Desertbelle

Thank you all for the good suggestions!

I don't really mind what restaurant it is that they pick for us unless it is Qsine, because we have a very large Roll Call group going together one night later in the cruise and I wanted to keep our Qsine reservation for that night.

I spent an hour last night, drooling, looking at all the menus of the many specialty restaurants on the Reflection, they all look pretty amazing. After eating warmed up pizza for lunch today I could use a wonderful gourmet meal! :D

You haven't made it up or messed it up. When booking online for a three, four or five night package, you get the choice of the first or second night and the time but you neve get to choose the restaurant. They select it for you and you can change it when you book the rest of your nights.

Thanks!

I only quoted the website because a couple of people inferred I was wrong because they were always able to choose a restaurant that first night when booking online. I felt like they were thinking I had screwed up somehow. :D

We've had 241 before but that was as a repeat customer going back to the lawn grill for a second visit... I guess it all depends on how full they are to how far you can stretch them... [emoji16]

On one of our last Royal Caribbean cruises we enjoyed one of the specialty restaurants so much (150 Central Park) we went back again a couple of days later. Without asking, when the waiter brought us the bill, he told us that they appreciated getting to serve us twice and gave us 50% off. That made my husband very happy!

We never thought to ask for a discount, but now I see that many people do. We will be asking in the future. :)

It doesn't have to be night 1/2 either... You can change the restaurant or date/time to whatever you want... Subject to availability of course...

Good to know, thanks.

I suggest that when you get on board and find out which one it is, if it doesn't suit, get them to change it to one that does or to another night. I am sure they will want to keep you happy.

Sounds like a plan. :)

We always reserve the 5 night dining package prior to sailing and have had to reserve the first night dining reservation during the purchase of the package. Tuscan is always the restaurant required and we also have been able to select a dining time each time. Usually the only reservations available are in the late evening (8:00 or after) but that works out just fine for us. I would phone Captains Club to see if they can straighten things out for you.

 

Once onboard just go up to the oceanview cafe entrance and visit the specialty restaurant table so they can reserve all other dinners for you. Enjoy!

I didn't make this up or screw up the reservation. When booking the 5 restaurant package I was able to book a time for the first restaurant, but I was not able to book a specific restaurant. This is the wording from the Celebrity website:

Book Your Specialty Dining Package Now

When booking your package, you will select a time for your dinner the first night in a specialty restaurant we've selected for you. Upon embarkation, you will be contacted by one of our Maitre D's to arrange the rest of your reservations. Or, you could simply go to one of our specialty restaurant reservation desks to reserve the rest. Specialty Dining Packages must be booked at least four days prior to boarding and may not be available for every sail date.

This makes me think they have picked the restaurant for us, since that is what they say. As soon as we board we will make our way to the specialty restaurant desk and discover which restaurant they picked. I'm sure it will be great! :)

This is what the website says about the 5 Specialty Dinner Package on the Reflection: This specialty dining package includes one dinner in Murano, one dinner in Qsine, two dinners in Tuscan Grille, and one dinner in Lawn Club Grill. Save 31% at $159 per person.

Seems like a good deal to me, especially since it's a 16 night cruise, so plenty of time to fit in 5 specialty restaurant meals.

We have always booked the package in advance and just go to one of the restaurants when on board and fix all the dates/times... If your not happy with your allocated restaurant for night 1/2 just get them to change it to what you want... I've done this a number of times... [emoji4]

I understood about booking the other restaurants once on board, but it was that first/second night that was throwing me.

Thanks for the suggestion to request the restaurant of our choice for that first night also.:)

On our upcoming cruise on the Reflection I ordered the 5 Specialty Restaurant Package online. It required me to make a reservation on the first or second day, which I did. But, no idea which restaurant!! This seems so weird to me. Why wouldn't they give me times and choices of restaurants available and then I could make my own choice rather than a "you get what they give you and you get to find out where to go just hours before you eat" situation?:rolleyes:

Is there someone I can call to find out what restaurant we will be assigned to before the cruise?

Anyone have any idea what restaurant it is likely to be on the Reflection?

I drink almost nothing during the day and very little at night and I have no problem filling my sea days. I love sea days almost as much as port days.

I'm starting to feel better and better about switching over to the Voyager. We love that class of ship (spent a month on the Mariner a couple of years ago) and we would love to see Singapore. Thanks for all the great input!

I was on Voyager of the Seas back in March 2013 after her maiden Australian season, repositioning from Fremantle (Perth), Australia to Singapore and did not feel this was an "Asian"-targetted cruise. The cruise director at the time was Graham Seymour (note that his regular ship is Explorer of the Seas at present) with his contract wrapping up on the day of disembarkation in Singapore. Allegedly (according to Graham at the time), a number of crew members were also due to leave at the end of the repositioning cruise. Announcements, signage, entertainment were all in English.

 

Although my experience is no guarantee for how Voyager will be in 2017 such as entertainment offerings, I did create a lengthy video of the aforementioned 2013 cruise, if you're interested (obviously your ports of call will differ, also this was prior to Voyager's refurbishement):

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Great video! Thanks.

