CruisingDaddy

6 minutes ago, leithbones said:

You might also contact your friends so >> they don't misinform others about "room cleaning service" the way they misinformed you.

Will be doing that for sure. It was their first time on a cruise. I had told them about gratuities in general but when they said room cleaning service I was like: Whattttt! 😀

Thanks it all makes sense now. I knew that we have to pay for gratuities but the way my friends said it was like it was a room cleaning fee. Paying gratuities is the norm, it just didn’t come across as it was for gratuities.  Thanks again and I may give them a try after all 

Hi, my wife usually cruise with Celebrity. Our friends just got back from taking a cruise on NCL Epic and they really enjoyed the service and food. We decided to take a look at what they offer and perhaps we would try a new cruise line. But then they told us they had to pay $40 per day for room cleaning service. Is it true that you have to pay for room cleaning service? I could find anything on the website about this fee.

Thanks

20 hours ago, In Toronto said:

CruisingDaddy:

Please report back after your cruise.   We booked concierge because it was only $20.00 per person more than veranda so worth it.  But, would not pay much extra for sure.

Hope to hear from you in end of March.  Ours is mid April.

I will come back to report on what is included and what they took away

Wow! I never realized this change for concierge class. It was one perk we used every day.  Less reasons to continue booking concierge class. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how bad it is on my upcoming cruise on March 19.

Solstice class is perfect! Going on the Reflection next month. Only negative I have about Celebrity is the fact that they no longer have 14 day Caribbean cruises.

Will be sailing on the Allure of the Seas in January and wondering if they sell Powerade or Gatorade on the ship?  If not, can we bring our own?  Due to my condition and dehydrating easily, my doctor suggested I drink at least one bottle per day.  Thanks

Thanks to the cruising community.  I appreciate all your responses and advice provided.  As some asked to keep you posted, I will be going on my cruise even with the change in itinerary.  I'm sure I will have a great time because being on any cruise is way better than not being on a cruise at all. 😀

11 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Your post is likely to be combined with others on this topic, but let me tell you what someone else wants to do.

 

Anthem is doing 3 11 nights cruises (Jan 5, Jan 16, Jan 27) with a Southern Caribbean itinerary.  This other poster says that the price for the 11 night is the same as for his Allure 7 night.

 

I urged him to switch.  I urge you to do the same, particularly since you have to fly anyway.  Airline change fees are a PITA, but maybe if you work on RC, they will cover those.

Thanks but I definitely don't want to leave from Cape Liberty on Anthem in the middle of winter.  I'll pass on this one.  I'm from Canada and trying to get away for winter 🙂

This will mostly be a rant because our itinerary changed on our upcoming AOTS Jan 19, 2020 cruise.  Here's why I feel ticked off this time around and I have to take on some of the blame... long story but stay with me on this one.  So my saga started back in January 2019. We were about to sail on the OOTS when one of our friends got ill and they had to cancel the cruise.  So we decided at the time to push our cruise out by a year, after paying $200 to move the booking due to non-refundable deposits... I knew about the fee if we needed to change and am ok with it.  We changed the cruise to Feb 2, 2020 and still on the OOTS then a few months back I get a lovely email from RCCL advising the have charted the OOTS and I would need to either change ships, change sail date or cancel and get a refund. 

After looking at their website, I found the itinerary for the AOTS worked for us.  So I call up RCCL to make the change and they were accommodating on doing the changes without any hassle.  They even gave us like $100 OBC or something like that for our inconvenience.  In locking up the new sail date and ship, I then needed to make changes with work to move my vacation days as well as start looking for a new hotel since the date and port was different.  It was a bit of inconvenience, but hey, I was lucky enough to find something suitable for the 4 of us and no big deal.

Here's where my ticked off part starts coming into play.  A few months ago, I saw messages that the AOTS were having propulsion issues and the ship was going at a slower pace and they needed to modify like 25 cruises because of it... and I only found out after I had made the changes.  The good news was that ours was not going to be affected... Hurray right!!  But last night I get the dreaded email saying that due to ongoing propulsion issues we need to modify your itinerary.  It says, instead of going to St. Thomas for a day, we'll be stopping in San Juan instead for 6 hours (7am to 1pm).  Our option was again to keep this cruise, cancel and get a refund but not for our flights (so no good to us) or change cruises again.  I thought, ok, let's take a look to see if anything comes up that would still work with our flight schedule because I really don't want to go to San Juan especially with all that's happening there right now.  So I call RCCL and asked them to move my cruise. they said sure, we can do that for you but I will need to pay for the difference in price.  I'm like really?? It's like double the price of what I have now and no way I'm going to pay double.  I asked for some OBC or discount at least if I keep this cruise and again they said no....

