sptrout

Not a place for reviews, but Celebrity's YouTube site has a lot of information about the Beyond and several other cruise related videos. https://www.youtube.com/c/celebritycruises

As the others have said, almost anything is okay. If you want to be safer, then buy a box of K95/KN95 masks and use those instead of the provided cloth masks. Remember that if you want to conserve the number of masks needed, you can place a used, undamaged, mask in a paper bag (or just away somewhere) for at least three days and then it can be reused. The COVID virus must find a host before three days or it becomes inactive. Depending on the number of days of your trip, this hack may not be of much value, but would be likely better if used at home.

kwotpot, your picture reminded me or our experience during our 10 day cruise ending just last Saturday. Nearly every evening we (DW & me) were order 2 appetizers, two entrées, and two desserts. And I would guess that at least 7 out of the 10 evenings the waiter would bring us what we ordered plus a third surprise appetizer, entrée, and dessert for us to share. Being polite we HAD to eat all three of everything. We were so stuffed each night that we were miserable for hours. We never even hinted at wanting to try extra of anything. The most I ever said was that I had trouble deciding which dessert to order. So they brought all of them.

We were in a corner aft cabin, deck 12, and loved it (Reflection). Very little noise from above, nothing that bothered us. The cabin is larger than the S2 cabins that are between the two corners. We have also been in the S2 cabins previously. 

There was a lot of wind when at sea, but until now never thought much about. Our recent cruise was 10 days, five that were sea days. Would rebook the same cabin without hesitation. 

9 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

If you want MDR food, why not just go the MDR?  Do folks walk into a specialty restaurant and ask for MDR food?  Seems to defeat the purpose, IMHO YMMV. 

A person may only want one or two items off the MDR menu or, more importantly, want to keep the same waiter that one is familiar with in the Luminae. 

Apparently my comments about our waiter have been misconstrued. We actually thought that our waiter was one of the best we have ever had. Sharp memory, greeted us by name every night (as all did even the bread server), always remembered even minor requests such as no potatoes for me.

For all I know the MDR menu thing may have been a one night issue when comparing similar beef dishes. As nearly everyone in the restaurant, he was from India and wore a mask so it was many times difficult to understand exactly what he was saying. We always ask the waiter for their recommendations and he would just point to the dish(es) that he suggested. A lot easier that way. That was the one situation where wearing a mask was a problem; neither one of us could fully understand each other. 

If we were on the Reflection now, we would ask for the same waiter.

On the Reflection last week our Luminae server did not want to serve from the MDR menu and I saw very few, if any, people that had items from the MDR. Our server said that the MDR standards were not up to Luminae standards. 

I have ordered from the MDR menu while in Luminae without issues during other cruises. Cannot say why the server last week said what he did unless there was actually new issues. Anyway, I just ordered from the Luminae menu and all was mostly fine; with only a couple losers. The duck breast was just five very small and I mean very small (think a long finger nail) and very thin. I could have eaten all five in one bite. The rack of lamb was also poor; small quantity and tough. I did not complain about either; I know, I should have.

I cannot remember the price of a day pass, but a 10 day pass for a couple was $399. We had a lot of OBC to spend and with the Persian Gardens hit, we still had nearly $400 refunded.

As far as if it is worth a day pass? I guess fine if you want to try it. I would recommend a tour of PG before buying a pass, you should be able to tell if it is worth the cost or not. Also, there are conventional saunas (just outside the PG) that are free for everyone to use.

Access to specific islands changes day by day. Passengers really do not know until the evening before arrival in many cases.

Of the ports that you mentioned the only one that I am familiar with, as of last week anyway, is St. Kitts. It was open as usual at least to the Reflection and a RCCL Ship (Harmony if I remember correctly). We roamed around town and did some serious shopping.

As Retreat passengers, we got unlimited premium Internet for two devices. We were in a corner aft cabin so far back and one more step and we would have been fish bait. No real problems with our Internet service. My DW used it for Facebook and I used it for everything but Facebook, but no streaming of movies.

I did not measure the speed, but I am sure that it would vary a lot depending on passenger loading/usage and location. We use it from the back to the front, and the bottom to the top, and cannot complain.

