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Our group of four had awonderful cruise! Very happy with just about everything.

We were in Aquaclass and BLU was wonderful. The only slip up was one night when a table full of VIP’s decided to dine at the same time as we did and service declined for everyone but them.

I certainly understand thestaff wanting to please and perhaps impress but not at the expense of the whole dining room being greatly neglected. When we finally did get some service our waiter

Explained the situation and apologized. We told him he had nothing to apologize for, just doing his job. A little consideration from the higher –up’s toward their customers would beappreciated!

Everything else was prettymuch top notch and as we have experienced in the past.

It was pretty sad to see San Juan, Saint Thomas, and Saint Maarten in such devastated condition. I was really surprised that they are sailing to these ports.

I understand that the peopleon these islands need to have an opportunity to rebuild and tourism is theirmain business, but they really aren’t ready yet in my opinion.

One thing I will recommend, if you haven’t tried Luggage Valet spend $25.00 and do yourself a huge favor. It was so nice to put our bags out the last evening and not see them again until we reached our finaldestination. Excellent service.

Thank you for your report including your observation about the islands.

Keith

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience.

We will be on the Silhouette in December and there is a stop in St. Maarten. I agree that our tourism dollars are an important part of their economy, I hope that they continue to improve their situation, and are spared from hurricanes in the process.

What did you do in St.Marteen? We sail out of Lauderdale on Celebrity Reflection on Friday doing a Southern Carribean.. Have heard St.Marteen is in bad shape still.. Just wondering what you found to do. Hopeing to do a Catamaran snorkel.....:confused:

Quote=dan722;55599232]Our group of four had awonderful cruise! Very happy with just about everything.

We were in Aquaclass and BLU was wonderful. The only slip up was one night when a table full of VIP’s decided to dine at the same time as we did and service declined for everyone but them.

I certainly understand thestaff wanting to please and perhaps impress but not at the expense of the whole dining room being greatly neglected. When we finally did get some service our waiter

Explained the situation and apologized. We told him he had nothing to apologize for, just doing his job. A little consideration from the higher –up’s toward their customers would beappreciated!

Everything else was prettymuch top notch and as we have experienced in the past.

It was pretty sad to see San Juan, Saint Thomas, and Saint Maarten in such devastated condition. I was really surprised that they are sailing to these ports.

I understand that the peopleon these islands need to have an opportunity to rebuild and tourism is theirmain business, but they really aren’t ready yet in my opinion.

One thing I will recommend, if you haven’t tried Luggage Valet spend $25.00 and do yourself a huge favor. It was so nice to put our bags out the last evening and not see them again until we reached our finaldestination. Excellent service.

Apparently Celebrity's VIPs do not realize who pays their salaries.

Our group of four had awonderful cruise! Very happy with just about everything.

We were in Aquaclass and BLU was wonderful. The only slip up was one night when a table full of VIP’s decided to dine at the same time as we did and service declined for everyone but them.

I certainly understand thestaff wanting to please and perhaps impress but not at the expense of the whole dining room being greatly neglected. When we finally did get some service our waiter

Explained the situation and apologized. We told him he had nothing to apologize for, just doing his job. A little consideration from the higher –up’s toward their customers would beappreciated!

 

Everything else was prettymuch top notch and as we have experienced in the past.

 

It was pretty sad to see San Juan, Saint Thomas, and Saint Maarten in such devastated condition. I was really surprised that they are sailing to these ports.

I understand that the peopleon these islands need to have an opportunity to rebuild and tourism is theirmain business, but they really aren’t ready yet in my opinion.

 

One thing I will recommend, if you haven’t tried Luggage Valet spend $25.00 and do yourself a huge favor. It was so nice to put our bags out the last evening and not see them again until we reached our finaldestination. Excellent service.

Agree on the stops. Sad state. Beaches were nice but depressing stops.

I enjoy shopping these islands. Shopping was horrible. We were back in the boat quickly. I would have liked different stops as I felt all three stops last week was a waste of time. They need alot of rebuilding.

Apparently Celebrity's VIPs do not realize who pays their salaries.

Had something similar happen on our recent Reflection cruise. We booked Murano for 10 adults and were told we would be seated in the separate room that can accommodate 10. When we arrived, found out some VIP's apparently had decided to dine the same evening and took that room...so we had to split into tables for 4 and 6. Not a huge deal but I thought if they could not accommodate all of our family together they should have informed us to see if we would like to reschedule.

