cruzrbachoua

Is there still the issue with soot on the balconies on aft facing balconies on the Regal and Royal ships?  We love those on the Grand class..but have heard horrible stories of the soot issue on the newer ships? 

On 6/9/2024 at 1:25 PM, cusematt4 said:

Connoisseur Alaska tour guide question - hi all, have a question about this pre or post cruise tour.

 

So far it’s been enjoyable, especially the meals.  But I’m confused as to what the guide does and why the recommended tip is $10/day pp.

 

Other than riding on the bus with us and offering to make dinner reservations (which we are doing on our own very quickly and easily after day one) we don’t interact with the guide.  There are no guide organized activities at the lodges nor does the guide do anything compared to if we were on our own.  

 

On days we aren’t on the bus we don’t see nor interact with the guide.  We are all for tipping and tipping the max for awesome service, but we are confused what the guide does and why we would tip the full amount for zero service or interaction.  Curious what others think and have done.

 

This is nothing against the guide him/herself, but there just doesn’t seem to be a need for one or a purpose.  We would rather put the money towards the employees we are interacting with and who are showing us around, helping with our luggage, etc.  on the hotel only on your own days, we go days without seeing the guide until the next transfer and bus ride.  The guide allegedly is available for questions, but everything is planned out and there’s not really anything we could think we’d have a question about or need help with.  The bus driver does all the talking during the rides.

 

Thanks so much.

I feel you may have our guide.  We did tip at the end but after we did I asked myself this same question..what exactly did he do.  He gave us our welcome packet with the itinerary for each day, made one reservation at one lodge at the other he claimed they were all full for the day/time we wanted.  We got to the lodge and went right there had a table for the day and time we wanted for our group.  He did none of the talking on the bus he just sat there napping it looked to me. When he did speak he kept talking about this being the end of his season and couldn't wait to leave/get home.  We spoke to him maybe 3 times the last being when he came down the train to get his tips.  We did tip but in the end I was like for what...I say go with your gut..if you feel he is not doing anything ie, dinner reservations, helping with any medical needs etc...then don't do the full recommended tip and and do what you think he may have done on the backend which probably gather the documents and helped get everyone on the right bus etc. I wish we had gone with ours and tipped less than what we did. 

Same thing, sorta, happened with Hawaii.  They removed Lahaina (rightfully so) and replaced it with Kahului ship sails September and still no excursions for it.  We sail in Feb 25 but was hoping since the Sept cruise was so close the tours would be open but sadly not yet. 

9 hours ago, osborne66 said:

Just bring your own cans onboard and save money 

 

We used to do that but sadly as we have aged we are not capable of carrying the water and/or soda on board.  it was a bit easier when we could tag a case of water and send it through with the big luggage but that is not allowed anymore and it is even hard for us to pick up and transport around.

3 minutes ago, TGfromTX said:

I don't work for the cruise line, but I have a 6 night cruise & they all seem to multiply by 6 for me.  I don't know the other answers, so hopefully someone else will respond.  I would expect a script runs upon connection that blocks you from setting up a hotspot and sharing the connection.  I don't see anything about per room or passenger - they all seem to indicate per device.

Great thanks that is what I thought and that they just changed the wording.  This helps make our decisions. 

Sorry one other question...can just one person in the cabin buy the wifi pkg ..say like the 2 device one and as long as my DH logs on with my log on we can both be on our devices at the same time?

thank you sooo much...but odd question..the first one states per day the others per night...assuming per night is the same as per day and not that we can only use it at night right?

@TGfromTX thank you for the screen shot...i know this is not beverage related but is there also any screen shots of the wifi costs?  Trying to decide if it is worth it for the AI pkg or do buy drinks as we need and purchase wifi for the trip on its own. 

I see in some of these photos that there are bottled water packages to buy but some of the prices are cut off?  Are there only the 2 acqua panna and sparkling or are there others?  We normally cruise princess and they had a 12 pk of crystal geyser water for $8...does Celebrity have anything like that?

We did this tour in September last year.  Our tour guide was horrible.  He made some of the reservations for dinner by the last lodge he said he did his best and if we didn't like the time suggested we call as that was all that was available.  got there and got the day and time we wanted no problem so don't think he worked to hard trying to help his folks.  Kept talking about this was his last trip before heading home, didn't narrate anything...so not all guides are great!

2 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

 

My wish for Princess would be to include Ocean now activation and phoning room service free of charge for those in full suites so they might use the included perk of ordering MDR to the room. 
 

