Josie201

We are mostly wine drinkers. We always upgrade to Premium simply for the variety. Its really not possible to list what's on each list as stated above, it varies from location to location and ship to ship. Also, they are always making substitutes. That said, for the sheer variety we feel its worth upgrading, although I'm fine with a cheaper glass of chardonnay poolside, I prefer better wines at dinner/in the evening.

Celebrity is our favourite cruise line, but we have sailed HAL previously (though not for a couple of years), Princess and RC. We recently did a 25 day Mex Riviera/Hawaii cruise (January 2023). We thought we would love the Music Walk concept. We did, to a degree, but found it very repetitive especially on such a long cruise. The bands were very good, there was live music every night but we really missed the opportunity to see a "production show" once or twice a week. We would usually flip between BBKings and Rolling Stones during the evening, but we then found almost every night we were doing the exact same thing. A bit monotonous for our liking. We were on Koningsdam. But, by all means, give it a try and see what you like or prefer. Its good to have options. We also found the food was a few steps below Celebrity, but we haven't been on Celebrity in 2023 since "the cutbacks" have been implemented. Cheaper cuts of meat, cheaper preparation, small portions, repetitive (green been every night ...), lots of up charges.

Just this morning I said to myself that I must keep an eye out as I believe Jim and Iain are sailing soon and whoop there it is! sounds like a wonderful trip and I look forward to following along.

Update for me - this morning the ability to upgrade on the cruise planner is inactive (I can see it but can't click on it). It was working fine yesterday. Hopefully they are doing some fine tuning.

Could access it here in Canada but only offered a 5% pre cruise discount. No CC option. But it’s progress!

I didn't read the fine print, but this free upgrade is offered in this week's "Exciting Deals" e-mail. But that doesn't answer the OPs question. If your cruise is on the list I'd call your TA or Celebrity and enquire.

Also just wanted to add, we are booked in six SVs along the back of Deck 10. So the new cruisers won't get to experience the IV that so many comment on - personally I don't think DH and I would like it in the Caribbean for sure, or likely anywhere. We enjoy coffee, reading, ocean watching, happy hour and late night on our balcony with shorts, PJs or blankets on. In other words, we're balcony people!

This thread got me thinking and inspired to give my two cents worth. We are mid-60's and long time cruisers. X is our preferred line and we are E plus with several cruises of various lengths, itineraries, etc. under our belt, starting back on the Century. We loved M class, we still love S class. When the Edge came out, we said no not for us, but then we booked a sunset veranda and loved the ship (we are not suite passengers so far, except for mini-suites back in the day on Princess). We really did not expect to like Edge as much as we did, though there were some things we missed from S. Class. We often cruise with a couple of our nieces who are 20 somethings. They give us a different perspective than when we are cruising solo. There are things we do when with them (Sky Lounge late night) that we don't do on our own. This fall we are taking an extended family cruise, including four thirty-somethings who have never cruised before. We will be on the Beyond, and I know they will be blown away. They won't complain about no prime rib (I might...) or the diminished evening buffet (I might....) or the lack of free room service (I might .....) because it will all be new to them. They will marvel at the chic decor, the friendly staff, the service standards, the mostly all included drinks, the great food and selection, the various types of bars (Martini for chic, Craft Social for beer, Eden for vibes, etc.) But, I doubt they would select a cruise again as their regular vacation option, just because it might not be their thing, nor do they want to get "tied down" to only one type of vacation. Maybe I'll be proven wrong. As for DH and I, we will work hard not to keep saying "you used to be able to get room service for free", or "you used to be able to get as many lobster tails as you wanted for free" and enjoy the experience through their new eyes which we know will be filled with awe, enjoyment and respect for what cruising is now.

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.