Cruise Review: Reflection 11 day Eastern Med Oct 21, 2013 sailing

[Milhouse]

Friday Nov 1, Post-Cruise in Barcelona

 

Getting into Town from the Airport (1pm)

The flight itself felt pretty short and was non-eventful.

While waiting to pick up our luggage, we were reading the Rick Steves book trying to figure out how we were going to get into town. It wasn’t too critical of a decision or too complex because the airport isn’t that far from our hotel. Our top choices were taxi, which wouldn’t be too bad considering there were four of us & we’d get door to door service, or Aerobus shuttle where we’d have to about five blocks (with our luggage). We decided to take the shuttle.

 

We followed the signs outside to the shuttle stop. There were two lines: a long line up for the automatic ticket machine to buy a ticket and another line to get on the bus. There were two ticket machines but one was out of service. Apparently, you can buy a ticket on the bus from the driver too so we eventually figured that out and changed line from the ticket machine to getting on the bus. I’m guessing the machine is for primarily for people that need to buy with a credit card.

 

The ~30min trip into town on the Aerobus was ok. The bus was a “regular” bus (vs a coach bus) but had a luggage area. We had to keep an eye on our bags because there were a couple of stops before the terminus at Plaça de Catalunya.

 

Plaça de Catalunya was very busy. After hopping off the bus, we had to get our bearings and figure out the way to our hotel; which wasn’t too hard with Google Maps. We avoided the crowds by zipping down side streets. The walk wasn’t too far but was a little cumbersome dragging our wheeled luggage.

 

Overall, I’d consider taking the Aerobus shuttle again but I could be easily swayed to take a taxi.

 

Silken Gran Havana Hotel (1:40pm)

Our hotel, the Silken Gran Havana Hotel is local about five block NE of Las Ramblas in the Eixample area. Originally, I wanted to stay closer to Las Ramblas but we were pretty happy with the location. It’s outside the craziness of Las Ramblas but within fairly easy walking distance. It was even central enough for us to hoof it over to Sagrada Família. My minor complaint is that it is a few blocks away from a metro station though they have a bus stop nearby. Overall, it also seemed like a fairly safe and quiet neighbourhood.

 

We “won” the Silken Gran Havana Hotel via Priceline. While we use Priceline for hotels in North America regularly, this was the first time we used it for a hotel overseas and we were quite happy with the results. Total Priceline price per room for three nights (after taxes & fees and less a Priceline coupon) was $292.77USD. However, the hotel did tack on a few more Euros on the end for a city tax. I estimate we saved almost 40% off of what we could have found for the Silken Gran Havana via standard booking websites. Based on info on historical wins, we kind of had a good idea we were going to get the Silken Gran Havana based on our bidding parameters.

 

The hotel was very nice. Our rooms were modernly furnished with free Internet access. We likely got the worst rooms in the hotel though (as expected from a Priceline win) as our room was somewhat small and one floor above the side street (which was occasionally surprisingly noisy) but we were still overall happy with it. They had a great rooftop pool which we did not end up using since we were out all day. The hotel must be popular or has some deal with cruise lines as we saw a sign in the lobby (I forget if for X or RC) reminding people what time the transfer shuttle was.

 

I’d recommend staying at the Silken Gran Havana and highly so if you can get a Priceline deal for it.

 

Las Ramblas and Pollo Rico (3:50pm to 5:50pm)

After settling into the hotel, we headed up for a short walk down Las Ramblas and into the El Raval neighbourhood to find a restaurant I read about. Wendy and I have been to Barcelona once so we were guiding N&H a bit.

 

It was a about a 10-15min walk from the hotel to the top of Las Ramblas and it was pretty lively with a lot of people walking the strip. We’ve read how Las Ramblas is a notorious pick pocket location so we were quite on our guard during our walk. I think N&H generally enjoyed Barcelona compared to a number of the previous places we visited on our trip because of the wide pedestrian friendly boulevards

 

I wanted to visit La Boqueria, Barcelona’s central market but they were pretty much done by mid afternoon so I had to save it up for another day. We didn’t walk the whole length of Las Ramblas but hung a right into the El Raval neighbourhood. I can see what they mean in that it’s a bit grittier/seedier. That’s what prevented us from bidding on a hotel in this neighbourhood but I would consider it for a future trip.

 

Pollo Rico is a neighbourhood greasy spoon that I read about when researching places for paella in Barcelona. Their specialty, as per their name, however is chicken; rotisserie chicken to be precise. However, apparently they also had good and affordable paella. “The word’s out” on Pollo Rico among tourists too as they have a tonne of TripAdvisor reviews and a multilanguage menu plastered in the window. The bottom floor is mainly just a counter area. We headed up the stairs located between the rotisserie and the counter to the 2nd floor seating area.

 

I shared a Fish Soup with Wendy which was only meh. It had a variety of seafood in it along with some noodles but didn’t have the depth of seafoody flavour I was hoping for. And it was kind of expensive for what it was. I wanted gazpacho but they didn’t have any that day.

