waggie

On 6/24/2023 at 2:38 PM, paulh84 said:

 
It has to. The entire premise is increased revenue. It wouldn’t make sense to let an inside cabin move to a suite at the same opportunity cost of an Aqua cabin moving to a suite. 
 

We also have friends who book only SV cabins on E class then place a minimum bid for Sky Suites and have received it 6 out of 6 times. People will pay a lot for the SV which makes moving you out of the SV more appealing. 
 

And there’s this: 

Am I the only person appalled by this arrogant bragging? What it says to me is "aren't we clever managing to screw money out of our guests?" I have recently made bids for a higher level verandah and these are still pending despite the website showing there aren't any available. I will stick to my old policy of being happy with what I chose originally.

28 minutes ago, davekathy said:

If we were to bring wine onboard at the embarkation terminal we would be using Celebrity's U.S. website as our guidance as of "last updated, January 2021". I take that as no changes have been made since then. Call Celebrity or if you booked thru a TA call them and have them call Celebrity for any additional guidance. Cheers. 🍷

28 minutes ago, davekathy said:

If we were to bring wine onboard at the embarkation terminal we would be using Celebrity's U.S. website as our guidance as of "last updated, January 2021". I take that as no changes have been made since then. Call Celebrity or if you booked thru a TA call them and have them call Celebrity for any additional guidance. Cheers. 🍷

 

28 minutes ago, davekathy said:

If we were to bring wine onboard at the embarkation terminal we would be using Celebrity's U.S. website as our guidance as of "last updated, January 2021". I take that as no changes have been made since then. Call Celebrity or if you booked thru a TA call them and have them call Celebrity for any additional guidance. Cheers. 🍷

No - I like your 2021 version better! Booked through Celebrity UK but getting through  to someone who might actually know to what I am referring is a pain  = a case for 'leave well alone'. Thanks for your input davekathy

18 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Celebrity's U.S. website under FAQ says "each guest (of legal drinking age) is permitted to bring onboard up to two (2) 750 ml bottles of wine...".  https://www.celebritycruises.com/company/customer-support/conduct-policy#alcohol-policy

I agree - as shown in my second post,but the details and dates are confusing - UK site is February 2023 and US January 2021. Which is being adhered to?

This was taken from the UK site and dated;

Guest Health, Safety, and Conduct Policy

Celebrity Cruises
(Last Updated: February 2023)

Previous quotes were taken fro. the main site - before converting to the UK site:

Guest Health, Safety, and Conduct Policy

Celebrity Cruises
(Last Updated: January, 2021)

Please can someone clarify the number of bottles allowed on embarkation? I am sure there are posts about this so apologies for asking again.

I thought it had been increased to 2 bottles per person, as shown above, but the website is showing this:Unless otherwise permitted by our security personnel or crew, guests are prohibited from bringing alcoholic beverages onboard; with the exception of embarkation day when each guest who is of drinkingage s are will be permitted to bring onboard with them one sealed 750 ml bottle of wine or champagne. per stateroom, provided at least one guest in the stateroom is of drinking age

Just now, Miaminice said:

Yes, they are counting on some of these staterooms upgrading to higher classes.

 

Thank you - I hope they do!!!!

I have just put in a  move up bid for an aft balcony on Constellation July 10th.  - they halved the start offer - not a big bid, but just to see.

I have since scoured the website, done mock bookings and find that there are NO afts available on our cruise. Has anyone else had this experience? 

Well.....I have egg on my face!🤦‍♀️

The cancellations are for the cruise we have moved next summer - of course they cancelled the dining - we won't be there!

😃😁

8 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Correct, exactly how it works. You booked the times, the Host allocated the tables. Had the Host needed to they could have moved you to another area. What was originally suggested was the passenger booked the time and the table.

Thank you all for your comments - the penguins and cdn_tbird have stated what we have always done - just book the times and wait to be allocated a table etc. by the host not me as in #4 above! The piece in red in my original post was from a Facebook comment not me!! 

I am sure it will work out fine as always!

6 minutes ago, the penguins said:

As far as I know Select Dining has never given you the option you think it did. Yes you can prebook a time. Yes you can link other bookings. But where have you been able to specify the exact table you wanted? or indeed the table size or any other option?

We always go straight to the Host to discuss the possibility and options but always with a "please can you help us?" Not demanding anything.

One possible explanation is that with ships sailing below capacity is that the Host is having to juggle the seating so that the waiters get a fair (as near equal) share of the tips. When you check in each night the Host generates a small slip of paper that serves 2 purposes:

1) it shows the table number so you can be escorted to the correct table.

2) it is a receipt for the waiter so they know how many lots of "auto tips" they will get for that evening.

If the person escorting you to the table forgets to hand over the slip you will notice the waiter quickly goes to the Host to get a copy.

I have no clue why your bookings have been cancelled unless of course you have upgraded to Aqua or a Suite

Hi, I should clarify - we only booked a time for dinner - on several of our cruises we have booked a time, but always enjoyed being able to sit in different areas, be looked after by different staff and meet different people. We too are of the 'please can you help/thank you' school and should have only shared that bit of the Facebook comment! 

