Dreamcruise27

Does Celebrity still offer a laundry bag special onboard? When we last cruised with Celebrity in 2019, we were given a paper bag to fill as much as we can for one set price. Just wondering if they still offer this special or if I’m better off pre-purchasing.

Thank you!

Called again today to add the additional $50 OBC (but of course the new cruise fare went up by $100 so I didn’t add it 😂) and the agent changed the room for me no problem!! Thanks everyone for encouraging me to call back 🥰

6 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

I was told the same thing shortly after the restart.   I called my TA and he was able to change it in 5 min.   I'd keep calling to see if someone will do it for you.  I wouldn't even mention that it was a GTY, just say I'd like to change my cabin from X to Y.

 

Edit:  Of course that's a risk of booking GTY is that you can get the worst cabin in the category.

Yes! Definitely a risk for sure. I’m over 180 days away from sailing and I made the booking yesterday morning so I was very surprised to see an assignment last night! 
 

There is almost 90% availability in the obstructed balcony cabins currently so I didn’t think it would be an issue to be moved to the starboard side so that I’m not right over the smoking section on deck 5.

Hello, has anyone successfully changed their assigned cabin recently? In the past, I’ve been able to change the location as long as it was in the same category, but today the agent said absolutely not. Just wondering if it is worthwhile calling back and speaking to a different agent…

Thanks!

14 hours ago, linksgolf said:

Oh, interesting! I'll let you know in a few weeks after we do Le Petit Chef. It says in the link above to prebook at full price, and they'll adjust it onboard. This dinner is how we're celebrating our daughter's 9th birthday, so I prebooked for all 6 of us so we wouldn't have any issues on her birthday.

So it looks like for some of the specialty restaurants, kids are $10! (Photo shows price in Canadian $)

BUT I checked Le Petit Chef and that one doesn’t show a kids price… will be interested to know your experience because that’s the only specialty restaurant my son wants to go to! 🙂

3 hours ago, linksgolf said:

Oh, that might make more sense. It is worded a little strange, so I must have interpreted it wrong. Thank you!

I was reading it as a $10 flat fee for children, which is what Royal Caribbean charges for specialty restaurants for kids!

Do you mind letting me know if it was $10 or $50 when you go? Wondering if I should pre-purchase or just pay for my kids separately once we are onboard..

Is it possible to call and ask to book a BCC cruise in Canadian dollars? Are we able to use FCC to cruise fare? (For the 10% discount offer)

Thanks everyone! Much appreciated 🥰

Hello,

I’ve always wanted to try a Disney cruise but could not justify the cost… BUT the transatlantic in May is $6k for a veranda guarantee for a family of 4 which seems very affordable for a Disney cruise!  
 

If seasoned DCL cruisers could answer some of my questions, it’ll be much appreciated!!!

1. is $6000 the usual price for a veranda guarantee for a transatlantic sailing or is this lower than usual?? The reason I ask is because we already have our annual cruise on RCL planned for March so budgeting for another cruise so soon is not ideal… BUT if this is an unusually low price for a transatlantic, I don’t want to miss out!!

2. Are all character meetings additional costs?? I keep reading people talk about booking tea times, Princess meetings etc. and wondering if my kids will miss out on interacting with characters if we can’t get reservations…

3. we will be taking our 7yo and 3yo. Longest cruise the 7yo has done was 22 nights (Vancouver to Hawaii roundtrip) when he was 3 (on Celebrity Eclipse) It was rocky but I have heard that the Atlantic is REALLY rocky… our DD was 2 (last year) when we did 14 nights Bahamas from New Jersey (Anthem of the Seas) and she was fine, motion sickness wise. Is the Transatlantic too much for the kiddos and risk of motion sickness??

4. Bringing bottled water onboard: I think I read there was no limit on how many bottles we can bring onboard. Can we pick up a case from Costco and bring it onboard no problem?

5. Will we get the full Disney Cruise experience on such a long cruise? I’m wondering if things are scaled back because it is such a long cruise and probably have less kids sailing??

Any comments regarding transatlantic sailings to help me make a decision will be much appreciated!!

My hubby has never been to any of the parks and is not a Disney lover like me. I’m hoping to immerse him in a Disney cruise and make him fall in LOVE 😂 

14 hours ago, Gigi1068 said:

@Dreamcruise27has this been resolved for you?  My situation remains unresolved.  I’ve received emails from the executive office saying it’s been escalated for follow up with IT but it appears they don’t know how to fix it.  I’ve read other reports of reservations being canceled because of this error; the reservations were reinstated but the guests had to repurchase add-ons at the current price.

 

I would feel better if the “make a payment” button was grayed out, but it’s not.  I refuse to overpay $1,434 just to keep my cruise from being erroneously canceled 😡  At this point, I almost don’t want to go on the cruise, but I don’t want to disappoint my grandkids.  And if another person says “this is why you should use a TA”, I will scream; the best TA cannot fix Royal’s IT incompetence!

