NutsAboutGolf

Assuming you book a sailing with balcony availability, if you try to be one of the first few hundred onto the ship and report to guest services, they’ll generally upgrade you to a balcony room for free

Prob because they got sick of paying deal or no deal licensing fees…lol

Specifically with BCC fully comped base fare sailings, you have to email the move up team your booking number for them to activate it

-Generally a week long Carribean cruise is around $150/person in port fees/taxes -Fees are completely refundable, so if you’re on the fence, book it now and cancel later -You can book just the gamble as solo and up to 72 hours before sailing, can add someone by calling and paying their taxes -

Your stateroom attendant brings TWO cans waters everyday even when solo or even if you didn’t drink the ones left the day before

Did you go to the internet manager? Sounds like you had basic yet you would need to have wi-fi calling enabled which the manager would look at. When starlink first deployed, folks were posting speeds up to 50mbps, it seems fleetwide they cap it at 5mbps but that's only peak where it seems to average under 3mbps

The ship will be scheduled to be cleared between 7-715. There will probably be a line of 300ish trying to get off so earlier you arrive in that line the earlier you'll get off the ship. Once off the ship, assuming one doesn't have mobility issues, it will probably be 10-15min until you get outside, perhaps a 3min walk to the taxi line and about a 15min ride to the airport. While I HATE taxis, they're a necessary evil because Ubers/Lyfts may not be able to get through the port checkpoint or just get spooked by it and cancel the ride ultimately adding time. There's variables such as are you checking bags (there's also curbside), do you have priority at ticketing, do you have clear or pre-check, etc You should search your airline to determine what happens if you can't make the flight, some will let you on the next flight for free while others simply credit you back an airline credit and you're own your own a rebook a flight home. If you're booked on another flight that's already full, you may have to play the standby game which requires you to run to each flights gate agent to be added to the first come first serve standby list. We travel a lot, I don't get stressed but she did yet over time no longer does. If one gets stressed and/or anxiety, should probably book the later flight even if its more $$$

Thanks as I didn't know as we don't typically stay in reg hotels that long. Looks like other chains including IHG as have the benefit

Satire but true...Don't be picky with the itinerary, every sailing we meet a couple who says something like "been to all these ports a bunch of times so we don't get off the ship!"...Repos/TAs/TPs, the Mexican Rivera and the sailings out of Puerto Rico generally have the best prices and as a bonus there's a fair chance the ship won't be close to full

You hit the jackpot with the lifetime Starwood merger, congrats With point redemptions, while they'll almost always increase year after year due to inflation, Hyatt has had the most favorable redemptions of not just the big three but all major loyalty programs. To oversimplify it, its about spend to earn points and how many points it takes to redeem. The non-apples to apples are the categories of hotels in a specific location. For example, when a city only has a high end Hyatt property and low end Marriott property of course redemption values will varies. This is all over travel sties, points/miles sites, etc. I will add Hilton has an unique redemption benefit where when you book with points you get the 5th night free but for long stays we prefer airbnbs

Of the big 3 hotel chains, Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott/Bonvoy, I find Bonvoy the least guest friendly. 1) Free breakfast requires status and it takes far more nights to receive the free breakfast benefit 2) Point redemptions, I routinely find Marriot has the worse redemptions although Hilton isn't too far behind. Hyatt is almost always the best 3) Resort fees, Bonvoy still charges them on award stays; Hyatt and Hilton do not

I realize I wasn't clear when I said "sea days" as I meant in the daytime since the evening's schedule is fixed for all nights except for the day of embarkation which may omit the game show and may only perform the main show once. In the evenings you have trivia, one main show repeated twice, between the two main shows a game show. On the E-class they used to have the whimsical ongoing Eden show but that seems long gone and its just now musicians. Yet you still lack choice, as you know on Carnival you have the main show, usually 2 or 3 comedian shows at the punchliner, a karaoke bar and a sing along piano bar

You’ll have perhaps one trivia game per sea day, for game shows I guess there’s deal or no deal which isnt free, like the casino I don’t count musicians as an activity yet anyone is welcome to, for pool games I can only think of the officers vs pax vball games

Glad you enjoyed it and you're the exactly the type of customer PJ is targeting to, those who would pay more "by a good amount" to get an elevated experience. We're on team save money so we're fine to walk off the ship unescorted and don't get stressed attempting locate a tour guide. If one is willing to go to CC's parent site, tripadvisor, and inquire about private drivers, you can often save a boatload of money but they're less of a guide and just get you from the ship to attraction A, to attraction B, to attraction C, etc. Have them meet you right when the ship arrives and you'll often beat a lot of the outbound traffic and arrive at the first attraction before the crowds

Just have a backup plan if you can't get food off the ship. I would personally ask my tour guide to call in an order for takeout or something as I'd imagine if your butler would make you a boxed lunch, it'll just be deli meat sandwich

Celebrity is lot like sailing back in time, you make your own entertainment as there isn't a ton to do on sea days. They'll always have scheduled activities but they'll slot an hour for "bag toss", another hour for towel folding, etc. They CAN have lecturers on board (I've been on many sailings that haven't) and most are good and talk about interesting topics. With complimentary food, if one of carnivals newer ships, carnival food is better since you have guys burgers, BBQ, the Italian place, Asian/Mexican place, Big chicken and Carnivals chocolate melting cake is better than any MDR dessert on X. X does blow away Carnival in the buffet and has the better MDR but if you're a newer Carnival ship, there's no reason to go to the MDR when you have other options

With RCI and CCL yes, with X it's pretty much the same on board experience between their oldest and newest ships except for the appearance and theater shows due to the newer ships having the latest and greatest stage equipment

It wouldn't be surprised if the X person reading this thinks "What are they talking about vape test? Our casinos are 100% smoke free! <deletes responses>"

While skimming his page, he said in one Alaska photo he took it from a helicopter

In Jan-Feb, many reported excessively long MDR dinner service and I wonder if that was more of a factor than the complaining for them relenting

He appears legit and is most likely working with cruise lines as an independent contractor. My WAG (Wild A$$ Guess) is because of the shutdown, cruise lines were in crisis mode and were no longer paying for photoshoots so he was bored and was posting older photos...In this photo posted during the pandemic he did mention the 2010 date

My favorite are those who complain about complainers on a "critic" site...ha ha

Ditto, with slim pickins’. It took a lot of effort to get the buffet dinner somewhat back to normal…A rare win for CC’s relentless complaining 🤣

By March, X relented with their OV dinner choices. Fleetwide, this past January, there were minimal OV dinner choices; there are many threads with photos and youtube videos

BCC stands for Blue Chip Club which is the status the Casino gives it gamblers. Generally, you must requalify year after year to maintain status like most other travel loyalty programs. This is different than Celebrity's loyalty program called the "Captains Club" which is (currently) lifetime status