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I like the changes. We don't drink that much and were happy bringing our wine from ports into Blu. As for WIFI, the basic WIFI they give you is horrible. Anyone on a Japan itinerary can get pocket wifi cheaper than basic and be better off. The tips is just cash. I just assume tips be included in my fare. They won't let me change on my cruise for next May to a fare that is not inclusive. I can live with it because I got a great price from an online TA. If I didn't like the deal, I wouldn't have booked it.

You might be better off spending pre-cruise days and nights in Tokyo and Kyoto. If you just want to do day trips and not enjoy the night life, maybe Yokohama makes more sense.

Our Oceania cruise will be on the Vista. Found a great itinerary, new to us, starting in Lisbon and ending in London (Southampton). Small ship, but newer and bigger than R class with more things to do. Would love to get a rotation of Celebrity M class, Azamara, and Oceania and will do a New Zealand/Australia on one of them three years out.

If you ever go back on Carnival, you will quickly realize all of the reasons you stopped cruising with them in the first place. They can improve the food, but it's the same "cheese".

Azamara has many hardcore loyalists and it is easy to see why if you take an Azamara cruise. Their itineraries are great and they focus on overnights and immersion. They do some unique ports not done by other lines. The onboard service is great and the ships are very nice, especially for older R class ships. I thought the food was very good, but people who have done both Oceania and Azamara say Oceania's is better. I find pricing and inclusions on Azamara though, to make it the best value in cruising. Sycamore has stated their intention to grow the line, which would mean new ships, at some point. Those R class ships won't be around forever. We are getting a look on Oceania next and will be interesting to compare the two (although we will be on a new Oceania ship - Vista).

We used Happy Angkor Tours - Samath was our guide (right before Covid) - Mony was our contact. info@happyangkortour.com We stayed at the Grand Venus. Tourists can do very well for the money at Siem Reap because it is third world. There are great restaurants and prices of food and drink are very low. It was truly a much different travel experience than I have ever had. We spent a resort day at the Grand Venus as well. Massages are incredibly cheap and the weather in October was amazing. Itinerary day 1 Starting the tour early, we leave from your accommodation (Hotel or Guest House) at 4:50am to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat, then return to your hotel for breakfast. After breakfast we set out again to visit to the city of Angkor Thom and the Bayon temple. It’s the highlight temple in the centre of Angkor Thom city with 49 towers in which every tower has 4 faces, so that means there are 196 faces of Budhhistsatva Avalokestesvara. Then we walk to the next temple nearby called Baphoun which is a Hindu temple built before Angkor Wat in the 11th Century. The big Reclining Buddha behind it was built in 16th Century & we continue to Royal Enclosure Wall nearby with a visit to Elephant & Leper King Terrace , still within the complex of Angkor Thom. Then we continue to outside Angkor Thom complex to visit Ta Prohm temple on the small circuit road. This temple is one with a lot of gigantic tree roots over the temple and is the place where Hollywood made the movie "Tomb Raider". After a busy couple of hours in the morning around 12:30 pm we’ll have lunch at a local restaurant. After lunch approximately 1:30pm or 2:00pm we’ll visit the world famous Angkor Wat temple. It really is amazing! Our tour will conclude when we return you to your hotel around 4:00pm. Day 2 - 1/2 day We tour Banteay Srei and Preah Khan at Angkor. Enjoy!

Thanks Rosalyn. The express train to the shuttle probably makes a lot of sense. Since the Hilton shuttle is so close, it probably runs frequently. We are still over 7 months away, so have time to do the Japan Web thing. Was considering a JR Pass, but the prices are going way up to the point where it's cheaper to pay for the individual tickets (Narita to Shinjuku, Tokyo-Kyoto, and then Kyoto to Yokohama).

Still considering that and it would save about 30 minutes. Just am a little apprehensive about rolling luggage through the station looking for a taxi. The Rome2Rio guy says it’s a 14 minute walk and I assume that’s from the train, through the station, and then to the hotel. For us, it could be longer, figuring out which exit to take at the station.

Thanks, we’ll wait to buy tickets until we take care of everything else first. Would love to get out of there in a couple of hours. It’s two hours to the Hilton.

Our flight is scheduled to arrive at 4:15 pm on a Thursday. In addition to customs/immigration, we have to get cash, pick up pocket WIFI, maybe a 3-day Tokyo subway pass, Welcome Suica card. We are going to take the limousine/bus, mainly because it stops at the Tokyo Hilton (switched there from Okura) in Shinjuku. There is a 6:20 pm bus to the hotel and 7:20 pm one as well. Would we be safe on the 6:20 or just book the 7:20 to be on the safe side? We can always grab a bite to eat if we are waiting.

Agree with all above that I copied. We don't cruise in the Caribbean. We live in SWFL 7 months a year and our local beaches or even Sanibel or Marco are just as good or better. We also don't like big ships because of itinerary limitations and book M class. For non-refundable, we can use future cruise credit so limits loss on deposits. Just need to make sure we always have one available to use. We book Aqua because on M class, choice of specialties is slim to none (won't book the gimmick petit chef, sushi on 5 is light, and steak place is okay) and Blu is decent. Celebrity has a nice little niche with Aqua. The Celebrity games come from the top. Most aren't customer friendly. Right now, I actually believe Azamara is the best deal out there. I say that even as we canceled with them to move a cruise to Oceania mainly because of itinerary preference and the Sycamore risk. We do like casual and Oceania and Azamara are good fits. I'd give Windstar a shot if I could find a good deal online. We'll keep Celebrity M class in the mix.

