NewWestwardbound

Benny Blanco discussed his crossings on BBC Breakfast this morning, the first being with Ed Sheeran. 

The email I received after bidding said "Stay tuned for an email at least 24 hours before your sailing to see if youve been upgraded." so not long to wait. 

Absolutely yes! We're on the same cruise, but I withdrew my Move Up bid a couple of weeks ago, primarily because I couldn't justify it but also I was going through the same routine you are of checking my emails on a far too regular basis. We do have a bid still in for the following cruise though......... but no cabins have been available at our Move Up level for several weeks is I'm not holding out much hope. 

Luminae is open every day for breakfast and dinner.

it is open on embarkation day and sea days for lunch.

enjoy!

5 hours ago, helen haywood said:

Or ask on Cruise Critic if anyone from the UK knows how to get the US site.

The OP will need to access the US site via a VPN to overcome the geographic divert. 

Sorry, I also meant to say that is a brilliant offer from CHEZMARYLOU. What a fantastic community this is!

1 hour ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

On Celebrity's US web site you can see the available accessable cabins by doing a dummy booking and selecting "I need a wheel chair accessible cabin" On an Equinox sailing in September 2020 it is showing 7 out of 8 available.  If you cannot do this from the UK site, post your ship, sailing date and category and someone can check the US site for you to give you an idea of what is available.

Alternative, one should be able to obtain the same information from a telephone call to Celebrity. A little gentle subterfuge might be required: perhaps a group requiring a number of accessible cabins is considering booking the same cruise as you. The organiser would need to understand the availability of such cabins before finalising the booking.........

We are talking about £1800 here.......

4 hours ago, ellie84 said:

Thanks for your reply 🙂 Yes you’re exactly right about the wait lists etc, hence it being a massive risk! And you’re right we were willing to pay the original price, but then when the price is dropped nearly £1800, it’s super annoying!

If I was looking at this decision in a work context I would be thinking about risk versus reward. 

Risk has two components: probability (of losing the combination of cabins on rebooking) and impact (if that happened) .

You believe probability is high in this case, in that you consider the accessible cabin to be rare, sought after and could be wait listed by another. This belief may be correct, but it is currently unsupported by specific data. One way of increasing or reducing confidence in this belief would be to gather more data, in this case by researching suitable cabin availability on this cruise (and possibly other similar cruises) by making mock bookings for suitable alternative cabins on the Celebrity UK website. This should give you a better feel for whether suitable alternative cabins are available, and therefore how probable it is that your current accessible cabin is waitlisted by another.

Impact is loss of the combination of cabins. 

The combination of these components is the effect - in this case potentially loss of the cabins and therefore - worst case scenario - the cruise.   

Reward is more straightforward: £1800 if you secure the same combination of cabins, less if you secure cabins in a higher grade. But only you know the "value" to you of this £1800, as in how important it is to you in the great scheme of things.

The optimum solution would involve maximising the reward whilst minimising the risk, by risk mitigation. You might do this by the excellent method chemmo suggests. Or more broadly by establishing if there is any other combination of cabins that meets your needs, and putting a hold on these (via a mock booking on the Celebrity UK website or via your Agent) before you cancel your original cabins. This gives you a fallback if your original cabins are waitlisted by another, and they take up the offer.

Or similarly you could waitlist suitable cabins on another cruise. 

Just my two-pennerth.

PS. I agree with chemmo re: booking with Celebrity; I have found it much easier to make changes to my bookings direct.

1 hour ago, ellie84 said:

it’s quite risky cancelling

Even cancelling with Celebrity by telephone and on the same call immediately rebooking the same cabin?

10 minutes ago, jojo1966 said:

think you can only access it if you are accessing from the uk. everytime i try and access the US website it takes me automatically to the UK one so assume the same works the other way round. its just celebritycruises.co.uk if you want to try

 

You might be successful via a VPN.

Interesting. The Celebrity UK website still shows availability for all cabins except Aqua Class, though the only Suites remaining are S2 (3) and PH (1).

Thanks to you both for your very helpful replies. I have now booked the last remaining S1 Sky Suite according to the Celebrity operator on the current UK offer, and am happy with that. If a larger suite becomes available I will consider an upgrade - though the PH on the UK website at £25K is a little rich for my tastes!

I agree that this is how it looks from the Celebrity UK website. But I have been watching price movements daily and no category has seen significant price increases in the last month or so. If anything prices have reduced, suggesting weaker than expected demand (which I would expect given BREXIT and exchange rate uncertainties). Yet all suites other than Sky Suites appear to be sold. I just struggle to believe that. I think I will call Celebrity UK tomorrow and see if they have access to inventory not shown on the website.    

It's the Med cruise from Southampton on 8 Sep. I have googled and found nothing. I find it very hard to believe all suites other than Sky Suites are booked. 

I am considering upgrading my booking to a suite on a cruise departing in September. But the only suites showing on the Celebrity and two well known UK cruise travel agent websites are Sky Suites. Is there any way of establishing if other classes of suite are unsold -, for example if they have been allocated to a travel agent but not yet sold - and the price?  I imagine if I phone Celebrity UK they will only have access to inventory showing on the Celebrity UK website. Interested in others experiences in this area. 

The OP simply asked if anyone knew of a case where drinks that cost above the package limit were ever charged at MC. The responses appear to indicate that no one knows of a single case where that happened. Further discussion indicated that all drinks served in MC are indeed complimentary. So the answer to the OP's question is: No drinks that are served in MC are ever charged.

I am pleased we are in violent agreement!

FYI drinks in Michael's have NOTHING to do with beverage packages. Even if one does not have a beverage package drinks are complimentary in Michael's.

I know that should be the case. All drinks in Michael’s should be complimentary - but that didn’t stop the original question being raised.

We each received a certificate for crossing the Arctic Circle. Left in our stateroom the day after.

To get back “on topic”(!), we have ordered any drinks we have wanted in Michael’s Club, even for my (over 18) daughter who has only a non-alcohol drinks package. No sign of an upcharge.

I am in a Sky Suite (S1) on the same cruise as Yorkshire Pudding; if you have any questions fire away!

If you are looking for distinctive, new to you, flavours and aromas you may want to consider single malt rather than blended whisky.

Anyone know whether the Innovations Store on Silhouette sells Apple AirPods? My daughter is keen to buy a set, and if she can buy them VAT-free (sailing from Southampton, UK) that would be a bonus. Many thanks.

Thank you for your replies! Are the upper berths comfortable for a 23 year old female or would the couch be better. It seems the cabins are a bit cramped so trying to decide if it would make a difference to have my daughter sleep in an upper berth instead of the couch.

We used the upper berth for my 18 year old daughter last year on Eclipse. Worked well for us, keeping couch free (although limited headroom). The upper berth remained in position all cruise, it was not put back during the day.

They are the same every night

I may be misremembering but I think Murano has two menus on daily rotation.

Aeropress is a rally good product, makes great coffee at home or on board, no grounds and very quick and easy to clean.

Quick research suggests PG Tips tea bags cost less to buy than Twining', and therefore the change is likely to have been of benefit to P&O's bottom line. Whether PG Tips are considered of lower quality is of course a matter of personal taste.