wrk2cruise

The only thing that can usually be done is to identify a "better" cabin at least $1 more than you paid and upgrade to it paying the difference. Of course the upgrade will be at the prevailing rate/promo for that category. Sometimes if there has been a dramatic price drop you can get a much better cabin for a small $$. Other than that there's nothing.

TA gave you the right answer. It's back to the way it was pre-covid. During the restart there was a program called Cruise with Confidence which did give a price gty if it dropped after final you got the difference in OBC. That's been gone for over a year. Read the other thread.

The new embarkation procedures are very efficient. If you arrive at 12:30 I'm sure you will not have any issue boarding in a relatively short time. Most of the rush should be over by then.

We were on Infinity last March and it was problematic getting connected to the ships wifi infrastructure. Once connected to wifi the Starlink internet was fabulous. I suspect it was the number of people trying to connect to wifi that was the problem as it was very difficult to connect in crowded places. Infinity recently had dry dock so I would think that this problem may have been addressed with increased number or updated wifi access points.

Because many Celebrity regulars frustrated with the changes of the last 18 months are looking for alternatives. After 65+ we sailed Windstar Motor Yacht in January and leave for another one next week. Will return to Celebrity this summer, but no longer exclusively.

Did you try this? They won't upgrade you for $0 but if you can find a better cabin that you want for little $$ over what you paid they have always done that as an "upgrade" charging the delta between what you paid and the prevailing rate.

Just cancel the flight by calling Flights By Celebrity. I had a reservation with flights that I wanted to move to another sailing. My TA had me call FBC and cancel the flights before he could move the reservation.

Since this came from the executive office I suspect you will be satisfied with the result. If anyone else at Celebrity gave you this advise I'd laugh.

Another vote for Woodwind in Bonaire if they still have spots available. They always sell out early. Best snorkel trip I've done.

It's cruise search tool which can track prices. I believe it is ok to mention here (I've seen it mentioned multiple times) since they are not a travel agency and don't sell travel. I have a watchlist setup and do monitor it daily but the graphs shown are listed on my watchlist for each category I'm watching. www.cruiseplum.com

I know you aren't relating Covid to the sewage experience. It's just a fact of life that chances are pretty good of coming home after a cruise with covid. Much like it used to be the dreaded cruise cough (which is another upper respiratory virus). Unfortunately people experiencing symptoms on vacation don't care and continue to mingle with the masses. "It's my vacation".

The answer is they never "gave" OBC. It's factored into the price you pay and is used as a Marketing tool. They still use OBC in some of their promos which seem to change every 2 or 3 days. Sometimes it's $200 discount sometimes $150 discount, sometimes it's not a discount but rather OBC. By the way anybody figure out that lately the higher discount promo are generally over the weekends when most people's TA's are not available? These ever changing promos are really just a waste of everybody's time. Here is the price history for the last 30 days for some of my future cruises. The higher blips are usually mid week when no discount is offered.

There are 2 different types of OBC being confused here. The onboard booking bonus OBC which is defined by the length of the sailing, stateroom type and if it's a repositioning sailing or not. I agree that at times they may miss the fact that a sailing is a repositioning cruise and give the regular amount. I've also had sailings which they designate a repositioning which in my mind are questionable. Shareholder benefit which is based solely on the length of the cruise.

But the shareholder credit is still $250 vs $100 on 14 night or longer sailings. I agree this probably has nothing to do with Celebrity shortening all their itineraries.

It's $50 per leg for shorter sailings, $100 for longer legs. I think it's 10 days or more for the $100. But I agree it's almost always on you to ask for it.

My TA still gives me 10% of the base cruise fare minus his non commissionable cruise fare.

I didn't think it was particularly a negative either. It's just one of those things that everyone here seems to say about Windstar. I didn't even really think about it until I got home.

I'd speak to the Matre'd on the last day of your first sailing. I think sometimes they take notes and then put it in the system when the system is reset during the change over.

We have been Celebrity loyalists primarily due to DW's dietary restrictions. We have experienced the wild ride of food decline on that line over the last 18 months. Reduced menus, reduced selection, reduced quality of ingredients, and upcharge items. Granted some of the most egregious changes have been reversed but the standards are no where near where they were at the restart after covid. We took our first Windstar sailing on Star Breeze in January from Auckland to Tahiti. We noticed a tremendous difference with inproved quality of ingredients. Service in the dining room was sort of hit or miss. Maybe this was because we shared tables nightly and had different servers most nights. They handled DW's dietary restrictions very well, on par with Celebrity. The only exceptions was our second meal in Candles, first one was perfect, second one they hadn't prep'ed DW's special order sides and we could hear the chef screaming at the Matre'd. Then she was served the entry on top of a shmere that she couldn't eat (even though ordered "plain/no sauce". Matre'd argued why she couldn't eat it. Finally took it back and re-prepared. Just made us feel uncomfortable. When asked by Amphora Matre'd who had been taking care of everything how it was we described our disappointment. It ended there. I would have thought he would have offered another visit to make it right (which we would have declined). Oh well. We really enjoyed the ambiance of Amphora. Service elsewhere on the ship was good but I think only 1 crew member called us by name. He was our waiter on the first night only and the Barista. We are heading off on Star Legend in less than 2 weeks for 23 days. It will be interesting to see how the quality is when provisioned from a different part of the world.

I believe in Royal Suite and above you do get the beverage package and premium wifi as an amenity of the suite (not a booking perk). There have been threads on this before where people have come back and confirmed. Read the MoveUp offer for the Royal Suite carefully. I believe it is documented there. They call it All-In, not to be confused with All Included or Always Included which are booking packages. You definitely don't get gratuities.

Often when talking with people over pre dinner drinks in the Retreat lounge people decide to dine together as well.

Last time we were on Constellation (a year ago) the TV system wasn't interactive so you couldn't get the account balance on the TV. It is available on the app. I wonder if they will upgrade the system during the April Drydock?

Neither, they keep the cash. Remember we are discussing paid in full cruises here.

I had this particular issue when I had to cancel a cruise as my dad died 2 days prior to departure. I was booked via a well known agency many here use. They charged me the $50 pp cancellation fee (which I had agreed to when booking) but in addition I was to get $400 in OBC from them. So yes they got to retain that $400 in addition to the commission they would have normally got. I booked 2 new cruise a week later and they did give me the cancellation fee ($100) in OBC as a "one time good will gesture". Their handling of this really did sour me so I understand the OP. I have since moved away from this TA.