thon

We will be visiting these same ports on Silhouette in late March so I will follow along your blog Paul.  I’ve enjoyed your other ones.

Our very first cruise a few years ago was on Reflection.  There were 2 groups on board.  One had about 1500 or more and the other 100 or so.  The first was some sort of a positive thinking cult (they refused to call themselves a cult, but I googled them when I got home) - they had seminars every sea day so didn’t bother us at all.  We just learned very fast to head to the lunch buffet before their morning session got out!  The other was some sort of an investment club - again no problems but they packed the bars every night.

The evening dress code is spelled out on the Celebrity website.  If you click on menu, then Search and type in dress code you’ll get it.  I would cut and paste it if I could figure out how to do that on my iPad.  And I believe the dress code only applies to the MDR and the theatre, not the buffet or specialty restaurants (but stand to be corrected here).  

10 minutes ago, micheleata said:

So after you sign in and go to manage my vacation, you scroll down to the cruise planner.  Click on book excursions, and scroll down.  On the left you will see your itinerary, including the sea days.  You actually have to click on Day ? Sea Day and it should come up.  I would hate for you to miss this sale..  I booked for the Edge yesterday at $49.30 each!    Hope this helps.

That’s exactly what I did micheleata when I booked it too.  But it may not be available on each sea day so you may have to click on each day..  I’m with you - would hate to see the OP miss this sale.

55 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

 

If not in the opening "featured" items in your Cruise Planner, it is, oddly, sometimes listed in the excursions. I think they are usually on sea days.

That’s where I found it on my upcoming Silhouette cruise.  Why they list it under ‘shore excursions’ is anybody’s guess.  For my cruise, it seems to be offered on a number of sea days but not all of them.  I’ve booked it and I’m looking forward to it.  I took a free tour (courtesy of my TA) of the kitchens last year which was really good.

For me, when I just opened their shore excursions brochure there was no change.  But when I checked into my cruise planner, the reduced excursion rates were all there.

1 hour ago, thon said:

Just checked my excursions for the March 27 Silhouette and nothing changed.  Bummer!

Well I must have been doing something wrong because I just checked and my prices have gone down.  Cancelled and re-booked 2 excursions and saved about CDN$65.  So with my savings I booked the ‘Behind the Scenes’ tour for myself as my wife is not interested in that.  

Just checked my excursions for the March 27 Silhouette and nothing changed.  Bummer!

34 minutes ago, jelayne said:

With Select dining you can make reservations online in your Cruise Planner.  Look under Sociality restaurants/dining and scroll to the bottom where you should see a place to make reservations for Select Dining.  This will shorten your wait to be seated rather than just showing up.

Other than on my very first Celebrity cruise we have always had Select.  I don’t trust inputting anything in my cruise planner since it entails entering things via Celebrity’s “award-winning” website.  I call them directly and request a certain time - for us it is 7 p.m. each night.  They have always been able to make these reservations directly and it works.  So you might want to try calling - if you are a Captain’s Club member this might be the best number to use.

We did not take the Sea Cow snorkelling  excursion through the ship; we took the Woodwind one which we booked ourselves.  But both companies go to the same place and both get great reviews on Trip Advisor.  So if you like snorkelling, and if the Sea Cow one is offered on your cruise I would go for it.  On our upcoming cruise we have already re-booked the Woodwind one.

We always bring all our own stuff, but then we like to snorkel whenever we can, including during land vacations down south.  We also bought some short fins so have no problem putting everything in our suitcases.  Plus, on a snorkelling excursion a couple of years ago we tried out a full face mask - liked them so much that we both bought one.  While these days most (all?) tour operators may go the extra step of ensuring all their snorkels are sanitized properly, when we first snorkelled years ago we often questioned just how sanitized the really were. That is why we first bought our own equipment and now are just used to bringing it with us all the time.  For us, it takes very little room in our suitcases.

We take Select Dining each cruise.  We pre-book a table for 2 every night for 7 p.m. which gives us plenty of time to eat leisurely and make the 9 p.m. show.  We don’t always get the same table but after the first or second night they have always sat us in the same section so we get the same wait staff.  I call Captain’s Club a few months before the cruise to make the 7 p.m. reservations.  We’ll do this same thing for our upcoming March 2020 Silhouette cruise.

Definitely ignore the prices on their website.  We had not planned a cruise for 2020, but I was looking for one in 2021 and then I got the email about this sale.  Did a couple of 2020 dummy bookings (for the same cruise) but picking 2 different perks for each.  Got $300 CDN difference. Even though the end price was more than I had hoped for I decided to go ahead as it was a celebration for our 30th anniversary.  Called Celebrity and THEIR end price over the phone was about $1900 CDN less.  So - no brainer - I booked!  What ended up being a bonus for us was a total of $500 OBC - from this sale and their November sale.  I have never booked a cruise online - always through either a TA or calling Celebrity direct.

