bigbenboys

I have had a chip and pin for maybe 3 years now. It is a Citibank Mastercard. It is great when it works. I have had the card go bad on me 2 times so far. 1st I was in Japan for 40 days and about 25 days in it stopped working with chip and pin. But it would work at the ATM machine. The other time I was in London, about after 7 days the chip and pin stopped working. I was getting my daily Starbucks and it just stopped working on their machine. Strip or Pin. It also would not work in the ATM machine. But I was able to check out of the hotel. So the strip must have still been working. I called Citibank and my card at their end was good.

It doesnt make business since for Australia to only have the option of chip and pin. What are the Australians going to do if they travel to the United States with not having a magnetic strip on their cards, and 90% of Americans not having a chip and pin? I dont know any business in the United StatesWe will all have them at some point, but it will take years.

We were on the May 30 Solstice cruise out of Seattle. We did the Celebrity Butchart Gardens tour in Victoria. We met onshore at 6:15 pm, it is about 30 mins to get to Butchart Gardens. Check out their website.

We left on the May 23rd trip. The rate from our Downtown Hotel to Pier 91 with Flat Rate for Hire, was $10, and the trip was fast and easy...

 

Gave the bags to a porter, along with a couple of Bucks and walked to the entrance to begin the check in...

 

Now for the Check in, for all us poor slobs that were not traveling AQ, or Concierge, or Elite, the line was quite long, quite long... We arrived at about 11:45 and did not get to sit at Bistro on Five until after 1:00... What can I say, it's part of travel today. The line snaked back and forth a few times, but did keep moving. Once at the counter, the check-in procedure was quick and painless.. Got our Seapass and boarded the ship.

 

But after that, everything was great. The ship was clean and in beautiful shape. I actually found no problems with anything, the food, the Classic Drinks Package, the restaurants, the Buffet, Etc. Etc.....

 

Enjoy, you'll love it!

We were on the June 30 Solstice ship out of Seattle. We are Elite+ and were booked in Aqua. We showed up at 2pm. It was great, there were no lines anywhere. We were able to go right to our cabin.

So I am confused by this conversation. Is Michael's Club no longer a public lounge on any of the Celebrity ships?

Yes Michael's is no longer a public lounge.

Guess why they got rid of the movies? They don't make money, and those going to the movies aren't spending money. That reason is why the TV offerings in cabin are terrible.

The free movies on the TV On Demand in your room were good new movies. Plus you could pause them. Go to a event and come back and finish watching the movie. Richard

Thanks. When I looked on their website it said that Celebrity Suites where staring next year. What is the lowest we would have to book in the suites on Eclipse?

From what I see Sky Suite only gets.

Coming April 2015:

Dedicated private restaurant reserved exclusively for all Suite Class guests morning, noon and night

Celebrity Suite gets.

Coming April 2015:

Dedicated private restaurant reserved exclusively for all Suite Class guests morning, noon and night

Access to the private Michael's Club

IMO it's not really breakfast. It's some sweet rolls; they have smoked salmon but the bagels are the size of a half dollar and unusable.

 

The main benefit is the beverages--smoothies, fresh juices, cappuccino, mimosas, etc. Many people I have talked to eat a regular breakfast elsewhere but go to Tuscan for a decent coffee, etc. Kind of a pain, we never went once on a 15 night cruise.

We were just on the Solstice May 30-June 6 cruise. We would have breakfast in Blu then stop at Tuscan Grill for some mimosas. There were only 80 Elite and Elite+ on our cruise. The most people I saw in Tuscan Grill in the morning were 6 to 10 People. The views in the morning from the the large windows in the Tuscan Grill were great.

Most mornings in Blu I just had fruit plate, sweet roll or smoked salmon with a bagel and coffee for breakfast. Richard

We just got home from the Alaska cruise on Solstice. Overall we had a great time. We were in Aqua for the 2nd time. The room, bottled water and shower were nice. We only had 80 Elite and Elite+ onboard. There were not any Zenith members on the cruise. Rose our Captains Club Hostess was very nice. The people in Blu were great. We had the same table and waiter (Tony) that we had last time we cruised in Aqua and dined in Blu. I will say the food was better. We did not eat in Blu the 1st night. They were not serving Prime Rib. So we ate at Select Dining. We did not have any problem getting a table of four. On our 7 day cruise Blu never did serve Prime Rib. I only sent one meal back it was the lump crab risotto. It was so bad. I’m sure they cooked it right, but :eek:. I thought I would try something different. They had far less wild game on the menu this time. I did see pheasant and I didn’t see pigeon. We were able to get Escargot, French Onion Soup and Creme Brulee every night dining in Blu. Our next 2 cruises we are back in Concierge Class. I did book a cruise for Aug 2015 back in Aqua.

