canudigit

To confirm my understanding, if I ask for $300 in OBC, I'll get promotional chips from the cage. I'll take those chips to a table and gamble for a few minutes, those promo chips will circulate out of my hand and (hopefully) be replaced with normal chips, which I can then cash out.

$30/hand x 10 hands and I'm free and clear to cash out what remains.

Am I understanding that correctly?

We have $1300 in OBC credit to burn next month on our Mediterranean cruise and I'd like to cash some out.

Thx!

If the first ship in the Millennium Class was the Millennium and the first ship in the Solstice Class was the Solstice, maybe Project Edge will become the new Edge Class.

That will make for some fun conversations in port when you tell someone "I'm on the Edge..."

I'm excited to see what Celebrity has in mind for the new ships.

Here are my random musings:

I'd like to see a revised theater production. The Off-Broadway song and dance thing is a little tired. They may or may not impact the structural design of the theater area.

I like the Molecular bar and would love to see it placed somewhere with a bit more ambiance.

The Lawn Club grill was very enjoyable. They should continue the outdoor dining theme, even if the lawn goes away.

I agree with other comments that the tables in the MDR could be better spaced. Even thought verdict is still out on RCCL's dynamic dining, I like the idea of splitting the MDR into smaller venues.

I like the previous suggestion of a restaurant that serves local fare. (Seafood in Alaska, Caribbean, Mediterranean, etc). We eat most of our meals on the ship, so it's a great idea to bring part of the local culture onboard.

In this digital age, I think the library could be smaller and the "Game On" could be larger.

Bathrooms in the Reflection Sky Suite were perfect.

The Two70 concept on the Quantum looks amazing and fits the culture of Celebrity.

Overall, I enjoyed the Reflection and trust Celebrity to continue to iterate on their Modern Luxury theme with the Edge class.

The production shows in April were different from the ones you listed. One of the guest entertainer was Magician Ryan Joyce, and he was great.

Of the production shows, one was a medley of musicals and one was rock music themed. I'm really not into this type of entertainment, so we skipped or walked out on most of them.

I can validate they shows were different, but I'm not the best person to give you details on the shows offered as of April 2014.

We just got back from the the April 12 sailing of the Reflection. My 7 year old son wore dark cargo pants or khakis to dinner. We also got him a pair of all black Vans sneakers with black bottoms. They looked sharp and he was comfortable.

I think the cost per child for VIP was $86.

The goodie bag included a water bottle, fold up frisbee, lanyard, stuffed starfish, silly bands, beach ball. We used the goodie backpack on one of our excursions to hold sunscreen, wallets, etc.

It covered all of our slumber party hours between 10pm-1am. The kids went on the backstage tour of the theater, but couldn't make the bridge tour b/c it was the morning we stopped in St. Martin and we had an all day excursion.

Take a picture of the daily schedule with your camera phone. With a digital copy, you don't have a carry the paper copy of the schedule around with you and can reference the schedule to check the time and location of activities.

I carried my iPhone with me so I'd have music by the pool, a camera, etc, so this was a very convenient way to bring along the daily schedule without filling my pockets with papers.

Since most of your group stayed in suites, did you consider eating in Blu as an alternative to the MDR?

What was I thinking, school break. Not having kids at home we forgot about this, and I will never do it again. :(

I was on the same cruise and I had more issues with adults in motorized carts than the kids. Most of the kids I saw were well behaved and having fun.

Overall, I thought the demographics of the ship were a nice balance of age groups and couples/families.

My family got off the Reflection yesterday and I wanted to share our experience with the Fun Factory.

When I was researching cruise lines and ships prior to booking our vacation, I was a little concerned that my kids would be bored on a Celebrity ship. My son is almost 8 and my daughter is 4. We went on a 7 day cruise during Spring Break, so the timing was ideal for families. I believe there were about 480 kids on board.

Our kids went to Fun Factory nightly after dinner and they loved it. Our daughter attended for a few hours during the day on sea days, but that was her choice.

