Back From Reflection Inaugural Voyage

[TxnAquarian]

My partner and I just got home from 2 days in fabulous Barcelona after finishing up the inaugural voyage of the Reflection. We had horrendous weather the entire cruise (except for a few hours of sun on the final day), but this is obviously no fault of anyone except Mother Nature! The cruise was fantastic and it's one of those trips that we didn't realize how much fun we had until we got home and reviewed the photos.

 

We were disappointed that Celebrity did nothing to indicate that this was a special voyage, except for releasing blue and white balloons pier-side in Amsterdam once we set sail. It's odd that a trinket or certificate wasn't issued to acknowledge this occasion.

 

The ship is beautiful and looks almost identical to the other Solstice Class ships, with some minor tweaks here and there. I am still obsessed by the "live action" painting that is on the wall near Blu!! We were in AQ Room 1527, directly below the Aqua Spa. We were concerned about noise from above, but we never heard anything the entire cruise (except for our neighbors who sounded like they were on their honeymoon!). We loved the location, close to the spa and elevators / stairs. We were spoiled on the Equinox last year by getting a hump balcony room, so the balcony this year seemed so tiny by comparison.

 

The food, overall, was excellent. We dined in the Lawn Club Grill, Blu, Tuscan Grille, Qsine and the Oceanview Cafe. We missed Murano this voyage. I was so jetlagged on the first night, that I really can't comment on our dinner at Lawn Club Grill. I just remember it as a fun concept. As usual, we loved Blu. There were maybe one or two iffy items (watermelon gazpacho), but nothing worth griping about. The quality and presentation of dinners was as good as we expected. The pastry wrapped halibut is AMAZING! The Tuscan Grille menu wasn't generally to my liking (subjective), but what I ordered was very good. We also really enjoyed Qsine, but as usual, left ill from overeating. It is just two of us, and we still haven't learned to order the proper amount of food. We just get so excited by those darned IPads! The surprise here for me was how much I enjoyed the Oceanview Cafe. I generally avoid buffet set-ups on ships like the plague and don't even like walking through them (with that unappetizing smell of wet mops and burned food), but the variety and quality of food here was stellar. I ate lunch there everyday and even skipped Blu one night to eat dinner there. The desserts and produce and meats were very well-prepared and I couldn't find any fault with the Oceanview whatsoever.

 

The staff, overall, were very friendly and very proud of this ship. We had a poor experience with one of the bartenders at the Martini Bar, who clearly didn't want to be there working and would only serve hot female patrons. But the most ridiculous situation we encountered involved the surly bartender who manned the Molecular Bar every night. I didn't purchase a drink package, as I generally only drink an occasional beer and water. But I was traveling with friends who had purchased the drink package. One night while at the bar with these friends, I sipped one of their drinks to try it. The bartender reprimanded my friend and reported him to the F&B Manager for abusing the "rules" of having a drink package. I could understand the issue if my friend had purchased a drink for me, but I find it hard to believe that I am not allowed to take a sip. I refused to go back to that bar again. The highlight of the crew was Andrea, the Blu Maitre'D. She is truly one of the most fabulous employees I have encountered on a ship (as well as Blu Maitre'D this past summer on Summit, Nicholas - I know I misspelled his name). Andrea never failed to have a smile and bent over backwards to accommodate even the most ridiculously demanding guests. The crew worked well together and truly wanted to create a memorable trip for us. They were always excited to engage in conversation about the day's activities or talk about their home countries. The drink waiters around the ship were exceptionally attentive. Everywhere we went employees were smiling and trying to go the extra mile.

 

The ports (Amsterdam, Zeebrugge, Le Havre, Gijon, Vigo, Malaga, Barcelona) were great, despite cold and rain in most of them. I didn't expect much from Gijon, but it turned out to be a cute little town perfect for an easy walk. The other ports were very intensive, but enjoyable. And strolling through Bruges, Belgium, in the fall is lovely, with the little Christmas shops open and cozy little cafes.

 

We don't do shows, so I can't comment on any of the performances. Although i have to say that the band in the main centrum every night was terrific. The singer has a great voice and she can sing anything. And the strolling acapella group, while not my cup of tea, sounded good from what I heard and were very popular. Our cruise director had a very low profile - I couldn't even tell you who he was.

