Just back from the Med...the Reflection did not disappoint

[txflood33]

Just got back yesterday from Rome and the Med cruise on the Reflection....met every expectation and then some. I will preface this with this was only my 2nd cruise. My first was 10 years ago on Carnival out of New Orleans with stops in Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. This was my first, real international vacation and by far the longest. So I wasn't sure what to expect...but I knew it was going to be fantastic.

 

I booked for the itinerary rather than the boat....actually knew nothing about any of their boats other than stock photos. I have to admit, it's a pretty nice ship. It's just cool to look at.

 

We got to FCO Rome Sunday at noon before the Monday sailing. Breezed through customs...except for where the mob of people must funnel into a 3 wide line for passport check....and grabbed a cab for our hotel. We stayed at the Empire Palace. It was about what we expected...nice place and friendly service for the most part. Dropped off the bags and brushed the teeth and grabbed the camera and hit the streets. I felt like a kid about to go to Toys R Us.

 

Now I view myself as someone who can navigate places. I know north from south and I can read a map. I made up a walking route from our hotel to our final destination and had some help from members on the Italy board. I was ready to take on Rome camera in hand. Taking the advice of members here we took a cab to the Colosseum and started there. From there we easily walked to the Roman Forum. I was actually surprised, but probably shouldn't have been, they charge to get in. I have no idea what the price to get in is because evidently the first Sunday of the month there is no charge for anyone...woot woot.....it's the little things in life you have to embrace.

 

Some of the architecture in Rome is phenomenal. Now here is where I need my pre-printed Google map path and my navigational skills. We were at the square after/at the end of the Forum....fantastic building with Italy's flags and a statue of a man on a horse....from here I need to get to the Panthenon....on my map it looks pretty easy...to this day, I still have not seen the Panthenon LOL. Couldn't find it and couldn't find anyone that cared enough to give us good directions. We did find a little cafe on a side street and stopped for lunch and watched Rome go by for an hour or so. I'll enjoy those memories just as well as if I had memories of seeing the Panthenon.

 

We did find Trevi fountain, but as has been mentioned on here, it's under construction/renovation and what they have set up looks like it will be there for a while. I saw 3 of the 5 stops on my map but still loved every minute of experiencing a new country.

 

Walked back to the hotel and got ready for the bus to the ship....booked the hotel through X so the transportation was included....I would have rather taken Rome Cabs, as you'll find out later. Got up and had breakfast at the hotel and waited around for a while for the bus....once it got there, we piled on and headed out. One stop at another hotel then to the pier......my dream of seeing the Parthenon was getting closer....I can't tell you why it was a dream, just something I always wanted to see. We get to the dock and head in...our luggage is in/under the bus so X is taking it from there. I was on the boat with complementary champagne in hand in about 15 minutes.

 

I'm going to have to break this up in parts but here is a link to pics. I'll try to answer any questions I can. If we met or saw each other on the boat, say hi.

 

[txflood33]

So we are on the boat....one back pack, one duffel bag and my wife has her purse. My wife suggests seeing if we can get in our rooms yet...it was probably 12 or 12:30 at this point. I figured it was too early but sure enough, we can get into our room to drop off our carry on bags. Complementary champagne on ice.....some answers to room questions that may come up...

 

Room 2149 on the front side of the hump

bed was by the sliding glass door

no qtips

no mints...1 fudge covered oreo out of 3 formal nights

(those last 2 were simply for a recent thread)

my fruit was 3 green apples that we never ate

big balcony...we could see into other balconies but because of the overhang on our room, you couldn't see into ours unless I was standing at the railing

the chairs were a comfortable fabric and would recline like a pool chair

2 large suitcases fit easily under the bed. Plenty of storage...bathroom is tight, but I'll accept that for the nice balcony....remember, my 1st cruise was 10 years ago and an Interior Stateroom...this balcony is some good stuff.

 

We ate lunch at Bistro on 5...there was a thread here not too long ago about their hours....I asked and they are open all day every day....I never saw them closed. Of course I never saw more than 2 tables at one time in there either. With that kind of volume, their hours will change or even the concept. I just don't see how it can make it with it being that slow. It's a shame too, their food was good and the service was great.

 

Sunset Bar

Loved it! My wife and I called it the Sunset Grill...the Don Henley fans will get it. Great service here and great views.

 

The Lawn and Alcoves

Meh...saw a few people playing Bocce Ball...saw 2 Alcoves used the entire trip so I wouldn't think you would need to book these in advance.

