Softball20

Thanks for all the good tips -- I knew you guys would have answers. I actually like the taxi from the rental agency for all four of us better.

Donna

Good points. With the early cabin check-out and the increasing number of walk-offs, with all their luggage, there will be a lot more congestion in the public areas, as we experienced yesterday. We were instructed to vacate the cabins by 7:00 a.m., but I don't believe the ship had cleared yet, which is not unusual. As walk-offs we were told we could "leave the ship" (assuming it had been cleared) anytime between 7:30 and 9:30. With an early flight or a long drive, I like being able to get off somewhat early some times, but 7:00 is just too early as a requirement for all to vacate their cabins.

You can get bottled water at any bar or in any dining room. You can only get 1 bottle at a time with the drink package, but the next bar is never far away.

Just got off the Silhouette yesterday, and we had the premium package. As noted, bottled was available at every bar except the World Class Bar. For some reason they don't have it - but the Martini bar is close. Some bartenders stuck to just giving you one and wouldn't let you get another right away. Others were fine with giving you another (they would run your card for it). They also seem to have different sizes available from the small "pony size" Evian, to the standard (16 or 20 ounce) regular bottles, to jumbo sized Evian. I'm fine with whatever brand, but it was nice to sometime get the large bottles.

You got off at Port Everglades.

I can just say that Civitavecchia is much smoother most of the times than Fort Lauderdale. In part it might have to do with Civitavecchia not having to deal with immigration officials.

Disembarkation in Civitavecchia is smooth once one is off the ship. It's the amount of self disembark passengers waiting in line to get off the ship that has me concerned about timing. It seemed to me that there were a much larger number of passengers choosing this option than the old way, which made for a much longer line. The line inside the ship was about a half hour, and it looped around a couple times. Not terrible, but we will just have to make sure that we are in line early enough in order to meet our transpiration to FCO.

Immigration in FLL was actually a breeze this time; no wait at all.

We just got off the Silhouette today from a quick four nighter. All in all, it was great, but the wines were disappointing. This was a girls' cruise and two of us upgraded to the premium package (we got classic with Go Big), and the other two didn't upgrade. The choices were, IMO, pretty limited. Our sommelier in the MDR simply told the Classic girls the one red they could have. For us on the premium package, there were a couple choices which were decent, but not great. It also struck all of us that during our first night's dinner he was really pretty on top of quickly refilling the premium glasses, while the two with the classic package went empty for quite a while and always had to ask for another glass. Later in the Sky club, even the premium selections were pretty nasty. In Murano last night the sommelier was good and brought out wines that were both within the respective package limits but also went with the food.

Just got off the Silhouette today and we were supposed to vacate by 7:00 a.m. We were a bit late, but our cabin attendant was working in another room at the time. We did self disembark, but the instructions also noted for those who were not doing it on their own, to have all bags out by 10:00 p.m. It did seem that many more people were doing the self disembark. When we finally got down to Deck 5, after having to wait for an elevator as they were all full for a while, the line was incredibly long. As we were making our way to the end of the line, it moved slowly but then kind of opened up. It didn't really make a difference for us as we were driving, but it does have me thinking of how this is going to work on our up coming Reflection sailing where we will have transportation waiting for us to get us to the airport for a flight out of Rome.

It will be tempting to leave your cruise luggage in the car and only carry what you need for the short stay to your apartment but I urge you not to do this. It's never a good idea to leave anything in a car, even if it's out of sight in the trunk.

Nope - we would never do that - but thank you for the reminder! Lucky for us our apartment is on the ground floor so it will be easy [relatively] to get our cruise luggage in.

I also noticed your other response, by the way. It looks like the taxi will be the easiest. Thank you.

Are you renting the car in Florence? We are thinking of doing the same for our TA in Nov. Would appreciate any information. Thanks.

 

vicky

Actually, we are picking the car up at the airport in Rome when first get there. We are driving to Florence where we will stay for three days pre-cruise before going back to Civitavecchia. It's a tad convoluted, but we really wanted to be in Florence instead of Rome this time. We looked at doing the train both ways, but this seems easier. We also looked in to doing two one-way rentals: FCO to Florence when we get there and just turn in the car in Florence and then picking one back up at the end of our time in Florence to go to Civitavecchia. The cost for the three day rental was, as I suspected, better than doing to separate rentals. There is parking near our apartment in Florence, so the car will just stay there until it's time to go back to Civitavecchia.

The BBB promotions are not giveaways.

 

On a 12 day cruise I am on next year the cost difference between 2 perks and 4 perks is $540/person ($1080 for two people).

