mahdnc

Celebrity has removed the information specific to the Galapagos cruises regarding Club Points. I know that the Xpedition Suite was and still is 12 points per night (if that is the "increases" you were referring to). It's odd that it's higher than the more expensive Flora regular suites.

We chose Xpedition over Flora because it was cheaper and because it is licensed for less than half of its designed passenger capacity. However there is no arguing that Flora is the newer and nicer ship. I've not heard any complaints about her infinite verandas. How many Club Points do you get per night for the different Flora Sky Suite variants?

If it appeals to you, you should consider joining our roll call for the Summit Apr 2024 transcanal sailing: link

I guess Mary Lou is quite correct. We also have a Christmas/NYE cruise booked for this year (Solstice, Asia) and no specialty dining reservations can be made (e.g. amazing experiences). However you are able to book them for the sailings before and after it. Expect the specialty dining pricing to be elevated above the norm for the holiday sailings as well.

I have four sailings booked but I cannot act on the other three. One is the Galapagos, one is too far into 2025, and I am sitting on the infamous $10/cruise premium wi-fi upgrade voucher for the other cruise from a sale last year.

I went ahead and did your suggestion. I just called the Captains Club desk to buy the Basic Wi-Fi package for my wife and one for myself which worked out to be $153.86 each with our 30% Elite discount. That is $10.99 per day per person. And, I went ahead and purchased the Premium Wi-Fi Upgrade Voucher for $6.99 per day (Flash Sale). So the total cost for a Premium Wi-Fi package for each person that way works out to be $17.98 per day vs simply paying for the Flash Sale Premium Wi-Fi directly for $20.99 per day. So I saved $84 for next year's 14 night Panama Canal cruise with your suggestion. Thank you. Of course I first inquired about the possibility of buying the Premium Wi-Fi package with the Flash Sale and CC discount combined and the Captains Club rep told me it could not be done.

My understanding is that they used to offer scuba for a fee, but if true, that is no longer the case. It's nice to be able to go beneath the choppy waves and not have to come up for air and blow out your snorkel every time. My wife and I were hoping to scuba during our upcoming Xpedition trip. We will have our underwater camera read to go though.

Thanks for that clarification, it makes a lot more sense.

Even worse in JPY

Yes, start checking this board in early November to find out more about the next release schedule. Someone will post a new deployment thread on the subject--so the thread you want to be pointed to does not exist yet. If you were talking about last year's thread, here is the link.

Well, at least it is worth the tender ride.

As a guide, here is the schedule of releases for last year that was published on Nov 2: link The actual release date for Europe was delayed and came out on Dec 12-ish. I believe that Hawaii was released asking with the Alaska, Australia, New Zealand group. Here is the thread from last November which monitored (with comments) the releases as they happened. If you read through them you will get more detail about which sailings were released on what dates (and in some cases the approximate hour of the night):

You can purchase it at the current discounted price and if the price were to drop even lower in the future, you can cancel it and rebook. That's the time honored tradition here.

I could have sworn that I have read on this forum that you can mail your voucher in tu Celebrity to get a check.

If you only called once, it is worth calling again to see if you get a different, more favorable answer.

It looks like you are right then about the schedule. Our ferry ride was very basic amenities wise. It was not a luxury cruise. I'm sure if you search for it, you can find the company that runs the tour and get a better idea of how well the boat is furnished. If I have time later, I'll take a look.

Yes, you have a couple red flags (different last name + both parents not together) that you will want to have a notarized travel consent form. Here is a template that you might want to consider using: Travel Consent Form When I flew my family of 4 from Chicago to Venice for our Mediterranean cruise, my wife and daughter flew out on Alitalia while my son and I flew on Delta. My wife and I both carried a notarized travel consent form. I cannot remember if we were asked to produce the document at either airport.

Last flash sale that I can remember was late Nov around Black Fri. So keep that in mind, too

Just teasing. BTW, your post conforms to the rules and should be ok.

That was me. It was ok for me to post the link, but I ran afoul of the rules by pasting portions of the (copy righted) article onto my post. The thread has been removed. Here is the link to the WSJ article.

Back in 2005, we took the same Celebrity "Panama Canal Locks and Culebra Cust Cruise" tour when our ship, Horizon, docked at Colon. The tour was named something else at the time, but it is the same tour. Our motorcoach took us to the Pacific side where we boarded our ferry ride. We went through the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks. We sailed through the Cut and then got off the ferry at Gamboa--that's where our motorcoach buses were waiting for us to take us back to the ship. If you are a canal fanatic/nerd/geek, you will find the ferry ride of great interest. There were good views of the locks and its operation. Unlike a cruise ship, the walls of each lock towered over us. One of the advantages of being on a small ferry was that you could easily look behind you as well as ahead with a little bit of walking. Everyone that wanted to could touch the walls. The tour was well narrated. The only drawback is that the whole trip is fairly long and it can get pretty hot and humid while you are out on deck. So you will find the tour exhausting. Also, back then the box lunch that was served wasn't very good although it is now a lunch buffet. Taking the shore excursion whetted my appetite for taking a cruise that does the full transit. I had to wait 19 years, but we will be on Summit's canal cruise this coming April. I have attached a few photos from our ferry ride which I hope you find useful. IF you are having to choose between doing the partial transit onboard Beyond vs doing this excursion, I would probably not bother with the excursion unless you are a diehard fan. Also Beyond is going to transit the new (larger) set of locks while the ferry will do the old legacy ones. However I didn't realize that you had to choose between the two because typically this shore excursion is done during a port day at Colon while the partial transit should be done by Beyond on a different day--at least that is how I thought it is set up.

Isn't this post click bait, too, then?

I cancelled a sold out shorex. The OBC was credited instantly. The two cancelled spots didn't show up for another 10-15 min at which time I rebooked them saving $354. There's always a chance that the spots get taken from you before you can rebook.

Yeah, like the Half Day Tour is $10pp and the Full Day Tour is free.

Our 14 night sailing that was Covid cancelled ended up being shifted to an 11 night sailing for the following year. Celebrity made a pro-rated (downward) adjustment to our fare for the 3 missing nights. That 11 night cruise was also Covid cancelled and we were shifted to a 12 night sailing for the following year (2023). Celebrity did not raise our fare to account for the extra night which would have been justified. However there was one couple on our roll call who said their fare was raised. We guessed that the difference in treatment may have something to do with the country of residence. We are from the USA while the other couple was from (I think) the UK or Canada (I will look it up later to verify). Was everyone on your roll call handled the same way as you (fare increase)?