EagleRocker

You log into your Captains Club account, then when you are choosing a cruise the discount will appear. Discounts vary according to cruise.

I have not had the one category upgrade/discount appear automatically when I make an online reservation even though logged in. This is one of those instances, especially when combining with a promo, in which I think it is worth speaking with a Celebrity Vacation Planner after first putting a hold on the cruise/cabin you want. Often this results in an additional perk (like the $150 post cruise OBC X can give you) being added. While I prefer to do everything myself on the Web, I prefer even more getting all applicable discounts and perks and getting an accurate booking confirmation (as opposed to the typically auto-generated email confirmation, which almost always is incorrect).

Hi Sloop: We lucked out and booked a Reflection FV for the April-May 2015 11-night Mediterranean for just the two of us. It was available earlier this year (to my amazement) at a very reasonable rate and we grabbed it. I was told it would not be taken away from us for a larger party, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that is true. We have invited my sister to come along but it is unclear that she can get away from work. Adding her to the cabin is very reasonable $-wise should she be able to go.

Do you remember the name of this excursion? I can't seem to find it for the May 8th Solstice sailing next year.

For what it is worth, I will be surprised if you end up being able to book this for a May 8 trip. On three separate early May Alaska cruises, I have been unable to do this excursion, because it usually does not become available until end of May/early June, due to ice. Drop an email to Allen Marine to inquire about the anticipated first offering date for this; maybe things have changed since the last time (May 2013) I could not book this. If you do manage to get a booking, be sure to have a back-up plan should you get there and learn that the excursion won't be happening. Not meaning to be a downer, but just don't want you to be disappointed if this is not available for you.

I have a C2 cabin booked for an August/September 2015 Golden Light Alaska trip and had selected the regular 123Go beverage package when i booked. When I got the Celebrity announcement email last week about this promo, I emailed the Celebrity Vacation Planner with whom I deal, and in a matter of minutes, the 123Go AllInclusive had been applied to my reservation. Painless and fast. So with the added gratuities and OBC, it is like getting a $600 discount on the cruise -- all for the effort of a one-minute email. I consider this a very good deal in those instances when the cost of a CC or Aqua Class room is not wildly higher than the fare for another room class (often the case with some Verandah rates), regardless of complaints by some about limited offerings on the Classic Beverage Package (between juices, specialty coffees, bottled water, and the occasional cocktail, I suspect we will find plenty of "free" drinks to make us happy -- if not, I will happily use some of that $300 OBC to either upgrade to the Premium Package or to pay for any particular higher cost wine, beer, and cocktails that we want).

For those others who feel I have been "making a mountain" out of this, I apologize and hope that I didn't offend too much. For those, I certainly hope that this situation never happens to you, after you carefully select your cabin and book your cruise over a year in advance of when you go. I certainly hope that if this mistake ever happens to anyone else, that Celebrity will contact you the moment it happens, instead of finding out about the situation by your own accord over a month after Celebrity makes the mistake.

Put me in the camp of those who did not find your reaction excessive and never thought you were making a mountain out of a molehill. Your response seemed pretty tempered to me. As someone who spends a lot of time researching cabins and who has been known to book particular cruises specifically because a desired cabin was available, I get it, especially because someone dear to you was upset by the situation. I hope all of you have a great trip notwithstanding this frustrating experience.

It was incredibly generous and kind of you in what must be such a difficult time to make the effort to post and encourage others to buy travel insurance with good medical evacuation coverage. Your story is a vivid and compelling example of why it is necessary. I am so sad for your father and your family in having to go through this. Thank goodness you pushed on the evacuation and he is receiving good care in a location much better for all of you. Your family will be in my thoughts and am sending you the best of wishes for a full recovery for your father soon. Be sure to take care of yourself.

I asked our Celebrity Vacation Planner about applying the Loyalty Discount to an existing reservation on which we have the Pick Your Perks promo package (classic beverage package and $300 OBC, both applied because it is an Eastern Med cruise). He confirmed that the Loyalty Discount could not be combined with the PYP or 123Go promos, and given the $300 OBC we have, it was a better financial deal to keep the PYP than go with the Loyalty Discount (assuming we intend to make good use of our bev package, whether as is or by upgrading to a premium package for the discounted rate per day somewhere doing the cruise). I remember that the email I got a while ago about the Loyalty Discount had fine print at the bottom, which indicated it was not combinable. Your one-category Captain's Club upgrade (depending on your room category), however, IS combinable with the promos.

