dleahy4444

2 hours ago, dcbiker97 said:

Out of curiosity, was this recent? Our experience has always been that it is $30 for dinner. The last time we brought friends to Luminae was 2022 though.

I was recently told that it was 30 for dinner

23 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

There would definitely not be a charge for foregoing Blue and  eating with the friend in the main dining room.

Absolutely! It’s on the silhouette and I’m sure it will be very nice.

25 minutes ago, Mark_K said:

Or you could arrange to eat with them in the MDR. Probably wouldn’t even be a charge.

Of course!

11 minutes ago, hcat said:

Bad precedent even if it worked out well for you. Must have been VERY slow!  I don't think most Maitre Ds would say yes..but  no harm in asking.

Couldn’t hurt to ask. We generally eat very late so it might be a slow time.  But I’m sure if it is ever allowed it will be a rare occurrence. Not sure if our friend, who will be traveling solo, will book the cruise if an Aqua room doesn’t open up unless he could eat with us on a regular basis. Of course there are specialty restaurants that the 3 of us could go to, so we will see what he decides on

8 minutes ago, Mark_K said:

The last I knew you had to be invited by someone in a suite and the charge was $20/$30/$50 B/L/D.

That is my understanding as well

16 minutes ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Is anybody allowed to dine in Luminae or do you have to know somebody in the suites to dine there and what is the fee please?

It’s my understanding that as a suite guest you can invite a non suite guest to dinner at Luminae as long as you pay a fee for the guest and there is availability 

Just now, hcat said:

Sorry...No can do.

Due to size and space limits, BLU is exclusive to AQ Class guests and suite guests on a space available basis for bkfst & dinner.  Lunch is not served.

 

.  Have not heard of any exceptions...other than possibly  those who are single in an AQ cabin.

 

you can dine together at a Specialty venue, buffet  or  the mdr . Maybe friends can put in a move up bid???

Ok thanks. I know it’s allowed at Lumanae, thought it might be the same at Blu. Hopefully an Aqua will open up.

We are booked in an Aqua cabin on an August sailing of the Silhouette. A friend might join us but there are only one inside and one veranda cabin available to book. Aqua is sol out. If he decides to book the inside or veranda, can he join us for dinner at Blu if we pay a fee for him, based on availability of course?

37 minutes ago, amshowers said:

I forgot to mention, we are back on Eclipse next fall (2024) in another Royal Suite and very much looking forward to it!

Thanks so much for your insights. The hot tub on the balcony is certainly a draw! I do love all the space and the huge bathroom. I’m glad to hear the furnishings are ok.  I’m very much leaning towards it if we can swing it financially. 

33 minutes ago, amshowers said:

We were in a Royal Suite on Eclipse in October 2023.  It was lovely!  Any particular questions or concerns I would be happy to try to answer.

Oh good to know, thank you! Do you remember your room number? There are only 2 available right now. The upgrade is a real stretch for us so we want to make sure it’s the right choice. How were the furnishings. I know they aren’t new but are they really showing their age? 

I watched some YouTube videos of the Royal Suite on Eclipse and it looked great, but the videos were posted by travel agents so I’m not sure if they were accurate representations, considering the age of the ship and lack of recent renovations. Does anyone have recent experience sailing in a royal suite on Eclipse? Thanks! 

On 3/26/2024 at 1:15 PM, TN-Mountains said:

My initial thought was you should keep the aft balcony, but I went back through all my photos of Iceland and it looks like I only have one or two from the balcony.  (I have a ton in Norway!)  Most of my photos of Iceland were taken while on shore.  If it is a significant savings I would probably opt for the regular balcony and use the extra money to splurge on shore excursions. If the costs are similar, I'd keep the aft facing balcony in a heartbeat!     

Thank you. Since my original post, I cancelled the Iceland cruise in favor of “best of Scandinavia” cruise as it offered more port days to more cities. I still want to go to Iceland in the future, so will keep your advice in mind! 

4 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

If you were just changing to a different sailing, you could have - by calling or using a TA who would call - just changed the cruise. Anything prepaid for the one you were on would be refunded back automatically. 

