chilliano

I'm onboard Equinox now. There have been no announcements. Our room faces the RCL ship and I heard their captain make announcement about an hour ago. All fatalities were from Royal. It sounds like just a few passengers were from Equinox. (Based on news reports. As soon as I heard RCCL announcement , I googled) . I could have missed an announcement from our captain, but haven't heard anything

Hi all, I inadvertently clicked on the Carnival thread (small links on my iPad) last night and was attracted to a post about cruise insurance. Here's a hard luck story. The story (from an Alaskan newspaper) has a link to a ******** campaign. The campaign has raised 10k more than last night when I donated, but there's still more to go. Even if you don't care to donate, it's still a cautionary tale about being sure to know the ins and outs of your insurance-- the thread also discusses that. In case the link doesn't work (I'm not an expert poster here), it can be found on the carnival board.). Thanks for your time/consideration.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2525205

Le bistro. Hands down. I can't say I even love French food that much, so I initially didn't even check out le bistro prior to our cruise (12/13). DH is picky and ended up not liking the MDRs. I'd planned on our liking the MDRs just fine. We went to Moderno and it was fine, but we've been to many of these before (popular in TX). We scored resos to Le Bistro on night 4 and LOVED it. We went back the next night, walk up, around 8pm. They initially said they would seat us outside in15 minutes, but we got an inside table. Both dining experience were exceptional.

hUbby and I like all kinds of food-- both picky/foodie and down to earth. MOderno was good-- really good by comparison to other venues on the ship, but Le Bistro compares favorably to select restaurants "off the ship." Again, we do NOT EVER seek out French restaurants, so we are not predisposed to liking Le Bistro best, but it was the best, by a long shot.

FYI: even if reservations show all booked, Le Bistro seats walk-ups in the tables outside the restaurant. You have a decent chance of getting seated inside, but tables outside are good option. We were fully prepared for this on Night 2---good food and good people watching, but we did get a table inside.

Why miss it? Just got off the Getaway. Could not have been easier. bags exactly where said they would be, plenty of porters to help with bags, plenty of taxis and, if you have the app and feel comfortable, uber drivers, all available to help you with your bags.

@joekatie. I don't think they offer the baggage collection service/transport to the airport (e.g., as celebrity does).

On Day six, you can find tags in the Atrium, color coded according to the time you'd like to disembark. You can choose as early as 8 or 8:30. We chose 8:45 as we had an 11:30 flight. We left the cabin at 8:40 and were through bag collection and customs and ordering uber in front of the terminal before 8:55.

If mobility is an issue, there are porters in the baggage collection area who can grab your bags for you.

Thanks everyone, no, we've got no special privileges. That's why I was wondering. Seems like there are a lot of reviewers saying, 'got there at 10:30 and in group 20.'

We usually go Aqua on Celebrity and this category gets you "somewhat" quicker access, but there's still a lot of waiting when arriving at 10:30. Scanner-line seems to go faster than waiting for your number to be called.

We've only gone once on NCL--Pearl from Vancouver and we got there at 10:30 ish for a long, long wait in a big room.

I think I'll go for the getting there around 1:30.

Like the previous question, I don't see anywhere for say what time you'll be checking in.

So lines are shorter, say, post 12:30 or 1 or so?

Thanks Kamloops, My DH is a bit of a curmudgeon. He's more interested in avoiding long lines and a wait for boarding than his actual time-to-arrive-on-board. As he was asking me our plans, I realized that I really have no idea what boarding looks like at 12 or 1 or 2 as most threads talk about getting to port as soon as possible. I wouldn't mind an extra hour on the beach in South Beach myself. But if it's actually a longer wait post-12 or 1, then, we'll follow our usual

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone can give some tips/insight about boarding.

First priority: Reduce amount of wait time. I don't need to worry about getting any passes, so there's not need to rush on board.

For past cruises, we've arrived around 10:30, but DH HATES to wait around. He thinks it might be better to arrive later rather than earlier.

What does it look like arriving at port at 12, 1, or 2? Even more crowded as people arriving on flights arrive at port?

Thanks!

