1313steve

Yep, he replied to me, he thinks you are bringing too much stuff.

 

I just hope he brings a few shirts that somewhat match up with his pants and shorts. But you know what - he's my cutie-patootie after all these years. Do I really care about what he's wearing? Nah. The clothes don't make the man.

No doubt I brought too much, but as long as it fit in one suitcase and came in under the 50 lb. airline limit (it was 48.9), I didn't mind bringing it.

I subscribe to the ZZ Top school of fashion........"'Cause every girl crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man" :D

If you've signed up for your Pharmacy's loyalty/savings card program (most all have a program) you can usually go online and print a list of all your medications. Easy way to get a concise list to have just in case!!

I read posts all the time about what to pack, how much to take, and what not to forget. Most of them seem to be from a lady’s perspective, so I thought I’d write a post from my male perspective.

We were recently on the Celebrity Reflection (7 days, Eastern Caribbean), and I’ve cruised about half a dozen other times, so I do have a reasonable amount of experience. All cruises have been to the Caribbean, so I can’t really offer much perspective about what to take to Alaska, the Med, or Europe.

As a bit of background, I typically dress business casual for work (slacks and polo or open collar button down shirt). I wear a sport coat/shirt/tie combo some days, too. I own two tuxes because I do attend the occasional black tie event and I just would rather own a tux than rent. I own two because for some reason, clothing tends to shrink if it sits in the closet for too long, so one is a little too snug!!  LOL

I believe in respecting the cruise lines recommended dress codes and would rather be overdressed than underdressed in any situation.

So here’s my packing list from our recent trip, and I’ve also noted what I actually wore.

Shaving kit with the essentials…. Travel size toothpaste, hair spray and hair gel, cheap electric toothbrush, deodorant, hair brush. Disposable razor, Small quantity of Tylenol and 10 days worth of prescription medication (7 day cruise, but wanted to have extra just in case). I’m fine using the ships shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion, etc. No need to bring those along. We also had two bottles of sunscreen that we shared.

Tuxedo (jacket, pants, shirt, bow tie, cummerbund. – Although there were two formal nights, we planned to eat in a specialty restaurant one formal night, and the attire for those isn’t formal on any night. On formal nights, about 5% of the guys had tuxes, and another 20% had suits or sport coats with ties. Many of the rest had jackets with open collar shirts, and some just had slacks and a polo or button down.

Slacks – In addition to the tux pants, I took a pair of nice khakis, and two pair of black slacks. I wore the khakis and one pair of the black pants.

Sport coat – I took a black sport coat that I intended to wear to dinner most nights. I wore it one night, but could have (and should have) just left it at home.

Shirts – I took five button down long sleeve shirts, four Tommy Bahama shirts, three polo shirts, and three T-shirts. I wore one of the long sleeve shirts (with the sport coat) and two of the Tommy Bahama shirts, all of the polo and T shirts.

Tie – I brought a tie, just in case I wanted to wear it with a sport coat one night. I never wore it.

Shorts – I took four pair of shorts (and had another pair on when we boarded). I wore two pair.

Bathing suits - took two and wore them both.

Baseball cap - great to have on excursions.

Shoes – black dress, brown dress, crocs, flip flops, and I wore Sperry Topsiders on board. I wore everything but the brown dress shoes (opting for the Topsiders with my khakis).

I also brought enough underwear, a T-shirt to sleep in, and socks. In my case, it was one pair of socks because I hate to wear socks, but I thought I’d wear a pair with my tux!! 

Dinner attire was typically slacks and a Tommy Bahama or Golf shirt. We ate in either the main dining room or a specialty restaurant every night. If I wasn’t pool side or on an excursion (we did snorkeling and boating), I had on shirts and a golf/polo shirt. I’m not one of those who roams the ship all day in a bathing suit and a t-shirt.

