PartyAllDaTyme

[quote name='ghstudio']I'm really not tracking the individual posts, I was just curious about cabin choices as a very rough and inaccurate view of board participant demographics. I'm not trying to make any judgments from this...just curious if we are representative as we talk among ourselves. Do I vaguely recall another poll here on captain's club levels? (if not, it would be another interesting poll).

From the poll, we have a smaller percent of inside/outside cabin participants than I would have thought. Of course, you can't equate that to folks with less disposable income...some who cruise extensively enjoy inside/outside cabins for various reasons. The suite response seems to support my observation that we have a high number of suite guests participating here. I don't know if this is new or due to folks interest in the recent changes.[/quote]

I'm puzzled as to why you asked what class people usually sail in, then ask in the poll what class they have booked next or sailed in last. We usually sail in Veranda, but chose Concierge for our last cruise because it was a special occasion. We may very well choose Coincierge again, but depending on the ship and the price.

They sing Happy Birthday? I just may have to remove my special occasion from my booking.

 

You haven't lived until you've had a team of waiters, for whom English is not their first language, sing "Hoppy Birs-day to Juuu...":):p:D

 

Our experience with candles on last cruise on Summit-- 30th anniversary, we opted for the Renewal of Vows package. Options include bringing an anniversary candle with you. You have to provide the anniversary candle, but Celebrity provides the tapers for the couple to ceremonially light the candle with. Once aboard and speaking with the activities director about the details, she said that she had never heard of candles being used or approved of by Miami, but if we really wanted to, she'd go out at our first port of call to purchase some tapers for us.

 

When it came time for the ceremony, she told us she didn't have to go out shopping-- she located some from Normandie. When the time came, the tapers were lit, we lit the anniversary candle, and I then announced, "Now, in the interest of safety, we're gonna make a wish and blow before we burn down Michael's Club!" All had a good laugh, including Captain Leo. Flames were present for a total of about 30 seconds.

 

After we got home, I reread the info from the Celebrity wedding staff. It did say that candles were allowed, but that they could not be lit.

 

As far as getting a cake, candles or no, I've had some problems despite filling out the online information about special events. On one, my birthday was ignored on the day, but I got a card the next day. That next day also was our anniversary, which we had also indicated as a special event, but that was ignored completely. Still a great cruise.

 

On our last, remembering the previous snafus, I stopped by Guest Services Sunday morning to remind them we had a birthday coming up on Monday and anniversary coming up on Tuesday. That night, the maitre d' asked if I was celebrating a birthday-- told him no, that's tomorrow night. The night of my birthday, nothing. We asked about it and were told they can provide a cake but need 24 hours notice. I explained having notified via website, at Guest Services, and with maitre d' the day before, and a cake was somehow miraculously produced. I won't even go into what happened with the special anniversary cake we received with the renewal of vows ceremony-- that was even more confusing.

 

It's really a small thing. It didn't cause me to question my decision to book or to continute to book with X, but it is a bit irritating. It's rather implied that they will give you a little recognition, then bollox it up. Makes you wonder about attention to detail in other areas.

 

Edit-- oh, yeah, the birthday cake had a couple of small candles that we took with us in case we needed them to light the anniversary candle.

As a family on our 8th cruise we fall just under Elite Plus. Frustrating as we will bump up a category on our next B2B legs... benefits will not catch up with us I'm sure until next booking.

 

I agree with other posters that X can't placate and make everyone happy. That is also a job I would not like to have.

 

We will just have to appreciated what we get in the way of "perks" and be grateful we have the finances, health and ability to travel, see the world and meet such great people!

 

:-)

 

If you'll become Elite+ after your first leg of your B2B, speak with the Captain's Club representative on board. They will verify your new status for the next leg.

IMO, if another Captains Club level were to be created, Celebrity shouldn't overthink this. As with Zenith, they should pay homage to one of their past ships. Why not Horizon, Mercury or Galaxy ? Century would also be a good fit, as she's departing Celebrity's fleet in less than a year.

