publicpersona

20 hours ago, the penguins said:

A great perk when shares were $20 each and dividend was 4 times a year.

Now with shares close to $140 each and no dividend it's a very expensive way to get a few extra $ of OBC.

Even better when it was less than $6 a share in 2009.

I have never found Flights by Celebrity to be price competitive with booking direct or through certain other travel agencies, except for the occasional international consolidator fares they sometimes can offer.

I no longer even check them for domestic flights.

3 hours ago, dcbiker97 said:

knowing Celebrity IT, sometimes it's better to let it be

Yes! Knowing their IT track record, I'd say trying to correct would result in times of trouble. You speak words of wisdom.

34 minutes ago, Josie201 said:

I do love the Sunset Bar - but I don't like drinking wine out of plastic glasses

I can live with the plastic wine glasses, but the outside bars tend to keep their white wines in a dish pan full of ice. The idea of serving chardonnay at 36 degrees F makes me want to clutch the pearls and shriek.

The outdoor bars also are more prone to do what is done sometimes in all the bars (less so in dining rooms) and interpret your order as "whatever is open and somewhat the same color as was ordered."

Sadly, Celebrity doesn't cater well to wine drinkers. It is cheaper to store and manage stock of hard liquors than wine, I guess.

I guess there's no accounting for taste. I always take a bar of soap with me as I've encountered times (not necessarily sailing Celebrity) where bar soap was not offered. I can't imagine taking a shower without bar soap .. it would take twice as long. Each to his or her own.

Just now, leaveitallbehind said:

Not saying they don't - only including it with what FBC does. 

Understood. And I was not intending to criticize your very good list. I wanted to emphasize clarity on this point since many people have a misconception, promoted heavily by FBC's use of weasel words like "Assured Arrival" or "we will be there for you", that booking through FBC means they are responsible for getting you to the ship. No more so than any other travel agency, which is what they are.

But I know you know that.

On 4/17/2024 at 2:05 PM, leaveitallbehind said:

Should your flights result in an interruption or delay to your departure port, they will work on providing alternative flights to the ship.

As will virtually any travel agent you use, including booking directly with the airline.

2 minutes ago, Real NHDOC said:

I am not sure I understand your comment but actually don't have the cruise booked at all (or any cruises currently booked).  Only would consider it if we could have signed up for standby as we live around an hour from the port and it would have worked well for us.

You're right. I didn't read it carefully and somehow joined the "our" with the name of the cruise, but that's not what you said at all.

5 hours ago, Real NHDOC said:

I inquired with our PCC about the Voyage of the Vikings 35 day cruise out of Boston which shows as being offered on this standby program.  She said, after checking, that HAL has closed out this cruise and is no longer offering Standby for it. 

I know this sounds cynical, but I suspect the agent's incentives for your current booking might be affected if you cancelled it and repurchased under the standby program. You could find out for sure by starting the process of purchasing your cruise standby anonymously and see what they say.

As much as I like to disparage Flights by Celebrity, the one time I would definitely check them is for international flights. They occasionally have consolidator fares that are incredible. It doesn't cost anything to see what the options and prices are.

Also, for your flight to Florida, check to see if booking travel to New York or Boston, and flight from there to Florida as separate record locator helps. For example, it may be $1600 from London to Orlando, but $600 London to New York and $200 to Florida .. and could even be the same flights.

1 hour ago, PTC DAWG said:

I’m not curious as to what happened..I do wonder why others care..explain it to me? 

I am interested in all aspects of being on board a cruise ship. I don't confine that interest to the cost of an extra lobster tail, the happenings in the karaoke contest, or the source of a musty smell in the shower.

Today I learned (or rather, was reminded and assured) that the medical facility on a ship might seek transfusion donors if needed. I was also reminded that a cruise ship isn't a 100% safe environment and care should be taken in all activities and movement on the ship.

1 minute ago, paulh84 said:

 

You have not read or comprehended what I posted. 

Let me summarize my post, as you didn't read it.

They can add a supplemental fee for unanticipated expenses such as a fuel surcharge. They can choose not to honor pricing mistakes. But they can't say as the post I was responding to implied, say they've changed the fare for your cruise up up to embarkation day just because they wanted to increase fares.

3 minutes ago, paulh84 said:

 

Yes there is....

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/guest-terms/united-states-english/

 

e. Correction of Errors. In the event that a Cruise or CruiseTour is booked but the Cruise Fare listed, quoted or advertised through any website, Carrier sales person, travel agent or any other source is inaccurate or unavailable due to an electronic error, typographical error, human error or any other error causing the Cruise or CruiseTour to be sold, or listed for sale, quoted or advertised, in a quantity or for an amount not intended by Carrier, Carrier reserves the right to correct the erroneous fare by requesting Guest to pay the correct amount intended, re-berthing Guest in other accommodations onboard the Vessel, or by canceling this Agreement in exchange for a full refund. For the avoidance of doubt, in no event shall Carrier be obligated to honor any such booking resulting from the error or otherwise be liable in such circumstances.

Do you realize what you posted is EXACTLY what I said?

30 minutes ago, TommyD3 said:

Their fine print says they have the right to change the price of your booked cruise up to the day of sailing.

Say what? While they do reserve the right to add a supplemental charge relating to unanticipated occurrences (such as fuel surcharge), there isn't leeway in the contract to simply raise the fare after your purchase.

