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Did not look at the You Tube link, no cruise line shows first run new release movies.

Disney definitively does show new releases. They call them "premEARs" (get it?). The current scuttlebutt is that their website has a line about the next Star Wars-themed Disney cruise being the only Star Wars-themed cruise that will be showing the newest film at sea. Some people argue that they're going to wait until that cruise to show it. Others say that means that only Disney will show it--so you can't book another Star Wars-themed cruise and expect to see this film. I tend to think it's the latter. Bottom line is that Disney cruise lines will be showing it at some point. Celebrity won't.

You are getting a cash advance on your cabin ostensibly for use in the casino (which they'll do for anyone with or without OBC). That doesn't mean you can't just take the cash they give you and put it in your pocket.

That charge plus 5% is put on your bill. The OBC will pay off any charges to your bill. Any balance left over once the OBC is gone will be charged to the credit card linked to your account.

Bottom line is that everyone has to have some measure of personal responsibility in securing their own possessions and making sure they keep up with anything they cannot afford to lose. This is a hard lesson to learn but hopefully the couple in this example will be more aware from now on. What gets lost in this story is that this doesn't apply just to Celebrity cruises but anywhere at any time.

That said, I worked my way through college in hotels, and the first person blamed for missing items is always the housekeeper. However, every housekeeper I worked with would drop off diamond earrings and jewelry and cash ($500 one time) and electronics and you name it on a regular basis. Most were honest, very hardworking people, often working two or three jobs to support their family. They would dig through trash to look for missing stuff, if that was a possibility. It always annoyed me to no end that they were the first ones blamed when they were full of integrity and took pride in a job well done. One hotel I worked with would follow up with customers a few weeks after the fact and more often than not, the customer found whatever had been “stolen” once they got home. So while I can accept that there may be theft on occasion, the incidences of it are extremely low.

They sure have buried it. It's under "Phone" on the "Staying in Touch" tab of the "During Your Cruise" page of the "Already Booked?" section:

Friends and family can contact the ship by calling 877-266-1020. From outside the U.S., they can call 321-953-9002. The cost is $7.95 USD a minute. This can be charged to their MasterCard® or Visa®. From outside the U.S., additional long distance charges will also apply.

You can make ship-to-shore calls from your stateroom, 24 hours a day. The cost is $7.95 USD per minute and will be automatically charged to your SeaPass® account.

This is from the US site. It may be different in other countries, though the info should be the same.

Do you wonder if it was our OP?

Ha! My first thought, too! Or the other one who did his own thing.

But, seriously, there is a time and place for complaining and causing a scene in the theater is not the way to do it. It's not like the captain is going to suddenly say "You're right! We're on our way now!" Decisions like this are made at headquarters. Even if you feel the need to rant at the captain as a representative of the company, don't make everyone else uncomfortable with a public outburst.

We are thinking of upgrading to a sky suite. One of the perks is dining at Luminae. How large is this restaurant? One of the reasons for the upgrade is we would like to avoid the noise of the dining room. Dh has a hearing problem and the dining room makes it hard for him to hear. We are thinking that this venue will be a quiet area. Are children allowed? How often are "non suite" guests allowed? We generally like to eat between 8 - 8:30 nightly. Would this work for this restaurant?

It's smaller than the main dining room. Size and layout are different on each ship. The noise level will always depend on who else is dining at whatever time you are, though.

Children are allowed if they're in a suite because it's their assigned dining room, too. Not many reports I've seen of loud kids ruining anything, though. I find the children on Celebrity to generally be on the good side with their behavior--and I don't really care to hang around kids.

How often non-suite guests are allowed is the subject of this thread--it was announced at one point that you could bring guests one night only (for a charge). The likely answer is that it's up to the discretion of the crew on board. But I wouldn't expect the restaurant to get filled up with non-suite guests.

The hours mirror those of the main dining room, which can vary based on ship and itinerary, though there's generally a late dinner seating at 8:30 in the main dining room. So 8-8:30 will be a fine time to dine. How crowded it is will depend on the itinerary you're sailing and the passenger profile for those sailing with you.

