The_Big_M

As Pushka said, you can still make changes, at a cost. If you can't do it via the website, you can also contact Celebrity directly. Not sure if you're booked under the AU terms or NZ, but if AU, clause 31 covers this: If you book a promotion cruise which stipulates that the deposit is non-refundable, a change fee of AU$100 per person per change will apply up to 151 days prior to departure. Inside of 150 days, ticket contract cancellation conditions will apply. This means you could make changes until around Christmas Day (at a cost of $200 for 2).

In the case of Celebrity though, they included tips in Australian bookings only prior to the global launch of All inclusive for bookings elsewhere, where it included them for other countries. i.e. Celebrity Australia has long included tips when other countries didn't. Given Celebrity websites aren't always perfect/correct and that they don't appear to have updated their Australian booking terms (as posted earlier) so say that Australian bookings still have service charges included (clauses 4 and 22), which matches their long standing local practice of including them, I'd expect that tips alone are still part of Australian bookings (as they'd need to be since those are the terms that apply to your booking). Basically they updated the websites globally to remove tips and forget the exception for Australia.

Price inclusive of anything mandatory. Since tips officially aren't, they don't need to be included in the price. Hence that's why a number of cruise lines, including Cunard don't include tips in the price.

...But keep in mind when a butler was around, they sometimes helped the room attendant with his duties when he was fully loaded, or had something else to do. Or even were just a second set of eyes/notes for any issues. Meaning there was less chance of the above happening when you had two; again to deliver a better level of suite service. Now it's clearly gone down to the one person visiting who, while having a similar official load to what he had before, now doesn't have that extra help to remind, or assist, or just support if something happens. Meaning the service is obviously degraded from what it used to be.

If a room steward is handling 17 rooms, what capacity do they have to take on extra "duties that were previously handled by the butler?" My impression is they just serve under another title to give an impression of being something more (so that Celebrity can avoid paying refunds), but they are normally room stewards, and they have no capacity to do any more.

Also in the camp that's never been contacted in a Sky suite - -seems that's the majority.

It's all about costs vs benefits. While people might say one thing (that being able to smoke would encourage them to play longer); it's extremely unlikely the "trial" saw any significant uplift in casino revenue, which is what the change was all about. It was likely this was seen as a trial to see whether smokers did increase their session times and gaming if they were able to smoke, with e-cigarettes tested upfront. If that hypothesis turned out to be true they would likely roll it out, and then potentially gone on to trial traditional cigarettes once accepted and if smoking was contained. But in that context of no revenue gains, it's an easy choice given all the negative feedback they got to say they "listened to us, and the trial is over, and vaping won't be permitted."

The Royal College of Physicians are clear that vaping is still harmful, not "completely harmless" as you allege. However, they accept it as they consider it less harmful than traditional smoking - that's the only reason why they accept them. And they make clear that is also only under the conditions in the UK, where it is more regulated and does not have the other nasties found elsewhere such as the US, including cannabis. And in their jurisdiction they point out that ecigarettes are limited to those who are already using, or have used, tobacco. Hence it does not have the easy take up that can occur in other locations. So yes, even from the UK authorities it is considered harmful, and especially in the case of Celebrity ships where such vaping products are not exclusively from UK sales, so would invariably be worse than in a UK position statement, the penguins statement is correct and accurate.

"For some reason I have only seen the SV sunset cabins available under guaranty at this particular TA website."

You can... in some cases. Yes, if you paid regular price for a regular cabin, you can reprice. But some sale offerings - which guarantees often are - are new bookings only. In this case an existing booking cannot be converted into this, and then has to be cancelled and then a new booking made.

It's not that you stay there, but any progression beyond that point has to be earnt. Which makes sense to me, both as it would be a bit odd to attend the Pinnacle events, yet not have any sailings with Royal and only be there because you're Zenith. And equally its problematic as beyond that level is when you start getting free cruises, so you'd get a free cruise with each line as you progressed? Not gonna happen.

There's no count unless you check yourself start and finish time while watching, but I'd estimate around 45 minutes.

Finally, this feedback presentation has come up; it's taken quite a while (after they lost the questions the first time). I'd hoped it wouldn't be scripted, but unfortunately it was screened and responses scripted so it is relevant, but less candid. And she's still trying to justify the butler removal with the faux problem. But credit for at least covering all the recent issues.

Saying someone feels uncomfortable is "offensive?" It seems you're saying the poster has to be understanding of that group's cultural background, yet at the same time that other group doesn't have to be understanding of the other cultural backgrounds that the poster was referring to that made them feel uncomfortable.

