Dec 13 Constellation B2B - East/West Caribbean (Holiday) Cruise

[canderson]

Whew.  Thanks for confirming, Ken! 

 

Glad to hear that they're still only keeping positives in the Red Zone.  At this point in the game, I think I'd only book a cabin that I wouldn't mind being stuck in for a couple of days.  

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Cozumel where we plan to stay onboard rather than walking around the “shopping mall” smiling and saying no thank you through our masks to all the smiling vendors! 😂😂

 

[wrk2cruise]

Ken I know I asked you on the first sailing but can you check on the availability of Sprite Zero again?  I asked the shoreside concierge to check but haven’t heard anything back.  We have started on our way to Tampa after resting negative this morning 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, wrk2cruise said:

Ken I know I asked you on the first sailing but can you check on the availability of Sprite Zero again?  I asked the shoreside concierge to check but haven’t heard anything back.  We have started on our way to Tampa after resting negative this morning 

Congrats on testing negative!! I just asked the poolside bartender and they have plenty of Sprite Zero. You’re going to have a great cruise!!

 

Edited January 2, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

First off, the Captain did not come on the loud speaker during dinner this evening, so no new C19 cases to report again. Yay!! Tonight after dinner in Blu we first walked outside along the promenade and waved good bye to folks over on the Adventure of the Seas as we pushed off headed back to Tampa. Then it was over to the theater to watch Cheaza, the guest singer, pay tribute to Whitney Houston of which she did a great job. Then it was up to the Reflections Lounge to watch the Whisper Challenge game show. 

 

 

If you haven’t heard of the Whisper Challenge before, the first person reads the phrase off the screen while the others on the team are lined up with their backs to the screen with Silent Disco headphones on loud. Then, the point of the game is for the next person in line with their headphones on to try to lip-read the phrase being spoken by the previous person. And then it goes down the line with the last person telling the audience what they heard.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Today was a relaxing sea day where we pretty much did nothing other than relax around the cabin, eat, took a walk, finished off a bottle of Riesling left over from our first leg in a sky suite, started packing, and then went to the Tongue Twister game show before dinner.
 

Then after our last tasty meal in Blu, we headed to the main theater to watch our final “production” show which featured James Humphries, one of the lead singers of the production cast, who has a West End opera background. We barely made it through the first couple of songs. But unfortunately, when he butchered a very memorable Queen song, The Show Must Go On, followed by totaling annihilating a famous Tina Turner song, we couldn’t stand it any longer and left. Now, you have to appreciate what I just said. After going on more than 40+ cruises, this is the first production show we’ve actually ever walked out of. 🤭

 

So back to the cabin we went to finish packing and playing on CC before heading off to bed for an early start tomorrow for our 10 hour drive home. 😎

 

 

[BCJO]

Sad for you to be on your last night, but we are so excited to board tomorrow! So far, with testing negative and uneventful flight from PHX, we’re feeling pretty positive! Safe travels home tomorrow, good health, & thank you again for keeping us all informed at this stressful time.  

[Ken the cruiser]

11 minutes ago, BCJO said:

Sad for you to be on your last night, but we are so excited to board tomorrow! So far, with testing negative and uneventful flight from PHX, we’re feeling pretty positive! Safe travels home tomorrow, good health, & thank you again for keeping us all informed at this stressful time.  

Thanks and you’re going to have a great time!! We’re curious to hear if masks will be mandated indoors on your cruise, like so many are posting about their cruises leaving today on other X cruise ships like the Reflection and the Edge. Hopefully that won’t be the case as we only had a handful of cases (3) on this cruise.

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived back in Tampa with a bunch of great memories to cherish for quite sometime!! Next stop, home!! 😎

 

[CruisinMama2003]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We have arrived back in Tampa with a bunch of great memories to cherish for quite sometime!! Next stop, home!! 😎

 

Safe travels on your journey home Ken! Thank you for the review, always full of info and no drama! Looking forward to the next one 🙂

[riredsox]

On 12/29/2021 at 11:19 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

I have to apologize. We literally fell asleep half way through and woke up when Kelly came on the stage at the end of their performance. 😂😂

 

But I will say during the first half of the show, we were impressed with his singing, but not so much hers.

 

But later on at the Liars Club in the main theater, we definitely stayed awake during the whole show as it was super funny!!

 

 

😂 just thinking of the possible explanations for this word is making me laugh!  My favorite show on a cruise ship!

[May B]

10 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We have arrived back in Tampa with a bunch of great memories to cherish for quite sometime!! Next stop, home!! 😎

 

Looks like Brilliance is right behind you there!

