monicajay

On our recent Reflection cruise we saw no men in the dining room wearing shorts (we look because my DH would prefer to wear shorts and I have to continually remind him he can't). We did however see some women in shorts but they were almost skirt like and were very 'chic' and worn with high heals and beautiful tops. My husband reminded me that I no longer have legs like that so I shouldn't try that look. ;)

If you could call shorts elegant, these certainly were!

Thank you so much for your speedy reply. We are going to upgrade :D:D

If you do it on the ship, both people don't have to upgrade. It might be worth seeing if what you like to drink is covered. On our first two Celebrity cruises we both upgraded as soon as we boarded thinking it would be just easier not to have to worry about what was covered and what wasn't.

During the second cruise we started to notice that everything my DH drank was covered on the classic so on our most recent cruise, I upgraded, he didn't. This worked fine and saved us a bit of money.

Found it a tad chilly getting on Feb. 29th but once wet it was very comfortable.

It seems that Celebrity has followed the lead of NCL and rather than reduce fares, upsells those already booked and then they can dump the left over low end cabins as interior guarantees.

It works better than dropping fares.

We always do our own ship tour on each new ship. We start on the lowest deck, tour the deck from one end to the other, then go up a deck. Yes, we walk by lots of cabins but I find it really helps me get my bearings to do the whole deck.

Plus, sometimes we find cool things along the way.

 

We strongly encourage reservations to ensure the best service and to avoid any potential wait times.

It may be strongly encouraged but I'm happy we don't have to. I would be very disappointed and likely stop picking Celebrity if I had to have a reservation with Select dinning.

From our experience (only 3 cruises on Celebrity) we were seated just as quickly without reservations as those that had made them.

We couldn't even find a true beach bar other than Margaritaville.

Went to the beach, then went to a bar on the main street. John Crow's Tavern, they had a steel drum player, cold beer and good jerk chicken.

I have not seen a beach bar tour but you might want to contact a private tour operator and they could organize something for you.

i expect it would be busy the first few cruises/months, etc. it's new, anyone who really loves sushi would want to try it. bistro was a concept people already know. i'm sure IT was busier when it was new as well. once word gets out about sushi on 5 and most people have tried it, it will either be successful or not. but i suspect it's mainly busy now because people are curious.

I think that with 3000 passengers on each Reflection sailing there will always be a group who will be new and want to eat sushi as long as the quality stays high. If there is any decline in quality then word will get out and people will stop going.

Increasingly, people have large OBC and they are looking for ways to spend it.

Jeez, your underwear must be much bigger than mine :p. I travel with only carry on and still get daily underwear in my bag on a 7 night cruise along with a few nice cocktail dresses and some high heels.

I have washed 'littles' in the sink on longer cruises.

I bring a few clothes pegs and clip them to the balcony chairs. They are dry in a matter of hours if the sun is out.

We have never made reservations in advance on Celebrity or RCL. We arrive at the time that suits us and get seated relatively quickly.

I love not having a fixed dinning time.

Anne, at the door on the Reflection, preferred to come and find us at the Martini bar rather than giving us a pager.

Yeah, I'll be walking by, just like the Bistro, and see the place completely empty. :rolleyes:

You might be surprised. It was very busy every night (and the lunch I ate there) on our recent Reflection cruise.

Much busier than the Bistro was.

You can walk on by but I do believe that it will be much more successful than the Bistro ever was. Plus, they pull in way more money per person with this a la carte pricing.

We are continuing on to Amsterdam and flying back to YYZ with KLM for under $400 CAD.

 

Strangely, the "normal, non-Exciting Deal pricing for a Concierge Balcony (got an aft) included free grats, $150US pp OBC was cheaper on Monday than the Tuesday price. Throw in another $250 from our TA and free Z drinks and this deal was also fantastic.

Congratulations on getting such a great deal.

As I look at future pricing I find it has gotten ridiculously high and for the first time since we started cruising have no future cruise booked.

:rolleyes:

Not being retired, it would be hard to book last minute like this. Glad to see there are still deals though.

Looking forward to retirement.

Best wishes!

There will be three of us in the room. Will they bring a third lounger for us?

I have no idea on Celebrity but on MSC we had a sunset balcony and it took a bit of convincing with our cabin steward ($10) and he said they 'weren't supposed to' but an extra chair appeared. :D

I'm sure you can make this work.

Hi - We are cruising on Celebrity Reflection 25 April 2016. Wondering with the new dress codes how many men are actually still wearing formal dinner suits?

I think its sad they have have decided to downgrade the formal evenings. It is such a lovely and special thing to dress up for the evening and if you don't want to you are quite at liberty to go to the less formal buffet restaurants. Anyone been recently to give an opinion whether men are dressing up/or down??

Just got off Reflection on March 5th and my observation is as follows: 10% tuxes, 20% dark suites, 25% coat and tie, most of rest in very nice casual wear. Women were a lot dressier, cocktail dresses, nice sundresses, some longer dresses, nice dressy slacks and lots of sparkles, very few that were totally casual. We wore Tux and cocktail dress with my best heels and felt perfectly comfortable.

