abbydancer2003

Celebrity always has prepaid tips as an extra charge when you first book. They usually fall off the booking within a few days. The only time it can be a real problem is if you book within the final payment window - in that case you usually have 24 hours to pay it all and they won't have fallen off by then. I had to (this was a few years ago) call and get them removed.

Probably too late for you to even consider this, but the best 7th inning stretch I've ever been to was in Milwaukee.

It's only 8 days, and then you can be done. But you'll probably enjoy it. I hope yo do. Glen & I are on Royal Caribbean for 6 days just before we do our Apex cruise in December. I told him that if we hate it, it's only 6 days (on what might be the worlds largest cruise ship). We can put up with anything for 6 days. Next year, we'll do one on Azamara. Have fun. We' leave for Quebec for 10 days on Princess, where we will have to pay to order food from the app, I think.

Yes, I know. That was my point, ie it was never mentioned in the call as something that was going away. Maybe because, unlike canapes and chocolate, you can't just "ask for it back". 😁

I don't eat fish, so get a lot of fruit amuse bouche. I feel your pain, although it's more of a choice for me, and I recognize that.

I did that at lunch recently - btw, on the way back from Europe on the Silhouette last year, they ran out of raspberries. The Vacharin looked kind of naked, but still tasted good.

Me three, since, as Jim says, too much chocolate, which I don't like.

One thing I find interesting is the lack of anything on the OBC for suites. I know it wasn't addressed in the call, but have they stated it specifically, or is it just that it's no longer listed as a suite perk?

I'm guessing the diners only show dessert. Again, the menus are NOT up to date in sailings months from now. I'm sure Luminae will be open for lunch on sea days, unless they make a change and you'll hear about it from people currently sailing.

We also had to pay when we moved from January to 2025, but our book on board OBC went with us. We did pay the 100.00 change fee, but the booking number stayed the same. They do have to manually add the OBC back in, though, so my guess is that there will be some sort of policy decision about which package to honor on those. Pricing, though, does go to prevailing, so you're probably right. My sister and I have a Caribbean booking that is a holding only. We want to move it to a 2025 fall transatlantic, which will almost certainly not be released by October 4, so I guess we'll see.

Are you looking at the current cruise? There's no point at looking at future cruises (maybe beyond the next week or so) as the menus aren't populated properly.

You're probably right, although I think maybe those that wanted to remove tips would book cruise only, as they didn't want to pay gratuities. It's probably a mix.

Menus are now populating very close to sailing I think.

I've seen that charge hang around for a while. Only was a problem when booking in the final payment window.

So for grins, I just looked at an S1 sky suite for an Edge cruise in 2025. The price is roughly what I paid when I moved my 2024 cruise several months ago. I will check again around October 2nd, and then again on the 10th. I'll report back. I'll then know if they jack the price to reduce it, or if they truly reduce it.

I have X cruises booked out to mid 2025, and am not planning to add any more in the short term. I do have one that's a book on board holding, and I hope they honor the terms we booked under as we want to use it for a 2025 fall transatlantic, which probably won't be released before October 4. Being a bit OCD, I'm going to price a sky suite on October 3. Then I'll price same cruise, same category on October 10th. I'll see what happens to the price. Also, I've been sailing X since 2007 - since then they've had "Go Big ..", " "All Included with Elevate and Indulge" and "All Included without Elivate and Indulge". We'll see how long this one lasts, especially, as one previous poster commented, their chief competition, Princess, still has tips in their packages. But they really need to change the name to "some included".

I tried a chicken sausage - it was more like a chopped chicken patty. YMMV, I guess. I'm guessing that on the M and S class ships you can get the regular sausage, oatmeal and Beguim waffles from the main dining room. And who knows, maybe by next week they'll add sausage back as people ask for it.

At one point, I saw a change in the DB menu with a chocolate dessert - I don't like chocolate, so the original was my go to dessert when nothing else appealed. A berry pavlova is OK with me.

I think I saw the "new" Boulud menu mentioned a few weeks ago. Too bad, as the dessert was one of my go to desserts.

Celebrity's system, if you have prepaid gratuities, will add them to the invoice, changing the balance. It usually fixes itself within a few days. The only time I had an issue was when my sister and I booked a cruise within final payment. We had 24 hours to pay in full. I had to call and have them remove the gratuities from the total.

As said, if there are cabins available you can switch. We bid to Aqua from concierge. We changed the room and changed the category, but down. We were in a A1 and wanted an A2 (better location for us, YMMV). They were able to do it, but it took a little while as she had manually adjust the price.

I guess I'm lucky as I don't like Evain water. The ones that are in the room when we get there stay there, and we've had the butler bring the regular bottles that everyone can get. (In Luminae we have them bring ice water from a pitcher.)

Just curious - was noise from the sky lounge an issue?

We occasionally get escorted on board even in a sky suite. We usually get escorted off by the concierge.

oh, sorry I misread. I thought you said charge. Ha-ha on me. I think I have a mix of gray and beige. Maybe I'll go count. According to the website I have 17 past cruises, of which all but 3 or 4 were in suites, mostly sky. I think I also have a blue one or two.