Live From Celebrity Reflection: 6 Day Caribbean 1/28-2/3/24

[jam19872016]

2 hours ago, Von & John said:

Thanks for the Lovely Cruise & looking to the next one in just a couple of weeks!
Please add link to this or another review - so we are alerted to Join.

Truly appreciate the time you spend on the reviews - until we are able to cruise again...

Cheers  --  Von

I will be sure to include a link. Thanks so much for following along.

45 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

did you get home ok?

Yes. Sorry, just been getting settled back into the swing of daily life. Very easy from cabin to home no issues whatsoever. Other than some bird presents.

[jam19872016]

I'll get my final thoughts for the cruise together and typed up and the plan is to put a bow on this review on Monday. Thank you all so much for following along!

[#55worktoplay]

Thanks for another great review. 
 

I have a question, you mentioned casino free drinks but you don’t report on playing in the casino so how is it you get free drinks in casino?  Perhaps you formally gambled and gave it up. Just wondering how you manage free drink nos without being a casino player. 

[princess76021]

4 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

Before the button got put away, a group of birds took an Oh Crap! all over my car at the parking lot! That happened in Port Canaveral once too. I don't know why my car is such a bird poop magnet.

I spewed my wine!!  Oh crap!! Literally!

Hugs from Texas

[exlondoner]

10 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

I'll get my final thoughts for the cruise together and typed up and the plan is to put a bow on this review on Monday. Thank you all so much for following along!

Is that bow, rhymes with no, or bow, rhymes with now? Both seem appropriate. 😀

[jam19872016]

12 hours ago, #55worktoplay said:

Thanks for another great review. 
 

I have a question, you mentioned casino free drinks but you don’t report on playing in the casino so how is it you get free drinks in casino?  Perhaps you formally gambled and gave it up. Just wondering how you manage free drink nos without being a casino player. 

Celebrity offers free basic drinks to all players actively gambling in the casino, status or not.

 

I do have casino status but that is because Celebrity has been extending the earning period since before Covid. When they finally end the earning period, my status will not renew as I've decided to put my gambling dollars into only Royal Caribbean. 

[#55worktoplay]

3 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

Celebrity offers free basic drinks to all players actively gambling in the casino, status or not.

 

I do have casino status but that is because Celebrity has been extending the earning period since before Covid. When they finally end the earning period, my status will not renew as I've decided to put my gambling dollars into only Royal Caribbean. 

Well that’s interesting and good to know. Royal is a good choice

[lsuskybird]

On 1/31/2024 at 6:38 AM, wcrcruiser said:

So I'm going to be on the 2/11/24 sailing. What bar would you suggest I park it at in order to watch the Super Bowl and be able to get drink service? TIA.

We are from Columbia, MO and are also looking forward to watching the Super Bowl on the ship. Go Chiefs!

[cmoore5524]

Thanks for your posts. I will be on the ship soon. How many Evening Chic nights did your 6 day cruise have?  And were they on sea days?

[WELDON]

I was on last week's cruise. There were 2 evening chic nights, both sea days. My cruise began Sunday and ended Saturday. Evening chic nights were Monday and Thursday.

[wcrcruiser]

6 hours ago, lsuskybird said:

We are from Columbia, MO and are also looking forward to watching the Super Bowl on the ship. Go Chiefs!

Where are you planning on watching, I am new to Celebrity and not sure of the best option.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

10 hours ago, lsuskybird said:

We are from Columbia, MO

🙂 🙂🙂 🙂 I went to school there!!!! Eons ago, but still. 🙂

 

The other day I saw some random dude wearing an MU sweatshirt here, and I got so excited!

[Itchy&Scratchy]

and since we talked about ice cream and gelato at length, I felt compelled to post this meme:

 

[jam19872016]

On 2/4/2024 at 12:29 PM, #55worktoplay said:

Well that’s interesting and good to know. Royal is a good choice

It was very nice and despite a busy casino, drink service was very quick both times I ordered a drink. You will never see numbers that good on Carnival. I don't know about Royal since they allow me to order from the bar. Can't beat that 🙂

 

Celebrity is greatly improving their casino program. In fact it is mostly mirrored with Royal now (except the equivalent of prime is twice as hard to achieve but so far the earning period has been extended for four and a half years instead of one like Royal). If I find myself able to spread my gambling dollars and vacation time to two cruise lines I will certainly choose Celebrity, but while I can only do one Royal wins because they have a wider selection of itineraries and the loyalty perks are better.

3 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

and since we talked about ice cream and gelato at length, I felt compelled to post this meme:

 

Too cute to eat! Love it.

[jam19872016]

Did I say Monday wrap up? Ooops.

