Midsomer Madness

Someone on board currently has said their departure time has changed to later and when I now go on the app and click on where it currently shows the time for our wellness check as 11am it takes me to a new page which asks me to pick a new, later, time..there is obviously a reason for it, we will arrive at the new time as requested. sorry for going “off topic”

We have an 11am check in time in Sydney but today received an email from The Retreat asking for our preferences on certain things, further down in the email it says boarding will commence at 1.15pm so have no idea what’s going on there..I have asked for clarification

Terry its seems the wines are very much geared towards Australian passengers looking at that list… I don’t drink wine, apart from the fizzy variety, John does but I’m sure he will find something he likes…we tend to drink gin! Please tell me Bombay Sapphire is available? Totally off subject we received an email from The Retreat asking us for any preferences for when we join you onboard and it says boarding will be from 1.15pm, they don’t state why though Amanda

Thank you, that’s not too bad then, think I might need to change my reading glasses 😂

Yes I know I can, I just think it’s a daft price for a glass of bog standard fizzy plonk…still don’t know if is 19 or 16 though? Not that it makes much difference 😂

I can’t tell, is that $19 for a glass of Prosecco? If so it’s just a rip off, can buy a bottle in Tesco for £8 in the UK

We received notification of a successful Move Up bid 6 weeks before sailing, I was very surprised to receive it that far ahead.

As far as I know you just pay the difference between the two..

We put in a bid for a celebrity suite and a royal suite, once we were successful with the celebrity suite the royal suite offer showed as expired…are your bids still showing for sky suites?

You are on the same cruise as us…I was also successful but with a Celebrity Suite, I was surprised it was done so early but I think with the amount of vacant sky suites they chose to do the process now to free up some of the cheaper cabins and hope they sell, the suites are all a ridiculous price now..we got a great deal when we booked in 2021 because the world was coming out of Covid so prices were good.

Yes, as far as I know we would lose it all but we only pay £150pp deposit, but it would still be £300 down the drain

Exactly…us in the UK definitely don’t have that option..you cancel you lose your deposit, admittedly Celebrity deposits are not that large compared to some cruiselines, we had to pay a 15% deposit for Cunard

Ship: Edge Length of Cruise: 10 nights Cruise Sail Date: 25th January 2024 Date email offer received: 10/28/23 Captain’s Club Tier: Classic Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: TA Current Cabin: Sunset Sky Suite 10267 Bid? Yes/No: Yes If YES - Bidding Details: Cabin Category: Celebrity Suite Bid Offer: £1500 pp Notification Date: No notification yet but cc charged and changed on app Accepted / Rejected: Accepted Our offer took into account the very good priced we got when we booked our sunset sky suite way back in 2021! The cost is still cheaper than booking a sunset sky suite now so we are more than happy.

I’m sure you are correct and it won’t make an iota of difference but it made me feel better having said it… I am more annoyed about Celebrity not having the courtesy to let people know of these changes, that is just shocking customer service

I’ve just a call from celebrity advising we still have a future cruise credit with them and if we don’t book by the end of December we will lose the additional OBC. She was a little taken aback when I told her we wouldn’t be booking anything else with them as a result of recent changes they’ve brought in but not had the courtesy to let people know, instead they have to find out from social media or cruise groups. She tried telling me that nothing has really changed and I suggested the powers that be take a look at cruise sites like this so they can actually see that people aren’t very happy with how things are going…especially the Retreat Host who is supposed to do what a butler did only it seems he/she is actually just a cabin steward with a new badge! Bet she was glad she rang now…not! so, yes, it appears they do think we are all stupid

On our Edge sailing in January there are currently 24 Sky suites, 5 Sunset Sky suites, 9 Aqua Sky suites and 3 MC Sky suites available…so they aren’t selling well on our cruise! We are in a Sunset Sky suite and are annoyed the product has been changed after we booked… I got the “everything is enhanced” blah blah response from Celebrity. Not acceptable.. instead of now booking Celebrity for our silver wedding anniversary in 2025 we have booked. Cunard Queens Grills…doubt we will sail with Celebrity again.

Have also bid on a royal suite but only one of those available so not much chance of success there!

I’ve just lowered our bid a little, still in the good range so fingers crossed!

I’ve just seen your post on the move up thread and you’ve given me some hope! we bid on a Celebrity suite for our sailing later in January on Edge, there were 3 available when we bid, that then went to 2, back to 3, then 4, then 5 and today there are 6…final payment was over 3 weeks ago so no idea what is happening.. we are in the strong bracket but wondering if we should lower our bid…however we got our sunset sky suite for such a good price even if we leave our bid as it is and are successful it would mean our overall price would still be cheaper than what the sunset sky suites are currently selling at…there are hardly any inside or ocean view cabins available so I would think it would make sense for Celebrity to move those who’ve bid up and open up lower priced cabins …but who knows how they work.. Not sure what to do really!

Edge in Australia

We paid around $4000pp for our sunset sky suite whuch included $800 OBC, Premium drinks and wifi…the same SSS is currently on sale for $7,400pp..so I was incorrect saying the price had doubled but when you take into account the OBC and gratuities its almost double…we booked autumn 2021…that’s a huge increase bearing in mind the lack of butler (still have to pay Suite gratuities though.. we definitely wouldn’t pay the current price

Prices are just ridiculous now IMO..we booked our sunset sky suite over. 2 years ago when Covid was still about, we got a great price…if we booked today we would be paying over double..no way would we pay todays price even without the cutbacks…

25 Sky Suites and 5 Sunset Sky Suites still available for our cruise in January, also 3 Celebrity Suites, 1 Royal Suite and 1 Penthouse Suite…I guess most will get filled with Move Up bids but I didn’t think there’d be that many free at this point in time.

Exactly this…the not informing passengers is bad enough but the standard, scripted reply about it being a better experience, blah, blah, blah is not only ridiculous it’s a complete lie…

we have only cruised twice with Celebrity, both times in a verandah stateroom..2 years ago we booked a Sunset Sky Suite on Edge around Australia for next year for my 60th birthday.. we are very disappointed that Celebrity brought these changes in after we had booked and have still not officially informed us of it. whilst many don’t seem to be bothered by the changes, for us it’s not what we booked and paid for and as such instead of booking The Retreat for a cruise for our Silver Wedding Anniversary in 2025 we have booked Queens Grills on QM2 and I doubt we will book any further cruises with Celebrity..