dsarah

Thinking of booking this cabin -- it has a slightly angled, seemingly larger balcony. However I've seen 2 comments that the balcony is completely visible from cabins above. Does anyone know if that is true? Would that be true of all the cabins on Vista deck?

We booked thru a TA, and his invoice does say we have the 123Go drinks, gratuities & OBC. But when I logged into Celebrity and viewed our reservation, there is nothing under the Order History, and there is no payment information. Guess I'll contact our TA and ask him if he can get it documented on our online reservation. I'd feel better seeing it there in black and white.

on our last cruise on Brilliance 5-day out of Tampa, we got two WoW envelopes in our cabin. We used to get the cards but now the envelope indicates a tip should be included. Also on the last day, the Compass had the words about extending a gratuity to crew members who went above and beyond (forget the exact words). First time I've seen that since the gratuities have already been prepaid or deducted on a daily basis.

Either its "fixed" for everyone but me, or everyone got tired of posting with nothing being done. I still have to log in every time -- using Mac.

Yesterday -- stayed logged in all day. Today -- Have to log in again. I have not "changed" anything.

Today (so far) I remain logged in. Haven't done anything new or different on my end. Has the problem been fixed?

I'm using Safari 6.1.3 on MacBook Pro --- I have not upgraded anything. This problem continues constantly now, have to continuously sign in.

had to "log in" to write this message. Using Safari on Macbook Pro and have been having the problem for several days,maybe a week. It seems to be intermittent but I haven't been really tracking it. I don't empty cache or delete cookies or anything like that. Hope its fixed soon.

Good advice from all. We will be on the Summit, so decided to go for the Concierge class mainly for the extra space. DH likes to do the poker tournaments so we can probably use a lot of the OBC that way!

For a 14 night NE/Canada cruise in Oct. 2016, the Concierge cabin is $600 more (for 2 of us) than booking a 2B veranda cabin. Concierge comes with "all inclusive" and with the 2B we would select the beverage package.

Paying $600 more for Concierge gives us $300 OBC plus tips $328, total of $628 -- or a net benefit of only $28. (beverage package is the same for both cabins). Of course Concierge gives us a slightly larger cabin and several "perks", which are not really that important to us.

We already have around $500 of OBC (old Passages booking & TA OBC).

With a 2B most of that would be spent on tips, but we have the beverages paid for and we don't do ship excursions.

With the Concierge, we pay $600 more with final payment, which probably increases the insurance cost, and seems like we would feel like we had to spend more on board to use up all the OBC. Is it worth that for a new benefit of $28?

Am I missing something in my calculations?

Thanks for the tips. We are headed to Bermuda in June. We'd like to take the ferry to Hamilton and then the bus to Horseshoe Bay, then back to the ship at the Dockyard. Do you happen to know how long the bus ride is to Horseshoe Bay from Hamilton? Then from Horseshoe Bay, do you know if there is a bus going back to the Dockyard from there or would we have to go back to Hamilton and catch the ferry back.

Thanks again!

I purchased an open passage on board several years ago. Then a year ago I faxed the form to Celebrity to transfer the passages booking # to my travel agent because I was going to use it for a cruise he was working on. However, it turned out that the TA did not use it for that cruise after I told him I changed my mind about applying it.

Now I would like to use the open passage booking for an upcoming cruise but I don't know if its now officially transferred to that TA and under his "control" (even tho I did not apply it). I know I could call the TA and ask but prefer not to do that, and really prefer not to use him again. Could I call Celebrity to find out who has control of my open passage booking number?

The "Hump" cabins are already booked so we're looking at booking a cabin nearby. In the area going away from the hump towards the front of the ship, some cabins are D1 and some are D2 (one may be D1, the next D2, the next D1). Does anyone know if there is there a reason that some are D2's (less expensive). Maybe they are by window washing equipment, over a lifeboat or near a crew area? Any help would be appreciated.

We need a rental car for a couple days after disembarking the Brillance --- presumed we had to taxi to the airport to rent one, but does Avis have a closer location near the cruiseport?

Thanks!

I was really worried after reading about the "issues". So happy that we had no problem at all with toilet or air conditioning. The cabin was cool even with the drapes open during the day. We were in B518.

Glad you enjoyed the cruise, we are booked in February and looking forward to it.

Would appreciate if you could elaborate on what you didn't like about MTD.

I'm pretty sure the only way to go to Red Stripe is by the excursion bus. i believe it is owned by Royal Caribbean.

I remember seeing a post with a map and information about other public beaches in the Falmouth area but don't remember exactly where. Perhaps someone else can find the link. I assume you could go outside the gated port area and get a cab to one of those beaches.

But you may want to scan thru the Jamaica port forum to find out if anybody has done that or has any advice or precautions. There is also a beach called "Time and Place" that is kind of rustic and gets mixed reviews, but I think they have a pick up service from right outside the port gates.

