anniebea

Thanks for the advice, we have decided to keep the booking as it is and just have a no show.

We want to swap the cabins though, so that my friend who would have come with her husband isn't in that cabin on her own.

Is it better to try and swap the names after we have paid, or on embarkation day.

Thanks again for your assistance.

Anne

Posted this on the general board, but someone suggested  I repost here.

We have a cruise booked for July with Marella, - 2 cabins, 4 passengers, Unfortunately my friend and her husband are splitting up, She still wants to come on the cruise and we are looking at options so that the three of us girls can still go.

Trying to evaluate what the options could be before I call the cruise line.. 

• We pay for both cabins and he is just a no show - would that cause any issues, apart from the fact that it would be expensive
• We try and rebook a cabin for singe occupancy?   Think most ships don't have them though and you pay for a double cabin.
• We try and book a cabin for three but I think that would include a sofa bed.
• anything else

We are sailing from the UK so there are no flights involved.

Anyone been in a similar situation with Marella and could offer advice.

Anne

We have a cruise booked for July with Tui, - 2 cabins, 4 passengers, Unfortunately my friend and her husband are splitting up, She still wants to come on the cruise and we are looking at options so that the three of us girls can still go.

Trying to evaluate what the options could be before I call the cruise line.. 

• We pay for both cabins and her husband is just a no show - would that cause any issues, apart from the fact that it would be expensive
• We try and rebook a cabin for singe occupancy?   Think most ships don't have them though and you pay for a double cabin.
• We try and book a cabin for three but I think that would include a sofa bed.
• anything else

We are sailing from the UK so there are no flights involved.

Anyone been in a similar situation and could offer advice.

Anne

I was on the Noro cruise but luckily avoided the bug. I carry my own antiviral and use it religiously after getting the bug a few years ago on a different cruise line - in fact it made me OCD.

 

I was impressed with the cleaning after the outbreak on the 15th June cruise. Menus were removed and any paper items, i.e. Future cruise sheets etc were taken away. They removed the wooden chairs at the top deck burger bar for spraying and replaced them with plastic ones.

 

The drinking glasses in the cabin were taken away on the last day of the cruise and replaced with paper cups and all cushions, magazines etc were removed from the cabin. The new robes that usually appear in the wardrobe on the last night were not put there.

 

When we were disembarking there were several cabins with hazmat staff doing a thorough clean - I presume the cabins where passengers had the bug. Also luggage from passengers with the bug was wrapped in a plastic film and separate area at the collection point. They also delayed embarkation of the next set of passengers in order to do a thorough clean.

 

I was surprised that they asked ill passengers to go to the medical centre because surely they would be spreading it en route. When it happened to me a few years ago the doctor came to my cabin.

 

The staff were obviously overstretched due to the bug but in our experience they were all very good.

I was on the 15th June Cruise and I commend the work of the crew, They were overstretched but worked really hard to control the outbreak. I don't find them grumpy as reported in an earlier post.

I heard second hand of two families who had the bug and decided to "self medicate" as they had paid for their cruise and weren't going too miss anything by being quarantined. That attitude doesn't help the crew in trying to control the outbreak.

It was my friends’ special birthday when we were on the Constellation last week. On the evening of her birthday a bottle of wine was delivered to her Cabin. We don’t know who organised it, She had put her cards on display earlier in the day, perhaps it was the Cabin attendant.

Her Husband had organised some special bubbly for the meal that evening and he thought they may have got confused but this was in addition to that and wasn’t charged to the room.

Anyway who ever was responsible it was a lovely additional surprise for her on her birthday.

Sorry that you got sick, I'm sure it's no fun.

 

You do realize that 30% of that ship would be about 600 people? That's a lot.

I had heard it was around 150, but that could be just another rumour

We have been on Constellation since June 5 and continue until July 4. We have had no illness.

 

Celebrity staff were already doing extra sanitizing from the time the outbreak began, along with staff serving in buffet etc.

 

From what I understand , because the outbreak progressed so quickly, the decision was made to get all passengers, including b2b2b off the ship to really do an extreme sanitation. Celebrity employees and staff should be commended. They have worked extremely hard for very long hours.

 

A smile and a thank you can go a long way.

Agree the staff have been working extremely hard to get this under control, it looked like additional staff were coming on board as we left today.

Came off Constellation today and yes there is some sickness and they seem to be doing everything possible to get on top of it.

Most worrying thing I heard were guests who were ill, but decided to "self medicate" and not go to the sick bay because they didn't want to loose any of their holiday by being quarantined, very selfish in my opinion.

It depends on the ports and what you want to do?

We are doing the Venice to Rome Cruise departing June 15th and are only doing something organised in Naples.

Dubrovnik - has easy access to the Town, Kotor has a local hop on/off sightseeing tours as does Malta so we are going to do our own thing in these ports.

We are having problems getting information to do the online check in for the flights from Gatwick to Venice where our cruise departs.

We have had information from Celebrity that they still need to provide our details to the airline and they do not provide the details until 10 calendar days before departure.

We have two separate flights – those flying from Manchester UK on Jet2 have been able to check in online and print boarding passes etc, not so for Easyjet passengers from Gatwick.

Given that we paid the balance in full some time ago I can’t see why Celebrity wait this close to departure to give information to the airline or is this normal practice?

I'll gladly share a dining room with you and yours. It will be one less grumpy table with the odor of rose water and slightly used Depends wafting around.

