terrydtx

Our Edge New Zealand cruise next year Sky Suite is almost $2000pp more now than what we booked at in February 2022. We looked at the 14 night Equinox South America cruise in 2025 and a SS is the same price as a Concierge cabin on the 18 night Oceania Marina cruise with 4 more days and 3 more ports. This was a no brainer for us, we booked the Oceania cruise. The Marina Concierge cabin is a little smaller than the Sky Suite and does not have a butler. However, we get a smaller ship with included specialty restaurants and much better food and service overall, at least that is our expectation. We have wanted to try Oceania for several years, but we loved the Retreat product and up to now the Retreat was a better deal that kept us off of Oceania.

Hopefully your husband stays away from the Impossible Burger, my sister tried one on the Reflection last year and it gave her the MQS for a couple of days.

We went through the same questions and investigations about the O Life promos. The $800 OBC wouldn't even come close to covering the cost of the basic beer and wine for our 18 day cruise in 2025. The beverage package cost for our cruise is $1080 total. Adding the premium package would add another $540pp to the cost. Not sure yet which direction we will go, we can drink a lot of martinis for $540 each. Thinking about keeping the beer and wine package and buying by the drink outside of the meals. Here is what the beverage packages would cost for our cruise: View and Shop Beverage Package Our beverage packages enhance your onboard experience while offering excellent value and the luxury of convenience. In addition, receive a 20% discount on any of our exclusive wine pairing dinners in La Reserve on board with the purchase of a beverage package. HOUSE SELECT-WINE BY GLASS & BEER W/MEAL Unlimited champagne, wine and beer with lunch and dinner. $539.10 per guest ($29.95 per guest, per day Gratuity Included) PRESTIGE SELECT - WINE, BEER & SPIRITS Unlimited premium spirits, champagne, wine and beer wherever and whenever you wish. $1,079.10 per guest ($59.95 per guest, per day Gratuity Included) PREPAID GRATUITIES

nooooooo, that George Foreman Grill will blow out the whole power grid on the ship!!

You will love the cabin, we did the same on our Nov 4th HAL Koningsdam cruise when one became available. In 2021 we got one on the Equinox and it was our first time in an aft cabin. One big advantage we noticed while at sea there is little to no winds on the balcony.

Smart move to the aft cabin, IMO.

We fly Delta often from San Antonio to Atlanta to catch overseas flights. It is almost a 3 hour flight and we are lucky to get a bag of pretzels and one soda in main cabin.. Last year we flew to Portland Oregon on American Airlines from DFW, it was a 4 hour flight and we were in first class. We got a horrible stale sandwich served in plastic wrap and one drink, coming home we got the same stale sandwich. Hardly what we use to get in FC before Covid. BTW Mexicana is still in business and flies from San Antonio to Mexico City. Last time we flew Mexicana I got sick with MQS from the food served from Cancun to DFW, that was 20 years ago.

No my conversation was with her on Friday. I should have stated it better more like: "On Friday, I had an interesting conversation with my TA who mostly books cruises on Celebrity."

To me the IV balcony is just a sunroom with a window. I would never book one which is why on E Class it is a Sky Suite or aft facing veranda or nothing. I do not even like the round porthole verandas on the very front of the upper decks. We loved out Reflection cruise last year from Rome. I was interested in how the OP like the IV, since this is their first Celebrity cruise.

We booked last week a 7 day cruise on the HAL Koingsdam to use up the FCC that we got from HAL for their mishandling our Covid experience last year on the Oosterdam. We booked an aft facing veranda cabin for nothing out of pocket using the FCC. I am looking in the Navigator app for their RS and they still charge nothing and during the MDR hours we can order from the MDR menu. The app lists the Lido Buffett menu and it has not changed and is still a complete service including most of the MDR entrees and starters available. Celebrity could improve their dinner OVC by doing the same as HAL. We have on past HAL cruises used the LIDO for diner because we can get the MDR menu items, which is why we have not done the same in the OVC.

True, but there were a lot of people on B2B cruises that started pre-Jan 1 and the second post Jan 1 who got blind-sided by the changes. None of the changes will have much effect on our Celebrity future cruises. We are booked in Sky Suites and have never had a diner in the OVC on any Celebrity cruise. We also are exempt from the RS charges, but I can still understand why so many do not like what is going on. We liked Celebrity because you didn't get nickel and dimmed as bad as NCL, and RCL. IMO Celebrity has now passed HAL on the nickel & diming. I am more concerned about how much Celebrity is jacking up prices for suites in the future cruises. We are getting priced out of the Retreat product and have booked our first Oceania cruise in 2025 and looking at several more.

