lavapalava

Hi, I'm really struggling getting straight answers to questions to tour operators for an overnight excursion from Alexandria to Cairo, and the number of suspicious reviews on Tripadvisor doesn't help with my quest. There's a recommendation to make sure tour operators are registered - have you all been checking this out?

I have been trying to search on the Etaa-Egypt website list and can't even find Ramses/Ramassides which seems to be the most talked about (promoted?) operator on various fora, and Cairo Top Tours sent me registration info about a company with a different name saying they are 'shared' - but I can't find any evidence of that. Am I being overly cautious?

Hi we're thinking of booking a Deck 3 oceanview cabin on the Apex for an Israel/Egypt cruise - thinking we'll save some £££ to put towards overnight trips in Israel and Egypt. Can anyone who has stayed in this type of cabin share their experience? The available ones at the minute are 3105, 3109 and 3106 - they aren't listed as having an obstructed view although are near the forward elevators.

Would love to hear any experiences.

Thanks!

Hi, only 4+ nights dining packages are available to book in advance for our April Apex cruise - does anyone know if the 3 night is likely to be available once we board? 

thanks

Cathy

10 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

We were in the same situation, with a cancelled cruise from April 2020 generating an FCC, then a March 2021 Lift & Shifted to March 2022. The FCC was applied to the 2022 cruise, but when we cancelled last week, we were told by Celebrity via my TA that it would be re-issued with a "use by" date of May 31, 2022 for a cruise sailing no later than one year after this last cancelled cruise.

 

 

 

Oh that's reassuring and gives a bit more peace of mind about applying the FCC - thanks for the reply!

Hi all, we have an FCC that was issued following a cancelled sailing from March 2020. We have been planning to apply this to a Caribbean cruise in April 2022 (the same one we tried for in March 2020 and again in April 2021!), but are getting increasingly doubtful that we will go on this, given the ongoing uncertainties around Covid. So if we go ahead and apply our current FCC to this cruise and then cancel under CWC, are we then able to apply the new FCC to cruises departing through to April 2023? Our current time period is that we can book cruises departing up to 31 Dec 2022, and my TA said that he thought that date would still apply for a subsequent FCC.  Although the CWC terms seem to suggest we would have the longer period, the wording of 'original cruise date' is throwing me a bit as this could refer to the March 2020 cruise rather than the April 2022 cruise... 

I have also contacted Celebrity directly, but no reply as yet - hoping someone here might already have an answer.

Fingers crossed things get a bit better and we can go to the Caribbean in April and we won't have to worry about it!

thanks

Cathy

We're also booked on this one and I just can't see that we'll be in a confident enough place to be able to pay our final balance in January, so I suspect we may have to cancel. It is such a shame as we got a great deal and the current pricing strategy means we would get nowhere near the same benefits for the price for any future available cruise with Celebrity. We've loved all our Celebrity cruises, but it looks like it might have to be time to try someone else...

An update on my question, I contacted Celebrity through Twitter and the response was that the FCC could be used for perks bookings.

The response to my email to customer services is less conclusive, but I have the Twitter response to rely on!

23 hours ago, bubbachief said:

Please note, If you're booking with a 125% Future Cruise Credit, the Members-Only Bonus offer is not applicable.

 

You might check to see if this applies to your booking.

I asked through Twitter for the terms of use of FCC and it includes the following: "Certificate is combinable with Crown and Anchor / Captains Club discounts."

Fingers crossed as the  discount seems to be working for the cruise I would like to take next year.

9 hours ago, TxKroozer said:

The FCC is based upon the Base Fare you paid you paid for the cruise at 125%. When you use the FCC it is then only applicable to your Base Fare of the new cruise.  Giving you 125% allows you to consider a cabin upgrade from Inside to Balcony or cruise in the Summer when fares are higher versus non peak times.  If you paid for perks on your cancelled cruise those are refunded so purchasing them again is a wash.  Same for Port Taxes. Choosing the refund at 100% of the Base Fare is your option.

The FCC  I received was the total fare less port taxes only, and I had 2 perks booked on the previous cruise that I would want to replicate on a new booking, but am being told that these would not be covered by the FCC.

My original question was whether other people have had similar feedback when trying to use FCC, or if they have been able to apply this to perks when they are selected when making a new booking (not added on through cruise planner). 

I'm being optimistic and planning ahead for a cruise next Easter, to replace this year's one that did not take place. We opted for FCC instead of a refund, and I've been looking at various options of cabin and perks to make best use of the FCC, however, am getting increasingly frustrated at the number of things the FCC does not seem to cover.

Initially, port taxes/fees were out - that's ok given we will receive a refund for this element of our cancelled cruise. so can just reapply them.

Then it became apparent that we would have to pay a deposit again - this is frustrating, since the FCC was calculated on the total that included a deposit, however, we've got a Future Cruise booking, so can potentially use that.

Now I'm being told by the travel agent that the FCC will cover the basic fare only i.e. not for any of perks! This, for me, is a step too far  - it is going to be very difficult to use the FCC without having to pay a considerable 'cash' lump sum to get the perks that we regard as standard for our cruise.

Of course, the terms and conditions that were listed with the FCC codes do not go into any detail that help clarify what it can be used for.

At this point, if the FCC is as restrictive as it appears, I will be changing my option to a 100% refund.  We were prepared to take the benefit of the higher value FCC (alongside the risk that is associated with it) which would tie us into another Celebrity cruise, but it's really not worth it if we cannot use the FCC to cover the full cost of the cruise.

Has anyone else come across this problem or been successful at applying FCC to a wider range of cruise costs?

Yes we were able to use one of our nights of a 4 night dining package on Reflection in September for Le Petit Chef - I had emailed beforehand to check. Enjoy!

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Sorry to slightly hijack the question, but it is linked - do you know if you can book both the 'cruise now' and 'cruise later' for friends? We're on a cruise end of August but want to book for ourselves and another couple for a specific cruise in September next year.

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Thanks, also just got confirmation from Celebrity that it will be included on the Reflection so all is good!

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Interested reading all the views about LPC and I'm interested in giving it a try on our upcoming Reflection cruise, although I am disappointed there is no Qsine as I've enjoyed it on two previous cruises. Can someone confirm if LPC is definitely included in the dining packages (I'm not sure if the poster above was referring to a package that was included in the cruise price or bought separately)? We're thinking of buying the 4 night package and it's not clear from the cruise planner if LPC is included. Thanks!

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