Now the music. Was it loud at times coming from the Grand Foyer, yes. But I never had a problem with it. I thought it was great that people were dancing and having fun. That is what vacation is about. At breakfast in Blu I heard Adele singing more than once. It was great. And another time in the Sky Lounge I heard a song by No Doubt. It just made me smile. Maybe they are listening.

I’m now looking forward to our next cruise on Solstice in the fall and booking a cruise for 2016. Richard

Why oh why does Celebrity make it so difficult. I have given up many of times and call my TA and she take care of the reservations.

We book Concierge class or Aqua class. I really like the C2 cabins on deck 12 of the S-class ships. the location alone is with the money. Walk right out to the pool or up one floor to the food. Aqua class has a nicer shower.

To those that find Blu misses the mark, I'd be interested to know what your expectation is. Given the cost of the cruise I would not expect anything higher than a typical medium priced restaurant on land with a Zagat rating of no more than about 20 and certainly not Michelin star rated - Bib Gourmand at best. In that context, Blu met and sometimes exceeded my expectations. What about you?

What I dont like about Blu is to much duck, pheasant, quail, veal and pigeon. Also real soup not something out of a vase. Was that not the vase in my room last week.:eek: How do you really get the bottom of that vase clean. Our only other time in Blu they never had Prime-rib. They did have rib-eye. It is easy to cook 1 or 2 rib-eyes on the grill, but harder to cook Prime rib for 1 or 2. PS tonight is a rib-eye night for 1. I'm not looking for Michelin stars just food I want to eat. As I'm cruising tomorrow. We will see what Blu has in store for us.

We are trying Blu for the 2nd time tomorrow. The service was fine on our last cruise in Aqua. It was the food that I was not that happy with. I'm going to give them a fair shake. Our cruise tomorrow we got the Aqua cabin for less than CC, and we get the 25 extra points.

While he will be allowed to attend morning and evening Happy Hours, I don't think he gets "coupon benefits" (free internet minutes, laundry, etc.).

 

I'm curious - I assume that the first time cruiser has to go with his Elite roommate to Happy Hour - I don't think the door monitor has access to a list (paper or electronic) that would tell them that this individual is rooming with an Elite.

 

Thom

You must go to the Captain Club desk and have a new key made for him with the Elite on it. This will solve any problems with the door monitor. They are only looking for Elite, Elite Plus, Zenith and suites.

Ask your TA to send you a copy of the "Guest copy" of the Celebrity invoice and that will show you everything in detail! You will not have to worry about what has been ordered and paid for and your mind will be at rest. Yes in AQ cabins you will be assigned to Blu, and that is why you need to prepay your gratuities.

Hope this helps.

Vicki

You do not have to prepay gratuities in any cabin. You only have to prepay if your dining in Select Dining. But I read it as your TA is paying your gratuities. If your booking Aqua just pick early or late dining to not prepay gratuites. As your are asigned Blu you eat when you want. We got your gratuities credited back to your visa after final payment. The reason we did was to use OBC to cover gratuities. Richard

Beef Carpaccio, Prime Rib, Escargot, Creme Brulee, Chilled soups and the East Indian food.

For a 14 day cruise I bring.

1 suit and white shirt, if not in Aqua.

2 pair of long pants

3 pair of shorts

7 underpants

4 t-shirts

4 Polo shirts

1 pair dress shoes

7 pair of socks

2 swim suits

1 pair deck shoes

1 pair flip flops

1 hoodie

Apologies if this is the wrong place, let me know if you can't help and I'll ask on the Royal forum instead :o I did have a quick look and couldn't spot the answer to my question so I apologise if it's already floating around somewhere.

