jonthomas

Viking and Celeb, do not compare. Just off Viking in April.

Yes back to the actual topic.

The cruise with air for 800 and prem econ for 149 is a TA in November. We can't get prices like that in Canada if booking on our own.

Celeb used the Marriott for several days. It was amazing. In any case I'm sure this will be one of your highlight experiences. Enjoy every moment.

We did the galapagos plus 3 days in Quito, on the celebrity, Expedition. 90 passengers. Our best experience by far, out of 55 cruises or so. Stopped counting a while ago.

Yup in the maritimes, but not a fave in Ontario. Cod and halibut are my faves.

We have PE coming up for our November TA, if they don't honour it because we are coming in 2 days early, just to make sure we get to BCN, we will come in on the day of. This November, we missed the connection and would have missed the boat if we did not come in 2 days early. So hopefully, PE is OK. We are already losing the transfer by coming in 2 days early, will be taking the bus in BCN.

Excellent. I am one of the few that doesn't like Mex food, or Indian or any selfish. Yeah very picky.

Halibut for us Canadians and yes to cod of course.

Exactly the opposite of what I thought. I was also told by someone else in the know, that O plans to reduce commissions paid to agents.

Thank you for this.

Ah so they will still pay commission, but reduced. I think Viking does something like this and a result TAs can only give max 200 per booking as a rebate. If the rebate is this small, might be better to just stay with O or turn over to top agencies that may not give rebates but be part of the silent sales.

Thank you for this. That's a major shift in doing business. Right now we book with an O rep and then turn it over to an agent that gives us a hefty rebate. What will happen to those Agencies? They will continue to collect commissions from other cruiselines but not O.

can you just paraphrase some of the highlights?

We were on the insignia pre covid, in an inside cabin. It was our best cruise ever. That's saying a lot after being elite plus on Celebrity. There have been some negative comments about insignia lately and we hope the issues have all been cleared up by now. We are booked on insignia for Christmas and new years 2024.

I haven't found anything as reasonable. Now granted, it is a very weird hotel.some rooms much better than others and you never know what you are going to get.

Very interesting stuff. My eyes and ears are open.

As an update. I was able to speak to someone in Customer service. She was able to do what the O rep said could not be done. She put us on the wait list in the same category that we are in, B5 and sent a notice to our TA to that effect. I am grateful for that and hope that in the two years a regular cabin in that cat comes up. As an aside, I was quite surprised at the number of emails I have gotten from people who say they would be very happy to be in an accessible cabin even though they dont need it, since it is almost twice the size. Guess nothing should surprise me.

O no longer charges a deviation fee for going a day or two earlier, but will charge if you want a specific flight. What I don't know is if you lose the included transfers. I also don't know if they will still provide the prem air if you paid for it. Need to call their air dept if there is such a thing. With 5 O cruises I am still a novice.

Thank you for your thoughtful comments. If those of us who do not need an accessible cabin, refuse to take them, it would make them more available to those that do. But first you have to be clear at time of booking that even if that is the last cabin in the cat, you will not take it. That is where I made my mistake. I didn't pay attention to the type of cabin I was given. Lesson learned.

and what you wrote "kirtihk" was the only thing that made sense to me.... to call customer service, appraise them of the situation , that I was given an accessible cabin without my approval, once I realized what it was I was stuck in a category that I could not wait list for...and keep calling them.... hate to do that since I value my O rep, a wonderful fellow who in this case made a mistake... just cancelling accomplishes nothing, nothing for me, nothing for anyone who NEEDS this cabin, as probably someone will take it for its size and it does not prevent O from doing the same thing over and over again....so not even a small policy change... policy changes do not happen when someone like me cancels a cruise.... yeah maybe you are laughing, that who does he think he is to hope to change policy, yeah I hear you... but at least I have to try....

coke zero?

I guess this is more difficult to understand than I thought. The TA can not wait list us for the cat we are already in. O obviously can't give us a cabin they don't have. I booked it on opening day to get the cat I wanted. Since all except HC was gone, the O rep should have given us a choice at that time. At that time we would have given deposit to be on a wait list in that cat. There was no wait list, we would have it by now. Now the wait lists for both lowest categories are huge. You are correct, our only option is to cancel.

Yup also gave deposit right away. And you are correct, I should have checked out the cabin before giving deposit. However the O rep should have made us aware that it was an HC cabin. It should not be assumed that anyone will take a cabin like that without any hesitation. Yup some say wait, let your agent do their job and some say cancel right away. I will wait knowing that without taking any other action, waiting will get me nowhere.

Yes many.