Josie201

On the Koningsdam in January a bartender spoke to us about the $11 discount on a bottle of wine. We usually order two glasses at a time - one each for DH and myself. So we asked about a $22 discount. No go. But then he offered us double pours each. No charge and we almost used the entire bottle on those two glasses. Lasted us all afternoon on our balcony. 🥂

I'm the OP back with an update. NorthStarStateCruiser is right. Our booking is for the AI rate, and all guests in the stateroom have the AI amenities (drinks/wifi/gratuities). When I asked yesterday to pre-pay the gratuities, my assumption was that the amenities only applied to the first two in the room (as I had enquired earlier about TA OBC and whether the third passenger was entitled to also receive OBC and was told no as the TA amenities only applied to the first two passengers). So, my first assumption was wrong. My TA then assumed that the gratuities were not included, she called Celebrity and I guess their rep assumed they were not included, so added them in. All wrong assumptions. Thanks to a poster earlier in this thread who posted the Celebrity verbiage, I went back to my TA, who was surprised and I would suggest even assumed the information was wrong. I then sent her a screen shot from Celebrity's website. She went back to Celebrity this morning, and they have now indicated they were wrong, the AI amenities do in fact apply to all guests in the stateroom, the children will benefit from the zero-proof package and have pre-paid gratuities, and if they were old enough would have their own internet access. To the poster above who indicated they were charged and paid gratuities for their grandchildren, you may wish to follow-up with Celebrity or your TA on this. However, my TA did say this morning that Celebrity promotions can vary from time to time.... I didn't go back to say that this did not seem to be a promotion issue, as it is listed on their website. Glad I checked here, as it encouraged me to push the issue further. Saved me a couple hundred $$.

Hmmmm well now I’m confused. my TA said that she could rebook at the sail only rate and add the grats back for the three guests but then the adults would also lose the drinks and the wifi. Or I could pre pay the grats for the kids. Which I did today. She never indicated that they were already included …. sounds like I’ll need to look into this further.

Thanks for all the input. I've written to our TA to check on "cruise-only" fare (I think it likely already is as it is less than the other two passengers) and pre-paying the gratuities.

Travelling with a large family group (six cabins). All bookings have the Drinks/Wi-fi/Prepaid Gratuities package. I understand these amenities are for the first two people in the room. We will have two little ones (three years and one year old) with us. Obviously they don't need drinks and wi-fi (HaHa). Will their parents be charged for the gratuities? (not a problem I just want to give them a heads up since I've never travelled with kids before, or three in the cabin). Since this is a gift cruise, I may call to see if I can pre-pay these for them.

From my reading/pictures, Sorobon beach seems very "rustic" That may be fine, I just want to know what to expect as I am trying to organize for a large group. Are there facilities/food/drink/chairs available for use/hire/purchase? Can small children play at the waters edge without fear of coral or large waves? TIA.

We are a group of 14 (including two kids under three years old). I am thinking we could get three taxis, but I wonder if I should look into a van/driver for hire. We just want to go to the beach.

I’m interested in input on this. We’re a family of 14 on Beyond. I’m thinking two tables of seven and we’ll just switch around some evenings. I also plan to speak to the maître’d about a large private-ish table one night. We have two under three years old so I anticipate some coming and going ….

As an FYI, recently returned from a 24 day Hawaii on the Koningsdam. We both had surf plans included in our HAI. With about 12 days remaining the price to upgrade to premium was $50. I had lots of OBC so I did it. Didn't notice any difference at all..... pictures were still very slow to upload, etc. I don't know if it would have allowed to stream movies, etc. as I didn't try. I had hoped for better speed. I did also attempt a few Face Time calls which "worked" but there was lots of buffering and eventually freezing up. So, not really useful for that for us anyway.

Last year for our Hawaii cruise on Koningsdam we booked with HIA but gratuities were not included. A couple months later they offered a promo with the gratuities included and the HIA. I called, was able to have it included, and received some additional OBC to boot. Winning!

