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Very good points. I think those who are reacting negatively are doing it based on disappointment with not receiving what they received in the past PLUS paying more for the privilege. The "but I want to see it for myself" types are welcome to do that, but I don't feel like I need to pay a lot of money to understand there's a problem based on the big uptick in recent negative reports. The "any cruise is a good cruise" crowd are also welcome to that worldview, but if I can spend less and get the same experience elsewhere, why should I be loyal to a company that isn't loyal to its customers? I don't appreciate being a guinea pig while X does drastic cutbacks and then tests the response on paying customers.

Agree it's going to be up to the manager once you're on board. I don't know that the sign in/out part is negotiable, though. If there aren't many kids sailing, they may combine the groups anyway or have overlap in activities. If your 9 year old is within a few months of turning 10, I would mention that, too. Hope you will return after your cruise and let everyone know how it was handled.

But if only a subset of crew members would appreciate gifts and you have no idea who they are, then why try to decide when it's appropriate and when it's not? Forcing the issue on the receiver is rude.

https://www.celebritycruises.com/health-and-safety Towards the bottom of the page is a link with the actual policy details.

Also if you got info emailed to you from the company, read that to see if there is some other contact number you can use for emergencies.

Lots of options on that page. I would try to call during their posted hours to get the process started. Who knows how long it takes them to sort through emails and respond.

https://www.celebritycruises.com/gb/company/customer-support/contact-us

Now I'm having flashbacks to customer service days and remembering the guy who would leave those hokey religious tracts with the quarter he thought was a sufficient tip on a $10 meal. He would run you ragged with requests & try to make you engage in long conversations. We would take turns waiting on him so that everyone had to suffer equally. He always wanted to hug certain waitresses for a little too long and it would creep them out. That was almost 30 years ago. See how "positivity" mixed with religion makes an impression?

People not expressing disdain at being preached to are just humoring you. I once sat on a long flight next to someone who was engaging in pleasant conversation throughout. Towards the end, he finally let it slip that the publication he mentioned working for earlier in our conversation was the Watchtower magazine. He had enough awareness to quickly add "but I'm not going to proselytize on a plane." We had a good laugh.

Take the money you would use to buy whatever and give them the cash. They can buy their own candy and trinkets if they want them. Even if you're thinking "oh, I'll give them both!" just give them the money. That's why they're on the ship working long hours away from their families.

Always worth it to pay for nonstop any time it's an option. The more places the plane lands, the higher the chance that something could cause delays/cancellations.

There was a pretty long thread in the HAL forum about it when the news was announced earlier in the month. Since it's still TBD how exactly it rolls out, not a lot to react to other than I personally think it's a mistake to move the Lincoln Center groups out of a dedicated venue into the large theater and to limit their shows to a few times per cruise. It was definitely a differentiator, and the performances always seemed to be well attended. If anything, they should change up the repertoire more for all the groups so that there isn't a lot of repetition. I know the music walk concept isn't popular with some but to me it's an ideal form of entertainment versus the hokey stage shows most cruise lines come up with.

For someone who hasn't been in any suite class cabin before, I bet you'd be suitably impressed with the product even without the sun deck, but I'm not a pool person or a sun worshipper. They do work to make you feel pampered in many different ways and the lounge access and Luminae are big parts of that. To me it would come down to whether I wanted the larger cabin and the access to Luminae. On a S-class, you can kind of mimic upgraded dining by doing specialty restaurants, but you'd have to do that math to see if it was ultimately worth it to you (if dining is even a priority). I had convinced myself after my last X cruise that I could make due with a smaller cabin and eating in specialty restaurants, but the person I travel with always wants the extra cabin space so we end up in suite class. I look more at the total price of the cruise these days to determine if I'd feel that I was overpaying for the total experience. At a certain price point, you can end up paying less to go for a better experience on other lines.

Looks like we were posting at the same time. Glad the rep was able to process it for you (the hold indicates they were talking to the supervisor). I would make sure you get a copy of the guest invoice and keep watching your account to make sure it was processed correctly.

I do think from the X's perspective that they want people to upgrade to Premium alcohol package rather than downgrading anything. The offer includes the Classic alcohol package. If you want more than what's included, they want you to pay for the privilege. I would also imagine that their booking system makes this difficult to do in advance because it's going to try to make changes in what is being charged on the reservation. My guess is that the front-line reps are not going to have the access or knowledge to do it. A supervisor might have the knowledge to do it but probably doesn't want to be stuck processing those types of requests all the time, considering the current state of their operations (having to field basic questions from untrained reps all day). If you have a legitimate medical reason for doing this (e.g., recovering alcoholic or pregnant), they will make exceptions, but you're not claiming that. If that is the issue, then you should tell them that when you call and be prepared to talk to someone at a resolutions desk.

The M-Class ships are Summit, Infinity, Millennium & Constellation.

In college I worked in the reservations call center for a major hotel chain. We had a phone number to give to people who insisted on talking to the executive office. The area code was one that matched the location of the executive office. When people called it, the call routed right back to the same call center I was in, several thousand miles away from the executive office. There were agents trained to handle such calls. They got to sit in an area with higher cubicle walls, and they'd raise a flag when they were on so everyone knew to be quieter when walking by. When not handling those, they were answering regular calls like the rest of us.

Insert *head-in-sand.gif*

Agree that jeans will be fine. Alaska is generally more casual. People are already packing extra to deal with colder weather.

Next step will be converting the MDR into a buffet with limited choices. Or maybe a hibachi grill on the pool deck for you to grill your own tilapia. Line up starts at 3pm.

Better poll would be have you eaten in the buffet for dinner or not and then maybe how often if you have. However, this is a self-selected population of cruisers so not likely too relevant overall. I trust that X has run the numbers specific to the buffet, but whether or not to have an expanded dinner buffet is not the real issue that I'm seeing. It's the drastic cuts in quality that have people most concerned. Those who say "well I don't ever eat in the buffet for dinner" are missing the bigger point. It's the dinner buffet (and MDR) this month but what's next?

They closed the Mazatlan airport. There was a day or two where tourists were being told to stay inside and shelter in place and some hotels had people sleeping in the lobby because they were out of rooms since no one could leave. The extradition of the captured drug trafficker to the U.S. was put on hold, partly due to the outbreak of violence. So who knows how it will be resolved or when. This rattled the area for several days, so not exactly business as normal.

As an aside, you can say Facebook as much as you want and can even link to relevant info there. The prohibition is on soliciting people to join a roll call hosted on FB or other such sites.

Holidays and weekends are the worst time to try to get a real answer. I'd wait until later in the week. Probably just a website glitch if several people are seeing it.

There's a happy medium somewhere between what they had and what they are now offering. The hot items look like what you would see at a grocery store buffet, only less appetizing. We first started sailing Celebrity because everyone we knew who had been on a cruise kept saying that X was the best for food. I still hear that as a talking point years later. Hard to get that back once you go bottom-of-the-barrel like this.