Everything I brought fit easily into a larger (27”) rolling suitcase. All my dress shirts, slacks, sport coat and tux, were each left on hangers and packed in individual plastic dry cleaner bags and folded neatly into my suitcase. Doing this prevents 95% of the wrinkles and avoids the need to have items pressed or worn looking wrinkled. Having most of my clothes on hangers makes unpacking really easy, too. Don't be worried about wearing the same thing more than once (assuming it's clean). Nobody will care, and most likely nobody will even notice.

If you’re putting your bags out the last night before departure. Here’s a tip…….. pack everything except what you’ll be wearing in the morning and what (if anything) you’ll be sleeping in. Go ahead and pack your shaving kit, too, but leave out the products you’ll need in the morning. When you get dressed in the morning, just throw away what’s left of the travel size stuff. I even throw away my toothbrush. My girlfriend does the same, except for her cosmetics.

When we walk off the ship, all we have is a very small carry-on with her cosmetics, whatever we wore the night before, reading glasses, and our electronics and paperwork.

I hope this helps! Enjoy your cruise!!

It's not secret that jewelry and gemstones in particular have HUGE markups, both on land and at sea or in a port. If you see something you like on a cruise, take a picture of it and get the pertinent info (cost, gold content, 4C's etc.).

Take that info back to your jeweler at home and you'll probably find they can create the same or very similiar piece for similiar money! I've done this on two occassions with great results, and knowing that I have a local jeweler to go back to with any issues.

I've done this twice. Once on a piece that was about $2,000 and once on a piece around $7,500.

That's nothing! I was ONBOARD Celebrity Reflection earlier this month when it was my birthday and all I got was a card in our room and a birthday cake at dinner. I was expecting a parade in my honor around the Lido deck!!! :D

Off the Reflection a couple weeks ago. ........................Most slots were penny slots.

 

We were also on the Reflection earlier this month. I'd disagree that most slots were penny. I'm not a big slot player, but did play a little bit and looked for that "lucky" machine. I saw slots in all denominations, included lots that allowed you to select the wager from 25 cents to $5, on the same machine. Yes, there were plenty of penny slots, but also plenty in other denominations.

You gotta love this kinda Marketing. Really.

 

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I couldn't agree with you more!!:) Reminds me of the free stuff they offer in Vegas. Some of the most expensive "free" drinks I've ever had were while playing blackjack in Vegas!!

Hello

 

We are booked on a cruise with Celebrity leaving in 10 weeks time from Venice. .................

 

May I ask if this is normal or am I premature with my concern?

 

Many thanks in anticipation.

 

K

In my opinion, at 10 weeks out it's not even something to give thought to. If it was 10 days probably, but at 10 weeks, it's really irrelevant.

Thanks for the review, we are on Reflection at the end of May. Curious about the "luggage valet" how can you get your airline boarding passes a couple of days before you fly? Did you book the flights through Celebrity?

We did book through ChoiceAir, but that doesn't seem to have anything to do with when or how you can get your boarding pass. You'll still get it more than 24 hours in advance.

My wife and I sailed last Oct. 20 on the Glory from Norfolk. Was that the one with 89 unbooked cabins?

We were on the 10/13 sailing.

We booked this cruise. I too read the water temp is around 80 and that October and November were great months for snorkeling as the water is clearer then.

Remember, Bermuda is NOT the Caribbean, it's the Atlantic ocean and almost directly east of The Carolina's, so weather will be similar to theirs.

SHIP: Reflection

CABIN #: 6119

DECK #: 6

CLASS: 2B

AREA: Port/Forward

BED NEAR: Bathroom

QUIET?: yes, occasional minor noise from theater and thrusters.

BALCONY VIEW: Excellent. One of few cabins where you can actually look straight down into the water

BALCONY SIZE: standard

WIND A PROBLEM?: no

SOOT A PROBLEM?: no

PROBLEMS/COMMENTS: A bit of a walk to other venues, but that's more than offset by the straight down view.

We used this service a few times years ago when the procedure was to claim your bags in the cruise terminal, take them through customs and check them at a special desk outside the cruise terminal. This worked pretty well as it allowed us to check the luggage we use to carry our last night items off the ship or to at least transfer our toiletries from our carry-on to our regular luggage before checking it through.

