terrydtx

We have said the same about. Carnival, NCL and Royal, once and done, never again. Did the Haven with NCL and it was an overpriced terrible experience in a suite not even close to the Celebrity Retreat. I hope we are not saying the same about O after our first cruise with them in 2025.

When did GC start having a dock for cruise ships? My understanding is all cruise ships tender in GC? Tenders dock in Georgetown but according to the GC tourist sites there is no cruise ship docking facility in Georgetown. Grand Cayman Cruise Port Guide: Review (2022) | IQCruising

We have only used the pool bar on Caribbean cruises when it was too hot to go to the Retreat sun deck on the Equinox. In 2021 on the Equinox the Martini Bar was packed the first couple of nights from 5pm on. I mean elbows to elbows until after the third night when an outbreak of Covid was traced back to 4 bartenders in the martini bar. The bar was closed for one day and all of the bottles and glasses were removed to do a complete sanitization of the venue. After that the martini bar was a ghost town. That was back when every passenger had to wear those Tractlet bracelets and the ship knew everyone who had been in the Martini bar when those infected bartenders worked. Last year on the Reflection we gave up trying to sit in the martini bar after 5pm due to the huge crowds, so we spent most of our time in Michaels Club.

The last time I had a server get me drinks at the pool, I waited well over 30 minutes for my order.

I noticed that since @mac_tlcposted pictures yesterday of the pool bar during the stop at GC, the biggest complainers have gone silent in this thread. We always have our Butler keep our mini fridge well stocked with red wine and beer, so we will be just fine. Also we will be going ashore with our GD to swim with the sea turtles. I hadn't thought about the beer cooler in the Luminae lounge, great idea.

Why is not one person complaining about the long lines at the pool bar on sea days when the pool is standing room only? On those days it can take 30 minutes or more of waiting in line for a drink.

Holland America and Celebrity do the same as Oceania, I know from personal experience with both. They both pay for your flights after final payment from the cruise lines account not our CC. I have found one way to get around this with United. After our flights are ticketed, we go on United website and pay with the airline CC for cabin upgraded seats like Unted Economy plus and then we get free checked bags from that use of the CC. American Airlines unlike United will give us free checked bags because we have an upper level CC account regardless of whether the tickets are paid with the AA card.

We are new to Oceania, long time Celebrity customer but no happy with their new suites pricing so we have booked our first Oceania cruise in March 2025. We will be flying to Santiago Chile from San Antonio, TX and then home from Buenos Aires and looking at prices this year they are so expensive. We normally fly business class or minimum premium economy for international flights. Would we better off booking PE flights with Oceania? Does anyone here have experience doing this with O to South America? We are also looking at Copa Airlines which has flights from Houston, TX to Santiago with a stop in Panama and they have reasonable BC fares, which are about the same as United PE costs. Thanks for any help.

While sitting in a dining venue for a meal and with the House select beverage package, can you sit down before dinner and enjoy a wine or beer before ordering and can you linger after the meal enjoying more wine or ports?

I see that O has a very extensive and nice-looking list of wines by the drink. Last year while in Venice we did an all-day tour of the Prosecco Hills and learned so much about our favorite sparkling wine. Good to see a Prosecco on the list. The Prosecco region produces more bottles of sparkling wine per year than the French do. We are new to Oceania with our first cruise booked in 2025, we chose to take the Bev package with our O Life booking after reading about it on CC.

Right about airlines cost, business class seat from the US to Europe are double this summer over last summer.

That does it, now I would be at Guest Services demanding a free future cruise for this total inconvenience. Now I know in June I will be able to still get drunk as a skunk😎.

Have you gone to guest services yet to demand your drinks refund or more OBC? 😁 Seriously I have waited for over 30 minutes at crowed bars on sea days and no one should be complaining about this. Every been to the Martini bar before and after dinner? It is a mad house of people waiting to order.

OMG over 2800 passengers and those lines are unreal, you might have to wait for 20 seconds or so to get a drink that is unacceptable.! I would demand a refund or more OBC!!!

Exactly, there is no proof that this is some conspiracy by Celebrity to take away anything paid for. Celebrity could make much more in revenue by selling drinks to non-drinks package passengers with more bars open, but in GC does not seem to be an option.

