sparkopotamus

30 minutes ago, ORV said:

I know it’s hard to understand because other cruise lines operate this way but there is no cap. The rule is that if it’s on the “Bar Menu” then it’s on the Prestige Package. There might be a $19 drink 🍹 on the package yet there might be another one that is $16 that’s not. Also unlike other lines there is no “paying the difference”. If it’s not on the package it’s full price. 

Thanks!  My husband and the couple traveling with us will have fun figuring it out. LOL 
For my part, I’m grateful they offer decent non-alcoholic options (beer, wine, and liquors). Cheers!! 🥃🍸🍷🥂
 

We are Elite Plus on Celebrity.  Next year (May 2025) we booked the Xpedition because we didn't want to lose our deposit from the Celebrity cruise we cancelled for May 2024 and replaced with an Oceania Vista itinerary (it seems Celebrity hasn't dropped its standards for the Galapagos itineraries...at least not yet).  We are looking forward to our first voyage on Oceania, and will give Viking Ocean a try as well in the near future.   

15 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Some bars also have some luxury selections (e.g., higher end whisky) on a separate menu. Google the Preisman blog and you'll find the bar menus from a recent Vista cruise. There are also sample menus on the O site.

Hi, thanks for the tip--I saw the Preisman's website with all the menus, etc.  VERY helpful!

Referencing that page, there are two pages with selections such as Scotch & Whiskey, Cognac, and Louis XIII starting at $25 going all the way up to $360.  Would anyone happen to know what the price cap is on any given libation is if one has the Prestige package?  

(Yes, my husband and I are Oceania newbies!  Will be on the Vista 11-21 May. 😀)

So if one upgrades to the Prestige Package, Embarkation Day counts as Day 1.

Is this correct?

17 hours ago, BluebonnetTexan said:

 

You can find the details of our past few days at: https://notesbynancy.com. I can't believe we only have a couple of more days until they kick us off! 

Hi, Nancy, I just finished getting caught up on your blog.  Thanks so much for taking your time to share photos with us!  Seeing your photos makes we want to visit Iceland again sooner than later! ☺️

On 9/10/2023 at 10:20 AM, Keys Kathy said:

OK, let's do a quick survey. Just your CC status, please, and if you are staying with X or looking elsewhere. 

 

Elite-plus, booking elsewhere.

Elite +, moving to Viking.  And after having taken two DIY land vacations (London with side trips and the Scottish Highlands (NC500)) we will split our travel between cruises and DIY land trips.

We have a Suite NRD on X.  We are changing it to a 3-day itinerary so just not to lose money and will do so before 4 Oct. At the same time we are booking on Viking Ocean. We are Elite +, which clearly means nothing to the new leadership.  It has done the math and realized there are savings to be had with eliminating loyalists who get perks.  No hard feelings, we are happy to spend our money elsewhere.  

22 hours ago, BluebonnetTexan said:

Bummer! We inquired at Guest Services as soon as we boarded.

Thanks for the tip!  I can't wait to sail on Viking!  
Thank you for all your posts! 😃

1 minute ago, Boatharbour said:

We were never tempted to try elsewhere because Celebrity ticked all our boxes. But MDR food experiences on our July Apex cruise plus all the recent changes have opened our eyes. 

I’m actually quite excited now about trying something new. 
 

It did for us as well.  We initially tried HAL (2010) and cruised with them three more times after that.  It wasn't bad but we felt like there might be another line we would like better.  So we tried X.  Yay!  Until now...  and honestly even since 2017 we've noticed little changes, minor and slight.  But this new deluge of the line being changed to something more like Royal Caribbean is too much.  We will most likely change to Viking Ocean, and then supplement that with French barge trips and land trips.  

12 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

Well, I just thought somebody a Celebrity might like to know why many former cruisers were thinking about leaving Celebrity and some doing that. But maybe not?

With all decrements to service, perks, quality, etc., I'm reading about, I wonder if the new X leadership mentality has no issue with loyalists (we are Elite +) leaving.  All those perks, e.g., a comp'd bag of laundry, 15% off a bottle of wine, discount on speciality dining, etc., add up.  It would seem X continues to scrub its numbers, looking for ways to cut back.  I suspect they would prefer a non-perk customer to one who has earned a few. Maybe I'm nuts but that's kind of what I see going on.

58 minutes ago, Boatharbour said:

We have one more cruise booked with Celebrity next year and after that have switched for our first non Celebrity cruise. 

We are doing the same.  After this next one we are through with X.  We made Elite Plus but with all the changes that they're making who's to say the Captain's Club (CC) perks won't deteriorate as well?  And anyway, while nice they aren't compelling enough on their own to keep us on X.  

And if you think about it, X benefits from people with CC perks like free bags of laundry, discounts on bottles of wine and specialty dining, etc. from leaving the product.  

55 minutes ago, Boatharbour said:

I’m keeping the email too plus the original paperwork for the FCC as it’s the only proof I have.
Would you know if we can apply the two lots of bonus OBC to an existing booking ? We have one more cruise booked with Celebrity next year and after that have switched for our first non Celebrity cruise. 

On Beyond we had a Sky Suite, and we booked it when they were offering $600 OBC (and as we all know, starting 4 October OBC for Retreat cabins as part of an incentive package will cease), so the $200 for the repositioning was added and now we have $800 total.  I guess that means they can be stacked.  Honestly if you call X and a rep tells you "no", I'd call back because it's not uncommon to receive two different answers to the same question.

1 hour ago, rodndonna said:

Has anyone affected by the deployments for 2025 sailings rebooked and received the offered additional OBC? (In our case it was $200)

 

We rebooked a new sailing almost 2 weeks ago and were told to keep an eye for an email regarding the additional OBC. Still nothing beyond that initial email regarding the cancellation and $200 OBC offer to rebook.

