JLMoran

One more vote for #TeamPassport! it's five years for kids under 16, ten years for everyone else. ? Best $80 ($100? I forget now) you can spend if you're going to start cruising or otherwise leaving the country regularly.

Itinerary first and foremost. I'm at a point in my life where I want to see new places when I'm vacation, not just lounge around. Lounging is fine here and there during the trip, but I don't want it to be the focus of it. I do have one exception to that -- Bermuda, where it's a quick getaway and the island just has this vibe of, "Dude... chill. We're all gonna still be here tomorrow." Probably the only place where I feel OK not planning out everything to do, and I'll just stroll over to a beach or bar or wander around and see what happens. ? Once I've got the itinerary figured out, then I'll see what ship(s) are going there and how much it costs. If all of that works out, it's booking time!

Well that's weird. Yesterday I did not have that option presented to me. But today I totally do. Guess I'll have to call my agent now and see what the price difference will be to update it to include the perks. EDIT -- Or not. I'm forgetting that even inside cabins have gone up ridiculously in price for this cruise since I booked. Price jump to get the perks would be far more than the value of the perks themselves, especially since I wouldn't be taking the drink package for either cabin.

Hi @TVS, welcome to the forums! I haven't yet done an upgrade bid, but keep in mind that if you bid on a Jr Suite and you are currently in a regular balcony cabin or lower, you will not be awarded double Crown & Anchor points for the Jr Suite should you win your bid. You'll still have access to Coastal Kitchen on Anthem, which is all kinds of win, and will get the other Sea Class perks like priority embarkation; but if the double points matter to you, then factor that into your bid.

That's a heck of a better handling you were given compared to your awful JS experience on Explorer(?)! Fantastic outcome!

Welcome, Ken!

Won't argue that. Based on your earlier comments / review of the SS and some other comments I've read, I would have happily booked one if I was a party of two instead of four for this trip! But they only hold two people, a few allow a third; with my older daughter over 18 I'd have to get two of those rooms to get all of us into Luminae and have suite benefits for all. And I don't care how good the cabins are, when the regular price for an SS is about half that current price, maybe even a bit less, that crosses way over the line into price gouging! Supply and demand only justifies so much IMO. <side-rant> I know itineraries like this one are always crazy popular and often sell out really fast, but I still can't help but think that some decent number of the current bookings are just placeholders from people who aren't really committed to going yet. With X not requiring an NRD for suite bookings like Royal does, I'm sure they still have a lot of those shenanigans. And that would definitely be a big contributor to the supply dry-up as demand keeps going up. I'm going to be watching like a hawk close to / just after final payment. I still doubt I could afford a pair of SS cabins even on fire sale rates, but if a Family Verandah opened up that would be fan-freaking-tastic! </side-rant>

I did another mock booking and picked a Sky Suite. First, the good news -- The beverage package is indeed the Premium and not the Classic; here's a copy of the text after selecting the room and confirming refundable with perks (emphasis added) The bad news? Even with suites, NRD gives you no perks. It's either go NRD and get rock-bottom price with no perks, or refundable with perks; I imagine very few at this level actually want to give up the perks, but if you're willing to commit to the sailing then why can't you get NRD with a (smaller) discount AND the perks?? Oh, and the current pricing for that Sky Suite on this sailing? $8,949 per person for refundable with perks, vs $8,417 NRD. Exact same $532 difference, so at least they're being consistent in that regard for suites as well as "steerage". But holy moly is that expensive for the lowest-tier suite class!! Granted, there's only eight of them left on the ship for this sailing, but that's a monstrous markup over what I was seeing back in January. ????

