beltane

Well I was pleasantly surprised to get through to an agent very quickly... and as some have already advised, yes I was able to get this done. Yay! They said so long as my identification names match my reservation names, all will be well. So they went ahead and changed my name at their end, and I got my paperwork done for my new drivers license and passport done today. They also changed my Captain's Club name too. So all done... after 6 1/2 years I will finally be a "Mrs" on our cruise this year :D

As wonderful and experienced as posters on this forum are - wouldn't the first place to check on such a question as this be with Celebrity?

 

It is always best to get the answer direct from an authority instead of asking a general forum.

True. I guess I didn't want to spend forever on hold :rolleyes: You are right... I'll call and report back for anyone else who is curious.

Hi all... I've searched the forums and found answers for brides who have questions about honeymoon and their names... but my question is a little different. I have been married for a few years now but never changed my last name. My passport is up for renewal and I want to finally change from my maiden name to my husband's last name. Our February cruise is already booked in my maiden name. Will I be able to change our reservation to include my new last name on my new passport? Or do I have to, for now, keep my maiden and do the change after our cruise? I'd like to finally get it done.

Thanks! :)

Hello all, Hubs and I just booked a hump cabin on the Reflection, 7258 and were so excited. However, when attempting to find photos or a video of the cabin I landed on a website where the cruiser complained that cigarette smoke from a designated smoking area below made their hump balcony very unpleasant for the week.

I have searched on line, but cannot find where the smoking areas are on the Reflection and if indeed we just booked a cabin directly above it. That would definitely be unpleasant for us as we make very good use of our balcony on cruises.

Anyone here know?

Many thanks...

Thanks for the update! Here's a screen shot of the itinerary on Celebrity's website, so I don't think I'm losing my marbles...

Hello all... quick question. It has been about 10 years since I have been to Georgetown, Grand Cayman. I am looking at an itinerary which includes it and it says "docked"... is that new? Am I remembering incorrectly? I thought I remembered tender boats to get to Grand Cayman. Have they built piers since I was last there?

From what we saw in February, there were MANY people dressed formally on the chic nights. Although my hubs didn't bring his tux that time, he is going to on our next cruise. We enjoy both options. We love to dress up, but sometimes we just want to look classy but still comfortable.

I think you'll be fine if you want to dress formally. It's so lovely to do once in a while.

We are almost at the point now where we have favourite ports and we have meh ports and we have no-way-in-hell-ever-again ports for the Caribbean. The nice thing is: we actually LOVE the ship when it is empty and don't mind at all if an itinerary only has one or two fave ports. We look forward to port days when we stay on the ship. I love having the pool practically to myself. I love relaxing up top and watching the port. We especially get a kick out of watching the people come and go on the pier. I can easily see us becoming "ship only" cruisers eventually.

I love the previous poster who said the ship is their destination. Perfect! That is Hubs and I too!

I LOVE sea days the best!

-- I love not being rushed to get out of bed.

-- I love finding a shady lounger near a pool with my books, magazines, and my ipod with earphones and my favourite music.

-- I love to people watch.

-- I love lunch in the MDR.

-- After all those exhausting morning activities I love an afternoon nap with my Hubby (and sometimes NOT sleep :eek::rolleyes:;) ).

-- We love to have happy hour out on the balcony with binoculars and see what we can see.

-- I love a full swim where I can get my hair wet because I know I will have plenty of time to blow it out for dinner. I don't usually have that kind of time to do my hair on a port day.

-- I love taking the time to have nice photos done before dinner. We don't always purchase, but if you don't have any done, you'll never know if there is a nice portrait there.

-- We have grown to love Celebrity, and they have a lot of small live music in nice areas here and there on board, we love sitting and listening to the live music here and there. Our last cruise had a young woman from Brazil who sang and played guitar... I could have listened to her all day. She was amazing. I was like a groupie watching for her to show up in the daily schedule and getting a good drink and chair in time to enjoy her talent.

-- We get the unlimited internet and I love to live face time and take my family and friends at home on "tours" of the ship.

-- We really love to simply sit at a bar and meet new and interesting people

We took my mother on a cruise twice while she was in early stage dementia. She had been on enough cruises that it was still in her memory and she did very well and enjoyed herself very much. I spoke to the people who needed to know, especially our server at dinner. She needed small portions. Being a child of the depression she was raised to "clean her plate" and we learned very quickly that she would eat until she was uncomfortable. Once the portions were downsized she enjoyed her meals very much. We made sure someone was always with her. Fortunately Dad enjoyed a nap too, so he was usually happy to stay with her if she needed a sleep. (Not sure if it would help your situation, but I wonder about a baby monitor for your father? There are kinds with a camera that you can watch the sleeping person. I don't know if it would work through the steel interior of the ship... perhaps some young parents can let you know if baby monitors work on board.)

I don't think I would do a cruise with a dementia patient if I were on my own. I have a friend in my Alzheimer's support group, she took her husband on a cruise and she herself took sick and needed to be hospitalized. It was very scary and difficult for her to get help for her husband when she herself was sick. If you have a little team ready for the task, I say do it! I'm glad for the happy memories of the last 2 cruises with my Mom.