Thanks h-sar, very helpful info and ideas in your report.

Do you mind asking if you think that we should plan to wear water resistant clothes on the day of embarkation? I know that the panga rides can be wet on the other days and will be wearing lightweight/water resistant clothes over our bathing suits but wondered if we could get away with light cotton clothes or shorts for embarkation day.

 

And just curious...what would you say the average age of the passengers in October was? We are early and mid fifties and are guessing we'll be among the youngsters given the time of year.

Hi Lovestx: I don't think you need to worry about water-resistant clothes on the first panga ride to the Xpedition. It is a short ride in a pretty calm bay - it was warm and sunny when we did it (actually, kinda hot). The only time we got wet on panga rides was the one day it rained on us. As for passenger ages, when we went in November, we (ages 50 and 56) felt like we were in the middle - some younger people (but nobody seemed to be younger than 30), a lot in their 50s and 60s, and some older than that. If I had to guess what was the average age of the passengers on our trip, I would guess 58-60.

Gonzo70:

We did this trip in November 2012, and your review is spot on - almost exactly our experience with the exception that we (luckily) did not have any issue with smokers. Poor you in that respect. Also, we are vegetarian so did not experience some of the food issues you relate (we had no trouble eating vegetarian on this trip and most of the time the food was pretty good). I agree about the full day Quito trip - in fact, we skipped the morning portion due to the late arrival of our flight the night before, and we were glad we slept in that morning. I also agree that this was a one-time trip. As fantastic as it was, I don't know that I would do it again given the wealth of other places I have yet to go. But wow, it was amazing - the wildlife is so incredible.

For the poster who asked about snorkeling, this was my first time snorkeling (no instructions or anything beforehand) and I found it very easy on this trip and a total blast. The water was cool but the wet suit kept me warm enough, and it was plenty buoyant as Gonzo70 has pointed out. I thought November was a great time to go - much of the hikes would have been unbearable in hotter weather (at least to me). It was plenty warm in November.

I also agree that this is a trip that requires decent physical abilities - lots of hoisting yourself up and over things and walking on very slippery rocks and unsteady surfaces. I was pretty surprised/terrified at how dangerous I thought some of the disembarkations/embarkations were from the pangas and saw a few injuries occur. I made it through the trip fine but would have enjoyed it more had I been in better physical shape - there were a few walks when I just wanted it to be over due to tired feet and muscles, as much as I was enjoying the scenery and wildlife. You really do not get any kind of a break on this trip - it is go, go, go from start to finish and a real whirlwind.

I am glad you had such a great time!

Thanks for the reassuring info (I am doing this cruise in the Spring) and for the important reminder to get in better shape before then for all the walking I anticipate we will be doing.

Thank you!! We are thinking about this cabin on our next Alaska cruise and figured that if it rained, then we could still enjoy the balcony..:)

It is a perfect balcony for inclement weather. We had 5190 (the parallel cabin on the other aft corner) and the covered balcony provided complete protection o out Alaska trip (plus the balcony is enormous).

As of 2:20 pm PST, I had the same problem, i.e., the site kept telling my my username and password were incorrect. I also could not generally access cruise information, i.e., if I had been trying to book a new cruise, I would not have been able to even look at pricing and available rooms and so on. Really not good for attracting new customers and frustrating for existing customers. Amazing that such basic website functions remain so problematic.

I got the initial email and part 1 opened without problem using my iPad and Safari. Survey did take a while. Although I completed it almost a week ago, I never was sent the follow-up email with a link for part 2. Kind of annoying given the time and effort spent completing part 1. Oh well, maybe HAL didn't like that I indicated my most recent cruise was on Silversea and my next is on Celebrity, and decided "Forget her." Too bad, my husband and I are big HAL fans.

Thanks all, for this info - will be really useful on our stop in Istanbul next Spring.

Just an FYI for you ATV people. We were in Mykonos in June for a 10 day stay. During our stay, we visited the island emergency clinic to have some stitches removed from a procedure a couple of weeks earlier. The emergency room doc was an Orthopedic Surgeon who told us that probably 75% of the cases he sees in the ER are the results of ATB crashes on the island. Lots of broken bones.

 

We observed on the island (probably the same as most vacation spots where ATV's are common) that they drive slowly and block traffic and many of the car and truck drivers are very unforgiving. There is little room on the side of the road for driving these things. Just a word to the wise.

Thank you for helping me to make up my mind about renting an ATV on Santorini and/or Mykonos. Was debating whether or not to do so, and not gonna do it now. Appreciate the info.

