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Big sale on my upcoming cruise. They’re offering it at $1 off per day. 😄 Even if I were to get $4 upgrades on drinks, I’d have to have 11 drinks a day to make it worthwhile. If I have 11 drinks a day, chances are that I won’t remember too much of my cruise. In any case, most days are port days. The drinks package upgrade is for suckers.

I didn’t mean charge everyone a fee to dine in Blu. What I meant was giving Prime Aqua passengers an option to reserve certain time slots in Blu for a fee. For example, a Prime Aqua could pay $10 a day for a 7:15 pm seating in Blu. They could make this applicable only to seating between 7 and 8. The other Aqua passengers would still dine as they usually do.

Aren’t most of the “revolution” benefits directed at suite passengers? The “solsticization” seemed to benefit the entire ship.

I don’t believe that being Prime Aqua Class gives you preference at Blu and the ability to reserve there. I would think “Prime” only means that you paid for a location. I would guess that, at some point, Celebrity will allow passengers to reserve at Blu for a fee, as a new revenue source. If they do, they will devalue Aqua for everyone else.

Our cruise is 9 months out and many X excursions are showing as booked. We generally don’t do excursions from cruise lines unless it’s the “do on your own” transportation where you just meet their buses at a given point in a city. I haven’t see this option on the Japan itineraries. Our original plan was to see Kyoto from the Osaka port, but later decided that we would spend a couple of nights in Kyoto pre-cruise and just take the bullet train there from Tokyo. This allows us to see Osaka and spend the night there and relax. I noticed that X cut our day 2 departure in Osaka from 5 pm to 3 pm. You might be better off meeting your guide at Kyoto Station, after taking a taxi to Osaka station to get on the bullet train. No pressure on the return since you will be in Osaka overnight. It might be cheaper than paying for a guide’s time to meet you at Osaka port. You could also get a more local guide in Kyoto.

The loyalty stuff is fascinating in much the same way people get upset when Amex Platinum users ask for retention offers rather than just be happy to fork over the $695 for the privilege holding onto that card. If you look hard enough, you can do more than clip coupons from AMEX or Celebrity.

Yes, I am pretty much past that point in my life. Liberty is really speaking more to RCCL if he's talking about pricing because it's more of a family line and those cruises, parents really can leave their worries behind. There's something to be said for that, no doubt. I don't hate the mass market cruise experience, but there is the crowding, food prepared for the masses, etc. Maybe that makes me a vacation snob and not the target for them.

My point is that people don't decide on Disney vs Cruise. Disney is a destination, and even more so, for parents with young kids. Also, the all inclusives give you the beach for a week and resort living with much nicer living space. It's a different product. To be honest, I'm in SWFL from October through April and don't even need that kind of vacation. My cruise itineraries are Europe or Asia. On those, we do a land portion and a cruise portion. After booking my Japan cruise, I immediately had second thoughts, knowing I easily could have done had done 5 nights in Tokyo, 3 in Kyoto, and 2 in Osaka and 1 up north and gotten the same experience for less $. I am happy it's 4 nights in Tokyo, 2 in Kyoto, and the 12 day cruise (with the seas days) because the cruise element is more relaxing and I am not limited to Japanese food for 2+ weeks.

I canceled my Japan itinerary after the rules changed. It was booked well before the rules changed. I did lose the $200 of my $900 and got the $700 credit to a similar itinerary three weeks later (at a much lower price). My booking was handled by the monster wholesale club travel and they followed through for me. It goes by booking date and not cancelation date.

He's comparing Carnival to Disneyworld, which makes no sense because it's not apples to apples. Compare an all-inclusive in the Caribbean to a Caribbean cruise and then get back to the real world Liberty.

I thought the policy was only changed for new booking made after a certain date. Regardless, I view the change as a price increase because it forces those of us, who like to book at the non-refundable rates to book at higher rates. As someone pointed out to me, the workaround is purchasing the future cruise credits or next cruise or whatever Celebrity calls them and book the nonrefundable rates with those. It reduces the risk and allows us to book at the non-refundable rates. As for Princess, been there done that and won't be returning to that line. The new class of ships, to me, is a big turnoff, and their food, never great to begin with, is much below in quality to that of Celebrity. I am starting to look more at Azamara. I am not looking to decrease the level of the product to save money. There are bargains to be had with better lines and have no interest in E class. M or S is fine, but enjoy itineraries on M. Say what you want about Celebrity, but, unlike Princess, they keep reinvesting in their smaller ships and provide a much better experience.

