Itchy&Scratchy

there were no sugar added desserts. I do not recall any sugar FREE ones.

Last ones

Day 8

Day 7

Day 6

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1, embarkation

How about some dailies real quick before I continue talking about food? We'll start off with some teen club activities. Sometimes we got a little schedule note and sometimes we didn't. Didn't matter much because our kid doesn't really care for any kind of kid's or teen clubs. Also, some Select member discounts:

The crew at the buffet were always so friendly, greeting everyone, wishing everyone bon appetit and a good day. They were working very hard. Also, coffee/tea service was provided - we didn't use it, but the coffee/tea cart person was constantly walking around offering both. In general we were pretty happy with the buffet. It also had wonderful ice cream selections which varied slightly from day to day, and delicious soft serve. The ice cream flavors included basic ones like vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, and some fancier ones like praline, rum raisin, and sorbets and frozen yogurts like vanilla-lychee, vanilla-cherry, mango, passionfruit, kiwi, etc. Both my DH and DS love soft serve and had it many times throughout the day, but I usually save my calories for other carbs. I must say, however, that on this voyage I had quite a bit of vanilla soft serve, and it was definitely worth it. Very smooth and creamy. There was a self serve soft serve (lol) station next to the Mast Grill, but it had one flavor a day. Sometimes it was chocolate, and sometimes - vanilla. We didn't try out any bars on Reflection, since we don't really drink, drinks were expensive and we didn't have any packages.

that's exactly where the snorkeling is. 🙂Behind the rocks on the very first beach on your left - Chill Island. more info here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/308-private-islands/

Sea day lunch, day 8 They had shrimp with sauce, not self-serve, so the lady was giving out 5 shrimp at a time. Also, a mushroom risotto which was also very good and much less salty than the MDR dinner version the night before. There were many different cakes that day in the dessert section. And a white chocolate fondue station with pieces of cake and fruit. These menus were on every table at the buffet. If you didn't want a drink service, you were supposed to lay them down flat on the table.

Dinner on day 7

Yay! I am so glad you like my photos. 🙂 By the way, lunch on day 3 had baby back ribs, and I must say - they were very good! I wasn't planning on eating a lunch, but I really liked them, and so did my husband. continued: 3rd day dinner buffet I thought these were beets, but no - cabbage.

3rd day lunch (also a sea day): All the desserts were great, and we also had the spring rolls (good).

Easter buffet lunch: Same day, late lunch when only sandwiches, pizza and desserts are served:

I decided to be a bit less of a glutton on this cruise, so instead of loading on carbs every morning, I enjoyed a made to order omelets (they were grrrrreat!) and also tried some poached eggs. The egg station with premade poached and eggs benedict also made omelets, but, according to my husband, they didn't double the cheese per his request. He eventually started going to the station where I got my omelets (the opposite end of the buffet) and finally got them the way he likes them. Our kid, on the other hand, decided to adopt a carb-full life on this cruise, and instead of his reasonable breakfasts with fruit and protein, he went all out on the carb consumption. Mixing cereals, eating all the baked goods, etc. Not a shred of protein or anything remotely healthy. Sigh. Kids these days...

2nd day breakfast (Easter morning): Breads were usually good and varied: the gluten free seeded bread roll in the middle was unexpectedly savory. I enjoyed one almost every morning. Waffles were pretty good: Herring was identical to the Vita herring in wine sauce. Lots of fruits: There were two bacon and hashbrown stations. One always had overfried hashbrowns but great crispy bacon, and the other station had just right hashbrowns and floppy bacon. We liked chocolate filled croissants. Usually, there was one breakfast dessert which varied every day, and a bunch that stayed the same. Muesli toppings, also somewhat varied daily:

