terrydtx

The only thing I can think of is the OP has a TA who either, doesn't know HAL and CO or was just not wanting to be bothered booking CO for her client.

I do not own any leather dress shoes, so I would say you over dressed. I also do not own any suits or sport jackets since I retired in 2020 either. My favorite shirts to wear on a cruise for dressy nights are my Tommy Bahama Hawaiian print shirts. Here is another shirt I wore on a dressy night on our Australian cruise in January.

We were on the K'Dam last November from San Diego with CO. It was well worth the cost, the CO dining room had excellent food and service. We used the upgrade to move up to an aft facing cabin #6235 on the 6th deck. The other amenities of CO are just frosting on the cake. We tend to book our future cruises early and would never now book a HAL cruise without CO. We have moved over to HAL as one of our primary cruise lines from Celebrity and CO was one of the big reasons as we like something extra and nicer. On Celebrity we had booked mostly their Retreat class cabins for the added amenity facilities, but current ridiculous high pricing and cuts in service have driven us away.

This has become the norm as dressy nights have degraded to wear what you wear any other night. For me the only difference between dressy and casual night is I wear a button up shirt on dressy nights, and collared golf or pollo shirts the other nights.

The CO dining room is so much nicer and intimate than the MDR, not having a view of the sea is well worth it. IMO the food served in CO seems to be better than the MDR and we have found the extra CO entrees that are cooked to order to be far superior to the MDR fare. The service in the CO is also far superior to the MDR, IMO.

Sounds like you need a new TA. When I have my TA book a HAL cruise and want CO I have her do it all at the same time and do my cabin category upgrade that comes with CO. That is something any TA should know how to do. When I booked our upcoming Volendam cruise last year, my TA booked the B category Vista Suite and had us upgraded to an A category which we would have booked without CO. This upgrade with CO paid for the cost of adding CO.

On Embarkation day the shore excursion desk can have over 100 passengers in line all afternoon, which is why I always use the CO guest services line. Never had any problems doing this. The CO Guest services is like having a concierge.

I use the CO Guest services line as there is usually no one in line, unlike the shore excursions desk and general guest services line that can be exceedingly long specially on embarkation day. Being able to use the CO guest services line is one of the best amenities of CO. Why we only cruise with HAL with added CO. Funny and pathetic story from our HAL cruise last November on the Koingsdam. On embarkation day, I was in the CO line and the person in front of me wanted all of his prepaid crew gratuities refunded to his OBC. He said he only tips the people who provide direct services on any cruise. The agent told him that he had booked with a promo that included pre-paid crew gratuities and they were non-refundable as they were included in the cruise fare, but he still demanded to have them refunded to his account. A supervisor was brought out to discuss this with him and he continued to argue the point until he was asked to leave as the supervisor already determined that no gratuities would be refunded. I heard him say something like he would never cruise with HAL again.

Here is a diagram of the cabin from Cruise Deck plans showing the slanted balcony

I have not had any problems changing pre booked excursions with a credit card switched to OBC once onboard, even if sold out. I just go to guest services and get this done, CO makes this even easier as there is a CO only line for guest services.

I had that same issue on the Volendam and even when I had to get a crew member involved to remove a chair hog from our loungers it created more animosity that I wanted to deal with. We now only book Vista Suites when we sail on the Volendam which is what we have for our August cruise of Canada.

If you can't find something to your liking in MDR, then your best bet would be to eat in the Lido where there is a much larger selection. The Chefs in the MDR and CO have a limited menu based on availability of ingredients and whipping up something special is asking for too much. CO does have one extra special entree every night not available in MDR for non-CO guests.

Take an Uber, we did this last November from pier to SD airport.

Here is a link to a video of 11197 on the Edge Celebrity Edge Cabin 11197 Video and/or Picture (cruisedeckplans.com) We had 11197 on the Apex last year and it was a long walk to the front of the ship where all of the Retreat facilities are located. This year on the Edge we moved our location to the front of the ship Cabin number 10119 where were close to the steps and elevators to get to Luminae and the Retreat Lounge and sun deck.

Yes you can, you go online and look at multiple airlines and routes, then choose which ones you want. Best part is you can fly on one airline going and another coming home. What we did in January to Australia, American to Sydney and home on Air New Zealand, can't do that booking direct with airlines.

I wouldn't think any consent needed, but if you are worried, I would call Celebrity to make sure.

We have successfully used FBC for every overseas cruise we have done with Celebrity. Most recently in January for our flights to Australia. The big advantage was we could book one airline to Sydney (AA) and another for the return flight from Melbourne, (Air NZ) with both in Premium Economy. The cost was a lot less than we could have done booking ourselves. We booked these flights last May and on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving we got an offer to upgrade to BC on the flights to Sydney from AA, we jumped on this. Earlier this week there was a post on another social media site about FBC from a very happy FBC passenger. They were flying from NYC to Venice last year. The morning of their flight they woke up to a message from FBC that their flight to Venice on United had been changed to a flight on Swiss Air to Zurich connecting to Venice. At first they were very upset and called FBC to find out the change was made because during the night the UA flight to Venice had been canceled and FBC was able to move them to Swiss Air. The poster's comment was he was happy to not be one of the other 200+ UA passengers trying to scramble on their own to bet rebooked to Venice.

Our favorite and IMO the best specialty restaurant of any cruise line.

When we added CO to our Koningsdam cruise last year, we already had the aft facing verandah cabin we wanted with no higher category available we got $100 OBC instead of the upgrade.

I just read that blog and it confirms everything being said here about the upcoming refurbishment.

When we booked our 2025 cruise in 2022 we were told that the Marina would be getting the same total refurbishment as Riviera before our cruise next year. I admit it is disappointing, but not enough to deter us from going on the cruise. We booked this cruise for the itinerary, not so much for the ship. I have no doubts we will still love the cruise.

Usually if you are changing cabin category and pricing you have to cancel the previous cruise and initiate a totally new booking, but you will lose any booking amenities and addons from the previous cruise. You could lose CO if it is already sold out for your cruise. It is the same if the price drops for your cabin, you have to rebook to get the new pricing.

If you are past final payment you should call HAL or whoever you booked the cruise through to ask this question.

Once someone left a towel on our deck chair, I guess to reserve it, that we promptly removed. One of the times when I asked a passenger to move from our chairs, she said "what's the harm you weren't using it"

We are booked in a A3 cabin on the Marina next year, it had been my understanding that all of the cabins were getting cabin and bathroom refurbishing with the dry docking in April, has this changed? If this is the case I am not too pleased about this.