 

Now that the procedure is changed so that you don't see the luggage after putting it out at night it is actually less convenient for us as this means we can't check the bag we keep until disembarkation morning.

 

I guess our problem is that we like to keep toiletries and some other items for the last night and disembarkation morning. If someone didn't keep any of these things, or small enough quantity and sizes of items to take in a carry on bag, I guess it wouldn't be a problem.

You're point is valid. We solved it by only retaining the bare toiletry essentials we'd need on disembarkation morning. We used what we needed that morning and through the rest of the kept toiletries away (having brought some of the travel size bottles for that very purpose). We walked off the ship in the morning with no carry on and nothing more than a hairbrush and some other small cosmetics in my GF purse.

We went on a 7 day cruise during Spring Break, so the timing was ideal for families. I believe there were about 480 kids on board.

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WOW! What a difference a week makes. We were on the Reflection the week before (4/5) and I bet there weren't 50 kids on board! Our kids are basically grown and gone, and we were very glad to not have a lot of kids to contend with ! We're past those days, but certainly glad you had a great cruise and your kids enjoyed it!

We used it on the 4/5 sailing on Reflection. It was one of the best services we've ever used. Money extremely well spent. We were on American Airlines.

Looks like a mirror of our sailing from last Nov. Did you use the Roll Call and go to the Connections meeting? Any rumblings about changes to Cellar Masters?

 

Thanks for taking the time to share the info!

I did use the roll call, but did not attend the connections meeting, even though we had registered for it.

Other than them doing it to perhaps unify the naming conventions with RCI, I would see it as a total waste of marketing dollars.

Marketeers want their "elite" levels to sound pretentious and/or special.

Remember when it was a big deal to have a gold credit card? Then Platimum, Then Ruby, Then Diamond, Then Black?? They all basically mean the same thing. It was just what sounded "elite" at the time!!

There’s lots of reviews for the Reflection, but here’s some of my thoughts after being onboard the week of April 5th for an eastern Caribbean Cruise…………

About us

We’re mid 50’s, have cruised several times before, and I’d consider us experienced travelers. We also enjoy great food and service and have been fortunate to eat in some of our nation’s finest restaurants and stay in some really great hotels. We shy away from most chain restaurants in favor of smaller, local places to dine. Our kids are either grown or about to finish high school. A typical hotel stay for us would be at a Marriott or Hyatt. Our décor tastes lean more toward the clean contemporary style and not towards older furniture or antiques.

Overall

A beautiful ship with lots of spaces to get away from everyone and also plenty of spaces to be with others joining in the fun. One of the things we noticed most frequently was how empty the ship seemed, even at night when the pool area wasn’t packed with people. Where was everybody??? I attributed that to a good overall design and space planning. I’d say Celebrity’s tag line of “Modern Luxury” matches the onboard experience.

Even though it was spring break for some K-12 schools in various parts of the country, we didn’t see very many kids on board, which we liked. I’d say we saw less than 5 stroller aged kids, and half dozen pre-teens and probably 10-15 teenagers. On the adult side, I’d guess the average age was early 40’s, but it was a diverse mix of ages. No matter what your age, you wouldn’t fee out of place. For the most part, the crowd was having fun, enjoying the bars, pools, and other venues, but it wasn’t a wild party crowd.

The only place where space was an issue, was trying to find a lounge chair during the day. Yes, there are plenty of chair hogs that never seem to actually be in the loungers, and I did see the pool butlers removing lots of towels. Nonetheless, if you arrive at the pool area mid-morning to mid-afternoon, be prepared to have to spend some time finding a place to lounge.

Service

Service was generally very good. The exception is the bars. With (presumably) lots of passengers having drink packages, the bars seemed inundated almost all the time. Yes, they need more bartenders, but they also need to do a better job of training them. Most of them were very slow.

Room Stewards – On previous cruises (on other lines) it seemed like our room stewards were very friendly, outgoing and looking to engage in conversation. On the Reflection, we saw our stewards occasionally, and they were friendly, but not overly conversational. Even though we didn’t see them very often, the room was always clean and the ice bucket was full. We called them the stealth stewards because we didn’t see them, but the job always got done.