 

Blu

Good restaurant for both Breakfast and Dinner. Great service. For dinner there were always 3 new choices from the previous day as well as 'traditional' chicken, steak or salmon. The hostess(doubt that's her title but I don't know if Blu has a Concierge and I also don't think a female is called a concierge...but anyway)was awesome. Remembered our name and room number after first visit. Allowed us in wearing shorts on the first day because luggage may not have been delivered yet...but after that, dress code was enforced...which isn't too tough, I was in jeans and a nice V neck some nights and never felt under dressed.It certainly didn't look like riff-raff in there, either.

 

Tuscan Grill

Go once. The food is great. It's worth $45 a person.

 

Qsine

Go once. The food is great. It's worth $50 a person. Go hungry. Real hungry.

 

Buffett

With everything else on the boat, this place is Denny's. Too bad that's the food that's included with your package.

 

Casino

It's a casino. I gambled 10 nights and left up $5 so I'm happy with that. I learned the Med casinos and the Caribbean casinos are different. This casino was so dead. It was no Vegas. The one thing that kept me there was a fantastic couple from Oxford who seem to cruise quite a bit. Great conversations and fun at the Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em table. If you are reading this, thank you for your 2 weeks of friendship and safe travels.

 

Didn't see any shows

 

Cafe al Bacio

Great coffee...great everything

 

Molecular Bar

the bartenders didn't seem to want to keep you there so I always just got a drink and took it somewhere else. Get a Kentucky Derby....they are awesome.

 

Premium Liquor package

loved every minute of it. Made the vacation like an All Inclusive. If you drink on vacation just suck it up and get it. Every coffee drink at Cafe al Bacio, every Makers and coke sitting in the casino and at dinner, every bottle of water, every Red Bull...which by the way is garbage on the boat, every can I got was warm and either sugar free or blueberry. I couldn't get a cold regular Red Bull to save my life...every can of soda, every glass of wine.....I know I got my money's worth. Every bartender/Somalia always asked what if we had a package and which one when we started ordering more expensive stuff.

 

Michael's Club

everyone on the boat I talked to found it laughable it was a private elite place.

 

Canyon Ranch Spa

Comparing their prices of a mani/pedi to what my wife usually pays is laughable. Their massages are comparable and nice. I had 2 while on board.

 

I think that covers the ship. Feel free to ask questions and I'll answer if I can.

[portofrome]

Thank you for the review.

[Boatharbour]

I laughed when I read about your difficulties finding the Pantheon. We stayed in a beautiful little hotel next to the Pantheon prior to our cruise on the Equinox in September.

 

Each day we got seriously lost trying to find our way back to the Pantheon. It's a magnificent building, but somehow it disappears into the streetscape until you are almost on top of it. We had maps, apps and our wits about us, but Roman back streets were really difficult to navigate on foot.

 

Agree with your comments on Michael' s Club. We travelled in a suite on a previous cruise, but would have felt uncomfortable using this under patronised venue.

[C 2 C]

Michael's Club

everyone on the boat I talked to found it laughable it was a private elite place.

 

It's not a private place for Elites. It is a Concierge Lounge for senior suites, an island of calm when many other venues are crowded or noisy. It's a true sanctuary for those who have paid for the perks and those on a ship who find many other humorous experiences on board. ;)

[I-Cruiser]

We were on the same cruise so nice to read your review. It truly was a great cruise.

 

Its interesting to read that you had the same experience in the Molecular bar. That bartender seemed not to happy to work with people. We stayed there for half a drink then left. After, some in our party had words with the bar manager.

 

We had oreo cookies every night....To large, to much.

 

Blu was crowded but Ms. Or handled the situations very well. When the suites gets their own dining room it will take some of the pressure of Blu.

 

Sad to say that IMO its been a while since Tuscan Grille was worth the money.

 

MC is probably one of the best things X has done in many years. Love that place for piece and quiet.

 

Thank you for taking the time to write your review.

[txflood33]

So a little jet lag now and wide awake, so I will see if I can add anything.

 

We did 3 excursions through X while in ports and 1 which turned into 2 while on the boat.

 

We signed up for the Riedel wine tasting in Cellar Masters. It was on our last sea day. If you like wine, even the occasional glass at home, take the class. To my surprise it's not really about wines themselves, but more about the glass they are served in. You do get to taste 4 different wines(2 red and 2 white) each in 5 different glasses. It's amazing how much the bouquet and flavor of a wine can change with the glass it's served in.

 

The price we paid was $87 per person for the class. This cost included a set of 4 Riedel glasses per $87...so my wife and I will get 2 sets of 4 and we can choose which of the 4 styles of glasses we want...we can also mix and match.