On one reservation, yes, but on one, not yet 😡

it says no payments due on the main page where it lists all my sailings, but when I go in to the “make a payment” and insert my reservation number, it says amount owing…

We sail in March as b2b so I’m a bit nervous but I have invoices showing it was paid in full so just crossing my fingers it’ll get worked out…

On 1/6/2023 at 4:50 PM, Gigi1068 said:

I can’t believe some are still waiting for refunds.

 

Sadly, I have a new issue.

 

I’m on a call with Royal now and I’m so frustrated!  I just added a room and called to change my room (same category) so we can have all 3 rooms together.  My new invoice is showing a balance due but I paid off my cruise.  My cruise planner still shows my cruise is paid in full, the representative says my cruise is paid in full.  A ticket has been placed to correct this.  I want to cry.

This happened to me too for 2 reservations 🤦🏻‍♀️

I was told that it was a computer glitch and it shows that the cruises are paid in full so not to worry but of course I am worried!!

For those of you waiting for refunds, check for refunds on the card you used to pay for the CRUISE FARE. I was told that there are 2 accounts: cruise fare account and add-on account. What happened to me was that the refunds for the add-ons were refunded from the cruise fare account, so my invoices showed I had amounts owing for the cruise fare…. 
 

Is it easy/quick to move a booking that was paid for with FCC?
 

I booked a refundable fare using a FCC.

Just wondering what the turnaround time is like… Do they issue a new FCC (which could take days/weeks) or just transfer the amount of the FCC that was used on the old booking to a new one?

One thing you can also do is get the refreshment package and just pay for the shot of alcohol to be mixed in with the mocktail when you want an alcoholic drink 🙂

I think I worked it out that if I only have one or two cocktails a day, buying the refreshment package and paying for the alcohol separately is still more economical than purchasing the deluxe beverage package (especially with our weak Canadian dollar causing the price of the package to be sooooo high!!!)

I had to refresh and add things multiple times to get the correct sale price. For example, deluxe beverage package shows up as 20% off, then when I click on it, says it is 35% off, then when I add it, says buy one get one 50% off 🤦🏻‍♀️

Took me numerous times to get the correct price added into cart to check out!  If you are not seeing discounted prices, click on it and add it to see if the prices go down.

Another thing I found was that it was cheaper for me to add 1 device per person than to do the usual 2 device per person to get 2 internet packages… hoping it is a glitch and it’ll be resolved tomorrow and I’ll see the bigger discount doing 2 devices and save some more money!

I was pricing out suites for Silhouette Dec 15 and the 3/4th passenger is VERY affordable (under a $1000CND!!)

Are there any other deals on suites you have found recently that you can share?? 

For my booking, I can only apply the WOW sale OBC if I don’t apply the crown and anchor $100 balcony discount. When i remove my crown and anchor number, the price of the cabin goes up $86 but gives me the $100 OBC. I’ve now learned to play around with applying different promos (crown and anchor, military, resident) to see what the “best” overall price is!

6 hours ago, Raycin said:

You guys are alway so helpful…couple of quick questions! We’ll be sailing on the Harmony of the Seas in February of 2023. The last time we cruised was the infamous Norovirus Oasis of the Seas in January of 2019 so a few things I’m sure have changed…We know we want to do the drink package and dining package for the entire duration of our trip. I’m ready to pull the trigger now…Internet, dining and drinks are at roughly $1555. My concern is that due to the rising costs, prices are only going to go up from here. I know that if we see a better deal we can request a refund and simply repurchase. My question is has anyone actually seen a better deal and canceled and repurchased? I just feel like once they bait you into purchasing they’re not going to offer a better deal. Would love your thoughts, especially since we’re 280ish days from sailing. Second question…completely confused by dining wording. They said we get a $20 credit at Ala carte venues, yet they charge you an extra $10 to go to like Isumi. How exactly does that all work? And one more extremely random question I just thought of….we loved the teak chairs on the very back of Oasis by the running track. Enjoyed many sunsets there as no one seemed to really know about it. Any quiet spots you recommend on the harmony?? Can’t thank you all enough for your help. Hope my questions make sense 

The $10 extra at Izumi is for the hibachi (when they cook on grill in front of you). If you are just going there to have sushi, there is no extra charge. You can order up to $35 from the a la carte menu 🙂

1 minute ago, not-enough-cruising said:

The cost to do so, is the prevailing on board cost of the deluxe package. 

They won’t just charge you the difference, but will refund the refreshment package back to you as OBC, then bill you the rate for the Deluxe. 

Ah. Thank you for the info!

Hello,

just wondering if any of you have upgraded a refreshment package to the alcohol package once onboard? What was the cost to do so?

TIA!

We were given a letter stating that we will be given a FCC for the day my daughter was in quarantine due to gastro.

Has anyone received one for time spent in quarantine? How long did it take for it to be issued?

20 hours ago, SG65CB said:

I can confirm, although it says 2 months, not 60 days. Might or might not make a difference. 

 

Here is the fine print from my confirmation, NDN = non-redundable deposit (I booked a suite):

 

CHANGES FOR NDN BOOKINGS1: For Guests who make a NDN Booking, changes made during the first two (2) months shall not be subject to a change fee. Changes made to
the ship or sail date after two (2) months shall be subject to a change fee (currently $100 per person but subject to adjustment without notice).

