Vagabond Knight

The Ukrainian mess is driving fuel costs skyward, and you're booking at a time when graduations and weddings are really starting to kick in for the year, unfortunately.

You may try Kayak. Kayak will search most (but not all) airlines and provide you with a lot of options to narrow down your results.  They have an "advice" box that shows whether they think fares for your trip will go up or down in the near future, and you can enable price tracking.  You can also say if your flight days are flexible and compare the prices for a few days before and after.  Flying in a couple days early or leaving a day or more afterwards can affect your fare by quite a bit sometimes.  If you can spare the extra time away, you can sometimes get a longer vacation for very little money (need to balance that out between the change in fare and the hotel nights, food, rental car, etc.).  Note that not all carriers show up on Kayak.  You'll need to search Southwest separately, for example.

For the future, you may consider applying for a new travel credit card or airline credit card a while out from a big trip. These cards often come with a huge number of miles or a companion ticket after some initial purchase amount within x number of months.  Nerd Wallet and The Points Guy usually have a good breakdown of what cards are currently offering what incentives.

 

Based on the title, I thought this thread would be about technical difficulties with the webinars. My first suggestion was going to be, "Try a different browser."  😁

I watched the one on Turkey simply to get the points, since Turkey was never on my bucket list, and if there had been no incentive to watch it I probably wouldn't have.  But...  I agree that presentation wasn't the best, between the heavily accented and rather monotone presentation (though if you had me presenting in a language that wasn't my first language, I wouldn't be any better) and the lackluster intro and slides.  However, the content did intrigue me  and got me thinking about travel to a country I'd never considered previously. The food pics (half of why we cruise, right?)  😉 looked pretty intriguing, and I never realized all the fascinating tie-ins with Christian history there.  Although Celebrity can definitely step up their game with the quality of the presentation, they're smart to offer these with an incentive and possibly get us thinking about new adventures that weren't previously on our radar.

Apologies for all the extra spacing in my previous post.  My phone does weird stuff sometimes.  😒

Sorry you are having such a bad experience.

Your situation and those posted by several others in this thread and elsewhere have pretty much convinced my husband and me to never allow Celebrity to arrange our flights for us. 

Not recent, but we used them two years ago on our last cruise, and it was extremely stressful.  Getting to the rental car lot was a nightmare.  The traffic was gridlocked in the area and I can't even tell you how long it took to get into the lot.  Now you may experience the same issue if you're driving your own car in... don't really know because I'm not familiar enough with the area to know if we'd be trying to get into the port the same way or not. It took an hour and a half to get on a shuttle into the port, not counting the actual drive. The line of people waiting for a shuttle was wrapped around the building, with everyone standing out in the hot sun (I guess I should have been glad it wasn't raining, though).  I don't recall if they were running one or two shuttles, but the round trip for the shuttle took quite a while because they also had to deal with the gridlock.  There are probably far fewer people these days with the more limited capacity on the ships, so may not be as bad.  Can't answer whether or not they're running shuttles these days or how positive/negative an experience it is, but last time it was awful.

We stayed there the night before our last cruise two years ago and it was fine.  Staying there again the night before our next cruise in a few weeks.  We had a car with us and everything we needed already, so can't answer the question on walkability to CVS/Publix.

Well, hopefully we're about to start getting a little more rain, which tends to help a lot with calming the pollen down, and we do get into Fort Lauderdale a day early.  I think the pollen count down there is a a bit better than here. We're in a more rural environment where there are a lot of pollen producing trees.  I do like the idea of considering whether or not it's an unexpected/unusual cough (it's not) when we fill out the questionnaire.  Of course, I'm hoping it's gone completely anyhow in a few weeks when we get ready to board.   

Both my husband and I are affected by the onslaught of pollen in central Florida at this time of year.  We love the trees in our backyard, but they're really doing a number on our sinuses. This does lead to occasional coughing. We're not going to walk in with proof of vaccinations and boosters and negative Covid test results and be denied boarding due to pollen, are we?  I hope they're willing to take this into considering if we're coughing a bit.  I mean, geez... here's the pollen forecast for this week (really looking forward to being out at sea with fresh air!):

2 hours ago, southernbreezes said:

Hope I never get this old to write such things. Grumpy!

I originally thought they were talking about kids when they said "talking rats," but I guess they mean Mickey & Minnie.  Either way, it's a bit dramatic.  Hoping the poster's acerbic language about kids was done as a joke, though that certainly didn't come through in the post.   

Anyhow, can we take it back to the original question of "What small something have you experienced on other cruise lines that you wish Celebrity would do?"  

Won't it be nice when this thread goes away someday?  Sigh.

We're getting ready to order the proctored tests.  I did note a while back that someone said they had an issue with the liquid portion of the proctored tests being missing/dried up.  Has anyone else had that issue or was it one of those very unusual circumstances?

On 3/2/2022 at 4:21 PM, gerelmx said:

 

Arno was banned from sailing on any ship of RC Group for doing the WHO'S ON BOARD: Officers, Staff and Crew

Whoa!  That seems harsh.

Gosh, with all the cancellations from the last couple of years, my cruising brain seems to have gotten a bit soggy.  I vaguely recall being able to go somewhere (not sure if on CC or somewhere else) to look up which officers/staff will be on a particular Celebrity cruise (Captain, Cruise Director, Activities Directer, etc.).  Anyone know where to find that?  Thanks in advance!

Some of you are getting off-topic.  The question is, "What small "something" have you experienced with other cruise lines that you wish Celebrity would incorporate into their cruises or into their way of doing things?"

11 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

As long as they don't do anything Carnimart does, I will be pleased.