 

N&H shared a salad which was ok.

 

We all shared a Mixed Paella with various ingredients. They gave us a heads up that it would take about 25mins to make which was fine since we killed the time with our starters and Sangria. When it arrived, it was a pretty big platter. Taste-wise, was a bit “soupier” than I like. The flavours were ok though. Lesson learned on likely “rushed” paella. The price was 24E for a two person platter but it was easily big enough to stuff the four of us for an early dinner. For 30E, it came with a pitcher of Sangria.

However, the “deal” is that they have regular rotating daily specials, one of which is a one person plate of paella for 4.15E (on Thursdays? and Sundays).

 

After Pollo Rico, we headed back to the hotel for a long pitstop. N&H were pretty much done for the night but were going to look for food around the hotel. Wendy and I eventually dashed out to check out the neighbourhood and find a tapas place.

 

Tapas 24 and the Block of Discord (10:30pm to 1am)

I had read about Tapas 24 and targeted to be a midrange tapas joint. It located somewhat near our hotel in Eixample just off Passeig de Gràcia was generally easy to find. We had to wait for about 15mins behind two couples for a table at the counter even though it was 10:30pm.

 

Found found service to be great as while there were multiple people running around the counter, one server gave us a hand ordering (they also had an English menu tho) and took care of us. Food came out fairly quickly and was generally pretty tasty. However, nothing blew us away.

One item of note: although we tried speaking Spanish, which was acceptable, the proper language is Catalan which we eventually clued in on while talking to our server.

 

The final tab was 36.80E which was a tad pricey for what it was but as is expected from tapas. You should be able to google the menu and pricing online.

 

We ordered the following items:

Bravas: Fried potatoes with spicy aoli on it. It’s a pretty standard dish we order when eating tapas. I enjoyed it but it wasn’t anything special.

 

Russa amb “Picos”: Which was a Russian Salad with potatoes, carrots, tuna, olives, and mayonnaise. It kind of reminded me of tuna salad. Solid dish to my liking as I enjoyed the flavours.

 

Pa Amb Tomaquet (Pan Con Tomate): This was just garlic and tomatoes rubbed into some toasted rustic bread, drizzled with olive oil. I loved it. I can’t believe I haven’t tried this before. In some ways, it kind of reminded me of simpler version of bruschetta. It was pricey for what it was though.

 

Bbomba di Barceloneta: This arancini ball made with meat and mashed potatoes was ok. Nothing special.

 

Padrón Peppers: Small green roasted peppers lightly salted. We ate them whole, save for the stem. We were concerned they might be too spicey but they were generally mild with that green peppery taste. Glad we tried it as I enjoyed sampling the taste.

 

Croquetes de Pernil Iberic: We wanted a cheap way to get ham into our list so we order this, a ham filled potato ball. Just ok, nothing special.

 

After our “late dinner” we walked up and down Passeig de Gràcia admiring the buildings, including those along the Block of Discord. There were still a lot of people out, this being a Friday night. Felt really safe. After our walk, we got back to our hotel around 1am.

[Milhouse]

Saturday Nov 2 - Barcelona Day 2

 

La Sagrada Familia and the Arco de Triunfo (10:30am to 12:30pm)

N&H, those early birds, got up early, wandered our neighbourhood, and grabbed breakfast.

 

Wendy and I, after a relatively late night, finally got into gear, met up with N&H, and started our walk to La Sagrada Familia. It was a relatively short and pleasant 20min walk. There was not a lot of people wandering the streets and only a handful of businesses open for 10am on a Saturday morning.

 

As expected, it was a tourist mob scene around La Sagrada Familia. Wendy and I visited 10years ago and we couldn’t figure out what kind of progress they made. :D We might have to compare trip photos. N&H didn’t want to go in, which was a good thing because the line up was literally around the block. We basically circled the church, admired the details of the architecture, and were ready to head to our next destination: the Arco de Triumfo.

 

The walk to the Arco de Triumfo Took 40mins to walk there but it should have been quicker than that because we stopped a couple of times along the way to buy water, etc. The boulevard leading up the arch reminded me a bit of the Champs d’Elysee leading to the Arc de Triomphe. On the other side of the arch, the pedestrian walkway led to Ciutadella park and to the zoo. Overall, we found this walk was to be quite nice, particularly since the weather was cooperated.

 

We didn’t go into the zoo but instead found a metro stop to take us to the top of Las Ramblas so we walk the length this time and visit La Boqueria.

 

Gothic Quarter, La Boqueria, and MareMagnum (2pm to 5pm)

After a short break, instead of walking down Las Ramblas, which we started the previous day, we walked down Av. Portal de l’Angel instead generally following the walk in the Rick Steves book. Although it was a shopping street, it looked pretty festive with ornaments hanging overhead. We walked down to the Cathedral with Wendy and H about to head in but during the afternoons they charge an entrance fee; the rest of the time is free. So we skipped it and just admired the details around the building instead. There are a lot of interesting nooks and crannies to check out just walking around.

