Foodies and Artists will love the Celebrity Reflection

[sky61]

Our second cruise, first on a Celebrity ship has us sold on this cruise line. We booked this Feb 16-23rd, 2013 cruise as a delayed honeymoon. My husband and I are in the 40-55 year age range and were looking forward to a week of delicious food, sun and relaxing.

 

We flew direct from Boston on American Airlines on Friday. We were a bit nervous about the possibility of snow disrupting our flight but all was clear and we arrived in Miami around 9pm that evening. The cab ride was a bit frustrating...ended up costing us $36 due to traffic and what should have been a fifteen minute ride took 45 minutes. I didn't feel comfortable with the driver and realized the next day, when we were walking around, that he took us down the one street in the area with lots of construction. Hmmmm. Buyer Beware. If we weren't so exhausted we could have been more assertive.

 

We stayed at the Hampton Inn Downtown (Brickell) which was clean and offered a nice hot buffet breakfast in the morning. It is very close to the port (less than ten minute cab ride) so very convenient. We would stay there again.

 

We had read so many reviews and helpful tips about Reflection and cruising in general so even though this was only our second cruise we felt well informed. By 10:30am we were in the terminal. We had booked Aqua Class and were checked in right away but told the ship was not ready so we were all shuffled off to the waiting area. After about 45 minutes we were allowed to proceed on board.

[sky61]

We knew our rooms wouldn't be ready for a while but were so excited to be able to explore the ship before the masses arrived. I was instantly blown away by the elegance and quality of the furnishings and decor. There were a lot of fun little nooks we noticed for future reference.

[librarylady19]

Love your review title - but would add art lovers too! Looking forward to hearing more about your cruise.

[sky61]

I am an artist and art teacher and what really captured my notice right away was the outstanding collection of original contemporary art. I know this may not be everyone's "cup of tea" but having been in so many hotels and on my one other cruise where prints and reproductions of landscapes and flowers (you know...safe subjects) were all I saw, having the opportunity to "live with" this art for a week was quite refreshing. Every stairwell level and in multiple public areas and all the specialty restaurants there is something original and thought provoking. It struck me that the experience of a museum or gallery, where one tends to give about a minute or less to each work of art, is challenged here. By the third day I found myself spending more time with certain pieces and going on 'treasure hunts' for more art. If you go to Guest Services they will let you sign out an iPad with a four hour tour of the art collection. I also recommend looking at the book about the collection which you will find tucked into the space between your safe and refrigerator in the Aqua Class (not sure if it is the same for other rooms).

[sky61]

Yes I agree Library Lady! Thanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately I can't seem to edit that first post :(

[sky61]

This link will take you to a short slideshow of some of the highlights but this is a 60 million dollar collection and many important and intriguing contemporary artists are represented.

http://www.artinfo.com/photo-galleries/slideshow-celebrity-reflection-cruise-ships-art-collection

 

I especially enjoyed the medium framed 'Landscape Painting' right outside Blue. It was quite Romantic and seemed a tad out of place among the other pieces but I assumed it was placed there as the other works all had a nature theme. Imagine my surprise when on the third night I noticed movement! There was video embedded in the image. Another lesson to me about the power of sticking with a piece of art!

 

[USVI-4-me]

Please share the highlights of the foods.

 

Thank you for posting photos.

 

Any comments regarding music, recorded or live?

 

-Marisa

[sky61]

[sky61]

So we wandered for a few minutes checking out the public areas but I was anxious to check out OceanView Cafe while it was fresh and not crowded.

[sky61]

My first impression...Wow! Unlike our previous cruise (Crown Princess) which had decent food but felt very cramped and cafeteria-like this space was set up with food stations (there are two of each so if it is busy when you arrive and there is a line for the salad bar you can just go to the other salad bar nearby...took me a few minutes to figure this out).

 

There is something for everyone here. Wonderful selection of cheeses, fresh fruits, pasta dishes, meat carving station, pizza, Indian dishes, sandwich station and lovely desserts (that not only looked good but had flavor, something that doesn't always happen when baking for thousands!). I really appreciated the portions of desserts...small enough that you could try more than one and also if I didn't finish (unfortunately this didn't happen ha ha) I wouldn't feel bad about being wasteful. There were always several sugar free offerings available.

 

My DH is a chef (and I am an eater :)) so food was a big reason why we went with Celebrity. We heard and read so many great reviews. Being Aqua Class we did have access to Blu, and we also tried a couple of specialty restaurants which I will talk about in a later post but I have to say we both enjoyed this cafe very much and ate here several times on this cruise.

 

One thing DH recommends is the stir fry station. There were always several dishes prepared so I went for those and found them quite good but the second day DH sat next to me with a fresh and wonderful concoction I hadn't noticed. When I asked him where he got it he said the stir fry station offers a "cook to order" choice! You will see what looks like a mini salad bar (peppers, zucchini and other lovely pre-cut veges) right near where the prepared stir fry foods are. Put your selection of veges in the bowl (also right there) and hand it to the nearby chef who will ask you what meat (chicken or beef?) you would like. Voila! Just magical ha ha. I much preferred his hot selection as you know that stir fry gets kind of mushy sitting around too long. Definitely check this out!

