Happiest when cruising

I tried to book when we got to Curaçao, and they were booked for both days.

If anyone really has their heart set on going there, definitely pre-book.

Since they were full, I asked for another recommendation and they gave me Lions Dive beach resort. It was fantastic, but more like a cove. They only charged 12.00 pp, and it was about 20 minutes from the port. The taxi was 10.00 pp each way. 

4 minutes ago, Issyalex said:

Thanks. Looking forward to seeing your photos.

 

Our TA advised us not to book the two cabins nearest the lift as he thought the noise from the lift might be an issue. Mind you we will be out of our cabin for most of the day and we’re not easily woken with some noise. 

Then it would be fine, my husband didn’t even hear the elevator dings. We did not  think from the 6th deck that we would  hear the music from the piazza. 

On 3/9/2024 at 5:36 PM, Issyalex said:

We have booked cabin 6402 for 2025 so hoping to see more photos or some videos of these cabins before then.

I’ll post do

e of 6404 when we get home. It was a noisy location- you can hear the elevator and the music from below. I would not book it again, although the mid ship was nice. 

1 hour ago, Nashna said:

This was one way from Avila to the cruise ship.  It was $20.00 for the two of us.  This was in Janaury 2023.  You might want to check with Avila for today's rate.

Thanks so much for the information. It looks like a great place but we haven’t quite decided if we should take some sort of tour instead, since we have never been there before. 

8 hours ago, Nashna said:

I have no idea why this resort is so reasonable.  It has to be one of the best bargains in the Caribbean.  

Are you able to give an approximate taxi fare cost to get there? If it’s per person or per taxi, that would be helpful to know, as well. Thanks. 

On 1/20/2024 at 8:35 AM, LJSNY said:

Hi, looking forward to pics & video of 6402 & 6403 that a few members are going to be posting.

thank you

Me, too! We are cruising at the end of the month… 

3 hours ago, LadyBerard said:

Here is one picture of 6403   

Thanks so much. I guess I was trying too broad of a search on google and YouTube. 
I’ve read the other thread now, too. 
I was hoping to bid on a balcony but my TA told me about a month ago, that there were none left, so I didn’t even try.

On 11/15/2023 at 7:10 AM, champagnecruiser said:

Thank you - it would be great to get some information before we board on Feb 12th!

Good morning, 

We also are cruising very soon in these cabins, so I’m hoping for information regarding noise and any other information you might be able to share. 
Pictures of the cabin and video of the elevator entrance areas, would be awesome, too. Thanks so much and I hope your cruise is going great.  

Hi,

Does anyone have any photos or information about those 4 cabins which were added on when they took out the ilounge?

I can’t seem to find anything about them, and we are booked into one of them very soon. 

 

27 minutes ago, sunseeker551 said:

Sorry, I didn't see your last post.  Unfortunately our friends ended up booking another inside cabin so I don't know what they're like.  Surely someone has stayed in one.  Perhaps you might find someone who has on one of the "social" websites that has a group for Celebrity. Good luck (and be sure to post here once you get back). Happy cruising!

Thanks so responding. I have tried about 12 social media type sites with no luck, other reading they might not be as insulated as other cabins and might a bit noisy because of that.  I will find out at the end of February,  but since the ship is mostly sold out, we’re likely stick with it. 
I will definitely be taking pictures, so I’ll post them after we get back, if we don’t get a great complimentary upgrade😉

On 2/23/2022 at 9:46 AM, sunseeker551 said:

They like to book midship insides and these appear to be their best option. I tried to convince them to book on the same deck we're on (several empty insides) but it's too high for them (she tends to get sea sick easily & said she does better on lower decks). There's one inside cabin available on deck 3 but the ones on deck 7 are all forward.  This is very last minute so if they cruise, they want an inside. 

 

They were wondering if they called celebrity if someone could tell them but I said I doubted it...said I'd check here first. Members here often know more than the reps at cruise lines. 😉

Hi,

I thought I’d try again to ask if your friends stayed in one of these cabins in the end.

