SRQbeachgirl

Our cabin is right next to the library. I've already been checking out titles for when I'm finished with the two books I brought with me. 🤣

On Reflection now and the Martini Bar was open as soon as we boarded.

DH and I boarded the Reflection today for our first Celebrity cruise. If first impressions are anything to go by, we're going to have a very happy week. We boarded shortly after 11am and have already had lunch and explored the entire ship (even played ping pong). So far we have not seen a single kid. Not one. And no herds of family reunions with matching t-shirts. No yelling at Uncle Bob across the room. No teenagers jumping lines at the buffet (actually, no lines for anyone to jump). No massive 20-something year old groups already clogging up the hot tubs. No "bump and grind" music blasting at ear-splitting levels on the Lido deck. I'm in heaven. Might have just found us a new cruise line if our first impressions hold true for the week.

We are driving to Ft. Lauderdale as I type this. Going to spend a couple nights at a beach resort (nevermind that we live 20 minutes from great beaches...). Just need to get away so badly after dealing with hurricane damage and the stress it's caused both at home and at work for the last 3.5 months. No phone, no email...aaahhhhh. Bliss!

We will be on the same cruise - our first with Celebrity as well. We have our wine ready to go!

We are doing this tour on Reflection next week. Does anyone know if you have to wear close-toed shoes? I normally don't pack any on cruises but will need to be sure to take some if it's required.

That $5 charge only kicks in on the third tail, so it's a comparative bargain.

We're leaving on our first Celebrity cruise next Sunday and I'm trying not to let the X threads put a damper on the single-digit dance I'm doing. If you're looking for the best experience Carnival has to offer, choose one of the new ships. The dining venues are top notch and the ships have so much to offer that you won't even notice any small cutbacks.

Years ago I thought I wanted to be a teacher so I went back to college on an Education track. One semester of student teaching 9th grade Biology cured me of that delusion. Bless all of you who take one for the team!

Aha - so you're the one responsible for us practically freezing to death at Christmas! Next time, come down in July when we're melting at 100F and bring some 80F weather with you.

I'm originally from North Texas. All our family still lives there. Maybe that's why we live in Florida now...🤣 It's supposed to get down to 39F here in south Florida tonight. Our weather forecast is being predicted by the likelihood of falling iguanas. 🦎

I would be more than happy to miss Nassau for a 50% FCC!

No, and I truly wasn't trying to say you should be fair about how you spend your money. You absolutely don't. You earned it and should enjoy it on whatever makes you happy. I had a really bad experience on Royal years ago and haven't sailed on them since, but it was a long time ago and probably isn't reflective of Royal today, so I don't tend to make comments about them. But that's just me. 🤷‍♀️ Ok, back to the topic at hand...it looks like the Celebrity app is still showing the kids 4 oz. filet for my cruise on the 22nd, so maybe they'll still have it! 🤞

Carnival is not the same line it was in 2001. They've changed, especially with their newer ships and the 7-day or longer itineraries. Your experience made you decide to swear off Carnival forever, and that's fine, but that experience was over two decades ago and is no longer representative of what they offer today. Also, it's not even remotely fair to place an Azamara or Oceania level of expectation on Carnival. That's not what Carnival is, and many, many cruisers are very happy about that. I'm hoping Celebrity is a step up just because I'm looking for a less active and more peaceful cruise this time, but I will still happily cruise Carnival because it's a good product at a good value.

It's not so much that the changes are being made, but rather how they're being made. Making all these changes at once with absolutely no advance notice--or no announcement at all--is a bad approach.

The two new ships, Mardi Gras and Celebration, are in a completely different category from the normal Carnival experience. They definitely upped their game with all the dining options on those ships.

Which is why I am still happy to board the Reflection next Sunday. 😁

We were hit hard. Our neighborhood has more tarped roofs than not. Our pool cage just got finished with repairs yesterday. Driving around town still looks like a war zone, though I will say the local cities and counties have done their darndest to get debris picked up. Just going to be a long, hard slog to something that feels back to normal.

Yeah, but Carnival is still serving filet and doesn't charge for a second lobster tail. Not a good look for X.

Since booking a second room is out of the question... We shared a room with our then-teenaged son (one teenager was enough for us!) and I highly recommend the following: Over-the-door organizer for all the toiletries. It's amazing how much stuff teenage boys use to get ready these days and this will be worth every penny to keep everything from being cluttered all over the bathroom. A cheap shower curtain and magnetic hooks. Use the hooks to hang the shower curtain between the closet area and the rest of the room. This allows someone to dress in the closet area without being seen by anyone else in the room. Also enables you to keep the bathroom door open after a shower so you don't suffocate with all that heat and steam. Yu can also use this idea to hang between the bed main bed and the teenager's beds (if the ship doesn't have a divider already). Make use of the spa showers when everyone needs to get ready at the same time. Use the empty suitcases to store dirty clothes under the bed out of the way instead of the boys throwing everything on the floor, in the corners, in the bottom of the closet...(bring some empty trash bags for this - those teenage boys' clothes get stinky and the bags will help keep the odor from permanently soaking into the suitcase liner. Good luck!!!

That storm front came through here yesterday (southwest Florida) and it's still pretty windy today. Our roofing company came this morning to re-secure the tarps on our roof (the roof needs to be replaced due to Hurricane Ian and the clay tiles will take another two months to arrive), and then an hour after the guy left the tarp came undone and is now flopping around up there again. 🤦‍♀️

With our first Celebrity cruise coming up next Sunday, it's pretty disappointing to see that these new changes mean that Carnival has better options than we will get in the MDR on X: sea bass, mahi mahi, filet every night (it's an upcharge most nights on Carnival but at least it's available), and on Carnival they don't charge extra on lobster night until the third tail! Between the new MDR menus and the changes to the OVC, this is not the experience we were hoping for or expecting on our first X cruise. Might be the last, too...

We were in an aft balcony on deck 10 of the Mardi Gras and did not have any soot.

At Mahogany Bay just get off the ship and either walk or take the chair lift to the cruise line's private beach. You can get packages through Carnival's shore excursions or just rent a couple of chairs once you get over there. We rented one of the VIP cabanas on the far end of the beach and it was amazing. Very private, good snorkeling on the other side of the pier, and great drink and food service.

I'll be on one of those slanted balconies on Reflection in 11 days!