 

While they are at it, I hope Celebrity considers renaming Elite Plus, to any of the above names.

 

I maybe should have put more tongue-in-cheek smileys:rolleyes: into that post!

 

Elite Plus mirrors Diamond Plus in Crown & Anchor, so I'm okay with that, I guess. I once facetiously suggested that Captain's Club would be coming out with a new level above Zenith called Horizon, with 10,000 points necessary. The one above that would be Galaxy, and reincarnation would be necessary:rolleyes::eek::D.

Does anyone know for sure if Celebrity monitors the board or is it a public relations firms that monitors for Celebrity. I know other cruiselines use a public relations firm to monitor the boards. Cannot remember who it was. Just curious.

 

FWIW, when I had asked why Celebrity Cruises doesn't post more, part of the response was that it was late evening in Miami.

I have suggested to people at Celebrity that there be a new level at 1500points. They could just give more internet and laundry and I believe most would be happy. I believe that it would be a good marketing device as it might encourage some to cruise to reach another level. But, I too doubt that Celebrity wouldn't place this high on their agenda at this time. The new benefits at the Elite+ and Zenith levels are great and most appreciated.

 

Maybe they can make another splash, so to speak, in a year or so by announcing an intermediate level.

 

Is it too early to start talking about names? Elite Plus Plus won't work:rolleyes:-- has to be something less than "top-of-the-heap" so it doesn't conflict with Zenith, so Acme, Paramount, Apex and the like are out. Possibly something "Celebrity" related, like Star or Superstar. How about Diva:D?

Well, it currently is 10:50 pm here in Miami, so not sure how much more active we can be. Speaking on policy, occasionally we want to help assist, but there isn't always a statement that we can provide that covers everyone and everything. Unlike Facebook, Twitter, and the other social networks, we're not really able to give individualized support over Cruise Critic, because we can't privately exchange information.

 

Gotcha. Thanks for the info! I wasn't suggesting a 24 hour presence, but at least more general comments on general topics. There have been many occasions when I've been following a thread and said to myself, "I sure wish Celebrity Cruises would weigh in." But I understand you may be limited in the responses you can provide for various reasons.

Hi all,

 

We read many, if not all threads that are posted here. We try our best to answer as many as we can, but this isn't always an easy task. Our 'Celebrity' board for example has 10,964 threads, not including each individual post. Some questions are easily answered, and some require some time. Additionally, just because we don't provide an answer, doesn't mean your voice wasn't heard. Recently, we learned that music volume was either too high, or too low on some of our ships. We looked into the issue, and we acted fast to remedy, and we want to thank the Cruise Critic community for assisting.

 

This is only an example, but we are here to answer when possible, and are always trying to clear up any rumors or confusion, as well as sharing your thoughts and ideas internally.

 

Thank you as always for what participation you can provide! Since you (and the higher ups) do listen to us Cruise Critic members, I'll repeat my suggestion to have your position made more active, more of a full-time thing with respect to posting on Cruise Critic. I'm sure this is not your only job responsibility, but I think it would be worthwhile for X if more time was spent. While there are over 10,000 threads, you'd only need to comment on the current ones, especially if the topic has anything to do with Celebrity policies. I'd hope you could convince the Powers That Be to allow more time than that needed for an average of just one comment every four days.

There was a time when I would have automatically said "Celebrity or nothing." It was when they had the only smoking policy (except Oceania) that prohibited smoking on the balcony. This is a dealbreaker for us because of DW's health. But now that Princess, RCI, MSC and Costa have similar policies, we may have to look more carefully at the cost. Our first loyalty is to X because they were there for us when no one else was, but that only goes so far. If their price is double what one of the other lines mentioned are for essentially the same cruise, it would be very hard to justify.

Keep in mind that GTYs are not necessarily final once assigned. They still could change.

