Lisamarie18

15 hours ago, Reel Love said:

Yikes!  We are a group of seven on the Equinox in June and have booked our reservations in MDR already but seemingly this no longer matters.  For your saved table, did your group attend the dining room at the "same time" as your original reservations or did you have to go earlier than the time you had reserved?  Any advice/insight would be appreciated.  TIA

@Reel Love, we all were there at the time of the reservation.  We also got left the note suggesting that we eat later as well.  We just kept showing up for our reservation and it did end up working out - it was just the first night that was so chaotic.  But Celebrity shouldn't allow reservations if it doesn't work operationally for them....

We were on the December 22 equinox sailing. Made reservations for our group of eight for most nights. Showed up on the first night and was told that the reservation didn’t mean anything and that we would need to wait. This of course made no sense to me because what was the point of the reservation? A manager came up while I was speaking with the hostess and he did get us seated. After that, it seem to go more smoothly, they would save our table for us. 

 Hi all,

I’ve seen posts with varying degrees of success with L&S.  Spoiler alert : no exceptions made.  Here’s what happened with us.   We were originally booked on a December 14, 2020, 9 night cruise on reflection, southern.

When lift and shift came out, I checked to see what was being offered.  The only option offered was November 19, 2021, nine night equinox, ABC’s .   We really wanted to travel in December so I started making some calls. My travel agent was of no help. I called directly several times and probably on the fifth time, I got someone who understood the issue. We were willing to change to the Millennium 10 night southern departing 12/13/21 and pay for an extra night. After a week of waiting, it was rejected by the revenue team. We had a great deal on the cruise so I understood somewhat.  

 Our deposits were nonrefundable so we considered just taking the whole amount as a FCC. I just applied for a lift and shift for the November 19 cruise just to put off the decision a little longer without putting more money down.  I’m waiting to hear confirmation of that cruise. 

Congratulations to those of you that had better luck than me!

Great blog, I really have enjoyed reading this!

 Have a wonderful time! Love the ship, we just got off of it on January 3.  

Not sure if you have select dining or not,  but if you get the chance, try to see yourself with Basilio, Singh and Basel (Somm). Great service. Also, we got in the habit of stopping in Cellar Masters before dinner to grab a glass of Caymus to bring in with us, needed to burn some OBC. 

 Looking forward to following along with your review! 

I was on the 12/27 Reflection and ours was day 2 (key west) and day 5 (NYE and Cozumel). Looking on the menus via the app helped me figure out which nights were evening chic

We at at Sushi on Five as part of a dining package. Dollar amount was 'supposed' to be a max of $35pp.  They told us just to order whatever we wanted...   I have heard of 'all you can eat' offers in the $25-35 range.

 I’ve been on the Reflection twice, just got off on January 3. Overall, I found the food very good, but I do agree with you in terms of some of the desserts.  The cakes are sweet, but no discernible flavor. I thought the cheesecake and crème brûlée in the main dining room was very good and some of the items from Cafe Al Bacio (lemon tarts and cookies are great).

On the last cruise, we were sitting in Café Al Bacio and we ordered one coconut cupcake to split.  The server brought over another type of cupcake as well.  I really didn’t like it either and she stopped by to ask us what we thought.    I politely said that I wasn’t a big fan of either while my cousin said that she really liked the pistachio one.  The server laughed and said it was pineapple. You could tell she knew they weren’t very good either 🙂  The cake was stale and the frosting was super sweet with no flavor   

I do think the ice cream in oceanview café was very good as well as some other desserts in the specialty restaurants. It’s probably just as well that I don’t love all the desserts, haha!

I had same thing happen - expected $300 from Celebrity (and that it what paperwork showed), but received $400.  Kept expecting it to vanish, but it was there when we cruised so we spent it!  TA OBC showed up on the second day of the cruise.

 I traveled with a group at New Year’s on reflection. We all downloaded the app and used it for texting. It was easy to use and we did get notifications when we received texts.   It was useful to look at the schedule for events. I didn’t really check menus that often, but I did notice that the last night menu was incorrect in the app. For the texting alone, I think it is worth it  

@Country_Cruiser67 it worked great!  No delays in delivering messages and we definitely got notifications via both the phone and the app.  Have a great time, such a great ship!

