sammyreddog

Good morning!  This is just a question, but...

We have an Alaskan cruise booked this summer.  We had wanted an aft stateroom when we booked several months ago, but the only one available was accessible.  The cruise date is nearing and as I continue to look at available staterooms, that one continues to show availability.  We personally don't care if it has a roll in shower...we would love to have the aft balcony.  Will Celebrity allow us to move to the cabin if we do not need an accessible cabin or is it being held open in case someone who needs it wants to book it?  We are certainly not looking to take the stateroom away from someone who needs it, but every website offers it as available in the C2 category (which is what we currently have booked).  If they did let us switch, would we be at risk of being moved should it be needed later?  Thank you all in advance. 

Safe to assume that RCCL has removed all the romaine from their US based ships?

Allure! Allure! Allure!  I've been on all except Symphony (next week) but Allure had the BEST entertainment.  Mamma Mia is amazing and Blue Planet is the best show I've ever seen.  Trust me...Allure!!!

You're right, its awful.  Happy to take it off your hands.  Let me know...

LOL...didn't mean to start a brawl!  I'll be disembarking in Miami in 2 weeks and flying out of FLL to get home.  I'll post what we are given.  Thanks everyone!

I'm hoping that is the case, but the last posting I saw on CC about this only had LV being available if you flew out of MIA. 

On 9/25/2018 at 4:21 AM, island284 said:

It is my understanding the PINEAPPLE is an indication someone has attained Pinnacle Status on the ships.

Those are the ones you would want to swing with....they get great perks! 

7 minutes ago, JezzaC said:

I have had package twice and haven't had issues with the times I wanted for restaurants. I also booked lunches at the same time  - but have to say the restaurants were all pretty empty during lunch so I wouldn't say those are mandatory in that sense. You can book those as well on board if you want to. For a la carte restaurants you receive 30USD credit per meal.

Thank you!

Sailing soon on Symphony.  Two questions:

• Has anyone had difficulty making reservations at any of the specialty restaurants once on board (because you can't do it beforehand with the UDP)?
  • if yes, which restaurants were the most difficult to reserve?
• Do you need to make reservations to go at lunch?
• How does the UDP work a the a Lacarte  venues like Playmakers and Izumi?

Thanks all!

We are big fans of the martini bars on Celebrity (good drinks, great entertainment).  I don't see a dedicated "martini bar" on Symphony.  Can anyone say what would be the closest?

7 hours ago, BigRoger said:

Hi folks, this post is a bit long but I hope its helpful to at least someone. If anyone wants any specific queries or details of aspects please shout and we'll do our best.

 

I post this because members of the community were good enough to spare their time to give views and perspectives when I asked a few months ago regarding the beverage package. I thought it only fair to reciprocate with our post game review thoughts.

 

We decided to buy both package - the ultimate dining and the deluxe beverage package.... RCL could join them together in cruise planner under the heading of 'ultimate blow out package'....

 

Rationale for Buying

Dining

1. We love Chops, we'd never done 150CP in 35 cruises and mostly wanted to try Hooked (wow).

2. The clincher was the ability to use the package on both sea days and boarding day - no scrum at the Windjammer this time!

3. We could also use the package at Playmakers, as well as JR

 

Beverage

1. Deliberate intention to have maximum flexibility.

2. We knew the Diamond Lounges would be a nightmare and wanted to stay away.

3. We had become a bit slavish to the Diamond lounge and free drinks (with little choice in the 3 free)

4. We don't drink much at home (honestly no more than 1-2 glasses of wine 3-4 days a week) BUT its vacation time and we do drink on cruises!!! (Particularly TAs).

5. 3 of our last 4 cruises were all-inclusive (Celebrity and MSC) and we did enjoy the 'why not..' flexibility.

 

Results

Dining

1. C&A threw a bit of a spanner into our plans by allocating Chops to the Pineapples for lunch - this did impact a bit re ability to move around the restaurants at different times of the day.

2. Overall we loved the ability to go to lunch and dinner in the gorgeous Central Park each day, to great restaurants and atmosphere. The food was pretty much spot on each time.

3. BUT-  it was a lot of food..... we deliberately ate little for breakfast and pretty much never had desert or bread at lunch or dinner (except the totally awesome 'cheese biscuits with garlic butter' at Hooked).

4. AND - we became too regimented with our dining times and the slavish routine of lunch at 12.30pm, then dinner at 7.30pm (or thereabouts). It was a bit too repetitive.

5. AND - we probably tried to get to much value from the package (we ended up not doing the full 12 dinner and 10 lunches as it became we became a bit fed up with filet mignon/ tender loin for the 6th, 7th, 8th time... first world problems I recognise!). But we did need a break once in a while.  