Question, can you book a non-refundable with the future cruise credit and only be at risk for that future cruise credit price? We haven’t taken a cruise with Celebrity since they changed the rules, putting 100% of the non-refundable deposit at risk. In fact, our last transaction with Celebrity was to cancel a non-refundable booking and losing $200 and getting the $700 back in credits to a similar itinerary a month later (at a much better price). I thought the change in policy about the non-refundable deposits would put an end to my Celebrity cruising, but maybe I should just buy some (enough for a couple of cruises) future cruise credits on my next cruise and only have those at risk for my next non-refundable purchase. The new policy on non-refundable is not customer friendly and drove the price of cruises close to those of more premium lines. Maybe future credits, or whatever Celebrity calls them, is the answer.

Best itineraries? Doubtful. The best itineraries go to M class ships. They can do it at smaller ports, giving them better access to real cities and have unique itineraries.

I know the challenges well. Go With Guide is great for Tokyo and Kyoto/Osaka, but other ports it’s either Tours By Locals or Trip Advisor/Viator. TripAdvisor and Viator are basically joking a large tour, which may or may not work with timing of your day in port. That leaves the tour bus, if there is one in English or getting a good train route. We don’t have Kagoshima, but Aomori was tough and found things we can do near port, which are decent. Our trip is about 9 months away. Looking forward to it. Hope you enjoy yours as well.

Starting a vacation off with the anxiety of not making it to your ship is almost as bad as missing the ship. Hopefully, you can find another cruise that fits your timing better.

Vietnam might be my favorite country to cruise. Hoi An - we hired a driver / taxi to the city, did a walking tour, a cooking class, and went to a shoe place to have custom made shoes done in a day and picked them up before driver took us back. Saigon - we had an overnight and did a day long private tour to the Mekong Delta and a Saigon city Jeep tour on the second day. Ha Long Bay - Did a high end overnight cruise on an Indochinese Junk. Great experience. We had five days total in Vietnam. We enjoyed Thailand, but not as much as Vietnam.

I wonder how much the introduction of "totally" nonrefundable deposits has impacted them. The price difference to eliminate the new risk doesn't seem worth it to me. Love Celebrity, but I am not going down that path with them after my next cruise. Their prices with the extra cost of the refundable are similar or more than Oceania and Azamara.

Go With Guide is a consortium of guides formerly known as TripleLights. I don't believe, in that way, that is much different from Tours by Locals. I found the same difficulty in booking them for tours from cruise ports. We did book guides for pre-cruise in Tokyo (only a day) and Kyoto (1.5 days) with them. We have TBL booked for some ports and we'll do a cooking class in one port and a hot springs in another on our own.

Do cruise lines allow you check in online, so you don't have to go through processing at the gate? I know they need to get passenger lists to national authorities either 90 or 60 minutes before the cruise begins. If that can happen, life for the OP would be a lot easier. Checking in at the terminal, 90 minutes before would seem impossible.

You might want to contact HAL and make arrangements to meet them at the next port. Spend the night in Tokyo and then take a bullet train to that port the next day. If the next day is a sea day, just enjoy Tokyo for a day. The risk of missing your cruise and being stuck without a hotel room or plans is worse than missing the first night of your cruise.

I'm following Bruce Muzz' advice on this one. The Suica is low risk and we'll use it in Kyoto and then during the cruise. We'll find plenty of use in ports and even fast food in Tokyo. We absolutely need the 72-hour subway pass in Tokyo and you can probably just get away with using the Suica. We wanted to spend our full four nights and three days in Tokyo, so that subway pass will get hit several times a day. If you're in Yokohama at nights and dinner, probably your need is much less.

Japan Rail Pass prices went way up. It's now $220 for seven days. We need Narita Airport Express, Tokyo to Kyoto, and Kyoto to Yokohama in a 7 day time period and the JR Pass. $21 Narita Express, $100 to Kyoto, and $100 to Yokohama. It's not even a decent deal, but may get it anyway just for convenience or even upgrade to green class.

Aomori doesn't appear too exciting, especially after everything we would have done by this time near the end of our cruise. I was thinking this port might be good for a trip to an Onsen. The Asamuchi Onsen looks like a possibility. We port 7 to 4:30 pm and always get concerned with logistics, but looks doable. If anyone out there has been to hot springs at this or other ports, would love to hear about experiences.

What would my need be for a Suica card if we are getting the 72-hour subway pass in Tokyo? We will be in Kyoto two nights, so maybe there is use for it there, but what are other uses for this card? We will be on a 12-day cruise after Kyoto and maybe there is use but cruisers in ports. Any advice is appreciated here.

Thanks