Sascol

Bistro on 5 has always been a ghost town after the first day. I never could figure that out, as it is a nice place to eat. Now, it will probably be even worse although a $2 increase isn't a deal breaker for me.

AGREED and I don't get this. It's a nice restaurant and on all of our cruises I have never seen it more than half full and even that was rare. How will they attract a crowd now that it is up to $7? What business model is being used here? We used to eat there instead of the buffet but at $7 a pop I doubt we will now.

All are about 99% the same.

We don't do anything with it specifically - if it is a $300 OBC, whatever ends up within our first $300 worth of spending is covered by the OBC.

You will LOVE Reflection. Really no way to compare Grandeur (17 years old) to Reflection (less than 2 years old). You will probably wonder what you liked about Grandeur after seeing the Reflection.

We opted quite often for the Porch for our meals. The $5 surcharge is well worth it to avoid the crazy buffet. Great views from there as well. Bistro on 5 is a nice option for a quiet meal any time.

Enjoy!

Am considering an Alaska cruise in 2015 on the Millenium. Most of the reviews mention that the ship is very rundown/dated. Or the $$$ we are paying, this concerns me...any other thoughts about this?

I honestly think this depends on what you compare it to...

We have done about 10 Celebrity cruises on several classes of their ships. After doing two of the newer Solstice class ships when they were each less than a year old, we went back to try the Summit after it was refurbished. While it did not seem 'run down' by any means, it did certainly feel much less impressive than the newer ones we had just sailed. I see you mentioned being on the Reflection so you may be in a similar situation.

There were places that even after the refurbishment needed a little more TLC. Had we not done the Solstice class ships and not had those to compare to, we probably would not have noticed some of the things we saw on Summit. There was nothing overly bad. Just things like window coatings scratched and chipped, chips in paint (inside and out), well worn deck flooring, somewhat worn furniture/carpet. We like 'shiny and new' and while I can't speak to the Millenium, Summit definately did not feel that way.

Thanks! Guess I have to go shopping. Are nice jeans OK?

As long as it is not on formal night.....YES

No shorts - Khakis or at a minimum nicer pair of jeans.

NEVER. hot tub = people soup. Yuck!

I'm not sure when your sailing is so maybe there isn't a brochure yet? I can find one for my mom's Alaska August sailing by going into her account, then going to the Shore Excursions tab. At the very bottom of the page is a button that says "Download Shore and Land Excursion Brochure."

 

When I click on that, it brings up a PDF file of all the excursions. The PDF file can be saved to a computer or printed.

BINGO - Thanks!!!

In the past I have been able to log onto 'My Celebrity', navigate to my cruise then to the excursions being offered for my cruise. I can still do that now, but I no longer see an option that allows me to print the entire list of excursions offered. Has this gone away or am I missing something really obvious?

We were docked in Le Havre in 2010 (Jewel of the Seas Transatlantic) and neither DH or I wanted to spend 7 hours on a bus to have 4 hours in Paris. My feeling was that if I couldn't have adequate time in Paris I didn't want to go at all.

It is absolutely NOT 7 hours on a bus. It is just over two hours each way.

We did it a few years ago. We had never been to Paris so going there was a must for us but the bus ride back feels loooooong after a day in the city. I don't know that I would do it again but if you have never seen Paris you may want to.

The bus let us off within blocks of the Eiffel Tower. We went to the top of the tower. I would suggest you buy tix in advance on line if you plan to do this. We saved at least an hour if not more because we did not have to wait in the ticket line. After the tower we strolled around the city and had a nice lunch at a cafe. Strolled around some more and then got back on the bus to return to the ship.

The bar top is no longer able to be frozen. Now it is just a metal bar top.

Just curious - can recent cruisers tell me if the iced bar top at the martini bar has been fixed?

Never have we had an issue getting into a specialty restaurant on any Celebrity ship. We may have had to alter the time we desired by perhaps 30 minutes... but there has never been an occasion where we could not get in on the day we wanted to (and we always shoot for peak dinner times). I'd wait.

At $45, this has now entered the territory of we would not do it again unless there was a discount offered. The food is good and it's a fun time but it is NOT worth $45/pp in my opinion.

Depends. We did Summit (same class of ship you are considering) after having done both Eclipse and Silhouette. Because the other ships were new at the time they had a lot of WOW factor about them. Summit for us was a bit of a let down even though we had done that claass of ship previously and knew what it was all about. Nothing to kill a vacation, but there were no 'ooohs and aaahs' for Summit.

Folks they just dont care. More then likely they will be read by a public relations firm who will only submit what they want Celebrity to hear. It happens all the time in the real corporate world. I remember years ago when they told me they read them all on the ship. It was BS then and its BS now. Ifv they really cared they would have taken steps to correct there Call Center but you cant do that with minimum wage and part time workers.

