slonich

Good to know about the placeholder for the 3-day specialty dining package, I was wondering about first day only and 3pm.

Thank you, that is great to hear. Spa Cafe stays on our list then and Vitamix stays home 🙂

Glad to hear that. Is yours a 10-day cruise? The OP was on a 4-day cruise, most likely KW and Nassau. Not sure if that had been discussed before and I apologize if I missed it, but in a very random sample of recent posts talking about food disappointments most seem to be about shorter cruises. This could be due to the fact that there just are more 3-5 days cruises in the world, or maybe CC is prioritizing longer sailings. I mean, if they really need to, they should. Who would want to be on a ship for 10 days with not-so-great food. If it's only 3-4 days there are plenty of things compressed into that short time and food is less likely to be remembered unless it's an extreme either good or bad

We are not in Aqua, but in a somewhat similar situation: have a Concierge with all included and a kid who will be 18. I was told that she would get the Zero Proof package instead of Classic and the cost of all included is what it is regardless, no discounts. AI package still made sense for us. Another question I was kinda pushed into asking was if anything would change while we are docked in the Bahamas as their legal drinking age is 18. The answer was that on land in the Bahamas it may be 18, but while onboard it's still 21 so no alc for her. Of course it was a no, but earned me some easy cool mom points for fake trying.

I hear you. My job is not nearly as challenging as yours and I love it most of the time, but it/s still so awesome to get away for a few days. Here's to not running into any of our students, clients, patients, colleagues, or bosses while on vacation!

Nooo! Thanks so much for pointing that out. I'll obviously need to do some more research. He's been a vegan for a long time and is pretty good at magically finding stuff to fit his diet anywhere we go. I still like to do some prep work and get a rough idea of what may be available at which restaurant before we make reservations. Do you know if Spa Cafe makes the smoothies from fresh fruit, or from premixes?

Exactly! After a couple of rounds of whatever they give us from the upper 3/4 of the classic package list, we'll be completely fine with generic bottled water and non-premium juices. As they say, happiness doesn't come from a bottle. Unless it's a Gucci or a Dior 🙂

That would be very nice of them to do. I don't want to call again because there may be no problem at all and everything may already be set up exactly as promised at booking. I'd rather not poke too much before it's confirmed that the problem exists. Worst case scenario, we'll modify what we order, or pay a la carte. Or I'll have my 18-year-old order premium non-alc for me with her fancy Zaro Proof card. Those gen-Zers are finally good for something lol

Fingers crossed Celebrity already has the procedure in place for custom packages and it's a matter of data entry, no need to involve the IT department :). Thanks for clarifying about sparkling water and juice! Back in January I asked the phone rep about San Pellegrino, Perrier, or similar, as well as bottled still water. The answer was "yes, everything non-alcoholic is now included in the Classic package". She wasn't sure about smoothies and went to ask somebody, then a few moments later said yes to that too. That was a little sus as people here were saying the opposite, but figured it would be a nice bonus if the rep was right and smoothies were also included. I heard that smoothies weren't that great, but DH is a vegan and he may go for those. Later I mentioned to her how it was a little hard to figure out what the new info was vs what was left over from 2022. She said they had just made changes to the packages beginning of 2023, like the price of the Classic package went up but it now included "everything non-alcoholic". That made sense.

Of course not, he/she will be mixing my drinks for the next 4 days 🙂 This is likely a non-issue and everything's just fine. If there happen to be inconsistencies, shouldn't amount to too much $$, may or may not be worth a phone call when we get back home.

Well, when I was booking our March cruise in January, I called Celebrity to confirm that sparkling water and juices would indeed be included if we chose "all included" and they said YES. Either the rep was reading the info off of their website, or their internal documents also had Zero Proof included in Classic at that time (1/20). I've done my due diligence so I fully expect our cards to be coded according to how the package was sold to me. The cost of going with AI vs cabin only was actually a couple of dollars less than adding separate gratuities, wifi, and zero proof package, so it was a really good deal to get a Classic package for less than the cost of Zero Proof. If they make me pay for bottled water after all, I won't be happy, but we'll still be ahead. Re grandfathering, should be fairly easy to implement as their database includes the price and category for each drink, among other things. The passenger card is what decides if that drink will ring up as a $0 or some other value. Each card could be easily coded to include or exclude whatever is needed in any combination, not just current packages (Premium, Classic, Zero Proof, or None), but unlimited versions of each. I really hope that's how things already are and it won't be a fight for any of us to receive what we purchased.

I was just trying to figure that out as well, here is the side-by-side info from the web site. Pdf file HERE. Good to hear that Classic seems to be most people's best fit after all.