GoodScout

We were told when sailing on Equinox last fall that Silk Harvest would not survive the remodel. 

The concierge extra offerings seem to vary by ship and concierge. We've been on both Equinox and Reflection in the past six months.

Sail-Away- Offered on both. On Reflection, bad weather cancelled the event and it wasn't rescheduled.

Cheese Tray - Had no trouble substituting on either ship.

Luncheon - Was great on both ships. So nice not to shlep luggage around the buffet with everyone else.

Galley Tour - Was offered on Equinox, was never offered or mentioned on Reflection.

Slot Tournament - Was never offered or mentioned on either ship. (No biggie, wouldn't have gone)

SHIP: Reflection

CABIN #: 1138

DECK #: 10

CLASS: Concierge

AREA: Starboard Side, Aft Bump

BED NEAR: Door/Bath

QUIET?: Yes

BALCONY VIEW: Excellent. Angled bump means you can't see front of ship, but then again, bridge can't look in on you!

BALCONY SIZE: Slightly deeper than normal due to bump out

WIND A PROBLEM?: No

SOOT A PROBLEM?: No

PROBLEMS/COMMENTS: Excellent room. Adjacent to elevators but no elevator noise. 

IP is right. If you try to use an AED and it's not going to help, the spoken instructions from the device will tell you "Shock not advised. Continue CPR"

On 4/12/2019 at 3:15 AM, Pastordonna said:

How is the library.  We always bring a couple of extra books to exchange ... on the last few RC cruises books were pratically non-existant.

Very limited selection. Kinda used as a take-on, leave-on library. Darren brought a copy of his novel published five years ago to leave behind for guests. 

Was told on my November Equinox cruise that glass blowing would survive the retrofit.

Just ask your room steward. Same with the cheese plate substitution. 

DAY 10 - AT SEA

Wasted day? You be the judge. 

Woke up late (no 7am arrivals!) but woke up tired. Couldn't decide if it was just because I didn't sleep well or the change in wake cycle. In either case, I wanted to do breakfast at the MDR but wife didn't want to get too dressed up, and wanted to get quickly to pool deck, so we did my dreaded Oceanview buffet. 

We lounged at the pool all morning, with me avoiding the sun since I've wisely recognized any additional sun will turn me from "you-got-some-sun-on-vacation" to "man-you-look-like a-lobster." After a relaxing morning watching the sea go by and listening to books on tape, we grabbed a quick lunch. My wife wanted some sun, so I stayed in the room and grabbed a quick nap. Actually, it ended up being a three-hour nap!

When she returned, we sat on our balcony for a while, and had a good chat about our 20th Anniversary trip next April. We wanted to rack up some more Celebrity points with a European tour, but with Apex and Edge doing the heavy lifting over there, Celebrity has raised the prices so high that we might as well organize a trip ourselves. That devolved into a discussion about Eurorails and shlepping luggage everywhere, so after a while we decided to stop thinking about future vacations and just enjoy the one we were on. 

Unfortunately for me, my wife wanted to avoid the last formal night and stay in the room. I had been in the room all afternoon, but was the good husband, and went down to order and pick up sushi on five and return to the room. I felt like I missed a lot of opportunities today, and with tomorrow our last day on the ship, I'm going to be up early to try and soak in the last days' activities. 

With a lazy day, I have few observations:

• Learned that one of the nicknames staff give cruisers who just stand in the middle of the aisle ways, elevator doors or slowly waddle by holding up those behind them is "traffic cone." Don't be a traffic cone. 
• I'm now convinced checking Celebrity's site for how many rooms are available is a waste. They clearly have not sold as many rooms for next summer on Edge and Apex as they're saying. This ship showed completely full online just weeks before the sailing, but it's not full. 
• Interesting to me how closely we sail to the Cuban coast. I remember the days when ships would avoid it for fear of running into lots of people sailing out hoping to climb on.
• Amazingly calm seas this trip. Even in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, we've had no more than 2-3 foot waves.
• Still trying to figure out something to do in Fort Lauderdale from 9am to 3pm while we wait for our flight. Too short a window for a long excursion or a trip to the beach. Any ideas?