@MR_T please let me know if you have any specific questions that I can answer...

I meant to add a section for the Celebrity app - texting worked great. You will already be linked to whomever you are sharing your cabin with and can link to others by either adding name or room number (can't remember), and then easy to do. I have a iphone 8 and I received notifications on my phone as well as a red indicator on the app that a message was waiting. My phone vibrated when a new message arrived, but my cousin's phone beeped...

The menus were mostly correct, but last night was a different menu.

Thanks again for this great community of cruisers - so many tips and ideas picked up from all of you!  A quick recap of our recent NYE cruise.

Pre-cruise

A little about us - myself (56), my sister (54), my cousin (53), my niece (18) and my mom (80, turned 81 on NYE). We have only cruised once before, a year ago on the Reflection Christmas cruise. We are pretty laid back and try to make the best of everything and have reasonable expectations. We booked a veranda, but changed to Concierge when prices dropped after final payment. All of the adults upgraded to the premium alcohol package. This cruise was to the Western Caribbean with stops in Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Costa Maya.

We flew out Christmas morning in to FLL.  Stayed at the Dania Beach Cambria Hotel.  It was inexpensive and felt like it, haha! The hotel is tired and outdated and the food in the restaurant was terrible, but we had packed wine in our suitcases and ordered food off Grubhub and spent the rest of the day at the beach so totally fine. 

The following day, we all went to Margaritaville using a day pass to the pool area.  I think the passes were $50 per person. Worth every penny.  It was a delightful, relaxing day there and we would all do it again.

Embarkation

We arrived around 10am, checked in easily and then waited until about 10:45 or so to board. Concierge was called immediately after suites. We skipped past the champagne welcome and took care of a few house-keeping issues. We had purchased the Trio dining package (2 dinners, 1 lunch) and I was able to make reservations for everything at Murano for the times and dates we wanted (day 1 dinner was not required). We eat on the early side at 6:30/7:00.

Then off to the Sunset Bar to meet some friends. About 30 minutes before muster, we went to the Ensemble lounge to grab seats for my mom. Muster was fine, it went fast, but honestly, I couldn’t see the presentation and I would rate my emergency-preparedness as pretty low.

MDR

Even with my limited cruising experience, I knew not to expect too much on the first night. I should have had lower expectations.  Not sure whether we had a new team, but it was a mess. If we asked the waiter for something, we were told to ask the assistant waiter. And the sommelier? Never came by even after requesting him a few times. I ended up going to Cellar Masters and bringing wine back for everyone. Towards the very end of dinner, the sommelier walked up to the table, saw the empty wine glasses and said ‘I see you have wine’ and walked away. We love our wine and this wasn’t going to be a good fit for us 🤣

We returned to the MDR on night 4 (after dinner at Murano and a night at the buffet) and requested a new table. The new team was filled with rock stars and we really enjoyed the rest of the week there with them.  At home, I eat a whole foods plant based diet, but eat like a vegetarian on the ship. To get a decent amount of veggies, you need to ask for sides - and the team was really great about getting them for me. 

BTW, dinner at the buffet was so relaxing - sitting outside enjoying the breeze with plenty of options for everyone.

Specialty Restaurants

On day 2 (chic night), we had dinner in Murano. Very enjoyable. Funny story – my family is small and fairly quiet, but we were in the middle of family story, laughing hysterically, when another diner approached us and told us that ‘our voices were dominating the room and disturbing him’. Literally ever the first time we have been told that we were being loud. The staff rushed over and apologized, but we really didn’t let it bother us, although we became very cognizant of our volume for the rest of the dinner.  We continued to run into him around the ship the entire week and gave him side-eyes, haha!

On day 4, we went to Sushi on Five for apps (but really, just to try the drink menu). Everything was delicious and we immediately changed our dinner at Tuscan on day 6 to Sushi on Five. The lobster ramen and the rolls were a big hit.  For the Trio package, we asked how it would work for sushi - and they told us 'order whatever you want'.  We tried our hardest, but we came in at about $78 for the meal when the package would have covered $105. For our cruise, the restaurant had a crowd every night. 

