Still here in Civitavecchia... Celebrity Reflection

[Lois R]

I was on the Reflection the week before July 4. There was plenty to do (for free) on the ship and the best entertainment we've ever seen at sea: shows every evening, dance parties maybe every night (martini bar, wine bar, deck, lobby, Sky), live music somewhere at almost all times, dance classes most days, etc. Dinner in the MDR was so good that we never even went to the specialty restaurants. Did you spend the whole cruise in your cabin or what?

 

Hi Sharon:) glad you had a great cruise.:D...I will be down your

way in November to sail Reflection as well:)

[Cruising89143]

Looking forward to your review. Leaving in four days to enjoy Rome before the cruise. BTW, do you remember which nights were formal? I'll appreciate the info. :)

 

I hope that you have a great cruise. We love the Reflection. We have our third cruise booked on this ship next year. I look forward to hearing about your experience. Safe travels.:)

[lesliehr]

On the 11 night itinerary, formal nights were on the first and third sea days.

 

Thanks Tommy. Heading out on the Aug. 25th sailing....and am glad to know when the formal nights are.

 

Debbie

[TexSea]

We were on the June 23 sailing as well. We had a great time and am writing a review now.

 

I'm kicking myself now. I noticed a lot of work going on on the pier. Lifting big parts with cranes. I thought to myself I should take pics but didn't as we had to eat breakfast before we disembarked.

[rnrcruzin]

So, on previous cruises I've missed ports because of weather, etc. but we actually haven't departed...

Embarkation was yesterday and there's something wrong with the ship, so 24 hours later we're still sitting here :(

 

Missed our first port (Messina) - hoping we actually get underway today (haven't heard any updates since last night)...

 

Has this happened to anyone before? Hoping we don't spend our entire "cruise" staring at cargo boxes at the Civitavecchia dock!!

 

 

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I cannot speak for others and I have not read the whole thread, but something much like this happened to us last year on our Alaskan cruise while on the Millie.

 

The cruise was eventually canceled because a pod failed. Celebrity refunded us the cost of the cruise plus a future cruise credit equal to the cost of our cruise. When we were put off the ship Celebrity put us on a plane for Anchorage as we were to pick up the land portion of our cruise. We were compensated $75 pp per day until our land tour started, plus they covered our hotel, at the Alayaska.

 

Many folks were disappointed because they had follow-on plans in Alaska and they were sent back to either Seattle or Vancouver. To my knowledge they were not compensated for their tours and such in Alaska.

 

We used our cruise credit in February to escape some of our Minnesota winter. Shortly after we embarked we also found the Celebrity give us an additional $350 OBC that we hadn't expected.

 

I hope all works out well for you.

[Tommy3putts]

We were on the June 23 sailing as well. We had a great time and am writing a review now.

 

I'm kicking myself now. I noticed a lot of work going on on the pier. Lifting big parts with cranes. I thought to myself I should take pics but didn't as we had to eat breakfast before we disembarked.

 

 

Looking forward to your review. I'm doing one also. Interested to see a comparison of our experiences.

[antsnanny]

We missed a port due to bad weather on our last Med cruise. We had booked and paid for a tour with a reputable private vendor. Our refund in full was waiting for us when we got home. We didn't even contact them because their web sight said they would refund if the ship couldn't port. I did not let this upset me at all. These things happen all the time.

 

Margee

 

Margee, its good to know there are reputable private vendors out there that will refund money if the ship can't make it to their destination.

[royalcruz]

Hi Sharon:) glad you had a great cruise.:D...I will be down your

way in November to sail Reflection as well:)

 

Hi Lois! Reflection is really nice! Have a great time!:)

[drarill]

I hope that you have a great cruise. We love the Reflection. We have our third cruise booked on this ship next year. I look forward to hearing about your experience. Safe travels.:)

 

Thanks for the good wishes.:)

[DebbieMacG]

I'm sure they kept people on the ship so they could sail when the problem was fixed and not having to wait for people to return from ashore.

 

They possibly did but I was replying to the person who said it was a bus ride and long walk into town, which it's not :)

[Wine-O]

They possibly did but I was replying to the person who said it was a bus ride and long walk into town, which it's not :)

 

Oh, in Civitavecchia, you had to take the bus -- did it twice, and you could not walk. Even if you could, it would have been a hike.

[DebbieMacG]

Oh, in Civitavecchia, you had to take the bus -- did it twice, and you could not walk. Even if you could, it would have been a hike.

 

I think you really need to look at what I was replying to :) as I said its a short shuttle ride, five mins on a free bus and then a short walk into the town. I've done it many times. The person who posted and who I was actually replying to said it was a bus ride and a long walk (intimating it was a great distance by both bus and on foot) and as I said it's not, it's a short shuttle ride and short walk :)

[Wine-O]

I think you really need to look at what I was replying to :) as I said its a short shuttle ride, five mins on a free bus and then a short walk into the town. I've done it many times. The person who posted and who I was actually replying to said it was a bus ride and a long walk (intimating it was a great distance by both bus and on foot) and as I said it's not, it's a short shuttle ride and short walk :)

 

Okie, dokie -- sorry. :)

[Hlitner]

I think you really need to look at what I was replying to :) as I said its a short shuttle ride, five mins on a free bus and then a short walk into the town. I've done it many times. The person who posted and who I was actually replying to said it was a bus ride and a long walk (intimating it was a great distance by both bus and on foot) and as I said it's not, it's a short shuttle ride and short walk :)

 

While you would be absolutely correct most of the time, the current situation in Civitavecchia is temporarily somewhat different that what you (and I) have previously experienced. There is a major construction project in progress near the main port entrance. As a result, this entrance/exit is not currently available to cruisers who are now shuttled to a secondary entrance/exit somewhat further from the heart of town (and the train station). As to walking (and we have often walked from cruise ships to the main entrance) there have been reports that the port has curtailed walking because of the same construction near the main entrance.

