mahdnc

Glad you were ok and didn't miss the ship!

Unfortunately, the email is the correct response--as you already know--but it should have been in place from the beginning which would have eliminated this rags to riches to rags story. It was a lot of work on your part only to end up in the same place that you started (and a 6am outbound flight at that!). I am sorry all this happened to you. Hopefully your cruise will go a lot better when the time comes. If it's possible, give your mind a much needed rest today. Or give your dog a hug. If you don't have one, you should get one. They love you no matter what class you are flying in.

Thank you for posting your well written review. How did you think it compared to the other lines you've been on such as Princess? Would you book Celebrity again?

If you click on this link, it will take you to a simple spreadsheet tool which will allow you to see shore excursions and pricing offered for your Celebrity sailing of interest: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ukT6gOPcu7coL92LuDcyDaWXQfO88u5kN9FEdHRj5bM/edit?usp=sharing The tool is useful because there is no other way to see the current shorex offerings for a particular sailing unless you book the cruise first. Where's the fun in that? On the off chance that you can't get it to work for you, just ask for help on this thread. We would need to know the specific cruises you are interested in.

If the OBC shows up in your Cruise Planner on Celebrity's website, you can use it to purchase the 5 day dining package. When you checkout, you are given the opportunity to declare how much OBC you want to use--with the balance, if any, charged to a credit card.

When you book through FBC, your booking status is "confirmed" until you actually pay, at which time the booking status changes to "ticketed". I guess in hindsight (super hindsight), you could have locked in your good fortune by immediately contacting FBC and (after a very long hold time) pay for your ticket.

I agree. Decor aside, the bathroom actually would need to be bigger to put in a proper bathtub and maybe a double bowl sink to bring it up to suite standards. But where it is currently positioned, it could not be made bigger without causing problems with the rest of the cabin layout (e.g. cut off access to the balcony door or main cabin door). The bathroom would have to be relocated and that was probably a very expensive task to reroute piping to accommodate that, if it could be done at all.

A historical technicality: there were Horizon Suites (HS) also aboard Horizon when she was part of the fleet back in the day.

Those cabins definite suffer from noise because of their location. If the anchor is being dropped or raised, for example, you can hear it and it might wake you up in the morning. For the six times that we were on Solstice class FV (all on Deck 8), I was fortunate to not hear anything as bad as you were describing. Maybe it's the difference between being on Deck 7 and 8.

These were first categorized as Family Veranda cabins (FV) as mentioned by the previous poster. When Silhouette was drydocked for her Revolution makeover in early 2020, those 4 cabins were modified and rebranded first as Sunset Suites and now as Horizon Suites. The other ships did not undergo this FV to suite conversion although there were plans to (Covid interrupted this). We have sailed in the FVs on Solstice, Eclipse, and Reflection half a dozen times. Although I could be biased because I didn't like Celebrity taking the FV away, if I were shopping for a suite, I have the following problems with the Horizon Suite: 1. It is too expensive compared to the other suites. I believe the list price is somewhere in between a Celebrity Suite and Royal Suite. For my money, I would rather book a CS, if it were cheaper. 2. Although the Horizon Suite is blessed with a huge amount of space befitting a suite, the bathroom is the same standard bathroom found in non-suite staterooms and it is not attached to the master bedroom. Basically they left the bathroom unchanged in terms of its furnishings and they could not relocate it either because the plumbing pretty much keeps it where it is. 3. The balconies for the two Horizon Suites on Deck 7 are lousy. They were bad when compared to a standard veranda cabin. They would be very bad as a suite balcony. The balconies are smaller than the adjacent cabin balconies and the sight lines are obstructed by the metal of the ship. Two people standing at the rail may not be able to see out unless one person bent down or was seated. The balconies for the two Horizon Suites on Deck 8 are very nice and do not have this problem. Their balconies are actually wider (longer) than the balcony from the adjacent cabin.