I had put deposits on both, my travel companion was away and I was waiting for her to decide between the two. Canceling on the app seemed easy…until it turned out it wasn’t 

2 hours ago, hcat said:

good reminder..

 

The few times we have cancelled, we  cancelled any  pre paid booked excursions, dining and spa,  first on our credit card so those credits go back right away

 

..Then we called to cancel the cruise so they e mail the conf right away!

Live and learn

Last night we decided to cancel one cruise in favor of a different sailing. We are well before final payment. We had made a deposit, paid an upgrade fee, and booked an excursion and some specialty restaurants. There was an option to cancel the reservation on the app, which I clicked. I received a confirmation email but the amount to be refunded was listed as zero!  When I called Celebrity this morning to inquire about the refund, I spent over an hour and a half on the phone, only to be told they needed to investigate this and they would call me back tomorrow. The rep then told me that I should not have used the cancellation feature on the app and should have called instead! 
why have this option on the app if all it does is create a problem? Frustrating. I’m sure it will be worked out, but probably after spending countless hours on the phone. This is certainly not a major issue in the scheme of things, just informing on my experience in case anyone is considering canceling 

13 hours ago, hcat said:

We like E Class ...as seniors we miss out on some of the late night stuff but are happy as it is.    A ship can appeal to more than one type of cruiser..teens, couples, singles etc. 

 

 

The key is a  Modern Luxury experience,  rather than pigeon- holing guests. Great food, service and entertainment are what we look for..

 

Example..

on ASCENT during one day, the  younger cruisers seemed to enjoy the outdoor pool, loud music and beach party vibe.  At the same time, a diff crowd was SRO around the Grand Plaza area enjoying a top notch show with a Bllly Joel tribute singer..

 

No one was unhappy!

I think I was on the same sailing as you and totally agree with your comments! 

14 hours ago, kruzerci said:

First off, I love Celebrity, just an observation while on Reflection. 
 

I feel like the brand is in an identity crisis. They advertise to a younger demographic, play modern pop music, advertise a “relaxed luxury resort at sea” etc., but their primary client base is 50+, they are cutting corners and nickel and diming as you would never see at a luxury resort, and their programming onboard is definitely greater toward an older demographic. 
 

It’s very much an anomaly to me. It seems like the older people think Celebrity is going downhill, the young people think it’s too old, and the folks looking for a more upscale experience think it falls short.  Just interesting that they try to straddle so many things, but seems they don’t excel at any of them. Luckily we are younger but prefer a calm environment, good food, good shows, etc., so none of this really bothers us and we enjoy the product.

 

Well said. However we like that there seems to be something for everyone. I loved our Ascent sailing. The cruise director, Luigi, was high energy and he always had fun, party vibe to his activity options. We are late 60’sbut still had a blast. On our subsequent sailing on the Apex it felt like the cruise director was in slow motion.  The activities were fewer and much more sedate. We still had fun at this slower pace, but preferred having a more upbeat atmosphere. That is just us. I did see younger couples on both sailings. I think it’s great to have a mix of ages and interests. Even within the older demographic that we are in, there is a mix of interests and outlooks. 

26 minutes ago, workingboy said:

Hi all:

 

I recently upgraded our balcony cabin to a sky suite guarantee.  By the time you add in the premium drinks and WIFI, the additional fare was not that bad.

While I do not currently have any move up bids entered, my question is will the minimum bid levels get adjusted.  Given I just paid Celebrity a bunch of extra money, it would make sense that the minimums to jump to a Sunset Sky or Celebrity suite would decrease, over what I was seeing when I was just paying for a regular balcony.

Anybody have any experience with this?

 

Thanks in advance for your input.

They may not be automatically adjusted. In the past what I have done is emailed Celebrity MoveUp and requested a new offer to bid, reflecting my new stateroom tier. It usually has taken a few days but I’ve received an new offer to bid where the bidding range has been has been decreased 

17 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Just like any other cruise, you will see things after you pass them, but have a view of essentially both sides of the ship, rather than just port or starboard if you have a cabin on those sides.

 

We did Iceland/Greenland/ Canada in an aft corner suite on Holland America. No shortage of views.

