Jimbo59

Consider the Costco Citibank Card:

4% rebate on gas

3% rebate on travel

2% rebate at Costco

1% rebate on everything else.

No fee.

Do the math based on your spending pattern.

So I signed up on the Princess website for sales and promotions. Now nearly every day I receive an email about some new promotion. But there never is a real price drop for the cruises I am interested in (eight months to a year from now).

Maybe the Princess promotions only apply less than 60 days in advance.

The Princess Advance Deposit is good for two years. Will Princess extend the expiration date if you request it?

Why doesn't HAL offer an unlimited internet package? The best available as of today is 1000 minutes for $250.

Celebrity and RCI offer unlimited packages.

What is the cost of internet packages on Nieuw Amsterdam (or other HAL ships)?

My January Nieuw Amsterdam cruise is up $800 pp with explore 4. Decided not to change.

The piano bars on HAL are great. Celebrity doesn't have piano bars.

On HAL, you feel like you are on a ship on the ocean, especially with the wrap-around promenade deck. celebrity doesn't have that.

Celebrity has more extra cost restaurants than HAL. Celebrity provides minimal info on shore excursions, HAL provides more, Princess is the best with detailed shore excursion itineraries.

On Celebrity you can get discounts at the speciality restaurants.

We are considering the Carnival Pride from Baltimore. Is the new dining experience any good - main dining room, buffet, specialty restaurants, etc?

We have sailed on the Pride several times in the past. How does the dining experience compare to the past?

Remember, if Princess isn't a profit making business, there won't be any cruise, 7 day, 14 day, or any length. They are not going to do a losing money 14 day cruise just for the heck of it. That is NOT a smart business plan.

 

It is amazing how many people think money is not a factor.

Celebrity has true 14 day cruises from Miami.

It's gone beyond threats (or even isolated one-off incidents) in Turkey and specifically in Istanbul. IIRC this is the second attack in as many months in Istanbul alone, one of which specifically targeted and killed tourists.

 

Well the port is under construction and that's what they said, yes - might make people a bit nervy about a boarding any ship in that area if you said months ahead you were cancelling the stop for other reasons. You might find people choose not to cruise at all. Last year when Silhouette had its stops in Israel pulled, Celebrity didn't tell people until 48 hours before sailing when it was too late to pull out for 99.9% of people.

Celebrity only provided passengers about 12 hours notice of the decision not to go to Israel, not 48 hours.

We sail on both lines but just be aware that those "free" perks may not be all they seem.

The initial cost (for us at least) is usually more on Celebrity and then a lot of the "extra" on board expenses are more. Corkage for wine is $25/bottle, the specialty restaurants are about $45- $50/pp, drinks are more expensive, spa treatments a little higher, etc.

As I said, we currently sail both lines but are not fooling ourselves that all of those "free" perks are really free. Celebrity also seems to be slowing cutting back on some of their amenities.

Specialty restaurants are usually discounted once you are on-board. We paid $25-30 each.

A while ago, Celebrity was offering $25 deposits. Does anyone know if this will be repeated soon? We want to book a cruise 18 months from now, but I don't want to tie up $900.00 now.

 

When they designed the Royal I would have thought a conversation like this should have taken place before talking to the architect....

 

Why do people cruise with us-we don't have any waterparks, jungle gyms, lawns or ski slopes?

 

Um, we must have people who are interested on being on a classic ship and looking at the sea. (murmuring)

 

What can we give them?

 

Instead we got...

 

I think we should do away with the wraparound promenade decks and just have a couple of open air platforms with some furniture and cushions that can get wet.

This way the sea sniffers will have to come inside and buy a drink. They can walk up top and get a sunburn if they want.

 

I second that-those people standing on the bow doing their Leonardo di Caprio impressions are not spending. Could we put some slots machines out there?

Hey- if they want to see what's up ahead let's make them pay to use the Sanctuary for the privilege!

 

I say we lessen the number of pools and put a water and light show up there so that when it's windy the folks will get soaked and come inside for a drink. Ca-ching!

 

How's about we just load up the stern with more balcony cabins and forget the suites back there? We can always change our minds when the ship has already been built and just knock two balconies together into hastily-arranged suites. (this actually happened)

 

How's about we shrink the balconies? (applause)

 

Just a few of the things I don't like about the Royal Class.

 

Norris

 

Agree 100 percent. The Grand Class Princess ships are the best, better than Celebrity. The Royal Class have too many design flaws, so Celebrity wins out.

Jimbo59, you're not an insurance salesman perhaps?:)

No, I was just reporting on my experience. See my first post for the list of family members covered.

The insurance company claim form was easy to fill out. It took about 4 weeks to receive my refund.

70+ cruises. At $200 per cruise we would have spent well over $ 15,000 on insurance. We had to cancel one short cruise costing us $ 1,850. Make your own choice.

And one medivac could cost $50,000 to $100,000.