Boarding day dinner buffet... And a quick disclaimer: I don't usually take food pics at the buffet, but since this was our very first X cruise, and I saw a lot of people on this board also planning on trying X for the first time, so I went a bit crazy with snapping the photos. However, I wasn't the woman who was live streaming herself ordering and then eating her breakfast at the buffet... We didn't like the noodles: Super friendly staff! Vegetarian/Vegan section:

boarding day lunch continued: Gluten free dessert section usually had a couple of different desserts and jellos which were usually very good: more of the other stations: This chicken looked really good and was very popular: this beef was ok: I specifically asked whether the egg salad had any onions and was told NO. Not true - it has green onions which I am ok with, so I enjoyed it very much. But if someone is allergic - beware. Mediterranean section: if you are looking for pepperonchinis for your salad, like my DH, you will find them here: Our kiddo loved the pepperoni pizza. The chef told me he could make ANY pizza I desired and even a calzone. More veggies and salad toppings: Pasta station was good. I thought the alfredo sauce was very runny, though. I like it thick and creamy. I don't like red sauce, so no comment.

I will post my buffet food pics next. Just skip them if not interested. They will be posted in the order they were taken, by day. There was an ethnic food section, a Mediterranean section (cheeses, olives, etc.), Mexican food station during dinner, bread, salad, cold cuts, hot meat (like ham, lamb, chicken, turkey, etc.), a baked potation station, a vegan food station, etc. I may add a comment or two on the food we tried/liked/disliked. Boarding day lunch: My DH loved the salad station. Lots of different toppings and salad choices. Caesar salad toppings. That's anchovies bottom left. The grilled meats below weren't all that good: Baked potato station looked great. I don't think we ever tried it. Potato gratin was usually good. Very few shrimp in that paella. Vegan: Indian food: Cold cuts: I usually tried cheeses and salami. Good stuff! I think we tried most of the desserts every day and liked all of them.

So, let's talk about food! I know that food opinions are always super subjective, so I usually preface my food reviews with a warning: I am a glutton and love almost all food, except for beans and onions. I am not a fan of veggies per se, but I eat them for health reasons. Sometimes I even enjoy them. DH is a lot less of a glutton, loves variety, is a lot more choosy and has a completely different taste in food. DS has some texture sensitivities (as does DH), and is rather conservative with his food choices (not an adventurous eater at all). We were pretty happy with the buffet choices, and I snapped a LOT of random buffet food pictures which I will post shortly. We had all of our breakfasts and our sea day lunches at the buffet. We didn't have lunches on port days. We had all of our dinners at the Opus MDR. We sometimes stopped by the buffet after dinner for a cup of tea and a look around. We did not like the buffet coffee at all. We are not coffee connoisseurs at all, but we are very particular about the way we drink it. Heck, I drink instant coffee at home... (Taster's Choice). So, we stuck to tea. The buffet had a great selection of teas and sugar/sweeteners: They even had lemon and Truvia readily available!!!! That was quite a surprise. MSC didn't have any lemon, and the other lines don't usually provide Truvia (so we always bring our own). Not visible in this photo, but most definitely present are Taster's Choice packets of instant decaf coffee in the upper right corner. At peak times the buffet was pretty busy, but not an overwhelming zoo we experienced on other ships. Perhaps, it's due to the somewhat older demographic and the smaller size of the ship? We were always able to find a place to sit. Sometimes people joined us. Some asked before joining, some didn't. 🙂 We didn't mind either way. The buffet food stations were well organized, and even though the buffet is not as grand or sizeable as a Princess Royal class ship buffet, it was lovely, well stocked, had very good choices for all tastes, had a separate station for vegan food, also gluten-free choices, and several lactose-free milk choices available (at least in the morning in the cereal/muesli section). I couldn't exactly tell what these lactose-free options were, but I snapped a pic. If you need to see it closer, please let me know.

yes, that's the one. I didn't know there was another one close to FLL. 🙂 Yeah, it was shabby, but we've stayed in worse hotels (way back when), so, overall, it wasn't horrible or really bad, or even all that bad. It was clean, the furniture was old and worn, but not broken, we liked the free breakfast and the location was wonderful. Yes, the beds were awful. Not that our 13 yo noticed, but our older bodies weren't happy at all. For our next cruise, I managed to snag the valuetrips rate for the Hyatt nearby, so we'll be staying there in June.