 

This was a great trip and unique for me, as I'd never been on an inaugural cruise. Yet again, we were reminded why we choose Celebrity over other lines. We don't have any Celebrity cruises on the books until the Solstice in Nov 2013, so we might have to sneak one in between now and then =)

 

 

 

 

 

Michael

[Dizney]

Glad you had a great time in spite of the weather and a few minor annoyances! Glad to see posts like this that focus on the positive aspects and don't dwell on the negative. :)

[librarylady19]

Michael,

Thank you so much for your review! I am so glad to hear that Reflection's food and service were up to the standards we have come to expect. We are looking forward to trying Lawn Club Grill for the first time. I know what you mean about Qsine....hard to exercise restraint with all those inventive presentations and tasty dishes.

Did you by chance go to Michaels all? We enjoyed the concept on Summit and it looks like a really nice space on Reflection.

 

Hope you will add your cabin review to the S class cabin sticky.

[FLJudi]

Michael,

 

We love the S class ships too and are glad to hear that Reflection lived up to your standards. We leave on the "Inaugural" transatlantic in just a few weeks, also in Blu. Hope the two bartenders have loosened up by the time we board.

[Keith1010]

Michael, welcome home and thank you for taking the time to write and post your review.

 

Keith

[TxnAquarian]

"Did you by chance go to Michaels all? We enjoyed the concept on Summit and it looks like a really nice space on Reflection."

 

 

Hi Sandi,

 

We did go to Michael's a couple of times. It is hidden away, just off of the Ensemble Lounge, so a lot of people didn't even know it was there. But a couple of nights, it did command a little crowd. It is a very nice space, with some great bartenders. I wish we had used it more - if the trip had been less port-intensive, I'm sure we would have.

[librarylady19]

"Did you by chance go to Michaels all? We enjoyed the concept on Summit and it looks like a really nice space on Reflection."

 

 

Hi Sandi,

 

We did go to Michael's a couple of times. It is hidden away, just off of the Ensemble Lounge, so a lot of people didn't even know it was there. But a couple of nights, it did command a little crowd. It is a very nice space, with some great bartenders. I wish we had used it more - if the trip had been less port-intensive, I'm sure we would have.

 

thanks for letting me know. I sure hope they have open earlier than 7 pm. Lots of people would enjoy a good beer after returning from port (are you listening Celebrity??)

[librarylady19]

Michael,

 

We love the S class ships too and are glad to hear that Reflection lived up to your standards. We leave on the "Inaugural" transatlantic in just a few weeks, also in Blu. Hope the two bartenders have loosened up by the time we board.

 

That is what puts me off the Martini Bar - some of the bartenders have quite an attitude.

[BCHappyGal]

Thank you for writing such a great post on the Reflection. I am hoping to get on her in March for a short Caribbean cruise...

[Honeymoon Queen]

Just back from Reflection inaugural voyage. Hadn't done a Maiden Voyage in many years. Was somewhat disappointed that Celebrity did not seem to do anything to acknowledge this, as I recall from prior one, coming back to my stateroom and finding gifts nearly every day, and even getting a commerative coffee table book in the mail a few months later. Quite honestly, it did not seem like a brand new ship, and I mean that in only the most positive of ways. The staff worked like a well oiled machine and seldom missed a beat.

We were in Aqua Class, and were warmly greeted by Andrea on our first night at Blu. She is a superstar! We couldn't help noticing how she remembered guests from cruises that they had taken two or three years in the past, and shocking them with details she remembered about them. There was a small blip the first evening when she realized that there were no birthday candles, and they had to substitute a battery powered votive for the celebration, but by the second night candles had appeared.

One thing that does need improvement is the internet situation. Access was sporadic, which was a source of frustration, and costs were high. We were told that they had to limit the number of guests online at a particular time, so keeping connected to those back home was an issue.

I am not generally "little Mary Sunshine" and if you want to find things to complain about, you always can. However, I felt you had to look hard to find those things. I do think that the bad weather, which cannot be controlled by anyone, caused passengers to find things to gripe about. In my opinion, the biggest shortcoming of the cruise was the big champagne brunch held in Opus dining room. The room was too crowded, and navigating the glass steps with a full plate was more trouble than it was worth, and we did not go back down the steps for seconds or even dessert. I don't think it would have broken the bank if Celebrity had given each guest a mimosa or glass of champagne instead of selling them, 2 for 1. On the positive side, we met some lovely people at our table, and lingered in conversation a very long time. In the future I would consider passing up the brunch all together, but if this is the worst thing I can complain about, I say bravo Celebrity for a job well done.