[Journey11]

Really enjoying your review so far. The pictures and tips are great. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. I am also glad you had such a nice time on your cruise. Eagerly looking forward to the rest of your review.

[Negrilgirl]

Thank you for the review and pictures.

[sky61]

Here are a few more of the dessert offerings. You can see how my mind works. There were lots of healthy choices but...

[sky61]

I want to mention that while my DH signed up for the Premium Non-Alcohol Beverage Package as soon as we were boarding the ship. I decided not to do a package. Neither of us drinks alcohol and I knew I would be sticking with water, lemonade (I always grab a few fresh lemons to add for extra zing!) and coffee for the most part. My hubby loves his lattes and espresso drinks along with sparkling waters so he took full advantage of his package. Often we would stop at the Cafe al Bacco after dinner or before a show. He would get his coffee and I would snack on a little pastry. Any of the pastries in that coffee shop are available at no charge to any guest whether you have a beverage package or not.

 

Back to the narrative. Being that we were in the OceanView cafe early we enjoyed one of the many tables along the floor to ceiling windows. By the time the call came around 1pm that the rooms were ready the cafe was getting pretty crowded. I probably would have opted for one of the outside tables at that point. Here's my DH another day at an outside table.

[sky61]

We had room #1584 which was on the 11th floor starboard side mid ship. This is an Aqua Class stateroom which we booked both because of the access to Blu and also because of the Persian Gardens. Here is our room:

 

You can probably see that the storage cabinet above the beds is not very big and in an awkward location. I bought a few of those 'cubes' at Target recommended by people in other posts and found them just right. We put our exercise clothes and shorts in the cubes and then I put cameras, iPads and my binoculars up there. We each had two small drawers below tv and then the closet (which had plenty of space and lots of hangers...we brought extra just in case but really would have been fine).

[sky61]

You can see here that we were welcomed with a variety of fresh fruit and a bottle of champagne. We actually had our steward take back the champagne (if we had known any neighbors at that point I would have happily passed it on to them!). We also asked our steward to empty the mini bar/fridge of all items, which he did, and we used it for bottled water and fruit the rest of the week! Later in the day (4pm or so) a plate of "savory" hors d' oeurves was put in our room. Little puff pastry items with meats. We asked our steward if he could just bring us fruit and cheese for the rest of the week and enjoyed that selection much more each day.

[sky61]

I am a big fan of a nice bathroom and these bathrooms were really special. Lots of high-end bath products and super fluffy towels which were replaced often (I know I should be greener but I am so careful at home and it does feel special on vacation to splurge with a new towel after a shower!).

 

There are two little drawers below the sink and then a nice cabinet to the right which perfectly fits the smaller size of those cubes! I brought two small cubes and was really glad I did as it kept things like our sunscreen, toothpaste and other supplies neat.

 

The shower is stellar (as you can read in other posts about these Aqua Class rooms). Ladies will really like the little bar about a foot from the bottom of the shower for leg shaving and there is also a hook in there to hang wet swimsuits.

[sky61]

Sailing away!

 

[El_aurens]

Thanks so much for posting your review, I definitely want to cruise on the Reflection! Can't wait for the rest of your review and pics!

[YVRCanuck]

Enjoying your review and especially the photos. Can you tell me what camera you are using and if the setting is on automatic or manual. Thanks again on the review.

[Lois R]

Hi,:) trying to follow your review but I seem to be having "size issues"

with all the posts......is anyone else having the same problems?:eek:

(The size of the boxes with the photos and replies) are taking

up the entire screen:eek:....I can't seem to read the review and look at

the photos at the same time....is it just me?:confused:

[Barn Goddess]

I'm looking at the review/posts from my iPad & it is fine. No issues for me.

[librarylady19]

Hi,:) trying to follow your review but I seem to be having "size issues"

with all the posts......is anyone else having the same problems?:eek:

(The size of the boxes with the photos and replies) are taking

up the entire screen:eek:....I can't seem to read the review and look at

the photos at the same time....is it just me?:confused:

 

Same here Lois and I am using an iPad.

[sky61]

Enjoying your review and especially the photos. Can you tell me what camera you are using and if the setting is on automatic or manual. Thanks again on the review.

 

 

Hello and thanks for the kind words. I used a Panasonic Lumix DMC 256 set on automatic and my iPhone.

 

I'm still new at all this but was much inspired by Library Lady's awesome review a couple of months back. I know it really got us excited for our trip so I just want to pay that forward.

[sky61]

Hi,:) trying to follow your review but I seem to be having "size issues"

with all the posts......is anyone else having the same problems?:eek:

(The size of the boxes with the photos and replies) are taking

up the entire screen:eek:....I can't seem to read the review and look at

the photos at the same time....is it just me?:confused:

 

Hi I am so sorry I am sure it is me and not you. I am new to this and I'm sure the first few posts I made the pics waaaay too big. Are the later pics better? If so then I am on the right track. I'll try to go back and change the pics but don't know if I can :(