barneymag

I'm not sure what the 16 night Reflection April TA (Miami to Rome) started out at, but it is $799 for a balcony this week. Does not make me want to book early!

And again those in UK/EU do not get these offers .... Just checked Celebrity UK site and that same cruise would cost us £1900 ($2600) for a guarantee balcony or £2600 ($3600) for a 1A Balcony .... That between $1000 to $2000 per couple more for the same cruise depending which side of the Atlantic you live on .... Come on Celebrity get a grip !

What would you consider to be a good deal on a Balcony cabin in August? I am new to Celebrity so I don't know the prices. I can see a 13-night sailing for £1250 per person in Balcony Concierge, including drinks package. Is that good or does it come down further at that time of year?

I think that seems a geat price for a UK deal, especially in August. Which ship and itinerary as this will help ... We always have booked Concirerge Balcony and generally pay around £140 pp per night on Celebrity inc drinks package and usually have some OBC thrown in, however we always sail out of a UK port.

At £1250 pp for a 13 night it's less than £100 pp per night all inclusive so I think good deal ! I assume it's out of a EU port do you need to factor in flights etc UK cruises out of Southampton seem to be more expensive to the UK market as we can probably avoid flying !

At one time or another we have sailed on Princess, RCCL, HAL, Carnival and Regent. Our last 14 cruises have been exclusively on Celebrity.

 

We want to sail to the British Isls in July from London. Never been to London and would like to spend several days before the cruise. Unfortunately, only the Caribbean Princess sails from London. Celebrity goes out of Amsterdam. We have been to Amsterdam numerous times and we were looking forward to seeing London.

 

Both my wife and I are nervous about going from the Equinox to the Caribbean Princess. Will we be spending $6,000 and be miserable every day? Our cruises on X are fairly predictable and as Elite we get a couple of perks not least of which is the beverage package.

 

I tried to talk her into taking the train or fly from London to Amsterdam but no dice.

 

The Caribbean princess is scheduled for a retrofit in Feb, to what degree I don't know.

 

I guess the basic question is will a loyal Celebrity couple find an equally pleasant and luxurious cruise on Princess?

Just so you are aware the Caribbean Princess does not actually sail from London (not aware of any mainstream cruise line sailing from London as there is no major cruise terminal) It actually sails from Southampton ....... So you are looking at car hire or train anyway ! Flight to Amsterdam from London is about the same as train times to Southampton

We have a cruise booked for this August on Reflection, i'm watching weekly as prices are tumbling :eek:

 

Problem for us we booked in UK and cannot change booking without losing our deposit.

 

so it needs to drop below £300 before i am in profit.

 

Next time i will not be booking early and will wait .

 

Out of interest i looked for a similar cruise on reflection in August 2017 and the price is twice as much now without any offers ( drinks etc)

 

Why do they do this when i know it will be half that price this time next year.

I know prices will drop as they have for the last 3 years we have booked this time of year.

 

Only this time they seem to be knocking off £100 per week, from what looked like the low point ( when we booked)

 

I wish they would post the actual price they want us to pay and let us book as early or as late as we like.

 

OR

 

change the uk booking so we can change bookings without losing deposits, or make the deposit low enough to not bother about.

Have to agree with bogofman as this is a UK problem only (poss EU and Aus/NZ as well) as we don't have the advantage of the US system of if lower pricing you can simply get the new pricing/perks

Don't give me all the usual EU/UK protection stuff either as this is completely undermined compared to the rip off of future pricing offered in the UK

We booked our June 2016 cruise back in July 15 - for 14 nights Baltic cruise C3 category, inc classic drinks package, $300 OBC and free gratuities for a total of £4000 for 2 - On Sept 1st 2015 (I had just embarked the Anthem of the Seas that morning !!) X puts out new pricing for same category @£3300 inc classic drinks package but no OBC or pre paid gratuities - the OBC and gratuities are worth about £450 so I am £250 worse off for booking in July ..... Cancel you say !!! Ok in US but in Uk I lose a £300 deposit so would be worse off .... so we live with it and enjoy our 2 weeks on Anthem

We get back and check prices every few weeks and then in Jan X launch their latest offer buy one get one half price and free classic drinks .... great !!! I check pricing and see that our C3 is now £4500 !!!!:eek: so even more expensive and no OBC or pre paid grats ..... result !! I did OK and got an OK deal .... I think (although I would have be £250 better off if I'd booked 2 months later !) ??? and then today price drops to £3899 inc drinks package ..... still not as good as our deal but still a massive drop since last week (£600 !!!)