11 hours ago, Reel Love said:

Really enjoying your review, Good Scout!  Love your quick and simple observations and tips.....I'm sure I will implement a couple of them on my next cruise!   Also appreciate your opinion on the golf cart tour in Bonaire.  Recently booked a golf cart for our stop in Bonaire but still flip-flopping between keeping that rental or cancelling and booking Woodwind Snorkelling which also gets great reviews.  So it was good to hear your comments on how much you enjoyed it!  Thank you  ☺️

I would do either the snorkeling tour or the golf carts. Now that we've done the latter, next time we would do the former. 

The offshore snorkeling is a little better on the southern (unpopulated) beaches, but to see the really good reefs you really need someone on a boat to take you offshore. 

Yes, al Bacio on Reflection still has the gelato stand on the opposite side of the sitting area from the coffee bar! 

I have the blue one attached to the back of my cellphone cover/case and it’s been very convenient. If you get your card punched for a lanyard, the little slit makes it easier to pull out of the case. 

On Reflection now and ate there earlier. Tables for 2, 4, 6, and one that looked like it handled 8 or 10. 

The moral here: “Chicks be crazy!” — young and old alike. 

It’s also worth mentioning that an AED is only appropriate to use when your heart is in arrhythmia. If it’s stopped entirely, an AED is of no use and won’t do anything. 

Rest assured if darling hubby needs an AED, any staff member -- even the busboys or pool attendants -- know where the closest one is and how to use it. And with their radios, they'll have a medical response to you before you realize. 

Here's the latest update after we clicked off the three ABC (in our case, the order was ACB) islands. 

DAY 6 & 7  - ARUBA

We arrived at 4pm in Aruba. During the day, we spent a good bit of time on the pool deck and just relaxing. Bar service at the Pool Bar was excellent, and I discovered that the Mast Bar has St. Germain, so I could get my cocktail there. 

We just did lunch at the Oceanview,  which was uneventful but is never my favorite place to eat. 

We disembarked in Aruba and walked through some of the shops off the dock. I've never understood the propensity for folks to buy high-end items in the Caribbean, but I've been assured by my wife I don't know what I'm talking about, and given the number coming off ship to shop, I clearly was right. Part of the frenzy this afternoon was that tomorrow is a Sunday, and most stores in Aruba are closed. There was a huge stackup on Decks 2, 3 and even 4 as the masses lined up to disembark. Clearing the port took and extra 15 minutes, so some got a little impatient. 

After shopping for a little while, we took a cab 15 minutes north to Passions on the Beach, a great restaurant where the white-linen topped tables sit in the sand along the beach with tiki torches. You can sit and enjoy dinner and watch the sunset over the ocean. It's a great spot. The food is good but not Michelin star level, but you accept this knowing you're paying for the location, the view and the experience. The couple at the table next to us walked up to the shoreline with a photographer with then, and I started thinking "Great. One of those photographers that shoots you at dinners and tries to sell pictures! I have that on the ship! Our waitress then clued us in that the young man was about to propose to the young lady, and felt like an old coot. After we watched him talk to her, then get down on one knee in the sand, we all applauded as they slowly made their way back to their table, and we wished them congratulations. I thought the least the guy could have done was take his ball cap off during the proposal, but that's just the old coot in me talking. 

The next day we got out early (almost all of our starts were around 7am, which is getting tiring -- looking forward a little to those last 2 sea days). We decided that we would try and find a rental car rather than take a tour after our Cartagena experience. Fortunately there were two car rental companies just outside the gate fighting for our business. When one of them got down to $60 for the day and his competitor balked, we walked off, signed the paperwork and got on our way. We drove south first to Baby Beach at the island's southern end. We had heard the water was very smooth here (hence the name) and more locals than tourists. When we got there, it was OK but the seas weren't that calm, the bar seemed a tad too seedy, and after watching two locals dip their bare-naked toddlers butts into the water, we decided to reverse course and head north. We drove back through Oranjestad and then north past the miles of condos and resorts being built along Eagle and Palm beaches to the California lighthouse at the island's northern tip. For a mandatory $5 donation (lol) to the historic buildings fund, you climb the remarkably narrow, winding staircase to the top for the nice views and photos. 

We ended up at Arashi beach, which was a little crowded and noisy, but not too bad. Rental for two chairs and an umbrella was a rather high $40, but we did it with no regrets. The restaurant there is rather mediocre, and even the chair-rental guy said we'd be better off driving the four minutes back to the lighthouse, where the restaurant there was better. 

Made the ship and guess what? We actually ate at the MDR! 

