Jim_Iain

I don't believe it is San Francisco. I watched a program the other day and apparently the protocol is for ships on the Coastal Route during migration period to substantially increase the distance between ships and thus having to reduce ships speeds .. Thus they probably have to skip a port to meet their schedule. I'm surprised they chose San Francisco to eliminate but may have to do with scheduling of the port and revise time or date of arrival. These regulation by NOAA were just approved on January 5 https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/new-protections-for-endangered-whales-along-california-coast-adopted

I suspect if you self report. They are still doing B2B testing in Australia/New Zealand as well as I'm told will have to have a ships test on a B2B Transatlantic between the first Caribbean Cruise and TA. I would respectfully disagree for no reason to quarantine. Just because you start Paxlovid (and they don't carry on the ship) you are still contagious and package label recommend isolation for 5 days after begin. Vax reduces the risk of hospitalization but like myself and MANY others came down with Covid even though fully vaxed and boosted.

I would expect you will have a discussion with the Captain. In the past they health center checks at random time to make sure your in your room as well as Security has facial recognition and every time you use your card or dine your whereabouts are known. I heard of one such case and they were put off at the next port and required to get home at their own expense. This is also the protocol for a disruptive passenger. I've also seen a disruptive cruiser confined to room with a security guard sitting outside their room and then turned over to the police at the next port for failure to comply with a crew member. I would think there would also be a good possibility of being permanently banned from cruising with Celebrity.

Trish, I've been waiting to read your comparison ever since I last heard from you. I've always found your live posts and reviews both objective and informative. Many of us that travel in upper suites understand that the experience are not be the same as someone that is a lower classification but are interested in comparisons across shipping lines. Like you - due to many issues we are looking at other alternatives to Celebrity and I'm sure we will find your report both entertaining as well as informative. Hope you also have the opportunity and time to post some good pictures.

I have to agree 100% with you. When we were diagnosed last April on a B2B we were asymptomatic. I took a self test at midnight (so I wouldn't worry all night) and was negative - 7AM tested and was positive - I honestly thought it was a false positive but confirmed the next 11 days I was positive. Had I not been tested by the ship, I would have believed I was Negative. Also as others said the Self Test with Self Report are probably useless except for a good feeling. It gives me no sense of security or serenity knowing I have to trust everyone on the ship to be responsible. What would stop anyone from taking one test and both people take a separate picture of the same test. Scenario 2 - if someone doesn't even swab their nose and just put the sterile q-tip in and run the test. Scenario 3 - Someone with minimal technological knowledge changes the metadata of the picture to show the test being taken on a different date.

Thanks for the information. I'm pleased with them not tossing your off this ship with the hazmat ghost buster squad in front and back of you like we experience last April. Your reports are similar to the protocol on Summit in September TA to Iceland/Greenland and back. At that time those that tested positive stayed in original cabin for 5 days and spouse was offered to stay in isolation or move to empty cabin. The difference but potentially the same that if you tested positive again at the 5 day point you were quarantined for the remainder of the cruise. Have you heard of anyone that tested positive after the 5 days? This cold be concerning as when we caught Covid with asymptomatic symptoms we both tested Positive using our home Antigen kits for 11 days.

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They do fill cabins that are freed up by upgrade bids with these fire sales - I guess potential incremental revenue from spending aboard. Some revenue vs no revenue.

I guess anything is possible but having lived of 5th Ave a couple blocks from The Crows Nest in my hippie days, I really can't envision dumping 2,000 passengers in such a quiet harbor neighborhood which is 2 plus miles to Downtown or the Boardwalk. Just my opinion, knowing the culture of Santa Cruz it would be frowned upon.

Yes but you are SPECIAL. Loving the pictures. I could see by your snacks on your blog that we share the same tastes in junk food. Maybe I noticed it more as I am dieting after putting on 10 pounds over the Holidays something I try never to do - I guess a cruise and the holidays a week later was too much for my willpower.

Contact your agent (both) and see if someone can fix it for you. We invited my SIL and BIL on a cruise and I booked and paid for it with the same agent on the same card. Tried to book a dinner reservation and got the same thing except it said the we either different currency or different group bookings. I contacted my TA and he sent me a message back 10 minutes later saying - try again. This time everything is fine and I was able to book us all at the same time.

With a move up offer you have zero choice of the room I usually say expect the worst cabin in the category and be happy if you get a better room.

