Celebrity Summit - sail-off party

[ERLEC]

Which typical port day are you allowed to go on the helico-pad in front of the ship for sail-off party? Is it announced anywhere? I don't want to miss this and to access this restricted area.

[dkjretired]

No guarantee that they will even do it, its not done on all ships, sort of hit and miss. In my experience, they usually only allow Captain's Club Elite and above out there.

[yogimax]

It was a lot of fun when they did it. Champagne and a toot of the ship's horn from the captain!

[phoenix_dream]

I can tell you they did not do it on my Summit cruise last November, although there is a different Captain onboard now.

[ghstudio]

Our experience has been that it's rare that they open the helipad on any cruise and/or on any ship. Having said that, we've been invited to be on the helipad in the antarctic and sailing into Halong Bay. It's not clear how one gets invited...we were elite plus and aqua class on both sailings so maybe one of those was the reason. Based on the number of folks on the pad, my guess is that it was elite and above plus suite guests.

 

For those of you who haven't had this experience, you get very much the same view on any of the upper decks where they are open. It is a nice experience but really not a significant difference in what you actually see....and based on personal experience, it can be very windy and very cold out there.

Edited January 9, 2015 by ghstudio

[Essiesmom]

When I did a B2B2B on Millie out of Miami, the B2B passengers were invited to the helipad for sailaway. On Infinity in 2013 we did B2B SanDiego/FLL and FLL/Harwich, and we were not invited, or they did not do it. EM

[cle-guy]

My experience is that an helipad spillway is by invitation only and not published to the general public in the dailies.

 

I've been invited in the past as part of a large group on board, for being in a suite, and possibly for being in captain's club, though at the time I had not yet reached Elite status.

 

I was just on Sillie with 4 ports (Coz, Labade, Grand Cayman and Falmouth Jamaica), and there wasn't a single helipad sail-way, which I found odd. Weather was nice in all ports, seas calm.

[wwcruisers]

Funny -- we've been Elite since we came over from RC five years ago, and our recent Eclipse cruise was the first time we received an invitation to sail-away on the helipad. My guess was that, from the crowds out there, it was an Elite and up invitation. We really enjoyed the experience -- leaving our last port of call (St. Maarten) for home -- on Jan 1st, no less! :cool:

[fleckle]

Each time, we received a printed invitation to the helipad on a card that specified the date and time.

It was delivered to our stateroom in a white envelope that looked just like all the other envelopes we receive on a Celebrity cruise..

 

No reason for the invitation was given, other than just a generic statement worded something like Because you are a valued guest......

As there was no signature or staff member's name on the card, we never knew who the invitation actually came from.

[long time lurker]

Our friends on our last cruise had some confusion and late cancellation of a pre-booked excursion. They were given an invitation to a helipad sail away with the senior officers as an apology for the inconvenience.

[maggie.1008]

We received an invite in a envelope to our cabin. Venice, Bermuda and San Juan. All were a smashing experience. Most of the guests were Elite Plus or Suite guests.

[miched]

We were invited on our Nov cruise on the Eclipse, it was our first time in over 35 cruises. Don't know if it was due to signing up for the CC connection party, as we have been elite for a few cruises and always sail in AQ.

 

To be honest it was nothing special and we will probably not go if invited again. You are give a choice of champaign or mimosa the same as when boarding. It was very crowded with at least 200 to 300 passengers. Unless you camped out at a railing immediately your view wasn't very good because of being on a lower deck. There wasn't any commentary. It was just a large crowd in a place that was normally off limits. The only reason that we went was because of all they hype that others have wrote about and how special it was. Could be different on a M class but wouldn't go out of my way trying to be invited.

 

In reference to the horn blowing, they do that leaving every port and you can hear it from anywhere outside, you don't need to be on the Heli Pad.

 

In reality it is better to watch from your balcony or one of the top decks.

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞

[ERLEC]

Thank you all.. That answers my question. I won't get an invitation for this since it will be my first Celebrity cruise.

 

I did the helipad already on the Carnival Dream anyway because I did the expensive behind the scene tour. It's worth doing once in a lifetime if you are ship enthusiasm like myself.

[rotoal]

We were invited to the helipad on our 1st Celebrity cruise leaving Kotor this past October. Since it was the same time as the wine and cheese event on the lawn. We opted to be on the upper deck.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Tudorcruisers]

we love getting the invite to the heli-pad. last one was on Eclipse for the Norwegian fjords cruise, amazing. We seemed to start getting invited when we got to Elite status.

[Queen of Oakville]

Interesting. I didn't know this was done X (wasn't invited!).

 

I did have an invitation from Royal for a recent sailing, but arrived late just as the party was winding down. The bar had closed and most of the guests had left. I think it overlapped with the dreamworks sailing away party. Can't do it all :p

[seaworthy1]

We were invited last year on the Connie sailing into Stockholm, thought it was because we were b2b. No mimosas, we were offered hot chocolate:)

[dodger1964]

I enjoy attending for different reasons at different ports.

 

One of the other benefits is visiting with some of the senior officers. If that floats your boat.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app