BosoxI

Wow! I'm very impressed, we would love to be invited. The stories and tales the officers of a ship must be so interesting. My nephew is a "pilot" for ships in Alaska and he and his family are invited for dinners with the ships officers from time to time. He has some great stories to tell!

Be aware that the table is a long one, so bring the binoculars from your cabin if you care to see your tablemates at the far end. Conversation with them is impossible without a bullhorn. The host will undoubtedly be polite, but it's a toss up as to whether you'll hear any interesting stories. Our first CT was on one of the old Celebrity ships years ago. It was brutal. The captain was accompanied by two of his officers, and, believe me, they were bored with a capital B. Why not? How many times had they gone through this routine? I wasn't particularly pleased, either, as the meal that night was excellent and as a much younger man, I would have gone for seconds had propriety not entered into the picture.:p The CT on Princess was the same three couples plus the captain, seated at a round table where conversation was actually possible. I really think all seven of us enjoyed the company. In fact after the cruise, DW and I were grabbing a hamburger at LAX when we heard our names called. We turned around to find the captain who was on his way home to Florida. We still talk about that on occasion. But by all means do attend, should the offer be made. Just don't get your hopes up too high. It is a nice experience, not to be missed. One time:D

We've been invited a number of times on various cruise lines. The best and only enjoyable one was on Princess when we dined every night with the captain, a delightful Italian. More recently, we attended twice on Celebrity and DW and I agree that should a third invitation be offered, we would politely turn it down.

On Princess it is now $95pp

Ouch. I might spring for it, depending on the menu, as the wine which is included makes up for some of the cost. It would really have to be a special dinner, though. On a forgotten Celebrity ship, we attended a special dinner prepared by a guest chef from the Florida panhandle. That probably cost close to a hundred p/p and it was worth every penny. Excellent food, excellent company, and the wine wasn't bad, either. I think we're done with CTs, but I would encourage anyone who hasn't tried one to give it a go.

Sorry, should have said it was $140. pp

That's pretty steep, isn't it? We've done Princess tables twice and I doubt we paid much more than $140 total for two people.

We were offered the opportunity on the Infinity last April. We had just finished a large dinner in Murano, and the last thing I needed was to consider an even larger dinner. Plus, as I faintly recall, the price was quite high. What does it cost?

Last week as we were finishing our meal in the USS United States, the head waiter offered us the opportunity to attend a special meal on the next night. Cost for two was $270, as I recall. Only three or four couples would attend. It sounded very similar to Princess' Chef's Table which we've done several times. His offer came at precisely the wrong time, at the end of a large meal when the next night's meal was the last thing on our minds.

Yep as a Canuck (Which I am) one can only stay out for so long before you loose your health coverage. I believe it varies a bit from province to province. I no longer reside In Canada, so not covered.

You mean that if you stay out too long, I'll lose my heath insurance? Bummer and it doesn't seem fair:D

Good luck to all of you who are making changes because of the 123 Promo. Celebrity's computer system will be put to the test. Ugh!

Maybe this has been covered in this thread already - I haven't had a chance to read through it all.

I just called Celebrity to book a European cruise to take advantage of the 123 promotion. But I can't use the open passage certificates we purchased on our last cruise for the deposit. We are in the middle of home renovations right now and I can't put up the $960 down payment. Has anyone else been successful in using the open passage certificates as their down payment?

This is why we see no need to purchase the certificate. We always book based on special, non-combinable offers. You should also be aware that you can use the certificate either directly with Celebrity or they will attach it to the travel agent you used for the cruise you are currently on. That doesn't work for us either, as we have no loyalty to a particular agent. Whoever has the best deal gets our business. Princess, I think, is much less restrictive in their policy, though that does you no good, does it? Thanks to posters on Cruise Critic who tipped us off to the situation long ago. Otherwise, we'd probably not have asked the future cruise people about restrictions.

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I know Mum will be so happy to be on a cruise that she would probably be happy to sleep on the balcony!!! :D

And that's exactly where she would sleep , if I were your husband.:p Can't conceive of doing that for any adult. On a driving tour of the Czech Republic, I made sure MIL had her own room. Had some really close calls, though. I think I would have slept in the car had it not worked out. Your husband is a better man than I am or a bigger something:o

MIL took a cruise and stayed in a cabin with two adult friends and their young grandson, 10 or so. I never wanted to know how that worked out:eek:

A newly wed with a third person in the room. That ain't gonna work unless she likes to watch movies alone or maybe take a tour while you stay onboard.

DW and I cruise a lot on Celebrity, but neither of us has ever bought any drink package. We'd be floating away just to get our money's worth, and the thought of having 5 or 6 hits a day is enough to dissuade us. We like a nip or two and wine with dinner, but we've always found the packages excessive to our needs, pricewise and "liverwise". But to each his own.

I'm glad so many can see the value in the premium drink package. i would fall into the category known as "I better have another so I get my money's worth" and in so doing, stumble my way through the cruise. :) On our just completed cruise my highest liquid consumption for a single day was 1 Bloody Mary, 2 martinis, 1 beer, 1 glass of wine and a shared large bottle of water. That doesn't come close to $60 or so, so I guess I'm better off paying drink by drink. We met a couple in the Martini Bar who was keeping track of their consumption to gauge the benefit. They said they were better off with the package; I would have been under the table, had I tried to keep up with them. To each his own.

