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bEwAbG

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Posts posted by bEwAbG

  1. When Luminae was first announced, they said it would be open every day for lunch but did a retreat (!) on that before it was rolled out.  Quite a brouhaha about it then.  Luminae has not been open at lunch on port days (except embarkation), from the beginning.

    • Like 3
  2. 21 hours ago, LJanet said:

    I read Celebrity Persian Garden is far superior than HA Greenhouse Spa.  Food also far

    superior than HA. 

     

    I might agree on Persian Garden, though I think they are very similar products so not sure what Celebrity's would have over HAL's.  I would not say Celebrity's food is "far superior" than HAL.  That may have been true at one time but Celebrity's food standards have slipped a great deal from when that was true.  I find them more similar than different and have had some terrific meals on HAL. 

     

    I too would vote for Glacier Bay and HAL as the itinerary unless you plan to do this route regularly.  If it's a one-and-done (which I think it is, though I know many who would disagree), I would choose to see Glacier Bay.

     

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  3. On 3/23/2024 at 11:32 AM, catspaw1 said:

    If they lowered the price a lot or I had more OBC, I would do it. I am currently taking a French cooking class through adult education. 8 hours for about $130 including food costs. We always have enough to take home some also. I cook from scratch almost every day. Just made homemade tomato soup- far superior to Campbell's 

    Mind if I ask where you're taking that class?  I'm in your area and looking for a gift idea for someone.

  4. 11 hours ago, miched said:

    Why don’t they sail out of Houston, NOLA, and etc?    
     

    Happy  cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

     

    More ships are sailing out of Galveston these days and I doubt X has the demand to compete with the others.  I have family in TX, but my problem every time we've looked at sailing from there is that it takes a couple days to get out of the Gulf and a couple days on the back end, so the itineraries are very limited on a typical 7-day cruise.  Cannot get too far into the Caribbean before turning back, so lots of Western Caribbean/Mexico stops but not much else.

  5. The internet discussion is interesting but a fatal flaw of the OP's post is the idea that you have to send a photo to anyone, let alone pay more money to do so.  Texting photos is a relatively recent development in our lifetimes, even more so from the middle of the ocean.   I'm sure the recipients will survive without visual proof that you are where you say you are.

  6. 3 minutes ago, Cruisegirl6 said:
    How early can you disembark celebrity cruise ship?
     
     
    Celebrity - what time do you have to disembark by? Our ship hits port at 6AM. While it will vary slightly by ship, and disembarkation port, the vast majority of times, all guests are off the ship by 9:30/10 am.

     

    But the instructions you receive on the ship always give you a time to be out of your room and in a designated area and it's never "stay in your room until 10am."  That's the whole reason there is an embarkation lounge for Elite level.

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  7. Just now, Cruisegirl6 said:

    I didn't make myself clear, when I asked about a lounge I meant at the Ft. Lauderdale terminal. Call me selfish whatever you want (words do not hurt me) and if the cabin steward asked me to leave I would (it has happened on two cruises) we left when were asked.  Cabin stewards cannot clean all the cabins at the same time!!

    They have to strip all the cabins to start the changeover so you're delaying them from their turnaround job, which is already stressful enough.  The steward is going to tiptoe around guests because you could still give them a bad review.  Really unfair to put this on the steward when you're not following the rules that most everyone else does.  Adults shouldn't have to be asked to follow the procedures for leaving the ship.

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  8. 1 minute ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

    We generally leave our cabin at 9:30 and off the ship by 10am.  We never heard our names called and if it were, nobody else besides my husband knows our name, we are complete strangers to everybody else.  Its not that we are famous people would turn around and know who we are.  Even so, I doubt that be any problem because I don't live my life on worrying what people think of me, that is the problem with society, most of society judges people and people worry what people think of them, me.....I do my thing and live my life the way I want.

     

    You've also sailed enough to be Elite yet have never heard of the embarkation lounge despite it being a benefit for years and years.  Sounds like you need to start paying attention more.  Your justifications for delayed debarkation are just excuses for being selfish and inconveniencing the workers and other passengers.

    • Like 5
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  9. Familiarity breeds contempt, so it's a wise strategy to rotate around, IMO.  When I first sailed HAL, I found the food on par with X and the service often exceeded anything I experienced on X (content/happy/relaxed employees on HAL versus some aloof/angry/stressed ones on X).  I think X ships are better overall, but the price on X usually doesn't justify the product they offer, especially on routine itineraries.  HAL generally has better and more varied itineraries.  I think when HAL first introduced the Music Walk, it was miles better than anything X has ever done, entertainment-wise.  I know Ken has the opposite opinion, but I think that is a minority one. 