Room Service - A disappointment. We like to start our day with coffee and breakfast on the balcony. We learned that if we ordered the night before via the door hanger menu, it was delivered on time and without issue. (other than the room service coffee was always terrible!!). However, if we waited until the morning to order, we were always told delivery would be in “30 – 40 minutes”. That never happened and we’d have to call after waiting at least 45 minutes. One time they had no record of our order (which we placed via the TV), and another time we were told it was on the way, only to wait at least another 15 minutes.

Cabin

We were in 6119, a 2B balcony, forward on the port side. As a point of reference, our balcony was directly above the “R” in the Reflection name on the hull. There were two of us and I’d consider us moderate packers. Much has been written about limited storage space, but we found it very adequate. The over the bed storage has lots of room and the three drawers were plenty for us. The bathroom had lots of shelves and small cabinets. Don’t forget to put your luggage under the bed to save space.

The room décor was tastefully done. The balcony was well sized. Size wise the cabin was OK, certainly adequate, but by no means would I call it spacious.

One thing we really liked about the room was that it is one of the few balcony cabins where you can look straight down to the water, no life boats, no protruding decks or roofs, etc. It is directly above the theater and we did hear the occasional muted sounds during a couple of the shows and the afternoon rehearsals, but not enough to be bothersome. Being pretty far forward does make for a longer walk to the rest of the ship, but unless you have mobility issues or are just really lazy, it won’t be an issue. The sound of the bow cutting through the water was very nice and relaxing.

Dining

Food is so subjective, but for our tastes and dining experience it was pretty good. We ate in the MDR three times. Food and service was fine. I don’t expect a 4 star meal in a room where they are trying to serve more than a thousand people at about the same time, but everything generally tasted pretty good and was nicely presented. We had select time dining and never made reservations (typically dining between 6:30 and 8:30), but never waited more than 5 minutes or so for a table.

During the course of the week we also ate in the Lawn Club, Tuscan Grille, Bistro on 5, and The Porch. The atmosphere and the food in the Lawn Club Grille was certainly our favorite. Great food there, and above average service. The other specialty restaurants we took advantage of were good also. A burger at the Mast Grill was good, but not great.

We had dinner one night in the Oceanview Café (the buffet), and ate breakfast there a time or two. It was fine. The layout of various food stations made it pretty easy to get what you wanted. A wide variety of reasonable quality food. Always enough seating. Don’t forget the outside area aft. Nice place to watch the world go by.

Entertainment

Entertainment is a lot like food…….very subjective. Despite our best intentions, we never made it to any of the evening shows. We did attend an afternoon performance of the hypnotist and it was entertaining. You’ll have to decide for yourself how much is real and how much is passengers playing along (some better than others, LOL). We enjoyed the various live music in the different places throughout the ship. We enjoy live music in general and all of the performers were about what you would expect in a nice local bar or restaurant.

There have been lots of discussions here about the music being too loud. We didn’t find that to be the case. Yes, there were a few hours during the week of loud DJ music at the pool, but that was the exception. Even then, it was easy to find a place to carry on a normal conversation.

Disappointments

Other than the aforementioned room service issues, we only had one major disappointment during the week……The Alcoves. We had reserved an alcove for a day. We arrived shortly after 9:00 and were escorted to our alcove. It was a very windy day, so all of the Alcoves had their tops down and there was no shade available. After a few minutes, an attendant (waiter) came by, delivered two glasses, two plates, and a bottle of Evian in an ice bucket. He quickly pointed to the phone in the alcove and said to use it to call him. He said we’d get fruit and cheese in the afternoon, and then he disappeared. At about 9:40, we called and ordered a Screwdriver and Bloody Mary. After about 15 minutes, with no drinks, I saw him walking by and asked him. He said they had to get their drinks from the sunset bar and it didn’t open until 10. We finally got our drinks at 10:15. We tried to order drinks later in the morning and after 30 minutes still had nothing. I got up and went to the Lawn Club Grille when I saw what looked like the manager. He said he was in charge of the Alcoves, too and explained it took a long time to get drinks because the servers had to go to a regular bar to get them and the bartenders waited on bar customers first. A bad solution!!

