mahdnc

You know, @cruisestitch was pretty much on the ball as she started this long running thread when Celebrity first sent out emails for earning PowerUp Points. If you have a few minutes, it’s worth reading the first 3 pages of this thread to read member’s reactions. They range from appreciation to someone thinking this could be a bad thing. But many posts were about confusion on how get the quiz and how to fill it out correctly. For my wife and I, we were taking 12-14 night sailings in a veranda once a year before the shutdown. So we were earning 36-42 Club Points a year. The PowerUp Point program resulted in us maintaining our normal Club Point earnings rate during the shutdown.

Jim, I’ve been on Cruise Critic and its forerunners since about 1996 when it was a moderated AOL board accessed via dial up. I can say that the current posting restrictions naming travel agents and travel providers were in place back then and certainly way before Tripadvisor took over Cruise Critic. Btw, TripAdvisor acquired Cruise Critic in 2007 if that helps you remember the pre-Tripadvisor days. I cannot remember exactly when roll calls became a thing. My guess is around 2000, maybe a tad earlier. I remember when they first came out, they were posted in this forum—Celebrity Cruises forum—mixed in with other regular posts. It’s possible that roll call threads were being posted earlier than that in other boards such as Royal Caribbean because I don’t watch the other boards). Back then people were posting “is anyone on such and such sailing?” After the number of roll call posts grew large enough, they were given their own separate forum which is how we know it today. In some ways “Live from” threads remind me of roll calls in the old days when they were mixed in with other posts in the Celebrity board. We used to see them on occasion, but with the growth of mobile usage and improvements with ship WiFi, we are seeing them more frequently and occasionally we see more than one “Live from” thread from the same sailing. It remains to be seen whether they grow large enough in number to require special treatment.

how about removal of the room service fee?

Yes. And unfortunately the OP has since passed away as well. May they both rest in peace.

Good for you, Ruth, and Silhouette is a great ship to buy the package for.

I think today's plates are devoid of any logo or pattern for that matter. Some other touches that I liked back then was the physical dessert tray that was brought out when your dessert options were described to you. Also when my wife asked for tea, a nice dark wood box with different kinds of tea bags for her to choose from was presented at the dinner table.

According to the title, yes.

1) correct, your charges are refunded back to the original form of the payment (OBC or credit card). 2) once purchased, your specialty dining reservation is immune to price increases. If the price falls because of a sale, you can cancel and rebook. The only risk of cancel/rebook is not being able to rebook for your specific date/time which I have not run into, but you should be aware can technically happen. 3) you may know this already, but I will throw this in: if you try to save money by booking a dining package for multiple dinners, you won't be able to pick your specific date/time until you get on board.

Actually I wasn’t assuming that. I was just responding to the post immediately prior to mine that brought up the subject of a quiet room.

Isn’t sewing incompatible with a quiet room?

We’ve been to the ABC islands three times with Celebrity and each time the ship’s time was adjusted to match their time. I agree with the previous post that Celebrity generally aligns the ship time with the port’s local time. The only cruise where I have seen a Celebrity ship’s clock not observe the port’s local time zone was during our recent Galapagos cruise. During our seven night cruise, the ship’s clock was aligned with Quito’s time zone (Ecuador’s capital city located on the mainland) which was an hour ahead of the Galápagos Islands. You had to remember to re-set your watch to local Galapagos time when you were at the airport that serves the islands.

You have impressive pain tolerance. What did you do when giving birth—drink some whiskey and used a stick to bite on?

+ 18% gratuity

We just returned from a Christmas cruise on Solstice (Asia). It was our 3rd Christmas sailing as the other two were on Solstice (New Zealand, 2019) and Infinity (Chile, 2016). We think the Solstice class ships are nice for holiday cruises although we've not done Edge class yet. My advice is to book a Christmas sailing with New Year's Eve because NYE is done very well on the ship. That means you have to book a sailing longer than 7 nights or do a B2B. Mr and Mrs Claus visit Solstice on Christmas Eve somewhere off the coast of Thailand. The kids were so excited.

Solstice flies a red flag over her bow while anchored near Nha Tang, Vietnam on Dec 29, 2023:

I would not set up a sewing machine in the ship’s public areas. You may be besieged with a line of people on Evening Chic nights requesting some tailoring, alterations, and repairs.

How did you figure out the broken bone in the end? My wife got into a pretty good accident while ziplining at our stop at Puerto Limon almost 20 years ago. When she got back on the ship, she needed sutures for the skin and muscle of her shin and was pretty laid up for the rest of the cruise. Our butler really took good care of her. And follow up visits to see the doctor were pretty easy, too!

I never got into FaceBook and my memory is not great on this so I am not able to give you a clear answer. An example might be that within a set period of time you had to post something on FaceBook regarding Celebrity Cruises. Maybe it was a picture of your favorite moment on Celebrity or something like that. It was Celebrity's way of trying to generate favorable publicity on FaceBook and paying you for it with PowerUp points. Maybe someone else can give a clearer (or more accurate) answer.

I have not heard that shorex spaces are held back for onboard walk ups. Sometimes additional space is created (e.g. an extra tour bus is added), but that is different.

During our recent 12 night Solstice sailing, the blackjack tournament was held one time and it was on the last night of the cruise. On the other sailings I have been on in the past (e.g. 15 night transatlantic), the blackjack tournament was held only once.. There are several different slot tournaments that are run during a cruise. First timer cruisers slot tournament, Captains Club slot tournament, etc.

The last time we had a butler on a Celebrity cruise, I asked him why would a passenger ever ask for unpacking assistance. He told me that he had suite passengers in the past who were very old and feeble that actually needed the help.

When we were on Solstice earlier this month, the 24 hour option cost $32.47. As you can see, it was for Premium Wi-Fi. Also you can sort of see that once you start your 24 hrs of Wi-Fi, the clock runs whether you are using the Wi-Fi or not.

So to recap: When you go to the Future Cruises Department, you have the following options (all involving $100 pp deposits): 1. Book Now. This means you have identified a sailing and cabin and are making a booking "now" while you are on board your cruise. When you do that, you can either decide to make the booking refundable or nonrefundable. The refundable booking will not incur fees if you change the reservation later. If you cancel, you get your $100 pp deposit back. The drawback with refundable bookings is that the fare is usually much much higher. If you book non-refundable, your $100 pp deposit is forfeit if you cancel and if you change your booking, you are going to be assessed a change fee. 2. Book Later. This means you have put your $100 deposit down, but have not identified a sailing to book, but rather you are preserving the option to do so within 6 months. The Book Later option only allows you to book a non-refundable reservation. You can't book a refundable reservation. If you do not find a cruise to apply your Book Later reservation to, you will lose the $100. For suites, the deposit is much higher than $100 and can be as high as 10% of the cruise fare.

I modified my answer to clarify that your $100 deposit is at risk only for non-refundable bookings. That is not the case if you booked a refundable booking. Refundable bookings do not incur any fees if you change or cancel. Non-refundable bookings do. However refundable bookings with a $100 pp deposit can only be made if you make the booking for an actual sailing while on board your cruise. If you are on board and elect to do the "Book Later" option (you don't select a sailing at the time), you are stuck having to make a non-refundable booking.

Yes, if you booked a non-refundable cruise fare.