johhnnyt

I think like everything to do with cruises, you have to shop and track prices. Single fares jump around as much as any other fares, so you monitor them and snag them when they go down. Just looking today using one of the popular cruise scanner websites, Just a quick look and I see good discounted rates for solo cabins on

3 sailings of the Summit

2 sailings of the Equinox

4 sailings of the Eclipse

1 sailing of the Constellation

1 sailing of the Millennium

1 sailing of the Solstice

Of course I wish it was easier to find solo rates, but I kind of enjoy doing my research and grabbing a good rate when I see it. It's like airline travel, it will always be up and down with no rhyme or reason, but I can either get annoyed by it, or try and find tools to help me grab the lower rates when I can.

Really enjoyed him as well. Hard worker originally from Belgium. Was the CD on our Transatlantic, was lots of fun and very interactive with the guests.

I've rarely seen a bankruptcy disrupt a carriers operations, either way since you bought the ticket via Choice Air, they'll arrange alternate transportation if needed

I did book a Choice Air Trip to Buenos Aires for a sailing on Infinity in February 2018. I wanted to get a refundable biz class fare because of some conflicts I might have coming up, and American Airlines offered the Refundable fare of $12000, through Choice Air though the round trip was $3200, and if I need to cancel its only a $150 fee.

All in all I think I've used them 5 or 6 times, and been very pleased. Mostly I've seen the savings are on International and one way domestic fares, and international round trips

I love the GTY cabins, great bargain for the dollar

"It's my understanding that part of the guarantee booking agreement is in exchange for a cheaper rate, they have the right to change your cabin at any time to any category at same or above prior to sailing and therefore you can't ask to keep the assigned cabin and not be moved"

I believe you're 100% correct, its totally up to Celebrity to put you where they want in the category you chose of higher

"Nothing left now but interior, oceanview and suites. Did not expect an upgrade to suite level, and wouldn't in this case have necessarily wanted such an upgrade as they are mostly on the sides of the ship, and many smaller than the family veranda as well."

What they normally do when they have suites available and GTY available are offer the suites to the passengers that booked/paid in the categories needed for GTY rate,. So for instance you booked a GTY Veranda, they'll call folks that booked a AQ/CC3 or higher ask them if they want to upsell to a suite, then use that room for the GTY. It's a great way to maximize revenue

I've always found the same thing. For conventional round trip airfares they are nothing special. But on open end or one segment flights to/from Europe or Asia though you can't beat the prices that Choice Air offers even for business class.

Thank you! My DH has been considering booking through Choice Air and I have a not so good feeling about this. I would rather he book a major airline even if it cost a few bucks more. I like being in control of the reservation.

This was my feeling too! BUT I am addicted to business class and the fares on Lufthansa and KLM were off the charts...so I went to Choice just to see what they had and up popped Virgin Atlantic. I admit I've never flown them before but the do have a good reputation with Trip Advisor so I went to VA website and picked out the flights I wanted (doing a B2B) then went to Choice and had them price it.....it was $2,000 less than booking with airline directly. I also just checked my reservation with VA on their website and so far everything I wanted is listed from seats to w/c assistance.....so here's hoping and I'll let you all know in September how it worked. :D

I read on a blog that the whole cruise was slowly being taken over by one group of CODE RED chub chasing motorcycle bears, and another group of CODE PURPLE Greek Peg-Legged Sea Captains (some with emotional support parrots) . It won't be a pretty sight

One idea might be to file a grievance with the credit card you used to pay it with. Explain to them the facts,

• you paid for the service
  
• didn't use it because of the shooting
  
• airline paid vendor
  
• vendor wont return cash
  

American Express will credit it back the same day, while VISA and Mastercard will generally do it in a few weeks max.

I've only had a few experiences with Canyon Ranch (last being on the Reflection) and do find them better than the last company. The massage therapist I had had was excellent, although like everything on a cruise ship the pricing is 3X normal at home pricing.

