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

[Raschueler]

Pretty much every day, we got breakfast delivered from room service. Matt even brought our flowers out to our table. What a thoughtful husband (:

 

 

 

 

We had a relaxing sea/port day by the pool and enjoying our balcony since we wouldn't be in Sicily today. I had an itch to go shopping or at least just check everything out, but none of the shops were open because we were still at port. The casino also wasn’t open for you gamblers! But, hopefully being stuck at this lovely port won’t happen to you.

 

 

 

We went to the Sunset Bar (again!) to watch sail away. We were finally moving!

 

 

 

[Raschueler]

The sights were amazing on this cruise as compared to our usual Caribbean cruises. We were really glad that we booked a balcony. Speaking of us booking a balcony, originally we were going to just go the cheapest that we could with an inside room. But, with the Pick your Perk promo and my wonderful travel agent, upgrading our room to a balcony got us free beverage packages, free $300 OBC, and my agent threw in free gratuities. So, for an extra $1,000 on our end, we got all that and an amazing balcony! You do the math (:

The show for the evening was a pianist. I was excited about this, so we to see Antonio Salci perform. At first, he played a loud rock song along with the band that I didn’t particularly enjoy. I looked at Matt and said that we might need to leave. I hadn’t read too many good things about the entertainment on Celebrity, so I thought this might be what people were talking about. We stayed and gave it another shot with the next song. He played another song that I enjoyed more, and by the third song, he had me sobbing. He played Josh Grobin’s, “You Raise Me Up.” It was amazing hearing it without the words. The rest of the show was fantastic. We enjoyed all of the shows we attended.

When we came out of the show, Friendly Feud was also being played. We stopped to check it out. We had some good laughs with this one!!

Once that ended, we headed to the Martini Bar for some pre-dinner drinks. I didn't upgrade my package to premium, and had no problem finding something great to drink. I was able to get beer, wine, margaritas, and other mixed drinks at the Martini Bar. I had read here that you can get mini-martinis from the Martini Bar with the non-upgraded beverage package, but never felt the need to try. This really seemed like the place to be most nights. The bartenders were great, and there was basically always live music down on deck 3.

Dinner was delicious as usual, and I thought this cheesecake was quite adorable. Really doesn’t take much to please this girl.

[Raschueler]

Congrats on your wedding. We'll be on the Reflection for our 26th anniversary in 2016 and are, very much, looking forward to the rest of your very nice review.:p

 

Thank you! Congratulations on 26 years :) Here's to the next 26!

[Raschueler]

Really enjoying your review so far! We are going on the Reflection in December for our honeymoon, on an Eastern Caribbean itenirary. Congrats on your wedding!

 

Hey, do you remember your stateroom number.....that appears to be the same category that we have booked. Also, does the Sunset Bar really serve their drinks out of plastic cups, even champagne?!

 

 

I just realized I only answered part of your question. Yes, only plastic except for beer bottles. They would ask if you wanted your beer in a glass, so I guess they would pour it into plastic. I always just kept it my bottle though, so I'm not positive. I found that if I grabbed a drink on my way there, and got another while at the Sunset bar, they would reuse my glass if I asked them to. This way, I avoided the icky plastic.

[Raschueler]

I set my alarm for around 4:15 am because I wanted to see us going through the Messina Strait. I know I already posted this picture above, but here is some town through the Strait! For some reason I thought that the sun would be coming up, so I just crawled back after snapping a few pictures since it was still dark. After just now looking at my Celebrity Today, it says that sunrise was 5:32 am. Maybe I meant to set my alarm for 5:15am. Maybe I had too much fun with my drink package the night before (:

We attended the CC Meet and Mingle to meet the people I have been talking to for months! It was nice to put faces to names. It was at 9:45am at Cellar Masters. After finding and talking to my CC friends, I had Matt assured that all of these private tours would work out just fine.

We had a real sea day this time. Relaxing, drinking, eating, exploring. What else could you ask for (:

This was the only time we ever found ourselves on the lawn. We have grass at home, so we’d rather be by the pool, or on our balcony staring off into the sea, or really anywhere else on the amazing ship. Maybe if you live in a city without grass this is exciting? I was just excited about the giant chairs and added it to my dream “honey-do” list for Matt to build for our backyard.

There was live music, trivia games, and plenty to do around the ship.

Edited September 13, 2014 by Raschueler

[Raschueler]

Once we were dressed and ready for formal night, we headed to dinner. Frog legs were on the menu, and I had never tried them, so I gave it a shot. My country-boy husband laughed about frog legs being “fancy food” since growing up they’d go “giggin” frogs. PS frog gigging is basically like spear fishing, but with frogs. Lovely, right? Matt said they weren’t as good as his mama’s, and I said I felt like I was eating breaded ligaments.