     

    They've made some recent changes that are less popular, but HAL does seem to listen to their cruisers and will make tweaks to keep their customers happy whereas X seems to always be chasing people who are not cruising while ignoring the ones who do.  X used to be known for their food but the other lines in their class caught up, and now X has degraded their product to the point where the differentiation no longer matters.  I still price out Celebrity and will sail them when I find a deal, but it's no longer my go-to once you learn what their competitors offer.

    • Like 6
  10. A big part of the cost of suite class is access to Luminae.  I'd do everything possible to make that work (with requests as suggested by others) versus going to the MDR.  The menu descriptions are sometimes awful, IMO, often not indicative of what is really being served.  Focus on the base dish (chicken, seafood, beef) and then also ask the waiter what they recommend.  They tend to know what is popular and what is less popular on a given menu.  You can always order a replacement if what you get isn't to your liking.  I think the MDR menu descriptions are sometimes the same in that the description makes you think one thing but the execution is something else (and often not the same ship to ship).

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  11. She's in her mid-60s.  I think this was all just part of succession planning and making a change in direction coming out of the pandemic before she retires.  I know of at least two other businesses that have done the same thing: kept a leader who was ready to retire just as the pandemic was hitting.  In both cases, the leaders were past ready to leave when all was said and done.

    • Like 1
  12. Re: the timing of refunds, taking money is always a lot faster than giving it back but what the customer never sees is that it actually takes a few days for the money to get to the business.  The authorization is instantaneous, and that's what you see on your card, but the settlement where cash goes into the bank happens a few days after that. 

     

    When it's going back out the door, you have to have various approvals to even send the money, then the accounts payable office would do the actual refund transactions, and then there are banks involved in those transactions that each need time to settle up with the other.  Add in that any given company is likely not doing check runs every day and it does add up.  One company I worked for (as a flunky) had a lot of this automated, but if I processed your refund today, it wouldn't go to the next step immediately but in a batch overnight.  And if I was processing it after a certain time, it would go in a batch two days later.  And then those batches all got slotted into various check runs so it could take four or five business days even with everything working exactly right and assuming that the necessary approvals are done immediately.  And that's been my experience at places that are run much better than Celebrity. 

    • Like 2
  13. Flunky is the right term for the first-level person that was assigned to break the news.  Someone with more finesse, and more importantly, knowledge to explain what happened, should have been the one to deal with the situation.  I don't see how it's a pejorative to say someone who is basically given limited information and zero ability to adequately address the situation is anything but a flunky.  It's poor customer service all around, especially when you know more about the company's operations than the person charged with kicking you out of a room.

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  14. I'm sure OP wants the medical report as proof that there was treatment done as well as what they did. Not for diagnostic purposes on what is the last day of the cruise for them.  Always wise to build a documentation case should something abnormal happen, including making employees put in writing what they tell you to your face.  And of course if there are later insurance claims, this will likely also be necessary for reimbursements.

    • Like 1
  15. Celebrity still markets the Solarium as an adults-only space yet on individual ships they're adopting a policy to allow kids in during what many consider prime hours.  How are you supposed to "vote with your wallet" if what they advertise is not what they really offer?  I'm always amazed at people who are perfectly fine with a company selling one thing but providing another.  The kids are already allowed to monopolize the outdoor pools and hot tubs all day, every day.  Why anyone would be OK with that spilling into what is supposed to be a tranquil area is beyond me.

     

    I go to the Solarium at that time precisely because many people start packing up and head to their rooms in the afternoon so they can nap or get ready for dinner.  If it has to be used by families at all, I agree with doing it later in the evening (once the sun goes down) or keeping it as it has been for many years:  only during inclement or cold weather for limited hours, not for those hours every day.

    • Like 1
  16. The employees know you're on for however many days and often treat requests based on their own timeline and convenience.  Almost like "island time" in certain parts of the world.  Doesn't help when you're already aggravated.  Don't leave the ship without what you need because it's that much harder when you're not on board.  I would give them until tomorrow morning at most and then run it up the chain.

     

    You could also leave a comment on the app, right?  I've read that those get seen by higher ups sooner rather than later.  Don't write a diatribe about all you've been through.  Just say you were promised the doctor's report and it wasn't delivered.

  17. 10 hours ago, Liao said:

    Good intel for HoHo in London, much appreciated.  This is a land vacation so we will plan to use HoHo early just to get a lay of the land early in the week.  Then off to Scotland.

    Honestly, I would consider HoHo in London to be a waste of time.  It's an easy city to get around, but the buses sit in traffic a lot.  Look into taking walking tours if you're mobile. 

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