KevP

Hi All

I can buy "unlimited internet" on Escape before the cruise for $209.

Apparently on board you can buy unlimited internet for $189 and a premium service that includes VPN and streaming for $245.

Which one do I get if I prebuy for $209? Anyone know?

Thanks

Sitting in Vibe staring at Ocho Rios nearing sail away. The cruise has been great overall and it was a real nice day in Jamaica.

I will cover our Vibe experience. First getting passes. We got to the port earlier than expected at 9:10am. We reported to terminal 3. There was a small waiting area with chairs on the side. Approx 30 of them. We were the first to not get chairs. Very few came in over the next 45 min or so. I think you are fine getting there by 9:45am if you want almost guaranteed group one. Also remember week before XMas probably isn't full. So may be different next cruise. Security opened around 9:45 and we were upstairs by 10am with group 1. Wait by the sign that says "boarding begins here". It is not marked above but that is where they board from. 11am they boarded special needs and then group 1. We followed special needs up the gangway and then straight to guest relations on deck 6

We were the second couple there.

We went straight to Vibe. We heard from another couple around noon that they were told there are 10 spots left. So passes last just over an hour from boarding.

Vibe is very cool. Nice to have a place to go. Chairs always available. Easy bar access.

Our cruise it is not a party. There is no music. Always a few at the bar and people scattered about.

The paperwork says it closes at 7. They are closing at 6pm. You can come in until

11pm and using the hottubs is awesome. Especially after you see what the main pool hottubs look like in the evenings. Spice may be better but we never get back there.

We love not having to get up early to have a place to go. Love not competing with the chair hogs

They do not really deliver drinks to you. Seen it a couple of times

Nice that towels are readily available and you don't need to do the exchange in the main area.

Ok. Back to the bar

Getting drink on this cruise has been no issue as long as you are willing to Goto the bar

We had a great day on Great Stirrup Cay

We waited a bit to tender and it was a very smooth process. Per recommendation from here we took the tram to Lagoon beach. The tram is a hard left off the tender and you go right past the building for return tenders. It isn't marked well. LAGOON SIDE is the way to go. There are small beaches on the ocean plus the lagoon. Even at this late hour around noon we grabbed two chairs and put them under palm trees. Just a few around us. Getaway was the only ship today.

Food was basic as I am sure you have read. Drink service was non existent unless you went to the bar (same place as food). We thought the bar was open until 2. I walked up at 1:45 and was told they were closed. I asked if they were supposed to be open until 2pm and I was told to walk to the bar "down there". I asked if that was about a 15min walk. He said with attitude "bar closed". Real nice.

We walked back and it is a nice place. Many chairs you could tuck under trees or go for full sun. Minus a little attitude a great day.

Currently onboard the Getaway Western Carribean itinerary. Wife and I are early 40's no kids and cruise once a year. Last three years we have cruised Celebrity S class ships (Reflection, Eclispe and Silhouette). We last did NCL in 2007 (Majesty) and Spirit (2008).

Just going to post what I think is relevant info that may help future cruisers and try to confirm some of the tips and tricks learned on cruisecritic.

We booked a mini suite gty and were assigned a family mini suite on deck 12 mid. While we love the location being quite close to the forward elevators we booked a mini suite for the larger bathroom and nice shower. We ended up with a tub. Oh well those are the breaks booking gty. We also have a very loud child next door. We did try to call NCL when we got this cabin assignment as they wanted $1200 additional to move us. Again we booked a gty so take what you can get but I would hope with today's computer systems they could understand why a couple with no kids wouldn't love this room assignment in the family area.

Initial impression of the ship is that it is very nice overall. Stateroom was fine. Plenty of storage. Wish the TV was bigger like the S class ships but fine. We don't watch it much anyway. As everyone already should know the balcony is small. It is actually smaller than I expected. One thing we like on celebrity is ordering off the main dining room menu and having it delivered to the room to eat on the balcony. Not going to happen on this ship.

More to follow. Enjoying some beautiful weather on the Great Stirrip Cay beach right now. Will try to answer any questions if you ask.

Does anyone know what time the Alamo/National shuttles start running from the airport TO the POM? Would they take us down there as early as 9:30am? Thanks

Thanks all

First I know we are booking a GTY so of course we are good "with worst in the category". Makes it much easier that none of the cabins are obstructed view like the Celebrity S Class ships.

So that said we would be totally fine with any of the deck 8 mini suite cabins given the balcony size. (Actually very happy if we got one, but not going to happen)

When I look at the deck plans to find "the worst mini suite guarantee cabin they could give us" it looks like all the rest are all located mid ship. Just want to see if the more experienced NCL'ers see it the same way.....in other words none are really in bad locations...although some may be under a high traffic area.

That would make a difference in booking at gty mini suite vs gty balcony....hope that makes sense.

New to the Getaway.

Looking at the cost benefit of booking a gty balcony vs gty mini suite. I have read about the differences and understand is mostly in the extended bathroom and double sink and larger shower.

However one item that I don't seen brought up is....Does booking a gty mini suite (MX) also mean that you have a very high chance of having a cabin located in the middle of the ship? Where the balcony gty could be very far front or aft? Unless you get one of the true MX cabins or the M6 cabins that are front of deck 8 with the larger balconies (which would be great but probably will not get) it looks like all the other mini suite categories are mid ship. Am I seeing it correctly?

