Review (Long): Reflection 7-night E Carib 15 Dec 2012

[lobster129]

one of the best reviews ever! so very helpful, well written, truly enjoyable read - thank you! will be onboard in a couple weeks. booked cruise primarily for ship itself vs. where it's going (and to escape winter!) - something we don't usually do. other cruises, so much time spent pre-planning port excursions, this time, barely any.. and now your wonderful review has provided so much detail and so many great tips about the ship, my 'homework' is done! thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time to write such a helpful and enjoyable review.

 

Ditto!!! :) Thanks so much for the great review. :D It meets all my needs perfectly!:cool:

[Papa Abu]

Hi, Phil, from what I observed, this was definitely an "issue," so I mentioned it--but I'm afraid I have no answers for you! I was just hoping to alert an eagle eye like you who might come prepared (and, as you said, take any proactive steps required).

 

As I understood the scenario, there was a designated lounge for people who needed to be pushed off. Apparently, demand exceeded pushers! And it really did seem they had tasked quite a number of staff to pushing, so I am not sure there is an easy solution when so many people require the service? Anyway, I stood by the gangway for at least 30 minutes (while the rest of my party was at Guest Relations), and the staff in charge of the gangway (checking to be sure your number had been called, then allowing you to exit) fielded many angry complaints over how long the process was taking. One lady got so huffed, she decided to push her husband herself...I don't know if that means they brought their own chair, but had hoped for a staff pusher OR if she was going to push a Celebrity-supplied chair to the final point and then leave it on the curb? Those are the kinds of details (whose chair? is this even relevant if someone in your party can push? etc.) I lack.

 

I hope you can find out what you need to know to make your exit as smooth as possible! Best wishes on a great cruise.

 

Thank you for your comments. I will definitely bring this up with whoever is responsible for this task on Friday. I am a firm believer in the "first-come-first-served" principle and understand that, at disembarkation, the ship limited resources for pushing wheel chairs. What I have no patience for is for those who try to break the rule by pushing and shoving. The only way to control this is by having a staff member, among those overseeing the departure logistic, controlling the call order. Personally, we live about 20 minutes from Port of Miami and we even park our car at the pier. We are in no rush to catch an earlier flight and prefer to have a leisure breakfast and leave just before they "chase us out" as stowaway suspects ;)

[theampres]

which ship's tour did you book for cat.-sail? I think you named the boat, and said it was good, but which excursion is it? we usually don't book ships' tours, but trust your judgment based on that great review - may go for same one, this cruise.

 

hope you don't mind answering yet another question... - thank you!

[rwr235]

Thanks for the great review.

 

Attached is a pic of a portion of a drink menu...from another thread...Lists the ingredients of the Black Mamba !

 

Enjoy !

 

Woody

 

 

[Artemis]

Wow. Gotta love the "ask and ye shall receive" spirit of CC! Thanks so much, rwr235, for sharing the Molecular Bar menu. I might try concocting a Black Mamba. I asked the mixologist what spices were used to infuse the scotch--he pointed to the line-up of spice containers at the bar and rattled off a list of the usual suspects including, as I recall, cinnamon, cardamom, clove and possibly star anise and nutmeg? I'm not sure, but I think spicing to personal preference will be part of the fun!

 

theampres, attached is a PDF of the Golden Eagle catamaran excursion in St. Maarten as it was displayed in my reservation personalizer when I was grabbing options to present to our bunch. The excursion may not bear the same excursion number on your cruise--but the essential description for a half-day outing on a Golden Eagle catamaran should be the same. Also, here's a link to the Golden Eagle website: http://www.sailingsxm.com/

 

We've gone out with Golden Eagle twice now (the first time was years ago). As I said, they get positive feedback on both TripAdvisor and the CC St. Martin forum, and I do think Golden Eagle runs one of the best operations we've seen (we are water/boat people and do a lot of these kinds of outings): they take good care of their boats, their staff takes good care of their clients and they pay attention to safety issues. The positives of this excursion are value, convenient logistics (pier meet-up and walk to/from their cat), pleasant sail, gorgeous bay/beach setting, included snorkeling gear (in good condition), open bar (on return only--for safety, they will not serve alcohol before the snorkel/swim session) and friendly, helpful staff. The neutrals are the baguette sandwich (it's nice they provide something to put on your stomach, but don't expect anything special) and the snorkeling (St. Maarten is not known as a primo snorkeling destination compared to some of the other Caribbean islands where cruise ships port, so you may not see as much sea life here as you've seen in some other places, but when they feed the fish, it's so fascinating, it more than makes up for it!). I honestly can't recall a negative.

