terrydtx

Boulder is some well known chef and restaurant owner that Celebrity pays a royalty to for using his name. The never good Moroccan chicken is supposed to be one of his Signature dishes,, but the chefs on Celebrity butcher it in ever Luminae I have tried.

Thank you, I used the smart switch app and it worked perfectly. I still think it is very cheesy that Celebrity no longer supports tablets. I use the HAL and Oceania apps on my tablet with no problems.

We are using Vip Travel services for our Apex cruise in September. We have 4 in our party and it was less cost per person than booking a Celebrity Shuttle. Private Transfers Schiphol | Private Transfers Amsterdam (viptravelservices.com)

I have a Samsung Galaxy 8 Tablet that I use more than my phone. Today when I opened the app I got a message saying I needed to update the app, when I tried to update the app in the Galaxy store, I get the message that the app is no longer supported on my device. I cannot use the app on my tablet anymore, what is going on, is this something Celebrity changed recently? Is this another cost cutting measure by Celebrity?

Last year on the Reflection we could order from the MDR, but not from Blu. We were told if we wanted the Blu menu, we could go to the Blu dining room that night. I will add, if nothing on the Luminae menu is to your liking they chef will make almost anything if they have the ingredients. I wish Luminae would change their menus fleetwide, after 4 years of the same, they are getting very boring. The Daniel Boulud menu needs a change as well.

Yes this has happened to us on flights we booked ourselves. Last time was in 2021 on Delta to FLL, we got bumped out of FC seats the morning of the flight because of change of aircraft that day. We went from a plane with 18 FC seats to one with 12. I complained to Delta and was told we got bumped because we paid less for our tickets than others who didn't get bumped. My wife and I got put into center seats in the back of the plane, because that was all they had available. We got a whopping $75 travel voucher each for this, which we never used before it expired.

I agree with above, you have to call FBC direct to cancel flights, change flights, and choose seats, if not available on airlines website. We also use Holland America Flight Eaze for HAL cruises, and we can change flights, cancel flights and pick seats all online. I wish FBC could do the same.

I agree, some people try to make this more complicated that it needs to be. Step one watch the video in your cabin or on the Navigator app, Step 2. on board, find the muster station and get signed off.

I also sold commercial ice machines and they require some type of minimal filtration. At home my Reverse Osmosis system feeds into my fridge ice maker. On a ship we keep the Evian bottles in our cabin mini fridge to keep them chilled. I only use ice in my adult beverage drinks at home and on the road. We do not drink sodas except for tonic and club soda in drinks. BTW, I do not drink the canned water on Celebrity, it is safe to drink, but to me it has a bad metalic taste, that is why I have our butler remove the cans and gives us Evain in glass bottles.

We celebrated our 50th on the Equinox in 2021, but we did not win the brown water lottery either. We were in a Sky Suite and it was one of the best cruises we ever did. We will be back in the Retreat on the Equinox next month.

Same for us on all post covid cruises, when we turned on the TV it began playing the muster video.

We are on the 6th deck.

If you think the HAL app is bad try the Celebrity app, it is as bad or worse. Celebrity IT no longer supports their app on tablets, can only be used with an Apple or Android cell phone. My Samsung Galaxy 8 tablet says I cannot use or update the Celebrity app as it is no longer supported. This has been confirmed by Celebrity IT, they claim it is too expensive to support any non smart phones anymore.

Here is how our included crew appreciation show online under the itinerary:

You should have the "Pre-paid crew appreciation" showing in you invoice. Here is how it shows up on our 2024 Volendam cruise:

Our Koingsdam cruise was not labeled as being available for the early booking bonus for HIA, since we were well outside of the 90 days. But we still got the Mariner OBC bonus. We didn't ask for the OBC it just showed up on our booking confirmation.

Sounds like more of HAL's being consistent about being inconsistent. We booked our November Koingsdam cruise in February, well outside of the 90 day early booking period but we got the $200 Mariner OBC but not the premium HIA, only the standard HIA.

You should be able to use your second HIA credit for Canaletto.

That is correct, the earlier you play the CO game the better chance of getting the cabin upgrade you want. In all the years we have cruised we have never booked a last-minute cruise, we tend to book a year or more out. We have 7 currently booked cruises through 2025. We have 2 current bookings with CO. For our November Koingsdam cruise, we originally booked one of the last available aft facing verandah cabins so we knew there was not a higher category of cabin we would upgrade to. We wanted CO for the CO dining room, priority boarding in San Diego and the priority tendering for the cruise. For our 2024 Volendam cruise from Boston when we booked the B level Vista Suite, the A level VS midship were wide open so we knew we would be able to add CO and get the A cabin in the location we wanted. So, we got on the Volendam a primo VS location and the other CO benefits were just gravy for us.

Yes no problem with premium, but I used it with the Wi-Fi calling settings on and the phone in airplane mode.

We upgraded in the Navigator app and only one has to upgrade. I upgraded and my wife, saw no need to do the same.

The CO game is to book a lower level cabin and then get the CO add on and get the free upgrade to the highest available cabin in that cabin's category. In many cases the upgrade is worth more than the cost of CO. In the case of our Volendam cruise next year we booked a B level Vista Suite, then added CO and got upgraded to an A level Vista suite. When we originally booked, the A Vista Suite would have cost us $300pp than the B Vista Suite that we booked. The CO cost us $275pp so we have all the CO benefits and are $25pp ahead and upgraded to the highest A level Vista suite. We even were able to pick the cabin we wanted in the location we wanted. For the future I see no reason to not book our HAL cruises this way and get CO benefits.

We have 7 future cruises booked, 4 in Celebrity Retreat suites, 2 HAL and 1 Oceania. The Koingsdam cruise we booked for November was booked because in January out of the blue we got an email from HAL giving us a $3900 FCC for the Covid experience last year on the Oosterdam. It had to be used this year so we got a free one week cruise in an Aft facing Verandah with HIA and CO. We had been fully compensated in cash by our travel insurance for the missed cruise days and hotel expenses last year. We never expected nor asked HAL for any compensation. We are now excited about being on a newer Pinnacle class ship doing the California Coastal cruise. This cruise was the only HAL cruise we could fit in this year that wasn't on an itinerary we had already done. Not a cruise we ever would have booked, but who wants to throw away a $3900 FCC? After we booked that cruise and HAL announced the 2024 Canada NE cruises we then decided the HAL Volendam had the best deal, pricing and itinerary between HAL, Celebrity, Viking and Oceania. We are booked in a Vista Suite with CO and all the premium early booking HIA promos. We are now considering a 2025 Alaska cruise with HAL as long as we can be on one of the Pinnacle class ships. If HAL had not sent us the very generous FCC I do not know if we would have been booking any more HAL cruises.

Does anyone who has had CO have a copy of the expanded room service menu with CO? I remember the non CO breakfast room service menu last year on the Oosterdam was very limited.

We did that tour last August on the Reflection, you visit the towns of Positano, Sorrento and Amalfi, we chose the one that did not stop in Pompeii as we had been there twice before. All of the towns on the Amalfi coast are built up steep inclines and this tour included a lot of walking down and up steep walkways and steps. My wife and I are very fit but it was so hot last August we found the walking to be strenuous at best.