LonnyLee

DaiC1 is correct. We are embarking and disembarking in Barcelona, and have booked the Genoa Portofino tour.

'Transit" means you are only passing through, not starting or ending your trip there. :)

Photos of 9002 on Seaside. ***Not my photos, but shared with permission.*** There was so much room, they could put the crib in the corner of the room. (I have not figured out how to post photos properly, hence the links.

Thank you so much. I have been wanting to see this cabin as we are in 9003. You've made my day :D

MSC may likely claim a misprint on sizes! After all they would have been supplied by the designer not MSC.

surely they should update the deck plans on the website now that they know they are wrong though?

I was really expecting the S2 balcony to be bigger. The deck plans still show it with the barrier between suites being straight, not angled. I feel we would have been better of going with a regular balcony. Still plenty of time for us to change, so will wait till more photos come out, but for now I'm a little disappointed.

Has anyone posted any of the Fantastica suites yet? We are booked in 9003 and 15186, but have only seen regular balcony or Aurea suite.

There are two photos on the balcony in this post. They don't reveal much.

Thank you! :D

They don't show a whole lot do they. I'd love to know if the balcony wraps around the front at all.

Will have to be patient

I'm disappointed that we still haven't seen anything about the 002 and 003 grand suites aside from a couple of inconclusive balcony shots from 13003.

Also waiting desperately to see these. I really want to know how the balcony and layout work.

Where did you see the 13003 photo? I missed that one.

In need of vacation...

 

Our long-awaited vacation started a bit stressfully. For the route to the airport, which ususally takes us about an hour, we had already planned 2.5 hours. However, we hadn’t quite reached the highway, when they announced a full closure. All possible diversions were quickly blocked, too. So via hidden routes and village streets, we finally reached the airport some 20 minutes before our boarding time. We left our car at the parking garage nearest the entrance and ran to the check-in desk. The lady at the desk took our papers and said, “Well, you’d better hurry” – taking all her time checking in our luggage and issuing our boarding passes.

 

When we finally rushed to security, we were in for the next surprise. Usually, there are hardly any lines at our airport, but this time people were queuing all the way back to the entrance. Thanks to some friendly passengers who let us through, we finally arrived at our gate 1 minute before boarding. By now, we were really in desperate need of a vacation...

 

Read more about our fabulous cruise on our (non commercial) website:

http://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Adriatic-Constellation-1---Ven/adriatic-constellation-1---venice.html

Fantastic review. Thank you for sharing. We're about to do a similar cruise on the Connie, our first Celebrity cruise, and this has made me even more excited. :)

We were stuck in Lisbon airport for over 2 hours to get through customs, because they only had one person working the line to check passports, and he was in no hurry. It's a slow process, and I would definitely not risk such an early flight.

It's a lot closer than you may think. I just compared my March 2019 14 day cruise in an extended veranda on Oceania to a 14 day concierge on Celebrity for the same month. The difference in cost for the cabin (including taxes/fees) is only $400. That's not per person.

 

Both have the liquor package as perks. O is throwing in free internet and international air fare for $500pp.

 

I realize I could get a lesser category to save money but the last few cruises I was either in a Celebrity Concierge or Aqua Class cabin. I wonder how the Edge would compare however they're only doing seven day sailings.

 

But I hope lots of people buy those burgers in the new joint by the pool. I'm keeping my RCL stock because of their current profits. If you don't keep booking and buying the add on food, I'll have to sell my shares. ;p

I wish that were the case. Us Aussies seem to get slammed with much higher costs, and it's a good $3-4000 difference between 2 similar cruises on O and X, for the same cabin type. That's without air-fare (we paid about$1800 per person on top of cruise for that).

Personally I don't mind paying for burgers and hot dogs for this reason.

Now this is how you do a pool side food venue menu. https://www.oceaniacruises.com/Documents/Menus/1719/Waves-Menu.pdf Oh BTW, this menu is included at no additional charge.

Oceania Hot dogs are the best. And while they are included along with other specialty restaurants, the overall level of luxury on the cruise is higher than X, and the pricing reflects this.

We would choose Oceania every time if budget allowed.

Having said that, if the hotdogs are anything like the Waves Grill hot dogs on O, then I would gladly pay for them on X.

Are Americans required to have an International Driving Permit to drive in Australia?

Just remember we drive on the opposite side of the road. Lots of tourists have accidents because they forget that. ;)

What is OL?

Ocean Liners restaurant

I'm not fussed about a burger bar - we've had burger bars in the UK for years.

 

I am fussed however, that Celebrity can't even bring themselves to apologise for cancelling bookings for OL that have been booked for over 3 months, when they knew they were never going to fulfill them.

Agreed. It will be our first celebrity cruise. We booked OL back in December for our June anniversary. Very disappointed. Not even a word from them on what is happening with our booking.

Well, let me see if I can provide you some sort of clarity, from how I see/understand things. Button down shirts are shirts where the collar is buttoned down at the front on both sides (am I making sense here?) and does not refer at all to the buttons that go all the way down the front. I believe they can be either long or short sleeved as well. Now a dress shirt (whether buttoned down or not) is usually something that men would 'typically' wear with a suit and tie (or no tie). To me, sport shirts are pretty synonymous with dress shirts except perhaps they have designs on them like checkered, stripes, etc. and do not refer to shirts with sports logos on them. But, one thing I have discovered from reading these seemingly endless dress code threads is that not everyone seems to always have the same view on definitions.

