Tudy

I booked a guarantee once when no cabins were showing available and I was assigned a suite. (The next up category that was showing available). Maybe. . . These days, someone will do a move up bid and you will be assigned their cabin.

We recently switched cabins with friends of ours who were traveling on a B2B with us. We added another B to our cruises, they did not. Their cabin was available for the 3rd cruise, so we switched for the first 2 so that we did not need to change rooms after the second cruise. (Does that make sense)? I called our travel agent and he called Celebrity and switched. Easy-peasy, at least for us. I recommend finding out what the bed placement is, and if necessary call your TA or Celebrity, if you booked direct, and have it switched before you cruise. It's easier that way. If your cruise docs are already available, you will need to ask to have them updated so that your luggage tags are correct. If you all are traveling to the port together, this is not as important because you can each print out luggage tags and just swap.

Thoughts on need to to check in for consecutive cruises in Sydney? Yes? No? Maybe? What has your recent experience been?

Jelayne, have you been on a cruise specifically labeled by Celebrity as a Wine Cruise and not been allowed to keep wine purchased on a shore excursion? I am on such a cruise in Australia and agree with NMTraveller that the wine available onboard recently is poor.

I have searched the boards and can't find what I am looking for. I seem to recall that Celebrity sometimes allows passengers to keep wine with them that they purchased on shore excursions when the cruise was an official wine cruise. Am I imaging this? Those of you who have been on wine cruises, what has your experience been?

Just a note for those of you who like to start a vacation day with a libation: Coffee Hour is also morning cocktail hour. 🤣

We did it last summer on the Silhouette. (We had done it in the "long ago" past, once on Celebrity and twice on Royal). It was a very nice evening. The Galley tour was well organized and interesting. The cookbook is very heavy and does not have a single recipe in it that I would make. But it does have pretty pictures. It's one of those things my kids will throw out after I am gone. I don't think that we paid that much for it. I think we paid $129pp plus we splurged and got the wine pairings. The wine pairing were not necessary, as the somm had other wines on the packages that would work. The other people at the table were fun. The room was cozy. All in all, for us, the money was worth the memory. But we don't need to repeat it for another 5 years--unless it would be free.

Yes you can! I have done it. Make sure that you know what Royals current perks are for booking onboard, because the people at Celebrity usually don't know.

I understand the allure of suites. I was just on the Ascent in a sky suite. It's nice. Concierge is where we usually stay. Honestly, right now I would book a concierge for that much of a difference in price. Sky suites no longer include gratuities or the OBC like they used to. Also there is all the hoopla about butlers being a "Team" now for Sky suites, AND if your wine is $1.00 over the premium limit you have to pay the $1.20. Another drawback is that we tend to stay in the suite area when we have access and E class are such beautiful ships that we missout on so much going on elsewhere in the ship. I like concierge for the sit down lunch upon embarkation and I do use the "Concierge concierge" quite a bit to book stuff and take care of issues. You can place a move-up bid if you decide you really want a suite and probably pay significantly less. That's my 2 cents, but it is an important cruise for you.

I did it 10 years ago. I was not as knowledgeable then as I am now and did not realize until a couple weeks before sailing that I was several decks below my kids. I wanted to be on the same deck so I asked my travel agent to downgrade me, but I did not get any refund. I didn't expect any.

These packages are very limited and expensive. We have a friend who was able to get one for his daughter and grandson (age 13). He was unable to get a suite for them because only high level suites were available. He said he paid more for them to be in a concierge cabin with the package than if he would have if he had gotten a sky suite.

Just off the Ascent and I agree that the wine choices real are not "to my taste." In Luminae I had to pay at least $8.00+grats over the PDP to get what I considered a decent wine. If X can't get better wines, they need to allow us to bring our own, as many as we want.

We had Edwin for our butler as well. He was fabulous! He arranged a private party for us. Wine, Charcuterie and assortment of breads. We saw him frequently throughout the cruise.

