2chiefs

I agree. What's included and not has nothing to do with actual pricing. It's nicer to have "A La Carte" and I would like it better if a check box you could check during booking for each item that was available instead. I would not purchase WiFi for instance.

I agree with everything except disco.... 🙂

Sometimes complaining forces change. Celebrity made some nice changes recently due to numerous complaints.

Perhaps the key wording should be "closed loop with stops to countries that do not require a passport". As others have mentioned, it's always wise to carry a passport in case of emergencies. Example: You have a medical emergency where you need to fly home early. You disembark the ship on an island where the flight out takes you through a country requiring a passport.

Thanks!

I agree. I wouldn't count on the Porters. We do the same thing. One thing I do is that I use a clip of the tag and drop it in a Powerpoint and type in our names in several places on the tag before cutting them out and putting them in the plastic holders. Here's a link to the plastic tag holders: Amazon.com: Cruise Luggage Tags for Royal Caribbean & Celebrity Cruise Essentials in 2023-2024 : Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry

I don't know who Peaches is and I didn't read the live review. A "room for rent" doesn't sound special. I looked at the Celebrity website and found nothing about it so I still don't know what it is. Is there something special about it or is it just a room you can rent for a private party? Or is it a conference room like most ships have?

What is The Annex?

Not quite true. When we book on board, we then go back to our TA and if she has a group rate, it gets transferred to that rate if lower than what we booked. You can't lose booking on board. The biggest benefit is the low deposit and not having to pay extra for refundable fare if you are ok with risking the low $200 deposit. Example: We booked a recent cruise on board that had $175.00 OBC for booking on board with $200 deposit. It also had a promotional $400 OBC for the current Celebrity sale. While good, when we got back, our TA had a better deal. We transferred the cruise to her group. We lost the $400 promotional OBC but the cruise was $900 cheaper with a net $500 savings. However, we kept the $175 OBC credit for booking on board (something we wouldn't have received if didn't book on board). One other thing was that we had to now add $700 deposit to the $200 we already put down but that was no issue since the cruise was now refundable (without the extra refundable fee). So booking on board, at least in our experience, has always been a win-win situation. Our TA always encourages us to book on board.

Maybe the confusion in terms? Transatlantic and Transpacific cruises, while technically are re-positioning cruises are actually classified as "transatlantic" and "transpacific" in the search engine. I think the repositioning cruises are only when a ship is changing a home port (as opposed to normal seasonal rotational repositioning). Therefore, there would be very few repositioning cruises? That's my interpretation anyway.

Thanks for Connie review. We sail March 11 for our first M class sailing.

Looks like an oversized balcony to boot!!

Some of the airfares we looked at were quite high. Also, the round-trip airfare in many cases were lower than the one-way airfare. Since you are from Utah I'm assuming you are doing a one-way flight to cruise port then a one-way from Europe home. We live in Atlanta area so a short flight to whatever cruise port for a transatlantic then a long one-way home from Europe. Pricing was higher than the cruise. (We would also sail interior or oceanview).

I don't think anything has changed as far as over-booking is concerned (I could be wrong). I believe all the lines have been over-booking for quite a few years and using the guaranteed cabin sell to fill the last minute drop outs. I think what has changed is the recent surge in popularity in cruising. Just look at all the new ships being built which seem to outpace the number of ships being retired. Prices are going up etc...

Ditto

Rare maybe but why chance it for a small discount? The 7 or 8 couples that were denied boarding in Australia could have lost a huge amount of money depending how far away they came in from (hotels, airfare, food etc.. not to mention vacation time ruined and lost for working folks). Even though Royal gave generous compensation, they still could have lost out.

We board Beyond on December 22 and have two more booked for 2024. We will be looking for a spring 2025 sailing in the Caribbean. We initially wanted to cruise Europe in 2025 but the airfares seem to be as high as the cruise itself.

Where is "here"? Assuming Cartagena or Panama? Thanks

We are on the Beyond this Dec 22. The check-in was available online at exactly 45 days. The cruise docs (with boarding pass) showed up online available at exactly the 30-day mark.

We booked the Connie for the same reasons as you. We are on Beyond for December 22 and then on Connie for March 11. It will be quite a difference from what we understand. We've been on Reflection twice and loved it and are looking forward to checking out these other two classes. With all the positive reviews of the Beyond, I hope we aren't disappointed with Connie.

We cruise in the Caribbean in December almost every year (the two weeks before Christmas). We love to go to nice warm weather for a couple weeks in the winter! (even though our winters here in GA are not bad). Lower prices and less kids are a plus for us!

True! and lately sales seem to have been pretty brisk because I don't see prices going down. The cruise we are boarding next month on the Beyond has almost doubled for the same class cabin since we booked over a year ago. People seem to be flocking to cruising post-covid. As more new ships come on-line, I hope the prices comes down overall.

Doesn't matter how much a hotel costs or how many "stars" it has. I travelled for a living before I retired and stayed in many nice hotels and still experienced bed bugs. There are on-line websites to check for reports of bed bug activity such as this one: Bed Bug Reports - Check Hotels and Apartments Before You Stay They don't report that there are no bed bugs, only report if someone reported any. I always check before I go to any hotel. Bed bugs are especially prevalent in the NE U.S.

I was stationed aboard the USS Gilmore from 1976 to late 1978 in Sardinia. Our Exec was killed a little over a year after I left when a mooring line broke (during docking). The whiplash was so severe that I heard it severed his leg entirely (not verified). "Paul Richard Klinedinst, Jr. Captain (Executive Officer), USS Howard W. Gilmore (AS-16) Loss Killed when a mooring line broke January 13, 1980"