We chose safer entrees. I don’t remember who ordered what, but I remember that we ended up sharing the shrimp alfredo (I think that’s what it was, don’t hold me to it!) because it was so delicious.

This evening’s show was at 10:45 which was really nice for us. I enjoy the late dinner since we eat late at home. I also like time to either nap or relax by the pool after a day at port, and then have time to get ready for dinner and see the show afterwards. The rest of the shows we attended were all before dinner. After the show tonight, this woman was waiting for us when we walked out of the theatre. It was definitely entertaining and different. We also saw her in the customs line at PHL airport when we got home! Small world.

We got our towel animals on our formal nights, and Matt was pretty excited about this one.

[ElwoodPDowd]

Thanks for picking this back up. Enjoying your review.

We'll be on her this April celebrating (early) our 35th!

[emmieepoo]

Have enjoyed reading all about your cruise! My husband and I have been to Rome about five times and want to go back again! Love the city...

 

Hope you and your hubby have a fabulous life together! Thanks for sharing!

[Raschueler]

Thanks for picking this back up. Enjoying your review.

We'll be on her this April celebrating (early) our 35th!

 

Of course! Sometimes life just seems to get in the way. I'm working on my Athens post now, so it should be up either tonight or tomorrow (:

 

Congratulations on 35 years of marriage! I hope you have a great cruise.

[Raschueler]

Have enjoyed reading all about your cruise! My husband and I have been to Rome about five times and want to go back again! Love the city...

 

Hope you and your hubby have a fabulous life together! Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks so much! We loved the city as well.

 

Same to you and your hubby! Maybe our traveling paths will cross one day (:

[Raschueler]

Have enjoyed reading all about your cruise! My husband and I have been to Rome about five times and want to go back again! Love the city...

 

Hope you and your hubby have a fabulous life together! Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks so much! We loved the city as well.

 

Same to you and your hubby! Maybe our traveling paths will cross one day (:

[Raschueler]

We woke up in Piraeus, Greece to see Athens. The wonderful bisabella organized this tour for our through Private Greece Tours. We had a great experience with this company. We started our day at the Acropolis before most of the crowds arrived. We walked around on our own since we had a set meeting time with our bus.

Matt didn't like that everything was reinforced with steel and rebar. He didn't feel like it was as authentic that way. I thought it was incredible that these structures were moved around so many times!

At the Acropolis they had a concession stand, and I saw lemon slushy-type drinks. I got one because I was hot and they looked delicious. Turns out they were basically just sweet-and-sour mix. Yuck! It was expensive, but I ended up throwing it away in order to not make myself sick drinking it.

[Raschueler]

We went to the main tourist sites, and a few smaller architectural sites. Honestly, after this day I became ruined out with the small sites. I was excited when we found this old jack. Matt’s a mechanic, so I made him take a picture with it (:

We also got to see where the old Olympics were held. I can’t remember if our tour guide said if any events were held here during the recent Olympics.

Seeing the changing of the guards was really amazing.

We went through the flea market with our guide who kept warning us about gypsies and holding on to our belongings. This made me really worried, but everything turned out alright.

[Raschueler]

We had an amazing lunch at a small restaurant our guide took us to. It was clear that she brought people here a lot, but it was affordable and delicious. Matt ordered a hamburger. A hamburger!!! In Greece…Ay ay ay. His hamburger surprised him when it came out without any bread.

I went a bit more Greek and ordered moussakas. Delicious! It’s sort of like lasagna, but it’s made with eggplant, meat, potatoes, and béchamel sauce. I ended up making this once we got home because I enjoyed it so much.

We finished up our tour with some shopping and small sites. Overall, it was an amazing tour!

We were exhausted after this day though! Once back on the Reflection, we not only napped through the show that I wanted to see at 7:15, but we randomly woke up at 8:43 for dinner! We quickly through our clothes on and got to dinner. We only ended up being about 10 minutes late. Not too shabby!

[galliegirlie]

hoping to hear more from your trip. We are planning to take this same cruise next year.

[7leagueboots]

Nice pictures.. .thanks.

[groryjm]

Loving the review:)

 

We're doing the same itinerary in July next year so looking forward to hearing more :D

[Raschueler]

Sorry for not posting for awhile! Nursing school has been getting the best of me. I also was going through some PCD (post cruise depression!) and had to solve that by figuring out another cruise to book. A 9-night Southern Caribbean cruise has healed me (:

Today was our day in Kusadasi, Turkey. We booked our tour through Best of Ephesus and Typhoon was our guide. We started our day early at the advice of our tour guide to beat some crowds. I believe we met at 8am. We were the first people to this site! It was amazing to be there with only 9 other people. This was carved directly into the mountain side. The acoustics were incredible.

