Paulras

How much are Vibe passes for a 7 day cruise?

Time to sell a kidney to pay for my extra losses in 2 months!

Is that a recent article? I was tracking this last year and it looked like the law was probably going to be passed but I never saw a final resolution and the last thing I saw said an opposing party leader was fighting it.

Oh no. Not another thread on why we don't want another thread on tipping. I'll just sit back and watch the debate. :-)

Hopefully this isn't too brutally honest. But technically speaking, as we all get older, our own "demographic" becomes less of a percentage of the growing population. So as we get older, there are more younger people around. And of course, some of us get too old to cruise any more. It's just math.

So if there are more 25-50 year olds onboard who like louder music or more of a party atmosphere than 60-80 year olds, Celebrity is going to respond to their feedback more and cater to a younger demographic. I remember 10 years ago comments on here were that Celebrity's entertainment and music was too boring. Now the people who like quiet are complaining that it's too loud.

Personally, I'm in my mid-40s and enjoy having a mix of quiet if I want it and a louder and "funner" atmosphere if I want it. I find that Celebrity gives me that choice today.

Bottomline is that I think Celebrity is simply reacting to the fact that one demographic is being replaced by another as time goes on. Again, sorry if that sounds brutal but it's just numbers.

I really don't care one way or the other but wonder why people want separate gatherings? I have several close friends who are gay. I can't imagine them desiring to go to a separately labeled party.

Apparently you do. Why don't you ask all of those close friends of yours if they'd appreciate an LGBT gathering. You might be surprised that they would. And since the gathering (not party) is inclusive, you can stop by and say hello and have a few drinks on your next cruise.

As I understand it, you have to pay because the parent company is registered in the US.

 

The difference in taxation on slot winnings and table winnings is the same on land-based casinos. I never researched what or why.

Actually it's because US citizens pay taxes on all income regardless of where the income is made. That's why you need to pay taxes on interest in foreign banks just like you do if you had your money in the USA. Even "swiss bank accounts" don't really work to hide money anymore. All cruiselines agree to give the IRS information on US citizens winnings just like any US land-based casino would to comply. Even casinos in other countries do it - for instance you can get a W-2G from a Bahamas casino if you're a US citizen.

As for the slot machine versus table winnings, it has something to do with the multiple of the winnings. I don't remember the factor but it's something like, if you win more than 300 times your original bet, you have to get a W-2G (don't quote me on that multiple). I think they use $1200 as a proxy for that. Blackjack usually only pays double your original bet. But if you play at a blackjack table that has one of those extra bonus games where you can win $2000 for an extra $1 bet, I believe you would also get a W-2G if you win it.

Do remember that if you get a W-2G, you can deduct your losses if you itemize your deductions on your 1040. I've only had the pleasure of getting a few W-2G's in my lifetime and had no trouble with claiming an exact offsetting amount of losses. All casinos keep track of your gains/losses if you have a players card. Just make sure you get copies of your losses from other casinos as support if you ever get audited. Or save old losing lottery tickets from that year.

I just assumed that they didn't offer it because they know the ship is going to have a higher number of 20-somethings than they usually have. And they will be there to "party hardy" meaning NCL will surely lose money on drink packages so why offer them. It's all about money.

I'm sure NCL won't mind serving lots of drinks that are each paid for even if it means they need to have extra security to watch over the partiers.

If it's the only time you can go, just go and and enjoy the vacation. You might have to avoid the pool if you don't want to deal with the party crowd. But there are plenty of other things to do.

I was told by several various X staff members. I believe 700 was accurate as they didn't correct me when I wrote my letter. I assume if it was far less, they would have told me.

I thought I heard the number quoted at 595 but it could have been 695. Either way, 600 or 700, it was definitely alot. We were on with you and we avoided the pool. There was just no way to use it because it was like a children's water park. The hottubs were packed with a dozen pre-teens at a time. They were over the posted load limits and I fail to understand how parents could let their children sit in a hot tub for as long as they were. The Solarium was the only place of refuge to have some relaxation. But the drink servers would only show up once an hour, if at all. And it was always crowded with other adults avoiding the pool.

The elevators as you said were packed with kids riding up and down at times. Although at least one time it was with members of the kids club. So I think they were being moved in mass at times. One bartender said to us "I work on Celebrity because there's normally only a few kids". She wasn't happy having hundreds.

And there were instances of teenagers drinking. One was caught by the martini bar manager and the kid fought back for 15 minutes saying it's Celebrity's fault for selling him a beverage package. But I suspect he was using someone else's card.

Fortunately our cabin was out of the way so we didn't have kids running down our hall.

Not much Celebrity can do about kids. There's enough problems with adults. The large group from Mexico that was in the casino every night yelling for hours at a time ("OCHO, OCHO, OCHO") was pretty annoying. People at the buffet who fail to understand that tongs need to be used....one guy walked up to the custom pasta station, wanted peppers on his plate, so he grabbed the peppers with his hand instead of asking the pasta maker to give him some. I told him he can't do that. A family of obnoxious Brits I was next to a few times who complained about literally everything if it wasn't perfect and treated the staff like slaves. I also heard that there were several people thrown off the ship due to fighting and even an molestation of a teenage girl. I could go on and on.

