Angua

We have only been on 2 Celebrity cruises to date, but I did organize and run the Slot Pull on our last cruise, although that was the only gambling we did in the casino. We have been on a couple of Carnival cruises with my parents this year and they are big gamblers so we spent more time in the casino than we usually do (usually 0 hours), so we are getting casnio offers from them as well. I signed both of us up for the BCC recently and we did get a couple of these free veranda offers, and were able to take advantage of one in december. We are excited to cruise with Celebrity again, not sure if we will spend any time in the casino this time as I hear the table limits are higher and my parents aren't with us this time ;-).

Hi, I am looking for information about the alcoves on deck 15 on the Reflection. I have read past posts that the area is no longer quiet during the day because of the large screen installed at the lawn area. Does anyone have any recent experience with this? We are stopping in Nassau as our first port in December and I was thinking about getting one for the day, but if it is going to be noisy and not relaxing I probably won't bother. We booked this cruise on a BCC offer so I want to spend at least some of the money I would normally spend on the cruise fare on some new ship experiences, just not sure this one is a good deal.

We have been on 2 Celebrity cruises, one in a standard veranda and one in a concierge veranda because it was about the same price as a regular veranda. The concierge was helpful in getting our specialty dining reservations booked, left daily voicemails on interesting things around the shop or ports, and other nice touches. The best thing for me though was being invited to the helipad to watch sail away from one of the ports. That was awesome but I don't know if they do it on all cruises or if that was unique to that ship/sailing.

I don't think anyone really has a quarrel with people who need service animals for whatever reason it is, but that the animals that are being brought on board are NOT appropriately trained service dogs. The Shih tsu in my example wasn't a problem since it was in a stroller all the time and was in truth a cutie pie, but the large untrained dogs that bark, poop, pee, and even nip at people do not belong on ships. I know trained service dogs are incredibly expensive, but if you need one they need to be properly trained to interact in the real world. When people bring obviously dogs that are obviously not service dogs into a situation and describe them as a service dog, that will lead people to draw conclusions about the real need of the animal, and question the seriousness of the condition. They aren't doing anyone any favors by claiming something that isn't true about their pet/service animal. I love my dog but i would never claim he was a service animal because he isn't trained to serve in that capacity.

My point was that it was obvious the dog was not a service dog for the husband if it was never with the husband. You may think it's not my business but people like that need to know they aren't as clever as they think they are and other passengers know they are circumventing the system. I only asked a question and she declined to answer. I didn't take any other steps to address it with the ship staff. On that same cruise was another obviously-not- a- service dog, on that cruise that had diarrhea right in the middle of the promenade on the way to dinner. Untrained dogs do not belong on a cruise ship and people who sidestep the rules make it more difficult for people who do really need trained service animals. If you can't bear to be apart from your pet, don't go on a cruise. There are land vacations you can take that include your pet. I say this as a pet lover, currently with a dog and a cat.

On one of the first Journeys cruises on the Dream there was a couple with a shih tzu they claimed was a diabetic service dog for the husband. We first met them in the boarding line and trying to be friendly, i asked how the dog recognized and alerted to that condition. They were very vague and tried to get the staff to boost them up the line to get away from us. The dog was in a stroller and had a different outfit every day and was ALWAYS with the wife. We rarely saw the husband. One day I asked where her husband was and she said he was sleeping. I asked if it wasn't important for him to have his service dog while sleeping to make sure he didn't go into a diabetic coma. She actively avoided me for the rest of the cruise.

it's bad, and in addition it even LOOKS unappetizing.

They will still charge the delivery fee.

When we were on the splendor last month we didn't have the hanging tags. My parents ordered their morning coffee in the evenings and it always arrived promptly or even a little early.

