trabeler

I just used them yesterday to go from POM to FLL.  Booked in advance.  Got a text message at 7 am to confirm and advise when we'd be off the ship.  We did self assist and walked off around 7:40.  Called as instructed as soon as we exited customs and then the van was there a few minutes later.  I don't think their van can sit outside the terminals and wait for people, so they only come around when someone is ready for pickup.

We were at FLL by 8:30.

It was still available last week on the Summit.  

We're booked on the Summit next week and after changing our cabin location today, I went back to reprint our xpress passes.  Noticed that these now also have the text about 270 days, same as the app.

Masks were required in the fitness center on the Connie in January.

13 hours ago, hiccups said:

We were also missing the extra five points from that promo.  I emailed CC and the first reply after a few weeks was they would be adding the points.  Then the next week I got an email there was no applicable promotion, and did I mean the Go Green Promo.  I replied with the dates of the emails with the loyalty promotion.  Finally this week I heard they'd be awarding the points this month, so fingers crossed!

Thanks for the glimmer of hope that they might actually find that promotion.  I did get an email response yesterday advising that they would research the issue but that it might be up to 30 days before I hear back...

1 hour ago, sakigemcam said:

Sushi making demo? That’s totally up our alley but we’ve never seen it offered on past cruises! Where did you notice this offering? Thank you! 
 

I tried booking for Tuscany for the first night but it’s only offering our regular Dining time and says it’s booked. We’re flexible so maybe I’ll have to call?

The sushi demo was advertised in the daily program and on the last cruise we had one it was mid morning on the 2nd sea day.

We've never pre-booked for the specialties so can't help on who to call.  We've always played it by ear onboard.  Sometimes that means we don't do any specialty restaurants on a sailing.

Onboard discounts typically available are a 30% discount the first night of the cruise.  There is often also a 20% coupon for Sushi on 5 if you attend their sushi making demonstration.  Other discounts really depend on how the restaurants are booking.  On longer (>7 days) non-prime time cruises I've seen discounts offered of 20-30%, even up to a 2 for 1 on the last night.

However, if you have a special event and need a particular restaurant on a specific day or time, it would be better to book ahead.  Discount availability can be hit or miss and depends on the sailing and passenger interest in the specialties.

I've booked air with Celebrity on several cruises where the cruise booking was through an agent.  Never had any problems dealing directly with Celebrity's air department to make or change the air portion of the booking.  I also got emails directly from their air department notifying of any changes, etc.  Recent wait times when calling the air group haven't been as ridiculous as calling the cruise group.

49 minutes ago, dreams_of_travel said:

 I also told them I am missing the points for the booking offer, where if you booked during a certain date, you would get 5pts for every booking submitted on their form.  I made 5 bookings, so yeah, no points from that either.  

I'm also missing the 5 points each for booking two sailings between 10/1 and 11/1 that were submitted on their online form (it was the "loyalty" discount promotion for Caribbean sailings).  I finally got through to someone today and they couldn't even find that particular PUP promotion, even after discussing with a supervisor.  I had to forward them the original email from Celebrity that announced the promotion... will give it some time and call back if they don't respond.

1 hour ago, Denny01 said:

the men’s and women’s changing rooms near the pool and the Spa have free sauna’s. 

 

The free saunas on the Constellation are still the original design and have been one of the highlights of this ship to me. It is a large sauna with huge window for a lovely sea view.  

The M-class ships that have been revolutionized lost this wonderful space which was replaced with a much smaller interior sauna and no view.

I agree that in theory, it should work.  However, with these proctored tests you cannot afford any interruption in your video stream or it may invalidate the test.  Streaming a movie is easier than what you're doing since when streaming a movie, some video is buffered to smooth out momentary connection glitches.  I'd definitely want to have at least another test on hand in case the first attempt fails due to the connection dropping momentarily. 

You should also do a trial facetime call (or something similar) with someone prior to connecting for the test to confirm the ship is in an area where the signal is strong.  The more stationary the ship, the better... so a port day might be best.  

1 hour ago, wendycook22 said:

Also, if Celebrity changes your cabin and you aren’t informed until after check in, I assume they will know where to relocate your luggage? We always use the porters, and pack evening clothes in a carry on bag in the event our luggage is delayed.  

We had pretty good experience with getting our bags properly rerouted on a sailing this month where our luggage tags had our original deck 2 cabin, but upon check-in we were moved to deck 3 (since our section of deck 2 was closed off for quarantine use), and then once on the ship we did an upgrade at guest services and moved to deck 7.

