kirtihk

Nice to hear about Seadream. We've been on Seabourn Venture (a new ship) expedition cruise (264 passengers): it's basically what you described about Seadream. We booked the Seabourn Pursuit (another new ship started cruising just a few weeks ago, the same size as Venture) expedition cruise for next April while on board.

Only if one makes a quote on the day prior to the day of the tips removal from the "All Included" option.

The Retreat is not (and wan not) close, because (as I say) on Regent the entire ship is for your dispose regardless of a cabin category, and it has the highest "ship passenger to space" ratio.

I came back from a cruise a few days ago. I always look at the source web site for an actual information. I've just saw this thread, looked on the Celebrity web site, and I don't see "the change announced by Celebrity for new bookings after October 3" there.

So, it appears as the past 10-15 years' Choose 1 or choose 2 or sometimes choose 3 from the list of 4 promotions. Games, games, games. The bottom line is to make a decision which cruise and with what cruise line to choose, as always, one needs to calculate the whole booking "picture" (price, included and not included extra items, potential OBC, itinerary, number of cruise days, cabin category, refund/OBC from TA, excursions prices, and such).

So, will it be only drinks and Wi-Fi or something else replacing tips?

Do you know whether it will affect currently booked itinerary? We've booked (a few months ago) a March 3, 2025 Millenium cruise in Aqua category.

We've been in Shetlands (August); the high temperature was 48 F. The island (including ponies) was beautiful.

Where is the gratuities not shown anymore? I still see them today in the "All Include" rate on the Celebrity web site: Get our most popular amenities—drinks, Wi-Fi, and tips—prepackaged when you add All Included.

A game of words

It is not; it is a simple arithmetic calculation - if a country has no tipping “culture”, restaurant employees would get whatever agreed upon salary, and a food item’s price would include a prorated portion of what would be a tip amount (and tax, by the way, too) in US. If a customer accept (l purposely did not write an “s”), such an item for that price, they (the same as for a missing “s”) buys (again, the same) and enjoys the product. That’s all.

I will accept Calvados only - the only appropriate drink within French environment!

Cheses were not just good. Some of them I've never tried. The best one was (I forgot its name) looking like a ice-cream in a sphere cheese shape - it was melting in your mouth. At first, I saw a French women put couple pounds of it on her plate after she finished her lunch and ate it within 10 min and smiled through the entire process. Then I took it and realized why. It was great (I took more after the first try, because I was warned that that cheese was available just during that lunch). Black caviar event was also great. PS. In March this year we were on our first Seabourn cruise where caviar is available through entire ship for 24 hours at any place (you may just seat at the pool, request it, and they make a full serve of it with all proper accompanied settings to you like a king right on spot).

Perhaps, I may catch one and deliver it to the ship for you - he-he!!!

I did it a few times with relatives visiting us within last 32 years (since I moved to US from USSR). We live 20 min drive from the Falls.

Yes. The first time I heard about it was a couple years ago when I talked to the US Ponant head manager (I was discussing directly with her many aspects of my second Ponant cruise when it was booked and cancelled, and booked, and rescheduled, and so on 5 times with totally different itineraries!!!). She told me at that time that Ponant is in progress of buying Paul Gauguin.

Ponant gave us 75% refund for our Shmandemic cruise - 12-day March 8-20 on Le Soleal, Eastern Island to Tahiti that became cruise to nowhere and lasted extra 4 days until March 25. That refund made us the next 13-day cruise free (from Nice to Istanbul). On the first cruise food and Belgian Chef (actually, we became friends during long days and night cruising through South Pacific without any stops) were unbelievable! Cheses were exceptional! Fresh local fish (like moon fish) was stunning! Every lunch was actually like a cooking demonstration at the pool side. Beef tartar, fish, foie gras, and more - all prepared in front of you.

It’s so funny: one needs live far away from a wonder to really appreciate its beauty!

On many itineraries they have no single supplement.

We've been on 2 Ponant cruises: the first was Shmandemic cruise (March 8-24, 2020, Le Soleal "sistership" class - 264 guests max (there were 175), from Eastern Island to Tahiti); and the second was June 26 - July 10, Le Bougainville "explorer" class - 184 guests max (there were 130), from Nice to Istanbul (France, Italy including Sicily, Greek Islands). Due to 2020-2022 world madness, it's very hard to judge Ponant (as any cruise line), since so many cuts occurred on all of cruise lines including any luxury one (Regent, Seabourn, and alike). I don't want to go over negative aspects; therefore, overall, if I imagine pre-2020 Ponant cruising combined with our 2 cruises' experience after subtracting all post-2020 damages, I will say that Ponant is exceptional in many aspects (including French influence) and not comparable with Celebrity (we had 8 Celebrity cruises since 2004 including 2 of them in December 2021 and February - March 2022).

Not exactly: 3 segments of 10 total (that we booked) priced individually cost more if totaling and divided by a total number of days - $110 more per day vs my price. By the way, this 2016 world cruise is sold out as of 3 days ago.

Basically, if a person doesn't eat dinner at a buffet, I would treat the price of such a cruise as a price during booking + (a price of specialty restaurant x a number of nights). For example, 10-night cruise is $2,000 per person with tax, and an average specialty restaurant is $50; then the total price is $2,500. Then I would think whether I want to book this cruise for that price. No problems, no issues.

I booked a Silversea cruise with an exceptional itinerary recently for $330 per night.

Correct (from my experience on their December 20, 2022 cruise).

That’s nothing. What about charging for each door opening to your cabin? Doors and lock system cost, too, you know. Or, perhaps, each visit to a public washroom? Shall I continue?.. Life is life… Voyage, Voyage!!!