MissBreezy

Loving your review! Your writing style is great and I have had a chuckle or two while reading :)

I nearly teared up reading about your mom's scooter repair (onion cutting ninjas hide in my office) what an incredible example of customer service and care! Kudos to them for going above and beyond.

Enjoy your cruise, can't wait to hear the rest!

 

Why are X setting up the gastro this way the food is not one or the other, it's not snacks, tapas, starters nor proper alternative to a real meal.

Young people. It attracts a coveted demographic.

I'm in the 25-35 age group and when they announced this my immediate reaction was "Hey! Cool! This is totally the kind of place we would visit on land". Sadly, were sailing on the Silhouette so we won't be able to enjoy the venue.

There's both starters (small plates is the buzzword that's en vogue these days) and casual mains. I don't see how this is a bad thing, really. I think it is WAY better means of executing whatever Michael's Club was trying to be.

I know this doesn't answer you actual question but here's a link with anticipated temperatures (and in tiny writing, historical averages) for Mykonos in June.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/gr/mykonos/182761/june-weather/182761

I consider myself to be really laid back...I'd say a 6.

Deliver what you are contractually obligated to provide for my cruise dollars, maintain a clean ship and serve customers to the best of your abilities. My expectations aren't any higher than any other hotel stay/restaurant visit. Sure there are going to be staff that are better than others but they will be rewarded and the ones who aren't will not, it won't keep me from enjoying my cruise any less though.

I'm on vacation, I have no desire to stress out about anything :D

Me too! What is funny is that folks are all bent out of shape because they can not get their Baileys or Sambucca or a Pina Colada and then we find out from Kevinyork who is onboard a ship right now that they are available. I would think instead of getting all hot and bothered and threatening, maybe just wait and see how it unfolds. It was like the one (and I say ONE) poster who said that the food for the Elite breakfast was now being delivered on a three tiered tray, well you would have thought that the world had ended. Only to find out that it only happend on that ONE ship and others reported that it was still the regular buffet on their ship. If people would have waited a to see what was going on, they would not have wasted so much time and engergy on something that turned into nothing.

I'm not going to lie, the fact that Bailey's basically broke the board yesterday left me quite amused. All that energy spent on something no one has any control over...

Like you said, those that purchased the package can ask for a refund...those who got it for free are still getting a great selection of alcohol...FOR FREE.

I just want to board to go back to place where I can get happy feels about my upcoming cruise!

Does anyone have a copy of the new premium list? We were planning to upgrade once we were on the ship and want to make sure it is worth our while now.

Also, its been alluded to on the thread but I'd like to confirm as long as you have a 123Go package you can still upgrade for $11.50, yes?

This is all really unfortunate. If I had paid outright for my package I would have been a little miffed. Even if I had paid it wouldn't ruin my cruise though. It's too bad they couldn't have put out a memo in advance, I'm sure that would have helped a tiny bit.

There's a CC user on the Celebrity board named Mel&Ken (i think?) who had a similar port schedule. They ate at a gorgeous rooftop restaurant at sunset. I don't have the link to her review but you can try searching for it or sending her a message. I believe it was in Fira?

ETA: Found it! http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1936240&highlight=review&page=3

Hi MissBreezy,

 

Good news. Only one party needs to make the request, and both reservations will be linked. Hope this helps !

Ahh, thank you Andy! Stress averted!

Quick question...

We are cruising with our IL's and we'd like to link our reservations so we can dine together in the evenings. If I link them on our end do they need to link them on their end as well? I really don't want to pester my FIL to do this, as I'm not even sure that he's ever logged into his account more than once :D

Thanks!

Thanks for the replies!

It never occurred to me and I thought it was a good plan until DH reminded me I'm "crazy" when I don't sleep :D This is our trip overseas so it's all new.

Vatican it is!

Hi!

I'm just looking for some insight on our pre-cruise visit to Rome. We have two days in Rome before our cruise. On Day #1 we fly into Rome at 9:00am in the morning local time, because we are on the west coast this would be 1:00am MST. If we are lucky and manage to sleep on the plane we will probably get two hours sleep, maximum.

We had planned to get to our hotel, get our bearings a bit, meet the inlaws and then head off to tour the Vatican (museum, basilica etc.) for the remainder of the day since our B&B is just down the street. Is this too ambitious on so little sleep or should I expect a traveler's high to get me through?

I'd like to avoid napping during the day if we can so we don't waste our precious time in Rome.

Thanks all!

I'm using Chrome and I'm not having any issues. How odd.

When we booked our Med cruise in September we got a great price and had been humming and hawing over getting a drink package but couldn't justify the price at the time. Fast forward to Black Friday, 123Go goes live and we can take a classic drink package AND $300 OBC for an additional total fare increase of $400. It was a no-brainer for us. Especially since we would have likely bought a drink package anyway.

Our cruise is selling very well. Oceanview is sold out, all the lower category balcony cabins are now on a GTY and only a handful of insides remain. Prices have skyrocketed in the last three months, the last 2B cabin left was selling at almost $2000 more than we paid before it went to a guarantee.

Like the PP above noted, I don't think its the drink packages themselves that are driving up price...it's the demand created by the drink packages.

Same thing for me this morning. It was there yesterday when I made my last payment and this morning it not showing up under my cruise extras.

Earlier, when we first booked with 123Go I noticed the package never showed on my account at all so one day I called Celebrity to inquire and they said it was noted on my account but they had never finished adding it to my reservation. They finished applying it and it showed up correctly after that.

Gah. Ok, this is getting tiresome.

