di T

7 hours ago, CruiseDawg5772 said:

We previously sailed Celebrity as our first choice. I know some would disagree, but I would never sail MSC without the Yacht Club. But dollar for dollar inside the Yacht Club is the best deal and experience in cruising in my opinion. 

Celebrity is the line we have cruised the most (40+ cruises) but will try yacht club this October, have sailed in inside, balcony and aqua class on Celebrity.But found the inside yacht club price was good value, looking forward to trying MSC. Have traveled with a lot of other lines and will be good to see how they compare.

2 hours ago, CruisinShips said:

FWIW, my TA just notified me that MCS gave me a 5% discount based on my status match (Gold) on a 7 night YC booking.

That’s great! Did you have your status match when you booked? If I book again hopefully I’ll get the discounts for my next cruise.looking forward to the yacht club, but maybe will look at the non yacht club experience too.We cruise a lot each year now we are retired and are happy to try lots of different lines.

We sail in October from Barcelona, embark the same day we get off Celebrity Accent.Prices do seem higher, but if we enjoy will probably book for next year.then we should get all the perks! Dianne

1 hour ago, Mark_T said:

The rules are the same for all, but there is this bit in the T&Cs:

 

4.1.2 The only way to be eligible for the MSC Voyagers Club benefits is to provide
the MSC Voyagers Club Identification number at the time of the cruise booking.

 

We do often see people getting the benefits applied when they status match shortly after making a booking, but it sounds like you booked a few months ago and only recently got the match...

 

Did you get the 5%+5% discount?

Not sure but I was happy for the price offered, it will be our first MSC so decided to try yacht club. We cruise mostly with Celebrity and our yacht club inside wasn’t much more than our usual balcony on Celebrity.Looking forward  to trying this.

13 hours ago, Mark_T said:

Yes, but she doesn't have to wait to join the Voyagers club, she can do that now and just start at zero points, the 'one-shot' aspect is just for the status match.

 

No, that doesn't increase, and you only get it when you book more than 9 months in advance of the departure date. You get that from Silver upwards and she will hit that very quickly even starting at zero...

Mark, we have just had our status match applied and I emailed the travel agent with our club numbers to add to a booking in Yacht club. Received word to say she added the membership numbers to the booking but we wouldn’t get the 50 OBC as the cruise was booked last year.We are in the UK is there different rules? Dianne

5 minutes ago, barneyboy said:

No direct with Celebrity. We did rebook through a TA as we got a better deal. 

5 minutes ago, barneyboy said:

No direct with Celebrity. We did rebook through a TA as we got a better deal. 

I booked direct this time.Though have used travel agents in the past, the 2nd cruise had a much bigger price drop.They let me keep the same cabin but I lost $100 obc which was a promotion when I booked. But the price drop was £400 so a no brainier.First cruise only went down about £80 so I just left it as it was with the $100 obc. The young man I spoke to was very helpful.Dianne

1 hour ago, barneyboy said:

No I had to cancel and rebook with a loss of our deposit when the price dropped substantially. 

Did you book through a travel agent? 

1 hour ago, villauk said:

 

Great to hear that you got the lower price as they were refusing to honour the price drops 👍. 

Was pleasantly surprised! We don’t always get them over here do we? 

Just want to say I am a happy bunny today😊

called Celebrity today I had a few things to ask about. Call was answered in 5 minutes lovely guy! I had noticed my husbands captains club number wasn’t on my confirmation for a back to back I recently booked while on the ship, also the price had gone down on the 2nd leg.Wanted to ask if the b2b discount had been applied as well.Howard who answered my call, took care of all my queries.This is in the UK and in less than 10 minutes I saved £400 and added hubbys club number to the invoice he sent a new confirmation right away.Well done Howard lovely polite guy.

I booked last month while on the ship.Asked about the discount for the b2b and was told it would be added later.Been home for 5 weeks and can’t see it.Have always had it before but cant remember how much it is! Also booked in British pounds with Celebrity Uk.

On 4/3/2024 at 12:49 PM, cavaaller said:

On the way back, we wandered through the narrow streets again. Nafplio is really lovely.

We left the ship the day you boarded after a b2b on her.The first leg was the same as yours and we loved Nafflio it was our first visit to this port! Rhodes we have been many times but always enjoy it. We were very lucky with the weather and the ships staff were so friendly, Thanks for doing your review it’s very enjoyable.Dianne

On 3/7/2024 at 4:50 PM, villauk said:

Wise, we have had only one wet day so far, and it has been sunny on most days.Temperature is around 17 though if out of the breeze it has felt warmer.I have to say it’s very pleasant for so early in the year! I brought a couple of light fleece jackets and they have been ideal.Safe travels I’m sure you will enjoy the cruise! Dianne
 

I’m going for layers.

On 3/5/2024 at 11:46 AM, villauk said:

@di T What have your first impressions been of Infinity? Have you noticed any of the recent upgrades to the ship? 