 

Has anyone rebooked and received the OBC on their booking or an additional email yet?

We were originally on the Beyond for May 2024.  In late June this year we received an email from X that said they were shifting Beyond to the Caribbean, and we had 14 days to choose a new booking.  They offered us $200 OBC, which was visible to the X agent when we called to rebook on Equinox.

11 minutes ago, keysey222 said:

They automatically added extra prepaid tips to all 3 of our upcoming reservations for the Retreat under the Add-Ons tab in my account.  We booked back in 2022 and tips were to be included.  This is an additional charge, that if not caught, would've cost us over a thousand bucks. We paid one of the cruises in full and are now waiting for a $650 refund for their mistakes. I was able to delete the extra tips from the other two bookings (not paid in full yet). Any cruisers with upcoming sailings in the Retreat need to double check their bookings. Celebrity confirmed this was a mistake and shouldn't have happened.

I’m sorry you’re having to wade through the less-than-optimal X bureaucracy to get a refund on something that should have never been charged. Thank you for confirming what I feared was true. I will double down on my efforts to get this charge removed prior to our cruise.  

Thank you for taking time to do this review on CC and your blog.  I look forward to following your journey.  And I appreciate the details about the ship, too, as we are seriously considering transferring our cruise loyalty from Celebrity to Viking.  

Safe travels! 🙂

33 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

As we are “Regent regulars” we can say that no additional tipping is expected on Regent. We have had tip offers refused. We offered a tip because a staff member went way beyond the call of duty for us. If we have great service some of us donate to the Crew Fund which helps crew members if they have family emergencies and such. You will have a problem finding a way to use OBC. The best way is to book some premium excursions that aren’t included in the fare. 

I am looking at Regent as a possible replacement for Celebrity.  We are Elite Plus and while I hate to give up the perks that come with it, in the same breath I don't know that those E+ perks will continue to have any relevance the way things are going.

4 minutes ago, barbeyg said:

I have the same $200 issue with our cruise next year.  We are currently within the final payment for one cruise, and that pricing hasn't changed, but one further out has.  

I called and was able to get that $200 removed.  Still working through a line-by-line analysis of what I see on-line and what my .pdf in July had.  I am sympathetic to computer glitches but not so much of those that increase my fare, tho if our local bank glitched and there were a few extra zeros in our bank account... 😄

I'm doing exactly that...looking at other cruise lines and entering line by line items such as Gratuities (Covered?  If not how much?), Beverages/Alcohol (Covered?  If not what is the cost of the package?), Extras (Lounge?  Or is it an egalitarian paradigm?), Shorex (covered?  If so are they skimpy and would I want my own shorex anyway?), other perks such as laundry, specialty dining, etc.  I'm starting with pricing for Oceania, Viking, and Regent.

I'm on the telephone with them now.  Apparently the system "knows" not to charge us the $460.00.

I'm assembling my own spreadsheet.  I need to see line items.  

2 minutes ago, carbon said:

If you have already booked all inclusive which included tips don't they have to honor that?

One would think so...still waiting for my call back...

32 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

We board the Apex in two weeks and after seeing the new Luminae menus I am looking forward to trying some of the new entrees.

Terry, I hope you'll find a moment to share your experiences and observations on the Apex. 🙂

4 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

After reading this you are correct the daily gratuities will no longer be included even for the Retreat. This seems to be outrageous and just another cut or addon cost. At $23pp per person for a suite that adds $552 to the cost of a 12 day cruise. This could be the final straw for many here who are already upset with Celebrity. This is much bigger than cookiegate, at least they are not making it applicable to those like us who already have cruises booked.

I hope you're correct...awaiting a return call from X regarding the $200 increase in my total due when I checked my reservation on-line.  The .pdf I received in July is $200 less than what I see on-line.  Plus they added a Prepaid Tips of $460.00, which I'm unable to delete when I click the trash can icon.  When we booked this we received all four perks (OBC, PBP, tips, and WiFi...we are in an Aqua Sky Suite), plus an additional $200 OBC for being subject to Beyond-gate (the lift-and-shift of Beyond from the Med to the Carib, so now we are Equinox).

19 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

Since we are talking about Regent, we have cruised this line since 2002, and know a bit of its history. Tips and mini bar in suite were included from the start as Radisson in the last century. Lounge beverages were added around 2005. Basic shore excursions, WiFi, and air were included in serial fashion later, but still a long time ago. Valet laundry was added in 2022.
 

We wanted an E, Caribbean cruise early Spring 2024. We priced a Regent suite and an X CS. For comparison I deleted the Regent air (which can be done for a fare reduction) and compared prices. Believe it or not, the Regent fare was $1100 pp LESS than X’s, and it included minibar and excursions and laundry. Guess what we booked?  Regent’s history has been adding perks and inclusions — not removing them.

 

Along those lines, I note that some threads about the demise of included tips have been removed here. Is this because it was a hoax (I hope so) or some other reason?

I noticed two deleted threads last evening as well, and thankfully saved the attachment on it.

See this newly-created thread with a link to a .pdf with almost the same information as the one that was deleted:  All inclusive will no longer include tips!

Wow.  I just clicked the garbage can icon to remove the $460.00 Prepaid Tips and the fee was not removed.  

I'm a bit of a spreadsheet nut so I'm creating one with the original fees and the new ones, line by line.

The total posted on the Celebrity website is wrong, i.e., the basic math is not correct.

And you bet I'm going to uncheck that Added Gratuity, which shouldn't be there in the first place because Gratuities are (were?) covered in our original quoted fare.