schlimazel_traveler

I just looked it up for my upcoming sailing--$225 for unlimited or $175 for 10 pictures. The price changes from sailing to sailing. I know the NYE cruise right before our January 2nd cruise on Reflection had a significantly higher price for the picture package--maybe an extra $50.

If I'm not mistaken, on Reflection there actually was a studio, a place where you could go for a specially-booked portrait session. That was a separate price but it might work well for your group.

Note that if you think you'll want lots of poses of the full group, you might still consider having one cabin (whoever likes posing for pictures the most, or whoever qualifies for the biggest discount!) purchase the unlimited package. If you purchase it, for example, any pictures YOU are in will be included, no matter who else is in them. At least, that is my understanding.

From mycruisephoto.com:

Your Get the Picture! disc will contain your photos that include at least one member of the purchasing stateroom, up to 20 people. We can accommodate families traveling in more than one stateroom where the occupants are the children 21 and under of the purchasing stateroom. If you meet this criteria, please order one photo package online and speak to a member of the Photo Gallery when you arrive onboard to have this arranged. We are not able to link accounts before you arrive onboard.

The individual photo prices are astronomical--like $25 for one contact sheet which is an 8x10 and 3 wallets--so it doesn't take too many group shots that you're happy with to make the package worthwhile. Plus, I think we got both the digital images and the prints with our package, which makes it really easy to share your favorites with the whole group.

Note the following, however:

If you wish to set up an hour of private photography for the group, you may do so by inquiring in the Photo Gallery as soon as you board the ship. Group photos booked by special appointment and other special events are not included in our photo packages.

On the other hand...

There is no fee for posing for photos. All opportunities onboard, including studio sittings, are free of charge with no obligation to purchase. If you would like to purchase the photos, you can either pre-order a package online or visit the Photo Gallery once onboard.

My traveling companions would like me to ask about the daytime activities (how many trivia games, is there progressive trivia, etc) and karaoke. I know that's not everyone's thing but it's ours.

If you don't drink much alcohol (I really don't), another option to consider is the Classic or Premium NA package. Those cover soda, juice, bottled water, premium coffee, etc. You could pay by the drink for the occasional beer or cocktail. My husband's bar bill was <$100 for the week. It wouldn't be a good value for us to purchase an alcohol package.

On Reflection, you can get specialty coffee at the bar in the Ocean View.

Thank you!!! We have been sailing Celebrity since 2002. We have sailed mostly M class ships, Zenith once and Mercury twice. We sailed Silhouette in 2012 her inaugural season and did not like the ship at all for some of the reasons you have mentioned. Haven't been back on an S class after that.

Will we like M class better?

I guess we'll see soon enough!

We're not the world's most experienced cruisers--we've done 2 Royal Caribbean cruises on their Vision class ships Enchantment and Grandeur (i.e., no bells, whistles, skating rinks, indoor shopping malls, etc) and one on Celebrity.

What we really enjoyed on Royal (particularly on Grandeur) was the number of entertaining things to DO. We played trivia multiple times/day, including a fun progressive trivia game, we did scavenger hunts (one was the surprisingly entertaining, if tasteless, Quest and one was a G-rated silly race all over the ship), we went to all the game shows like a name-that-tune game in the Centrum, the Love and Marriage game in the theater, and an everyone-participates game involving guessing the most common answer to various questions about the cruise, and we really appreciated what good sports the participants were and how entertaining the staff were. We enjoyed watching dance lessons and cooking demos and towel folding demos in the Centrum. We didn't catch the chili cook-off on the pool deck but it was fun to see it on the closed circuit TV in the stateroom after the fact.

We found the activities on Reflection felt like an obligatory afterthought, from the locations (some were held in what amounts to a hallway outside the theater, others in the very oddly chopped-up main lobby area that just doesn't work as well as the Centrum on Grandeur or Enchantment) to the attitude of the staff conducting them (the DJ tasked with doing karaoke and music trivia was positively disdainful). It really seems as if most of the guests prefer to spend their time on board enjoying the opportunity to do nothing (i.e., relax) while we enjoy a chance to play and watch organized games.

I will say, the food was better and more available on Reflection (on Grandeur and Enchantment there are times of day where the only place for a snack is the Park Cafe, where the lines get long), and we did appreciate the more tasteful attire and usually more tasteful behavior of our fellow passengers.

We are trying Celebrity once more (Summit to Bermuda later this month) which will allow a direct comparison since we did Grandeur to Bermuda last summer.

On our recent cruise, they had a table right by the exit where you could pick up a bottle of water.

The sodas come in cans. You can transfer your soda into a refillable container if you like (I brought an insulated cup from a Royal Caribbean cruise).

My 19 year old ordered from the adult menu when something appealed to her, but from the kid's menu a few times. No one shamed her (or us) for her food choices. There were chicken tenders, mac & cheese, a grilled cheese sandwich, probably a burger, pasta, etc. Also, the wait staff was happy to bring her adaptations of the adult menu items (e.g. the pasta with oil and cheese instead of a sauce that didn't appeal). They also let her try something from the menu AND get a back-up item in case she didn't care for it.

