Review: Celebrity Reflection - 1/4/2014

[jeffg57]

Background - My wife and i have been on 10 cruises - 9 of 10 on Celebrity and RCI. We typically get a veranda cabin but last year tried a junior suite on RCI. We liked the extra space so we upgraded to an AS class this year. Our children are grown and on their own so it is just the two of us on this trip.

 

Arrival - We flew in night before and stayed at Hilton Miami Airport. Ok room. Taxi to Cruise terminal ($30 with tip). We get there a bit early and it is a very easy embarkation. On the ship sipping champagne within 15 minutes of arrival in the area. Luggage arrived at the door within 2 hours of getting into the cabin.

 

Room was AS class. This is the first time we have tried a room this large and I am certain that we will not be going back to veranda cabins. We may consider aqua class, but I doubt it. The extra space was great and we really enjoyed the daily butler services.

 

Ship is beautiful. Easily the best looking of other RCI and Celebrity and Carnival ships we have been on. There are a ton of things to do on this ship. Things that we really enjoyed:

- Blu Restaurant. This is as good as specialty restaurants on other ships. Loved the flexibility on timing and the menus were outstanding. Lots of flexibility on preparation as well. Service was great.

- Service. We really liked the butler benefit as well as the special invites that we received for being in an AS cabin and captains club select member. We were invited to see the sailaway from St. Maarten while standing on the heliport and all of the senior officers were there. I do not think that i have seen a more friendly group of senior officers as they talked with the passengers numerous times during the cruise. That friendliness spreads throughout the entire crew.

- Cellar Masters Lounge - This is a great space and a great idea. Basically they have a dispenser system that allows you to try over 50 wines by the glass. We purchased a $200 card at the start of the cruise and were given a 15% bonus so we purchased $230 worth of wine. There was an incredible collection of reds that changed daily. We would take glasses to dinner. I think that we tried 8 or 9 varieties at various amounts (the machines dispense 1 oz, 2.5 oz and 5 oz pours). It is rare that you can get high end wines by the glass and here we were able to try a tasting of Opus One! Big Wow! Only drawback - I do not think that this area is included in the beverage packages.

- Specialty restaurants. We tried Qsine (day 1 where we got a BOGO offer), Murano (paid for as part of the Suite package) and Tuscan. We loved Murano and Tuscan. Great food and great service. Nice wine list and we had full bottles there :). Qsine was ok. service was great, but this was not what we considered a high-end restaurant. We chose 5 "courses". Presentation was nice and novel and the food was ok. There was a lot of playing with the food (filet comes like a painting pallet and there are 5 sides dishes that you can use to "paint" the steak). I am sure that some will really like this, but not really our style.

- Entertainment. There were 3 production shows and they got better each time. the 3rd show "Reflection" was stunning with both great singing and dancing and circus acts (strength, balancing, and high flying). I still do not understand how one does some of the strength and balancing tricks when the stage is moving with the ship! The additional talent was a strong acapella group, Bronkar Lee (a beatboxer - we did not enjoy this too much but the crowd liked him), and a ventriloquist - Gareth Oliver. Now usually, my wife hates ventriloquist acts (along with magicians), but even she though Gareth Oliver was hilarious. He brought a guy from the audience up and it was one of the funniest acts I have ever seen. Clever and exceptionally well done. Gareth came back on the last night of the cruise and did an additional 10 minutes where he was doing 3 voices in one fast paced routine. The audience loved it and this guy has a TON of talent. He finished 11th in Britain's got Talent in 2009 and Gareth is comparable to Terry Fator. He was beaten by Susan Boyle and making a bit of fun at her expense is one of the best parts of the act. Also, he works with wife in a duo where they both sang "I dreamed a dream" and it was exceedingly funny and well done.

This was also the first ship that had matinee shows. They were not as well attended as the evening shows, but the performers talked a bit and gave some background about themselves.

- we did one shore excursion - kayak, hike, snorkel at Cas Cay on St. Thomas. Wife and i are in our mid-late 50's, not super active, and we were not overwhelmed with the exercise load! Pretty relaxed pace. Very nice presentation on the purpose of the Cas Cay conservation area. Lots of concern for the safety of the guests as they talked about hydration, sun block, and strategies for not tipping the kayak. Only drawback on this was that the fish were not that spectacular in the snorkeling site. Nice calm water however.

ports - we stopped at San Juan, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. San Juan was an afternoon stop and we hiked up to the old fort. it was about 10 minutes from the ship and well worth the few dollars entry price. The other 2 ports were the usual collection of jewelery stores and souvenir stands. We did have a nice lunch at Phillipsburg in a local restaurant right on the beach. To be honest, we picked this itinerary for the sea days, the ship, relaxing, and the time of the year - not the ports.