Don't want to hijack this great Live Post. I have my cruises in my signature you may need to expand to see - Next up April B2B TA one week in Amsterdam and then rejoin Apex for the British Isles Cruise

I often find the same but I've also found that I can sometime book the same Flight with Chase using fewer point than if I transferred to airline I just booked one last week where the points required on United were 50,000 per ticket but could book direct on Chase Reserve for 37,000 points. The only disadvantage I've found if you need to change something you have to call Chase Travel (usually someplace in India) instead of calling United direct.

Your bid is active up until you cancel it or 48 hours before departure. At 48 hour all bids that haven't been upgraded are cancelled and you will receive an e-mail. My experience has been it is EXACTLY at 48 hours from departure time.

The protocols are being updated but Australia / New Zealand have been requiring testing and testing for B2B. TA's and TP's are requiring testing. We are on a B2B for a TA and are being advised we will be tested on-board between the Caribbean cruise and the TA. Personally I would prefer to self test. They seem to dig for the brains on my onboard tests.

Hope your are feeling better quickly. We were pretty much asymptomatic but continued to test positive and isolated for 11 days. We didn't want to get near our unvaxed grand nieces and nephews for fear of infecting them.

No longer correct. The TV's are now operating as a Monitor and you can access using the room remote by following my video posted many times and included above. Has worked for me on every class of ship revolutionized and non-revolutionized.

Understand as we are similar. All of our SS and my RMD go into our cruise fun. Can't wait for Iain to start drawing RMD. I guess I look at my RCL investment different - I'm not into it as an investment but purely for the OBC. Does the $100 - 250 credit make or break a deal just another component. I bought RCL in 2001 when I first started cruising at $9.11/share and only purchased the minimum amount of 100 shares. Your post got me calculating - I invested $911 and have received $15,600 in OBC's over 22 years ROI 1,612% Annualized ROI 13.86%

While none of us have the actual numbers. I would believe from what I see posted on CC that Lots of rooms (equating to passenger load) were and are being filled with non-revenue BCC promotional cruises as well as TA FAM trips. Also if I recall from the press release on-board revenue per passenger increased. Not sure if that's funny money (raise price and give a OBC) or a real spend

This is what I really find interesting - After the analysts digested the earnings report - There has been a shift to Buy and Strong Buy by about 1/2 the analysts. There seems to be one contrarian. Out of 12 analysts, 5 (41.67%) are recommending RCL as a Strong Buy, 2 (16.67%) are recommending RCL as a Buy, 4 (33.33%) are recommending RCL as a Hold, 0 (0%) are recommending RCL as a Sell, and 1 (8.33%) are recommending RCL as a Strong Sell.

You are correct - RCL does not break down by Subsidiaries. I guess my main point is that the recent cuts and surcharges have Zero to do with the current financial statement for period ending 12/31/2022. Any improvement fleet wide will not be reflected until at least the Q1 earnings report for 1/1/2023 - 3/31 March In my past life I use to calculate the margins by division and foretasted earnings on a weekly basis for the BOD. While they don't report earnings by subsidiary Cruise line I'm certain Celebrity is facing pressure from Corporate to hit foretasted Sales and Gross Margin to meet Corporate reported forward looking estimates. The main reason for uptick in prices is that they beat the street estimate by a huge margin and the market adjusting to future projections. All I can say is I have a big smile on my face. I bought many years ago and have made more money on OBC's that I pain for my stock so to me it's all gravy.

You may want to check with your Agent or Celebrity. A couple months ago Celebrity IT group screwed up and many people got unexpected OBC only to be deleted days later leaving people with unpaid excursions.

Go to plan you cruise - by selecting anything like excursions , dining or drinks. Very top you will see it next to the shopping cart. You can also select you initials and choose Order History to see what you have booked.

I can understand the OP's concerns. It often makes us feel better to groan and moan but important to explore alternatives if you are truly disappointed in the Celebrity product. I've recently been exploring other cruise lines and will be taking our first non-Celebrity in 23 years in July. We will be trying out Ponant which is totally different product but were encouraged by friend to give them a try. Our first Ponant cruise is a trial balloon to "Test the Waters". This week I've been exploring Silverseas and have short listed a couple potential cruises. It is also a totally different product but I can tell you the price differential is about 50-120% higher than Celebrity. Without any basis to compare I think like the airlines shifting between the mainstay cruise lines we will experience much of the same changes in service levels, staffing, cutbacks and surcharges regardless of the cruise line. We still have 12 cruises booked with Celebrity so will be interlacing alternative lines as we move forward. I can honestly way we are not proponents of the huge megaships which will also affect our selection.