espmass

I realize there are quite a few laundry posts so excuse me but here goes anyway since the posts don't seem recent. I am just looking for very simple answers. I'm not in a suite and am Select only.

1. Can a bag of laundry be sent out at any time for just wash and fold?

2. Is it just the smallish bag that usually hangs in the closet or do they give you a bigger one?

3. How much does it cost without any specials?

4. How long does it usually take to get returned?

Thank you so very much for any information.

Yes, I'm talking Celebrity. On past Celebrity cruises, I was able to purchase a package of something like 6 large bottles. On a Princess cruise a week ago I was able to purchase a case of 12 smaller bottles which is better of course. If Celebrity no longer offers it I will drag a case on with me but pre-purchase is much easier.

In the past I was able to purchase a number of individual bottles of water to be delivered to our cabin. Much easier than bringing on my own case. While I realize the water on the ship is fine, this is easier for use in the gym every day. I am not interested in a water package at $16 a day. Am I missing it on the new website or is it no longer available? Also, is there a place on the website to order distilled water for the cabin for a CPAP machine? Can't find that either with the new website. Thanks for all help.

We drove the golf cart through the Donkey Sanctuary. The donkeys walked along with us sticking their heads into our laps looking for food. The donkeys are very aggressive especially when you buy a bag of carrots to feed them. At one point there were so many around us that we speeded up and they proceeded to run along with us to stay with their heads in the cart.

Just back yesterday from the Royal and rented a cart from Bonaire Cruisers. It was fabulous! We'll be back there in February and plan to do it again. The cart rental was $90 plus a $100 refundable deposit. They gave us a great map which we followed to see the island and some of the sights. The Donkey Sanctuary was a highlight. Very interesting and fun to drive through. We did also see a few wild donkeys in the fields. We stopped at Soronbon (spell?) Beach which is beautiful. The drive around the island also enabled us to see the Salt hills, flamingos in the wild, and beautiful shorelines. We did not take the entire North route as we were on limited time and will be back to do it.

Thanks so much. Looking forward to seeing the island as it's one of the few we haven't been to yet. The golf carts sound like a great way to see things.

How many hours did it take you to see all that you wanted to see? We have a cart reserved for our stop there in two weeks but we are only in port 12 to 7. Knowing we most likely won't get off and get the cart until on and would want to be back by 5 or 6, do we have enough time to see enough things? Thanks.

Hate to sound ignorant but what is a Mardi Gras cruise? Just one that cruises during Mardi Gras with maybe specific parties or something else?

By asking who the large groups are, do you mean ask Celebrity? I booked that cruise fairly recently and am also wondering why so full so soon.

Does anyone know about how far in advance of a cruise they usually open it to make advance reservations for the first night in Select Dining? Thanks.

OK I understand it now. Thanks for all the help. Now if I can just get us off being wait listed for Select Dining I'll be all set.

Thanks. Got the individual prices. Can't get info from cruise planner because the site isn't behaving for my cruise and I continue to get the message that I have no reservation even though it shows. Still just wondering how the packages of 3-4-5 etc restaurants works.

I'm returning to Celebrity after a few years on a different line. I see that Celebrity now has some Specialty Dining packages where I can pre-purchase packages of 3 to 5 or more restaurants. Maybe I'm just missing something, but I'm having trouble understanding how it works because when I bring it up on my reservation it shows "starting at $103.00" or "starting at $149", etc. So what's the deal? How do I get the actual price? Do I choose which restaurants and that determines the price? Also, what are the current individual prices of the Specialty restaurants? I'll be on the Reflection. Thanks for any help.

Your photos are wonderful! Thanks so much for posting them. I board 1/29 and already feel like I know my way around the ship just by viewing your pictures.

Well, I certainly could not get the $100 credit. After numerous calls back and forth between Amex and Princess (each one blaming the other), I was finally informed by Amex that the offer appeared on cards for possibly one day and if we didn't click on to accept the offer to our account that day, that we lost it. We get those "freebies" all the time for stores and restaurants etc. and they usually appear for a few weeks at a time but the rep said this one was extremely limited. I find it then hard to believe that many of you fellow cruisers are able to open new cards and this credit immediately. Either Amex is lying to me (surprise, surprise) or I'm doing something wrong. Can anyone help? It's only $100 but it's the principle of the thing.

