helen haywood

By "Exciting Deals" do you mean the Tuesday sales after final payment?

I want to agree wholeheartedly about Rossy! We were on the Equinox's 1/31/14 sailing and I have never had a Captain's Club hostess never speak to us!! We've had the gamut from just a smile and a "Hello" to remembering our names to chatting about what we'd done that day. We felt we were invisible!

 

But more annoying was in Tuscan Grille for the debarkation lounge on the last morning I heard a lady ask her if there would be taxis at the terminal in Ft. Lauderdale or should they have arranged a private transfer for their party of two. Rossy told her she probably should have arranged a private transfer! I went over to the lady myself and assured her there would be plenty of taxis and she needn't worry at all. I have been very impressed with how the Broward Co. sheriff's office keeps the taxis in line and the line moving. There was absolutely no reason for Rossy to give this woman bad information.

I guess I should have come back and reported that I won't be trying the experiment of an inside for the first time. I booked an inside GTY and in the three weeks before final payment saw three price drops, alerted my travel agent, and got the lower pricing. The day after final payment a balcony GTY appeared that was only a little bit more than my inside. When I started this thread there were no balcony GTYs; the cheapest balcony was over 1K more than my inside.

Keep in mind that Celebrity only allows you to upgrade after final payment if you are paying at least $1 more. Had I not followed the pricing on my inside GTY and negotiated the three price drops...I would not have been able to upgrade to the balcony GTY as my original inside GTY was MORE than the balcony GTY after final.

I was willing to pay the $100 to upgrade to a balcony. So, no experiment with the inside this time.

Another thing I realized while following this cruise's pricing, I had worried about booking a balcony GTY as I had previously done so and wound up under the buffet and the noise at 3 am kept me from sleeping. But those cruises were on Royal and Carnival. I realized Solstice class ships do not have any regular balconies under the buffet; only Aqua Class are under the buffet, so I had nothing to worry about booking the balcony GTY.

I did worry that I had gambled $100 on a balcony GTY and might end up with a 2D. But I lucked out and got a 1C which at the day I got my cabin assignment was selling for $1500 more than I paid. I have absolutely no idea how Celebrity handles the GTY assignments.

But the thing I learned from this is I will never book a trans-Atlantic cruise (our favorites) before final payment. I want to book next spring's TA and I'm going to wait until after final payment.

But I am going to try an inside on our 7 night Reflection cruise next January so I do appreciate all your help and suggestions!

There is a nightly event as well as the Elite breakfast every morning.

 

 

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Just to clarify. It is not every night as it is with the Diamond Lounge on Royal. It is not the first night nor the night of the Senior Officer's Party.

Well, the actual reason for the use of vouchers is when there are too many Elite members on a sailing to make holding the cocktail event in the Sky Lounge. So if the decision is made for your sailing, you will be given three vouchers on the evenings the cocktail event would be taking place. The vouchers are dated and are only valid for the same hours the Happy Hour elite event would be...can't remember right now. 5 to 7 I think. They are only good for the same cocktails you would have been offered at the Elite cocktail hour. They are not good in the Martini Bar, Molecular Bar or the MDR. But you can use them to take a drink into the MDR.

The veranda IS larger. If you do a google search for photos of the exterior of the S class cabins you can see that the last 6 or so aft 2C cabins have larger balconies. And another reason I liked those cabins....the roof from Blu is just that....if you are in a 2C further forward and over the lifeboats, that deck is lit at night and the lights interfered with our star gazing at night.

All the 2Cs do have some obstruction. But look at the deck plans. I've stayed in cabin 6303 which is a 2C whose only obstruction was the roof of Blu on the deck below; it meant there was a four or five foot level of the roof preventing you from looking straight down. If you went up one deck and had the cabin above, 7305, there would be the same obstruction, but that is a 2B cabin. So, while all 2Cs have some obstruction, my point is that many of the higher priced cabins have a bit of an obstruction as well! I was perfectly happy with the 2C and the savings.

On our 10 night Equinox cruise in January there were a lot of people with the package and we did not have it and I never encountered a wait longer than usual. I mean, at the Sunset Bar, at sailaway, there were, of course, lots of people at the bar and it did take a bit of time to get a drink....otherwise perfectly normal.