All in all, we still had a fantastic time. Not everything will be perfect. Even booked next Christmas on Equinox. This time it's over both Christmas and NYE and much more expensive, so I'm hoping this will cut down on the number of kids at least a little.

Never did it on a cruise. But I did it a few months ago in Atlantic City. I still swear that those chocolates were hidden under the pillow. There's no way I could have missed them since the sheets and blankets were all white and the chocolate packs (there were 3) were dark brown. I woke up and thought "OMG, I had an accident"!

It was funny to post a picture of the mess on Facebook with the caption "Look what I did in my hotel bed last night". Not funny to have to write a note to housekeeping (with a nice tip) explaining that it's just chocolate!!

We just returned from Equinox and had a six-person family group in Blu. Some nights, my more traditionally-minded brother in law preferred a dish on the MDR menu to the Blu offerings. No problem, he just asked for that dish and it arrived! The rest of us loved the (IMO) more sophisticated Blu menu and the wonderful, intimate, service from the staff there. I can't imagine why anyone would want to eat in MDR after enjoying Blu, unless it's to join friends.

 

Anything they serve in MDR can be had in Blu. (FYI, one of us generally took a camera phone shot of the MDR menu so every one could consult it at the dinner table.)

Great advice. Didn't know that. Thanks!

Great - thanks for all the quick replies!

To be clearer, I wasn't asking about changing my Blu assignment to MDR. If I was going to do that, I would certainly speak the maitre d. Just want to know if I have the option to eat in the MDR a couple nights if I wanted to by simply showing up at Select dining and asking for a table. Someone in AQ on the last cruise said that you could but they ate at Blu every night so they never tried.

Please let me know if you've done this without a problem in the past.

I thought I knew the answer but couldn't find it on the boards. If you book an Aqua Class cabin and on some nights didn't want to eat in Blu, can you eat in the MDR instead? If so, do you just show up at the MDR Select dining area and ask for a table on any day you want to eat in the MDR?

Looking at AQ for the first time and would like the option of eating in the MDR if the menu looks good on any one night. Or if we want to eat with friends who aren't in AQ.

There was a band and/or singers most of the time over Christmas by the pool. Although I must say it was kind of boring in my opinion. But I was trying to avoid the pool area because of all the kids running around (bad thing about a Christmas cruise).

the amount is misleading anyway. If I play a $5 hand of video poker and get paid $5, they claim it's $5 in winnings paid out. Even though I broke even. What ever number they publish should be ignored and shouldn't sway anyone from gambling more (or less).

Had a similar experience on Equinox last week at the brunch. The most obnoxious Brit I've ever seen was berating the stir fry cook (Roy). He wanted noodles but they ran out. "Roy, you should go get more noodles", "Roy, you need more vegetables", "Put some more chicken in Roy", "more chicken than that", "Make it well done Roy", "Is the burner on maximum Roy?" He then started stirring the food himself while it was cooking. I seconds away from telling the guy off.

Then we were "lucky" enough to be seated next to the guy, his brother, sister and mother for dinner. The brother was just as obnoxious. He was berating the drink server in the MDR. She brought him a drink and he said "what's this?" then talked down to her "I said sprite, not ice". She brought him another drink which he also sent back. Then he yelled across to her as she took it away "and bring a shot of grenadine".

Both brothers were around college age and based on my eavesdropping, I can see the mother did a horrible job of raising this little bas***ds. They were even talking down to her. The sister also did a "what's this?" when she received dessert. But she didn't seem as bad.

I really expected them to be rich and/or in suites. But their cards appeared to be for basic rooms and I saw the mother trying to play $5 at the casino instead of the $10 min. That's when the one son came up and said "Mum, I need money" and she handed him a $100 bill.

An executive in a top company should be able to get extra points by booking a penthouse or RS or a suite at least. A simple cabin would require ten times as many cruises for us pensioners to reach a similar goal. ;)

THAT'S THE POINT! I wasn't given the opportunity to upgrade. I booked a CC cabin to get the extra point. Under the old system, a suite gets the same points as a CC cabin. Had I known back then that I would be deficient under a (surprise!) new system, I would have considered bumping it up then.

I just sent Michael Bailey's assistant, Tanji, an email on your behalf. I told her your situation and if anyone deserves the benefit of an exception of the new tiers, it would be you. I told her you probably wouldn't write an email yourself because you never complain about anything. I'll post the reply as soon as I receive it...............

I await the reply. Although the reply I got was a reiteration of their announcement and telling me I should change my reservation if I want. Of course, the ship is sold out and nothing is available, higher or lower. Notice there was nothing addressing my question to them about why they gave some Select members bonus points, but didn't do the same for those of us who are Classic who were also within 1 sailing of the next level.

Here it is:

Thank you for your e-mail.

The enhancements to the Celebrity Captains Club were implemented based on the thoughts and ideas of our valued members. We apologize for any delay in our response. Through focus groups, member and travel agent feedback we created the New Club to reward our loyal members with Club Points. This new structure brings additional tiers with new benefits for all tiers and aligns our loyalty program with the rest of the hospitality and travel business.

