Smurfette76

Thanks so much for your ideas, everyone! It's been a little while since I checked this thread on TripAdvisor so my apologies for the delayed note of gratitude. With our cruise getting closer, I really appreciate everyone's input!

The kayak excursion in Antigua sounds great! We have been considering being lazy and doing the Prickly Pear Island Escape but getting a wee bit of kayaking exercise might be beneficial while cruising. :)

We are getting extremely excited about this port intensive cruise and can't wait to experience Celebrity's hospitality again.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

The sangria was amazing in 2012. I can't wait to have it again (Summit August 23)

To the OP: I wish I had taken pictures of all of Qsine's specialty drink descriptions on the iPad as they were very innovative.

To those who wrote of their love of Qsine's White Sangria: I loved it too and happened to take a picture of its description on the iPad. I found it today and thought I'd share it. It's a little blurry but at least it gives an idea of the ingredients! The most unique elements seem to be St Germain Elderflower Liquer, rose petals and aloe vera juice. The technique of "steeping" it overnight is cool too! In the picture it is listed as a pitcher sized portion but I ordered it by the glass and was included with the Premium Beverage Package. Yay!

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We just got off Reflection 11/15/14, and booked an alcove for the week. As mentioned, they are wide open to the lawn, but have 2 entrance panels abot 3 ft each that you can leave open to have direct ocean view.This also lets the breeze flow on port days. The furniture can be moved to what ever configuartion you desire. They are not for everyone, but it works really well for us.

We also booked an alcove on the Reflection last March and loved it. Here are a couple of pictures I took that show the two glass panels that can be opened up to enjoy the view, if desired. I hope this is helpful!

My guess is the poster is looking to accommodate those who don't feel it's appropriate to make them pay to eat elsewhere, thus the "nominal fee" for bistro notation, whereas the other specialties come with "hefty" fees.

That is exactly what I meant! :) Qsine and the other specialty restaurants do not require formal attire on formal nights. There are a lot of options for every taste and style on Celebrity!

I am frightened to do so as opinions are bold here :o but I will add my two cents:

We cruised aboard the Celebrity Reflection last March and loved the formal nights! We were in Aqua class and therefore did not technically need to wear formal wear, but we did anyway. My husband wore his dinner jacket ensemble and I wore cocktail dresses. We enjoyed a wonderful evening at Murano on the first formal night. We ended up being invited to dine at the Captain's Table with the Hotel Director on the second formal night and were so grateful we packed appropriately. (The ship does rent tuxedos should anyone be in a pickle!)

My feeling is this: If you do not wish to participate in formal nights, don't fret! Simply order room service or go to the buffet at no additional cost. For a nominal fee, guests can dine at Bistro on Five and wear more casual attire. AND if you do want to dine in the MDR, you don't need a tux! One of the gentleman at the Captain's Table wore a jacket and white dress shirt. Oh and of course, pants! LOL!

Celebrity definitely isn't trying to force passengers to spend more at the specialty restaurants in order to dress comfortably. I feel they have offered the best of both worlds. For those of us who do appreciate the opportunity to dress up, these formal nights are fun. We are in our 30s but can whoop it up with anyone. We had gussied up 20-year-olds giving us fist bumps for our formal attire look and later got impromptu dance lessons from a couple in their 70s who admired our dress code efforts.

And as others have said, if it is a huge concern, there are other cruise lines that offer more laid back dress codes without formal nights. One of the reasons we chose Celebrity is because we do like to dress up for a night or two while on vacation. We enjoyed the ritual of grabbing a bevy and getting ready for dinner together.