 

Shopping and other ship areas - we do not go on vacation to go shopping on the ship, but Reflection had a higher end shopping area than other ships we have been on. The exercise area has the usual set of machines and it looked appropriately sized as there were no long lines. There was an option of reserving a private room with 3 machines. I think it was $15 per hour reserved. Interesting idea for those that are locked into a specific time that may be crowded. We did not spend much time at the bars or the pool as we used our veranda during the day and moved from dinner to the shows in the evening. They could use a sports bar somewhere on the ship as this was during bowl season and it was hard to find a public TV with anything other than ESPN. Did get a chance to see Arizona beat UCLA on Thursday Night. Bear Down! Go Cats! We lost our usual $100 in the casino. Just once, i would like to win a hand of blackjack when I am using those "free" match coupons.

 

Disembarkation - We left the ship at 7:45 and we were in a cab by 8:05 - very simple and quick and well done. Had we known this, we would have gambled on an earlier flight!

 

Summary - overall, this was a great cruise. We had a couple of bumps in a shipboard credit misunderstanding and forgetting that we were celebrating an anniversary, but these are somethings that we can settle over the next few weeks. Compared to past cruises, Celebrity Reflection is clearly special. We would certainly book again on this ship and are considering a summer European itinerary. This would be a great ship for a re-positioning cruise.

Edited January 12, 2014 by jeffg57
tpo on date

[wpgcycler]

Thank you. I enjoyed this!

[vanvleckeren]

Thanks for the review.

 

Did you eat in the main dining room at all? If so, how was the food there?

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[drarill]

Excellent review!! Thanks for sharing your cruise with us. We are cruising on the Reflection this summer, can't read enough about her!:):)

[Tommy3putts]

Than you very helpful information. We are sailing on Reflection in June. Like you, I wish there was a sports bar area. Why not use Michaels? Oh well that's a different topic.

[upwarduk]

It's good to read a positive review about Reflection.

Most mention the loud piped music.

Has it been toned down?

Edited January 12, 2014 by upwarduk

[gundlach]

great to hear that you had a wonderful holiday. We go in February. just a quick question, my husband wants to go swimming In the sea, did you just find a beach near to where you docked

Edited January 12, 2014 by gundlach

[jeffg57]

Couple of quick replys:

 

- "husband wants to go swimmming in the sea - any beaches nearby docking"

 

In St. Maarten, you arrive a bt outside of Phillipsburg at a small area similar to what is at the RCI fabricated port on Jamaica. It is all shops and tour operators there. But, you can take a 5 minute water taxi ride for $7 per person (all day use so it covers round trip back) directly to Phillipsburg. There is a beach right there where the water taxi drops you off and large shopping area and a large number of restaurants/bars. Looked like great swimming. You can rent beach chairs and an umbrella for less than $25 for the day. There is also wireless internet in many of the bars/restaurants.

 

In St. Thomas, we jumped on the excursion ride quickly. when we came back, we were dropped off at a large shopping area just next to the ship. I did not notice a beach there, but I easily could have missed it.

 

We got to San Juan at 4:00 and we were not looking around for beaches.

 

- "Most mention the loud piped music. Has it been toned down?"

 

There was music regularly in the foyer and our room was above the foyer. Some was live and some was pre-fab. We never thought it was loud and we could not hear it once the door was closed. My wife's hearing is far better than mine (just ask her) and she did not have a problem with noise.

 

- "why not use Michaels as a sports bar"

 

Michales was not very busy and it has a rather specific menu (beers and scotch - not our cups of tea). There was one TV where people watched the nfl playoffs and the BCS games. There may have been another TV back in the corner, but we did not get that close. Problem is that there is maybe room for 10 people arouond the TV (some standing) and it is an all ESPN/ESPN2 location. I would hope that a sports bar would have a few additional feeds (Golf Channel, Fox Sports, NBC Sports ...). If i was having a private meeting I would use Michaels as there was almost never anyone there when we walked by before and after dinner.

