CRITICAL INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW!

Michael January 22nd, 2008

I apologize for the big and loud headline for this post - but the information here is extremely important.

While we still have a few months before we sail now is a good time to make sure that you understand the documentation requirements that both Celebrity Cruises as well as the US and Canadian Governments require for passengers. If there is documentation that you need but don’t have yet, you still have plenty of time. I can’t stress this enough, if you do not have the proper documentation with you when you check in for your cruise - you can and very likely will be denied boarding. That’s something we don’t want to happen to anyone.

For US Citizens the latest information on documentation requirements can always be found at http://travel.state.gov/ However the requirements that will be in place for US and Canadian citizens on the day we depart are:

U.S. and Canadian citizens will need to present either a passport, passport card, SENTRI, NEXUS, FAST, or a U.S. Coast Guard Mariner Document (Don’t sweat it if you don’t know what SENTRI, NEXUS or FAST is). Alternatively a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license, plus proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate will be accepted.

You should have the original birth certificate with a raised seal or a certified copy - photo copies of birth certificates may not be accepted.

Passport card applications will be accepted starting February 1st and you are welcome to apply for one, however the first cards are expected to be delivered in “Spring 2008″ so there’s no guarantee that you would have your passport card in time for the sailing.

You are required to have proper documentation regardless of whether you intend to get off the ship in any of the ports we visit or not.

It is essential that you have the required documentation when you check in for the cruise. If you are denied boarding due to improper documentation Celebrity Cruises will not refund your cruise fare, nor is such a denied boarding covered by travel insurance. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that you bring the required documentation with you.

I hate to have to make such an ominous post, however neither Patricia nor I want to have anybody left on the pier as the ship is sailing away because they didn’t have the proper documentation with them.

February 15th is more than Final Payment Date

Patricia January 20th, 2008

I just want everyone to be aware that SeaSocks will be closed to all new bookings on February 15th.  That sounds so final and frankly it is.

There are a few reasons for this hard and fast date, and because I’m a giver, I’ll pull back the curtain a bit and share:

  1. For reasons that defy explaination there is a rule with Celebrity that once there are pentalities for canceling, you can’t add people to a group.  No, I don’t get it either.  So, if *I* don’t cut it off, Celebrity would.
  2. (I’m about to share my deepest secret), I don’t have a goody bag from last year’s cruise.  I don’t because when I ordered, I ordered extra and then I kept taking bookings and well, one sleepless night I counted.  Opps.  I had dreams of donating the extras to charity — what extras.  So, I’m enforcing the no exceptions policies, not because I want a goody bag, but because I don’t want to miss count more than just me this year.

So, it’s not just me, it is Celebrity.  We both are closing for new bookings on 2/15 for Sea Socks ‘08.  That said — I’m planning on ‘09 already — and fair warning, bookings for Sea Socks ‘09 will open promptly on May 21st.

Do you want to join us and need a roommate?

Patricia January 18th, 2008

I’m throwing this out there, because I get asked about roommates all the time and I have good answers, really I do.

First, as of this typing, I have 3 people in need of a roommate.  It just so happens that they are in an inside, an outside, and a balcony cabin. 

So, I’m looking to make some matches.  Now, here’s my basic rules on helping to find a roommate for you…

1. If you need a roommate to cruise, let me know.  I understand the difference between “need” and “would prefer so I have more money for yarn” — you can imagine those are vastly different things.

2. Before I will match you with a roommate, you have to put a full deposit down ($500) on a cabin.  This is really insurance for your other half (and you, really).  Should one of you need to back-out, the cabin doesn’t risk being lost until the other half of the deposit is paid.

3. I know final payment is coming up, but it doesn’t mean we don’t do a little last minute scramble around here.  Last year, I pulled a triple out at that last minute (yes, it was tight, but it worked) to get everyone on board. 

So, if you’ve been thinking about this and wondering who you could talk into to coming with you — I have roommates who need you!!

The Time has come

Patricia January 16th, 2008

…no, it isn’t May yet.  But now is the time to start dealing with the biggest hurdle on the way to Alaska.  (Well, the biggest hurdle right after you had to explain to the family that *THIS* was the way to see Alaska — with 120+ of your closest knitting friends.)