We never saw or heard of the iPad or anything else that was included. We left for about half an hour during the early afternoon. When we returned the fruit and cheese plate was waiting on our table. No telling how long it had been sitting there in the hot sun.

We still enjoyed the quiet retreat of the Alcove, but the service was just plain lousy. When we ate in the Lawn Club Grille the next evening, I reminded the manager how disappointed we had been in the Alcove. He was very apologetic, and about 10 minutes later he stopped by our table, with a receipt for a complete refund of our Alcove fee. A more than adequate response!

A couple of secrets

If you want to grab a drink and relax in an uncrowded bar, try the Passport bar on deck 3. Never seemed to be crowded, pretty good for people watching, and also large windows.

If you’re flying home, take advantage of the Luggage Valet. For $20/person, you don’t have to handle your bags during disembarkation. Sign up early in the week at Guest Relations. A day or two before the cruise ends, you’ll get an envelope with special bag tags, your airline boarding passes, and instructions. Leave your luggage outside of your room the last night like everybody else, and you won’t have to see or touch your luggage until it arrives on the baggage carousel at your destination airport. No need to find your bags in the terminal and drag them through customs or try to load them into a cab or bus to the airport. I’ve never heard of this on other lines, and that perk alone makes me want to stay on Celebrity!

Summary

This was our first Celebrity cruise and we enjoyed it very much. It was pretty much what we had hoped for. I’d say it was a step up from the other cruises we’ve sailed on. The overall atmosphere was a bit more refined, the crowd was fun but mellow, the venues were tastefully done, the service was generally good, and the overall experience was very enjoyable. We booked a future cruise for next year, which is something I’ve never done before, so we must have liked it!!

We sleep with a sound machine and love looking down at the water so sounds like a winner. Thank you all for your help

You can probably leave the sound machine at home. You can create a great natural sound machine by just opening the balcony door. Another advantage of being far forward is the sound of the ship's bow plowing through the sea. Very relaxing and soothing.

We just got of the Reflection and were in cabin 6119, just a couple of doors down from 6115. The noise is not an issue. We heard some bass during afternoon rehearsals (usually around 4:30), and also heard some bass during the shows on 2 or 3 evenings. Neither was enough to bother us.

It was our first S-class cruise and I think the benefits of being in one of the view cabins that can actually look straight down to the water makes these forward cabins some of the best on the ship. It can be a bit of a walk to the restaurants, etc. but not enough to be a bother.

Some don't know how to control themselves with plastic in their pocket. Their loss

Some don't know how to control themselves with CASH in their pocket!!

I just booked two cabins on Splendor to Bermuda. My PVP said that one is selling fast.

 

 

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It will be interesting to see how the bookings go. When we were on the Glory out of Norfolk last October, they had 89 unbooked cabins, which according to our Behind the Fun tourguide, is very high for Carnival. The only Norfolk cruise that sold out last year was the 2 day cruise to nowhere.

For those of you wanting to know more about what services Canyon Ranch will be offering on Celebrity, here's a link with lots of info.

http://canyonranch.com/sites/default/files/i/downloads/atsea/celebrity_cruises_guide_to_services.pdf

Can you be specific about the cost cutting measures? Leaving in two weeks, would like to be mentally prepared!! Thanks.

You should be getting your rowing assignment soon. All passengers are expected to take turns rowing the ship. Modern Servitude!!

My experience tells me otherwise. Seems like a couple times each cruise I forget and have put my iPhone in the same pocket as my seapass and end up having to go to customer relations to get the card replaced. Thankfully I don't often carry my phone on board or I'd be there every day.

I carry my office access key card in the same pocket as my iphone constantly. Never had a problem. I also carried my seapass and phone together anytime we went into port and never had an issue.

I'm certainly not trying to start an argument, but your cell phone isn't a magnetic device!!