CNSfromHI

Could you not get a Diet Coke? cjr

We just returned from the same cruise and never had any trouble finding someone to serve us. In the Oceanview, too, we were usually asked shortly after sitting down at a table if we wanted something from the bar. cjr

The website is still not allowing logins right now. cjr

Not working for me either. After entering username/PW, I get the "X of death" screen that just hangs there. cjr

We recently finished a cruise aboard the Silhouette using the Classic package. Generally, you'll need to present a separate Sea Pass card for every booze-drink you order -- especially if you look underage -- in the various bars/restaurants onboard. We found, over time, however. that servers loosened this stricture for us -- especially in the spots we frequented. Often during our cruise, a "familiar" bartender would just use my card or my wife's for a round and, later, just remembered our stateroom number and did not need to see our cards at all 😃 cjr

☝️ This. You can use your SeaPass card in the casino. I don't think there's a surcharge, but I just plunked cash (U.S. bills) into a few slots while onboard. As far as how much cash to bring, only you can answer that based on how often/much you might tip, if you want to use cash in the casino (I think you need to exchange cash for some sort of "casino card"), etc. We brought $500 in cash because we had zero clue; probably returned home with more than half of that. Hope you have a blast! cjr

After I posted, I wondered if I'd done the same thing on my iPhone. I'm a bit of a nut about minimizing sounds, banners, etc., unless I specifically want something. Too much pocket-chaos otherwise 😆 Thank you, cjr

Trying to figure out what sort of outlets/charging ports would be available on our first cruise is literally how I stumbled upon this site. I hope the following helps others wondering this same thing... We recently finished a cruise aboard Silhouette and carried aboard -- with zero problems and no trips to the naughty room -- this 6-outlet charger from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GJXVHVK It worked great, I recommend it and I get absolutely nothing if you buy it, too. In our room, there was a single U.S. outlet and a single Euro outlet (top part of attached photo). These were semi-inconveniently located beneath the desk/counter running underneath our TV. The 3-foot cord from the USB charger I bought easily reached underneath, however, and enabled us to charge two iPhones, two iPads and my wife's Apple Watch at the same time using just the U.S. outlet. On one side of our bed, the nightstand lamp-base had two USB ports built-in (middle of image). These are the most common type, often called "duck mouth" because of their appearance. I believe these only appear on updated "Revolutionized" ships, but I'm sure somebody here will correct me if that's not the case. Finally, in our bathroom, there was a combo U.S./Euro outlet (bottom section of photo). This accepts only one plug format at a time, and will not accept a 3-prong (grounded) U.S. plug. Also, the bathroom outlet can't handle the "heavy stuff," such as my wife's curling iron, hair straightener or hair dryer. For those, she unplugged the charger from the U.S. outlet in the top part of the photo and used them one at a time. The outlets/ports shown in the photo were literally everything available in our stateroom. Again, I hope this helps! cjr

Our cruise departed from Southampton August 29, and I, too, had read beforehand about the need to tip the port porters when boarding. If not, I read, my bags might just end up in the boiler room, hanging from a yardarm, or stuff like that... 😄 Thus, fully prepared when we reached the drop-off spot outside the cruise terminal, I stuck a few pounds into the cup sitting on their desk/kiosk thing. Honestly, I didn't need to. The three workers there just told us to add our bags to the "pile" while one worker loaded them onto a vehicle. The two others didn't seem particularly engaged. Our bags arrived without incident. As far as the "preferred" currency onboard, we asked a few staffers during the first few days because, as noobs, we wanted to accommodate. On our ship, the Silhouette, they didn't care and graciously accepted tips in both dollars and pounds. cjr

That was our understanding although, in hindsight, I realized we walked out of the future-cruise place with a single receipt showing the amount of our down payment, our names, and a confirmation number, and nothing else. We didn't receive anything showing the fine print, details of what the special officer included or that it had to be activated within 90 days, etc. I'm not complaining about Celebrity; very much our naivete as cruise noobs, the fact that it was the 11th hour of the last full day when we rushed in, etc. Next time, however... 😃 cjr

That's very interesting, @Jim_Iain! My wife usually keeps her phone in silent mode; while I'm not sure I ever used the in-app text thing while she had the app open (or even if she didn't), I now wonder if her phone would have dinged? That said, I didn't receive hear a sound when she texted me. Definitely something to check out on our next cruise! cjr

I posted about this somewhere else here, but during our recent cruise, the Celebrity in-app chat feature didn't work like I expected. Unlike iPhone messages, for example, users don't receive a mobile notification -- visually on their lockscreen or homescreen, or by a sound. Instead, I only saw a notification in the upper-right corner of the Celebrity app once I launched it. (The "text bubble" turned red.) There, I could click on the message and then reply -- but my wife (in my case) had to be using the app to see the same upper-right-corner notification arrive. I'm not knocking this app feature at all. My bride and I traveled together most of the time; for others, and larger groups of family, friends, people you "connect with" onboard, etc., this chat feature will likely prove useful to find each other, connect at a meeting point, coordinate plans, etc. cjr

A greater 2023 schedule (into Q3, at least), would have helped us decide. Thanks! cjr

