barbeyg

We have sailed both, and would sail either again. Others have already listed the differences very well, so I won’t repeat that info.

We had signed up for the status match with Celebrity long before we sailed them. When we became Diamond on RCI, we changed from Select to Elite in our Celebrity account. We are now D+ and E+ with Celebrity. For us, it has been a status to status match, whenever one of those changed.

We just stayed at the Albergo Del Senato, after our Odyssey TA. It was a lovely hotel, great staff, excellent breakfast and a wonderful rooftop bar. It is adjacent to the Pantheon, and centrally located. We would stay there again, and hope to the next time we are in Rome. https://www.albergodelsenato.it/index.php Cant tell you if they have transfers to the port city, since we booked a private transfer.

Our Odyssey TA last month was the same. Changed at night. It was hardest the 5th night for me, but easy before that. It was tough on the crew members, because that hour came from their time off/sleep. We could adjust easier than they could since we could just sleep in or take a nap. Our steward was thankful when the time changes stopped.

Not to mention the thousands of $$$ we have saved with group rates and/or shipboard credits. Also nice to be able to cancel if something comes up and not lose our deposit.

Agree with the others. Only other time this happened to me was when an entire cruise itself was being cancelled, and I didn’t see the notification email till later.

Do you know what’s even more fun than enjoying one of your live blogs, @Lovetocruise2002? Going back and forth between yours and Andrew’s! Thanks for sharing!

Sweet trips! We will be bringing her to HI in Oct 2024. 13 night cruise after flying to Seattle, taking the Cascades train to Vancouver, and staying 4 nights in Vancouver first. Can’t wait!

From what I’ve seen here and the other site, the opportunity to win on the low end is greater, partly because there are so many cabins, moving up from inside or OV. I also think RCI (and the other cruise lines) want you to book a better cabin, so they make those easier to “win”. JMO We typically bid on the lower spectrum unless we are really interested in moving up. Then we bid what we are willing to pay for a Royal Up, not close to what the cabin costs. We usually bid from a JS we have booked, for suites, and have won twice so far. One was a lower bid (but not rock bottom), one was more aggressive. We usually cancel a week ahead, if we haven’t won. I don’t want last minute changes. Too many moving pieces with the water we have ordered for the cabin, etc. Just my preference. Good luck!

We are sailing TO Europe, because for us, it’s more important to be adjusted when we get there. We only have several days to enjoy Rome, and don’t want to lose the first day to struggling with the time change. We will be retired so really don’t care about the long flight home. That said, we will try the other way too, and figure out which we like more. We will fly in at least a week ahead the next time, and know we will lose at least one day to adjusting.

Next two Celebrity bookings are: Celebrity Edge, Vancouver to HI, 9/2024 and Celebrity Ascent, 8 night Southern Caribbean (great pricing for 11/13/2023 in a SS -- it's up by $200 now, but still a sweet price for a suite)

Sorry it took so long to respond. On our cruise, the stateroom attendant was referred to as the Retreat Host, but he was just an excellent stateroom attendant. There are also Retreat attendants (concierge and others) that are always in the lounge (not sure what they are called these days) on duty (24 hours) in the Retreat, who are there to resolve any issues, if you are in the lounge and need them. In addition, the Retreat head concierge should have a card in your cabin to call if you need anything. That person does not fulfil the requests, but makes sure those are taken care of, if they pertain to something besides the cabin itself, which the stateroom attendant takes care of. Hope that makes sense. No butler, but excellent service for us.

Our cruise on Beyond, our cabin steward took care of things like ice in the bucket, hangers, etc. He seemed to always be working. We had the Retreat host's card for anything else, and those requests were handled thru the Retreat. We don't make many requests, so didn't notice any decrease in service ourselves. For us, we were happy not to have to meet with the butler from time to time at the cabin. We still got a treat in the cabin for the birthday, had the bottle of champagne waiting, the rose on the table, and chocolates each night, one of which was the specialty chocolates onboard.

We returned last week from Celebrity Beyond. We were in a Sky Suite, and had a great time. The 'Retreat Hosts' are really room stewards who work their butts off. We have no complaints about the service, but aren't high maintenance. We asked for additional hangers and the ice bucket to remain full, and Domnick took great care of that. He was grateful that we are up and out early, so he could begin with our cabin each morning. The ship is beautiful, the staff very friendly, the Retreat lounge was really enjoyable. We would sail the Beyond again in a heartbeat. A very nice touch was that Captain Leo, cruise director Alexandro, and some of the officers were dockside to say goodbye to us as we left the ship. So many times, once the cruise is finished, the staff is in a hurry to push you out the door because they have so much to do to prepare for the next one. That goodbye made for a very nice finish to a great cruise.

21 days till our Celebrity Beyond sailing in a SS. Cannot wait!