chilliano

Well, honestly, and sorry to digress from general post, but it's related to perceptions that cruise lines are cutting back (which, of course, they are as are many businesses). I'm not surprised by this. There's always a classic entry and dining packages are common--so beef eaters have Cagney. In general, the trend is away from beef (in US). Beef consumption in US is down, what, maybe 40% or more in last 50 years? I saw an interesting stat recently that 12% of the American population eats about 50% of beef consumed. (most likely to be men, ages 50-65). Plant-based diets are becoming more common as reserch shows links to greater healthy outcomes and longevity levels. Med diet has taken root and is extremely common now. I eat beef maybe 1 time a month at most. The menus seem to be following "foodie" (not just health) trends.

a YAY for us. A big YAY.

Yes! Agree. We were in suites, so same for sommelier service in Luminae. Ate in Blu, same, one night In MDR b/c hubby really preferred the menu one night. Poor all around, but incredibly so in MDR. e.g., I ordered the Pinot noir and I got a rose. She ignored us after politely pointed out the difference btw rose and Pinot Noir, The “sommelier” staffed the tub-oh-beers at the pool the next day. Don’t blame her, poor training and/or just not enough staff. But we haven’t cruised in 3 years and the number one difference we noticed was the difference in sommelier services and the available wines,

Loving your reports! dang, if you are a Buckeye fan, it was a tough loss the other night. They dominated the game but lost by a point. 😞. back to better, more interesting cruise talk! enjoy!

Honestly, chose a Magic Suite room. I can say that the balconies of next rooms can be accessed. Price is less. I can’t speak as to whether the other Sky Suite balconies can be accessed btw rooms

As the other poster noted, these two rooms allow for people traveling together-e.g., parents in the sky suite and kids in the interior room. There was one interior room that shared the “mini corridor” with us. We saw him ONCE. We never heard him. A plus is that we never heard any doors opening or shutting because we were inset from the main corridor. As far as the Magic Suite rooms goes, the two inside suites are what I will call “inset” with an inside room off to the side, the two outside suites have a kind of “portal” window that adds something to the balcony, for whatever reason, the door btw our balcony and the suite next door was open. It needed to be locked from the other side, and it never was. I put the little table next to the door to keep it shut, I did, however, peak thru to the other balcony before we sailed and I saw it had a window— I knew it was there, so that’s why I wanted to check it out. I liked it, and I’d consider that room in the future, on another note. I confess that my hubby and I grabbed the wrong envelop outside our door and inadvertently opened the door of the inside cabin—what did we know? The inside cabin looked much nicer than I thought it would be. Kinda like a small hotel room. I probably wouldn’t hesitate to book an inside room on a ship that I knew to have a lot of outdoor spaces. Even us, I DID spend time on our balcony, but hubby spent not a minute there….

Just off Apex. We booked a Magic Carpet suite cause the price differential was about $500. I was on the balcony twice when the Magic carpet went by. It was kinda cool. No one was on the MC, hubby was in the room both times and he DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE. It took about a minute for the MC to go by. Our balcony was large and had no obstructed views. The entrance to our room was through a hallway that had an interior room. Meaning? We didn’t hear room door slams at all because our room was inset, I would totally book an S2 room again, we were in the middle, and next time, I’d go for a room on either side that had the extra window on the balcony

You just never know. FWIW, my husband, who’s much bolder in general than I am, thought it would be too risky to try for a 9:30 flight. we took our time getting off the ship and we were still at FLL and cleared TSA by 8:45. BUT, we were on United and have TSA pre check. It would have been another story without TSA pre check. also, FWIW, there was a 9:40 flight to our destination, but it had a mechanical delay and our 11:30 flight arrived a good 2 hours earlier than the 9:40 flight. Bottom line, why stress? BUT, if you have CLEAR or TSA pre check, you walk your bags off the ship and turn right for a Taxi rather than ride share, you can make a 9:30 flight. If you don’t have tsa pre check or clear, you’re not an early bird or fit enough to walk yourself and your bags off with the first group, then, I’d go for a later flight. Walk around the airport. It’s kinda fun to walk on dry land again, grab a meal or drink at a restaurant and relax