Yes, absolutely. It's a small island, and you can do a walk around the circuit of it; there will be a few local activities on there (singing, a cauldron, maybe massage, a few local vendors), then you can relax on the beach, swim/splash out or snorkel. If you get off early, they may also be offering their own snorkel/boat excursions on the island. If it's a large ship though, and you wait til the last hour, it may take a while to get back. Last time I was on RCL Explorer there and the queue was one hour to get back on the tender, and that was about 2 hours before all aboard time.

I can't see any reason to think it's different from what they said, that gratuities will no longer be included. Pricing will be the same as at present (with the usual variability). If they were going to reduce the price by the equivalent it would have been sold as being about choice, and the only reason they would do that is to reduce the headline price... but that's only going to be about ~$200 so not much impact in price advertising (or due to complaints about people paying gratuities, but that isn't the case). Same reason they're also gutting the credit included to suite guests, again to boost revenue, not that they'll also cut the suite cost by $400 (+~$200) person, which makes no sense.

Sorry - was fooled by the loft and thought it was Star class.

They offer an extra discount if you pay in full on booking. Which is a fair trade-off. But you can still book with the usual payment terms/timing and prices if you want. Also got this email and liked it. It's nice to see some thought of competition now as it's too often the reverse - someone else reduces benefits/increases costs and then others jump in and copy that.

On Royal though in those cabins, you have the Genie, which is their equivalent of the Butler. Not quite the same, but also not just only your standard room attendants either.

I ran some scenarios on the Celebrity website and worked out it was for: 2 x Specific oceanviews, for 2 people each, as a cruise only fare. BUT, right now only 1 specific is still available and the other is a guarantee. But also means the cost is ~$600 lower @$6962.16 (or $1200 lower if you choose 2 x guarantees, which I'd suggest would be a better choice right now since you can't get both beside each other and don't know where they will be; they may upgrade both to be similar or together). The guarantee is knocking $600 off your price of each cabin, which is the best discount around. As for the key question - price - the general price has been fairly consistent for most of its 2 year sales, and only now with the guarantee available is at its lowest price. So yes, if that's the cabin/sailing you want, given there are only (1?) OV cabin left and it is available at a cheaper guarantee right now is a good time to buy. It's unlikely to fall further and will shortly be unavailable*. If you do not want a guarantee though, wait for final payment - see * below. Celebrity doesn't have codes, but you could shop around different cruise travel agents you may be able to get some extra bonus thrown in, if you're lucky and hurry. Price is unlikely to be any cheaper though. *Note: around final payment 10-17 Nov some cabins will likely be released by people cancelling. Based on numbers remaining I doubt this will cause price to change much, but it will see some cabins returned if you want to wait to select specific ones.

Oh, look making such glib, sweeping generalisations. I could just as easily say "Remember, the tobacco industry, behind e-cigarettes, are the companies that falsely spruiked cigarettes and look where that got us. Millions of tobacco addicts, many cancerous deaths, and billions in taxpayer expense from medical care of those cancer patients. Plus the massive economic losses from all the detrimental health impacts."

... .With Exhibit A your opening line. The evidence you give (CTP Director Discusses Opportunities and Considerations for Addressing Misperceptions About the Relative Risks of Tobacco Products Among Adults Who Smoke | FDA) has no reference to 90%. Further this doesn't even make sense but looks to imply it's only 10% of the damage of traditional smoking. Which is definitely not said in the article. All it says is e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes....which could just as equally mean they do 99% of the damage of traditional smoking.

Although that sailing has passed, you can check the price for the same cabin on the next nearest equivalent. 20th Oct, Celeb Beyond, S1, Rome to Rome, 10 nights. And the price is...EUR7188 per person. You weren't ripped off (in terms of that being the market rate).

The purpose of those is really only to give higher tiers an advantage over lower tiers. i.e. if an Elite and a Select member both bid $200 to go to a verandah, it prioritises the Elite bid at $206 against the Select member at $204, hence awarding it to Elite first of the two, everything else being equal. It's quite clever in that respect, that it's not designed to magnify people's bids to the extent that cash generated from it is less than otherwise i.e. it doesn't supersize your bid to beat someone who actually bid more cash, in general.

Although you're right that it's a degraded level of service, there's no way Celebrity will reduce the gratuities. There are multiple reasons, but not least is that it would mean they are admitting the service is less than before, which would also mean they would have to offer refunds for those existing bookings who wanted to cancel - which there is no way they are going to do.