binro01

The current state of airfare and other airline shenanigans is making European cruises a more difficult money making venture vs the Caribbean. One less edge class ship in the Med lowers the med inventory they need to sell under those current conditions. Probably as simple as that.

If booked with a travel advisor, get in contact with them. They should have marked your sailing as a back to back on the reflection (And you should have received a small discount on both legs for the back to back booking) If you are marked as back to back and you had the same stateroom prior for both sailings, they should do the same for you on the Beyond. If you booked with Celebrity directly, call them and let them know about your situation, especially if you did not get the small discount for booking a back to back. They can tie the two reservations together and hopefully belay your concerns.

Well good news for me! My ABC island Celebrity Reflection trip for September 7th has been officially moved to the Beyond! I say that is an upgrade for me. I know people are kinda negative about the IVs, but I really don't mind them and I do love the layout and options an Edge class ship has over the Reflection. Here is an excerpt from my email I just received We are excited to inform you that your upcoming Caribbean cruise aboard Celebrity Reflection, scheduled to embark out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, will now take place on the stunning Celebrity Beyond. You will now be experiencing one of our newest and most remarkable ships at no additional cost. No action will be required on your part to sail on this modified itinerary. You will be automatically rebooked in the same stateroom type and any All Included perks or Retreat amenities you received with the purchase of your cruise will be honored, accordingly. Once the process of moving your booking is complete, you will receive a refreshed invoice via email with your new stateroom number. We anticipate it will take us a few weeks to complete all transactions.

Well, my Reflection 8N September 7th 2024 ABC Island cruise looks like it will be cancelled. I hope they offer me to lift and shift my booking to the Beyond for the same day and same itinerary. We will see.

We are doing our first B2B on the Celebrity Ascent. Will we need to disembark the ship or will we have a designated area? Is there any perks that I might not know about? We are staying in the same cabin so I hear we will not have to pack. Should I tip my cabin steward 2x? (At the end of each leg?)

So I’m planning my first ever B2B cruise on the Ascent. I would like to ask experienced B2B cruiser here, what things should I plan, what should I expect and what did you wish you knew about before going on your first B2B cruise. My wife and I are excited to check off this “cruise to do” list item in the near future. Thanks for all your knowledge and help!

What amount did you get back? The taxes, port expenses and fees?

Are taxes, fees and port expenses refunded to the shipboard account as a refundable OBC? I have had that happen on another line. Wondering if that’s the same policy on Celebrity. We might have a cancellation with one of my Brothers in their room. One will still be going. Wondering what will happen. Should we call Celebrity before heading to the port? Just wondering if anyone has prior history with a similar situation.

Just so everyone knows, Travel agents are not restricted to book a 3/4 berth room for double occupancy. It is just a restriction that Celebrity placed on their website for passengers that book directly. Yet another reason to book with a good TA.

Gaining PUP points is an optional activity, therefore one can not be 'forced' to watch. If you want those optional point watch the webinar otherwise don't. It's an activity you chose to participate in for a known reward. No one is making you to do something you did not wish to engage with. That's kind of like saying you are forced to sit in on a timeshare presentation to get that free buffet dinner and tickets to a show on the Vegas strip.

Final sea day report tomorrow once we are off the ship and safely in our hotel room by Houston Hobby airport for our flight on Monday back to Utah. if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask!

Final port day at Cozumel Started off the day with breakfast at Jonny Rockets. Good place I grab a bite in the AM. Went myself cause the family is on vacation mode. Paradise Beach Club is our go to place in Cozumel. It’s very clean and professional and no beach vendors what so ever. Snorkeling is good off the pier. Kids have inflatables in the ocean and there is a wonderful huge pool. The grounds are immaculate. We splurged for a day bed for an extra 50 bucks and it was well worth it. Our two servers Oscar and Luis were very attentive. The drinks at paradise is strong. The food good. But I just really love how clean and well maintained everything is. Since this was our third beach day and we did get to the club at 9:30 AM we packed up around 2:15 PM. Which was perfect since the ship did leave at 4:30. A cab to Paradise is 16.00 for up to 4 people so find some one to split a cab with you for the best savings in transportation cost if you are only a couple. IMG_2940.MOV IMG_2948.MOV We got back to the Ship and washed up and relaxed for an hour. Tonight was the last formal night aka lobster night. The lobsters now get a reprieve ever since Royal went to 17 bucks for a second little tail. I remember the not to distant pass when I saw some guys with 3 to 4 tail shells next to them. I did 2. But never more. I wonder if I should have given those folks the side eye more. After dinner was 2 shows. The first was the reintroduction of Blue Planet Home on the Allure. The show has been absent on the ship since the pandemic shut everything down and our cruise was the first to have it on the entertainment docket. My thoughts…. The music is a bit dated. The story a bit disjointed in production but ithe point very important so I wish they did a better job with this. The dancers were talented. Wish there was more acrobatics since the program said aerialists. Basically people jumping on a trampoline. Not real aerialist. The visuals were pretty cool. It’s a one and done for me. My wife’s review… In her words, “Well that’s an hour I wish I can get back” IMG_2998.MOV IMG_3032.MOV The second show was the Ice Games show. I did this one on my own mainly for b-roll material for a YouTube video I’m producing. Seen the show once already. It’s ok. Impressive skating. I’m just not an ice dancing / ice skating guy. Good music. Worth to see if never seen before. Won’t be a waist of time. IMG_3012.MOV

