rjrpar

Many cruisers go to Orient Beach in St. Martens. It's about a $8.00 cab ride per person. Chairs and umbrellas are about $25 for 2. Big beach with lots to do. Some nudity.

People dress the same way on Celebrity as they do on Carnival with one exceptions. More people dress for dinner in the MDR, on Carnival about 15-20% underdress, whereas on Celebrity it is much lower, maybe 5%. Just my observations.

A few wrinkles are fine, you'll fit right in. Relax, you are on vacation and no one is looking.

Are flowered island shirts acceptable attire on Celebrity Caribbean cruises?

People dress on Celebrity much like they do on RCCL and Princess. I have fever noticed any differences.

Entertainment is very subjective. We have loved some shows that our seat neighbours hated, and vice versa. We disliked the signature production shows 'Eclipse' and 'Silhouette' for example. While one can only be impressed by the skills of the performers, aerial acrobats, jugglers and dancing are not really what we would define as entertainment.

 

The one exception to the general rule seemed to be the Chinese face changing guy - his theatre performance was absolutely rammed and we never heard anything except fulsome praise for him and his act!

Totally agree. You seldom get good answers to such a subjective question.

We cruise every February, Presidents Day is the first thing we check. We love kids but I would definitely rebook a different week.

Just back from our first cruise with Celebrity. Overall, we had a great time....only ONE reason we may not cruise with Celebrity again and that would be the music. Music is really based on personal preference so sure others will like it, but we found it was too loud by the pool and in the main foyer of the ship. Most of if was a rock type music and just not our style.

 

We enjoy dancing in the evenings and the only dance music was from a DJ from 5 to 6pm...way too early if you have the late seating. We heard the cruise director mention many times that Celebrity is going for an "edgy" feel on their ships and I would say they are getting this....again...a choice of personal style...just not ours. The good thing about Reflection is it is so large you can always find a great spot to hang out. I personally just stayed on our beautiful balcony most of the time!

 

But besides the music, we loved the food, service and production type shows in the evenings. We were in a sky suite with butler service and that was amazing. Blu restaurant is GREAT. I promise to write a longer review when I have time, but happy to answer any questions regarding the ship! For now...back to laundry! :)

Nice review, thanks. We also don't care for loud music, hope is softer on the Eclipse in a few weeks.

Can one book an open passage on a Celebrity cruise for use towards a RCCL cruise?

Thanks in advance

The price to cruise is relatively cheap on Royal. A lot cheaper than in the past, IMHO :)

That's right, with the number of cabins that need to be filled each week, they are priced to sell. But remember, you get what you pay for. As someone else said, if you want the cruise experience if 25 years ago, go with a luxury line.

I think it will be wildly profitable for RCL. With the whole northeast within a day's drive, it will make a mint.

Just like the Explorer the last several years. But we will never know, RCI doesn't release ship level financials

I am about to hit my 19th Carnival cruise next month so I understand. I did two Celebrity cruises this year and they quickly became a line that I love. My two Celebrity cruises were out of the country (Asia and Norway) so I am not sure if that makes a difference. However, I will tell you the main reason I like Celebrity so much. It is peaceful. You will not get annoyed with drink waiters, loud announcements, noisy pool areas, tons of photographers, etc. It is all very low key. I always think 'Casual Elegance" when I think of Celebrity. Plus the ships are beautiful and elegantly subdued. Huge fan.

Very good post. We have done only 3 Carnival cruises and I agree they are not as elegant as X. However, I do think Carnival provides great value, comparable MDR food, a very good steakhouse, and good entertainment in their lounges. They often get overly criticized on cc boards of other cruise lines.

Go with a standard balcony and use the money to eat more often in the Specialty restaurants. Food quality is much better than Blu

I think the production shows are usually good, we go to all of them. We have not noticed a big difference in show quality between cruise lines, but some shows are much better than others, often depending on what you enjoy. However, if your standard is Broadway, you will be disappointed - get what you pay for.

Agree 100% with the OP. Seems like most people judge a CD by how often they converse with the passengers. The true measure of a good CD is the quality of entertainment and activities that they provide on the cruise.

Needs some paragraphs, it's a struggle to read

Me neither, but on saying that - a few free glasses of wine and some discount coupons wouldn't make or break a cruise for me

Good post. Seems like some posters live for the freebies, it's more about the C&A benefits than the cruise.