 

When you pay $1080 for those two extra perks, it is not a giveaway.

 

Costs if you were paying for these perks:

Tips for two: $324

Internet for two: $564 (and you probably only need one unlimited package)

$300 OBC for the cabin: $300

(I did not look up beverage plan cost)

 

So if the extra two perks were tips and internet, it would be worth $888 and for that you would pay $1080.

 

If the extra two were tips and OBC, it would be worth $624 and for that you would pay $1080.

 

I do think this does affect earnings. It increases them.

The premium beverage package is $65/day/person if you were to purchase it. That's 780/person right there.

Thanks for the reply. So it sounds like at some point they will need a shuttle??? Maybe it would be easier if they just got a taxi from the Hertz location.

Hoping to get some advice from some of the regulars.

On our upcoming Reflection cruise we are going to be driving in from Florence on the morning we sail. There will be four of us with cruise luggage, so I'm hoping that the my husband will be able to drop us off at the port with the luggage and he and my friend's husband can go return the car. I've rented a car from the local Hertz agency there before, so I kind of know where it is, although it's been a few years. As they will be without luggage when turning the car in, will they be able to walk from the rental agency to the port or should they just get a taxi? I'm thinking it should be close enough to walk; just looking for confirmation.

Thanks!

No cruise line (or resort, for that matter) can be everything to everybody. We are in our early 50s and love Celebrity. We have also loved the cruises we've done on HAL, when we were not yet in our 50s. We've also enjoyed most aspects of our Princess cruises, etc. (Royal and Carnival, not so much). People also cruise different sailings for different reasons - some for the ship itself, some for the reputation of the cruise line, some for the itinerary and some for all of the above. Seems like it makes it difficult for the lines to figure out just which way to go to attract the most customers, as they are, after all, doing this to make money.

I don't know, however, why so many of these posts on this thread seem to equate people who get a drink package as "low budget" travelers or the root of the demise. We started getting the drink package when Celebrity first started offering them in 2010 and wouldn't sail with out it. We're going to pay the money anyway, so why not do so where we know how much it's going to cost with no surprises? For our upcoming Reflection sailing we did the Go Best. For a ten day sailing we paid $450 additional to get the premium beverage package ($650, right there), as well as all the other perks. Do the math; it's a no-brainer. It's not about being low-budget, it's about being a smart shopper. Why pay more when I don't have to? Seeking out a good price or a good deal doesn't make one low-budget; it saves me money to take more vacations.

Go Best is the Premium package. To make sure that it is correct on your reservation just log on to X site go to your reservation, then Manage Reservation. On the right side is Order History, click on that and you should see your beverage package listed as well as the Unlimited Internet. The OBC and prepaid gratuties will not show.

Just for the heck of it, I tried this for our Reflection sailing in May. My Order History only shows "unlimited internet" instead of Go Best. We purchased through AA Cruises (same price/perks as Celebrity but I got ten bonus miles per dollar for booking through through the American Airlines site), and my invoice definitely says "Go Best." Hoping it's all good; I'm sure it will be fine.

The decline started with the drink packages...brought a changed demographic. Many did not care about other amenities or nicer aspects of the Celeb experience...just the alcohol and how they could avoid dressing up...

I have to disagree. We love the beverage packages - makes it so much easier than signing for each and every drink, and we don't have any surprises at the end of the cruise. I wouldn't cruise (on any line) without it. Does it mean we just drink to get drunk? Of course not. We also love the formal nights (and will still dress up), and I'm disappointed that the dress codes have disappeared. I don't like seeing shorts or jeans in the MDR, and I do wish that they would enforce whatever standards they have set, although I'm not sure what "evening chic" really means. Seems like anything goes these days.

The way I see it is that cruising has become so affordable over the years, many more people are cruising. I don't think that this means that standards have to be lowered, but with so many ships and so much competition, all the lines are posturing for everyone's cruise/vacation dollars. Not all lines are a good fit for every consumer, and vice/versa, but there is something for everyone. To me, Celebrity is and always has been one of the "mass market" lines. I've always considered them to be among the top of that group, but they are not and never have been a "luxury" line. That's fine with us, as long as they have a good product, which we have always been happy with. We did try Oceania last year, and were not terribly impressed. It was a nice vacation and a beautiful ship, but we left feeling that it was not so much better than Celebrity - in terms of food and service - that it was worth almost twice the price.

We didn't book this four-nighter until just about a month ago - it was a steal. I made the mistake of clicking through one of the weekly "Exciting Deals" emails, and it was just too good to pass up. Prices stayed really low until right before Christmas when they went up a bit. They sold the ship out.

