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Everything posted by bnurick
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Reflection LIVE 2/3/24-2/11/24: 8 Crazy Nights of ABC Islands
bnurick replied to GenerationX's topic in Celebrity Cruises
This is our goto hotel too. We try and do Takado before 700PM for the reasons you mentioned. With the kitchens in the hotel rooms we also get a fried rice to go for breakfast. Our new favorite room is the residence inter coastal as the sun shines on the right side facing the ocean in the mornings. There are a couple nice wine stores if you want to bring onboard a bottle. Ocean Wine & Spirits. Enjoy your cruise, our last Reflection sailing was around 8 years ago. -
@Cap_D @abbydancer2003 I followed the current cruise on the App to see the current Luminae menus. They did change over time. An example is filet mignon night moved to the last night. Lobster/Rack of Lamb night is the second Chic night which is usually the second to last night. Once I didn’t see roasted turbot, things got easier because we just planned to go elsewhere. After this last cruise, we would still dine at Eden first/last night (assuming E-Class, Murano on S-Class) and once we spoke to the Maitre’d I would request our filet night simply be something we could agree on. Lastly, I will say the Filet Mignon and Rack of Lamb were excellent at Luminae, very high quality. Hope this helps and here is our plan for an upcoming July Eclipse Cruise. 1. Murano 2. Sushi or Luminae (would ask for a filet or MDR menu) 3. Tuscan 4. Sushi or Luminae (would ask for a filet or MDR menu) 5. Tuscan 6. Luminae Lobster/Rack of Lamb 7. Murano
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Celebrity Beyond Final Thoughts Here are my final thoughts on The Retreat on The Beyond and a few nits. Listed as bulletin points to make it easier to read. 🔹The Retreat 🔸Too large, making a personalized experience difficult to execute. 🔸Luminae is around 3-4x S-Class size and much less intimate. 🔸When on E-Class The Retreat Lounge Patio is must for us. We had on The Edge. 🔹Luminae 🔸As said, too large to be an intimate experience. 🔸Menu proteins have moved on the cheap side. 🔸Cod is an example for fish. Goto your frozen food section and look at fish sticks. Let me know if you find any Chilean sea bass ones. 🔸Ribeye medallions is an example for meat. Only portions were edible. 🔸The Classics menu shouldn’t be a mystery. 🔸A filet mignon should be available every night. 🔸A simple solution would be a poll to rank proteins. X would see quickly what would appease guests. 🔸We ate at Luminae only 3/10 nights. The menus are that unappealing to me. 🔸On the plus side, our experience improved drastically after talking with the Maitre’d. 🔹The Retreat Sundeck 🔸Most want a spot in the shade. 🔸People would take multiple chairs for their party. 🔸Although you are to lose your chair after leaving for a period of time, it’s not enforced. 🔸While this issue is controversial all over the ship and creates drama, X really needs a global solution and to enforce it so everyone would actually be forced to abide by the rules. 🔹The Retreat Pricing 🔸At $1,000 a day for an E-Class Sky Suite is about right. 🔸Finally seeing some cruises at this level again on CruisePlum. 🔸Many are paying more than $1,000 a day and the cost/benefit analysis is broken at that level. 🔹Butler Service 🔸Our Butler was awesome. By chance, it was our second time with. We were very fortunate. 🔸X needs to return to the original dedicated butler. 🔸While they are in the process of restoring, this invalidates the reasoning behind the Team concept and deems it intellectually dishonest. They did it to simply save money at the expense of the consumer. 🔹Cafe al Bacio 🔸We had a great experience. 🔹Martini Bar 🔸Was awesome as usual. 🔹Specialty Restaurants 🔸All were very good we tried. Luminae should be more comparable to. 🔹OVC Buffet 🔸Ate pizza almost every at sea day. Thought it was very good, overall. 🔹Gratuities 🔸Cash tipping staff is better for everyone involved. 🔸I will not prepay on future bookings. 🔸Sad to say, but I do wonder if X actually gives 100% of prepaid amounts, specifically on reservations made say 18 months ago. Again, forgive me for actually thinking this. 🔹Premium Beverage Package 🔸Like gratuities, I would prefer this being optional for The Retreat. 🔸I would never purchase a package. $17 a drink credit hasn’t adjusted for inflation, but drink prices have adjusted. Looking at our final invoice, we lost money having the package included. 🔸I recommend going a la carte if you can. I did on one cruise and saved a lot of money. Add cash tipping and service became exceptional. My usual drink simply brought over. 🔹Premium WiFi 🔸Worked well and would always purchase. 🔹Future Bookings 🔸Made 4 onboard, all refundable for obvious reasons. I could go on, but the above are the highlights I can recall. I hope I did a decent job of posting so everyone found something actionable for a future sailing. Thank you for following along. Our next X cruise is in July on the Summit. Cheers! 🥂