I have 6404 booked but still can’t find anything about them. Thanks. 

On 4/3/2023 at 11:23 AM, mtsublueraider said:

I haven't been able to find much on social media or youtube about Ana's on the beach. I will say that they've been VERY responsive for an upcoming date we've booked with them. Has anyone else been? 

 

Love that you can reserve in advance, with no deposit down, a cabana for $25 (FOR THE DAY!!!!) and chairs/umbrellas for $10 each. The menu looks good, they don't play loud music, and it's adjacent to the Sandals property. Will report back when I go but would be curious if anyone has tried them. 

Hi, 

Did you end up going to Ana’s? 

On 10/12/2022 at 9:01 AM, neverlaysup said:

I just had 6405 assigned via a GTY Inside booking I made about 9 days before embarkation. Barring any Move Up I may or may not be offered, I will let y'all know about this cabin size.

Hi, if you ended up taking this cruise, do you have any photos you could share? We’re booked into 6404 next month. Thanks. 

3 hours ago, trivia addict said:

Thank you Princeton…. You always have great information.

We originally thought of doing it ourselves but the thought of narrow roads and hairpin turns was dissuading me. We have driven many roads on two continents like that and I just thought I’d give my husband a rest!

 But you have given me thought to reconsider my plan.

Stick with your plan and just find a guide to do the driving. Many people came back from renting cars and were sorry they did. They also said they didn’t get to see as much as they were very focused on the crazy road. 

33 minutes ago, nho9504 said:

 

Right, many folks submitted their request MANY months before their sailings, some even for 2015!  We always book our cruises (with any lines), about 2 to 3 months before sailing, so we do have the need to get the OBC request going as quick as possible.  I should have done it right after we paid for the cruise back in first week of Dec when there was a flash sale.  Other things get in the way to delay this chore till Jan 2024. 

 

Those lucky ones received their notification a few hours or within a day after submitting their proofs.  I haven't gotten anything, yet.  The acknowledge receipt email said 2 business days, so I would give them this time lapse.  If by next Mon or Tue still no response, I guess I would have to send in the proof via email channel.  I would prefer to take care of this sooner than later.  We have a lengthy land trip post cruise - I am still finalizing the itinerary, because once train tickets are purchased, if we want any change, the $ spent would be down the drain.  All 3 weeks hotels are booked with fully cancellable rates, so as the flights which are mileage tickets that do not cost anything to cancel up to 24 hours before departure.  But I need to concentrate in figuring the trains.  Hence one more thing checked off the To Do List, like making sure the OBC would post, would be a necessity to me.

 

As far as the Apps concerned - it has a lot of Pros but also a lot of Cons.  It will not do away with the tried and true websites for many things, from banking to hotels to airlines.  The oddity is, there are things that would perform far better on website but have no way to even try to do it on an App.  That happened last night when I was trying to modify a room booked at a Marriott hotel - website has the function of Edit Room,  App has no where such function to be found.  I went on Flyertalk to ask the Marriott forum where to find the function on the App - the answers are, Nope, it does not exist!  So when the rates or the point levels went down, or you want to change a room type - the only way to do it on the App is CANCEL and REBOOK!  Yet on the website you can do Edit Room, then Update.  Voila, you have a screen with options to choose from.

 

So no, App is not the future until it can be much perfected.  Companies want to push it as the future, but all you need to look at, is the advertisements from the banking industry - they no longer plaster the TV screen touting how convenient it is to bank using the App on your phone.  Further more, Chase literally DISABLES certain notifications thru text - now it is via Email only! 

 

There are personal preference arises from real need for wanting to use a Website than an App on the phone.

 

Many people, myself included, really dont want to use the tiny phone keyboard to do things if we can avoid it, plus I seriously dont want any rarely used app cluster my phone and takes up memory.  I usually uninstall any cruise line's apps after we finished the sailing.  No reason to keep them on the phone when the next time the need arises would be who knows how many months away.

 

Well, thank you for letting me to rant. 

I should have been more clear about using the app. App or website, I do see differences, for sure. I just don’t understand why people want to use email for such things. 