[wongri]

We too were on this inaugural and found it very strange we did not receive any momento of the inauguaral. We have been on all the Crystal Cruise inaugurals and it was much more festive. They cruise line had special inauguaral tote bags with inaugural date on it and a small piece of crystal.

 

Our group of 9 were very disappointed with the cruise and the guest services department.

We had one Aqua suite, 1 Sky Suite and 2 Aqua cabins.

 

The restaurant venues were outstanding.

We had dinner and one lunch in Murano and dinner in Tuscan Grill and Qsine.

Breakfast we enjoyed in Blu daily and one lunch in Bistro on Five.

 

The weather was definately wet but the day we went to Mount Saint Michel it was a bright sunny day . . so we were very lucky.

[CruiseImage]

The staff, overall, were very friendly and very proud of this ship. We had a poor experience with one of the bartenders at the Martini Bar, who clearly didn't want to be there working and would only serve hot female patrons.

 

The highlight of the crew was Andrea, the Blu Maitre'D. She is truly one of the most fabulous employees I have encountered on a ship (as well as Blu Maitre'D this past summer on Summit, Nicholas - I know I misspelled his name). Andrea never failed to have a smile and bent over backwards to accommodate even the most ridiculously demanding guests. The crew worked well together and truly wanted to create a memorable trip for us.

 

Michael

 

We were in Aqua Class, and were warmly greeted by Andrea on our first night at Blu. She is a superstar! We couldn't help noticing how she remembered guests from cruises that they had taken two or three years in the past, and shocking them with details she remembered about them. There was a small blip the first evening when she realized that there were no birthday candles, and they had to substitute a battery powered votive for the celebration, but by the second night candles had appeared.

 

Hi Michael - do you recall the name of the MB bartender?

I understand these are the names at the moment:

Agus, Edgae, Marco and Adi

 

This is my nightly hang out and I've never heard anything bad about anyone working in this bar - and I've never had to comment on anything either....

 

As for Andrea, she's a STAR and was with her on the Silhouette in Feb and April this year, glad she's in Blu now as she was in QSine previously, and I'm not really a great fan of Qsine.

 

 

Michael,

We love the S class ships too and are glad to hear that Reflection lived up to your standards. We leave on the "Inaugural" transatlantic in just a few weeks, also in Blu. Hope the two bartenders have loosened up by the time we board.

 

We're also on the TA in 25 days time :cool: I'll be certainly shaking up those MB guys.....

[kasowell2]

But the most ridiculous situation we encountered involved the surly bartender who manned the Molecular Bar every night. I didn't purchase a drink package, as I generally only drink an occasional beer and water. But I was traveling with friends who had purchased the drink package. One night while at the bar with these friends, I sipped one of their drinks to try it. The bartender reprimanded my friend and reported him to the F&B Manager for abusing the "rules" of having a drink package. Michael

 

Well tell us what happened after he told on you. Did they make you put the drink back in his glass?

 

I too found on our last cruise on Eclipse that the MB bartenders did not give the best service. When I sat in one of the surrounding chairs I got better service than sitting at the bar. The first one on the Solstice was great so the second one was disappointing in this venue but that's all that was a disappointment

[ariawoman]

Just back from Reflection inaugural voyage. Hadn't done a Maiden Voyage in many years. Was somewhat disappointed that Celebrity did not seem to do anything to acknowledge this, as I recall from prior one, coming back to my stateroom and finding gifts nearly every day, and even getting a commerative coffee table book in the mail a few months later. Quite honestly, it did not seem like a brand new ship, and I mean that in only the most positive of ways. The staff worked like a well oiled machine and seldom missed a beat.

We were in Aqua Class, and were warmly greeted by Andrea on our first night at Blu. She is a superstar! We couldn't help noticing how she remembered guests from cruises that they had taken two or three years in the past, and shocking them with details she remembered about them. There was a small blip the first evening when she realized that there were no birthday candles, and they had to substitute a battery powered votive for the celebration, but by the second night candles had appeared.

One thing that does need improvement is the internet situation. Access was sporadic, which was a source of frustration, and costs were high. We were told that they had to limit the number of guests online at a particular time, so keeping connected to those back home was an issue.

I am not generally "little Mary Sunshine" and if you want to find things to complain about, you always can. However, I felt you had to look hard to find those things. I do think that the bad weather, which cannot be controlled by anyone, caused passengers to find things to gripe about. In my opinion, the biggest shortcoming of the cruise was the big champagne brunch held in Opus dining room. The room was too crowded, and navigating the glass steps with a full plate was more trouble than it was worth, and we did not go back down the steps for seconds or even dessert. I don't think it would have broken the bank if Celebrity had given each guest a mimosa or glass of champagne instead of selling them, 2 for 1. On the positive side, we met some lovely people at our table, and lingered in conversation a very long time. In the future I would consider passing up the brunch all together, but if this is the worst thing I can complain about, I say bravo Celebrity for a job well done.

