Very first Celebrity cruise

[Mulchlady]

Just finished booking a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Reflection. Have been surfing all the sites and finally made the reservation. Excited and scared! I'm treating my 21 year old daughter and hope I made all the right decisions. We have room 1217cc on deck 10. Chose the $200 OBC instead of the drinks package because daughter just turned 21 and I don't think unlimited drinks is a great idea. Also selected anytime dining. Thought the flexibility might be nice.

So that's it. anyone familiar with the room? what about anytime dining? Your experienced feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Mulchlady

[Gig103]

Welcome to CC and Celebrity! You're going to have a great time! Here's a few observations that are just my opinion, whether or not you agree I just thought I'd chime in.

 

Re: The cabin -- There's a "sticky" that talks about cabin selection here.

 

Re: Anytime dining -- The flexibility of anytime dining is very nice and if you like your server you can request them each evening but may have to wait if that is the situation. If you select traditional dining you also get the same tablemates each evening which can be good or bad (depends on them and you!). There's no right or wrong that's for sure, or =X= wouldn't offer the choice.

 

Regarding the drinks package, keep in mind that it covers non-alcoholic drinks as well. If you buy two non-alcoholic packages you'll spend $225.40 for the week. There goes your OBC and more; even teatotalers should choose the drinks package for the soda, water, and Starbucks-style coffee! :)

 

Plus, if your ADULT daughter has a completely reasonable 3 drinks per day (two poolside and 1 glass of wine with dinner) there goes $193.20 of your OBC! If she does that plus you buy the NA package you're at $418.60, or more than double your OBC.

 

My point is, it's cheaper to switch to the package and have an adult conversation about indulgence.

[wallie5446]

Any cruise would have been great for a first! BUT, you have forever tainted your DD's thoughts about cruising by choosing Celebrity. The best of the 7 lines we have cruised with.

ps: we took our DD on her first when she was 7, and at 19 she went to work on ship for RCCL. Good choice Mom!

[wallie5446]

When re you going?

[MicCanberra]

Any cruise would have been great for a first! BUT, you have forever tainted your DD's thoughts about cruising by choosing Celebrity. The best of the 7 lines we have cruised with.

ps: we took our DD on her first when she was 7, and at 19 she went to work on ship for RCCL. Good choice Mom!

LOL, can she get you staff rates now?:D

[Keith1010]

I just wanted to welcome you to Cruise Critic and to congratulate you on booking your Celebrity cruise.

 

Keith

[ladylemondrop]

Try to find your roll call (there is a link on this page to them) where you can chat with others on your cruise, and perhaps share tours etc. have a wonderful time!

[midwestchick]

Any cruise would have been great for a first! BUT, you have forever tainted your DD's thoughts about cruising by choosing Celebrity. The best of the 7 lines we have cruised with.

ps: we took our DD on her first when she was 7, and at 19 she went to work on ship for RCCL. Good choice Mom!

 

 

I'm curious...how is that working out for your daughter? I always thought that would be fun...thanks to Love Boat tv series. Those kids work their butts off....but they get to see the world.

To the OP...have a wonderful time....heed the advice about the drink package....costs for can mount up rapidly even for NA drinks.

Our upcoming cruise is with Celebrity so it's a first for us too. Your daughter is a very fortunate girl....I hope she appreciates what you are doing for her.

[d4m]

Just finished booking a 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Reflection. Have been surfing all the sites and finally made the reservation. Excited and scared! I'm treating my 21 year old daughter and hope I made all the right decisions. We have room 1217cc on deck 10. Chose the $200 OBC instead of the drinks package because daughter just turned 21 and I don't think unlimited drinks is a great idea. Also selected anytime dining. Thought the flexibility might be nice.

So that's it. anyone familiar with the room? what about anytime dining? Your experienced feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Mulchlady

 

Welcome and I applaud you about not choosing the unlimited drink package. Would have done the same thing. Know that you will have a great time - enjoy each other and this experience.

[vermonter16]

Welcome to Celebrity! You and your DD are going to have a great time! If you like fruity drinks or teas and coffees (plus unlimited bottles of water) than I too would recommend the unlimited non-alcoholic drink package. You can have virgin phoo-phooey drinks at the pool! But, if that isn't your thing....I'm sure you'll find other ways to spend the onboard credit....specialty restaurant, etc.