We walked in at 8:30p and asked for a table for 2, and had no trouble getting one. Our waiter was very nice, and was sort of flying blind because he hadn't met us yet this trip. I had duck consumme and duck for dinner (yeah, I'm odd). My wife had a eggplant parm appetizer and a steak for dinner and said both were excellent. We were seated right next to the service station, and studied how the staff brought dishes out from the kitchen and prepared them for table delivery. I was a little surprised they used the same area for setting up fresh food and bussing dishes, but since they did both atop trays I guess it's OK. At my B&B, we have designated sides of the kitchen for food prep and another for bussed dishes and dishwashing, and never the twain shall met. We did notice one faux pax where an  assistant dropped pulled out a fresh fork from a drawer, dropped it on the floor, and then returned it to the drawer. Needless to say, my wife's eyes widened and we were glad that fork didn't end up with our desserts. 

DAY 8 - CURACAO

We were back on a organized tour we'd booked outside of the ship. This was a winner. Irie Tours is definitely a great organizer, and their people are completely super. We booked the West Side Sights and Beach tour, 6 hours of adventure for just $65 each. We drove around with our hysterically funny guide Eddie pointing out historic signs and telling us about life on the island. He introduced us to the concept of "Dushi,"  a local word with tons of meanings including "cool," "sweet," "sexy," "nice." He told us all toward the end of the day that we weren't just "dushi," but "super-dushi," fully self-aware that this Caracao compliment had a different meaning off the island. We visited the national park and saw some amazing cliffs and car formations three beaches, each better than the last. At one stop, we had the option of jumping off a 40-foot cliff into the water -- needless to say none of us tried it out. After our tour ended, we walked around Wilemstad, checked out the shops, walked across the historic floating pontoon bridge and had a beer along the canal. Can recommend all the activity. 

One of the more interesting sidelights to our visit, and one you might encounter if you visit the ABCs, was the arrival of the MV Freewinds, a Scientology cruise ship used for retreats for their highest-level members. We never saw anyone get on or off the ship after it docked, and only saw two very obvious Scientology plainclothes security people at the end of the dock watching everyone go by. Very creepy. The ABC islands all have good relationship with the Church of Scientology, as the ship apparently hosts fundraisers when it visits the ports at times during the years. 

Since we had a ton of shows to go see after returning to the ship (magician, singer, silent disco) we only had a 30-minute window for dinner and went to the Oceanview again. It was at this meal that I decided Reflection's real problem when it comes to their restaurants and dining services is the Restaurant Manager of Equinox. I can't remember his name, but he did such a good job delivering top-notch food and over-the-top service, that there's apparently no way Reflections' team can meet the expectations Equinox set for us. The only conclusion is that Equinox will have to take it down several notches. Aside from the food at Oceanview being mediocre, my wife and I sat at our table for 20 minutes with no one coming to ask if we wanted anything to drink. I finally had to walk all the way around to the bar, wait behind two people just to get a pair of sodas. And asking for a straw was a major production. I left wishing I could wake up the next morning back on Equinox and enjoying their hot room service breakfast again. 

DAY 9 - BONAIRE

Another beautiful island and another 7am arrival. We had booked golf carts from Bonaire Cruisers, and I'm convinced this is the best way to see the island. We could have circled the entire island during our stay (we left at the surprisingly early 2:30pm). Instead, we beat the crowds to the south end of the island, got to see (and pet) wild donkeys, saw hundreds of flamingoes, toured the slave huts, and watch kite- and wind-surfers along the shore. We doubled back and ended up just north of downtown at Coco Beach, which was small but plenty enough for us, with some nice snorkeling. For $40, we got our own private cabana for two and some cold waters and fresh-cut fruit. We also had lunch at the restaurant there, which was not bad but not outstanding.

Returning by 2:30 allowed us to get some pool deck time, and our evening plans includes another stab at the MDR and some shows. Our last two days will be sea days, which will allow us to sleep late and do a little relaxing before returning to FLL on Friday morning. 