 

Thx for this wonderful live trip report.Hope you had an easy trip home.

 

 

[May B]

20 hours ago, BCJO said:

Sad for you to be on your last night, but we are so excited to board tomorrow! So far, with testing negative and uneventful flight from PHX, we’re feeling pretty positive! Safe travels home tomorrow, good health, & thank you again for keeping us all informed at this stressful time.  

Bon voyage! I’m waiting to see you glide down Hillsborough Bay. Look to the right for a big, broad condo bldg. and imagine me there, waving. 

[vickykay]

Thanks for the wonderful postings and photos.  Enjoyed “cruising” with you!  

[Ken the cruiser]

We arrived home safe and sound with no drama in between. Thanks everyone for following along and hope you will be cruising soon!! 😎

[DaKahuna]

Glad you made it home safely.  Was great to follow along on your cruise.  

 

[phoenix_dream]

On 12/21/2021 at 12:35 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

We learned something new today regarding the Elite+ 15% discount perk you get on the cost of one specialty restaurant. Well, we also learned it only applies to one SR reservation rather than all of them. But, more importantly with that limitation in mind, the discount will be applied automatically to the first SR you actually eat at which may not be the most expensive one if you wind up eating at multiple SRs.

 

In our case our most expensive SR will be at the Le Petit Chef on the last day at $110 for 2. However, since our first one was the 2 for 1 deal at the Tuscan Grille at $40 for 2, that’s the one the “computer” discounted 15%.

 

Lesson learned. When you get onboard, either contact the Captains Club rep or a maitre d’ at one of the SRs and have them add a note stating which SR you want your Elite+ 15% discount applied to. At least that’s how it’s been explained to us. If someone knows something different, please let us know.

Just catching up on this thread.  I found this interesting and distressing.  We have often booked multiple specialty restaurants on the same cruise and always got our discount on each and every one (unless we booked a special deal, like a 2/1).  I don't think Celebrity's policy has changed.  Hopefully they are just mistaken

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, phoenix_dream said:

Just catching up on this thread.  I found this interesting and distressing.  We have often booked multiple specialty restaurants on the same cruise and always got our discount on each and every one (unless we booked a special deal, like a 2/1).  I don't think Celebrity's policy has changed.  Hopefully they are just mistaken

Was the discount automatically applied to your bill or did you have to actually mention it to the waiter each time you went to a specialty restaurant? We noticed the 15% discount was automatically applied to our first 2 for 1 reservation, which happened to be the cheapest, but not to the other 3.

[phoenix_dream]

4 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Was the discount automatically applied to your bill or did you have to actually mention it to the waiter each time you went to a specialty restaurant? We noticed the 15% discount was automatically applied to our first 2 for 1 reservation, which happened to be the cheapest, but not to the other 3.

We always mention it just to be sure. On our most recent cruise - Apex in December - we booked our specialty restaurants online ahead of time and when you do that, it does not include the discount.  So in that case we had to have them revise the booking - a pain.  Not sure why the website can't recognize your status!  But never have we ever had an issue getting our 15% on each and every dinner - and we have been sailing 7-8 times a year since retirement some time ago.  

 

If all goes well, we are doing a B2B on Connie for 21 nights and had planned to do specialty dining several times.  Hope we don't have an issue with the pricing.  It's more about the principal than the actual amount of savings, but I really don't want to have to spend my time arguing with them.

[Ken the cruiser]

4 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

We always mention it just to be sure. On our most recent cruise - Apex in December - we booked our specialty restaurants online ahead of time and when you do that, it does not include the discount.  So in that case we had to have them revise the booking - a pain.  Not sure why the website can't recognize your status!  But never have we ever had an issue getting our 15% on each and every dinner - and we have been sailing 7-8 times a year since retirement some time ago.  

 

If all goes well, we are doing a B2B on Connie for 21 nights and had planned to do specialty dining several times.  Hope we don't have an issue with the pricing.  It's more about the principal than the actual amount of savings, but I really don't want to have to spend my time arguing with them.

I understand. The CC rep actually emailed the Miami office and they're "official" response was it could only be applied to one specialty restaurant charge. Of course, they also said the wording was misleading in the some of the CC Loyalty brochures, depending on which one you read, and they will be rewording them at some later point. I think it all depends on who you ask. We made the mistake of asking the CC rep. We should have simply asked the maitre d' of the applicable SR to apply the Elite+ discount. Next time I think we'll just take that approach now that we're seasoned Elite+ people. 😎