kands6191

I've never heard this before. Can you explain further? If I'm Elite do I get money added to a bid?

My husband wore his tux on our recent Beyond cruise. We saw about 5 other men in tuxes. Like others have said he got compliments from both men and women. I encourage you to wear your tux and enjoy looking your best.

We took the bus. It was actually a good walk, got to shop a bit on the way back and felt very safe. There were 4 of us and I just couldn't swallow the cost of a cab. Would recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind the walk.

We leave in a few days on Beyond for an 11 night Panama Canal. We are in a Sunset View cabin that we sailed in a year ago. We can't afford a suite and won't do an IV again. E class is nice, but our favorite ship is Reflection and we'll probably stick with S class going forward.

We are going on that cruise. We booked a golf cart from Bonaire Cruisers and will be driving it along the shoreline. There are small beaches, one after another, marked by small yellow stones I believe, where just just pull up and shore snorkel to your heart's content. We did it two other times and it was fantastic. As much as I love to snorkel, I am uncomfortable in deep water and hate holding up a group while I get my nerve up. The other benefit is that you can cruise on the main roads and see the whole island.

We used it before the pandemic a few times. I would just cation you to check the paperwork carefully. When we did it they gave us boarding passes and on mine my name was incorrect. They also had our seat assignments wrong. I was very concerned about not being able to board due to the name issue. Went to Guest Relations and they were indifferent saying that was the way they were sent by the airlines and that there was nothing we could do. I was quite concerned and I happened to bump into the Hotel Director we had met previously. After explaining the situation to him he told us to relax, go enjoy our last dinner on the cruise, and he assured me it would be rectified. He also apologized profusely and said they would refund the fee for the aggravation. He promised me they would deliver the new paperwork as soon as they could. Well, they went above and beyond. We were sent a bottle of wine at dinner along with the paperwork as promised. There was a message on our phone just to be sure everything checked out OK. When we got the email with the final statement we found that they not only refunded the fee but several hundred dollars in addition!

It happened on our 12/5/23 Summit cruise that had quite a few Aqua cabins open but not much else. It dropped by 20% so we put in the minimum bid and won.

I was on the 12/2 Summit 5 day and they played bingo twicw and Deal twice. The bingo paid out 3 games each time, between $400 and $800 cash. I think it is based on the sales. We also got a raffle ticket that was drawn in the casino and several of us won a prize. I got $5 free play and a dice key chain. I know there was a higher prize. For Deal we bought cards in the Cruise Planner prior for one game. Then you have to pick them up in the casino during designated card sale hours prior to the game. I think it was about a 2 hour window. It was a very long line with two people working at the cashier. If you win something, or want to check your cards, you had to bring them back to the cashier beginning at 7 PM. Then they put the free play on your card for slots, or give you promo chips if you want. Last year on the Beyond my husband was called to play Deal. He won $125 and our cards won $60 in free play. Interesting to note that the $1000 was in case #7 for both games. At the end a third person got to spin the wheel for free play or a free cruise. He won the cruise and he was celebrating his 60th wedding anniversary so we were all happy for him.

Follow up: After receiving no call back on Monday, I called the Blue Chip Club on Tuesday. I spent over 3 hours on the phone between holding for them to answer and them working on the issue. I did get a call back a little later from a rep from the BCC Resolutions dept. He said he had actually called the Accounting department even though their usual method was email which they had supposedly done on Saturday. They still said they needed to do the same thing - issue a refund and take a new payment for the same amount. He asked me to be patient as the refund process had to be done first and takes 24-48 hours to go through the "workflow" and it has to be done before they can take payment. He also offered us $50 OBC for all of my troubles. Well, it didn't take 24 hours because he called me back this morning to say the refund was processed and he took payment. Then I held until I saw my zero balance booking confirmation. I don't actually see the refund yet on my end but he assured me I would see it within 7 days. So I learned that any time I do anything in the Cruise Planner I need to go into Manage Booking to make sure nothing on that end was affected. And always go with the "Trust but Verify" attitude and be sure to keep calling back. Now off to finish packing.

Pearl is your Blue Chip Club casino status level.

For our 1/29/24 Panama Canal cruise in an SV, we booked onboard and got the Elevate package. So $200 from X for onboard booking, $400 from X for a promo, $400 as part of Elevate. Then got $625 from TA plus $50 loyalty bonus. With tips, prem drinks, and regular wifi already paid for we used the $1000 from X to book the dinners, Deal cards, excursions, and upgrade wifi. Plan to take the $675 home with us.

