gentle@spici

Great post Bonecrusha. I have 0 degrees but read a LOT and have told my friends for yrs that we are in a losing battle with antibiotics and sooner or later we are going to be in a front line battle with some illness that will be resistant to anything we throw at them. Might be 50-100 yrs down the rd but it will happen.

With that said I'm looking forward to being on the Reflection Saturday with drinks in hand for the 2nd cruise on her. Love reading the updates and hopefully you "loosen" up the slot machines a bit for us lol.

I have my best luck when I'm just skimming different sites looking for a deal. Sometimes it takes months to find the right one. Perfect example, I found a steal on the Reflection for the week after Thanksgiving with a 2a balcony and drink pkg for a bit over a grand for the 2 of us. That's with the American Express credit, dinner credit and OBC. I see this week the price has almost doubled. I had been looking since last winter, so persistence definitely pays off! Like other people have mentioned the "Big Sales" really aren't so great most of the time.

Hi Princess fans,

I have been looking at some Carribean cruises in October and there are some nice deals out there. I heard a couple of weeks ago they had a Sip and Sail deal which I missed out on. We've never sailed Princess before, do they do this type of deal off and on or was it a 1 time thing? I know before Celebrity changed things, they used to offer a beverage pkg every few weeks or tips paid. We are only interested in going on a cruise with beverage pkgs.

Thanks for any opinions and comments!

I have been watching a 11 day southern Caribbean on the equinox and the price has held steady for a month or more. This week a TA included an extra option of the 4 in the new pricing world. So in a nutshell we can get the beverage pkg and tips paid in a 1b veranda for $2930 for both of us. It seems a bit high but I've been researching princess itinerarys and they are even a couple hundred dollars more than this for a 10 day. Never sailed Princess so not sure what to do...

Bosco I promise you that if you were to open your restaurant in one of these countries you would have hundreds of people applying for a job at $5.50 an hr. This is the problem I have. Everyone wants to compare our way of life with how people in other countries live. I am sure compared to what they could make in their home country, they are more than happy to work on the cruise ships making what they do. I like to sit in the bars and have cocktails while the wife gambles on our cruises so I talk to the bartenders and waitresses quite often when noones around. So I am confident in saying what I believe.

And another thing that bothers me is how everyone thinks they work such long hrs and so many days in a row like no one in the good ole USA would ever do that. Guess what, my dad worked my whole young life at GM 12 hr days pretty much 7 days a week so my mom didn't have to work and he could build a new house for our family. He didn't see most of my sports in school and a lot of other stuff for many yrs. I didn't get to really know my dad until I was in my 30s because of it. We lived week to week for many years but always had a beautiful house and food on the table. I'm sure he was very proud of what he did for all of us. But I guarantee you he didn't go to work loving his job every day. I am sure there's plenty of people working multiple jobs 7 days a week to make ends meet like he chose to do.

The point is we have to stop thinking their lifestyle should be up to our standards. Heck we can't even compare state to state here. We make under $8 bucks an hr here in Michigan for minimum wage but in North Dakota it's closer to $14. I seriously doubt I could live in North Dakota on $8 wages. On the other hand I doubt anyone there feels sorry for us either making that kind of money lol.

With that said I bring along extra tip money and I tip when I get good service which is almost all of the time on the cruise lines. I will not tip because I'm supposed to supplement their income . I understand that's what the mandatory tips do in a roundabout way. Sorry for the ramble, too much coffee today.

Out of our 8 cruises we did do a 5 day cruise with all the others being 7 or more days. I felt that with all the planning for weeks or months and the price of the flights that 5 days just didn't seem worth it. Without a doubt option B would be our choice. We did do the Reflection itinerary in January and we had been to all the mentioned ports at least 2 times or more in the past. We just got off and did some walking and shopping and got back on and took advantage of our beverage pkg. Oh I guess in St Thomas we went to a beach for 3 hrs and relaxed. Reflection was the best cruise yet for us. Currently trying to get an 11 day on the Equinox in November.

Agree with CB at Sea! We always get a beer and mix drink as we're heading to dinner and then order another as soon as we sit down. Usually they arrive within a few minutes but once in awhile it takes 10 minutes. We were 100% happy with our classic pkg 2 months ago. We had at least 10 kinds of mixed drinks and several types of beer. Craft beers and martinis I think we're more , so unless you prefer those you can't go wrong with classic pkg. We even had special coffees every morning at Cafe el bresco.

During lunches at Oceanview cafe the first place I headed for was the carving station. I was never disappointed. Each day was something different. Ham, Turkey, Lamb, Pork loin, and Roast Beast. I'm sure I forgot something. You can get buns and make great sandwiches with the selections or usually a potato and veggie. This was for starters. Lol

I had crown and cokes from most every bar on the Reflection in January. We had the classic pkg.

My wife and I were on the Reflection last month. We were maybe a 30 second walk from our cabin to a couple of different bars by the pool area. I always like to have 6-8 beers in the fridge so I can sit on our balcony and drink 3 or 4 in the evening relaxing. So I would take both of our cards to the bar and bring back 2 beers every time to stock up. I asked them not to open them up. She would do the same with waters because she drinks about a gallon a day. So we always had a fridge full of beer and water all week long. One night I watched the Green Bay Dallas game from our balcony and drank around 6 beers while she was at the casino. Was very nice not to have to run up to the bar every 15 minutes. Also I gave my steward a few bucks to keep me equipped with ice for the cooler I packed. This I kept with me while we layed in the sun up top so I always had my own personal bucket of beer.

