CalGal2

Don’t understand why anyone would think they need to pay someone to arrange cruises or trips for them. Legit travel agents earn their commissions from the travel providers themselves. Those costs are included in the pricing of those trips ( as commissionable amounts). The idea of paying a travel club thousands $ up front and then monthly fees is ridiculous. But they only need to hook one person to sign up to make that presentation worthwhile. Even the free trip stuff for attending makes them money for anyone sending in those $99 deposits and additional $99 per person reservation fees for a “possible” future date trip. Notice that they make you pay ONLY by check or money order. This is because if you charge it to your credit card and don’t receive what you purchased in a timely manner, you can get the CC company to reverse the charges. Anyone could probably book these offered 3-5 day cruises for a few hundred dollars per person directly from the cruise line or even a legit travel agent, depending on the destination, time of year and type of accommodation. Don’t waste your time on these. Go directly to a legit travel agent if you don’t feel you can do it yourself. I just did a quick search on Caribbean 3-5 night cruises and found prices as low as $149pp ( which is the kind of cruises they would be offering you for “free”.). 
 

Will restaurants, museums, stores be open on that holy day? 

On 9/24/2022 at 3:50 PM, read2learn said:

I did stay up until  3am checking the cruises and air schedule. I had enough points to get us there and enough Hilton honors for the hotel. Otherwise it may not have been worth it. My tier is also Pearl and i very seldom gamble more than $20 in the casino . Check page 13 of this post #320 and it lists the cruises from the original offer. I asked for one of these and it was available. Good Luck!

Yes, post 320 was the list I was working off of for my research, since my offer only included 1 8 day and all other 3-7 day Caribbean. I did get a very nice BCC rep and he explained that the 10 day cruises were not available for my offer and tier, but he did offer me a BCC discount with an AI pkg, which they won’t allow on a free cruise offer. Still the complexities of air travel so close to Thanksgiving/Christmas for us from the West coast made me decide against it. But it was interesting that the net cost was similar to the “free cruise” with a forced (but very cheap internet and bev pkg add on). Honestly, I think they wing these offers. Some reps say yes, some say no, you can’t pick something else, you can’t change from the Carrib to Mex, etc. And this BCC is all new to me. I will be happy with my Mex Riv sailing coming up, that is bringing me back the the world of cruising after almost 3 years! Glad you were able to take advantage of the second offer. 

On 9/20/2022 at 6:23 PM, read2learn said:

Thanks for the info! Now I'll be up all night searching for a cruise that will fit in my schedule. Let's hope the cruise gods are watching over me!  ☺️

That’s what I did for the last 2 days. But, between the holidays and the air fare, pre-cruise hotel, airport pkng, it just didn’t make sense to try to force this “free” cruise into our schedule. I did call BCC today and asked about the 10 day sailings and he checked my BCC tier , which is Pearl aka “zilch”, he couldn’t offer any “free” 10 day. It breaks my frugal heart to pass on this as well. We did snap up a Mex Riv on a prev BCC email, so we’ll see if others come our way either on the ship or afterwards. I’m going to try to play a min amt each day, to get some free drinks and to see if that helps our cause. 
 

Good luck with your search. 

4 minutes ago, CruiserGrandma2 said:

We received this offer as well.  I sent it to my TA who checked it out for us.  Legit but only person (my husband ) who got the email could book.  We’ll be on the Infinity in November on an 8 day cruise.  Had to pay port fees and tax for $413.  We were told if we wanted the drink package it would add another $1100 so we opted to just pay as we go. I was given a choice of a few balcony rooms too.  
 

I almost  forgot…neither of us are gamblers.  My husband had one point on a Blue Chip account.  I think he played about $20 on slot machines on our last Celebrity cruise in 2019. 
 

I looked at that one too, but the return flight for us in the West Coast runs into the start of Thanksgiving travel and didn’t want to risk that. It would still run $2.5 thousand just with tips, flights, hotel pre cruise, airport pkg, and without drinks. So as much as I hate to give up “free” cruise, it’s not worth it for us on West Coast. I was able to book a Mex Riv cruise on an earlier BCC, but we can drive to the port for that. Nice itinerary, just bad timing for us. hopefully another offer will come around for 2023. 

We are expereinced cruisers who sailed the Poesia out of NYC in the Fall of 2010- a 14 night New England trip in a balcony for a ridiculously low price. It was when MSC was trying out that itinerary. My TA actually try to talk me out of it because she had never booked on MSC before. But the price was too good to pass up. The ship was beautiful and spotless. The cabin and public areas, dining room, stewards and activities staff, shows and music venues, pools, hot tubs, spa and the itinerary were all great. It was a very mixed group and everything was announced in five languages, which we found amusing and just tuned out after a while, but bugged some other (ugly) Americans to no end. One old geezer actually made a sweet Italian activities staff member cry, because he told her if she couldn't pronounce the trivia questions better (in English), she shouldn't be doing it! Ugh!

The one sticking point was the food, but we had read reviews beforehand and we lowered our expectations quite a bit. We always found something good to eat, but the beef and some other meats were fair to poor and vegetables and salads pretty sparse. The only thing I sent back was the Lobster which came on the plate as the split lengthwise half of a full lobster, green stuff and tenticles included. I loved all the pasta, being Italian anyway. We heard that they had changed their water service (from pushing bottled to offering tap) for this NA itinerary, so we had no problem getting tap water with dinner. We also had lively table mates, so that made the dining experience fun, and the mediocre food forgiveable and forgetable.

The drink prices were lower than they are now, I see, but they were good pours.

We met some wonderfull people on the cc board beforehand and we toured independently with several of them. Sadly they are not doing that itinerary any more.

I was glad to read your review and see the posting of your pics and expecially the menus. We saw the Divina when we were in the Caribbean with Celebrity this past November, and when we spoke to some passengers they said that the experience had been pleasant so far.

Based on your review, we might give them a try again.

Thanks for the complete, thorough review.

I read that Martinis fromthe Martini bar are not inlcuded in the classic drink package.

some say you can order a smaller martini in that bar under the classic package- others say no.

Can you get a martini from any of the other bars that is included in the classic package

Can you upgrade one person to the Premium package?

Is is the same price toupgrade on board as it is on line?