That's just us. To each his or her own! We are looking forward to our Summit cruise this March! My husband will be packing his tux pants and DJ and I'll be packing a new gown and cocktail dress! And we'll enjoy drinks after dinner with anyone at the martini bar be they in shorts, or "Tuxedo T-Shirt"! :D

Thank you for the detailed report, hulamoon! We will be staying in suite 6145 on the Summit in March and really appreciate your input. :)

I experienced the same issue earlier this week when I paid our balance due. The due date is January 5th so I decided to settle it a few days early in case of any issues. After I paid, the website kept saying I owed the amount of gratuities. I called Celebrity and the rep emailed me an amended invoice that showed I was confirmed and paid in full. A few minutes after I called, I checked online and the problem was fixed. I hope your invoice is settled as easily as ours was. Enjoy your cruise!

I too am curious about this as we will be cruising aboard the Summit in a Sky Suite this March.

I found a website that shows dry dock to be scheduled for February 2015: http://www.shipcruise.org/cruise-ship-refurbishment-dry-dock-schedule/

However, I do not know if it is accurate. It seems that the ship has scheduled sailings throughout February so it is quite possible that the website's information is incorrect.

Hello olemissreb!

Thanks for your input! We're on the March 21st cruise so we'll sadly miss you. Drat!

LOVE the sounds of Nicole's Table in Antigua. I haven't read about that but it's totally up my alley! I'm a bit of a foodie. :) I'll look it up. Thanks for the tip!

We did Maho/Airport Beach in March and adored it! We'd go again but since we may want to take it easy that day on this itinerary, we might take a pass this time. Here's a tip for anyone reading who hasn't been before: If the Sunset Bar is jam-packed when you get there, just walk to the other end of the beach and go to the Driftwood Beach Bar. I can't recall if they serve food, but it was way less crowded, at least when we visited. It's tiny but service was quick and there were even beach loungers available for us to park our bags and camera gear. The Driftwood bartender made the most delicious strawberry mojito!

Thanks again for the pointers! Much appreciated! Happy travels!

Hello Fellow Cruise Critic Members!

After enjoying our first Celebrity cruise on the Reflection in March, we have booked a 2015 Southern Caribbean cruise out of San Juan on the Summit. We chose this vacation for the port intensive itinerary. We will get to see 3 islands we haven't visited. The itinerary goes to Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, St Maarten and St Thomas. (Barbados, St Lucia and Antigua will be new to us.)

We plan on doing an excursion with Calabaza in Barbados and doing the ship's Self Explore St John from St Thomas as we loved that excursion on the Reflection. We'll likely use St Maarten as either a shopping or ship day.

So to finally cut to the chase, how many (and which) excursions would you do on this itinerary to maximize opportunity without needing a vacation from your vacation! LOL! We're energetic and young at heart and don't mind adventure but need some R&R too. :) What are the must sees, particularly in St Lucia and Antigua? I've scoured Trip Advisor and these boards and am stymied. I've never booked a vacation this far in advance so Cruise Critic is helping me bide the time!

Thanks as always everyone. I promise I'll get my Reflection review posted soon! It's long overdue!

Cheers,

Smurfette

Thanks everyone! I hope I didn't sound like I was intending to "stir up the pot". :) I'm sure all will be just fine. It will be interesting to see how everything transpires. We'll be sure to have fun no matter what! :D

Thanks to everyone who replied before posts were deleted.

Safe sailing everyone!

Hello Fellow Cruisers!

We have booked one the much coveted aft Sky Suites (6145) on the Summit for late March 2015. Lucky us! Thanks to this board we jumped on it when we spied it. We loved our recent Reflection cruise and decided to take the plunge for next year even though the Summit is an older vessel. The itinerary, price and availability of that suite was hard to beat! We've never booked a vacation this far in advance and I'm already so excited!

Having said that, we know according to posts here that Celebrity is planning on opening a suite dining room in the port side of the MDR in April of 2015. We're not at all concerned about missing out on this privilege. We'll be happy with or without it.

