delondin

Access to Michael's club and the concierge is worthwhile. The Concierge always has your back.

I would think the wrap around balcony would give better views which on your itinerary are important and I think there is a small overhang to shelter under if need be. More importantly no noise from the buffet above.

No need to worry - India now has e-visa which takes minutes and is all online. Yes, it can be $100 but it is not a cumbersome process at all.

I'm not sure about other countries, but from the uk the e visa is not valid for the Celebrity cruises.

We are on Constellation next year and will be getting our visas after Xmas. We have been recommended Visa Genie who help with the process for £35 extra each which we have been informed is well worth it.

There is room service for drinks during the night. No need to go out to top deck at all hours.

If you booked a ‘disabled’ hotel room on land would you expect them to arrange trips outside of this ?

Is there bottled water in the fridge?

I always worry about taking passports ashore in case they are lost or stolen in which case they won't let you back on board - this was confirmed by a cruise director.

I would agree it is important to have a good Sommelier. Nothing annoys me more than having my wine that I have carefully chosen to accompany my food arriving with dessert for example. In the past I have actually left my food standing until the wine arrived.

I have yet to experience afternoon tea in the princess Grill restaurant as opposed to the lounge and to me it seems a good idea. The lounge on QV is too small to accommodate the Grills passengers en masse so the space of the restaurant appeals. Also I'm not that keen on low tables (iirc) where food is involved. Will hold judgement until after our January cruise.

On the s class ships be careful which sky suite you pick as some are under noisy buffet areas.

We have been in several of the Infnity Sky Suites through the years, including 14 days last summer.

 

We have found that all of the Sky Suites on the Millennum class ships (which includes the Infinity) have adequate storage in the bathroom. I have significant allergies, so travel with my own fragrance free hand lotions and so forth, so am aware of bathroom storage needs. And while there is a shower curtain, the SS bathrooms have jetted tubs and so are a little wider in dimension. So I have not experienced a clinging shower curtain.

Our Sky suite on Constellation didn't have a jetted tub.

Does anyone think they will add a Southampton departure before the 31 march Barcelona trip?

On this cruise, Elite and above met in Tuscan and Concierge on Opus 4. There was no mention of AQ in the Disembarkation tips - maybe an oversight?

Never seen a special disembarkation lounge for Aqua.

Now wondering if it was a wise decision by Miami to have a ship permantly in the Caribbean.

And what about Edge, the only schedules I have seen are Caribbean ones.

Interestingly we did our first cruise in 1999 with Princess (before we defected to Celebrity!) and thereafter we were really disappointed to find they didn't do the Caribbean in the Uk school summer holidays - in those days they probably didn't have enough ships to be all over. Now there are enough ships the weather gets in the way.

 

Our daughter was a headmistress in a deprived area, and has told us the same fact, and sadly children who do not even know how to use a knife and fork, and eat with their fingers.

I had read that it is quite common for children from 'middle class' families (uk) to be late potty trained as the family can afford nappies and is too busy with reading in the library than such mundane jobs as potty training.

On our last cruise I was surprised that the cost of wines wasn't consistent at different bars. For example Cloudy Bay Sauvingnon was out of the premium package In Luminae ($20 per glass I think) but included at the Burger bar. Annoying as I have always drunk this as part of the premium package.

According to the menus posted an 8 oz gourmet burger is 9.95 and a 4 oz gourmet burger is 4.95 You can buy two 4 oz burgers for (slightly) less then the cost of one 8 oz gourmet burger

And you get twice as many French fries.

The timings don't really work for us. 7pm we are in cabin getting ready for dinner and 9pm we are eating dinner. Sometimes they have a 10.30 entertainer and we usually go to that.

You do not get a dedicated lounge on disembarkation day.

I might have confused my question a little. So IF they offer the preferred benefit does that apply to Aqua class too or just elites and above?

Aqua class do not get priority at all. Have to get a ticket until open tender is called.

From the responses clearly there are a lot more than 2 that share this opinion, but as Celebrity isn't running a democracy votes don't really count now do they ? They are running a business not a social club.

 

To your second point, no where in the Captains Club Rewards Program is there anything about the Company not having the option to cancel a cruise 18 months out. The Loyalty perks are clearly detailed and cancelling for a charter has nothing, to do with Loyalty, it's all about the money.

 

Get over the indignation, the self righteous outrage, and instead make the effort to understand Business is Business, Celebrity has every right to cancel a cruise 18 months out, we as the customer have that same option at 90 days. Weather you take advantage of that option isn't really germane, it is an option.

In the U.K. We don't have that option

If uk based our deposit is non refundable. We do not get the benefit of cancelling for nothing. So when we commit to a cruise 2 years out we book annual leave at work etc so we expect it to be a contract.

What antiviral do you carry and use? To my knowledge there is no effective anti-viral drug treatment for norovirus infection. This is confirmed by the CDC (link below). Are you treating symptoms like nausea and diarrhea instead?

 

https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/about/treatment.html

In the U.K. From Boots pharmacy. They used to have an actual anti viral hand sanitizer which I thought was brilliant. It actually gave you two hours protection after each use. It kept me noro free for 10 years.

However they discontinued this and have replaced it with an anti bacterial sanitizer which I didn't have much faith in because norovirus is obviously a virus and not bacterial. However they actually state on the bottle effective against norovirus. So I used that all the time , after touching anything and before eating etc. It worked this time, so fingers crossed for the future!

I was on the Noro cruise but luckily avoided the bug. I carry my own antiviral and use it religiously after getting the bug a few years ago on a different cruise line - in fact it made me OCD.

I was impressed with the cleaning after the outbreak on the 15th June cruise. Menus were removed and any paper items, i.e. Future cruise sheets etc were taken away. They removed the wooden chairs at the top deck burger bar for spraying and replaced them with plastic ones.

The drinking glasses in the cabin were taken away on the last day of the cruise and replaced with paper cups and all cushions, magazines etc were removed from the cabin. The new robes that usually appear in the wardrobe on the last night were not put there.

When we were disembarking there were several cabins with hazmat staff doing a thorough clean - I presume the cabins where passengers had the bug. Also luggage from passengers with the bug was wrapped in a plastic film and separate area at the collection point. They also delayed embarkation of the next set of passengers in order to do a thorough clean.

I was surprised that they asked ill passengers to go to the medical centre because surely they would be spreading it en route. When it happened to me a few years ago the doctor came to my cabin.

The staff were obviously overstretched due to the bug but in our experience they were all very good.