I'm happy to dine with people of all ages, as long as they are well behaved ! :D

On Connie, now that they've removed Ocean Liners there is Tuscan Grille, Qsine, Sushi on 5. You can purchase on board (often for a discount) or pre-purchase. If you want to be assured of availability for a specific day and time and are a large group you may want to pre-purchase and make your reservation. If you are a small group (4), I'd take my chances and try for a deal. IMHO I'd never pay full price for either Tuscan or Qsine and DH doesn't eat sushi (and it's not special enough for a special occasion). If all else fails, let your waiter in the MDR know quietly that it's a special occasion and they'll bring a nice cake. We did that for our friend on our last cruise (she didn't want to do specialty dining anyway).

Thanks very much for this information, I think we may pre-book so we are sure of a table

We are on Connie in June and it’s my friends special birthday.I’m thinking about booking a speciality restaurant for the night of herbirthday.

What specialityRestaurants are there on Connie?

Should we book beforewe go, will it be too late when we get on board? We are a party of 4..

Can we book for just one evening? I can only see packagesfor multiple nights on the website to pre book, not for a single reservation.

Thanks

Anne

I see water on the premium and standard packages. Any water at all on the classic

 

Fran

I think if you have the Classic package it includes all the items on the standard package.

I have had cancer and due to issues with my Lymphatic system now, I have been advised not to have neck/ shoulder/back massages, or use Saunas or Steam Rooms. Its not something I think that applies to all types of cancer and all patients. I agree based in the information in the OP it could have been handled better.

I am sailing on 16th July and have already printed Pass. In the past, one Pass was required per guest, but this time, only one has printed, and seems to have both names on it. Anyone know if this is right?

ours has printed as separate passes for each of us. We are each using our own cc for on board spends so perhaps that could be the difference

Thanks. Just what I've tried to do. I've now spoken to celebrity, and was told that you can only print out the pass 30 days before you leave. They should tell you that, not display different, misleading message.

Your advice was appreciated.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I go in 7 weeks and have just completed and printed my Xpress pass. I did have an issue as although we had paid the T/A the money hadn't been credited to Celebrity, A couple of nudges to the T/A and Celebrity and it was fixed

Booking far in advance does seem like a good idea. After all, if you change your mind you can always get a full refund on the deposit.

Except if you are in the UK where you loose you deposit:(

What are your best tips for booking a good fare? I've only been on one cruise, and so I'm rather inexperienced, but I used to think that booking late was the way to go. But now I realize that sometimes booking 18 months or even more in advance is the best way to get not just a good fare but a better cabin.

 

But what are your strategies? And when, in fact, are cruises first released for sale? Is it always at the same time of year? When exactly is that, and how can you find out the exact release day in advance?

 

Finally, once in a while I've seen lower prices at that "to go" place than at Celebrity's own site, but that's quite rare. Usually the prices at Celebrity are just as good. But if you call up Celebrity and say you've found a lower fare elsewhere, will they usually match it?

 

Thanks in advance.

It depends on how flexible you are in terms of dates and where you want to go. We looked at a Venice to Rome Cruise with Celebrity departing June 2017, I kept looking at it with a T/A site and in October 2016 the price came down approx. £500 per person and we booked, the price was never that low again even after final payment date.

I would rather book early to get a good cabin choice, with the itinerary I want.

Re the cost of the excursion now being higher, the cost of some excursions on our cruise appear to have gone up between booking and final payment, (about £5 on a £50 excursion) . We browsed the excursions earlier, but didn't book till after the final payment

We are in the UK and I put it down to the exchange rate against the dollar which has fallen a lot recently.

I had a similar experience with my upcoming cruise.I had made final payment in February for our cruise in May but when I tried to print my xpress pass I received a message saying I was missing some important information although I had completed all the relevant details.I contacted Celebrity by e mail who replied that they could not advise me of what was missing as I had booked through a TA but it turns out that although I had paid in February the monies were held by my TA till the last day of March when apparently the funds were due to be paid to Celebrity.It seems this is pretty much the norm for Travel agents now to make sure they have the funds in place way before the actual time the monies are due to the cruise company.

Hope this helps.

I think that's our position and I think out Travel Agent is doing the same.

Thanks

Anne

We are due to sail on 15th June with Celebrity. I bookedthrough a UK Travel Agent and have paid the final balance on 15thMarch – however it’s not showing on the Celebrity website as being paid in full

I’m trying to chase up with the TA and Celebrity to find out where thehold up is.

From your experience how long after paying a TA would you expect theCelebrity Website to be updated to show the full payment?. I realise the TA mayhang on to the payment until the last minute.

Hi Anne, decided to fly back next day ( Sunday) we will stay at a little place in Ciampino we have used a couple of times! Looked today and I can get a train to a nearby town so just a taxi and will get home Sunday evening, That's everything booked now! Dianne

That's Great, I think you are right to go with what your comfortable with. I hate having to do a frantic run after disembarkation to get a flight.

I am assuming you are doing the same cruise, I have been to some places on this itinerary but they are ones I don't mind going back to. Hopefully we will get some sunshine.

What prices are like now - when we first looked at it in Sept, a balcony with flights was over £2,000 then it went down to £1700 inc flights, just after we booked it went back up again.

Anne

Hi, are you on the 15th June cruise?

yes that's the one - we booked via a Travel Agent but I think the Jet2 flights were on the celebrity site if you booked direct.

Anne

We are on the Constellation in June ending up in Civitavecchia - We are coming back from Rome (FCO) to Manchester on Jet2 flights departing at midday.