Reflection November 6 and 13 sailings

[Cruising is my passion]

Well, here we are 3-4 weeks out and still cannot do a complete on-line check in, on the App or Website. Wondering what the reason is? Is X, Reflection, in particular,  busy ferrying crew to and from PE waiting to disperse that crew to ships getting ready to sail? Or are these sailings going to cancel because there isn’t enough crew for all the ships starting in the U.S? Any thoughts?

[cangelmd]

I also would like some news. I’ve been mostly without internet for 2 weeks. Before that, the scuttlebutt was that Reflection  would restart in November, but the exact first sailing was not yet certain? I know that is not at all helpful for you, our sailing is early Feb 2022. We are about ready to make airline res or commit to drive down.

Edited October 17, 2021 by cangelmd

[canderson]

Both Reflection and Constellation have been making every move one would expect indicating timely restarts on 6 and 7 Nov respectively.  Check-in expected 14 days prior to each per shoreside concierge.  It's going to require some patience for these last two outlier restarts.

[Purplsmurf]

I have been in contact with one of the crew as well as following the CD on Instagram. They have both confirmed that the Reflection will begin on time. The CD often posts a countdown as well

[elaineb]

1 hour ago, canderson said:

Both Reflection and Constellation have been making every move one would expect indicating timely restarts on 6 and 7 Nov respectively.  Check-in expected 14 days prior to each per shoreside concierge.  It's going to require some patience for these last two outlier restarts.

14 days???  That is not a lot of time to figure out new excursions, etc.  We had a start up cruise on the Summit in March 2019 from PR and it was not this stressful...

[LGW59]

1 minute ago, elaineb said:

14 days???  That is not a lot of time to figure out new excursions, etc.  We had a start up cruise on the Summit in March 2019 from PR and it was not this stressful...

But there was also no pandemic in March 2019.

[canderson]

6 minutes ago, elaineb said:

14 days???  That is not a lot of time to figure out new excursions, etc.  We had a start up cruise on the Summit in March 2019 from PR and it was not this stressful...

First, check-in has nothing to do with excursion planning.  Passengers on the early sailing of CS and RF are free to make shorex reservations now, and have been for several months.

 

Your start-up, whatever it was, wasn't a start-up of this sort at all.  These are the startups related to the total shutdown many, many months ago, and neither of these two ship have seen pax since then.  This isn't like those that had already been sailing with pax from St. Martin or whatever where all of the IT systems aboard were already up and running, and the reservations system was already doing its regular rolling FIFO push of reservations to the check-in side of the system.

 

[elaineb]

10 minutes ago, canderson said:

First, check-in has nothing to do with excursion planning.  Passengers on the early sailing of CS and RF are free to make shorex reservations now, and have been for several months.

 

 

It has everything to do with excursion planning for THIS cruise.  We are obviously not going to Grand Cayman or Key West and even Jamaica is now in question.  So....once we actually know our new itinerary, we have to make decisions and alternate plans.  I assume we are not able to check in as they are adjusting our itinerary.  Yes, we have been able to book excursions, but we did not for GC - why bother? 

 

"Your start-up, whatever it was, wasn't a start-up of this sort at all.  These are the startups related to the total shutdown many, many months ago, and neither of these two ship have seen pax since then.  This isn't like those that had already been sailing with pax from St. Martin or whatever where all of the IT systems aboard were already up and running, and the reservations system was already doing its regular rolling FIFO push of reservations to the check-in side of the system."

 

That start up was after 2 or 3 month refurbishment, so yes, retraining and moving crew over to the ship was a process.  We did not sail with full crew - shorthanded in bar areas, etc.  Obviously I understand the whole Covid situation has put quite a wrench in the works, I do not for one minute understate that.  But we are cruising in 20 days.  I don't think it is unreasonable, even in these times, to have an idea if we are going and where.

 

 

Edited October 17, 2021 by elaineb

[LGW59]

2 minutes ago, elaineb said:

It has everything to do with excursion planning for THIS cruise.  We are obviously not going to Grand Cayman or Key West and even Jamaica is now in question.  So....once we actually know our new itinerary, we have to make decisions and alternate plans.  I assume we are not able to check in as they are adjusting our itinerary.  Yes, we have been able to book excursions, but we did not for GC - why bother? 

