PH2

From what I've read, I think it's being questioned for two reasons: (1) at least one or more Apex Caribbean itineraries in the fall have been adjusted, and (2) no other line has made itinerary changes if this is some sort of Norway regulation that affects all lines. What follows from those points seems to be mostly speculation as to why this might not be just a Norway speed restriction regulation issue.

I absolutely hate that Celebrity charges more for refundable. I don't see many other mainstream lines use this practice (although maybe a couple do? I don't price out tons of cruises on every line). So, question... has anyone booked a cruise speculatively on a refundable deposit, and then when they are sure they are going to go, been able to cancel and rebook the same the cabin as nonrefundable? Does the cabin come open quickly to rebook? I realize there is an element of chance in this, but can someone be successful in doing this?

Same with our offers. It's just that none of them make any sense to bid on.

Isn't the point for them to fill more expensive cabins? When you have 30 open cabins and you are charging the same amount as if one simply booked it, today, on the website - but the move up price doesn't include the All Included perks - I don't really understand the point. Unless people in Inside or Oceanview rooms are getting better deals to move up than those with IVs or who are already in the Retreat.

Thanks, that's a good point. I chose to book "cheap" for this one (it's just a 4 day cruise as part of a larger vacation), and I wanted to see if we could tolerate the IV for 4 days which would tell me whether we'll sail Edge class in the future (Retreat is pricing us out at the moment), but I thought maybe we could sneak into the Retreat on a bit of a bargain if everything went right. But the minimum bid is way too high. I probably overshot the cost, because i looked at the final price which would include the port fees again, but without the beverage package, wifi, and points, it's an even worse deal to move up taking it all into account! We'll probably just stick with IV and see how much we hate it, lol. Do they ever revise their Move Up pricing? 30 open suites seems like a lot.

I'm going to ask this question here instead of the thread I posted it in, and instead of the "no questions" move up thread... I have a Move Up question related to the Retreat... I have a Concierge Class cabin for an upcoming Apex cruise. I received a Move Up bid offer this afternoon, and the minimum bids for every Retreat cabin, if I double the per person rate and add it to what I've already paid for my cabin, are basically the exact same cost, or at best, maybe a couple hundred dollars better, than if I just booked those cabins straight away without going through the bidding process. Is that the way these are usually priced? Doing a quick fake booking, I counted 30 open Sky Suites, yet the lowest bid I can put in to "move up" would essentially cost me the same as a full price booking for that suite? Why would I do that? Regret that I didn't pull the trigger when I originally booked?

Nevermind... moved to another thread.

I literally received a Move Up email moments ago and was coming here looking for the answer to a question of my own. Here's what my email says: We're excited to let you know that you may be eligible for a stateroom upgrade on your upcoming Celebrity Apex cruise. When you book one of our extraordinary suites, you get access to The Retreat®, which has a private restaurant, an exclusive lounge that rivals any high-end resort, personalized butler service, a dedicated concierge, and much more

No need to self-shame, lol, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing a change to how things worked in September for our upcoming cruise. My laptop is mostly for work - which I try to minimize as much as possible on vacation - so I don't switch back and forth as often as you probably do. In fact, I wish it was harder to switch, then I might not check in with work as much!

I just got the email for our 4-day cruise in May on Apex. I had already purchased premium WiFi for both of us at $16/day per person. This is $35 a day per person. No thanks. As an aside, why do so many people buy the 2 device WiFi? I've been on a couple of cruises (including Celebrity) where it's no big deal to switch devices (for me, phone to laptop and back) - that's part of the 1 device access, it's just one device at a time. This didn't change, did it?

The likely reason the credit card thing is only US is because (up until now, fortunately), we don't have caps on credit card exchange fees. So, banks and travel brands are ultra-aggressive on jointly making money from rewards programs. The majority of airline profits are driven by their loyalty programs - partnering with banks and selling rewards for offer through credit card programs. It's much like how, for years, retailers like Circuit City, CompUSA, Best Buy, etc., all made their profit from the sale of service contracts (extended warranties). When the economy dropped a bit and those sales largely went away, so did CC and CUSA. BBY is moving into areas like healthcare to find new profit areas because they've squeezed as much as they can out of their warranty programs. Anyway, compared to many other travel-related credit cards, what I've seen of cruise line credit cards is totally underwhelming. Just no compelling reason to get one unless, I guess, you are a cruise lifer dedicated to one brand. Otherwise, there's way more value in Chase or AmEx points for travel-related expenses.

