Veronda817

As a very "half full" kind of person, I mostly skip the threads that are clearly complaints, and I read the posts with a grain of salt. I can usually see through the nitpickers, and I don't let them ruin what I see. They're the kind of people who I assume don't enjoy much in life and I'm not even certain why they bother to try to have fun. Last summer Millennium broke down while I was on it, a reason for complaint, of course. But we loved the experience so much--despite never making it to four ports--that we're about to get back on her for a 14-night cruise with just three port days. Some people complain that Millie is outdated, whereas I'm young and feel most areas are quite understated modern. I recently took my friend and her daughter on a Carnival cruise because it was inexpensive and an easy port to get to (there are not many from NC), and that ship was terribly outdated and not nearly my Celebrity experience, but I still enjoyed every moment. I would rather spend my time celebrating the good than lamenting the bad. :o

I have not found the difference in cost to be an issue between A1 and A2. I would love to try the newer rooms, but my husband's sensitivity to motion means we need to choose a mid-ship location. I also like being mid-ship for proximity to everything. I am jealous of not only the size of the A1 balconies (specifically aft), but the large balconies get better/more furniture, like footrests and loungers, that simply don't fit on the A2 balconies. That said, I enjoy the overhang on deck 9. I think more pool noise would come on warm-weather cruises. One more thing to note, we now try to get starboard rooms in A2 because smoking is permitted port side on deck 5, and I am extremely sensitive to smoke and felt it was too strong even four decks up (this is another reason I fear we'll never enjoy cabin 1140 since it's so close to Sunset).

I was on Millie last August stuck in Ketchikan. We LOVED the ship. I did not find it to be outdated at all (maybe just the cheesy steps in the atrium or whatever it's called, but I'm sure that's hard to renovated....and we barely really saw them because they pretty much only go to guest services, which we didn't need). We loved the entire staff. There was one bartender in the Rendezvous Lounge that wasn't great, but even he did what was needed. We loved our cabin attendant. Our maitre'd in Blu never learned our cabin number, but the one time there was a wait he had us go to Rendezvous and then found us by face when our table was ready, and he always tried to get us the best seat, knowing we would wait a few extra minutes if a better one was about to open. We ate in the MDR only once for lunch, and it was a disappointment, but I never heard complaints from other guests. Our drink server was excellent and knew our orders a few days in whether we were at dinner or at a lounge. One particular server in Blu was so good that we only had him once but he was able to tell me daily what to order because he knew my preferences from that one encounter!! We felt pampered during the whole situation. The only problem came when we were transported out of Ketchikan to our post-cruise land tour (and the fact that because we had a land tour, our cruise portion was secretly and mysteriously discounted, so the refund we got would not have paid for half of the same cruise), and that certainly can't be blamed on the ship. We loved it so much that we're taking her trans-Pacific voyage in May from Tokyo to Vancouver....a 14-night cruise with only three ports of call!!!! We're hoping we have much of the same crew. Enjoy!

Has anybody had issues where Celebrity showed an amount due for cruise fare even though my FCC was for a higher amount than this fare (excluding taxes/fees)?

 

We re-booked for the same northbound itinerary while still onboard the 16Aug2013 sailing. Cruise fare for the June2014 sailing is $1749 (and I have booking confirm from celebrity that shows this) with taxes and fees just shy of $200. Our FCC were for $1829. Our TA applied via phone a few weeks ago, and my updated booking confirm shows cruise fare of $80 per person still and the taxes/fees.

 

Shouldn't my cruise fare be fully paid and I only owe the taxes/fees (less the deposit I already paid)?

I hope this is worked out!! I'm finalizing plans to use our FCCs, and I was assuming it'd be an easy transaction.

PS, sad we won't be seeing you this time around!

Oh my, thank you! I somehow hadn't even realized Tracy Arm was on the Solstice itinerary. I realize most people think Hubbard has the wow factor, but between our Denali glacier landing already completed as well as Tracy Arm and Mendenhall on Solstice, we might have enough of the experience. After all, we're young and big travelers, so we will likely have other glacier experiences in our lives! Thanks so much for pointing this out.

And I have to admit......we were absolutely spoiled with our first cruise experience being Aqua Class and eating in Blu. I just couldn't imagine going without it. So while Century would be a fun ship to experience, I just can't imagine going to Alaska not in Aqua. A shame, I know, with its numbered days in the fleet.

