SFCAcruiser

Hello. To which "event" are you referring?

They do indeed give you that free penny for every 49.99 purchase; spend it wisely. $499.90 got me $550 in promotional chips.

BCC free cruises also included some cruises in Caribbean, and a few 10 and 11- night Edge cruises, which "sold out" quickly.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but as I understand your situation, you and partner have been getting the "real" BCC offers for true gamblers. The bulk of the discussions on these multiple threads has been about the free verandah that has been offered to us small-time ("Pearl") gamblers. The "real" BCC comped cruises are more generous than the no-frills offers the rest of us have gotten. Is that a reasonable summary?

You might have luck with this link to the Celebrity site

From the offer I received: Table Play Casino Chip Offer (“Offer”) applies to purchases made via Cruise Planner no less than three days prior to cruise departure. For every pre-cruise package purchase, a guest will receive 10% added value. Offer limit up to 10 per person per sailing.

Complimentary coffees (non-alcoholic) have been available long before we knew the word Covid. No need to include the special coffees in your Bev package calculations. Also do not forget about the morning Captain's Club breakfast for E and higher tiers. A few alcohol beverages (Bloody Mary, Screwdriver, Bellini) are free at that venue, 8-10am. There will be a list in your cabin providing the locations and times of various E+ events.

I have read just about all of the BCC posts over the past 5 months and I gather that the price varies, depending upon the cruise and perhaps even upon the agent with whom you speak. We were charged $10 pp/day when we booked a couple of months ago into Aqua class. But it is irrelevant what we paid, since BCC sets the price to whatever they want it to be. It might be worth your time to call again and you may get a different agent. Or wait until closer to sail date to try again.

Thank you for this guidance. Caribbean cruises do not normally interest me, so I did not get to the "click here" stage. When I clicked, I did indeed see a long list of cruises. Thanks.

Short answer - Nobody knows. Several similar threads have been posted over the last few months and there is no rhyme or reason to the offers. All we recipients have been able to determine is that, ironically, these offers have nothing to do with gambling. Few of us, if any at all, receiving this offer, are big gamblers.

I assume different people got different availabilities. My offer arrived this morning and listed a total of six cruises, only one of which was Edge (March).

i was surprised to see Southwest listed as an option with "Wanna get away" fares when I was looking for flights from SFO to LAX recently. Southwest flights do not appear on any other flight search sites, so FBC has made some deal with this airline.

I have a FCC, not related to Venice, and it states: Any booking made using this FCC must be used for a sailing that commences on or before the expiration date listed above (My FCC expiration date is October 31 2023)

Do not forget that these nights are what we used to call formal.

It wasn't clear to me in the article if the Fever Tree tonic will be available throughout the ship or only in the Pinnacle Grill as part of the featured signature G & T. Last time I had FT was on Crystal last year. It would be interesting is a mass market line like HAL uses it at all bars.

Thanks for the review. I enjoy reading the perspectives of a first-timer on Celebrity. I am on Solstice in a few weeks, so I appreciated you taking the time to write. Your comments were a reminder to me that we are all different and have different reasons for cruising. I've done a couple of RC cruises and prefer Celebrity, but would certainly sail RC again for the right itinerary. (Went to grad school at that place on East Hill) Happy cruising.

So, the answer to your question is "maybe"; depends on the port. Perhaps someone with experience at Milford, Wales can provide specific guidance . As mentioned, Bordeaux dock for Azamara is downtown, close to the river boats. If you enjoy public transportation in Bordeaux, the local tram stops across the street from Azamara dock and offers a 24- hour travel pass for €5. I believe the large ships dock much father away (3km?)

I used my Resmed CPAP in Amsterdam last month. I suspect other major brands operate in a similar way. All I needed was a European plug adapter, which costs just a couple of dollars at my local hardware store. As you know, UK will require a different plug adapter, which is a little more expensive. No need for an electric current converter for most travelers - the machines use 220 or 110v automatically - CPAP, phone, iPad and camera (who remembers those? 😜)

You have been given a lot of cabin advice, but you have not told us how you define "best". Which is better, apples or oranges?

You might want to take another look at the link in post #2 above. Your understanding of the new policy may apply to your cruises, but certainly not to any cruise leaving the US, as noted in post #3. I mention this as a caution to other readers.

In my experience, the only port that did not allow self-disembarkation was Buenos Aires. There may be other such ports somewhere in the world, but other posters will have to identify them.

We did this several (~4-5) years ago, and we did not pay the full price since they were discounting onboard. Those "discount" promotions may be over. For what we paid, we had a pleasant, amusing dinner. As others have posted, it was a one and done event for us and we would likely not repeat the experience, although there was nothing wrong with our dinner. Since you (OP) has not tried this dining experience, I suggest you give it a go.

Many of us have stated we are not big gamblers, perhaps gambling <$50 the entire cruise. The true big gamblers get separate and richer offers from BCC, and those offers have been going on for quite some time and are not what this particular thread is about. My opinion is that these offers are a form of a clearance sale by X and for whatever reason X has decided to run this sale through BCC, perhaps to protect the price integrity for the published fares? I have inferred that there is no "rhyme or reason" as to who gets the offers. Some of us are E+ and some are new to X. As others have posted: "Go figure".

Heike has a new position with Explora Journeys, which appears to be a new cruise company that will begin sailing in May 2023. Heike will be "General Manager - shipboard" and I guess this is a land-based position in charge of the shipboard experience (??)

If I may ask a follow-up question..... I have T-Mobile and have used it on land in Europe and other continents without problems or charges. My question has to do with the onboard experience. With T-Mobile, is it necessary to switch the phone to "airplane mode" (or turn it off) while cruising in order to avoid roaming charges?