 

I am in that wonderful stage of post cruise fasting where even when I mess up (no more bogo bags of MM's I don't have the discipline to not eat the whole bag) the weight still comes off quickly. In three days I have lost exactly half the weight I have put on, down 5.2 lbs so far. I am not sure how much longer I have before I hit a brick wall but I am enjoying the success while it lasts.

 

I also feel less bloated than usual post cruise and am still wearing my skinny clothes. I think I have finally reached a point where a week long trip doesn't throw things off too badly. A longer trip would still do some damage, but I don't have any of those planned any time soon.

 

But enough of that, let's get my final cruise thoughts posted.

[jam19872016]

Dining:

 

Celebrity has a reputation for their excellent dining. I would say that reputation led to unrealistic expectations the first time I sailed Celebrity as I don't find it to be any more than marginally better in the dining room, and the lunch time selections to be pitiful as you are limited to the buffet or hamburgers/hot dogs. The buffet is quite extensive but at the end of the day it is mostly stews and mystery ingredient casseroles. 

 

This trip my lunch time journey started out pretty rough as there were some temperature holding problems with the buffet. That got better as the week on and although I would say it never got "hot" it did at least get out of the "cold before you get to your table" state. There were a few stand out options but mostly I chose a few items just to fill in my plate. Italian day was the only day I found myself having to pick and choose what was going to make the cut as there were too many options.

 

The salad bar at lunch was very well stocked with lots of choices and I loved that it was in it's own section. Having a salad bar at the start of a buffet line is a terrible design as it slows the whole process down for everyone. Celebrity has a much better set up with several mini stations instead of one giant serving line. 

 

Dessert options were inconsistent but again the variety was big enough that I was able to find enough items to fill up my plate. I wish I had given the bread pudding another try to see if they fixed the temperature problem, but that ice cold bread pudding early on really put me off to giving it another try.

 

Because everyone is going to the Ocean View café it gets very crowded during peak times. I mostly went during non peak times and did not have any issues. Sometimes it may look full, but the area towards the back almost always had seating available and occasionally had almost nobody eating in there even when the front areas were near capacity. Always check back here. There were one or two times I had to pass through a couple times to find a seat but that was mostly because the trade off for more seating is that all the tables for two might as well be long tables for 6 or 8 with a literal half inch between tables. I preferred to not eat at those when possible or at least find one with an empty between them so sometimes I did have to hunt.

 

It was the best solution I guess to the problem of the size of this venue (Equinox at 70% capacity was still overcrowded in here) but I hope that in the E class they have built an adequately sized venue or spread people out better with more options.

 

Breakfast in the buffet was very good keeping in mind that I am not a big breakfast person. I always ended up at the end of meal service and all but one or two sections would be closed down. There was an hour between breakfast and lunch, so I don't quite understand why so much of the buffet needed to be closed down for two hours and it led to a pretty hectic buffet experience in the morning, but again the stations are set up well where you can at least get in and out of the chaos quickly.

 

I am not sure how Carnival is able to have uninterrupted meal service in the buffet between breakfast and lunch, but they could teach Celebrity a thing or two. And maybe Celebrity could teach Carnival how to offer a fully customizable omelet (sorry I couldn't resist).

 

Dinner in the buffet would not be my preference but when stopping through I did see plenty of variety and plenty of people enjoying the offerings.

 

The mast grill is decent enough for a causal lunch time option. The burgers are better than buffet burgers but not even close to a Guy's burger. The hot dogs were about the same as a typical hot dog. I guess I was expecting more since it was cooked on a grill, wasn't bad just didn't stand out as better. The line could be quite long and it doesn't move like Guy's but it could be found with a short line at times. The toppings bar was pretty extensive although I seem to recall a special "Celebrity sauce" being available here that I could not find this time. I perhaps just missed it. The fries were not good at all. Skip those.

 

The dining room I found to be the opposite problem from the buffet. The food was typically good quality, but I did not find a lot of choice. 

 

Appetizers typically consisted of only soup and salad options, your everyday choices, and one other option that was typically an odd choice. Think salmon rillettes, or tuna tartar. I eat those, but those are two bite choices that often add 15-20 minutes to the meal service time. As I tended to eat later, I was ready to move on with my night and just chose to skip that course to save some time. 

 

Most entrées were good with a few duds and a few standouts. Portion sizes were smaller than I would have liked.

 

Dessert was again good with a few standouts but portion sizes were definitely small on this course. I suppose with an older crowd smaller portion sizes are probably ok, but as nice as a dish is, if it was laughably small, I left feeling underwhelmed.