 

Note that if your goal is a beach break, this may not be the ideal excursion for you. The cat anchors in a bay for snorkeling and swimming--you have to swim to the beach (unless they'd agree to transfer you by dinghy), and once you're on the beach, there are no facilities available, so you won't have a chair or even a towel. I enjoyed sitting and resting a few minutes--the sand is so soft and clean.

 

Hope this helps. Of course, feel free to ask if you have any more questions!

SanMaarten_GoldenEagle.pdf

[theampres]

which ship's tour did you book for cat.-sail? I think you named the boat, and said it was good, but which excursion is it? we usually don't book ships' tours, but trust your judgment based on that great review - may go for same one, this cruise.

 

hope you don't mind answering yet another question... - thank you!

 

thanks for recommendation! wasn't able to find out: max capacity, how many passengers does cat. take? how many were on your trip?

 

again, thank you!

[Artemis]

These are large catamarans--I am not certain of capacity, but I'm guesstimating there were 40 people on our boat. It was not over-crowded. They took two cats out to accommodate the demand for that excursion.

[koolau]

Artemis -

 

Your review was exactly what I went hunting for! So much detail! Booked the Golden Eagle sail a week ago, so I feel validated!

 

I recall you mentioning that shopping wasn't a highlight for you, but do did anything stand out about the shops on board? I usually purchase something fun for my bride during the cruise and wanted to get a head start.

 

Thank you again for the labor of love, it will serve us very well, and I will post in our Roll Call too!

 

Thank you,

 

Scott :D

[Artemis]

Scott, thank you for your generous remarks. And wow, you get brownie points for your thoughtful tradition of buying your wife something to remind her of each fabulous cruise! Unfortunately, I am not the person to ask. Whatever I said about shopping, I should be quick to clarify: I'm not a shopper! So it could be bad or good, I just wouldn't know. I do recall walking through the onboard shopping area and being struck by seeing a standalone Michael Kors store--giving dedicated space to a single designer seemed like a new shipboard retail strategy to me, but again, as I don't pay attention to such things, it could be "old news" to a power cruise shopper! I also have a vague recall of a high-end jeweler (now we're talking??!)--but was it Tiffany's? Bulgari? surely not Harry Winston?!

 

I haven't paid attention to the status of archive search capability--I know it has been disabled recently, so if that is still the case and you can't find more on what shops might be available to you, post a new thread. You are sure to get some fast, accurate replies!

 

Good luck with your search, and bon voyage! I hope you enjoy Reflection as much as we did! And the Golden Eagle, too!

[dpryo319]

 

[Rory Bolton – This young man is the talented piano player in the orchestra. He blogs about what’s happening on Reflection, and his girlfriend frequently posts on CC…so I cracked up when the CD made a joke before one show to the effect that Rory had been up all night because he had just learned his wife had a baby…although he hadn’t seen her in 11 months. <rim shot>

 

[/b][/i]

 

 

Hehe, I'm the girlfriend!...I was on the Dec 29th cruise to visit my dearest, and gave Paul a hard time (I know him from Silhouette where Rory and I were on). Love it, I was cracking up..even made sure to record it! ;)

 

So glad that you had such a fantastic cruise!

[dpryo319]

Thank you so much for your fantastic review. I just devoured every word!! You really did a wonderful job of succinctly highlighting the many things to experience on the ship. I particularly liked your introductory list and your review of the entertainment.

I'm definitely going to have to revisit your dailies to make sure I get to the shows (something we usually don't do due to some rather lackluster experiences on past cruises). I am very pleased to see X is gearing their entertainment to my age group (50s). How can I miss a show with Springsteen music:)

Had to chuckle about the Rory comment - I remember when I read that on CC and was like whaat!! deMara seems like such a nice girl and took it all in stride. I hope to have a chance to meet him

 

I had already been pretty pumped up about this cruise (knew I needed to sail on this ship as soon as I saw Andreas Depping's incredible photos) now I'm counting the hours!!!!

 

 

Hehehehe ;) I hope you got to meet him too! Have a good last couple days!