Understandably frustrating but even if you plan other excursions now, May all change once your cruise is underway.  Best of luck!

[elaineb]

39 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

Understandably frustrating but even if you plan other excursions now, May all change once your cruise is underway.  Best of luck!

Sadly that is true, lol.  Thank you and fingers crossed our questions will be answered soon.

Edited October 17, 2021 by elaineb

[Purplsmurf]

Not sure about the Nov 6 sailing, but the November 13 sailing has already made the changes and times have been adjusted 

[MrCruzdoggie]

4 hours ago, Purplsmurf said:

I have been in contact with one of the crew as well as following the CD on Instagram. They have both confirmed that the Reflection will begin on time. The CD often posts a countdown as well

Who is the CD?

[canderson]

3 hours ago, elaineb said:

I don't think it is unreasonable, even in these times, to have an idea if we are going and where.

I understand the issues with a nebulous itinerary, but that isn't what is holding up check-in, and check-in isn't what's holding up shorex planning by pax.  Two different and equally frustrating issues.

[elaineb]

1 hour ago, MrCruzdoggie said:

Who is the CD?

Steve Gayda

[morpheusofthesea]

We 'heard' on the Edge on the Oct 2, 2021 sailing that the first sailing of the Reflection would be the 13th of November. That the Eclipse would be taking over as the quarantining ship for Celebrity. I guess it doesn't matter that the Eclipse is near San Diego presently? 

[elaineb]

4 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

We 'heard' on the Edge on the Oct 2, 2021 sailing that the first sailing of the Reflection would be the 13th of November. That the Eclipse would be taking over as the quarantining ship for Celebrity. I guess it doesn't matter that the Eclipse is near San Diego presently? 

Heard from who?  A crew member?  I wouldn't put stock in that because someone on our cruise is in contact with a crew member and the CD who both confirm we are set for Nov 6th.

[morpheusofthesea]

Does it really matter ? It was a staff member who is being transferred to the Millenium. We were booked on the Reflection for Thanksgiving and another staff member on the Equinox told us 'Good Luck!" The Reflection is being used as the quarantine ship for Celebrity and the November sailings might be delayed. So we got home and rebooked the Equinox for Thanksgiving and shifted the Reflection to next year. Not so hard. The Equinox is just as highly rated as the Reflection ? Better to be 100% secure in a booking (barring a black swan event or covid) than hoping it sails as advertised.

[CruisinKikster]

5 hours ago, Purplsmurf said:

Not sure about the Nov 6 sailing, but the November 13 sailing has already made the changes and times have been adjusted 

November 20 hasn't gotten anything yet re: itinerary either. I think we have the same stops as 11/6. 

[canderson]

Equinox was a crew quarantine ship and that certainly didn't stop her from sailing. 

[CTKath]

9 hours ago, Purplsmurf said:

I have been in contact with one of the crew as well as following the CD on Instagram. They have both confirmed that the Reflection will begin on time. The CD often posts a countdown as well

I’ve been in contact with the CD also and he says we’re starting on time!  November 6th here we come!

[Algebralovr]

I've got a good friend on one of the ships as well and I'm confident that Reflection will sail on Nov 6.  I'm also confident that my Nov 20 sailing will go as planned.  Based on the number of rooms that are NOT available to choose from, I'm guessing the Nov 20 sailing will have quite a few people on it.  Not like some of the pre-Covid sailings of over 3000 passengers, but plenty of people.  

[canderson]

1 minute ago, Algebralovr said:

Based on the number of rooms that are NOT available to choose from, I'm guessing the Nov 20 sailing will have quite a few people on it.  Not like some of the pre-Covid sailings of over 3000 passengers, but plenty of people.  

Don't look at unavailable cabins to make any solid guesses about occupancy.  Many crew were recently conducting their required pre-service quarantine on Equinox in above deck cabins, necessarily solo, taking most of an entire deck out of inventory, and it is rumored that Reflection will be performing that service in the near term ... just one of several reasons that can make an "available" count much less useful for predicting occupancy.