terrydtx

Thank you, I do see the menu changed today. However I saw something that surprised me. It has the Jumbo shrimp cocktail listed as an $8.50 extra charge and the surf and turf (5oz fillet and 5oz lobster tail) has a ridiculous $30 upcharge, when did all this happen? Our last HAL cruise was the summer of 2019 and I do not remember any upcharges for the surf and turf or shrimp cocktail. We had our grandson with us and he had the jumbo shrimp cocktail every night, he loves shrimp more than any seafood. Are these upcharges all post Covid?

So today's menu will be the same as the same Tuesday day in August? If this is the case, the app is worthless, why not give us the option to change days and see the menus all at one time?

But for what day, how do you change the days to see all the menus?

I have version 4.10 for my Galaxy S20 phone but I still can not find how to see the dining room menus for the entire cruise, it only shows one menu with no option for changing to daily viewing. I have same issue with my Galaxy S7 tablet too. We are on the Oosterdam for 14 nights and want to see what the MDR has each day so that we can make our specialty restaurant bookings. This app still needs a lot of work and it not as efficient as the Celebrity app.

You can do it on any device with internet connection, a video camera and a microphone built in, so yes an I pad, Galaxy S tablet or laptop will work as long as you have internet connections. My Galaxy S7 tablet has cell data so we can do our texts almost anywhere. The tests take 10 to 15 minutes online to complete.

That is why we are taking the internet proctored tests with us for our August cruise. We will do them the day before we board in Rome from our hotel rooms with internet.

It looks like you have already made your final payment, have you tried dealing direct with the airlines on your changes in itinerary?

So happy to see that you got the flights changed, we are on the same EWR to Rome flights in August for our Reflection cruise with United, but we fly to Rome 2 days early. We fly home from Venice in September on Delta direct to Atlanta. With all the current issues at major Europe airports, no way we want to make any connections there if we can avoid them.

For our August cruises, we have hotels booked in Rome, Florence and Venice all in Euros and they were booked earlier this year. Now that the Euro is at about $1.05 to 1 all of the hotels are much less in cost for us, the advantage of booking in Euros instead of dollars. At the time we booked the Euro was about $1.18 to 1. We also use credit cards that do not charge and foreign transaction fees when they convert Euros to dollars for any charges in the EU. For example our Florence hotel was booked at 240 Euros a night, when booked that was $282 but now it is $252 a night. For our 3 nights in Florence, we are saving $90.

That's a shame, but still good hotel for night before frying out.

We have flights next week on AA to St Thomas, not for a cruise, but our flights have changed 5 times since we booked last November, and not once did we get a notice from AA. We are a high AA rewards member with AA Advantage Select Credit card and get nothing for it from AA. Our flights to St Thomas started out as direct from DFW to STT with mid-morning DFW departure to flights to Miami then connecting to STT departing DFW at 8:00am. Then changed to 7:14 departure and 2 aircraft type changes. We are booked first class so at least we kept good seats through all the changes. Same experience with our Flights in August on United, many changes and no notice. I check all of our flights online several times a week, because you cannot assume the airlines will ever notify you about changes. Last year we flew to Ft Lauderdale connecting in Atlanta from San Antonio for a cruise first class on Delta. Two days before our departure to Atlanta Delta downsized to a smaller plane with 6 fewer first-class seats and we were part of the 6 who got bumped out on a full flight to economy. We did not know about this until the morning of our flight from San Antonio. We were told we got bumped because we had the cheapest cost of anyone in FC. We did get free drinks on the flight in Economy and a $200 flight voucher that expired unused last December 31.

In Rome we always stay at the Hitlon at the airport for a flight the next day. You can walk to the international terminal from the hotel in 10 minutes. No taxi or transport needed. Through the Hilton app you can book in dollars. The last time there in 2018 a king room was about $200 with breakfast. The hotel also offers a free shuttle to Rome and back. We usually take the shuttle to Rome for dinner and then back to the hotel.

After sailed on 4 HAL cruises with HMC on the itinerary, we have only been there once, the others canceled because of high winds, making using tenders too dangerous. That pier was sorely needed.

If this is the case then Delta should be dealing directly with you instead of dealing with FBC.

You are correct, but the cost of the tickets have to be paid to Celebrity at the time of booking them. My experience is once the tickets are paid by the cruise line you can deal with the booked airline directly instead of FBC in the middle. Our cruise from FLL last year on the Equinox had so many flight changes and worse aircraft type changes, including the week before the cruise departure. I was able to deal directly with Delta on all the changes, after final payment.

A confirmation number does not mean they are paid for, I have confirmation numbers for my flights booked for our August cruise, but the tickets have not been paid for by the cruise line until after final payment next month. You need to check this out with Delta and Celebrity, but I will bet your tickets for December are NOT paid for by Celebrity. Unless you have already paid the cost of the tickets to Celebrity, they are not paid in full. I have a lot of experience dealing with FBC and HAL flight ease so I am speaking from experience.

Are you sure the tickets are paid in full? You may have a booking number but until Celebrity pays for the tickets to Delta they are not paid in full. Celebrity normally does not pay for any airline tickets until after final payment, which is when you would have paid for the flights included in the final payment.

I second the Global entry, only $15 more than TSA precheck for 5 years. Worth every penny.

In 2019 on the Noordam in July we had several bars that had Alaska Brewing company on tap. We also had Alaska Root Beer in bottles, which our grandson fell in love with.

The Retreat Sun Deck is just a minor part of the overall Retreat experience, unless you are a sun worshipper, it is totally useless. We sailed last year on the partially Revolutionized Equinox and in 9 days we never visited the Retreat sun deck after the first day, too hot and hardly any shade. My days of laying in the sun are long over at my age. We have a 10-day Italy cruise in August on the non revolutionized Reflection but we booked a Sky Suite for the Suites only restaurant, lounge, Butler and the Retreat service which out classes all other mainstream cruise lines.

We are on the Oosterdam Rt from Venice in August and disembark on Sept 4th and fly home on the morning of September 5th. The flights are business class booked with Flight Ease. We plan on doing the proctored tests on the morning of Sept 4th before we get off the ship so that we can fly home to the US the next day. If anyone of us are positive and have to quarantine in Venice for 5 or more days. will HAL FE take responsibility to rebook us home and will we have to pay for any additional charges? I am trying to set up a contingency plan just in case. I also hope that by September we will no longer need a negative test to fly home. There are 4 in our group and we are all vaccinated and boosted to meet the Up to Date vaccination requirements of Italy. I am looking for any responses from current or very recent cruise passengers who had this happen to them. Thank you,

Wearing masks in airports and on flights to all EU counties will become optional starting May 16th. This means we can fly for 10 hours to Italy and sleep without a mask on the plane. Do not want to start a mask debate but optional means if you feel safer, you can wear one. EU Will Scrap Mask Mandate For Air Travel (msn.com)

Has anyone been in SS #11197 or 11196 on the Edge or Apex? These are the first SS on the bump out midship on deck 11 and I was wondering if the forward view is better than the cabins that follow these? We are booked in 11197 next year on the Apex and 11196 in 2024 on the Edge. I have looked online at cabin pictures but nothing about the views from the balcony for these two cabins. TIA. Terry