kwokpot

There are currently no Thermal suites on any Celebrity ship you need to make an appointment to use. If you buy a pass through the cruise planner it asks for a date an time. Just pick anything, it doesn't matter what you pick because that's just the way the cruise planner is set up for spa purchases. When you get onboard you'll have a pass and can come and go as often as you want.

Day two is Scarlet Night. I don't remember seeing Drag Queen Bingo.

While in many cases that's true, there are lots of exceptions. Carnival still uses bar soap for the lavatory sink and I just finished a Virgin Voyages cruise and not only do they use bar soap for the lavatory sink but it's BLACK SOAP that lathers black! Sure the soap smells great but it leaves the lavatory area always looking dirty.

That's also our preferred timeframe for all of our cruises. Not too early, not too late.

I'll be sailing in September on the Seashore in an Aurea Suite-SL1. It's been several years since sailing on the Meraviglia and I've forgotten what type of toiletries are in the bathrooms. Looking at videos seems like the shower only has body wash and shampoo, no hair conditioner? And the lavatory looks like a liquid hand soap dispenser. Do they provide bar soap, or should I bring my own? Lastly, I don't see and videos that show body lotion supplied in the cabins. Looks like I need to bring my own body lotion? Thanks for any information !

With regards to Check-In, yes it's a little confusing. Bottom line if you're in a Retreat Class room you can check-in any time; however, you will still need to choose a check-in time that may or may not be your desired time. Unfortunately the system is not setup to allow someone with a Retreat class room to choose any check in time whether available or not. So choose whatever check in time is shown to you but know that you're allowed to actually go to the terminal and check in at any time you prefer.

The rumors were never about a total Revolution of the Reflection, only that Michael's Club would be renovated during the two week dry dock.

The Refection as a whole is in excellent condition. After sailing on the Edge and Apex I was concerned about being on an older ship. The ship is immaculate. As for the Michaels's Club/The Retreat you can see for yourself what the current lounge looks like. It's dark with a traditional 'Clubby' atmosphere. If the rumored renovation does indeed happen in the October drydock, the space will look much brighter and modern. Here is a photo of the same space on the Silhouette, which had it's Michael's Club renovated to the Retreat Lounge.

Agreed!

I was told this by the Retreat host's when I was on the Reflection back in February, and there have been numerous threads here on CC with people who sailed on the Reflection this year saying the same thing. Is it a 100% done deal? No, there's no posted 'official' statement from Celebrity themselves, which is why I used the word supposedly.

Hull or porthole balconies are OUTDOOR spaces since they are exposed to the elements. In other words, you can access those spaces in the driving rain, since they are weatherized and are equipped with drainage systems. By the same token, the same cannot be said for IV or the far more common Juliet Balconies, which are basically French doors utilized as windows with a balustrade so when the french doors are open one doesn't fall out.

Photos of the current (Pre-renovation) Michael's Club on the Reflection:

Reflection has the original Michael's Club, which substitutes for the Retreat Lounge. Besides the decor the biggest difference between the two is the lack of a mini buffet in Michel's Club. You won't find a display of food items and instead there's late afternoon canapes served on a small tray for a limited hour each night. Other than the afternoon canapes (literally one tray of crudities) there is no food or snacks served in Michael's Club, not even Bar mix. There is, however, three very large refrigerated cases that hold various cold drinks, both alcoholic and non. All are available self serve, unlimited. There is supposedly a remodel of Michael's Club to the new Retreat Lounge standard coming this Fall during the drydock.

An Elite Cruise is one of the top offers from Carnival's Casino Department. Unlike some of the other cruiseline casino programs Carnival doesn't have a published casino player tier program like the VIFP program they have. The way Carnival's casino players program works is they have different types of promotional cruises that come with various benefits. Depending on your casino play you'll be offered various promotional cruises in which some of the benefits, like free slot play bonuses, can very among people based on your casino play. Carnival considers their Elite cruise promotions their top published casino offer. You'll know you have an Elite Offer either by email, a mailed paper brochure, or checking your account on their website.

Yes, you should be able to do that. Although we've done Elites before, we were surprised about the flexibility that the transfer company allowed, it was new information for us on our b2b2b in Europe on the Pride in May/June. The first and last cruises were Elite. On the first cruise, since we were staying on for another cruise, we used the transfer from the Barcelona airport to our Barcelona hotel three days prior to the cruise. Then we had them take us from the hotel to the cruise terminal. When the last cruise was over, we had them take us from Dover, England to a Central London hotel, which was an hour 45 minute ride worth over $300 since it's a private car service. The second transfer was from London to Heathrow Airport three days later.