I've never sailed on such a large ship so not sure of magnitude of services and demand (and haven't been on NCL in awhile)

We always book a spa room-- even tho I'm always tempted by an aft balcony room. I'm looking at a Getaway cruise and the spa balcony and the aft balcony+purchase of two passes equal about the same. I'm inclined, then, for the latter. But if by chance spa passes were sold out before we got there.... Well, someone would be pretty mad at me.

Knowing that there are always risks, what do you estimate the odds of not being able to get a spa pass are?

Would appreciate any and all best guesses, thanks

Have to chime in that I also would be wary of paying extra for AQ on the Reflection. Perhaps one of the other ships, but not the Reflection.

There are way too many AQ suites/rooms on the Reflection. We loved AQ on the Eclispe. It was our first cruise and the experience "sold" us on Celebrity. Our recent experience with AQ on the Reflection was nearly the opposite. The cruise, still, was a nice experience, but I was very disappointed. Blu was crowded. It took until night 6 or so before we could get in and out of there for dinner in under two hours. (On night 2 of the cruise, dinner lasted nearly 3 hours--including a 30 minute wait to be seated). The food was definitely not as good. We went once for breakfast and, similar to dinner, breakfast took nearly 90 minutes from start to finish. I just went to the Spa cafe after that, I'm a patient person, but 90 minutes for breakfast is too slow for me. Persian Gardens was swamped.... Lunch hours at the buffet are limited, so when it is lunch, it was very crowded, and maybe my cruise had more "impatient" (i.e., rude) people than most, but it was a madhouse.

I was on the "I love AQ" bandwagon before this cruise. In fact, I had planned to book another cruise while still on board, but decided, "nah." If this is what AQ is like now.... I think our next vacations will be beach vacations. We hadn't been on a cruise for almost two years, so we were really struck by the impact of cost-cutting--in that we hadn't witnessed slow changes, just an all of a sudden, "wow". All the things we liked about the cruise/Celebrity weren't there. Again, it was still "OK," no, even better than OK, but just not worth the price.

I used to live in Miami, I routinely went early because I found it a fascinating place, get a cortadito at the Cuban restaurant, Love these!

How does the luggage service work? Can you have X transfer your bags to the airport--there's a pretty reasonable fee for the service. You surrender your bags, I believe, the night before. They also print your boarding pass for you. I've never done this--so maybe there are restrictions--e.g. Flights must depart by a certain time,

If you don't have to worry about bags, you could take a beach bag and a taxi to south beach. No time needed to manage the car rental process. Then another taxi back to MiA.

If you get tired of touring, another option would be to purchase a pass to the MIA lounge of your airline, comfortable chairs, internet , bar. Not sure how early you can check in. (Is that 3 hour check in set? I've checked in earlier than that before at IAH.

Like someone else, AQ is an definite attraction for us. to me the key is whether the benefits are a definite value to you or not.

For us, we would purchase the access to the spa (sauna, heater recliners), since we would definitely purchase that, we know whether the price differential is worth it.

Also, we like Blu. My DH isn't the friendliest guy in the world, so being automatically seated at a large table with people we don't know is a huge stress point for me (I would do just fine, but my husband, no)

so these two factors are major for us. We could have upgraded to a suite for not a huge amount, but remained in AQ b/c we'd have to add the $$ to get the spa amenities to the upgrade price.

Hi,

first, Sandi, great, wonderful thread, details, photos, info, kind responses to questions. You're the sort of person that all the newbies, and even the intrepid travelers completely rely on.

I found this tread today as we just paid for our Dec sailing on Reflection. I see the last post, and my husband and I are definitely off the grid travelers, so I can chime in some 2 cents to the queries.

You won't have any trouble getting a taxi. At the airport, the hotel, or the port.

If you like, stay on the ship just as long as possible. We have done this as our flights weren't leaving until the afternoon. We simply stay until there's a Last Call. This is fairly early, around 9 or 9:30. Then we walk off. No lines, few people, few bags waiting to be picked up.

If we fly into MIA, we take a taxi. If we fly into FLL, we take SAS (shuttle, vans, very, very easy. My estimation is that the shuttle option takes just a few minutes longer than a taxi takes. People have reserved and are waiting for pick up). If there are more than two of you, take a taxi. If there are just two of you, and you're going to FLL, consider a shuttle like SAS. (you can google it, the fare is $15 per person).