chereya

Congrats! I also booked a GTY suite and pretty quickly was assigned a MCSS for an Edge sailing. I know it's considered the lowest suite classified room but I'm really looking forward to the XL protected bump out balcony and the big bathroom! Enjoy yourselves!! 🤩

Thank you for taking the time to write up this more detailed X vs VV review. Definitely food for thought. I recently decided to make my next booking for 2025 on X again. I didn't see any VV itineraries/pricing that looked attractive to me. With kids still at home, we're not at a life stage yet where we can do those nice long 3+ week land + sea adventures where we fly in, explore, cruise and explore again before flying home. One day!!

I try to regularly check my bookings for price drops. Some days I have seen prices drop by a couple hundred dollars on the same day. Today I was able to get a price adjustment on my GTY suite for a May 2024 Alaska sailing and shaved off just about $1000. If you haven't passed your final payment date yet, definitely check for savings! Good luck! 👍

FYI I just checked the VV website and it looked like the status match expiration date is next year Dec 31, 2024, not this week.

Anyone try VV and have a comparison to the Celebrity Experience? My husband and I are in the 40-50 age group and not party people but curious about the adults only vibe.

I'm pretty happy with the MCSS I was assigned. I did get the gist that they are less popular because of the mental undesirability of having the MC potentially moving up and down outside. I am looking forward to having the larger, protected bumped out balcony. 🙂  I figure that by going the GTY route vs choosing the MCSS category, I've already saved about $1k.

That being said, I do still plan to keep tabs on the suite GTY price and watch for future downward price adjustments. If I was going to do a price adjustment re-book, I suppose I could try, based on cabin availability at that time, to ask about releasing my assigned cabin and take my chances again with an unassigned GTY?

I have been keeping tabs on the pricing for my upcoming cruise. I was already booked in a Concierge cabin on 11 and decided to upgrade to a GTY Suite. My TA called into Celeb and I guess since today's a holiday and a weekend, the person on the other end was taking a very long time to make the changes. By the time she came back, she was very surprised to let me know that they had already assigned me a cabin number - it was one of the MCSS. I'm not unhappy - just surprised. It does take away some of the mystery and hope that I might have gotten something in a higher category 😆 Is this normal for Celebrity to assign a GTY the same time of booking? Is this cabin assignment set or subject to a future change? I'm perfectly happy with the MCSS where it is, but all the mystery is gone of what could be. 😂

35 minutes ago, rj59 said:

I also found that the packages are so confusing that even servers gave me false information--when I had the zero-proof package a bartender told me my mocktail wasn't included on the package and that I needed to upgrade, but I told him to just swipe my card, and of course it was included--I wasn't sure if he was lying or not to trick me into upgrading, but the package description doesn't mention mocktails, so Celebrity itself is being evasive in not listing them as an option, in hopes you will upgrade. 

Thank you for chiming in - this was exactly the type of information I was seeking!

If I am not a drinker of alcohol, but I enjoy virgin daquiris/pina coladas - are these covered at all by the non-alcohol package or would I need an alcohol package because of how the drink types are categorized? I don't mean the fruit smoothies that are pat of the premium package - just the run of the mill stuff that comes out of the carton behind the bar. 😂

Thank you both for the encouragement. 20 minutes into the initial hold and conversation, the guest agent tried to tell me that -I- changed the promo type and that's why it was messed up. 😒 After I pushed back and said, No, the website did what it did and I didn't -choose- anything, I was put on hold another 25 minutes. Thankfully at the end, everything was fixed and corrected to what I had been shown at the original booking.

From now on, anytime I book with Celebrity in the future, I'm going to take appropriate screenshots. 🙄

Am I going to have to call to get this straightened out? I stupidly did not screen shot my specific cabin and booking as proof. But the July 4th promos were still going on and I was able to screenshot the price breakdown of the cabin next to mine (same cabin class). I did email the customer service support but got a canned reply back that it will take them a month to get back to me. Anybody have the same issue and a happy ending?

I found this thread by searching for "Beverage Card" for Holland. I just upgraded my cabin to a SS today and my agent was surprised when Holland told her that I had some hidden perks on my res that she did not see on her end. One of the perks, I think, was described to me as a "$25 beverage card". I had no idea that I had this perk let alone what its function is supposed to be.

From reading through this thread, I am guessing that this will be a straight dollar value debit-type card that is used $1 = $1 on any drink purchases (soda, water or alcohol?). I have no Mariner status perks. What are my chances of asking on embarkation day about converting this to the $25 for $50 worth of soda card instead?

lol. that makes no sense to me, but okay.

 

1. Can you order your drinks with very little alcohol? :p

2. How do the drink packages work? Do you get a sticker on your card?

3. What happens if I order a Virgin Pina Colada? Well the bartender, take my card and apply the charge? Or will he warn me first that it is not included in my package? just curious.

Anytime I try to order a drink and tell the bartender just a teeny tiny bit of the booze, they laugh and pour what they think is a teeny amount but it always ends up tasting horrible to me. :p You do get a sticker on your card. Not sure what they do if you only have the classic non-alcoholic package and order a blended drink. I suppose it's kind of dependent on the person taking your order. I've had waiters try to charge me and bring me the receipt to sign and have had to point out that my drink is included (had the premium non-alcoholic package). Someone smart might try to steer you towards upgrading your package. ;) The price difference is $4 per day between the classic and the premium non-alcoholic.

I wonder if they have changed the packages? This is what it says for Classic (frozen drinks are included - which I would deem to be blended drinks)

Upgrade your cruise experience and

pay one price

to enjoy all of the benefits of our Classic Non-Alcoholic package as well as all beers up to $6 per serving, and spirits, cocktails,

frozen drinks

, and wines by the glass up to $8 per serving. Plus, with purchase of this Classic Package, you can enjoy a 15% discount on all wines by the bottle purchased on board, even our prized Reserve Wine list and Rare Wine list.

Premium doesn't saying about blended:

For the ultimate in value and convenience, our

premium package

provides all the benefits of our Premium Non-Alcoholic Package. In addition, you can enjoy our entire selection of Beers as well as Spirits, Cocktails and Wines by the Glass up to $13 per serving. Plus, with purchase of this Premium Package, you can enjoy a 20% discount on all wines by the bottle purchased on board, even our prized Reserve Wine list and Rare Wine list.

However, when you click on the link for premium drinks, it does specifically refer to non-alcoholic frozen drinks. Weird. So they give you the alcohol versions, but if you want virgin, you have to upgrade?

You're right, smoothies and frozen virgin drinks are included in all the packages except the classic non-alcoholic. :)

Fresh OJ appears to be included in the classic drink package. Are smoothies included too? If so, where does one get those from?

Smoothies / virgin blended drinks like strawberry daquiri or pina colada are part of the premium level of drink package. They're available at most of the bars. In the mornings up at the buffet, the bar with the fresh OJ squeezer machine has an expanded offering of smoothie mixes. I can't remember the full menu they had available but they had the usual strawberry and pina colada and also mango.

These are my favorite treat to myself when cruising :)