Celebrity Reflection 7/4/14: Mediteranean Cruise Report with Pictures

[Raschueler]

Hello, I’m Rachel. These boards were extremely helpful to me while planning this cruise that I thought I would give back. This cruise also happened to be my honeymoon, so it was extra special to me! I plan to write this report in a journalistic style with lots of pictures. I am going to tell you a little bit about myself, how we managed to take this amazing honeymoon, our pre-cruise stay in Rome, and then the cruise with all of the amazing ports (besides Messina, Italy, but I'll get to that). I will answer any questions to the best of my ability, but I can assure you that I will not have all the answers.

Here’s a little background about me:

I’m a 21 year old nursing student/cruising addict. This cruise was my first on Celebrity as I was “Loyal to Royal” before. My RCI cruises included Bermuda and Caribbean cruises, so it was also my first Mediterranean cruise. Although I really enjoy RCI, I was excited to try a different line. I have been to Europe before, so it was nice to know a few things before heading over there for such an important (and expensive!) trip.

I traveled to Italy a few years ago with a friend. We stayed in Rome for a few days, and then stayed with some of her Italian family further south. I was enchanted by Italy. I loved the sense of community, the sights, the food, and the people.

I met my (now husband) Matt about a month before I went to Italy with my friend. We were already head over heels for one another, so leaving him was tough. I wished he was coming with us, and I especially wished he was there once I saw how romantic Italy was. Sharing that experience with your goofy best friend just isn’t quite the same!! Even though I really missed Matt, we had a blast.

 

From the moment Matt proposed to me on the Explorer of the Seas, I dreamed of going to Italy for our honeymoon. I didn’t think it would be feasible with all of the wedding-related expenses, but when I was talking to my dad about it, he told me he would give us our honeymoon as our wedding gift. I cried. What a generous gift on top of throwing us a fabulous wedding!!

 

 

Our wedding was a perfect, gorgeous day in Chestertown, Maryland. We had a wonderful day surrounded by family and friends. After all of the planning though, I was definitely ready for our honeymoon!

I have a feeling you're ready for our trip too, I'll be back later today to share it with you all!

[Barwick Cruiser]

Can't wait to read all about your honeymoon cruise! Love the dress you're wearing for the proposal, you look just beautiful!! Wedding pics are great, what a lovely setting and looks like the weather cooperated too!

Cathy

[jamona2311]

Ohhhh how sweet of your dad! And what a great story so far. Im super excited for more. Thank you so much for taking the time :D

[Eddie's Girl]

Rachel, keep it coming!

[Raschueler]

Thanks, Cathy! Had I known he was going to propose, I would have fixed my hair nicer!! He had me completely by surprise. I was so worried about the wedding weather. It was around 80 for the ceremony, but then cooled down to the low 70s for a night of dinner and dancing.

 

Jamona2311, we owe my dad big time! Thank you for the kind words.

 

Eddie's Girl, I'm about to post some more in a few minutes. Stay tuned!

[Raschueler]

We kissed our children, Doodles and Maestro, farewell and headed to the Philadelphia airport Monday afternoon for our evening nonstop flight to Rome. Having a nonstop flight was really important to me because I am an extreme worry-wart about my bags being lost. I know they could still get lost, but knowing that they don’t have to switch planes makes me feel better. Anyways, the nonstop flight was actually cheaper than the flights with connections, so it all worked out perfectly.

 

 

 

My husband, Matt, was asleep before take-off. I was much too excited to sleep, so I watched every episode of Scandal available on the seatback screen. By the way, we flew US Airways. We had no problems and enjoyed our uneventful flight.

We stayed at Freedom Love B&B which was about a five minute walk to Termini. I originally planned on taking the train from the airport to Termini, and then walking to the B&B, but reviews said it was hard to find. I was still up for the challenge of finding it, but when the inn keeper emailed me Monday morning asking if we would like a private car to pick us up for 45 euro, I quickly agreed! Our driver was waiting for us at the airport and once we got going Matt was stunned by their driving. We made it to our little B&B which we never would have found on our own. Our three days in Rome consisted of walking seeing the sights and eating along the way.

 

 

 

The B&B was great for us. The innkeeper showed us around the room, and gave us the 4 keys needed to enter the B&B and our room! We felt very safe there!

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast was ordered by way of a post-it that we would tack up on a small bulletin board in the hallway. I thought this was an adorable way to get breakfast. Clearly, it doesn't take too much to make me happy.

 

 

 

 

 

We walked around for a bit, found a great, cheap pizza place down the street, and then returned to our room to get cleaned up for dinner. We ended up napping which was great because I definitely needed one!

 

 

 

 

 

See you for dinner in a bit!

[H2OH!]

great start! Congratulations!

[TeaBag]

This is just the kind of review I like to read on a boring rainy day at home! Congratulations to you both. I loved your wedding. Now I'm looking forward to reading about your honeymoon cruise.

[Tommy3putts]

Hi Rachel

 

I am really looking forward to this report and seeing the pictures! My wife and I were on the 11 night cruise that ended the day you boarded. We had a wonderful cruise and loved The Reflection. I am really interested in your thoughts.

 

Congrats to you and your new husband.

 

Cheers!

 

Tom

[Raschueler]

We decided to eat at La Famiglia mainly because it was right outside of our B&B, we were starving, and I thought it looked cute. Yes, this is how I decide where I am eating. I couldn’t tell you what we had for dinner, but I remember everything was fantastic.

At the end, I ordered lemon gelato for us as I had seen it on the menu. The waiter misunderstood me and brought out limoncello. We got a good laugh out of this. Learning how to speak Italian is definitely on my bucket list!