6. It totally paid for itself though and the enjoyment was overall excellent.

 

Restaurants

1. Jamie's - loved it. The meat plank and the garlic shrimp linguini were just awesome. (9 out of 10)

2. Chops - overall loved it but was a bit inconsistent. Was crazy on first night as everyone tried to use C&A BOGOs and service and food suffered a bit (understandably) but later in the cruise it just got better and better. The cooking of the steak was also a bit inconsistent though - it was never the same twice even though we ordered the same degree of cooked each time. (We had 7 dinners there so we could tell!) On occasion the sides were also a bit luke warm. (9 out of 10)

3. 150CP - got to say it didn't really do it for us. The food was very good (tenderloin better than chops filet) but the service was average and ambiance not great. One night we chose to complain and the host was very defensive and simply wanted to buy us off with a return visit for free or a bottle of wine sent to the room.... clearly with the 'blow out package' we wanted neither and only when he realised we were not 'after' anything did he start to take our points seriously. (We did go back and it was better but it definitely was not a fine dining experience). (6/10)

4. Playmakers - good solid bar food in huge quantities. Definitely a sharing experience but a bit of a question why pay for food that you can pretty much get elsewhere on the ship for free. Having said that the burger was excellent. (7/10)

5. BEST OF ALL  - HOOKED - just a total wow experience. We loved everything about this restaurant - we went so many times we could review everything on the menu! But safe to say it is all fantastic with great friendly service too.ps they also had the best white wine on the ship Paco & Lola Albarino... simply gorgeous. (12 out of10)

 

Learning for next time (and there will be with the package).... take a more flexible approach to timings and don't be afraid to take a break from speciality dining during the cruise... you get enough value anyway! (top quality beef for 9 dinners is a wee bit heavy... yes 1st world problems again). 

 

Beverage Package

1. We loved the flexibility - what we wanted, when we wanted, where we wanted.... no hassles.

2. We avoided the diamond lounges! and felt liberated to avoid the crowds.

3. We drank a lot.... but over a very long period of time each day.

4. We never felt 'more than happy' once all cruise (really honestly) - this might be because the measures for spirits seemed a lot smaller than on previous cruises. Maybe bartenders were more generous to pay as you go but for us they were small measures. (Only the pool bar was more generous incidentally).

5. Unlimited water bottles were a god send.

6. Overall we reckoned we spent around $350-$400 a day (at RCL on board prices) on the combination of soft and alcoholic drinks..... we certainly got value from the package....

7. Clearly we were drinking 'because we could' but the benefits for us of the flexibility were great.

 

A typical day for us (and don't judge us if you happen to have a different perspective yourself!) was as below: (below are for each of us, so double for us both)

- smoothie from Vitality café x1

- fresh squeezed juice x1

- pre-lunch vodka and coke x 2

- morning soda can x 1

- lunch white wine x3

- pre-dinner G&T/ cocktail x2

- Dinner red wine x3

- speciality coffee x1

- evening vodka/ coke, baileys, Kahlua x2

- water bottles over day and cabin x6

(confession for me alone add 1x pre-lunch V&C, 1x white wine, 1x G&T and 1x red wine - do not judge me its medical! and we genuinely were never remotely drunk... well from what  can remember....some of it might be a touch hazy... joking!).Overall the drinks package is expensive but definitely worth it!   

 

General

Just a few observations re the Sy TA overall:

 

1. Thank you to all posting and engaging with their plans from up to 19 months before, adventures pre boarding and all wider thoughts and fun posted on the facebook page and the CC roll call and wider RC board. You made it a very special and exciting build up and the cruise did not disappoint! We literally 'bought the Tshirt' and wore it with pride on boarding day.

2. Thanks to all on board for the energy and fun - so much better than the Anthem crossing in 2015 at the same time - dull in comparison.

3. As to the cruise - ship fab, crew fab, captain fab, shows fab.... you get the picture - we loved it.

4. Didn't mind the immigration stuff at PC - would have delayed everything by hours at Miami and you would have had both disembarking and next set of passengers all at the terminal together... it was chaos enough outside. RCL played fair with the free shuttles if people chose to use them.

5. Thanks to twangster - we were on board and followed his review each day - we loved it.

6. We did see some bad behaviour - entitled people 'do this for me...now', some barging to get off buses or jump queues, some poor bullying to get tables at speciality restaurants when people had no reservations (including a situation of one getting the restaurant manager to instruct the restaurant to give them a table - 'you are full, that's just BS...'  nice.

7. A special mention to the very brave guy who elbowed me in the head ordering his drinks at the Trellis bar and who after I had admonished him for doing this, then repeated the action and had the nerve to want to clink his miller lite bottle with my glass once I 'had words' again.... given I'm much younger 6ft 2 and 215lbs (I was 10lbs lighter at the start of the cruise - see dining package comments) with a tight end/ rugby player physique he was very brave... even the very excellent Dev the bar supervisor for the trellis bar apologised to me about it when he didn't do anything... the guy just seemed to think it was fine... he had his Miller!