 

This wine class formed another class just out of general small talk in between glasses. The Sommelier mentioned she also does whiskey tastings...I guess it is/was a Michael's Chub thing. I casually asked if there was a whiskey tasting before the end of the cruise because it sounded awesome. She said if there was enough interest she would see if she could put one together. And like clockwork I got a message saying she had put one together at 7pm on the last night on the ship. $35 per person for a Scotch Whiskey tasting. My wife passed on this one so I went alone but thought it was an awesome, unexpected highlight on the last night. We tasted two 12 year old Scotches and an 18 year old Scotch over some pretty interesting conversation.

 

Two things I forgot about the boat...

 

The gym

This is the hottest gym I've ever worked out in. There is zero airflow. C'mon X, open a window, install a ceiling fan, something. It was dreadful.

 

The outdoor 'track' on deck 15

It's small and sometimes can be wet but is workable if you get up early. We hit it by 7am a few times and our only obstacle was people going a different speed than us. But it was by far cooler and with a better view.

 

Ok...my time to try to get more sleep has come. I will start with the ports tomorrow and go in order starting with Santorini.

[Cruise_Christy]

Thanks for the review so far. Looking forward to reading more!

[txflood33]

ok...so the sleeping isn't going well so I may as well continue here.

 

Day 1 was a day at sea so that was more getting more accustomed to the time change and seeing the ship.

 

First port...Santorini

I have heard nothing but great things about Greece so I was excited to see the 3 stops. We arrived at 2pm and it was a tender port. Obviously the passengers with X booked excursions get off first. After that they go by ticket number. You get tender tickets at Cellar Masters....we got ticket number 42.It was almost an hour and a half before we got on a tender. But we finally made it. Ride was a little bit choppy but tolerable.

 

As we are almost to port on the tender, we see the line for the cable car. You would have thought the Stones were playing up there. I had no idea how fast or slow the line would go so we looked at options. There are donkeys you can ride up the long walking path. I felt sad for the donkeys....yes, I know they are working animals and such but it's difficult to know how they are treated behind the scenes, and looking at them soaked with sweat and watching uncoordinated people try to get on and the donkeys acting as if they would rather be doing something else...we chose to walk it. We walked every step up dodging donkey poop all the way. Looking back, it makes for a good/funny story. Looking forward, I'll take the cable car next time.

 

Santorini met all expectations in beauty and photo opportunities. We stopped in a nice bar for some snacks and ouzo......mmmmmmmmm, ouzo. We walked the streets and got off the beaten path. No guides, no tours, just walking the city....even after my Rome/Panthenon mishap, I was still confident in navigating around. Lots of good shops, lots of nice people, lots of great views.

 

Trying to watch the time to make the last tender, we headed back. We found the line for the cable car....you would've thought the Stones had booked a second show at the bottom. I had concerns we wouldn't make it with the length of the line. We didn't learn our lesson....we walked it down. It's downhill, they said...it will be easier, they said. We certainly got our steps in on this day.

 

I would rank this port either 3 or 4 of all of our stops....I say that because we didn't get out too far, so it seemed more commercial than true Greece...see above where we truly enjoyed the cafe in Rome and watching Rome go by. There was probably a lot we missed as well as a lot we saw.

 

Would I go back? Sure. I would have more knowledge as to get to the things we didn't see. Would I look for a cruise with this specific stop? I don't think so.

 

Next was another sea day.....Next post, Istanbul

[vickykay]

Really enjoying your review. Your photos were amazing! We will be doing this cruise next May so really looking forward to the rest of your review, especially the ports, and who you took excursions through. So glad you had a wonderful cruise!

 

Vicky

[ducard]

Great review, brings back some memories :)

 

Sorry to hear about the negative experience with the Molecular Bar. The DW and I recently got off a two week Med cruise on the Equinox in September. We found the Molecular bartenders absolutely wonderful and it was our home base for the majority of our cruise.

 

When they were busy, we knew to let them be and chat with the folks nearby. But when the crowds were heading for dinner or to a show, they were happy to engage with us.

 

Big thanks to Jelena and Barabara for making some of the most unique (mostly off the menu and off the top of their heads) cocktails I've ever experienced.

[Texed]

Flood and Lars,

 

Thanks for posting. :)

[txflood33]

Ok...back from running...where were we....oh yes, Istanbul

 

but first, some added photos. My wife is actually the photographer. She said she wanted a break from the heavy 5D Mark II so she went pretty much with her iphone...so those never made it to the gallery I posted. Here is Santorini after our walk up

 

 

 

So next stop was Istanbul. We arrived Fri morning and were there until Sat around 1 or 2 I think. We did Istanbul on our own during the day and had an evening excursion through X at night.

