Oskial

Thanks for everyone's sage advice. We do have reservations for Murano and know how special that is, so just going there may be celebration enough. Maybe splurge on a bottle of champagne or a nice bottle of wine. Thanks to all for the congratulations. And happy anniversary, birthday, honeymoon or whatever you are celebrating on your cruise. Hope it's the best one ever.

We are sailing on theRefection in April and are with our daughter and son-in-law (their first cruise). We are both celebrating milestones in our marriages (us 50 years and them 10 in 2022). Due to covid and other health issues we had to wait until this year to book our cruise. We want to celebrate the occasions some way and would like to know if Celebrity has a way to help us do that. Any advice? TIA

Thanks for all the responses. Looks like we will be leaving the ship at 9:00. I don't want to be "that guy" and get the crew upset. Their job is tough enough.

Hi all. We have a late flight out of Ft. Lauderdale to Toronto and would like to know how late we can lounge on the ship before they kick us off. TIA

That's why I asked for help. We are flying AC in and Westjet (via Delta) home through Flights by Celebrity. Should be interesting. Never used Celerity for flights before.

We are flying out of Fort Lauderdale at 2:30 in the afternoon and don't really want to be at the airport at 9:30 and have to wait for our flight home for 5 hours. Any ideas as to what we can do for a couple of hours before our flight? Excursions are a little too long to chance missing our flight home. Is there any safe place we can store our luggage for a couple of hours? TIA

Just got the answer. The excursion does include beach chairs but does not include a beach umbrella. They are available for an additional $5 and are large enough to cover 2 people.

I phoned Captain's Club to get this answered and they gave me the e-mail address for the excursions desk. I e-mailed the excursions desk and they replied that they will give me an answer to this ASAP. I will post the answer as soon as I get it.

We are 4 adults on a Celebrity cruise with a lot of OBC. We're trying to use some of it up and are looking at an excursion to Orient Beach with lunch going through Celebrity. The site doesn't specify that they will provide chairs and an umbrella. If anyone has taken this excursion before can you tell me if they do provide chairs and umbrellas. TIA

Thank you. I had them both wrong.

Please excuse my ignorance, but what are "CC" and "HH"?

We did an excursion a few years ago that sounds like the one you are inquiring about. We went to the old city and toured there with a guide which included lunch, then the fort and a tour to a jewelry store that had a history of mining emeralds included. It wasn't done in that order though. It was fun and very informative. Especially the tour of the old city with lunch. One of our cruise mates purchased emerald ear rings for what she found out was a very good price. If this is what you are looking at then I would say go for it.

We got the premium package for our next cruise because it was included in the package with premium wifi, premium drinks and $600 OBC which they aren't offering any more. We have sailed in Europe with just the classic package because we felt that our money would be better spent on doing things in each of the ports of call and upgraded each drink as we went along but it is nice not to worry about it and just order whatever drink you want and not be concerned about an uncharge. As others have said, the premium waters, wines, cocktails and beer gives you a much better choice of what you want to drink. The beauty of it is that it is your choice to cruise any way you want. Just cruising is the important thing!

We took advantage of the first night and booked the Lawn Club and then booked Murano on the sixth night at a slight discount. As posted above, we have a lot of OBC so we took advantage of that too. As others have said, if you want to book either the Lawn Club or Murano i would book early if I were you.

We have cruised on the Reflection a couple of times in the past and have always enjoyed the ship. However, the Reflection is due for refurbishing some time in January 2023 and i am wondering if they will continue to have the overhead compartments over the bed or are they going to eliminate them. We have some collapsible storage boxes that we put there that fit quite nicely for keeping socks, underwear and other smaller things in them. My question being, should we bring them again or leave them at home? Maybe someone that has been on one of the S class ships that have been refurbished can answer the question. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Thank you very much for all the information. I will definitely explore this. The ice cream sounds great too. We will only be in Fort Lauderdale for the one night but ice cream is almost a food source in our home.

Thanks everyone. Looks like the Riverside is the place to be.

We are two couples flying into Fort Lauderdale the day before our cruise looking for an overnight stay that is close to the cruise port. I know there are a lot of places to look at, but any recommendations from anyone that has stayed in a reasonably priced hotel in the last few moths where we can walk to a restaurant and a grocery store or CVS where we can get any last minute items before the cruise would be very helpful.

We just booked the Murano (pre booking discount) and the lawn club grill (first night discount) and were charged an extra 18% at checkout. No problem. I think that part of the 18% goes to the kitchen staff too. Or maybe it's pooled for everyone to share equally. Is it fair? I really don't care because IMHO it's still worth it and we will tip again after the meal. when you compare the quality of service and the meal itself it is worth far more than what you are paying when going to a good restaurant any where else. Also, Celebrity does state that gratuities will be added at checkout. No hidden bait and switch here. If you don't think it is worth it than the answer is very simple. As stated by a few others: "Eat at the main dining room".

I would ask my travel agent to print the pass.

Thanks. Can't believe it's been that long. It's been a great life.

I am also following. We will be on the Reflection in April and celebrating 50 years.

Hi Runner 2013. it sounds like you need a dose of Celebrity. We have only tried Carnival and Celebrity but after reading the good and not as good (notice there is no "bad") reviews on some of the other lines, Celebrity is our choice for cruising. I totally agree with everything that Chicago Cruisin said. I think you will find that the service and food is great no matter where you are on the ship. We had been on several all inclusive resorts before we started cruising and haven't looked back since. If you want a cruise that has that relaxed atmosphere then Celebrity is what you will get. (I feel like I should be working for these guys.) Hope to see you on board some day!

Thanks for all the great advice everyone. I think we'll continue to book on our own for a flight the day before. The less stress idea is the best way to do any vacation. The other thing I found with Celebrity is the flights are limited to the ones they choose. You get more choices by doing it on your own. The flights they had going home were not non stop and we would arrive home very late in the evening. This is why I enjoy using Cruise Critic for advice and thoughts. I have learned so much from this site! Thanks again.

I know that I could call Celebrity and ask these questions, but I think I may get the more accurate answers from here. We have always booked our own flights when traveling in the past but have now thought about using Celebrity instead. We normally book a hotel in Fort Lauderdale the day before the cruise just in case "things happen". Nothing has ever been a problem before but the extra expense of a room plus a taxi or shuttle to the port can be eliminated if we don't have to go that way. Celebrity can get me a flight from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale for the same price that I can get it but it leaves the same day as the cruise. Will Celebrity guarantee that I make the cruise on time if I book through them? Will they (do they) provide a shuttle to the port from the airport? Should we anticipate a significant wait time to get the shuttle to the port? Our flight will arrive in Fort Lauderdale around 9:45 (if we book the flight I am considering) which means that after getting our bags and clearing customs it would still leave us lots of time to get to the port. I guess that the question I am asking is "is it worth it?" to go through the anxiety of hoping that everything goes as planned or should I spend the extra and book my own flight the day before.