Mr. Click

One word of warning about gift cards in general. I used some Bank of America Celebrity gift cards to pay the deposit on a cruise we had to cancel last minute. When I filed my insurance claim they would not cover the gif cards. "only cash, check or credit card payments are covered so check your policy carefully.

IF it is undocumented how do you know you have it? I had a CAD issue that cropped up unexpectedly right before a scheduled cruise. Thankfully I did have insurance but I had no idea I had a problem until I ended up in the ER with chest pains. They said I had not had a heart attack but kept me for more tests. 4 days later I had two stents put in and was told "no, you are not getting on an airplane to Europe tomorrow". The kind of issues that will cause you to miss your trip are rarely undocumented and insurance companies look long and hard at all of it. OP, I get your venting, I was angry and upset 10 years ago when I missed out on 10 nights of points for a trip we paid for.....just be thankful that you will heal and be fine. Those were the words of my original orthopedist when I complained about how much my broken femur hurt and I was sick and tired of being stuck in the hospital and I wanted to go home. He told me to either stop complaining or get a new doc. " you got caught on an icy road between the steel bumpers of two cars. You could have been killed, you could have broken both legs, you could have lost your legs so stop complaining and get to work". I did....and I still remember that speech 57 years later. I am still here, still going and doing and very thankful.

Yes, you should get port fees and taxes refunded. Yes, it does suck, stink, seem unfair that we can't get the points when they get to keep the money but it is their ball so they can make the rules. On another note, as your bones heal PT is your friend. When joints are immobilized they stiffen and freeze up and the muscles around them atrophy so PT is important to a great recovery. Speaking from experience in my mis-spent youth when I had two knee surgeries on the same knee before they had arthroscopes and in between I broke my femur into right at the knee. I was 23 when the doctor said I had arthritis, 76 when I finally got a new knee.....

I agree that the policy stinks but it is the deal and their rules. You will get port fees refunded to you and any advance purchases are refunded too. It happened to us 10 years ago when I ended up in the cardiac catheter lab 5 days before we were to sail. I did call Captains Club to ask about it and I got the same answer. It they glad I was on the mend….

Thanks. I will check Blue out too. Hertz has airport and in town locations as well

Thanks. It took a session to begin to see things and be ready. This one worked well and made me happy I took the job.

Stuff does happen with Celebrity's IT. On our January Beyond sailing the health questionaire never showed up in the app, xpress passes did not show up so I had to go to the hotel's biz center and print them out the night before....

A bit late to the show on this one but 10 days ago a former co-worker called and asked for my help shooting the US National Syncro Ice Skating Championships here in Vegas. His second shooter could not make it...I warned my friend that I have been retired for 8 years now and my gear is a Sony a6400 with an 18-200mm lens. He must have been desperate and rented me a Canon 5R and a longish zoom lens. Here is my favorite image from the last night. Oh side not, this was the first time I ever saw, let alone shot figure skating..

I always say "we should bring them since we have them" and some how they always get left behind. We are going to iceland this summer on the Eclipse, lets see if they make it this time. I would like to have them along for watchng for wildlift that is beyond the range for my 200mm lens, really a 280 when add in the crop factor but still.

Flight schedules change all of the time. It is up to us to keep an eye on these things. BA and a number of other airlines have charged for early seat selection for quite a while. Pre-COVID we did a cruise out of AMS and went over on BA to save some money. We booked biz class and even there if we wanted to choose our seats early it was $125 per seat. Since it was on overnight flight and we both planned to just sleep we saved the money. The LHR to AMS flight was just an hour so we did not really are where we sat. Always look at all of the details and don't rely on a third party to do the work for you.

We were on the Jan 19th trip and yes, she was there and working hard but there was a report here that she had started the cruise before us.

On our recent cruise I had a problem in the cabin and talked to Guest Relations. They made calls but no one fixed the problem that day and it created more problems. The following morning I went to a Captains Club event and was introduced to the GR director and explained my issue to her and offered to get off the ship at the first stop if she would just refund my money. Needless to say she was taken aback and apologized but in the long run the problem was finall fixed but that did not fix the earlier broken promises. Offers were made to "apologize" but the offer was too low because it was only made to us and not our friends who were effected too so I asked that be included and was told, three days later no but we will give you some FCC....and I let it go. Survey comes and a big Zero goes to GR staff. Two weeks go by and nothing from that so I wrote to the Exec Offices email and actually just gor a reply asking me to call so we could discuss the issues. They listened, apologized again and upped the FCC AND gave a bit to our friends too.... For great customer service you should not have to go way up the line...it should happen right then and there on the ship....Sorry Forbes, I misses by boarding drink in the cattle call that is boarding today and my gift basket? I am only an Elite, I guess I don't rate one...

