Sascol

I’m on the Reflection right now, and something I’m seeing for the first time on my many Celebrity voyages is parents sitting their kids down at dinner (in this case, in Luminae) and plopping down a phone or tablet in front of them and putting on cartoons - audibly - during dinner! As if no one else was in the entire dining room. On Tuesday night there were three different shows being played near us - two at a single table, since I guess the two kids wanted to watch different things.

This one drive me nuts as well. I get the need to occupy the kids but again here, headphones should be an expectation.

The best (well worst at the time but best to tell a story after the cruise) was the couple on our last cruise that took their 3-year old to the specialty restaurant at 9pm and to keep her occupied gave her one of those little drums on a stick that you twist in your hand to make the beads hit the drum. Not sure what they are called but hopefully I explained this well enough so you know what I am talking about. How is this in any way, shape or form a reasonable way to keep a child occupied at a fancy (or any) dinner table in public? I know what I wanted to do with that little drum but I won't say it here.:mad:

What I find worse are the adults. Bluetooth speakers are everywhere now! I don't want to hear it - not on my balcony, not blasting on the beach, not anywhere. Get some headphones. It's so rude. (I'm 40ish, not 80, by the way!)

Similar issue on Harmony last fall. We saw (heard) several bluetooth speakers in the sundeck area. Really?? Listen to your music, have at it. But have some awareness of others. Not everyone has your taste in music and even if they do, not everyone wants to hear your music.

Similar issue - cell phone conversations on speaker. I don't care if your aunt sally missed the trash pickup or that Jimmy got a 90 on his math test back home. Talk on your phone. Talk all you want, but talk at a normal volume and take your freaking phone off the speaker setting. In that same category, don't watch youtube videos in public spaces and use the speaker either.

Headphones people, headphones! Common sense.

We cruised with some friends on Constellation a year and a half ago. Made friends at the Martini Bar with a Flair bartender named Peter.

If you ever been to the Martini Bar when he is there he is super cool. Anyway these friends just got off Reflection a couple weeks ago and hes on that ship.

So if you see him you will become friends quickly....tip him well....enjoy the show.

Enjoy your cruise...

Is this by chance Peter - the bald gentleman from the Philippines? If so, he's a hoot.

What if the OP does private excursions, has a beverage package already, doesn't eat in a specially restaurant, and doesn't want to pay the exorbitant prices in the ship's stores? And before you snort derisively at this, the scenario is not as rare as you may think. Cruise line OBC is nonrefundable, so if they can't pay the gratuities with it, it's hardly a wash.

I Agree totally that under your scenario they'd have an issue (and I do clarify this in my initial post) but the probability of this happening would be extremely rare.

Why are so many jumping on the original poster? The room steward is given a tip 'for doing their job' (as someone stated earlier) via the automatic gratuity. For this part, nobody should expect a thank you. If however, as the OP states they are giving extra on top of that (more than the for 'doing their job' part) I would at an absolute minimum expect at least some type of acknowledgement. I would not expect him/her to name their first born child after me, but a, "thank you, that was very kind and I appreciate it" would certainly not be out of line.

When we have great cabin service I always seek out the steward and hand him/her some extra money personally and shake their hand. It is always met with sincere thanks and appreciation.

Maybe this is mentioned somewhere in this long thread but even if this is the case, why would it matter if the OBC could not be used for gratuities? Unless your gratuities are the ONLY thing on your bill, the OBC would just get used for something else you would have paid for (excursions, drinks, restaurants, whatever). Bottom line is that it's a wash at the end of the cruise.

And to the person who suggest booking for 5 and then cancelling one last minute - really?! You might have prevented a family of 5 from sailing at all on that ship if the FV's were all booked (which they often are, early on), and they could not afford 2 rooms. Just because you can 'work the system' doesn't make it right. My opinion.

Bravo

I'd be more concerned about the 'awake' space than the sleep space. If you can budget it you may want to try for a nearby extra interior cabin. Four in the cabin you describe is doable but it is going to be very tight.

Google is your friend....Simply google it.

We normally get the beverage package as a perk when booking Celebrity, but I find it disturbing that Celebrity will most likely be leading up to doing away with the 5-7 Happy Hour in the Sky Lounge and just load 3 drinks on the seapass and do away with it. Anything LLP can do to save a buck.

We MUCH prefer the three drinks on the card. Enables us to drink at a bar of our choice as opposed to going to the lounge and having to remain there as long as we're enjoying the drinks.

Not a chance I would take - if your goal is to avoid a lot of kids.

Assuming this is not already posted somewhere within this thread, here is a video of the Mein Schiff 2. Looks like it has been kept in immaculate condition...

Anybody?

Ship WiFi isn't all that great no matter what cruise line you use. There is no line-of-sight between ship and shore' date=' so the Internet is satellite delivered, which means slow speeds and high latency. .[/quote']

 

Not totally true. We have sailed several of the newer RCCL ships (Anthem, Harmony). Wifi speeds are fantastic.....like home or better. Can't speak for celebrity but not all ship wifi struggles.

Been a few years since we sailed Celebrity. Have done RCCL 2X and Princess once since our last Celebrity cruise.

RCCL internet - super fast....just like at home.

Princess internet - super slow.....like 1998 dial up connection.

Where would Celebrity Reflection rank?

Our CS absolutely DID have a small BT speaker that you could take to the balcony and play stuff from your phone...

BLUETOOTH SPEAKER PLAYING ON YOUR BALCONY? Jeez - I hope I never have a cabin next to anyone that does that.

Might help you get more answers if the title of your thread was a bit more detailed.

We are booked on the Reflection for later this year. We've selected late seating for dinner. We are now trying to decide if we want to stick with that or mix it up a bit and do my time dining. Is this a decision we need to make in advance of the trip or can we just choose to do my time dining on the evenings we do not want to stick to our assigned time? Many thanks.

This is one of 'those' threads that amuses me simply because I've never given an smidgen of thought as to where the bed might be.

Gotta admit - bed by balcony vs. sofa by balcony has never once entered our thought process either when booking a cruise. Even reading some of the replies here as to why it is important to many people, it still makes no sense to me.

Thanks to all. Hoping for a lot of elites as we prefer to do this at the bars rather than at the sky lounge. This is an 11 night western Med on Oct 1st on te Reflection.

We are Elite members on both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. Our last few cruises have been on Royal Caribbean. For each of those cruises we were issued ‘vouchers’ on our cruise cards that we could use for free drinks between the hours of approximately 5 PM and 8 PM.

How does this work on Celebrity? Do we have to go to a specific Elite lounge to get the drinks or will we be issued the vouchers on our accounts that can be used at any bar during the specified hours? Thank you in advance for your replies.

Sorry - just saw the edge category above.....did not know this existed. I'll look in there. Thanks

Perhaps I am missing something very obvious but when I search the Celebrity website I am not able to find any information about the Edge's fall 2018 transatlantic. Can anyone point me to this information? Thank you in advance.

I agree. I'd think around 60% American. But 40% foreign is a fairly substantial amount, too.

Yes - and not that there's anything wrong with a higher % of non-US citizens but the % was not anywhere nearly as low as the 25-30% American initially stated above. I did not think it was too far off (if at all) from previous cruises we have taken.

Buy it directly from Atlantis, hop in a cab, you will get there earlier and save money. It about 15 minutes away.

Did exactly this two weeks ago. Booked in advance on the Atlantis website for $156/pp. Spent the day there. Taxi from ship took about 15 minutes and it was $4/pp. Super easy and on our own time schedule.