alexandria

Celebrity adds a twenty (20%) percent gratuity to all non-package drink purchases. They also do that if you pay extra for a premium drink not listed in your package.

Have a great time in the Galapagos! For those who are following along and prefer to make independent pre- and post-cruise travel arrangements, flying in and out of Guayaquil is always an option. It is on the coast so no altitude sickness concerns and the flights from Guayaquil to Baltras are two hour non-stops. There are many well-priced and highly rated luxury hotels and plentiful things to do and see there as well. But I've heard and read that the pre-cruise experience in Quito is quite excellent so I'm sure you will enjoy it! Fair winds and following seas...🛳️

When I booked a Galapagos cruise in July, they said they no longer booked AA due to a dispute and on Delta they only book economy class. However, I don't know whether that is still the case and whether it is impacting what you are finding.

Update as of this morning: TA advises that his Celebrity BDM finally returned a call. BDM claims that the hold-up is the Galapagos desk at Celebrity and that as soon as Celebrity's Galapagos staff releases the written cancellation notice with the details, it will be sent out to the travel agents and passengers who booked direct. Why that process is taking so long is anyone's guess. Particularly since the phone reps who called the travel agents and passengers nearly two weeks ago to advise them of their cancelled sailing made verbal representations about rebooking options, refund options, reimbursement of certain non-refundable expenses incurred by the passenger up to $500pp and compensation. If they had a script/memo/email with those details to read from, how hard is it to put it together in the format they want to send out and send it? It certainly makes me wonder if some of what was said in those calls was not authorized, was incorrect, or is being reconsidered.🤔 Otherwise, I don't know why else there would be such a delay.

Here are a couple of videos that might be helpful/interesting: Silversea charter train transfer Anchorage to Seward: Alaska Railroad Coastal Classic Anchorage to Seward:

Thanks. I'm sure it will one way or the other. We'll sail on the Flora in 2025 or we won't. Either is fine with us! I'll update this thread when we get something from Celebrity, even if it is two months from now! 😬

I figure it is up to Celebrity. I'm not willing to rebook with airfare now thousands more for all 2025 Flora sailings until I see the terms and conditions of Celebrity's offer. (Hazard of being a mostly retired trial lawyer, I'm not going to rush into a decision when I don't even know any of the details.) Being mostly retired, nearly any date works for me. But if Celebrity continues to drag their feet and I don't find a future Flora sailing that meets my requirements, then I'll just take the refund and move on to a different vacation option. There are still many places we want to visit and many ways to get there and enjoy our travels. Celebrity isn't the only fish in the seas (nor the only cruise line sailing on them). 😁

I AM the OP. I was responding to the poster for whom the written notice of cancellation took two months in 2020.

Wow...two months between learning of the cancellation and receiving the actual written cancellation notice with the compensation offer? That's pretty absurd IMO. There really aren't a lot of affected passengers for the two sailings that were cancelled. The Flora only has fifty staterooms. When I checked stateroom availability on our Dec 8 sailing two weeks ago (since I booked a guarantee and was wondering what was still open), about half of the fifty staterooms were still available to book. So for the two cancelled sailings (Dec 1 and Dec 8), we are talking seventy-five impacted bookings at the most (and that is if the Dec 1 sailing was fully booked).

My TA has reached out to his Celebrity contact/BDM several times over the past week by phone and email and hasn't gotten the first returned call or email reply. Nada. He's not dealing with the general reservations department but with his sales rep/BDM who is the person that called him last week about the cancellation. I'll find out whether he has reached out to the Galapagos sales manager at Celebrity. No roll call for our sailing. Other effected passengers who booked direct have reported on social media that they have not received anything other than a phone call a week or more ago notifying them of the cancellation (with a sales pitch to rebook) and a promise that they would shortly receive a follow-up email with the details. Since Celebrity has been accused of lying to (or at least misleading) booked passengers for at least a month who called about the rumored Flora propulsion issue (claiming that the ship was fine and no itinerary changes were planned), I can't help but wonder if Celebrity is now telling people one thing on the phone to convince them to rebook instead of taking the refund but will pull the rug out from under them when they finally receive the email with the actual details and conditions. I'll follow up with my TA about contacting the Galapagos sales manager, but otherwise it looks like a wait and see approach will have to do for now. Thanks for the input. Fair winds and following seas to all! 🛳️

