leaveitallbehind

...which is true of virtually any cruise line - even those where families with kids are their primary demographics.

Well there's your answer....LOL

The vouchers are pre-loaded daily on your SeaPass card but are recorded by the bartenders in the Crown lounge as well as any bar on the ship. No more unlimited Crown Lounge drinks. (Hasn't officially been for some time with the vouchers). Diamonds are no longer permitted in the Crown Lounge during the cocktail hour. They can (and must) however use their vouchers at any other bar on the ship (other than the Bionic Bar) during those hours. It is now a lounge reserved during those hours for D+ and Pinnacle - regardless of numbers on board. D's still have access to the Crown Lounge and the Concierge at any other normal lounge and Concierge hours during the day. And this is on all sailings, not some, and was being enforced on our recent NYE Oasis cruise.

Nope I take you at your word and stand corrected. My TA does not charge a change fee and that was not what motivated my comment. I was just unsure of the impact, if any, (by Celebrity) on a category change with an on board booking booked with a NRD. You enlightened me.

I am sure that your sailing is still selling, but you may not hear on your assignment until close to the sailing date. We have booked a number of GYT's and the process is as I described it. And if they accepted a deposit from you and issued a reservation number to you, then you will get a stateroom. When GTY's are offered they allocate a certain number of staterooms to that GTY and will only accept deposits when there are still staterooms available in that allocation. Once closed, assignments will be issued. BTW - nobody was sailing during covid as the cruise lines were shut down - LOL. Congrats on your sailing career! Keep cruising.

Not challenging you, but in our experience with both lines as indicated in my first post I have to say we have seen that exact issue on a number of RCCL ships as well. Target demographics are one thing, and they do accurately describe the tone with each cruise line. But extended families and older couples traveling by themselves also are present on the RCCL itineraries - in particular the longer 9+ day ones. Every line - the two in this thread included - will have a range of demographics. But I have also seen younger couples (in particular with the EDGE class ships) on Celebrity and typically not an over abundance of elderly. That would more likely fit HAL. Just another observation.

What @Jim_Iain is on track, but I will try to further clarify the comparisons. We have 50+ combined cruises on RCCL and Celebrity. As mentioned, they are not sister ships. They are two separate cruise lines owned by the same parent company - Royal Caribbean International. As such they operate independently and are very different from each other. RCCL (Royal Caribbean) has a primary demographic focus with families (with children). As such, their main focus is now with their mega ships (Oasis, Quantum, and Icon classes) that are heavily oriented in venues for that demographic. (Aqua theater, Ice Show, rock climbing walls, water and dry slides, zip line, bumper cars, IFly, flowriders, etc. - sometimes referred to as a floating amusement park). They also have very good entertainment to include Broadway based shows and high tech performances (Quantum class - Two70 theater), as well as a very well managed kids club. Passenger load on board these vessels ranges from 4,900 (Quantum class) to 7,600 maximum capacities. (Icon class) In short, Celebrity has none of that. Their primary demographics is adults 50+. Polar opposite of RCCL. The ships are smaller with their larger Solstice and Apex class ships at 2,850 to 3,400 maximum capacity. The on board atmosphere is more serene with a more "pure" cruising atmosphere and none of the amusement park venues. Dining is very good, entertainment not on the same level as RCCL but good with headliners and special acts. They also offer a kids program, but as there are far less children (very few on most cruises we've been on) than RCCL, their program is not as robust. Both lines offer very good European itineraries, with Celebrity offering similar 7- day itineraries as with RCCL, but Celebrity seems to offer more in the 7+ day range for longer cruises. Consider the differences between the two and go with the one that fits your preferences the best.

I thought the RCCL / Celebrity policies were the same and RCCL has always been 2 per stateroom, not per person. Which I thought would also apply to Celebrity. (We are not wine drinkers so we don't bring any on board, hence my uncertainty). So your information would seem right, although the information was stated - whether one or two - as per person. Confusing. But whether it is one per person or two per stateroom the net is the same (with double occupancy).

Not sure I follow your bluechip reference, but with Celebrity, the GTY's are typically assigned within the general Category in which you book - Inside, OV, Veranda, Concierge, etc. While it is not uncommon for them to assign a higher subcategory within each general category, it is very rare for them to jump general categories with the assignment as each has their own GTY fare. In other words, if you are booked in an Oceanview, then you are likely to receive an OV 02 or 01 assignment. I would think it would be very unlikely that your OVY GTY would wind up with an XC (Concierge GTY) stateroom assignment. That would be a 9 subcategory jump across two general categories! Not sure why you were given that advice. If you booked your OVY GTY with a non-refundable deposit you would lose that to rebook any higher GTY category. Maybe they were thinking of that when they advised against it. Whatever happens, good luck and I hope you are ok with the stateroom assigned. And again, that can be changed, but only into another stateroom as the category and subcategory assigned.

