On the 25th August, I received a letter - she was going to be early! They went to great pains to point out is wasn't the inaugural. After doing what they classed as the 'official maiden' on Equinox but had no recognition of the fact during the cruise whatsoever, I didn't give a toss. I phoned Celebrity to transfer to the new 3 Night Paris Short Break voyage from the 26th-29th April 2010, only the person I needed to speak to was at lunch. When she called back she said the computer system crashed and head office hadn't added the new cruise to the computer so she was unable to do anything at that point. All she was able to do was print off current bookings and make notes to say transfer, hoping to be able to get it done before she went away. By the 2nd September I'd heard nothing so called them. Got through to a lady who said I'd need to speak to the cruise specialist I'd originally booked with but he was at lunch so she'd leave a message for him to call me back. It was already 2.45pm. More than two hours passed and still nothing so I tried again but got through to a rather rude and unhelpful woman who said she would put me through to the correct department. I ended up speaking to a very helpful cruise specialist who emailed Darren, telling him to phone. Darren did, apologised, and after a bit of digging, discovered the woman I'd originally dealt with was called Dorothy who had gone on holiday so someone else was doing it. They still didn't have prices but they should be released the next day or Friday since it was going on the the following Monday (7th). The Thursday afternoon I received a call but from a cruise specialist! It would appear it made no difference letting them know in advance about wishing to transfer the booking because he asked if I wanted to move my cruise forward. ARGH!!!!! I was also asked if I wanted to combine them, despite my saying no, just that one. He also insisted my Equinox cruise was the maiden even though I said you'd never know it so wasn't bothered. The booking was removed online and I couldn't even add the new one. On the 7th it was there but I couldn't access it. It said, "Exception while retrieving booking." ARGH!!!!! In the end it was all paid off in January and I emailed at the end of February to pre-book the Tuscan Grille. They said I would receive a confirmation email the week before. Would it be a repeat of Equinox and have no booking? Thankfully, no. They seem to have learnt lessons since then as confirmation arrived on the 12th March. We had also booked our excursion by now, which at £75 for a tour of Paris and boat trip down the Seine (no lunch but then that bumps the price up extortionally!) was a bargain and something I wish they'd had when I had been in Le Havre on Equinox. With less than a month to go, an upgrade notification came through saying we were now C2-1249. I'd never been upgraded by Celebrity before. How exciting!
I watched the gorgeous new Southampton resident arrive for 9am on the 20th April but it had been too cold to stay for docking. She then sailed at 8pm, tour operators having requested it, to take Spanish holidaymakers to Bilbao and bring back Brits who had been stuck due to the Icelandic volcanic ash closing European airspace. She retured for 5pm on the 23rd, was named on the 24th and had a two day jolly. So now it was our turn and in with her was Artemis in Mayflower Terminal. Unfortunately, despite everything, Rowan was unable to go due to various medical reasons and would now be attending many hospital appointments that week. So it was just me as I headed out across on Hotspur to Southampton.
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