bertrande

Always the way.

 

 

 

However, it can be said that the relative scores for the Quantum class are lower than other RCL ships. Much of this has been due to Dynamic dining, which is now discontinued, and the reviews since then are unlikely to be representative of the final state, given they only reflect a first time regional transition, as well as significant change in dining processes.

I think it's very true regarding the ship still being in transition. RCL themselves seem to be in transition with regards to operations on this ship. For example, will iFly be charged on Singapore departures in 2017? Nobody knows. Will Suite class be applicable after 23 Jan 2017 on the SG departures and thereafter on the Australian/ Singapore departures each year? Nobody knows.

The paucity of reviews is not surprising given the majority of passengers so far may not be English-speaking or may not frequent these boards. However, I have many friends who sailed on her earlier this year during her short SG stint who have booked to be on her again next year when she next visits so I for one am excited to try. We chose to do the Harmony in the battle of new ships this year and look forward to trying the Ovation next year.

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Good Luck and have fun along the way to get to your goal.

It will be YEARS before we go from emerald to platinum. I have accepted the challenge!

Thank you! We plan to try other lines like HAL once we hit Elite/Diamond on Celebrity and RCL respectively so the climb to the next level on both these programs will be long and slow but it doesn't matter. Cruising to us is one of the best ways to holiday with two young kids in tow - you really save on the need to pack / unpack!

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I did a lot of research on this before booking our S1 aft onboard the Reflection. Do take note that the window washing machine is parked on a different deck on the Reflection than on the other S class ships. I cannot remember offhand which deck it is (either 10 or 11) but if you do a search on the boards there are very helpful pictures of the aft with the cabin numbers superimposed on each cabin which should assist.

Have fun planning!

Thanks all for your suggestions. TA came back to say Celebrity said LO is not in the e-docs proper because she's an infant but that she is on the front cover of the document. The weird thing is, they seem to have gone and fixed it anyway because when I now click on the link to the printable docs, her name appears not just on the front cover but everywhere else the other passengers' names appear (I actually do not recall her name being on the front page either)! So not sure why Celebrity would tell my TA what they did but it doesn't matter - it's all resolved and we are breathing a sigh of relief :D.

TA also said I have to call Captains Club on the reciprocal benefits mix-up but we will wait till onboard and get the hostess to sort it out. Not a biggie as long as we all manage to board.

Now that the formalities are out of the way, it's officially countdown time to embarkation day. First time on an M class ship and cannot wait! Thanks again everyone!

Nice, congratulations! 2017 will hopefully be the year we go from platinum to diamond if all goes well.

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On our recent Mariner cruise, there were 2-for-1 deals advertised for the tour in the cruise compass the first two days of this 4-night cruise (sea day was scheduled on the final day). No idea how it went as we didn't sign up for it.

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On our recent cruise on RCL (Mariner), the tour was advertised as $150 per pax on the cruise planner. Response must not have been good as they were running 2-for-1 deals the first two days of the cruise. It was only a 4-night cruise so I have no idea if it went ahead.

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I would not wait till embarkation to get your daughter's name on the e-docs. If everyone but her has a sailing pass I'd worry that it will be a big tangle of confusion at check in. Definitely get your TA on it. That's where having one pays

Thanks! Have already dropped my TA an email. Let's see what she says; they will open for business in 3 hours or so.

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Sounds like the Italy/Greece cruises are bestsellers in 2018. We have booked for the June sailing and are looking forward to it too.

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Love the pictures, thank you for your ongoing review!

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Stop asking here and call Celebrity or your TA. Obviously this needs to be fixed and they are the ones who can fix it. Assuming you have Captains Club status call their direct number, they are usually able to solve things like this fairly easily.

Sorry but isn't this the point of having a forum? It's through the boards that I found out that the inability to check in online is not the end of the world. Also, as per my post, I did call Captains Club regarding the online check in issue; it wasn't very helpful and a second call was on hold for 40 minutes. I would rather not pay IDD charges more than necessary hence the post asking for similar experiences.

Further, if an Xpress pass is all you need for check-in and boarding, I don't see how a missing name on the e-doc is necessarily something that obviously needs fixing, at least right now. If I am thick in this way, I apologise.