I’ll reiterate that if I were booking Aqua, I’d probably go for S class. Even on S class, the gym has a front view. It’s slightly better on Eclass. For both, the location is a good incentive to spend some time doing a bit of exercise. If you like Cafe Baccio, you may prefer E class. We often had issues getting seating on S class, never on E class. (Downside is the gelato place is gone on the E class). however, there is a nice deck with chairs on the S class on the same deck that is missing from the E class. bottom line? e class and S class are both great. Which has the best price for the time you can get away? Me? I’d try for Sky Suite on E class as it ticks all the boxes for me. But if I an Aqua class were available on an S class at a time that worked for me, I’d take it and be happy too.

From an earlier post: “We prefer Retreat lounge on S class, with drink servers not just the bartender trying to take care of the whole lounge.” just off Apex, where I spent a fair amount of time in the Retreat Lounge and patio. There were many more staff than the bartender. The staff in the lounge were the friendliest and most helpful on board. If I didn’t have self-control, I’d have easily had a fresh drink every 10-15 minutes as that’s how often they checked in on me. T

I LOVED the Retreat lounge. Huge windows. Comfortable seating. Lovely music. A bar. Help-yourself-soda and water, a patio shaded with the ocean sounds. Sun deck was fabulous. Rooftop gardens on E class much better than S-class for lounging. Eden has lots of seating and huge windows (aft) if you don’t have Retreat access. Cafe Bacio is much larger on e-class. Never a problem to get seating. Magic carpet is open with nice views and comfortable seating during the day. We dined with friends staying in Sky Suites in Luminae on Reflection, and Luminae on E class is muuuuuch nicer with beautiful sea views. The only thing I missed about the S-class was the Atrium, the tree, and riding up and down the center elevators. I also like the library in the s-class. All this being said, if I were to book Aqua class balcony, I’d go for S Class as I like Persian Gardens better than Eclass Thermal Suites. The S class spa has a great Relaxation lounge at the front of the ship. The E class relaxation room is smaller and has a side rather than front view. also, Blu has poor views on E class.

If you book Sky Suite on Edge class, you will have access to Retreat Lounge, which is beautiful, and the retreat sun deck. My husband DID purchase the Thermal Suites pass as we have previously sailed in Aqua cabins and made full use of the Persian Gardens. He only used it 3 times, and 2 of them were probably because of “gee, I paid for this, so I better use it” reasons, I did not purchase it as I didn’t get the same restful vibe from it when we toured. I loved the Retreat Lounge. I like the Solarium too but spent all my time in Retreat areas and Rooftop Gardens. If you both like the Thermal Suites/Persian Gardens, try to get the Aqua Sky Suites as the price difference may be less than two purchased weekly passes. If only one of you will use it, book Sky Suite and wait til you’re onboard to tour to see if you want to purchase it. FWIW, hubby says he wouldn’t purchase it again,

Our booking came with a nice OBC and pre-paid gratuities. We didn’t use all of the OBC, so on the last night, we got one of the forms and left extra for staff. You can designate to go to the restaurant or housekeeping staff in general or also list specific staff. We did both, e.g., our principal waiter and the restaurant staff pool, etc.

You can purchase on the ship. Wait until you get there to tour it. My husband purchased it (we had a lot of onboard credit), and he went three times. It’s not as peaceful or as blocked off as on the S class (name?) ships. Frankly, the Solarium, to me, has a nicer ambiance. We have always booked Aqua, and as an amenity, the Persian Gardens was worth it. But paying extra is another issue. When I toured, I could immediately see that it wouldn’t be worth the price for me. We were in Retreat, so we had access to a nice lounge and sun deck. But if we were in another balcony room, I still wouldn’t purchase it. Hubby liked it but said he wouldn’t purchase it again. Everyone’s opinion is different, hence my recommendation to wait til onboard. If you do a spa treatment, I recommend Charo.