About three weeks before your cruise you will get an email asking about several things. One is what you want for your In Room Bar setup. You'll choose from a list of Wines and Spirits, each passenger gets to choose one bottle. There will also be a selection of mixers for each of you to choose from a list, which also incudes sodas and water. The bottles are full sized and unopened, and since you'll be getting drinks everywhere for two people you MAY want to decide whether or not you actually want to open and drink the wine/Spirits or take it home with you, which are are certainly allowed to do. Just remember if you're flying into and from the Port you'll need to place the bottles protected in your check luggage. Second thing you'll be asked to decide is whether you want the complementary excursion, which there will be a preselected choice for you (both people have to take the same excursion) or you want a spa credit of $300 total, which can be used however you want by either both or just one passenger. The last thing you'll decide is whether you want Port Parking or the transfers. If you choose the transfers, you'll get a second email from the transfer company asking for details. The second email will ask what kind of transfer you want. You are given two transfers to use however you want, there's no restrictions. So if you're flying into the port you can use the two transfers for any combination you want; airport to hotel, hotel to pier, pier to hotel, pier to airport. The transfers doesn't even need to necessarily coincide with the cruise. For example, we used a Elite transfer from our London Hotel to Heathrow 3 days after the cruise ended. The transfer company didn't care the cruise already ended three days prior. All you need to do is decide which two points you want them to take you from and to, and give them the dates, places and times. To get the most value, if you have multiple transfer needs, for example you're staying in a hotel both pre-cruise and post- cruise, decide which segments are the most expensive and have Carnival pay for those and any other transfer needs you have you use a cab, car service or Uber/Lyft. Edit: The transfers are a private luxury car service, in a SUV, luxury sedan, or something similar. They simply pick you up and drop you off. Carnival pays the gratuity, but you are obviously welcome to pay additional tips.

We loved the MardiGras, had a B2B in April on her. If you enjoy Carnival I would definitely say try Virgin. Just be aware that there's no traditional Comedian show, which I not most Carnival cruisers love to attend (We can take it or leave it). Virgin is the only cruiseline that does a deck party better than Carnival!

On our particular cruise, which was a 4 day going to Key West and Bimini, midweek, I would estimate the majority of passengers were from 25-50. Sure there were over 65's but definitely in the minority. It was younger than most Celebrity cruises except when we were cruising Celebrity during Spring Break Season. I think the key to whether you'll enjoy a Virgin cruise depends on how much you value the traditional elements of cruising. Despite my warning pre-cruise to my husband about how Virgin does cruises differently just to be different, on embarkation day he was a bit put off on how they didn't do this or that like the other cruiselines. He was most miffed about the Food Hall concept. I think part of that was expectations, and part was not enough signage. Some of the food stands are service only, some are both self serve and service. There's no signs on the tables that there will be servers to take your order for some of the food selections, while beverages, breads and sweets are self serve. Once we 'figured out' how things worked, he was very receptive to the food hall concept vs traditional buffet. As mentioned the two other big changes are the entertainment and non-suite rooms. As you can see here on the Celebrity boards there's many Celebrity devotees that enjoy a certain cruising experience and are resistant to changes about anything, from a chair(BTW, the furniture on Virgin is closer to Kelly Hoppen than to classic Celebrity furnishings) down to what type of Champagne is served. We love the new, modern, and different of the Celebrity E-Class and welcomed trying Virgin and had a great time. My number one wish for Virgin is to have slightly larger and better designed cabins that aren't suites. Otherwise everything else that was different was just fine by me. Edit: Oops, I forgot this thread is on the Carnival board. We sail different lines and I enjoy participating on all the CC discussion boards. Sidenote: We are SUPPOSED to be on the Oasis right now from NJ but my husband tested positive for Covid today, when two days ago he was fine. Was it from the Virgin cruise? Possibly. He started feeling not good yesterday, even though two days ago he tested negative. We didn't wear masks on the Virgin cruise and neither did 99.95% of the passengers. We did wear masks on the plane to and from FL, and so far I'm negative. Such is life.

We ordered directly from Emed and the order arrived exactly as promised.You should order from Emed, not from Optum.

I again preface this comment that I enjoy staying in a IV cabin. But you're exactly right, you are not outside, you're inside with a big window that's open. I'm not sure how people can equate the two.

On Carnival they change up the times on each cruise to avoid these issues, which I think is a great idea.

Have you checked out any online videos of it? There are a couple of strange design choices that turned me off completely without even trying it. First off, there are no locker rooms. There are individual unisex changing rooms within the spa and also individual unisex shower rooms. Second, instead of individual heated tile loungers there are heated flat marble platforms. So one would need to lay down a towel on the heated platform and use another towel rolled up to create a pillow for your head.

I was on one of the maiden voyages; the Edge's 12/16/18 Maiden Eastern Caribbean cruise and second full week paying cruise and besides the whole IV issue one thing that hasn't been brought up again but was a major design fail was the closing of the cafe adjacent to the Martini Bar. That definitely was an epic failure when it was already closed for my cruise, still considered a maiden voyage. I'm sure conceptually the idea that the Grand Plaza have a food component seemed like a great concept but in realty it competed with Cafe Al Bacio and I assume in the FAM tours it literally got zero usage to the extent that by the second paying cruise it was already deemed a failure and closed!

You are correct, you cannot do what you are proposing.

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