[Mulchlady]

Thanks to all for your warm welcome and words of wisdom. I am thrilled and truly enjoying thinking about and planning for our cruise. We sail on January 11th. We will fly into Fort Lauderdale the day before and shuttle over to Miami where we'll spend the night. Hope to be able to relax, have a nice dinner, maybe do a little shopping. Might pick up a bottle of wine to take onboard if that is allowed. For us, that would work better than a drinks package. Although fancy drinks might be fun on occasion, we can have a great time without them.

 

It is such fun to read all the great posts on this forum. What an education!

 

Once again, thank you for your input and please continue to share your wealth of knowledge.

[Gonzo70]

Welcome to Cruise Critic :)

 

You are allowed to bring on board two bottles of wine per stateroom when you first board the ship. No charge if you consume the wine in your stateroom (your room steward can obtain a wine opener and glasses if one is not already in your room). $25 corkage fee to consume the wine in a dining venue or bar/lounge.

[Theologator]

Thanks to all for your warm welcome and words of wisdom. I am thrilled and truly enjoying thinking about and planning for our cruise. We sail on January 11th. We will fly into Fort Lauderdale the day before and shuttle over to Miami where we'll spend the night. Hope to be able to relax, have a nice dinner, maybe do a little shopping. Might pick up a bottle of wine to take onboard if that is allowed. For us, that would work better than a drinks package. Although fancy drinks might be fun on occasion, we can have a great time without them.

 

It is such fun to read all the great posts on this forum. What an education!

 

Once again, thank you for your input and please continue to share your wealth of knowledge.

 

HI,

 

We're on Reflection 1/11/2014 too. Please join our cruise's 'roll call' - that's a specific forum for those of us on that cruise. By "join" I mean join the conversation. I posted links there to a couple of good reviews of the ship from recent cruisers. It's a good place to ask questions.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1698207

 

There's also the possibility of signing up for a "Cruise Critic Connections" party on the ship. There's information about that here:

https://secure.celebritycruises.com/cruisecritic/home.do

 

You can/should scan this board plus the members' reviews page for more information.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/getreviews.cfm?action=ship&ShipID=621

 

And, each port has its own slew of threads, reviews and recommendations.

 

Booking early, exploring the ship & ports & interacting a bit help the fun start early. :)

[Mulchlady]

Thank you. I just signed on to the roll call.

[Miss SeaBee]

Excellent choices! My DD (now 25) has been with me on X annually for the past 3 years. She loves it! We are on the 7 nt eastern Caribbean right now, currently docked at St Thomas. This has absolutely been my favorite cruise! We are also on deck 10. Very pleased with our cabin. I hope you enjoy Reflection as much as I have!

[ariawoman]

Another bit of thought for the drink package vs OBC...

 

200 OBC for the cabin - 100 per person divided by 7 days right? so that's what, 14.29 a day per person.

 

If you are considering buying ANY drinks - alcohol or not (soda, water, smoothies, coffees, red bull, etc) then I'd really consider switching to the drink package. At 44 per day, per person, it's a great deal.

 

If you are totally happy drinking the free drinks available in the buffet, then you've made the right choice for yourself :-)

[ariawoman]

Welcome and I applaud you about not choosing the unlimited drink package. Would have done the same thing. Know that you will have a great time - enjoy each other and this experience.

 

I'm confused about the inference here by applauding someone for not taking the drink package (Unless it was solely for the not encouraging a 21 year old to drink too much, which they probably wouldn't do with their parent around them anyway).

 

I'm personally not a drinker. If i have alcohol once a month or every other month even, that's probably a lot. That said, I always purchase the premium non alcohol package anyway which is i believe 18.00 a day. That's still a better value here than doing the OBC because when you break that down it only comes to 14.29 per person per day for 200 obc.

 

Anyway - just wanted to play devil's advocate on this one since I personally am not a drinker, however even so it's still possible for a non-drinker to benefit from taking that package over buying their typical one. :-)

[Mulchlady]

Reassuring to hear that you 25 year old enjoys the cruises. I was a little concerned that she might find the age group a little, ahem, mature. But, she s very outgoing and friendly and gets along with most, so I know she'll be ok.

Besides, what could be bad on such a fantastic ship?