It is very similar to what they do for the Silversea train transfer for departures from Seward (but no food or drinks included with the Celebrity train transfer). You'll check in at either the Celebrity hotel or Egan Center (depending on whether you booked your pre-cruise hotel through Celebrity and what they do for transfers in 2025) and drop all of your baggage except for a small personal item. Next time you see it will be outside your stateroom. There is virtually no overhead storage on the train so just a small personal item (purse, backpack or similar) can be carried onboard the train. The Celebrity buses will transport the rail transfer passengers from the Celebrity hotel or Egan Center to the Alaska Railroad (ARR) station at Ted Stephens Airport in Anchorage. The charter train typically uses the dome viewing cars with booth seating and food and drinks are available to purchase on board (trains are cashless so credit and debit cards only). Since it is a charter train, there is only one level of service. You'll have the dome cars similar to the Gold Star cars on the Coastal Classic route but there is no complimentary food or drink offerings. Transfer time on the bus is about three (3) hours vs four and a half (4.5) on the train. Absent a major highway incident, the train arrives at the Seward Cruise Terminal about two hours after the arrival of the last of the transfer buses. That's where you'll check in for the cruise and get your Sea Pass. I don't know what Celebrity is charging for the train transfer; the ARR charges $220 per person one-way for Gold Star Service on the Anchorage-Seward route. Dome cars like the transfer train but with forward facing seats (instead of booth seating) and an outdoor viewing area. That fare also includes breakfast, soft drinks and two adult beverages per person. It departs the ARR depot in downtown Anchorage (not the airport station) at 6:45 am and arrives at the ARR depot in Seward (about 1/2 mile from the cruise ship terminal) around 11:30 am. If you take the Coastal Classic, you have to get your luggage to the ARR depot in Anchorage and then from the ARR depot in Seward to the ship. Hope it helps.

Just over a week ago, Celebrity called our TA on the phone to tell him that our Galapagos sailing on the Flora was cancelled and that they would be sending him an email shortly with all of the options for rebooking or refunds, compensation (future cruise credit) and reimbursement of certain costs incurred by the passenger. Now, over a week later, Celebrity has not sent out the email and has not responded to his calls or emails. There are apparently a number of terms and conditions that apply to the various rebooking/refund/reimbursement options and the future cruise credit but they still haven't said what those are! 😮 On every prior cancelled sailing we've had on other lines, the details went to our TA within an hour or two of their call to him and we were able to make timely decisions and arrangements. Is this delay between telephone notification of cancellation and providing a written communication with the various details typical with Celebrity? Our TA has said that in all of his years, he's never experienced such a delay nor such a lack of response to his calls and emails. Is it unreasonable to expect that Celebrity should have sent this out within a day or so of calling our TA? If you have had a sailing cancelled by Celebrity, what has been your experience?

If you absolute want the Sky Suite with Veranda and do NOT want a higher class stateroom (or don't want a stateroom with the Infinite Veranda), then book the Sky Suite with Veranda. However with a guarantee category on the Flora, you will at least have a Sky Suite with Veranda and could be assigned a higher category. And the ship is very small, just fifty staterooms. Not a bad one in the bunch.