Just now, TickledBlue said:

This is true but usually there's a letter in your cabin at the start of the cruise on what your CC benefits are.

There was no letter in our SS1 cabin and I almost forgot about CC's benefits. Remembered just in time to get one bag of laundry done (we could have had two bags, but my wife passed). Missed out on he gelato, but we had tons of food anyway.

FYI - - Captain's Club benefits including laundry, Gelato, etc. are loaded into your Sea Pass Card so paper coupons have been eliminated.  Therefore, you have to know what CC's benefits are available for your CC status. This was true as of last week on the Reflection.

The 40 - 50s band and mainly their lead singer, Jared Freiberg, were unbelievable, and I don't even like that type of music. If Jared Freiberg and the Vagabonds are on your cruise don't miss them, you will be stunned that they are not headlining somewhere in Las Vegas.

The same for Domenick Allen, extremely talented with a long back ground in all things music including: Liberace, Sammy Davis, Frank Sinatra, and modern rock music. He tells some great behind the scenes stories also.  

We just returned Saturday from a 10 day cruise on the Reflection. There were no, zero, COVID cases on the ship including the crew and the passengers. 

Per the Cruise Director, the ship only had 841 paying passengers and a reduced crew to around 950 (I do not remember the exact crew number.) Therefore the crew to passenger ratio was a little better than 1 to 1. Great for the passengers, no waiting for elevators and super service.

Go for it and have a great trip!

Yea, the Reflection the past 10 days was really empty. No waits for elevators, but the main theater was nearly empty each night. Hard for the entertainers to get the small crowds fired up.

No, not crowded at all, but the ship only had 841 passengers per the C.D. Maybe more suites sold, but I know only two of the deck 12 aft SSs were in use including ours.

That was what I was thinking kwokpot; I even tried to corner the Future Cruise Salesman on which was better. He refused to commit only saying that an S1 was nearly the same anywhere with the exception of being near The Retreat. Since our Beyond booking was through a TA he did not want to touch it.

I will email our TA now to see if there are any forward S1s still available. 

Thank you for your thoughts and we are leaving 2217 in great shape!

That's the one! Great cabin.

They are open as before COVID except masks are required.  ( Not in the rain booths.) This is per our experience the last 10 days on the Reflection. 

I believe that the Cayman Islands are still shutdown. 

44 minutes ago, chromered7 said:

What deck are you on and are you happy with the cabin?

We are on deck 12, in a corner aft cabin. We both agree that this is the best cabin that we have ever had on any cruise. Directly below the buffet on deck 14, but we have had very little noise from above. No noise at all from outside the cabin. We would book this cabin again without hesitation. We already have booked the same location on the Beyond for next January. Will be interesting to compare the two SS1 cabins. Although we are considering moving forward to be closer to the main Retreat locations. Anyone that has been on an Edge class ship that can offer a comparison would be appreciated. 

Even though the Reflection has not been updated, all suite related items are still called "The Retreat" for the most part. I guess that Celebrity is trying to make all ships equal at least to a degree.

9 minutes ago, sfcsu said:

How is the live music?   Tbh, I like a piano bar or live music best.  I loved the cruises where they had music at the back bar behind the buffet.

Sorry cannot able to fairly comment on the types of entertainment that you mentioned; not our thing.

There is a very good 6 member band in the main theater that has played backup every night. 

9 hours ago, sfcsu said:

That's annoying.   We always eat late dinner.   We sometimes end up closing the dining room!  Are they any good?  I may never get to a show. 

The other posters are both correct. The Reflection sailing now only has 841 passengers (per the Cruise Director). With so few passengers even one show has very small crowds. We feel sorry for the performers to have to play to a nearly empty theater; very difficult to get the small and scattered audience fired up. 

The CD has managed to have different shows each of our 10 evenings. A few hits and misses, but considering what has to be a limited entertainment budget the majority of the shows have been good. 

4 hours ago, coconut1 said:

Are there shows in the theater at 7:00 and 9:00 each night?  Some people have said there are 2 shows a night, but others are saying only a 9:00 show.  Thank you.

I am on the Reflection also and there is one show in the main theater and it is at 9 PM each night.