hillsprint

I would take the view that you use the cruise as a taster or sampler of the places you visit. On a 7 day Med cruise you normally have 5 or 6 ports of call plus the port you embark from. You are only there about 8 -10 hrs each day, so you are not going to be able to take in all of what each venue has to offer, and anyway if you do full day trips, at each you'll end up needing a vacation to recover :)

So I would say, pick a Western Med cruise, that will cover most of the big name ports/destinations, eg Rome, Florence/Pisa, Nice, Barcelona and one of the islands. It will give you a flavour of what each is like and then when you have more time, you can go back and explore more.

On a cruise you really only get a chance to scratch the surface of any destination, which is why folk do lots of Med cruises, as even if you visit a destination several times over various cruises, there are usually different things to experience each time at each port :)

Also here is the link to the recent photo session on the Reflection. The staterooms are the same as the Silhouette, apart from the Reflection Suite.

http://gallery.cruisecritic.com/ships/celebrity-reflection-621/

The stern balconies are slightly stepped back on each higher floor, so if you are on Deck 8 you will look down and see the last two feet or so of Decks 7 & 6. The ship also then steps out at Deck 5 so those on Deck 6 cannot see straight down. However the majority of the veranda cannot be seen from above.

There is one set of stern verandas that are fully covered, Deck 12 but they are under the outside eating area of the buffet and you may get some noise due to that.

However the view from the stern verandas is fantastic and in the main you aren't looking straight down.

Hope that helps

Michael

Well said, Pete

We were in one of the aft corner S1 suites and I can confirm that the connecting door is formed by creating an entrance hallway in the corridor, there is no door in the wall between the suite and the sunset veranda stateroom. So as said above no more noise transferred than in a non connecting room

As has been said before, currently many Greek businesses, cafes etc are not accepting Credit Card payments for the simple reason that they do not know whether they will get the money out of their bank account. Hence they are asking tourists for cash payments, simply to keep their businesses running.

Should their banks return to normal business, i.e. if a deal is done, then they'll be happy to take cards again.

I am not sailing until August, so by that time I suspect things will be sorted one way or another and we'll either go to Greece or X will decide otherwise.

Looking at the news, I would hope that the situation will become clearer in the next few days, it certainly appears that this really is Crunch Time

I was able to book three SRs, (2xTuscan & 1x Lawn Club) about two weeks ago for my Aug 2015 cruise on Reflection, all at 7.30 pm, so it can be done.

I think you can only book the suite bonus visits once on-board.

I have managed to book twice at a speciality restaurants easily, So am baffled why you can't, sorry I can't be of better help

From my experience all the Aft S1s are the same size, the Deck Plans are not to scale and they don't reflect that the decks get longer with each floor, so for diagrammatic purposes they show the S1s getting shorter.

The only thing to look out for are where the side porthole windows get partially obstructed by the washing equipment that runs vertically down the ship, and this can also obstruct the view forward from the side balcony on some of the higher decks. You need to look up a photograph of the side of the ship to work out which ones these are?

But they are fabulous suites the real bonus being the corner balcony which gives pretty much a 270 degrees view

Thank you for such an informative post, glad you enjoyed your cruise. :)

I wouldn't panic just yet, we haven't reached the stroke of midnight, so to speak, a possible deal is still on the cards.

But the advice above is good, cash is King, so some Euro or Dollar or Pounds will probably be more than welcomed.

Anyway on a cruise you're just there for the day, and in reality you don't need to purchase anything locally to survive

On the 11 night cruise, I have been informed the recently the two formal nights are on the first and last sea days, I.e the night before Santorini and the night before Naples

However, that my change from cruise to cruise.

I have to say I find the Celebrity UK site pretty good on both PC and tablet, my only comment is that it doesn't seem to show the discounts for CC members and even if the 123GO is being applied clearly.

However, the King of Clunky is the Holland America site, very frustrating on the iPad and worst of all it doesn't give you the costs until you have entered the full passenger details, very frustrating.

The main items you can't access are those reserved for Aqua and Suite class staterooms, so those are the two eateries, Blu (Aqua) and Luminae (Suite), plus Michael's Club which is now reserved for those in the higher class Suites.

Apart from that you obviously miss out on the various drinks parties and discounts that those who have been previous X cruisers, but you'll know that from your Princess experience.

But as to being"insiders" you'll know very few other differences to the rest of us :)

Holywood GC......hope he didn't over do the Rory Mc stories ;)

All I'll say is I have Rory's two balls..............practice ones, but that's another story :p

We enjoy a bit of napkin waving, so it will be the MDR for us, but will conclude the cruise in the Martini Bar......in true Ulster fashion :D

Did a bit of haggling in the Bazaar then returned to the Boat to hit the Premium package [emoji41]

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I would expect nothing less, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do :D

Jolly good, have already booked the Tuscan Grill both nights :)

Returning to the Shore Excursions, what did you do at Kusadesi ?

gcgold

Thanks for all this great info, we're on the 10th August 11 night cruise, can you remember which nights were the formal ones?

Cheers

Michael

Sorry to hear of you double misfortune, I hope you were able to make the most of the cruise, despite your caring duties.

We are on Reflection in August, did you find see any of the much talked about issues with wait times for the MDR?

Cheers

Michael

I sailed on Noordam last September, and I can confirm that the drinks in room packages on HAL are around the prices indicated, I remember re-reading them several times to be sure.

I look forward this August, to confirm that after a 3 year break, how much Celeb is better as an overall package. Certainly I thought the HAL experience in a Med cruise was very acceptable.

I am with most in trying to take a balanced view of all the reviews that appear on CC. In the past we have had excellent cruising with Celebrity, and I trust my upcoming cruise on the Reflection that will continue to be the case.

However, that said, the recent string of reviews since the Reflection returned to the Med in 2015 seem to have one constant complaint regarding the temperature of the food. Again this is subjective one man's hot is another's tepid, but I look forward to further reviews hoping this was just a glitch at the start of a new season.

X is a great product, let's all wish that it stays that way ;)

We sailed on the Solstice in 2012 in the Med out of Barcelona. We had a std veranda booked, but about 4 weeks before the sailing date, I noticed the price of a S1 was only £200 more. I contacted my Celebrity PCS and got the suite. It was a fabulous cruise and well worth it from the official and unofficial perks we got.

I'm on the Reflection in August and will just keep checking :)

There was site maintenance going on from 5am to 2 pm UK time today, so maybe it will be sorted after that

My one tip would be

Having a good relationship with your butler will be worthwhile

In the past two years we have been on Celebrity (Solstice) and RCCL (Mariner of the Seas) and then this September, the Noordam.

I found the ship to be as good a state as the other ships, the crew were as happy and helpful as the others. As to the food, I thought the MDR was fine, no waiting to be seated and the service was at just the right speed, not too fast and not too slow (I actually felt rushed on the Solstice). The food quality was as good as the other ships and I thought the menu was varied enough to suit most tastes.

I think if you go to every other Cruise Line board on this site you will find folk complaining and saying standards have dropped, etc. Yet cruising is more popular than ever ( maybe that's the problem for some ??) and the number of repeat customers seems to be high, so,the product appears to be pretty strong.

So go and enjoy your cruise, I'm sure your party will love it, four different cruise lines, five ships and we haven't been disappointed yet.

Cheers

Michael