sayvan

Has anyone had any experience with Celebrity out of Florida? On our roll call someone was claiming that celebrity will only accept the antigen test if it’s done in the US and that the one you get in Canada in order to get into US is not accepted.  That does not make any sense to me.  If I’m departing Canada and get tested within 2 days of cruise departing, my test here then that should suffice for embarkation as well.

3 hours ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

 

We are from Alberta.  We sailed on October 29 with 5 friends from Ontario.  2 of them tried to use your original forms that just say the information from the second dose, and that caused issues and they had to provide other proof.  The other 3 used your new QR code forms that also show both doses of the vaccine and the dates, etc., and that worked fine for them.  They need something that shows both doses, the type of vaccine and the date the doses were received.  I printed the Alberta QR code confirmations, similar to the Ontario ones, and that worked fine.

 
great info…thanks!  

Any Canadians able to advise on their experience if you’ve sailed yet? We do not have actual cards up here. It’s all done by email which you can print or you can get a digital copy with QR code.  Not sure you can upload these. 

Curious… with the basic are you able to use Snapchat or Instagram? Deciding whether to upgrade 

On 1/5/2020 at 9:50 AM, Mark_T said:

It may be a contrary view, but I'm actually glad the internet prices are as high as they are.

 

Even at the current utilization rates the service remains marginally functional for anything beyond email/web, if there were more people casually using it without limits it would soon drop to unusable levels.

 

Satellite based services are inherently expensive and not easy to scale up much further than they have already so for me at least, I'm happy to see the costs high and the utilization kept down as a result...

Glass half full... I like that! 

15 minutes ago, grandgeezer said:

If you cruise enough with Celebrity, not only free drinks, but internet too. We are Elite Plus and we each get 240 minutes for a seven day cruise and we never come close to using all of it. No revolting for us over the drink or internet pricing

You miss my point. I cruise a lot! My point is that the cost of the internet is incredibly ridiculous and unnecessarily over priced. In this day and age the internet is a necessity for many and we shouldn't be robbed blind by a cruise line to receive what really is a basic service.  It is us as passengers that allow them to get away with it. 

Drink packages are where its at for us. Its so much more convenient. No signing, no concerns on that final bill on debarkation day. To add to that, coming from the great white north those drinks suddenly become even more costly thanks to our lousy Canadian dollar value against the US dollar. On average, its an extra .30-.35 on every dollar spent on board. That adds up quickly. A bill of $600 US is suddenly an extra $170 on top give or take for us. So a prepaid perk or upgrade is worth it on our end. I know some folks say get a US credit card.. either way at some point this Canadian has to pay it whether its in US dollars or Canadian dollars. Outside of the a savings on exchange fees you still have to pay the rate of exchange! 

Now that being said, what really gets me is the cost of the internet packages. This is probably the single most rip off on a cruise ship. In this day and age to have to pay $500 dollars for a decent internet package for 7 days in terrible. This is where the revolt needs to start!  

19 minutes ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

Exactly

Some of the responses are actually comical

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

I agree with PhoenixCruiser...  Want an opinion just ask a question on cruise critic... very entertaining! Folks full of opinion and direction... Mother knows best! 

Enjoy your vacation! 

We have sailed Carnival, Royal, Celebrity, NCL, Princess and Holland America. We liked them all and approach them for what they are with respect to Itinerary .  We have over 28 cruises now and the majority have been on Carnival and Celebrity. We just came off the Carnival Horizon about two weeks ago and I have to say it was one of the best cruises we have ever had. The food was fabulous and yes I mean in the main dining room, specialty restaurants and buffet.  Food is subjective of course but like I said, best we have ever experienced. I also think your cruise success really depends on your attitude. You cant walk in worrying or thinking about a comparison. Your on a different or new line and its going to be well different or new! Go in and have a good time and I am sure you will walk away loving it! After all... you're not at work! 

On 1/5/2019 at 9:45 PM, Erikup said:

Not gonna lie...feeling confused about which plan to choose. I want hubby to have access he needs to be happy doing his thing while we sleep in but have no idea what to beat advise him to choose. 

I was just on the Horizon and choose the Value plan. I have absolutely no complaints,  it was more than adequate.  I was able to access snapchat, instagram, facebook, emails and also send same including video on snapchat and instagram. I was very impressed. I never once experienced any lag or buffering.  Took care of all my needs. 

Just off the Horizon last week and had the social plan and had no issues at all with the iMessage. Actually found the WiFi to be great and never had any connection issues. 

We were on the same cruise and first time doing a Vista class ship as well. I have to say however that this was one of the best cruises I have ever been on.. and we've been on many. The entertainment was top notch and the cruise director Mike Pack was one of, if not the best I have ever experienced. Food was great in all venues we were in. 

I will agree however,  that the  design of the ship takes some getting used to.  IMO there did not seem to be any flow to the ship. There was a lot of interruption (for lack of a better term) between venues. Public spaces definitely seemed smaller. Where I really noticed the difference was on the upper main pool deck (deck 12). Only one row of chairs available because of the width of the the deck and on this cruise there did seem to be some chair hogs. I will be clear though that this did not in anyway hinder the fun we had.. more of an observation.  One other thing. We had any time dining and the reservation station for the any time dining was on the 5th floor and the any time dining room was on the third floor aft. I did find that extremely odd and a bit inconvenient,  but I suppose the idea was to get you to stop and have a drink in one of the bars on the way to the dining room. 

