terrydtx

10 years ago we booked a Lanai stateroom on the Volendam, we had two dedicated loungers outside our door to the lower promenade deck and several times we had to ask passengers to move from our chairs, even though there was signage about the chairs being reserved for the particular cabins. 

45 minutes ago, 0106 said:

Was surprised to see this on the Nav App this morning on the NS.  It was not there last week.  Wonder if it will be enforced?

I have seen similar notices on both HAL and Celebrity, but the problem is it is hardly ever enforced as the crew do not want to get into confrontations with passengers. 

On the non-Pinnacle ships, including the Noordam, CO dining is in the MDR, but you have a separate waiting line entrance for dinner and have seating priority over the non-CO passengers waiting to be seated. You will also get the extra CO menu with nightly special entree's. It is not the same experience as the dedicated CO dining room but IMO the next best option. At one time the MDR's had a roped off section exclusively for CO passengers, but I am not sure that is still the case. 

On 3/9/2024 at 2:32 PM, kazu said:

I do the future cruise listings and Bon Voyage threads.

For most of the Bon Voyage itineraries, I have to go to the sold out section of HAL. Cruises have been selling very well.  Maybe the Caribbean cruises will come down but I doubt HAL’s longer, nicer itineraries will.  If anything, I have seen those prices rise since I booked, not decrease.

 

I think people sailing on those are not suffering from high credit card debt, etc.  Remember, more than Americans sail and they did not get the covid influx of funds that some in the United States did.  They seem to be managing 😉 

I agree with your assessment. We booked our August Volendam cruise in February last year in a Vista Suite and now only guarantee cabins are available but they are about $1000pp more than when we booked our Category A VS. We have been on 7 post covid cruises on HAL and Celebrity and not once have I seen a price drop after we booked, and we tend to book early. Of the two lines Celebrity had the most dramatic price increases after we booked.

For our Koningsdam cruise from San Diego last November, check in times were not assigned until 7 days out from sailing.

7 hours ago, POA1 said:

Yes. Have your PCC or TA put COW in the booking remarks. It stands for Club Orange Waitlist. Ship Inventory looks at that remark. You probably still want to check every once in a while though.

When we booked our Nov 2023 Koningsdam cruise CO was sold out, but when I had my TA check back 2 weeks later 2 spots had opened up and we added it. I would suggest doing the same as waitlisting may not be as successful.

5 hours ago, oakridger said:

P.S. Why not just book with the TA from the beginning?  You will get all HAL has to offer as well as the TA perks!

 

~Nancy

My thoughts too, we booked our upcoming August Volendam through my TA and got the same early booking HIA bonus.

2 hours ago, POA1 said:

Thanks. You just answered one of my "burning questions." Is CO available on the Volendam and Zaandam.

CO is available on all HAL ships, for ships older than Pinnacle class CO dining is in MDR but with priority seating and an extra special entree and starter. We have it on our August Volendam cruise.

I called HAL about this issue and they said the no individual cabins are listed is because only guarantee cabins are available and you cannot pick you cabin.

It is possible to book a one way fare, but when you book the return flight later, you will have to cancel the first flight and rebook the whole trip. You can book different leave from and return to airports. 

On the Kongingsdam last November they had Fever Tree in cans in most bars.

If you book the lowest V level cabin and add club orange you get the free upgrade to the highest available V category cabin. Do it right and the upgrade will pay for your CO add. We booked a level B Vista Suite and added CO to get upgraded to a level A VS on our August Volendam cruise. The cost difference of the B VS A paid for our CO add, without CO we would have booked the level A VS anyway. On the Pinnacle class ships with CO dining room that alone is worth the upgrade and cost of CO, all the other CO amenities are just gravy.

19 hours ago, djatravel said:

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11 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

That is generally because you have not actually been "ticketed."  There is a difference between a confirmed reservation (which you can see on the airline site) and being ticketed.  Once ticketed you will have to pay for the flights and will actually have real "ticket numbers" (found on your airline's site under your reservation).

 

Even if you have been ticketed (which sometimes will not happen until about 45 days prior to your cruise) it may (or may not) be possible to make changes.  That depends on the specific airline, their rules, the type ticket/fare class, etc.  Sometimes a change will be allowed without penalty, but in most cases, you would need to pay the airline's penalty (which can be substantial).

 

Hank

No we were actually ticketed and paid when we made changes.

5 minutes ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

What is "Flexair" and what sort of options?  We are trying to fashion a reasonably comfortable flight from Tampa to Auckland, by flying first to San Diego, spending a few days there, and then flying from LAX to AUK.  Does Flightease allow this and do we then pay our own way to San Diego and Flightease picks up the major segment to AUK?