Yes, winging its way to your mailboxes are the first of two packets from me.  The first is about your final payment and confirming what you booked and what you wanted.  There is also I questionaire in there.  We beg you to fill it out because if you don’t Michael is offering to make up your information (will you trust me that it wouldn’t be pretty if you allow that?) The second won’t be out until about 4-6 weeks before the cruise when I have documents for you and material lists and all sorts of the fun.

So, in your packet there’s stuff for you to fill out — please do.  If you need more copies of those forms, they are here:

Sea Socks Questions Sheet

Sea Socks Exclusives

Finally, would you like to pay your final payment? You don’t have to go back to the registration site — in fact there is no way to do what you want from there. Call me at 888-286-9827 or just mail the form back from your packet.

Lets Talk Excursions

Michael January 12th, 2008

Patricia’s already posted about SeaSocks Exclusive excursions you can participate in - you’ll find the details here. Don’t worry, there will be a flier with all of that information included with your latest invoice which you can expect this coming week…

But, what if you want to do something in Juneau, Ketchikan, or even something else in Victoria? Well, we’ve got some options for you thanks to our good friends over at Shore Trips. You’ll find a wide variety of options from Whale Watching in Victoria BC, to kayaking or canoing in Ketchikan, even flightseeing or hiking in Juneau.

Shore Trips limits their tours to small groups of people - you won’t be sitting in a full motorcoach that’s part of a caravan of motorcoaches all on the same tour. They guarantee that you won’t be delayed returning to the ship - and they’ve never had a passenger miss a ship. Plus they offer an extremely generous cancellation policy - you can cancel without penalty up to 11 days before your tour and they always offer a refund in full in the event of a ship itinerary change or weather-related safety considerations.

Pricing: A Moving Target

Patricia November 21st, 2007

Picture it, a giant cruise ship pulls up to the gas station in the ocean and the captain leans out and says, “Filler up.” Does anyone want to guess how much THAT fuel bill is?

So, if you’ve heard the news, almost every cruise line is appling a fuel surcharge on all bookings. And you guessed it, our little Sea Socks is affected. The actual surcharge is $5 per person per day or $35 per person for the cruise. I’m trying to go through all of the confirmations to get everyone an update. I will send you a package with the invoice for final payment in January and there will be the full letter explaining the charge from Celebrity in that.

However, within a week of announcing the surcharge, both the outside and inside cabin rates went down. So, since this will get to most of you before I can do the indivdual confirmations, I wanted to outline the current prices for the categories available. Do not hesitate to call or e-mail with questions on any of this.

Category Rate per person Rate per person

Double Occupancy Single Occupancy

Conceirge Class $1455 $2485

Balcony Cabin $1415 $2405

Oceanview Cabin $1105 $1785

Inside Cabin $995 $1565

Important notes from the letter from Celebrity include:

“Those guests who do not cancel their reservation and pay in full will receive one logo item per stateroom, onboard their cruise. Finally, the supplement will apply only to the first and second guests in each stateroom”

and

“The supplement will be periodically reviewed, with the intent of being temporary, and may be adjusted as fuel prices fluctuate.”

Now, I would hope that this means that the surcharge could go down or even away — but I need to inform you about this now. I’m continuing to watch to see if the prices don’t go down more to offset this too. At this point, anything can happen.

I have a cough…

Patricia November 10th, 2007

and perhaps I sound like a man if I answer the phone. So, I’m leaving (again). Ok, so my cough isn’t the REAL reason, but I was invited and far be it from me to turn down an invite. (what am I talking about again? It is the cold meds, seriously.)

I wanted to let you all know that I’ll be out of the office next week — so I’m leaving you in the capable hands of Jackie, answering my phones. Jackie is sweet and awesome and um, sounds like the girl she is when she answers the phone. So, if you need something call her — she’s really nice (though, not a knitter — want to convert her?) As always I’ll still be fielding my e-mails.

In other news, I got a preliminary price on the Seattle yarn crawl — $40 per person. This is a pick-up at the hotel at 10am, crawl for yarn through Seattle, including sidetrip to Bainbridge Island and drop at the pier at 3:30 for boarding. All our luggage will be with the bus. Thoughts? Anyone willing to do it at $40?