 

 

Thank you very much!!

Question about Next Cruise booking:
We made reservations on board for a specific sail date. After getting the updated school calendar, I need to move it up a week 🤦🏻‍♀️
 

Can someone confirm that as long as I am WITHIN 60 days, I don’t have to pay the $100/pp penalty?? I know I signed a form and the Next Cruise rep explained all this to me, but I can’t find the actual Ts and Cs right now… 

TIA!

Background: 

Anthem was our first RC cruise in 10 years. Before Covid, we sailed on Celebrity once or twice a year as a couple and when our DS was born, as a family. Fast forward to 2022, we decided it was time to go on a cruise with our newest family member DD who was born in 2020! We decided to return to RC because at the time of booking, unvaccinated guests were not allowed off the ships unless it was with a ship’s excursion. We knew we would be spending most of our time on board so we wanted to sail on a ship with more kid friendly amenities.
 

Stateroom: 

We had booked an Oceanview balcony for both sailings and put in a Royal Up bid for a JS for the second sailing (I didn’t want to get a JS for the first sailing and then move to a smaller room for the second sailing). When our bid was accepted for a JS for the second sailing, I put in a bid for the first sailing right away! I kept raising the bid amount by a little bit, and happily our bid was accepted! The transition between the two staterooms between the sailings was seamless.

JS was a perfect size for our family of 4 and having two bathrooms was amazing. And the bathtub is HUGE!

My 6’3 DH slept on the sofa bed a few times with our DS and he said it was not bad at all. The main bed was comfy too.

Dining:

One of the biggest reasons we started sailing with Celebrity was because of the qualify of food. On the Allure 10 years ago, we were not impressed with MDR, so we were hesitant about booking Anthem BUT still happy someone else would be cooking for us for 14 nights.
We were very disappointed on our first night at the MDR on the Anthem,  Both DH and I ordered the fried chicken and not only were they completely different in flavour (mine was quite spicy and DH’s chicken was very bland), DH found so many broken bones in his that he could not eat it. 

We went straight upstairs to Coastal Kitchen and made reservations for the following night. 
 

Coastal Kitchen was AMAZING. In my opinion, the food is equal or better than Celebrity. The staff there were amazing with our children and had everything ready for us every night - bowl of fresh berries, tomatoes, cucumbers and our drinks. We had no problems reserving a table for the same time every night for the two weeks and we never left disappointed. A bonus was that it is located next to the buffet, so it was easy enough to grab something from there to keep the 2yo DD busy while we waited for our food.

Windjammer always had a variety of food and everything was fresh. I have to say, I was quite disappointed that it went back to self-serve for the second cruise. The unsanitary things cruisers were doing at the buffet on the first day of the second cruise was enough to keep us away for the rest of the week…

We ordered room service a few times and the food always arrived hot and fresh! Our favorites were the chicken wings, Philly steak sandwich, and pizzas.

Izumi was the only specialty restaurant we tried and we all loved it!

cafe 270 was also our go to place for breakfast and lunch. Especially for bags of potato chips that they had behind the salad counter at lunch. (You have to ask for them)

Ship:

Anthem is a wonderful ship! Yes it did get crowded in the Royal Promenade but just avoid that area during sales! 

I loved that there was an indoor swimming pool for the cold days at the beginning and end of cruise. The outdoor swimming areas for the kids were a lot of fun too (Our kids are not big fans of slides and water features. They were just happy to be swimming outside!)

Seaplex was a lot of fun and we spent quite a bit of money playing air hockey and arcade games 😂

DS and DD did not go to Adventure Ocean.

Bumper Cars was super fun. Once we got onboard the ship and connected to their network, we were able to reserve a time for all the sea days no problem.

DS and I did the complimentary North Star at Cococay and it was really fun! I booked it at 7:50am on the day of. It does book up quick so wake up early on the port day if you want to book a complimentary ride 

Medical:

Two days before the end of the second week, DD started 🤮 out of no where. I thought it might be due to the rocking ship but every time she ate/drank something, it came right back up. We were sent to Medical where the doctor gave her anti nausea medicine and sent us back to the room for 24 hours isolation. We were given complimentary movies and room service which was wonderful. Guest services and the medical team called to check on us often as well. They also arranged for someone from Eurofin to come to the stateroom to do my DD’s antigen test to get off the ship. 
 

Summary:

As much as we love sailing on Celebrity, for the next few years, I think RC is the better fit for us 🙂 Our next cruise will be on the Oasis and then Anthem again in the new year! 

2 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

Pretty sure unless a port is changed/cancelled port charges/taxes are static for your booking.

 

I've done several reprices, which had increased taxes/fees, but my amount when I booked remained after the reprices.  I just noticed today that taxes/fees decreased by $2; not going to wait on hold for 30-45 minutes to ask for $4 (cabin total).  😄

My time is definitely worth more than $4 😂

Thanks for the response!

There was a reduction in taxes and port charges on my upcoming sailing. Have any of you been able to get OBC for the difference? Or does the policy only cover cruise fair reductions?