 

We ended up passing by a sandwich shop called Conesa which had a huge lineup. If we weren’t saving our appetite for La Boqueria, we likely would have grabbed a bocadillo.

 

We walked down to Placa Reial, which was a hub of activity and then back towards Las Ramblas, having overshot La Boqueria by a few blocks because there was so much to see. As a coincidence, we also ended up walked past the place we stayed during our first trip to Barcelona.

 

La Boqueria was amazing as I love markets but it was packed in some parts. The highlights were buying slices of Jamon Iberico de Bellota and buying saffron. We didn’t do enough pre-trip research though know if we got an ok deal. I could have spent a few hours in there but after grabbing some food and zipping up and down the aisles, N&H were ready to go so we left and continued down Las Ramblas.

 

The walk the rest of the way to MareMagnum was largely uneventful other than I could not believe the foot traffic on the pedestrian walkway that leads over to the shopping complex. After a quick spin around the mall, we headed back, jumped on a metro, and worked our way back to the hotel.

 

Magic Fountain of Montjuïc (7pm to 8:30pm)

After a pitstop at our hotel, H, Wendy, and I went to go see the Magic Fountains of Montjuic. The convention centre located at Plaça Espanya at the top of the boulevard was hosting an anime convention so I’m not if that added to the volume but it was packed. It was another attraction I’d have to say, “Get there early to get a prime viewing spot.” I’m really glad we went. The “dancing” fountains were really cool; they reminded me of the fountain show at the Bellagio in Vegas but with more colours. The backdrop is kind of similar too with the MNAC Museum behind it lit up with lasers/spotlights shooting out from behind it standing in for the Bellagio Hotel.

Highly recommended if you light this kind of attraction.

 

Tapas at Tapa Tapa and a Follow-up Meal at Wok to Walk (9pm to Midnight)

After getting enough of the fountain show, we headed to a chain tapas restaurant called Tapa Tapa on Passeig de Gràcia to meet up with N for a late dinner. Wendy and I ate here when during our first visit to Barcelona and we thought we had a good meal so we decided to drag N&H here. Big mistake. The tapas were not as good as last night and were just as pricey. It tasted much more mass produced (which I guess we should have expected for a chain.) Not sure if the quality has gone downhill or we were out to lunch about our thoughts on the food the first time we were here.

 

We decided to go for a late night walk down Las Ramblas to see what the vibe was during the evening. And yes, it was still pretty lively with people. Having minimized our meal at Tapa Tapa, Wendy and I decided to try a place beside La Boqueria that seemed to be really popular, Wok to Walk. It’s a chain where you pick a base carb (noodle or rice), pick protein & veggies, and pick a sauce and then they quickly stir fry everything in wok, serving the finished product in a typical Chinese takeout style box. It’s a great concept IMO but personally, I did not like my combo (Udon, Beef, and Teriyaki (was trying for a yakiudon)) at all as the flavours seemed a bit off and the beef was tough. Wendy didn’t like her combo either.

 

After this disappointing meal, we headed back to the hotel.

[Milhouse]

Sunday Nov 3 - Barcelona Day 3

 

Park Guell (11:45am to 12:45am)

On Sunday, we visited Park Guell which has a number of Gaudi elements incorporated into it. We decided to take the bus based on directions in Rick Steve’s book. To catch the bus, we headed to Plaça de Catalunya which is essentially a transportation hub. Unfortunately, the we didn’t research where the bus stop would be so we scurried around different bus stops looking for our bus number. We finally found a our bus stop BUT when we boarded, the driver knew has the foresight to question us clueless tourists if we were going to Park Guell because his bus was going in the opposite directly (ie. He just came from Park Guell). :D After thanking the bus driver for identifying our mistake, we headed over to the other side of the street looking for our bus stop which we eventually found. The 25min trip on bus 24 took us right up to a side entrance of the park which was great.

 

Unfortunately, little did we know that a month earlier (our reference books were out of date and we didn’t double check online), Park Guell started charging an entrance fee for certain areas to see Guadi creations up close. Ugh. Not happy with this, we just walked around the park and looked at the creations from afar.

 

Taking the bus to Park Guell seemed pretty popular because the bus stop outside the park was pretty packed for the ride back to Plaça de Catalunya. We decided to employ a bit of strategy and walk to one stop before the stop outside the park to ensure we got seat. It worked like a charm.

 

Lunch at Pollo Rico… Again (1:30pm)

Wendy and I split from N&H as we wanted to go check out Montjuic and they wanted to do their own thing. However, we decided to go grab lunch at Pollo Rico again to give it another try.

 

This time, I ordered their Quarter Chicken with fries. Hmm, I’ve had better/juicier rotisserie chicken before. But it was decent value at 4.50E.

