Reflection Review - January 31st Eastern Caribbean Superbowl Cruise

[Ottawamomof2]

I think that brings us to Day 4 :p

 

Day 4 - St. Thomas

 

I decided I wanted to see the ship coming into port so I actually put an alarm on :eek: We were suppose to dock at 8 so my alarm was for 6:30 and I think we asked for breakfast for 7:00. We were on the "right" side to see the beautiful port. Can you believe you get to wake up to this????

 

 

 

 

 

[Ottawamomof2]

We didn't book an excursion for St. Thomas. We had researched the beaches and decided to go to Sapphire beach. Next time we will go to Magen's Bay or Coki as it is also supposed to be beautiful and I think had more amenities but we LOVED Sapphire. We just walked out to the cabs and they loaded us in a van with other cruisers. They were all going to the ferry and going to St. Johns. Cab ride was $10 each. There are two condo resorts on that beach so it is pretty private. The beach was pretty dead when we got there but that made it easy to get a great quiet spot close to trees that we could take cover under. It was very hot that day. We LOVED it! I will let the pictures speak for themselves:

 

 

[Ottawamomof2]

This was our spot.

 

Oh the chairs were $20!! I thought that was a bit steep. No unbrellas but if you go early enough, you can get shade from the trees. We saw people come in later and they only got a spot in the sun. There was only one lady that walked up and down the beach selling jewelry. There was a server that worked for the dive shop selling beers and she walked up and down the beach. And there was a waiter/waitress team from the little food shack that also came around. We ordered food and it was quite good but expensive. I ordered the mahi mahi wrap with jerk seasoning, which was quite hot! Randy ordered a cheeseburger. I also had a bushwacker which is a creamy drink with kalua and baileys...it was YUMMY! I think our lunch cost us about $50 :eek: But you don't really have a choice. In hindsight, I would have asked the cab driver to stop somewhere for some beer...we did see others bring their own bag of beer.

 

Some more pics of paradise...

 

 

 

[Ottawamomof2]

 

I had read on the boards that there were a lot of lizards in St. Thomas...well there are! And they don't come super close to you but they still walk around the general area...I thought they were gross but they were pretty harmless

 

[gelo7]

Great start.

[Oceanview77]

We are joining you GeorgiaGuy :D 3rd time on the Reflection...love that ship and I am sure you will too! Happy Cruising!!

 

My partner and I will be there as well! This is our second round on the Reflection and we can't wait. 21 days to go....

 

Great review! Can't wait to read the rest.

[tommy2811]

thanks- :)

[Ottawamomof2]

We took a cab back to the port ($20), went to the Harley store for some souvenirs, and walked around the shops at the pier and bought a few more souvenirs. Then it was time to get back on the ship. We hung out on the balcony for a while enjoying the scenary. Randy noticed a sea turtle swimming which we thought was pretty cool!

 

 

Then we went to the pool deck to hang out, have some more drinks and watch us sail away!

 

 

We were docked beside the Carnival Breeze...looks like a pretty nice ship

 

 

 

Bye Bye St. Thomas :( We LOVED our day there and we would go back in a heart beat. Maybe even for a week or two and rent a condo.

[happyscmom]

I love this review!!! I hope you plan to finish it. You are making me very excited for the Reflection.

[tommy2811]

agreed.!!

[Ottawamomof2]

awwww thanks guys!!!! Weekend turned out very busy and work too. I promise to post tonight :D

[Ottawamomof2]

OK so sorry for the delay...now onto finishing Day 4!

 

We ate in the MDR that night and it appears I took one dinner picture! lol I do remember it was one of the best MDR dinners of the week! I had lamb wrapped in phyllo...it was actually shredded lamb meat and it was very flavourful! Here is the pic:

 

 

Randy had rigatoni with proscuitto and said it was very good as well.

 

Afterwards, we had drinks at the Martini bar ofcourse! Then that night there was an event on the pool deck called "Bed". The description was something about "wearing your pyjamas and relaxing in bed" and the Skylab sounds was "djing" it...they were our FAVE "band" of the whole cruise. So we were intrigued so we went up but stayed in our dinner clothes. Here are a few pics

 

 

So we sat at the pool bar in the back having drinks but most people sat in the beds. The band is really good. This night, they played their own music and it was very mellow, relaxing, soothing. We had fun and we are glad we checked it out. Then I think we headed to our real bed LOL because I wanted to get up early to see us docking in Sint. Maarten!!!!!