I can't tell you much because I went to Granada and it was an all day tour. There was a free shuttle into town and friends who stayed there enjoyed it a lot, mostly wandering around and some shopping. Its surrounded by snow covered peaks now.

 

Thats the extent of my knowledge.

Amelia, How much time did your tour take from start to finish? Particularly, how long did it take to get there and how was traffic? I've seen the Alhambra but DW hasn't. Unfortunately, we are on a Celebrity cruise with no tour that includes the Alhambra/Generalife. I've found a private company but our ship docks at 8 and leaves at 5:30, if I recall correctly. They guarantee a timely return but that's an empty promise. Thanks

I have had only one waitlist experience but it turned out well. We was waitlisted for a minisuite at a time when the price was quite low. Afterwards, however, the price rose precipitously. We were #11 on the list but I don't know whether that list was for the particular category or for all cabins. About 5 days prior to departure the call from Princess came, offering a minisuite cabin. To my surprise it was offered at the price when we waitlisted, not the current, much higher price. The representative agreed to let me have a few minutes to see if flights were available. They were and when I called to accept the deal, he told me I would be very pleased with the assignment. It turned out to be a AA or AB cabin. All in all a very pleasant experience. Contrast this with Celebrity where we waitlisted for a TA 2 years ago. They never informed me that a cabin was available until I called them to cancel the waitlist, as we had found a better Princess TA during the interim. Best thing that could have happened..

We've never even considered buying anything on board, but through a curious turn of events, we found ourselves meeting the artist Viktor Shveiko. A nice guy with an interesting story to tell. What with one thing and another, we wound up buying one of his originals. We like it very much, but it wasn't cheap. It also wasn't done as an investment. Trouble is, it will probably wind up in a second home in Florida, not in our main residence. That makes it a questionable purchase, but what the heck, we met Viktor, ate with him, had our pictures taken with him, and even got a couple of meals in the Grill/Sabatinis for free. Plus wine every night in the gallery. Why, those alone knocked a hundred bucks off the cost. LoL

I was recently told by a cruise director on board an RCI ship that if there is a problem with an RCI recommended store, RCI will go to bat for you. He said it was like insurance.

 

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That's exactly what I would expect an employee to say. There have been too many people on these various cruise boards saying the cruise companies wash their hands of any involvement. Take yer cherce

One other thing to keep in mind with Jewelers, even in the US.

 

Anytime you let a diamond out of your sight you are vulnerable to have the stone swapped out for one of lower quality. It takes very little time for a jeweler to pop out a stone and replace it with a lower quality stone. Keep that in mind anytime you are having work done on something containing an expensive stone. Especially in a place where you are rushed for time, and will soon be gone.

 

So I would never have work done on existing jewelry or take a high quality stone to a store at a cruise port to put into a piece of jewelry.

This is wonderful advice. I hovered over the fellow as he put our new diamond in the envelope to mail to our home address. And he was happy that I did, being an honest salesman working for a very reputable company. For insurance purposes only, I took it to a local appraiser who verified its authenticity and said it is a beautiful stone at an excellent price. But again I stress we bought it in the good old USA. The Caribbean is a great place to retreat from the cold, but it's not necessarily a great place to buy expensive trinkets or watches, but that's another story.

I wouldn't buy anything worth more than a few hundred dollars in the Carib. They're all a bunch of charlatans, as far as I'm concerned. DI is a case in point. DW bought a 3 carat diamond solitaire from them and then decided she wanted to upgrade it. When we tried in St. Maarten, the only bigger stones they had were in the 4 carat range and yellow, a much lower quality diamond than what they claimed it to be. Plus, and this is what really ticked me off, instead of deducting the value of our 3 carat stone from the price of their 4 carat stone, they seemed to add the value of ours to the value of theirs and then subtracted ours out again, arriving at a net change of 0. (A + B-A =0 I know this is hard to believe, but I swear it's true). We made the big mistake of letting them know we wanted to trade a diamond in. Same thing happened in Cozumel and again in the DI shop at the pier in St. Thomas. Clearly, the word had been spread that a 6'5" American with his slender blonde wife wanted to trade a stone in. So we didn't. When we returned to the States, we found a AGI graded stone of much better quality and size, and lower in price right in a local jewelers in Florida. They shipped it to our permanent address and thus we avoided the sales tax. Plus, the original 3 carat stone is now part of a striking 3 diamond pendant. Still, a big lesson was learned. There may be bargains, but you really have to be careful, especially in places like DI

By all means if you can get to theTaj, do it. I flew from Bombay to New Delhi, spent the night, and hired a driver to get to Agra. A greatr experience, but a direct flight to Agra would havebeen somucheasier. I'm glad I did it, but I must say it was a bit of a let down, but you must see for yourself, as with everything else in life.

They may have been loading their plates but that does not mean they ate it. :eek:

That's probably true and very sad to see food wasted, even bad food. Especially in situations where it is possible to return and retrieve more at no further cost. It kills me to see people load up their plates in the HC and then leave half of it at the table. "Take all you want, but eat all you take" said the sign in a Virginia restaurant. Good advice