I take medical coverage, but not cancellation. The cost of cancellation insurance seems to be excessive to me, getting close to 7-8% of the cost of a trip. I've taken enough cruises to have saved enough in premiums to make up for a loss if one occurs.

 

You still get a refund for Celebrity for prepaid stuff like beverage packages and shore excursions and port taxes even if you don't have insurance. It's just the cruise fare and travel expenses that are uncovered.

Celebrity Cruise Care insurance cost me less than 5% of the total cruise cost. It also included the "cancel for any reason" future credit.

We needed to cancel a Celebrity cruise because of the illness of a family member. We were past the final payment date and in the penalty phase. We had Celebrity's Cruise Care Policy which covers the sickness or injury to an “Immediate Family Member which includes your or the Traveling Companion's spouse, child, spouse's child, son-daughter-in-law, parent(s), sibling(s), grandparent(s), grandchild, step brother-sister, step-parent(s), parent(s)-in-law, brother-sister-in-law, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, Domestic Partner, or ward."

We received a partial refund from Celebrity for (I assume) some taxes and fees. The balance was refunded by the insurance carrier.

This is not a blanket endorsement of the Celebrity Cruise Care product. We selected it prior to the cruise because of the "Cancel for Any Reason" provision, and I would probably use this product again. Read the policy and make sure it meets your needs.

These are many good insurance plans available. See <www.squaremouth.com>

We needed to cancel a Celebrity cruise because of the illness of a family member. We were past the final payment date and in the penalty phase. We had Celebrity's Cruise Care Policy which covers the sickness or injury to an “Immediate Family Member which includes your or the Traveling Companion's spouse, child, spouse's child, son-daughter-in-law, parent(s), sibling(s), grandparent(s), grandchild, step brother-sister, step-parent(s), parent(s)-in-law, brother-sister-in-law, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, Domestic Partner, or ward."

We received a partial refund from Celebrity for (I assume) some taxes and fees. The balance was refunded by the insurance carrier.

This is not a blanket endorsement of the Celebrity Cruise Care product. We selected it prior to the cruise because of the "Cancel for Any Reason" provision, and I would probably use this product again. Read the policy and make sure it meets your needs.

These are many good insurance plans available. See <www.squaremouth.com>

Am SO enjoying your review and all the wonderful pics! And especially because you are vegetarians like I am. Have you seen any special vegetarian menus? It sounds like you found plenty to eat. I do eat dairy, including cheese, and eggs. Anything that did not have parents actually. Will be sailing Eclipse in April so am especially enjoying anything you can say about what looks like a wonderful ship. Thanks!

Just ask your waiter for the vegetarian menu. There are always a few items that aren't on the regular menu.

Passengers on Silhouette, October 17, 2015 cruise, learned of the missed Israeli ports via email, 10 hours prior to embarkation. Those in transit did not learn about the missed ports until they boarded.

We all have things we like or dislike about various lines, because we all have different things that are important to us. I have sailed on most of the mass market lines and I think Celebrity is one of the lines that I won't be sailing with again. Don't get me wrong, the cruise I had on them was fine. I have never had a bad cruise no matter what line I sailed on.

 

I read a lot on a cruise and I thought that Celebrity had the worst library at sea that I have ever seen. I also prefer a promenade deck that you can actually walk around the ship on, not just up and back on one side at a time, unless you cut through the ship to the other side.

 

I though the food on Celebrity was just as good as on HAL or any other line. I didn't think the entertainment was much different than most lines, with maybe the exception of NCL, which I do think has good entertainment. The specialty restaurants on Celebrity were also quite a bit more expensive than most other lines. As I said before, I enjoyed my cruise on Celebrity but I did miss some of the things that are important to me, so that is why I don't think I will be sailing with them again.

No, the worst library is on Prncess.

And for those who like a piano bar, stick with HAL. Celebrity doesn't have one.

I recently cancelled a cruise and received a credit letter, for a future cruise.

Specifics:

75% of cancellation penalty.

Must be used within one year

Can not be used towards deposit.

Once re-booked, will not be carried forward if you cancel again.

No holiday or inaugural sailings.

The original letter (no copy) must be forwarded to RCI in Miami by you or your TA.

So if it can't be used for the deposit, does that mean you need to book a cruise that costs more than the cruise credit?

How did it work? Was it easy to re-book? Could you re-book with your travel agency, or only with RCI?

Did you receive any cash refund in addition to the "Cancel for Any Reason" credit?

The MDR, Blu, Luminae, etc. are high end banquet food, better than most hotel restaurants. The Lawn Club Grill on some Celebrity ships cooks every main course to order.

It is interesting that Celebrity's weekly (sometimes daily) e-mails offer all sorts of specials. Just this week I received an offer of $300-500 on board credit for a new booking.

It would have been good customer relations to have offered the Silhouette passengers similar consideration for the missed ports and the late notice.