rodndonna

Is is the old locks or the new ones?

Was that an Alaskan cruise in April? We did Alaska in June and our ship was pretty compliant with masks (as were we). Off the ship, not so much. We got Covid and although we will never know where we got it, we really think we picked it up off the ship as there was no shortage of coughing and hacking going on. (the White Pass rail with a woman behind us who coughed heavily on us for the entire 4 hours comes to mind - lol)

Last year, we sold our home and downsized to an apartment which we love, BUT, our neighbour who shares the master bedroom wall is pretty hard of hearing and her bedroom TV can be quite loud. We bought a white noise machine (like the ones for baby rooms) and I have to say, should have bought one years ago. They are great at blocking ambient noises and are quite soothing to sleep. On our last cruise in June, we had noisy neighbours (kids in the room). The unit we bought is not big, but there are smaller more portable ones, and we plan to purchase a smaller one and never travel without it again. If we are allowed to say, on cruisecritic our unit is a Yogasleep brand.

I would really, really doubt it.

Thanks. That is what I was thinking. We will just leave it and decide when we board. Was pretty sure late seating is generally not an issue. If we can't change it for some strange reason, no really a problem anyway.

We have a cruise next month (Sept 25) and are currently "anytime dining" but thinking about changing to late fixed seating for 2. It doesn't appear we can do this ourselves - is that right? Do we have to call our PCC, or can the dining reservations phone number be able to do that? Also, since we are in the fence on whether to change, it we wait to decide until we board the ship, is there much chance we can get guest services to change it?

I wonder if this is 'staffing' issue. They are not immune to Covid and are not easily replaced when a member(s) fall ill. Although disappointing, I haven been keeping my expectations low until we are much further past the effects that Covid has had ,and will have on our travel experiences in general. We are coming on our 3rd cruise (Norway) with HAL, but they have all been post Covid. I am still wondering how closely our experiences reflect what HAL was 4 years ago, and what it will be 2 or 3 years from now.

I just checked for our Sept 25 cruise and it is still priced at $39. I wonder if they are not raising it as a matter of goodwill. We booked both in and out at that price and think it will be well worth it.

The taxes and port fees for the full 7 day cruise are only $110 per person. Can't imagine a savings of greater than $50 with just one port change.

Thanks. We went ahead and booked it. We were originally OK doing the transfers to AMS port, but now, coming in on an overnight flight, the potential airport chaos we may meet with things the way they are, and now this change, seems well worth the $39 pp.

I apologize for hijacking this thread, but while we are on the subject - We sail Sept 25 and did not book HAL transfers (didn't think it worth it for AMS), but now with the change to Rotterdam, we can still book the transfer at $39 pp, which seems like a decent deal since they would have to get us to Rotterdam now. We haven't spent much time yet reviewing (just got the notice last night), but at $39, it seems like a no-brainer to book Hal transfers or am i missing something?

I don't think that is what the poster is saying. The person 'generally' removes the auto-grats and tips in cash, so for him/her the 'prepaid grats' perk is 'meaningless'. Pretty sure the staff doesn't find it meaningless though (assuming he/she still tips in cash) 😄

Not a N.American as we have not received them either. For the 2 cruises we have done in the last year, there was a future cruise already booked, so maybe that is why or a part of why we don't receive them.

Also, if you can get to Vancouver, is there a way to get to Seatlle (bus or train?). When we sailed out of Vancouver there were folks on our cruise that were coming in from a Seattle flight.

The mocktail "cool as a cucumber" but with Gin. Very refreshing. Also good as is without the Gin and I have seen others order with Vodka.

Oct 1, 2022.

You should have received something - I did a similar booking last week - and my flight was confirmed in an email with the subject "FLIGHTS by Celebrity Confirmation for Reservation ID....." at the same time (same day anyway) as my email with the invoice for our booking came in.

Not sure about that, but if you can't check them early, the Pan Pacific hotel next door will store your bags quite cheap (I forget if it was $5 or $10 for our 2 bags). We left ours with them for a few hours after our cruise as our flight was late afternoon.

I asked out of curiosity on our June sailing (we are beer and wine drinkers so didn't really matter to us) and was told by the bartender that a double counts as 2 drinks towards the 15 drink limit. He then did allude to the fact that he was more of a 'free pour' guy though. My impression was the rule is it will count as 2 drinks, but you will find a bar or bartender where they may be more 'generous' on that rule.

The Canadian charter lines seem to be holding their prices. We've tried using Transat for our cruises (since their prices are typically quite good), but it never seems to work with their schedules for us as we are those daring "day in" and "day out" flyers. We got a "good" (relative) deal with Westjet for next April (San Juan) booking last week, and our Amsterdam flight in September (AC) was booked many many months ago so is a decent price, but our December flight to Florida is still stupid expensive and has only been going up. I still have some hope it will come down in the fall though after (if) all the current airline issues settle out.

I had some problems recently booking flights through Celebrity and was wondering if it is a result of all the current problems with air travel. When is your cruise? Prices still seem to be pretty insane for our Sept and Dec 2022 cruises, but for 2023 they seem more normal.

If that is the case, do you think as a result, 5 or 10 years in the future, no one would be cruising anymore? That is the only way the 'cruise industry' would be gone.

That's a good point, if your luggage does not make it, look into what can be claimed through the airline, through your credit card insurance and HAL. There are rules based on how many hours or days your luggage is delayed about what you can just buy and claim back.

The airline is responsible for getting your luggage to you. Being on a cruise kinda complicates that, so maybe flight ease folks could dealing with the airline, but I would report to the airline directly when you arrive as well (if your luggage is not there) We just went through the 'no luggage' returning from our Alaska cruise, into Toronto, but luckily it was coming home so not as big a deal (took 6 days to get our luggage delivered to us at home). Of that 6 days, it was 3 days to get through to the airline customer service by phone to report and 3 days to have it flown to our town and delivered. We are doing Norway in September and like you flying in that morning, so really hoping the issues are resolved by then. We'll be taking more carry on than usual though!

i don't see how the package encourages it. At the price for drinks and coffees (and then add grats) the breakeven point for the package is around 5 drinks. A Cap or Espresso in the morning, a beer or wine at lunch, a mid afternoon coffee, a pre dinner cocktail, a glass of wine with dinner, a coffee after dinner (if you can drink coffee at night) and an evening drink watching a show or in the bar before retiring for the night. I think the coffees are 3-4sh, beer 7-8, cocktails and wine 9-11ish -(and then add another 18% for grats), so what was totalled there was WELL over $50 (which includes grats for those drinks, wifi and one dinner). It's a no brainer for moderate and even low level drinkers, no need to indulge to get value out of the package.