Very first thing is ALWAYS go to the closest bar to the beautiful main foyer/lobby and get a gin and tonic, sit and relax and people watch while we enjoy it. We are usually exhausted from an early morning flight, transport, etc. That G&T goes down beautifully! Then, if we are early, we go find some lunch, if we are later and our cabin is most likely ready, we check it out.

Capris will be fine. It's pretty well all I wear when I cruise. During the day I wear them with sandals and a Tshirt. In the evening, ALL evenings, I dress them up with heels, a dressy top and a cute evening clutch. Never ever had a problem anywhere on the ship.

Bed by the balcony! I LOVE laying in bed and watching the Caribbean go by. I must confess, my hubs spoils me and will get up early and bring me mimosas, coffees, fruits, treats, etc, and I can lounge around in bed a little longer and just gaze at the ocean and sky. It is so decadent.

Although Hubs and I have never decorated our door I LOVE seeing other decorated doors. Always makes me smile. You can feel their joy and happiness of being on a fun vacation displayed by those cruisers. I say more power to them. It's harmless fun. I doubt Hubs and I ever will do our door, he is easily embarassed and does not like to draw attention to himself... but if I was cruising with a group of friends? Ya, I might join in! :D

Being February cruisers, we are never in a hurry to return to the snow at home :p We try our best to book an afternoon flight so we can enjoy one last lovely breakfast and then take our time disembarking. However, we have never come close to being last off.

Some strong scents can trigger an immediate migraine for me too. I hate having to resort to my strong medications when I'm on vacation. :( I don't see an answer to it. I don't see how we can ask other people to go scent-free. I just do my best to avoid the offenders.

I would say to you: your cruise should be a dream vacation come true. If nicely pressed clothes is important to you, budget a bit extra ahead of time and treat yourself to having those articles of clothing ironed on board. You will look and feel good and enjoy yourself on this vacation that you have planned for months and months.

That said, I use my hair flat iron to tidy up collars and seams on our clothes. Works great! :D

Hubs and I are thrilled. We've tried Bistro on 5 a few times and it just never added up to what other people were raving about... for us, at least. We both love sushi, so are hoping this will be a nice change.

Our first 2 Celebrity cruises were Concierge and the most recent one we went with Verandah and quite frankly we noticed no difference that affected our enjoyment of our vacation. We felt no less pampered. We didn't enjoy the "appetizers" and if we were snacky preferred to go up to the Oceanview Cafe and get something appealing. My husband is diabetic, so we didn't drink the sparkling wine (the first cruise they let us exchange it for red, but not on the second.) The flowers are 3 little posies :confused: big deal. Our cabins were just as tended to, our seating at dinner was just as nice. The only difference we noted was that we don't get as many Captain's Club points.

Oh, and we had to wait in a different line when it was time to embark, so we got on board about 45 seconds later. :rolleyes:

As others have said, in the MDR you are free to order whatever you want, so you simply "create" a 4 course meal and tell your server in what order you want your meal brought to you. Hubs and I LOVE to order a few appetizers, have them all brought at once and we will have a nibble and luxuriate over all of them. On lobster night, my husband will always order the steak entree AND the lobster entree, he'll put his lobster on his steak plate and have the server take the extra plate away. The servers and/or kitchen won't put both meals on one plate for you, but they certainly don't mind if you do it yourself. I don't usually have room for dessert right away, so we will have coffee/tea and dessert later at Cafe Al Bacio.

Our first 2 Celebrity cruises were concierge class. We immediately realized we do not enjoy the afternoon snacks. My husband cannot drink champagne, and on the first cruise our steward switched it for a bottle of red. On the second cruise we were told he cannot do that, so it sat there all week. We noticed ZERO difference in "preferential tables" in restaurants, etc... all were lovely and we felt sufficiently pampered.

At the time we booked CC it was purely for the location of the cabin and they had a very good special on also.

So except for having a pretty gold sail card instead of blue, and getting a few extra points to move us toward the next level in the Captains Club, my Hubs and I noticed NO difference in the quality of our cruise. All were wonderful. We just booked for Feb 2017 and have gone with a simple verandah and are very much looking forward to it.

Hubs and I have had some wonderful cruises with Carnival. I actually enjoy the happy party atmosphere of Carnival ships, but Hubs doesn't enjoy it as much. We are at the point in our cruising where the ports really aren't the focus of our vacation any more. Relaxation is. We often cruise now and don't even leave the ship. We always have a balcony and make good use of it. Celebrity plays the music of our generation, which we enjoy very much. Plus, you just can't beat a Celebrity shower stall! :D I do think we have found our "cruise home" with Celebrity, but I always look at all the cruiselines when I plan our next vacation and am open to sailing with a competitor if the itinerary, price and perks are appealing.

We went to the future cruise sales office and were shocked at the high prices. There is no incentive to book onboard. We will wait to see what happens with prices, and may look at other cruise lines or all-inclusive resorts.

Loved reading your review. Thanks. We were on the Reflection the week before you and agree about the prices, especially with our dollar is not doing so well right now. We didn't book anything while on board this time. We aren't ruling a winter cruise out, yet, for next year, but we may also look at alternatives.

Celebrity calls it "Evening Chic" not "Elegant Chic".

Whatever.