8. Bobby (we have not historically been his biggest fans) did a great job.

 

Overall it was a brilliant cruise.

 

PS we loved Alex Miles - mad as a hatter but so friendly and talented with it. If you didn't get to see her you missed out. (She is now on Serenade).  

 

Hope its of some use! (Currently trying to persuade for another round in January/ February for the superbowl....).

 

Big Roger

 

    

Hi Roger:

Did you have any problems getting reservations in the specialty restaurants with the UDP?

6 hours ago, romesauce said:

Thank you for your UDP review! We're planning on buying it for our sailing on Symphony in December. I do have a question. Was the UDP available for purchase on the ship on Day 1? We have a lot of OBC that we thought we could use towards the plan but I can only use this OBC on board and not before the sailing.

Hi Rome:

We are leaving next week and had OBC that wasn't going to be applied until boarding (from RC credit card points).   I called RC and they told me that the type of OBC we had would  refunded if we didn't use it all, so we went ahead and ordered the UDP using the cruise planner.  That way we got double points for using our RC card, and if we don't us the OBC during our cruise, we will get a refund anyway.  Have fun!

Barb in GA nailed it.  I've been on Quantum, Anthem, Oasis and Allure (x2) and leaving for Symphony soon.  Allure has been my hands down favorite.

On 11/1/2018 at 1:02 AM, barb in ga said:

We did both this year: Anthem in May, and Symphony in September.  We have sailed all 4 Oasis class ships, which are by far our favorites. Anthem is a beautiful ship, but we did not care for the entertainment as much as Oasis class.

 

MTDining was not enjoyable for us: we waited a long time for seating,  then felt rushed once seated, leading us to eat in Windjammer several nights.

 

The public areas are beautiful, especially 270, but I missed the Royal Promenade.

 

Barb

I'm D+ and was going to wait and do the 30% off, but I don't know if that means I have to pay a port tax in Miami or wait until we are out to sea.  So I went with the 25% and got it for $47/pp.  Not great, but at least I can start drinking for "free" as soon as I board!

How about "reserving" using towels doesn't count. There's a little light on each chair which you can switch on after which it stays on for half an hour. That's your reservation, plenty of time for a visit to the cabin, pool or bar.

 

All the crew needs to do is remove stuff from chairs with the light off. Very simple rules, no discussion possible.

I like it! Or maybe a coin slot like a parking meter! :)

I’m usually up and on a sunbed by 8 reading enjoying a quiet time. Husband follows on when he is ready. We have breakfast etc but never leave he lounger for longer than 45 mins or so. Of course if we have plans for the day we take pot luck. We are on the Reflection on 2/4 and can’t wait. We have only once been on a 2 nighters cruise from our home port of Southampton Uk.We like to make the most of the sunshine when we can. Have been thinking of a good place to sit/ lay and thought deck above pool. Not far to go if I need a dip to cool down !! Wherever you go in the world you always find sun bed hogging!. Thomas Cook announced today they are introducing a new scheme in some of their resorts. You can pre book a sunbed for the duration of you holiday and can choose where you want it ( limited availability) The cost 25 euros. !!!!!

Hi Alison:

Are you sure about your sail date/ship? We are on the Reflection as well but we don't leave until 2/9....

Just off a recent 4 n cruise on Equinox. I have sailed Celebrity 5 other times. The last two on Silly and Constellation and thier was slow bar service then as well. I have no problem waiting my turn but it always seems at The Martini Bar there is always a wait at prime times around dinner or when shows let out.

People on this cruise were noticing how long it took to get the bartenders attention and would just walk away.

If they would add 1 or 2 more steady bartenders i feel that would help.

Celebrity sells the Drink Packages and then doesnt have enough staff to make it an enjoyable time.

When we are cruising with a drink package, I generally scope out a bartender at our favorite spots, ask him/her if that is their "regular" bar and then drop a $20 bill with the first round of drinks. Take care of them a few other times during the cruise as well. I have never had a problem getting a drink!

I believe what they were saying was that embarkation was faster and they could go directly to their staterooms because there were no passengers disembarking as the ship just came out of dry dock.

We were on the January 2 sailing of Reflection. We saw electricians replacing large cables in the ceilings of one corridor. The last day we saw workers bringing stacks of packages that looked like tiles to a conference room. I had the idea work was going on during much of the cruise, but it was pretty much behind the scenes, maybe at night. I know from other pre-dry dock cruises we have sailed that the work doesn't wait for the dry dock. Much of the prep work begins before the ship even arrives at the dry dock.

 

We are returning to Reflection in a month for the Mardi Gras cruise. I will be eager to see what actually did happen, if it is even noticeable at all.

See you there!

