Our Mediterranean Adventure: Reflection 7/22/14

[Kteacher]

Although we have cruised many times, this was our first time in Europe. I always get such great advice and info here on CC, so wanted to pass on what we learned to anyone starting the planning process. I'll be breaking this up into parts, and will try to give as much detail as possible.

 

Pre-cruise: after over a year of planning and researching, our cruise was finally here :). We flew AirCanada out of Bradley International. I booked through Choice Air as the pricing was the same as if I booked myself. I fly quite a bit, my DH, not so much. It was an overnight flight with a brief layover in Montreal. We were met at baggage in FCO by a Celebrity representative, which was great as baggage claim was a zoo. Celebrity transfer to our hotel was a blur as we were pretty much exhausted.

 

We stayed two days in Rome prior to getting on the ship- highly recommend this as we embarked well adjusted to the time change. The hotel, the Empire Palace, was booked through Celebrity. It is in the financial district, so fairly quiet at night. Our room was ready when we arrived, and was larger than I expected. The hotel itself was beautiful. A full breakfast buffet was included. We found a great gelato place around the corner as well as a nice restaurant, 44, less than two blocks from the hotel. Almost wished we had booked a night post- cruise!

 

I found a tour online that guaranteed no more than 10 people, and included all the sights we wanted to see. The communication from the company was excellent from booking until the day of the tour. The entire tour was 8 hours, including a stop for lunch. A little pricey, but well worth it a very knowledgeable guide, small # of people in the group! no waiting in lines! and we were able to see a lot of Rome in 8 hours.

 

Embarkation day arrived and we were like the kids in the Disney commercial who were too excited to sleep :). The Celebrity transfer from the Empire Palace left a little later than we would have liked- we didn't arrive at the pier until 2:30- but we were finally going on our dream cruise!

 

Next up, embarkation, and a first night kerfuffle in the MDR

[jamona2311]

Oooh cant wait for more! Will you be adding pictures? ;)

[arielle71]

We are embarking on the Reflexion in 38 days...

We are also flying on air canada (from Montreal)

 

Can't wait for the rest of your review!;)

[Kteacher]

Oooh cant wait for more! Will you be adding pictures? ;)

 

Hope to add some photos after I upload ( and figure out how to post them).

 

Embarkation: We didn't arrive at the pier until about 2:30, but check- in was still a little chaotic. We were booked in a CS, and are Elite due to our D+ status on RCI, but still ended up waiting a bit with no one to direct us to the right line. Once we got to the counter we were told we would be escorted onboard by Captain's Club hostess Elaine. The first thing shed said when she greeted us was "would you like to dine with the Captain?",....ummm, yes, please!. She brought us onboard, and whisked us right past the person holding the welcome aboard champagne- wait - we're being whisked past champagne....:(

 

Before we knew it we were in our cabin, CS 1638, midship, deck 11, with a nice angled, or "hump" balcony. There was an L shaped couch, side chair, small desk, small closet, large flat screen, cabinet with shelves as well as small fridge. The bathroom can be accessed from the living area as well as the bedroom, and had a nice sized tub/shower, but not much storage. Amenities were from Bulgari. The bedroom was pretty tight, with not much space to maneuver around the bed. There was a small closet with shelves, as well as a walk-in closet. There was also another smaller flat screen tv in the bedroom. No dining area in the cabin, but a nice sized table on the balcony.

 

We hadn't been in our cabin more than a few minutes when the door bell rang, and Nalan, our butler introduced herself. She started going over things with us, including shore excursions we had booked ahead of time. I asked her about the specialty dining reservations I had also made before the cruise, and she let us know that her records didn't show any. Sigh. I'm sorry to say we had less than stellar experiences so far with both online as well as call center customer service, and it followed us onto the ship. Nalan called, and was told yes, I had made 2 reservations, but both had been cancelled, mysteriously, it seemed as no one could find out how they had been cancelled. We were told that the days/times we had wanted for Qsine and Murano were now unavailable. Double sigh.

 

We had just enough time for a very quick bite to eat before things started shutting down for the muster drill at 4:20. After the drill we decided to see if our luggage had been delivered- it had, so we unpacked, then decided to head down to Michael's Club, where we met the delightful Lenny, Maris, and Milash.

 

The shows are scheduled for 7:15(late seating), and 9:15(early seating), and we only made it to one the entire week . The first night's entertainment was vocalist Jack Walker and Comedy Juggler David Lucas.