All of those mentioned and my wife had several wonderful mudslides and miami vices. Some bars used both kahluah and Baileys for the slides and some only used Baileys. She liked em both lol.

We never saw confirmation of our beverage pkg except on our original invoice from our TA. It wasn't on our edocs either so I made sure to print off the original invoice to take on our cruise 11 days ago. We kept getting emails up until the last day before we sailed to get a dining and beverage pkg. I was worried right up until I ordered my first drink that we would have to fight for what we originally paid for but it was right there on our sea pass card. I wouldn't worry about it.

I feel left out, I didn't get an email, phone call or text before I sailed on the Reflection 10 days ago. I had a 9:30 am flight into Miami and as luck would have it we got right on a cab and was onboard by 11am. The ship was more than ready to accommodate us. There were people already sunning at the pool and the buffet was all ready and we had a nice lunch before we started exploring the ship. Our room was ready shortly after 1. This is our 7th cruise and was by far the earliest we have ever boarded. Once we got on around 3 and didn't have any time to eat before we had to get ready for the muster drill. A few people have noted on here that we do pay for this day and I am completely in this camp. Most of us pay thousands of dollars on a cruise when all is said and done and I prefer to get every extra hr we can. It doesn't always work out but this time it did and I'm glad for that.

We just got back home to Michigan minutes ago from the reflection. What a wonderful cruise it was! Wish we we still there having drinks and great food . Have fun!!

I run a grocery store here in Michigan and today during a raging snowstorm with 25 mph winds I tried to get a customers trunk open to get some weight in it for her. Went back in and took some de icer off the shelf and 15 min later it still wouldn't open. Finally had to put the cat litter in her back seat. I didn't expect a tip and didn't get offered one. We deal with similar situations every day here and never get tipped or offered one. Wouldn't take it any ways. It's part of what we get paid for. Im probably a cheapskate, we usually tip $3-$5 bucks for 2 bags. We take $100 in dollar bills for the whole vacation for various tipping. But I still chuckle inside every time we tip since it's all part of my job back here at home.

Thanks for all of the comments everyone. I guess I'll go with it, they are a lighter shade of brown. It's only for a couple hrs and like Red said in Shawshank Redemption. Who really looks at a persons shoes anyway? Lol.

I'm doing my packing for next weeks cruise and don't really want to take both black and brown shoes for dinners. Will it look stupid to wear my comfy brown shoes with black pants for a couple casual dinners? I have a brown suit coat and brown pants for formal nights. I've never been the most color coordinated. Lol.

Through all my years of playing softball and basketball I've pulled hamstrings, groins, injured arms and legs and blew out 3 ribs. Of all the injuries only the rib one kept me from playing and that was a month. It hurt to sneeze, cough, walk, laugh, go to the bathroom and just about everything else. With that said I would rather be relaxing by a pool or balcony with access to elevators for a week. Might heal you up a bit quicker. Definitely wouldn't want to do an excursion though.

Well now I'm going to be worried for a few months. I booked 2 weeks ago through cruises only and to my surprise the resident rate and the pyp were both applied. During the course of my booking I asked her 3 times if she was sure the pyp would work. She assured me it did. So the next day it shows on my reservation the drink pkg and the obc. I've checked back and it's still on there but maybe they won't honor it once I get on the boat. That would not please me as the only reason we booked was the drink pkg. That's at least a few hundred dollars in drinks.

I meant can you pick any night that far in advance? Have you used this before? Thanks

Millinium I read your post and went to sky auction this morning. I noticed the Intercontinental is up for bid for 84 bucks right now. Looks like a really nice hotel in Miami. I need a night in mid Jan before our cruise. When you get this can you pick any night you want? I'd hate to win the bid and not be able to get the night I'm looking for. Also I noticed $49 extra for taxes and $20 processing fee so as of right now it's around $160 total.

Gee Don, apparently you don't know how to read very well. I said I was HOPING to stay on until 11 but since I've never sailed Celebrity I asked for advice here. After reading all the comments I later posted that we would leave with the last few hundred guests that were left. I hardly think it's selfish that after we spend over 2 grand for a cruise to wonder if we can stay on an extra hr and relax as opposed to the airport. I know from past carnival cruises where we get off earlier to catch a flight there are hundreds of ppl still eating breakfast and drinking coffe in no rush to leave. I DID make the mistake of forgetting our last 2 cruises we came in at 8 instead of 7 so in my original post probably should have said 10 instead of 11. As someone said on here this morning and agree, we would be embarrassed to hear our name called to get off the boat when there's 30 ppl left. Thank You everyone else for your helpful opinions.

Thanks for the replies everyone. We certainly don't want to be the last ones on the ship. We have cruised several times but usually with Carnival and we've never had such late flights. Our last one came in at 8am so thats maybe why I was thinking we could have breakfast until 9 or 10. Guess we will just wing it and leave with the last few hundred people.

We have a 5pm flight on the day we leave the Reflection in January. We won't be in any hurry to leave. I know they want us out of our stateroom by 9 or so but how long can we stay for breakfast and have some coffee? I was hoping 10:30 or 11am.

Thanks for the help everyone. This will make dw very happy!