TeaBag

We just booked this cruise on Tuesday on the Cyber Monday sale.

Sparky, will you be flying into Vancouver or maybe driving up from Seattle?  Our land border has just opened and we needed nothing, yesterday and today going south, but our Nexis cards.  We were very surprised.  On arrival back to Canada we had to have the completed ArriveCan which has all our info incl vaccination records.  

You will need the PCR.

I hope we see you on board.

We crossed at the land border yesterday and all went well.  We thought when the border opened with the new rules about the PCR not being needed for trips less than 72 hours, the line ups would be horrendous.  Well, we just drove right in to the US border control.  Not a car in sight.  We had to wait a bit coming back but we had our ArriveCan printed out and our vaccination certificates and we were through in less than a minute.  I hope this continues.  We are planning on doing it again today as we have a ton of stuff in our PO Box.

55 minutes ago, Hickeyclan1 said:

This new "variant" is called Omicron.  Rearrange the letters...it spells "Moronic" which is what you are if you fall for this ish again.

Well I booked another cruise yesterday as I couldn't wait till July.  We are coming to the conclusion that we can't live the rest of our lives in fear.

Love all the lightheartedness in this thread.

They do ask for a call back number.  I have been on hold many times for hours.  I use 888 751 7804.  This is for existing reservations.  When they start the spiel, instead of listening to them I press 1 and it goes through to the reservations line.  That being said I still wait long times too, 50 minutes the other day.  I think they have laid off a pile of people and who can blame them with no sailings for so long and now ships sailing half full or less.

I've always thought it was generous of Celebrity to use their OBC first, leaving the TA OBC to be returned to the passenger if unused.

Welcome home, Denny.  Bet your coffee was even better than the cruise ship's!

I lost my original $100 OBC but got the $300.  Price stayed the same as I had already called to get the 50% off second passenger before the BF sale.  It didn't work out to that much as I had already called for the 20% off when they had that sale.  Every little bit helps though, when you're paying with Canadian wooden nickels!!

Call back, Sabbycat.  They advertise both the 50% off second passenger and the $300 OBC.  Today they had to call another dept to get me the OBC.  The whole thing took about 1.5 hours, 1 hour of that waiting on the phone for them to answer.  

Good for you.  Have a great cruise.  Where are you going?

Glad we're not cruising till July.  This will definitely be a worry if our vaccines don't protect us from this new variant.

If you click on forums at the top left of the page, it will take you to Cruise Critic Community page.  Scroll down to Ports of Call and click Europe, then northern Europe and it will take you to a page where you will see some posts about Norway.  There's not a lot of info but you might find something.  we are on a Norway cruise also in July. 

Welcome back to Cruise Critic where you learn everything!!

Kathy, I hope your surgery goes well.  I'm sorry that you have to have this worry on top of going into the hospital.

I phoned Celebrity to refare on the latest 50% off sale and the rep (in Jamaica) gave me the new price but in the process I lost my OBC on the previous booking and my $700 FCC as she said she couldn't apply them?  I phoned again and yes, the wait time is disgusting, and I did get a confirmation but I'm still not sure if I got credit for the FCC's as there is no mention of them on the invoice.  I saved a little less than $300.  I'm so tired of Celebrity's ways of doing things that I'm booking with another company.  We are Elite+ too, with about 35 cruises and 2 more to go.

You are asking for a replacement.....we have chosen Azamara and have 4 cruises booked with them.  However, we have yet to sail with them but everything I read is positive.  They cancelled a cruise we had booked with them in 2022, because of the Australian debacle, and much later offered the same cruise for 2023 but it was about $4000 more.  I wrote to them and they very kindly let me have the price of the cancelled 2022 cruise.  Colour me very happy with them so far.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

I'm sure you all heard about the relaxation of the need for a PCR upon return to Canada at the land border for trips less than 72 hours.  Well, because of the massive floods here in BC, things began to be in short supply, gasoline and milk being two of them.  Our acting Premier decided that people could go down immediately to the US for emergency supplies only (no Black Friday shopping).  Several took advantage of that new order and went down, staying only long enough to gas up and get some milk!  Well, I don't know where the Cdn border guards spend their time, but definitely not listening to the news.  Coming back into Canada, these people got the shock of their lives and were fined $5700 for not getting the PCR!  You'd think the border guards would have made some enquiry since there were several coming back with their milk etc.  Communication is everything.  Fines have been rescinded since these people did nothing wrong.

Thank you for your informative report.  It is details like that, that keeps us from cruising.  I surely do hope it will be better by next July.  We are triple vaxxed.  Loved the socks comparison!

Welcome back Paul.  We have never sailed on Reflection so it will be great to see your impressions.  We don't sail till July 25, still a long time away.

Thank you Norris for the wonderful review.   You have kept me cruising vicariously.  I enjoyed the Montserrat trip.  As many times as we have been in Spain, we have never been there.  I really can't wait to sail on this lovely ship and I do so hope our Norway Intensive will actually sail.  Looks like COVID is heating up again in Europe..............

Where is your next venture?

Enjoy your cruise.  Silhouette is our favourite Celebrity ship.

I have thought for some time that a lot of good employees have left because of this COVID disaster and this doesn't just apply to Celebrity.  I think the new ones have not learned everything they need to know and they just tell you the first thing that comes into their head.  Like others have said...CALL AGAIN.  Good luck and please come back and tell us how you made out.

I always thought it was extremely generous of Celebrity to pay for the testing and then if it were positive, to fly the people home.  I wished I had the courage to cruise when bookings opened several months ago.

Here are 2 pictures.  You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

You're welcome.  The pictures make it more believable than any words can do.  I wanted to add that you can click on them to enlarge them but couldn't seem to do it.

A few pictures worth a thousand words..........

Thank you for the news about WJ.  Glad your trip was easy peasy.

I think you meant flight?  I was all prepared for a juicy story!😀

We already have had our boosters.  There has to be something good about getting old!

Are Ganong chocolates better than Purdy's?