There's a couple of things I would like to know about booking on board on my upcoming Infinity cruise;

1. We are booking 2 cabins for 2 people, but we are travelling with 1 cabin of 3 on this cruise. Do we need any specific details apart from the 4th passengers name?

 

We have booked 2 rooms and only added 1 name to the 2nd room. The 1st person had a reduced deposit (booked on board). When we added the 2nd person they had to pay full deposit (added on land). I have also booked a room for friends that were not on board. I just paid the deposit. I'm planning to book a room for friends in 2 weeks while cruising on Solstice. Richard

We have done 65 nights on HAL and stopped cruising 2009 on HAL. 158 nights on Celebrity so far. Celebrity M-Class (ie Connie) ships are more like HAL ships. Our favorite HAL ship is the Maasdam.

We started to get perks with RCL and Celebrity. We looked all the perks over and found that Celebrity and RCL perks were better than HAL or Princess perks. We sailed on Celebrity Solstice in 2009 and love the openness of the ship and glassblowing. We have not looked back.

So I think Connie would be a good 1st cruise with Celebrity. For us 5 nights just to short of time. We tend to do 12 to 14 nights, since I'll still working.

We looked this month at cruising on Azamara again. Also looked at Regent and Crystal. In the end we decided on Celebrity for Northern Europe Aug 2015. Richard

Am I the only one who doesn't have a clue what this is? I've been on 6 or 7 Celebrity cruises and seemed to have missed any mention of this. Since my last name is White if I saw this I might think it was a party they were having for me. Kind of like the lady named Dorthy that showed up at the party for friends of hers.

We have been on 15 Celebrity cruises and never heard of a White party on Celebrity. We had a White party on Azamara and it was a great party. Richard

Yes you can change them onboard. We always make our reservations before we leave. Then if we need to change a day here or there once onboard there has not been a problem. Richard

Hello,

 

i'm considering booking a cruise in Northern Europe this summer, either on the Constellation out of Amsterdam or the Infinity out of Harwich.

 

Some offers price an Aquaclass cabin about 100 USD higher than a Concierge class cabin.

Is this small price supplement worth it?

 

2 years ago, took a cruise on the Soltice in Concierge class cabin, which was excellent.

I understand that the BLu restaurant for Aquaclass pax is really good. cabin amenities are very good too. What about the spa access and its facilities?

I'm not too sure, now, about the cabins locations, as they can be under the pool deck, which has a large overhang, or can be noisy.

 

thanks for your info, that will help me make my choice.

 

Jacques O, in Paris.

We have cruised Aqua once on the S class ships. We are tring it again at the end of this month. We are not that fond of Blu or the Persian Gardens. I do like the bottled water and the shower head/wall of jets. We also like the overhang and have not had any noise from above. Richard

Not necessarily, a couple we just cruised with felt they would have done better picking the on board credit. They didn't drink anywhere near what they would have received in credit.(which I believe was 250)

They wished they chose the credit to spend on things they wanted

We have never taken the drink package. Not that I dont drink. I will have 3 to 6 glasses of wine at the Elite event. The gratuities seem to be the best deal for us. Richard

There should be NO “free” champagne, period. They could save what, $2000 per cruise every week for every ship? I hope the free champagne goes away. As someone who drinks NO alcohol, I question why that should be built into my fare. I’ll be sure to write in my comment card : No free champagne please.

 

Want not, waste not. Also, certain religions are offended by free champagne.

 

So don’t just reduce it by an ounce. Reduce it by 100%. The complainers will complain no matter what.

Number 1 it is not Champagne. You can have OJ instead. If we want to talk religions. Then no cloven hoofed animals or Crustaceans. Oh should we get rid on all non kosher food. Yes the fasting. Lets see the one that starts on Friday evening or the month long fasting. Nothing to the mouth from sunrise to sunset. Richard

We have booked the Connie for June 2015. I'm not happy with going on Connie. I like the S class ships for warmer weather. We have done most of the port stops on this cruise. So we are going for the warmer weather. We like the Eastern Med over the Caribbean. Richard

I did book! Back in March. Was just hoping for a perk, mainly drink package, and/or a price drop.

 

Still over a year to go!

I have heard that 123Go might be back June 2. We are planning to book our Aug 2015 cruise while on the Solstice leaving May 30 to Alaska.