We were in Aquaclass and BLU was wonderful. The only slip up was one night when a table full of VIP’s decided to dine at the same time as we did and service declined for everyone but them.

Was this the 8 top near the entrance on the second elegant chic night (Friday)?

What did you do in St.Marteen? We sail out of Lauderdale on Celebrity Reflection on Friday doing a Southern Carribean.. Have heard St.Marteen is in bad shape still.. Just wondering what you found to do. Hopeing to do a Catamaran snorkel.....:confused:

 

Snorkeling tours were operating when we visited St Maarten a weeks ago, so you should be able to find a snorkeling tour. However, snorkeling in St Maarten is probably my least favorite place in the Caribbean. Not much coral or many fish. Perhaps you'll stop at an old anchor dropped in place but not much else. I think you can do better on almost any other island.

Was this the 8 top near the entrance on the second elegant chic night (Friday)?

I am not sure, butpossibly.

Agreed. St. Marten not very good for snorkeling.

Thanks for taking the time to do a review Dan. We were on the Silhouette twice in January and had 2 great cruises.

Rollie

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience.

We will be on the Silhouette in December and there is a stop in St. Maarten. I agree that our tourism dollars are an important part of their economy, I hope that they continue to improve their situation, and are spared from hurricanes in the process.

Thanks to the OP for the review. We're in Blu in December and looking forward to another great X cruise. Ozzmund, are we on the same cruise or the one before or after? I haven't seen you on our Roll Call.

Thanks for your honest review. There was one posting which I have my suspicions about. Won't go there.

We were on a cruise with some Celebrity VIPs years ago. Smoking on balconies and loud parties into the night. Nothing was done about it. I made several complaints but nothing happened. This group was really loud in the specialty dining area.

Our group of four had awonderful cruise! Very happy with just about everything.

We were in Aquaclass and BLU was wonderful. The only slip up was one night when a table full of VIP’s decided to dine at the same time as we did and service declined for everyone but them.

I certainly understand thestaff wanting to please and perhaps impress but not at the expense of the whole dining room being greatly neglected. When we finally did get some service our waiter

Explained the situation and apologized. We told him he had nothing to apologize for, just doing his job. A little consideration from the higher –up’s toward their customers would be appreciated!

 

How does one know if someone seated in the restaurant was a "VIP". You also mentioned high rollers in the casino. How does one determine this?

Just curious.

Apparently Celebrity's VIPs do not realize who pays their salaries.

It would be surprising, if they were really Celebrity management. I suspect they may have been Casino related and nothing really VIP about them.

Either way, it is totally inappropriate for the staff to neglect other customers even if it was the CEO and the Pope. I would be willing to bet it was not the Captain or One of his direct reports.

Shame on the management of the Blu for allowing this to happen and to continue once they knew it was happening.

We were on this same cruise and enjoyed Silhouette immensely. She's a beautiful ship with a wonderful staff.

We stayed in OSJ and with the exception of Paseo de la Princessa and Paseo del Morro being closed due to recent heavy waves (not hurricane damage) that area seemed pretty well recovered. From the locals we spoke with it sounded as though most of the remaining work to be done is in the interior and still hard to reach.

St Thomas is not one of my favorite stops - I was actually hoping for bad weather as an excuse to stay on board. But we'd taken extra cash to try to help so into CA we went. At every turn there was still damage - but there seemed to be almost no recovery work going on. In fact, there is a bit of a scam happening. With the exception of DI (DW bought a nice ring) none of the card readers were working. I've been in IT since 1979 and found this suspicious. A couple of vendors admitted that they were trying to get folks to pay in cash so they could avoid declaring the revenue and qualify for additional FEMA money.

In the case of St Maarten the damage is more severe than the others. In Philipsburg many shops on Front and Back streets are still closed and Old Street is pretty much destroyed. BUT, everywhere you turn there is evidence of recovery work with the constant sounds of hammers and saws. The locals are actively helping themselves and very upbeat. The Boardwalk is about 90% open with the beach fully operational

Admittedly, things may be different in other parts of these stops - we were a little limited due to my recent knee surgery - but those are my observations FWIW.

Thanks Cltnccruisers for your review. Were visiting St. Thomas and St. Maartin and found your review helpful.