clopaw

We have about $200 of future cruise credit left after booking our next cruise.  Has anyone been allowed to apply this to another  Celebrity product such as shore excursions?  This credit is left from a cruise with confidence cancellation not from a 125% credit so it is money that we paid to Celebrity 

Any time you can experience local culture, go for it!

Thanks so much. We fly to Seattle tomorrow and start this adventure next Monday.

Thank you so much, Roger. I'm an obsessive planner and I have spent a lot of time reading the activity sheets and menus.

We are sailing on June 18th. I'd love to see programs and menus if you can. Bon voyage!

We have one tender port on our upcoming Reflection cruise. In looking at Captain's Club info on the newly redesigned Celebrity web page, I don't see priority tickets as a benefit. Is it still in effect?

We were offered a bump by Holland America about 10 years ago. We bargained up from a room with a pothole for 7 days (0bviously a pretty old ship even then). We ended up in a balcony for 10 days on a newer ship. They paid the airline change fee. We also picked the dates we wanted. I'm an accountant and I have very specific time frames that work for me.

Take a look at October 15, 2016 Equinox and explain THOSE prices to me.....and YES it's after final payment dates.......:eek: :eek:

The price for a balcony room is almost double what we paid for it, and we booked last spring.

We will have our adult daughters cruising with us in an adjoining room. My husband and I are elite plus, the girls are not. Do we need to officially have me in one room with one daughter and my husband in the other with the second daughter in order for them to go to cocktail hour and breakfast with us?

I'm sure this has been asked and answered, but our TA just told us that we could not combine Pick your Perk with on onboard booking. Is that the experience that others have had?

We did this excursion a few years ago on Celebrity and loved it. We got very close to the face of the glacier but did not get out of the canoes. We went in May and the mosquitoes were not out yet.

This happened to us on HAL. We eventually negotiated a switch from a 7 day cruise inside room to a 10 day balcony room. They paid the airline change fee. If it ever happens to you, remember you don't have to take the first offer.

Roz, I noticed that you mentioned Brenda having trouble on hardwood floors. Hero was my husband's previous Guide Dog. Hero was diagnosed with osterosarcoma and had his left hind leg amputated. The whole first floor of our house is hard surfaces, and that was very difficult for him so I went to Target and bought a bunch of large (5' x 8') mats so that he had a secure place to walk. Hero's been gone for two years now, and the mats have moved to the basement.

I see that many of you have lost a service dog. That was one of the hardest things that's ever happened to me. Hero was a trooper. The week before he died, we had a big snowfall and he was outside playing in it like a puppy. He loved the snow and he loved to cruise. He enjoyed just sitting on the balcony and looking out at the water. We are so lucky to have this furry babies in our lives.

We have exactly 750 points and our status is listed as elite plus. We previously had 25 points.

Thank you for the quick responses! We are inclined to take her because of the length of the trip, but I didn't want to get into a situation where my husband stood outside with the dog and I took a tour. With his previous dog (named Hero, another wonderful name) we were in the Caribbean at several of the islands that don't allow dogs no matter what, and we always found someone who was happy to dog sit. Once in Alaska, we were going on a canoe trip and didn't think we should take a 90 pound lab in a canoe with us. Hero stayed with the Hotel Director that we had become friends with. We got back from our day, and we discovered that she had taken him into town. She said that she had gone into Starbucks with him. They asked if he was a service dog, and she replied that he was. We laughed about it, but we never imagined that she would take him off the ship. We are very protective of our babies.

Avanti's name means "forward" in Italian, so it's a great name for a guide dog. She's a smaller lab, just about 60 pounds. It's funny, because Hero was a serious guy, and was always concerned that things be done correctly. We did a round trip to Hawaii with all the sea days, and as a special treat, we told him he could get up on the bed with us. That was something that he never did at home (big dog, small bed). Well, he sat there and looked miserable as though he thought someone would walk in and yell at him, so we let him get back down. Avanti is a little on the wacky side, and is more what people think of as a typical lab personality. Put the harness on and she's all business.

We've got a year before our trip, so I've got a lot of time to make sure we have our ducks in a row. Thanks for the help.

What a wonderful community this thread is! I have some questions about Europe and a Guide Dog and I don't really want to go through 10,000 posts!

