MisterBill99

We book Concierge class or Aqua class. I really like the C2 cabins on deck 12 of the S-class ships. the location alone is with the money. Walk right out to the pool or up one floor to the food. Aqua class has a nicer shower.

I guess you're a heavy sleeper (or early riser) or have never had a cabin underneath the buffet where carts come rolling out.

Just off the Solstice. No brunch offered on embarkation day for Aqua class. They did, however, offered a 3-dinner specialty dining package for $85 for Aqua guests only. I think the regular price was $99 for non-Aqua. They must be looking to lower the amount of people coming to eat in BLU for dinner.

Don't they already offer half price specialty dining the first night for AQ?

We're sailing a week from Sunday and still do not have our e-Docs. We originally received them in mid-April (and ordered and received our luggage tags), but then two weeks ago I upgraded to Aqua when the price dropped. Naturally the e-Docs went away on the website but they never got reissued. I've spoken to my TA, and she has spoken to Celebrity but nothing. I asked her again this week, and she logged into the Celebrity system and sent the link to me, but when I opened them they were still the old cabin. She's supposed to talk to Celebrity (again) to get this corrected, but I still don't have them. I have no reason to believe that she hasn't called since she's always been very responsive.

 

At this point I'm obviously not going to be able to get new luggage tags in the mail, which is unfortunate. I'm wondering if this sort of screw-up by Celebrity is common when switching cabins after the e-Docs have already been issued, or am I just lucky?

[quote name='wpgcycler']My duck in Blu on Reflection was cooked perfectly both times - pecan crusted and pomegranate glazed - and was tender with the fat layer perfectly rendered down to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch. Even though it was as tender as it should be, I would also prefer it carved into slices prior to plating.[/QUOTE]
Did they do it properly medium rare? I never managed to have the MDR serve my duck breast at the correct temp on Constellation last summer. Went thru 3 of them at dinner one night. And if you make the mistake of ordering it when it's on the lunch menu they'll tell you that it can't be cooked to order, even though the F&B Manager and Executive Chef will tell you otherwise (and I had one of them ask me for the name of the server when I told him about it; sadly I didn't remember it).

I agree that pre-sliced at dinner would be nice (and certainly the norm in restaurants) but if it's cooked properly, I can cut it myself.

We've done CC twice and would not do it again. The first time was because it seemed interesting and the cruise price had dropped (it was not past final payment). I didn't think the room perks were all that useful but we did have one of the bump balconies so that was nice. The second time was this past February and I decided to spend the extra $150pp because I wanted the extra points to get to Elite for our next cruise. Once again, not really worth it (at least the first time they brought afternoon snacks even if you forgot to fill out the form, not now), and even worse, our cabin on Silhouette was right underneath the buffet and I was woken up every morning by carts rolling around overhead. Oh, and neither time have we seen the alleged pillow menu.

 

On our cruise next week we're in Aqua because I was able to upgrade for only $80pp and I've wanted to eat at Blu for a long time.

Hope you get to see California Chrome win triple crown at Preakness !!

I think you meant Belmont.

I believe that on M-class ships, there is a grill area all the way at the back of the buffet (where waffles are at breakfast) where they will grill items to order. When we ate there on Constellation last summer, they had very thinly sliced rib steak, salmon and some other stuff. I'm not sure if they do this on S-class as well, hopefully someone can report.

 

I've always been a big fan of Celebrity sushi (we usually go before dinner) but the last couple of cruises the quality of the fresh fish (tuna/salmon) has not been as good as it had been in the past.

Although it says 6pm for blu, we found that it was open at 530 most nights. Check with the maitre'd once you're on board

Thanks, that is good to know. I thought it opened at 5:30 so I was surprised that it said 6 for the Bermuda nights.

Very interesting. May I ask are the games going to be shown just because it is for the Stanley Cup or is it because NY and whoever wins the next round to be able to play as well. It would be fantastic if you could show all the NHL games on your ships in the winter months I know my husband and a lot of other Canadian as well as American fans would be very happy with that.

