Celebrity Secrets they usually don't tell you about

[MHoward909]

Me to. thanks you so much MHoward909@aol.com thank again

[alfiemom]

OK...if you're kind enough to send it out, please include me: bobbiergs@sbcglobal.net.

 

We're going a TS on Mille in November and it never hurts to know the secrets.

 

Bobbie

[Scott Cyn]

Thanks a ton! I received it just fine and was very impressed with all your work pulling that together. I will certainly be using it. If its okay with you, I might share it with others on my Roll Call board.

 

Scott

[newhips]

If it's not too much trouble, could you send me a copy - newhips@earthlink.net

 

Thank you so much,

[deeva211]

You may begin to regret this!! I would love a copy if possible! Thanks.

deeva211 at aol.com

[janells]

Hi Jujubee,

 

Can you send me the tips too? Please and Thank YOU!!!!

 

bcantore@yahoo.com

 

Janells

[saldino]

I'd like a copy of the list too if it's not too much trouble.

The email is mrsaldino@yahoo.com.

Thanx much.

[zip3636]

Hi Jujubee,

 

If the others haven't worn you out, could I have the list as well?

 

Many thanks. Please send it to: jlibrus@aol.com

 

Cheers,

Zip

[shadow8899]

Jujubee,

 

Would you mind just posting it here? So that everyone can see it?

 

Thanks!

[dagadget]

You got it! It took me a full week of sneaking it in at work to get through it all. I wouldn't wish that on anyone! :p I'm sending it to you now. Let me know if you don't get it for some reason.

 

We are leaving on our cruise on Sunday and having a copy of this for the wife to read on the way would be excellent. Many thanks in advance.

 

gfthorse@earthlink.net

[IrisTattoo]

We leave Monday on the Infinity. I'd LOVE a copy.

 

ckerton1@comcast.net

 

Thanks, a bunch.:p

[Jujubee Cruisin']

I don't log on for one day, and look at the buzz! I've become a 'Celebrity celebrity'! :p Good idea to the people who suggested posting it here.

 

Below is the email I sent to the rest of my party. I think it captures the gist of this thread. Hope you think so too. Happy Cruising!

 

 

****************************************************************************

Okay, so it took me awhile, but I went through all 45 pages of the "Secrets of Celebrity" thread.

Here's some of the stuff I found (I put my comments in blue):

 

GENERAL

1 -You can get over-the-counter seasickness meds at customer service or the purser's desk. Free, dispensed a couple of tablets at a time. No need to buy them in the gift shop.

2-Also, if you see that they are doing a Internet class, you an get free internet for 30 minutes (you just have to sit though the class).

 

3-Yes, there is an area up front above deck 11 for topless sunbathing. It is clearly marked with no photography rule. Hmmm...

4- Re: gizmos, there are some threads you could find, but probably the best point is that there is only one US - style outlet in most of the cabins, so you'll either have to switch things around to charge your camera/phone/iPod/computer, etc., or bring a power strip or at least a "Christmas tree" plug to have enough outlets. Also, there's no clock in the cabins, other than suites, so a lighted alarm clock is a good idea if you want to know what time it is when you wake up in the night. A night light helps to find the way to the bathroom.

 

No "secret", but a tip, especially for those with inside cabins. If you leave the TV set to the channel for the bridge cam, you'll find that it displays the time in white. Typically, it's pitch black out there all night, and all you'll see on the screen is the time (and temperature? can't recall) You can set the brightness on tube as you like.

 

5- Tons of stuff on the infinity - pictures, menus, deckplans, etc.

http://cruiseclues.com/shipstips/infinity.htm

 

6-I do have some recommendations from this trip for you--if you want a lovely and romantic lunch by the sea to Oscar's in PV. It's in town, down by the river: address is Isla Rio Cuale Local No. 1. You walk through town, and when you reach the bridge to cross the river, go down the steps to the restaurant below. There are two restaurants--one on either side of the bridge but down at the river level. The other one didn't interest us as much as the menu at Oscars and we were quite pleased with our choice. The margaritas are amazing! The food was great! The guitar player was good. The location was spectacular--right at the beach, next to the river (which was a rather sleepy, slow moving body of water when we were there), and the restaurant was beautiful. Prices weren't bad either. At least it's local color and not some chain food that you'll regret later.

 

7 - you get double Captains Club credits for booking a CC class room.