I was on last summer's "cruise to Ketchikan" on Millie where we broke down at our first port. We still enjoyed our time on the ship and have no major complaints. We received a FCC to use prior to this September. BUT because we had booked a cruisetour, the cruise portion of the fare was secretly discounted, so the FCC we received would not come close to covering the same cruise (we sailed in Aqua Class, our FCC *might* cover an oceanview). The good news is that we really still got to see the bulk of Alaska since we had an interior tour to Denali, etc. I still feel like I missed out on whales and calving glaciers, though (we did land on an interior glacier in Denali). There is an 8-day round-trip cruise on Solstice for half the price of the 7-day ones on Millie and would therefore be almost entirely covered by the FCC, but Solstice skips Hubbard Glacier (and Anchorage, but we spent a few days there last summer). Is there enough of a glacier experience at Mendenhall in Juneau? I would likely take a whale tour in Icy Strait Point. I'm just concerned that missing Hubbard would be like missing the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Any thoughts? Thanks!!

I am heading on a cruise in one week (wahoo!!) and for the first time will be bringing water and soda on board. I wanted to get it all in a rolling suitcase to make it easier since you have to carry on, but to do that I had to open the case of water. My cruisemate believes we should have left the bottles of water in the case to make security easier, but then it'd be harder to carry around until cabins are ready. Any advice for this? Does it make security take forever if we have 24 bottles of water NOT bound up in its original case (but of course each bottle will be sealed)?? Thanks!

I could not get enough of those succulent waffles. They were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. OMG...I want more. Do they put crack in those waffles????? I drenched them in the melted butter and syrup!

Forget the butter and syrup...mine were drenched in chocolate!! I'm still thinking about those waffles and chocolate a month later. It wasn't even like "chocolaty syrup", the chocolate flavor was genuine. YUM!!!

I was on the Aug 16th cruise with the Costco Buyer's choice Cruisetour so I wasn't quoted out a seperate price for the cruise and my "Conceirge" Class room with a balcony.

 

Was getting worried because I saw everyone else having credits posted. Just looked at my Costco AMEX card and this morning a refund of $2152.00 was refunded in my account. Without too much calculating this would seem like a fare amount if it covered one person, however I was two people. So I will wait a day or so to see if there is more coming (we traveled on the same credit card but it was a honeymoon so it was under two different last names).

 

I know at least one other person who posted was on the Costco deal. Did any of you get your refunds and if so for what amount?

We were on the August 16 cruise to Ketchikan with post-cruise tour 9B booked through Costco. I remember getting the invoice originally and thinking it was awfully simplistic, just one number with nothing broken out...and now I'm sure wishing I had looked into it earlier. I've e-mailed Costco for a detailed invoice but have had no response, so I'll need to call them when I get a chance. I can't remember the price I paid since my invoice has all the taxes and gratuities and whatnot in it (I won't complain if I'm not reimbursed taxes etc), but I recall that the land tour portion added about 50% more to the cruise fare that we paid for Aqua Class. So far we have received $2642 on our AmEx card, and this seems quite low for two people in Aqua Class to Alaska. My bill from Costco was more than twice that amount, around $6500, if I remember correctly. I just can't imagine that the cruise itself cost so much less than the total amount, even adding in taxes and gratuities. I'm still glad for the cruisetour because it meant we got to see more of Alaska than just Ketchikan, and we had a wonderful time there with beautiful weather, and it meant our flights weren't messed up, etc. But wow, they might undercut their own cruise fare in order to pay the contracted company to run the land tour. Which is quite disappointing to our wallets since it wound up being an expensive trip (all the expensive excursions and flights!!) with a "free" cruise...and that probably means our FCC will be slighted too. I'm still happy with the way it's been managed and the positivity of the crew while we were onboard, and I'm hoping more money will be refunded...but the amount refunded has been disappointing so far.

Librarylady, I found your Reflection review with photos...thanks for taking the time to be so thorough!

Hopefully these menus from Reflection (January 2013) will be more useful than the above comments ;)

 

Sunset bar:

 

Oceanview Cafe:

 

Bistro on Five:

Thanks for these! I've been having the hardest time finding updated price lists with the most recent I've found as March 2012 until yours. Perchance do you have more photos of drinks menus (ie, not just beer but mixed drinks, etc) either to post here or a link to ones you've posted elsewhere? So appreciated! (My husband prefers Blue Moon and I saw it on one of the menus, but I hope it's readily available in several locations on the ship.)