 

So we headed down to the Opus dining room right at 8:45, found a very long line, and found a place to sit until the line cleared out. We handed the waitstaff member the card with our table # printed on it! and this was where things went into bizarro world. We always ask for a large table so we can meet and talk to people. Unfortunately, the table for 10 we had been assigned to had an extended family sitting at it, and they made it quite clear that we were persona non gratis- they had requested a table just for their family, and that's what they were going to have. The waiter shrugged his shoulders and walked away. Wait, we're being seated with people who don't want us to sit with them? The waiter again shrugged his shoulders and in a polite way told us to suck it up. Ummm, no. I asked for the Maître 'D, and was told I had to wait in line. Sigh. We waited in line, and waited in line, and waited in line. First we were told nothing could be done the first night, then we were told they could seat us at another large table with different people. At this point it was about 45 minutes into the dinner service, so it didn't seem fair to anyone to have us all of a sudden plopped down in the middle of dinner. We were finally seated at a table for two at around 10:00 p.m. ...sigh. The asst. Maître 'D came over and gave us her card as we were getting ready to leave, but at that point we were not sure we were coming back to the MDR.

 

Up next, Michael's Club to the rescue, and our first port, Sicily

[Kteacher]

Day 2 Sicily (Messina): after the mess that was supposed to be our first relaxing night in the MDR, we let Lenny, the concierge in Michael's Club know what had happened. He and Maris, the Michael's Club bartender, made sure we had a nice table for two in Opus, and Lenny rebooked the specialty restaurants for the days and times we wanted:). Other than a voicemail from the asst. Maître 'D asking me if I was " feeling better":confused:, we never heard or saw her the rest of the cruise.

 

The ship was scheduled to arrive at 10:00 a.m., and we had booked an all day tour through Celebrity, " Taormina, wine, lava, and jewels". Wine and jewels? My kind of tour. The coach bus brought us to the village of Taormina, which is just beautiful. We had a little over an hour to walk around, but I could have spent all day here. Next we were taken to a vineyard at the base of Mt.Etna which again was just beautiful. We had time to sample as much wine as we wanted, as well as try the different olive oils, spreads, and marmalades that the vineyard produced. The owners were around throughout our stop to answer any questions. The entire time we were there Mt. Etna was burping in the background. Next we stopped at a jewelry showcase, which was housed in an old estate. We saw the jewelry making process, and had time to shop- the prices were better than I expected, and there were some interesting pieces. They had a nice assortment of drinks, cheeses, and desserts for us to enjoy on their patio. The next stop was a lava river, where we had about 15 minutes to take pictures as well as chat with the owners of a honey stand nearby. We really enjoyed this tour, much more than we were expecting.

 

Tonight's entertainment was Jack Walker, a vocalist. The before dinner Showtime just didn't work for us after an all day tour. We took advantage of the treats brought to our stateroom as well as Michael's Club, where we met some great people.

 

The dinner in Opus was "Top Chef at Sea Night". We had a nice table for two with no drama on the side. I had high expectations for the food, but, unfortunately, the best I can say is " meh". I ordered BBQ chicken with macaroni and cheese and collard greens. Well, the collard greens were good.

 

I've saved all the Celebrity Todays from the cruise, so can answer questions, but will put highlights from each day. In today's issue they were advertising alcoves for days in port for 50.00.

 

Next up: first day at sea and the Captain's Table

Edited August 9, 2014 by Kteacher

[haggis_10000]

Thanks for posting your review, look forward to seeing the rest as we are on the Reflection on the 8/15 and believe you did the same itinerary.

 

Hopefully you will get time to post the rest of your review before we sail :p

 

Hope the rest of the cruise exceeded your expectations

 

Steve

Edited August 10, 2014 by haggis_10000

[Kteacher]

Thanks for posting your review, look forward to seeing the rest as we are on the Reflection on the 8/15 and believe you did the same itinerary.

 

Hopefully you will get time to post the rest of your review before we sail :p

 

Hope the rest of the cruise exceeded your expectations

 

Steve

 

Glad you are enjoying it :). I'll be adding more today. You are in for a treat- the cruise was great!

[Kteacher]

Day 3, at Sea: After our long tour in Sicily we were looking forward to our day at sea to relax.

[Kteacher]

We slept in, ordered room service breakfast, and ate out on our balcony.

I had reserved an alcove over the phone for the first sea day months ago, and

was glad I did. All alcoves were booked for the sea days. I know there are

some that don't see the point of renting an alcove, but I thought it was worth it.

The main pool was packed and noisy, and the solarium was also packed.

Our alcove came with large bottles of water, ice bucket, fruit and cheese in

the afternoon, and access to a an alcove butler via the "bat phone".

 

We spent a quiet day reading, then invited some friends we had met in Michael's

Club to have some drinks with us. We enjoyed it, although for some it might not

be worth the money. I think I mentioned before that once the cruise was under

way the alcoves were offered at 50.00 on port days.

 

Tonight was the first formal night, and the Captain's Gala Toast. Showtimes were

8:45 and 10:45. We had been invited to dine at the Captain's Table by Elaine,

the Captain's Club Host, and received an invitation in our stateroom with

instructions to meet in Cellar Masters. We all received champagne, and

then were escorted to the Captain's Table by Elaine. The other passengers at

the table were really lovely, and Captain Apostolos Bouzakis was chatty, warm,

and funny.Let's see if this works:

 

 

[Kteacher]

That's me next to the Captain :). It was one of our best meals onboard!