Classic Level Benefits*

One-Category Upgrade

Complimentary Custom Air Requests

Presailing Specialty Restaurant Reservations

Priority Embarkation (where available) - Founder Classic Members Only

Exclusive Captain's Club Party

Benefits for Classic Members, including welcome amenity, gift with purchase at the Steiner's AquaSpa® by Elemis and certificates for the Celebrity casino

Preferential Debarkation (where available) - Founder Classic Members Only

Reunion Cruises

Online Newsletter

Double sailing credit on itineraries of 12 nights or more (maximum of three sailing credits per sailing)

Double sailing credit for booking a Concierge Class stateroom or Suite (maximum of three sailing credits per sailing)

8- If you own 100 shares of RCL (Royal Caribbean Stock) by the time you cruise, you can get a $200 shipboard credit for a 10 day cruise. You do not need to hold it a minimum amount of time. I actually ended up doing this, so if you are interested, I can give you more info.

FOOD RELATED

1- You can also ask for your fruit options in the suite. There's the regular fruit bowl, and a tropical fruit bowl. We didn't find out about this either until after the 5th day....our regular fruit bowl had sat uneated for 4 days with mold on it! The head housekeeper gave us a list of fruit available, and from that point on, our fruit bowl was made fresh daily with our choices.

2-You can order fresh berries - raspberries, blueberries, strawberries -- with whipped cream every night for desert.

 

3-They also serve NY Strip Steak any night or every night. Another big hit is getting shrimp cocktail every night if you ask for it in advance.

4- On M-class ships, the Aqua Spa Cafe offers grilled to order high quality salmon filets every day at lunch. It's so good I could eat it every day

 

5 - In the cova you pay for coffees, hot chocolate, etc, but the pastries and cookies are free! (from the threads, I hear the almond and chocolate croissants are super yummy there.)

6-I've paid 3 prices for Martini tastings: $5. $7.95 and $10. You get 5 tastings.

 

7-Go to cruiseclues.com. They have pictures of all the menus including Cova Cafe.

 

8-You can get SASHIMI!!! Whoopie!! On our first cruise with Celeb. we discovered the sushi bar. It was a small assortment of sushi and rolls set up buffet style. The sushi chef noticed I picked all the fish off of my rice so he asked if I would like a sashimi platter. Of course I did so he specially made one fresh for me.

 

It was huge portions of tuna and salmon. Yumm..easily $75. at the neighborhood sushi bar. So fantatastic. Of course he was well tipped.

 

9 -In the very back of the ship, there is also another place you can get sandwiches and some theme/ethnic foods, like Indian & Mexican. In the AM, that's where they make the waffles!!!!!!!! YUM! Lots of people were raving about the belgium waffles.

 

The waffle and sandwiches are in the rear of the buffet restaurant.

 

 

10 - Here is an interesting thread on Celebrity Menus: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=4762127&highlight=menus#post47621 27

Post #7 on the thread indicates that there are only 14 dinner menu's for all of Celebrity, and that it is up to the ship's staff to pick from them for a given itinerary. There are also some links to another site with some Celebrity menu's. I believe it was to here: http://cruiseclues.com/menus.htm

Menus from the main dining room of the Infinity - has 6 dining room menus plus the SS United States Menu! Everything looks delicious!

http://www.thepreismans.com/Infinity%20menus.htm

SPA STUFF

1 - a daily pass ($20) to the Persian Gardens if you want to try it out before spending $100 for the entire cruise

 

We haven't cruised in the past year, but on our last cruise the charges were $15 per day or three days for $45 or a week for $99. The Rasul was very reasonable, I believe it was $75 for the two of us.

 

2. Do Spa services have the gratuity built in?

They have an automatic 15% added in. If you want, you can add more.

 

 

3. The Rasul treatment is an extra charge that includes use of the Persian Gardens after your treatment. It is a fun couple thing. We have done it a few times.

 

4 - Embark early and head for the spa. Volunteer to be a spa model for the tours that are offered the first day. Our last 3 cruises, my husband has had a free hair treatment (frangipani massage or something of the sort) and 2 different massages). You have to be willing to be 'on display' (that is the reason I have never done it), but if you don't mind that it is a great way to start the cruise. (More than one person has mentioned this) Many folks do this, as it is nice to get free messages, etc. But you have to be early (by noon I would say to get them).