In still MORE news, Oceanview cabins have gone DOWN in price — all price adjustments have been made — but the confirmations have NOT gone out yet. I’m sorry, but with the coughing and the packing and the dreading the airplane with my ears thing…I’m shooting for over the weekend, but if not, it will be when I get back — just rest assured you were lowered in price. Oh, you probably want to know how much you are saving, right? Well, current price for the oceanview cabins is $1070 (down from $1130).

Finally, we have a cruiser who would like to arrange a kayak trip at one of the port calls. I have no details, but did offer to put it out there. If interested, leave a comment and I’ll pass your e-mail on to our cruiser — I forgot to ask permission to put her e-mail here — I’ll ask and update soon.

The Nyquil is setting in. I hope to return talking like a girl again — but no promises.

108

Patricia November 7th, 2007

Dudes — seriously, 108!!!!

 As of the today (11pm PST), we have more KNITTERS than we had total cruisers in Sea Socks ‘07.  Wow.

Thank you all.  Check out page 91 of Interweave Knits Winter.

(someone pass me a paper bag, k?)

Upgrading for Less…

Patricia October 30th, 2007

Updated to correct and clarify:

Background: Most of you know that we sold through our price protected balconies. These were balconies at $1400 (or $1380 as they were really priced, but shhh — I got a deal the first time around too) per person. Since then, I’ve been requesting price reductions on future bookings and that request is swamped in the world of “getting approval.” So, there are a few of you, all will get e-mails personally later today and you know who you are because your confirmation is at a higher price, who have a higher priced balcony cabin.

News: I was checking on prices again and I noticed something odd. It seems that the category of balconies that we are in has gone up in price AGAIN. But when I looked at the list, Concierge Class Cabins (balcony cabins with suite amenities) have gone DOWN in price. So, I pick up the phone and get adjustments for my Concierge Class folks AND I upgrade the few people who had higher priced balconies, because now the price is lower than their current balcony and they get a higher category.

Now, so the rest of my balcony folks don’t get upset — I’m going to offer you the same deal. This is while supplies last and totally optional.

  • As of today, if you have a $1400 per person balcony cabin (or if you want to upgrade from any other category), there is the opportunity to upgrade to a Conceirge Class Cabin for $1420 per person. That’s a $40 increase on the cabin for the balcony folks.
  • There is no push — if you don’t know, I’m not the pushy type by now…. — but I want to put it out there, so you can choose.
  • If you want to do this upgrade, please e-mail me at patriciab (AT) mycruiseplanner (DOT) net — replacing the (AT) and (DOT) with @ and . — I will handle them in the order they arrive…I have no idea how many are available at this rate, so it is a first come/first serve basis.
  • If you were in the small group of people I was trying to get a better rate for — I will have your NEW confirmation to you late this evening. You have already been upgraded because I thought you’d like to save money.

Who’s looking out for you? :)

Catching Up & Checking In

Patricia October 29th, 2007

Someone asked me when I was leaving the ship after Sea Socks ‘07, “What would you do differently?”  My response was, “I would not have changed my entire invoicing system halfway through the process.”  I meant that sweeping changes are hard and when you have a beloved group of people (there are 98 of you — in case anyone needed a head count), you don’t try to shift gears in the middle.

I don’t learn.  No, I’m not upgrading my invoice system again — but I’m moving to a more mobile environment.  This will mean that life will not grind to a halt just because I’m not physically in my office — good, right?  The nice side benefit is that that after 2 years of not ever feeling quite settled in my office, I cleaned out and moved a whole host of stuff over the weekend.  I’m dust covered and tired, but so much better than it was.

 Now, for how this affects you.  Two things have happened:

  1. I believe that as of right now, I’m finally caught up with all my confirmations.  If you have not received an e-mail confirmation from me by this time, e-mail me at patriciab AT mycruiseplanner DOT net (replacing the AT for @ and DOT for .) and let me know.
  2. If you have reserved a transfer, a pre-hotel stay, or the tea; nothing has been charged to your card yet.  I’m still sorting the list to get out and I plan on the list going this Friday, with charges happening over the next week.  Now, to that end, if you reserved something and haven’t gotten an updated confirmation showing your reservation — e-mail me and let me know.

Yes, I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel — but I need your help to make sure nothing falls.  I just spoke to a lovely woman who booked slots 99 and 100.  Ahem, you guys blow me away.

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