 

We went to the show as it was a post dinner show tonight, and it was a

production show with the singers and dancers. Other items from Celebrity Today

for the first sea day:

Galley Tour, Taste of Reflection Culinary Showcase (10:45 a.m.-small samples

from the specialty restaurants).

 

Up next, Athens

[drarill]

That's me next to the Captain :). It was one of our best meals onboard!

 

We went to the show as it was a post dinner show tonight, and it was a

production show with the singers and dancers. Other items from Celebrity Today

for the first sea day:

Galley Tour, Taste of Reflection Culinary Showcase (10:45 a.m.-small samples

from the specialty restaurants).

 

Up next, Athens

 

Great picture!!! enjoying your review!! Thanks for taking the time to share your cruise with us. :)

[Tommy3putts]

Sounds like you had a better experience in Michael's than we did. We tried it twice and never could get a glass of wine. Terrible service. It was the only real blemish for us on what was an otherwise fabulous cruise.

[Kteacher]

We had a great time in Michael's, the staff there were wonderful to us. Hoping to figure out the photo posting thing so I can put up some more pictures.

[Kteacher]

Let's see if this works- the beautiful village of Taormina in Sicily

 

[Lois R]

Let's see if this works- the beautiful village of Taormina in Sicily

 

 

Great Picture:D I went to Tarminio 2 years ago....it was lovely!

[Kteacher]

Here is our alcove, which I reserved before we boarded by calling the specialty dining phone #

 

[Kteacher]

Here's a photo of the afternoon snacks we received. You could order from the Porch menu if you wanted, but the fruit and cheese were more than enough for us.

 

[

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Kteacher]

another day, another long excursion! For our day in Athens we booked an excursion through the ship, which included the Acropolis, a stop for lunch at a hotel in Athens, and a drive along the coast to Cape Sounion, where we would see the Temple of Poseidon. Some advice while in port- bring enough euros in small denominations (5, 2, 1), wear sunscreen, and drink plenty of water. I think we topped off at about 110F .

 

What can I say about the Acropolis- it was amazing! The guide was very knowledgeable. There was plenty of time at the Acropolis, and we also stopped at the Olympic Stadium before lunch. The lunch at the hotel was a buffet and was pretty good for a hotel buffet. It was a nice break in the long touring day. The drive to Cape Sounion was loooong, but the view when we arrived was beautiful.

 

Dinner for us was in the MDR, and was okay, but nothing to get too excited about. The Showtimes were 7:15 and 9:15, and featured " the music and comedy of David Lucas". We were too wiped out from a long day of touring, so stopped by Michael's after dinner and then went to bed.

[Kteacher]

Kusadasi, Turkey: The ship arrival time was 7:00 a.m., and we had another

all day excursion planned. We booked the tour, Ephesus Modus Vivandi through

the ship. We did not need Turkish visas or lira. Our tour took us to Ephesus,

which was amazing. This included the Terrace Houses, which is a separate

admission. There was a stop for lunch at what I think is called Ephesus theme

park (tacky, food was okay), a stop at St. John's Basilica, and then, of course,

a stop at a Turkish carpet factory. If we had to do it over again we would book a

private tour.

 

Back onboard the ship, we stopped by Persian Gardens, which was included

as suite passengers. My DH didn't think he would like this, but he actually

enjoyed it quite a bit. It was never crowded when we stopped by, even on sea

days, and I really enjoyed the heated loungers, the aromatherapy room, and

the cold room.

 

Our butler seemed to know exactly what we needed in the afternoon, and always

had snacks and cappuccino for us. The showtimes were 7:15 and 9:15, and

this night's entertainment was Vocalist & Show Pianist Claire Vinkesteijn.

We never made it to the show, and instead relaxed on our balcony and then

stopped by Michael's before dinner. Dinner in Opus was okay, again, we

found somethings to be excellent, some to be good, and some to be outright

awful. Food is such a subjective topic, so this is of course, just my own

personal opinion.

 

We received a packet in our cabin that detailed all the onboard booking perks,

and the one that caught my eye was for the Summit, and was listed as

Bermuda All In. I stopped by the future cruise office, not expecting the dates

I wanted (teacher, so summer school vacation schedule) to be included, but

they were :). The Incentives included:

Reduced deposit

OBC from 50.00-500.00

Free Beverage Package

Free Gratuities

 

We've sailed to Bermuda a number of times, and while the Summit is an older

ship, it was recently "solsticized". We booked another CS cabin, so received

350.00 OBC. The suite enhancements will be in place by then, so I'm looking

forward to hearing about the suite only restaurant.