So your suggested logic is that 'Celebrity may hold slots for people who may be booking later' meaning that someone who is an actual customer is denied MDR seating confirmation so that someone, lets say 90 days after the OP booked, could get MDR seating slots held for them even if they are not going to use them?!

It's been proffered as a reason by others--not necessarily to save room for future bookings, though. More along the lines of what you suggested about keeping a population out of circulation to fix issues or any other myriad reasons. Others have suggested that they only make a certain number of slots available for early bookers. No one really knows the logic, but there are people who are able to book traditional dining in advance, so it's not a ploy to force everyone into Select. It is just a by-product of their booking system.

With differing opinions throughout this thread, I thought I'd call Celebrity to see what answer is correct. According to the rep, you are free to self-disembark at any point. Either sign up to disembark with a late group, or just let Guest Relations know ahead of time what you want to do.

I don't think there's a difference of opinion in this thread. You can leave the ship at any time if you're carrying your own luggage off. Otherwise, you leave the ship at a preappointed time based on class of service, status, and/or departure flight times.

If you want to be the first one off the boat, you join the line of people who are waiting for the gangplank to open. A line forms if a lot of people want to do that.

If you want to do something that is not covered in either of those scenarios, talk to Guest Relations and they'll figure it out for you.

I would disagree that most think it’s some plot to go to all-time Select dining as the reasons for traditional dining being full this far in advance are well-documented: TAs may have slots held for group bookings, people who have already made reservations have already claimed the available slots, Celebrity may hold slots for people who will be booking later, and, due to the way the billing system works, people who are assigned to Blu or Luminae also have a slot reserved in traditional dining. The universal experience is that if you wait, you can usually get booked into whichever slot you prefer. Bookings will come and go, especially as the cruise gets closer. You can also plead your case once you are onboard and usually get moved to your preferred time by the second or third night.

Bottom line: you'll just have to wait. This far out chances are very good that you'll be off the waitlist sooner rather than later.

At one point you could only pay for them to dine with you on one night. That was the stated policy at least. The people on the ship might be more lenient but there is a charge involved if you are all adults.

And I would think that if any cruise line were to have it, it would be Disney since Star Wars is a Disney franchise these days. It's going to be a huge movie. Maybe one of the ports you're going to will have a theater showing it?

The last 3 were so terrible that I'm just going to wait for the DVD. :)

Has anyone had any luck getting a corner aft S1 on Reflection? I'm looking at Caribbean routes 2016, and all I can get to come up for S1 category are the ones on deck 12 that are not aft. My goodness, what do you have to do? Sit by the computer the day the 2017 cruises become available to reserve? I'm usually not picky, always book suite, but I just wanted to try the corner aft. Looks like that takes more years of waiting than I'm willing to do!

I booked 7309 for February 2016 when I was onboard in February 2015. It seems to pretty much be the luck of the draw, though there were several of those corner aft ones available for this cruise at that point (I had my choice of three, I think). Those in the know are going for those cabins first, though, as the rest of the corner aft ones were booked by the time we got home. However, my sailing has had at least two of those rooms come open and then get booked again, so you definitely just have to monitor the site and jump on it when you see it.

The specialty restaurants are generally no better than what you can get at any mid-level restaurant in Philadelphia (one of my favorite cities in which to eat out). I think you should try the MDR for the first few meals and then decide. They post the evening's menu by around noon so that can also be a factor, if you're in the mood for something else.

Don't most people go on vacation to get out of having to go to church?

Lots of negative assumptions being made for something that hasn't been widespread. Maybe they're told to do this when they're running low on product?

With the disclaimer that I'm not trying to 'start' anything, I'm slightly apprehensive about the age of Summit, and some recent threads about the rude passenger base from NJ.

That same passenger base goes on Caribbean cruises, too. As you've noted, if you want to go on Celebrity anywhere during this timeframe, your choice for leaving from the East Coast is limited to the one itinerary. That doesn't mean it's primarily people from the tristate area who are sailing.

For the actual betting, you use cash. Either you buy chips for the tables or you put money in the machines.