I'm sure you think that's funny, but it seems rather short-sighted IMO.  I found both the ratings and the detailed comments from people who'd taken specific excursions to be very helpful.  I'm pretty sure something like that would have helped us regarding a couple of the Celebrity excursions we've taken, and I would have gladly provided extra info to others that could have given them a better idea of what to expect on a few of the Celebrity excursions.

We did two Alaskan cruises on Carnival, and one thing they do that we would love to have Celebrity do is allow guests to rate and add comments about excursions.  We found this to be VERY helpful!

I know that many of you have sailed with other cruise lines, and all the lines all have their own unique customs, perks, flavors and ways of doing things. It would actually be a bit disappointing if they were all the same, but what small "something" have you experienced with other cruise lines that you wish Celebrity would incorporate into their cruises or into their way of doing things? 

Sure, it's a little more reassuring to know when you'll be where and it would be nice to be able to have excursions and dinner plans locked in, but let's face it... that's not in the cards right now.  Those who absolutely cannot get out of compulsive planner mode (my usual modus operandi, but one I've been able to shake off since Covid) may have a more satisfying and relaxing vacation if they plan a vacation doing something other than cruising these days. 

After having multiple cruises and timeshare vacations cancelled the last few years, we plan to just relax and enjoy our upcoming "surprise Caribbean cruise" on the Equinox starting on March 25th.  The itinerary has already changed since we booked and we know more changes are coming, but we feel that it's kind of pointless to stress about something over which we have no control and which can change over and over again, right up to the last moment.  So, round and round and round it goes... where it stops, nobody knows!

If you're allowed to do your own thing on St. Lucia these days, we highly recommend https://www.cosol-tours.com/.  It was a blast both times we did it... the tour vans were clean and comfortable and the tour guides were friendly and informative.  It was was fun, whirlwind tour (around 5-6 hours_ that included just about everything the individual lesser tours do, and it included drinks & snacks.  We liked our tour guide Baptiste so much the first time we did it, we specifically requested being on his tour the next year as well.

Chuckling at the people saying that the OP has gone into hiding, or may not be posting back because he's found out bad news about his perks.  Folks, the OP is ON A CRUISE!  He posted a question on here and got some leads, but my guess is that he's now off enjoying his cruise... perks or no perks.  One of the last things I'd be doing if I was on a cruise is reading and posting on CC.  It's CRUISE TIME!  Eat, drink (even if you have to pay for it)... HAVE FUN!!!  

I have not done Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but a warning from a former co-worker of mine who used to go every year... she said pickpockets are absolutely rampant, so plan your personal security accordingly.  I figure that's probably good advice in any crowded city anywhere in the world, but at a fest like this with crowds pressed up against each other I guess it makes it even easier for the bad guys to prey on people.

11 hours ago, graphicguy said:

 We used a VAX PDP 11/70.  But, it too was the size of a small room with very specific environmental requirements.

Woo-hoo!  DEC 4-Ever!!!  I'm convinced that if Ken O and the engineers had a better marketing team, we'd all be on some advanced version of DECWindows today instead of these other flakey operating systems.

And to the person who suggested that some of us teach technology classes onboard... personally, I'd rather be fed to the sharks.  I just retired from that a few months ago and feel like that would quickly drain the peace and joy out of my cruise. Imagine people coming up to you during the remainder of the cruise, asking how-to questions and making please-fix-this requests! 😱

Hi, I've read through the email we rec'd from X today for our upcoming cruise and have read through the online info for the "Abbott BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 Antigen Card Home Test with eMed Telehealth Services - 2 Pack for Celebrity Cruises," but I do not see any info that indicates whether the 2 pack can or cannot be used for two travelers.  Does anyone know proctoring for two people is included with the 2 pack?  Wasn't sure if it's meant for two people or if one of the kits is provided simply as a backup for a single traveler.  Thanks!

8 hours ago, 5waldos said:

Many of us old geezers have been on computers since before you youngun's were born! In fact- we INVENTED them. And for the few who are not tech savvy- that's what grandchildren are for. 

Oh, for sure!  I just retired after 35+ years in the computer field.  My husband is still doing it for a few more years and started before I did.  I remember going to talks at symposia where experts were explaining the concept of the "world wide web" and how it would work when it started rolling out.  That may have been the symposium where Grace Hopper was the keynote speaker (what a hoot she was!).  But despite our techie backgrounds, we do have friends from other interests who barely know how to work the remote on their TV. 

On the other end of the spectrum, we have grandkids who do not even understand how things could possibly work without technology.  Discussion last year between my daughter (40+) and her daughter who'd just turned 8:

Granddaughter (reading): Mom, what is this word?
Daughter: encyclopedia
Granddaughter:  What is that?
Daughter: It's a series of books that knows everything about everything.
Granddaughter:  So it's like Siri?
Daughter: Kind of. But in a book form.
Granddaughter:  Oh, so you open it up and Google is inside?

51 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Not correct.  We book cruises by phone either X or a TA and give the online checking procedure exactly 2 tries.  The documents can be mailed or people can print out their confirmation.  It can also be sent to a friend.  We often show up with an email from our TA - 1 page confirmation.   Check bags at the curb.

They can't be printed out if the person don't have a computer/printer, so glad X will still mail to those who need it.  They make it sound like you have to do things online or you're stuck.  I was surprised when I did the online check-in and it said I had to load the app in order to finish my check-in.  Thank goodness they're still distributing sea pass cards.  Although I have a very competent smartphone, I don't necessarily want to carry it around with me all the time.  Maybe they'll eventually go to something like the Disney magic band for onboard access/reservations/purchases.

So, I did my online check-in, which then then told me I had to download the Celebrity app to input my vaccination info, which I did.   However, I got to wondering about older friends of ours who don't have computers or smart phones (we have some older friends with nothing but flip-phones... and for one of these guys, it's his first cell phone EVER!).  Are these people not allowed to sail on Celebrity these day?