Celebrity Cruises now offers one of the best loyalty programs in the cruise industry with tremendous recognition as well as exciting benefits. Our New Captains Club, now offers the following items many of our members have been looking for:

Club Points, to reflect the number of nights sailed instead of number of cruises.

The opportunity to advance at a quicker pace through the New Club program.

Higher tier levels to achieve along with exciting new benefits to obtain.

All Club Points in the Captains Club program must be earned in according to the New Club structure. With the new point structure you will be able to reach the Select if you upgrade to the Century, Sky Suite or Aqua Suite category. If you are interested in making this change to your reservation, please contact your travel agent and they will be happy to assist you. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.

If you have any further questions, please contact us again and we will be happy to assist you.

I'm convinced you're a mole. Just here to keep repeating the same old rhetoric. Your posts are almost exactly the same. If you won't be fooled by Celebrity again, why keep posting here? You're done, right? Then go!

and I'm convinced you'll never allow anyone to express any negative comments about Celebrity. I'm a big Celebrity fan and have sent many friends to the line. I'm also a executive for a company in the top 30 of the Fortune 500. As such, I don't have the luxury of time to book multiple long cruises a year which gets me a status that you've apparently enjoyed for years.

My beef is still seeing how this was rolled out. I don't have a problem with the program levels themselves. I never thought the old program made sense - a 3 night in an inside cabin gets you the same credit as a 10 night in a balcony. It was dumb. Giving points based on number of nights and type of cabin makes perfect sense. It sounds like many of your Elite counterparts have only received their status because they were able to book a bunch of short cruises in cheap cabins which isn't very fair.

But changing things without any notice or consideration for those of us who PAID for cruises already was a poor practice. This would have been an easy fix - make it effective for cruises PAID FOR after the effective date, not cruises SAILED after the effective date. Or set an effective date in the future so people can actually make changes to fit what they want to achieve. Not much of an incentive program if they are locking me in without giving me the ability to book a higher cabin if I want a better outcome. I'm sure we can agree on that (or not?)

The recent change had been rumoured for years. You have more chance being hit by a falling comet than being fooled again.

And if I had posted on this board in August while making my final payment something like: "I'm making my final payment on my concierge class cabin, excited that this will give me that extra point for Select status that I'll use next year when I book another cruise. Would have booked a balcony but that extra point gave me the incentive. Hey do you think Celebrity will change things at the last minute and I won't really make it to Select?"

I'm pretty sure most of the responses would have been that they've talked about changes for years and no worries because I'm sure they will grandfather cruises that are already paid for.

Crystal Ball Time - Incentives will become common in the form of extra points to club members to sell specific rooms in place of lower prices. So another sales tool to clear those empty rooms.

Not much of an incentive if Celebrity can change their program at will after you've booked and paid in full but before you cruise; just like they did. "Here's some bonus points. Oh by the way, we just moved the goal posts again. Sorry, read the fine print"

Fool me once,.......

Yes, credit against your final bill is at the discretion of the casino manager. They have a formula they work from, but they can and do give more credit if they want to.

What kind of credits have people seen? Are we talking hundreds taken off?

I would usually play $50-$75 average blackjack hands for 2+ hours a night on a 7 day cruise.

As I recall you have only been on 2 Celebrity cruises and are upset because you will not be Select after your next cruise (and you had already paid for the future cruise). One of the objectives of the new program was to increase what it takes to get to the Elite level. I would say that the objective was met and you are a good example. Since Celebrity gave bonus points for those closer to Elite for instance 7,8, and nine points it is obvious that they were concerned about those close to Elite. Since you have only cruised twice and have three points you (along with everyone else) were given the generous bonus of using 30 new points for each old point. It is clear that they were less concerned about the impact of the new program for those with few cruises and are actually trying to slow down the growth and make it more difficult. .

Can you imagine how many people would be upset if they actually used the sailing history and calculated the new points retro? Most of us would be much further away from the next level.

 

You still get more points for higher level cabins and Celebrity had to draw a line someway.

 

The bottom line is that I do not think that other than the generous 30 point conversion that Celebrity was very concerned about those with only 2 cruises. You are 90 points ahead of any new cruisers.

 

Good luck and I hope you can still enjoy your cruises.

 

P.S. 90 points is not even close to midway in the program. You already get one of the best additions to the program as a Classic member, one level upgrade.

Those of us who made final payment can't use the new "one level upgrade" because you can only request it upon booking. I asked for my cruise that's in 15 days and no luck. So that's not a benefit for many of us and still some of us lose the next tier that we would have upon sailing for the cruise that was already paid for but only because we didn't step foot on the ship yet. We will be 10 points short instead of there.

Interesting that the CAS drink card gets you bottled water but the UBP doesn't. Doesn't make much sense that the UBP doesn't include it. But at least that's one thing I will use the CAS card for if I buy UBP. Always like to take a bottle of water back to the cabin at night so I have something to drink before I hit the sack and when I wake up.