I've been on many lines over the decades we have cruised. After our Summit experience, we only booked Celebrity Flora because we preferred the itinerary offered when compared to Silversea Origin and the ship size when compared to Lindblad and others. But it appears it was a mistake in judgment to give Celebrity a second chance and we will not be sailing any other X cruises after this. For a brand that claims it "delivers an elevated premium vacation experience", Celebrity falls far short IMO. Seabourn was great, Silversea was also very good and we will be booking on Oceania, Regent and perhaps Viking to give those a try. We don't like the megaships and party/booze cruises so our days of sailing NCL, CCL and, for the most part, Royal, are behind us. HAL has always been good but we are moving toward the smaller, luxury brands now. As to the Galapagos sailings, Celebrity continued to market the Flora with a specific itinerary without disclosing a significant propulsion issue that requires a two week drydock to repair. Because the ship can only operate at half-speed, it has to remain close to Santa Cruz Island and in the place of a number of desirable locations has substituted multiple stops at Santa Cruz Island (2.5 of the 6 days are now spent there) and stays at Puerto Baquerizo for a full day (instead of the half-day promised). To continue to market the original itinerary knowing that they would not sail it is simply a deceptive business practice. Some who are booked on sailings to occur prior to the December dry dock contacted Celebrity (after reading online reports from passengers about the propulsion issues and the itinerary changes) to be told that everything was fine with the ship and it would continue to sail the original itinerary. It was only Wednesday that they finally publicly acknowledged the issue and notified affected passengers of the changes to the itinerary. But they have not provided those passengers the ability to change their sailing to a later date...they are simply stuck with the issue without recourse if they are unhappy about the changes. The Galapagos is a unique destination and each itinerary provides different opportunities to see wildlife that may only populate one particular location. It isn't like just changing an itinerary from Cozumel to Costa Maya. Removal of several stops in the Galapagos means that passengers will no longer be able to see certain species of wildlife that are only found on those stops. In some cases, this is a once in a lifetime cruise and many passengers book very specific itineraries to see particular species of wildlife. Celebrity's denial of the issue and lying about changed itineraries to those passengers who inquired is simply dishonest behavior. Customers can be very understanding and forgiving when a company provides honest, truthful information and the opportunity to make things completely right when the company is responsible for financial or other loss by the customer. Celebrity has done neither. Fair winds and following seas, my friend! 🛳️

I'm just getting around to looking at these after Celebrity is 0/2 for us on cruise satisfaction. Our first X cruise was on Summit in November 2022 and was just....blah. Very mediocre, in in some ways, poor experience. Then booked a Galapagos sailing on the Flora. X failed to disclose that Flora had a propulsion issue (which started weeks before we booked) and now our sailing is cancelled to dry dock the ship for repairs. X called my TA two days ago about the cancellation and told him he'd receive an email shortly but two days later, nothing. And I come here and peruse the Q&A...wow. Only a few questions posed by frequent cruises (in some cases, very loyal to X) were answered. The responses on those few (such as this topic) was nothing but corporate double-speak that meant absolutely nothing. And in some cases (such as which cruises have family hours in the Solarium and retreat benefit cutbacks), the answers were simply untrue. Lies, if you will. Why Cruise Critic gave her a forum to do such a disservice to Cruise Critic members is very disappointing and beyond me. If Cruise Critic were interested in the cruise travelers who post here, they would have fact-checked the easily disproven nonsense that came from the CEO on a number of the topics discussed.

Celebrity said yesterday that an email with all of the details would go out to travel agents and passengers who self-booked. So far myTA hasn't received it.

The December 1, 2024 and December 8, 2024 sailings have been canceled to repair the propulsion system in dry dock. Once I receive further details from my TA, I'll update this post.

December 1 and December 8 sailings canceled to repair the propulsion system in dry dock.

You are assuming that a passenger making their own flight arrangements book non-refundable fares and that they lack comprehensive travel insurance. Flight Ease is not responsible to get you to the next port unless your flight is delayed or canceled in which case they will rebook you on a flight to your next port of call. A good comprehensive travel insurance policy provides the same protection.

Be aware that local immigration and/or customs processing may delay your disembarkation depending on where you embarked and whether you are a EU citizen. On our recent Seabourn sailing, the earliest that we were able to disembark was about 9am as Spanish immigration authorities decided the evening before disembarkation that they would require a personal appearance for all disembarking passengers. That process was supposed to begin in one of the lounges at 7am but the immigration officers were reportedly late and did not arrive onboard until nearly 9am. Once they boarded, the "personal appearance" took just a few minutes...they just compared the passport photo to the passenger and then placed an entry stamp on the passport. A ship's officer then placed a colored dot on the Seabourn guest pass and the passenger was then able to exit the ship. Some of those who had early flights or who had made early private arrangements were getting pretty anxious during the delay. So if you are prebooking transportation rather than relying upon local cabs or other similar arrangements you may want to book it for 9:00-9:30am to avoid any issues if you can't get off the ship before that time. In the meantime, relax and enjoy a leisurely breakfast onboard!