 

Wendy had the daily special paella for 4.15E. That was a pretty good deal and we felt the Paella was better than on the first visit. We assumed the paella was a pretty popular special on Sundays and they were likely more prepped in cooking good batches for people.

 

We also had a Creme Caramel Flan which was ok.

 

Montjuic and Las Arenas (3pm to 5:30pm)

After lunch we took the metro back to Plaça Espanya to walk around Montjuic via the MNAC Museum. The was a nice view of the city sitting on the steps of the museum. It kind of reminded me of sitting on the steps of Sacre Coeur on Montmartre in Paris a bit.

 

We then ended up just randomly walking around Montjuic. One area we spent a chunk of time was the Olympic Park area which we didn’t see during our first visit. Although there were people around, the area overall was pretty quiet. There was a lot of open space, I suppose there’s not a lot of reason to pull people into the area. Interestingly, a part of the stadium was open where visitors could walk in, take a peak, and visit a souvenir shop if one liked.

 

After we worked our way down the the funicular station, we thought about riding the cable car up to the Castle which we missed during our first trip. However, time was running short so we just took the funicular down and took a spin around Las Arenas Shopping Mall which was located on one side of Plaça Espanya. It caught our attention the previous night when visiting the fountains because we saw people on the roof and wondered what kind of view it had. The bulk of the mall was closed save for the food court downstairs which we wandered around a bit. We ended up paying a Euro each to ride the glass elevator to the observation deck on roof. The views were only ok. However, we were kicking ourselves because it looked like we could have just zigzagged on the escalators inside the mall to get to the roof. Ooops.

 

To get back to the hotel, we just found a bus stop, referenced the system map, and jumped on a bus that appeared to travel along the street our hotel was on. Worked like a charm.

[Milhouse]

Picasso Museum (7pm-8:30pm)

After a quick pitstop at the hotel, Wendy and I headed to the Picasso Museum which was free on the first Sunday of the month. While we were expecting lines because of it being a free day, we were hoping that they would have subsided nearer to closing. Mistake. When we got to the museum, there was still a LONG line to get in. We considered ditching but decided to get in line to see how fast the line moved and fortunately it did move fairly quick. Our queue was about 20 to 25mins.

 

I’m happy that we visited. We aren’t huge art fans but it was interesting to view the progression of Picasso’s work. The collection not only included paintings but other works such ceramics, etc.

 

Dinner at Euskal Etxea (9pm)

Our luck with close restaurants continued right to the end as we hoping to eat tapas at El Xampanyet, which was near the Picasso Museum and had pretty good reviews, but was closed. Not wanting to search too hard we ended up just popping into Euskal Etxea which looked pretty busy with people drinking and eating pinchos. They also had a restaurant in the back but it was empty. Wendy and I had a few drinks and just gorged ourselves on 2E pinchos (counted by the toothpick) for our last night in Europe. They had at least a dozen different varieties and they were all tasty IMO.

 

After dinner, we took a slow walk back to the metro, traversing some lively restaurant areas and shops. We ended up buying a package of jamon bits that we ended up eating on the plane ride home because we weren’t sure if customs would have let us bring meat products back even though it was vacuum sealed. (Good thing we ate it on the plane because my customs friend thinks it would have been confiscated.)

 

We got back to the hotel to finish packing and grab a few hours sleep before needing to get up for our early flight the next morning.

[Milhouse]

Monday Nov 4 - Barcelona to Vancouver

With us needing to connect in Frankfurt to fly back to Vancouver, we had an early 6:10am flight out of BCN. To build in some margin for error, we woke up at 3am. We had check the previous nights that there was typically a bunch of taxis parked beside our hotel so we weren’t concerned about needing to find one; and luckily there was a bunch. However, we took the first taxi in line and it was a fairly small car so it was kind of a tight squeeze for all four our us and our luggage. The ride was about 30mins but we likely could have been there in 20mins had we not hit nearly ALL the red lights along the way. Taxi fare was about 36E (compared to ~24E for the four us on the Aerobus).

 

The regular Lufthansa Check-in line was super long. We were able to skip to the way shorter (10 person queue) baggage drop off line because we checked in online the previous night on our laptop and sent the boarding passes to our phones. The key was just doing all the paperwork online ahead of time because they issued hard copy boarding passes when we dropped off our luggage.

 

Security check was pretty short at that time of day. Didn’t really have to wait at all.

 

Unfortunately, they didn’t have a gate listed for our flight on our boarding passes and on the terminal displays (the flight being 1.5hrs away) so we just hunkered down at any gate. Interestingly, the Lufthansa app then showed the boarding gate about 10mins earlier than the terminal displays.

 

Boarding was a bit of a nightmare as we had to be bussed to the plane and then boarding was via both the front AND back doors of the plane. In the chaos, I found a passport on the aisle which belonged to passenger sitting in the row opposite of us. He had gone back to the terminal looking for it. I gave it to his wife who had a flight attendant page her husband to return to the plane. :).