I’m a little confused over edocs and Xpress pass.  We have printed off our Xpress passes for our cruise leaving in a week’s time but nowhere is there any mention of edocs.  We are not flying with Celebrity/Choice Air so wondering if edocs have to do with flights?

As for luggage tags I have always filled out the request on line after check-in is available but have never received them.  I always have to call Captain’s Club and they come within a week or two.

I will be taking this tour on March 29.  There are 2 ships in port that day so hopefully it won’t be too busy. I will be doing on report on TA afterwards as I always do.

We were at Boatyard a year or so ago.  We did not go on the-included snorkel tour.  We got there from our ship relatively early (we thought) but still were relegated to chairs 3 or more rows back as I recall.  There were some chairs in the first row with towels on them but nobody there for the longest time.  I’m now wondering if these people had gone on the first snorkle tour and the beach employees were saving their chairs.  If that was the case I might be tempted to go on the snorkel tour - we just don’t want to get back from an early snorkel to find that there are either no more chairs left or we have to sit in row eleven LOL.

Now I had not realized that there are a couple of other places just down the beach where we could also rent chairs/umbrellas that may not be as crowded as Boatyard.  We do not need the swing rope, etc. or the 1 included drink.  And snorkling with turtles surrounded by scores of other snorkellers is not necessary for us either - we have snorkeled with scores of turtles elsewhere.  Having a return taxi included in the cost of beach access is nice though.  We’ll be in Barbados Sunday, 31 March on the Silhouette so will have to keep these other options in mind.  The Boatyard has a bit of a party atmosphere I think and being a Sunday there may be considerably more locals  there than on a weekday.

I have at times booked through a TA and have always been able to check-in online myself.

16 hours ago, davekathy said:

Luggage tags aren't available until approximately 45 days prior to your sail date. You can also call the Captains Club at 1-800-760-0654 and order your luggage tags. 

Thanks.  My cruise is less than 45 days away and I have called Captains Club before for the tags.  It’s just that I am currently out of the country and not really wanting to incur an added expense by turning on my phone just for this.

16 hours ago, bartnath said:

Sign into your account -> Go to Manage Reservation -> Look to the far right for "Before You Board" and click on it -> Scroll to the bottom for "Mail Me Luggage Tags"

The problem is - on my iPad all these things do not pop up for me to click on - particularly the “mail me” option.  I was just wondering if anyone else had such problems on an iPad.  In the past I have been at home when ordering tags and used my pc.

I cannot find anywhere on my reservation to order the tags.  I’ve done it before. Perhaps it is because I am using an iPad as I am away from home on vacation; I don’t know.

I have only been on 3 cruises, all of them on Celebrity in Caribbean.  Never bought a ship excursion.  Only tender port we’ve been to is Grand Cayman a couple of years ago.  When we were ready to get off the ship after our breakfast we went down and got the next tender.  No line.  No waiting.  Maybe we were just lucky?  This was before 9 a.m.  Of all our other walk-off ports we’ve never had to wait more than a few minutes and we get off relatively early.  Now, waiting for our number to be called for disembarkation is another story altogether!

We used the Rodeway for a day room in February this year and were quite satisfied with the experience.  Took an Uber from Miami port.  Hotel has a free shuttle to FLL - wife and I were the only 2 on it.  Room was clean, had a nice shower, comfortable beds for a small nap.  Spent a few hours at their pool and ate lunch in the attached restaurant.  We’re traveling in and out of Port Everglades in March 2019 and will be using them again.

We’re also thinking of staying there for a night pre-cruise as well in March.

The Rodeway .

12 hours ago, cathi007 said:

Thanks, I will try that. I also e-mailed the Boatyard, but nothing from them. I might just make reservations for the adults and that day if there is a charge for the 3 year old I can just pay cash. I would think the 14 month old would be free. 🙂

 Not sure if you can make advance reservations.  I’ve only been there once and plan on going again in March.   Their $25 charge includes loungers, umbrellas and a taxi back to your ship so I would think if any family members were expecting to use such amenities then they would be charged something.  But I could be wrong.  If they don’t answer your emails their website includes a phone number - you might want to consider calling them.  At least then you’d know for sure.

Sorry I can’t help you directly but have you asked the same question on the Barbados forum on Trip  Advisor.  You might get more responses there.  Good luck.

We used Uber in Feb from Miami port to Fort Lauderdale with no problem.  We went to a hotel with day rooms as we had a later flight as well (7:00).  As I recall there is not much to do at FLL and I can’t imagine spending most of a day there.