The train transfer from Seward to Anchorage is a charter train which will depart from the cruise terminal (there is a railroad spur that goes right to the pier, just a few hundred yards from the ship) and take you directly to the Anchorage Airport (it has a station there just for cruise passengers on the charter train). It departs bright and early in the morning and arrives at the airport around noon or so. (The charter train leaves to take embarking passengers to Seward at about 1:15pm.) So you should be fine with a 3:30 pm flight, particularly if you are flying out on Alaska Airlines which has a few dozen flights daily from ANC to SEA (from where you can easily connect to your final destination). That availability gives you many alternative flight options if the train transfer is significantly delayed for some reason.

https://www.seabourn.com/en/us/onboard-experiences/suites

For those who have saved screenshots showing the price of their booked excursions to be $0.00, a credit card dispute post-cruise may be successful. Simply explain that Silversea includes certain shore excursions at each port of call for free as part of your cruise fare (see screenshot below), that the excursions you booked were advertised as free and include a printout/screenshot of your booked excursions under the "My Reserved Activities" link on your My Silversea page showing the price of each of your booked excursions, including the free excursions listed as $0.00 each (example below). Also attach your itemized post-cruise statement from Silversea showing that the amounts they improperly charged you for each free excursion. Included Excursions Screenshot sample My Activities Shore Excursions sample Perhaps this will be helpful if folks want to play hardball in response to Silversea's less-than-reputable business practices. Just read and follow the dispute procedures set forth by your credit card issuer.

I agree and at first thought she was trying to be helpful with a "recommendation" poorly expressed, but later allowed that she may have just been having a bad week or something going on back at home (based upon our other experience with her in Seabourn Square). I mentioned the Solis experience to another passenger onboard and before I got halfway through, that passenger correctly named the server involved! So if our experience with her was in fact not an aberration, I suspect that Seabourn will address it appropriately. I don't like to waste food and didn't have a strong appetite that particular night so the two appetizers would have suited me fine. Instead I only ate half of the main (and found that it didn't taste nearly as good as it sounded on the menu). But it was still better than anything I would have prepared at home and I didn't have to cook or clean up! 😄