If you want Jigsaw puzzles, Holland America is your line. 🙂

I heard something this morning and now these price increases make more sense to me. My husband was watching Squawk Box on CNBC. Not sure the name of the gentleman, but he was the secretary of commerce at some point. He was advocating companies significantly increase their prices just prior to a period of deflation. He believes this will decrease the economic trauma of deflation for the company and will help them pay their employees, etc. I thought, "That's counterintuitive. But it sounds just like Celebrity!" I also think that Celebrity might be in the process of changing its Beverage supplier.

As a nurse, I can vouch for all this. And people with these conditions usually know and understand why a spa would need to know these things. If you are uncomfortable with sharing medical information, don't utilize the spa. If you do use it, think carefully before you give them an incorrect medical history. By doing so you put yourself at risk. How much risk? It varies. The risk to benefit ratio is something that you need to decide for yourself. As a provider, I know that I really, REALLY, did not appreciate finding out that my client withheld pertinent information from me simply because they didn't understand why I needed it.

My Travel Agent told me that it could be IT from their agency or Celebrity.

I usually link the reservation the first time I want to include others in my activity. When you are reserving the activity, you will be asked who wants to participate. Under the names for the people on your reservation, it says something to the effect of "add people from another reservation." Click that and then the screen will come up to add others. You will need the name of one person on the reservation you are adding and that person's date of birth. It might take a couple of tries. Unfortunately.

It is a process, to be sure. It says the reservation number is locked when someone else is looking at the reservation.

I have made reservations for our groups several times. What you are describing about the website being wonky, are things that I have also experienced. Just when I was ready to give up, the other reservations came up and we were linked! To find where to book dinner reservations for any time dining, go under dining, scroll all the way to the bottom and it should say "complimentary dining, You should be able to select your whole group and make reservations. However, for the specialty dining, you will all have to be booked in the same group with the same currency. Even if everyone booked with the same TA, some might be in a different group. You will have to pay for everyone. If you are not all in the same group, then you can book individually and when onboard go to the maitre D and tell them that you all want to sit together.I did call Celebrity ahead of time, not helpful. Hope this helps.

I am looking at doing a AmaWaterways cruise and am specifically interested in the Concierge Golf Program. My husband is an avid golfer. I have some questions for anyone who has booked this program. Was it hassle-free? i. e. organized, clear meeting points, gear where it needed to be If only one person in the party is a golfer, are there other singles to pair with? Are the courses well maintained? Are they indeed top courses? How was the cost to value ratio, in your opinion? Any thoughts that you have, I would love to know.

Thank you OP for asking this question! I am currently trying to arrange a trip with 3 of my siblings and their spouses. Some siblings are tighter with their money than others and it really helps to have this thread to refer them to.

Most of the small group small group excursions I have been on through Celebrity had 24 participants. Viator has about 15.

I have used them and liked the excursions. However, I have a cautionary tale. When I received my final confirmations 13 days prior for 2 of the excursions I booked, I noticed that on 1 excursion I had paid for 4 people instead of 2 and on another excursion I had paid for 6 people instead of 2. I called to cancel the extra people and was informed that they have a 2 week cancellation policy and no I could not get my money back. I checked my emails and did not have any initial confirmations for the extra people. Because of this, I was able to get my money back from my credit card. I asked them to please not accept any future charges from this company. We did enjoy the excursions, but be very careful and check your credit card regularly for stray charges.

My thoughts: Celebrity does reserve the right to change the service provided. But with a change, they would allow the passenger to cancel without penalty if they respected their passengers. This would also provide valuable feedback for Celebrity regarding exactly how many people were upset enough to cancel. Its a bit of an aberration for me but our next 3 cruises are in sky suites. I ask myself if I would cancel if I could do so without penalty. The answer is "Not sure." The first cruise I got for a fabulous deal. If I could cancel I probably would. I would not just go for a veranda because we only booked the cruise because the suite deal was so sweet. The other 2 cruises are major celebration cruises B2B, and were booked so long ago (2019, Lifted and shifted several times) that I would pay more for a veranda and we really want to take these cruises. I can live without a butler since I must, but the suite is now not so sweet.