The facilities are clean, comfortable, and well staffed. The security process for the 3-5 year and 6-8 year age groups required a parent to sign in and out, and parents are not allowed past the security desk. There were usually between 5-20 kids in each age group and I saw no less than 4 staff at any time.

Other cruise lines may have cartoon character decorations and play structures, but Celebrity entertained our kids with a quality staff and a fun agenda. There were 2-3 themes every day (aliens, super heroes, animals, pirates/mermaids, "Survivor" competition, etc). The kids would do crafts, team activities, games related to the theme. My son isn't really into crafts, so he had choices to play X-Box or other activities if he wanted more freedom. My daughter loved getting her face painted.

I was worried that my wife and I wouldn't have time to enjoy an after dinner drink or listen to the DJs if our kids didn't like the Fun Factory, but that was not an issue. In fact, there were a couple nights where our kids wanted to "party" at Fun Factory, so my wife and I stayed out later than we had planned to give the kids time to hang out.

I spoke with multiple parents on board whose kids were just as engaged with the Fun Factory.

The Fun Factory and X-club (teens area) are located near each other on deck 15, which is a great design, because the kids can come and go without roaming through the adult areas of the ship at night.

I would not hesitate to book Celebrity again and bring our children. Let me know if anyone has any questions.

I'm just off the Reflection. I saw cleaning staff in the highly trafficked area bathrooms during the evening, but I wouldn't call them attendants.

My wife and I commented the bathrooms onboard were consistently the cleanest public restrooms we've ever seen. Kudos to the crew for their effort.

SHIP: Reflection

CABIN #: 1214

DECK #: 10

CLASS: Sky Suite 1

AREA: Aft

BED NEAR: Balcony

QUIET?: Never heard other passengers. Some rumbling as we pulled into ports and the captain manuvered the ship.

BALCONY VIEW: Can see off the back of the ship and around the starboard corner

BALCONY SIZE: Huge, could easily fit 4 people on the balcony and not feel crowded.

WIND A PROBLEM?: No

SOOT A PROBLEM?: I noticed some soot accumulation in the corners of the floor, but nothing on the rails or table/chairs.

PROBLEMS/COMMENTS: Family of 4 (kids ages 8 and 4). Perfect size for our family. Kids slept on the pull out sofa and had no issues. The large portal window on the side added plenty of natural light and provided a great location for the kids to sit and watch the waves. The bathroom was of decent size for a cruise ship, and included a full tub with rain showerhead. The clearance of the showerhead was about 6'1.

Amenities: The embarkation/debarkation priority was stress free. We enjoyed access to Blu and were not charged additional fees. The afternoon canapes were a welcome sight when returning from the pool or port.

We loved this room and would book it again.

we are doing a family cruise on the Solstice. We usually take them on RCCL but decided to do Celebrity with them this year. They are 2 girls 15 & 10 and a boy 7. We leave Seattle June 27th. Any other kids??????????????

Check the roll call for your cruise and ask if other families aboard.

I couldn't log in using the drop down at the top of the page, but when I went to the Captain's Club page, I was able to log in there--under the picture, there's an area to login or register. Maybe that will work for you, too.

This also worked for me.

We're sailing on April 12 on the Reflection with two children. I'll try to make note of the details and post a review when I return. The Fun Factory info is a little sparse.

Here is a link to a 2 year old itinerary that has some good details around the Fun Factory schedule:

http://www.sjajg.com/travel/cruise2012B/Summit_2012_Bermuda/Summit_Bermuda_2012.html

I took a statistics course in college many years ago, and was told the best odds in the casino are with roulette.

 

I can neither confirm nor deny as I don't gamble -- I spend my money on wine. :rolleyes:

The house edge on all roulette bets is 1/19, or 5.26%, except for the 0-00-1-2-3 combination, which carries a house edge of 7.89%.

Several bets on the craps table are less than 2% house edge. Blackjack played with perfect strategy is less than 1%.

