terrydtx

Part of the Early Booking bonus is the "Low Price Guarantee" which will give you the lower price if it drops without having to rebook and lose any of the early amenities. We used this once on one of our cruises this year.

We are booked on the 11 day Boston to Montreal Volendam cruise nest August, We booked the lowest available Vista Suite with Clun Orange to upgrade to highest A Vista midship and we also got the Early booking HIA bonus which is worth the extra cost. I just looked and the prices for our cruise with standard HIA is now higher than when we booked 8 months ago with the bonus.

They don't care if any of us jump ship. I got that from a phone call from Celebrity after I sent emails about losing butlers in SS.

I agree this will be the reality.

If you are in a SS that wouldn't be a butler but your room attendant who would have to make the switch. On the Apex in September my wife went up to the Retreat Lounge to get 2 glasses of Cherry Pie Pino and John the Retreat bar bartender gave her a whole bottle as he said that would be easier than carrying 2 glasses back to the cabin. Back when we actually had a butler, we would have had the butler bring us the 2 glasses of wine. Times have changed for sure.

Excellent way to put the wine by the glass prices in perspective. Will have to try the Caymus by the glass next month on the Edge in Australia.

On the Apex in September there was Hennessy VSOP in a couple of bars including the Retreat Lounge. It was at that time in the PDK pricing, but with the new pricing this month who knows what it is now.

And it like their wines, probably 4 times the retail price!! 😁

This was a filler cruise in between our Sept, Apex cruise and our Edge B2B cruises next month. Also we used up a FCC that was going to expire tomorrow.

We did a 7-day Holland cruise of the California coast in November and loved it even if it was only 7 days. It was only a 3-hour flight for us to San Diego.

And doing them from Port Canaveral and Tampa, just like Carnival and Royal. For us a 7 day cruise is now too short.

I never said that what is in the corporate minds is accurate just what they want us to believe. I agree with all of your points 100%. Every day Celebrity gets more and more Royalized all in the name of more profits, to hell with our loyal customers we will replace them all. One other thing I am noticing, there seems to be far fewer Celebrity cheerleaders in this forum that in the past would defend Celebrity no matter what they did or proposed. The most loyal of us here are seeing the light and many have or will be jumping ship sooner than later.

The problem is in Celebrity's corporate mind they believe the Butler Team is providing the same level or better service than before the change, so they see no reason to reduce the auto grats. That was what was basically told to me in the follow-up phone call I got from my email before our Apex cruise.

Amazing how Celebrity can spin things to make it look like business as usual.

I believe on the Apex in September, Aberfeldy 12 was the only aged scotch available in the Retreat Lounge. I was surprised however, that John the Retreat Lounge bartender had a bottle of Hennessey's better VSOP cognac hidden under the bar. We did a shore excursion to the Hennessy distillery in La Rochelle France and I did enjoy the cognac he had even though it was not listed on any drink PDP list I saw.

Last year on the Reflection I was able to get Mccallan 12 year old scotch in the Retreat lounge and Luminae in the PDP. This summer on the Apex there wasn't even any of the same Maccallan scotch on the ship, all they had was the new non dated label blends of Mccallan, and I wasn't impressed.

Not sure of what? CO dining room is not open for lunch, only open for breakfast and dinner.

They can spin as good as any politician, LOL

We will be on the Edge in two weeks in a SS so I will be able to report back as well.

And the club's membership grows everyday.

We are on the Jan 25th GBR cruise and several people in our roll calls successfully got move up upgrades to SS and CS. A month ago, there were still about 25 Sky Suites unsold so a lot of move up possibilities. Good luck.

The only way to find out if CO is available is to ask when you book, specifically if you want the included category upgrade. This should be done with whoever you use to book the cruise, but cannot be done if you book online, so call and book.

Here is a recent CC article with upcoming refurbishment information on Celebrity ships. If you read you will see that the Equinox is NOT listed through 2026. This article was updated in October this year. Any ships not on this list that have drydocks scheduled will be only for routine maintenance. Upcoming Cruise Ship Refurbishments (cruisecritic.com)

For same ship and itinerary? The pricing for SS cabins on our two upcoming Edge cruises did not change after Oct 3rd and were 40% higher than we paid when we booked them in February 2022.

I doubt it has anything to do with Pandemic pricing or profits. The AI tips and OBC was offered for booking Suites in 2019 before the pandemic as was a butler for SS, at least that is how I remember. Celebrity has discovered that people will continue book no matter what previous benefits or incentives are removed along with huge price increases. I for one will no longer play along with their game.