If you use your Seapass card, then you incur the 5% fee. So, you can buy $100 worth of chips and charge it to your onboard account (which will eventually get charged to the credit card linked to your Seapass), but the transaction would cost you $105.

I don't think you can use a credit card directly. You can get a cash advance from the casino. That is charged to your onboard account and incurs a 5% fee. Or you can withdraw cash from the ATM. Or bring cash with you from home.

Never hurts to ask. They'll generally always agree to take more money from you, but if the only way for them to process it is to cancel one order and start with a new one, they probably will say no since you're already past the final payment stage. The answer can also depend on your country. So the only real way to know is to contact them. I'd be interested to hear how they handle it.

I don't agree with Cruisestitch but favour Mr Click's reasoning.

If any of the dining choices were to be over booked it would most likely be SELECT, seldom would it be 2nd seating, therefore Mr Click's reasoning is probably correct.

Well, Mr. Click's reasoning is based on a wrong assumption and faulty premise. As noted, you don't pre-pay at the time of booking. Ergo, that can't be the sole reason.

There are likely lots of different reasons why the MDR gets filled far in advance. Limited slots available for booking in traditional combined with the default preference for a lot of people being a set dining time.

As discussed on similar threads on this subject, every suite passenger automatically gets a spot reserved in the MDR even though the suite dining room is Luminae. This is due to Celebrity's coding issues on the billing side, i.e., this is apparently the only way they have to keep suite guests from having to pay gratuities with final payment. There are also many people who choose a traditional dining time and then switch to Select on board so that they can use their OBC to pay for gratuities. This isn't going to change until Celebrity figures out a different billing methodology.

In this day and age, our family needs to contact us. We need to contact them.

 

Another philosophy:

 

We have very dear older friends who have cruised for many years. They also used to occasionally watch the grandkids so Mom and Dad could get away. Their philosophy was:we will not tell you if little one breaks an arm or whatever, because there is nothing you can do about it. Just go, enjoy and we will see you soon.,

Well, I vehemently disagree with the first sentiment. Why exactly do people NEED to be in touch instantaneously these days? Nothing in the world has changed except for our ability to be reachable.

The philosophy that you end your post with is where I wish everyone would start from: you really have no control over what's going on and only a really dire emergency is going to get you off the boat. In my experience, being in touch 24/7 causes more stress than it relieves.

For the OP, I'd heavily reconsider the suggestion that you use email to stay in touch with routine check-ins because you'll ultimately get much more peace of mind with that since you won't have to worry whether or not you're getting charged international roaming rates for this stuff.

It's a bit of a misnomer to say you're cashing out your OBC. You are getting a cash advance on your cabin ostensibly for use in the casino (which they'll do for anyone) and that charge plus 5% is put on your bill.

Trying to decide on whether or not to keep this booking. It is a great itinerary with five port days. We are four cabins. Our married children with children have two family verandas on deck seven. My unmarried daughter has an S1 next to us on deck six. We have a very large deck with a hot tub. I am thinking we can hang out on our deck and the four grands can play in the hot tub some of the time. Only one grandchild is a toddler. Thanks for your information.

I do not have experience with the hot tubs on ship balconies but I do own one at home. All of the safety guidelines say that toddlers should never be in a hot tub because they can overheat very easily. Older kids should limit their use to 5 minutes if the water is really hot (104 is the hottest setting) and no more than 15 minutes if the water is on the cooler setting (around 98 degrees). Some guidelines recommend that they don't do full immersion (chest below water) but sit on one of the jump seats instead (I'm not sure if these balcony tubs have those).

I wouldn't say there is not a limit. They will cut you off if you're too drunk.

I guess 30 was too much. My parents went on a princess cruise in their mid 40s and I remember them saying everyone was at least 20 years older. I'm 40, so maybe it's only 25!! The truth is, age doesn't really make a difference-- attitude does!!

I'm also 40 and travel with a late-30s friend. A lot of people on our first Celebrity cruise kept telling us that we would probably enjoy Royal Caribbean more because of the demographics, more or less apologizing for their age. Pretty absurd way of thinking. I had to assure them that the only people who bother me are the rude ones, and that I actually found the lack of families with kids to be a big plus.