All cruise lines charge as much as they can for cruises. In the mid 2000's, Celebrity blew Princess out of the water with the introduction of the Solstice class ships and even upgraded the Millennium class to conform. Their popularity increased and prices went up. You can now probably get better deals on Princess. If you the products similarly, they you choose Princess for pricing. My view is different. My last cruise was on the Royal Princess, when it was a new ship in the newest class. I didn't like the ship. It was glitzy, had tiny balconies, actual long waits for elevators, and the quality of their Sabatinis restaurant tanked when they changed the concept and they also changed the concept of Explorers Lounge, which once had some really good live entertainment and then didn't. We switched to Celebrity and Aqua Class and still enjoy the concept. If you value the Princess and Celebrity products equally, then it makes sense to book with Princess. I can't get there.

Azamara has other issues that relate to the change in IT and migration from RCCL software to another platform. Sycamore, their owner, had no other travel related business and the data migration was not clean. I am a big Azamara fan. Love the product, but canceled my next cruise as I am not going to live with their risk. However, I love their product and their pricing is favorable. Azamara, to my knowledge, hasn't cut anything or quality, but I can't speak to that first hand. We hope to cruise with them again after they clean up their act. I know some on the Oceania boards are unhappy with the Simply More pricing changes where they include in the price $800 (per couple) excursion credit, wine/beer with meals, and WIFI. The fact is that whenever there is change, there are winners and losers, and it's the latter that lets their feelings known online.

Don't apologize for long posts. Longer posts usually provide good explanations. I have always believed that Retreats and high end suite cabins are not worth it for us. The constraints of the larger ships as to itineraries is problematic, so we would prefer to spend similar money or less on balcony cabins on more higher end lines with smaller ships. Windstar does intrigue me. We like casual, so really not interested in Viking, Cunard, Regent, Silversea, etc, but have gone on Azamara and have an upcoming cruise on Oceania (after Celebrity Japan cruise in the Spring). We always thought Aqua on Celebrity fit us well and Blu is a good dining experience and having the Persian Garden is nice on days at sea. The one thing we like what the changes brought was the elimination of must pay for alcohol inclusion with Aqua. It's a step in the right direction. For Japan, not even crazy about the inclusion for WIFI since pocket wifi, which works on ships in Japan costs so much less. In any case, looking forward to giving Windstar a shot.

You are beyond final payment right now, so reassurance or negative input at this point aren't really useful. You should enjoy your cruise and go in with a positive attitude. You are considering canceling is something I don't understand. Does travel insurance cover canceling because you just don't want to take the cruise? I suppose if you have some policy that allows you to cancel for any reason even past final payment, then you're in luck.

Good luck. Ouch! That one got caught right in the middle of the systems conversion. When they get to the point, where they figure everything out, cabin upgrade bidding is back and they nail down the OBC part, I will look at them again.

My refund of the cruise I canceled came pretty quickly - a couple of weeks. For comparison, I canceled a Celebrity cruise and they forgot to give me the future cruise credit that comes with the nonrefundable deposit. I had to get two different travel agencies involved (one from my canceled cruise and another agency for my new cruise) to help me get Celebrity to fix it and it took five months. I'm not saying Azamara doesn't still have major issues to work out, but the refund was quick and my sense is that they will get the other stuff worked out. I still think Sycamore didn't have the appropriate infrastructure set up to deal with the Azamara acquisition and they were out of their league in entering this industry. When they figure this out and eliminate more risk, we'll be back.

I never blame the cruise line for decreasing quality (cutting their cost of doing business) or increasing pricing. They should do both as long as they can fill up their ships. If they lose two long time customers, but pick up three new ones, they're ahead. I am always one of those customers any cruise line will lose if they do that. I have zero loyalty to them.

This seems to be a pattern among all mass market cruise lines as the buffet and even MDR experiences are being downgraded. Good food is no longer "included". You have to pay for it. I'll continue to book Aqua Class, but stop booking Celebrity if Blu goes downhill.

Confirmed. Celebrity wouldn't allow any changes, period. The rate is higher, but I don't think my rate with the inclusions, a group rate, could have been changed. I am okay. My bigger issue is that I canceled another cruise to move to this date and they are giving me a hard time about moving my credit from the nonrefundable balance to the new cruise with a different travel agent. They are being very tough to deal with.

Ouch!!!! Didn't realize that. Was hoping they could adjust my price by the difference between the inclusions and without. I am happy with my overall price (a special group type rate with an online TA), so I suppose I'm stuck with it. The entire ship has only three unsold cabins.

Anyone know if passengers who are already booked on Aqua with “all inclusive” will have the choice to adjust fare to non-inclusive?

We have our first Oceania cruise booked and gratuities were not included. Online TA added it in as a promotion, along with $1,050 refundable OBC. I don’t think Celebrity’s pricing structure will be complicated in October. Basically, nothing will be included.

Thanks, I just googled it. It’s too late for my cruise next May, but better going forward. The change I dislike the most is making the entire amount of the non refundable deposit forfeitable. I suppose the answer to that is purchasing the future cruise credit and using that for the deposit.

All they have announced so far is that gratuities will not be part of any inclusive package. If they came out with new policies on WIFI/Drinks with Aqua, I haven’t heard it. Gratuities should be included in the price of a cruise - period. Agreed on excursions - your tipping should be on your own. Should be included in all services on the ship though.