seashell

S35Flyer

I have booked this cruise for next may with lots of my family (my cousins, spouses, sister and b in law).  I am excited.  Thanks for the words on the Movenpik hotel.  i have been looking at hotels for a while to find one that will work for all of us that come early.  I have a few questions.

did you book a transfer to the ship or was it easy to get there on your own?  (nice TA to get you a limo to the hotel)

I am debating a seperate tour to Keukenhof.  How much did the ship charge?  was it a big group?  I want to go to Alsmeer too.  

Is it hard to get around Amsterdam on foot?  I like to walk but did not know how the streets were from Movenpik to the sites?  i have looked at hotels closer to the Rijksmuseum.

Did you do anything in Basel or go straight to the airport?  I am debating a night in Zurich before i leave.  

I will check the tour for the Fort.  Which port was that?  i have several history buffs in the group who would enjoy that.  

I am so glad i found your post.  The family has been looking to me for direction and this will be my first river cruise.  any help answering my questions would be wonderful.

Michelle

I wish they would get their website fixed. I had to reenter a cruise I am going on this coming week. To my surprise i have a roommate listed. someone i do not know. He has my same last name. I called Celebrity to check. She couldn't tell me for sure since i booked through a travel agent but she said she only found my name. i'll have to enter my next cruise after i get back.

I have gotten the black dot screen several times. I have been told to wait or try later several times. I would rather have a functional website that I did not have to try several ways to get to my information, than a pretty one.

I just hope Richard does not show up for my cruise / cabin.

I called Choice Air in March for my June cruise. The lady i talked to was great to work with. I had done a bit of research before i called and knew what flight I wanted. I was going to suggest you call. The only problem I had was with what showed up on the Celebrity website but a call and email later it was fixed. I think the website was in the middle of some repairs. I am flying Delta and Choice Air got me a better price. I am flying into Dublin and flying out of Amsterdam. On Delta's website they did not show any premium economy seats. I am glad i called. I should have asked about the first class seats but i'm sure they were still too high. They are all full now.

thanks for asking the questions. good luck with your second flight.

Thank you all for the information on the Dublin Pier. I am on the last cruise out of Dublin for this round. It really helps to know what to expect. Thankfully my cruise ends in Amsterdam so I won't have the taxi problem many of you have had. I just have to get to Pier 7, the bus and then the ship. I am hoping by then the Port has worked the bugs out. Also glad to know that the Eclipse is in good shape.

I had a cruise for January 2017 booked out to a big cruise ship. Our group ended up on the Equinox, Western caribbean. Our roll call group knew long before we were contacted. Travel agents did not know. Celebrity customer service could not tell us. We had paid for an 11 day cruise so we were offered basically one option or we could cancel with no penalty. If we changed to a different cruise we paid the current cost. We had booked when it opened so we would have paid a lot more. Very frustrating. At least we were rebooked as soon as they announced the change. I hope you get notified soon but they may be slow. Be open to the new cruise. We had a great time.

After my next cruise i will be Elite. I am an older Captain's Club since I paid $35 to join several years ago. I generally travel solo so if they had given me credit for all those cruises I would have already hit Elite.

I do like the priority embarkation so I can skip a little ahead. (Once I'm at the port I want to get on board quickly.) I do look forward to the laundry perk when i get it. The itinerary is more important to me. I have cruised on 5 lines. I pick based more on itinerary than anything. I jumped to 3 star Mariner on HAL last year. They have some nice European cruises i want to try. A river cruise in my future too.

Mostly for me, a cruise is my vacation. I get away from work/home. I see new and different scenery, someone else is making my dinner and cleaning my cabin. I can be entertained nightly. I only have to unpack once. I can relax. Perks are nice and i appreciate the ones i get. Happy vacation to you all!

michelle

I got a resident rate a while back that did not include the "free" perks. i could deal with that but I was looking as a solo and they only priced the perks for 2. I would have had to pay for 2 drink packages or gratuities for two. I don't know if they haven't worked this out on their website yet. I might have booked on the website but after that i went right back to my TA.

I booked Choice Air in March. I have not seen a $25 booking fee. They were great and got my flights I wanted and it was $100 less than if I had booked direct. In fact, the economy comfort was not available on line but Choice Air got it for me.

Now there was a slight glitch with the new website. It showed on direction with different flights but after a few emails that was rectified. I wanted to make sure I was on the right flight.

Call and ask. Better to know.

I went to Las Vegas for a big convention. I got home with the flu. I think I picked it up on my flight. My cruise was 10 days later. I cancelled my cruise. I am waiting to hear from my travel insurance about refunding my costs. The doctor said i should not travel for at least 7 days from the onset. I was too wiped out to go on my cruise and afraid i would pick up more germs. I was a responsible person and stayed home. I am going to be very upset if my insurance does not pay. Some people are responsible and stay home with their germs.

Sorry you got sick when you got home. It is miserable. I do appreciate the tips. I think this was a very bad year for flu, colds, etc. I wish more people would stay home when sick. On an up note - I rebooked for a cruise in the British Isles I would not have taken otherwise.

I've sailed several times as a solo. I have mostly cruised in the caribbean. My cabin price ranges from 150% to 200%. There are the usual caveats of popular cruise route vs. unpopular, off season vs peak, how full the ship is when i book it. I would say it is not the most friendly policy but at least now I get double credit for my Captain's club points. If I want to go then i pay. I just book early, look for discounts and check close to full payment date to see if I can get an upgrade, money back, etc. Celebrity is my favorite line. I hope this helps some.