[Artemis]

^ I hope you had a wonderful time visiting Rory on Reflection! Your positive remarks + sharing Rory's blog during the ship's early days were so encouraging to me. Thanks!

[drychi]

My wife and I spoke with Rory one evening after he finished playing in the Grand Foyer. He was kind to spend a few minutes with us. We enjoyed all of the music on the ship and he should be proud of the band he is in. They are very good. I also enjoyed the duets performance he played for on the last sea day for two of the lead singers from the production show. He seems to enjoy his job and is a credit to Celebrity.

[dodger1964]

Thanks for great review.

 

We are on same cruise Feb 9th.

 

We are on the "balcony guarantee" fare, so hope that works out.

 

We are also on the "free booze" plan, hope that works out as well!!:D

 

Couldn't believe fare!

 

We have been to all 3 stops many times, so hope this trip is just a relaxing week.

 

I prefer the Millennium class ships (I like being able to walk on deck 4 and "feel the ocean" from the wide open deck). I have only been on Solstice once and it was enjoyable, just different.

 

Similar to your experience, on our last cruise on Summit in December, we never received an invitation to the CC party. Not sure if it was just us, or if they never had the gathering.

 

Also, regarding the "Brunch". I think it would be VERY EASY to not know about it. I assume they don't advertise it (only a small blurb in the Celeb. today) because they don't want the whole ship to attend...It would just be impossible to run that many people through.

 

Thanks again for review.

[dizneydawn]

Thanks for the great review!!

 

Can you share how much your St Thomas sail cost?

 

Thanks!

[marysb]

Thanks so much for your great review. .....just a week to go and we will be on the reflection, too....yippee!

[dpryo319]

My wife and I spoke with Rory one evening after he finished playing in the Grand Foyer. He was kind to spend a few minutes with us. We enjoyed all of the music on the ship and he should be proud of the band he is in. They are very good. I also enjoyed the duets performance he played for on the last sea day for two of the lead singers from the production show. He seems to enjoy his job and is a credit to Celebrity.

 

Thank you for the kind words, I'm so happy you enjoyed the entertainment on board, they are all so talented and fun! Rory absolutely loves working on ships and meeting people! I'll pass your comment on :)

[dpryo319]

^ I hope you had a wonderful time visiting Rory on Reflection! Your positive remarks + sharing Rory's blog during the ship's early days were so encouraging to me. Thanks!

 

I sure did, he's home in two weeks as well! :D

 

Thank you for your comment, so glad to hear my comments and his blog helped!

[dodger1964]

I know you didn't personally experience this, but do you (or anybody) else know when boarding started?

 

I see from your posting of the daily sheets that they showed a movie at 1130am.

 

I don't know how close i would want to cut it, but I think I would have been a nervous wreck in your cab!!

[Artemis]

dizneydawn, here's a link to post 23 back up in the thread where I detail the cost of the sail charter. And post 44 gives a more detailed overview of the day.

 

Thanks, everybody, for reading and for your kind remarks. Here's to wonderful Reflection voyages for all!

[dizneydawn]

dizneydawn, here's a link to post 23 back up in the thread where I detail the cost of the sail charter. And post 44 gives a more detailed overview of the day.

 

Thanks, everybody, for reading and for your kind remarks. Here's to wonderful Reflection voyages for all!

 

Thanks! Don't know how I missed the post with the cost, thought I had read the entire thread!

[Artemis]

^ no problem--it's easy to miss something or even glaze over while wading through my verbose posts! ;) Note, I also read about another highly recommended sail charter on this Crown Bay to St. John thread. Hope you figure out the perfect day!

[EMc&DrS]

I just stumbled upon your review today as I was researching info about our upcoming cruise on Reflection. Thanks for such a great review--lots of great tips here!!

[cindy1957]

Nice job, thank you!

[Artemis]

Wow, EMc&DrS, you really did dig up an old thread! Thanks for the kind words to both you and cindy1957 (we are the same age, and the best (only good?!) thing about hitting 55 is the RCI senior discount, haha!).

 

As I just commented in another thread, at the time I posted those dailies, the Reflection was just a few weeks old, and CCers were anxious for news. So I got the dailies up first, then this review. If you want to check out the dailies, you can find them by hitting my user name and looking at past posts. As far as reviews go, I think the legendary "must read" Reflection review must still be the one by librarylady19 (who posted to this thread). She does lots of pix and is both informative and funny!

 

Bon voyage! So green--love love love Reflection!