So Celebrity has always had the occasional Go Big, Go Better, Go Best promo that pops up here and there, and lets you bundle up to four add-on perks with your booking (for an added fee, of course). Well, now they have replaced that program with "Sail, Sail Plus, Sail All Included". The nutshell version is that X is now pricing the baseline refundable rate for all sailings in all but interior cabins so that they include the choice of two perks (Sail Plus), with the usual four choices -- $150 OBC, Complimentary high-speed internet, pre-paid gratuities, or Classic Beverage Package. You can opt to get all four for an upcharge, which is the "Sail All Included" option. But wait, then what is Sail? Sail is the bare-bones, no perks included price. But where the old promo would start at the base price and then let you pick two perks for a small upcharge or all four for a bigger one, now the only way to get the lowest possible price... is to go NRD booking. I did a mock booking where I selected both NRD and refundable, and the only time perks were offered was when I chose the (much) higher refundable price. And while the perks selection has a "no thanks" checkbox that would let you skip choosing any perks, doing so gave no reduction in the price of my booking when I went to the final review screen. The pricing gap on a per-night basis isn't that big. My mock booking was for a category 2C Verandah on deck 6 on Summit (one of the "Sweet 16" cabins) for the same Aug 2, 2020 sailing I have booked in a couple of inside cabins. The refundable rate price (Sail Plus) was $4,249 per person, vs. $3,717 NRD. That's a $532 difference per person across 14 nights, or $38 more per night to get two perks. So they're clearly pushing for people to get the perks, and taking the beverage package option at that daily rate is a no-brainer; even if you don't drink alcohol, the premium non-alcoholic package typically goes for $22 pp / pd, so if you get the Classic package plus pre-paid gratuities you're already at break-even at the absolute worst. I don't think it's as good a deal if you replace the drink package with one of the other two options, especially the Internet (where a multi-device package for one is much less on a per-day basis than getting the equivalent number of individual 1-device plans). But there's the matter of when you're sailing in an inside cabin, which offers no perks at all. On this same sailing, the price of insides is just as jacked up with refundable deposit as the cabins that do offer perks. A cat 9 inside (same category as I have booked) is $2,601 per person refundable, $2,069 NRD. The exact same $532 difference, with no perks offered at any point during the booking process! Makes me very glad I booked in January for several hundred dollars less than the current pricing. To be fair, this particular sailing is the only one where I've been tracking prices and is soooo popular / attractive that the ship is already almost sold out; that's been driving the prices for remaining cabins into the stratosphere, so it's really tough to get a proper sense of things. But I will say that just yesterday, before this new pricing / promo went into effect, the price for interior and verandah cabins was still $50 and $100 pp lower respectively than what I see today, so it does seem like X is bumping the rates further to pay for the perks. And there's one more caveat, which is with the drink package: On the old Big / Better / Best promo, if you chose the Classic Drink Package you had a chance to upgrade to the premium package for the difference in regular nightly price. With this new promo, I was given no such option. From some other posts I saw on "the other place", upgrading the beverage package is now only an option for suite guests, who start off with all four perks automatically as part of the suite price. There's a pretty big difference in what you can purchase on the Classic package versus Premium, especially with wines and craft beers, so that's a potentially big "gotcha". I'm definitely conflicted about this program; now, if you just want the lowest possible booking price, you're forced into using NRD. If the price gap stays at the current $38 pp / pd (a value I think is a better measure as it can potentially be applied to any sailing), it's hard to get two perks that cover that gap or better unless you take the Classic Beverage Package as one of them. For those who don't drink alcohol, it might still be OK as noted above if they take that package plus another high-price perk so they can get the benefits of the Premium non-alcoholic package. For those who don't even drink anything more than the complimentary beverage options, there's no real pair of perks that fully covers the price gap vs. NRD bottom-line rate. Anyway, I've gotta get back to work. Wanted to note this and see what others think, and if anyone else with bookings on X is finding that they're getting a better deal now than when they first booked.

Before today, the answer would be "Everyone on a TA / TP / repositioning cruise who thinks it's worth it", as those sailing were not offering perks with cabin booking. But that changed today (see my next post, coming shortly).

Sorry, I haven't been to Boston in decades. Pinging @Boston Babe, given she actually lives there and is probably the best person to ask. ?

Welcome to the forums @stevep! To add on to what @twangster posted, you may want to consider having an over-shoulder bag or small backpack to put what you really need on hand while wandering the ship after board, and let even your carry-on bag be checked by the porters along with your larger luggage. This is especially helpful if you plan to have lunch in the windjammer or want to use the pool before the rooms become available; it's much easier to put a small thing like a bag or backpack under your seat or deck lounger, so the area around you stays clear for passengers and crew walking by. Easy and lightweight way to keep all your must-haves like medications you don't want to lose, passports, SetSail passes, bathing suits and sunscreen (so you can use the pool while waiting on rooms to become available), small camera, paperback book, etc. easily on hand.

Have a great trip and a safe flight down!

