price may also go up.

Hi all, on Celebrity for the first time in November and looking at our options. There seems to be a fair bit of discussion on the quality of food In the main dining room and as such we are considering the other options available. On our cruise on the QM2 we found the food in the main Brittania restaurant to be pretty poor and ended up paying the extra £20 pp to eat in Tood English a few nights, we loved it.

Obvious option for us would be the 5 night package at £95pp so £19pp per meal. Two nights in Tuscan Grill, Two in Quasi, and one in Merano. We both love steak, Seafood, and oriental food so a no brainer or not much of an upgrade.

Many thanks for any opinions.

Loving life and it's good to be alive! Eclipse is beautiful and had a great time watching the super bowl in the main theater. Service has been wonderful especially in MC. Will try and make some posts during this 2 weeks of hopeful bliss! Gotta get back to listening to Bear jam out on the guitar by the pool and finish my cool beverage!:D

Good to here, looking forward to our sailing on her.

Are you on the Thanksgiving cruise? We'll be on that one. We love this ship. It'll be our third time on Eclipse and we've sailed 3 times on Equinox, a sister ship.

This is a great itinerary and we love all the ports. There is no way you won't have a fabulous time!!

If you want to upgrade, you might be able to do that if the prices drop and it's allowable to you, noticing you're not from the US. I know the "rules" are sometimes different. We keep looking up until final payment and if prices go down we claim them, or we upgrade. The first time we upgraded we went from a Concierge to a suite for LESS money. You never know.

We booked direct with Celebrity cruise only and took the last cabin in that cat so I'm not sure if we would have anywhere to go with upgrades and sadly we don't seem to get the same deals regarding prices going down in the UK as our American cousins. We have visited most of those ports before and like yourself we love them, never had a cruise we have not loved in truth, you can't beat standing on deck watching the waves go by.

We are cruising out of Miami on the 16th November, is that a thanksgiving cruise ?

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Well we have just booked our first cruise with Celebrity, a 13 night Carribbean on the Eclipse in November. We have cruised with Thomson, RC, Princess, and Cunard in the past. Just the cheapest inside 12 grade cabin but we are both very excited and hopefully it lives up to many of the great reviews the ship receives.

Happy days.

Then I apologise for reading it that way.

 

I hope you enjoy Celebrity. We certainly did and found that formal nights had a nice (to us) mix of people, from those in tuxes and gowns to people in sports coats and dresses. All appeared to enjoy the night and also in my opinion made an effort to "dress up" in their own preferred style.

Thank you I'm sure we will.

I know. I read posts where people talk about all the "formal" attire, gowns, etc. and I think "where? when?" because it's been a long time since I saw more than a handful of people dressed like that on formal night.

 

 

 

I don't think it's that most people want all lines to be the same per se, but overall people are preferring more and more casual dress on a daily basis, and it carries over to vacation. Just look around on formal night at all the slightly-dressy-but-certainly-not-formal attire and it proves that most people do not want to worry about tuxes and gowns and fancy clothes on a vacation.

Very true, 20 years ago on my first cruise I would say a good 90% of the men wore a Tux to a formal night, that's certainly dropped big style, not sure if that's partly down to age also as I think the average age of a cruiser on some cruises is younger. As you say though the majority don't want to dress up these days and the cruise lines are in it to make money and to do that they follow society.

Just imagine. Sharing a cruise ship with "the masses" Too terrible to contemplate isn't it.

 

I agree that Cunard will be a nice choice for you. I've been on Celebrity and assure you there were plenty of masses on board, so I would advise you to stay well clear.

Obviously my post is always going to upset some who no doubt will take it as snobbery even though it's not meant to be, I'm working class but have always enjoyed that special feel we get when cruising, I'm guessing you did understand that by Masses I meant that's what the majority want from a holiday these days, less formality but I was expecting to get some digs. We really like Cunard and will no doubt still use them again, still lots of old fashioned cruise standards they don't let slip. We're on Celebrity for the first time next November in the Caribbean and looking forward to it.

We love dressing up and have worn evening dresses and I a Tux for the last 20 years, for us that's part of the cruising culture and its tradition. We have seen the steady decline in standards by both the cruise lines and a percentage of its passengers over that period of time. It's just another dumbing down of cruising in order to make it more assessable to the masses who at times seem to have moved from Benidorm to Benidorm at sea. I guess the way the world has moved it was inevitable but it's never going to be our world and as such we won't use a cruise line that cuts these dress standards. Hopefully there will always be a couple of lines such as Cunard and who knows maybe even Celebrity that stick to what made c using special.