 

Hopefully I have helped to clarify some of this for you.

Thank you, that's really helpful and makes it much clearer :D

So a button down shirt is a dress shirt. You are right a sports shirt is a polo shirt or short sleeve shirt. We are Canadian and my DH didn't really know what a button down shirt was, but guessed.

Thank you, that does help

ok, I have to ask because we find it really confusing, being that we are not American and the dress code is in American terms.... what is the difference between a button down shirt and a dress shirt. And what is a sports shirt?

Here in Australia, a dress shirt is a long sleeve shirt with buttons all the way down the front like you would wear with a suit. A sport shirt would be something with sport logos loudly emblazoned, so I'm guessing that not what they mean, and we don't use the term button down shirt at all.

I'm guessing one of these might be what we call a polo shirt, which is a collared shirt with two or three buttons, usually in a thick cotton, but it really is confusing.

We can't be the only people that have booked that particular restaurant, so it seems odd that Celebrity haven't got in touch to say 'whoops' and suggest alternatives. I know that we are unlikely to choose Tuscan and will definitely not be booking Qsine but surely it'd be easier to sort now before being on the ship and having to deal with a stream of unhappy people?

My thoughts exactly. We're tossing up between just booking Tuscan now so that we don't miss out n at least doing 'something' or waiting and seeing what they come up with.

Maybe they might give you the new Edge style room to compensate!!!

Murano would have been my preferred option, loved it there and certainly would have been good for a anniversary celebration.:(

Haha... that would be a great compensation. :)

I would have loved Murano too. We love the old world charm of both restaurants, and wanted something we couldn't get at home. Oh well, we'll have to just deal with whatever we get. At least we won't be buying all the dining packages we were going to get now, so that will save some money for other things.

Currently on Connie from Singapore to Rome. Dry Dock has been shifted from Barcelona to Marseilles, France. Crew are already being told of work and training hours.

 

Some work is being done while we are at sea. This work includes installation of Air Scrubber and installation of a brand new communication system. Daily you see work men string new wires in the ceiling of the hallways on all floors. Been told that they are installing the new Edge Communication system as a beta, jumping over the existing apple base system on S-Class. The current system is really in need of an upgrade.

 

Also been told they will be upgrading the Royals and Penthouses. In addition Connie will receive all new carpet and some softgoods throughout the ship.

 

Also been told they will be installing one Edge Room to beta test.

 

As been stated in the thread - Oceanliner is going away as well as the "Wine Cellar" private dining room forward of Oceanliner. It will be replaced with some cabins and Qsine. We will be dining in Oceanliner tonight.

Thanks for the info.

very disappointing that Oceanliners is going away. It is one of the main reasons we chose this cruise for our anniversary. I'm at a loss now as to what to do with the booking we have paid for in Oceanliners. There is no way we want to end up in Qsine for our special night. There isn't any other types of formal specialty dining other than Tuscan Grille then, is there?

I booked and paid for Ocean Liners for 29th May for my Birthday, and I am sticking my head in the sand and dealing with it as an when, which I have a feeling will be when we embark and it becomes clear it isn't possible.

 

And then I will go all American on them (this is not to offend, this is a compliment to Americans who tend to be fair better at 'raising concerns' than us British :D) as I refuse to eat in Qsine again and we never tried Tuscan last time as the menu didn't seem worth the additional cost!

haha... we've decided to do the same 'head in sand' thing and see what happens when we board. Really not interested in either of the other restaurants, but want to do something special. I guess it will all work out. I agree that Tuscan doesn't really appeal to me (although hubby seems happy with the idea) and Qsine just seems to gimmicky. Either way, not much we can do.

You pay the $1 deposit to the travel company, the travel company still pays the full deposit to the cruiseline. You have to pay the remainder of the deposit 190 days or so out from sailing, so if you disappear the travel company can get their money back. Effectively they are out of pocket until you pay the rest of the deposit. There is no risk for us booking this way unless we decide not to go on the cruise and we lose the $1. The rest of the rules are all the same as far as deposit / cancellation fees. It's a pretty good deal

we're sailing on Connie on June 5th and have Ocean Liners booked, paid for and confirmed, for our anniversary on the 7th June. If it's not going to happen, I really hope Celebrity would let us know.

Feeling a little disheartened.

On the previous page did you make a captains club account

No. when I click on the resevation tab it goes to a screen asking f i have a CC number. If I click yes, it lets me search for one, if I click no, it lets me make one. Either option gives me the error message.

f it's a problem with the website I don't mind waiting till they fix it, but if nobody else is having the issue, then I want to sort it out.

I'n in Australia, but it all goes to the US site as soon as you click already booked or log in, either way.

Hi all,

I've just booked my first Celebrity cruise and have been keen to log in to My Celebrity.

Unfortunately, while I can see my booking under 'online check-in' in the already booked tab, when I try to actually log on to see anything through My Celebrity, it gets to the Captains Club page and won't go any further.

I can log in, I then go to 'manage reservation' because I want to see if my perks I have chosen show up and see what else is on offer, and it asks "Do you have a Captain's Club number" I click on 'NO', fill in my info and get the message "We apologize, Unfortunately we are experiencing technical difficulties and are unable to finalize your account at this time". Its been doing this for two weeks.

Is anyone else having this problem?