michaelbyrns

We are on that cruise as well - Reflection Dec 7th, 2018. Been on quite a few and look forward to it. See you then

TBH the UK prices are not that different if you've always booked through the UK - for example my 1st cruise with X was 2 years ago @£3300 for 11 nights on Eclipse in a C3 inc classic drinks package (£300 per night) then last year a 14 nights on Eclipse in a C3 inc classic drinks package @ £4000 (£285 per night) and then this July a 10 night in a C3 on Refelection @£3300 inc drinks package and grats (£330 per night) and we have another booked for Oct, 10 nights on Eclipse inc drinks package and grats @ £330 (£330 per night)

 

We have looked at a 14 night on Sillouette next May to the Baltics in a C3 @ £4200 inc drinks package (£300 per night)

 

All prices based on per cabin for 2 people

 

In other words even though the UK currency exchange rate has collapsed since the Brexit vote last year U.K. pricing per night on X is very stable

 

2 years ago it was cheaper (because of exchange rate) if we had booked through a US travel agent, last year 6 and 2 threes and this year it is much more expensive to book through a US ta

 

My guess is that X needs to control "local" pricing otherwise no one in the U.K. could afford to book X if it was always tied to $/£ conversion rates

 

At the moment those from the US or Canada may find it cheaper booking through the U.K. but with "NO CHANGES ALLOWED" .... you pays your money and make your choice !

So you guys have no change options? Here we are paying a very high deposit, which we can cancel and get fully refunded all the way up to the full payment date, which I think is 3 months before cruise date. In your case, you make your deposit, which is not refundable at all? That makes it harder to plan far in the future cruises like ours which is Dec 2018.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

What I still find strange and very unfair is that you folks in the UK are paying substantially less money for this cruise than are us folks from Canada for the identical cabin. For example, for the cabin we have, it would cost you 3090 pounds. vs 3893 pounds for us.

But we are still looking forward to the cruise. Hopefully, by the time we cruise at the end of 2018, they will not be charging extra for the MDR dinners (grin), just leaving the buffet included in the cost. Or taking it further (as a joke) the meal will be included, but cutlery will be an extra surcharge.

I am sailing on the Reflection in 2 weeks time, and am looking forward to it. The last Celebrity ship i sailed on was the Eclipse in 2013, so it will be interesting to see changes between the two. I did have reservations after reading some of the posts on this board, but after sailing on the P&O Britannia in May, i changed my mindset.

 

I found myself the whole cruise comparing it to Celebrity, as did my Mum who had sailed on the Reflection in April. The food choices were not great. 4 "main" dishes in the buffet on a lunch, some salad and some sandwiches. I loved the Caesar salad station on the Eclipse, and was hoping P&O would have something similar. I couldn't even find any iceberg lettuce or croutons! The burger bar round the pool was the worst i have encountered on a ship. They were pre-cooked and wrapped (not to order) and placed on a tray under a heat lamp. By the time you pick one up and sit down they are cold! My favourite money saving scheme was the "fruit juice machine" in the buffet. It was so obviously watered down, and after breakfast had finished, it only dispensed water for the rest of the day! The cheek! In the coffee shop, you could only have one cake per coffee purchased, and there were 5 options to choose from. I could go on and on, but i think in comparison to other lines, Celebrity still take the lead in terms of food quality and choice.

 

I really hope the Mast grill is still free by the time i sail as its a great alternative to the buffet!

An interesting situation. Was told here in this thread by one of the very helpful folks in the UK (Thanks for your comments), that the prices for the cruise do not seem to be the same in different countries, even taking into consideration the exchange rate. Seems that Celebrity feels that they can milk us poor sun starved Canadians for a much higher fare price for the same cruise. For example, my cruise is the December 7, 2018 Reflection cruise. I am paying $6344 CDN (including the Basic Drinks) and the UK folks are paying the equivalent of $5034 CDN with the same drinks package. So I am paying $1300 more for the exact same product. That seems rather unfair. I have not checked what it would cost from the US site, but I assume that it is also less based on some of the comments here. Anyone else looked into this, especially from Canada?

What we certainly found disconcerting was has different the two ships were at the same time. Went first on the Reflection - all was great, really impressed with everything. The food was Ok, service, etc. Then two weeks later on the Eclipse, and the reverse. The same menu in the MDR it seemed, but smaller portions and less taste. Had to return a few meals. I always take photos of my meals, just as I do for so many parts of the trips I have been on. I saw the difference in those photos. Then the difference in the buffet breakfast. Reflection served these very tasty large croissants - next ship, small mingy ones that seemed dry. Etc for so many things regarding the food. Had I not been on the two ships one after the other, I might not have noticed the differences. In addition, the configuration of the ship itself, somewhat different in the places to sit in shade on the higher decks. Less on the Eclipse. I had thought that there would have been less structural differences. After the second cruise, we determined not to bother again with the Eclipse as the Reflection seemed to have been a better experience. We felt the Reflection was almost perfect but had a lot of complaints on the other. Also the cooling. We found the Reflection, OK, but the Eclipse was too hot, The MDR was kept too warm as was the showroom and other places.

So that is why we chose to repeat our cruise again on this ship, even though we were not happy with the removal of the two ports and the increase in cost. We are looking forward to this cruise, hopefully, it will be OK.

