barbeyg

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! 

17 minutes ago, 4ensic said:

April 5 2024 on the Edge R/T Sydney via NZ and Tasmania for 9 nights, then staying aboard for the 18 night cruise to Hawaii.  Retracing the crossing in late October (Hawaii -> Sydney).

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)

On 12/7/2023 at 5:14 PM, SpicyCherry said:

 

Thanks @cruisellama and @barbeyg….so what I’m seeing from you both, I think, is that Sky Suites no longer have butlers. To be clear, though, are saying that the stateroom attendants are now called Retreat Hosts or are the butlers now  called Retreat Hosts? Only having one is fine with us because we don’t require much ‘butlering’ anyway. But we loved the additional service for those ‘just in case we need…’ moments. We’re on Beyond next December, in a Sky Suite, so we’ll see if it makes that big of a difference. 

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.

17 hours ago, SpicyCherry said:

So when we were on Edge last December, in a Sky Suite, we had a Butler and a stateroom attendant. The SA took care of our room and the Butler handled everything else, from room service orders to reservation reminders to any issues that came up to making sure our favorite nightcap was waiting for us each evening. So are Butlers now called Retreat Hosts and do you still have a Stateroom Attendant as well?

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! 

$4600 for a balcony on Radiance in AK.   I would personally rather visit AK for a land vacation, with excursions out to the glaciers.  It would be cheaper, and the accommodations better.   Knew the pricing would be up there, but this is over the top.

16 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I never understood how they can say they're 40% of a land based vacation, unless they're comparing only interior room prices.
 

Agree.   I recently booked a 3 week trip next year to visit family (they live in a tourist area).  The rental is a cute 3 bedroom home, in most desirable town of the area, for about half of what we would have to pay to sail Icon in a balcony cabin for a week. And that includes restaurant/entertainment estimates. 

Icon pricing is too pricey for us. Hopefully the rest of the releases in November won’t be the same.  I understand the new ship pricing, and expect it. Not for us in this price range, however.  I hope pricing moderates at some point.

3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Do you think other cruise lines aren't trying to maximize every ounce of profit, too?

Of course they are. All are trying to maximize their profits, and I understand that. 

Pizza-gate aside, in some cases, I’m finding better value elsewhere, comparing like products (RCI D+ benefits against all-inclusive bennies).  I never even looked before.  I know some Pinnacles doing the same. Can’t hurt to try out other (less costly) products when the product I prefer is ever-evolving.
 

They aren't stupid.  They are going to push the pricing increases, along with decreases in service, as far as they can.  That's what businesses do.  This kind of survey just allows them to find how far they can push without overly upsetting those who regularly cruise with them. 

Frankly, all the changes have helped me be more open-minded to other lines.  We have our cruises booked thru the spring of 2025, but the 2025 Norwegian fjords cruise we want to sail is up for grabs, and RCI/Celebrity won't be our only consideration.  We wouldn't have considered that a year ago. 

1 hour ago, USCG Teacher said:

Okay, stupid question, but how would a non-governmental agency possibly know if you were holding an older copy of your Canadian birth certificate if there was a newer one issued?  To the best of my knowledge, the cruise line simply compares the information on the form with your ID, they don't contact the issuing agency to confirm while you're checking in at the pier or anything.  Not encouraging anyone to do this, just genuinely curious.

I wondered that too, but didn’t want the province to invalidate the one we have.  Maybe someone in Canada knows.  And Twangster has a great point. My hubby has a US passport (dual citizenship) so we are just glad we don’t have to send the BC in for renewal, that’s for sure.

It looks like the OP got this straightened out?  I agree with others. Never cut it too close.  Heads up for those renewing and reading this, you don’t need your birth certificate for renewals, unless there are certain mitigating circumstances.

And my husband was born in Canada. If you order a “backup certificate” in the province he was born in, it invalidates the previous one. Strangest thing to this American, where we can order all the certified copies we want. So, depending on the country, you can’t have an extra copy on hand.

