santa24

I was really excited to follow the OP’s review. I was enjoying her writing style but it looks like others have maybe taken over the review. I’m hoping she returns.

My husband prefers to wear a golf shirt, even on chic nights, and has never felt uncomfortable. There are generally quite a few men dressed the same.

We used it late May and purchased it prior to the cruise. $29 Canadian per person. Probably not the most economical and we waited about 10 min in line and then another 10-15 on the bus. They didn’t pre-sort as to who was flying international versus domestic until they sent us to one bus and then decided it was the wrong one for us. Finding a way to do that would make for a smoother flow.

Just got off the Equinox. Only safe time to go where you won’t have to wait is before 6:30 or after 7:45. Didn’t matter whether you wanted a small or large table, only a select few were seated without being sent away with a pager if you showed up between 6:30 and 7:30. First time we have ever encountered this on Celebrity.

 

 

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Thank you niccikatie and rain_bowbrite for your help.

 

Unfortunately double clicking wasn't the issue. I am working on a PC but I don't know if that is the issue.

 

So I once again unlocked it and this time put the figures in manually. That seemed to work for the most part. The only issue I had was that it was taking the OBC off a one person fare. Perhaps I was supposed to enter in the cruise cost for 2 people in the cruise fare section? Anyways, that is what I did and everything calculated out correctly, so all is good. Thanks for all the work you went to for this niccikatie! you've made it all a lot easier for many of us.

You know, one other person had that problem but they never wrote back if it resolved or not. I have the sheet locked to prevent inadvertent changing of the formulas or entering info where it doesn't belong. Try unlocking the sheet. The password is unlock.

 

Thanks so much for trying to help but inserting the password didn't make any difference. I had downloaded this without logging into drop box and when it didn't work, tried logging into drop box to download. Still no difference. I guess there must just be some setting on my computer or in Excel that just won't allow me to use the drop down boxes. The gratuities are set at Suite $17.00 and won't change; for the drink packages I can only right click and then with the option of 'pick from drop down list', I only can still go with Select One or Choose Bev Pkg here. I will keep looking to see if there is something I am missing, otherwise back to manually calculating. Thanks again for the help.

This would be great if I could get it to work. I was just calculating it out manually last week. Not sure if I am doing something wrong or missing something somewhere. I downloaded it to my computer but none of the drop down boxes work for me. I can input information in the appropriate boxes but no drop downs. Any ideas?

SHIP: Reflection

CABIN #: 8267

DECK #: 8

CLASS: 1B Standard Balcony

AREA: mid ship on flat of the hump

BED NEAR: bath

QUIET?: yes

BALCONY VIEW: excellent

BALCONY SIZE: slightly deeper than other standard balconies we have had

WIND A PROBLEM?:no

SOOT A PROBLEM?:no

PROBLEMS/COMMENTS: There is a connecting door on this cabin.Unlike other S class ships, the connecting door is on the interior cabin wall. Occasional sounds from neighbour. No noise from elevators, not much foot traffic.

Just an FYI. We have the Colosseum underground tour booked on one of our days before we get on our ship. Due to increased security measures, they advise you to be there an hour in advance of your ticket time.

I reaize they are more costly but my wife has a fear that if we dont book through celebrity and get stuck in traffic and late they will take off without us.

Thoughts??

While what your wife says is very true, these tour companies will not want you to be late back to port. Their reputation would suffer, hence their income! If you go with one highly recommended by others on here, they will do everything within their power to get you back in time. We have used Calabaza three times and recommend them to everyone. We have also used Thenford Grey and were extremely happy with him as well. The others mentioned here, we haven't used. We generally book with private tours unless we have a short port time. After a few ship excursions where we felt like cattle we decided to take our chances and have never regretted it....well, maybe once we were concerned when we let someone else pick a lesser known guide and we ran later but still back in time. We are usually back with enough time to wander port shops.

As far as recommending ship excursions, the ones we have used in these ports were in St Thomas. The champagne catamaran was good the first time we used it, the second time it was packed full and not so much fun. Luck of the draw I guess. We have also done the St. John's on your own where they get you to the island and then you can take a shuttle to the beach, meeting them back at the ferry dock at the designated time. Kind of "semi" on your own.

I generally phone them to do this. $10.00 + 18% gratuity (11.80) per person per day. I didn't know there was an option to do this online. The other alternative is to do the upgrade on board if you want to use OBC. In that case they put a sticker on your card that indicates premium package.

I'm not sure this is any more than a random invitation. We were invited in Feb. 2015 when we were leaving Dominica. We weren't suite or elite at that time, however we were doing a B2B. Another couple we spoke with on the helipad were sailing for their first time. A selection of beverages and appetizers were served. Quite a unique experience but you are turned away if wearing open toe shoes so be prepared.

As an update, the tour company we are using doesn't believe we will be tendering, perhaps from experience. They are an often used company so will have been at the port frequently. So, we'll go with the time they suggest. It's a private tour so she says the guide will wait for us anyway.