Last year on our Reflection 10-night cruise from Rome the Chic nights were the first sea day, but that itinerary did not have a sea day the last 5 days so the next to last port day was the second Chic night.

That is plenty of time you will be fine.

I can agree with your comments, Celebrity mishandled how they rolled out the changes with no communication prior to January 1.

Even if the ship docked in Venice, it would be next to impossible to catch a flight before 11:00am. Unfortunately, most direct flights back to the States leave much earlier.

Since this your first E Class cruise, what is your honest opinion so far of the IV balcony?

That same meeting the rep said the charge for room service was also to cut down waste and the needless use of understaffed crew to deliver the RS. Too many abused RS and order things they never eat and would leave the full plates outside their cabins. Just walk down the hallways early in the morning to see what is left outside the cabins from the night before.

Interesting conversation with my TA who books mostly cruises with Celebrity on Friday. I have been telling her for weeks about CC and the number of loyal Celebrity customers who are very upset over the cutbacks and changes instigated last month. She had a meeting with her Celebrity rep this week and brought up my comments and the CC complaints. The rep told her that Celebrity management does monitor CC and is aware of the complaints on CC. He told her the cutback in the OVC for diner was to reduce the nightly food wastes that are over 50% on most cruises. He also told her the whole OVC changes are going to be a reassessed on a regular basis. The new charge for a second lobster tail in MDR was again to cut down in waste, too many people would order multiple lobsters and not eat all of them.

I agree, it does seem to be an outdated event. I do not even own a suite or sport coat, got rid of them all after retirement in 2020. On a Celebrity cruise I do wear a nice button up or Hawaiian style Tommy Bahama shirt and long pants every night. I just realized these dress code comments are going to turn this into another never ending dress code thread, oh crap!🤢

I would guess the passengers who got downgraded were booked with a suite guaranty and there were not enough suites left to fill the guarantees. This is why we never book a gty, we want to choose the cabin on the deck that we want. In 2021 we got downgraded from business class to coach on a flight to FLL because of a change in aircraft. We got chosen because we paid less for our BC flight. Delta offered us no compensation for the downgrade either. I am following as we will be on the Edge in January 2024 on a B2B cruise of New Zealand and the Great Barrier Reef, down under. We will be on the Apex in September from Amsterdam to Athens. I love your writing style and I am enjoying your perspectives.

I agree, you would have to leave the ship by 4:00am to catch that 8am flight. Marco Polo is a small and crowded airport that takes at least 2 hours to check in and go through customs and security.

Last year we cruised from Trieste with HAL and took a private transport for our group of 4, it was 433 Euro total and picked us up at the car parking lot in Venice island. It is took us almost 2 hours by transport and trying to make an 8am flight is not going to be possible IMO. coming home we spent the night at the Courtyard by Marriot at the airport and it was reasonably priced with free breakfast. It was an older hotel but very nice and the private onsite restaurant was fantastic, one of the best diners we had in Italy. Our cab driver even recommended the restaurant when he dropped us off at the hotel. Our ship had docked in the Venice industrial port on the return so we took a cab to the hotel. We had a 9am flight home the next morning and it took almost 2 hours to check in and go through security for our flight. The hotel has a shuttle for 5 Euros to the airport, it takes about 5 minutes.

You will love our one-week winters, which we just had last week. New Braunfels is a nice suburban community but look for places in the hills above the city. San Marcos is closer to Austin but is more of a college town with Texas State University and 30,000 students located there. Texas also has no state income taxes too.

We were on one of the first Equinox cruises after the lockdown in August 2021 and all passengers were given these tracking bracelets that had to be worn at all times on the ship. They were a pain and dropped shortly after our cruise.

Last August we flew to Rome and home from Venice for business for about $2400pp, this year in September we are booked Business to Amsterdam and home from Athens for about $4400pp, that is a huge increase. In 2021 we flew First class from San Antonio to FLL RT for a cruise and paid $989pp this year in June we are paying $1300pp for FC.