hampshirelad

Just come off the Reflection and their Adriatic Cruise . Very - very few dinner jackets. Some sports jackets and smart shirts without a tie. Few long dresses. It has become more casual over the years. I don't know what Cunard's like these days, but they tend to be more "dressy"

We have them as we are Captains Club Elite and are very useful. Be warned do not send delicate clothes or things with a loose weave as they will shrink ! Did not notice until we got back home.

Went on the Encore in April - Canaries . There might have been the odd DJ, but in the minority. Sports jackets and blazers were the dress of choice

Got of the Reflection on the 4th July. There was no self service in the Oceanview with everything being served to your plate. The Captain was refreshingly transparent about the Covid onboard. Seemed to average around 20 with some arriving and leaving their confinement. Very high standards of hygiene and constant cleaning throughout . A great improvement on a Seabourn cruise we took in March were the Buffet was self service and we came home with a Covid bonus

We got off the Reflection on the 4th July . We had 1700 approx on board. We were told the next cruise was fully booked. Capt was very transparent about Covid and kept us up top date with numbers, which was refreshing. Seemed to be about 20 confined normally, with some leaving and others arriving.. Hygiene was top notch , with constant cleaning and no helping yourself from the buffet.

Noticed from the App, that the Luminae Dining Menu only showed only showed 4 red wines within the packages. Hope that improves by the Cruise. . The MDR has 7 choices ! Certainly a lot more available when we last Cruised - August 2021

Our experience as Elite plus - 15 % Discount It makes it quite clear that "First Night Discounts " for example cannot be combined with other Discounts ( Elite and Elite plus ) We do not purchase meal packages and I can see that is going to be a long conversation to get your discount and best sorted before the meal. When dining as Couple or a Group and making the booking onboard. All people at the table will need to hand over their Cabin Card (if they are entitled) for the discount to be applied to each meal There is a lack of understanding by the servers around this and so be prepared to stand your ground or make arrangements with the Restaurant manager to deal with it later.

If you are Elite Plus and dine in the specialist Restaurants make sure each person at the table hands over their cabin card otherwise you will not get the discount on both or more diners.

Have been through all of this for our cruise 24th June / Rome / Reflection You are travelling on Sat the 23rd so you can do your test anytime on Thursday 21st Boots only do them at a few big branches and the majority of these tests are done on line . The test is posted to you in advance and you book a time to connect with them via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. You are them observed taking the test and the result . The certificate is then emailed to you . My daughter in law recently had to travel to USA to a Conference and used this one which we have booked https://www.google.com/search?q=breathe+assured+covid+test&rlz=1C1ONGR_en-GBGB980GB980&oq=Breathe+Assurred+&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i13l9.8078j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 If you look up coupon codes you can get 10 % off. Hope this helps

Our E Docs appeared on our on line account about 16 days before sailing on the 24th June. These contain the luggage tags which can be printed. Previously E Docs were greyed out . The luggage tags pull down on the online account which had been previously greyed out sprang to life and could have been printed from that. To add to the confusion the App shows none of this. The two do not seem to be sync. The online account still shows that I have not entered my personal details while the App shows "good to go " UK Celebrity cannot answer phone calls as they have been overwhelmed with success for the last 2 years. Our T/A has become invisible once they had the final payment. You cannot keep blaming Covid. for such poor service Every week I get an Assertive Email from Planet Miami telling me I have to turn up at the port at a certain time although they control the flights and transport. Perhaps instead of building ships Celebrity could invest a few million £ in Admin. and staff it with personal familiar with the cultural differences throughout their customer base. If this is the new normal

We are travelling on Reflection 24th June I have an online account and I have also loaded the App I booked through a T/A but I still got the booking form and attachments direct from Celebrity and on that were the flight locator codes. The only place I could see them was on the E Docs, buts that's no good if you cannot access them.. They are not on the App or the online account cruise details. Our E Docs and luggage tabs were available, online, for the first time yesterday. Previously they had been "greyed out" That's about 17 days before sailing I have found this last Cruise very tedious with such poor Admin and confusing communication. Phone lines have not been supported for months Hope that helps.

What is the procedure please for printing off your luggage labels. In the past it was always part of the online check in procedure and it just happened. Now that box is greyed out with "pending" against it. Looking at the APP ! - I can see nothing there My worst nightmare would be completing them on the dock Many thanks

I normally go for the direct route as there is less chance of losing your luggage and it not appearing until the end of the cruise. You are correct Vueling are xx!xx !, but I presume you are a UK resident so by purchasing the flight through Celebrity you will be buying a package so they have the responsibility to get you to the ship.

We used "check in" on the App to load a security photo and our vaccination records. These were downloaded in our case from NHS UK. The app only allows you to upload three vaccination records. The initial two and one booster. We have had the second booster which we shall take in paper form. We found that it took well over a week for the App to validate and accept the vaccination records, so as all things with Celebrity, the uncertainty, is another 5 minutes off your life !

One tip - if you are Elite plus and entitled to a 15 % discount , and dining as a couple or group then it is important that you hand all the cabin passes or whatever to the server to get the discount for all diners in the group. Foe example dining as a couple and you hand over one pass you will only get 15% off the total bill not the entitled 30%. Our experience was that the servers and or MD did not understand this . We have usually got deals on the first and last night. However last cruise we were a bit disappointed in the meals. It seems too much theatre and deconstructed ingredients.

Megabear 2 . Like you I am a UK resident. Last week I uploaded we uploaded our three shots by use of the camera facility on the App. Photographing it from the NHS printout . It took over a week to be validated and I thought that perhaps the image might be faulty, but have become nearly brain dead in dealing with this App ! so left it. In fact we have been boosted twice because of our age, but there was no facility to load this on the App!!

We are on Reflection on the 24th June. This was our experience in March with another line If you go on a cruise ship the likelihood is that you will catch Covid. The test at embarkation is just a snapshot in time. The question is - will you have very mild symptoms, unnoticeable those around you and carry on as usual . or something more serious which takes you to isolation. If you buy into all this waffle about "Healthy at Sea " then you will be disappointed In March we went on a cruise with Seabourn. Despite all the warm words, and waffle about health at sea there was the option help yourself from the breakfast and lunch buffet, close gatherings in the theatre and deck. There was a strict mask and sanitising regime which everyone brought into, but by the end of the cruise I suspect that around 30% were positive, most just keeping their heads down, a few on the isolation deck. I guess Seabourn just turned a blind eye to most of it , to save the cost of disembarking people. We did not feel we had Covid, but still tested positive when we got home. Luckily we did not need to test to return to the UK. There is no way we would Cruise if we had to test negative before returning home, the disease is far too contagious. You can sanitize your hands till the skin falls of, but its not going to help you.

Spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to set up the App. Will not accept the password Trying to reset the password results in it asking for a security question which was not the one nominated. You just go around in an endless loop I think there is a vacancy at Celebrity for a Systems and Communication Manager