Ok. It’s been some time sorry for the delay. My son seems would literally pass his mortal coil if the internet stopped. Our day in Costa Maya For me, I have some mixed feelings about this port. It’s not the best, but it’s not Nassau. Is that a good thing or a bad thing. I’ll leave that one up to you. The last time here we did a cruise line tour to some beach resort which I didn’t like much so we went back to old reliable. That being Jamie’s at the Blue Reef Inn and Beach Club. what to say about Jamie’s. It’s better than Krazy Lobster and the tour from NCL. But it’s what I would consider mid tier. The drinks are kinda watered down, the food is OK, but the service is superior. The beach is only OK but there was no seaweed so that’s a plus. I did some snorkeling and saw a pretty cool school of blue fish moving from south to north. Pretty big school and quite amazing to IMG_2893.MOV After a ton of sun we headed back to the ship at around 3 PM to wash up and get ready for dinner. This Evening we ate at Samba Grill. This was only OK. Glad we tried it but will not do it again. The meats were a little over cooked for me. The flavor was only OK. The apps were also only OK but the deserts were good. IMG_2845.MOV IMG_2845.MOV The show for the evening was the Aqua Theater show. I’m always in awe of the athleticism and can’t imagine jumping into a small pool on a moving ship. It was quite a busy day and with lots of sun so another early turn in for us. In the bed by 11 am for an early porting in Cozumel. IMG_2846.MOV

I’ll give it a try again… internet is a little slow here at Jamie’s at the Blue Reef IMG_2826.MOV

Shuffle off the boat to Roatan This port is quickly becoming a favorite, especially as I snorkel more and more. Wife and I had a quick breakfast in Windjammer and then collected the kids for our 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM private island excursion to Maya Key. Let me say this right now. BOOK this excursion. Even if it’s a bit pricy, I love the quiet island with zero pestering from beach walking vendors. The food was delicious and the Snorkeling was amazing. There is this pier that you walk down right to the MesoAmerican reef step in the water and you are in another world. They bring you right from the cruise ship pier to the island via a 5 minute water taxi. So you are literally at your excursion in no time flat. Here are some pics from the excursion. I will be doing a full review on the YouTube channel of this excursion complete with underwater video. once the video is produced I will link it in this thread. IMG_2825.MOV IMG_2825.MOV

Pardon the delay… I thought there was free internet on the island we were visiting in Roatan, but it was for a few so I passed. You would figure you paid 80.00 per person to be there you can throw us some free internet when on the property. The second sea day was pretty uneventful. I ate alone in my he MDR for breakfast. Lazy travel partners. I’m an early riser so it’s to be expected. The eggs Benedict were much better this time around. I then collected my wife and sat with her as she ate breakfast at the Windjammer. OMG the kids must have not had a good night sleep or didn’t sleep enough! It was quite a noise cacophony. Cry’s, screams, tantrums. I just will chalk it up to some sort of witching hour. I don’t mind kids at all. Heck if I did, I would be nuts to book an Oasis Class ship. But watching one kid on a leash playing tantrum tug a war with mom was a bit much. After her breakfast it was up on the pool deck for a bit of sun. It’s so nice to see the signs warning people of reserving chairs working. I don’t know if there is true enforcement, but the signage looks to be a reasonable deterrent and we got a pool deck chair right by the pool at 9:30am. I then did some trivia and b-roll camera work for my channel till lunch time. Won a trivia game with Cruise Next and got some cool Icon Promo Merch. Then it was off to the MDR for some lunch which was exceptional as well. Service great. Out in 45 minutes. then another chill day doing other ship activities and more work for our YouTube channel. Also connecting with some of our cruise travel agent clients getting ready to sail. And some Solarium relaxing. then soon it was almost time for dinner which was formal night in the MDR. Italian Night. Dinner was good. My wine was better. Lol. Being 100% Italian I’m a bit of a Italian food snob. I’ll leave it at that. We had a headliner show tonight. Vocal impersonator. Lots of good songs and humor. Name was Fines Henderson. Had a short Motown career. Was fun and entertaining. Then off to the casino to break even playing Craps. This is a win in my books. Still up a hundred bucks on the cruise from the Casino. Woot. More about Roatan and day three later. Today we are in Costa Maya. Cruise half way over. Man it goes fast.

That it is. We have 2 scheduled after this one. One in October on the Celebrity Eclipse, and one on Celebrity Ascent in January. I need to get a May one booked soon! Lol

I love John Pinterest!

