garda19

1 hour ago, Oshunvuz said:

How much is the shareholder OBC? $ or %?

I believe cruises under 7 days is $50 OBC.  Cruises 7 to 13 days $100 OBC.  Cruises 14 days plus $250 OBC.  

On 1/13/2023 at 9:26 PM, iflyrc5 said:

We have a B2B (7 day and 21 day) in October 2023 with each one having a separate booking number and a B2B (21 day and 21 day) in Jan/Feb 2024 with each one having a separate booking number and our TA got us the Teacher promotion for all 4 of the bookings.  He did this in mid Dec 2022 just after we booked these cruises while on the NA during the Black Friday sales.

We are booked on the 21 day Panama Canal cruise on the Rotterdam in October 23.  Is this the same cruise you are on.  HAL advised me that I cannot get the shareholder credit until July 0f 2023 and to send in the paperwork in April.  

19 hours ago, richwmn said:

The military and medical professional credits are essentially the same program so I doubt that you can double dip there. You can get either in addition to the Stockholder credit.

I have used the First Responder OBC and my shareholder OBC at the same time for several cruises.  Every little bit helps.

I just had a long conversation with two HAL representatives.  As of January 1st I'm told that you can now only get the first responder OBC one cruise at a time.  I was told that even though I have 3 cruises booked in 2023 I can get the OBC on the first cruise but I cannot get it on the other two until I complete the first cruise.  This is not the way it has been in the past.  

iflyrc5 did you receive the first responder confirmations for all three of your upcoming cruises.

This is our first time on HA.  Does anyone have a dry cleaning price list.

Hello Mark,

Last April on the Celebrity Eclipse TA was my 10th Celebrity cruise. This month was my first Cunard Queen Mary 2 cruise. There were 10 days between my eastbound Celebrity TA and my westbound Cunard TA. I have been on 16 cruises total. I have to admit that cruise reviews are very personal. What one passenger loves another passenger dislikes. I thought the Mac-O-Meter above gives a good review of the ships. As I have not been on a Princess cruise in a long time I will give you my thoughts on the two above ships using the Mac-O-Meter:

MDR Food -- Celebrity 9.1; QM2 8.9. Lately we cruse Aqua Class on Celebrity and this QM2 we cruised Brit Club class which is about the same category. Although the food in both dining rooms were very good I think the food in Celebrity Blu was better and had a better selection. The service in Celebrity Blu and QM2 Club dining room were the same, very good.

Buffet -- Celebrity 8.8; QM2 6.0 Poor selection in QM2, very limited seating, poor service, limited hours and a lot of workers walking around doing nothing. Unoccupied tables with used plates and utensils on tables for a long time before someone would clean the table. Celebrity has a very large buffet with many food choices, very good food and very good service. In my experience once passengers left a table it was almost immediately cleaned.

Alternatives -- Celebrity 9.2; QM2 8.6

Ship Quality -- QM2 9.3; Celebrity 9.0 The QM2 is absolutely elegant. The Celebrity Eclipse is beautiful but the QM2 is classy.

Cabins -- Celebrity 9.0; QM2 8

Ship Decor -- QM2 9.5; Celebrity 9.0

Deck Spaces -- Celebrity 9.3; QM2 8.0

Promenade Deck - Celebrity9.0 QM2 8.0;

Overall Service -- Celebrity 9.6; QM2 8.0

Entertainment Venues --; Celebrity 9.0; QM2 7.0 I thought the entertainment in the Eclipse was much better in both the main theater and around the ship.

Over-all Entertainment -- Celebrity 9.0; QM2 7.0

Speakers/Educational -- QM2 9.0; Celebrity 8.5 QM2 had great speakers.

Formality/Dress Code -- Celebrity 9.0; QM2 7.0. I thought 3 formal nights on a 7 night cruise was too much. QM2 formal night is nice but very stuffy. I'm not sold on Celebrity doing away with their formal nights but the QM2 goes overboard. Most of the time the passengers dressed nearly formal during the entire cruise. The had breakfast in suits, ties and formal dresses. Most of the passengers dressed like they were at Harry and Megan's wedding.

Itineraries -- QM2 9.5; Celebrity 8.1 This is hard for me because I have been on Celebrity cruises which have taken me to wonderful ports of call. This QM2 cruise was a crossing with no ports other then getting on in Southampton and getting off in Ft. Lauderdale.

I thought the service in general was much better on Celebrity than on the QM2. On the QM2 our cabin attendant was very lax and did a poor job cleaning, especially the bathroom.