 

I pretty much echo the sentiments from above. I also had made the statement that you couldn't tell it was an inaugural - and i meant that in a good way. The only indicators really were the long lines at guest relations. I think that they had it even harder since we were basically ALL inside, ALL the time (while at sea) due to the bad weather, so the venues got even more strain than they typically would. Even all that considered, the ship did NOT feel "crowded" to me -- esp considering the 300 extra passengers she holds.

 

You can see where they added deck chairs - as they got rid of the water feature that they had on the Equinox (dont know if silhouette had it) and had chairs there. Not sure how the chair situation will be on nice sea days since we didn't have any LOL.

 

One thing I will mention is the fact that the walking track/ability to walk the ENTIRE deck is really pretty much there now on Deck 15 with the changes in the deck plan. While the walking track is still the same lap around the pool - you can extend your walk to the aft and forward on your own. It's not a wrap around promenade - but it's close! You do have to walk through the sunset bar in the back and near the basketball court in the front, but whatever, still worked for me.

 

My only concern was the odd noise i heard in my cabin which i think was toilets flushing nearby. It was quite loud at times, sounded like a rumbling. Hopefully they'll fix that for future passengers, but I didn't even mention it because i felt overall, it wasn't significant in the grand scheme of things on a maiden voyage. If it was a few months old, I might have asked about it though. (cabin was 8279 for those wondering; a 1A).

 

I would have loved some sort of trinket as well. Maybe they'll surprise us all with something in the mail? :-)

[Bounce]

We were a party of 5 who also sailed from Amsterdam - we had 2 suites.

Beautiful rooms - no issues at all. Our friends thought the beach towels were the special gift for this cruise ~smile~. It would have been nice if there was a little gift --- I agree with others.

 

Our experience at the Martini Bar was wonderful (and, believe me, none of us are "hot" females). The bartenders were fun, remembered what we liked to drink, suggested other drinks --- we went to this bar everyday mostly because of the great service. But that is not to dispute what the previous poster said - it was only our experience.

 

Service, I thought, was over and above at every level except the spa where I was left waiting for a hair appointment for 30 minutes before I finally told them I was leaving.

 

One example of nice service was in the Main Dining Room. We had "select dining". A table with the same serving staff was reserved for us each evening. A small gesture, but much appreciated and it made us feel very special to have staff take notice of us and ensure we were happy.

 

I was surprised at how much I liked the food. The main dining room; bistro on 5; Murano's; Blu; Buffet ---- all were very, very good. In the main dining room I asked our server for his opinion between two choices and both times I did that, he said "not to worry - I will bring you a little piece of both dinners" which turned out to be so nice! The men at our table who did this ended up with much more than a "little piece" of each dinner .... they were pretty happy.

 

I do agree with the previous poster about the brunch .... we ended up going to the buffet when we could not find a table on the same floor and saw the lines. We also wished the dining room and Mast Grill were open for lunch.

 

The ship is beautiful. The casino was paying. The theatre had plenty of good seats and it was a nice way to pass an hour, yes - the entertainment (singers, etc.) throughout the ship were very good. Blankets were available and often needed. Because of the weather, the top deck(s) were not utilized much. We did enjoy the pool bar and Sunset Bar.

 

Guess you can tell, we had the drink package ~giggle~. The bartenders were very good about pouring whatever we wanted. I will caution those with packages - sometimes a bartender would charge for a drink ... check your account (it did not happen often, but several times). Maybe that was why so many people were at Guest Relations (?).

 

If you are sailing soon, you will love Reflection. Wish I were sailing again soon!

[DocsideCruises]

Michael......your reviews are so great.....you always give such an unbiased opinion which is so helpful. I'm surprised they didn't do more for the inaugural sailing as well. We did the inaugural on Freedom of the Seas and we got a few nice surprises. Maybe next time.....:)

 

Tom

[SusieV]

I'm disappointed to hear that the service was surly at the Molecular Bar. It's our favourite evening hangout. On Silhouette the mixologist was even experimenting with his own concoctions and he let us try them. They were wonderful. We couldn't have asked for better service.

 

I hope that Reflection will be just as fun for our group. We will all have drink packages.