My daughter's family (3 kids) went there during our Thanksgiving week cruise on Oasis. This is what she said:

"I would just say it's mediocre - the price of getting there is expensive for what it is. just a small beach with a little food area. there are bathrooms and changing rooms but they aren't that great. i would say it's just okay. don't remember the price of food/drinks. the thing i didn't like was the last bus left for the ship at 3:30 even tho departure wasn't until 7pm! lots of seaweed on the beach but not in the sectioned of swimming area. you can walk down farther on the beach but it's not fit for swimming there (too much seaweed)."

Also, it is expensive, $28 for adults for a 10 minute bus ride to the small beach. If the last bus back is 3:30, you'd have to go early if you wanted to spend a lot of time at the beach. However, since this is the only close-by beach excursion offered in Falmouth (Chukka Beach Break is not longer available), it may be worth it if you really want a beach day.

Hi,

Anxious to read your review! i'm curious to know if Red Stripe Beach was excessively crowded. We've been there before and know it's small, but now that Chukka beach break is no longer offered, we're wondering if Red Stripe is getting more crowded.

That's a shame you had rain in Cozumel. We've been to Paradise beach also and it is really nice in the sunshine.

Reserved all the shows online except the Comedy Club thinking it would be easy to get in with so many shows. Now realize that is not the case but online reservations are cut off. We will probably board around 1PM this Saturday -- read that Studio B opens at 11AM for reserving entertainment. What are the odds of being able to make a reservation? Also, we have 5 adults in 3 different cabins (booking #s are linked). Can one person make the reservations for all, or would each person have to be there.

Thanks in advance, I always have received great advice from this forum!

Thank you everyone --- Hadn't thought of just putting the itinerary, cellphone #, etc. in the luggage pocket that normally holds the contact info. That definitely makes sense. We'll just put the cruise tags on when we arrive or at the cruise port.

We usually attach the tags at the cruise port but we are flying in the day of the cruise this time. I'd like to attach the tags when we check in at the airport -- would use one of those sturdy luggage tag holders that are sold online. My concern is if our luggage doesn't show up at the airport in time for some reason, the tag would tell the airline what ship we were going on and may improve the chances of them getting it to us. Has anyone done this and had their luggage tag survive the airline baggage handling? I've searched but most say attach the luggage tag at the cruise port.

hardly any posts about Red Stripe beach. I think its because Chukka beach break was the most popular close-by beach excursion in Falmouth. I think they only started offering Red Stripe beach recently, like the past year. When we went in January to check it out, it seemed like something RCI just put together. The ride on the bus to the beach is kind of strange till you get to the beach. I think I remember seeing a sign that a resort was coming in the future because my thought was that RCI was just using that beach until the resort was built.

It's an okay beach with clean facilities, but only if its not crowded -- however, with the Oasis size ship in port and the Chukka Beach break no longer offered, its got to be crowded! As for the price, I think $28 is way too much for the 10 minute bus ride and you still have to pay $5 for the chair!

We checked this out in January from Falmouth when we were on the Celebrity Silhouette. At that time it was around $24 a person (now $28 or $29). Couldn't go by taxi, had to go thru RCI -- either by booking it at the excursion desk or at a kiosk out in the Courtyard, both paid for with the Seapass card. The fee included the bus to and from the beach, about a 10 minute ride. Returning time was flexible, the bus ran every hour. At that time, chairs were an extra $5 and mats also $5.

There was a place to buy food and drink. There were clean rest rooms and changing facilities (new buildings).

The beach was really quite small. The chairs were lined up side by side, close to each other.There were some places with a few trees for shade but they were quickly taken and were mostly on the far sides of the beach. There were no umbrellas for rent that I saw.

We are trying to figure out if its worth it too. We will be there on Oasis Thanksgiving week with kids/grandkids and wondering what to do close by. Now that Chukka beach break is not offered anymore, Red Stripe is about the only close by beach option available from RCI. It was crowded when the Silhouette (smaller ship) was the only ship there, and at that point most people were going to Chukka beach. So I can only assume it will be very overcrowded if too many people elect to go to Red Stripe Beach. I've been checking the forums to see if anyone posted a review recently, but no luck yet.

I understand that Royal caribbean no longer offers the Chukka Beach break excursion in Falmouth, and only offers the Red Stripe Beach excursion. We had checked Red Stripe out this past January and it was really small and crowded.

Now that Red Stripe Beach is the only close-by beach excursion from Falmouth offered by the cruise line, I'm thinking it will really be overcrowded and not worth going to. Has anyone been to Red Stripe Beach since the Chukka Beach break excursion was cancelled?

We are going Thanksgiving week with kids and little grandkids so other excursions are either too expensive or too long or both. Rose Hall sounds nice but would be way to expensive for our group.

We may just spend the day on the ship, but would be nice to go to the beach!