Am I being unreasonable in asking for something?  I normally don't ask and I know in our cruise contract it does say that they can change the itinerary for any reason but I feel this issues was in their control and it could have been remedied.  They have a broken ship and they choose to not fix it and affect all their next cruises until they bring her into dry dock.  I mean if we were our to sea and something happens to the ship and we miss a port it's one thing, or unrest in a port like in San Juan I'd have no issues with changing our ports of call, but this I feel should fall on them.  What do you guys think?  Am I crazy in asking for something in return?  I would like to get your thoughts on it.  Thanks

Will be going on Oasis in January 2019 and wondered how bad the smoking was in the casino? I have nothing against smokers, but will be going with another couple and one of them has a severe allergy to smoke. Thanks.

Yes, you will each get 3 drink vouchers per evening. Drinks are soda, selected beers and wines, and basic mixed drinks.

 

Example menu:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=52025823&postcount=85

Perfect! Thank you.

In January 2019, I will be sailing on the Oasis. This will be my first time on a RCCL ship being a Diamond status. I was looking at the perks and came across this on the Crown & Anchor site:

Hi - question for you or anyone reading this. Have you noticed if they were selling some cruise ship models in the chops on the ship? I'm going on the Oasis in Jan 2019 and hoping they have some. Thanks.

Hi Fellow Cruisers. I am interested in the Celebrity Century and RCCL Freedom of the Seas (if they even make this one). Is anyone has one to sell, I'd be interested in purchasing it. My first cruise was on the Century and debated to buy one and never did and now regret it. As for the FOTS, they did not have any when I was on that ship.

So far I have collected:

Celebrity Eclipse

Celebrity Infinity

Celebrity Equinox

Hi - Can anyone tell me how far in advance one can book activities and entertainment on the Oasis of the Seas? I'm about 1 year out, but still nothing available to book.

Thanks

I booked another Celebrity cruise for February 2017... That's almost 2 years out and Celebrity told me that the early dining (6pm) is already full. The only choice that I have are my time dining or late dining. I find this hard to believe that early dining is already full or is Celebrity changing their dining to your time dining for everyone? Has anyone booked this cruise and secured early dining? For me, this will be a deal breaker. I am on a waitlist and if I cannot secure early dining, I will definitely cancel my cruise.

Wow!!! Great review. Thanks for sharing your experience!

Let me add a few more details for you to consider before you make your ultimate decision. If you rent your own vehicle, verify to see if they will pick you and your family from the port as there are no car rentals at the port itself (unless this changed since the last time I was there). If not, then you will need to take a cab for both ways. Also, if there are car rental companies that will pick you up at the port to take you at their car depot, consider if they will only take you... If they only take you, then you will need to drive back to the port to pick up the rest of your family.

If you still decide to rental car, think about other costs like fuel, gps rental (if needed), parking at Universal (approx. $20.00), taxi (if needed).

Another item to consider while visiting Universal: although, you have not mentioned the age/height of your kids, have you verified the height restrictions on some of the attractions you may want to do? I would not want you to go at the park and one or more of you cannot ride Harry Potter. This would be a big disappointment for sure.

Enjoy your cruise!!

I've tried to find information on the Celebrity website, but can't seem to find the answer. My son, who will be joining us on our next cruise, goes to a fitness gym regularly at home. Is there an age limit for using the gym on the Eclipse? If so, what is the age limit? BTW, my son will be 18 when we board the ship.

To the OP, please come back and let us know if it worked out. I am in the same situation as you are however, will be on the Eclipse and leaving in March 2015. Thanks and enjoy your cruise. :)

Cool review so far! :)

Unreasonable yes, to a certain degree. I'm not here to judge you as I probably don't know the whole story. This same situation happened to my DW and I on a few occasions. I planned and booked a cruise for us and then in speaking to my brother about us going on a cruise, they decided to book as well. Although it was meant for a quiet cruise for the wife and I, it ended up being the 4 of us. You or I do not own the ship, so unless you booked the entire ship, there is really nothing stopping others from booking on their own. Don't forget, it's their vacation too and this may be their only opportunity at a family vacation.

Hmmm, that's a though question to answer without knowing what your teenagers like to do. I can tell you what my kids prefer and then you can decide on your own. First of all, my DW and I are huge Celebrity fans and love everything about cruising. We sailed on RCCL FOTS with my boys, aged 15 and 11 at the time and they had the best time of their lives. They especially enjoyed the flowrider, either learning to surf or watching others wipeout making a fool of themselves (like me) :) They stayed there for hours and hours. They also liked to do some rock climbing and some ice skating. My boys are sports oriented unlike their dad :D Based on what my kids like and loves doing, they prefer RCCL just because more stuff teenagers like to do.

Now on Celebrity, my kids love the ship, but found it a little boring. For their age group, there is only a teen club for late night. The rest of the day they just wandered around the ship and going into the pool from time to time. Don't get me wrong, they had a great time but activities were not fulfilling to them like on RCCL and giving them the choice, they would go on a cruise not matter which cruise line or ship it would be.

Also, it,so though to give advice when we do not know which ship you are considering, the length of the cruise, is it port intensive or lots of sea days??

Hope this helps!

Love your review. Reminded me of my first non Celebrity cruise and it was also interested the FOS.