Even Carnival's website is better than Celebrity's. When the Carnival site is under maintenance at least the screen states that it is and apologizes and asks you to visit again later. Where as Celebrity's site just blithely informs you you have no bookings...

The Hot Glass Show area is gone and the middle lawn area is the same. X added two pay venues for dining, The Porch (which I think has a $5 cover charge) and The Lawn Club which is more...maybe $45? Silk Harvest was replaced by Qsine. As to whether the added venues are worth trying out....that's subjective. You can do a search and find photos and menus for these places.

 

I personally have sailed Silhouette for two trans-Atlantic sailings and never found the need to go to any of them.....

Did you post this on the Roll Call for your sailing?

Take Bernard's tour in St. Martin. Google it. He will take you to an iguana farm and several other scenic spots...over to the French side...to a beach for a bit and to Maho to see the planes land. Google Maho as well to see what I'm talking about. And you are certain to be delivered back to your ship in time which is important in St. Martin because they have terrible traffic snarls at times.

Can't answer that....but I was intrigued to find....if you click the button on the menu for On Demand Movies or Pay per View or whatever its called....there are free movies there as well! If I hadn't just been fooling around I never would have found that. It certainly wouldn't have occurred to me that there were "free pay per view" movies! There are also the ones you do pay for.....

My husband smokes cigars; I don't smoke. I'd go with him to the Sunset Bar as the views are amazing and all the cigar smokers were really, really nice. There is a breeze; the smoke didn't bother me.

Correct. It can only be plugged in at the desk below the mirror.

Celebrity's policy for "upgrades" after final payment is well known. After final payment, if you want to upgrade, the category you want to upgrade to must be at least $1 more than you paid for your cabin. So, unfortunately, one can wind up in the OP's situation where one cannot upgrade because the category above your cabin is now priced lower than you paid. Its unfortunate but it is what it is. You could upgrade to a category that costs more.

 

I had this happen on my recent TA. I had an inside GTY and luckily I religiously monitored the prices before final and negotiated three price drops and after final was able to upgrade to a balcony GTY for only a small amount. But had I not monitored the prices I would not have been able to do this because the balcony GTY, after final payment, was less than my original price on the inside GTY!!

 

My decision after that was to always wait until after final payment to book a cabin. The other alternative is to never look at pricing for your cruise after final payment. Unless you want to see about upgrading to a suite....

I don't have a flight; we are staying in Rome for several nights. I know they do disembarkation numbers by flight times. I guess I will just arrange pick up at 9:30 which should give us time to get off and claim our bags.

 

Thanks for the help!

9 is when I should schedule pick-up or the time X wants you out of the cabin?

We are sailing Reflection's April TA, ending up in Civitavecchia. I'm not doing self debarkation and I'm not interested in being the absolute first off the ship. I also don't want to pay for the option to stay on board later. I'm just trying to figure out what time to schedule my pick up. What time does X want you out of your cabin? What time would the buffet stop?

Even when the ship is docked we never smelt smoke and we were directly above the smoking area and only one deck up. The air blows even if the ship is not moving.

Correct. These cabins do not share anything more with each other than non-connecting cabins. If you are happy with your location, there is no reason to move based on fears of neighboring noise. You could wind up with loud people on the next balcony on your non-connecting cabin.

 

The only noise I've ever heard was people letting their doors slam too hard.

They will have a High Tea on one of the days; there will be a charge for it. In the afternoon hours (can't remember exactly, it will be in your daily program, maybe 4-5) there will be finger sandwiches and pastries in the Oceanview Buffet for free.

Loved the waffle station that also became the panini station in the rear of the Summit. Is there a similar area on the Silhouette or are we forced to pay the $5.00 upcharge for the waffles and paninis at the Porch?

 

There is a waffle station (free) in the Buffet on all Celebrity ships.

Someone worked for Gordon Ramsey and lived to tell the tale?

Read the review by the first time cruiser who sailed on the Reflection. Your experience on Silhouette will be similar. We loved the food on our trans-Atlantic cruise on Silhouette both in April and back in December. So much so that we never felt the need to eat at the specialty restaurants.