Thank you for your reply, @DCPIV. In our case, this was our first cruise and more than a year in the making. Onboard, smitten by the cruise bug, we soon knew we wanted to enjoy another one and studied the various brochures available -- listing stuff into early 2023 (April was the latest, I think) -- but we felt a bit overwhelmed about how the Future Cruise thing worked. Plus, honestly, we researched/booked this entire cruise online by ourselves. We felt resistant to talking directly to someone onboard about our next one who might pressure/up-sell us into something. Anyway, the main reason we couldn't commit to something onboard -- the reason the whole "pay now, book later" thing grabbed me -- was simply our uncertainty about our future commitments in 2023. We just didn't know if our schedules would allow it. Thanks again, cjr

I agree with @DCPIV -- the app is actually quite useful, both pre-cruise and once onboard our recent cruise. Far more than I expected. Pre-cruise, we were able to almost entirely check-in prior to boarding just through the app. I think all we had to do onboard was walk to our muster spot. But once at sea, I found the app very handy/easy to use to find restaurant/bar availability, check on stuff to do, locate places using the floor maps, etc. We did have the Basic internet package, but I'd read the app works onboard without a package. We always received a printed daily thing (usually left in the evening with the turn down service). If you leave 'em in your stateroom at the end of the cruise, Celebrity will recycle them. cjr

☝️ This. cjr

We asked our room attendant to clear out the "charge-us" stuff just to make more room in our little fridge -- primarily for water and Diet Coke. It's definitely worth asking. cjr

Yes, not only did our "green service" selection replace our once-used towels each day, but any new towels we might have used later that day were whisked away/replaced unless we hung them on a towel rod. cjr

Yeah, I'm now wondering if this "easy for us" concept isn't a bit flawed, unfortunately. Also, I don't feel we received any significant "benefits" by booking/committing while onboard our last cruise. If any Forum member can offer reasons while booking onboard is a smart idea, please share them! Otherwise, @ymncruise, thanks for your reply! cjr

Our recent cruise featured Celebrity's silver-aluminum cans. No problem opening them or cut-concerns and, according to the packaging itself, these bottles are far more recyclable than plastic. If you dislike the taste/smell of beverages from aluminum, then you might not like this pervasive offering onboard. During our recent cruise, the Silhouette supposedly ran out of these aluminum cans and started distributing another version -- probably 22-24 ounces in glass bottles -- and/or pouring H2O into glasses when people asked for it. I say "supposedly" because except for a few places onboard, we continued to see/receive them. cjr

We went "green" in our suite aboard the Silhouette recently because A) we want to minimize our impact on various resources, such as energy, water, staffing, etc., but, also, B) because cleaning our cabins twice a day would feel intrusive to us. While we were typically out and about by mid-morning and didn't first return until mid to late evening, there were a few days when we'd drop in to deposit some stuff, change duds, kill an hour or two before heading out to something else, etc. One perk of going green is that Celebrity grants Captain's Club members one additional day's points (based on your initially booked stateroom category) afterward. cjr

Yep. Plenty of people just walked up to various bars/restaurants during our recent cruise, ordered one or several bottles of water (charged to their SeaPass card), shoved them into a bag and walked off. We also asked our room attendant to clear out the stuff we'd be charged for in our mini-bar "fridge" and just stock it with H20 and Diet Coke. That felt like a common request and he had no problem doing so. One word of note: In our fridge, at least, the fridge door was not wide enough to accommodate the width of a soda can, one of Celebrity's silver-aluminum water bottles, etc. It's great for little bottles of booze, that hip flask you managed to slip onboard or uncooked spaghetti, but those fridges are actually smaller than a college-dorm fridge, if you remember/are familiar with those. And there's no "freezer" area, either -- just a shelf. cjr

I cranked the dial down when we first arrived in our room aboard the Silhouette recently. Guessing, room attendants are instructed to turn those dials back to "5° less than cabin temp" when cleaning out the fridges post-cruise. cjr

I watched that webinar using the link posted earlier in this thread, but didn't receive an email afterward or even see a "Congrats" screen at its conclusion that I would have "screen shotted" -- I'm not sure if that construction is a real phrase either 🤣 Anyway, the weird thing is that I sent that same link posted here to my wife, who also watched it. BUT, she told me yesterday that she received a legit CC email from Celebrity to watch it, which I haven't received at all. cjr

No need to apologize, @CJMini ! I wasn't sure what "specialty coffees" meant and wondered if we missed something on our cruise 😃 Based on our experience, if you book the Classic package, then you should check out pre-cruise what that package includes by name if you're concerned about being charged additional fees. Onboard, it's not obvious -- you don't order at a bar from separate coolers or something -- and it seemed during our first few days that some servers would tell you "There's an additional $X for this" while some did not. As I posted somewhere else on here, by the end of the first week, after finding a spot or two where we enjoyed hanging out and had connected with a few servers, the package differences didn't seem to matter much. Baileys Irish Cream, which my bride enjoys, wasn't included but on one particular night, she ordered a few (doubles!), for which the bartender didn't up charge us. In fact, afterward, he frequently suggested it to her as a nightcap during the last week. Anyway, thanks again and I hope your upcoming cruise is awesome! cjr