As I reported earlier in this thread a bartender "recommended" against upgrading to us on Koningsdam in January. He said we were better off just paying the difference if we found something we wanted that was over the limited. That worked out ok for us, as supply of most wines was hit and miss. In fact we drank mostly Decoy which I never saw on any menu anywhere and it was no up-charge. Also, we ended up purchasing a water package, with the six large bottles of Acqua Panna. That worked out well for us to avoid us having to worry about hitting the 15 limit on a daily basis. In fact we purchased two of the water packages (24 day cruise). I did find it odd that I was not allowed to order one of the bottles of Acqua Panna in the HIA package, despite their cost being only $5.95. Weird. As I also noted, we were told beverage cards are no longer being sold. All in all, we were concerned about monitoring for the 15 drinks per day limit but we found he closest we came one day was 13 and that included two capuccinos and buying a glass of wine each for a friend.

On our January cruise on Koningsdam a bartender told us beverage cards are no longer available. I didn't follow up to check but you may want to check before you board if that's your plan.

Thanks for sharing your experience. There was so much coughing on the ship including ourselves. But we never tested positive.

Were you by any chance on deck 5 aft ….? We had someone across the hall we assumed was positive because of the trays, the blue napkins and all the menus in the mail box.

I’m chiming in from the Koningsdam where it’s pack up day. We were really looking forward to the music walk concept but it’s been hit and miss for us. We love the band in the Rolling Stones venue but don’t really want to see them three times a night, every night. The Bb Kings are talented but it’s mostly Motown which is fine but not Blues. And I don’t like the lead singer who is always checking his watch …. The pianos at Billboard are ok, and the Lincoln Stage doesn’t really seem to jive with our schedule for some reason and is hard to find on a regular basis. We miss the vibe of Celebrity and the option for a few different shows throughout the ship in various venues. . For reference we are four star on HAL and Elite Plus on Celebrity. Options are nice to have.

I don’t know. We were there in November

Not what we were told yesterday on Koningsdam. Limit on both packages is 15 total.

Currently on Koningsdam. We asked to upgrade on day one. Bartender asked what we like to drink. Mostly wine, grey goose and a few nice cocktails. He said really not worth it to upgrade. Only a couple of wines not in the regular package. Limit is still 15 drinks total on the elite package. We can just pay the extra couple of dollars if we get something above the package limit. We are on for 24 days so the upgrade would have been close to $500. We did buy a water package and are drinking a lot more ice/tap water than we normally do but it tastes great and is always cold. And, we have found most of the bars don’t have most of the wines showing on the menu. But we have been enjoying Decoy chardonnay and Cabernet which hasn’t been on any list. Also the bartender told us they no longer sell beverage cards.

Watch for the fire seaweed. If in season you can’t swim. We were not at all pleased.

I agree with this thinking - and of course, this will then only lead to an increase in the dirty dishes left out in the hallways..... Maybe the next charge will be $1.00 for a dirty dinner plate, 50 cents for a glass, 10 cents for each piece of silverware ....

Please don't be discouraged. We were on Edge in November. Same thing on line pre cruise, no reservations before 8:30 or 9:00 every night in all four dining rooms. On board, we walked up between 6:30 and 7:00 at any one of the four and had no problems. Actually, on the second night a very nice hostess booked us for the remaining 8 nights in a different dining room each night at 7:00 p.m. table for two, window requested.

Wonder if that’s per order or per person . We often travel as a group of six. Would make more sense if we combined our order … but kind of tough for the server to bring four club sandwiches, three Caesar salads, two burgers etc etc for 9,95 vs for example one club sandwich for 9,95. I’m not against the service charge per se but would like to see realistic implemention rules .

Dec. 29 update. Not sure how Celebrity does its math but I called this morning. 9 night cruise. We are Elite + so she confirmed the 15% discount. Added 20% gratuity. Total for the 9 nights is $297.00 for two/$148.50 pp or $16.50 pp per day. I said I had seen rates quoted of as low as $14 pp pd, she said it may have been an on-line sale which she didn't have access to. FWIW, this means they are not simply applying the $20 pp pd "upgrade fee" as that would come to $20 * .85 = 17 plus 20% = $20.40 pp pd. She said it depended on what the rates were when I booked...?

Should be in your order history.

I’ve read through this but losing track. Any experience this week with upgrades. I’m E+ so I think that’s 10 or 15%.