I have just received email notifications - 15 of them - cancelling my bookings for select dining on our forthcoming cruise on Silhouette. 

Coincidentally, there was a post on Celebrity Facebook page yesterday which stated:

We have Anytime dining and that has changed. We have always pre booked our dining times as we did this time. The difference is they no longer put you at the same table with the same waitstaff each night. That was one of the reasons we always made reservations- so our staff knew us, could recommend things per our liking, had our drinks waiting for us each evening, etc.  No longer. Night two we were there on time and asked for our table and were told, very rudely, “we don’t do that. We put you where we need you.

Has this happened to anyone else?

We have not had this situation before.

.

16 hours ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

You can totally combine the two. I did just that and didn't even have to ask.

Thanks - if I give you my reservation perhaps you could try for me?😀

This is from both  the US and UK website - 

Discount on beverage packages

. Discount does not apply to promotional beverage packages, including promotional package upgrade. Not combinable with other offers.

I purchased the non- alcoholic package online with 17% discount. I asked Celebrity for the Elite discount and they informed me that the t&c’s state that you cannot combine the offers. Would it be different if I was upgrading?

I am in UK if this makes any difference to the t&c’s.

Thank you for replying so promptly- after trying to call I emailed my question to specialist services uk and have only had an acknowledgement!

3 weeks until we board!

A petty question on such a sad day, but do they have kettles in the cabins post Covid?

Thanks

I logged on to book a non alcoholic drink package yesterday for May 23 and the price had increased from the day before. 

6 hours ago, jelayne said:

I recently upgrade the beverage packages.  The price for the packages, both Classic & Premium were discounted in the Cruise Planner making the difference  between the 2 packages less than normal.  Our Elite+ discount was applied to the

lower price difference. 

Thanks, I will try that.

2 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Sounds like a sale price that is better than the Elite discount. Maybe you can call and stack both discounts.

Thanks RichYak - I did call and waited 28 minutes for the agent to check my point. She offered to 'buy' the packages using my existing OBC with the 15% discount but knew nothing of the 17% offer. Good old Celebrity!

I have received an email today reminding me to take advantage of the benefits available to me::

"As an Elite member in our Captain's Club program, here are some of the benefits you'll receive on board:

The UK website is currently showing a discount of 17% on the non-alcoholic  package - available to all cruisers.

Is anyone else confused by this? Or is it just me?

Just to close this off, our claim has now been accpeted in full (less about £150 "excess")

We are with Staysure and they cover our pre-existing conditions too. We always take a no excess deal with our annual policy - it costs just a few pounds and is worth it. I recently had to cancel a holiday  with Jet2 for major surgery and  they took 50% of final payment, as cancellation, but Staysure covered it within days.

Fingers crossed the renewal in September is realistic!

Getting through to them on the phone can be an issue - like every other company.

On 7/22/2022 at 4:48 PM, charlie-le-chat said:

Update. I eventually got through after 20 minutes on the second attempt to contact SAGA on the number given for river cruises. It turns out that to book this Nile cruise (Africa right?)  I need to phone the number they give for European holidays. I phoned and immediately hung up on learining that the wait time was likely to be one hour. I wonder if any SAGA representative monitors this forum. If so thanks SAGA for wasting 50+ minutes of my time on hold. You really need to make it clear which number to use. Fortunately at least two other companies are offering a very similar cruise early in 2023 so I will be contacting them.

Update!! I did a mock booking for Land of the Pharaohs for January 2023 and then telephoned at 09.00 on Monday - the best time to call clearly!!. Yes, it is available and they will generously transfer us from Magic of the Nile (considering we were misled). If you haven't made other plans do get back to them.

They are really struggling to maintain their place in the market. Believe me, all the numbers take ages to respond! We had a European river cruise that we needed to move and The Nile was on our bucket list. I am dissapointed that Cairo was only offered as an extension without any excursions or assistance, but they do offer Alexandria, Cairo etc. as a new tour now. They use Egypt air and the reviews on Trip Advisor and YouTube are not that good.

 I might be tempted to look elsewhere too,

I hope you find what you are looking for.

We were comparing Magic of the Nile to Land of the Pharoahs for January 2023.

Saga informed me yesterday that they are not doing LotP next year, so we have gone for Magic of the Nile, despite it not having Cairo on the itinerary. They offered 2 night extensions to Cairo but it would be independent travel without a representative support, so we will have to miss Cairo. 
now that Saga have joined with Titan the choice of Nile trips may expand but not in time for us!

57 minutes ago, roked said:

03444932043, first time I think I was put through to the US, at least the person answering had an American accent, the 2nd time was British for sure

Thank you for that. I rang an 0808 number and the call transferred to US. I will try tomorrow.

21 hours ago, roked said:

I guess either I was lucky in the UK or there is no issue with calling here. The first call was answered in 10 mins, the 2nd one was answered in under a minute. Maybe try the UK number if it does not cost you too much to call.

What number did you call? I called and went through to US - and then was put on hold.