There were also tons of stray animals here! Matt was missing our cat, Maestro.

Our tour guide had lots of information to give us. This was a hole in the wall outside of the stadium that was used to chain the slaves up when they misbehaved. They were left out in the sun without food or water.

This was also very interesting. It was a road map to the brothel. Typhoon explained that it means, “You will find love if you have money.”

[Raschueler]

Here we are at the Library of Celcus.

We also did the terrace houses. It loved all the mosaic “rugs.”

This was the view from the top. There were lots of steps inside of the Terrace Houses.

[Raschueler]

These were their ancient bathrooms. I showed my dad this picture, and he asked if these were the bathrooms we had to use!! While the bathrooms were experienced in Europe were no where up to our American standards, they weren’t this bad!!

Here’s a photo to show all the crowds coming in. We even actually came in a totally different way then all these people based on the direction they are heading.

Here is Athena which is what the Nike symbol is based off.

This is Caduceus. It is nursing symbol. I may or may not have cried when I saw this.

[curiouscat]

Beautiful review of your honeymoon... Glad that such a young couple enjoys X and cruising...

 

Just remember 10 yrs from now why u got together and got married..not the wedding or honeymoon but the reason for your love...

 

CC

[Raschueler]

Our next stop was the House of the Virgin Mary. It was the last place she was believed to have lived. There were no pictures allowed inside.

They did have prayer candles available sitting right next to a donation box, so we did that.

And we did the wall of wishes. Definitely amazing to see!

They also had water that ran off the mountain available from fountains. We filled our empty water bottles. Drank some, and saved one for a “grandma gift” because the water is considered to be holy.

 

 

We went to the Temple of Artemis which is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. To me, it's a pretty ruined ruin and consists of just a few pillars.

We denied the carpet demonstration, and returned to port to do some shopping on our own after running back to the ship to grab some lunch. A fellow CC member on our tour said that she and her friend got ill after eating in Kusadasi last time, so we didn’t want to risk it. Also, having free/included lunch available steps away from the port on the ship is something we couldn’t turn down!

[Raschueler]

I did lots of shopping, and we almost spent 300 euros on a jacket for Matt. They do use high pressure sale tactics, and the jacket was beautiful, but we just couldn’t spend that much on a jacket. I bought some pashminas as gifts, and a few evil eye key chains. They’re everywhere here. I also got my magnet. I collect magnets while on vacation. Cheap, and I get to see them every day on my fridge and be reminded of all the incredible places I’ve been too.

We definitely did not step into any jewelry stores here, but I did snap this quick picture!

Between our tour and shopping, we were exhausted. For 2 euros, we rode this magic carpet ride bike contraption! Best 2 euro ever spent. I laughed the entire way. Our peddler/bicyclist even took our picture for us.

Matt claims he wasn’t sleeping in this picture. Mhm…sure!!!

After our post-port nap, we went to see the show. The show for this evening was a comedian juggler. His juggling wasn’t very impressive, but we thought he was funny.

[Raschueler]

Beautiful review of your honeymoon... Glad that such a young couple enjoys X and cruising...

 

Just remember 10 yrs from now why u got together and got married..not the wedding or honeymoon but the reason for your love...

 

CC

 

Thank you! This was our first X cruise and after reading many reviews here on CC, we decided it would be a good fit. Plus, we couldn't turn the itinerary down!

 

Thank you for the great advice (:

[Raschueler]

Rhodes, Greece

Our plan was today was to walk around on our own, explore the island, and do some shopping. We slept in, enjoyed breakfast, and then made our way out. We just started walking with no set destination. If you are looking to make a beach day out of Rhodes, there are little beaches to the left and right of the ship within walking distance. From my notes, I wrote that the beaches to the left seemed nicer, but that’s all I remember.

The water here was the most beautiful water that I have ever seen. There were so many different shades of blue and my camera definitely did not capture them all.

I went a little linen crazy here and bought so many items for our home. We had a great relaxing day shopping and were heading back to the ship before I could spend any more money.

Rhodes was full of gypsies. There were children playing the accordion, people sitting under bridges, ect. This made me really nervous. I was on guard and even more aware of keeping my purse in my grasp in front of my body.

On our way back to the ship, we were walking through one of the archways that led us out of town. We were surrounded by many other tourists when a large African woman came up to us saying, “Hey, sexy couple.” I just ignored her, grabbed Matt’s hand tighter, and secured my purse even tighter as well. Then she grabbed my arm! I don’t remember what I said, but I think it was something along the lines of “Don’t touch me” or “Get off of me.” She then proceeded to ask me, “What? You don’t like black people?”

This irritated me even more. I should have told her that I don’t like ANY people grabbing me while I am in a foreign country, or anywhere for that matter!!! She let go, and then we were on our way back to the ship QUICKLY.