As bogofman states I checked our identical cruise for Jun 2017 on Eclipse and the same cabin will set us back £4700 with no drinks, OBC or gratuities (add them on and we're talking approx £6200 !!!!!) ..... Now where is the incentive to book early in the UK ??

I would never book early in the UK as we have zero price protection from loss of deposit (yes we have protection for it going up ... but at this mark up you got to be kidding!!)

I will wait and see who gives the best offers and itinerary in the coming months before I book as there is no advantage for booing early in the UK !

Hello,

 

We are trying to plan our second day using public transportation in Lisbon.

It would be helpful to know which dock Celebrity (Equinox) will use so that we can find the nearest tram/bus stop to Belem and Alfama.

 

From what I found online, it looks like there are 3 places the ship may dock.

 

Alcântara Cruise Terminal

Santa Apolónia Cruise Terminal

The Jardim do Tabaco Quay

 

Does anyone know which will be used by Celebrity?

The site http://www.portodelisboa.pt did not have the Quay listed for Celebrity.

 

Thank you!

Last 2 times I've been to Lisbon, 2015 on Anthem and 2014 on Eclipse we were docked at Jardim do Tabaco quay .... you can easily walk into the centre - last year we jumped on a tuk tuk and did a guided tour for about 45 euro and great fun whizzing round the hills and old area of Lisbon :)

Does anyone have a current up to date drinks pricelist? Going on the Solstice to New Zealand in November and at the moment they are asking for almost £1019 for the Classic Drinks package for 2 people for a 12 night cruise. Including the compulsory 18% that is working out at £42.45 pppd which sounds ludicrousry overpriced.

 

I have had drinks packages before but not at this price and would like to see individual prices before purchasing. I also remember on the Eclipse that despite purchasing the Classic drinks package this did not cover the cost of most cocktails.

Hi Moonglum

Not sure if you have already booked this cruise but new bookings booked via UK has free classic drinks package included - deal is available for new bookings if booked before end of Feb

If you've already booked it may even be worth cancelling, lose your deposit and rebook if it works out cheaper overall.

I've always wondered why cruises are even offered out of NY/NJ through the winter months and why people would want to sail on them.

 

 

I'm really not referring to the Anthem situation of this past week, but more due to the miserable temps! In winter, even if seas are calm, you would be subjected to really nasty cold weather on the first few and last few days of the cruise, thereby being pretty much trapped inside.

 

 

Here you are on a beautiful ship designed for warm weather cruising and you're stuck inside ... at trivia contests, napkin folding demonstrations, magician shows and movies in your tiny cabin. I'd imagine the trip home would be the worst part after having just been IN nicer weather for a bit ... then feeling the miserable winter hit u again for those last few days while still ON your vacation.

 

 

It surprises me these winter departures out of the northeast ports exist. Do they really sail full? Seems to me like they could use the resources of a ship in better ways (i.e. outta Florida or SJU) in the winter rather than insisting on "maintaining year-round service" out of the northeast. Wouldn't it be better to keep the ships in warm weather so that pax could have a better experience overall?

That's what Anthem, Quantum and Ovation have been designed for ..... cold weather ports ! they have far more inside space than most with a large solarium, indoor pools, seaplex and Two70 mean that in colder waters there is still loads of good indoor space to relax in.

We were on Anthem in the UK last September and first and last few days were really glad of the extra indoor space ..... and UK weather definitely isn't Caribbean :)

hello all, i have just signed up to cruisecritic as im looking at booking a cruise on celebrity reflection in june for 11 nights around the western med. Boarding @ civitavecchia.

This will be our first cruise experience after listening to various friends who do recommend it, but it has to be on a 5 star ship.

I am for 43 & my fiancee is 30 in july so thought we would celebrate in style.

We do like fine food & drink & do like nightclubs.... late nights etc..., but after reading a few reviews on here im getting mixed messages if this is actually the ship we want to be on. So im asking all you experienced Celebrity X Cruisers for an honest review on these cruise lines about how good the food really is, drinks selection at the various bars & the nightlife etc...

Also any personal tips you may have e.g. food packages/ drinks packages/room upgrades would be greatly appreciated.

I was going to book a balcony room & standard drinks package but is worth paying the extra for the concierge room & premium drinks package? im not a spirit drinker, but i do love my champagne, but i guess this would have a seperate charge on the ship or is this included with the premium package?

Also is it cheaper to book a shore excursion in advance or book it ONBOARD? What are the various costs for excursions?

Also what are the dress codes for breakfast..... As we are sunseekers & will want to go straight to the sunloungers afterwards......dont want to offend anyone & want to get the correct dresscodes & etiquette beforehand from you more experienced Celebrity X Cruisers.

