terrydtx

We sail on the Koingsdam in 3 weeks and do not have a boarding time, but we have CO so I assume we can board anytime with CO priority boarding.

Not only Vista Suites but Signature suites also do not come with Club Orange. We are booked in a Vista on the Volendam next August and we added CO for the free category upgrade. We booked a VS category B in the back of the ship and then upgraded to "A" category midship which was the cabin we would have booked without CO. We are basically getting CO for free and with several tender ports on this cruise we will have priority tendering now as well as CO seating in the MDR with the extra menu items.

We board the Koingsdam on Nov 4th and it is the only ship embarking that day from San Diego. The Oceania Vista will be in port but only as a port stop, will they have any negative effect on HAL boarding? We did purchase CO for the priority boarding, hope it helps.

That is the only way to use OBC and it works fine.

I have not had this happen in the past. We are going to use FE for our Volendam Canada cruise next August.

Have you tried calling FE direct, this may be one of HAL's many IT problems. This happened to us recently and when I called FE they did something on my account that let me book online with no further problems. You should be able to book with FE direct within 330 days of your return flights.

Based on my experience, prior to departure, I would contact FE directly. I have never waited more than 10 minutes for a FE rep while trying to call the airlines can take hours of waiting. The only time I would deal directly with the airline is if you are at the airport and the delay or cancelation happenes that day you are flying. This happened to us last week returning home from Athens. Our flight from London to DFW was delayed and we missed our connection to San Antonio. In DFW I had an American Airlines customer service desk rebook us to a later flight home.

We are big believers of Flight Ease and use it when we cruise internationally. Last year we used them for our business class air from the US to Venice and not only did we get a better price than we could on our own (50% less than direct with airlines) but they took care of us when we had a Covid related delay coming home. My wife and I got Covid at the end of our Oosterdam cruise that resulted in us spending 3 extra days after the cruise in Italian quarantine in Venice. I called FE and they then canceled our flights home and told me to contact them when we were released by Italy to fly home. I was given an emergency 24/7 phone number to call when we were ready to get our flights. We were released on a Wednesday morning, and I called the FE number and at 3:00am Seattle time I got ahold of a FE agent who got us booked BC flying home on the next day, Thursday. The delay and rebooking did not cost us any additional money, This was something that we would not have been able to do directly with any airline. There was another couple in quarantine with us who booked their airfare with the airline direct and when they called to get home they had to wait for 5 days and pay over $1000 each for the new flights.

We were on the Apex last month and the Retreat Lounge Hosts told us the Edge will be getting a full-service bar installed in the Retreat lounge like the ones on the Apex and Beyond during the dry docking this month. This was good news as we will be on the Edge B2B in January.

What you describe is what I wear every night in the MDR, even on the dressy nights.

Same for us after our Koingsdam cruise next month.

We board the Koingsdam on November 4th in San Diego. We have CO and our boarding pass says "Priority Boarding Pass" but under time it says "To Be Assigned". Is this normal for CO priority?

That was exactly our experience last year in August on the Oosterdam from Venice. I also got to the beverage manager and was told we could not upgrade from Standard HIA to the Elite drinks. This was why I asked if the policy had changed since then, now that you only have to pay for the price difference of a higher priced drink or glass of wine. That new policy went into effect after our Oosterdam cruise.

Not all ships have a soda fountain and canned soda drinks can be found at any bar.

If we hadn't booked our 2 January Edge cruises in a SS at more than $2500pp less than today's cost, we would be cancelling them both. Both cruises were booked at less than $4900pp with $800 OBC and prepaid gratuities. Today the 12-night NZ cruise SS is $7390pp and the 10-night Great Barrier Reef SS is $6852 plus both now have no OBC or prepaid gratuities. I hope this ridiculous pricing and new policies will eventually bite the Celebrity bean counters in their butts. Then and only then would we consider cruising with them again.

We just got home last Sunday from a 3-week trip to Europe including a 12-night suite on the Celebrity Apex. It was a great cruise and post cruise trip to Santorini. There have been many changes being made by Celebrity that are driving us and many others to look at other lines. We are getting ready for our Koingsdam cruise next month and then our 6 week trip to Australia and NZ in January. The two cruises in January will probably be our last cruises with Celebrity. I do not want to get into why but just read some of the Celebrity forums to see how unhappy many CC members are with them. We have booked with both HAL and Oceania in the future and depending on itineraries they may be our two go to cruise lines of the future. If we hadn't already booked and paid for our airfare to Sydney in January, we would have canceled the 2 Celebrity cruises.

We have not received any post cruise surveys from Celebrity, I do not think they want to hear my comments. We got off the Apex on September 26th. I did use the QR code on the cruise once and got no response, so i quit using them.

We were in a SS last month on the Apex and the afternoon snacks had to ordered by us from room service. The Retreat butlers in the lounge would not do it on a standing basis. We ordered a cheese plate and shrimp cocktails a couple of times and it took 45 minutes to get them delivered, this was nothing like having a butler do it in the past. All room service orders had to be ordered directly from room service, when we called the butler "team" we were directed to room service for our orders.

Has HAL changed their policy of not being able to upgrade the standard HIA to the Premium drinks on board? That was not allowed for us to do last year on the Oosterdam.

Last year on the Oosterdam our room attendant left plenty of the canned waters in our cabin and we never paid anything extra for them. We had the standard HIA package in a Signature Suite. Will we still get the cans of water at no charge for our upcoming HAL cruises with Standard HIA?

We are Elite with Celebrity and 3 star with HAL and up to now have liked both lines equally. Last year we did a Celebrity cruise on the Reflection from Rome followed by a HAL cruise on the Oosterdam from Venice. There were 4 in our group and our consensus was that the MDR food quality on the Oosterdam was by far superior to the Reflection MDR and Retreat Luminae. We were very disappointed with both the Roof Top Grill and Tuscan Grill specialty restaurants on the Reflection. The Pinnacle Grill on the Oosterdam was outstanding and cost 40% less than the Tuscan Grill on X. Entertainment on Celebrity is a plus over the more lame offerings with HAL. 14 nights on the Oosterdam and not one magician or comedian show, which we prefer to singers and dancers. We board the Koingsdam next month and have Club Orange that got us upgraded to an Aft facing Veranda that more than paid for the CO cost. We already have booked Tamarind which is our favorite specialty restaurant of any cruise line we have sailed with.

We board the Koingsdam on November 4th and will be at the Embassy Suites the night before, I appreciate the information in this thread. We also have CO priority boarding so I guess we can drop off our bags and check in any time after 11am.

People just can't understand that the Revolutionizing of remaining M and S ships is on indefinite hold and will not be done in the near term and most likely never. As long as Celebrity can sail these older ships at near full capacity, they have no reason or incentive to spend any more money on them. Do not confuse a 14 day routine dry docking with a full Revolutionizing refurb which pre covid took 4 - 5 weeks to complete.

Compared the cost of a Retreat SS booked on the Edge January 25th cruise from yesterday to today. Yesterday the booking for a SS was $7169pp with $400pp OBC and prepaid gratuities. Today same cabin is $6912pp with no OBC or prepaid gratuities. This is just another profit grabber by Celebrity. BTW We booked this cruise last year in a Sky Suite and our cost then was $4861pp with $400pp OBC and paid gratuities. The price now is $2050pp more than when we booked. This is one of several reasons why we will no longer cruise with Celebrity after January next year. These ridiculous Retreat prices with loss of amenities have priced us out of the market with them.

And on E Class ships a real open traditional balcony.