We had 5190 on the Zuiderdam for last year's Alaska cruise and it was fabulous. Room was plenty big (unbelievable closet space, extra closets) and the balcony is huge and covered. I believe the room and balcony are the same on the Oosterdam. If 5190 or 5191 are available, grab one.

We were recently on a Celebrity cruise, and while on board, we booked a cruise of the Galapagos Islands on Xpedition. I asked the agent if Xpedition had an elevator, as my wife is very limited when it comes to doing stairs, and he assured us that it does. Looking at the deck plans, I'm not so sure. Can anyone out there who's been on Xpedition confirm or deny for sure the existence of an elevator? Thanks!

Besides the lack of an elevator, you also should know that many of the places you visit ( which do not involve wet landings) will require you to not only go up and down the steps in the panga but often to walk up and down rock stairs and/or wet and slippery rocks to get to the trail and then back to the panga. Some were not that hard but I found some of them a bit spooky, as I am not the most sure-footed person. I often thought to myself, "this would never be allowed in the US due to liability issues," and did see a couple people take tumbles on the rocks. Walking on the lava could be a bit tricky if your wife has any mobility issues. The water landings were easy, although to get back into the panga, you do need to be able to put one foot on this little piece of wood hanging by ropes and be strong enough to push off it and hoist yourself up onto the panga's edge and swing your legs over. I am sure my lack of grace provided amusement for others, but I quickly got to (sort of) enjoy the process. These caveats aside, it is a great trip.

No offense taken Eagle. If you're a lawyer wallowing in First Amendment, not many billable hours. JMHO

Thankfully, I am free from billables (work for the Fed gov't) :)

Sorry, not me. I won't attack you personally, but my opinion might differ with yours. Allow me to express my opinion, which might not agree with yours, and you are free to comment. It's called the First Amendment.

For what it is worth, nobody who posts on the CC boards has a First Amendment right to express an opinion. As this is not a government run forum, the First Amendment is inapplicable.

Not suggesting you can't voice your opinion, understand, just that it is not a constitutional issue. (Sorry, as a lawyer who spends her days wallowing in constitutional stuff, I can't stop myself from the correction - absolutely no offense intended).

Elizabeth: those who have done it can correct me if I am wrong, but from what I have read on the boards, I think your friends would want to be at FCO close to three hours before their flight, due to the numerous lines you will be going through. If it were me, I would think about an 8:00 am cab.

Sunluva, fabulous pictures! Thank you for sharing them.

What puzzles me is that the website has gotten so markedly worse over time, instead of better. We went on cruises with Celebrity in 2007 and 2012, and I was able to do almost everything over the website -- all booking, changes to reservations, booking shore excursions, etc. -- over the website without a hitch. With our third Celebrity cruise now booked (booked this past July), I have had nothing but trouble trying to do anything on the website. I booked my reservation on the website using the 123Go deal for Europe, and neither the beverage package nor the $300 OBC showed on the confirmation. I called our assigned Celebrity Vacation Planner (who I never had needed to contact in the past, but thank goodness, he has turned out to be fabulous) and he confirmed that, yep, the 123Go perks did not show in the reservation I booked, although he quickly added them in manually and, fingers crossed, they still show on the reservation. We had an FCC that I had forgotten about, and he was able to get that added on to the reservation. However, despite that FCC showing as a fare reduction on the website reservation and in a booking confirmation we received, it simply disappeared one day. When I inquired, I was told that it must have “dropped off” because a change had been made to the reservation (and although it was added back on today manually, I have no doubt it will magically disappear again one day should I access the reservation). I had deleted the Cruise Care Protection I initially had included at the time the reservation was made, and this apparently was the triggering event.

I am not a programmer, but how is it that doing something that a website/company wants you to do -- take care of a minor reservation modification on your own so you don’t have to use up employee time -- actually messes up and deletes data from other fields and functions in the stored reservation? What kind of program does that?

Like others, I am entirely unable - no matter what the several different browsers or devices I use -- to book shore excursions or make dining reservations, although Celebrity keeps sending me helpful email reminders that I need to do so quickly before they are no longer available. ;)

I try to be amused but, seriously, these seem like glitches that people with minimal IT skills should be able to fix (but what do I know).

There were plenty of them there in November. They are gorgeous.

Forgot to mention about November: no bug problems at all, unlike other months; not humid except, as mentioned above, when viewing tortoises; and we saw Lots of albatross action, which was fantastic, as well as an insane amount of darling very young sea lion pups.