And most importantly onboard TIPS!!! Are you billed a standard dailycharge PP or do you tip at your discression?

Very kindest regards & thank you

mark.

Hi Mark

Glad you reposted this on your own thread rather than in the middle of the "war zone" under 30's thread :):)

As you already know the UK offer currently includes the classic drinks package which cover a lot of drinks options. We never upgrade until on the ship (no advantage doing it earlier anyway) but we find the premium package is worth it for us as includes virtually every brand of spirits and beer you could find on the ship and allows a $13 spend on wine. No true champagne included at that level but some decent Prosecco (actually covered by classic) and the house "champagne" covered by premium called domaine du Chandon (it's actually a Napa sparkling wine but produced by a true French champagne house) and it's pretty good. My wife prefers champagne or Prosecco over spirits and really likes celebrity's offerings. I personally go premium as I enjoy the martini bar and prefer decent vodka or gin brands such as grey goose, belvedere, Hendricks and Tanquery 10 etc all available with premium. Also if you want a drink at a higher price than $13 with premium you pay the difference but with classic you have to pay for the full price.

Drink selection generally I find really good on X and we have cruised Royal, P&O and X but X is our line going forward and imo gives the best service, food and drinks selection out of the three I mention.

Regarding cabins we choose Concierge (as long as the difference isn't too large) as we get extra captains club loyalty points compared to balcony and as X will be our line going forward will get us to the perks with Elite quicker. We also enjoy room service breakfast on our balcony whenever possible and concierge gives you a larger breakfast selection. I also prefer a higher deck which concierge gives.

Food - we generally find the MDR on X good enough for us and again the best MDR food by a long way out of the three lines we have cruised with. We will usually book two or three nights in a speciality restaurant ..... Murano and QSine for us.

We have never been on Reflection but cruised on Eclipse (sister S class) and loved her. There are differences with the S class ships and Eclipse has a night club (Quasar) .... don't think Reflection has a club. Eclipse's club had people in every night later on after all the other entertainment started closing down.

Personally we sail on Eclipse as I like the convenience of not having to fly but if itinerary suits then I would also fly.

We found the age group to be dominated by a 30 to 50 crowd (over 50% but that could be down to time of year etc) on our cruises with smaller groups at both ends outside of this. Very few kids (but we sail outside of school holidays) which suits us now our kids are at Uni and we can go on grown up holidays again :)

Regarding tips we always prepay the gratuities (sometimes included in the price, especially if you use a specialist cruise travel agent;)) but will always tip some extra to our steward and regular waiters/bar staff if they've provided good service ..... I never would consider not prepaying the recommended daily gratuities as the staff work really hard and 99% of them are exceptional and get paid a pittance as there basic salary.

Personally I would go for it and I'm sure X won't disappoint ..... 5 years ago I would have said cruising is for old folk, not for us ...... Now we are hooked and have had three cruises in the last 18months and another to look forward to in 4 months ....... although we still enjoy land holidays we will always have at least one cruise per year from now on ...... Love it !!

Might as well start flaming me now.

 

I've had crew tell me Claus was not very concerned about passenger comfort. Although I've read from posts, they appreciated his announcements.

 

Yup, go ahead. Tell me... I made this up....I'm being mean...I don't know what I'm talking about. I hate Royal Caribbean...

 

Looking for the water bucket brigade.

 

I am grateful RC made a ship capable of surviving a storm such as this, really, I am. But, product, people, then profits come first. Without the product and people, there are no profits. And, no, I own no stock.

Tbh I'm trying to work out what your point is ? Is this related to the recent storm that Anthem run into ? Or is it personal experience of Capt Claus ??

We enjoyed our only cruise on RCI on Anthem last Sept in the Med and Capt Claus was our captain ..... great daily wake ups from him and we had to endure a storm coming back to UK through Bay of Biscay. Capt Claus was keeping all passengers up to date with weather and conditions and attended a big Q&A in 270 on last sea day and assured that Anthem was designed as a cold water ship and could pretty much handle anything thrown at her ..... He also assured us that passenger safety and comfort was his no 1 priority and we felt he was open, honest and open to discussing anything asked of him.

As a side note we enjoyed Anthem, she is a beautiful ship and I would describe her as a Celebrity S Class on steroids ! ....... We are Celebrity fans but felt Capt Claus and Anthem were excellent.

Would just like to say a big thank you to those of you that have posted your opinions/experiences on the celebrity X cruises.... This has been of a great help in trying to decide what package to book.

Please please keep them coming & I will let you all know what I finally decide & will also post up my experience upon my return. A great forum & so glad I signed up.

