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| Red berries growing on a palm tree. |
It’s odd how we often book two cruises at once or I should say, Tom books two cruises at once. I suppose he decides to book two cruises when it’s related to the fact that particular promotion is taking place at the time of booking.
Celebrity has a promotion at this time, called, “1, 2,3 Go!” which includes: one, cost of gratuities; two, value of an onboard cabin credit; and three, which is the drink package for two, valued at roughly $60 per person per day. If one chooses the “concierge class” (an upgraded cabin and location), all three promos are included. If you choose certain balcony classes, a traveler may choose one or two of the three options.
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| Celebrity Solstice, which we sailed on our way to Honolulu in October is the same ship for these two recently booked cruises. |
We weren’t able to choose the “1,2,3 Go!” package when booking the cruise, we posted yesterday when it wasn’t available for that particular sailing.
Tom always tries to make it work that we get all three when the cost differential is worthwhile since the upgraded cabins have a higher cost. The big issue for us is that I don’t drink alcohol, juice, or sugary beverages, making it redundant for me to end up with a “free” drink package. How much included bottled water can one drink in a day?
Here’s a link that further explains the “1, 2, 3 Go!” package.
Plus, Tom has to factor in that he only drinks a few cocktails each day. Does having a “free” drink package make him drink more? Perhaps. It would be hard to resist for any cruise passenger. Tom’s fun when he drinks, never sloppy, never drunk or embarrassing, so I don’t mind a bit.
As it turns out, based on Tom’s calculations, it made sense to upgrade to the concierge class for the cruise described here today, as opposed to the cruise info we posted yesterday where it made no sense financially, although we did book a good balcony cabin in a good location at an increased price.
Below are the many features of the Celebrity Solstice, the ship for both of these two recently booked cruises:
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Soon, we’ll figure out where to live in the South Pacific during this gap in time. While living in Kauai, we’ll continue the process of figuring out where we’ll spend this period of time. The options are many based on our location at the time.
Our total cost for this cruise is $4820 which includes all taxes, gratuities, and subsequent credits. On top of this expense is the cost for the “bill” we receive at the end of the cruise including (if no drink package); alcoholic and other beverages, bottled water (tea and coffee are free), the ship’s WiFi fees (cost per minute), purchases in the shops, visits to the doctor and cost for spa services or any other services not included in the fare.
Here’s the cruise information for this later cruise on the same ship, the Celebrity Solstice, three and a half months after the cruise we listed yesterday. We continue to book all of our cruises with vacationstogo.com:
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| 12 nights departing March 1, 2017 on Celebrity’s Celebrity Solstice |
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| $$$ Book select oceanview and balcony categories, and choose one of the following offers: a $300 per cabin onboard credit, FREE pre-paid gratuities (a per cabin value of $288), or a FREE beverage package for two, which includes select alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages onboard (a per cabin value of $1,176). Book select suite categories, and receive all 3 offers: a $300 per cabin onboard credit plus the pre-paid gratuities (a per cabin value of $372) and beverage packages listed above. | |||||||||||||
| Promotions may not be combinable with all fares. | |||||||||||||
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| The prices shown are US dollars per person, based on double occupancy, and subject to availability. They include port charges but do not include airfare or (where applicable) airport or government taxes or fees. | |||||||||||||
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| Important Note: Visas are required for this itinerary. | |||||||||||||
| ITINERARY |
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| Wed | Mar | 1 | Sydney, Australia | 6:30pm | |||||||||
| Thu | Mar | 2 | At Sea | ||||||||||
| Fri | Mar | 3 | At Sea | ||||||||||
| Sat | Mar | 4 | Noumea, New Caledonia | 8:00am | 5:00pm | ||||||||
| Sun | Mar | 5 | Lifou, New Caledonia | 8:00am | 5:00pm | ||||||||
| Mon | Mar | 6 | Mystery Island, Vanuatu | 8:00am | 5:00pm | ||||||||
| Tue | Mar | 7 | At Sea | ||||||||||
| Wed | Mar | 8 | Suva, Fiji | 8:00am | 5:00pm | ||||||||
| Thu | Mar | 9 | Lautoka, Fiji | 7:00am | 4:00pm | ||||||||
| Fri | Mar | 10 | At Sea | ||||||||||
| Sat | Mar | 11 | At Sea | ||||||||||
| Sun | Mar | 12 | At Sea | ||||||||||
| Mon | Mar | 13 | Sydney, Australia | 6:30am | |||||||||
Considering all of the above, our usual bill at the end of each cruise for 14 days, runs around $1100, most of which is for WiFi. Also, we always have XcomGlobal’s MiFi with us when cruising, at an additional cost of about $400 per month with a limited amount of data per day only working on the days we’re in port.
Out to sea, we have no option but to use the ship’s Internet which is expensive and unreliable. I’m a cheap date on a cruise and Tom doesn’t charge more than his drinks. My drinks are all free when I only drink iced tea and coffee and the ship’s reverse osmosis purified water. I don’t care for massages or spa services and I rarely buy anything in the various overpriced shops. I do use a fair amount of WiFi when writing our posts each day but then again so does Tom, helping with research and entertaining himself while I work on the photos and stories to post.
We won’t book any additional cruises until after we purchase more “deposit vouchers” onboard our next cruise this upcoming May enabling us to pay only $100 per person deposit as opposed to $450 per person deposit. To purchase these, we don’t have to have a specific cruise in mind and these vouchers have no end date.
Yesterday, we’d mentioned listing our five booked future cruises, costs, dates, etc. However, as long as today’s post proved to be, we’ll wait and post these tomorrow. We apologize for changing this plan last minute.
Have a restful Sunday!
Photo from one year ago today, January 11, 2014:
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| One year ago we posted this photo we took from the veranda in Marloth Park. Oh, how we loved the visits from the gentle friendly zebra often arriving in all-male herds. For a funny zebra video and more, please click here. |