Yeah, deleted too. I’ll spend 2 minutes. That’s my limit. Companies use the info to make $. It’s too much of an ask $20 min without any incentive. And I’m a researcher btw. We don’t ask respondents to contribute data w/o some kind of incentive.

I've followed the above directions and I see the same discounts that I saw last month--about 10-15% discount only. Could it be because our cruise is this month? Or did I miss it?

For the last year+, everyone flying into the US had to show a negative test taken within the last 24 hours. Airline employees all over the world managed this process easily. Check in, show official results, easy peasy.

@theopup I'd advise against it. This far out there will likely be a flight change. I booked just a couple months ago or so and was initially very pleased. I paid extra for the earliest flight I could get (a 1 pm flight). Just got notice that my 1 pm flight was changed because that flight was canceled, and a new 11:55 am flight was put on the books. but which flight did we get put on? a 3 pm flight. Annoying because I could have paid a cheaper price and been placed on that flight to begin with. I ended up canceling. I will pay more, but I will be in control and if I need to change something, I can do it myself.

I report back. As mentioned, I never received a confirmation from Celebrity Flights, so I called after a couple hours. The helpful agent gave me the code and I was able to easily find the reservation on the United Web Site. The reservations were NOT tied to our Frequent Flier numbers, but interestingly, our known traveler numbers were there and correct. No matter, I added my husband's number only b/c he has a high status w/ United. Lo and behold, I was able to book our seats at his status (i.e., exit row seats at no charge). I was worried about whether I would be able to "tag along" at his status since the reservation was not made on the United website w/his log-in. Was it because I only put in his FF number? Who knows but I was covering my bases. To answer a question on another thread, yes, our reservation is showing these tickets as having no luggage fees. This did not show up right away. Instead, I got a message on the website to check back later for estimated baggage fees "when this reservation is ticketed." The next day, I see that there are no luggage fees. The fare was more than $200 less per person with Celebrity air than booking directly on United. Can't believe I never checked cruise air before. But from reading others' experiences, a discount is not always possible. And in case anyone is interested in whether upgrades would be possible on long-haul flights, this ticket is showing as "no upgrades possible" when I experimented with clicking on a first class seat. I've seen other reports of people saying they upgraded their seats on the airline website. What's the lesson? I'm not sure if there's a rhyme or a reason as people report different experiences. Maybe it's luck. Maybe the difference is what short of frequent flyer status you have (as opposed to having the airline credit card). Bottom line, since these tickets are cancellable, it seems worth it me to go ahead and make the reservation and then see if you can select your seats, whether you'll have luggage fees, etc. And as someone else mentioned, as a customer, do due diligence. Double-check that your frequent flyer number is entered. If you have a known traveler number, be sure it's there too. All of this can be checked on the airline web site.

Thanks for your response Kenb. OK, I can answer my own question. I did NOT get a confirmation email, so I called Celebrity Flights and the agent provided it to me over the phone. With the code, I was able to find it on the United Web Site. Our frequent flyer numbers weren't there even though I provided them. This wasn't an issue. I put my husband's FF number in first. He has better status, and I was able to select both our seats with his higher status. I'm not concerned about not getting the confirmation email. The reservation shows up on both our United Apps.

"As soon as I booked the flights and they were confirmed (not ticketed, just confirmed), I grabbed the record locator number and went over to AA.com, loaded in the record locator and pulled up our record and selected seats. " Bgwest, How long did it take for you to get the confirmation? I see the flight on my Celebrity page but I haven't received a confirmation email or see a confirmation # (or record locator) on Celebrity. Wondering, too, if it makes a difference whether one selects "pay now" vs "pay when final payment due." thanks

Hi all. I did a cruise critic and a goggle search for this but don’t see an answer. I have a good chunk of OBC and am wondering if it can be used for spa gratuities? Asking because I remember something or other from recent past when credit can be used for services and activities but not gratuities. Thanks in advance for response.