 

The flight to Frankfurt was pretty uneventful and we all were grabbing zz’s anyways.

 

Connecting in Frankfurt was a major chore. Although we more than 2hrs to connect (compared to the sub 1hr we had on the way out) it was a JOURNEY to go from the A terminal gate we arrived at the C terminal gate we departing from. I wouldn’t say we needed every minute of those 2hrs but we needed most of it. The length of the walk itself was a trip but we also had additional challenges. We had to decide whether or not to go through a unidirectional door (yes, had to). We had to clear customs again. And we had to go through security again with the line being as slow as what we experienced at the start of the trip.

 

Terminal C was also very sparse. The food selection seemed to be limited to one vendor selling the same selection at multiple gates at pretty hefty prices. The duty free shopping was also fairly sparse with pricing that was not very competitive. After the exchange, pricing was only slight cheaper than at home. I wish I had bought alcohol on the ship even though I would have had to lug it in my checked luggage post cruise.

 

The transatlantic flight home was non-eventful. We were served a lunch meal and a dinner meal. We arrived home in Vancouver around noon which was handy as it gave us most of the day to do various housekeeping chores such as unpacking, laundry, check mail, etc.

 

I would generally consider flying Lufthansa to Europe again because the flight service was good and I have to give it to them for getting us into Venice during the work stoppage. However, on a similar itinerary with normal circumstances, I would probably try for KLM. We’ve connected at Schiphol in Amsterdam before and think it’s a better connection than what we experienced in Frankfurt.

[Milhouse]

We received a canned welcome home email from our TA was nice (but I’ve got to say, it would have been nicer if we received some additional OBC’s for referring N&H to her).

 

We watch the Cruise in Review DVD and it kind of sucked. We were hoping for a lot more footage of our cruise on the DVD but it was very limited, packaged with a lot of canned footage. I felt it was kind misleading because a number of times they played footage taken on our cruise on the interactive TV and on the displays in the theatre prior to the shows but not all that footage made it to the DVD. It’s probably the last cruise DVD I’m going to buy.

 

Jetlag on the way back was surprisingly not much of an issue at all for us.

[Milhouse]

Overview

Overall, we really enjoyed the our Eastern Mediterranean cruise on Reflection. The itinerary was the main draw for us and it did not disappoint. We enjoyed all the ports of call with the only disappointment being that we could have used an extra hour or two in most ports. The weather played a huge part though in that it was sunny and warm even though we cruised late in the season.

 

Compared to older ships, the general configuration & amenities of the Solstice class ships really appeal to us; though I do have mixed feeling about the alternate configuration of Reflection. Shipboard service was spectacular as usual while dining was only solid.

 

We would highly recommend this cruise.

 

Getting to Port and Embarkation

Taking the train from Rome Termini to Civitavecchia was fairly straightforward though we felt we had to stay alert to prevent being scammed.

 

Apart from having to drag our luggage down and up the stairs at the Civitavecchia train station to get from our arrival platform to the station and out onto the street, it was a very easy walk to the shuttle coach bus location at the port’s entrance; keeping in mind that we did not have a lot of luggage. While I did not completely love the process, shuttling to the check-in tent beside the ship was not as bad as I expected. However, I would consider taking a transfer service directly to the check-in tent if circumstances warranted.

 

Checking in at around 11:30am, there was not much of a bottleneck at the x-ray machine/metal detector but there was a bit of a line to complete final paperwork and get our seapasses. However, the line moved very quickly as there were, surprisingly, a lot of check-in staff.

 

Overall, we were pretty happy with the speed of the check-in process.

 

Cabin

We stayed in cabin 8290, a 1C veranda towards the rear of the ship, starboard side. I think we lucked out because the starboard side seemed to have the better views, particularly while in port. On Equinox, we were further back and the walk back to the cabin was a bit of a hike. The location of our cabin on Reflection was fairly decent.

 

Having stayed in a similar cabin on Equinox, the layout was not much of a surprise. It had enough space and storage for us (except for maybe a few more hangers). My only complaint would be the lack of power outlets which we solved by bringing a small power bar. It would be nice if there were an outlet closer to the bed.

 

The only other item of note for me was the interactive TV which I thought was well done with the various functions it had on it from ordering room service, to checking your spend, etc.

 

Public Spaces

We generally enjoyed the overall layout and decor of Reflection as we did Equinox’s. IMO, it’s pretty easy to find where you need to get to.

 

We did run into space issue in a number of areas. The early edition of the production shows were generally completely packed. Celebrity Central was slightly too small to hold certain events such as popular talks. The While I didn’t think the Sky Lounge was generally overcrowded, save for the Captain Club event, the layout was not very good as the dance floor was too small for a few events we attended and the sightlines to the dance floor/stage was not very good. The Grand Foyer held a number of events and the popular ones had really big crowds on deck 3 and along the upper decks’ railing; quite festive though.