The GTY process is the same regardless of ship. The assignment window can be anytime after booking to day of sailing. But in reality, and in our experience, it typically occurred 10 days prior at the latest and about 30 - 45 days out. But the important thing is if for some reason you are not happy with the assigned location, contact your travel agent if you used one, or Celebrity directly if you did not, and they can move you to any other available stateroom within the category and subcategory that was originally assigned. No hassle and no charge to do so. That being said we have generally been happy with the assignment, but on those few occasions when we preferred a different location, we were moved to one without any issue.

Why can you no longer get the All Included fares? The only thing that changed in 2023 with that option was the elimination of the gratuities from AI. Basic WIFI and Classic beverage package are still offered with AI, both which can be upgraded to Premium. Most itineraries are offering Standard and this revised AI fare structures.

You must have started your reply before I edited my response. I realized exactly what you meant and if you go back to that response you will see I was able to completely eliminate my mistaken CL reference. Oh well senior moment followed by slow typing skills.....

PA guidelines: While there is no age limitation to participate in jury service, citizens who are 70 years of age or older, upon receipt of a Qualification Questionnaire or Summons, may request an age-related excusal that will permanently remove them from the Court's list of prospective jurors. Kind of odd in away in that you would think they would be the more older and wiser of the pool....

And as I'm certain you are aware, the new "guidelines" for the Crown Lounge is D+ and Pinnacle only during the stated cocktail hours, D can have access anytime before or after based on Crown Lounge hours - and this was enforced. They also still have full access to the Concierge, just not during the cocktail hours. This was the situation on our recent Oasis NYE cruise. I don't know how far back your "wayback" machine goes with our posts, but at one point a number of years ago when they first introduced the drink coupons for D and higher, I "suggested" that the ultimate result would be the current D restriction to the Diamond Club as a way to "thin the heard" in the crowded lounge.

I understand completely. Just passing on our experience with RCCL / Celebrity since they started the check in slot thing. Earlier on it was a bit more frantic, but not so in the recent couple of years. All I was trying to convey is that it is not necessary to stand guard at your computer (or phone) to be the first to hit the queue when the check in opens. But, again, I understand your motives.

I agree with, understand that - but as @doghog correctly points out, the OP is looking for this information in advance of the next sailing.

This "policy" has come and gone and evolved over time. If in place, my understanding of this is it applies if you bring an unopened, non-ship supplied, bottle to dinner for service and storage. Not sure how aggressively this is enforced, however. Nor do I know any correlation to any drink package as those apply to ship supplied beverages. Sorry.

Aside from my curiosity of why you want to know, I'm not sure how readily available that information will be. It would likely only come from the Crown Lounge or Suite Lounge Concierge and, assuming they would be willing to release it, they may not yet know themselves (and even if they do) as they are still in the middle of busily working a current itinerary and, in our experience, typically don't start looking upcoming itineraries and preparing for them until the end of the current one. Assuming you find someone to ask for you, I certainly could be wrong and they may tell them. But good luck.

Correct as security's responsibility is not to inform the cruise line of who is bringing how many of what, but only to assure that within each passenger's carry on is the allowed items in allowed amounts. And to hold anything exceeding those. But my question remains - what is the current correct policy, one bottle pp or two?

If you call Celebrity and ask for their Access Department 30 days prior to sailing with your reservation number and tell them of your requirements they should be able to provide distilled water and an extension cord for you, which, if not already in the stateroom, will be provided by your stateroom attendant when you check into your stateroom. This is not an uncommon situation and I am sure Celebrity can have it set up in the least intrusive manner for your stateroom.

Agree - especially as they can do it through the booking on line and do not have to talk with a Celebrity rep. In our experience the TA did it while we were on the phone with them to confirm our new selection. (I'm also somewhat surprised Celebrity did it directly since @cruisers5 indicate they booked through a TA). Either way I would find a different TA who understood the process and their responsibility to the customer.

That's why posted my information as your information is what it always had been and I thought it must have changed and was not something I had previously been aware of. The information posted is dated January '23 - just over a year ago. Honestly my initial response would have been to agree with you until I saw what I posted. Confused and curious as to which is correct - and would like to know for sure.

From Celebrity Cruises alcohol policy dated 1/17/23: ....each guest (of legal drinking age) is permitted to bring onboard up to two (2) bottles of wine (which are subject to a corkage fee) per guest.Jan 17, 2023 As also mentioned, do so in your carry on.

But most cruise lines ship check in's have a number of check in times available with 100's of passengers that can fill each one. It's not like checking in to Southwest Airlines - you don't have to hit the first minute of check in window to secure your preferred time. There will be desirable slots available for days, and enough slots open at some point to accommodate all passengers, regardless of when they check in. Relax and don't panic. We have done it numerous times - often several days after check in opened - and had several desirable (early) time slots available.

Most scooter providers for cruise passengers are third party rental companies such as this one: https://scootaround.com/en/cruise-scooter-rentals There are others if you google "cruise scooter rentals" or other similar searches.