I have never understood why people think birthdays are such a big deal. We all get born. Maybe moms should get something on their child's birthday...THEY did something worth commemorating!

Thank you!

OK -- we are back from our Mardi Gras cruise and had a blast!!

Prices came down quite a bit -- probably due to all the negative news about Mardi Gras. We were cautioned until we were blue (and maybe that was a good thing) but at no time did we feel unsafe at any point in time. We walked in pairs or a group of 4 to most places. I would not describe it as mayhem or raunchy in the very least. I am sure there are areas around that were like this (as some have warned) but we didn't experience it. We were also warned to take a pair of disposable shoes. The worst thing we ran into was little bits of horse droppings from the parades and that was easy to avoid. From what we noticed, there were a couple of women in the grandstands on Lundi Gras that painted their torso with sparkly paint and one on Bourbon St on Mardi Gras. We were told they really tried to clean it up and from our experience, they have. Once off Bourbon St, while walking down to Jackson Sq, we saw a lot of families on the side streets, some with kids in strollers. We shared our beads with the kiddies, other people shared their unopened beer / waters and even stood in a not too long line to pick up some Cafe Du Monde beignets (sp?) before heading back to the ship in the early evening.

The ship did spend sufficient time in the port and we did hit it during the heart of Mardi Gras. By Tuesday afternoon, they were cleaning up the streets after the parades. There were a lot of beads and empty bead bags. I didn't run into anything disgusting in the streets. Celebrity could have done a few things better -- these would be my suggestions:

 

-More Mardi Gras themed decoration and food choices onboard

-During the New Orleans talks (we may have missed one), let passengers know about the red line that is right at Julia Street and takes you into the French Quarter

-Charge less for the grandstands (the cost, which included transportation -- 1 mile each way) ran $249 pp. We had the same seating but no goodie bag for $30 pp for the Monday parades and $65 for the Fat Tuesday parades (we only went to the Monday parades). So, as you can well imagine, the people that paid more than 8 times as much were very annoyed. I could see $80, but $249 - rip off!!

-Disembarkation when first arriving in New Orleans -- they gave us each a number but then didn't end up using them and let people disembark nilly willy. We waited our turn, not knowing it was a free for all and waited an extra 4 hours to get off the ship. :(

-Work on the re-embarkment procedures in New Orleans - there was a long line every time and you had to stoop way down not to hit your head getting back onto the ship. It was not well planned out.

 

Now that I have done Mardi Gras, I wouldn't have to go back and do it again but it really, really was fun and wouldn't hesitate to recommend the one next year on the Reflection for others. I am sure you do need to be cautious, and we were, but didn't feel it was anymore dangerous than walking in downtown San Francisco.

We joined a group that rented a balcony on Bourbon Street for Fat Tuesday which included food and drink. It was a little pricey and the balcony was a bit small for the number of people that joined in, but it still was a solid plan. The food was just so so, though ... drinks were good once they got it set up properly. Others paid for a different event on St Charles St and were very disappointed ... both those events and ours were booked through our roll call and not through Celebrity.

If you like to gamble, Harrahs is right there on your way to the French Quarter and it wasn't that crowded. If you wanted to eat at a great restaurant, know that you should probably have reservations ahead of time and keep in mind that many things (the Riverwalk Mall, the WWII museum, many shops and restaurants) will be closed on Fat Tuesday ... it is a holiday for them. The transportation may also be limited, especially along the parade routes....especially on Mardi Gras day. I did learn that some of the pedicabs were without charge. Don't quote me on it ... I didn't use one but that would have been fun and my feeties were quite tired with all that walking....LOTS and LOTS of walking but flat and everything was really within a couple of miles or less.

Please don't hesitate to ask away if you have questions ... or even read our roll call but it is on two separate threads with over 10K posts. It has a wealth of information, though!

Thank you for that info! How would one go about getting the bleacher seating without going through the cruise line?

Hi!

Booked on Reflection in 2018. Upgraded to Premium beverage package. Question is that it says it includes drinks up to $13, but the martini menus I have seen on line have most of the martinis at $15+. Also, at the mixology bar, I recall that those drinks were more expensive. Anyone know if the drinks at the martini bar and mixology bar will be included? TIA

I believe the main purpose of the time limit is more to prevent "sharing" packages...I hope that isn't what the OP is contemplating...

We tried MTD for the first time on our recent Allure cruise....actually we originally had early seating, but due a lousy table assignment, our itinerary, and shows we asked the suite concierge to change us to MTD. First night we ate in CK...was good. Second night MTD...a zoo. Third night Giovannis...dinner over and done in 60 minutes...good. Night 4, MTD....large table, good company....2.5 hours for dinner....a dinner, mind you, that is not prepared to order. Complete circus. After that, CK and 150 Park for the remainder of the trip. We will not be trying MTD on a large ship again!