It may not have debuted on Broadway or been performed there at any point, but it's very much the equivalent of a Broadway production; London's West End is Broadway's counterpart across the pond in terms of quality and prestige, and that's where We Will Rock You hails from.

That is definitely not something you or anyone should experience on a cruise. I would have been more than a bit miffed if the person whose job is to help me out with things involving my cabin actually snapped at me if I was having some trouble with part of my cabin. Everyone gets bad days and no one is immune to wanting to be anywhere but work sometimes, but that would have crossed a line for me. I sincerely hope that you reported that to Guest Services, as it sounds like an employee who needs some retraining in hospitality.

Being discussed at more length in the News & Rumors forum. It's very real.

I don't know if this is an option on Royal, but I have read that on Celebrity (which also has a Chef's Table offering) you can contact them in advance to let them you don't / can't drink alcohol and they will actually provide you with non-alcoholic wines so that you are still able to take some part in it. And in that discussion it confirmed that "non-alcoholic wine" doesn't just mean white or red grape juice (sparkling or otherwise). ? It might not hurt to speak with someone at Royal and see if that's an option. Probably not an excursion booking rep, but maybe someone at Crown & Anchor or another higher level.

Believe me when I say that it is a meal worth every penny. Also, I'm very sure the reason it's excluded is because of the wine component. You're getting no less than six glasses of wine with that meal, and often times they are happy to pour additional glasses of whatever wine(s) you liked most. And from what I saw when I found the wines I had listed at Vintages, those are higher-end wines from their menu that go for at least $60 - $80 a bottle when ordered normally on-board; maybe $45 for someone with the Deluxe Beverage Package and the 40% discount that gives you for full bottle purchases. Yes, Royal is buying these at wholesale pricing, but you get the point. A bottle is typically four glasses (more for dessert wines like muscat, where you only have about 2 ounces in the glass), so if you go with the low end of that price range you can figure each person is getting at least $80 worth (on-board pricing) of wine along with a meal that they'd probably price at $50 minimum. Honestly, I'm amazed they don't charge a lot more for Chef's Table; either on board or in the Cruise Planner.

You're right, I forgot that they have pretty thick sides, probably to help insulate the cups and keep any ice from melting / watering down the drinks too quickly.

Separate cost no matter what. One of the few dining options not covered by any dining package, including Ultimate.

That makes two of us! I'm questioning that the dry dock wasn't able to hold the ship; I can't imagine that Royal would have engaged in a contract with them for this repair without knowing the range of tonnage it was capable of holding safely. No way Royal would risk one of their crown jewels if they didn't have 100% certainty the ship and the crew working on it would be safe. Sounds like they were doing something out of the ordinary with this dry docking, hoisting the ship up rather than pulling it in and then draining the water out so the ship would settle on the supports?

I've been getting lots and lots of pics and even videos are coming out. CruiseRadio just put out a nice video summarizing the changes after they took a short sailing on her. Here's the link:

Correct. It's also much smaller servings. Those souvenir cups are 20 ounces, maybe even 24. Going at a regular bar, they're going to get a standard 8 ounce glass at a time.

While it's short notice, they do still have that itinerary being offered this year on September 8, September 22, and October 6. For 2020, though, the closest you'll get is a 12-night sailing in June that looks like it does all but one of the last ports. Celebrity is changing up the itineraries offered on the Summit out of NJ for that year, with a focus on an open-jaw Iceland & Greenland sailing in August (NJ to Dublin, followed by a Dublin to Boston reverse sailing that completes her repositioning for the fall); before that, it's mainly Bermuda / Newport or Bermuda / Newport / Charleston sailings, plus a couple of 9-night Maine & Canada sailings, and then the CA / NE itineraries out of Boston afterward before repositioning back to the south for the winter season.

In theory, Cape Liberty to EWR is about a 30-45 minute drive. But this is New Jersey, the land of the pothole-ridden road and home of some of the worst traffic snarls. I live in NJ, about the same distance to both the port and EWR, and I'm with @twangster and @WAAAYTOOO on this. If you can get an 11:00 AM (preferably 11:30) flight you'll be a lot safer; even then, you'll still want to do self-debarkation and be at the very front of the line. Also be aware that if you plan to use Lyft or Uber, I've heard multiple stories of the drivers deliberately sitting around and waiting for peak hours to kick in so they get the extra charge that carries. Better to use an airport shuttle or other regular service, even though it'll likely cost extra.