5 -Speaking of the spa, on our last cruise (Mercury 10-day Mexican Riviera), all spa services were 1/2 price on the last day. It was a nice way to relax after the stress of packing to leave (WAHHH!!)

 

6- Re the T-pools. This is kind of confusing because the answer depends on the class of the ship. On the C class ships (Mercury and Century), the T-pool is a smallish therapy pool inside the spa. Very strong jets, strong massage, etc. There is a charge for use of the pool unless you are in a suite.

 

On the M class ships (Infinity, Millie, Connie and Summit), the T-pool is outside the spa in large covered pool area. It is the size of a swimming pool and the massage action is not as strong. There is no charge for the use of this pool. Hope it helps.

 

 

SS UNITED STATES

1- I hestitate to let others in on this one. The specialty restaurants on the M class ships are truly a fine dining experience. When you go for the third time they offer to make you a special meal. The Maitre d' prepares the whole dish at your table -- it's like having a personal chef!! Book early, though because they fill up.

 

2 -Class ships have a specialty restaurant you can reserve for an extra fee. No children (12 and under) allowed. Enforced.

[alfiemom]

Thank you sooooooo much.

 

Bobbie

[Yipper]

Thanks so much for the tips...

[IrisTattoo]

Thanks for the list!:p

[cruzin4us]

8- If you own 100 shares of RCL (Royal Caribbean Stock) by the time you cruise, you can get a $200 shipboard credit for a 10 day cruise. You do not need to hold it a minimum amount of time. I actually ended up doing this, so if you are interested, I can give you more info.

[Yipper]

I believe you have to own the 100 shares of stock at the time of booking to be eligible for the $200 credit. If you plan ahead, its a great benefit.

[epbucky]

Yipper is incorrect on this point. We booked our 4/30/06 tranatlantic in Oct 05 but did not buy any RCL stock until 3/23/06. We sent ourconfirmation to Mike Zahrte in Rccl loyalty services on 3/28/06 and got a confirming E-mail from him the next day saying the credit had been added to our reservation. Very nice guy (I had also talked to him on thr phone previously) and very quick to respond to any questions. You can contact him at mzahrte@RCCL.com or by phone at 305-539-6000 x45948. If you plan to do several cruises on either RCCL or Celebrityin the future it is probably a good invesment unless the bottom absolutely falls out of the stock price. We are happy with our choice to go ahead and buy some. We had a few "underperformers we needed to get rid of anyway. Happy cruising

[Riba]

Jujubee, Please send me a copy of Celebrity secrets. Please send to riba313@verizon.com. Thank you for doing this for us on the boards.

[Riba]

Jujubee, I posted my wrong email address. It should be riba313@yahoo.com. Sorry!

[mcjigs]

Riba,

It's already posted 1 page back.

 

Thank you for posting it. I've been going through the list the last few weeks off and on and I was thrilled to see last page that you posted it. What a relief!:D

[cruzin4us]

Yipper is incorrect on this point. We booked our 4/30/06 tranatlantic in Oct 05 but did not buy any RCL stock until 3/23/06. We sent ourconfirmation to Mike Zahrte in Rccl loyalty services on 3/28/06 and got a confirming E-mail from him the next day saying the credit had been added to our reservation. Very nice guy (I had also talked to him on thr phone previously) and very quick to respond to any questions. You can contact him at mzahrte@RCCL.com or by phone at 305-539-6000 x45948. If you plan to do several cruises on either RCCL or Celebrityin the future it is probably a good invesment unless the bottom absolutely falls out of the stock price. We are happy with our choice to go ahead and buy some. We had a few "underperformers we needed to get rid of anyway. Happy cruising

 

Thanks for the info......Might as well throw some money into the stock, ours aren't doing that great either :) Last I checked the RCL stock was down anyway, so maybe it's a good time to purchase...

[Riba]

Thank you mcjigs. I copied the list, it is very helpful.

[RichYak]

I believe you have to own the 100 shares of stock at the time of booking to be eligible for the $200 credit. If you plan ahead, its a great benefit.

You don't have to. I bought it well after booking. I only held it for about 1 week. Collected the credit, a dividend, and sold it for a profit. Nearly a 10% gain combined. I'm guessing if you hold it long enough to print out a holdings list from your online broker, that will suffice.

[mrdorbert]

JuJuBee- Thanks so much for you're tips... Being a first-time cruiser, it's nice to feel like I have an inside scoop!

 

Thanks Again,