odysee

On 6/21/2023 at 4:39 AM, NEW 2 CRUISIN said:

Do your laundry at your pre-cruise hotel the night before your cruise.

European hotels usually do not have self-laundries.  

On 6/6/2023 at 2:56 PM, NMTraveller said:

Not in a bubble.  Where are you visiting?  Chicago and NYC?  I have not had to order from an app for a very long time.  I get daily room service.  Maybe it is an east coast thing.

 

If I do live in a bubble it is a bubble of back to normal and a good one to live in.

 

I have not seen any of what you mention since the start of this year.  We have great Uber service with slow waits.

We visited Florida again recently.  Prices (hotels, restaurants) up a lot, service non-existent or subpar.  Worse was the attitude “take it or leave it”.  Eg stood 50 min in line at Avis FLL with 1 counter open (despite AVIS preferred).  Hilton hotel close to Dania Beach waited 25 min for drink to be served on outside terrace, then left after 2 friendly reminders if they forgot us.  They were not even very busy, just chatting.  Etc etc

The only time I have ever asked for a topper (don t know if it was egg crate or not) was when we sailed last year on first cruise (after maiden voyage) on Beyond.

Matresses were very firm and good according to my husband, but just a bit too inflexible (maybe too new 🙂 ?) for me.  I like to sink in just that little bit.

And on the numerous cruises we did on S class ships, I never felt the need for a soft topper and always slept well.

We were on Beyond last May in Sunset Veranda 9th deck (can t remember exact nr, was just beside suite on starboard side).  We do not remember any special noises, but were in Mediterranean with very calm sea.

We encountered a lot of that in the middle of the ocean during our 2019 Spring TA from FLL to Southhampton. Seem to remember it was after we passed Bermuda, but can t be too sure about that.

Last year same period the weather was very good during our Barcelona, France, Italy cruise and reached up to 26 degrees.  People were definitely sunning and swimming.onboard Beyond.

However nobody can predict how your cruise will be.

Don t expect too much of the concierge.  They now have limited desk hours (certainly not between 8 am and 8 pm, more like 10am to 12 am or 3pm to 5 pm on our sailing) and are not really available by phone either.  Post Covid the Concierge took on additional different responsibilities and can not spend a lot of time on the Concierge job. I had a question on the next port and waited 20 min for my turn.  Then she took about 10 min to google a map of the town center, printed it out to hand to me and that was the extent of her knowledge and assistance.

We only booked a CC cabin because of location and it was very little $ more, otherwise it is not worth it.

On Reflection in November and room attendant opened balcony immediately upon request.  Did not even have to get tool, assume had whatever is needed ready in his pocket.

On 3/8/2023 at 9:44 PM, perakcruiser said:

 

And to make things even more complicated we usually book our cruises in Europe. Where Celebrity only offers fare with all fees, taxes and gratuities included. Price is final. So there is anyway no option to cancel or adjust any gratuities, no matter if kids or adults. 

 

Well in our part of Europe Celebrity certainly offers fares with or without perks (gratuities etc) included.

Thanks a lot for info and tips !

37 minutes ago, Crazy planning mom said:

Have you also looked into Princess and HAL?

Mein Schiff is a German line.  Do you speak German?

Yes, I speak German and am aware it is a German line.  Just have not found any meaningful experiences here and wanted to find out how they compare.

After 15 years sailing happily exclusively on X, mostly Aqua, we are now looking at alternatives.  Main reasons :

1. Celebrity does not have good options to see Norway Fjords and harbors, Nordkap etc. 

2. After Covid we found that our 2 cruises with X in 2022, although enjoyable, went down in quality and did not give us the feeling of being still so much better than what we could get elsewhere and we are now ready to try something else.

We looked around for Spring/early Summer 2023 Norwegian fjords cruises and are probably a bit late for good choices.  Oceania dates don t work for us due to earlier commitments. Postships Havilla and Hürtigrüten have very short port times, sometimes only 3 hours. Not sure if we want to try big ships of MSC, Norwegian as from these blogs might compare unfavorable with X.  So it seems  „Mein Schiff“ with various ships and possible routings seems to be left.

As I can not find this cruise line in these forums, I am looking for some feedback, opinions here and comparison with X.

Anybody can help ?

On 1/27/2023 at 10:26 PM, loecki1976 said:

Hi,

I am just curious and thinking about the online check procedure.

 

 

My Check In opens March 2nd, and final payment is due March 17th. Will it be possible to check in without having done the final payment? Or could I check in, and do payment afterwards?

 

Thanks for your help.

Just saw this and that you booked in Germany.  Then answer is YES.  We booked last year in Germany and could check in immediately when it was opened on App (think 45 days before cruise) and got first slot for check-in.  Our final payment was only later, i.e. 30 days before cruise.  I was very surprised as well that the App worked before our final payment.

On the Reflection TA last Fall, they showed outside movies as well with pillows and blankets on the lawn

16 hours ago, kayehall said:

My hubby had fresh squeezed everyday in the buffet area.  Had to go to the bar to get it.