My DS has been to Fun Factory twice and loved it. The first time he was 4 years old on the Solstice; he was 5 years old when we were on the Summit. He's 6 now and looking forward to going to Fun Factory again on the Reflection in a week and a half.

 

If your child likes pre-school/daycare, he/she should have no problems. There probably won't be a lot of kids though, sailing in April.

April is still spring break, so I'd expect to see more kids than normal. We'll be on the Reflection with our 7 & 4 year old in 2 weeks.

WRONG. We are spending our hard earned vacation money with Celebrity. I just started a year or so ago (I'm 43) and have met many 25-55 years olds I consider friends now, we coordinate cursing together versus land trips.

 

I like the pool music, pools should be fun and jumping. I like loud martini lounge music, makes the place busy and fun. If you don't like loud pool music move to the far end or to the upper deck chairs, as I have done when they start playing harp music and accapella. Really, at a pool?!

 

I never considered cruising and somehow their marketing found me last year and I decided to try a short cruise, and fell in love with X immediately. I'm happy to see the changes they are putting out.

 

The changes must be working, as RCII stock has been a continues upward climb over the last 5 years, from $35 to $51 in the last year alone since the changes have been slowly implemented.

I agree with cle-guy

I'm 36 and haven't cruised for 10 years. I've spent my travel money at land based resorts in Hawaii and Mexico, or trips to Europe.

Don't assume the under 50 crowd can't afford Celebrity. I regularly spend 3-4X than my 60+ year old parents and in-laws spend on travel combined. Celebrity is also less expensive than most Disney and RCCL Allure and Oasis options.

I'm not into belly flop contests or gold by the inch (RCCL) and I'm not into ballroom dancing and stringed quartets. (Cunard, etc). I do look for top service, great food and drink, schedule flexibility, and lively entertainment options.

Celebrity seems to be targeting the market that is driving growth in properties like W Hotels, and the Vegas properties The Aria, Wynn, Encore, and Cosmopolitan hotels.

Celebrity has my attention, and my family is booked into a suite on Reflection in April.

No offense, but YIKES! Do they start up a bubble machine right before they wheel out Lawrence Welk's mummified body?

 

If you haven't noticed, Celebrity seems to successfully marketing towards the upwardly mobile crowd in the between their 30s and 50s. I doubt there many people in their 50s or below that are looking for a vacation full of harpists and string quartets. At least to me, that sounds unbelievably dull.

 

I guess to each their own.

Johnny...Brilliant post. I'd swim to shore if confronted with that "nightlife" scenario.

Read the fine print of the promo. You enter in the promo code based on the perk you want to chose.

"Provide promo code BEV123go for Beverage, OBC123go for OBC, and GR123go for Gratuities. For Europe 2014 cruises, provide promo code EUBEVOB123go for OBC & Beverage, promo code EUBEVGR123go for Beverage & Gratuities, promo code EUOBGR123go for OBC & Gratuities."

I believe you have to rent it through a partner, Cruiseline Formalwear.

http://www.cruiselineformal.com/

You can check out pricing on their website.

I can understand Celebrity's move to increase the perks offered to their suite guests. My family and I are booked in a Sky Suite for our April 2014 sailing. With less than 8 weeks to go, 7 of 8 Royal Suites, 3 of 5 Signature suites, and 6 of 8 Celebrity Suites are still available.

I'd consider upgrading if the price were right, but it's tough to justify spending thousands more for a little extra square footage but little difference in amenities.

Celebrity needs to consistently monetize these suites, and the popularity of the Aqua class has proven that their guests will pay more for the extra amenities.

deise17311,

Thank you for taking the time to post this. My family and I are on the Reflection in a suite in April. It's our first cruise in 10 years, our first time in a suite, and our first Celebrity cruise.

I know enough to take everything on these boards with a grain of salt. The results vary from situation to situation, but it doesn't hurt to ask. I appreciated your list of tips.

Thanks again

Is it possible to get a table for 4 at Blu? Everything I've seen looks like it's all tables of two.