I will take your suggestion to contact my TA - we are twelve hours apart so many a time my query has been addressed on this board faster than I can get her. But I will drop her an email so thank you for the reminder.

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As I have posted on two other threads, my inability to check my party of 7 in for our February cruise continues to plague me. I read that I can just proceed to do a manual check in on the day itself so that's all good (kind of). Prior to this, I had been on the phone with a Captain's Club representative sorting out reciprocal status, CC numbers etc. I basically couldn't include any of our CC numbers during online check-in. We went through each person one by one and she said all good to go, they're all appropriately tagged.

However, last night, I received my e-documents and when I opened them, I found that the documents have given my MIL "Select" status on this cruise when 1) this is her first Celebrity cruise and 2) she's only ever taken 2 cruises on RCL so she won't have any reciprocal status to speak of. Also, the other adult travelling with us just made Platinum after her RCL cruise two weeks ago and should be Select but isn't.

Last, my younger daughter's name is not found on either of the documents (we are in two suites and she happens to be in the Sky Suite booking with my parents-in-law).

Should I even bother calling Celebrity on these two points (I was on hold for more than 40 mins the last time I tried to get hold of a rep and I am calling from outside USA) or can these issues be sorted out at check-in? My daughter's exclusion for the documents is obviously more worrying to me than the mixed-up loyalty status but both issues are equally annoying at this juncture such that if I can resolve them on embarkation day, I would be happy to leave it as is until then.

Anyone with a similar experience?

Thanks!

We were in Wonderland on Harmony last June. One of our party is allergic to seafood but our server asked for allergies and then took that into account. We still had plenty of seafood but also lots of alternatives. We felt it was really just too much food at the end of it all!

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Seriously hope the crew will stay until at least the end of February - the level of service you've been experiencing seems extremely high.

Just a thought on the photo taking - could it be that the photographer meant that he needed the photo of you at the boarding area to facilitate the facial recognition program that they have which tags guests to the correct stateroom? We have had that explanation before (though no one has tried to pull the security excuse on us) and found it quite plausible.

Enjoy your cruise, looking forward to more updates.

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I have found that MOST of the time the website works, though it is clunky. Where their site really falls short is at check in. Checking in to a Celebrity cruise consistently takes much longer than when checking in to Princess, NCL, or Royal Caribbean. Those sites store your history & offer auto fill options for the 2nd guest. And don't even talk about making reservations for select dining. Gave that up after one cruise.

I just grumbled about this on another thread!! I have been trying to check in since two days ago. We are a group of 7 across two suites and I have encountered the following:

1) none of our Captains Club numbers have been able to be included. I get an error message with all 5 adults saying the number does not match the name. The CC rep on the phone says it does, and said allow 24 hours for it to work but that in any case it doesn't matter since it will be "on the system". It's been 72 hours and still it does not work. I am hoping her assurance that it will be "on the system" comes through and we get our reciprocal C&A benefits and our CC points at the end of the cruise.

2) can't seem to check my children in. One is in my stateroom and the other is with my inlaws. We have duly added her in and DH has checked their cruise documentation on their behalf. Still we are told that a parent and guardian has to check the cruise documentation on their behalf (!) and so they remain at 80% checked in.

I tried calling CC yesterday but they were very busy and I had to go to bed so gave up after 40 mins waiting. Will try again today. But yes I do agree that RCL's check in procedure was seriously pain free, fuss free and so much quicker in comparison!

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I can't seem to check in for my kids. They keep telling me an adult has to sign the cruise document. The problem is we have signed it. So nothing's wrong with anything but they keep saying they are only 80% checked in and tell us to resume check in. So frustrating. Tried to sort it out yesterday by calling them but after 40 min was still waiting for "the next available" person. Going to call again later today.

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I feel you as my very young children are going on their first cruise in a Celebrity royal suite in Feb with free internet and free unlimited specialty dining and beverage packages. I think they aren't even allowed into Ocean Liners and Tuscan Grille lol. But you did get a good price (so did we - we upgraded from a Sky Suite after final payment) and you'll get a wonderful cabin and hopefully have a wonderful time! Guess we just have to focus on the positives :)

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Great! :)

 

 

 

Now if the other occupant of the Inside wishes to join you in Luminae one evening, or even breakfast or lunch, you can use some of your savings to treat them. :)

LOL indeed! She's not a fan of sit-down restaurants in general (she's done Coastal Kitchen, MDR and most of the specialty dining restaurants on RCL but it will be her first time on Celebrity) but maybe there will be a menu that suits her fancy.