I'm sure it's because it is the championship round. I don't think you can compare that to regular season games and expect those to be shown as well. Do they show regular season American football games on the ships? Those would come ahead of hockey.

 

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When we were on the Summit to Bermuda last May there were no hockey games on the TV. They did publish the results in the daily news for Canada and US. I doubt that even if NY is in the finals for the Stanly Cup they will have it on TV. My husband who is a avid hockey fan will not cruise when the Cup is being played. I have never seen them show hockey games on TV on any of our Caribbean cruises. My husband would love it if they did.

Well, I did see at least one game listed on the daily schedule in that other thread. So obviously they are able to do it this year.

 

I agree with gi_pam, we should let them know that we are interested when we board. Maybe we'll ask during the Cruise Critic Connections party so other people can voice their support.

I have to say, I'm disappointed in the offerings though. There's 2 movies, each shown once only (and while the ship is docked in Bermuda). And it seems like every second "event" is a sale on art, jewlery, spa, etc. The other "events" are mostly bands/duos playing with only a few other activites thrown in.

 

Our June 1st cruise is obviously set in stone but I think maybe I'll look around to see what works for our November cruise. If I can get something on another cruiseline I may be switching.

What else are you looking for? Are you going to tell us that the other cruise lines don't have similar sales? I don't really care about movies. I can watch those at home. If they were shown outside on a screen like Princess does, then it might be different.

Sorry, did not eat in the MDR as we were aqua... the food in BLU was super !!

 

Steve

 

 

Do you have Blu menus to post? :)

Thanks for posting these, I've been wanting to see what the schedules are for our upcoming cruise. Sadly it appears that Blu does not open until 6pm on nights that the ship is in port, which could make having a reasonably quick meal and heading back out for Harbor Nights a challenge.

 

I also see that Qsine was not open for lunch on Saturday as it had been in the past. Maybe already cancelled due to lack of reservations by the time this week's were printed.

What is even bigger than the Stanley Cup and will be shown ever day from the 12th Jun through 13th Jul is the World Cup - that will take priority over everything and good luck finding crew during the matches

Perhaps, but with the NY Rangers in the finals for the first time in 20 years and the ship sailing from NY, I think the Stanley Cup finals will be pretty popular.

 

I found the thread with the 2014 dailies:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2047248&page=2

Someone a couple days ago posted the dailies from the Bermuda trip and they showed a couple of the western conference games at a specific venue. I would imagine they will show the cup as well

Thanks! If you can find the link please post it because I'd like to see the dailies as well!

 

Update: found them!

But no perks with that price

I doubt they had $2000 in perks on their existing reservation.

We paid our final payment in April and now our Aqua Class cabin is down to 999.00 pp. Almost 1000.00 less than what we paid. I will never learn. I was going to cancel before final payment date but then said no. I know it happens but it is aggravating.

 

If you want Aqua class...they usually go up in price as the cruise date nears (if not sold out).

Aqua class has been ridiculously cheap on Bermuda cruises this summer (even for some in June). I'm not sure why, but it's $999 with resident/55+ discount on most cruises throughout the summer. Note that because it's a special, it cannot be combined with other offers (or existing reservations with offers).

 

I upgraded to A1 when it dropped to $1149 on my cruise a few weeks ago. I was in 2A for $80 less and got lucky because the $1149 was not flagged as a special fare (even though the Celebrity computers said it was when my TA tried to change it). Fortunately, she called Celebrity and got them to honor the fare and let me keep my existing perks (123 and on-board booking bonus). Given that the reviews I've read have all said that Blu on Summit is great, I've very glad I did the upgrade (I always wanted to try AQ but the price differential was always too high).

 

Last summer I was watching for Bermuda fare drops and they didn't happen nearly this early. In fact, by the time the price came down on June 1st for the cruise I was looking at in August, I had found a Baltic cruise for a ridiculous price and we did that instead.

To answer that question it depends on the weather, the performance of the stock market, and the price of gasoline.

I assume this is a joke since the stock market has been great yet fares are low.

