mayleeman

Can you go online on the first part of a B2B and transfer your 2nd leg booking to another (upgraded) cabin? Perhaps with the $100/pp fee? Or is it too late by then?

@the penguins Craps is definitely NOT one of the games you can relax in while playing for hours at a time with a small amount of money! I used to understand it but haven't played in years. I don't like trying to edge into the crowd, but it is fun to be in a casino when someone goes on a win streak at a crowded table. I was rolling once time and during my turn hit double fives 3 or 4 times in about 10 rolls while a guy was betting up to $100 at a time on that bet (pays 30 to 1 for one time bets). He made a few thousand off me and tossed two $25 chips to reward me at the end. Did better for him than for me! Not for the faint of heart...which I am now that I'm retired.

But X doesn't offer good odds bets (raising the house's advantage), I thought I have read here? Except maybe at a high stakes table?

I tried to concede that the promotional chips changes things, and you certainly have figured out ways of extending your play! Discipline in walking away after going up a bit makes a big difference, especially what you said about not chasing losses. The post I originally wrote that you seemed to dispute was about how no "system" or knowledge of prior numbers can beat the house advantage in roulette, which is measured overall. I misunderstood your original response. Sorry! My way of extending playing time once was to find a video roulette machine that let me play with 5 cent minimums, and penny chips. Played 3 hrs one time, and won $68 because I could actually do a Martingale system (double after losses) without risking much. Highest bet was about $3. Love the sound of the ball rattling on the wheel, though!

The house odds are the same on every bet [except 0/00/1/2/3), which is worse. "Pretty much a 50:50 bet." Not when the house edge on the corner bets you are making is 5.26% on a double-zero wheel. The payoffs do not match the risk. This has nothing to do with OBC. Unless you are discussing using OBC to buy the cruise offer of $55 of chips for $50, in which case yes, that 10% bonus more than offsets the risk...for awhile. But if you still think you have found a system that no mathematician has ever cracked, why stop with small bets?

Absolutely reasonable expectation. We waited that long in Tuscan on Reflection when we were the first table seated and there were only 3 tables occupied. But one table was 10 people and I think the waiter and sommelier wanted a bigger tip.

Doesn’t Oceanview have self-serve water?

It was extra back in 2019 on our Reflection cruise. Actually was a tower, for that matter!

Thinking that is precisely why they put them there. Investing in that technology has made millions for casinos. Similarly, in Las Vegas they are thrilled any time a customer in the shop buys Roulette strategy guides. Random is random.

@Spif Barwunkel I would still like to see your hypothesis as to why high-paying E-class suite passengers are denied the wonders of IVs. I am willing to be corrected on this, but I do not recall any suite pax on E-class discussing their disappointment at missing out on an IV. Why is that, do you s'pose?

Show me a single post complaining about just the existence of well-behaved kids and I will give you a drink...emoji, but still... Asking if there are adult-only cruises is just seeking ways to avoid running into kids whose parents want to share chaos with other pax. No more inappropriate than asking if there are Caribbean cruises in the fall that don't go through hurricane country.

@CelebrityBrownWater Thanks for explaining. I thought the other issues were throughout. I think I will bring a small vial in the future to just save a sample to pour out at GS if I have brown water and fsce stonewalling like you did. (That makes 2 things I am planning on taking to GS...the other is my frig contents if the steward won't take it away as discussed in another thread.) And yes, congrats! Getting married is the most important part of it all!

But I say, do they have Grey Poupon?

I am not criticizing but just wondering why you wouldn't mention it if you were already reporting other issues? We have had issues at hotels that we mentioned in passing to the desk but didn't really care about, like a TV that was fuzzy but we weren'tplanning on watching, and discovered it fixed when we returned. Along with a note thanking us. At a hotel in Baltimore attending a convention, I mentioned on checkout that the fitted sheet didn't really fit, just so they could know about it. Surprised me by giving us an unasked for $25 credit. They specifically said they were only able to find things out by having guests tell them. I agree with you that not voicing every issue isn't irresponsible. I just wanted you to know that top-notch businesses welcome the feedback. I can see by your brown water experience why you would likely think Celeb wasn't one of those, however. Incidentally, we have had occasional discolored water in our houses in every place we have lived oner 25 years. Only dangerous one was after 2015 catastrophic flooding in Columbia SC overtopped the water treatment plant. We literally went to Cancun on a vacation and could stop boiling our water. (Who else ever went to Mexico to get good water?)

Efficiency doesn’t explain why suites, which are more numerous on E-class, don't have IVs. I suspect it is because X knows that they can't charge the high premiums for an inferior product.

@TeeRick My understanding is that E class suites do not have IVs. Are any suite passengers feeling left out, do you suppose? Generally, it seems that suite-ers get the best, so this is the one thing that befuddles me.

Why are people continuing to tell the OP about how they should have done independent booking or otherwise handled their situation? They have already addressed why they were not happy trying to do that.

The TA said the TA had 11 cancelled? Or the TA said Celebrity was cancelling 11 (and if this, how would the TA know about others?)??

Thoughtful expressions of contrary opinions are always welcomed by almost everybody. You and others go on the attack, however...as RY said, "dismissive".

I'm there with you. Cruise Critic is a forum where people give their views on various topics. An exchange, not a list. I will note also that although an OP has the right to try to direct a discussion, when you post your own opinions you are likely to generate responses (many very thoughtful) on all sides. The whole point of reading anything here is to learn something. In this thread, I have seen several things that make me intrigued by an IV, but then I see something that scares me off. For example, Biff opines how versatile it is...but someone else points out that you can't open it in the morning while allowing a cabin mate to continue to sleep in your a/c and darkened room. That is an absolute deal killer for my wife whose health literally requires 8+ hrs. A rigid adherence to the OP's "rules" would not have given me that info.

What took you to court with the cruise lines?

The compensation probably would be viewed as fair by more of the displaced pax if Celeb had had a comprehensive explanation and a transparent plan moving forward. Those early compensation offers for covid cancellations, had they been similar to the Japan fiasco, would have involved spreading the word through a few waiters and cabin attendants, slowly expanding throughout the ship. All of whom were giving out contradictory explanations. The biggest differences are that the Japan problems were created solely by Celeb, were solely in Celeb's control, and were not affected by any outside event or force. The compensation for Japan should have reflected that, so yes, wanting to be reimbursed for all damages caused by gross negligence is perfectly legitimate.

I don't think the OP is unreasonable in stating that an excursion being offered by Celebrity should be expected to meet some Celebrity standard. And the only way that can be done is periodic checking. Certainly a first aid kit would be the absolute minimum one has the right to expect. No one has said every step or other things have to be tested.

@NMTraveller I am intrigued by the overstated earnings idea if it is true X kept the overbooking under wraps for up to two reporting periods (2 x 3 mos). If they figured out that overbooking could increase revenue by even a few percent, could that give a boost to a stock price artificially? I don't know how their revenue for booked cruises gets reported, and I doubt that deposits alone would have any noticeable effect, but some disgruntled shareholders might be tempted to complain to the SEC if a really bad PR problem was kept secret. The "Company Goodwill" on a balance sheet might take a hit!

@Sstan You think you are giving people options but you are wrong. Do you think a contract you entered into (by paying a deposit) and plan to take advantage of (by cruising) is not enforceable against you because you didn't read it? Leave legal opining to lawyers, please.