colourbird

Our December 2023 cruise was on Celebrity Edge. It was our first Celebrity cruise and we loved it. We have cruised on many different cruise lines and found Celebrity was one of the best. We liked it so much we booked another Celebrity cruise whilst still on board.

We were in an infinite balcony cabin in Aqua class. I'm not sure how we ended up with a drinks package as we don't drink alcohol, but ended up with many really good coffees which we'd often take back to drink on our "balcony" which we used much more often than we use regular balconies.

Being in Aqua class, we had free access to the thermal suite which was very good, except it didn't have its own spa.

The food was great and the buffet had an extensive selection which varied from day to day.

I was hoping to book one of Edge's larger sisters (as there are supposed to be some improvements) but they are mainly sailing around the Caribbean .

4 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I'm not sure they'd even know mine was there unless they saw me inflating it as I put it inside my tote bag.

They are always worried that any inflatable could get in the way of passengers trying to escape in an emergency.

56 minutes ago, Kristelle said:

hmmm, I think unlikely events are unlikely. 

 

Risk management - if you want to keep your seat belt on at all times that's good - but I do not think it is dangerous to take it off when you are allowed to take it off and I'm ok doing that when it is a long flight and trying to sleep.

 

 

 

 

Flying back to Australia last month we encountered a lot of turbulence during the lights-out phase of the flight. Some of it came on very suddenly. If it had been any worse, the passengers who weren't wearing seatbelts would have been the ones rushed to hospital and claiming compo (if they survived). Even up the front in my suite, I still kept my belt on at all times and it never bothered me. At least I didn't have to worry about other pax landing on me. 

2 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

I wouldn't get any sleep anyway, too many clubs to join.

Even with the beds, it is still almost impossible to sleep for any decent length of time if you do actually fall asleep.

11 minutes ago, yarramar said:

It depends on HOW you travel.

That's how we always travel overseas. Singapore Airlines newer A380s were configured with a double bed separate to our seats in our suites. It's worth saving up all your money for.

7 hours ago, Ondine said:

 

I was watching Fraser at Sea the other night on Youtube and he was in Barcelona and there were 8 cruise ships lined up at the wharf and some of them were the 4,000 to 5,000 passenger ones.  Unbelievable.

We were in Barcelona last month on Norwegian Viva. They managed the crowds from the multitude of ships really well. We just walked into the city, but there were loads of taxis available.

I found that by calling P&O every day and wasting their time, you can get some service. One of the guys realised I had called up so many times and in total over 100 minutes, they finally relented.

54 minutes ago, aussielozzie18 said:

Junea, Alaska is trying to limit visits from the large 6000 passenger cruise ships which is understandable imo.

Shouldn't be too much of a problem. I have been looking at cruises to book for the end of 2026 and most of the large ships and the newer ships are all in the Caribbean or Bahamas. 

45 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

A plague of tourists, I think it is more like tourists with the plague. Lol.

it wasn't all that long after cruise ships started sailing in Australia after the shutdowns so quite a few passengers would have been infected!

When we were in Darwin last year we were in the chocolate shop and a woman walked in and called out to the saleswoman that there's another ship in the port and there's a plague of tourists everywhere. We said, yes we're from that ship and we're buying chocolates from this shop.

I'm sure they love getting our money, but maybe they prefer us to place online orders and have the stuff posted out rather than turn up in person.

15 hours ago, GM Cruiser said:

Does anyone know how I can find out dates of a Fairstar Cruise in September 1993. 
I am pretty sure it was sometime around the middle to late September 1993. I need to know the date it left Sydney and the length of the cruise c

There were 2 cruises in September 1993. Not much info has been archived though. It's probably the 19 September 1993 cruise.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060620055212/http://tssfairstar.com/cruises/ListCruises.cgi?9097

When we were on Celebrity Edge in December 2023, they had details of the food intolerances of guests hanging in the galley so they could prepare meals they could eat.

This one mentions the guest is extremely allergic to several items:

• No dairy/milk products
• No egg
• No mammalian meat/gelatine (Alpha Gal)
• No coriander plant (commonly referred to as coriander, cilantro, Chinese parsley, or dhania; includes all parts of the coriander/cilantro plant and leaf/stem/seed)

It also instructs the team to always offer the next day's menu and to call Maitre D' Luminaire if the guest is in their restaurant.