 

Our day adventure was awesome and terrifying at the same time. I can't explain why it was terrifying. It just seemed massive and we did not prepare ahead and even learn a few basic phases in Turkish. All I knew of was the Blue Mosque...everything else was a crapshoot.

 

We got off the boat trying not to look like the American tourists we absolutely looked like and we wandered into an unknown city. No guide. No tour group. No Turkish phrases in our head. No internet to help. Time to put on the big boy pants and learn on the fly. We found a coffee house with free wifi so of course we stopped there. This brings us to coffee....we had coffee/cappuccino in Italy, top notch...Cafe al Bacio, top notch....Turkish coffee....strong, thick and gritty. Don't get me wrong, it was good, we had it more than once, it was just different.

 

I almost forgot...there is a currency exchange inside the passport processing building...or whatever it's called...it's at the port where you show the Turkish authorities your Sea card....so we changed Euros to Lira there.

 

So as we ventured further, the city gets denser. We found the local train and tried to find street names on the map to see what stop we were at or even what stop we wanted to get off...no luck....it's taxi time. We grabbed a cab and asked to be taken to the bazzar and were whisked away.

 

The bazzar was huge. It was a maze of vendors and restaurants. Some shops were touristy with the traditional trinkets. Some shops sold big, giant panties. I actually started getting a little nervous the more we turned inside there....I wasn't leaving a trail of bread crumbs to find my way out. We eventually found our way out and found the way to the Blue Mosque. The line to get in was unbelievable...you would have thought the Stones were playing in there:D...a local guide, I guess, asked if we wanted a faster tour and wanted to skip the line....it cost me about 110 Euros for both my wife and I, I have no idea if we got a good deal or got ripped off...but I do know we agreed and followed him to the front of the line and he showed some sort of pass and we were in just like that. He gave us a quick tour and explained things along the way.

 

We ended up walking back to the ship from there and got to see the city being itself, and that's what we really wanted. We cleaned up on the boat for our 7pm river ride in Istanbul. To be honest, it's not worth the money. We saw some cool things that were lit up, we had unlimited cheap red or white wine and there was a belly dancer. I give the boat ride excursion a C-.

 

The next day we simply got up and walked to a cafe for wifi, coffee and breakfast and then back to the boat. Next stop Kusadasi and Ephesus.

 

Istanbul iphone pics below.

 

 

more

 

 

more

 

 

more

 

[txflood33]

too many pics in the last post....2 more from Istanbul

 

 

 

 

 

 

[theopup]

Thanks for an excellent review, with stunning pictures!

[txflood33]

Ok...well football is a bust today so lets see if we can tackle another port...Ephesus and Kusadasi

 

We docked up right next to the Constellation(I think that's the one...there's a pic in the link). We purchased an excursion through X for Ephesus. It was an ipod guided/on your own tour of the ruins. Once again, not worth the money.

 

There are at least 2 different companies that that use maps of the ruins with numbered spots. One company matches the numbers on the maps and matches them up to signs in the ruins...so you know exacly where you are on the tour and what's coming up. The other company uses their numbers on their maps and matches them up to the guy talking on the ipod...***? I pretty much put it in my pocket and walked around with the camera. My wife had better luck with the ipod tour and said it wasn't bad when she knew where she was.

 

Some of the ruins here are really awesome. Some of them are less than awesome. This place was crowded as you can see in the pictures. Once we walked through everything we ended up in a small market area. Bought a nice leather bound travel diary and some figs. If you like figs at all, you must get some. It was 3-4 figs for 5 Euro and these figs were the biggest I've ever seen.

 

After the Ephesus tour we were bused back to Kusadasi. We enjoyed this part better...again, we love just watching the city being a city. Interesting market to shop. Great picture taking. This is where we learned of stray animals all over Europe....yes, I know I was technically in Asia here but we saw stray animals in every port, predominantly Europe. I'm not sure why there are so many strays. Some had collars. All were dirty and in need of a good scratch behind the ears. Occasionally we would see a handful of cat food on the ground with 2-3 cats eating. I just don't know their culture with pets and how different it may be compared to Americans.

 

Anyway, great eye candy all over here. We certainly enjoyed the second half of the day better than the first. We were both pleasantly surprised with Turkey and would go see Istanbul again any day...I'm sure we missed a ton.

 

Next stop...Athens

 

Ephesus/Kusadasi iphone pics

 

 

 

couple of things on this pic...yes, that is a wanted poster stuck to a tree. After she took it her phone placed the facial squares around the faces and asked if she wanted to tag anyone. We got a kick out of it. Also, my wife didn't pay her Euro to take the picture of the camel so I guess on our next trip we will see a picture of her posted to a tree.