We went back up to our room to return the leftover wine, and the lift wasn’t working! The B&B was on the 4th floor. That afternoon when we checked-in, it was working fine. We walked up the steps which wasn’t the end of the world, but I was worried it would be like that for the rest of the week.

We put the wine away, and were heading to the Trevi Fountain.

I was SO EXCITED for Matt to see it, and I was excited to see it at night because I only saw it during the day last time. We make it there and this is what we found…

I was so disappointed. I wish I would have known it was like this. Oh well. We kept walking and eventually ended up at the Capitol. What a gorgeous building.

We headed back to our B&B and called it a night!

[Raschueler]

Thank you, H2OH!

 

Thanks, YVR Cruiser. Those pictures were only the sneak peak from our photographer, so I am impatiently awaiting the rest of the photos!

 

Hi, Tom. Thank you! We loved the Reflection as well. How did you like Istanbul?

[Coolcruise02]

Oh no, what are the doing to Trevi Fountain? can't wait for more!

[Tommy3putts]

Thank you, H2OH!

 

Thanks, YVR Cruiser. Those pictures were only the sneak peak from our photographer, so I am impatiently awaiting the rest of the photos!

 

Hi, Tom. Thank you! We loved the Reflection as well. How did you like Istanbul?

 

 

We loved Istanbul. What a great city. We hired a private tour guide for the first day. Saw both the Asia and Europe sides. Awesome!

[H2OH!]

Oh no, what are the doing to Trevi Fountain? can't wait for more!

 

 

It is a restoration project taht started in June and expected to take 18 months.We will be in Rome September 2015 so am hoping they can speed things up!

 

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2014/06/09/Trevi-Fountain-restoration-begins/9251402330225/

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Barwick Cruiser]

I can feel your disappointment Rachel, we were there in June on the Silhouette and were also a little let down seeing the construction/restoration around the Trevi Fountain as well as the Spanish Steps. Fortunately for us we had been there five years ago so we saw it without the barricades and scaffolding but I felt badly for the tourists who were there for the first time. Even the front of St. Mark's in Venice was half covered with scaffolding...I know it has to be done sometime but sure is disappointing when you've planned the visit for so long!

 

Guess you'll have to take Matt back in a few years to see it all restored!

Cathy

[TeaBag]

I really loved your picture of the Trevi fountain since we never did see it like that. We walked and walked one day trying to find it and couldn't, so we hailed a taxi and asked him to take us there. He must have wondered why we wanted to see it. Imagine our disappointment when we arrived there only to find it under construction! We will have to try again.

[Raschueler]

We awoke the next morning, got ready for our day, and the lovely innkeeper arrived with this delicious tray of breakfast. After breakfast, we headed to Termini to buy a 2-day bus tour pass. We were only tricked once on this cruise. We were told that for 5 euro more, we could have access to the Archeobus that would take us to 10 more sites. Sounded great! We decided to do that. The part that we didn’t know was that the Archeobus only ran from Friday-Sunday. By Friday afternoon we would be sitting on the Reflection waiting for sail away! Matt was not happy when we realized this, but even worse, we didn’t realize it until after we sat at the Coliseum for forty minutes while being offered waters, hats, umbrellas, ect. We weren’t upset over losing 10 euro, but we were upset about wasting 40 minutes waiting for a bus that wasn’t even running!!!

We gave up on the Archeobus thinking that maybe we just didn’t see it pull in, and got back on the regular sightseeing bus. These tours are pretty worthless and we didn’t even bother to plug in the headphones, but we liked it for transportation. We would pick a stop we felt like getting off at, see whatever sights we wanted to, and then walk to the next stop. We covered a lot of Rome this way!

 

 

 

We rode the bus around for awhile until we found a stop we wanted to get off at. After walking around, we were already hungry again. We tried to find a small pizza place to just grab a slice and go, but couldn’t find any. We ended up sitting down at a restaurant. Restaurants post their menus on either the wall or in a binder on a small table, so you can check prices before you sit down. For lunch, if I could find something under 10 euros, we’d eat there!

 

[Raschueler]

We still wanted pizza, and the lowest priced pizza I saw was 7 euros. I asked the waitress if one pizza was usually enough for two people, and she told me that one pizza was a serving size of pizza, so we should get two. When both pizzas came out, we were stunned! There was no way we were eating all of that. I forgot that Italians basically eat dinner for lunch. I ate about one-fourth of the pizza, and when we asked for the check, she said, “Aw, too much?! We eat that easily.” I could tell she sincerely felt bad about recommending the two pizzas.

By now we were tired and stuffed, so we made our way to a bus stop and headed back to our room once we figured out where we were!

On our walk back from Termini, I found at least six keys just sitting on a ledge, so I had to take a picture with them. All of the keys there are so interesting, not like our boring little keys at home!

[Champagne Cruiser]

Thank you for posting this review. Hw did you find the B&B and what made you decide upon this particular one!

[lilghallinsf]

Great review. Can't wait to read the rest. I am so sad the Trevi was closed when you were there this time. We were in Rome for seven days in May and I think we saw it every night we were there. It was one of our favorite places to be.

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your review and photo's. Looking forward to more.........

[Cforlani]

Lovely wedding, lovely review! Thank you for sharing and I look forward to reading more. Oh and by the eat congratulations!

 

 

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[sistersfirstcruise]

Waiting for more....... Great review so far. Loving the pictures and your writing.

Congrats on your wedding!!!

 

 

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[theopup]

Congratulations on your wedding, you made a beautiful bride. I am really enjoying your review as we are heading to Rome next May for the first time.

 

Looking forward to more review and great pictures