20165

11 hours ago, cruise_lover_2309 said:

• I'm on the 11/9 Summit cruise and someone on the 11/9 Facebook group said they called Celebrity and the earliest boarding time was 3:00.  That made no sense compared to previous cruises that board at 11:00.  I'm hoping she misunderstood them but we'll see when we able to check in.

Well, we are the week before you, 11/2 so ill let you know... Our arrival time on the 9th says 6am which i believe is the same as the FL port arrival times so i dont know why their boarding times would be any different. Ill poke around our Facebook group and see if anyone has heard a 3pm boarding time.  thx

Thanks everyone and glad we are able to try it.  Hopefully the concierge can help us get in one night.  We are on Summit and Peanut Head mentioned that some ships you can order from Blue in Luminae.  Does anyone know if Summit is one of those ships?

Thanks again

Hi, ive read two different answers on this so i figured id ask the experts. Can retreat/suite guests eat at the Blue restaurant?  Sounds like there were some changes late last year that may have changed that?

thanks

8 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

You can board the ship at the standard early boarding times and then leave to go to OSJ for the day.  You just need to be back on board at least 90 minutes prior to sailing and have completed the muster drill.  Have done this several times to include having lunch in OSJ, returning for dinner.  BTW we use Uber for our transportation and on our last visit, when he dropped us off in town we arranged a pick up time to go back to the ship, which made our return easy.

Great, thank you. We were hoping we could use Uber in PR.  We just got back from Cancun and it definitely wasnt very prevalent down there.  Or least not without the possibly of a run in with a taxi driver...

Wow, thats something i didnt catch.  The ship doesnt leave until 8:30pm. I just assumed it was the normal 5ish pm like the FL ports.  Definitely going to take our time getting on and explore san juan a bit. 

Thanks

9 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Sorry but when you say “I don’t use balconies” and “I like the IV”, I assume it’s because you don’t like balconies, not because there is a sea monster out there.

No, we wouldnt book a cruise without a balcony, but we also dont use them that much other than to look out the window.  Inside cabins are too small and dark and most windowed cabins are still pretty small.  The IV just gave us some more space that we wouldnt otherwise use with regular balconies.  That being said, we are on Summit in november in a regular balcony..

23 minutes ago, zitsky said:

So you’re saying that people who don’t use balconies, don’t like balconies?

Where did i say i didnt like balconies?

We had the IV on Edge about 2 years ago and actually liked it.  Now i will say i can count the number of times we went out of our balcony on our princess cruise last month on one hand, mainly when we pulled in and out of port, so we really dont utilize balconies that much anyway. It was nice to be able to sit in the IV sitting area with the window closed with air conditioning vs. sitting in the heat on a regular balcony.  

If we are back on an Edge class ship we would probably choose it again. 

20 hours ago, BeachTunes said:

My husband and I sailed out of San Juan back in 2015 on the Summit and on the Millennium in March, 2023. We were amazed by how quick the embarkation process was! Last year we stayed in Old San Juan for two nights pre-cruise and taxied to the pier. We dropped our luggage off with the porters, went through security, had our boarding passes scanned and were on the ship around 15 minutes after arriving! 

 

If I recall correctly, our boarding time was 11am and we arrived at 10:45am. We were in Aqua Class but I do remember seeing a separate area for suites.

 

We really like San Juan. In addition to Old San Juan we have also pre-cruised in the Condado Beach area. Both are nice with loads of amazing restaurants, nightlife and shopping. Old San Juan obviously has a more historic feeling while Condado has more of a Fort Lauderdale/Miami vibe on the water. 

 

For Old San Juan we also recommend El Convento. In Condado, we stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt when it first opened in 2015. Service at the Vanderbilt was incredible and they have a gorgeous infinity pool that overlooks the ocean. Both neighbourhoods are relatively close to each other via a 10 minute or less cab ride. 

 

Happy planning! 

 

 

Thank you and it sounds like a pretty easy embarkation process.  Looks like the area around the pier is relatively new, or at least i dont remember those hotels and restaurants when we were there years ago.  

Thanks again and looking forward to a southern carrib cruise on a smaller ship.

We are sailing Summit out of Puerto Rico in November and thats not a port we are very familiar with. We only sailed once from there a loooong time ago.  

Any advise on how that boarding process is compared to the FL ports in regards to arrival time and if there is a separate boarding process for reserve suites?  We are flying in the night before and are trying to get an idea of when to get to the port and what to expect. It doesnt look as big as a miami or ft lauderdale port so hopefully not as chaotic?

thanks

Well, this post wast a blast from the past. Someone must have liked something in here because it popped back up in my notifications.  

Im sure as many of you know from my review, we did end up cruising Enchanted Princess and it one of the best cruises we have had to date, and there have been a lot.  We got that nasty MSC taste out of our mouths...

Joking aside though, its hard for a cruiseline to regain customers after a bad experience.  My wife caught me looking at a MSC yacht club cruise and said that we would never spend another dime with that company. Although most of the goods we buy probably touch some type of MSC cargo ship but i only thought that didnt say it... And dont get me wrong, we have had other cruises that havent been great, but none that would prevent us from ever trying them again.