[Ottawamomof2]

Day 5 - Sint Maarten/St. Martin

 

I woke up early to see us sail and dock into port. I just stayed on the balcony but I wish I had gone up to the top deck because I didn't have a good view of anything. We were on the "wrong" side of the ship for that LOL but here are a few pics

 

 

Look how pretty our ship is :rolleyes:

 

We had our breakfast delivered as usual and ate on the balcony...one of my favorite parts of the balcony :) Then we got dressed and headed out to the island! It was a BEAUTIFUL day and we were really excited because we had a tour with Bernards! I had booked it online about a month before leaving . We just had to pay a $10 deposit via paypal and then the remaining $80 when we arrived. We were in a nice air-conditioned 20 passenger van there were about 15 other people with us, all from our ship. Our tourguide was the "Mailman". he was GREAT! I would definitely recommend this tour and try and get the Mailman if you can! We left promptly at 9am for the tour. He was a very good driver and speaker. He gave us tons of history and facts about the island. He told funny jokes too. We made several stops, lots just for beautiful photo opprtunities.

[Ottawamomof2]

We stopped near a marina for a quick picture. Then we slowed down near where the iguana farm was supposed to be. Then I believe we stopped somewhere where two guys catch urchins, and crabs and other live ocean animals. We just took pics, we didn't hold them or look at them but lots of people did.

 

All of that took about an hour. Oh I forgot to mention that in the van, he has a cooler with water, pop, beer and rum punch...the rum punch is pretty much pure rum!!! We took one little glass and that was enough to make us switch to beer! But some of the older gentlemen drank the punch...I think they really enjoyed it :cool:

 

We got to Orient Beach around 10:15. The way the beach is, you HAVE to drive by the nude part..and you DO see people totally nude...not very many that you would choose to see nude though LOL then you drive by a lot of the beach, restaurants, bars and stop at La Playa. It's a very cute place with two bars, and lots of seating for meals, as well as bathrooms and changerooms. They provide an umbrella and two chairs, a rum punch (this one was very good) and free wifi! And the wifi actually extended to the beach! I don't think it was the most popular place but it was very nice. We were only there for 2 hours and would have liked longer but we had more touring to do!

 

 

 

 

 

The pictures don't fully do it justice, it is very beautiful. But as you can see there was A LOT of seaweed and there was even more in the water. So between the beaches at St. Thomas and St. Martin, hands down I preferred St. Thomas because there was no seaweed anywhere and you could swim without gross seaweed surrounding you. Also, there were TONS of ladies bothering you for massages, braids, and selling stuff. They would come back over and over again, that got quite annoying. I finally bought something hoping they would stop bothering us! But, we did like the beach for other things: this beach was busy and lively, had music, lots of bars and restaurants (even though we didn't go to any others lol). I would definitely come back though but still prefer St. Thomas for now ;)

[kayehall]

I'm so excited for everyone that is cruising soon...well a little jealous too!

 

OK I will finish off my San Juan review. And unfortunately, there't not much to it! We did arrive two hours late which was kind of a bummer but I had nothing planned anyways besides hitting up a few bars that I had heard were good. So we got off and wandered the streets! Here is a pic of everyone getting off

 

 

We went to Barrachina since I heard they had awesome Pina coladas. It was a 15 minute walk from the pier. It was quite good

 

 

We were going to get food but we decided not too. We had made reservations at Tuscan Grill for that night and Pina Coladas are quite filling. It was a cute little place but nothing too crazy. Maybe it was too early? We only stayed 30-40 minutes then decided to leave and walk around. They did have free wifi but my silly ipad couldn't connect. We went to the Walgreens to buy some potato chips (isn't it strange there are no chips offered on board? There were chips all the time on Royal so we were a bit disappointed) and I got a cute little sundress at Del Sol. It's a cute store (we saw one at every port) that has items that change colour in the sun. I was really anxious to connect with the kids so we tried Senor Frogs (right across from the ship) and finally my ipad connected! We had a drink there and got to see some very drunk cruise passengers sing and dance on stage, it was a riot! We headed back to the ship around 7:30 since our dinner reservations were for 8:30. With waiting in line to get back on, waiting for the elevator, walking all the way back to our cabin, getting ready, and then walking to the back of the ship, we were 5 minutes late! So give yourselves enough time when you have someplace to get back to...it doesn't seem like it but the ship is very big and all these things take time LOL