If I know there are things I can’t do on an app, but I can do online, then I just go to the website, instead. 
It sounds like you have quite the adventure planned, I’m pretty jealous. 

20 hours ago, nho9504 said:

 

Thanks for the pointer.  I suspect it will be next week before we receive a confirmation.

 

The wait time seems to vary a lot - some folks received the 2nd email within 3 hours, some folks did not get it until a day later or even longer.

Then as you said, you need to access the App again to redeem.

 

Much easier for the customer, to go thru the email channel. It also seems much quicker, because after Redeemed, it still takes 5 days for the OBC to show up while the email channel only took 2 days from sending in request to seeing the OBC in the account.

It works just fine to use the app. 
My guess is they are only keeping that email option for a length of time to keep people happy. The app works, it’s quick and efficient and is the future. 
People don't generally wait until the last week or so to submit for the OBC, unless they didn’t know about it, anyways. It’s still less than a week for it to show up. That’s plenty of time for most people. 

I did not submit anything other than what they asked for, and gave no access to my financial accounts. 
I have read many posts where people are anxious and apply for the OBC more than a year early. I have no idea why they were accepting that, and maybe this is a new way to make sure people are actually holding the shares. 

 

54 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We just came off (today) 14 days on the Sky Princess.  On this cruise we had both our $250 military credit and the $250 shareholder credit.  When we boarded on Dec 2, the on-board app showed that my military credit was "refundable."  During the voyage, I noticed that it had changed to "non-refundable."  We had a total of approximately $1500 of OBC, but only the "gift" from our cruise agency was listed as "refundable" along with a few dollars added (during the voyage) for a refund of some port charges/fees.

 

Since we had the Premiere Package. we had trouble spending all that OBC.  We managed to book 6 specialty restaurant dinners (2 were free as a Premiere Package perk) so that only used about $368).  We had booked 3 excursions (we generally dislike any excursion) and one of them was cancelled (by Princess).  We soon realized we would have about $400 remaining non-refundable OBC, so I bought a couple of expensive bottles of Cognac (at the shop) to use up all that OBC.

 

Hank

Yep..don’t leave anything behind. I hope you enjoy your purchase. Too bad about the excursion, though. 

24 minutes ago, Moondogy said:

Both MOBC and SHOBC are in my name and both OBC show up for our 3/2025 cruise.

Yes, you are now able to receive both benefits. Princess backtracked on the new policy they tried to implement. 

25 minutes ago, Ricky_Haiku said:

Fax still works for Carnival brand voyages as of 10 days ago. 

I would not chance it. I now have read several posts where people were not notified that it had not been accepted via fax, so people were trying to sort it out once onboard.  It is really quick to submit the required information through Stockperks. 
 

1 hour ago, Bill Miller said:

I booked the Casino Cash Blowing Class, but after reading this topic I'm defiantly changing to the Glass Blowing thing. I'm a grumpy old man but this sounds great. Thank You for explaining it !

It took me a second to get the joke… 

but at least with the glass blowing, you will have something to take home. 

On 11/30/2023 at 1:30 PM, rajraj said:

All please beware of StockPerks and their hideous and unethical business practices. If you do not link your brokerage account or provide the entire brokerage statement they will try to harass you. They want people to desperately just provide them with their personal and financial information.  StockPerks is a data mining company that makes money by feeding off data and personally identifiable information of others and selling them to marketing companies. I am also not aware how they may use/missure financial information. They do not even have a customer service number to call them. They will also send you emails from generic or anonymous email IDs. I understand we all want to get our OBC's but be careful. I sent them redacted statements with very little to none personal and financial information and they are giving me a hard time. Beware this is not a company that you want to share your information with.   Please reach out to your brokerage firm and request for a letter verifying you holding of the only the selected cruise line stocks. Every brokerage firm will provide you this. It will list out the number of shared you hold of the said company and the date of confirmation (which is usually end of the previous day). Once you get this letter, redact your address and brokerage account number and then send it to StockPerks. DO NOT SEND YOUR ENTIRE BROKERAGE STATEMENT NO MATTER WHAT YOU REDACT. Based on their desperation of getting the entire statement I am concerned that may have a way to scrub to remove redactions and access other information you do not want them to have. Additionally, I got the clarification that StockPerks is falsely advertising that Royal Caribbean and Norwegian are also using them. As of now it is ONLY CARNIVAL that is using StockPerks to cut costs and reduce their in-house employees that are dedicated to processing these requests. Shame on Carnival for the lack of proper information and falsely sending out emails recommending to their shareholders that it is "recommended" that they link their brokerage accounts to StockPerks when it is not at all needed.