What worries us is that it doesn't appear (from my research) that the Summit is going to dry dock next year. Which means, at some point, the Main Dining Room will be under construction for the suites restaurant. Since stateroom 6145 is right on top of where the suite dining room is supposed to go, we're a wee concerned about construction noise during our cruise. I don't want to jump into the speculation pool but I am wondering how this is going to roll out... One of the Penthouses is port side above the MDR, too. I can't imagine Celebrity wanting to irritate those who pay for that suite so perhaps I'm making much ado about nothing!

So I guess my question is does anyone know if Celebrity would do major renovations during a sailing? Things like Michael's Club refitting and spa changeovers are an inconvenience but not noisy. Just curious...

Thanks for your insight! I promise to post my Reflection trip report soon! It's too long right now so I'm trying to edit it! :)

Happy travels!

Thanks so much everyone! Very wise words from each of you. I think Select is the way we'll go. :) Happy cruising!

We recently returned from a fantastic Reflection cruise and are now Celebrity fans! Thanks to all here for advising us prior to our journey. :) I promise to post a trip report with pictures and a review once my work duties subside a little!

We're now looking at a March or April 2015 Summit Southern Caribbean Cruise in a Sky Suite. The itinerary is so appealing to us and prices appear to be reasonable right now...

Just wondering if we should opt for a late 8:30pm traditional seating or go for Select. We definitely want a table for two. I sense that if we go for a traditional seating 2 tops are more difficult to land... Is that the case even with suites?

I ask because our Reflection sailing was in Aqua so we didn't need to make such dining decisions. I'm leaning toward traditional simply to get into a routine yet the cruise is so port intensive we may not want to be locked into anything... A table for two is really our biggest wish.

Thanks to all for your input. I feel petty asking such questions because it will simply be sweet to be on vacation cruising again! :)

Yes, kudos to the original poster. :) Thanks for the 411!

"Cellar Masters will be changed to a British, tapas style pub with 30 draft beers and 30 bottled beers."

I love the idea of Cellar Masters being revamped after our recent Reflection cruise. I liked it but noticed it was highly underused. My husband called it a cave. LOL!

Changing it into something that will appeal to more cruisers is a great idea. But having said that, 30 draft beers? THIRTY? Are you kidding me? I work for a global beer company. The only bars that can successfully move 30 brands on draught are huge establishments in highly populated regions that sell beer and mostly only beer. Draught systems are complex. They need to be impeccably installed, cleaned and maintained. Kegs need to be depleted quickly for optimized taste. With 30 lines, certainly a few would go stale or to waste due to disinterest. Then there's the issue of the popular brand running out at sea. I do see Celebrity continuing to offer a wide selection of easily stored BOTTLED beer but if they end up going with 30 draught brands I would be surprised. If they do, they can hire me to choose their portfolio, maintain their lines and ensure quality control! LOL! :)

SHIP: Reflection

CABIN #: 1591

DECK #: 11

CLASS: A1 (Aqua Class)

AREA: Port / Midship

BED NEAR: Bathroom

QUIET?: Yes! Very quiet!

BALCONY VIEW: Glorious! Excellent view forward. The midship "hump" was around 10 cabins aft and posed no issues. Our sea view was vast!

BALCONY SIZE: Bigger than expected. Standard for the category. We loved it!

WIND A PROBLEM?: No

SOOT A PROBLEM?: No

PROBLEMS/COMMENTS: We loved this stateroom and its proximity to the midship elevators. Our stateroom attendants, Elvie and Rommel, were outstanding. This cabin was perfect, clean and in stellar working order. We'd book it again in a heartbeat. Storage space was greater than expected. We had plenty of space for our weeklong journey, including formal wear and lots of shoes! :) Being only two decks down from the Oceanview Cafe made it easy to run upstairs to get snacks and drinks while getting ready for dinner. Thanks Celebrity!

