C-Ya

I just booked the cruise on the website. Celebrity Beyond Dec 11th 2023 11 nights Sunset Veranda - $6240 with a $450 OBC (All Inclusive package) $900 deposit (went the non refundable route) At least we won’t have any airfare. We live 25 minutes from port. So there’s some savings! Lol

Hi Everyone, I am wondering if the is any advice to booking a future cruise? My wife and I recently did a Mediterranean cruise on the Celebrity Edge and we fell in love with Celebrity Cruises. We booked that trip by just calling the Celebrity phone number and booking with their agent. We got the Sunset Veranda we wanted, but later realized that we got NO onboard credit whatsoever. We are looking at booking a cruise on Celebrity Beyond for next year. We see the commercials on TV in which Celebrity is offering 75% off second passenger, along with a $800 per cabin, onboard credit. Is this going to be my best deal? My main curiosity is…….. what are the advantages of using a travel agent for the Beyond booking, or other future cruises. I know this is a touchy subject on this site. However, I am not asking this question because I am looking for a travel agent. I am asking because I honestly don’t know why I would want to use a travel agent, when I can just call the cruise line directly. We would like to continue to cruise for many years, but right now, I don’t think we are getting the same discounts others get, because we lack the knowledge on how to best book the cruise? Thank you for anything you think we should know. PS We both have jobs that keep us from being able to spend endless hours researching the above. So how do get the best deal on booking the Celebrity Beyond for a 11 day cruise, next December?

I am stalking info on world cruises. Your post blew me away. It was so well written and to the point. Thank you for reminding me of things I need to do. Your post is perfect! I might actually copy it so that I can pass on your advice to the young bucs in my boating forums. It is great advice! You might see me again. I’ve only just started researching going around the world, but based on our financial planning, it just one of many options that my wife and I have. Thank you again! C-Ya

Here are a couple of pics from Sunset Veranda cabin #12265 on the Edge. The deck above in a NON-Issue. These are pics from balcony looking up.

We just got back from May Edge sailing from Rome. We flew into Rome on the same day as cruise departed. We landed at 11:30 and we’re in Bob’s Limo by noon. However, we did this cruise with only carry on luggage, so I have no idea how much time that ads. We got to ship around 1 pm and literally walked right on. Maybe 10 minutes max? We were appreciative of this. It was super easy. When we were departing ship. There were people waiting to get on. Their wait was self imposed, since they were so early. My advice is to not come early and allow time for the early birds to get on board. If you time this right, you too will just casually stroll onto ship! Here is why you should take my hotel advice with a grain of salt. We only spent 1 night. It’s the only hotel in Rome we ever stayed, so we have nothing to compare it to. BUT…….. It was perfect! 1 block to train terminal. Walking distance to all the tour starting points. Convenience store next door. Refrigerator in room, along with a coffee maker. Our own personal balcony with table and chairs. Ultra modern room. King Bed. Huge and I mean HUGE shower and bathroom. But here’s its best feature…….. a 9th floor roof top bar and restaurant that overlooks Rome. We spent hours enjoying the view! It’s called the Independent Hotel. Approx $200 per night. We did buy so many souvenirs while on this trip, that we ended up having to check a bag to go home. We regretted this. We waited almost 2 hours at the baggage claim to retrieve it. Even with just carry ons…….. we still felt like we over packed. Both of us still had a myriad of items we did not wear.

My wife and I just got off the Edge in early May. Italy/Greece. We were in Sunset Veranda suite 12265. Right in middle of aft deck. The Buffett is not above these suites. What is above, is the outside deck of the Pizza Station. If somebody is on that area above, that can see you, but only if you are at the rail of your balcony. It’s nice and big, so you can easily sit under covered area and have complete privacy. We also had many conversations with others while on balcony. You can easily look down on the lower suites and converse with the occupants, which we did at multiple ports. It was a fun way to get to know others. The only time we would briefly hear anything was when somebody moved a chair above, which believe it or not, was not very often. The ships cleaning staff were the biggest offenders. However, is was literally a non issue and we would book this suite again with no hesitation whatsoever. I completely disagree with those that believe this is a bad floor. But let’s face it, this website has become a place in which minor details get blown out of proportion. This thread being a perfect example. This really is a non issue. But reading the responses, you would think the 12th floor is completely noisy, with nobody getting sleep and constantly being interrupted by noise, which could not be any further from the truth. The only negative is the long walk to elevator or stairs, which did not bother us at all. It blows away an Infinite verandah suite IMO.

I’ll find all the info tomorrow and PM it to you. It’s not a tour. It’s a photo shoot that just happens to turn into a tour of the island. One funny part…….. there’s all these people hiking up this trail with many taking a break at the top. Not us…… we drove up that hill and felt great when we got to the top. It was a church. It was a church. I will ad photo in next post.

We just sailed on Edge in early May. 3 weeks ago. We too had a private tour booked. We were in Santorini ship time, 12 to 9. We left ship at 1pm to make our 2pm tour. It was close, but we made it with 10 min to spare. Most of our time was spent waiting in line for cable car. Some of our cruisers hiked up, but they said they were exhausted afterwards. We did a Flying Dress Photo Shoot, in which we toured the entire island by private Mercedes Van. The driver was awesome because he would climb dirt roads with the van, so had minimal walking to unbelievable views. We ended up with a few pics in which our cruise ship is in the background of the spectacular view. One thing that I should note. We spent most of our day being pampered with private transportation, BUT, when we checked our walking APP on our phone, later in the cruise. We found out that we climbed 32 stories of steps alone. In Athens we went to Acropolis and the mountain a few miles behind it, and only climber 20 stories that day, for comparison. But to be fair, our photographer recommended a restaurant that was quite the climb down to. But we were rewarded by having the entire covered balcony to ourselves, while being served great food and drink! The climb home from there was sections of stairs that went from 4 to 6 stories of steps on a single run. From the bottom, it looked even higher! My feet hurt just remembering. One last thing……. You realize that Viator is a third party website? Book direct and have the confidence that you can get somebody on phone if tour is not there. Viator’s 800 number takes too long, especially if the operator is acting as a go-between with delayed or lost tour.