 

Two days I had lunch in the dining room which were a nice change of pace from the buffet. The first day was average at best with no standouts and a few items that were just not good (I never did get back to review that meal course by course, but I wasn't a fan). The second lunch was better.

 

I did not do any specialty dining. I did Lawn Club Grill my first time on this ship and it remains my favorite specialty dining experience to date (excluding my Chef's Table experiences which is not really the same thing) but I did not end up booking it again. Part of me wants to eat there again so bad, and part of me wants to remember it how it was. Since that was 2020, and the price has not gone up, could the meal be as good as I remember?

 

I heard several people raving about Murano. It seemed to be very popular or maybe I just happened to overhear every conversation from a happy Murano diner.

 

I saw an unlimited dining plan being offered and I thought about booking it, but at almost $47 a day, I could not see a value in that. They were not pushing it onboard and since it was only offered the last week or so before I sailed I think it is a new concept for Celebrity, but I hope they lower the price as I would love to try it but not at that price point. I'd also like to see some reviews. In writing it only offers lunch on sea days, but in practice on Royal you can eat at specialty dining anytime it is open. It also says one lunch and one dinner per day. That is different than Royal as although you can only make one reservation, if there is availability, you can walk into as many restaraunts as you like. If I was going to shell out that much per day, I would want to see it in action first to see how it handles exclusions.

 

Café Al Bacio had a wonderful selection of sweets available every day that were included and very good.

 

Overall I really enjoyed my meals especially at dinner, if it sounds like I am being overly negative of the dining experience it is only because I just don't see the hype surrounding the brand and their food. It is solid, but it is not exceptional.
 

[jam19872016]

Public Spaces and Cabin:

 

The ship is very beautiful although having just got off Silhouette, I think that ship was more beautiful. It was very whimsical while still modern and elegant throughout the interior of the ship.

 

The cabin was very spacious for a standard inside cabin and very comfortable. It had a number of elegant touches that made it feel more like a luxury hotel instead of a cruise ship cabin. Just more compact 🙂 . 

 

The ship suffers from what is in my opinion a design flaw. Two sets of elevators instead of three. As a result I often found myself waiting for an elevator or taking the stairs. It felt more like a mega ship than a small 3k capacity ship when it came time to use an elevator. I ended up using the stairs a lot which I am happy to see does not leave me out of breath the way it used to. There also are fewer decks in-between the lower and upper decks so at least there was never really a point I had to go a long way when I didn't want to wait for an elevator.

 

Entertainment:

 

Despite not having a Piano Bar I never found myself bored in the evening or looking for things to do to keep myself entertained. There is a lot going on every night in the various venues. In addition to music in multiple locations, there is also the entertainment in the theater, sometimes a movie playing both inside and outside, and game shows like yes or no, majority rules etc being held.

 

I would have liked to see the big events that were held in the Grand Foyer moved to a better location. I have seen them held in the Sky Lounge before and I can see how this atrium setup allows for more viewing from above, but it was just too crowded for me to enjoy especially the 8pm events.

The 10pm events were passed enough people's bed times that they could usually be enjoyed comfortably but any earlier than that you could forget it if you did not arrive early.

 

Both fly on singers in the theater were very good although I only caught a few pieces of the female singer. What I heard she sounded VERY good and I heard several groups raving about how good she was. I did not see the comedian and did not hear anything either way about him.

 

The deck party was a blast. I like that they encourage you to get in the pool, even if that was not the best choice on the feet 🙂. I have packed a swim suit on every cruise for years, and this was the first time I have taken the tag off and actually worn it. So extra bonus points for finally getting me in a pool, it helps that there were almost no kids onboard (only one that I saw at the deck party).

 

Service: 

 

The service onboard in all areas of this ship were 5 star. I was greeted constantly almost every time I passed by a crew member. They were all super friendly and seemed engaged in providing a wonderful experience to each and every guest onboard. 

 

My steward was one of the best I've ever had and although engaging it never reached that awkward point where it was a bit too engaging. 

 

Dinner service was always extremely attentive and even the first night where things took longer than I would have liked, it was still extremely friendly and overall good service. I never encountered a significant wait after the first night. I mostly went at off peak times just because happy hour pushed my dinner back, but even on the final night when I went a little earlier I still did not have to wait. I even ended up at the same table on four out of six nights even with flexible dining where that is never a guarantee.

 

I never once found myself waiting in a line (elevator excluded). Even at the busy Café Al Bacio, they had enough crew on duty to handle the crowds. The longest I ever waited anywhere all week was the maybe two or three minutes to reach the hostess stand a couple times at dinner, and the line at mast grill. I have learned to pack my patience but it was really nice to not have to wait anywhere for anything. Even many trip to guest services (for small bills for tips since the casino was not super thrilled to make change) there was never a line or I was next in line. There are certainly no staffing problems on this ship anywhere. 

