rodndonna

We are pretty much limited to Air Canada these days.. but when booking early (like a year out), the add-on cost from London is pretty low making it well worth it. Also, we have an Aeroplan credit card, so our bags are free with Air Canada. We had "one" cruise (again from San Juan) booked through Celebrity Air last year, and that was with Westjet .. but then Westjet pulled their connector to Toronto so we ended up on AC again. Still hoping Westjet puts a connector to Toronto back in their schedule .. so at least we would have "2" options. Other than NCL, the other cruise lines air programs allow connectors from London .. all the Carnival lines (HAL, Princess etc) and Royal Lines (RCL and Celebrity). If I were to book NCL again, I would only do it on non-winter months, or book through an airline (nameless) vacation site so I could incorporate that London connector. We're simple folk and pretty frugal, but that added convenience for us at this point in our lives is well worth it.

Thanks for the reminder on google reviews (I use "bing" in an attempt to avoid google typically, so forgot about those reviews). Also will be checking in on any reddit threads (another source I tend to forget about) Edit: This will be our one and last time booking NCL air for cruises in the winter months.... seemed like an acceptable option a year ago when we booked but now not so much....

It's actually the coming back from the airpot I dread more in winter - such as a crap shoot as to what weather we come back to to drive back in. We are going the day before and staying at the Alt Hotel, so looking at cheap options to Toronto airport. Have looked at Megabus and Via as well, but then by the time you add in the UP and the time not as convenient or cheap as ONEXbus.

We're not concerned with getting form Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 - but we are actually just heading to the airport to stay the Alt Hotel before our flight in the morning. RobertQ has definitely been around longer, but 3-4 times the cost with less departures. Minimally, I'll keep poking around on their facebook/twitter page this fall to make sure they still seem to be operation without complaints. Since we are going in the day before to stay at the Alt, worse case they are unreliable and we have to drive or take RobertQ in the end.

We have a cruise in January booked with NCL air out of Toronto. We normally try to fly from here (London) but not an option when using NCL air. Looking at options other than driving to and parking at Pearson in winter (uuggh) and have come across ONEXBus https://onexbus.com/ Prices are very reasonable and quite a but cheaper than our local airport transfer bus company (RobertQ). They seem to have been running for over a year although this was the first time I have tripped on them. Anyone have any experience using them?

Thanks Hallux! We have until the end of the end of the month - so some time to work out our options.

We have a late January cruise with NCL and have booked with NCL air. Are the flights typically only assigned after final payment ? Starting to look at what options might be available and a little concerned on what we might get from NCL.... Edit: Related question - can I have the air portion of our cruise removed and do our own air before final payment?

Nice to have another option and additional pressure on the prices offered by other airlines. 😃

It's not unique to the Celebrity forum .. it's the same for the other line forums I lurk on ... Somehow the folks who have decided cruiseline XYZ is now an unacceptable option, feel the need to spend time on the XYZ forum telling everyone else how bad it is. Maybe misery love company or just a Fear of Missing out if others book and enjoy their cruise? ... I just don't get it....

That's how I see it - not rocket science .. like it has always been and will always be .. you have to do the math. It's not like gratuities were magically "free" before and now they are won't be. Nothing is or will ever be free, just because it is "included" in the fare. I think they are pricing more like HAL, where their "Have it all" initially varied and had crew appreciation at times, .but now does not, but has "Crew appreciation" thrown in as a promo at times (like booking early)

It was definitely about the gift cards .. and it came up because they said they were non-refundable and had to use them up, but were miffed the couldn't (they believed) use them at happy hour so were just buying their drinks normally (it was a 2 for 1 happy hour). I know at the time we thought... that can't be right ...but I also had a hard time believing the cards were non-refundable. Regardless ... they had decided they would not get beverage card next time - lol.

We're in London Ontario .. so get confused if we just say London or if we just say Ontario .. can't win 🙂 We're actually displaced Maritimers retired here in Ontario 😎

I don't get the point either. We met some ladies on our last cruise and they had purchased beverage cards, but what was even more bizarre than being non-refundable, was that they could not use them during happy hour? That just doesn't make any sense, but it was what they told us (it was during happy hour). I still think (hope) they were mistaken on that.

Thanks! We just got our tickets for about $18 CDN (about 12Eur) being a month our now, so pretty happy with that (-:

Thanks! Purchased our tickets, seems like a great price 🙂

We are planning on using FlixBus to get to Trieste for our upcoming cruise. Is there any reason to purchase tickets in advance? It would be a Tuesday (Sept 26) mid afternoon if that matters. Any others words of wisdom regarding use of FlixBus welcome 🙂

OP here. Just an update - I just checked this morning and our account was rectified now to reflect the booking invoice so I suspect in our case it was as others have stated that gratuities are added on and then removed within a couple of days. 🙂

Thanks! This is our 3rd booking now with Celebrity, but I guess the first time I looked at our booking payment details shortly after booking.

Thanks for your comparison. Only comment I would add is regarding kids. We are far from expect HAL cruisers (just 5) but the only one we saw a lot of kids was out Alaska cruise, so perhaps that is a factor. We have only done 1 Celebrity (Millennium class ship_ and my "impression" was that generally for similar itineraries at the same time of year, X and HAL would attract the same number of kids.

Thanks for the responses - indeed when I look now - I can see it is the gratuities that are wrong. It added them on even though we have the "all included" pricing. Not sure if it would have been rectified without us noticing, but I will be looking a little more closely now. Our booking is an odd one after an X cancellation where our deposit is based on honouring Future Cruise on board booking and additional OBC for the cancellation which has not shown up yet, but was told that might take a while to get sorted.

Has anyone had the payment info for their cruise not match their booking invoice? We just booked a cruise 2 days ago for 2025 on the Constellation. I called it in and booked with an invoice that matched what I was seeing on line for that sailing and still see for that sailing. I've emailed our PCC about it and am pretty confident it is just an error that will be rectified, but just wondering if this has happened to others. To be honest I rarely look that closely and the difference would not be something I would have noticed if I weren't checking against original invoice (about $300 CDN) being as it is so far out.

I am pretty certain they are shared within the Carnival line. It is quite evident if you play the Casino and get offers that they share.

Thanks for the point of reference (very encouraging). As it turns out, I checked and the week of March 9 is the March Break week for our schools "here" in Ontario - I don't think it would matter for our cruise, but flying that week could be pretty crazy so we have settled on going in late January instead.

Thanks. We have sailed on HAL a few times, and was thinking the number of kids/families would be similar (at least on the small Celebrity ships) as they both offer about the same level of kid activities (not much). It looks like we can get the same itinerary late January so may go with that date over March. Just have to move another planned holiday out of that January timeslot 😉 Good thing I'm retired for all this planning!

We are looking at the Constellation (I assume that's Connie) out of Tampa either late January or mid March 2025 to replace our Summit cruise from San Juan. As I am quite unfamiliar with Celebrity (just one cruise on "Millie") do you think "Connie" needs a refurb badly? We're not picky so probably wouldn't alter our plans, just curious.