DW and I have been on dozens of cruises over the past 40+ years and now that we are retired and blessed to afford more luxury travel options, we have started trying out the luxury cruise lines starting with Seabourn. We booked the Quest transatlantic crossing from Miami to Las Palmas sailing on March 24. We booked with our preferred travel agent into a Verandah Suite and in December we accepted an offer to upgrade to a Penthouse Spa Suite. Thanks to a kind member here, we received a referral OBC and we also received CCL credit as well. Prior to sailing, we contacted Seabourn at the recommendation of some here to provide our suite preferences as the online feature for that was not working. I do not drink alcohol and prefer sparkling water and no-sugar added soft drinks and vegetable juices. The Seabourn person we corresponded with indicated that our requests would be no problem. We arrived about ten minutes before our scheduled check-in time to find the laziest porter we've ever encountered sitting on a chair and directing us where to leave our luggage! He didn't even get up and help those who were older or struggled with their bags. But that isn't Seabourn's fault, probably just a sign of the times. Then we encountered a DYKWIA couple (Seabourn regulars judging from the hugs we saw them give some crew members later that day) who actually cut in front of my wife and put their stuff on the conveyor belt in front of her purse as she waited her turn at the terminal security screening. Fortunately, our paths did not again cross but it was a reminder that wealth does not buy class! Embarkation was very smooth and quick but we found the first example of a Seabourn "stumble" while waiting in the terminal for boarding to begin when they put out dispensers of fruit juice and water with champagne flutes that were too tall to fit under the spout with the fixed base underneath. It made quite a mess as many attempted to fill their glass by tipping it under the spout which put about 1/4" in the glass and the rest all over the table and floor. A Seabourn crew member later appeared with a standard large beverage cooler and filled glasses with juice. Unfortunately for those of us who should not avoid sweetened drinks, she only had the juice...water was not available. Boarding began about 12:45pm but a line soon formed on the gangway as everyone stopped at a table to make Solis reservations or set up a special event. Once the Seabourn crew member at the table realized everyone had stopped, he announced that anyone who didn't want to do those things before boarding could simply pass by and the line quickly dissipated. We were greeted upon boarding and directed to the Colonnade. We were surprised that embarking guests were not provided a glass of champagne as we thought that was something done on Seabourn. Of course, it was available for the asking if one desired. Lunch was good but seating was very limited at the Colonnade and service was very slow. We waited about fifteen minutes for a simple glass of water and a request for a Diet Coke was never fulfilled. At about 1:30pm, the suites were ready and we made our way aft to our Penthouse Spa Suite. We found the suite to be well-appointed and clean but only stocked with a bottle of champagne with a note that Seabourn did not receive any suite preferences and to let our suite attendant know of any requests. That was quite a disappointment, particularly since we found that they only carried Diet Coke (in a very limited quantity), Coke Zero and Sprite Zero onboard. No other sugar-free drinks were available (unlike on RCCL and Celebrity where they had a wide variety of sugar-free San Pellegrino flavored sparkling beverages). We also discovered that the only Nespresso pods available were decaffeinated as some provisions were apparently not restocked in Miami. My request for cream or half-half to have with my early AM coffee was not met until day five when a pitcher of milk appeared in the mini-fridge. They did provide a bowl of berries two days but the strawberries were soft and not very fresh. We also learned that due to staffing issues we would not have a suite host and our suite attendant, whom we shared with penthouse suites on Deck 10 forward, was new to Seabourn. Nonetheless he tried very hard and his efforts were much appreciated. While service in the Colonnade on embarkation day was poor, it gradually improved over the next few days and by the middle of the sailing was quite attentive. Service in the restaurant was always good but Solis was a disappointment, both in quality of service and food (see comment here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3002788-solis-experience-on-quest/?do=findComment&comment=67229471). The passion fruit sorbet offered one day as a no-sugar added option at Seabourn Square was outstanding. I also loved the Napa burger at the pool grill...just fabulous! Afternoon tea in the observation lounge was also quite well done. We found many of the "conversations" and other activities quite enjoyable. In fact, we spent so much time doing those things that neither of us made much progress on the reading we intended to do onboard. I enjoyed talks by Bob Wittman (retired FBI agent who started the Art Crimes Team) and Keith Muras (retired British Foreign Service officer) while DW enjoyed doing artwork and was thrilled to find Debbie Macomber, one of her most favorite authors, sailing with us as a featured conversationalist so DW was able to enjoy some wonderful times with two new friends. Team Trivia was great thanks to CD James Templeton, his lovely assistant (and Seabourn dancer) Tabitha, and the sometimes rowdy but fun crowd who participated for nine straight days! Shows were quite good but the Seabourn singer who led two well-known hymns during the Easter morning service was unprepared and lost his place in the music during each hymn. That was rather...unfortunate. We found that our fellow travelers were (by and large) a friendly, fun and interesting group who, like us, took the service and quality missteps in stride and in good humor. A number of them had sailed Seabourn before and acknowledged that service and quality has declined in recent years but opined that Seabourn is still quite better than many travel alternatives. We had some great times talking with a few of the crew members and while all (but one) was helpful and friendly, several went above and beyond to make us feel very welcome and special. The ship was in great shape with brand new cushions on the pool deck loungers and chairs. There was always cleaning or maintenance taking place, we didn't see a speck of rust or any indication of deferred maintenance, and they even replaced all of the carpet on the atrium stair treads during our voyage even though the previous carpet (same color) appeared to be in excellent condition! Internet (the stream package) was very fast and available during the entire crossing with no outages experienced. Our overall thoughts: Unfortunately, in business today the trend seems to be "over promise but under deliver." That leads to disappointment and can diminish the likelihood of developing a loyal customer. But marketing fills cruise ships and cruise lines (at least all of them we have sailed) have become adept at apologizing "for any inconvenience" and they are quite willing to sacrifice customer loyalty and satisfaction for increased profit. Did Seabourn meet expectations? No. Did they deliver an above-average product and service? Yes. Would we sail Seabourn again? It depends. With recent substantial price increases Seabourn may not represent a good luxury vacation value for us. We did notice (particularly at the end of the sailing) some benefit to their better crew to passenger ratio, we found the condition of the ship to be excellent, upcharge items on other lines (filet mignon, lobster and such) were included, and we very much preferred the small ship experience. However, the inclusion of alcoholic beverages is not important to us, availability and variety of some food and beverage offerings were limited, and Seabourn simply missed the mark on their promised Seabourn Experience/Seabourn Difference. While some crew provided exceptional personal service, the majority provided the typical service experience that we have come to appreciate on lines like HAL and similar. We have a Silversea sailing coming up later this year and are looking at other luxury cruise options. We may also look at some of the smaller Regatta-class Oceania voyages to see if they would be a good fit for us. And we may book another Seabourn sailing when the time, itinerary and price is right. Any other suggestions are welcomed! I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Fair winds and following seas to all! 🛳️