We were on the Reflection from March 22-29 and were told that there were 400 kids on board. I understand this was due to being a spring break week. We were in Aqua Class on Deck 11 where there are few adjoining rooms and almost no rooms with pull out beds. Our hallway was wonderfully quiet. It was only a few adults on nearby verandas who were occasionally loud! LOL! We adored cruising with Celebrity and plan on booking another journey with them again. The pools were definitely crowded and full of children cannon-balling, throwing balls, etc on sea days. For that reason, we will try to book non-school holiday weeks for upcoming cruises. We enjoyed the people watching aspect of it all though!

Funny story: We were lounging in the adults-only Solarium one afternoon where a family with two kids around 6 and 10 showed up. The children jumped into the pool and the older one swam over to the Solarium rules sign and read that children were not allowed. He immediately raced over to his parents' loungers and told them they had to leave! The parents brushed him off at first but they eventually departed when the kid kept pointing to the sign and made some noise. Haha! Good kid! Sometimes the children aren't the ones causing problems... ;) To ease your mind, even though there were 400 kids on our cruise (which is a lot for Celebrity, I understand) we still had a blast and found many serene places to chill out, when desired. We ate at the buffet for a few breakfasts and were impressed with the behaviour of all of the children while dining.

I will post a review soon. I've just been busy at work and getting back to reality! Enjoy whichever cruise you choose! :)

Hi Snow Bunny!

I also purchased OBC ($300 worth of USD for just a wee bit extra in CAD). I have yet to receive an email and purchased this on the 27th. The transaction also doesn't appear on my online credit card statement yet. I find credit card charges can take up to a week to pop up so I will be patient.

However, I did happen to print out my receipt when I bought the OBC and it clearly states it was purchased so here's to hoping it all works out for our March 22nd cruise on the Reflection! I'll keep everyone posted when we get back. :)

Wow! Thanks everyone! Perhaps we'll have to try Qsine twice. :) What a great idea to get dessert to go!

In just over 7 weeks, my husband and I will be enjoying dinner at Qsine on The Reflection. We can't wait!

So... What are your fave menu items at Qsine? I've looked at the menu online and am very excited about it! I know it's quirky and look forward to the experience!

I've read that Qsine is not to everyone's liking so if you are not a fan of Qsine, please refrain from posting about your dislike of it here. LOL! Thanks!

We are also Canadian cruisers interested in Luggage Valet. We're going to be on the Reflection for the March 22nd sailing and will be flying from MIA to YYZ on March 29th. We have a late flight home (at around 8pm) so not having to worry about luggage while we enjoy some time in Miami would be a treat. The Everglades tour sounds like a nice alternative. I did it as a kid but it would be new for my husband. He loves alligators! LOL!

Either way, I'll be sure to report back here when we return to let everyone know if it's an option for us Canucks flying on Air Canada! :)

Thanks again, everyone. Your feedback is helpful and very much appreciated. We have decided to go with at least CC and may spring for AQ just to experience Blu as I am a bit of a foodie and do enjoy a quieter dining experience. Blu's a la carte breakfast menu is appealing as well. The price difference is now not terribly much higher for AQ.

The only issue now is that there's a really great CC cabin #1630 available. It's right on the hump so views will likely be ideal. AQ cabins 1610 and 1591 are both currently available. They get good reviews too so we'll likely splurge on AQ just to try it out. My husband has never cruised before so it might be nice to make his first voyage extra special. He'll also get to celebrate his birthday at sea! :) I think we're on the same page ICANTWAITTOCRUISE and CU64 as I agree it's nice to get a few little extra perks while traveling, especially when celebrating a milestone.

Cheers!

You Cruise Critics are all fabulous! Thanks for the continued feedback!

The deck we're eyeing is Reflection's Penthouse deck, which I understand has cabins both above and below which hopefully means no pool/chair/restaurant noise. That deck also seems to be AQ and CC cabins mostly, meaning fewer kiddos coming and going…

The cabins we are now considering include: 1628, 1630 or 1632 which are all CC rooms that I think are on what is described as "the hump". Is that a good place to be? From what I've read it looks like those rooms have nice views!