I dought you Cando this online, I would call them directly to ask if possible.  

In 2019 we took the train from Seward to Anchorage on our Noordam cruise and we had to be off the sip at 5:00am for a 5:45am departure of the train. Now that they use Whittier, they may have better times for the train.

On 3/7/2024 at 9:57 AM, Hlitner said:

Keep in mind that you can request ticketing at any time.  The good thing is it gets you access to seat assignments (on some airlines).  The downside is that once ticketed you have paid for your flights and your ability to change or cancel, without penalty, is gone,

 

Hank

We have never had a problem changing flights with Flight Ease after ticketing. Our flights in August with FE have been ticketed, our request, and we have already made changes to the itinerary. When we requested ticketing in January, asked about changes, cancelations and fees for same, we were told not an issue up to final payment date 90 days out.

11 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Can someone please elaborate further on Club Orange?  is this an added perk or an add on pass available on all ships?  Advantages?

Club Orange is included with a Pinnacle and Neptune suite. On the 3 Pinnacle class ships CO is also a private dining room similar to Luminae on Celebrity. On all other ships it is priority seating in the MDR with an added entree special for just CO. If you are not in a suite you can add CO for $25pp per day to get all of the benefits, but the number available is limited on every cruise. We added CO to our Koningsdam cruise last November and overall we liked the food and daily special better in the CO dining room than our recent Luminae experiences. We added it to our upcoming Volendam cruise this year. We found that the Koningsdam MDR food was far superior to Celebrity and have made the decision to no longer cruise with Celebrity due to many reasons.

One other HAL thing we love is their online Flight Ease it is so much better and user friendlier over Flights by Celebrity. 

That is very normal for airlines to list your names that way. We flew home from Australia last month and Air New Zealand had my name as TerryAlan then my last name. This has also happened with AA and United in the past. It is not a big deal and you will have no problems boarding.

where do you end the cruise?

13 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

No, What’s for Dinner tonight since it was the Deck BBQ and all the restaurants are closed.
The entertainment is about to start but here is some of the beginning part.
 

Wow,I have never seen anything like that on HAL or Celebrity, was the food as good as it looks?

26 minutes ago, calicakes said:

Thank you. That was my point, however, so many people think I want my money back or I want something else.  Whatever, I'm over this thread at this point.  

 

We've taken 7 X cruises, 5 in Aqua, 1 in a suite and 1 in a veranda and still not Elite.  

I have followed your live from threads for a couple of years and was surprised you didn't have more X cruises. I have never heard you complain about anything and doubt you think you are entitled to anything outside of the norm and I understood your first post very clearly.

If we here on CC think some Celebrity policy is unfair it is good that we bring it to ours and Celebrity's attention. Just like Cookiegate months ago, the outrage here and other social media sites got corporate to reverse course. While on our Edge cruise to NZ in January I posted how we had the worst ever room attendant of any cruise and we were in a SS. I posted this in the general Captains Club page on a social media site we are not supposed to mention here. Within one hour the Retreat Manager and the Hotel Manager were knocking on my cabin door to discuss my displeasure I had posted on social media. My point is somebody at corporate must be monitoring Celebrity social media sites. BTW the situation was taken care of very swiftly and professionally. 

13 hours ago, calicakes said:

I never even mentioned money back when I posted. All I talked about was the elite points.

So sorry to read about your ordeal, having returned last month from our Edge Aus/NZ cruise, I would have enjoyed following your usual great live thread. I think what many here are missing is, your original post and the meat of this thread is about a Celebrity policy of not giving loyalty points for canceled cruises where they keep your payment. I agree that this seems to be an unfair policy and what does Celebrity loose by not doing this? My other surprise was that you were not already Elite since it seems like you have taken so many Celebrity cruises.

I hope your leg mends quickly and hope to read your future live threads.

2 minutes ago, radioman said:

I am sailing on the Celebrity Equinox in February 2025. I did not sign up for any packages that included WiFi.

I am a Elite member and understand I get a 30% discount.

My question is:

Does anyone know if there is free WiFI in a restaurant or bar in Cayman/George Town or Falmouth/Jamaica at the docking area? 

Thanks

Some of them may have free Wi-Fi and you can always use your cell phone with International roaming.

On 9/3/2023 at 5:15 PM, Northern Aurora said:

 

 

TAD is the turnaround day on B2B (or longer) cruises.

 

If B2B guests and embarking Zeniths are not included in the Concierge Class embarkation day luncheon this is a major change indeed from past practices.  

Last month on the Edge, all B2B guests could have lunch in MDR on TAD, we had over 700 of them on our TAD. We decided to have lunch in Sydney on land. Do not know about Zeniths.