 

Hank

[Us Two]

So how does this construction affect our Oct cruise, wanting to get the train from Civa to Rome , or does it have no effect on it?......hope no effect. Joan.

[Lovemychoos]

While you would be absolutely correct most of the time, the current situation in Civitavecchia is temporarily somewhat different that what you (and I) have previously experienced. There is a major construction project in progress near the main port entrance. As a result, this entrance/exit is not currently available to cruisers who are now shuttled to a secondary entrance/exit somewhat further from the heart of town (and the train station). As to walking (and we have often walked from cruise ships to the main entrance) there have been reports that the port has curtailed walking because of the same construction near the main entrance.

 

Hank

 

You are absolutely correct, this was the situation with is in May this year. The shuttle was so far away from town, we walked back to the ship quicker than we could have got back to the bus park! However, they are not keen on you walking in certain parts of the port area, and it took some doing to get through the vis jacket brigade. If it had been a safety thing, we would have obeyed their 'rule' but as there was a huge amount of people and staff from the two ships that were in this us doing the exact samething, we just doubled back, using the safe crossing, and tagged on with them. It was a fair way, to be honest, but we'd have covered twice the ground going all the way back to the bus park.

 

Not sure how long the works will continue, its fairly major.

 

Lou

[orimeep]

I suspect that the comments reference the cabin etc was due to the OP being a bit upset that there was a problem...not a great way to start a cruise but now there is time to relax and enjpy and get accustomed to the environment. Would love to know how much OBC was given

In Europe the school summer holidays have started - expect kids.

 

We've been having a great time! Certainly don't find our cabin to be sub-par! The first night/morning was a bit frustrating but we were happy to get underway and appreciated the OBC (it was $200 per stateroom plus an additional $50 for 3rd/4th guests)

 

Sad to have missed Messina but since we left, it's been smooth sailing and we just enjoyed a wonderful day in Athens!

 

And as for 2 sail away parties (which someone else asked about), I didn't even notice one! But maybe I wasn't paying attention!

 

And they did allow guests off the boat the first night and on our second day at Civitavecchia, just had to be back on board by 1:30pm!

 

 

 

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[kkbay]

Hope this doesn't happen to us! We will be embarking in Messina the day after ship leaves Italy on September 27. That would be a mess if they missed Messina! We got written permission to do this so I guess we need to contact Celebrity before we firm up plans.

Thanks for posting this info.:eek:

[emileg]

I once heard someone suggest an effective psychological coping strategy for dealing with flight delays due to weather or mechanical problems is to think "It is better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than to be in the air wishing you were on the ground."

 

I think one could adapt that saying to cruising:

 

It is better to be at port wishing you were at sea, than at sea wishing you were at port.

[tercar]

While you would be absolutely correct most of the time, the current situation in Civitavecchia is temporarily somewhat different that what you (and I) have previously experienced. There is a major construction project in progress near the main port entrance. As a result, this entrance/exit is not currently available to cruisers who are now shuttled to a secondary entrance/exit somewhat further from the heart of town (and the train station). As to walking (and we have often walked from cruise ships to the main entrance) there have been reports that the port has curtailed walking because of the same construction near the main entrance.

 

 

 

Hank

 

 

We walked from the train station to the port gate with 3large suitcases and 3 carry ons. We thought the port gate was in the usual place and when we kept asking where the hotel was near the "port" gate people kept telling us further on further on haha. It was an experience as we didn't know it had been changed! However there is a bus for 80 cents to the train station. Which at the time we didn't know. It was quite a hike I must tell you especially in the mid day heat. However we survived x

 

 

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[DebbieMacG]

While you would be absolutely correct most of the time, the current situation in Civitavecchia is temporarily somewhat different that what you (and I) have previously experienced. There is a major construction project in progress near the main port entrance. As a result, this entrance/exit is not currently available to cruisers who are now shuttled to a secondary entrance/exit somewhat further from the heart of town (and the train station). As to walking (and we have often walked from cruise ships to the main entrance) there have been reports that the port has curtailed walking because of the same construction near the main entrance.

 

Hank

 

That's handy to know, thanks Hank :) we were last there in November and will be there again in October but are doing a private tour with the roll call to various Tuscan villages do should be ok :)

[dodger1964]

I suspect that the comments reference the cabin etc was due to the OP being a bit upset that there was a problem...not a great way to start a cruise but now there is time to relax and enjpy and get accustomed to the environment. Would love to know how much OBC was given

In Europe the school summer holidays have started - expect kids.

 

Just an FYI. The OP didn't complain about the room, that was a few posts later by an acquaintance of someone on board that complained about their room.

[vadell]

I am going to go slightly off topic to agree with post saying that they would rather be in port safe than at sea and have the technical problem. We were recently on a flight with bad weather conditions and our plane was forced to divert it meant a much longer more expensive taxi home and the person sitting next to me was complaining like mad. It was inconvenient but I just wanted to land and be safe, we were being told that they were running low on fuel and that they had to make the decision straight away (they had circled for some time) , so to divert was surely in the best interest of the passengers. I would be upset to miss a port but would rather be safe.