Paulras

No, that is not the case. The drink prices are raised by 18% as it is mandatory under law for the total cost to be displayed. That is why the DSC has to remain 'voluntary' too.

That's what I'm saying. They make it mandatory by raising the price because many Brits hate anything to do with tipping.

Sad part is that in my many cruises, the only times I've ever seen ship crew being berated was by folks from the UK. More than a few times. Wait staff, bar staff, casino staff, pool staff. Every time was over-reaction or drunkenness, in my opinion. Never seen it done for good reason. Sad to know that after getting berated, the crew won't get a few bucks from these people because the jerks don't believe in gratuities.

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That's why the cruise lines raise their drink prices 18% on UK cruises. British are notorious for not understanding or accepting the concept of gratuities/service fees

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Funny thing is that the rules state that it excludes holiday sailings but I've never had a problem using the free upgrade on 4 Christmas cruises.

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Makes perfect sense to me. I'm sure there are plenty of Floridians on these ships who want to get off to secure their homes, pets, relatives, etc. Or others who need to be back home before a certain date and don't want to be delayed waiting out the storm.

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Does xmas chocolate money count as cash?

No but I'll take it!

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Would someone who wants to give gift cards to the crew, please explain why you just wouldn't just give cash instead?

Great question. It's so frustrating that posters on this thread are so dense that they won't accept the fact that their trinkets, candies, gift cards and clothes are stupid gifts for strangers that serve you for a few days.

They aren't your family and you're just one of 1000 people they will serve this year. Yes, they will smile when you give them junk from your hometown but it's still junk!

For now on, when someone posts about their master plan to turn crew into their grandchildren by giving them creepy jewelry or other junk, my only response will be "Or you could just give them cash!"

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We have been in many ports around the world, and have seen crew members coming back with multiple bags of chips & candy & soda. So I don't see a problem with little gifts of candy ...as long as they are extra gifts, not meant to replace cash.

Or you can just give extra cash instead of risking giving something that'll get thrown out.

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Sorry but giving jewelry to the young girls you barely know just sounds kinda creepy

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Eclipse solarium has burnt orange cushions instead of blue on Equinox. And the Aquaspa Cafe is flipped around. Don't ask why but these things ruined my other half's cruise on Eclipse.

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New Elite here. Are they specific drinks or price limitations at the cocktail party?

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Probably depends on the fine print but I've always been taught that if you insure only a portion of something and have a partial loss, that partial loss is reduced by the proportion of insurance you took out. So if you insure half of the value of your house and have a fire that costs you half the value of the home, you only get reimbursed for 1/4. But not really sure if travel insurance works differently.

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Leaving on an Alaska b2b in a couple of days and planning on visiting the casino for the first time (4th-5th Celebrity cruise). Plan on playing blackjack.

 

Can anyone give me an idea of the level of play (time and amounts bet) that the casino is looking for to award blue chip status?

Roughly 2 hours every day with $50 average bets. It's tracked more now with their new system but it sounds like you're not a heavy gambler so don't expect anything. Last cruise there were only 23 blue chippers.

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Best to talk to your phone carrier. Travelpass is only for mobile service in most countries. It's not for a cruise ship. In fact I had it once and if we got close to an island while cruising, it charged me an extra $10 for a few islands we never stopped at.

Verizon charges $40 for 100 minutes and 100 text and 100 megabytes of data when you're in another country or on a cruise ship. But like I said call your carrier to get the most up-to-date information.

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They work through the satellite on the ship. May not be every carrier but Verizon does and I know other big ones work too. Cheaper than the 7.95 a minute too. Not always great but you can also just get the ship's internet service and use WiFi calling.

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It only rings in your cabin. If you're concerned about an emergency, I think it's better to have the babysitter call your cell phone rather than risking you not being in the cabin. Make sure you arrange for cellphone service that will work on board from your carrier

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If someone gave me a football t-shirt, I'd throw it out. And I'm American. But I'd smile and thank them even though it's junk that'll be incinerated the next day.

Enough with "special gifts" for someone you'll only spend a week with. They work on ships to earn money for themselves and their families, not to collect unfamiliar sports memorabilia. Just give them extra cash and a hug!

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I have a back to back in December on Reflection. First one shows 10% discount and the second one shows 30%. Must be specific to each sailing

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Actually, I have a back to back in December and the first cruise shows a 10% discount on beverage packages and 30% discount on the second (and longer) one. Seems like these discounts are cruise specific

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Website now shows $45.50 for premium in my cruise planner. Yesterday it said $73. Crazy. But we have the classic package as a perk anyway. Anyone know if you can purchase the upgrade online? Or if the $10 upgrade fee is also discounted 30%?

