farm girl

When we got off the ship, there were many taxi drivers taking people on tours and to the beach. I told them we wanted to go to a nice beach that had a few restaurants. We were put in a taxi with 8 others.The cost was 8.00 each for the trip to Rodney Beach.

When we got there, the beach was very crowded. We were taken to two beach chairs with an umbrella. That was $20.00. The chairs were a few inches from each other, so your neighbor was very close like on an airplane. I went for a walk down the beach and when I came back everything was wet from the waves that hit us. A few people were yelling in a foreign language. A few left and then others would come and pay and get wet. I warned one lady as because she had a professional camera.

You only got wet about every 4 to 5 minutes and everything was wet already so we tried to relax and enjoy the best we could. The beach is ok. Not as pretty as many of the beaches we are use to (ST John, Jost, ST Barts, Tortola, St Martin, St Thomas, Virgin Gorda).

Then, the guy selling jewelry came by and was very insistent we buy something, so I did to get rid of him (20.00):(. Then a few minutes later, a guy came selling coconuts, then after him, a guy came selling toy snakes, then a guy came by selling bananas. This was endless. They kept coming back. Then at 1pm I got up to go check to see if there were taxi's available. The taxi guy in charge wanted us to wait until 2pm, because he had a taxi going back at that time. He said that was the way it was. I went back and told my husband who go up and found us a taxi for 25.00. We were so happy:D. We could not wait to leave!

If you enjoy a crowed beach, then this is the place for you. Or if you go, try to get away from the people selling the chairs until you find a nicer area. If we go back to Saint Lucia, we will try a different beach with a hotel who will let us pay to use their facilities.

Good luck.

Just got back from being on the Reflection Feb 1st in Aqua Class. Last year we had a regular balcony room. We ate at Blu twice for breakfast and once for dinner. My husband was not that excited about their food. I liked the atmosphere because it was small and quaint. I am more about that then my husband. I did not notice the food being any different from the MDR. We loved the Tuscan Grill so we ate there twice and Murano once. We used the Persian Garden once and it was okay but I enjoy my room balcony more. We paid around $600.00 total to upgrade to Aqua Class so we will not do this again. We will pay a little more and get a suite or pay less and get a regular balcony room and use the Speciality Restaurants. I did enjoy the free fresh squeezed juice in Blu but the rest of the time I paid the $3.00. We like sitting outside for breakfast so Blu was not worth it for us but I can see why others like it so much. You get more attention and the service is outstanding.

We left our room with all our luggage on the 11th floor of the Reflection at 0650 (early walk -off was from 0700 to 0715) on Feb 8, 2014. We took the elevator to the 5th floor where there was no line and then went through Customs where there was no line and then went to the cab line where there was no wait and arrived at the airport at 0730. We never thought about being late for a 1015 am flight. We did the exact flight last year without any issues. If you do early "walk-off" with your luggage there should not be a problem. In my opinion Miami is such an easy and stress free port.

I would like to take a Delta flight at FCO at 09:45 because it is the only direct flight that day to Atlanta.

Last year I took that same flight from Civitavecchia but the ship (Celebrity) arrived at port at 0400 and we were off the ship by 5:30. We had a taxi waiting and we were at the airport by 06:15.

Does anyone have and idea of the average time it takes the Riviera to clear customs for disembarkation?

Also last year after we made our flight arrangements, Delta sent a message a few months later changing the flight to 09:20. Then a month before the cruise they changed it back to 09:45. Does anyone know why they do this? I wonder if they will do this again. Do any of you work for Delta and can explain this?

Thank You

Sharon