hubofhockey

Wait, what? You mean two people can be on the same cruise, similar cabins, spend similarly, and have totally different opinions of their vacations? I’m shocked. 😄 Seriously, frame of reference is so important. My preference for types of cruise ships has totally changed as I have gotten older and my tastes in itineraries has changed.

Thanks, I know very little about about the Panama Canal and what I would see from the Celebrity Beyond and what I would see from the Journey. This is great info. We’re doing the Millennium for Japan and really like those M class ships. Oceania has a Panama Canal itinerary that ends in Peru. I just don’t understand their pricing and a bit nervous about Peru, at the moment. The Journey ends in Panama, an easy flight home to South Florida.

I am considering both lines for the Panama Canal. We loved our Southeast Asia cruise on the Quest in October of 2019. We bid and got an upgrade to the low level suite and loved absolutely everything about the cruise. As to dining, we loved Prime C, but thought Aqualine was meh. The Indonesian Rijstafal dinner was pretty bad too. Maybe caught a bad night. Thinking about booking a regular verandah cabin with a dining package. Agree on service on Azamara. On a typical itinerary, I just assume book Celebrity as there is more to do and like Aqua class, but thinking right now that Panama Canal on a large Celebrity ship (they aren’t even using M class) would fall far short of Oceania or Azamara. Tough choice on this one between the two.

You have the choice of the Spa items on the menu, but the ones not designated as Spa, well, all bets are off. I kind of wish they would offer keto / low carb choices. I can always find some, but knowing what dishes are would help.

I should have said wholesale clubs to better identify them. I don’t believe Cruise Critic allows for the mentioning of sellers of cruises. The smaller one has $25 specials on memberships. I believe the larger one is in the 60s for regular membership and 120s for executive membership. With executive membership at the biggest wholesale club and using its Citi Visa Card, you get 5% savings on the purchase and around 8% on the store credit (gift card). It’s 13% you won’t get from Celebrity. If people like the convenience of booking direct with the cruise lines, I get it, but that’s a very expensive convenience.

Wholesale Clubs. There are two in particular. One sells Kirkland products.

The big box store will get Celebrity to honor the price adjustments. The one I booked already had a $400 increase for our cabin, so not a big deal, but if it drops, I really don't expect them not to get me the price drop. I will have to ask and track it, but I always did that with TAs. I trust the box store to stay in business a lot more than I trust any online TA. I feel as if I get the same peace of mind that I would get by booking with cruise line. My gift card (store credit) is $735 on an $8,625 or 8.5%.

Yikes, all of those prices are pretty high. What are they charging for specialty dining package of 5 nights?

I think ours was that much for 11 nights and the difference was about $2,000 at the AI rates. If it weren't M Class and Japan, I'd have booked a regular verandah cabin. I figured out of 11 nights, one night we will eat in Kyoto and specialties for 2, leaving 8 in the MDR and just didn't like that split. Also, with three days at sea ("cruising"), we'd use the Persian Garden and eat breakfast at Blu. Right now, thinking of booking Panama Canal with either Oceania or on the Beyond. That would be no Aqua. Tough decision.

My view is that on M Class, where there isn't a big choice of specialty dining, then Aqua (Blu) makes so much sense. Blu is great. The food a decent step up from the MDR and the service is several steps up from the MDR. I would book it for S or E class if the pricing was $30 per day per person as well.

If you book directly with any cruise line, you are leaving real money on the table. Even the big box stores will get you 8% value in a gift card and then add on member savings if you have executive membership (worth it just for your cruise).

M Class doesn’t really have a lot of specialty dining so the difference between Blu and MDR means more. Doesn’t the additional price also include drinks, wifi, and gratuities? If the veranda doesn’t include that, then it’s much less than $2k.

You're correct. A $10K cruise (I usually spend 10 or less) would get 50K points. At 1.3X value, it is $650. Even at a penny, it's $500. With Costco Citi, I would get 5% with Executive Membership (3% for credit card and 2% of executive membership) or $750. I would still use my Costco Citi and book with them though. They also give store credit in a similar amount. AMEX Platinum does provide gratuities on Oceania if you book with them, so not bad.

It's a penny a point to me. If you want to stretch it to 1.3 cents, I'm okay with that. You can transfer points to JetBlue at 1.3 and they would give you $195 credit for the $15K spend. If I used my Costco Citi card, I would get 3% cash back or $450, so why would I use my Amex on this Oceania offer?

If you take a $15,000 cruise with Oceania, that's like getting $150 back. It's not terrible, but also not motivating. The Celebrity offer seemed much better, but not targeted to everyone.

What type of card do you have? Maybe it's either targeted or not marketed to Platinum. The only cruise offer I see is 5X points for Oceania. I've been meaning to try them, but 5X points certainly doesn't motivate me to do that. If I were booking an Oceania cruise, I'd use my Amex, but I'd probably use it anyway.

I have the platinum card and didn’t get the offer. Some say it’s one of those targeted offers, not made to everyone.

I’d rent a car and drive. A taxi would cost more than two flights. We live in Bonita, halfway in between Tampa and Fort Lauderdale and are lucky that we can drive to either side in a couple of hours.

I’d book Aqua on an M Class ship, because of Blu and like the Persian Garden. On other classes, I’d just assume pay for specialty restaurants since there are more.

Do they still offer a package of a few specialties for a lower total price? Haven’t been on Celebrity since 2018.

My last cruise on the Princess was when they introduced their “new” Royal Class of ships, the Royal Princess. I absolutely hated the ship, from the color scheme, impersonality, to waiting endlessly for elevators, to the tiny balcony size, to the food. Our first Celebrity cruise was on an M class ship, the Millennium. We had aqua class for a very unique itinerary in the eastern Med, Croatia, Malta, etc. and loved it. Later, we went on the Millennium for Alaska, and even the smaller Azamara Quest for Southeast Asia. We’ll never go on Princess again. We have the Millennium booked for Japan, and thinking the Beyond for the Panama Canal / Southern Caribbean. I’ve seen complaints about Celebrity with extra charges, but that is consistent with everything else in our inflationary times. Celebrity does a really nice job of keeping up the M class ships and refreshing them. That size of ship is not economical to build new, unless at the very premium levels, but Celebrity has hit a sweet spot with them and they do great itineraries. Hope you enjoyed your cruise on the Regal as well. Even though those ships aren’t for us, they seem to have a loyal following.

The cruise lines give you NOTHING. Either TAs or even the big box stores travel will get you lots of OBC.

Do that itinerary on Azamara for many reasons, but mainly because they can dock right in the smaller city ports. That was my favorite cruise of all of them, not even close.

It can be hit or miss with the big box store travel agency. One size doesn't fit all. Big Box worked for me, getting me 13.5% benefits on what will be a sold out Japan itinerary.

Thank you for all of this. As soon as I booked my cruise, I second guessed myself for not doing a land vacation using both Tokyo and Kyoto as bases. We still may do an overnight at a hotel in Kyoto, just to better experience nightlife there and take in a maiko show at night.