 

We were somewhat disappointed to see Quasar, the disco, replaced by Conference Rooms. However, the conference rooms seemed to be quite utilized. And I can see how Celebrity has tried to replace the disco concept with “Interactive Dance Parties”/flash mob dances in more open areas like the Grand Foyer and Sky Lounge.

 

We didn’t see the alcoves being used nor the lawn (though we did miss the evening concert).

 

Activities

We normally like to take part in a number of activities but we found that we only made it to certain ones because of this cruise being so port intensive (it kind of wiped us out) and general timing.

 

The Cruise Critic connections party was held at the Sunset Bar which was a nice location but it was kind of cramped with the numbers attending.

 

The Galley Tour was pretty standard. I’m not sure if we missed it but I wished they would have indicated that a second galley tour was going to occur later in the cruise.

 

We were kind of disappointed that the Backstage Tour was limited to Select and Elite guests but I suppose they need to do this to keep numbers manageable with the limited space in the backstage area.

 

The Port Discussions was very good. In attending with our friends who are generally new to cruising, I was very impressed. In the past, it felt like more of a harder sell to shop at X friendly stores. Instead, the talks gave practical port information and as a component of the discussion mentioned the X friendly retailers and “the benefits” of shopping there. They also gave out door decent prizes which was nice.

 

If you’re into Scrapbooking, that was likely one of the better activities as it was social, the materials were free, and you got a bit of a keepsake at the end. The only issue was that they were short on packages during the final session.

 

Miscellaneous thoughts… I did somewhat miss the hot glass shows that are on Equinox and some of the other ships. The itinerary was pretty port intensive so we found ourselves either: prepping for the next port day, writing notes about our port day, or recovering from our time in port. As such we missed a lot of activities that we normally like doing such as Trivia, Beyond the Podium Talks, etc.

 

Entertainment

The three production shows were overall very entertaining IMO even though some of themes were predictable (eg. Broadway mix, Cirque du Soleil-esqu acts, etc). I generally liked the song selection/music, particularly in the latter shows since it was more modern and recognizable for me. Seating was at a premium though during the early shows.

 

We also attended most of the “dance parties” during the cruise that the ship’s dancer’s led off before giving away to the passengers. The shows were fun though some of the venues were a bit small for the attendance. The dancers were excellent and we really appreciated the different number of costumes they had for the shows and dance parties; it was really amazing.

 

The Sin City Comedy Show which consisted of two comedians and a burlesque dancer was generally entertaining. We attended the first performance during the cruise and thought the first comedian was ok while the second comedian was excellent. Most of the audience seemed to have a good time. Obviously, your enjoyment factor will depend whether or not you like the comedians’ routines but they were both pretty raunchy and pushing the borders. The burlesque dancer was nice but we didn’t really think it added much to the overall show other than provide a bit of a change-up between comedy acts while keeping the show going.

 

We attended the shows of five guest performers in the theatre during the cruise and found them to be a bit hit and miss to our liking. Analiza Ching showed off amazing violin skills but her overall show was a bit boring for us as it was a bit slow and her stories between songs were a bit awkward. We generally enjoyed Andy Abraham’s (former Brit X-Factor contestant) performance particularly because he had a soulful sound and a great stage presence. We were a bit skeptical at first with Kennedy, “a mentalist”, on one night and Gareth Oliver (former Britain’s Got Talent contestant), a ventriloquist, the next night but they both did a great job winning the audience over first and then keeping their acts lighthearted and fun.

Similar to Andy Abraham in a way, Lindsay Hamilton (London’s West End performer) had a fantastic voice and great stage presence. However, not a lot of her songs had that familiarity factor for us.

 

Dining

We found dining around the ship generally pretty good but that it could also be a bit hit and miss, particularly in the main dining room. One pet peeve I had was that they made item substitutions, which is generally fine since I’m assuming they likely have occasional problems sourcing a product, but it would be nice if the wait staff let us know if we ordered the dish with the substitution (eg. Kale salad with no kale?!?).

 

The meals in the main dining room were fairly solid but nothing spectacular IMO. The menu selection was generally interesting but the side veg got a bit repetitive as it seemed like it was regularly string beans. The quality was fairly good but a few items were disappointing.

The special Brunch event was very fun even though there was really only a handful of items unique compared to what you can get most of the time at the Oceanview buffet.

 

We found the buffet in the Oceanview Cafe pretty standard but with good variety. The items did get a bit repetitive near the end of the cruise. We only came here for breakfast, lunch, and the odd late night snack.

 

Two places I wish we visited more often was the Mast Grill and the Aqua Spa Cafe. The Mast Grill was a good option for a classic but tasty burger and fries meal while the Aqua Spa Cafe had some really interesting choices that we probably should have enjoyed more of to give more variety for lunch.

