New Hampshire

Does anyone know the current physical condition of Reflection?  Is she looking tired and worn?  We are sailing her in November in a suite and are wondering whether we made a mistake in booking her.  We had assumed it had been Revolutionized, but recently learned it had not. We sailed Silhouette a few months ago ands were very happy with the refurbishment including the Retreat Lounge and Retreat Sun Deck.  I assume the Retreat Sundeck doesn’t exist on Reflection.

On 2/18/2024 at 11:18 AM, Skysmomma said:

So sorry to hear about your friend.  Not to common to live 3 years post diagnosis! My brother wasn’t as fortunate. He had 6 months.  Such a horrible  disease .  May she rest in peace.

my husband and I will be boarding 3/10.  We were on Reflection 12/22 prior to refurbishment. 
How is the entertainment?  Hoping the current cruise director is better than the one we had last time!  Are there any theme parties? Have heard wonderful things about Captain Kirk but believe he will be on vacation when we board.Hope you have smooth sailing!

I recently read that the refurbishment or Revolutionizing of Reflection never took place.  It was interrupted by COVID then rescheduled for 2023, but it has not been done.  Anyone have any more info on this?

Are Retreat guests permitted to eat in Blu?

29 minutes ago, ppanyan said:

I just sailed on the Celebrity Apex.  The waiter in Luminae was very reluctant to let me order anything from any of the other restaurants.  On Apex, Luminae is at the front of the ship and all other restaurants are at the back of the ship.  The Luminae waiter insisted that any dish I wanted from one of the other restaurants would take a long time and be cold by the time it got to the front of the ship.  I'm not sure if the waiter was being lazy or honest.  But to be honest, I wasn't thrilled with the food and service in Luminae.  I actually ate in Blu more since the food and service were better there.  

 

I would not book Retreat for the restaurant.  I book Retreat because the rooms are so much nicer and I also really like Retreat lounge, which is a nice haven from the crowds in the rest of the ship.

We sailed on Silhouette in November in a Celebrity Suite and were able to mix and match anything we wanted from Luminae and/or the MDR.  I am not certain if this is available on the edge class ships due to the location if Luminae to the MDR on those ships.

2 hours ago, LB_NJ said:

According to Celebrity’s website only select suites have free access to the specialty restaurants.

 

Also, Wi-Fi and premium drinks don’t apply to move-up.  Which I understand.

 

Finally, I looked at the Luminae restaurant menu and it looks a bit eclectic. It is always this way?  What if you don't like any of the offerings?

When dining in Blu, can one still order something from the Main Dining menu?  Can one eat in the MDR on an occasional basis?

Anyone have any current Blu menus?  We are Celebrity veterans who are considering booking Aqua for the first time. We are not at all familiar with the menus.

For many past Celebrity cruises we have taken, I have reserved Select Dining times on the Celebrity website prior to sailing. For our June Reflection cruise, I have been trying to do this and can’t find any way to do it on their website.  Is it still somehow possible?

We used them when we were there.

We have gone to St John frequently while stopping in St Thomas on a cruise.  With your time in port being 8 to 5, I would reconsider.  You would need to be off the ship at 8 to get a cab to get to Red Hook for the 9 AM ferry.  If you miss that, the next one is not until 10 AM.  With the ship leaving at 5, you would need to be on the 3 PM ferry back to Red Hook.  Taxi between the port and Red Hook is approx $10 pp, so that is $40 round trip.  The ferry is approx $14 pp round trip and taxi to Trunk Bay is another$10 pp.  so transportation for the day is approx $90 plus there is a small entrance fee to Trunk Bay.  
 

We vacation on St John annually and it is our favorite island in all of the Caribbean.  2/3 of it is National Park so it’s beauty is unrivaled.  I feel your day is too short to really appreciate the island.  I have been on a cruise that provided transportation directly from the cruise pier to St John as a shore excursion.  It was priced reasonably, cheaper than we could have done it on our own.  Check out what your ship offers as a shore excursion tonSt John.

You really don’t have enough time to get there from St Thomas.  In the future, look for a cruise that has Tortola as a port stop.  Then it would be easy to go to the Baths on Virgin Gordy and both Foxy’s and Soggy Dollar Br on Jost Van Dyke.  White Bay is gorgeous.  We vacation on St John annually and have visited BVI quite a few times.

