mahdnc

Well, we weren't 55 years old when we started with Celebrity 30 years ago!

delete (off topic)

Nothing really new although it is interesting to see all the information in one place concerning the varying cruise discounts/incentives that Celebrity is offering until July 15. Here is a link to the flyer itself which also has a couple of buttons on it which allow you to download the list to see the specific sailings that are eligible for it. It looks like Thursdays (except for the 4th of July) are the worst days to book.

Unless they offer a 90% discount, I can't afford an Atmos.

The 20% discount is likely for specific sailings. Here is what I see for my Apr 2025 Solstice sailing: The pricing has gone up quite a bit since COVID. When we sailed on Solstice back in Dec 2019, the Hot Glass Class For Two Guests was $107 total. BTW, the Captains Club discount itself is 5% regardless of loyalty level.

The number and variety of your vacations are amazing.

Yes, the forward facing ocean view cabins on Reflection have the slanted window however the cabin is quite spacious. There is some noise and vibration during port maneuvers. The loudest sounds (and I think it is very pronounced for Deck 7 forward cabins vs Deck 8 where we have been) is from the dropping and raising of the anchor.

It used to be that my family would never hear that request. Now we hear it regularly during the last night of the cruise.

Again, you are very welcome and I am glad you were able to get a cabin on Flora. Before COVID our two kids cruised with us--14 times--and always in one cabin, so yes, we loved the UV for the extra space. Because they are forward cabins, there is more motion--nothing bad. There is also more noise when the ship is dropping anchor. But their forward position also meant that these cabins had two large windows looking out over the ship's bow in addition to the balcony located on either the port or starboard side of the ship. To me the biggest drawback with a MoveUp bid for one of these cabins is that you don't know if you are going to get a UV cabin on Deck 7 or 8 because there is a difference. Deck 7 UVs are a little smaller on the inside compared to Deck 8 (not a big deal) and have a smaller balcony (big deal). The first photo below shows the Eclipse UV balcony for Deck 7 (blue) and Deck 8 (red). You can immediately see the balcony size difference. The Deck 8 UV balcony is actually larger than a standard balcony on the side of the ship which is also apparent in the photo. Eclipse anchored at St. Thomas on Jan 8, 2014.

Ultra Deluxe Veranda (UV) were formerly categorized as Family Cabins when Eclipse and her sisters ships first came out. It is very spacious and furnished to sleep up to 5 people. The UV cabin comes with a separate master bedroom and a 2nd bedroom (with 2 bunk beds)--but only one bathroom and it is the standard bathroom that you find in all non-suite cabins. There are a total of four of these cabins on Eclipse--two on Deck 7 and two on Deck 8. The cabins are all the way forward at the starboard and port corners. Here is a floor plan and photos for one that we stayed in on Reflection which has the same cabin size and room layout but has more furniture than Eclipse:

When I have talked to crew about their work histories and preferences, it seems like individual tastes are more at play as to which ships they prefer and not so much career planning. For a while, the new ships were in favor (Horizon vs Century vs Millennium) because the crew quarters were improved with each new ship class. Lately it seems to be ship size that is important. But all of my comments and observations are based on a very limited sample size and what the crew are really willing to share with me.

Same here.

We are not thinking of leaving Celebrity when it comes to cruises, but the recent changes in pricing and other things have us thinking about going back to traditional land vacations (e.g. US national parks).

I guess, in a way, you live in a glass house.

Very cool, but it needs a companion piece (sorry, the nice glass clock doesn't count).

Taking a cruise to escape real life.

Excellent!

Available any time they are open, not just CC Happy Hour.

I agree with Arzeena. We did our only move up from a balcony to Aqua for our 12 night Asia sailing on Solstice. When the our A2 cabin was assigned about a month before the sailing, our Cruise Planner showed us getting 60 Club Points (5 points/night) instead of 36 (3 points/night). But as per the MoveUp rules, when our cruise was completed, we were awarded 36 points (screenshot).

If only Celebrity's email notification of PUPs were reliable, some people wouldn't have to subscribe to this thread!

Most people on this forum will not go to a lot of trouble to cheat the system for a couple of Club Points. But if we’ve been wronged by the system, we’ll go the extra mile to correct it.

There seems to be far more complaints about this PUP activity not appearing in people’s totals which is not good. For me the lag between seeing the PUP activity showing up in my Points History and being reflected in my Club Points Total is a matter of a few hours every time that I can remember. I’m surprised at the large variation in that lag being reported by others.

What’s funny is that “non-corner” Sunset Suites have the exact same balcony dimensions as the balconies for the Sunset Verandas on the same deck. This is for M class ships. You may not what to confuse them with the facts or risk the loungers being taken away from the Sunset Suites, too.

lol. I didn't ask what the number was!

The date stamp of the email is visible in the link. The letter was sent on Nov 23 for our Dec 22 sailing. In my opinion it was sent out early enough for people to get their visas in time before the cruise--for those of us that didn't have a ton of vacation before the cruise. The Vietnam visa took about 2-3 business days to turnaround but I had to submit it twice because I did not enter my name exactly as it appeared in my passport during the first attempt (where my first name and middle name are run together on my passport and appear as one single first name). I got it on the second try. However I like to get the visa stuff done a little early and so I completed it in late October. And then 3 weeks later I get the email from Celebrity which includes suggestions/instructions on how to fill out each field in the Vietnam visa online application form which would have been nice to have to begin with. I didn't know whether a multiple entry or single entry visa was needed for our multiple port cruise. So I played it safe and made a multiple entry visa application which is more expensive but the letter I got later said that a single entry visa was sufficient. So in that sense, the email was sent to me too late. In some ways, it's a no-win situation for Celebrity. Send it too early and there are some recipients that will set it aside to take care of later and then they forget. Send it too late is another understandable problem. In the end, I was astounded by the apparent number of passengers that did not have their Vietnam visa when they boarded Solstice. Then again, if you assume that 1 out of 29 passengers don't have their visa on a ship that can carry 2900 passengers (this was a Christmas cruise), that's still a lot of people. I don't know the actual count, but when I went to Guest Relations, it was crowded and you could hear the GR officer say something like, "Sorry, sir, nothing yet, these things can take a couple of business days and we have not control over that. Check back tomorrow". As we were key carding out as we got off the ship, I could hear the security officer say to a woman who was standing by herself and not allowed to get off the ship, "no, your visa is not ready yet, that is all I know, you'll need to talk to Guest Relations... blah blah blah"