Thank you. I do love Blu, but if I’ll have better views from our sunset veranda I rather see the views and just book a specialty restaurant or two. 

1 hour ago, wrk2cruise said:

Just had a thought.  If you want one of those cabins "reserved" for 3/4 passengers just book with a dummy 3rd passenger and have them no-show.  The current promotion (at least in North America) is 3,4, 5th passengers sail free.   If they are going to play the game we should too.

Interesting idea. I’m not sure I’m comfortable doing that but I tried a mock booking just to check the pricing and it’s a third more than I’d pay for the veranda guarantee that I currently have booked. I guess “free” isn’t exactly free

2 hours ago, the penguins said:

Stuff a bus - lots of cabins with 3 plus passengers increasing passenger numbers to way over 100% which in turn affects crowding on the decks and in all inside venues  /lounges - a bit like the Christmas/New Year Sailings. Spa Pool area likely to be opened up for families at least for part of the day.

Yikes!

3 hours ago, the penguins said:

All of the UK schools/colleges will be on holiday during August and anyone here who doesn't want to be on an E class ship could well be booking Silhouette (a very popular ship when it sailed from the UK).

The so called obstructed views on Deck 6 aren't too bad - basically you can't look down but looking out is generally OK.

Good to know, thanks

2 hours ago, whitbob said:

Your post peaked my interest, so I tried a mock booking for 2 and they only showed inside and ocean view available.  Everything else shows sold out.  We booked AQ last summer.  I was going to suggest AQ to you as the rooms only allow 2 people, but it must be sold out.  No option to book AQ guaranteed was offered.  
 

I hope you can find an acceptable room AND we aren’t booked on the “stuff a bus” whatever that means.

Thank you. I  think that things will open up as we approach final payment, at least I hope so. 

3 hours ago, whitbob said:

Yikes!   We are booked on this sailing.

 
Our first Celebrity cruise was Silhouette in the Baltic in late August.  It was wonderful.  We liked it so much, we booked the Reflection the following year in August, Rome round trip to Greece.  There were 750 children on-board.  The pool and buffet were madhouses.  It was crazy with teens running wild around the ship, we almost stopped sailing  Celebrity.  We have since been on 6 more Celebrity Cruises, 2 in August in Europe without incident, so we thought the Reflection trip was a one off.  

Hum?!

I’ve been checking the website for this cruise obsessively, because I’m currently booked in a veranda guarantee ( all that they would allow with just 2 people) and I’m afraid of being assigned an obstructed view of the life boats. Right now if 3 people booked there are close to 200 rooms spanning the veranda categories. It’s not that far out from the sailing to assume all those rooms will be filled with young families. I also checked the school schedule for August in Europe. Depending on the region, many will be back in school. I’m sure there will be a fair amount of children, but hopefully it will be manageable. I don’t mind children as long as they are well behaved, but that is not always the case 

On 6/28/2023 at 11:37 PM, TN-Mountains said:

We were in D730 on Sky Princess a couple weeks ago for a Norway/Iceland cruise.  Loved it!  We originally reserved an obstructed balcony, but decided to splurge and rebooked into D730.  I’m so glad we did.  Very quite cabin.  Wonderful panoramic views of the fjords!!!!  Very minor soot while leaving one port.  I wouldn’t have noticed it had it not got in my drink.  It was really too cold to spend a lot of time out there on most days in early-mid June.  I suppose in a warmer destination the soot might be more annoying because we would have been out there for longer times.  Regardless, The views out weighed the inconvenience of minor soot for Norwegian fjord cruising!!  As for the area between D730 & 731…It is some type of crew area, but I never saw or heard anyone going in that room.  There is a small sink next to the door and I never saw anyone use it either.  If cost was not an issue, I’d pick this cabin again in a heartbeat.

Hello just found this old post of your. I’m hoping you can give me some info about the view from your aft balcony as your ship approached and left Iceland? I’m going to Iceland this summer and booked an aft balcony but it was at a premium price and I’m wondering if a regular balcony on either side of the ship would be just as good. I can still change and get my money back, if the upgrade isn’t worth it for Iceland, since it doesn’t go to the fjords in Norway