Our ship, Celebrity Reflection, is supposed to be tendering in Kusadasi on our Sept 19 voyage. I don't see this on other cruise dates but wondering if anyone else has tendered there before on Celebrity. There are 3 ships in port according to Cruise TT although one will have been overnight and is supposed to leave at 8am. We dock/tender at 7am and I am trying to arrange a private tour. Just trying to ballpark a meet time with the tour provider. If you have tendered there yourself with Celebrity, I would be interested to hear how long it took for you to be ashore.

Hopefully I can help as we were on this cruise in February and stayed at the Sheraton OSJ as well.

1. If my memory serves me right it was deck 5...nope checked the deck plan and I believe poffles is correct, it was deck 4

2. Pretty sure taxi ride was only 10-15 minutes. We left our hotel around 10:30am and were on board and in a lounger about 11:20. Cost was Zone 4 to Zone 4 so $10 + $2 fuel + $1 per bag + tip

3. Yes, cabins were ready between 1:00 and 1:30

4. Bags were left with baggage handlers, lines weren't long at all, security scan was quick and the line for concierge was extremely short, I think we waited maybe 2 minutes. After the check-in and getting our sea pass cards we were directed to have a seat but we were only there about 5 minutes before we were allowed to board. We headed up and could have had our pictures taken, politely declined and then we were boarding and hearing the first ping of our cards being read as we got our boarding picture taken. Within a minute of that we had mimosa in hand! Enjoy!

Thank you for the info so far.

 

I am looking at Spencer Ambrose Beach Break. I was wondering where can you rent snorkel gear? Is it through the resort that is near by? Also, where do they set up / serve the food?

We did the beach break with Spencer. He loads all his tours for the day onto his boats/catamaran and to be honest it was disorganized. By the time we got to the beach, there weren't any free chairs left. We were to spend several hours so we opted to rent the padded loungers from the resort and although not cheap (we paid $20 per chair) we were extremely comfortable for the time we were there. Food was set up behind the free loungers on a couple of tables and you were encouraged to get it promptly because they wanted to pack it up again before you knew it. Spencer's other tours arrived and they didn't have chairs and the areas were a little more crowded but no matter. The problems arose when it was time to leave. Extremely disorganized! You would think this was a new operation. Thought we would be leaving first but everyone was to load back on the boat they came on, no matter what tour you were on. We should have been back at the pier for 3 pm, we got back at 4:20. We were on the catamaran and had to stop twice on our return to pass beverages over to a couple of his other boats. All through this Spencer was unfazed. I don't like such a late return...too close to all aboard for me. We have decided not to use him again.

I would think this is mostly for internal inventory control so they can track the liquor. The can't have liquor vanishing without any information showing it was actually served to a paying passenger.

I agree that they must keep track of the inventory but I believe Celebrity does that by swiping the card with every drink request. I just don't understand the need for a signature. Are passengers disputing the number of drinks they have and Princess needs verification? That shouldn't be the case with an unlimited beverage package. Until I hear a valid explanation, I will still believe it's an unnecessary practice.

I read somewhere that Princess requires you to sign the receipt for every drink, even with the beverage package. Is this true? With Celebrity one of the perks of the beverage package is not having to sign for anything. I realize it's not that big a deal, its just simpler.

Thank you f-mattox, I think I have a pretty good idea of what I'm looking for now.

Thanks Sknight for the quick response. Another question or two if you wouldn't mind. Deck 9 JS are you looking right out at the top of a lifeboat or are they more tucked in. If you had a choice of a deck 9 or a deck 8 which was aft port side which would be better.? Do the lifeboats impede the views on deck 8?

Forgive me if this has been answered before but I guess I am using the wrong words to search as I am coming up empty. I've never booked with Princess before so I have no idea of what the ship's balconies are like. On Caribbean Princess, can passengers on the upper balconies see down into lower balconies and junior suite balconies on deck 8 and 9. I like the lower decks but don't want to be wide open to those above me.

Thank you Orator, much appreciated insight. I think you understand, as we were much closer to Elite before the changes and although annoyed, kept on going with Celebrity. We are booked in concierge in February and unless they have a very significant price drop, we won't be upgrading to a suite. I guess we will just bide out time for now. Would be very pleased to meet you on a future cruise. As I said before, your insights have been appreciated, in this regard and on other threads you have contributed to.

A disappointment for us. We are booked for another cruise in February and had hoped to squeeze this short one in before then. Can't take them up on their offer to rebook another so had to just cancel. This 3-nighter would have allowed us to reach Elite after the February cruise....we will be just 8 points shy and this would have done it. Oh well, another year away again. My DH tells me to stop trying to get us to Elite and start looking at other lines, that I may be surprised.

Santa. Were there shuttles there or did u have to arrange before hand

 

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We were in the taxi line and the shuttles were in the middle of this round about area. Someone was there asking if anyone wanted to take the shuttle. Nothing prearranged on our part. They had the shuttle filled in 5-10 minutes.

Disembarking Feb 22, the taxi line was so long by 9:30, it was quicker to jump on the $11.00 per person shuttle. Worth the few extra dollars to get out of the line.