Chuck is an Accredited Cruise Counselor and Certified Travel Associate with onthewaytravel.net in Union City, CA. Visit the About Us page on www.onthewaytravel.net for more information.

For CruiseCritic members. . . You may wonder why I've stopped answering questions on the forum. CruiseCritic banned me from the forum when they thought I was promoting my own business by spending the vast majority of my time on the first pre-inaugural cruise of Solstice researching questions for cruisecritic members, taking almost 500 pictures to show the exact details members were looking for, uploading those photo files, writing captions, writing carefully detailed answers to about 30 questions, and even finding and photographing specific cabins to show their views. I was promoting my own business even though I never once mentioned the name of my business, gave no one my email address, and received no requests for any information about my business. The only oblique reference was in my flickr user name because I couldn't find a way (still can't find a way, even) to provide a link directly to my set of Solstice pictures. Once another member provided that link, I never mentioned it again. When I was able to help some of you with learning about Solstice, I appreciated your kind words on the forum.

Anyway, if I hadn't been banned, my next post would have been an important one about Celebrity's recalibrating categories on Solstice, which will definitely have an impact on pricing:

Dear Travel Partner,

Effective immediately, for all Celebrity Solstice sailings as of November 23, 2008 and all Celebrity Equinox sailings as of August 8, 2009, the following categorization modifications are being made. Please be aware of these modifications when booking any cruise vacations on Celebrity Solstice or Celebrity Equinox.

• 247 of the veranda staterooms are being re-categorized • 171 staterooms will now have an “upgraded” category • 76 staterooms will now have a “downgraded” category (due to obstruction) • All staterooms in Category 07 and Category 2C will now have a veranda with an obstruction • For SL and EQ only, Category 07 staterooms will now be categorized as a veranda stateroom; In total, there are 136 staterooms that have a veranda with an obstructed view • Guests that are currently booked in any of these obstructed veranda staterooms will be notified of the category change