Untrue. I have recv'd follow up phone calls after the cruise based on my comment cards. And these were for 'issues' that were not really big in the scheme of things. Trust me, they care.

If you wait for other dinners, you probably will not get the times you want- typically the most popular times are booked up prior to the cruise. If you do not mind dining at 5:30 or 9:00 PM, you can wait.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

We have NEVER had this isssue. We book specialty restaurants after we board every time (near the beginning of the cruise - a day or so in) and within 30 minutes of the time we want, we always get a reservation.....most of the time we end up with exactly what we want.

Hi I am planning on a cruise on the Summit in November from San Juan. First time on this class of ship so looking for advise.

Have read a lot if I book an A2 cabin I will be disturbed by the noise above from the sun deck, are there better cabins on this deck??

Could stretch to the A1 cabins but not sure what are the real benefits?, any advise would be great!

Would love a rear cabin but they seem to be rare.

Thanks you for all your advise and ideas.

We did the A1 cabins on deck 11. We chose these specifically because when we sailed (October of 2012) the cabins up on 11 were all brand new - not refurbished like the ones on 9. Advantages? Everything was crisp, clean and in perfect working order brecause it was new. It is very quiet up on 11 as there is very little hallway traffic. The balcony is not blocked by the VERY large overhang from deck 10. Some people see this as a disadvantage because the balcony has no substantial cover but for us the better view made it a plus. On 11 you are very close to the buffet and the bar at the back of the ship....very convenient.

With regards to noise on deck 9, that can be hit or miss. Just do your homework and pick a cabin that is furthest from the busy areas. You might be better off under the spa pool than you would be under the main pool for example.

Good luck!

Done Aqua 2x....once on Summit, once on Reflection. I know BLU on Summit was designed as an 'add on' when the ship was remodeled and on Reflection it was part of the original design plan when the ship was built. This being said....

We MUCH preferred BLU on the Summit. The room itself was much more intimate, much more quiet and very relaxing overall. The staff was well trained and worked together like clockwork. They had it down to a science.

On Reflection, although the restaurant was almost never totally full, we did have to wait for a table on many occasions. This was especially the case at breakfast. At times it was only half full but because of what I assume was low staffing they could not accommodate more than a half full restaurant. Then when we did sit, service seemed to be very disorganized....3 people coming to us one after the other to offer us coffee while after 20 minutes nobody had yet come to take our order for breakfast. Everyone was as nice as they could be but it just seemed terribly disorganized to us.

We also did not care for how loud it was in BLU on the Reflection (noise level of the restaurant itself). On Summit the atmosphere was quiet and relaxing. On Reflection it was VERY loud....like a smaller version of the main dining room. It did not seem nearly as relaxing and we missed that.

All this being said, we do have a cruise booked for later this year on the Solstice and we did select Aqua again. Reflection did not scare us away from it but if BLU on Solstice turns out to be like BLU on Reflection we would probably not do it again unless the price was right. We do not find that many of the other perks outside of BLU (some lip balm, an air freshener, a foot rest and some bottled water) mean much to us. None of those are deciding factors.

We always bring our pills in smaller organizing containers - never had an issue.

NEGATIVE....sorry.

To me it would be fair to say that if we cancelled on Celebrity at this point they would keep our $450 deposit, so a fair amount of compensation at this point should be similar.

Celebrity would keep the $450? I would think based on this change that THEY caused this would be refundable?

Increased cost of travel? Can't buy airline tickets for that cruise yet so no loss there.

 

I really can't think of any real financial loss yet, over 1 year out.

 

The offer to cancel or rebook and get $200 OBC is quite fair given the timeline on this one. If you were months out, I'd expect expenses reimbursed perhaps, but I'd consider this a gift of $200 and book the alternative.

 

No need to stew over it. Accept the problem, and find the alternative and enjoy $200 on them when you get there in 15 months.

Agreed - OP is inconvenienced but this is plenty of time to reorganize PLUS have the benefit of the $200. No fincial impact I can think of other than the POSITIVE one of $200.

Nice review.....but paragraphs please!

I think I remember a warning from Equinox staff that the magnetic cover/case for your iPad might erase your room card under some conditions. Memory dims after a year, and I did not have an iPad at that time...

This is true. My camera has a magnetic clasp. When I go to dinner I put my cruise card in my pocket and I carry my camera in my hand on the same side. Just brushing up against my pocket erased the card on several occasions. This year I made a point to put the card in the opposite pocket and was fine.

We were in aqua last month on the Reflection. I tend to NOT order room service because of many of the things you mention. The results:

- The order was about 2/3 right

- The milk was room temperature

- The rest of the order was slightly warm

Done with room service.