BytownMatt

I took my first solo cruise - a 7 night Alaska trip on Celebrity - in August 2022 and have done many more solo cruises on Celebrity since then. I find solo cruising to be a highly enjoyable way to see new places (and revisit some old favourites) for many of the same reasons listed above. There is lots of flexibility to do your own thing but there are also many activities and entertainment options at your disposal - production shows, musicians, trivia and other games, "Beyond the Podium" talks, presentations by the cruise director and ship crew, movies, etc. Lots of places to relax on Celebrity ships although I find the E-class ships to be a bit busier and noisier (not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation). I've enjoyed relaxing/reading in Eden, Cafe al Bacio, the shaded outdoor area near the Pool Bar, to name a few preferred places. Outside of meal times I've also seen people using the Oceanview Cafe buffet space for reading and playing cards and board games. I've only stayed in the Retreat once but I liked the Retreat Lounge and weather permitting there's a nice outdoor area there. The Retreat pool deck and bar area are also nice but seemed quite busy especially in the mornings and mid-day on my cruise. You should also enjoy the extra space and real balcony in a Sky Suite. There are often solo cruiser meet-and-greets organized by Celebrity - not really my thing but I know some people like those as a way to meet others onboard. Hope you have a great time!

looking at the drink packages for my cruise next week....looks like you got a bargain!

Pretty sure that I have read about previous situations like this where the person contacted Celebrity and got the payment sorted out. I would call and explain the situation (if you haven't done so already).

Congrats on the upgrade. I think the laundry is related to your loyalty status - elite gets one bag of free laundry. And yes I believe the room service fee is waived in the Retreat although I never used it on my one successful upgrade to a suite (oops). Others with more experience with this process will likely have more to offer. cheers

Looks like the Eclipse will be doing similar Northern Europe itineraries in 2025.

Pretty certain that the Silhouette (Solstice class) will be there this week. Not sure about 2025.

You can select your arrival time at the terminal (30 min time slots) when the check in process opens online which is normally 45 days before sailing.

From what others have said on this forum, that is sometimes a sign that your pending bid was successful but I have seen it work both ways for me. Twice last year one of my bids was greyed out as pending for an extended period before being switched to "not upgraded". Hope it works out for you.

Likewise for me - even managed to get it when I booked my first B2B using two different TAs (wouldn't recommend doing that though...).

Thanks for the excellent live review and safe travels home. Sounds like it was a successful escape from winter!

Pretty sure it has been deck 4 on each of my E class cruises. Might be some variations depending on the port.

Agreed and in my case that was 5 or 6 times over about 130 nights at sea/dinners. Not bad in my view.

Would point out that on a recent cruise on the Edge, there were a couple of nights when the 4 MDRs had separate lines for those with reservations and those without. This was the first time I had seen this on an E-class ship. Once seated, one could see many empty seats in the restaurant(s), so it would seem the issue was one of staff capacity, not seating capacity. Long waits (45 min +) to be seated for dinner on Celebrity are rare but do happen from time to time (maybe 5 or 6 times over 11 cruises for me) with all or almost all of those being on "evening chic" nights.

I looked into similar itineraries a while back. Celebrity options were limited. I think Apex is the only Celebrity ship currently sailing out of the UK? In terms of somewhat similar itineraries, the Silhouette has one sailing from Rotterdam to Barcelona in August 2024 and Apex has one sailing in the reverse direction from Barcelona to Southampton in April 2025. I ended up making a booking with Holland America on the Nieuw Statendam from Dover to Barcelona for September 2025 ("14-Day Around The Iberian Peninsula").

Yes it is multiplied by 2 for solo - so if you bid $200 per person as a solo cruiser, you would pay $400 if your bid is successful.

I took these in Dubai and Sydney recently on Celebrity cruises. In one case, the Celebrity excursion price was on sale and cheaper than what the operator was offering online (a bit surprising). Agree with others that they are a good way to get an overview of a new city, especially if they cover large areas. One caveat is that I found both of them to be slower routes than advertised. If I had actually hopped off and waited for another bus I might have missed getting back to the ship on time on turnaround day. Luckily I had more time to see the cities apart from the bus experience.

Presumably earlier (unscheduled) drydock time to resolve whatever the issue is, but this is obviously speculation based on the posts in this topic and the absence of information from Celebrity.

If it is a stabilizer issue, I can't imagine that Celebrity would carry on with a less than optimal sailing experience for passengers for over a year, but I guess time will tell...

For what it's worth, when I was on the Apex and Beyond last year, a number of the beers listed on the Craft Social menu(s) were not available. That said, I was always able to find a decent beer and I enjoyed having a drink there.

Regarding #2 - you will have to call Celebrity's Captain's Club to get the loyalty discount for the wifi upgrade - can't do this through the website. Would also suggest watching for sales/promotions - sometimes those can be better than the loyalty discounts although recently that hasn't been the case.

Sorry if my previous response was unclear - the packing was because I was changing staterooms on the B2B not due to Australian policy. The stateroom attendants will move your belongings to your new stateroom on turnaround day. Sometimes Celebrity says that you can leave clothes on hangers while other times they will ask you to pack everything in your bags. My guess is that it's a convenience issue for the room attendants - if there are 550 consecutive cruisers, it's probably easier/faster if everything is in suitcases. So in this case, I left my suitcase and backpack in my first cruise stateroom around 8am, went for breakfast, went ashore in Sydney around 9am, came back onboard around 2pm and my luggage was in my new stateroom. The details will be explained at the B2B meeting and in a document that is distributed a few days before the end of the first cruise.

The process seems to depend on the port where the turnaround is taking place. On my previous back-to-back sailings where the turnaround ports were Rotterdam and Rome/Civitavecchia, the process was very simple and there was no requirement to leave the ship. That wasn't the case on the Edge today in Sydney where everyone was required to disembark, wait for some time before going through Australian immigration and reboarding the ship. We also had to pack everything (no leaving clothes on hangers), probably due to the high number of consecutive cruisers. I suspect it is Australian immigration/border control requirements mainly dictating the process and I won't hazard a guess whether today's process is typical or not (others with more experience may have more insight). As others have indicated, wait for the back-to-back process to be announced by Celebrity and be prepared to be flexible on turnaround day. Enjoy!

So perhaps it can vary (e.g., whether the cruise is staying in Australia or ending in New Zealand) but that's not the case on the current Edge sailing. All guests are required to leave the ship and go ashore in Sydney by 9:30am. Consecutive cruisers can reboard between 10:45am (when Australian Departure Immigration opens) and 3pm with a 5pm departure.

In my experience over the past year and a half, the Future Cruise OBC can be combined with the TA OBC offer (if there is one) but others may have a different experience with their TAs.

So I have a bit of a different take on this which may (or may not) explain the comments by the OP's former TA. I certainly agree with the previous comments regarding the advantages with the reduced deposit and additional onboard credit. My issue is that the prices I have been quoted at the Future Cruise desk onboard have been consistently higher or much higher than what my TA can offer (mainly through group rates). On a couple of occasions the prices I was quoted onboard were even higher than what appeared on Celebrity's website. I know that lots of people book their cruises onboard so perhaps I have just been unlucky with the specific cruises I inquired about or I have been asking the wrong questions about available discounts, etc. Personally my approach has been to buy the future cruise certificate onboard to get the reduced deposit and OBC benefits and then work with my TA to find the best cruise fare.