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Night #10 Eden Our last night and back to where this trip started, Eden. This is our favorite restaurant to dine at. The open kitchen and professional staff always make for an excellent experience. 🔸Amuse Bouche A+ (unreal) Sesame Crusted Tuna w/Wasabi Sauce 🔸Crab Cake A+ 🔸Mushroom Risotto A+ 🔸Carabinero Shrimp A- 🔸Lobster Casserole A+ 🔸Lamb Lion A- 🔸Chocolate Pie A 🔸Lemon Tart A+ 🔹Overall A Will post some Final Thoughts once I get home and rebalanced. X stepped up, but have some observations too. Cheers. 🥂
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Night #9 Luminae 🦞 Night We were in line at 5:15PM to be seated quickly. The 9:00PM show on the first Chic Night was overflow with people having to sit on stairs. So we wanted to make the 7:00PM first show again. Here is what we ordered: 🔸Lobster for Appetizer A- 🔸Shrimp Cocktail A 🔸Rack of Lamb A+ (The Show Stopper) 🔸NY Strip Luminae Style A 🔸Lobster for Entree A 🔸Chocolate Bar A+ 🔸Extra Peanut Gelato A++ 🔸Service A+ (Ali is great) 🔹Overall A We received excellent service from sommelier, bread and food servers. We explained how long we wanted to dine and everyone made sure it all worked out. Outstanding dining experience. Cheers! 🥂
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Night #8 Le Voyage 2.0 We were so impressed with our first meal we kept our second reservation. I decanted our second bottle of the 2016 Peter Michael Les Pavots for 4 hours and re-corked. A+ We requested the same server Ash as he was top notch professional. We tried to mix in some new items and were offered a sampling size portion of any dish. 🔸Amuse Bouche Butter Shrimp A 🔸Vidalia Onion Tart A 🔸Tamarind and Peanut-Crusted Prawns A 🔸Loupe de Mer au Ras El Hanout A 🔸Small Portion Lamb Chop a la Grecque A+ 🔸5-Spice Duck Pithivier A 🔸Coupe Cafe-Cardamon A+ 🔸Lime & Berry Pavlova A+ 🔸Service A+ 🔹Overall A+ After two meals, the Filet and Lamb are slightly a cut above for our tastes. This is the best restaurant on the ship. These folks train at the flagship New York restaurant to learn the craft. They really know what they are doing. Cheers! 🍻
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Night #7 - Rooftop Garden Grill We headed into this casual dining venue rather blind. After reading a few reviews we ordered a number of items to simply try and share. Here are the two big winners. 🔸Hickory Smoked Brisket: This was the show stopper. The meat was like a flaky fish where you only needed a fork. 🔸Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie with Vanilla Ice Cream: Very nice, more of an individual portion size. 🔸Also Ordered: Caprese Salad, Chicken Wings, Ribs, Seafood Kabob, Creamy Corn and Asparagus. You definitely want to dine here right after the sun sets IMO. Lastly, a shoutout to a fellow Cruise Critic Member who said hello on our way out. After we hit some Silent Disco for an hour. Back to Le Voyage tonight. Cheers! 🥂
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Night #6 - Luminae 2.0 Told our Head Butler we would give Luminae another try tonight after our first experience. I’ve been told by friends on the ship they are working hard to get kinks worked out for all of The Retreat guests. I am hopeful my discussion with the Maitre’d helped in some way. We were greeted very warmly and were given three options for seating. We picked a booth. The Maitre’d Marjan came by to welcome us. Shortly thereafter our server Ali came by and explained “The Classics Menu” listed below, as this was very helpful, as well as menus for the evening: Classics Menu Caesar Salad Escargot French Onion Soup Shrimp Cocktail Chicken Breast New York Strip Salmon Apple Pie al a Mode Cream Brûlée NY Style Cheesecake Below is what we ordered and our ratings. Since we are at Eden on Night #10 our request for the filet mignon was accommodated: 🔸Amuse Busch: English Pea w/ Crab Salad B (Just not our thing and that’s OK) 🔸Shrimp Cocktail B+ 🔸Ginger Crab Cake A- (Enjoyed the subtle spiciness) 🔸Filet Mignon A+ (Stunning Quality and Preparation) 🔸Creme Brûlée A 🔸Dark Chocolate Ganache B+ 🔸Service A+ (Mr. Ali did a wonderful job and made sure all his support team were supporting him) 🔹Overall A To us this was a stunning reversal from our last meal. Looking forward to Night #9 back in Luminae now and definitely will request Ali as our server. I also included the kids menu… Cheers! 🥂