I have read other similar posts. I think a problem for me is that it was a holiday weekend. The Accounting Department is probably closed and the other staff may not be the most experienced. It seems like they want to issue a refund against the drink package, then have me pay the same amount against the cruise. This seems goofy but maybe when the Accounting team opens tomorrow they can just debit one and credit the other without going through all the actual charging and refunding. Sounds like that's what they've done for others.

I'm glad I read this post today. I had put in a MoveUp bid yesterday and logged in to manage the reservation today to see if my room number changed (cruise is 12/2/23) and noticed it said I had better pay the balance due or be cancelled. Long story short, I called about it. We determined that when I cancelled and rebooked the drink package earlier this week to take advantage of the Black Friday sale, Celebrity applied the refund amount (just for one person, go figure) to the cost of the cruise! Now I am in limbo waiting for an additional refund credit to process before they will take payment from me to even it out. I started a thread about it if anyone is interested. I'm on pins and needles now hoping this truly gets resolved. Thanks to the OP because my first instinct was to just rely on my zero balance invoice and blame it on Celebrity's bad IT department showing the wrong display.

When the Black Friday sales hit, I cancelled the drink package and Deal cards that I had for my Summit 12/2/23 cruise. Then I repurchased at the sale price. I did the same for two other future cruises I have. I checked my credit card the next day and saw that they had refunded the drink package per person for the April 2024 cruise so two refunds that equaled the original charge. For the 12/2/23 cruise, I only saw one refund for half the amount as well as the Deal refund. So I waited a couple of days and there was the other half of the refund. Yesterday I put in a MoveUp bid. Today I went into Manage My Reservation to see if my room number had changed and I saw a warning that I needed to pay my balance of 389.90 so my cruise isn't cancelled! At first I wasn't too concerned because I had a zero balance email from Celebrity and I had read on CC that this has happened to other people. But then I decided I had better call since my cruise is sailing in a week. Don't need any issues. I called the Blue Chip Club since this was a free casino cruise that I upgraded. At first he said, we show a zero balance and where are you seeing this. Well then he put me on hold and said he saw the problem but didn't know why. He emailed me a new booking confirmation showing the amount paid was reduced to reflect a balance owing of 389.90. While I was holding again, it came to me that the 389.90 amount was the same as the one person drink package price that took longer to be refunded. I told him of my suspicion that Celebrity applied the drink package refund amount to my actual cruise balance. After about 45 minutes of holding, he told me that he had contacted the Resolution department and that is exactly what happened. Their solution was to refund the 389.90 to my credit card and then he would call me back in 1-2 hours to charge me the 389.90 again. He said that first I would get an email that showed an invoice for 389.90 and then he would call me. I made him promise that he would call and he confirmed my cell phone number. I was at an outdoor holiday event by this time and I carried that phone in my hand the whole time so I wouldn't miss the call. After 2 1/2 hours and no call, plus it was 5:45 PM Central Time, I decided to call back. I got a new man who read all of the notes. He said that the Resolution team put notes that they had emailed the Accounting department to expedite the refund and that they can't take any payment until the refund is processed. He said that the notes said if the customer calls and wants to make payment, do not take it until the refund has been processed. He said they are monitoring my reservation since my sail date is 12/2 - a week away! He said he understood how unsure I was about all of this but he assured me that I would be OK to sail. He said he was putting me on his call list just in case the first guy never called me to resolve this. I told him that I was already untrusting since the first guy promised that he would call in 1-2 hours and he didn't. He should have at least to explain that it would take longer than originally promised. This agent agreed and said it was a promised callback and he said he would let their supervisors know for coaching. He said the Resolution department set my final payment date out so that the cruise wouldn't be cancelled. I did notice that when I logged in to check it, the warning wasn't there anymore although it did show a balance due. So now I am stressed, and there's nothing I can do is wait and have faith in Celebrity. I can hear you all laughing at that right now! I did check my other cruises and they were OK.

My husband was selected to play and he went all the way to the end and won over $200, plus we got casino free play with the card win. At the end they chose someone to play for a cruise and it was the couple who had been married the longest. I want to say it was 60 years. He ended up winning the cruise which made the crowd very happy.

Was this a credit for a future cruise you were given because of an issue on the Apex?

