flvol77

Thank you. We booked Holland Eurodam for 2025 - It's a refundable deposit, and I got a nice deal on a Signature Suite (we don't often do suites), so I thought I might as well. We love the Quantum class ships and are excited about the Ovation.

Funny, our first cruise to Alaska is on the Ovation; my wife said you know we will go again, so don't worry about it, and we will have no clue what we are missing. Probably will go back in 2026 or maybe 2025 but, I should get on that if that is something we want to do. 100% will be with Princess or Holland

"Because my withering gaze is usually enough to burn a hole in most designer jeans." Hmm I think I would know when someone would be giving me a "withering gaze" It's so fine you worry about people wearing jeans in the Blu on Celebrity in 2024. lol

I have never received a second look from a single person. I don't wear designer jeans; I wear dark blue, with either a golf shirt or a button-down and dress shoes. And if it bothers you that bad, I mean this in the nicest way possible: Hate that for you, must suck to live your life worrying about what people wear. When we spoke with a Celebrity Rep, we were told that jeans fit within their guidelines. (for TA's and other media)

I always wear dark jeans, dress shoes, and a polo or button-down, and we have only cruised in an Aqua Class Cabin or Retreat on Celebrity and never had a second look.

It isn’t much work for the cruise line to figure out who you are. I have a new cruise YouTube channel, about a year old; my wife and I were on Celebrity, a concierge walked up to us, said I saw your name on the ship’s manifest and wanted to say we love your channel and welcome aboard. This was one hour of us boarding the ship. Likely though, you are correct, someone complained about them recording. Some other thoughts, I know Ben and David mention their camera is small, and it looks like a full framed camera to me, along with a big gimbal, personally I don’t think that is small. I know others film with big cameras, like Harr Travel, I know he 100% has prior approval and gets on the ship early to record on embarkation day. Ben and David do use a lens that blurs out the background, and IMO it isn’t easy to see anyone’s face. I use two cameras to record on a ship: a GoPro and DJI Action 4 and my DJI Pocket 3. Both are smaller than my iPhone. Both are great quality, and they allow me not to be in people’s faces and attract attention to myself because it's their vacation, and I want to respect their privacy as much as possible. With that said, they are also staying on the ship to do work, they weren’t getting off in the ports so as to film when the ship was empty. IMO, that may have backfired on them because I believe if things were busy, the crew wouldn’t have had the time to mess with them because the crew would have been taking care of the passengers. I am booked in the Yacht club for next year, and because of what has happened with Ben and David, I will be reaching out to MSC to see if there will be an issue with me recording. (I always ask anyway; I never had a cruise line say no. Most ask me to be respectful, and if someone asks not to be recorded, acknowledge and say the footage will be deleted) These are my personal vacations (for now), so if MSC has an issue with me recording with a small camera, then I will cancel, unfortunately. It will be interesting to see what comes of this if anything, It’s a hot topic, I have seen a number of people that have SAID they canceled their MSC cruise because of it, and well, I kind of doubt that but who knows.

Being new to being Diamond, I thought well, this is disappointing, after reading this I see that it doesn't make much difference at all, so thank you.

I just checked - it's listed on their website; they have suites and inside cabins.

Thanks, took your advice and booked it just now!

I asked them that today, and they responded quickly - here was Stacy's response (we are on the Ovation of the Seas from 7 am to 5 pm) I hope this helps - it does for us, and we booked right afterward. Thanks for everyone's help. "Yes, there is time for you to participate in our Bennett Scenic Journey at 7:30am. This tour arrives back to Skagway at approximately 3:30pm. If your cruise ship is scheduled in Skagway at 7:00AM, there is ample time for you to make our 7:30AM departure time. Even though the ship’s schedule is 7:00AM, the cruise ship arrives in Skagway between 5:30AM and 6:00AM. Our local longshoremen spend approximately 45 minutes tying the ship up to the dock and setting the gangway in place so that cruise passengers can disembark promptly at 7:00AM. You merely need to walk to the end of the pier, and we will be there waiting for you carrying a sign with our business name on it."

I'm glad I found this thread - thank you so much. This is our first time in Alaska this summer - it will not be our last as we are already planning for 2025. Now the question is which Chilkoot Charter to pick? We are there from 7 am to 5 pm. BENNETT SCENIC JOURNEY vs. YUKON RAIL & BUS EXCURSION

Interesting, so no window washing is 25% obstructed, and those cabins with the window washing equipment are up to 50%

It also happened on the Wonder of the Seas 3 times in 2023, it just wasn’t the same day as their cruise that passengers learned they didn’t have a cabin like those in Australia. Royal Caribbean apparently has an issue with their booking system. The one out of Australia caught people’s attention because Royal only offered a 25% future credit (along with a full refund) Social media got involved, and the story took off; Royal upped the offer to a 100% refund, 100% future cruise credit, and the beverage package on their next sailing. So I can understand why it would be on cruise passengers' minds.

Thanks for your post We have only sailed in the Aqua Class and only on S-Class - well, our next three or four Celebrity cruises are on the E-Class. We got aggressive with our move-up offer for our cruise in 4 weeks because it was our anniversary, and we use our balcony a lot. I don't think we will be happy with the infinite balcony. If we can get a decent move-up offer for our June cruise, we may try it, but if not, we will do the Aqua class and make adjustments to future bookings from there. I could see us going the way of the Sunset Veranda moving forward.

It's because the balcony has a port hole and is not a full-size open balcony that it's why it's classified as an obstructed view. This isn't for the Beyond, but the Edge, hope the link helps. https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Obstructed_Views/02_15_23_FLY_Obstructed_Cabins_EG.pdf