I don't see any difference. Neither is "off putting" to me. Then again, I dont go looking for things to be offended by. I think it's a legitimate question, and people should know if there will be language issues, or if the menus might change. There are several cruises out there, that are "immersion" cruises where the primary language spoken is not English. I would certainly want to know in advance if I was going to be sailing on one of those. I think anything out of Asia runs that risk. Australia, not so much.

 

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Thanks, Karen.

Your TA is crazy and you have absolutely nothing to worry about! I have done the same cruise in the reverse and it's mainly older/retired Australians. No big change to menus or venues.

 

It's actually one of my favorite trips! Loved ot so much that I'm on Voyager again later this month.

Thanks, that is good to hear.

Well, after reading the following two reviews, I think it's a legitimate concern, PC or not.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2282536

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2191719

 

Both of the above reviews were for Asia cruises, although not from Australia. I still think the cruises out of Oz will be fine. Based on the above, I would hesitate to take a round trip Asia cruise. I do have a repo on my bucket list though :)

Food for thought, thank you.

My thoughts also, that there would be mostly Australians onboard, with maybe some Asians returning home from a holiday in Australia. But, my TA seemed to think differently.

We are currently booked on a Sydney round-trip in March 2017 that goes to Port Douglas and back on the Celebrity Solstice, but the Voyager ships does most of the same ports and continues to Singapore instead of back to Sydney.....which sounds pretty nice. We are still weighing the pros and cons of the two itineraries, including the ships and the perks.....the Celebrity perks are very good on this cruise.

Funny, but I just Googled the definition of a "Martini" and this is what I got:

a cocktail made from gin (or vodka) and dry vermouth, typically garnished with an olive or a twist of lemon.

 

While we do understand that it is now considered "cool" and "fashionable" to call anything served in a Martini glass a Martini...it just ain't so. That being said, we also enjoy some of those strange concoctions. But we do not understand bastardizing the "Martini" term for marketing purposes. If I decide to pour 5 ounces of good scotch into a Martini Glass....does that now become a Scotch Martini? In my world it is simply straight scotch.

 

Hank

Language never was and never will be stagnant.....always changing, evolving. It's a beautiful thing.

I spoke to my travel agent this morning to book the Voyager of the Seas on a cruise from Sydney to Singapore in 2017. She had concerns over the "Asianization" of the Voyager in the last year or so and wondered if we would enjoy it.

She said the crew would be 90%+ Chinese and the food, entertainment and activities would be more suited for Asian travelers than Americans.

My husband and I don't have any problem with exploring new and different cultures from ours, in fact we love it, but are we being naive? After all this is a 14 day cruise! Will there be serious language problems when speaking with the crew and other passengers? Will language be an issue with trivia and other activities? Will it be all Asian style food? Will the shows be in English? Will the casino be mostly Baccarat?

She has me worried.....should I be?

I'm guessing very late, but really fun luau ;)

 

To be fair, the luau, which did run to about 12 pm was fantastic, but what took us so long to get back to the tender was parking our rental car. We walked back to the paid parking lot that we thought we could use all night to pick up something from the car and noticed a sign saying cars left there after 6 am would be towed. ACK!! :eek: So we removed the car and drove around until we could find a better spot to park, which turned out to be a 45 minute walk back to the pier. (It was a beautiful night and we didn't mind) We got there around 2 am.....the tender was sitting there empty except for the two crew members running it. We hopped in and we left immediately. Only later, when we turned in the rental did we learn that those tow signs were not serious and we would have been fine.

Yes, they ran all night long.....pretty much whenever there was someone ready to go.....we were alone on the tender when we came back from a very late luau.

Margie,

 

I am a little OFF TOPIC, but do you remember the name of the restaurant? :)

I am so sorry, I wish I could. It was maybe 8-10 blocks away....I remember walking out of the hotel front door, going left down the street the hotel was on a couple of blocks and then going right for a few blocks. It was about 10pm, and I don't remember many details.

The restaurant had a butcher's case in the middle of the eating area where the butcher would chop off steaks as people ordered. Which we found fascinating.

We stayed at the Hotel Traiano and I would highly recommend it. It was very nice and the staff was great. They sent their driver to pick us up at the airport in Rome for a good price. We ate at one of the best restaurants we have ever been to in Italy, at their recommendation....a short walk from the hotel, a simply old family restaurant that was so delicious. Heavenly Tiramiso.

Pretty much all fish/seafood is flash frozen, these days it is frozen on the boat that catches it.

 

 

 

We just ask for a pitcher of ice water, refilled am and pm, and that takes care of all our water drinking in the cabin. No need to wait for the ice to melt and try to pour it out of the bucket! They have been very willing to do this for the last several years.

 

 

Never thought of asking for a pitcher of ice water, great idea. What kind of pitcher is it? Insulated, glass, metal?

 

 

 

The ice buckets are not that big nor are they the most efficient hence why we get our ice topped up morning and night. The resultant cold water is great for taking our meds

 

 

I love the ice cold water from the ice buckets....we use that way more than the actual ice.