contessaMD

I started cruising X too late to try it, as Sushi on 5 had arrived.  I'm not really a sushi person, and would have liked Bo5 much better.  I feel like the Sushi concept that is nowhere near as popular as the amount of space and seating given to it.  It only needs to be a 10-12 seat sushi bar for the patronage it appears to receive.

16 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

The question should be, how much extra is Aqua Class worth (over regular balconies)?  I am speaking of S-Class ships.  We used to think that Aqua was worth no more then an extra $25 per passenger day but recently downgraded that to about $15.  That is because we could dine in Murano darn near every night for about $25 per person...with a package.   Compare the tableside fileted Dover Sole in Murano with the poached watery fish in Blu.  Or compare Murano's Chateaubriand with the steak offered in Murano.  It is not even close.

This is an excellent point.  If eating well on a cruise is a non-negotiable, then it makes more sense to spend money where the food is, and make cuts elsewhere.  Minus the additional fake internet points (aka Captain's Club points), one wonders where the extra money really goes.

However, I feel like it would make a world of difference if X could finally switch up the MDR offerings - those menus are tired.  Which they won't do, because the objective is to steer eaters toward upcharge restaurants on the ship.

I will be exceedingly disappointed if Qsine has been banished forever in favor of Le Petit Chef, which I feel is a gimmicky way to extract $50 per person for surf and turf.  

I can't expect there would be terribly many repeat customers to that venue.  If you've seen it once you've seen it a million times. Celebrity is making a terrible business decision if they are putting all of their specialty dining eggs in this loser of a basket.

Of all the techniques and tastes to explore in modern dining, I remain perplexed as to why this is the direction Celebrity decided to go in for all of its ships.  They are really going to regret it in a few years.  I feel as though they got sold a concept that was already 5 years too old when they implemented it.  

I really enjoyed Qsine.  It was one of the only ways to sample a variety of foods that weren't the usual French or Italian (not that there's anything wrong with that...) that get so boring if it's all you're tasting for 7 days or more.

Absolutely mocktails are included, though I don't know specifically about the ones from Slush but the bartenders there would absolutely let you know.

Have a great cruise!

SAS was great - adding on to that recommendation.

I wasn't wild about the wines available on the Classic package. By no means am I a wine snob, but the wine always tasted corked to me.

Last year got a rose on Reflection - I want to say it was given at dinner? It was nice.

I don't recall a specific V-day dessert. It's possible, however if it wasn't something I was interested in I would have ordered something else and promptly forgotten about it! Other than lots of dancing couples in the Atrium, that was about it though.

Thanks for your review, I'll be on Silhouette in a few weeks myself! Can't wait.

Do you recall the name of the Cruise Director?

I can recommend SAS, we used them last year from Dania Beach to POM. Efficient -- called ahead when they knew they were running earlier than scheduled, which got us to the Port nice and early. Pickup afterward was a breeze.

As far as Labadee goes, I'll be honest and say it wasn't the port I was looking forward to the most in the lead-up to our W.C. cruise, but we ended up really enjoying it a lot. Looking at future cruises later I was interested to see that Labadee was completely left off all upcoming W.C. itineraries (Falmouth, too), substituted with Key West, which doesn't interest me much because for me it's a domestic port, and Costa Maya (what's the point of a second Mexican port?). Glad I cruised that itinerary when I did. I would not have been keen to do it after this year.

I would love do to a Hawaiian cruise.

I would love to do that cruise on Celebrity.

But I live on the east coast. I would NOT love to have to go all the way to Vancouver (no offense, Canadians!) and then fly home from Honolulu.

So currently, Celebrity is not selling the cruise I want to buy. I hope this changes in the next few years!

Semi related question. I see on the April 23 Silhouette trans Atlantic that traditional dining is listed as 6:30 and 8:45...seems pretty late for late seating. Anyone know if this is likely accurate?

Could be as an EB itinerary will have the ship losing clock hours every day. I don't know when they adjust the clocks on the ship though - hopefully it's when people are asleep!

Thank you all for the tips! I will look into all of those ideas! I set sail in 1 week! Looking forward to my first Celebrity cruise on the Reflection!

You'll love the ship. Have a fantastic cruise!

Yes the water on the classic package is essentially a generic 16 oz bottle of water. There will be a liter bottle of Evian in your stateroom and that is NOT a free bottle of water...you'll get charged (+ gratuity) if you drink it. We would get bottles of water from Cafe al Bacio to brush teeth with, etc.

I was recently on Reflection as well and was astounded by the lengthy wait for "anytime" dining. In fact, we were never admitted to the MDR before 8:30 pm. This is the first time this has ever happened to us. I realized only after we arrived back home that it may be the result of the EXTRA (nearly) 300 passengers aboard Reflection over other Solstice class ships!!!