So how important is a mid cabin on the Getaway? Previously the largest ships we have been on are the Celebrity S class ships (Reflection, Eclipse, etc). On those we did look to go mid or close to the elevator/stairs as we just like to get drinks from the bar and bring to our balcony....The same thing would be important to us on the Getaway...

The total cost difference for us gty balcony to gty minisuite is $200.

Thanks for any input

You should have a plan B ready. We missed our private Grand Cayman tour in December due to the timing of the tender process there and that we were late to the port.

The azipod is reported fixed so that hopefully helps a lot....

We went down for tender tickets about 20min before they started handing them out. I would recommend being there much earlier than that with your schedule. There were big delays between boats the day we tried it. Tender ticket 8 and they probably would have waited as the private operator called us looking for a status when we were still on the ship. If we had group 8 we would have been boarding the tender. We had 9 and were still on the ship and they couldn't wait that long. The difference in group 9 vs 8 cost us about 25-30 more minutes delay.

As Cle-guy said, if Cayman is important to you it may be worth doing a ship run excursion to get the most out of it...we are 0-2 in trying to do a private tour there. Next time it may be the first ship excursion we have ever done...

I have read several posts about the tendering process in Grand Cayman. I know that people with Celebrity booked excursions have priority. We have booked a private excursion. We supposedly arrive at 10:00 and our excursion meeting time is 11:15. Will we make it? I have read some recent reviews that it took people hours to get off the ship. Any recent experiences??

Hello

We are aboard the "limping" Silhouette this week. Upon check-in Celebrity included a letter describing the situation on the ship and gave us a new port schedule. We would be late an hour into Grand Caymen (from 10 to 11am). We didn't anchor today until after 11am. Tenders did not start until 11:30 am. We went down for tender tickets at 9:15 (15m early) and got number 9. Given the late arrival the tendering process was really quite poorly run. First announcement was for groups 1-3 at 11:30 then just group 4 next. Then about 12:15pm they announced groups 4-9 all at once and it was a mob of people snaking their way thru the passport bar trying to get down the stairs. We missed the cut and waited until finally getting on a tender at 12:40 and to Caymen about 1. This caused us to miss our tour with Native Ways. We were in contact with them the entire time but they had to understandbly leave as people from other ships were ready to go.

I think there is one more stop in Grand Caymen before the azipod gets fixed so for those on that cruise and booked on a private tour just a heads up. Unless you have a way to get an early tender you are at risk. Have a plan B ready. We are on 7 mile beach now....

Thanks for the updates. LOP you certainly got a lot further with AT+T than I did. Their enterprise business support was clueless when I called.

Any recent experiences on Reflection of their AT&T phones actually working?

To followup, I never got my phone to connect with Onwaves. I could see it available, but could never get service. No voice or data. Tried every possible combo of settings. Up until this point, my phone (not this exact one, but all with my current AT+T international plan that I have had in place for years) connected just fine on cruise ships or any country visited.

If I was anywhere near an island, I received service. Passing thru the Bahamas on the return, I was shocked at how far land was and I got a decent signal.

Wondering if there have been improvements since the Nov 30th sailing that Host Anne was on? Anyone? Thanks

Based on the experiences described in the Nov 30th thread, I would say it was massive improvement. Just departed on Saturday.

We had the premium alcohol package and had no problem at any bars as long as you went up to the bar. Service was spotty around the pool. Most other times we just grabbed a seat at wherever we were getting drinks at that moment so no need to test the waiter/waitress service.

I did ask a bartender how the cruise was going and his response was much better than the last one! So I asked what happened, and he mentioned 1000 people had an alcohol package and they were completely overwhelmed. I asked if they were fully staffed and he said yes, just too many that wanted to "party". So there you have it.

Overall the cruise was quite good. MDR service was great overall.

Buffet could use better organization.

For those going on Reflection in the future, I am pretty confident you will be fine unless you are REALLY into letting details derail your good time. It does sound like if you have a large group onboard with many having an alcohol package then there could be similar issues to the Nov 30th cruise. Celebrity does need to address this. I would have been just as upset as those who experieced that....

Sailing away from St Thomas as writing this from the Reflection sunset bar. It is packed. No one is waiting for drinks. There are 3/4 bartenders working very hard. There are servers taking orders but we got two seats at the bar. Can't comment on length before serving but seems all is fine. Inside the bar they are checking on people regularly.

Have not been poolside since day 1. I would say don't expected service on the upper pool areas from what we have experienced. Buffet drink service hit or miss. More misses for us so far but the trend is reversing the past couple of days.

I can certainly see how the experiences of last week could happen. It seems there is either more staff or less beverage package this week. Both?

Hi All

Onboard Reflection now. Just want to help future cruisers by letting them know that while it is far from excellent the bar service experience is much better vs what is described here.

Will describe more when we return. Just wanted to get the info out that it seems like the last cruise was (hopefully) an anomaly.

Kevin

Hello all

On the Reflection right now and my iPhone 5s with an AT&T unlimited international package will not connect to the onwaves service. Searched here and found there have been previous issues but nothing recent. Is this still a known problem? Called AT&T and that was useless. I have used this exact plan on Eclipse three years ago, Millenium two years ago and the Eurodam last year. All worked with the cellular at sea service

Any help appreciated. We leave San Juan in a few hours

FYI I checked in at the ilounge and he said ATT has had issues for the past couple of weeks.

Thanks

Kevin