As usual, a few observations and tips: 

• Always, always get cash at the ATM on the ship. The day were were in Aruba the international connections were down, and no ATMs on the island were able to verify US accounts and issue cash. 
• We did the baggage transfer to the airport at FLL. We'll see how that works. 
• Silent Disco is always a scream. If you miss this during your trip, you've missed the most enjoyable part of the journey.
• Much, much fewer production shows on this Reflection sailing than our November trip on Equinox. I don't know if it's because they've changed casts and they haven't had time to bring them on line, or that this ship's cruise director prefers singers and comedians to stage shows. Maybe Celebrity is stepping back it's larger productions with American Ballet Theatre coming online later this year? 
• Going to switch our 20th anniversary 2020 cruise from Australia-Tahiti-Hawaii to Europe while on board. Will see what kind of deals we can work out, if any. 
• More feedback on the Dora tour in Cartagena: If you can book here first group, do it. It's run by Dora herself, and I'm sure she makes sure everything's perfect. Group 2 is run by her No. 2 person. By the time we got shuffled into Group 5, we had her 5th weakest guide. If you can't get the real thing, pass. 
• Hot tubs are very crowded this sailing. I know they always are, but I've seen a couple with 7 (!) people jammed into them. Yikes!
• Manager at Cafe al Bacio is the hardest working person on this ship. She's here at 7 in the morning to open it up, and I still see her here at 10 at night!
• If you're a morning person, get up at 4:45 in the morning like I did the other day. Sit in the Library in a seat overlooking the atrium. It's perfectly silent, and you can slowly watch the ship come to life. It's fascinating. 
• If you've ever been curious, the elevators after several hours of nonuse park themselves on Deck 14. Don't know why. Came out that early morning to see every one of them sitting there.
• Eddie the cruise director is definitely a music lover. In addition to a 30-minute show on the closed circuit each day about music, he's done a really good job making sure the artists on this ship are great. This is one of the few areas where I think Reflection outshone Equinox. If you're a music person, this is your ship. 

Well, off to the MDR. More later. Including those promised pictures!

We self-embarked Equinox in November because of a tight flight connection (it takes all day to get from MIA or FLL to Vermont!). Came down at 7am to find easily 300 people ahead of us. Once we got moving, however, it wasn't awful and we were through fairly quickly. 

This trip we have a little longer window, so we're doing the Celebrity luggage transfer program. 

16 hours ago, mnocket said:

Are you planning on having dinner at the Lawn Club Grill?  That is actually our favorite specialty restaurant on any ship we have sailed.

We did eat at the Lawn Club grill the night of our departure from Cartagena, and it was very good. Steaks were excellent (we passed on cooking them ourselves after our stressful day). Salad bar was very nice, and I was impressed the baked beans had a great flavor and Southern flair. We had passed on the flatbread opener, since the guest sitting across from us told us it was about the size of a full pizza, and we knew we weren't famished. We ended up taking our desserts to-go back to our room and having them after the show. 

If you're with another couple or group, definitely put this on your list. Loads of fun having a designated griller, and you can watch them do their thing on TV screens over the grills. 

We're pretty much done with specialty restaurants for the rest of the trip, although to round things out we'll probably have lunch at The Porch on a sea day if we can get in.

Well, I'm down here this morning at Cafe al Bacio getting some work done on my laptop while the wife sleeps (don't mock me, we own our own business and hey, you gotta pay for the vacation, right!) 

Here's the next few days notes, and some observations and comments at the end:

DAY 4 - SEA DAY

Rougher seas as we head further south toward the coast of South America, but nothing horrible. Lots of whitecaps and slightly bumpier and rockier ride as we woke up in the bed this morning. All good. 

You're right about the MDR - amazingly we haven't eaten dinner there yet! We sort of went berserk with our 4-specialty package! We did eat breakfast at the MDR, after giving up hope that we'd get a hot breakfast from room service on Reflection. The wait for a table was almost nonexistent, and we did ask for a table for two. The food was much better of course, and I had the eggs Benedict and my darling bride of 19 years had an omelette. We shared a yogurt frittata since we serve a frittata at our B&B and wanted to see if they had us beat (they didn't). My wife says she'd like to show them how to make omelettes here - they whip the eggs way to much to put air bubbles into them. It looks fatter, but it kills the taste of the eggs, especially when they add a lot of milk to the mix. My eggs Benedict was fine (also I think I do a slightly better job with the Hollandaise sauce since I make mine from scratch). I'd never tried English bacon before, so I ordered some. My take: It's essentially Southern Country Ham without all the salt. But I liked it a lot. 

Today was the test of how busy we were as we headed to the pool deck for the day. Crowded but we lucked out and found 2 chairs right near the performance stage. Fewer chair hogs than back in November, but when I had came up at 6am for my morning stroll, I'd already seen some setting out personal items. Just wow. 