Notwithstanding, I wouldn't hesitate to book Horizon again. It was an amazing 8 days packed full of fun! 

Totally agree that the loss of the app is significant. I used the app daily to follow many of the great live threads and other reviews or just find a quick thought on a question.  Apps are the way these days and when you don't have one you quickly lose any standing you may have had on the web! Anyone know why they decided to get rid of the app?

23 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

After the party, Sakari wanted to go back to the room because she was tired and wanted to draw and we decided we would head to our first Quest show. I've heard a lot about them in the past and wasn't sure I wanted to go but the hubby was very social this cruise and several friends he kept running into told him "you must go" and go we did.

 

 

It was hilarious, fun and very entertaining. We laughed and laughed and OUR TEAM WON!

 

There was supposed to be a midnight buffet, but we got there a little after 1am and there was nothing. Maybe it doesn't last long and we hadn't really had an official "dinner" and was on the prowl for food...pizza again. Geesh. Sakari was asleep and we had a pet frog tonight. 

 

 

 

Sakari had drawn a picture of her bird on her phone (Candy Cane)

 

 

 

I believe we went to bed at 3am. Thank goodness tomorrow is a late arrival day in Curacao (1:30pm).

 

Which venue did they hold the Quest event in? I’ve never seen it on Carnival but it’s one of my favourite events when on a RC cruise. 

5 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

IS ANYONE ELSE HAVING MAJOR ISSUES WITH CRUISE CRITIC AND GETTING ERROR MESSAGES? 

 

I had this problem on the first day I started this review. I was getting an error and page wouldn't load. Something wrong with the icloud server they use? 

 

Then in the middle of my review (from yesterday), it went down again and gave another error. 

 

Is something wrong with the boards since they updated? This is getting irritating. I end up losing all of my work during a post. 

yep same thing for me. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Honestly, I love cruise critic and all it has to offer but since they made these changes and got rid of the app I am feeling like we have gone back in time! Bring back the app!

I am loving your review and great information. We board  January 26 and this is making the wait much easier!

Some great and helpful info on this thread. We are boarding Horizon in January and fully intend to buy the cheers plan! We have sailed numerous times on many different cruise lines. We have platinum status with Carnival. Having said this, I still do not understand the reasons for the limit of 15 a day??  On Royal, Celebrity, NCL and Princess, the drink packages have no limits on the number of drinks per day... I’m not suggesting I’m going to have 15 a day either but I can’t seem to understand the logic on this part of the program. As a side note, the packages on the other lines are a few bucks more but not much more really. 

Is water included in the Cheers package?

18 hours ago, simplelife said:

I love the HUB app, Among many other things, you can check on times and locations of  activities with real time changes,  review your account information, and, for a nominal fee, text others in your party

What is the fee? Is it one time for entire cruise or a daily fee each time used? 

Looking forward to your review. We board Horizon in 3 weeks. Our itinerary is different but I look forward to hearing about the ship.  

4 hours ago, FionaMG said:

Yes, that's right. I think it was the night when we left Labadee. They made announcements and left the information in the cabin along with the next day's Compass.

They did the exact same thing last year our Serenade cruise to the southern Caribbean and they gave us the hour back on the very last night.

 When we did this cruise last year the time change came on the sea day in the middle of the day.  Same on the return as well.  Lost a complete hour in the middle of the day without the help of Tequila!

Would also love to hear about the Schooner Bar. How is the player?

On 11/21/2018 at 10:36 AM, Johnamac123 said:

Following. Board her December 6 for a 9 day to the ABC's!!

Dec 6 or 7?

On 11/21/2018 at 7:47 AM, kinggartk said:

We didn't go...planning to do comparisons, but it's human nature to compare.  And...to be clear...we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise and wouldn't hesitate to sail with RCL again.  This was not intended to be a bash RCL segment...it was just observations.

To be clear,  I never meant to suggest that you were bashing any particular line. In fact, having sailed both lines I actually agree with many of your initial thoughts. My point was more along the theme that for us it doesn't matter which line we are on. You know things will be different. Some you will like and some you wont and yes sometimes you will think "on Carnival or Royal they do this..." I'm just saying its a vacation... if folks get to involved in the comparison they will find it harder to enjoy the different line they are on. Not saying that was you! Cheers and Fins up!

12 hours ago, robtulipe said:

I also could do the same with my Ontario Health card as port security only check that the photo and name on the ID card matches the name on your ship's card and it's a government issued ID.

 

 You gotta love that Health card we all have up here in the great white north!

We have sailed Carnival many many times (top tier in their program), Celebrity, Princess, Norwegian and Holland America. Each offer there own unique experience. In the last year and half we have added three (3) Royal Caribbean cruises to our resume.  We love Royal. Cant wait to hit the larger ships too! We also love all the other lines we have been on. Its a vacation and I'm not at work! I would agree with many of the comparisons the OP provided and also disagree with some. I think if you go on vacation and plan to do comparisons you are already setting yourself up for some disappointment. As I said earlier, each line has its own unique things to offer. We will be back on Navigator in a few weeks and the only comparison I will be doing is when I compare the different drinks I order!