A Guide for Celebrity Cruisers

What you need to know before your first Celebrity cruise

Yay! You are taking your first Celebrity cruise. If you’ve never cruised before, click here to check out my tips for first time cruisers. This is a guide for people who have cruised, but not on Celebrity.

Pre-Cruise

1.    Book shore excursions – I find it easier to review the shore excursions online

2.    Download App. You’ll need the App to check in online and navigate the activities once onboard. Here’s a peek at how the App works.

3.    Decide on your dining time. Celebrity has two options:        

·        Set Dining Time – You choose early or late and eat at the same time, same table each evening.

·        Anytime dining – This is a first come, first serve model. You request a table via the App. The wait can be 10 minutes or 90 minutes depending on how full the ship is and how may people have anytime dinner.

·        I think set dining works best if you have a group larger than 4 people.

4.    Special diets – Celebrity doesn’t require advanced notice for special diets. Many of the menus have gluten free and vegetarian options marked. You can ask your waiter or Maitre’D for assistance pre-ordering alternative items for dinner.

5.    CPAP Machines – You can bring your own distilled water onboard for medical use. You can also email special_needs@celebrity.com to let them know you are bringing a CPAP onboard and need distilled water.

6.    Check in online – Online check in opens 45 days prior to sailing. You can complete it via the website up until 3 days before sailing. You can complete it via the App up until the morning of the sailing.

7.    Print luggage tags – You can find your luggage tags in your e-documents. To find your edocs, log into the Celebrity Cruise website on a computer. You’ll see View and Print eDocs as one of the options on the reservation summary. This will open a PDF you can download. The luggage tags are at the very end of the document.

What you need at the port

·        Printed Luggage tags for checked bags – You will hand a porter your checked baggage. Be sure all your valuables, medicines, and immigration documents are in your carry on bag. I highly recommend you tip the porters.

·        Your Boarding Pass on the App on your phone

·        Passport / Immigration documents

Your room keys will be hanging outside your cabin. You can use your boarding pass to purchase drinks until the cabins are available. Cabins are usually available around 1:30 pm.

Now it’s time to enjoy your cruise. Here are some of my favorite things about sailing on Celebrity Cruise Line:

At the end of your cruise, you’ll start to get information about the disembarkation process. Be sure to read all the documents. Here’s some general tips for navigating disembarkation.