cruisestitch

doubled wrote " Have heard they're only open limited hours in the evening" and that is generally the case -- Michael's Club is not open in the afternoon. I would not expect to find the craft beer selection on Eclipse, it seems to be limited to only certain ships and this doesn't appear to be one of them.

When Michael's Club is used as the Elite Loyalty lounge there are two or three beers on that menu, free to Elites during the cocktail party

It had a very quiet Roll Call so perhaps there aren't too many affected. I wonder what this will do to the timing of Eclipse's transatlantic in 2015, and where the dry dock will take place.

Just got a call from travel agent. Eclipse April 12, 2015 cruise cancelled due to dry dock of unknown length (since the cruises beyond that date hadn't been announced yet).

Yes, you are incorrect.

The itinerary as it is printed looks ok -- it is a ROUND TRIP itinerary, the ship is making a making a stop in A foreign port.

But you aren't wanting a round trip. The problem is that no cruise line is allowed to take passengers on a NON round trip itinerary without visiting a DISTANT foreign port, and none of these ports qualifies. I've emphasized all the key words.

What you are wanting is to be transported between one US port and a different US port. This requires a stop at either South America or Aruba, Bonaire or Curacao. That's how the law defines Distant Foreign Port.

Take for example, a ship traveling between Fort Lauderdale and San Diego. It must stop at either South America or one of the ABC islands. It can't just pass through the Panama Canal without going to one of the DISTANT foreign ports.

A ship going round trip in and out of Miami, only needs to stop at ANY foreign port.

I'm afraid that you will be unable to do what you want to do, and Celebrity will not give permission to disembark downline in St. Thomas.

Google PVSA and you'll be able to read more about the requirement of the law.

This is called disembarking downline. It is covered in the FAQ section of the Celebrity website with an 800 number you can call for further advice. It does need to be approved in advance. Unfortunately you may not get approval for this proposal because it might get disallowed under the Passenger Vessel Services Act. What is the complete itinerary? Where does it start and stop and what other ports are visited? This is a complicated issue and what you are wanting to do may violate the law. Even if it doesn't, it still must be played by the Customs/Immigration officials in St. Thomas.

The nightly dining room menu is available as room service during normal dinner hours, to all staterooms not just suites. You can stop by the MDR early in the day and take a look at the night's menu posted there, or you can ask your steward to get a menu for you. If you are in a regular stateroom it will be delivered with all courses simultaneously, if you are in a suite, they can deliver the courses one by one. Either way there is no charge for this.

Asking for takeaway from the MDR is a little trickier. Sometimes I have seen that they can make up a dessert as takeaway, but not the other courses. You just call room service and have them delivered.

Second question first. Having the drink package has no effect on whether you gr Elite vouchers.

When vouchers have been used, so far, the Elite lounge still existed as one place they could be used. You do have the choice of using them at the Elite lounge or another lounge or bar. You give then to the waiter as you get your drink.

Previously the vouchers whether used at the Elite event or elsewhere, were good for only the drinks that would have been served at the Elite lounge but that restriction may be changing as recent reports are that any drink under $8 can be ordered. (Beer under $5). This policy seems to be in test mode for now.

So your question is more or less moot.

I'd love it if Tuscan was really Italian, not some sort of pseudo Italian. I fear that if a Spanish tapas restaurant came in, it would also be some odd hybrid.

And of all the foods served on Celebrity, the "Mexican" food at the buffet is the worst. I love all kinds of Mexican food, also Tex-Mex and New Mexican cuisines. Can't stand the "Mexican" offerings at the buffet. These are cuisines Celebrity just doesn't get. I can't even imagine what kind of a Mexican restaurant they might come up with.

Mentioned, promised, hinted, discussed in theory, just nothing official from corporate.

We've heard this before, and nothing has materialized.

But like Charlie Brown with Lucy holding the football, we're sure that this time it will be different :rolleyes:

Another small payment arrived over the weekend. Still not at 50% refund for August 16 cruise.

This is very difficult to find out. Contracts begin and end, vacations happen, transfers to different ships happen, and it's nearly impossible to find out who will be on a given ship in advance. Good luck, perhaps someone will happen to have met them and know where they were recently, but even that doesn't predict where they might be in November.

It will be interesting to see who will be on Millennium when she has her first revenue cruise later this month.

Thanks, Arno, for all your updates.

You can always wait list for a verandah stateroom. Probably just after Final Payment date balcony rooms will open up.

It does not, however, include bartenders and wait staff. If the OP's friends learned about martini bar staff ahead of time, it must have been from some other source.

