mahdnc

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.

Originally our 14 night Canal sailing (Summit, Apr 2024) had dining packages available for every number of nights, e.g. 3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8 etc (something like that). Back in October, someone on our roll call pointed out that our choices got trimmed down to 3 nights and unlimited. It's been that way since.

The deposit for all non-suite cabins is $100 per person if you book onboard.

Based on the Singapore to Hong Kong sailing we took last month, the answer is "no", you don't need to apply for the visa if you don't intend to go ashore. There were plenty of passengers on our sailing that boarded without an e-visa (that needed one). They were scrambling to get a visa through the ship, but the point is that they got on board Solstice without one. Celebrity had written instructions for those passengers that did not have a visa and needed one.

We were also on the Dec 22 Solstice sailing (it was great, BTW). You are expected to apply for the e-visa yourself before the cruise. For those passengers that come onboard without an e-visa (and were required to have one), Celebrity will apply for a visa for you but it will cost you $25 and there is no guarantee that the visa will be approved or approved in time before your first Vietnamese port. Guest Relations was flooded with passengers during the first few days of our cruise desperately trying to get their visas applied for and approved. Approval is not instantaneous--it can take 3-4 business days. Celebrity sends out an instructional email on this as your cruise draws closer. Someone posted the email in this thread below (see post 184). There are active links in that post that will take you to the correct website to apply for the e-visa. Definitely apply early because our was rejected because of errors and so it took us some time to submit it correctly and then getting it approved. Please note that only citizens from certain countries (like the USA) are required to apply for the e-visa. Citizens from other countries are not.

My comment was meant only for perakcruiser! Obviously your situation is quite different!

It's very satisfying for the system to work like it's supposed to.

The table below should give you some idea for the answer to your question. In terms of Power Up Point activities, the frequency used to be once a month. However in 2023, it dropped off to about once every two months. Surveys usually are worth 1-2 Club Points while webinars are worth 5 Club Points, but sometimes just 3. That might help you figure out the answer to your question about webinar frequency.

Just another data point: on our Dec 22 2023 Solstice sailing out of Singapore, the Future Cruise forms require a $100 non refundable deposit for Book Later (photo). Also Celebrity's online Book Later form has the same non-refundable language: link