Gig103

A few follow-on questions on the topic.

1) If the itinerary has three Vietnamese ports, but all in a row, is that a single entry, or multiple entry?

2) I found an official pdf of valid "Evisa port" and Ha Long Bay is not listed, if that's our first port of call what would more experienced travelers suggest?

Just off my first X cruise since 2017, with my two more recent cruises being RCCL. I have to admit that like some others in this thread I didn't think the Celebrity experience felt as upscale as it used to. It was nice not having to check-out towels and to not have the dining room menus pushing up-charge options (apparently a second lobster is?). The way they charge 'premium' prices for some basic inexpensive liquors like Aperol & Bailey's just comes across as trying to convince guests into the PP based on popularity.

I still had a good time and put down two Book Later FCC reduced deposits, with one a sure-thing and the other a 'maybe' (refundable after 6 months). But yeah, the lines are more blurred to me too.

I booked on board with $200 reduced deposits on a nonrefundable 'book later' fare.

Assuming I pick my cruise before this promo expires, I was planning to put an extra chunk of $800 down, but want to confirm those funds are always refundable before final payment? If I have to cancel the trip I know I lose my deposit but would I get my $800 back as cash not FCC?

Similarly I could buy a drink package in advance to trigger it if those are refundable.

If you buy in advance it will be refunded if unspent at the end of the cruise. But keep in mind Amex will see the credit reducing you below $1000 and take back the bonus.

How I made it work last week was to check in for the cruise with a different card, so my refund of OBC is going to my Visa instead.

There's also a thread about that bonus maybe a moderator can merge.

Reporting back post-cruise. I arrived at the LA World Cruise Port and had my alcohol in my carry on. I mentioned it at check-in, because I didn't want anyone to think I was trying to break rules. Agent told me that security would handle it, so I passed my bag through and security didn't even blink. I was now on board with my bottles, but I had the classic package so they stayed sealed to fly home.

Hello,

I'm familiar with the idea of, if I make a purchase of alcohol in a port of call (or Ulu knives in Alaska), that security will confiscate it and return it on the last evening. Is the same true if I bring sealed containers of alcohol at embarkation? There are some things I want to pick up in LA, but may not have time to stop after my cruise on the way from Long Beach back to LAX, but have time in the city prior to prior to boarding. I have the classic package, I don't want the bottles in my room, I just want to be able to shop in advance. Will this work?

On 1/1/2023 at 8:51 AM, MarkWiltonM said:

That's not good at all.... I hope it doesn't stick or migrate to other cruise lines. In other cost-cutting, service-cutting moves, Norwegian has just downgraded room service to once a day for non-suite guests.  

Fee + Grat is what I experienced on RCCL in Aug 2022. I hate that they're minimizing the difference with Celebrity, it theoretically costs more because of it's more inclusive nature.

Hey all, bumping...

If I call Celebrity and buy OBC, that's always OBCR, right?  If so is there a way to buy OBC from the online planner to save the phone call and wait time?

Thanks!

On 8/8/2022 at 1:45 AM, Biker19 said:

Any OBC should be able to be cashed out via the casino slot machine.

 

Doesn't really matter which OBC is used if you are going to cash it all out.

Is that my only option or will they just pay out a positive balance at the end of the cruise via other means?

On my American Express Card I have an "Offer" where if I spend $500+ I get $125 back. But it expires before my cruise. 

If I call and purchase $500 OBC but do not spend it all, is it refundable at the end of the cruise? Also if I check in for the cruise with a different card is the refund to the original payment or to the account on file during the cruise? 

And, will RCCL use my $50 credit, provided by my OTA (Costco) before my purchased credit? 

2 hours ago, DUTRAVEL said:

Royal should have the tender ports marked on your itinerary. You can go here to find out the schedule for Juneau the day you are there:

 

https://claalaska.com/?page_id=1551

 

Awesome website to have! We are at ALASKA STEAM DOCK, as opposed to 'ANCHOR', so I am ready to go!

Hello,

As one of five ships in Juneau on the same day in August (yikes), does Royal have to warn us we are tendering in advance? My mom is not able to use the tender boats and as of now I see no indication of it on our paperwork. I just don't want her to be disappointed, so I want to set expectations in advance.

I just found out that due to the rockslide in Skagway, depending on how fast they get it cleaned up we may need to tender.

On 6/24/2022 at 12:34 PM, Suzanne123 said:

Just FYI.  Skagway dock schedule 

https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.189/2xl.54d.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/SKG-Skagway-2022.pdf

 

RRF: Railroad Dock Forward
RRA: Railroad Dock Aft
BRD: Broadway Dock
ORE: Ore Terminal Dock
AMH: Alaska Marine Highway Dock

 

 

I'm sailing on Ovation in August which is listed as RRA. that's over 4000 people to tender, with priority surely being to their own customers. Probably not advisable to book any private excursions now, huh?

Sweet, that will work great then. I will just make sure not to book the earliest Lumberjack show just in case 🙂

2 minutes ago, sunset seekers said:

We also ported at Ward Cove and RC does offer a free shuttle into the town.

Thanks for the quick reply! Was it a smooth experience? Long lines? Do you remember where the shuttle dropped off?

Hey all,

I'm late to my cruise excursion planning, with ~45 days to go and I just noticed we have "Ward Cove" listed on the itinerary, which was not the case on my original booking paperwork (March 2021). I am actually upset about it, because my mom is low-mobility and I was planning on being close in town to do some low impact exploration and maybe a lumberjack show. Now I have to consider this additional step, which may end up being no big deal, but I don't know yet.