[cherylroslyn]

Excellent choices! My DD (now 25) has been with me on X annually for the past 3 years. She loves it! We are on the 7 nt eastern Caribbean right now, currently docked at St Thomas. This has absolutely been my favorite cruise! We are also on deck 10. Very pleased with our cabin. I hope you enjoy Reflection as much as I have!

Enjoy the rest of your cruise!!!!

[ariawoman]

I'm curious...how is that working out for your daughter? I always thought that would be fun...thanks to Love Boat tv series. Those kids work their butts off....but they get to see the world.

 

 

I've had a few friends from college that ended up on cruise lines. One was a singer/dancer in shows, another went on to be a cruise director. It is a very stressful job, believe it or not. They are worked very hard, though of course some more than others.

 

Now, they each did it for quite a while, but they did both eventually leave the industry pretty fed up with it - for whatever that's worth.

 

I think it looks a lot more glamorous than it might be - their cabins are like shoe boxes and the quarters they are in are nothing like what you see above.

 

Might I recommend a little light reading? I read this recently and it was a wonderful insight to the "other side" of cruising: http://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Cruise-Ship-Crew-Member/dp/1479383716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365631782&sr=8-1&keywords=cruise+ship+crew+member

 

I really enjoyed the book.

 

Anyway, sorry to the OP for digressing but I wanted to respond to that 1 post about this :-) It was a very eye opening book for me. It won't make me stop cruising, but it will definitely make me look at the crew members in a different light.

[Cruising89143]

We were on the Reflection last month. This was our first cruise with Celebrity and it was great. We now have two more cruises booked with Celebrity. The Reflection is beautiful and the crew and staff were great. I ave photos of the ship in my link below. Have a great cruise.:)

[miched]

Another bit of thought for the drink package vs OBC...

 

200 OBC for the cabin - 100 per person divided by 7 days right? so that's what, 14.29 a day per person.

 

If you are considering buying ANY drinks - alcohol or not (soda, water, smoothies, coffees, red bull, etc) then I'd really consider switching to the drink package. At 44 per day, per person, it's a great deal.

 

If you are totally happy drinking the free drinks available in the buffet, then you've made the right choice for yourself :-)

 

I would also opt for the Bev Package. As the poster above pointed out the cost of any drink adds up. Just picking up a bottle of water when leaving the ship is $3. Then there is the coffee in the coffee cafe, fresh OJ and smoothies for breakfast. Special drink at dinner, one during a show, relaxing by the pool or in a lounge; that SBC will be gone fast.

 

If you dont think your daughter wiil drink enough for the package then the burden will be up to you to also drink her share. :D

 

 

.

[cruiseguys2009]

We are on The Celebrity Reflection in two days and a wake up!

 

I am too excited to sleep, as with all our lifetime of cruising....this too will be our FIRST CELEBRITY CRUISE! We are so looking forward to it! We took the Classic Package and upgraded to Premium as I love my Martini's!

 

I will be reporting back on our Success and Triumph of "The Week That Was" on The Brand New Celebrity Reflection!

 

I am confident we made the right choice, so much so, that we booked three future cruises and planned our vaycay's into 2014!

 

Cheers!

[MicCanberra]

The crew work hard long hours and do not get much of a break. I certainly would not want to be on a cruise if I have to work.:D

[midwestchick]

I've had a few friends from college that ended up on cruise lines. One was a singer/dancer in shows, another went on to be a cruise director. It is a very stressful job, believe it or not. They are worked very hard, though of course some more than others.

 

Now, they each did it for quite a while, but they did both eventually leave the industry pretty fed up with it - for whatever that's worth.

 

I think it looks a lot more glamorous than it might be - their cabins are like shoe boxes and the quarters they are in are nothing like what you see above.

 

Might I recommend a little light reading? I read this recently and it was a wonderful insight to the "other side" of cruising: http://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Cruise-Ship-Crew-Member/dp/1479383716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365631782&sr=8-1&keywords=cruise+ship+crew+member

 

I really enjoyed the book.

 

Anyway, sorry to the OP for digressing but I wanted to respond to that 1 post about this :-) It was a very eye opening book for me. It won't make me stop cruising, but it will definitely make me look at the crew members in a different light.

 

 

Thank you. I figured it was a stressful life. If you've ever heard of Club Med resorts, it's the same for the staff there...very hard work and stressful. After a while many give it up...but say it was a good experience and fun...after so long they get to work at a different resort in a different island.