Drink service at the Pool Bar here is much faster and a little friendlier than Equinox. I would have to say overall the bars here are a tad better (with the exception of the Martini Bar on Equinox, whose bartenders were amaze-balls!) 

We chose to have lunch at Sushi on 5 after attending their free sushi-making presentation. I'd seen it before on Equinox, but couldn't help myself. Only difference was on Equinox they shared the product with the audience - I think they would have done it here too if the chef had thought of it or someone asked. 

The singers who frequent the public areas and pool during the day and evening are very nice, and very talented. I think a little stronger than the small groups on E but very appreciated. 

We were tired so we just did a quick dinner at the Oceanview buffet and then made it an early night. Missed one of the singers in the Theater.

DAY 5 - CARTAGENA

I was looking forward to this stop, since I speak a smattering of Spanish (whatever I haven't forgotten from high school and college), and had never touched South American soil before. We had booked the Dora tour that so many rave about on the CC Excursions board. We had had some difficulty connecting via email in the months leading up to the tour, and found out upon hitting the docks at 7:15 (the Mrs. wasn't crazy about the early arrival) that they didn't have our name on their list. They added us to their fifth tour group which had room, and had us wait in the EcoPark area next to the dock for about an hour while the rest of the groups showed up. After that, we piled into a 12-person air conditioned bus to fight our way through rush-hour traffic into the city. 

Our guide spoke English well, but her accent made her hard to understand some times. I don't make a big deal of it, because I know I evoke the same reaction when I speak Spanish with a Southern US accent. We toured the monastery on the mountain overlooking the city of 1.2 million, and then stopped at the walled fort before heading into the walled city. At every stop you are mobbed by vendors, and if this is something that bothers you, you will HATE Cartagena. It is nonstop. At first, I kept saying "No, Gracias" and "Nadia," but by the end of the day I just gave an angry hand-wave. They all sold the same stuff: Crappy jewelry, cigars, selfie sticks and water. 

Our problem with the tour came when we got inside the walled city. We walked atop the outer wall and barracks and through a couple of streets, and then our guide couldn't get our driver on the phone to pick us back up. We ended up for the next two hours walking through random streets in 92-degree heat as she alternated between pointing out irrelevant houses and hotels and trying to hail our driver on the phone. After two hours of nonstop hiking, battling hucksters and desperately trying to find Cokes that weren't sugar-free or water that wasn't seltzer for my wife, we were spent. My spouse's desire to shop for Emeralds at the end of the walk was gone. She just wanted to pile back in the van and head back to the ship. 

After a quick Oceanview lunch and a dip in the pool (and 3 drinks for me!) we were revitalized, and spent the rest of the afternoon poolside. 

Lynne got collared outside Oceanside by someone who talked her into going to the Grill, so our streak of unintentionally avoiding the MDR continued. (For the record, we LIKE the MDR, although you certainly couldn't tell it this trip). 

We watched Michael Paul, and stand-up comedian and ventriloquist, who was nice, and then watched an improv/comedy game show with Eddie and the events staff that was quite funny before turning in. 

Today's observations:

• Caesar at the Passport bar is amazing. Always smiling, always remembers my special cocktail. 
• Comment cards. I make it a point to always have a blank one with me from Guest Relations, and insist on finding something or someone to praise each day. It's usually not hard to find someone. 
• Our room steward Romeo is always willing to go beyond, and will be scoring a big additional tip at the end of the trip, as will a few others. 
• If you need cash for onshore trips, go to the ATM the night before. The morning of disembarkation there's always a line (I got this right!)
• Time changes are maddening for people with Apple Watches and iPhones. They pick up time settings from the local cell network, so if you're onboard on a sea day or in a town where you don't have AT&T Cruise service, you have to go through the difficulty of manually changing it. On the morning of time changes I wake up in my room never knowing the real time. 
• There's a Concierge arrival social on the helipad this afternoon. I actually will get to use our Concierge for the first time today, as I want to cancel our last two specialty restaurant reservations and will have her do it rather than the Maitre' D. 
• The art for sale here is truly horrific. Just a personal opinion, but when I saw people bidding crazy amounts for it yesterday in the atrium, I was amazed. 
• Lynne found the sales at the Tiffany shop much more aloof than they had the right to be. 
• Donated one of my novels I wrote to The Library. If you travel on a future Reflection cruise, you can see if it's still there or someone took it home. 
• Going to try and grab lunch at the AquaSpa Cafe today. Hopefully the healthy food won't be a shock to my system and kill me. 
• Captain's Club social yesterday pointed out a major difference between captains. Captain Kate was everywhere on her ship. This was the first and only time we've seen the captain of Reflection. Just different styles, neither is right or wrong. 
• Was funny yesterday when the ship cleared the coast of Columbia and tacked from a northwest to a due east direction. Sun shifted and we watched all the sun-worshipers on the deck in unison pick up their things and move across to the chairs on the opposite side of the deck. Ah the little things that amuse me.
• We have a bump-out Concierge cabin (1138) and a couple of people have asked for photos to see how much bigger the deck is. I'll try and oblige on my next post.  

