cruisellama

Cattle prods (maybe)?

In the current construction phase, it almost looks like a container ship with cabins as containers (which is how the assemblies go together). Ship construction is fascinating.

NICE (and good news)

Guess not

Is possible to know ship occupancy as prior to departure (do lines share this info with TAs)? Was manually looking over open cabins on a ship that's still sailing in Nov and wanted to get a feel how many open cabins. Just cumbersome mock booking - changing class and running through decks. If it were to sail, guessing it would be under reduced capacity anyway.

Also noted on the RCL website, on "plan a cruise" if you bring up the calendar, still shows Oct '20 as an available month to book. Kind of a noticeable bug or lack of attention to detail in website maintenance.

Sailed both those itineraries different times - family really enjoyed it. Liberty is a friendly ship, we'll sail her again..

Outstanding

Anyone else hold on to these?

Matt blogged positive news on the Galveston port upgrade - new start 1 Apr 21 (although 1 Apr isn't a good day)... Hope to see and Oasis or Q class in the future.

Prices and itineraries are really attractive. Unfortunately (for us) we're maxed out in reservations for 2021.

Prefer just pulling the "bandaid" off quickly. I think there are internal plans, but keeping cash flow on life support is a high priority. To my surprise, still seeing Nov, Dec cruises being marketed - meaning, "please send deposits, you'll eventually get to use them".

Also getting the usual 3rd party cruise promotions emails with airlines for some upcoming cruises. Noticing a number of 2, 3, and 4 day cruises on the advertised RCL and Celebrity offerings. What's odd is Celebrity doesn't have many short cruises yet a number of S and M class ships are being promoted with the short itinerary. Shorter itineraries is one of the risk mitigation tools being investigated. Wonder if this is signaling one of the health panel recommendations. Some start as early as mid-Nov 20. (Matt blogged the guidelines are not expected to be published until the end of Sept.)

All guessing too. I was following the Celebrity website and noticed this morning that Nov/Dec dates dropped off the site. Yesterday, they were still marketing some Nov/Dec 20 cruises. I posted a message, went back to the website and voila!, Nov and Dec 2020 are still on the site. Not sure if I had a bad cookie, if there was a error on the site, or an oops - Immediately raised my skepticism.

Are you aware of other RCL Nov cancellations? While I fully expect remaining RCG 2020 cruises to cancel, I haven't seen a press release announcing general cancellation of the remainder of 2020.

Been monitoring the Celebrity site. Prior to today, you could still book some cruises in Nov & Dec of this year. Now the booking calendar has cleared 2020 and only has 2021 dates available. Anyone else read something into that? Correction - the 2020 dates are back in the booking page.

I'm a huge Alaska fan. Cruised 3x and I don't get tired of it. The last frontier.

Just as a reference point for AA, domestically its Economy, Main Cabin Extra, and First/Busn. Int'l: Economy, Main Cabin Extra, Premium Economy, Business, First (depending on equipment). Econ as it doesn't allow for seat selection or overhead. Like you, not looking for the cheapest, but based on duration of flight, most cost effective comfort zone.

I've seen both those results on different ships same line at the martini bar. Had a deluxe package, ordered an out of bounds drink and charged the difference (seemed fair). Different cruise (same line) was charged for the full amount (I knew because I had to sign, which normally on Celeb, you don't have to sign on the premium package). As it turns out, the drink wasn't palatable and I told the bar tender that I didn't like it. Then cancelled the charge and gave me another drink (I selected one that was in the the limitation). Celeb now offers a deluxe + plan as a number of their specialty drinks exceed the premium level.

If you call them they can tell you. I don't think the cruise lines use "super economy" seat purchases as they would be subject to too many restrictions (you're wanting to know what seat you get ahead of time as well as preserve access to overhead space). We use American and United and they match up to what's advertised on Celebrity are or Air2sea. I just booked earlier than I usually do for a B2B in June '21 from Venice. Had been watching prices on a number of sites and decided to push the button. Since payment is deferred until final cruise payment, you have time to continue shopping and can drop the airfare from your itinerary if you find a better deal.

Ended up booking early on Celebrity Air for a B2B from Venice June '21. Selected deferred payment so no financial commitment until final cruise payment due and is cancelable anytime before then. Had been watching prices and noted an upward trend so booked it (which is much earlier than I usually book). I can continue to shop until cruise is due and can cancel it out if I find a better airfare.

Pricing is pretty dynamic. I watch over a period of a week or so and whenever I start a query, I'll get a different set of airlines and price sets depending upon when i'm checking. If I'm zoning in on a specific airline, the Air2Sea or Flight by Celebrity may not yield equivalent pricing, in fact it tends to be higher. Depending on the timing you can find a lower price on your elected airline directly. I lean toward the cruise line connections on international and play the direct to airline game for domestic travel. What's constant is the travel assist you get with the cruise line air booking. They service and adjust your flight schedules when delays could impact embarkation. Its a good perk.

Wow - didn't realize its that much.

As a footnote, if you go onto an airline direct booking site you see they publish flights up to 9 months out. Air2sea or Flights by Celebrity can't load their system until the airline publishes their schedule. That's one way to gauge when you can start looking. Another rule of thumb is the rate sweet zone - some travel blogs will tell you the cusp in prices will present about 4 months out from your desired date. Not sure if that holds under our current circumstances.