Two cases in point where X listened to Cruise Critic members-- the ill-fated "X The Rules" ad campaign and the revised Captain's Club tiers. I'd wager the constant chatter here about the need for an Elite Plus level finally convinced them of that need, and only secondarily the voices of non-CC customers.

 

I'd also wager they weigh all comments, as well as most of the comments on Cruise Critic, but after counting all the beans feel that they can't please everyone, or can't afford to please everyone. And continually responding with "We took that into consideration, but at this time it's not economically viable" would get old after a while. Why they don't take the hints about their frustrating website, though, I'll never know.

 

But I certainly think Celebrity Cruises (the Cruise Critic member, not the cruise line) could be much more active. Currently, he/she/it's averaging only one post every four days. He/she/it could at least respond to my friend request:rolleyes::):cool:! Shouldn't Celebrity Cruises want to be friends with everyone?;)

I'd also be a little perturbed about privacy if people started waving to me from a higher deck. Isn't visibility from other staterooms the cause of much discussion here with regards to privacy?

 

Big difference between peeking around the partition between your neighbor's veranda and being out in the open, in full view, on the balcony of a PH. I would not have even attempted polite conversation if I was on Deck 8, but was on Deck 7 with the PH on Deck 6. I didn't have to wave or even raise my voice. And I have had PH residents call up to me while I've been out on the balcony-- never felt like they were being intrusive.

 

I would not have said anything like, "Do you mind if we come down and visit you? I always wanted to see what the PH was like." If, as a result of friendly conversation between neighbors, they had said, "Would you care to join us?" that would have been appreciated, but it's more difficult to make a friend without saying hello first. And if they had no interest in inviting us down or even conversing, that would have been the end of it. It's not like I had any interest in badgering them, and I wouldn't think a comment like "Enjoying the cruise?" would be considered overly intrusive.

 

BTW, I did offer my sympathies and asked if there was anything we could possibly do to help. She thanked me for the offer, but said everything that could be done had been done. I then left her to her thoughts.

We were in an aft cabin, right above the PH. My thinking was that if I saw someone on the balcony, I'd call down to them to strike up a friendly conversation and maybe wangle us an invitation to come visit my new friends in the PH.

 

First morning in St. Croix, I went out and saw a gaggle of people sitting around the table under the umbrella, many of them X staff. Boy, they really go all out to welcome the PH guests, I thought. Shortly, they were joined by a man in a USVI Police t-shirt. Possibly they had a robbery? DW woke up and we went to breakfast.

 

After breakfast, I came back onto the balcony and saw an older woman, just gazing out at the sea, though we were in port. Still trying to be friendly, I called out, "Good morning! Are you enjoying the cruise so far?" "Not so much," she replied. "My husband died last night."

 

:eek::eek::eek:

 

After thinking about it, if you gotta go, that's a good way. Too bad it wasn't at the end of the cruise.

 

I was told it's common for someone to pass away on the first night-- all excited about going on a cruise. The wife, as far as I know, disembarked in USVI (in blatant violation of the PVSA, we started from San Juan) and that PH remained vacant for the rest of the cruise.

One offers baggage and personal effects loss, baggage delay, medical expense, emergency evacuation/repatriation of remains, and car rental collison (CDW). Another one, more tailored for business travelers, skips trip cancellation (but does still have a $2500 benefit for interruption) and the CDW but adds trip delay, missed connection, and security evacuation. The medevac benefit is not to the hospital of choice, though.

I haven't been able to find an annual policy in the US....give me a hint :)

 

Our company offers a couple of annual plans, but very limited trip cancellation/interruption coverage so I seldom recommend them. They're great for someone who takes many short, inexpensive trips a year and can afford to eat the cost of having to cancel any one individual trip.