 

Next up:Rhodes

Edited August 11, 2014 by Kteacher
spelling

[TLCOhio]

Hope to add some photos after I upload ( and figure out how to post them).

 

Great reporting and sharing. Glad you figured out how to post the larger pictures. For others who want to post pictures with their reports, below are my tips, details for doing such. We have done four cruises in Europe and it is wonderful area for having the "time-efficiency" to only unpack once and have so many great port options to see and do. We loved Kusadasi, Turkey, but have not been to some of the other ports that you visited. Need to get back to Europe and do more in this wonderful region.

 

For posting larger photos to these boards, your FIRST STEP is pick an outside web source that will store or “host” your pictures to be posted. Cruise Critic does not have the space to do larger pictures on their site. You can check such places as photobucket.com, imageshack.com, photoshow.com, flickr.com, picasa.google.com etc. I’ve used photobucket.com and have been pleased with how they upload, etc. SECOND, you need to make an export of your picture in a size such as around 1000 pixel wide by about 700 to your desktop of your computer. That’s the approximate size that I use for this purpose. If you make your file too big for posting, then it slows the process and takes long to upload, etc. THIRD, you use this outside web host to which you upload these different pictures sitting on your desktop. FOURTH, after uploading each picture, you will make a copy of that imbedded address in your file for future posting purposes. It will have have the square parentheses or bracket symbols before and after the capital letter IMG at the start and end of this location on your photo storage site.

 

Then as you want to post each different picture, you would, FIFTH STEP, copy and paste that imbedded address file for each picture as a part of your message on the CC Boards. In my files, I also have brief written description of each picture and have them grouped by the different city or country locations. With this imbedded file address, the reader on these boards doesn’t have to check on anything or paste to their web browser. It just pops up showing the picture. Does this help? Let us know how it works out and/or any added questions. It will hopefully pop up as these couple of pictures do below. You can preview your post to see if it's working OK before doing the actual post to these CC boards.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Celebrity Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of nice visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 180,853 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

[Kteacher]

Thanks! We are already thinking about our next Mediterranean adventure,

probably in 5 years for our 35th wedding anniversary. Gives us plenty of

time to plan and save up :)

[countess5]

Thanks for posting, we are leaving on 9/5/2014 and can't wait. We also booked the CS accommidations. We were told that the two speacility dinners that come with booking the suite had to be made once you were onboard. Were you able to book them ahead of time?

 

Looking forward to Michaels also. Were you able to grab a bottle of water in Michaels? Like to have one back in the suite at night.

 

Looking forward to more postings of the crusies and your experience. By the way did you ever try to go to Blu for dinner? When we were last on Reflection we were Auqa so it was our MDR, but suite guest were able to be seated once the Auqua people were sat. They never seemed to have an issue getting in. If you are a late eater like us it works best. The food was great! :)

[Kteacher]

Thanks for posting, we are leaving on 9/5/2014 and can't wait. We also booked the CS accommidations. We were told that the two speacility dinners that come with booking the suite had to be made once you were onboard. Were you able to book them ahead of time?

 

Looking forward to Michaels also. Were you able to grab a bottle of water in Michaels? Like to have one back in the suite at night.

 

Looking forward to more postings of the crusies and your experience. By the way did you ever try to go to Blu for dinner? When we were last on Reflection we were Auqa so it was our MDR, but suite guest were able to be seated once the Auqua people were sat. They never seemed to have an issue getting in. If you are a late eater like us it works best. The food was great! :)

II booked the 2 specialty dinners ahead of time over the phone, but they were mysteriously cancelled. My experiences with Celebrity customer service phone centers have been less than stellar. We didn't get a chance to eat in Blu, unfortunately. As far as bottled water, the coolers in Michael's Club are unlocked from 8 a.m. until midnight, and there were all sizes of water available.

[Kteacher]

Rhodes, Greece: Today was our DIY day. We didn't plan anything ahead of time, and were just going to get off the ship and walk around. We ended up walking along the edge of the water until we reached the beach we had seen from where the ship docks. This took about 20-25 minutes. The beach wasn't too crowded when we got there, but got more crowded as the day wore on.

It was 16 euros for 2 chairs and an umbrella. Make sure you bring .50 coins

for the bathrooms ;).

 

After spending about 4 hours at the beach we stopped at one of the many cafes along the way for some Greek beer and a snack. We had already tried Alpha beer in Athens, so decided to give Mythos a try. We then walked into the

walled old town area of Rhodes, which was full of souvenir shops.

 

We returned to the ship, and spent time in Persian Gardens, which we found was a great spot to relax after the day.

 

Tonight's dinner was in Murano, which ended up being our favorite dinner on the ship. The service was outstanding, and everything we ate was wonderful. We both decided on the lobster prepared tableside-amazing! Leave room for the cheese course-also amazing!