I have only used FBC three times. One for a cruise I ended up cancelling, one for a cruise that we took (Oct 2022 Constellation Rome to Tampa TA), and one that we hope to take next year (Miami to Los Angeles, Panama Canal). From those 3 limited experiences, I have not found FBC prices to be significantly better than what the airline websites showed at the same time. After successfully using FBC for our flights on last Oct's TA (ORD-FCO and TPA to ORD), we did not have any nightmare problems, but I disliked the FBC experience compared to what it would have been if I had booked directly with United: 1. When we purchase airfare directly with United using our United branded credit card, my wife and I each get a free checked bag. When we purchased our United airfare thru FBC (using a United branded credit card), we did not get the extra free checked bag and we ended up having to pay a checked bag fee. The checked bag fees wiped out the $100 savings that we got from Celebrity for booking through FBC (oh, but I got 5 Club Points for booking through FBC, so there's that!). 2. After making our reservations online through FBC, it took several long phone calls to get our frequent flyer and KTN information attached to the reservation even though I filled those fields out when I made the initial booking on FBC's website. For some reason, I could not do it thru United's website (yes, it could be a user error problem). I also had to call to get my seats assigned. All that inconvenience goes away when you book direct. 3. I am fairly certain that the amount of frequent flyer points that I was awarded for the flights was less than I would have received if I booked myself. However I am not 100% sure that this is true because I don't remember the actual one-letter fare code for the tickets that I could have bought through the United website. 4. I would periodically receive computer generated emails from FBC advising me that my itinerary was affected by an airline schedule change and that they were working on it and would have it resolved with a turnaround time of 48 hours - 30 days depending on when my flight was scheduled to leave. The first time I got this email, I went to the United website only to find that the flight schedule had changed by a few minutes--so no big deal. There are two issues here. First the email with its dramatic wording is automatically generated even for small flight schedule changes and can cause a lot of anxiety the first time you receive it. The 2nd problem is if your flights really required FBC to do something to fix it (being rebooked on new flights), the published expected turnaround times are way too long compared to what you can do by yourself if you have control over the ticket. Also, the airlines are working to make it easier for passengers to deal with flight disruptions/cancellations on their app: United upgrades mobile app, allowing fast rebooking for canceled, delayed flights So why did I book FBC for next year's cruise? First off, I only used them for the return flights but not on my precious outbound flights to get me to our cruise. I saw on Delta's website a very good price for First Class to go home: LAX-MSP-ORD. We usually do not spend money on domestic first class although with each passing year, I keep thinking about it. I currently hold two award tickets for Economy on a LAX-ORD non stop flight to go home on American Airlines which can be cancelled with no penalty. I wanted time to think about it and to keep the option open for booking it before prices went up, so I went to the FBC website and found the same first class fare on the same Delta flights (it was $5 pp cheaper) and I booked it. Although my frequent flyer and KTN information that I entered while making the booking didn't stick, I was able to go to the DL's website and add my freq flyer and KTN information and I was able to choose our seats as well.

I agree

It's not a single thread. I'm just saying that every month someone starts a thread that discusses a negative experience with FBC.

You only need the wetsuit for snorkeling.

There are many CC-ers who swear by FBC and many who swear at them. Your story about long times on the telephone and having FBC and the airline pointing at each other is not uncommon--the worst thing is that they can both agree something needs to be done but will insist that the other guy has to do it. Surely you have seen the FBC-is-killing-me thread that comes up at least once a month (unfortunately yours is the one for June). On the other hand there are many CC-ers who are very happy with FBC. They get a better air fare price than what they could get directly through the airlines or how FBC was quick to the rescue on a major problem during the day of travel (e.g switched them to a different carrier). I agree with you that not having control over your own ticket when problems have to be resolved is a major drawback. On the other hand, not having to pay for the air fare until your cruise final payment is due is a major attraction.

I assume that you were unassuaged.

This door sign is approved by davekathy....

oooooooh.

Back in 2016, I was brought my Apple TV and successfully connected it to our Eclipse stateroom flat screen. I used it for mirroring from my iPad.

That was a Celebrity provided one.

Like this one?

I used a TA and she called it in.

That is a good question; but I don't think it changes the initial requirement that 5 passengers are needed to book it. Right now I have my family booked in next year's Summit UV cruise.

Yes, it should work very well for 2 adults and 2 small kids. Of course the Kids Club (Camp at Sea) is all the way forward! If it is available and the price is right, I would encourage you to look at the 4 UV cabins all the way at the front on Decks 7 & 8. No wonderful view of the wake, but you pick up more room. Parents and kids will have their own room for sleeping and you pick up a living/dining area with balcony of course.