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My TA checked with Celebrity and they will not allow the two children to be booked into a room without an adult as they are way too young (very responsible of Celebrity I would say!). So no way for the adult to be in our cabin. However, thanks to the posters on this thread, I did enquire and TA confirmed that my child could be the second passenger in the inside cabin and still eat with us in Luminae at no cost. So we are transferring one of them to the inside cabin and this will save us about US$1000 nett (after taking into account the reduction in the TA's OBC). Thank you! :D

Will be following closely as we will be on in less than two months' time. Happy sailing!

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Thank you! I booked and paid today for our first ever Grand Suite - ended up booking 1578 on port side, for our Feb Mariner Asia cruise. So excited! Thanks for the additional information. Yes, that would be good to be able to take food from the buffet and eat in Chops, as the buffet can be crowded at time. Did this apply to breakfast and lunch? And a pre-dinner drink in the lounge sounds lovely! I cant wait :):)

I can't remember if it applies to lunch. But apart from Chops there is also a cordoned off area for suites guests in the WJ for use each time the WJ is in operation. We never saw anyone using it though. Also, when the MDR is open for lunch, you can use the Lyrics dining room on deck 3 which is also reserved for Suites guests. When we boarded, we were given a folder which had all the benefits listed in it. We found that very useful.

Congratulations and enjoy!

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Thank you so much Bertrande for your very informative detailed answer. I think I am going to book the Grand suite and your positive comments have helped me make my decision. Just a couple of questions please. What hours were "happy hour" in the concierge lounge, and could you take drinks with you to your cabin, or a show? Was there a full bar to choose from and did the concierge double as bartender? And what do you mean by " we had reserved seating in Chops for breakfast if we chose" ? Do you mean getting your breakfast from the buffet, but being able to eat in Chops for suite passengers? And any advice on port or starboard or any particular suite for this cruise? I am thinking of 1568 as it is showing it has pullmans available which might be good for our daughter. Thanks again for any advice. My first suite booking , so just trying to work out what the perks are!

Happy hours if I recall were something like 4-7pm (I am a teetotaller so don't quote me on this!). I saw a server standing at the side of the table with bottles of alcohol/spirits laid out but I'm not sure if he was there to guide a newbie or to serve as no one was helping themselves to alcohol when we visited.

Regarding Chops - we took food from the buffet and sat in Chops. They did have a limited spread of cold meats, smoked salmon and some fruit and yoghurt in Chops and I heard one lady going to the kitchen (the chefs were there) and requesting for scrambled eggs which they happily obliged (the scrambled eggs in Windjammer and the SL were horribly dry and rubbery throughout the cruise so I must say she did the right thing asking for fresh ones!!).

We were on port side and my DH remarked that we always faced the sea and not the dock - I don't notice such things but since my DH did, it must be the case. :)

I'm afraid staying in a suite has spoiled us - definitely bad for our pockets!! All our next few cruises across lines are in suites and DH himself said he's not sure he could ever go back to anything below a JS/SS now that he's so used to the extra space!

Have fun whichever you decide :)

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Since you are in a Suite you might discuss all this with the suite concierge onboard.

We might although I was hoping for precedence (not that it indicates anything but at least it would be comforting to know someone's done it before). I will wait for my TA to reply later today when she opens for business to see if she can switch names around or something. At the end of the day, it is not a deal breaker by any means - was just hoping to be able to make use of a perk that was included in our fare.

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They do have stickers since some buy the packages onboard. They can also make a new card with the package code on it.

Thanks Charles, perhaps a trip to guest services would be in order when we board. The cruise is still some ways away (in 2018 LOL) so hopefully there will be clarity one way or other in the next 18 months.

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Not toddlers

Hi Fish Lover, would you by any chance know how old the children would have to be? I have sent my TA an e-mail asking her to check with CEL if this arrangement can be done (and also, on another poster's suggestion, whether they would allow my child access to Luminae if she were booked into an inside with the other adult which would save me some money) but wonder if others have experience in this. Thanks!