My 12/2 cruise had a price drop so I do think it's variable. I have also heard that the prices can go back up at any time if they are able to sell as many as they wanted to. I'm glad so many people were able to save money, although not all unfortunately.

Yes, you can walk up for the four main dining rooms. They limit the reservations during prime hours to allow for walkups.

We ate there on the Beyond along with four others. We were unable to reserve online for a party of 6, so we did 4 and 2. As soon as we boarded we went to ensure we would all be seated together. Le Voyage wasn't open but we looked around. We noticed they had a private dining room with a larger table, beautiful. When we finally got to speak to the Head Waiter about our reservation he told us he was unsure if we could be seated together since the restaurant had 2 tops and 4 tops but maybe we could be seated near each other. When we showed up for dinner, he told us to follow him and he heard us say we thought he was taking us to the private room. I saw him smile at that. We were all delighted to be seated there and I teased him that he knew all along he was going to seat us there. He admitted that he did know and he was happy to see our reaction. It turned out to be the best meal we had on a cruise ship with extremely attentive and friendly service. They even brought us a couple dishes to share that they said we just "had to try". I don't know where this experience rates on a Michelin scale but it was wonderful for us. We were not in suites so we paid. We are booked again for our January Beyond cruise.

I've been checking daily for price drops on the Premium Drink Package for my 12/2/23 Summit 5 day and my 4/27/24 Apex 5 day cruises. I went to the site tonight just in time to see the last 15 seconds of the countdown for the expiration of the current 75% off + $300 promotion. I wondered if the prices would change. Seems they did for some of the items in the planner. The Prem Drink Pkg was 54.99 for both cruises. I had paid 64.99 for one and 69.99 for the other so I saved $300! I saw that some of the shore excursions had dropped including one that I was going to book independently but with the drop from 81.99 to 59.99 it was only a couple of bucks more than if I went to the vendor directly so I booked it. I got the Premium Wifi on the 4/27/24 Apex for 15.99, but I'm not sure if it's a good deal since I haven't been watching it. There was no change in the dining prices. Hope you can find some good deals too!

I got an offer too. Actually two offers and booked them both. I asked them to quote me a guarantee veranda. Both times the cost was the same as the difference between an inside guarantee and a veranda guarantee. So for the 5 day Summit on 12/2 it was $78 per person. I took it. Our cabin was assigned within a week. It was on deck 6 over the lifeboats so I called and I was able to move to a veranda on deck 8 for no charge. Later through the cruise planner, I was also able to buy the premium drink package for 63.99. So I can cancel and rebuy if a better deal comes along. The other cruise was 5 day Apex on 4/27/24. They quoted $500 per person to move to a veranda guarantee. I said no thanks since I just wanted to take my daughter on an Edge class before she gets married and don't want to put a lot of money into it. However I wrote an email to the Moveup team to ask to be made eligible to get an offer. They replied that I should write back within 60 days of sailing and they will. So maybe I will get a veranda that way. They also give you free drinks while in the casino but I read on CC that it is a limited selection that is included. We just decided to buy the package.

I have a shellfish allergy. On my survey I have suggested they put ingredients on the name cards they use in the buffet. They could also have an ingredient list available in the restaurants for those who are interested. I end up skipping a lot of things in the buffet because I can't tell what is in it. I've basically given up asking in the buffet because I have had too many times when I can't trust that they understand what I am asking due to the language barrier. The dining rooms are better in that aspect. With my allergy, a mistake means anaphylaxis.

If you get a chance to post a picture of the menu, please do. We sail on her in January and I was concerned when I saw the new menu from another ship that definitely seemed downgraded. Enjoy your cruise!

We waited to buy the cards on board. We bought the 3 pack for $39 and got one free. We used my husband's account. You can only use the "1 free" offer one time per cruise per person. They said that deal was only available on board and not on cards purchased prior to boarding. It even said that on the Elite benefits paper that was left in our room. On the first day my husband was chosen to open cases. The woman before him got $5. My husband got down to the last two cases and it could either be 25 cents or $125. His case had $125! On our cards we won $60 in casino credit. On the other day we bought the same number of cards using my account.We didn't win anything. The person who spun the wheel had been married 61 years. He won a free cruise.

For the 1/15/23 Beyond cruise I just took, we made our reservations on Sept 12 through the X website. It shows a $0 charge.