We're currently on Reflection and enjoying their 11-Day Southern Caribbean tour. 

I apologize we're not as dedicated as some past reviewers, but we don't spend as much time online during our trips as others. But thought we'd give a few observations, especially since we were on Equinox in November and a lot of people have asked questions about differences between the ships. 

EMBARKATION DAY

Check-in was smooth through the new Terminal 25 (except I left my sunglasses in our Lyft!). We arrived about 10:15am, despite being told our check-in time was noon-12:30 (we knew this was just a suggestion). Conceirge check-in was easy, and we waited for about 20 minutes before they allowed us to board. On Equinox, we just sailed right through without a wait. Guess there were a few people who really didn't want to leave the last trip!

Since this wasn't our first S-class experience like last time, we chose this time to just set up on the pool deck. We'd worn swimsuits under our cloths and our carryon had lotion, etc., so we were all set. Funniest moment was when another arriving guest set down near us and asked if we were B2B cruisers. Coming from snowy Vermont, we were so white I couldn't imagine how they thought we'd just spent a week on the ship!

Lifeboat drill was its usual dull half-hour (we did learn not to rush down there but to take our time so we were the last to arrive and first to leave). 

Dinner was at Tuscan and our waiter was extremely nice. A nearby lady from New York was driving him crazy with demands, and then another lady in a scooter knocked over their ice bucket, sending ice everywhere, but he managed to keep from being too, too rattled. We assured him we were the most low-maintenance guests he was going to experience all week, and everything was great. 

DAY 2 - SEA DAY

A nice sea day. I will say that there are fewer chair-hogs on Reflection than there were on Equinox, and there seem to be less crowds on the pool deck overall. Maybe fewer sun worshipers on this ship. Although Reflection holds 800 more people than Equinox, this cruise seems to be no more crowded. 

Cruise Critic social was great at the Cellar Masters. Big group. Gift exchange was great. We gave away a ½ gallon can of Vermont maple syrup and a copy of Darren's novel. We received a Jersey Shore Christmas ornament from a lady from New Jersey. 

Dinner was at Qsine (we ordered a 4 dinner package) and we hadn't seen the show before. We thought it was cute, and if we go cruising with our grandchildren in the future we'll be sure to take them here. 

First show of the trip was called Broken Strings, and featured a vague love story and lots of popular current songs. Singing was good, especially the lead singers, and the dancing was excellent. The sounds system was having some hiccups, and that detracted a little bit. 

DAY 3 - GRAND CAYMEN

With a 1-hour time change and a 7am CDT arrival, we ended up being one of the first tenders off the ship. We grabbed a cab to the Royal Palms Beach Club and spent the day there. The first 2 hours and last hour were enjoyable, but it was way too crowded and loud the rest of the time. With a huge Carnival ship in port, the beach was filled with lots of loud people and screaming children, which detracted somewhat. My advice is try and go to a resort further down Seven Mile Beach. Cabs want to take you to this one since it's closest to the dock and they can run more people there faster. 

Performance was Soul Sisters, three ladies with great pipes, and a great repertoire of diva-sung soul classics. Music was great. 

Late dinner at Murano, which is always great. Waiter Mark from the Philippines was charming, and my lobster prepared table side was great. I love eating out, but my wife doesn't, so for the next few days we'll be doing the buffet and room service routine. 