We did our first Edge class cruise on the Beyond in January after don't a dozen or so trips on the S and M class ships. While the ship is really pretty I was underwhelmed. No Sky Lounge, no Rendezvous Lounge. Few comfortable places to just sit and enjoy it. We did check out Eden but walking through a very dark hallway with some goofy lighting was not fun, the seating there was not every comfortable. The Roof Top Garden has no shaded spots for those of us don't really like to sit out in the sun. Overall a lot of the ship felt chopped up. We booked and OV rather than our regular veranda because the IV idea did not appeal to me at all . The theater was pretty cool. The one thing consistant between all of the classes was the chair hogs. I went out one morning at 6:30am to make some sunrise in the wake pictures and as I walked back around the pool area more than half of the chairs already had books and towels on them.....People no but books and towels.....

Sorry to hear about your experience but I am not really too surprised. We were on the same sailing but in a OV down in the bowels and came home less than happy. We did point out some of our problems to the guest relations staff and got a lot of "oh, gee we are so sorry" and little else in the way of follow up. In the end they did give us a small FCC. I found it strange that Captain Kate is so great, she really is but some other parts of the ship have issues. Like you I filled out the survey just because but nothing came from it. I finally wrote to Celebrity's executive offices and detailed our issues and about 3 weeks later got an email asking me to call or provide a number they could all me at so I called. Actually had a good conversation with a nice lady who actually listened to me and did some more in the way of compensating us. We were in the MDRs and found the service nice but by and large, after day one the food was not so good. A lot os it was way over salted and often over coked. We did Bermuda on the Summit last summer and the food was good every night so yes, there has been a decline. Iceland is next in August and seriously considered just canceling it and tossing the deposit but once we got home from the Caribbean I found the Iceland price had dropped over two grand so I just re-booked at the lower price and they get one more chance....Oh, we are Elite so we are well verserd in Celebrity. This one was not the Celebrity we knew and loved in the past.

NZ is really strict and the dogs really do the job. A few years ago getting off the ship at our first NZ port stop I was stopped. "The dog is really interested in your camera bag, do you have any food stuff in it?". Nope, but 5 days before in Sydney I did have an apple in my bag from the hotel......We had a good laugh.

A credit from Celebrity for 23.88 showed up last week. Not totally sure what it was for but I am guessing it was that missed port.

We are Elite, we were on Beyond in January in an OV. We did have bags waiting for us and another bag was left on port/beach days. No Sea Pass holders.

So maybe that explains the small credit from Celebrity that recently showed up on my credit card statement.....we missed St. John Antigua on our January 19 sailing on the Beyond.

They will often let you stack the wifi discounts when it is just the pre-cruise pricing but you do have to call and ask to book it. If there is a "big" sale like Black Friday or July 4 then won't let you stack the discounts. I have found that I actually get a better deal buying during the big sales when I have time to wait them out.

I booked a US to Iceland cruise for this August a while ago, before the latest volcanic eruptions. Recently I did a price check and saw prices had fallen, a lot. I also needed to change to a cruise that starts in Iceland and ends in the US. My TA was glad to do it for me but there was a $200 change fee to re-book BUT, I am now paying about $2000 less than I was 2 weeks ago. I did lose some of the OBC from the TA since his commission went down but I am still way ahead so book mow and keep an eye one the prices and when see a drop, say something, quickly.

Is there any way to rent a car at the airport and turn it in at the cruise port? We are flying in 2 days before our cruise starts and then the ship overnights in Reykjavik.

If you read the fine print it says up to 25 people but on St Lucia where the roads are very bad at best I mistakenly assumed it would be a smaller van. We rarely book ship's excursions and I should have paid more attention.

They do seem to have some "issues" in their descriptions. One our Southern Caribbean trip on the Beyond we booked a "small group" tour in St. Lucia. The bus held 25 people. It was the biggest bus you could have in St. Lucia where the roads are terrible and narrow. No, it was not a 50 pax bus but I expected something smaller than 25 on that island. We live, we learn.

We met here on our Jan 19 sailing. It was her second trip of her current contract and she told us that as a captain she works 3 months on and then 3 months off so it looks like you might just miss her.

A great service. Always on time, always smiling, they even brought umbrellas for on one drizzly debarkation day.