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no

I do think it depends on the situation. Personally I usually prefer set time dining, late. My husband and I are usually seated at a table for 2, although we have had lovely trips where we were seated with others and had a great time. We have never been seated with unpleasant people, thank goodness. I prefer having the same waitstaff, talking to them every night etc. In February we did a B2B on the MG. The first week was with my parents and it was early dining. We did not enjoy that experience at all, the poor waitstaff was overworked, food was wildly inconsistent, my father almost never got his requested dessert coffer, and this was when we were at the same table every day. The 2nd week we were on with some friends and we switched to your time so we could try the available specialty dining, and it was a much better experience except for one night at ChiBang where i think they either didn't enter our orders or forgot our table entirely and it took 2 hours for dinner. I am sure the issues on the first week were because they were so severely short staffed and I felt very bad for the MDR staff, but on the 2nd elegant night the 2nd week we did go to the MDR and the waiter tried to force my husband to take a cranberry walnut roll because it was the last one in the basket. My husband is allergic to walnuts and when he asked for the other type of roll, the waiter was actually a little short and said 'I'll have to back to get a new basket". He would have had to anyway since there 3 more of us and that was the only piece left in the basket. Additionally, my grand mariner souffle was raw, and when i asked for a cooked one i got pushback on that as well. So completely out of character for any Carnival staff which i blame on them being overworked Earlier this month we were on the splendor with my parents and my inlaws and we decided to do anytime dining. This was a mistake. Trying to corral my perpetually early parents and my perpetually late inlaws into arriving at the same time was nearly impossible, and my elderly in laws really didn't understand the app very well, leading to delays in arriving, mugh to my grumpy father's dismay. I think if we had a set time at the same table it would have worked much better for everyone, so we learned a lesson there. ;-). So TL;DR, I personally prefer set time dining, but under specific circumstances YTD can work for us. I am sure this doesn't help anyone, lol.

We were on the splendor and if i remember correctly they offer the full bag for $15. I am pretty sure this is for anyone who wants to do laundry at any time. Access to the spa thermal suite is the best perk, slightly nicer robes, slippers, and upgraded bedding. They used to supply a linen spray for the bedding but we haven't gotten a spa room in a while so i don't know if they still do that. As someone else mentioned, you will also get a little jar of scrub/loofah at the spa desk if you ask. I don't know what this is ;-).

I am not sure how full the ship was. There was never an instance that i couldn't go to some entertainment i wanted, and we could always find some spots at the table games we like to play. I never felt crowded which was nice. The service wasn't particularly slow in the dining room so I am assuming either we were not full or they had better staffing than the MG did earlier this year. One of the staff mentioned the ship stopped in the Philippines on the way to seattle from dubai to pick up staff, so they may be better staffed than some other fleet ships that have to coordinate to get the staff to the ships.

I also got off on 7/12 and while mostly the temp was comfortable in jeans/tshirt, the Casino was very cold, especially on the smoking side. If you like it cooler you will like the ship. My husband also loves the Masala tiger and ate lunch there every day of our cruise.

ya i didn't use it myself, just went by what he said. Thanks for letting me know he was mistaken. I have still heard that their privacy policy is pretty bad, though.

We have been on 2 cruises since restart and made the decision to not use it. My husband said it required some credit card info even if they weren't charging for use and he took a look at the privacy policy and it was terrible. We had no issues with simply having them check our documents at both ports, Port Canaveral being very quick and efficient and seattle took a little longer but still not too bad. Since i had heard many reports of people still needing to show their paper documents despite completing verifly, we decided it wasn't worth the effort to use it with our privacy concerns.

We couldn't buy the couples pass till we were on board. Sorry should have been clearer on that.

The thermal suite on the Dream is almost exactly the same as the one on the Splendor. I know the Breeze is a little different and i haven't been on the Magic so I can't comment on that one. We were on the Splendor last week and bought the couple's pass, it was about $275 once the taxes were applied (probably should have waited till we set sail to pay, lol). The Thalasso pool got busy at times but my favorite place is the tepidarium with the heated tile seats, and that was never busy when I was there. Not all of the chairs were heating up though so check them before you sit down!

It ended up that my inlaws did come with us on the cruise, so I can't offer any comment on the no show with 2 cabin discussion. Thanks to everyone for the helpful discussions, though! s

As of yesterday, the inlaws say they are going to come with us, but it's a long 3 days between now and Monday when we are supposed to fly to Seattle. I will report back on Monday on whether we are travelling full occupancy or not. 😉

They keep removing my favorite things from the menu. I used to enjoy the fried chicken that was always available when i didn't like the other options, now they only offer it once and it isn't as good. Then they got rid of the carpaccio appetizer. Now i see they have removed the chicken milanese. I do like the grilled shrimp on the 2nd elegant night still.

The best one we ever had was when they first introduced the journeys cruises and people weren't really booking them because of them not being closed loop. it was $75 pp for an interior cabin ($185 for an ocean view) plus $150 cabin credit, so basically free interior cabins for 10-11 day cruises. We were able to take advantage of one of them and got a deluxe ocean view on the Dream, which was a great cabin. Would have loved to do more but didn't have enough vacation time back then.

oh, yes i was already planning on that as well 😉

So you just got a spare key for the occupied room ,and didn't 'officially' swap to the cabin you ended up using? It's still undecided if the inlaws are coming or not, we should know by today. The cruise boards on tuesday. I am happy to give the steward a small break in room cleaning!