 

I have not been able to find fresh squeezed juices on X ships during last several years.

What they called “fresh” at bar in buffet area or at Elite breakfast on our last Reflection TA was  definitely not „freshly“ squeezed as I understand it and make it.

it tasted same as the juice you buy in brick packages at supermarket not even as good as the „fresh“ refrigerated ones.

No

We could only do it on the ship after guest relations called the beverage manager for approval.

We booked a small group (10-12 persons) tour to Herculaneum in Naples.  However a couple days before Celebrity cancelled our tour and we were included for same price in another one which cost a bit more. Never told us why.  But since ship was just at half capacity, we guess they could not fill the tours.  So we ended up in a big bus with about 32 people.

Yes was a relief to find comfortable chairs again (also in other Reflection venues) after the extremely uncomfortable seating we found on Beyond practically everywhere.

Btw Beyond has no library anymore.

Reflection still had the library, however was not too well stocked, during our recent TA.  There were also several foreign language books and some shelves with bring/get books from passengers.

A good idea was to have some tables there with large and difficult puzzles where anybody could work on if you felt like it.  But this was probably organized by passengers via the roll call.

3 hours ago, CruisinBanka said:

Thanks for the heads up! Must be exclusive to Beyond because never seen an ice cream machine at Mast Grille on other Celebrity ships. Always had to go to OVC. 

There is one on the Reflection as well as noted and used during recent TA and I have seen it before on at least 1 other S class ship, can t remember which one now.

As we had sunset veranda on Beyond , IV was not an issue for us.  Despite liking sunset veranda and the good looks with wow factor,  Beyond  was not our favorite ship. Main reasons : very uncomfortable seating throughout ship and very loud venues with each their own music sometimes competing eg in main areas and restaurants around Martini Bar. 
4 dining room concept was great.

we still prefer S class.

5 minutes ago, FourNines said:

This does happen. American Airlines is one that will not allow you to make a change to the reservation if it is booked through a third party.

That's the reason for the hack I mentioned where I used another One World partner airline to make those changes myself.

 

We could not see seat map or find out our assigned seats, even through “manage my bookings” or phoning airline.  Also through other Star Alliance partners we could not get in.  Only after online check in was opened 24 hours before flights, did we see them.

1 hour ago, FourNines said:

You CAN select seats prior to check in, and there are several ways to do it. One requires the record locator number (some may require the PNR number instead) while the other does not. 

 

With Record Locator:

Some airlines will not allow you to see the flight information even if you have a record locator number (looking at you American Airlines) when booked with a third party consolidator like FbC, but there are several hacks by using partner airlines websites to do so.

We fly exclusively One World partner airlines  so once I have the record locator, I head on over to the Royal Jordanian Airlines website and insert my records locator number in the Manage My Booking page. From there, I can see the seat map (also availability) and our assigned seats for each flight. If the seats automatically assigned are acceptable, I move on with my life. If not, I jot down the seats I would like and then call FbC with my preferred seat selection. They usually make the changes while I am still on the phone with them. 

 

Without Record Locator:

I use Expert Flyer to check each's flight seat map and availability. With my preferred seats in hand, I call FbC and have them assign those seats to us and then ask them for the record locator. I then verify that the seats were correctly assigned to us by using said record locator on the airline's website (or partner site).

 

It's been awhile since I have used FbC, so some of the above methods may have changed. I know there are quite a few fellow CC'rs that use hacks like I have described above, so I am sure they'll chime in with any updated information.

 

Hope that helps.

 

We had record locator, airline reference and ticket numbers, could see our bookings on airline webpage etc, but not seat assignments.  When trying to book seat we always got message : any changes etc only through booking agency.  We are very used to booking airline tickets ourselves and we have already made numerous bookings with that particular airline directly, some through travel agencies, and know how to do it.  For first flight booked by Celebrity I even called airline to see what could be done and was told only booking agency was allowed to do something, they would not even confirm if seats were selected already.

I think it really depends on airline and what kind of booking/ tariff etc.

We have been able to do it in past, but not for these 2 cruises this year.

just wanted to inform, that Celebrity took good care of us and booked us good seats with plenty of luggage allowance on top rated airline even for “free” or included airfare (1 Euro was charged nominally as completely free does not seem to be allowed here or does not fit in system).  Would have caused us less time ans some aggrevation if we would have known this before our first trip.

We had this year flights by Celebrity included in 2 European cruises for 1 Euro pp.

Were not expecting too much, but had each time flights with reputable airline (Star Alliance) and allowance for 2 checked in suitcases pp. We were allowed to pick date and flight time, subject to availability which was positive in our cases snd confirmed within 48 hours (took a bit longer as we booked via non Celebrity TA).

Could not select seats ourselves prior to check in but  then found out each time we had  already 2 seats assigned beside each other with extra legroom, which normally cost extra.