I can only speak for myself, but I've had cancer twice and noted it on my forms and never been refused service because of it. I'm sure its a tricky subject though as I'm sure in some types of cancer a massage would be a no no, but in others it would probably help, but because of privacy rules, I would guess they are limited into the depth of what they can ask.

It does sound though whatever the policy is, in the OP case, it was a badly handled case of customer service, and do hope your family succeeds in beating the evil beast that cancer is.

Thanks for the update, thrilled that Captain Berdos is onboard. Over the years, I really have learned something new from him on each voyage. I think I've been on more cruises with him at the helm than any other Master in the Celebrity fleet. Plus purely from a personality point of view, I've always found Captain Berdos, Captain Bouzakis, and Captain Leo very engaging and fascinating to talk with.

Thanks! I compiled the most recently posted information for Infinity based on posts from Northern Aurora, johhnnyt, ipomoeagirl, and cruisestitch. Does it currently looks like this? We’ll be on Infinity in mid-May, so I will update from the cruise.

Captain: Yannis Berdos

Chief Engineer: Andreas Zofos

Staff Captain: Morfis Pasalis

GRM: Miguel Cunha

HD: Bosco Pires

CD: Luigi De La Cruz

F&B Manager: Vedran Jelavic

Executive Chef: Paul Carroll

Michaels Club Concierge: Erick Guzman

Captains Club: Kirsty Sparks

And possibly the entertainment as:

Dance Band: Groovity

House Band: d'revelations

Piano & Vocals: Vasi katina

Guitar and vocals: Sean Roach

Guitar and Vocals: scarlet and dom

Activities Manager: Nacho

I really wouldn't worry about all the possible scenarios, you can give yourself a lot of anxiety of what could happen. Seems from what I gather there might be a biker group onboard (We had a group on Solstice, boy were they fun), and possibly some other group, but who cares as long as it doesn't impact you. Since Celebrity hasn't contacted you it doesn't seem to impact you.

When groups book, they usually block out a group of rooms for the group for a set period of time. Look again in a few months and I bet you'll see many room available

I can say the only thing I was originally offered was my cruise fare refunded with no penalties. I was given no option of retaining my existing cabin assignment but was rather informed my cabin had been assigned to someone else. When I looked up my reservation on celebritycruises.com I found my reservation had been cancelled as of April 11.

 

After what appears to be significant effort by my TA I was given a Cat 2 veranda cabin (not the original Concierge Class) and I am once again on the cruise. My experience dealing with Celebrity customer service is they have no policy and it is up to your TA to look out for you.

Am glad you are sailing, hope you have a great trip. I assume they (Celebrity) refunded the difference between the CC and Cat 2 cabin? Did they at least give you any OBC for the extra annoyance they caused?

We just got notified by our travel agent today that we had been bumped from our cabin on the Transatlantic cruise from Miami to Southampton leaving on April 16. We booked this several months ago, had a cabin assignment, printed our Xpress pass, received luggage tags and our bags were packed but Celebrity has now given our cabin to someone else.

 

I had no idea this was even possible but apparently this is happening to several people on this cruise.

I, too, am on this Sunday Eclipse departure doing a b2b with Norway. A bit worried by the reports of bumps, I contacted the Captain's Club to ensure I was still confirmed with our original (and carefully selected) cabins. The original Representative was unclear on my request or of any possible way there could be a "bump" on Celebrity. She placed me on hold, and when she returned this was the info she shared from the "resolutions" department. She said, "we never simply tell someone they no longer have a cabin. We offer compensation and an alternate solution. If the customer is not interested or capable of making a change, they keep their cabin and we move to someone else." Obviously, this stands in contradiction with what our fellow board members have experienced. We cruise extensively with Celebrity-four more this year. I'm disappointed that they have not provided clarity on this matter here on cruise critic where dialogue from some of their most loyal patrons takes place. Missed opportunity considering the current spotlight on travel-related involuntary bumps.

Good point, appreciate you following up and getting Celebrity's point of view

That's always been the case as far as I know

Maybe in this case, the rep didn't understand the policy, but I never heard of anyone being bumped without them agreeing to an alternate path for travel, and/or some type of compensation.