The OP is trying to book a non-Celebrity tour.

The time of that tour will be local time.

The question is, will that match the ship's clock, and 99% of the time it will, but occasionally the Master makes a decision that ship time and local time will not match.

The cruise fare is generally listed as a separate line item from the taxes and fees on US bookings. Non-US bookings may not be set up the same way. Our invoices show one line for the cruise fare, one line for the taxes and port fees.

I think that what we received on board for missed port charges is all that we will get from that category. The cruise fare is what I think we should expect to receive back as credit for the missed cruise and that should be the same amount we will see as FCC. Others may have been told differently, and it is a very confusing situation all around.

http://www.celebritycruises.com/planAndBook/tabLanding.do?pagename=onboard_beverage_packages#onboard_beverage_packages_stateroom_bar_tab/onboard/asrPanel.do%3Fpagename=onboard_beverage_packages_stateroom_bar

I hope that link works. Otherwise go to the Celebrity website and the in-room packages is on the same location as the other beverage packages. Pay no attention to the language about not sharing, and beverage package is for one person only. When it comes to the in-room set-up that is not germane.

August 16 passengers' letter said that it would be six to eight weeks for FCC.

I'm not sure I understand the point made about Celebrity being able to apportion the cruise vs. post cruise costs as they see fit, as mentioned in post 9.

Six in my group booked cruise only, and have that invoice. They then added a post cruise and received a new invoice. So it's clear how much the post cruise days added to their fare.

They received the post cruise trip, and expect no refund. But they should get the original cruise fare back as a refund, and the same amount as a Future Cruise Certificate.

Your travel agent should be able to re-create the same information for your booking -- the cruise only fare, and then the cruise + post cruise fare. You should expect to receive a refund for the cruise portion, in my opinion.

By the way, each couple in the group was in a different class of stateroom, and I'm checking now, but I believe that each couple had the same differential added to their original booking to reflect the addition of the post-cruise trip. In other words, it should be a fixed amount.

For which cruise, please?

It will be helpful to know if we are writing about

1. The Seward-Vancouver cruise August 9

2. The Vancouver - Seward cruise August 16

or one of the four following cruises.

cruisingronnie wrote:

"I understand that pre-paid gratuities, government fees, port taxes will be prorated, however, the amount doesn't add up to me."

I don't believe that is correct. Pre-paid gratuities will not be refunded for those of us on the August 16 cruise, according to what we were told on board, and confirmed by Guest Relations and Captain's Club representatives since. The port taxes were already pro-rated and returned while we were on board -- check your SeaPass accounts and you should see those amounts there.

As far as I know, no one has received any reimbursement yet for the receipts sent in for the meals. I expect that to take a few more weeks, no matter when Celebrity received the receipts.

Sararaymond -- were you on the August 16 cruise or one of the later cruises that was cancelled? If you were on the August 16 cruise, you probably will not receive a refund for the cruise protection plan. If you were on one of the cruises which followed, I believe that you will receive a refund for the insurance you paid for in addition to the cruise fare, any pre-paid gratuities, and any pre-paid shore excursions, specialty restaurants, taxes and fees, etc.

Those who were on the August 16 cruise will not be receiving any refund for insurance, which, after all, was in force and would have been available to you if needed.

That's what I think too -- it should be a non issue. So we will all give it a few days and see if we get back all that we expect to -- and knowing your experience helps.

No, it's not just the gov't fees. So far I have received 39% of my cruise fare. Two of my friends who were also on the cruise just checked in and they have received 92% of their fare as refunds on their credit card, each in two different transactions. The first transaction got them about 40% back, the second got them more money back, but they are still about 8% short. Captain's Club said be patient, they are coming in dribs and drabs.

What I don't know is if the travel agent's commission will be coming back to us. I expect it to, but I don't know for sure at this stage. Have any of the reps you spoke to mentioned that factor?

The cancelled cruise shows on my Cruise History, but with zero points. I called Captain's Club and the rep asked if I had received a comp cruise (as if I was a travel agent). I told her no and what I had paid. She then said, oh, it seems like the system sees the refunds and interprets that as meaning the cruise wasn't a revenue cruise, so she would have to manually add the Captain's Club credits in and to give that a few days.

So all who have had their cruises cancelled should check their Captain's Club accounts to see if the same happened to them. At that point, I hadn't received any refund but it was apparently in process.

I just checked my credit card and now I have a refund but not for the correct amount, so will call and see what's up with that. Thanks for posting those phone numbers!