Celebrity has let ashes be scattered. Good friend has scattered her DH's ashes a few times. It varies from ship to ship. Most times the ship has no idea and has not been contacted by Miami. Her TA has contacted and gotten a "permission" letter from Miami. She takes it to guest relations to arrange a time. Some staff is baffled and have never done this and some are very understanding and helpful. They do this on a sea day (of which you will have several). One of the staff who had never done this before did not pick the best place and we ended up scattering some ashes on us. (definitely DH enjoying that time). On a HAL we had a priest on board who read some script, said some prayers and a blessing. It was wonderful. Be prepared for anything. there is no set way of handling the scattering of ashes. Hopefully you will have an understanding and helpful staff member. Get your clearance from Celebrity and be persistent with the staff. It may take a few visits to get everything set up.

My sister and brother in law are flying out of Rome after a cruise. I am going to advise them to get a private driver but how much does that cost? They have a noon flight so should be fine but they don't want to miss the flight.

I've told them about self debarkation. I've done it a few times and had good luck. I take a smaller bag than many and that makes a difference. I don't like waiting on an elevator. You all have brought up many good points for me to pass on. Thank you.

Today was check in for my june cruise. No problems doing that but my list of cruises is gone. Points total is right on Celebrity. I decided to check RCCL. I had to log in to a different page. had to input information first. The point total sounds wrong so I have to check that. I got both C & A and Captain's numbers inputted. After an email to check back my last 3 rccl cruises showed up. First one from long ago did not. Probably where my lost points went. Not the problems some of you have had so maybe some issues are getting fixed. It would have been nice to get a notice this was happening. I would have had a chance to print out my cruise list on both. Just springing it on us without notice is not good customer relations.

I'm wondering if all their tinkering with the websites to the new and updated websites is why the link to get a Meet and mingle party set up is not working.

Wake up RCCL and Celebrity! You could have done this change so much better.

I can check in for my June cruise tomorrow. I think I will since who knows if I'll have a problem later. My Celebrity history is there now. I'm printing out my history on both tomorrow too. I talked to Flights a couple weeks back. I told the agent site issues I had had. She was going to pass them up the line. My flight times showed up wrong on Celebrity. Delta was good. Flights got it fixed.

Combining is a major undertaking. Sounds like it was not thought out the best.

Swampduck and Dodge - thank you for checking this out. I sail in June but was wondering the same thing about boarding. I just booked so I am trying to get my arrival date decided upon. This helps. I am Select so that helps too (Elite after this cruise).

Swampduck - my cruise does stop in Belfast on June 14th so look for the Eclipse. Hope you have a wonderful cruise in August.

I just booked with my agent. I found a decent price on the website but every time i got to the "free extras" they wanted to charge me $740 for 2 people. I did get a resident rate so I understand that the "free" extras cost something but I was booking for one person in the cabin. I could never get it understand one person. I tried a few times hence calling my TA. I made a few remarks to the TA about how hard the new celebrity website was to navigate and she agreed.

Off topic slightly - there is nowhere i can find on the website what a partially obstructed view is? I booked a guarantee and took a chance. I got a 2C. They don't make it easy to find anything out. Celebrity needs to work on their website.

Thanks everyone for the information. I am going to set that up for my upcoming cruise.

The pools are saltwater. i've tried a few laps but they are way too short for me too. The fitness centers usually have lots of treadmills, several bikes (like listed before), ellipticals and some have rowing machines. Plenty of weights, weight machines, stablity balls, mats. I love to spin but they only allow you to use those bikes during class. Hope that helps

SOPWITH - any word? Let's all hope that HAL and TA make it right. I have not heard of this happening before.

the only experience i've had with a change was an upgrade. I was running late and one of the last ones to make it on board (flight problem). I was escorted on the ship to check in at the desk. the security guy asked for my cabin number and I told him but the HAL rep corrected me with a new number. All i could think was I made it and I don't care where the cabin is. I am on vacation. I was upgraded several levels. Nice suprise. I hope you either get a nice upgrade or a price cut for someone's mistake. Stay on top of it.

Most of all I hope you have a wonderful vacation.

enjoyed the review. Going next June and can't wait to see it. The pictures really added. Thanks for the notes on the hotels and dining. That is something our group will be talking about. the cruise tours are barely noted on here so it's nice to see a review.

My parents did a 10 day tour in the late nineties. I don't have them to answer any questions but I do remember they loved that trip. The rail ride into Denali was one of their favorites.

michelle

if it is full ship charters they may be waiting to make sure they can fill it before they cancel us. I hope they make a commitment one way or the other soon. I was really looking forward to that itinerary. Thanks for everyone's comments. They have helped give me an idea of the possibilities. I guess we will be looking at other cruises. I just hope they tell us soon so we can plan.

There is another date listed for one of the jazz or blues cruise at 1/28/17. Currently the 10 days starts 1/21 and the 11 day starts 1/31/17 not sure if they are reverting back to 7 day cruises or what? Guess it is a waiting game now.

Lots of different experiences showing up. Too bad there aren't more good experiences. I guess Celebrity has a bit to work on for customer relations. I really do appreciate you all relaying what happened. I would guess if my cruise got chartered most likely I will find out soon. What the replacement cruise will be is still up in the air. I am glad it is far enough out that air is not involved. Some in the group have a lot more OBC than I do so keeping that is important to them.

I would like to see more stories too. I know Celebrity employees supposedly read the threads so hearing what happened before can be educational for them too. As a small business owner i believe getting feedback on your service is one way to make it better. That said I am sure we will be making several phone calls if we do get bumped. I hope customer relations works well with us. (Not a job I would like).

Thanks for answering Bill. One question, did you get much notice on the change? Glad it worked out well for you. Vancouver is beautiful. Hope to see it again.

Cilcianrqts

what are you going to do? Wait for celebrity or rebook another cruise?

Cruiselover57 - your experience is not encouraging. I was hoping to hear someone else's experience. Thank you for sharing.