rodndonna

There is an Indian menu available as well, and it typically has vegetarian options as well.

Thank you! We are not vegetarian, just non-meat eaters and have normally just managed OK from the regular menu, but will definitely be asking for the vegetarian menu as well on our next cruise. We sail in 3 weeks - I'll ask about the mezze plate if you don;'t get a response before then. Seems odd they would remove that one and maybe it is just now an "always available" item.

We booked a Casino room last week and when I asked about adding HIA (wanted to think about it) she said to just let her (PCC) know and we could add it anytime. I know in the past we could do it oursleves online but maybe not anymore?

I missed the post on the new Vegetarian menu - would you be able to post it or refer to it?

Many apologies if I offended - It is a direct cut and paste description from Cruise Critic - was not my choice words, although I would agree in the statement in that it is a "budget" friendly cruise line (not in the premium or luxury cruise line market). Out of curiosity I checked how they describe Carnival (since it is generally considered the more budget friendly of the American lines) - maybe better choice of words for budget friendly (they just come out and state they are the lowest price) About Carnival Cruises Carnival specializes in fun, laid-back, family-friendly cruises. With few exceptions, Carnival sails exclusively from North American homeports and offers some of the lowest pricing in the industry, particularly on short three- and four-night Caribbean cruises.

I am not sure about the Marella cruises from the US or Caribbean cruises, but based on our experience with Marella/Tui (pre-Covid European) cruises ,as they cater primarily to the British, you notice a difference in food offerings and entertainment. For us (Canadians) Trivia was harder and sometimes entertainment could be a miss (e.g. a comedy act might assume better knowledge of UK and British politics). The ships are smaller and older than most of the American, not as flashy ... This is CruiseCritics description - and I would agree with it (although our cruise were always on the adult only ships). "" About Marella Cruises Marella attracts a broad cross-section of the British working class along with people of all ages. Marella's fleet of five ships offers an onboard experience that sits somewhere between traditional and ultra-casual.

Our flight out of Boston is 2:45 - so my logic was "I'm not in a rush .. so we'll just cab it" does that logic hold?

Was the sailing being labelled as being eligible for the "Early Booking Bonus" for HIA but they wouldn't give it to you on your booking? I don't think there is cut and dry date ranges for those - they just show up as being an eligible sailing for that bonus or not. You definitely lucked out getting the Mariner OBC outside of the 90 day window. Maybe you just missed the Early booking bonus cutoff and they thought giving you the Mariner discount instead. I know I tried once outside the 90 day window (like 4 months?) and no luck, although I got the "Early Bonus" on that sailing.

We generally don't drink liquor, so our first drink is typically just beer 🙄 , but, the one liquor drink I will have at some point (or two) is HAL"s mocktail "Cool as a Cucumber" but with Gin. I drink them often as their listed mocktails, but they are really with gin (some folks have them add vodka, but I think it is a better Gin drink). It is super refreshing, not too sweet and not frozen. Definitely try one at some point on your cruise since you are building quite a list of "first's" to contend with and I'm worried it won't make the cut 🙃

That was probably the case then. I think the HIA Early Booking runs much longer than 90 days after release, so it sounds like you missed that first 90 days.

As long as it is within 90 days of the launch - it should be an eligible booking. It's not automatic - I had to ask to have it added after booking.

I think it's because car rentals are just such a different model serving so many business clients and always running a statistical game and moving cars around (between locations) to deal with any gaps in availability that may result. How often do you rent a car (I always reserve the smallest/cheapest) but then there are none available and you get the next grade or 2 up.

This thread made me go check our HAL Oosterdam cruise this September which we booked when it came out - so we got the "better" early bonus HIA (with crew grats) as well as additional OBC for Mariner early bonus for newly released cruises. We came in at about CAD$5300 and the same category (inside GTY) is now CAD$7400 (and without that additional OBC and crew grats). Super happy we booked that one out of the gate, although any thoughts of trying for an upgrade have been greatly diminished - haha.

Like others we only book non-refundable (on any cruise line). The difference in price for us makes no sense compared to the level of risk. Paying hundreds more on every cruise to risk losing a deposit on maybe one cruise every 10? (We've never lost a deposit yet) Maybe if makes sense if you typically book and cancel/change often, but if not, the math never seems to make sense to me. Another thing is try to book when you can get low deposits, like purchasing FCD on board (deposit is then limited to $100pp) or when there are sales which are for low deposits. Not sure about Celebrity, but HAL has had short term sales with deposits as low as $25. I do know with Celebrity there is an agency here in Canada where their price was the same as booking Celebrity on-line but the deposit was greatly reduced ($50 Can) for our last booking. We were using FCD so it didn't really matter for us but it was there.

Yeah - I was a little surprised, but I guess like everything they need those little differences to get people to upgrade, Edit: Also - there is "effort" in making a mocktail, it is not just something the bartender can pour, so maybe that is why.

One of my very few griefs with Celebrity, is that they do not include Mocktails in the standard beverage package. 😒

I am Canadian so allowed to say - "what a bizarre custom??" Edit: mentioned to my husband and he is thinking it comes from rules for ferry operations which I think makes sense. Odd for a cruise ship though., I guess one rule for anything the floats to keep it simple.

Was there ever any entertainment or activity in the Explorers lounge (or crow's nest) or whatever that top lounge is called? Also - I presume there is shuffleboard? Never mentioned and have not seen it in pictures - but I would assume there HAS to be. Last one - do they have those wooden loungers with pads on the promenade deck? Are there plenty?

On a recent experience on "another" cruiseline - we were "any time" dining. On the second night, the maitre D asked if we had a preference for seating - did we want the same servers ..etc? Being our usual attempt to be as easy as possible we said - "not really - we're OK - anywhere is fine with us". She then said "well - you were with "John" last night - would you like to be seating in his area again?" We said yes, and were then seated with the same servers every night thereafter (different tables) in a similar manner. I had no idea cruises track who served us and not sure HAL does. All this to say...maybe it is something that could be suggested to HAL. Not sure logisticaly if that would be easier or harder for them overall (harder to arrange seating but easier for servers to serve folks they know a bit)

time for a new PCC. You can't get shareholder benefit. Everything else is the same including adding in HIA at $50/pp/day

yes

Really happy to read this thread as well. We booked Summit after coming off our first X cruise on the Millennium in April. We liked it so much, we booked a very similar itinerary (southern carib out of San Juan) on the Summit which I believe is similar to Millennium.

Edit - and WIFI on both as well....

I agree. Similar to Holland and their version (Have it all HAL), it seems like Celebrity and HAL have priced it such that it is a no brainer if you want a drink package, you would just book your fare as AI or HAI, where you get the drinks package and more for less cost. I always thought the only reason they even offer the drink packages to be purchased separate is so they can say "with AI your are saving XX%". I really can't imagine anyone actually buys a cruise only fare and then adds a dink package (at least I hope not) EDIT: Articles like this aren't doing anyone any favours - https://thepointsguy.com/guide/cruise-line-ship-alcoholic-drink-packages/ for example he cites HAL drinks package is $59.90 + 18% gratuity so almost $71/day. But in reality, for $50/day booking as AI - you get the same drinks (grats included) package, $100 shore excursion credit and one specialty dinner credit for 7 day sailing. I just did HAL as the example as I am more familiar, but it is the same with Celeb. Booking AI costs less than the drinks package itself and your crew appreciation is included.

Aside from their hockey team (you are a HABS fan or you are NOT a HABS fan, there is NO in between), everybody seems to like Montreal. Should you ever return, as other have said, spend you time in Old Montreal which is really the reason to visit Montreal.