Curious, when sailing out of the UK, do they have both coffee pots and kettles or do they replace the coffee pots with kettles?

13 minutes ago, asctony said:

If you cruise out of US, it's a safety hazard! LOL

And they are serious about it.  We cruised princess last month out of Ft Lauderdale and they made us come down to the security area and open my wifes suitcase.  They thought her hair dryer was a Kettle...

I know this point has been beat to death on this post, but suites/retreat is the way to go these days with these ships sailing at 100% capacity.  We were on the Enchanted princess last month that was at 100% and the suite made all the difference for us in regards to a great cruise.  A place to go that wasnt crowded, easy access to restaurants, easy boarding and disembarkation, etc.  We booked a suite on summit in November and hopefully it will be a similar experience. 

Also as mentioned, NCL Haven is also very nice, but you are getting into way more families with younger kids on those ships which is fine if traveling with your family, but we have been there done that and prefer more of adult cruise.

Im pretty sure i know the answer to this, but im going to ask the experts anyway...  On princess, we got free laundry in our suite.  I dont suppose celebrity offers that?  Wonderful perk. nice not having to pack as much and return home with mostly clean laundry.

thanks

we were on the 4 night silhouette last November out of Miami and definitely not what you are looking for.  On other lines, a 4 nighter would be considered a booze cruise, but not silhoutte which was just fine with us. we did stay out late one night, well late for us, maybe 1230ish, and it was very dead. I think they did have some music in one of the bars, but it was laid back and not dance music.

But we loved the ship. Smaller, easy to get around, very well laid out.  

we booked one last night on Summit and it did include Premium drinks and wifi but as you said, no Gratuities.  That was and extra $350ish i believe.

thanks

9 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

No.   The refundable only covers you up until final payment date  After that the percentage by number of days apply.

 

You are correct the NRD really doesn't makes sense unless you know in advance that you are likely going to cancel.    I've done it before when no suites were available and knew we wouldn't go unless a Suite was available.

 

Usually it is a better option to purchase the NR and  pay the $100 pp to change a reservation to a different cruise if necessary

 

Well there is some info i didnt know.  If i understand your last statement, its only $100 to change to a different cruise prior to the final payment.  Thats great and really a much better option for us.  The cruise we went with sails in November and the final payment is due at the end of aug so the additional $1100 which is now $1500 give we went the a larger suite really is worth it for essentially 3 months of coverage until the final payment is due.  

And in reality, if we do have to reschedule, we most likely wont know until a month or so before the cruise and the deposit really wont come into play at that point so we bought the Cruisecare which should somewhat help with rescheduling. I believe 90%

You learn something new every day on this site.

Thanks for the info.

1 hour ago, leaveitallbehind said:

You have all the correct information but I will just add that you would dock in Old San Juan if your itinerary had a port of call in San Juan.

Yep, thats actually what got this conversation started with my wife and I.  We were on a princess cruise last month and san juan was one of the stops. We knew we were contemplating the summit cruise, but i didnt think this is where would board.  Looks like i was right and won the bet...

thx

6 minutes ago, Texed said:

 

You will depart from the Pan American Pier.  It is across the water from Old San Juan.

Ah, thats it. Thanks for jogging my memory. I knew it was different than old san Juan.  

Thank You.

We booked Summit out of puerto rico in November and wanted to find out if anyone knows what cruise port it goes out of? Is it the same port in old san juan that we always dock at when san juan is a stop on a eastern itinerary?  By the Fort? 

The reason i ask is because we cruised out of San Juan years ago and i could swear that we boarded at a different port that wasnt Old San Juan.  I could be very wrong about that given it was probably 20ish years ago...

Just want to make sure we book a hotel somewhat close to the port.

Thanks

17 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

This is accurate but to reinforce other responses, while the costs are calculated on a per night basis, the package price is based on the full length of the cruise, and not individual night purchases.

 

Here is a pdf describing each package:

 

Celebrity drink packages.pdf 784.95 kB · 19 downloads

Thanks for the PDF. Do you or maybe someone else know if the drink exceeds the $17 limit on the premium package if you just pay the difference? For example, out princess a couple weeks ago, our limit was $20 and JW Blue was $28 so i just paid the $8 difference.

Thanks

2 minutes ago, billc23 said:

Celebrity's default booking is non refundable. They should provide an option for a refundable deposit before checkout.

Ok, so i did see that option, but it was $1100 more so would that cover me to cancel past the 90 days too?  Doesnt make any sense to pay and extra $1100 to only cover the deposit of $565.

Its a little cryptic, but i guess this means its not refundable?

Hi, we are trying to book a celebrity cruise from their website and i cant find any info in regards to whether or not the $565 deposit is refundable if i cancel before that three month mark where i make the final payment.  I pulled up the penalty page and it only starts post final payment.  Does anyone know if i cancel before final payment if i get that $565 back?

Also, im going to buy their, Celebrity insurance, that allows for cancel for any reason and receive 90% cruise credit.  Has anyone done this and if so, was it pretty easy to do?  Im about 80% sure we can make the date, but something could come up with work that would force  us to cancel a week or so prior. 

Thx in advance for the info.