Went to make said final payment after the fare increase problem was sorted out, once the payment processed I was sent to a confirmation page and received a confirmation email stating that my balance due was $0. I log into my reservation and there's still a balance due like the payment never went through. I called Celebrity tonight (no hold at all, crazy talk) and they insist no payment went through despite my having a confirmation email that states $0 due. She told me to make sure to check my credit card statement but she's sure I still owe them money and the payment never went through.

So do they arbitrarily send out confirmation emails even if the payment hasn't cleared or am I being jerked around?

Man, this is frustrating. Final payment isn't until end of June but I'd really like to cross this off my list.

GRRR, to update this thread...

Went to make my final payment today (YIPPEE!!) and my cruise fare shot up $200 since the weekend! :mad:

I called Celebrity, hold time was wonderfully short...less than ten minutes. The customer service rep was delightful and fixed the error right away. She said it was a special fare that dropped off automatically for some reason but they fixed it.

Anyway, you might want to check your reservations just to be safe!

Great article! It seemed factual, & full of keen insights. Nice to read something in the media that is not predicated on sensationalism. Thanks for sharing it!

Yeah, I quite enjoyed the read considering it didn't come from some huge provocative news story as well. I do like the previous poster's suggestion that they offer incentives for established cruisers to get the younger set involved in cruising. Our cruise in September is one were taking with DH's parents so that's very much the scenario for us (except we are paying for ourselves).

It seems they are in quite the bind, having to balance costs and adapt to the new trends in travel without alienating their current clientele. It's seems complicated!

Not trying to start another passenger age/celebrity sucks thread but I found this article really fascinating. It starts out mostly geared toward what RCL is doing to attract new customers but really gets into the reasoning and science behind why there seems to be such a dramatic change in the cruising experience....good and bad.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peterlauria/royal-caribbeans-newest-ship-represents-a-critical-test-for

This site doesn't usually do such long form informative articles, 'twas a good read!

Yeah, this is our first cruise and since it's a family cruise we didn't pick the itinerary so we didn't even think to go through a TA until the 60 days had already passed. Sucks to be us in that sense.

I ended up calling X, the rep I talked to was so rude initially because I didn't have my reservation number handy. I was driving hands-free (expecting to be home by the time I got off hold) and offered to call back after she asked me how I expected her to help me without a reservation number. Surprise! It took her all of 15 seconds to look it up so I don't get the attitude.

She sent me a copy of our reservation statement showing the correct payments and tried to assure me that their website works and that I must have been mistaken. :confused:

Anyways. I'm satisfied with the general result I guess.

I know the website has been glitchy but I'm trying to avoid a phone call and subsequent hold time with Celebrity so stay with me here.

I went to look at my reservation today and on both the reservation page and payment page it shows the full amount due for our cruise, the total reservation payments made to date and the balance owing.

The amount due and balance owing are correct...however the reservation payment line says we've only paid $200 to date when in actuality we've paid about 75% of it off already.

I know this is me being nit-picky since the balance remaining is correct, i'm just worried that Celebrity will be Celebrity and I'll lose my reservation once final payment comes around since it says we've only paid $200.

What do you think, does this warrant a phone call? Should I wait and see what happens? Gracias!

I use Shellac, Gelish and OPI gel polishes at home, if the aforementioned $90 gel manicure price scares you off I highly recommend the CND Vinylux as well. I got a solid week with no chips with the Vinylux and I usually get 2-3 days out of regular nail polish (I had something odd going on with my nails that makes gel and polish lift).

I'm sure on a normal human it would last much longer and there's no soaking off necessary.

GL and enjoy your cruise, OP!

I booked our Med cruise in September and we had already been eyeing the drinks package when 1-2-3 Go! was announced.

I called the morning it was released and was told I would need to pay the day's price for my stateroom to get the offer. It was $400 more total for us to receive the promo.

We both got the classic drink package and $300 OBC, the extra $400 was WELL worth the perk considering we were more than likely going to purchase a package anyway.

Prices have gone up like crazy, my category is now $1,000 more than it was in November and you can now snag an oceanview for the same price we paid for our 2B balcony. Our cruise is selling very, very well though (only a small handful of 2D, 1B and 1A's are left) so I assume this has more to do with it than a perk promo.

We aren't even cruising the Caribbean but I know I'll be eyes-glued to this review until the end!

Love the photos!

::claps hands excitedly::

My favorite thread! I'm drooling, this self-professed foodie is very excited for her sailing in Sept! :D

Well good luck to them and their 30-something demographic.

 

I don’t claim to know the cruising business BUT in my mind:

 

*Carnival, Royal, NCL do fine with 30-somethings.

 

*Celeb and Holland cater to a more seasoned crowd that doesn’t have the desire or budget to go Crystal.

 

I wish Celeb well at catering to 30-somethings. This will be the crowd who more and more will have personal debt, HUGE student loans, higher health-care costs. Whereas it’s the 50 somethings that will have a nest-egg, and perhaps more discretionary income.

 

For the record I’m 38 but sort of an old soul. If a cruise line starts resembling “Yo MTV Raps” and I see a bunch of young yuppies or backwards hats and baggy pants walking around, i’d find a different modicum of travel. Thus far, Celeb has been great for me.

 

(Oh, beef up security if you’re going for the younger party crowd. Fighting, drugs, and stuff like that might be more of an issue. Then again, it might be a nice “ship reality show” to watch the backward hat crowd beat-up on the baggy-pants crowd. That’s actually a productive idea but I digress.)

 

FWIW, one fella’s opinion.

Crap! Thank you for reminding me, I would have forgotten to bring my requisite cache of drugs and "thuggery" had you not reminded me it was compulsory for my age group.

Whew.