I find your post very interesting.

it was super easy to submit, and the only thing we sent them, was the name of the brokerage, our names and that we had 100 shares. 
I left the date on it, as well. 
 

I do find it interesting, that you can cut and paste all you want, as they want the information on one page only. 
 It worked, though. We got the second email to go back to their site, and put in our booking number and names and date of cruise. That was it…

I don’t really like the new way, but it was not hard to do. 

6 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Yes, the fee includes a piece to take home.  It's really a base price that can go up depending on what you choose to make.  I believe the paper weights are the entry level and it goes up from there.  I made the tidal wave vase and I think it was $140 and then we had another piece commissioned by one of the artisans.  A great way to use up excess OBC!

So, if you pay the higher price, do they assist you so it at least comes out a bit like the finished pieces on display that you choose from? Or, could you end up with a 200.00 blob of glass? 

9 hours ago, mommycruiser said:

Thanks, I might just cancel the tour and rent a car since we will be overnighting there. I feel like it might be too stressful to miss the tour and then everyone will be in a foul mood.  Going with my DH,  18yr, and 13yr any suggestions on what to do? DH and I have been there but kids have not so I want to make it fun plus they will have been with 5 sea days and will be anxious to get out lol.

We had a good day, and just used the public bus everywhere as we weren’t in any hurry. 
After Pearl Harbour, we back to the ship, had lunch and then again went by bus down to the beach. It was really easy and cheap… 

I had never seen a public bathroom that had no door on the stall. It creeped me out for sure. I guess they have a bit of an issue there and think that’s the best way to avoid problems in them.
We ended up just having a very late dinner at the buffet. There were lots of restaurants around the area, though.
We decided not to do a Luau as it was just too pricey for us, with the exchange rate from Canadian dollar and there was just two of us.
It would have been approximately 600 CAD including transportation, to get decent seats at one of the popular ones. We also had never been to Hawaii before and just didn’t feel comfortable renting a car and chancing getting lost. 
 

19 minutes ago, mommycruiser said:

Hello all,

 

I have a tour with an outside company and need to get to a specific location by 7:45 from the pier and the ship docks at 7am . Is this doable? Are there Ubers readily available or reliable transportation? Any advise is welcomed.

 

Thanks,

 

Laura 

 

 

Hi,

I really think that’s pushing it.
 

I checked the port schedule and the Crown is the only ship there that day, which helps. 
The arrival time is 6:00 am. but, you truly never know what time you will be able to get off. 
 

I just tried a quick Uber search right now, and it was showing about a 7 minute wait from Pier 2B. 
You could prebook one, too. 

I actually didn’t feel there were many available transportation options when we were there in mid April. We walked off the ship about 8:00 am to get a public bus to Pearl Harbour for 10:00 am. tour. 

I would check the Princess excursion page just to see what the earliest time is that one of their excursions starts, and use that as a guideline. Those people do get off first, as well as anyone else that has priority that day. 

It is 8:30 am right now in BC.
If you don’t have to make a rush decision, I would check daily on the Uber or any other car share option app. around the time I needed to get off. 
You  also don’t say how far away you are going, which of course, if it was more than a few minutes, you wouldn’t have much wiggle room. 

 

On 11/1/2023 at 6:45 PM, CruiseDuck said:

Did you put a luggage tag on the bottled water and give to the porter or did you carry it on?

As I understand it, you are no longer allowed to leave it with the Porter. You have to Carry it on yourself.