I didn't realize anyone ever criticized people who wear their cards on lanyards. I have always done that because then I don't have to wonder where I left it and don't have to worry about carrying a purse or wearing something with pockets. If I don't want it to show I simply tuck it inside my top.

Thanks for the replies. We'll hope the ship's arrival goes smoothly and go ahead and book the same flight home as our friends.

I never book an early flight home for fear of unexpected delays in the ship's arrival and clearance. However, the people we're traveling with went ahead and booked a 10AM flight home out of Fort Lauderdale without first checking with us and the change fee is very high. Royal is due in at 6AM and it's the only ship in port that day. Doing self debarkation and all four of us have priority boarding and pre-check. Unexpected delays of ship aside, think we'll make it??

Absolutely right. A sign would have cleared up 95% of the confusion!

Yes, they did hand out pagers at ATD. We never needed one as we had reservations, walked up to the reception stand at 7:30 and were seated. I assume the pagers were for people who did not have reservations. I did overhear a man one night complaining very loudly that he had a reservation but still was made to wait but I don't know what his story was. Actually one night they lost our reservation but still seated us when we told them we had made one.

The airlines are always such a joy!

We did the Crab Shack twice on last week's cruise on the Island and loved it. Great food and they offered more when my hubby asked for some. Well worth the $20 cover. On our cruise they had a table set up in the hallway outside the Horizon Court with a sample of the bowls of crabs and a waiter there taking reservations or we could simply call dining services. They offered it three times on our 10 day cruise.

I'm not sure there is a good way to handle the unfortunate death. Basically the captain made an announcement that the departure from Colon would be delayed. I don't recall if he first mentioned a death. When we stayed a bit longer he eventually did make the announcement that there had been a death of a crew member and that we were being kept until the authorities finished their investigation. They refunded the port fees for Costa Rica and gave each passenger a $100 ship board credit. Since they don't have to give credit for missing a port I was pleased. We have since heard that the crew member's death was a suicide.

We did do ATD. They do need to organize a bit better. The first night was a disaster with people waiting in long lines. I'd say we waited maybe 20 minutes at 7:30 so it wasn't all that bad. By the second night they took reservations and we made one each morning for 7:30 and never had to wait. You can call starting at 8AM each day. There are two doors; one for people with reservations and one for people without. No signs though and people in line blocking people trying to get out. Very confusing.

After so many negative reviews I had been very worried about taking the Island Princess. To my surprise it was fine. Better than fine. I'm not hard to please and as long as I'm being fed and someone is making my bed, I'm happy on a ship. Sure there was some wear and tear of the ship but it didn't ruin my vacation in any way. They had probably the nicest crew of any ship I have been on. So just to reassure anyone concerned about the bad reviews, relax and look forward to the ship.

Not sure if this is fleet-wide or just Island Princess which we just got off of, but aside from drink packages they had "Happy Hour" twice a day where drinks were buy one, get one for $1.00. The times were 5:30 to 6:30 and 10:30 to 11:30. We're not big drinkers so we didn't purchase a package and the specials were fine for us.

Just back last night from our Island princess cruise. In Cartagena I had arranged to take a tour through Dora. It was wonderful. Her cost depends on the number of people. We had the maximum of 10 (located on our roll call) so the cost was $65 per person. I think that's pretty close to what the ship's excursion would have cost but it was much nicer with a group of 10 where we had personal attention and could hear everything our guide was saying as opposed to being herded around with a group of 25 or more people. The van easily held the 10 of us comfortably and the much needed air conditioning worked great. They were waiting for us right at the end of the dock as they told us they would be. Our guide was JC and he was as pleasant as can be. We saw everything we wanted to see from the streets to the monastery to the dungeons to the fort and then some. We did not climb the fort since nobody other than me wanted to, so instead JC took us to see more of the city and we walked around quite a bit. Cartagena is a beautiful city with a lot to see and we all felt totally safe and secure on the tour. I highly recommend Dora's tours to anyone going. She can be contacted at dora@cartagenatour.com