The only thing I've seen in the past is when people have unrealistic expectations on compensation and turn down offers (which I don't think is true in this cast as the poster seems 100% upfront and realistic that she just want to go on the cruise she paid for).

I'm really hoping that P18750 hears some great news back from Celebrity today and that she is heading out on her TA this week

I do like the layout though of the Edge Single Infinite Veranda Cabins, I think it should be interesting. I think the design/layout really uses the space well

I noticed today that we show $600 available for our Infinity sailing for Pacific Coastal for May 17th, so booked an excursion and some specialty dining packages

This thread has a list of all the key officers on all the ships

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=862734

Here are some Infinity Updates as of April 2017

Captain Nikolaos Frantzis

Chief Engineer Andreas Zofos

Staff Captain Morfis Pasalis

GRM Miguel Cunha

HD Bosco Pires

CD Luigi De La Cruz

F&B Manager Vedran Jelavic

I booked it for February of 2018 and can't wait

I really don't have thedesire to hike on the Tundra of Antarctica off of a zodiac boat

6 of my friends that did it (Celebrity Antarctica cruise) said it was the high point of their cruising experience, so I can't wait

I'll never spend 20K to go a small boat tour of Antarctica, so this is a happy solid solution to grab the bragging rights and scenery. and still be comfortable

In my opinion, A lot depends on the cruise

Longer the cruise, the higher the demographic normally, during school year higher age too

Transatlantic and Transpacific always have a higher median age (60ish+)

4

Some really good detail on what they are hoping to do with it at this link. It (in theory) will be much more than a remote door unlocker. Make dining reservations, order drinks from the bar, navigate the ship, watch the people on the bridge. I had heard they were even testing a family/friends chat messaging system currently and hope to include that as well.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/celebrity-edge/

Couldn't agree more with you. Really found Maarten an excellent, entertaining CD, and would certainly cruise with him anytime

It's always interesting to hear/read the different reviews on CDs,

 

We had Maarten as a CD on a previous cruise and found him to be quite good & would be happy to cruise with him again,

 

It really would be a boring world if we all liked the same things/people,

 

 

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That's a terrific answer and advice

I agree with those who say to contact Celebrity immediately and find out the current procedure to obtain permission for the downline embarkation.

 

In some circumstances it is permitted, and in others it is not.

So it is much better to get approval in advance rather than just flying down there and risk being turned away.

A few years ago, we were told to contact the emergency travel team

emergencyteam@celebritycruises.com

and send them the details:

Downline Embarkation Request

Reservation ID: XXXXXXX

Ship: Celebrity XXXXX

Sailing Date: XX-XX-XXXX

Stateroom XXXX

Downline Embarkation Port: XXXXXXXXX

Embarkation Date: XX-XX-XXXX

 

 

But the procedure may have changed since then.

As you are so short on time, I would suggest starting by immediately calling the Redeployment Desk at 888-281-9343

 

and they should be able to direct you from there if there has been any change in procedure.

 

Hope everything works out well for you.

Good luck!

Yup, I agree with you all. I spoke to some people at Celebrity yesterday, and was told the plan was to offer the Solo Infinity cabins at 80% the cost of a single person paying for double occupancy Infinity cabin.

So my problems with it so far are

• 25% less cabin space but currently the savings is about 10% off regular fare ($3419 for an ES $3798 for an E4)
  
• Queen sized bed instead of a King Bed
  
• Lose out on the double points of Captains Club I would imagine
  
• Guessing you would not be able to upgrade using CC to jump a category
  

My opinion is they should sweeten the pot on those single cabins, maybe offer free wifi, and free laundry for the single travelers in these cabins and keep the price point as it is, or just reduce the price point. You just have to find a creative way to incentivize the traveler into believing that giving up the extra 25% of cabin space is worth it.

Maybe someone can incorporate this into an eventual cabin sticky.

 

https://www.celebritycruisespresscenter.com/fact_sheets/1489410875_Celebrity-Edge-fact-sheet-March-2017.pdf

Thanks for posting that. Indeed very helpful