The internet service/price is much better on Celebrity. On the QM2 the internet was so slow it sometimes took 3 minutes to connect with my email and viewing web pages took for ever. Don't get me wrong all internet at sea is slow but never as slow as Cunard. The QM2 only has 12 computers in their computer room and it was always full. At times I had to wait 30 minutes for a free computer. On the Eclipse the internet speed was much faster, less expensive and there were more public computers to use.

My wife is handicapped and needs a wheelchair to board and disembark the ship. On Celebrity there is usually about a 15 to 20 minute wait for a wheelchair. Cunard was horrible! Even though Cunard gave us a time to board at their wheelchair location we sat there for an hour and 45 minutes waiting to board the ship. It was the worst that I have ever seen. Disembarking was not much better. Again Cunard gave us a time and place to disembark by wheelchair and we arrived 20 minutes early and still waited one and a half hours. The staff (non Cunard) scheduling the wheelchair dismenbarkment on the ship were rude and disrespectful. Absolutely terrible.

For all that I have heard about the QM2 being an ocean liner for the first four days this ship was the worst. You could hardly walk down the corridors without being bounced from one side to another. Items fell off the tables due to the rocking of the ship. Many people stayed in their cabins for days with seasickness. This was my 4th TA and absolutely the worst. I was told on the QT that one engine was down and this caused all the turbulence.

As far as I am concerned Celebrity is much better. I would never book a cruise on Cunard again.

Did you mean to post

this on your Roll Call?

Happy cruising!

 

I thought I was starting a new roll call for the September 2, 2018 Celebrity Summit.

Hello Everyone,

We are Rich & Karen from Point Pleasant, NJ and Stuart, Florida. We booked this cruise today while on a 10 night cruise on the Solstice from Honolulu to Vancouver. It was hard to pass up with all the incentives that Celebrity was offering. This is our 19th cruise. We tend to book cruises by the itinerary and the price rather then the cruise line. We have sailed on Carnival, Princess, NCL, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. We tend to sail mostly on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. This will be our second cruise to Bermuda. Our first was in 2015 on the NCL Dawn out of Boston which we loved. I'm sure that we will enjoy this cruise just as well. Last month we were on the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas with our 3 son's and their families. We had a great time with all the son's, daughter-in-law's and grandchildren. There were 13 of us and everyone had a great time. Next April we have a 15 night eastbound TA planned from Miami to Dublin and after a week in Ireland & Scotland we will fly over to London & Southampton, England for a couple of days where we will take the westbound Cunard Queen Mary 2 back home.

Lets get this roll call going. I live in New Jersey about an hour from the cruise port so if I can help anyone with their vacation plans please don't hesitate to contact me. My wife grew up in Bayonne about 2 miles from the port.

Rich

We will be using Barcelona Day tours next September, one from the airport and another the day the cruise ends. Do you recommend paying in full up front, or just leaving the minimum deposit and paying the day of? What is the usual gratuity after a private tour?

I've used them 5 times and was completely satisfied with them each time. Their vehicles were fairly new, clean and in great condition. Each of the tour guides we had were excellent. I paid them in advance just so I could use a credit card. I believe if you only give them a deposit you have to pay in cash (their money) prior to the start of the tour. I researched them prior to my cruises and found that most of the people that reviewed them liked them. Remember, you can't please everyone. I would recommend them. Tipping is the same there as everywhere else. Tip what you think is appropriate. I usually tipped $10 per person for my wife and I or $20 for the tour.

We just completed a TA on the Celebrity Reflection and visited Barcelona where we had the opportunity to take the combined Barcelona and Montserrat tour through Spain Day Tours/Barcelona Day Tours. Our day started off when immediately upon disembarking the ship we were met by our guide Marta who was absolutely wonderful. This was our 17th cruise where we take excursions at every port and our guide Marta was one of the most friendly, professional and knowledgeable guides we have ever encountered. She introduced us to our driver Fran and off we went for an enjoyable 8 hour tour in a new modern small bus. We had 12 persons from Cruisecritic on the tour and the bus was clean and comfortable. Marta spoke perfect English and took us to places which were absolutely breathtaking. During the 8 hour tour she took us to all of the highlights of Barcelona and beautiful Montserrat. Not only did Marta show us beautiful Barcelona and Montserrat but she shared her vast historical knowledge of the locations and thrilled us with her great stories. I couldn't believe how beautiful the La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, the National Palace, Montjuic and the Montserrat national park with the Royal Monastery and Basilica were. I especially enjoyed the Olympic Ring and the location of the 1992 Olympics. Marta and Fran provided us with a wonderful day that we will never forget. I highly recommend this tour. Thank you Marta for a wonderful day.