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I've never seen any discounted shore excursions before. In fact, the opposite. I've sometimes seen prices higher on board than the price that i printed from online a couple months before. Now the system allows you to use your on board credits from Celebrity to buy shore excursions in advance. So probably best to do that in case the price goes up when you get on board.

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Something doesn't seem right here. I've never been a fan of speed tests as they can be all over the place but may not necessarily impact performance. 0.1mb is dial-up speed. There would be no way to open a common facebook page without it taking over a minute or to stream music or videos.

You posted speedtest results but I didn't see if you mentioned how it's actually performing. Are you able to open web pages easily or stream anything? Others are saying they are able to do all that with only minor delays compared to home wifi. If it's as bad as those test results show, there's no way they could do that.

I was on Eclipse last month from Miami visiting Haiti, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. I signed up for both the $40 (100mb/100min/100text) plan and the $10/day Travelpass. The $10/day Travelpass was good in all 4 ports. It essentially lets you use your phone/text/data just like you would in the US for $10/day. Great option rather than trying to find a good wifi when you get in port. It's an automatic charge once you start using your phone in the country, so you're not getting charged every day of the month - just the days you actually need it.

 

I figured the $40 plan would cover me for the time on the ship since the ship isn't covered under the new Travelpass plan.

 

Here's where the problem happened - as you sail around the Caribbean, you get close to countries and you phone automatically switches to their network instead of the ship's network. So as I was using my data on the ship, I would actually trigger the $10/day travelpass for other countries. I have 2 different days charged for Haiti even though I was only there once. Another day for "Caribbean", what ever country that is, when we were at sea. And I even got charged for data in Cuba!

 

I might call Verizon to see what they can adjust but I think if they switched the data that was used under the Travelpass plan to the $40 plan, it would just trigger a $25 overage there.

 

Lesson learned.

UPDATE: I contacted Verizon and they credited me for the 2 extra Travelpass days as well as the data charged from Cuba! They're confusing at times but Verizon customer service is usually pretty good about making adjustments to your bill

I was on Eclipse last month from Miami visiting Haiti, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. I signed up for both the $40 (100mb/100min/100text) plan and the $10/day Travelpass. The $10/day Travelpass was good in all 4 ports. It essentially lets you use your phone/text/data just like you would in the US for $10/day. Great option rather than trying to find a good wifi when you get in port. It's an automatic charge once you start using your phone in the country, so you're not getting charged every day of the month - just the days you actually need it.

I figured the $40 plan would cover me for the time on the ship since the ship isn't covered under the new Travelpass plan.

Here's where the problem happened - as you sail around the Caribbean, you get close to countries and you phone automatically switches to their network instead of the ship's network. So as I was using my data on the ship, I would actually trigger the $10/day travelpass for other countries. I have 2 different days charged for Haiti even though I was only there once. Another day for "Caribbean", what ever country that is, when we were at sea. And I even got charged for data in Cuba!

I might call Verizon to see what they can adjust but I think if they switched the data that was used under the Travelpass plan to the $40 plan, it would just trigger a $25 overage there.

Lesson learned.

We are currently on reflection and on the first Chic night most people were dressed up more than other nights especially the women.

What about tuxes? Were there many?

EDF

 

I still have to ask the question what is your beef ? Is it that you upgraded unnecessarily? did you take advantage of the higher priced drinks/cocktails/wines/top shelf spirits ? What is it you're actually complaining about ?

 

Checking your profile you were very active asking questions on CC prior to your cruise, there's a 1001 threads on here showing what's included in the classic drinks package and why some people choose to upgrade to the premium package and yet whilst on a 10/11 ? night cruise you didn't ask a barman what's included in your classic drinks package before upgrading ????

 

I just don't get what you're complaining about ? Take some responsibility !

I hate to jump in on another one of these topics but I found EDF's posting very confusing too. But after re-reading it a few times, I think I get their point. The website says Classic covers cocktails up to $8. But that's before gratuity. When they got onboard, the drink menu listed drink prices that included gratuity because it's a UK cruise. So an $8 drink covered by the package was listed as $9.44. Because $9.44 was higher than the $8 he/she thought it wasn't included in the classic package even though it was. So they upgraded to premium even though they didn't need to.

Also, I believe the UK menus simply have a higher price rather than saying that it includes gratuity. So that would probably add to the confusion.

I won't give an opinion on who's right or wrong (OP or Celebrity) but I suspect if they approached the staff with a similarly confusing explanation and started talking about websites which the ship crew doesn't know about, I can see why he/she thought they weren't getting any answers. Personally, I would have said screw it and enjoyed the higher priced cocktails!