The Second Day at Sea I think I might not be made of the proper materials for a transatlantic cruise. I do get a bit of the “what’s next” on day 2. I can’t fathom how I would feel after 5 days of that. I just might do something to get myself kicked off the ship at the first available port. Like maybe say, I might fish off my balcony even if it’s facing Central Park. You never know what you might catch. Or I might try to spider monkey my way to the pool deck to get in the ice cream line faster when I notice that it’s of reasonable length. Oh wait. Scratch that. It’s a full ship. It’s never a reasonable length. It’s only soft serve folks. You would think they are filling gold leaf cones filled with mana from heaven. Im quickly turning into my grand father whom I resemble a lot, especially as I age, in both looks and mannerisms. Lines are no bother to me as long as they move. If they don’t, that’s when I get a little salty and don’t handle the situation well. I start to pace in my mind fervently and try to surmise the holdup. If I see the hold up being someone admiring cut fruit shaped in the form of a building or what not, that’s when I just want to scream “get out of the line”. Day started off very well. The MDR breakfast was much better today and the Hollandaise sauce was better. I did eat by myself because sometime the family is a bit lazy in getting up and at em. See turning into my grand pa. I will continue shortly… heading to the pier for a private island… I’ll continue when I get there.

Been doing it for over 2 decades professionally. You hopefully pick up good habits.

The First Full Day. min a sucker for good eggs Benedict but it’s near impossible to get them at the buffet so off to the MDR I go. Ship is quite full so lines galore. Ohh the things I’ll endure for breakfast of champions. Unfortunately the holendese sauce was just alright but the eggs were poached perfectly. Not enough tartness in the sauce and it was just bland. The fruit plate is pretty large for me. I could do with half the pineapple and cantaloupe (rock melon for those across the pond) Maybe a small wedge of watermelon too would be nice. from there the boys and I went up to the Solarium to get some loungers and then get mom. they are actively discouraging chair hogging now which was a pleasant surprise. We had a nice soak in the canter levered hot tub right next to the solarium by the forward elevators right before the solarium entrance then it became a kiddy pool which signaled my exit. Worked out well. I was in for 20 minutes with my son and that was enough. At 12:30 we had a reservation for lunch at Giovanni’s table. This is our favorite restaurant on Allure and it did not disappoint. Pro tip. The lunch menu is almost identical to dinner, so if you don’t need Osso Bucco save yourself 50% and go for a sea day lunch. It will give you half a chance to work off the calories lol. After lunch we needed to work off the food coma and then take a nap. Lol life of vacation. Eat. Relax. Get dressed out of swimwear eat again do a quick workout, nap. And the EAT again! Tonight was French night in the MDR. I went Indian. Lol. Which was a great choice. I had my filet for lunch. No need for it for dinner. Don’t need the gout to flare up! But I did have French onion soup and crème brûlée. Ohh and chocolate cake. Why the heck not. The onion soup was very good as well as the Indian lamb dish. Dessert was meh. The Crème Brûlée almost broke and was a little grainy. The chocolate cake was not my thing. A little bland. from dinner we went and relaxed in the Schooner Bar. Played some trivia and allowed for the Casino to heat up. I taught my son how to play craps and we combined bankrolls and we played for an hour and walked out up before going to the comedy show. I have a craps strat that keeps house advantage low and covers a few numbers. He picked it up quick. And was a fun Father Son bonding experience. Then off to the comedy club and bed. A busy sea day!

Ok sorry for the delay. First Night fun! So after our first day of windjammer lunch we started to head to the rooms at 1:45 when the announcement came that our rooms were ready. I was lucky to reserve a nice cheep Central Park balcony with the double balcony those are the one with 29 at the end. You get 2 nice lounge chairs. Oh and since the twins are in the room next door, triple balcony baby!!! we unpacked for about an hour. Yes. It took me only 20 but the wife is a bit of a pac mule so it took her about an hour. I don’t know how to get her out of that mode. From there it was up to the WipeOut bar for sail away. For those not in the know, the wipe out cafe now is an el loco fresh, which is nice! It was a beautiful day to sail out we have early 5:00 pm dinner so then after that it was to the MDR. Food was above average. But the crab cake was just mid as my 19 year olds like to say. Prime rib was excellent. The stuffed portobello was also only OK. Deserts again were exceptional. Service great and speedy. Out in 75 minutes. From there we just did some exploring befor seeing Mama Mia. This is such a good show. The first time we were on Allure I did not want to endure 2 hours of ABBA music and I thought the move that my wife loves was painful. well the Broadway show is so much better. It was not made for a movie. That’s for sure. This was the third time I seen it on Allure. So there is day one. I will post day 2 soon. Trying to take internet from my son is sometimes like pulling teeth.

A full day in the books. Wonderful time thus far

yep we have it. Day 5 and 6

We are onboard!! Se we had an 11:00 AM time slot and basically walked right onto the ship. Just a small IT issue with my CC number attached to my 18 year old son. No clue why. But they could not figure out how to fix this at the terminal so I will have to make a visit to the dreaded guest services. But as a side note, they were NOT checking boarding times. It seems to be more of a suggestion now we are getting further and further away from COVID times. Since we were one of the first to board, we did go to windjammer and grabbed a nice seat at the back to wait for rooms to become available. The food, especially the desserts were exceptional today. I had the sliced roast beef on one of the pre sliced baguettes with some gravy and horseradish. Aces folks. Do this. The pork schnitzel was also very good. I will leave ya with some windjammer shots and food pics. More to come later!