 

So we liked San Juan but we weren't blown away. I know there are walking tours and tours of the fort but that isn't really our thing. We really want to go the Southern Caribbean cruise next leaving from San Juan so I don't think we will get there too early...but maybe there's something I am missing??

 

Here are a few mores pics

Walking around at night

 

The ship (sorry a little blurry)

 

Old San Juan is nice to walk around. I enjoyed it when we docked there. If you originate from San Juan, you will most likely depart from the other port called Pan American. I think you might like the hotels in New San Juan which are on the beach. We stayed at the Marriot and loved it. I love sailing from San Juan. It is worth going in a day or 2 early....:D

[Alebd]

Very nice review! I'm enjoying sailing vicariously!

[Ottawamomof2]

Old San Juan is nice to walk around. I enjoyed it when we docked there. If you originate from San Juan, you will most likely depart from the other port called Pan American. I think you might like the hotels in New San Juan which are on the beach. We stayed at the Marriot and loved it. I love sailing from San Juan. It is worth going in a day or 2 early....:D

 

ok cool, thanks so much for the info :D

[Ottawamomof2]

ok time to finish off our island tour!

 

After we left Orient Beach, we continued on with the tour. We were headed to Marigot, the capital of the French side I believe. We stopped for a gorgeous photo opp:

 

 

 

Then we got to the downtown waterfront area of Marigot and I believe we had about 45 minutes of free time. Most people went to Sarafina's for baked goods. We split a chicken sandwich and a chocolate eclair. It was delicious!!!!! I took a picture of the food but it's on my ipad and I can;t access it right now haha. Here is a pic of us on the waterfront...love the backdrop...

 

I wish we would have had more time here. There were so many vendors and little street food stops. I could have easily spent another few hours here and I would definitely recommend coming to Marigot, even if you are NOT doing Bernard's tour. I am sure it's an easy cab ride there from the port.

 

We left Marigot and headed to Maho beach! I was excited for this! When I first started reading review months ago about the island, we weren't really keen on going to Maho. It didn't sound like something we would be into...especially since we love just relaxing on the beach! This sounded stressful LOL But after reading about it and seeing pictures I felt like we just HAD to do it and it was included in the tour so it worked out well! Most of my really good pics are on my ipad and I will try to post later but here are a few cool ones.

 

 

[Ottawamomof2]

The beach is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! It isn't very big. There were some chairs and umbrellas but they were all taken but it didn't seem too crowded to me. We actually forget out towels in the van so we didn't lounge anywhere. Randy went for a quick swim but I didn't. We watched the planes and then went to the bar for a drink. I think we had about an hour here but it went by soooo fast. Here are some more pics:

 

 

 

 

[Ottawamomof2]

We only saw one plane take off but there was a big group of people standing in that special spot and you saw them get pushed into the water and a lot of sand blowing! Apparently people put that on their bucket list of things to do in life...I don't see the thrill but that's just me LOL It was a lot of fun. I am really glad that we did it. It's the 4th most dangerous airport in the world!

 

I think that was the last stop so we headed back to the port. We asked the Mailman if we were going to stop near a Harley shop and he said that we weren't but that if we could be quick, he would make a special stop for us! This was soooo cool of him! Whenever we travel, we try and get a shirt and a poker chip for the Harley stores and we were able to get one in Miami and St. Thomas but we missed out on San Juan (they closed when we got there :() so we didn't want to miss out on this one. We have a nice little collection going so this was really cool! Everyone on the bus was cool with it too! We passed by Philipsburg on the way back but nobody wanted to stop for anything (most people on the bus had already been). Since I wasn't expecting a diamond on this trip (hopefully the next one ;)), we didn't stop either. I kind of wish we had but oh well...like I said, the next time LOL There are also really nice beaches there and I think a lot of cruisers walk there since it is close. It looked beautiful and I really want to do that the next time.