I am about to sail on a four-nighter on the Silhouette with some girlfriends on Sunday. It was a steal; couldn't pass it up. Sometimes these short ones are a lot of fun for just a quick get away. This time, however, we are driving to Ft. Lauderdale as we had enough of Carnival last year.

We did a quick girls' trip on the Sunshine out of Port Canaveral last year because it was close and very reasonably priced, so we figured "what the heck." I did go in with pretty low expectations, but in some areas I was pleasantly surprised. The food in the MDR overall was not good! The menu wasn't even interesting on some nights - although, they did serve lamb shanks one night that I cannot complain about at all. It was, however, hit or miss. We went to three of the specialty restaurants. The steak house was fine - no complaints. The Asian restaurant was actually excellent, and the Italian place was not very good.

The ship itself was fine, and it was pretty lively. I will say that they had the best cruise director I've ever had on a ship. He was terrific. Great personality and knew when to kick it up and tone it down.

For a five night to the Bahamas and back it wasn't bad at all. I don't think I could do it for much longer, however. We are back on Celebrity for this year's girls' trip.

Here are taxi prices from earlier this month in Cozumel. The conversion to pesos was 1 USD equals 20 pesos. I usually haggle a better price if I walk away from the taxi stand and hail one on the road.

 

 

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Thanks for posting prices. We will be heading straight to the east side beaches - will the cab drivers still arrange a specific pick up time? I was reading some info on TA that suggested that they wouldn't - that you should hire one for a certain number of hours and have them wait. On every island we've been to, including many stops (and a couple land trips) to Coz, we've always been able to arrange a time for the driver to come back. Hoping we can still do this.

Nice to know that the Margaritaville has moved closer to the pier.

Thank you! I was looking for something like that. Do you remember how much the taxi is to get there?

I don't, sorry. It's been a few years since we've been there. I want to say that it was perhaps $25-30 the last time we went, but I could be off. I'm sure we can find the answer on Trip Advisor. (Which I need to do anyway as I'll be there next week!)

Last time we were on Infinity they had Highland Park so i had that and JW black. Agree with markeb on Lagavulin. Have seen Lagavulin listed on the premium package list but has anyone seen it? I favor the peaty ones. Talisker, Laphroig, Lagavulin.

 

 

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Not a fan of the peaty scotches, but I do like a good single malt. I'll typically drink JW Black when there are no good single malt choices around. I'm noticing, however, that on Celebrity's website on their list of scotches on the premium package that Black isn't listed. I'm assuming that this must be a typo. No big deal as they have Macallan and a few others.

Or, consider just getting a cab to the east side of the island. There are several very nice beaches there which have great beach bars/restaurants and which are well away from the crowded west side beaches.

We have the 20% offer if we book in advance, but I know that we could possibly do better if we wait and book on board. For our next sailing, however, it's just a four night trip, so I'm thinking there may be less opportunity for bigger discounts. I'm also seeing time slots filling up in advance. If we do book in advance (and pay for it), would we be able to change once on board if we wanted to do a different night (with or without a discount)?

Looking forward to my next to Celebrity sailings, and hoping that their people are reading this thread as there are lots of good comments here.

It's been a couple years for us, and I'm disappointed in the change in Michael's. I understand that it's a perk for the suite guests, but it was such a nice place to gather for before or after dinner drinks and listen to the piano. (Although I don't think there was a piano player in there on our last Silhouette sailing, but there was definitely one on the Equinox several years ago.)

We happen to like Quasar - spent many late nights in there and had lots of fun. I'm kind of sad that it's not on the Reflection. Hoping there is someplace fun like that when we sail in May.

We tried Bistro on 5 a time or two and were unimpressed. The service was very slow and they had no clue how to make the bellini I ordered and had to check with several different bar/bartenders before I finally got my drink. We'll probably try the sushi place since we have a bunch of OBC on our upcoming trip. Otherwise, I can take it or leave it. I do have to agree with the comments about the Mexican and burger places on Carnival:eek: They were actually pretty good for some quick pool side food.

Have you looked on Trip Advisor - there might be info more specific to what you are looking for.

We've done well with the traveller reviews on VRBO/Home Away. I also look carefully at the pictures. Sometimes you can google the actual unit - especially if it has a name and find more info that way.

Try searching directly on VRBO and/or Home Away (both owned by the same company, but they sometimes have different properties available) and reading the reviews to the specific properties there. There are so many terrific properties to choose from, and you can narrow your search by the specific area in which you want to be.