I am coming to the conclusion that I like a smaller ship (Reflection was too big for me), and I'm interested in trying out NCL Jewel or Gem. What were your fellow passengers like? I thought the crowd on Reflection was...maybe a bit "classier" than we'd encountered on our previous cruises on Royal? But I can't say for sure whether that was due to the cruise line, the port (Miami vs Baltimore), or other factors. I'm wondering whether there is a typical NCL cruiser?

On another thread, the Celebrity rep said this particular package is going from $16/day to $18/day, plus 18% gratuity, so the price difference would be $2.36/day, or a bit more than $15. For that price difference, I'd hold out to use the OBC myself. But if you have other things you had in mind to spend it on, I suppose it could make sense to prepurchase.

The soda-only package is fairly reasonably priced. Not as inexpensive as bringing your own, of course, but we probably went through 3 diet sodas per person per day, which would have required carrying on a lot of soda! As a frugal person, I might have considered it if we hadn't been flying in, but I think the convenience--and the fact that the sodas from the bar are cold!-- were worth the price. If you don't go through soda that fast, your math might work out differently.

You can get it on board. At any bar.

Do you think it will be worth the trouble to try to find a grocery store in your embarkation city? There is a soda package we thought was a reasonably good value onboard. If you drink diet soft drinks, you might find you don't mind Coke Zero. It tastes a lot like Diet Pepsi.

Some people have reported that if you go to Guest Services straight away, before anything's been charged to the card, you may be able to switch to the Premium NA. You can't do it ahead of time. Who knows why.

Classic (Alcoholic) Package for passengers 1 & 2 is part of the 123Go offer with our upcoming cruise. However, I don't drink and the other passenger is younger than 18.

 

We really want latte, mocha, virgin cocktails, and smoothies. .

As others have said, you are all set with your Classic Alcohol package. However, your under-21 guest will be given, as I understand it, the Classic Non-Alcohol package and would have to upgrade at a cost of about $4/day to the Premium NA package to get the FULL range of coffee drinks, the smoothies, and virgin cocktails. The Classic NA package covers soda (it says fountain but I don't believe there actually is fountain soda; just canned. They have Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, Sprite Zero, and Orange Fanta, and Seagram's Ginger Ale), some canned Arizona iced teas, and "juices," but there aren't bottled or canned juices--this seems to mean whatever juice they keep at the bar, like cranberry, orange, or grapefruit. It also covers the PREMIUM coffees but not the SPECIALTY coffees. The difference seems to be that the premium coffees are the hot drinks and the specialty coffees include the ones with alcohol (obviously not covered) and the frappucino-type drinks, including the iglu (with ice cream). I think it's pretty limited, to be honest, and I think it's ridiculous that the under-21 passengers aren't given the premium NA package as part of the 1-2-3 promotion instead of the classic. I know that's a silly grumble but it just doesn't make sense to me!

Eeek.

That is not what I wanted to hear!

I don't see my TA booking!

If I log into "My Celebrity," should I be able to see reservations I booked through a Travel Agency, or just the ones I booked directly with the cruise line?

My impression on our recent cruise on Reflection is that these structured activities (trivia, organized games, karaoke, bandaoke) are something they'd just rather not have. I'm not sure why.

Which is a shame, because we liked the food, the service, the other passengers in general, the smoking policies, and the amenities on Celebrity. But we genuinely enjoy those types of activities. If that makes us not Celebrity's customer, whose customer are we? Is there a different cruise line that offers both?

(Genuinely seeking suggestions here.)

We paid $299 for unlimited internet for a 7-day cruise on Reflection in January. We shared it among four people (one device can be logged on a time). It was quite convenient and we were glad we had it.

We had the unlimited package on our early January cruise on Reflection. Four of us were using it, taking turns connecting phones and tablets. I found, oddly, that my tablet continued to receive email even after it was logged out. I couldn't get to the internet on my tablet unless I logged in with the username/password, but I always had email. Can't explain it!

We didn't really have much trouble getting connected.

I'm sure there are people who feel no need to stay connected when they are on vacation, but we found it very convenient. It was a splurge, to be sure, and I am not sure we'd have done it for just two of us, but we were glad to have it for our group.

The Lavazza coffee we had in Oceanview the first day or two of our recent cruise on Reflection was completely drinkable, but then they switched over to a dark roast I didn't care for at all. It was more tolerable a bit watered down. But the issue isn't the strength of the brew, but the burnt taste. Obviously, a matter of preference.

It was definitely better than the completely undrinkable coffee I've had on Royal in the past.

You could also get cappuccinos/lattes/etc at the bar in the Oceanview on Reflection, if that is more convenient.

I do wonder why the OBC option is only $300, when the "retail value" of the beverage package is so much higher. You'd almost think a "fair" swap would be pre-paid gratuities AND $300 OBC.

Paper.