My husband and I are booked on a transatlantic next November, starting in Rome and ending in Ft Lauderdale. He has a terrific Guide Dog, named Avanti. We are debating whether of not to take Avanti with us. She has cruised before to the Pacific Coast and to Alaska, and she a good little sailor. Our concern is what kind of issues we will run into with taking her. Besides Italy, we are stopping in France, Spain, and the Canary Islands. Do any of you have experience doing excursions with a service dog? Specifically, can you go into churches with a service dog, and even more specifically the Vatican? Have you done organized tours or done touring on your own? In trying to do some research, it looks as though the access laws are similar to ours, but I'm not sure of the exact limits. Are hotels and restaurants required to allow dogs? What about cabs? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Roz, I'm glad you mentioned IAADP. We get glucosamine and fish oil for Hero through them. I'd encourage everyone to take a look at their website.

My name got attached to the quotes about the husband not wanting to take the dog to Disney, flying or cruising....that wasn't me!

My husband is actually the service dog user in our family, but I would never object to the dog going anywhere with us. About the only place we do not take him is rock concerts because of the noise and the zoo.

I dearly love that dog, and I have told my husband that if we ever split up, I get the dog. He tells me it doesn't work that way, so I guess we have to stay together.:D

Really I don't know how someone objects after they see the dog at work. My husband has been visually impaired his whole life, but it's gradually gotten worse as he's gotten older. He's very independent, and I used to worry about him all the time when he was off on his own. Since he's had Hero, I don't worry about him. If nothing else, we have found that people rush to help you when you have a dog. When people see a cane user, they seem to rush the other way.

We just had a little incident yesterday. We were at a farm market (outside) and a teenager who worked there came up and kind of stammered something about the dog, and I cut him off and said, "he's a service dog." My husband always says he wants to tell them the dog just likes to dress up funny in leather, but he generally restrains himself. Kind of like the second time we were cruising on Celebrity, we were walking into the terminal with Hero, and a man (official) came up to us, and asked if we were the people with the dog. No, that's our son, he has a hair problem, why do you ask. ;)

More power to all of you with service dogs.

On the turf issue, we have asked for it on every single cruise, and we have never received it. On Celebrity, it's been the mulch. On Holland, it was dog litter and the box was like a big cat box. He had to straddle it. On Princess, they started with astroturf, moved to a sheet of cardboard, moved to terra cotta pellets that I believe would be used in floral arrangements, and moved to sawdust. We have not been back on Princess since that experience, but I know others have had very different experiences, including group cruises. The first couple of cruises, the dog was not wild about the box and he would wait everyday to see if we were going ashore before he would use it. Now it's fine with him and he'll use the box even when he can see that we are docked.

He loves sailing and will even sit out on the balcony by himself on occasion and look out to sea.

Our last three cruises have been Alaska, Hawaii, and back to Alaska again. Interestingly, we had more challenges on the Hawaii cruise than all the others put together, including an open air restaurant that tried to deny us access. In the Caribbean, if the dog could get off the ship at all, we generally have had no problems. We did have a restaurant in Aruba tell us that we couldn't come in, but we have eaten other places in the Caribbean without a problem. Anywhere in the Caribbean or Mexico, you do have to keep an eye out for stray dogs.

BTW, on our May cruise to Alaska, there were three dogs, all from Guide Dogs for the Blind. One belonged to a friend who was vacationing with us, and the other belonged to one of the priests onboard.

I would like to caution people that the dog relieving facility may not be consistently what the cruiseline says. Princess gave our service dog a piece of astroturf in a stairwell...he thought it was carpet and would not use it. Holland gave him a box that said for animals up to 35 pounds and he weighs 100 pounds...he became very precise. Celebrity has consistenly been the four by four box with mulch. Also, he absolutely would not use a practice box at home. His attitude was the yard is right there. On the ship, no problem.

If you feel comfortable leaving your dog with someone else, we have found that the people in guest relations have always been delighted to dogsit when we have been in a port where the dog could not get off the ship. We have left him on the ship at least once on every cruise he's been on (7). We have his water bowl, leash, and a toy for the sitters. They all have a good time and so does he. I know that option does work for everyone, but it does for us.

Our overall experience has been wonderful. There has never been a crew member who treated us negatively in any way, and we have met many more fellow passengers than we ever did pre-dog.

Eggs Benedict in the dining room. French toast fingers with orange syrup on the CC room service menu on Celebrity. Pineapple!!! Fresh orange juice. Lots of coffee....and maybe a croissant or two.