Bars

We spent most of our time at the Sunset, Martini and World Class. There were always seats available whenever we went (and we were there A LOT). Service was fast with very little waiting.  We do typically tip a $1/drink.

New Year’s Eve

NYE was on day 5 and it was a chic night. The MDR served the lobster/baked Alaska menu. It was also my mom’s birthday and they brought out a small chocolate cake (it wasn’t great so don’t be sad if you don’t get one).

This is just my perception, but there didn’t seem to be lots of NYE parties around the ship – just the one on the deck. We went up there around 10:45 or so after fortifying ourselves with a few expresso martinis.  Glasses of bubbly were being offered as you entered. There was a DJ and crazy blue lighting everywhere. The hot tubs had been filled with ice and bottles of bub with someone guarding it. At midnight, guests were allowed to grab the bottles of bubbly. We stayed up on deck until about 1:00am dancing and then headed to the buffet which had more offerings on it compared to the other nights. I wish I could tell you what was there, but I was focused on the pizza and French fries….

Debarkation

Fairly easy - we had breakfast in the MDR and then went up a level to wait in the Concierge area. They stopped and started debarkation many times because the terminal was too crowded, but the concierge would come in and get you if your flight was leaving by x time. This has nothing to do with Celebrity - but it is so annoying to have the porters cut in line in the terminal. I hollered at one man because he almost took my mother out with his cart.  This time, Immigration had 3 distinct lines and it went quickly.

It was a wonderful cruise and I'm looking forward to booking another one!

Yes, just got off the reflection yesterday and we had same package. All the restaurants are included in the offer. The Porch was delicious, but super warm  in the afternoon sun at lunch with all the glass windows. 

@Xport, great to hear!

Thanks all! Great feedback, I’ll see what is available once we board, I appreciate all the recommendations and wish all of you a happy holiday!

 Hi all,   

 We are on the Reflection on 12/27. I purchased the Trio dining package which includes two dinners and one lunch. Has anyone dined at Tuscan Grille on refraction recently?  It always gets such mixed reviews, I’m wondering if it’s worth it? We are also having dinner at Murano and lunch at The Porch. 

 Thanks so much!

Lisa

Hi, we sailed at Christmas last year and there were no dining packages available. This year, we have a New Year’s Eve cruise and I had spotted the trio dining package in my cruise planner. $100 for 2 dinners and a lunch.  I grabbed it immediately. I haven’t seen it again nor any three or four night dining packages, but just check once a week or so during a sale  Good luck!

I noticed the same thing for our New Year’s eve cruise this year. We were on the Reflection last year for the Christmas cruise and we spent Christmas night in Murano and they offered the standard menu....

@calicakes I’d love to say I thought of it but I’m pretty sure I read about the idea on here 🙂   Enjoyed your review! Thanks for taking the time to do it

We sailed last Christmas, six of us in three adjoining cabins.  I think we left our room steward  $40 per cabin. In MDR, $40 each per cabin for waiter, assistant waiter and sommelier individually. We typically tipped per drink at the bars and then gave tips at the end of the trip to the bartenders that we hung out with the most.  On Christmas morning we left our steward  a small bag with 4-5 chocolate truffles, a card and a small cash gift as well to wish him a happy holiday spent away from his family. We keep the auto gratuities on. 

 We are cruising this year for New Year’s Eve and plan to tip similarly.  I always bring some blank cards and envelopes and write a thank you note.  

Hi @clj7181, cheers to your cruise, looking forward to your posts!  Quick question, I just purchased a dining package - where do you go to make the dining reservations when you board the ship?  Did you have any difficulties getting the times that you wanted?

 Thanks so much and have a wonderful cruise! 

56 minutes ago, jptoz said:

You can upgrade right from the cruise planner?  I have the classic package as a perk and I was wonder how to upgrade and how much.

@jptozand @yorky, That was the information I was given on my first call. I called back again and was told that the premium plus package is not available as an upgrade if you were given a classic beverage package as a perk

I would just ask your TA for Celebrity Cruises guest copy. I have worked with two different  TAs in the past and they don’t send it automatically but will send it when I request it....

@hiccups originally I called and asked for an upgrade to Prem + which they said they added, but my paperwork showed just Premium. Cost was $10 + 20%. I ended up cancelling and will wait to see if a sale pops up...