I just got back from a cruise on Harmony OTS.  The crew was definitely nice and friendly, but one of the things I noticed (after sailing Celebrity last December), was that every single employee I passed on Celebrity Apex smiled, and most greeted me with "good morning", "good afternoon", etc.  Not so much on Harmony.  Most didn't even make eye contact in passing.   Not that I need greeting, or smiles from the crew.  It's just a big difference that I noticed.

It's the little things like this that makes Celebrity stand out for us.  Yes, most on Royal are friendly if waiting on you, or encountering you more than once.  Our Harmony room steward was in our top 3 room stewards ever.  But Celebrity has little touches that Royal doesn't.   We sail Celebrity when we want great food, adult company, personal touches and a fantastic martini bar.  We sail RCI for the energy, the shows and a variety of things to do.  Both fit a niche for us. 

We also sail Celebrity whenever the suite prices are down, and also for some of the itineraries that are more unique than the same-old same-old Royal seems to be doing.  

Besides some who put off medical care and immune systems that need rebuilding, we have a society that is stressed out, and/or has short fuses. That has to affect the health as well. 

12 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

We stayed at Doubletree Suites in Jersey City. Walkable from the PATH station.  It wasn’t a bad Uber/Lyft ride to the port, about 25 mins.

We did as well, and loved the proximity to PATH/Manhattan.  And gotta love those warm chocolate chip cookies upon arrival!

On 4/15/2023 at 4:33 AM, SewerUrchin43 said:

I tried using a popular TA company on the Blog for our next cruise, but after numerous times trying to reach the TA that responded to my initial email I never got a response back so I just booked it myself. After reading some of these posts I think I will give them another shot for our next cruise

I had a really poor TA experience once, and that jaded me on TAs.  Plus, I really enjoy travel planning.  I research like crazy (enjoy the research almost as much as the actual travel), and friends even come to me for input on their travels. But, we will be retiring next year, and I have transportation choices to make for a TA, land choices for Europe, and that is only our first big cruise after early retirement. We also booked a cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii. Lots of great travel decisions to make anyway.

My advice from someone who had a poor TA experience? Watch what other have to say here, and any other online forum you trust. Find a TA that is really responsive to clients, or whose client raves about them. I don’t do the big box stores because I like the personal attention that comes from agents I have seen here and on CC.  There are several here I would use as well as the TA I am using that is on CC. 

Good luck!

We have, for years, booked our own cruises.  I enjoy the planning aspect of cruises, but not dealing with issues, and recently have had a few issues I sat on the phone over an hour for.

We decided to try TA a friend highly recommends. Not only have we gotten excellent, and swift, service, we received a great group rate on one cruise (plus onboard credit), we also got a very nice onboard credit for a suite we booked thru him.  I’ve decided that, as we move into retirement, I will book our land vacations and travel to and from a cruise, because I enjoy it.  But booking the cruise itself thru our TA saves us $$ we can spend on future cruises. AND he will deal with the odds and ends of issues.

1 hour ago, SpicyCherry said:

We sail on Edge in a Sky Suite this Friday….just got to Ft. Lauderdale today. 1st time in a suite on Celebrity so looking forward to experiencing The Retreat!!

Have a great cruise! Our first time as well.

We sail Apex in a Sky Suite this Saturday. One more workday till vacation begins…..

18 hours ago, whitsmom said:

 I tried to do this for our two 2024 cruises but it won't bring up anything to purchased.

Our April 2024 cruises don't have anything to purchase either.  Guess they haven't loaded anything for the bookings that were released recently.  

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

I mean in a way that'd be a fun challenge to fix. But I'd sure fear what I'd find as I peeled away the onion layers.

And they would have to compensate someone well to fix this.

20 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

So this just got posted today

 

https://jobs.royalcaribbeangroup.com/job/Miramar-Site-Reliability-Engineer-FL-33132/961966000/

Well! 
 

Good luck finding someone qualified that is willing to come in and work hard to fix that mess……