Very best regards

Mark.

Hi Mark

I assume you are aware that Celebrity has an offer on until 29th Feb that most 2016 cruises booked under the current UK offer include a free classic drinks package. This does include most beers, wines up to $9 and mixed drinks up to $8 ..... They also serve a decent Prosecco within the classic package.

We always try to book when there is a UK offer inc drinks package as worth it to us ..... we always upgrade to premium on the ship, NEVER prior to sailing as there is no advantage and you may find the classic package covers everything you need. Also only one of you needs to upgrade if the other is covered by classic.

We've cruised X, RCI and P&O and X is our favourite so far .... another coming up in June :)

Might be worth your while starting a new thread regarding any questions or concerns you have as unfortunately you may get missed in the middle of a "controversial" thread such as this

Domaine Chandon is a fantastic California Champagne and IS A PROPER champagne :eek: made in Napa and like the above poster said is owned by a French champagne maker who realized where the best region for making champagne is! :D It's $11 a glass and is covered under the Premium package...I plan on relieving them of MANY bottles of it over my 14 days on Solstice in May in Mimosa's every morning and glasses with dinner every night! :D

Sorry Joe but although I agree the domaine Chandon is a very good sparkling wine it cannot be classed as champagne and is not a "proper" champagne. This is a mistake made all over the world but champagne can only come from the champagne region of France. The Domaine Chandon is produced in California ..... not Champagne, France (but a good alternative anyway)

Personally I actually prefer some of the really nice Prosecco's out there to some of the poorer Champagnes (as there are so many champagne houses now) but that's a whole different countries' version of champagne ;)

It did not seem strange to me at the time that the original invoice did not mention the drinks package. I'm not as experienced at this cruising lark as most of you and accepted that an invoice showing how much the cruise cost, less the deposit with balance due was anything other than an invoice.

 

Now, comparing it with this invoice, I have noticed that the drinks package is mentioned now. I booked this online so will drop Celebrity a line to see what they have to say.

 

Meanwhile, if anyone does know when the Standard package was introduced I would appreciate a note of the date. Looking back over the threads it would seem to be around November 2015 and I booked in August.

 

Thread here

I also booked last August under a UK promo - we received classic drinks package, $300 OBC and tips included.

We are in a C2 concierge balcony cabin - what cabin grade did you book ? as I am sure at the time we booked that ocean view (and poss inside) included standard package, balcony and concierge included classic drinks package and suite (and poss Aqua) included premium drinks package

I'm not 100% on the actual cabin breaks as I didn't take a screenshot at the time but there definitely was a three tier drinks package offer dependent on the cabin class booked last summer.

I have just double checked our reservation on X website and it shows the classic package included.

Does anyone know if champagne by the glass is included with either the classic or premium package?

 

Thanks.

No proper French Champagne is available with any of the packages. They have a half decent Prosecco available on the classic and under the premium package you can get "Domaine Chandon" which although is not champagne it is apparently from a Californian vineyard that is owned by one of the main French champagne houses.

Hi, does anyone know which balcony cabins (numbers if possible) have upper pullman berths as well as the sofa bed?

If you check the following link to the PDFs you can see which cabins have sofa bed and a Pullman - only on decks 6,7,8 and 9 and it's the cabins with both a triangle and a square symbol

https://www.celebritycruises.co.uk/media/ec_deckplans_060814_tcm27-82363.pdf

You will probably only be offered these cabins if your party size is more than 2 .... That's the way the UK Celebrity website offers available cabins anyway

Hello all,

 

My question here is I looked on the website and they also have the Standard Package at $45 but I can't understand whats included in the description can anyone help me ?

 

Différence from for Classic to Premium package no trouble but for the Standard have no idea whats included.

 

Thanks

 

Sea ya

Eric

Someone posted a flyer from the ship a week or so back. From memory main difference was only "house" wines .... unnamed, "house" spirits for mixed drinks and a ceiling of $6 I think on beers etc. Also don't think bottled water or speciality coffee was included in standard package

And where do you go to upgrade?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes if only one of you wants to upgrade you can do this at any time in the cruise as long as there are at least 4 days left (I think it's 4 days ???)

There will be desks set up on the public decks as you enter on embarkation, or you can upgrade at any bar, or simply go to guest relations - wherever the queues are smallest :)

Last time we even upgraded at a desk set up in the terminal (after security) before we walked on the ship

We're cocktail drinkers on a cruise - does the Classic Package up to $8 cover us for most cocktails, or would we be better upgrading to the $13 cap package?

