Wonderbred

3 hours ago, Margaretealexander said:

I know it’s crazy. I actually contacted the head of PR at Celebrity and they said I could not make the switch because of the resident rate I got . My original sail date was Sept 25 2020. I requested Sept. 17, 2021 . DENIED. I wanted the PR department to know that nowhere does it state that the lift and shift is only applicable if you didn’t get a deal or if you paid enough money for it. I’ve battled with my TA and reps from Celebrity and they won’t honor it for me. Still believe it was promoted inaccurately. 

Uh oh. I was looking to do lift and shift for a December cruise but it was a really great group rate as well so I have a feeling I might be in the same boat.  😞

21 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

The lift and shift needs to be either 4 weeks before or after the original monthly date.  Therefore, December 2020 switch to an April 2021 sailing will not qualify.  

This is what is posted on the Celebrity website -  i don’t see anything about 4 weeks. 
 

• Lift and Shift - Rebook the same sailing
  Want to take the same cruise the following year for the same price and with the same promotion? You can. Simply make this change by August 1, 2020.

Good morning all!  
 

I booked an AMAZING deal last night for a 1A cabin on the reflection With 4 perks (ultimate southern) for December 2020.  Like thousands less than normal but I made them confirm everything and send me confirmations with the perks, etc.  If I’m reading correctly, I can now lift and shift that to the same cruise ship/itinerary in April 2021 and keep the rate and perks? It’s a $3000 difference for the exact same room. 
 

If so....😃😃😃 
 

2 hours ago, wendyam76 said:

A body bag has just been taken off the ship and a crime scene set up. Looks like it was a fall onto a lifeboat. Just watched a live video from someone onboard. 

Where is the video posted?

I wonder if they will do any other refurbishment or updates while they have the ship offline. It's a bit dated in some of the public spaces.

Can you please tell me if that stateroom had the bed by the balcony... or couch by the balcony? Thanks!

The bed is by the balcony.

What are Villages? I'm not familiar with this term.

The Villages is a “master planned age-restricted community”that spans 2 counties in Florida. Basically the largest retirement community ever. I’ve heard large groups call themselves The Village People on cruises. :')

We’ve done the Reflection for 3 years straight on the Reflection and had a great time. There were wayyyyy more elderly and scooters than usual this year but we were able to walk around them without any issue. I love the holiday decorations and atmosphere so I would do a December cruise again.

Thanks OP for your informative review, and thanks to the rest of you for your experiences and insights. We’re booked on Reflection in early December 2018. This would be our first Caribbean cruise, and I now wonder if I should choose another month, or another line! Having had a bad experience with an entitled jerk wielding a scooter like a weapon on a TA (though I admit there were perhaps a dozen scooters on that cruise, and all the other users seemed competent and civil) I cannot imagine dealing with hundreds of them! How can I find out if a large group from the Villages will be on that sailing? Or any other large group?

How do I feel, in no particular order...

 

I have a strategy which involves around 5 minutes to check three websites which helps scour deals months in advance. When one appears on the radar I then use a third party price monitoring website to track it and see what happens.

 

I'm very thankful to the team at Cruise Critic who's product has taught me to save a lot of money in recent years. I bet Richard Fain and Lisa Lutroff-Perlo wished they could moderate these boards at times! :D

Is it possible to share which websites you use? -Brandy

I’m disappointed to hear about the house band. We set sail on Reflection in Feb.

 

On our prior cruise - also on Reflection - the house band (Blind Vinyl) was a trip highlight.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You never know, they could have a new group by then! Our bartender shared that several patrons had said that the band was one of the first things to be addressed on their guest survey. Every time Maarten announced them (with a straight face) as "the best house band on the ocean", I'd look around thinking maybe another band was going to jump out and perform.

It was still a whole lot of fun and I really overall enjoyed the entire experience. I'd gladly be sitting down there tonight sipping a Baileys on the ice and listening to them warble if I could. :)

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. Quick question, I will be sailing on Reflection for the 1st time in Feb, are the hammocks hard to come by, or is the amount sufficient?

 

Kim

Surprisingly so easy to come by! There are 8 in total and they stay empty most of the morning and then by early to late afternoon they are no more than 1/2 full. The hammocks are mostly in the shade and I think many people up on the high decks are looking to sunbathe.

I've seen a couple of posts on this trip (including the hilarious "Live" report) so please excuse me for anything repetitive. A couple of bio details to give you a perspective:

My husband and I both turned 40 recently and are from Florida. We are newer to cruising and initially we thought we would hate it. Our friend got married on a Carnival cruise and so we went on that cruise and enjoyed the experience (not the line or ship as much) and then found Celebrity. We have done 4 cruises with Celebrity since December of 2015. 3 on Reflection and 1 on Summit this June for the America's Cup. This was our last cruise as Classic members and we have always stayed in a C3 cabin.

This was our 3rd December voyage on the Reflection in a row and we have stayed in cabin 1289 each time. I didn't notice any extreme wear and in fact, the balcony in our cabin was in slightly better shape than last year. Embarkation at Port Everglades was soooooooooo slow. There were 4 people checking in concierge class and the line was really long. That was probably the most frustrating part but knowing that drinks and relaxation was just around the corner made it bearable.

We finally got onboard and the first thing I did was walk down to Murano and made our specialty dining reservations, we had a dining package for 9 nights. We ate at Murano, Tuscan Grille, Lawn Club Grille and Sushi on 5 twice and Qsine once. All of the specialty restaurants were great (as usual). They are all good in such different ways and we enjoy the more personalized service. We were planning on eating at the MDR on the next to last night (evening chic) but both felt a little tired and ended up doing the buffet. Lunch most days for us was either the Mast Grille, room service or onshore. I did the buffet once for lunch. I think we were still a little leery from the Noro problems from the previous cruise and also trying to not gorge before our specialty restaurant dinners.

We had upgraded to the premium alcohol package and visited most of the bars on board. We spent a lot of time at the Passport bar this trip (down on 3) and I have to say that the lead singer of The Accents (the house band) was pretty abysmal. The Accents performed in the alcove by the glass elevators almost every night and we heard a lot of their material. The lead singer tried hard but was just underwhelming at best, off key at worst. It didn't matter what genre she tried, it was all pretty bad. I've heard much better voices at any random karaoke night. My husband wanted to know how bad the competition must have been if this was the group that was chosen. A lot of other guests agreed and it almost became fun to hear what she would attempt next. Some of the other random performers were decent, the cello/violinist in the Ensemble usually did a good job. We didn't go to any of the main shows so I'll let other people speak to those.

We played a lot of trivia (quality can vary from host to host) and did pretty well. We also enjoy doing the daily paper crossword and sudoku challenges with a pasty from Cafe Al Bacio. For us, we love to check out and relax so we grab a hammock, enjoy some drinks from the sunset bar and relax the mornings and early afternoons away. We did some excurions in Antigua, St. Lucia and St. Thomas and stayed on the boat in the other ports.

We found the staff helpful and friendly, the boat was in good shape and always looks nice with the holiday decorations and the food was very good. We look forward to more sailings in the future!

we did Spencer's tour in St. Lucia. Did you hear about the incident with the 2 couples who had to get off the boat at the resort? Sad stuff...

Ok so I'm dying to know what happened...