Yes you can and should insure your deposit (in the U.S.). In fact, it's easy to understand what is insurable and what isn't. Here's how it works for Travel Guard (and I suspect other carriers, but folks should confirm with their own carrier): what you insure is any amount that you pay that would NOT be refunded to you if you had to cancel your trip at the beginning of your departure date, before you left home. At that point, of course, your deposit would not be refundable, so that is an insurable payment.

 

If you booked and paid for a Celebrity shore excursion to take place say four days into your cruise, you WOULD have that payment refunded by Celebrity if you canceled your cruise on the day of departure, so that is not an amount you should insure. (Put another way, the insurance company is not going to reimburse you for money that has been refunded to you by a travel provider or anyone else to whom you paid it.)

 

Pre-existing condition exclusions often apply not only to the people traveling, but also to family members NOT traveling with you whose illness (or worse) could cause you to cancel or interrupt your trip for what would otherwise be a covered reason if the exclusion did not apply. I suspect that many of us don't know all of the specifics of the medical status of everyone in our families, including who has seen a doctor when and for what in the last however many days. I just don't take a chance on being tripped up (no pun intended) by pre-existing conditions; I buy the insurance when I book, so that pre-existing conditions are waived. As I said above, it's not that expensive at that point to insure the deposit amount.

 

Very well stated, and I sell travel insurance for a living. One minor correction-- that shore excursion may be considered to be a prepaid nonrefundable trip cost. If you had to cancel a shorex with less than 24 hours notice, you might not get it back. My experience is that cruise lines rarely enforce it, even if you cancel the morning of the shorex, but they might be sticklers if it's an expensive or popular tour.

 

Many people don't realize that (at least with our company) prepaid, nonrefundable trip costs are related to the pre-ex waiver-- you usually are required to fully insure these costs as one of the conditions. The other two are purchasing it within a certain time frame of incurring those costs (and subsequent costs are included within the same time frame of being incurred), and all people covered on the policy (the "insureds") must be healthy enough to travel at the time the insurance is purchased.

 

But what is a nonrefundable prepaid trip cost? The deposit is refundable, so it doesn't have to be insured right away, right? Wrong. After final payment, it will become a nonrefundable cost, and must be covered within the time frame (7, 15 or 21 days, typically, depending on the plan) of when it's first paid. Did you pay for that shorex before you left? It will possibly (though not certainly, see first paragraph) similarly become nonrefundable at some point. There's a chance it might never be seen as nonrefundable, but since you can't predict ahead of time if the cruise line will insist on keeping your money or not, you're taking a chance if you don't include it. Go to the shorex desk while on the cruise to book something at the last minute? Don't worry about it; it's not a prepaid cost, even if it becomes nonrefundable because you have to cancel at the last minute. You won't get your money back if you didn't have the foresight to include this in your total trip cost, but you're not obligated to in order to qualify for the pre-ex waiver.

 

Airfare and hotels are special headaches. It's not necessary to include nonrefundable airfare, just the cost of a change fee, since that's potentially all you'd be out if you had to cancel and reschedule. Of course, if you don't reschedule, you won't be able to claim for the full cost of the airfare, but it's not necessary to include the full amount for the purpose of qualifying for pre-ex. If a hotel is booked with a credit card to hold the reservation, it's not a prepaid cost and so doesn't have to be included. If you cancel at the last minute and end up getting charged, though, you're out that money if you didn't include it. If you have several nights of a pre-cruise or post-cruise hotel stay and have paid in advance but they have a 24-hour cancellation policy, you only need to insure the amount you'd ultimately lose, probably only one night's stay.

 

Your last paragraph-- see my post above relating to pre-ex in the "or worse" scenario-- if someone dies, we do not look at pre-existing conditions. Also, by definition in New York State, family members not traveling with the insured are not included in the defintion of pre-existing conditions-- therefore, they cannot have pre-existing conditions in the first place, regardless of the state of their health.

 

This is as it applies for my company, and I do not identify it because I don't want to be seen as drumming up business, much as identifying specific TAs is verboten here. YMMV with others.