 

- "did you use the main dining room"

 

Sorry, but no. We found out that we were set up in Blu and would have needed to make a reservation as part of "anytime dining" to eat in the MDR. To be honest, we did not understand the dinner set-up before we went. We always try to get a table for 2 in MDR so we made our usual request and we were worried that request was going to be difficult. The plan was to use Blu as the backup, not the primary. When we arrived, we found that we had no MDR table and were assigned to Blu. There, you ask for the table size every night. most of the tables are 2-tops and they are about 6 inches apart. Window seats are high prio so go early if you want a window seat. We were usually one or two seats off of the window and these were beuatiful seats. There is opportunity to chat with people sitting next to you and this can be a +/- situation. Each night we had a different server, so you do not form the same kinds of relationships with staff as you do in the MDR. Blu felt very much like were were eating at a private club rather than a large dining room.

 

Relative to the food, Blu on Reflection was better than any MDR we have had on Infinity, Summit, Constellation, and Galaxy and any RCI ships. Lets all realize however that food preference is highly personal. We liked the variety and each night there was one entree that we really wanted to try. Our tastes are different so it is not so easy to find places wife and I both like. We also only had 4 nights in Blu and 3 nights in the specialty restaurants. Small sample!

 

We booked another Celebrity ruise, but the ship does not have AS (only reflection has this). The big decision for this is whether to get AQ cabin and ensure we have a spot at Blu, or get a Sky Suite and have to eat at Blu when there is space available. Space vs certainty! We found on Reflection that between 5:30 and 6:30 there was always space available so we are leaning in the direction of a Sky Suite. The price difference is also part of the decision :)

 

Hope this helps

 

jeffg57

[travellover39]

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us.

 

Good writing. I enjoyed your review and you covered all the bases.:D

[Texed]

Jeff-G,

 

Thanks for posting. :)

[packyourpixiedust]

Did you walk off with your luggage or as part of a number? Thanks. :)

[jeffg57]

we had 2 checked bags with number 35 and this was the first number called. I think that we could have left anytime when all of the passengers that were carrying luggage left. I think that this one of the advantages of the AS category. They called our number at around 7:45 and we were in the middle of coffee and a black and white cookie. by the time we arrived at the baggage return, my wife's bag was circulating and we had to wait about 5 minutes for mine.

 

If you are nervous about timing on flghts, I suggest moving your own bags if able. once you get down to customs, you can hire a porter to help out to a cab or airport shuttle.

 

By the way - Go to Cafe al Bacio and get the black and white cookies. they are great and inclulded in basic fees. best desert on the ship! Have to pay extra for the coffee there, but the deserts are included. My wife also loved the 3 layer cakes there.

 

jeff

[Wine-O]

 

By the way - Go to Cafe al Bacio and get the black and white cookies. they are great and inclulded in basic fees. best desert on the ship! Have to pay extra for the coffee there, but the deserts are included. My wife also loved the 3 layer cakes there.

 

jeff

 

They also have the best blueberry muffins on the ship. They open at 7am, and if you're not there by 7:30, they are all gone.

[seguincruiser]

Looking at this ship for 2015 (have never done anything but Carnival), just want to understand your room selection. Did you book an AquaClass with Veranda+ (Balcony) or an Aqua Class Suite+ (Suite) ? Thanks for your review.

[packyourpixiedust]

He was in a suite :)

 

And we did walk off with the luggage once and it was a hassle. It won't be possible this trip because we have a baby traveling with us. But we are in a suite so we should get a good number off.

[seguincruiser]

Thanks

[MVPinBoynton]

So glad you enjoyed your Reflection cruise. I know we sure did. Thanks for sharing your thoughts in your review.

[auntla]

Many thanks for the great review, I am currently debating booking an AS suite - but am unsure because of the location under the pool and cafe. The cruise we are looking at still has loads of cabin available including most of the ones on the 'hump' (which I am hoping will overcome the problem of the large overhang from above) Did you experience any of the noise problems that people report from the pool above?

La

[jeffg57]

Sorry I have not been on the system for a while. Not sure if this is still relevant, but ok.

 

We did not have noise problems, but then again, I am not great at hearing such details and I sleep well. we were on "the bump" and we were on the same deck as the spa (one deck below the pool area). We did not have any problems with smoke. I do recall that when we were out on the balcony, we could hear music from the pool deck.

 

hope this helps and again, I am sorry that I have not been checking here much. we have now booked a couple more cruises so I am no the system more!

 

jeffg57