No one is going to miss the ship. All the responses will be the last 2 choices, which are really the same.

Thanks everyone for the input. I too can't for life of me understand why the delay on revealing more aspects of Quantum. I think if they are not careful they may lose interest instead of gaining it. I am trying to plan cruise for summer of 15 and still nothing yet. I am hoping to hear something soon so I can begin planning. Seriously if they read our posts, please give us something and soon please. Thank you

I don't think losing interest will be a problem in filling the Quantum for a long time. The Explorer still sails at full capacity after many years in NJ. Prices on the Quantum continue to go up for cruises more than a year away.

We were in St.Lucia last year on a very busy port day. Spencer told us that he had 160 people booked for tours that day, a record for him. Well, it turned out to be a disaster as soon as everyone arrived at the beach at about 1:00pm. I won't go into details but beware of Spencer, he will book beyond his capability.

We are in Antigua today. Like everyday on this cruise, we had rain showers. But on the whole it is beautiful. We booked a Segway tour from a company that is well reviewed by TripAdvsior (Segway of Antigua?). There were two Eclipse passengers (a nice couple from Pompano Beach) that had booked as well and was part of our group. It is somewhat surprising how fast you can get the hang of driving one.

 

When we pulled into the port, the old Mercury (Mein Schiff 2) was there to greet us. We docked right along side of her today.

 

Yesterday we were at St Lucia and took a two tank dive in front of the beautiful Pitons. There were two experienced divers (passengers) from the Eclipse that joined us at the last minute by just blindly showing up at the ferry dock looking for diving space. They were great people. The coral, underwater terrain, and fish were absolutely amazing. We used Iyanola Divers. We will use them again when we do our 1/4/2015 Eclipse cruise.

 

Our 18 yr old son developed what we thought was a perforated ear drum (from diving). The ship's doctor told us that he simply had an ear infection. He will not be able to dive for the rest of the cruise (or get his ear wet which limits most water activities). But he is still just loving his cruise. He loves getting room service at midnight as his fourth meal. Teenagers and their metabolism....

 

Meanwhile our hometown of Chicago is enduring a deep freeze. I guess we picked a great time to be gone.

 

Crew is doing a fabulous job. I am extremely impressed how pristine the ship is (I remember being a bit disappointed with the shape of Galaxy when we boarded her at roughly the same age (1998) as Eclipse is now). The ship and cruise experience is absolutely fantastic.

We did the segways in Antigua 2 years ago and had a blast. Nice beachfront restaurant by the Segway office.

Thanks for sharing and have a great cruise.

Greetings

 

Sorry, but that is wrong. With the Classic package if the drink is over $8 you pay the full price. With the Premium package if the drink is over $12 you pay the difference.

 

Good Sailing

Tom

doesn't seem quite fair

We are not Elite yet (all four of us including the kids will be Elite after the conclusion of this cruise), so I did not know the answer to this question. But I asked terryrallent1 (Elite Plus) this question during the bridge tour today and he told me that they are NOT doing vouchers and that the cocktails are served in the Sky Lounge.

thanks

Probably not relevant to the O.P. but if anyone is planning tours in St.Petersburg you need to give yourselves plenty of time, especially on the first day you are there. It took us an hour and a half to get through immigration last year.

Took us 10 minutes in August in St.P, The Russian tour operators are well aware of immigration times.

RCCL is the obvious choice

Just a quick note to let you know that we are on the 12/28 14 night Eclipse sailing and everything is going well. We are concluding our first full day of the cruise (at sea day). A couple of observations:

 

Embarkation was easy. The check in area had several different lines to get to the 42 booths that were setup. There was a separate line for Zenith members and one for Elite Plus. Select and Elite were combined together in one line.

 

CC party was held on Deck 4 in Cellar Masters area at 11:15am. Our CC registration was 98 people. I am not sure how many people actually attended. However the event was well attended by several Celebrity staff including the Captain. Celebrity announced that they were going to set up a CC group bridge tour later in the sailing which is a nice touch.

 

Ship is in good shape. staff is quite pleasant, and we have enjoyed our meals at the Main Dining Room.

Mahdnc, Great posts and hope you're having a great time. Can you tell us if they are using vouchers for the Elite cocktail hour. thanks, we are on the 3/8 sailing