So the NY Rangers are going to the Stanley Cup finals and we're sailing to Bermuda a week from Sunday. My son is a big Rangers fan. Is there any chance that Celebrity will show the games on board? I know they did not show the Olympics and I'm not optimistic about them having hockey, either. I guess we could find a restaurant/bar on the Dockyard for the one game when we're overnight in Bermuda and see if they're showing it. Streaming it with a phone would be prohibitively expensive, even with my Verizon international data plan (100mb for $25).

I recall reading on another thread here that the 123Go perk may be offered again after June 2nd for new bookings. So you may not lose that drink pkg after all, as long as you re-book prior to the 123Go promotion expiration, which will probably last about 1-2 months, based on past promotions. :D.

But you probably won't be able to get it with the promotional fares, and 123 may not apply to bookings until September.

 

Depending on where you live, Celebrity has had an amazing deal on Aqua class cabins on Bermuda cruises for the past week. $999 for NY residents or 55+, and likely other states as well (I checked NJ and it was there). Cheaper than Verandah in some cases. However, it would not be combinable with other offers.

 

I was able to upgrade to AQ for $1149 a few weeks ago because Celebrity had mistakenly not marked it as a special and my TA got them to give it to me and allowed me to keep 123Go and my on-board booking bonuses. I was paying a little less than that for a Verandah so I was able to upgrade (wouldn't have been able to had I paid more than $1149). I still consider it a bargain (especially since the bonuses I have are worth more than $300 per cabin).

I did a ship excursion my first time out and never again. Research can save you a lot of money. I think Tortola would be my only exception for the Baths

In general, the only reason an experienced and somewhat adventurous traveler would do the ship's excursion is if they are concerned about getting back in time for the cruise departure. So if you're in Cozumel and doing the Tulim ruins, you probably don't want to do it on your own since it's a long trip and often gets back very close to departure time. Probably the same for the Baths in Tortola that you mentioned. We did the excursion to go to Disney World when we stopped in Port Canaveral last year because I didn't want to have to deal with a rental car and returning it and getting back to the ship in time.

 

That said, there are plenty of people (including many experienced cruisers) who don't want to have to deal with planning things themselves, or simply feel more comfortable with a cruise excursion because of safety or timing issues and always use the ship's excursions.

Someone just asked about the mini golf place in Dockyard, and that's open until 10 (http://www.bermudasun.bm/Content/VIDEOS/Videos/Video/-The-best-mini-golf-course-in-the-world---/163/1052/200083). Fun, but a bit pricey at $15. I've done it twice and enjoyed it (and would do it again).

I know this is an old thread, but does anyone know if there are discount coupons for Fungolf? As you say, $15 is kind of pricey. I haven't seen anything online about discounts.

 

We will be in Bermuda in a couple of weeks for 3 days on Summit. I booked a catamaran sailing the last day so we will be back by 1 and I figure that will be a good time for mini-golf before the ship leaves.

Transportation passes ( 1, 2, or 3 day unlimited use of buses and ferries) are different from the ticket books, which have 15 tickets each good for one bus or ferry ride. They have not always sold the ticket books at Dockyard...they did last year and the year before, but it appears as though they are not this year.

 

If you need to take just one ride you can buy a token for $4.

Thanks, I figured that out from the website that Urban trekker posted the link to.

Check out this web site - it has a wealth of information on Bermuda - the passes are available at the dockyard but not at present the ticket books.

Thanks. We're going to be there in 2 weeks for 3 days. I had a credit at a shore excursion site from my TA so I just booked a catamaran snorkel trip for the last day (the only day they had it for) so I'm thinking we should probably get a 2 day pass and just stay local to the pier on the 3rd day after we get back from the snorkeling, which will probably be around 1 (and the ship leaves at 4:30).

I am confused. When you say "ticket book" do you mean the all (or 3) day pass? And I don't understand about them not selling it at the pier (which I thought they did, and even did right on Summit on at least one cruise). Would you then have to pay the single ticket price for the first ride before you're able to get the all day pass?