 

We ordered room service twice for breakfast and it was bang on time each time with the food being surprisingly warm. Our orders were slightly wrong, missing an item, each time though.

Eating breakfast on the verandah with the sun just rising is really an experience.

 

Bistro on 5 is one of favourite pay dining venue. At $5, it’s a cheap option (particularly if you have OBC’s) for some tasty soup, salad, and crepes in a non-hectic environment where you have time to chat with the staff. We’d likely always make a visit to Bistro on 5 on all our cruises.

 

Qsine was our favourite pay dining venue because of how whimsical and novel the presentation of the dishes were; kind of like what you’d expect to see on a Bob Blumer Surreal Gourmet episode. Taste-wise, I’m not sure we’d say the items overall were spectacular but many of the dishes we quite enjoyed with the odd misses. It’s pretty pricey but we’d very likely do Qsine again on another cruise.

 

Murano was an excellent dining experience because the food was quite good and service impeccable with how they coordinate everything. We did have a couple of misses in terms of dishes were ordered but overall it was very good. Highlights were the service and tableside preparation of the lobster tail dishes. We would consider dining in Murano again but what would hold us back is the price, the menu which doesn’t completely inspire us, and the fact that we’ve been there twice now.

 

We had an enjoyable meal Tuscan Grill with a nice window view of the sunset at the stern of the ship. Having “full access” to a prototypical Italian menu was fun but on the otherhand, it was kind of a prototypical Italian menu you kind of can get anywhere. As TG is one of the “lower priced” specialty dining options, we might dine here again.

 

While still an overall good experience, Lawn Club Grill was probably the least interesting for us since we regularly grill at home, we occasionally make flatbread pizzas (though not as tasty as here), and the salad bar didn’t really have anything unique. Highlights were kibbitzing with the chefs and the flatbread pizzas (both making and eating it - yummy).

 

We wanted to try the Porch but there were so many days we grabbed lunch in port and other lunch options that we just ran out of time.

 

Itinerary & Ports of Call

We quite enjoyed all the ports of call and the itinerary in general. My only minor wants would have been that I would have liked a little more time in each port of call.

 

Santorini was beautiful. While I’m glad we were in port for sunset, I wish we arrived a bit earlier. Note, this is a tendered port. We DIY bussing from Fira to Oia exploring the towns. My only regret is that I wish were a bit more efficient so that we might have been able to fit in one more activity. However, just wandering the towns and enjoying the sunset with everyone was terrific.

 

The overnight stay in Istanbul was amazing as we loved the Turkish culture. We probably could have planned the first part of our visit a bit better as we ran into some timing and crowd issues with the Blue Mosque. And we also didn’t give enough patience to the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market to truly do some serious shopping damage. The highlight was walking down Istiklal Avenue Friday night because it was so lively. Even though we overnighted in Istanbul, I wish our departure time was a bit later in the afternoon.

 

I’m glad we visited Ephesus during our stop in Kusadasi and happy that we booked the tour through Ephesus Shuttle as they were very good value and provided an excellent experience all around. See the Terrace Houses in Ephesus. The shopping in Kusadasi was a bit disappointing. While our walk along the Kusadasi waterfront promenade was nice, if I could plan it over again, I’d probably look to do a longer tour and shorten wandering time in Kusadasi.

 

We docked in Mykonos instead of tendering as listed in the itinerary. Just walking the laneways of Mykonos Town itself was fun as was the obligatory visit to the Windmills. We lucked out and were able to enjoy a town parade for Ohi Day. However, Mykonos Town is pretty small so my only regret is that we could have visited a nearby beach if we were more efficient.

 

The highlight of Athens was the Acropolis and seeing cool ruins all pretty much everywhere you turned. You can easily spend all your time in port visiting many interesting sights and neighbourhoods around the Acropolis which consisted of a blend of modern and ancient Greece.

The best tip I can give is to visit the Acropolis later in the day and you’ll essentially have it all to yourself.

 

Our main activity in Naples was visiting Pompeii which a bit of an objective after studying it in grade 3. Getting there by DIY was pretty easy and the ruins pretty interesting. Naples itself does feel a bit more rough around the edges. Additional highlights were eating “authentic” Neapolitan pizza and doing a bit of the Rick Steves walk. We definitely could have used a bit more time in Naples.

 

Staff & Customer Service

We’re pretty simple to please but having said that we had some really great service on Reflection. Ozy and his assistant Jean were hands down the best room attendants we’ve ever had by really going over and beyond. While we didn’t have a chance to really “click” with a wait team in the MDR because of our Select Dining option, all of the staff were very friendly and remembered us even when we were seated in other sections. One even remembered how Wendy liked a cushion to support her back and brought one over without being asked.

 

The other thing we really appreciated was how the staff in general were able to take time, when it’s slow/free, to chat with us and satisfy our curiosity about life on the ship and their hometown/country.