Exactly no one is twisting arms to make anyone book a cruise that stops in any port that has regulations one does not like.

Last year we were on the Celebrity Reflection in a Sky Suite from Rome followed by the HAL Oosterdam from Venice in a Signature Suite. The entertainment on the Oosterdam was totally lame in the main Theater with too many nights of BBC world movies. But I have to say we thought overall the food in the MDR on the Oosterdam was better than the Luminae on the Reflection. Service in Luminae was so much better than the MDR on Oosterdam as it should have been. We looked at the Celebrity Equinox for a 2025 South American cruise for 14 nights in a Sky Suite but it was so expensive compared to our other Retreat cruises we looked at Oceania. We booked the O Marina for 18 nights for the same price as the Equinox wanted, and we are getting 4 more days and 3 more ports with the O cruise. The future Suites pricing on Celebrity has made Oceania and Viking much more affordable.

Yesterday we booked the Nov 4, 2023 7 day Koningsdam Classic California Coastal Cruise Thank you

Yesterday we booked the Koningsdam for a 7 night Coastal California cruise in November. We received a FCC from HAL this week from our Covid experience on the Oosterdam last August that had to be used by Jan 31 2024. We booked an Aft facing Veranda cabin with HIA and the FCC paid for the cabin 100%. After what we were put through by HAL last year on the Oosterdam with Covid, I never thought we would cruise with them again. This FCC is going to give us a chance to give HAL a second chance at no cost to us. This is our first time on a Pinaccle Class ship and from what I am seeing this may be a fun cruise on a great ship. We are 3 star on HAL and Elite with X, and if we like the Koningsdam we may book an Alaska cruise for 2025 on her while onboard in November. A lot of not so good changes are going on with Celebrity including ridiculous high pricing of suites for future cruises, so we need to be open minded. We are also trying Oceania for the first time in 2025.

Not all 2800 passengers will be on the ship, the vast majority will be on shore for the day.

You seem to be upset by this, but do you really think this is some conspiracy by Celebrity? Not everyone on the ship has a drinks package so it would be in Celebrity's benefit to have more bars open so they can make revenue from selling more drinks. If Celebrity really wanted to limit drinks in port, they would do this in more than just the port of GC. You will still be able to use your drink package and get all the drinks you want at any venue after the ship leaves port or during the day at the pool bar. Nothing has been taken away from you. We are booked on the Equinox in June in the Retreat and I should be upset that I can't use my very expensive Retreat benefits in the Retreat Lounge and Retreat deck, but it doesn't really bother me that much. This thread has gone on long enough let's just more on.

After we boarded the Oosterdam and saw what few wines by the glass were priced between the $11 and $15 limits were available, we realized that first bartender and beverage manager did us a favor by not upgrading us to Elite. I doubt we would have in 14 days spent enough between $11 and $15 to pay for the upgrade. We found you had to buy the wines listed at over $15 a glass to get anything of quality, now with the newer policy of just paying the overage plus 18% is a better deal than upgrading.

We were on the Oosterdam last August and we had the HIA package. When we boarded, we were told by the Beverage manager we could NOT upgrade to the Elite drinks package with the HIA. She told me if the Signature Drinks was bought pre-cruise without HIA then we could upgrade. After being on the cruise for 14 nights I saw very few wines we wanted to drink by the glass even under $15 but we got any spirits we wanted for under $11. This cruise was also before they changed the policy to paying only the difference between the $11 and higher drinks cost plus 18% tips. I would also like to point out that HAL's drink packages are a bargain compared to Celebrity's new costs. Celebrity's standard package is now $89pp per day ($10 and under) and the Premium package is $109pp per day ($17 and under).

Went into effect with all cruises departing after Jan 1st this year. Was just talking to my TA today and she told RCL is doing the same with RS. She said she is getting a lot of unhappy customer calls over this. Her company is having a big meeting with Celebrity and Royal next week about all of these changes and huge price increasing's.

It is charged every time something is delivered to your cabin. If you both order RS breakfast it would be just the one $9.95 +18% tip charge. The continental breakfast is no charge for delivery, but if you order anything else like eggs or sides with it you would be charged.