Ah, that makes a LOT of sense. 10% more passengers will do that!

As for specialty, I have considered it for 1 or 2 nights - we have a bit of OBC we could use. Unfortunately for my beloved I am NOT the omnivore that he is...I have pretty simple tastes as far as food goes, making some of the more extravagant specialty restaurants pointless for me. I think I would like to give the Lawn Club Grille a try, though. I think between that and our San Juan stop we will probably only be in the MDR 4 or 5 times for dinner.

Great! Thanks everyone for the feedback. I'm relieved it won't be a nightmare.

(Also relieved I won't have to eat dinner twice in order to maintain a civilized demeanor.)

I signed up for Select dining on our next cruise because we got stuck in the miserable abyss known as the late seating the last time. This girl needs dinner by 7:00 or bad, bad things happen. I dealt with it before by having "pre-dinner" in the OVC at around 5:00 to tide me over the many hours before we were seated, but I don't desire to have another four-meal-a-day cruise next time!

I did take notice, though, of the veritable log-jam of diners waiting in line for Select dining arrangements when we were on the Reflection. I'm beginning to have second thoughts about my choice. Waiting on a line and not-knowing doesn't sound like a step in the right direction.

Is it possible to reserve a set/regular dining time after the first night?

If not, does the Maitre d' hand out buzzers to let diners know when a table is available? I'm not keen on taking up residence outside the MDR doors waiting to hear my name called.

Would one greatly increase their chances of dining at a particularly popular time if we were open to eating with other passengers? (I feel like this may have been what sunk us last time - I innocently requested a 2-top, but perhaps this limited our choices a lot more than I assumed it would?)

Do you have any other Select dining tips/tricks/warnings you can share with me?

That would be 33 points (3 x 11)

Yes, when I have been offered the "sale", it has been for specific itineraries/dates. Not all ships.

That must be why I'm not seeing anything different -- I'm logged in and the excursions for my itinerary are the same as when I priced them out a month ago.

I must be blind...In Shore Excursions cruise planner the prices don't look any lower to me.

I'd love to think that was true but he was just plain weird! He would get these crazy eyes at times. Like Nicholas Cage from Face Off!!!!! And on Thursday night he had the nerve to come up to us and tell us to give him a wonderful review. Telling us what to put on our questionairre. Sorry. He didn't have to do much for us but be friendly, talk, introduce himself, etc. Most nights he only had us and one other table. Not good.

You know, what's strange about that questionnaire thing is that our replacement waiter also reminded us about this questionnaire we'd be receiving, and that their share of the daily gratuity was based upon the result. I didn't get the link to the questionnaire as expected so I called Celebrity -- mentioning to them that I did have a certain review in mind and didn't want any of the crew members to suffer as a result of me not turning one in, and Celebrity insisted that the questionnaire had nothing to do with how the crew got paid. So I wonder what's going on there?? One party is telling the truth and one party is clearly not but it's difficult to know which is which.

On our Western itinerary, the show times every night were 7:00 and 9:00. Unsure if there is any reason why that would be different on an Eastern itinerary.

The next day we got a notice to find a new table. #115. That night we were happily seated at a table for 2. Unfortunately though, the happiness ended there. Over the next several days our waiter never introduced himself to us. He never learned our drink preferences. He never spoke unless spoken to. Weirdest thing we've ever experienced on the past 10 cruises. ... Our waiter (Ali) never once asked him how it was. Instead he picked up the plates when he assumed we were finished and later just brought dessert. Just so weird. We asked him what the different kind of butters were on the table too. He said he didn't know and yelled to his assistant waiter, Ryan, and asked him. Ryan told us. Every night was the same thing. This guy was sub-par!

So, we were on the Reflection last month and had table #114 in Opus and Ali was our waiter then too. We only had him 2 nights and then he disappeared. I found him not terribly gregarious but whatever. Come to find out he disembarked in Grand Cayman because of a family emergency back home (Turkey, I think?). He did not return while we were cruising. Fortunately his replacement was the EXTREMELY lovely Nicole, who was a pleasure to see every night.

If I had to guess he probably has something weighing heavily on his mind. It doesn't excuse your bad experience in the dining room but perhaps explains his un-waiterly behavior.

Thanks for your help but I'm talking about but I'm talking about the soda bar located in the X Clubs, I've found one picture of it but no one talks about it.

Interesting - I think I see the picture you're referring to on the website.

I suppose it never helps to call Celebrity up and ask what the arrangements in the X-Club are, it might vary from ship to ship. Funny that they don't go into much detail about it in the ONE place people are going to be looking!

I hope not!! I really like the style and decor of the S class and to be honest, not entirely sold on some of the Edge "innovations"! Plus there's so much we don't know yet about how the new ships will be laid out and whether all of the changes will be for the better. Let me keep my Solstice ships intact!