Looks like an announcement of Fall/Winter 25/26 itineraries, but not Europe Summer 2026 yet. https://www.ncl.com/newsroom/norwegian-cruise-line-reveals-new-fall-and-winter-202526-sailings

Agreed. Since last year's announcement was on Wednesday, December 7th, I was planning to check today.

Oh wow, wasn't expecting it that soon. Thanks!

I know each cruise line has their own schedule for when they release new seasonal itineraries. For instance, Celebrity just released Europe 2025 itineraries, and I know I've seen Norwegian Europe 2025 itineraries for months. Based on history, does anyone know when Norwegian typically releases a new season? I'm specifically looking for Europe 2026 because our younger daughter will be graduating from college and we are thinking about a Mediterranean cruise to celebrate, and I think Norwegian is probably the best fit for her and us. I've seen Europe 2025 itineraries for quite some time on Norwegian's site so I'm guessing maybe late spring? What's typical?

Gotta hand it to the marketing coordination here. Release the new Europe itineraries during the inflated Black Friday sale AND have people pay extra for refundable deposits in case they want to gamble that prices will inevitably come back down.

I can sign in just fine, but when I try to access certain areas of my recent reservation, I keep getting a "Reservation number is locked. Try again later." error message. This is after clicking "Manage Reservation" and then trying to click anything else. After that, I can't even click "Manage reservation" without getting the error.

I have been tracking prices and booked as soon as I saw the $50 pre-Black Friday bonus. Good thing I did because price is now about $150 more for the same cabin on a 4 day sailing. I didn't get the absolute lowest price, but I got a decent price and the Black Friday deal is definitely worse across the board, from what I can see. I assume these sales are meant more for a general audience looking for "deals" than CC members who meticulously track prices on a weekly basis.

This would seem to make sense only for the internet upgrade if you aren't doing AI but planned on purchasing the Premium WiFi. That's $26/day per person as it is. So if you find another $6/day of value out of the rest, it might be worth it.

Definitely following this thread. We booked flights during the summer for May 18-28, 2024 to and from Heathrow and have already booked 4 nights in London. We were either going to travel to Paris and spend 4 nights in Paris and then return for our flight home or take the Celebrity Apex 4-night cruise to Amsterdam and Bruges, and we chose the latter. So now I need to figure out transportation for 2 to/from Southampton. We don't leave until the day following our cruise, so if we have a full day for sightseeing tours on the way back from Southampton, can someone suggest the best options? Also, is there any car/bus service and tour company that is considered the best?

Well the email says to add the promo code "at checkout" and I know I take things literally most of the time, but that would seem to suggest to pretty much anyone that it gets added at the end of the booking, not beginning. But I found it. The fare was the exact same with or without the coupon, just $25 for each passenger was subtracted from the fare with the coupon. I'll take what I can get before fares go any higher.

Nevermind, I accidentally found it. It's on the page where you choose the number of passengers. Counter-intuitive, but whatever.

Yes, you do. But here's the question - where do you add the promo code? I'm doing a mock booking and I cannot find any place to add the promo code to the booking.

Right, but we don't drink coffee and have no problem filling tumblers with ice and water at the buffet. I appreciate bottled water, but it isn't necessary. On Celebrity in Retreat we were served Evian at every meal but I could have easily done without and just had regular ice water. So, I don't put much value in those benefits of the package, which is why I'm hedging on whether it's worth $1400 for mainly WiFi, gratuities and a couple of drinks.

Thanks everyone for their comments. We have plenty of time to decide but for now, I think I'm going to hold off. We have only been on 2 other cruises, drastically different. First was a Caribbean cruise on Carnival. Everything was a la carte, so we brought tumblers to fill with water every day, didn't drink pop except maybe once or twice, I think? Had a couple of mixed drinks each on a 6 night cruise - $12 each as I recall. We don't drink coffee just tea, and tea was available in the buffet every morning so we made sure to have our fill when we could. We survived just fine. Second cruise (just about a month ago) was an Alaska cruise on Celebrity in Retreat. Unlimited everything. We definitely took advantage of that by drinking more and having tea and Cokes whenever we wanted, mainly because we could and we paid for it, so why not get our money's worth? So, I think we're flexible enough to be happy either way. Wildcard here might be that it's a 12 night cruise and possibly worth getting the package because there's more downtime with sea days and more opportunities to drink and enjoy some of the extras. We specifically booked this cruise to test out how much we might like a longer cruise compared to the standard 6/7 day cruises. Both of those cruises were tons of fun but went so fast. By the time we were ready to relax a bit after 3 port days, it was over. Anyway, good to think it all through...