10 hours ago, arxcards said:

All of the mainstream lines cater for food allergies very well, if that is what you mean by picky. Just notify them when you book, and touch base with the maitre D/Head waiter soon after boarding. This works best with fixed dining (same waiters each night), and the allergy free meal is pre-ordered a day ahead.

 

Except for Norwegian that is.

When we were on Norwegian Viva in May and June 2024 there was barely anything in the buffet suitable for people with dietary requirements. Labels on food were often vague and didn't show what was in a dish / if it was vegetarian or not. We spoke to some people who needed gluten free food in the main dining room and they were struggling to get anything decent or appetising to eat. Not that the regular food was much better (although it looked really good).

These were menus from Aquamar Kitchen (a healthy eatery) on Oceania Vista from our cruise in November 2023. There's a breakfast and a lunch menu. They could also adjust any of the meals if required.

This was a menu in the Blu restaurant (for Aqua class guests) on Celebrity Edge in December 2023. They were able to cater for any dietary requirements and would even bring food from the main dining room or drinks from cafes if you didn't fancy anything on their daily menu.

Their buffet had dedicated areas for various dietary needs.

When we sailed on Celebrity Edge in Aqua class we had access to their Blu restaurant which offered healthier choices (along with regular meals). We had lots of smoothies with our meals and the food quality was very good.

https://www.celebritycruises.com/blog/how-to-eat-healthy-on-a-cruise

2 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Virgin is adults only, otherwise the more expensive brands will limit kids aboard (Viking, Seabourn, Regent, Azamara or Silversea)

What are they like in term of dietary requirements?

Celebrity catered for dietary needs very well in their restaurants and the buffet. (It's not adults only though, although it's not one of the lines lots of kids go on like RCI and Carnival).

Steer clear of Norwegian though.

On our last few Aussie cruises (from 2022) we haven't needed to complete and hand in any incoming passenger forms.

1 minute ago, arxcards said:

All that is built into the slide at the start of the post. No daily grats means they pay their staff direct and you pay a higher upfront fare.

The trick is to notice when you are getting squeezed, and to let other passengers take the hit instead.

Norwegian charged the higher upfront fare and daily grats separately. 

7 hours ago, arxcards said:

The table is not a daily value. It is not defined very well but would appear to be profit per passenger per cruise. CLIA says the average cruise length is approximately 7 days.

 

So, Viva will generate a net annual profit (before some degree of ebitda) of around $US27.5 million on an asset that cost them over $US850 million.

 

+1 - not an amazing raking

They were making money by not paying any crew which they mentioned. They said our $20 to $25 daily gratuities was to pay staff. They did a roaring trade in the casino and the raffles. I'm sure they skimmed profits from the stores and speciality dining rooms that charged over US$100 per person. They took payments for return shuttle boats directly into the city at some ports at US$20 when the regular price was 4 euros. We even had to pay for shuttle buses to get out of wharves which you couldn't walk out of. The food was no frills which saved them money too, so over the life of the ship they wouldn't be losing money. This ship also had a large Haven section for passengers paying first class fares.

We managed to get a discount during one of their promotions which saved us several thousand on the initial price we booked at. But the total cost was on par with a concerige class fare on Oceania for a similar length cruise which wouldn't have been no frills and would have included gratuities, some tours and thermal suite). 

Our last two cruises (which we have just completed) on Norwegian Viva had 3,400 and 3,500 passengers on board so that's around half a million dollars profit per 3 days going by the above table. That's just one ship, and so they are raking it in. 

These must be the balconies we always look down on!

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

You could select a cabin, but not the ones you wanted. Your comment holds the answer - it isn't possible to sell the same cabins on the 7 & 4 night individual cruises and also sell them on the 11 night combo cruise. I think it holds true that of those cruises on offer, that the 7 night Brisbane to Brisbane cruise will be the most popular, it made sense that more cabins were allocated to that option.

 

We did consider booking the 7 and the 4 night cruises separately. There wasn't a big difference in pricing, and it is still an option to anyone wanting to book a b2b specific cabin. 

I understand what you are saying, but it still doesn't make sense to me. If we want one of those cabins for the 11 nighter all they have to do is let us select one and it becomes unavailable for the shorter cruises. 

Just now, arxcards said:

If they wanted that, they wouldn't be offering a combined 11 night cruise option at all.

Then why not let us select a cabin? It makes no sense that passengers on the shorter legs can book cabins, but we can't. It could even get to the stage where we end up having to change cabins during the cruise depending on which ones are sold to the passengers on the shorter cruises.