TobyKnits

I do not like that I'm assigned someone. I just call and speak to the person who answers the phone. I've never been told I have to speak to my assigned person. And If they are indeed "travel agents" why do they not give me any kind of perks?

 

I also don't like TA's, I like having control over my own reservation.

They can give you perks. They've even matched what we could get in cash back with a big box store travel agent. Granted, they match it in non-refundable OBC.

But I think the best perk is we email our person and she takes care of our request promptly. No waiting on hold.

I agree with so many posters here. Luminae on Reflection seems to be the worst in the fleet. First time we sailed her it was jam packed. They'd give us a reservation for 8 pm, but not seat us until 8:30.

Then March of this year on Reflection again. We had no problem getting our desired seating time, but CONSTANTLY had to ask for more drinks, water refills, bread....sometimes we had to ask multiple times. This mainly happened at dinner, less often a problem at breakfast.

Some of the dishes were downright strange. I don't have my notes in front of me, but one example is the scallops. Literally an entire plate of scallops with no sides. One night the mashed potatoes were inedible (so hard they must have sat under a warmer for a couple of hours).

Really hoping things improve before I sail her again in October.

I don't know that I'd call it 'custom' food, but we have certainly asked for and received appetizers or entrees that were available elsewhere on the ship that were not on the Luminae menu. Carpaccio and calamari for example. 24 hours notice was requested.

We experienced it last week on Reflection. At our table of 6 I think there were only 2 of us who had seen the preview videos online. The biggest disappointment was the menu - obviously it is a fixed menu because the video is of the La Petite Chef preparing it; they did offer an alternate for each item at least.

Bouillabaisee soup or French onion soup

Roasted half lobster or Pan roasted sea bass

Filet mignon or Sauteed chicken breast

Rice pudding brulee or Chocolate cake

Vanilla ice cream sundae or fruit sorbet

Of course, food is subjective so take anything I say here with a grain of salt - I didn't find the bouillabaisse very tasty. I love cioppino and would have preferred that. The lobster and filet mignon were both very good. Then there were 2 desserts - creme brulee rice pudding and ice cream. I can't eat either of those being lactose intolerant so I took the two alternates here. I loved the animation for the creme brulee rice pudding, but no one at our table liked the actual dish.

Other feedback from our table is that we all would have preferred a salad course over two desserts. Our travel companions said their grandkids would love the video, but would eat almost none of what was offered on the menu.

For $25 it was worth trying. None of us would have paid $55 for the experience. On the feedback card, in addition to some of what I said above, I said that this experience was a "one and done" unless they provide a second menu with another set of animations, something that should be easy enough for them to do.

Unless you have a drink package there is a charge for the bottled water when leaving the ship. The cups of water or lemonade when returning are free.

Or you want your beverage to stay cold which is why we are taking one insulated thermos on our next cruise.

I am going to find out soon enough, getting on board today. The crowds and wait in Luminae is what I like least about Reflection.

Previous Reflection cruise we couldn't get a table for 4 at 7 or 7:30, they said come at 8 and then we still weren't seated until 8:30. I can understand 7 being a busy time, but they almost need to make Luminae on this ship 2 fixed seating to accommodate everyone - or extend free specialties to more suites.

$30 for the porch? I remember in 2012 it was like $5 a piece? The menu must have changed then... too bad the celebrity upcharges for the non-included restaurants are getting out of control, with $50(!) for Murano? What's up with that?

 

EDIT: before getting people saying it's not that much for the service and how you have to pay much more for the same in a land-based restaurant and yaddayaddayadda ( :)), what would be the limit you'd pay onboard for this?

I think when it was $5 it was a sandwich/panini menu.

I thought it was a lot of $ too, but after trying it for the first time its one of my favorite lunch spots on the ship. It helps when you have OBC to burn too - then it's like $30, whatever...and maybe that's what they're counting on.

Generally I agree with you though, that the prices for specialties are way high. You've already paid to eat a meal somewhere on the ship, this is meant to be an upcharge, not pay the same as you would for a meal on land.

And look in the Ports of Call -> Caribbean forums right here on Cruise Critic.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=587

Edge was always planned to be in Europe though, so it's not new.

And Edge is in the Med. These missing Reflection cruises are British Isles, Iceland, Northern Europe area.

I heard them say that when Magic Carpet was at the top in the evening it would serve food that was locally sourced from the port it was in. It sounded like the menu would be fluid. Considering what they charge for Chef's Market Discovery I'd expect this to be a pretty expensive experience.