On 3/5/2024 at 11:46 AM, villauk said:

@di T What have your first impressions been of Infinity? Have you noticed any of the recent upgrades to the ship? 

Well it’s our first time on this ship so can’t say much about upgrades, still got the shower curtain lol! But we have sailed many time on the same class so easy to navigate, staff are great as always, old menus are back so better than Reflection in September 2023. 
Having a good time though the weather would of been warmer with the original itinerary, have booked two cruises while onboard for next year so that speaks for itself.I am sure you will enjoy the next cruise we are sailing 2/3rds full so nice! Dianne

On 2/13/2024 at 8:36 PM, kwokpot said:

I'm curious what airline and fare you booked that doesn't allow cancellations. Almost all major airlines now allow one to cancel a flight and receive future flight credit usually good for 1 year. 

Not so much in the UK, I’ve been caught out a couple of times with cancelled cruises and airlines would not allow change without a considerable fee.

On 2/8/2024 at 9:42 AM, villauk said:

 

They did this year when the itineraries were changed, but that was at a far later date to fill the ship. Perhaps that’s why X has decided to do it earlier this year: keep the prices higher rather than having to discount so heavily at a later date? We shall see. From a personal point of view, it would be nice for the prices to be comparable with the Caribbean pricing as it is Greece in closed season.

We will do a b2b in just over a week to the Greek islands which was originally the holy land and Alexandria.Price went down on the cruises a lot but couldn’t get a price drop even before final payment I booked with a Uk company as a package. I’m not sure if I made the right decision to keep the alternative cruises, in March and closed season, but we have been lucky to have sailed both itineraries before.Be nice to escape this cold weather.

2 hours ago, villauk said:

 

I didn’t receive an actual link to the webinar, only the email for the questions 🤷‍♀️. However, I did receive another survey to complete this morning (unconnected to the webinar).

Same here just asked for questions but no link to join! Don’t think I’ve missed much lol

13 hours ago, SM Cruiser said:

Today we finished our cruise on the Reflection, we were a bit concerned about this sailing after taking our last B2B Infinity in Greece last September, this is when the new CEO introduced major menu changes in the main dining room which led to us eating at the buffet almost every night, in addition you could tell that the staff weren’t as happy as what they usually are. We didn’t know what to expect on this sailing. 
 

I’m so happy to report that everything was excellent, food was back to what we had in the past, pre new CEO,  and tasted excellent. Prime Rib, Lobster, Beef Wellington etc. Staff were amazing and the whole experience was top notch 😁

 

Wish we were doing a B2B on this sailing   ! Did not want to get off. 

That’s great to hear, we were the opposite to you were on Reflection b2b in September and ate in the buffet most nights because food in MDR was poor.

on Infinity in two weeks again a b2b hopefully the food as improved on all the ships.

1 hour ago, CruiseCrew123 said:

The offers are always the same as available on the website plus some additional obc depending on the length of cruise and category booked 

Thanks, will have a look to book onboard

Sorry I know this comes up time and time again, Just wondering what the booking on board perks are at the moment.We cruise in two weeks and looking to book a future cruise,Will be booking with Celebrity UK if that makes a difference.Anyone know the current offers? Thanks in advance,Dianne

29 minutes ago, mahasamatman said:

 

The equivalent of one day in your booked cabin class.

That’s great, I have 5 booked this year! Think it’s a good idea and hopefully takes a bit of pressure off the attendant if they only do once a day.

Thankyou for this very interesting review! In the Autumn we will have a cruise in the Med on Ascent not in a suite, followed by a cruise in Yachtclub on Seashore turn around day is in Barcelona.This will be our first MSC Cruises and our 40+ Celebrity cruise! So looking forward to experience these two ships.

How many points per cruise? Thanks, Dianne

On 1/27/2024 at 5:05 PM, villauk said:

 

15th March. Are you on the same sailing?

We are on that one and the one before😀will be first time on Infinity though have sailed many times on Connie so expect it to be very similar 

On 1/26/2024 at 1:38 PM, villauk said:

 

Oh that it a shame, but I’m sure you’ll still have a great cruise. I’m of the standing now that ‘you win some, you lose some’ - it probably all evens out over time (not nice when it happens though).
 

We managed to get the flight offer with ours and booked it together with our friends as our TA was concerned the flight allocation may not be available for both reservations if she did it separately. Thank goodness she did because within a couple of days there were no ‘package’ flights available for our date and airport. I always book my own flights so this is going to be an eye opener for us too, seeing how X handle it 🫣.

What dates are you booked for?

1 minute ago, villauk said:

I think there will be a mass exodus from the U.K. over the next few months to the Greek Isles on Infinity 😁 - the prices were too good to miss 😉.

The prices went down a lot after they had to change the itinerary, unfortunately we booked in the Uk and ages ago so paid quite a lot for the b2b.I asked if there was anything they could do but travel agent (first time using them) said no! Was talked into doing these cruises as a package with the flights and hotel etc. will go back to doing my own airfare and hotel bookings in future I would of saved well over a thousand pounds.Will not be using this travel company again.