In fact, we thought it was much dressier than what we had read about on these boards. We did not see any shorts, T-shirts or flip-flops that night. (Yes, some thong sandals but with bling and looking chic)

I was pleasantly pleased at how nice everyone looked, not that it would make or break my evening. I did not see anyone in the dining room that looked terrible and I think the change will work out well for Celebrity.

I differ in opinion, you should not have to eat in the buffet just because you don't want to wear a jacket and tie.

Evening Chic rocked!!

Sounds perfect for us, thank you!

Glad to help as I'd had a hard time figuring this out myself.

Less stocked bar so less choices. Package with Celebrity worked fine.

We used Avis.

https://www.aviscayman.com/cruise-home/

They pick you up at a store just a few 100 feet from the port and they drive you back to the port. Cars are at the airport. Actually good because there is less traffic to deal with when leaving from the airport.

Don't forget in Grand Cayman cars drive on the left side of the road.

Take the all inclusive rate to make sure your insurance is fully covered. We usually decline but our liability excludes Grand Cayman so we took the package.

Enjoyed Rum Point and the drive there was easy. There is a gas station just before returning to the airport to fill up. Very important because they charge you an outrageous amount per gallon if it isn't full.

Yes, it is part of the new 'roaming' night club. Each night they pick a different location for late night dancing and club atmosphere. They do not have a dedicated disco like on some cruise lines.

After arriving at home from our Reflection cruise, I received in the mail luggage tags that I did not order. We travel only with carry-on so I never order them.

Sometimes I just don't get Celebrity. Good thing the ships are good because the IT never seems to get it right.

Yes!

We did this last week using the photos provided in post #5 from the following thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2042855

It cost $3 USD per person to enter the beach. We found it to be clean and relatively quiet. Chair rental was available for $5 per chair but we just used our towels and found a nice tree for partial shade.

The water was very calm so it was easy to get in the water. The bottom after about the first 15 feet was very mushy. I had to swim (or float) before getting to my waist because I didn't like the feel of it.

We were approached about purchasing drinks or getting braids. They were polite and not pushy at all. This was a very different experience from previous Jamaica visits.

The plastic clasp on my bikini top suddenly self destructed and I was not wanting to wear a T-shirt all day. I went and saw the braiding lady and she tied me back together using hair thread and charged me $1 .

After about 4 hours on the beach we left through the center gates and roamed around the streets of Ocho Rios. Nobody tried to sell us anything, no weed, no tours, no trinkets. I was so surprised as we have experienced aggressive vendors in this town before.

Stopped at a bar that had a steel drum player, John Crow's Tavern, and had a Red Stripe each and shared a plate of Jerk Chicken. Good Wifi.

Strolled back to the ship, looking in and out of a few stores.

All in all, a very enjoyable and cheap day. The only negative was the mooshy bottom at the beach.

Hope this helps.:)

That's the whole point! We shared one with another couple and it was fabulous!! You are away from the madhouse on the pool deck, you don't have to fight for loungers, you can go do other stuff and came back and it is sitting there waiting for you:) It is reserved from 9 to 9 and in the evenings they sometimes have Jazz concerts on the lawn, games during the day. I know some people that split the cost with 3 couples as no one spent the whole day there and it was a great place to meet up.

I do understand that for some they are a worthwhile rental. Just not my thing. I might have a different opinion if I was traveling with with 2 other couples and would be slitting the bill.

The point I was trying to make was that those interested might not want to wait to make arrangements was they were all booked everyday on our trip.

Also interesting that OP made up his mind to never sail X again before the trip even commenced. I can't imagine that it colored his perception of how he was being treated on this cruise.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=48822109&postcount=27

 

Posted on January 20th, 2016:

Bingo!

Seems the OP had made up his mind before this cruise.

If there had been a fire on my balcony you can be sure I'd have pictures to post. Still can't figure out what is flammable out there. A fire? hard to imagine unless the OP had left clothing or towels out there.

DON'T TELL about this!!!!!!!

 

It will get crowded now . . . .

 

Like.

And I didn't even mention my new favorite. Billy Bones Bar at the Treasure Cove....... nice swim up bar, I was the only cruiser last week when I was there.

Personally this is not something that would interest me at all. We would never spend all day in one place, that being said, they were sold out for the whole week on the Reflection last week.

We met some people who were disappointed because they thought they could book on board. Many had been booked for the whole week.

We enjoyed renting a jeep and driving out to Rum Point for a low-key day at a pretty beach.

We have also done this and found it an enjoyable day although hardly a secret.

Another time, we did a Caybrew brewery tour in the morning (got there and back by bus) and then walked from town to My Bar at Sunset House and swam in the ocean pool followed by a couple of Caybrews at the bar. Free good Wi-fi and we were the only cruisers there with 4 ships in port.