Kind of like what they promised and never delivered for Luminae.

Frankly, I don't care about them purchasing it that day in port, but I wish they'd serve a few local dishes.

Obviously you will get all kinds of opinions when it comes to food so take it with a grain of salt...

Luminae is the best restaurant on the ship, since it opened we rarely eat anywhere else. That said, Murano has some great dishes and is worth a visit or two.

The Porch will probably be open on some port days; we really enjoy it those days when Luminae is closed. And also Luminae lunch menu is pretty limited.

I wouldn't bother with Tuscan, I've never had anything there that I thought was half as good as Luminae. I'm not commenting on Lawn Club or Sushi on 5 because I haven't tried them yet.

We've had accessible sky suites twice on M-class ships, both times there was a metal ramp up to the sliding door. I don't recall whether there was a hump if you were coming from the balcony back into the room. As others have said, it is narrow in terms of depth.

We were on one before a minor dry dock and I wouldn't do it again by choice. They ran out of limes and several carbonated beverages. Granted, that could happen on any cruise that they run out of things. The bigger thing is that before the cruise ended they were stacking construction supplies on the upper decks and then they started sanding the finish off the outside decks, closing one whole side of the outside deck above the pool. There is always some maintenance going on, but this felt like quite a bit more than normal.

It didn't ruin our cruise by any means, but given the choice I'd avoid doing it again. It was a distraction and kind of annoying, particularly on the outdoor decks. Hope you got a great deal.

My husband and I have 3 upcoming cruises booked and all of them were planned with other couples we met on past cruises. There are many more couples that I'd be very happy to bump into again; I always peruse my roll calls for familiar faces.

The same is true with wonderful Celebrity staff members - we have one bartender we befriended who invited us to visit his home when we were in Jamaica on our last cruise.

We met him on Infinity before he was promoted to waiter. He used to be at the entrance to Oceanview with the hand sanitizer. Shortly after that cruise we heard he had been promoted.

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience on Equinox! It has been a very fun and enjoyable review so far, looking forward to more. Glad to see the smoke did not disrupt your visit to St. Martin.

I will be watching for posts from the passengers about how it was today. I know a number of tours have been operating and I also read a news articles about the landfill fire this morning. Can't really see smoke on the live webcam shot.

We're scheduled to be there overnight on Reflection in 6 weeks....

We book both with a big box, membership required store and direct through a Celebrity vacation planner (CVP). With the big box we've gotten anywhere from $300 to $600 on a cash card after travel. I monitor prices myself using the fishy website which isn't perfect, but is much better than checking it periodically myself. Whether big box or CVP we've been able to call and get a price drop adjustment before final payment.

Lately though we've been really happy with our CVP. A simple email gets us a price adjustment and she has even re-booked a room that I had reserved online to get us a better deal. Recently when it was approaching time to transfer to a big box store I was feeling guilty about moving the reservation because she's been super responsive so I told my husband to ask her how much it hurts her if we move it. She said it did take away some of her money, but not all and offered us the same amount in OBC that the big box store would have given.

Going forward I think we'll continue to divide our bookings between CVP and big box. There are benefits both ways.

Signature Suite does not. My friends were in one and the bed was SMALLER than the bed in our S1 Sky Suite.

Lovecruzin is correct, at least as of one year ago when I was aboard it was Island Oasis. I was hoping to buy them at my local restaurant supply store.

It was on the dessert menu every night on the Summit last week. I didn't order the cheese course, so can't comment on the quality.

Thank you for setting me straight.

I can't speak to the cheese that is on the dessert menu. The group I was with was ordering it as a starter and it was a nice selection of cheese that seemed to be the same as what is available in Murano. I was looking for a photo, didn't find one, but they would bring us a big platter for 4 people to share with 4 or 5 cheeses, dried apricots, walnuts, grapes, and crackers.

Do they have nice cheeses in Luminae? (same as the specialty restaurants, or the stuff up on the buffet?).

Not on the menu, but ask nicely and you shall receive.

I actually expected that this thread was going to be about how terrible they are! I can't eat a lot of dairy so I avoid most of them, but the ones I have tried weren't very good. And the dessert cart has been terrible both times I've tried things from it. I love Luminae otherwise.

Those cakes look incredible! Such a huge improvement over those little bites of crappy cake I've seen in the past. Do I dare hope we'll see improvements like this on other ships in the line?!?

Yes, it is one of those glass windows where you flip a switch and it turns opaque. I'm sure H2OH! has photos, but I don't know any way to tag her here.