We did inform the cabin attendants for the deck 3 cabin and final deck 7 cabin about how many bags we had and what the original (deck 2) luggage tag was.  

Everything showed up just before sailaway.  

13 minutes ago, 5waldos said:

I still am surprised by the inclusion of a scoop of gelato as a benefit. Seriously? A scoop of gelato? How much do they charge for them onboard? 

I think a single scoop is around $4.50 or so... I remember seeing something like that on the receipt (with an associated credit to zero out the total) when I got my free scoop a few weeks ago.  Personally, I don't find the Al Bacio gelato to be significantly better than what is on the buffet, but there are more flavors to choose from.  Our favorite buffet ice cream flavor is cinnamon, but it never made an appearance on our last 11 day sailing...

Two weeks ago on the Connie in addition to the two cloth masks in the cabin they had an ample supply of individually wrapped surgical type (not KN95 or N95) available at multiple locations on the ship.  These were free to anyone who needed them.

On M class, the A1's are on 11 and have minimal shade on the balcony.  A2 are on 9 and have a large overhang for lots of shade and rain protection.

6 hours ago, NanaChar said:

Ok.  Very silly question.  How many masks do you bring per person per day?  Does Celebrity supply masks if you run out?  
 

Just off the Connie.  We were provided two Celebrity cloth masks in the cabin.  They also had lots of individually wrapped surgical type masks (not KN95) available at multiple venues for people who needed replacements.  Often the staff at the entry of the buffet handed them out as well as a way to help enforce the new rule.

Also FYI that the indoor pool is salt water, unlike the outside pool or any of the hot tubs.

One item to consider is that on the M-class, the A1 cabins on deck 11 have very minimal shade for the balconies while A2 on deck 9 have an overhang to provide shade / rain protection.  Our preference is shade so we avoid the deck 11 cabins.

Keep an eye on the daily schedule and if there is a sushi making demonstration, attend it and they'll likely hand out 20% off coupons for Sushi on 5 that are good any time during your cruise.

Last week on the Connie they were getting very aggressive with discounts to fill Tuscan and QSine.  We had 6 sea days on that 11 day trip so there were lots of lunches offered in the specialties as well.  Typical discounts being offered were 20-30% off, although on the last night of the cruise (also a sea day) they were offering 50% off. 

37 minutes ago, weregoingcruising said:

What was the passenger count on this cruise? Thank You

Between 700 and 740 from discussions with several officers.

3 hours ago, Nurse.Laura said:

Rules keep changing... we were allowed to do on your own in all three ABC islands last week from the Connie (port stops on 8-10 January).  Might be good to have an independent option that is cancellable as a back-up in case the rules change again.

Just got off Connie this morning.  Fastest ever... by 8 am all luggage tags were called.

They did another round of testing of the entire crew on Wednesday and a few more positives were identified, putting the ship above the 1% threshold.  I'm told that the plan will be to disembark any crew that are positive in Tampa for quarantine and then return any crew that were disembarked on 3 Jan (our cruise start date) as they have completed quarantine.

Overall the crew did an outstanding job covering for sudden disappearances of their colleagues.  Any "close contacts" were sent to isolation for 3 days... that took out quite a few of the dining room staff, including our waiter & assistant waiter.  All of the production cast dancers also went into 3 days of isolation.  They ended up also blocking off more of deck 7 for close contact isolation... the entire starboard side of 7 with the exception of the central dozen or so cabins were blocked off. 

The most notable absence was the cruise director (Kelly), who had symptoms and tested positive about a week ago,

All in all it was a great cruise and thankfully we made all the ports while our positive percentage was below the 1% trigger point.

39 minutes ago, Quarantined said:

Yes, all the port stops have been as planned as far as I know, and there has been no restrictions on leaving the ship. 

Some of the ports did not allow do it yourself if there were any unvaccinated children in the group. I don’t recall which ones, specifically.  It wasn’t much of an issue this sailing since there were only two kids onboard. 

Currently all open on the Connie, including all the Persian garden rooms. 

4 hours ago, FlyingAnchor said:

How did the ship communicate this to you or did you find out on your own on the dock? 

We had a letter before getting to any ports that said that we should bring a copy of our vaccination card onshore at all the ports. Similar info has been in the daily program. 
 

For Bonaire, the requirement to actually show the original card or digital certificate (if non US) was a last minute announcement made during the ‘we’ve been cleared by the authorities’ morning announcement just as the gangway opened.