 

So we said so long to St. Martin/Sint. Maarten :(. The Mailman told us that we could rent a two bedroom condo for ONE month right on Orient Beach for about $1200!!!!! After hearing that and seeing how beautiful the whole island is, that is on our list of trips to take soon!!!! There is so much character on that island and you could easily keep busy for a atleast a few weeks, and add in some trips to anguilla or other close islands, there goes a month!

[TangoCruz]

Ottawa Mom - I've been browsing reviews on Cruise Critic for years and yours is one of the best I've ever seen. Very entertaining and fun to follow, especially with the great photos that you used to illustrate your topics. We were on the Reflection in October, 2013 for an 11-day Med. Cruise. Had such a great time we return and sail March 7 with 20 of our best friends. AND, my wife and I are in cabin 9141. Glad to see that the bed is positioned next to the balcony. We sleep with the door open, too. Thanks again for posting.

[Ottawamomof2]

Ottawa Mom - I've been browsing reviews on Cruise Critic for years and yours is one of the best I've ever seen. Very entertaining and fun to follow, especially with the great photos that you used to illustrate your topics. We were on the Reflection in October, 2013 for an 11-day Med. Cruise. Had such a great time we return and sail March 7 with 20 of our best friends. AND, my wife and I are in cabin 9141. Glad to see that the bed is positioned next to the balcony. We sleep with the door open, too. Thanks again for posting.

 

Thank you so much for the kind words!!! And have fun this weekend! It's a great cabin lol

[Ottawamomof2]

I hope I still have some followers and I apologize for not being quicker at posting! I was travelling for work last week but I have a few spare moments now to post!

 

It seems I left off at sailing away from St. Martin. What an awesome port. We totally loved it and want to go back! I am just looking at my photos and it looks like I did not take any dinner pics :( I do see some photos of the "show" that we went to see that night after dinner. I can't remember what it was called though but it was in the Solarium. And the dancers/acrobats were doing some pretty cool stuff. There was a guy in a bubble...we called him bubble boy, naturally :p Here is a pic, sorry its fuzzy

 

 

There was also a girl hanging in a hoop that was high up in the air, doing acrobats. and there was a girl twirling hoops...it was pretty cool. Something fun to watch. The DJ was there too playing some good music. I think we hung out there for an hour and then went to the Martini bar to hang out and keep drinking.:cool:

 

The next day was our second last day at sea. It was REALLY hot!!! The hottest it ever was on the ship! The Manager and her group had a lot of activities on the pool deck. There was pool olympics which was funny to watch and the guests vs officers volleyball which was also quite funny. Randy played but I just watched. This was also when the flash mob performed...it was good! I kind of wish I had participated. We hung out on the pool deck all day and then went to get ready for formal night! We missed the first one so we weren't going to miss this one!

 

I had bought two new dresses for the two formal nights. A long black one (which only cost me $25 and I wore it on formal night!) and a short red one (I wore to Tuscan Grill). Randy had a new suit for work and bought a red/black shirt and red tie to match my red dress. Funny enough, the morning we were packing our stuff in our hotel room in Miami, we realized he forgot to pack the tie back home!!!! We had bought it especially for the cruise to match my red dress! Oh well, nothing we could do except go out and buy one so we were able to find a red tie at H&M for $10 at Lincold Road Mall! Even funnier was that I didn't even wear the red dress when he wore that suit but that's ok too! We love getting dressed up on formal night, even if others don't get as dressed up. We also always buy one portrait from formal night. I would love to buy more than one but I find them way too expensive. Last cruise, we had the fake ocean backdrop, this time we stood on the steps in the foyer and it turned out really nice!

 

I was really looking forward to the dinner that night as I guessed it was going to be lobster...finally! lol And I was right. But it was just ok...very dry actually. Randy got the beef wellington and said it was excellent.

[themutis]

Thanks for posting - We are enjoying your review!

[tommy2811]

thanks- enjoyed it much- march 7 here i come-;)