 

We're looking at a deal that includes the Classic Package, so if recommendations are that we should upgrade, how do we go about doing this?

 

Any advice much appreciated, thanks!

Hi Stichcreek

If you like more choice with your brand of spirit and fancier cocktails (plus a larger selection of wines) then you're probably better off with premium.

Simple to upgrade on the ship so just go ahead and book your cruise with classic included and you can decide at any time on the ship if you want to upgrade.

Beauty of this is you can go to any of the bars on day 1 and see if your tipple is going to be covered with classic, if not you can upgrade at $10 per day for remaining days of the cruise. Also if classic suits one of you you don't all have to upgrade.

We always upgrade to premium on the ship as I enjoy the better choice of wine with dinner and enjoy the martini bar options.

We feel it's good value at $10 per day and never have to even look at a menu to see if were covered ....never had any extra charges after upgrading. Others will be happy with the choice classic offers and save the extra $

Room service is free and available 24 hrs. Breakfast is pretty bad and the lunch and dinner menu is somewhat limited. Suite guests get much better selection/menu.

I've got to disagree about room service breakfast- we were in a concierge C3 just over a year ago on a 11 night canaries cruise ..... We had breakfast first morning in buffet and found it to be way too busy and frantic for us, next 9 days ordered room service and every morning received perfectly cooked over easy eggs, bacon and corned beef hash for me. We also had freshly squeezed orange juice, hot tea, fresh fruit inc grapefruit, melon etc. Toast, croissants, cereals, smoothies, yoghurt etc

We always had this delivered between 9.00 to 9.30 and enjoyed a well cooked breakfast at our leisure on our balcony each morning. Really missed this full experience on RCI a few months ago and one of the reasons we chose X for our next cruise.

My DH and I will soon be on the Solstice. Our gratuities are pre-paid, being included as one of the incentives when we booked. We usually tip extra though for good service. Being from Canada we don't much felt like changing our dollars to $USD given the terrible exchange rate. Just wondered if others have tipped in local currency before? We will be sailing an Australia itinerary so will have $AUD.....thoughts?

We always tip in the "home" port currency or the currency predominant on the itinerary- if out of the U.K. to Europe/Med we would tip in UK £ or € .... for your itinerary $Aud should be fine, also the staff you're tipping can spend back at the home port without further currency changes

wow.

this is a lot of discussion for a group of liquids that passes thru your body in under 24 hours.

Really !!!! I've seen much longer threads on dress code, kids in speciality restaurants and even luggage labels !

I think it was a valid question from a newbie and more importantly the people that have posted helpful answers have helped the OP get a result .... That's why I joined cruise critic .... and your reason was ??

Thank you

I guess that's actually simpler than X captains club that has multiple tiers of points per night ....... Only 66 nights more to become diamond then :)

Hi all

We took our first Royal Caribbean cruise in September and realised we haven't registered for Crown and Anchor (can't seem to do it online .... but that's another problem)

I can't find any information anywhere on RCI website that shows how many points you accrue per night per cabin type. We have cruised with Celebrity before and their Captains Club points are very simple to work out per night.

Am I missing something (as RCI and X have the same "parent") but I cannot find any detail to how many points you earn per night on RCI - we were 14 nights on Anthem of the Seas back in September

Hope someone can clarify

Thanks

My #1 cost centre (22 Yr Old son) will no doubt want to sample every cocktail (as he works in a cocktail bar whilst at college, so will want to check / learn how they do it), so what %age of the cocktails are in the premium ?

Pretty much everything

All cocktails at the martini bar except the martini flight (which is a multi sampler) ..... but you can sample them all full size one at a time with the premium package ;)

I think every other bars cocktails (not jugs of sangria etc) are included .... I've never had to pay anything extra when upgrading to the premium package ..... and I only drink Grey Goose, Hendricks, Tanquery 10 etc as the spirit either as a mixer or part of the cocktail

Hi Clalco

Glad it's worked out for you

We always upgrade to Premium as we board the ship (normally $10 pp night)

Not all of you have to upgrade if the classic is good for some of you and you can upgrade at any time during the cruise up to 4 nights from the end. You can therefore see if classic suits you.

The premium is $13 per serving inc beer, wine, spirits and cocktails. It covers pretty much all beer and most of the better brand spirits (but not über expensive) and a better selection of wines available up to $13 rather than $9 under the classic package.

Premium works for us and I've never had to pay or choose anything not included, many others will say classic is good enough but we like to cruise without ever considering is a drink included or not.

Want to post a new thread and do not know how to. Any help? Thanks

Just above the announcements part of the main celebrity forum page there's a button saying "new thread" .... Just click it and you're away