A few posts on CC show that NCL offers shuttles, does Royal do the same?

The first time in my life (age 31 at the time) where I enjoyed fish and chips was at the Red Dog Saloon in Juneau. I really don't eat seafood but figured I better try a bite of my wife's plate.... and ended up eating half her order!

5 hours ago, jskinsd said:

I guess you all are right about Victoria and the Captain wrong according to letter✌️

I have friends on the same sailing as you, and I was dying if curiosity what the compensation was going to be. Thanks for posting this. I might feel differently if I was on board but from the outside, refund and 100% FCC is a darn good lemonade from the lemons of the hit. I've missed port calls and got nothing for it! Keep your chin up! Thanks for starting a thread, too. 

So, I'm wondering the same thing, sunscreen. Did you ever find out? 

Hi travelers! I just found this itinerary on the website in Feb 2022 (on the Solstice instead of Millennium instead). I want to book it desperately but we have a big (B-I-G ... Antarctica!!) trip planned for Dec 2021 so unfortunately Vietnam will have to wait a bit longer.

I'm posting to not only thank Dave for the review, but to see if anyone on the boards has insight as to how regular an itinerary this is. Might it appear for Fall 2022? Or might I have to wait until Jan/Feb 2023? I will wait if I need to and book as soon as they open up the calendars, but don't want to get my hopes up too high.

On 1/27/2019 at 5:48 AM, MikeyA53 said:

 

We are planning another B2B2B for November 2019. We prefer to cruise on a different ship every time we cruise, in other words we do not like to repeat the same ship twice. We looked at Princess, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean (never been on RC) Norwegian, Holland America and Carnival. We prefer cruising out of the cruise capital area of the world (Miami & Fort Lauderdale). It makes it easier to combine cruises together. When booking a ship we look at the ship itself (Prefer newer ships), the prices and the itineraries. We wanted to include another Celebrity ships if possible but because most of their ships do not stick with a 7 day schedule (The length of their cruise keeps changing from week to week) it was not feasible to include them. The ships we looked at from Norwegian and Holland America were too expensive and Carnival was not a good fit.

 

 

Finally we booked a 7 days cruise on Royal Caribbean Allure of the Sea leaving from Fort Lauderdale on Nov 3, 2019, with stops at St. Kitt, St. Thomas and Coco Cay. Then on Nov 10 we embark on Regal Princess for a 7 day cruise out of Fort Lauderdale to Princess Cay, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. Finally on Nov 17 we take an Uber to Miami and get on MSC Meraviglia for a 7 day cruise to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Grand Cayman Islands, Cozumel and Ocean Cay.

 

 

However, approximately 6 weeks after booking MSC Meraviglia we got a notice advising that our 7 day cruise had changed to a 4 day and a 3 day cruise with only Ocean Cay as a port for each cruise. They offered us $100 OBC for the inconvenience but we declined and cancelled. We then booked Crown Princess leaving on Nov 17 for a 10 day cruise out of Fort Lauderdale to Bonaire, Curacao, Grenada, Dominica, St. Thomas and Grand Turk.

 

 

Overall we are happy with the change, all three cruises are leaving on three consecutive Sundays out of Fort Lauderdale. Fortunately we have an aft cabin on Regal Princess  with a large balcony and on Crown Princess we also got lucky and got a balcony cabin on the Caribe deck which has large balconies compared to the other decks.

 

Bye

I haven't been around CC in a while, but something made me do a search for you and I was glad to see you had another B2B(2B) review. As usual I enjoyed it and see that as I'm wrapping it up you've just set sail on another! Great! 

Oh and like someone else said, glad to hear the kids are doing well. Bizarre to think I've been reading your posts on and off for nearly a decade and know CC appreciates your efforts and consistency! 

We're close to actually booking a Lindblad expedition and checking the 7th continent off our list :)

I have to say that BA is our preferred jumping off city because we haven't been there and would like to see it before and after the cruise. However, the smaller and newer Orion itineraries start in Santiago.

My only concern with Explorer is that some searches I've done indicate that there are limitations on the number of guests allowed ashore and so I'm wondering if I should go with the Orion and plan a separate trip to BA (maybe open jaw and head there after the cruise, possibly even direct from Ushuaia)?

Not surprising when you consider that Celebrity's CEO comes from RCI! And it seems like her goal is to make Celebrity into "RCI Lite" or something similar. Ever since LLP has taken over the helm of X we have seen nothing but cut-backs and price increases. While this will likely enhance the bottom line over the short term, in the long term we think the strategy will backfire and badly damage Celebrity's excellent reputation. Although we are Elite Plus and have long been Celebrity fans, we now find ourselves booking other lines and avoiding X unless there are no other decent options. So in a sense X has gone from being our favorite mass market line to our line of last resort.

 

Hank

I agree Hank. It's no different from when Alex Cruz took over BA after running a low cost carrier (Clickair / Vueling).

I prefer even a C3 to Aqua Class. I just didn't like Blu, although this year I found the MDR had definitely dropped in quality compared to my 2012/2013 cruises. It felt like RCCL dining, which is only 'fine' not 'can't wait'.

I'm with the other folks who prefer the Celebrity method because it's individual cans. On RCCL the Freestyle was nice (especially in the busy buffet) but if you did go to a bar, the soda didn't taste right. If it came from a 2L bottle it had no fizz and if it came from the soda gun it was weak.