 

Casino:

 

Celebrity is really ramping up their casino program and I think this is going to really help the brand become more profitable. They are copying what has worked well for Royal and so far I like what I see, with one exception. The casino is super crowded. It used to be an absolute ghost town now it is almost impossible to find an open game to play. This is a winning strategy and HUGE profit center for the cruise lines so it is smart of the line to embrace casino players now unlike in the past. They are also modernizing their gaming selection, although they still have some work to do in that area as I still see many old and outdated games on the casino floor.

 

Overall:

 

Overall this was a great trip. If I had any complaints it would not be brand specific but more in relation to where I am right now in what I want out of a cruise experience. I am looking for either long and interesting trips, or quick weekend getaways. A weeklong trip around the Caribbean is not really where my interests lie right now, but I do still enjoy just being on the ship and the cruise experience I just found myself wanting more than a six day cruise could offer. That is not Celebrity's fault though and does not reflect on the cruise in anyway.
 

[jam19872016]

Thanks for following along with me. Some of you followed so closely that I thought I saw you sitting across the room from me. I really appreciate each and every one of you, the engagement I receive from these reviews enhances my cruise experience and I look forward to doing one again soon. I will post a link here when that one starts and I would love to see you all come and join me again for the next adventure on the high seas!
 

[exlondoner]

47 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

Thanks for following along with me. Some of you followed so closely that I thought I saw you sitting across the room from me. I really appreciate each and every one of you, the engagement I receive from these reviews enhances my cruise experience and I look forward to doing one again soon. I will post a link here when that one starts and I would love to see you all come and join me again for the next adventure on the high seas!
 

I look forward to sitting across from you on your next trip. Thank you for all your comments.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

3 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

I also feel less bloated than usual post cruise

I used to bloat pretty badly on cruises (all that salt, I guess), but since I started taking extra magnesium, the bloat stopped. Oh, and since back at home we are not eating quadruple appetizers and desserts and triple entrees for dinner, the 3-4 lbs I usually gain on top of my already heavy body usually comes off very quickly. I wish these 3-4 lbs would take some friends with them when they leave, but they don't....

 

Back to reading. 🙂

[princess76021]

4 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

Thanks for following along with me. Some of you followed so closely that I thought I saw you sitting across the room from me. I really appreciate each and every one of you, the engagement I receive from these reviews enhances my cruise experience and I look forward to doing one again soon. I will post a link here when that one starts and I would love to see you all come and join me again for the next adventure on the high seas!
 

Thanks for taking us along .  I had a fantastic time!  

that button is back in the freezer!!

 

hugs from Texas

[jam19872016]

9 hours ago, exlondoner said:

I look forward to sitting across from you on your next trip. Thank you for all your comments.

Next ship is one of the largest ships in the world. I think you will find yourself asking "why" many times but I look forward to showing you! It will be about as polar opposite from classic ocean liner as you can get. But I love it in it's own way and I can't wait to take you along for the ride!

6 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I used to bloat pretty badly on cruises (all that salt, I guess), but since I started taking extra magnesium, the bloat stopped. Oh, and since back at home we are not eating quadruple appetizers and desserts and triple entrees for dinner, the 3-4 lbs I usually gain on top of my already heavy body usually comes off very quickly. I wish these 3-4 lbs would take some friends with them when they leave, but they don't....

 

Back to reading. 🙂

Maybe bloat wasn't the correct word. I was trying to put it delicately. Fat, I feel less fat 😂. Three to four pounds I would be okay with, ten in six days is a bit excessive. But that's the cycle and as long as I can continue making progress I won't be too hard on myself.

[jam19872016]

5 hours ago, princess76021 said:

Thanks for taking us along .  I had a fantastic time!  

that button is back in the freezer!!

 

hugs from Texas

I am so glad I didn't need to push it once I made it on board! 

 

Thanks for coming along with me! We'll defrost it again soon 🙂

 

[kiwichick62]

Finally caught up with all the posts.  Thanks so much, very interesting and enjoyable to read.

[exlondoner]

2 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

Next ship is one of the largest ships in the world. I think you will find yourself asking "why" many times but I look forward to showing you! It will be about as polar opposite from classic ocean liner as you can get. But I love it in it's own way and I can't wait to take you along for the ride!

 

One thing that seems to be the case with nearly all the ships except QE is the amount of noise in public spaces, even open decks, which you yourself have commented on a number of times. I shall be interested to know if you are able to find quiet spaces in the daytime on your next behemoth, preferably not by finding the off switch, though that obviously works. For me, calm and serenity is one of the great attractions of a voyage.