BTW, if you have a relative in a hospice or with an illness that is reasonably expected could lead to passing away during your cruise and they pass away during the trip, that will not covered under any insurance policy, waived pre-existing condition or not.

 

While there may be policies or companies for which this is true, it is not true for all of them.

 

For the company I work for, there is no exclusion from coverage (other than suicide) if a family member passes away, whether or not they were in hospice, even whether or not the insured had the pre-ex waiver. Pre-ex concerns itself with sickness or injury, not death. For example, without the pre-ex waiver, they could not cancel or interrupt the trip because they were told their loved one is about to die, but if they actually pass away, that's a different situation. While it is more likely that someone who is given two weeks to live will not live longer than two weeks, it's not a certainty.

How many people clicked on this thread to find out just how a tour operator named Coba ruined someone's tour?:D:p:rolleyes: Guilty!:o

It seems sometimes the insurance company makes you jump through hoops just to delay payment.

 

I know it might seem that way sometimes, but I work for one of the major travel insurance providers and I can tell you that we, at least, try to process claims as quickly as possible. Depending on the situation, there can be quite a bit of documentation that needs to be provided (aka "hoops"), but the purpose is to certify that what the insured says happened did happen, and they lost what they say they lost. Would that we could go on the assumption that no one would ever provide incorrect information, deliberately or otherwise, but sadly that's not the case.

 

Ledbetn, I'm sending good thoughts for you and your daughter.

I've seen attendants, crew who obviously (or at least that was my impression) were there just to hand out towels and be pleasant. I've seen cleaners who were there with cleaning supplies, keeping it tidy. I've most often had to fend for myself. And no rhyme or reason-- sometimes someone's there, other times not, same rest room, same time of the day.

 

Possibly it's done on an as-available basis-- "We have no other duties for you right now. Go be the rest room attendant by the MDR for the next hour." Or "We're short-handed in the laundry. Your rest room attendant shift is cancelled until you help them catch up."

No direct knowledge, but a charter, maybe? The sailing itself might not be cancelled-- they have to get Solstice from Sydney to Honolulu somehow, so it's unlikely that they'd drydock it in Sydney.

The OP should be aware that the Barbados Police do have a great sense of humor (they would spell it humour). So, if you wear a camouflage swim suit, they might decide to enforce the law and immediately confiscate your swim suit. At that point, you would be in further violation of the law that prohibits public nudity. So they could they toss you in jail (so you miss your cruise) and later slap you with fines for both violations.

 

Most likely, no arrests would be made due to lack of evidence.:eek::p:D

 

Going ashore in Antigua, one of our party was wearing a camo baseball cap (he's from the UP of Michigan, where people have been known to wear such things to weddings and funerals, including the participants). I noted that camo was forbidden and suggested he stow it in a bag. We asked a security officer if he should return it to the ship or bag it, and he just waved us through.

Going back to the original post, if I'm understanding it correctly, we have passengers who embarked in a US port, are not sick themselves yet, but want to get off in another US port before they get sick. Understandable, but it does violate the law as written. They are no more entitled to get any of their cruise fare back than they would be if they didn't like an itinerary change due to a hurricane. Bad things happen on a cruise. Unless it could be shown that the cruise line deliberately ignored the problem or was somehow negligent, it shouldn't be held against Princess, even assuming the cruise contract the passenger agreed to prior to sailing didn't address the issue.

 

By asking to be let off early, they're asking Princess to violate the law. It's not just a matter of paying an extra fee for the privilege of leaving early, they're asking them to do something that they are supposed to take care to avoid doing. If the cruise line could just pay the fine and pass it along to the customer, they would do it all the time.

The way I read it, a short-sleeved shirt with a collar (polo) is OK. A short-sleeved shirt without a collar (T-shirt) is not. A shirt without sleeves, with:D or without collar, is not.

Of course, if you choose to upgrade, they now have your old cabin that they must now sell, and likely for a lower rate than you were paying.