OysterD

A lot of people moaned when the UK government lifted all covid restrictions, dropped all self isolation requirements and stopped free testing, four months ago. These moaning people said "now isn't the right time". Luckily they were ignored and life here has largely been back to complete normality for the last 4 months. Again, if now isn't the right time to lift testing requirements for cruises, then when is? What will change in the next year or two? Everyone who wants to be vaccinated is already. There's nothing else that can be done. Maybe you're waiting for a miracle cure? In which case you'll be waiting an awful long time because we've had centuries to find a cure for the flu or common cold and there still isn't one. Should people have to test before they stay in a hotel? What's the difference between going on a cruise for a week or staying in say the Bellagio in Vegas or a Sandals resort in the Caribbean for a week? Are people upset if the Vegas resort hotels are operating at more than 50% capacity... my guess is no, so why are we even having a discussion about how awful it is that cruise ships are finally filling up and getting back to normal?!

That's what it was called, perks extra! I was going to post a question on here asking if anyone had noticed the package thing which will give upgraded drinks plus a few other things had disappeared, but I couldn't remember what it was called. So yes, I have noticed its disappeared for our Sept cruise also.

Covid has been around for just over 30 months now. Covid is going nowhere, it cannot be eliminated, it will always be around. Just like flu and colds. It's here forever. Do you think people should be tested for covid before boarding a ship forever more? You said its a bad idea having 40k people untested in a stadium, so do you think for the rest of our lives we should take covid tests every day before we do anything which involves interacting with other people? If you don't think we should have to take tests before cruising or going to a stadium etc for the rest of our lives, at what point should the testing stop? What will change in a year or 2 years? More than likely, nothing, so why not just stop the testing malarkey now?

I hope the opposite, why should cruise ships be the exception now. Tests aren't required for pretty much anything else, infact nothing else here in the UK at least.

Personally I'm glad to hear that the ship is crowded and busy! Life must get back to normal and sailing at half capacity or less for too long would ultimately mean none of us will be sailing at all a year from now when the company goes bankrupt!

Good luck! We have two cabins booked through a TA and a couple of weeks ago I noticed 2 cabins next to each other on the slant became available (bigger balconies). Same class and category as what we were booked in so I called TA to try and change. Was told no problem but they would have to call Celebrity to make the change and would I mind waiting on hold for a few minutes. Needless to say, 40 mins later the TA still couldn't get through to Celebrity so said she would email the request across but couldn't guarantee the email would be read/actioned before someone else booked the cabins. I tried calling Celebrity directly, eventually spoke to someone who said yes they can make the change but it would cost £35 per person, even though it was simply a slight move down the corridor from a 1A to another 1A! After a bit of hacking away on her keyboard she then told me actually, sorry, she couldn't make the change, only the TA could request the cabin number swap. I explained I had tried that but I can't expect the TA to spend all day on the phone trying to get through. Apologies all around but "there's nothing we can do". A week later I called the TA again and they tried a few things and within half an hour managed to get the cabins changed, at no cost. Hope you manage to get yours changed (and for free)!

Thanks everyone! I didn't realise you could bring up other cruises in the app. I've had a play around and only the current Reflection sailing (10 night cruise) has menus showing in Blu past day 7. Reflection seems to be alternating all summer between a 10 night and the 11 night cruise we're booked on. All sailings seem to be showing the same menu for the first 7 nights. I think we might just take the plunge and book either Murano or Lawn Club for the first night, save ourselves 30%.

We are booked on an 11 night Reflection cruise at the end of September. We are trying to decide whether to take advantage of the current 1st night discounts at either Murano or the Lawn Club but want to weigh up whether we would prefer to do a specialty restaurant on another evening depending on the nightly menu in Blu. The app currently shows menus for days 1-7 in Blu but then days 8-11 it shows as 'venue closed'. This far out from the cruise, are the menus shown in the app just guidelines or are they what will actually be served on nights 1-7 and then for some reason the other days just aren't showing up? If the menu for night 1 is accurate we would probably just rather eat in Blu and then choose another night for one of the specialty restaurants and forgo the 1st night discount. Thanks!

Thanks for that. Do you know if that will happen automatically at some point or do you have to call for someone to manually do it? I had to call them a couple weeks ago and was on hold for 90 mins before someone picked up!

We were going to wait until we were on board to upgrade to premium, but now we're thinking we should do it soon just incase they increase prices again between now and September. Anyone know roughly how long after making final payment (last week for us) the prices online will update to show that you already have the classic package as it currently shows the premium drinks package is £80.01 pppd. I really don't want to have to spend upwards of an hour on hold on the phone with them to make this change!

Misleading photos/information all over the net, before relying on any one source you definitely need to research further. Bonus points for anyone who can tell me why the ship that ***** use as their stock image of the Reflection is actually not the Reflection! I'd love to know where this image came from originally, plus others I found which are also incorrect yet have 'Reflection' painted on the side.

If you're flying with AA navigating the airport might be least of your worries lol. I know a few people in the US over the last couple months who have had flights cancelled at the last minute or massively delayed by AA. Are you arriving in Europe a day or two before your cruise or the day of? I know it's not just AA having issues and airlines/airports all over the world are struggling right now but for anyone taking a cruise in the next few months at least, I think the best bit of advice would be to book your flights so you get to the port you are sailing from at least 1 day early.

On the US website our Mediterranean cruise in September is the same price as it was when we booked 2 months ago. Also same price on the UK site and no change in price with the UK TA we actually booked it with. The UK travel agent we booked it with is also still much cheaper than booking it direct and MUCH cheaper than booking it direct in the US, even after the faux sale. The US site currently claims "$2297 per person avg, WAS $4450". That headline rate for our cruise is for an inside cabin. When we booked 2 months ago it wasn't even $4450 for AQ that we booked in, let alone an inside cabin so I'm not sure when it was ever $4450. Maybe this "sale" hasn't made it to the UK because it would run afoul of advertising rules here lol

Is the booking you were looking at making an "always included" fare, in which case the classic drinks package is included with that so it makes the whole "do we get 5 free drinks a day" question a bit moot. WiFi and tips are also included.

Do you mean a suite on Reflection or the actual Reflection Suite? If the latter, wow. How did you get such a bargain?! The RF suite is still available for our September sailing, at the not so bargain price of $48,000 for two people! It's roughly $8500 for two of us in AQ, I think if I spent that much and had the reflection suite I wouldn't be complaining about anything haha

Looking at booking aqua cabins on Beyond for later this summer and noticed on the Celebrity website when you click on 'view gallery' of photos for an aqua stateroom, they have a couple of interior photos of Blu and also one photo/rendering (it's so hard to tell the difference sometimes!) of what looks like outdoor seating for Blu. The deck plan of Beyond seems to indicate there is a fair bit of outdoor deck space right outside Blu on deck 5 but it doesn't show any outdoor tables/chairs like it does for Eden just a little bit further down the deck from Blu. Anyone know or heard if Blu will be getting outdoor seating on Beyond, because if so, that would be brilliant. One of my favourite restaurants together with outdoor seating, perfect!