We were in a suite in 2023 to Alaska and had the older pkg that didn't include these benefits and we still ordered MDR food to the room and were not charged the room svc fee.

anyone have an idea when the ferries open their schedule past 4/7/24?  we will be there 4/10 and trying to plan our day on the ferry schedule to Sausalito.

yes

5 minutes ago, voljeep said:

I'm sure you have your reasons, OBC, etc, but short, less than 7 days, are a perfect time to utilize the PLUS or even Premier packages - Premier having 2 Specialty dinners included and the unlimited casual

Correct we have our reasons, it is short, and a colder cruise so we wouldn't be doing the froofroo adult drinks we normally do...also while short most is ports so not alot of time on board to be drinking tea or hot cocoa since we cant take it off with us..so we did the math and realized our OBC would take care of any tea or hot cocoa we wanted, and if we decided to do the delivery app it covered that as well as tips and anything else we needed to or wanted to buy...my main point was we have no pkg yet the old and new app both show we have the plus pkg...

I have a cruise booked with no package as it is a short one...but according to the app I have the pkg...

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

within your group, how were the cabins assigned at the lodges?  did cruise 'suite' guests get better cabins? 

No suite guests did not...in our group we were in a full suite and our friends were in a balcony and another couple we met on the bus was also in a balcony...at the Hotel in Anchorage we had a room with 2 full beds our friends had a queen the other couple had  a suite, the first lodge again we had 2 full beds friends had a queen as did the other couple.  finally at the last lodge we had a queen bed.  the first 2 claimed we had 2 queens but they were not the size of our queen at home so that is why I think they were fulls the first 3 nights of our trip we slept separately...which was a bit frustrating as it was our anniversary celebration.   

Also on the longer tour as Tranquility Base stated due to the rock slide it is closed...but also depending on when you go you still may not get it.  We went early September and due to early snowfall they dropped us back down to the shorter tour.  We did get refunded the difference.  We did see 2 moose while in the park, one was pretty close the bus guide said that was probably because it was mating season and he was heading to go find him a lady friend.  Sadly our main guide was not all that great as this was his last trip so I feel he was kind of tuned out and ready to go home.  But the savings on the food portion is worth it...never truly knew how expensive food was up there, so knowing you can just order any entrée was good..didn't have to think about that.   

4 minutes ago, Torfamm said:

I wonder how heavy they are and if they are easy to set up.

All the times we have been there the staff at the rental center has set up the clamshells so I would think that they would haul the umbrellas out to where you wanted and set up the umbrella...it could be a liability issue if the guests did it and got injured while lugging and/or setting up the umbrella...just a thought.

We are on the Grand in Feb of 2025 and it shows the CG at $63 and Sabatini's at $55..but for our Ruby cruise in April of this year it is the $39 and $35 pricing.  

Anybody figure out on the new app how to see all sailings. If I log in with email and pw it only shows the one this april in order to see the 2025 cruise i have to log out and log in with booking # and that is not a # i know by heart...

We just did a land tour before our cruise.  We did the 12-Day Connoisseur Escorted.  We flew into Anchorage stayed the night in a hotel, then took a bus to Mt Mckinley stayed 2 nights and the rooms can be far from the main lodge where the dinner areas are at...with some being hills.  Next we boarded a train to Denali lodge stayed for 2 nights...again the rooms are further out from the lodge main area with dining.  There is a path that was a bit of a hill that ran behind the rooms and lodge...from there we took a bus to the train depot to board the train for the 9 hour train ride down to Whittier.  In our train we had to go up some narrow stairs to get to our seats and the lunch car was downstairs.  I did see they had a small lift of sorts and tried to use it for one of the passengers but the issue was they couldn't find the right key.  Bottom line is on the train there could be narrow steep stairs leading to and from your seats.  There were handrails on each side to hold onto though. I hope this helps..if you have any other questions please ask. 

here is a pics from our aft suite on the Grand Princess in September of this year for both glacier sailing days..sorry I can't get the first one to rotate

8 hours ago, 563toM said:

We are planning our first trip there and also waiting for the cruises to be posted.  I was interested in visiting in May over June/July because I don't want a lot of children onboard and not as hot.  Can I ask what month you cruised and were there a lot of children ?

Our first time we went in August which it looks like they don't do anymore.  It was for sure warm to hot but at that time we loved it.  Now we are looking for a bit more mild conditions.  Our friends said they loved June as it was not as hot as July.  We didn't see a ton of kids on board our ship but a Royal Caribbean docked behind us and that one was full of kids so they will be in port. 

We just got off the grand 9/23..we paid the $14.99 and ordered tea and food to our room via the app no charge.  Only one of us paid for the app use and I was able to order us both teas and food and they brought it to our room.

Great thank you so much.  We had been once before and couldn't remember when they typically opened as that trip was a last minute choice..and love it. 

Does anyone know when Celebrity will open the schedule for Bermuda in 2025?