eg1

Looking forward to more -- boarding ourselves in 9 days ...

That's the beauty of the cruise -- something for everybody!

I think if we didn't have two pre-teens in tow we may have been a little more adventurous.

We stayed aboard the ship on the Ocho Rios port day. The clincher was when our ship got the "industrial port" slip rather than the tourist one.

I enjoyed the Alcoves very much during our trip on the Reflection in mid-March. Booked one for a sea day and one port day.

I found it was one of the nicest, quiet spots to read a book. I never could figure out a time to actually order a drink there -- seems it was either empty (no wait staff) or there was some special event going on in there.

Our daughter cut herself on a barnacle on the underside of one of the inflatables. Nothing serious, but enough to end her swim for the day.

I mention it only because it would not have occurred to me to watch out for something like this, and maybe it can help somebody else avoid it.

Our family of four (DD 12 and DS 9) very much enjoyed our beach day at Paradise. I loved the shrimp ceviche and our son had a blast on the trampoline on the beach. Something for everybody, really -- even reliable shade under the umbrellas for a sun-phobe like myself, and a nice pool for those who prefer that to the ocean.

We were on the March 14-21 version of this Canadian charter out of Hamilton. Our plane was full bar two empty seats. I don't fly often enough to make any helpful observations about Canada North other than to say that the crew were friendly, the food quite good, and the complimentary drinks welcome.

I concur that X did a great job keeping us all together once we cleared US Customs, but before that, finding our way through the crowded chaos of Miami airport was trying (especially for the inexperienced traveller such as myself).

It was nice to leave our bags behind once we boarded the bus from the airport to the port. Schlepping them through the expanse of the airport was tiresome.

My only complaint about the charter experience was the return trip. We were off the boat by 8am and our flight out of Miami wasn't until 12:30pm. Four hours of the tender mercies of Miami airport were a little much to take at that hour, and it made for a long travel day at the end of our trip.

Another time I might drive across the border to Buffalo airport (did this successfully for a Disney trip) to escape the customs line in Miami. Then on the way back I'd stay in Miami the day of disembarkation to avoid the "hurry up and wait" experience we had this time. Only by comparing the two methods (and the price of both) could I make a definitive claim about the merits of the charter.

Our party tried the Kentucky Derby, and universally loathed it. We dubbed it "the gas mower". I did enjoy the ginger one (cannot remember its name) and the ladies enjoyed the one with what we termed "the salmon spew" floating on top

I had been having difficulty accessing the website from Internet Explorer on Vista; switching to Chrome as the browser resolved my issues. YMMV :cool:

I see that you are somewhat new to posting on Cruise Critic, but not sure how familiar you are with using its many resources, such as performing a simple query to find information you are looking for on a given topic, like "alcoves".

 

Here is another thread for you to read that also has pictures.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2151453&highlight=alcove

 

Enjoy!

Yes, new to the board and new to cruises altogether -- thanks again for the link

Many thanks for the thoughtful and thorough replies. I'm a real sun avoider, so I hope we can keep the shade up :)

Can anybody share their experience with booking an Alcove on the Reflection? We booked one for a sea day in March and are wondering what we can expect, thanks.

Hi EG1,

 

As I see this is your first post...

 

A BIG Welcome to Celebrity & Cruise Critic (CC)

 

Stay tuned to this Board, lots to be learned off of CC

 

Be sure and also check out the New Cruisers Board - Ports of Call Board - and the Roll Call for your sailing (look to the very top of this page, above the first post where it says... NEW - Find Your Celebrity Roll Call

 

Other wonderful resources...

 

* Celebrity's own Website (lots of great info especially the FAQs section)

 

* Celebrity Cruise Brochures (download or order a hard copy... Read it all... Easy breezy cause it is a great read with pictures)

 

* Check out the Official Tourism Websites for the Destinations... Countries / Islands & Cities you'll be going to

 

* Check out CCs sister website TripAdvisor. Again a great resource for Tourism Info, Reviews and help. Their Forums have wonderful Destination Experts & Locals available to answer Questions first hand. Stuff you can learn fom those folks is priceless IMO

 

Hope this helps,

 

Look forward to seeing you around the boards, cause the more you learn the better vacation you can have IMO (lol and learn tricks to save time & money)

 

Cheers!

Many thanks for the welcome! I have been lurking the forums for a few weeks now since we decided to book for next Spring.

If nothing else I've come to the conclusion that we'll definitely need the Premium drinks package... :D

Demand in the cruising industry has gone up in recent years (and price follows demand)

 

Demand is being driven by the AI Experience that more Travellers are looking for (and indeed why X introduced the 123Go concept). Every year the world over more and more ships are being built to meet this need... The 5 S-Class Ships that Celebrity launched one a year 2008 thru 2012 was part of this.

 

As for the references you are seeing on the Celebrity Website to bookings for Canada... RF Canada & SI Canada, these relate to Celebrity's own in house AI Charters that they are running for the ReFlection and SIlhouette between February & April this year. A complete pkg from Celebrity that includes... Airfare Charter (with Canadian North) - All Tranfers - Cruise - and Hotel Rooms (if required)

 

They tested them out in select Cdn Cities last year, were hugely successful, so now are running every Saturday & Sunday February thru April from 6 Cdn Cities in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick & Nova Scotia for the Reflection & Silhouette

 

Hope this helps,

 

Cheers!

We are living proof that the concept works. We're booked on Reflection in March on one of these packages, and it is our first cruise -- I imagine our experience will dictate whether or not we repeat.

According to our TA this Canadian plan was something of a gamble. Before these charters the cost of flights was a serious drag on sales in Canada.