On 2/15/2019 at 8:08 PM, Ready to Sail! said:

I agree that this is becoming a major problem and why many port cities are starting to put restrictions on the number of ships/passengers who can dock on any one day.  There have been protests against cruise ships  in ports like Venice by the local residents.

 

What bothers me even more than the number of ships is the size.  So many of these ships are starting to look like "big box" stores.  They don't even look like ships, inside or out.  We took our first cruise in the mid 80's and can't believe what has happened over the last 30+ years.  I think this is why Viking is so appealing as they are going back to  cruising as it used to be.  Unfortunately, this doesn't solve the problem of being in port with ships carrying 4-6K people.  I was appalled to see several lines add these big boxes to their Alaska itineraries over the last couple of years.  These wonderful inside passage ports just can't deal with so many people on any one day, and have it be an enjoyable experience.  

We have sailed to Alaska twice, the first time in 1998 on the Celebrity Mercury.  It was amazing.  My husband was eager to go again in 2017, but I was very reluctant.  The size and number of ships cruising to Alaska had exploded in the intervening years and I couldn’t imagine how the small ports I remembered could  possibly handle the huge numbers of people that would be disgorged from all these huge ships.  My husband won and we sailed Celebrity Solstice in July 2017.  It was just as bad as I imagined, especially since our first visit was so incredible.  

We only received one booklet for the two of us for our March sailing.  Why would they issue two unless the two surnames were ?different

We are planning a June 2020 10 night cruise out of Dublin on Celebrity Reflection.

I too have organized private tours througout Europe finding fellow travelers on our roll call. I have never booked with a company that required payment prior to the day of the tour and none of the tours involved more than ten people.  For those who were interested, I posted my email address and required from them, their phone number, email address and ship cabin number.  I made it clear to everyone that their commitment was iron clad and if they had to back out once we were onboard they were still responsible for paying their share.  We also arranged a short meet up very early in the cruise. On only one occasion did someone have to back out because they were legitimately ill.  The spouse of this person also stayed behind and he saw to it that he met me to give me their money before we left for the tour.  

If Inwas going to join a tour set up by someone else, I would suggest to that person that they make sure their partipants followed this commitment also.

We received our cruise documents the other day for our 3/19/19 West Indies sailing from San Juan out of the in town pier in Old San Juan.

From research on a St Martin site that is current, there are another two beach bars that have opened.  Two chairs plus an umbrella is $30.  Lots of sargassum cuttently on the beach.

I have spent two land vacations in a villa on St Martin.  Afternoon traffic on parts of the island can be a nightmare.  There are drawbridges in a few spots on the island that back traffic up horrifically.

St Martin is not a great island for snorkeling.

I booked an E4 Cabin #6160, 11/15/19 nine night to ABC islands for $2189 per person in late November. This includes Classic drink pkg, pre-paid gratuities and OBC from my TA.  This price is still available for this category through my TA.  They do great volume with Celebrity and frequently have a block of cabins in a specific category for a reduced price.  If I had booked this cabin through Celebrity on the same day I made my booking, I would have paid an additional $110 pp.  I think CC rules are that I cannot mention the name of my agent.  However, it is a large internet cruise booking agency with the same initials as the site you are reading.

For all those who continue to refer to St Johns, that is a town on Antigua.  St John is an island that is part of the USVI.  No one needs a driver’s license, passport or photo ID to travel on ferries between the islands in the USVI.  The person who swears he was required to have a passport in 2006 is mistaken.  I have been visiting St Thomas andvSt John on both cruises and land vacations since the 1980’s.  This has always been the case.  If one decides to visit the BVI, then a passport is required.

We have been to Rendezvous three times on a day pass.  Love it!  We are going again in March.  You must call or email ahead to reserve.  The number of passes allowed is limited.

I spent a week on Barbados this spring and did the sail snorkel with Calabaza.. I have done this same trip while on cruises in the past with Silver Moon and Elegance. The biggest advantage of all of them is they limit the passenger number to 12. They all go to the same snorkel spots. My favorite of the three based entirely on food and service was Elegance.

The turtle stop was quite sad, one old turtle that was only there because all of these boats feed it. It could not compare swimming with the turtles in their natural environment on my last St John vacation. The shipwreck snorkel is also a man made tourist stop. Not much natural snorkeling in Barbados waters.

Thanks so much😀