terrydtx

No more formal nights, now called dressy night and you can dress up if that's your thing. I wear the same thing on dressy nights as any other night. That is long golf pants and a collared golf shirt or short sleeve button up shirt, like a Tommy Bahama Hawaii print shirt. my wife will wear a dress on most nights too, but neither one of us travel or cruise anymore with any formal wear. Dress to be comfortable is the norm now as long as you meet the minimum recommended dress codes.

The Edge New Zealand cruise in March 2025 in a Sky Suite is $7836pp (with a NFD), but we paid $4928pp for the same cruise on the Edge in 2024 in a SS (with a refundable deposit), that is $2908pp or 60% more. I call that sticker shock. BTW the 2025 price is for the same cabin number we have next year.

I agree, we are doing a 10 day driving trip in Australia next February after our two Edge cruises. We are driving from Melbourne to Adelaide and back and staying in as highest rated hotels we can find. With a SUV car rental, hotels, gas, food and local tours we will spend for 10 days 1/3 the cost of our 10 day Sky Suite cruise will cost us.

Sticker shock is when a Celebrity Aqua Class and/or a Sky Suite cost more than a Concierge class cabin on Oceania Marina with more days for a similar itinerary. This is the case with our March 2025 18 night cruise on Oceania VS a 14 night cruise in the Equinox.

We were not given any other options, in August the Italian government required that we get off the ship at the end of our cruise in Venice and stay at a government approved quarantine hotel. We would have preferred to stay on board for the next cruise to Rome.

Our claim last year was out first with any travel insurance and I figured I would have to file the claim. My fabulous TA told us on the way home she would handle our claim and not to stress out.

Last August my wife caught Covid on the Oosterdam the last 5 days of our 14 day cruise of Greece. She was in isolation and then we spent 3 days in quarantine in Venice. I was negative until we got off the ship. Our Travel insurance was bought through our TA's company, it is with Travel Guard. My TA handled the insurance claim for us after the cruise and all we needed was the medical papers from HAL showing the positive test and the 5 days of quarantine and receipts for our 3 days on Land. The insurance pro-rated the 5 days of ship's isolation and reimbursed us that cost for both my wife and I and all of our hotel and meal costs for the 3 days on land. The only thing not covered was $42 for the cough syrup on the ship. We received about $5500 in compensation from Travel Guard. This is one of many reasons why we use a TA, as she handles everything for us. It is important to know what is and isn't covered with any insurance policy you buy.

At some point this pricing will backfire as the cruising industry gets saturated with bookings and Celebrity will have lost many of their most loyal customers, like us. Greed with be their ultimate downfall.

I do not know, as the price has not dropped on my two upcoming cruises with CO.

It doesn't seem to stop you as well!!!!

I would prefer to sit on a real open balcony with a blanket even in Alaska.

The OP reported that the railroad was sold out when they tried to buy them direct on the day they stopped at the port.

On all 5 post Covid Sky Suites cruises our butler has provided all the beer, wine and premium bottled water without asking, that we wanted. In EVERY case the butler told us this was included because we had the premium drinks with our SS. As far as I am concerning this is a Sky Suites benefit and expect it to remain so on my Apex cruise next month.

On our 5 post Covid cruises in a Sky Suite, not once when we called our butler did he not answer the phone and we called him at least once or twice a day. We had such excellent service from all 5 and I DO NOT want to lose that level of service.

Here is the price of higher category Vranadah cabin next November on the Beyond for 7 night cruise and on same cruise a cabin in Aq Class, both with AI included in price an almost $800pp difference in price.

" Car 54 Where Are You"

I still ask, if Celebrity believes this is such a great deal and improvement why didn't they make it across all suites? I remain skeptical but will find out firsthand next month on the Apex.

Back before Covid we could book an Aqua Class cabin for a couple hundred more than a Concierge cabin, which was worth the cost with access to Blu.

We booked our 2025 South America Oceania Marina cruise in 2022 and today our same cabin is the same price when we booked last year in November. When we booked, we got the House wine and beer package included. Last month Oceania added a $500pp shore excursion credit to our cruise, so in reality our cruise cost dropped $1000 total. We booked the Marina for 18 nights in a Concierge class cabin for $200pp less than the 14 nights Celebrity Equinox cruise in a SS with a similar itinerary. We are done with Celebrity after our 2 Australia cruises in January, they have priced us out of their Sky Suites.

I am sorry I was making my previous response based on Celebrity forgot I was on the HAL forum and I have cruises coming up on both lines. Maybe others can comment on HAL

Did you check in online and choose a boarding time? Check in starts 45 days out from sailing.

I do not know where you have been, but there have been many threads, including this one, on CC and FB about this subject for the last month, Sky Suites will no longer have a dedicated butler which is being replaced by a "team" of pseudo butlers, this is per Celebrity Corporate.

I drink beer on a hot afternoon for lunch, but prefer local craft beers on tap.

At least they are trying to stuff 4000 passengers into an E Class ship, LOL

We call this Royalization of Celebrity, and most are not happy with the changes.