 

We found Drew, the CD, to be very good; visible around the ship and very approachable. We did not take part in a lot of activities so we did not get to know the activities staff as well as we have during other cruises but again, they were very visible all around the ship and happily running different events with a lot of energy.

 

Disembarkation

We did self disembarkation because we had an early transfer to the airport. We were able to grab a bit of breakfast in the Oceanview Cafe and then head back to our cabins to grab our bags to disembark. Self disembarkation around 6:45am was painless with zeno crowds other than having to stuff ourselves and our luggage into the elevator. With our Rome Cabs driver waiting for us and no traffic on the road, we able to get to the airport before 8am.

 

Miscellaneous

Although we were concerned about the weather in mid to late October, it ended up being excellent with no precipitation. It was also warm enough to wear shorts during the day but it did get chilly at night.

 

From a demographics perspective, it was a slightly younger cruise than what we’ve been on. Didn’t see many kids at all. It was a good mix of North Americans and Europeans/Brits.

[Milhouse]

Handy/Most Used Phone Apps

• Google Maps: Invaluable in navigating to various destinations.
  
• Google Hangouts: Really handy to maintain contact with the the other couple we travelled with
  
• Google Translate: Pretty handy in helping us do a bit of translation to English and vice versa.
  
• Tripit: Provided easy access to our reservation confirmation number.
  
• Trip Advisor & Yelp: Basic review info on restaurants, attractions, etc
  
• Booking.com: Came in handy when trying to find a hotel on the fly when landed in Venice w/out a reservation. Its listings on the map feature was really handy.
  
• Tapatalk: Our way to keep up on the Cruise Critic boards when on the go..
  
• Skype: Cheap way to call home by purchasing a one month subscription
  
• Flashlight: Handy using the phone as a flashlight on occasion
  
• Eat Venice: Thought it would be a great app to help us seek out decent places to eat in Venice but it did not work out for us because the places were closed and the maps were off.
  
• xe: Handy app for currency conversion to calculate purchases
  
• Lufthansa: The airline’s app gave us gate info before it was posted on the airport’s boards
  

 

Miscellaneous Handy Travel Items

• Rick Steves’ Mediterranean Cruise Ports book: Covered all of our ports and provided some handy on the fly info for transportation, places to eat, walks, etc.
  
• Battery booster: This wasn’t an app but a $25 USB battery pack charger the size of big candy bar that provided charge to your phone or tablet when away from an outlet.
  

[Milhouse]

Celebrity Today Day 1 - Early Edition

Celebrity Today Day 1 - Civitavecchia-Embarkation

Celebrity Today Day 2 - Sea Day

Celebrity Today Day 3 - Santorini

Celebrity Today Day 4 - Sea Day

Celebrity Today Day 5 - Istanbul Day 1

Celebrity Today Day 6 - Istanbul Day 2

Celebrity Today Day 7 - Ephesus-Kusadasi

Celebrity Today Day 8 - Mykonos

Celebrity Today Day 9 - Piraeus-Athens

Celebrity Today Day 10 - Sea Day

Celebrity Today Day 11 - Naples

Celebrity Today Day - Disembarkation

 

Celebrity Today Inserts

Edited February 24, 2014 by Milhouse

[Milhouse]

Santorini

Istanbul

Kusadasi

Mykonos

Athens

Naples

[Milhouse]

Captain's Club Welcome and Classic Coupons

 

Celebrity Passages - Onboard Future Cruise Program

 

Cellar Masters - Wine Events

 

Guest Disembarkation Questionnaire

 

Internet Packages

 

Kids Programs - Sample Dailies

 

Officers List

 

Various Packages

 

Select Dining Greeting

 

Specialty Dining

[Milhouse]

Menus Days 1 to 11 in order, starting with Every Day menu.

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Blu Day 1

 

Blu Day 2

 

Blu Day 4

 

Blu Day 8

[Milhouse]

MDR Lunch Day 2

 

MDR Breakfast

 

Gelateria Menu

 

TV Ports

 

Art Studio Classes

[Milhouse]

In Room Dining

 

 

 

 

[Milhouse]

Aqua Spa Menu

 

 

Bistro on 5 Menu

 

[vedettes1]

Thanks for this great review. I have been on this itinerary so you brought back a lot of good memories. I think you found the food in MDR to be much like we did - nothing was objectionable, but the concepts were much better than the execution. Many dishes were not well seasoned and did not have the depth or strength of flavor that the menu led us to expect. I think that risk-minimization is the hallmark of the kitchen.

[TexSea]

Wow! What a great, thorough review. I will definitely be bookmarking this for our trip in June. Thank you for taking the time!

[DianeCcruiser]

Thank you so much for the welcome information. We will be doing this trip in May after our Transatlantic cruise.

[jamona2311]

wow wow wow!!! :D loved this review. So much awesome information. I know Ill be bookmarking it and reading/ referencing it a million times before we go in September!! I look everyday on the boards for reviews like this!

Thankyou!:D