We are Canadian so perhaps a premium increase for exchange rate. We are paying for a C2 concierge level 10 cabin $6344 CDN including nothing but the classic drink package included in the deal. Just booked last week with a $960 deposit (also increased since our last time. We went last time on the Reflection for a week cruise and then did a week in Fort Lauderdale and then rejoined for a two week cruise similar to this one (except no St Kitts or St Marteen, both of which we liked). This cruise stays for two days in another port (I assume for them to save money on fuel). On the last trips in Feb 2015, we found that the food, service, and just about everything else was better on the Reflection and worse on the Eclipse, so that is why I booked this time on this ship. Do you know anything about a new charge for the pool hamburger place? When we went that was included.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Last cruises were on the Reflection and Eclipse I think in February 2015. We found the Reflection far superior in so many ways. Now we have booked another cruise on the REFLECTION in Dec 2018. After reading on these boards how much the quality has decreased, I am wondering if I should just cancel my booking. I see that on the Equixox, there is now a charge for the hamburger place near the pool, and that it is now no longer included. I see people mention that less and less is covered in the classic drink package. I see people saying that the quality of the food in the MDR has decreased even more. Service is less. Maybe we will we told at the last minute that our cruise has been chartered by others and we are out of luck?

So am I reading right for these multiple messages? Has it gone down so much in quality? We are elite members and obviously taken a number of celebrity's cruises. I tend to plan my travel long in advance due to large commitments, etc. This will be a lot of money to spend if there has been this large drop, and at the same time an increase of $1500 over the cost we paid two years ago for the identical cruise.

Your views appreciated.

Michael

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I thought that this was already addressed sufficiently but I have seen some very interesting and spirited comments from folks.

I think that people generally break down into certain groups on this matter -

1. Smokers (most of which are considerate to others)

2. Smokers (don't care about others, and smoke wherever they feel like)

3. Non-Smokers (folks that are not bothered by the smell or smoke)

4. Non-Smokers (who are bothered, but don't like to say anything)

5. Non-Smokers (folks like me who have health issues and really have a problem)

6. Non-Smokers (Those of us who are not going to tolerate it in the few places that we have left. You may say that a smoker is entitled to smoke in their own spots. Well, I am getting their second hand smoke. You might not care, but for those who have respiratory problems, or cardiac issues, the smoke reduces our breathing capacity.

Regarding this turkey who smoked on the balcony, it meant that the folks on either side of him (especially in the adding partition cabins) were not able to keep their cabin door open during it. Should those of us lose this benefit of a balcony for the duration of our cruises? Does this turkey have more rights than we do?

In these cases, the first line of defense is your cabin stewart, if he can do nothing, you have to take it up a notch and report it to the front desk. Then you might hear that they sent someone there and nothing was done as they saw no evidence and the people said they did not smoke out there. If you are on a short one week cruise, and you don't want to lose half of your trip getting this resolved, you had better do the exact same thing. Take a photo, and if the people are there smoking at the time and see you, even better. Take that photo immediately to the front desk and you will see that it is taken care of immediately. Hopefully these folks will also receive a fine or something.

I suspect that the folks on here who are more worried about the smoker's privacy belong to the first 3 categories listed above. Those who have health issues are going to do the same thing to protect their own rights. When you go down to the desk, see what they tell you - thank you very much, so sorry for this. Glad you have brought this issue to us and provided us with the proof to use.

By the way, the reason that it is such a tiny photo is that is what is required to be posted, you are not able to post any decent sized picture. The original is full sized of course.

So the next time you are on a cruise and see all the folks smoking all over in their allowed areas, think of the folks who want to use the jogging trail and have to go through the smoke areas as they proceed. Have some consideration for those who not only don't like the smell, but have issues.

Totally agree with you about that. I use the track every sea day for walking, to do my 2.5 miles and sometimes you have to hold your breath from the stench.

The only time I noticed smoke on my sailing on the Silhouette was on the jogging track. Which I found a very odd place for smoking and honestly quite annoyed me since I went jogging/running on it almost every day and smoke just blew in my face on every lap. I hate running on treadmills...

Here is the photo of the cigarettes

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I checked and I see that I still happened to have kept the photo that I shoved to the security people at the front desk. Here it is, clear for all to see:mad:

Whoops I see that it does not appear. How do I connect a photo to this post?

I think that this discussion has gone on long enough though.

I don't know and neither do you, because neither one of us saw the picture. I believe in proof and you have presented none. By the way if someone looked into your balcony by peering around the partitions, it is not considered a peeping tom. You are way overreacting to something for which you have no proof.

To close out this discussion - when I brought the photo to the front desk to complain, I mentioned that I had told the stewart about it and that nothing had been done. They told me that I had totally done the correct thing in bringing this evidence to them - this enabled them to confront the person before they could remove the cigarettes. This is a serious issue on a ship, they don't want people to think that they can smoke in the rooms or the balconies. Some people don't care - how many times have you been in a "smoke free hotel" and been barely able to stand walking down a hallway due to the smoke done anyway.

Am I correct in something that I read that the Reflection has a different smoking policy than the other ships of its class? It allows smoking in more locations?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Just to clarify. I am very allergic to smoke and have a real problem with it. I was not able to keep my cabin door open due to the smell. I complained a bunch of times to the cabin stewart who was not able to do anything. One evening the smell was really bad, and early the next morning when I got up the place still had a strong smell. I just looked around and there on the table was a pack of cigarettes and an ash tray that I guess he had made. I grabbed my camera and took that picture and brought it to the front desk. That was the last time I had a problem. You bet I would do it again! Maybe smoke is not as much of an issue for you, but folks like us with respiratory issues cannot be around it. I am not sorry that I precipitated his smoking cessation.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I agree, I also have a real problem with the smoke, it bothers my throat and teeth and try to avoid it. Too much smoking on these ships unfortunately. Last cruise, I even had a person smoking on their balcony in the next cabin, just my luck. I smelled smoke and was wondering how that was possible, so I looked over the side and saw ash tray & ciagtettes on their table. I took a photo of it and went immediately down to the third floor to report them. Some folks are just so inconsiderate.