Of course, someone who purchased the booking discussed in this thread may or may not have the booking cancelled. The relevant verbiage is below:

Prices posted on the Site may be different than the prices offered or displayed in person, onboard our vessels, by our travel partners, or tour operators. All prices, discounts, and promotions posted on the Site are subject to change without notice. The price charged for a product or service will be the price in effect at the time the order is placed and will be set out in your order confirmation email, where applicable. Price changes will only apply to orders placed after such changes. Posted prices do not include taxes, or gratuities, except in certain countries where applicable law requires these charges to be included in the posted price (e.g., the EEA, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand). To the extent prices do not include taxes or gratuities, all such taxes and charges will be added to your total and will be itemized in your shopping cart and in your order confirmation email, where applicable. We strive to display accurate price information, however we may, on occasion, make inadvertent typographical errors, inaccuracies or omissions related to pricing and availability. We reserve the right to correct any errors, inaccuracies, or omissions at any time and to cancel any orders arising from such occurrences.

Perhaps all the Prime Concierge have been snagged. I still see the low price when first viewing the cruise but on the select category of stateroom, a concierge is $1500 or so. No mention of Prime Concierge.

I'm trying to resolve a curiosity about security photo upload during check-in. From my experience doing this with Celebrity/Royal, I'm about 0 for 12. I've also had no success with another cruise line. So here's the story ...

The best and clearest photos I have for spouse and I are our (relatively recent) passport photos. The photos were professionally taken per passport specifications, and I have the digital raw files. The files I upload during online check-in are absolutely of the correct format, within the specifications for resolution and file size, and unaltered. The files upload and display just fine with no cropping necessary.

Yet at check-in at the terminal, they always want to take new security photos. I go along with it, of course, but do ask what the problem was. Inevitably the response is "You took a picture of a picture and you can't do that". No, I didn't. What I uploaded was the original digital photo. "Well you can't take a picture of a picture" they continue. They then proceed to snap a new photo that is low-res, blurry and a thousand moving bodies in the background.

No, isn't a big deal. I'm just curious what others have experienced. One explanation is that I'm expecting too much of Celebrity/Royal's IT systems. But there could be a rational explanation such as they require the metadata of the uploaded image to match the date of the upload, which may be true but why not reject it at the time of the upload?

Wow, this ship is going to be moving fast ...

The sailings available for the standby program has just been updated to include sailings from additional ports, and out through November 2024. With few exceptions, the Caribbean sailings are longer duration up to 42 days.

Standby List Program | Holland America Line

16 hours ago, drtravel47 said:

I called HAL today and they told me it's a minimum of 48 hours,  not 90 minutes. The res agent laughed when I said I heard 90 minutes. 

If you read this entire thread, you will understand that this has evolved. The language that you can cancel if not notified by two days prior is new. Prior to this, there was no "minimum". I, and others, were told that there was an expectation that if you had not been otherwise notified that you were not sailing, you would show up at the terminal to get the final word. This was while they appeared to be promising approximately 7-day notice.

As I said, they are now providing different language that gives you an out if you have not heard anything by two days prior.

1 hour ago, LA24 said:

No benefit at all booking through them unless u get an amazing price. 

Agreed. And for international flights, I do always check them because they often have consolidator deals and much lower fare internationally. For domestic, I've always found the fares to be $10-$30 more than booking direct.

2 hours ago, iamphil said:

https://www.celebritycruises.com/flights-by-celebrity

You need to stop reading marketing word salad and instead look at the terms and conditions. After all, these are the marketing geniuses that came up with "Always Included .. every sailing, every booking, every time" but meant "not actually every sailing, not actually every booking, not actually every time" but I digress.

Flights by Celebrity makes no guarantee that they will get you to the ship, and specifically doesn't offer to absorb any costs of alternate travel. They have no control over the ship either. What they commit to is (in marketing words) "be there for you", "have your back", "peace of mind knowing we are there", etc. which actually means they will try to assist making alternate travel arrangements if your flight is delayed or canceled. Exactly what the airline itself or any travel agency does, nothing more.

7 hours ago, Horizon chaser 1957 said:

Interesting. Does that mean you can cancel for a full refund anytime during that final 48 hours? 

It would appear so. My guess is that the option to cancel goes away if they notify you that you have been put on the sailing.

42 minutes ago, cbr663 said:

The reason I don't see this as promising a minimum 2 day notice

It is promising 2-day notice or recourse. That's effectively 2 day notice.

Before: You can be notified as little as 90 minutes before embarkation and if notified, your full cruise fare will be gone cruise or not.

After: You can be notified as little as 90 minutes before embarkation, but you have the option in the last two days before receiving notification of getting a full refund.

Since it is a TA, it is probably halfway between the typical Caribbean cruise and the typical European cruise. More tuxes on the latter than the former. It's also not a short cruise.

If you enjoy wearing your tux then you should wear your tux and not care what others are wearing. They really don't care what you are wearing either, but if anyone takes note of it, it will probably be in admiration that you went to the trouble. You do you.

The best wine experience I've had on Celebrity was a World Wine Tour when they had it up on the lawn (Solstice class) on a beautiful day, were getting $20 per person, and the wines were well selected to represent their regions. That was then.

Lately, we've been more and more disappointed. They were held in what used to be Cellar Masters (Craft Social), charging about $40 each, and the wines were from the region but more grocery store wines.