Some observations/tips: 

• Quality of food seems the same as Equinox. Quality of tableside service is great.
• Room service is a big miss, though. They've been late the two days we used them for breakfast, and both times the food was lukewarm to cold. 
• Bartenders as Passport know how to make my special cocktail (French Sunrise) so I'm happy. I upgraded to the premium package three days before boarding just so I could have it, and am glad I did. I don't drink a lot, but it's nice to get the vodka I like and the multiple-liquor drink I like. 
• Internet service on Reflection is much slower/weaker than Equinox. We're going to have to go to Guest Relations and make them reverse our charges down to the lower-speed package, because the higher-speed streaming service just isn't what's promised. 
• Sunset Bar on Reflection is much nicer looking than on Equinox, but this must be where they send their new bartenders and bar-backs. Very slow and substandard service here, but the views make up for it. 
• Ordered Sushi to go at Sushi on Five. Great to enjoy on the pool deck.

Very true about World Class Bar (sic). When I was on Equinox in November, asking them to deviate from their menu was like asking a possum to do differential calculus. 

I’ll be on Reflection. Thanks! 

Have a question about getting my favorite cocktail while onboard next week. 

I have a personal favorite, called a French Sunrise. It consists of a shot of vodka, 1 oz St Germain liquor, and a splash of Prosecco, mixed with grapefruit juice. 

My questions: 

1) Can I get one while onboard?

2) With two shots and Prosecco, how would they handle the pricing? I have the premium package, which lists that it covers all three ingredients, so would there be any additional charge?

3) Which bars would be most likely to be able to handle mixing such a cocktail? Obviously I wouldn’t expect the Mast bar at the pool to pull it off, but I’d like to find a bar/bartender who could be familiar with it to be able to mix me one without repeated explanations. 

Any thoughts? 

Here's my reflections (I'm boarding Reflection Monday, so pun intended) about Concierge Class, and while we usually either book it or upgrade:

Individually, the perks don't justify the additional price on S class. But taken together as a whole, we felt we got a fair value. Specifically:

• Embarkation lunch in MDC for CC guests only. I hate the mob scene in the buffet the first day. People not knowing where they're going, dragging their luggage around? No thanks. Worth it to have a decent sit-down meal with a few people sharing a table. I'm big on feeling civilized on a cruise, and this started things out right. It's also the only perk I can lord over the Aqua suite guests. (jk)
• Canapés every afternoon - No, didn't enjoy them all, but it was a nice touch we looked forward to each afternoon. And it became a fun game to see if we could identify them, and if we liked them.
• Expanded room service breakfast menu - We almost always have breakfast on the balcony, so I like having a few extra choices during the week.
• Fresh fruit in the room every day. Again, much appreciated at midday.
• Champagne on embarkation day. Unlike some others, our steward did have this waiting for us. So one day of our trip is mimosa day!
• Location - Liked being on our deck. Concierge suites are not directly under, around or above anything but other cabins. I might consider Aqua or suites, except for danger of ending up under the pool deck or exercise area.
• Restaurants - Would be nice to eat at Blu, but on the 2 days we wanted to step up we just went to Murano and Tuscan and didn't feel deprived. Blu's menu is nice, but most items didn't resonate with us. 
• Sail-Away - CC guests got invited to a sail-away on the ship's helipad when we left St. Lucia. Was very nice seeing the sunset from the bow of the ship and meeting some of the bridge crew.
• Free Tour - CC guests got a complimentary kitchen tour during the trip. Again, very nice.
• Bathrobes - I did appreciate the nicer bathrobes. We spend every morning having breakfast on our balcony, so these, plus the chair footrests were a nice plus. 
• Shower Head - Supposedly we had a better shower head than other rooms (except Aqua and Suites). Since I didn't have anything to compare it with, this is the one perk that meant zero to me. The water came out, my hair got wet, job done.  
• Concierge - This is the one benefit that really didn't seem like much to us. We didn't call her much, and were perfectly capable of getting dining reservations on our own. If I could have thought of some out-of-the-ordinary need I would have tried to see if she could help us, but no need materialized. During our cruise next week, I've resolved to introduce myself day one and try and let them help us. 

In November, they took our picture at check-in (Equinox).

For our cruise next week (Reflection) they asked us to submit it online. 

Obviously it's tied in to the photo that shows up every time you use your SeaPass card to make sure others aren't using it, or the person coming back from an excursion is the actual passenger. I assume it's to try and speed up the check-in process so fewer people have to get their photos made (it took our clerk 2 or 3 times to get an acceptable one).