Celebrity Reflection Oct 21, 2016 Transatlantic Cruise, my .02

[Tommy3putts]

We just completed our first transatlantic sailing on board the Celebrity Reflection for a 15 Westbound cruise from Rome to Miami. In our opinion it was everything we had hoped for and more. Here is my opinion/review.

 

http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/zz66/trwilliams2/2828621C-4C31-4501-8A06-FFB9367B1260.jpg

 

 

 

Background

 

The wife and I are DINKS in late 40s and mid 50s respectively. We are still relatively new to cruising and this was our first TA, but our second time aboard Reflection. We love this ship!

 

We also now love transatlantic cruises and look forward to doing more!

 

Pre-cruise.

 

We skipped Rome this trip and stayed in Civitavecchia at Hotel Miramare. It's a small B&B. Not fancy but it's right on the water near the port. Highly recommended.

 

We used RomeCabs from FCO to Civitavecchia. Flawless as always. Driver was waiting for us as we cleared Customs. Short smooth ride to Civitavecchia.

 

Embarkation.

 

Boarding in civitavecchia was amazingly easy and quick. From bag drop off to boarding was 15-20 minutes including a 5-10 minute stop to get the 5 night specialty package. Funny we sailed through check in. No lines at all for regular checkin. The elite lines looked 3-5 deep. No one would leave those lines to go to the many vacant regular check in lines. Head scratcher.

 

Cabin

 

Our cabin was great. Deck 9 midship on the hump with a regular balcony. 9217 is a great cabin very quiet. Bed close to the bathroom. Our Room Steward "Jerry" did a fantastic job.

 

Dining

 

We did Select Dining. We had reservations for five nights and were seated immediately. Food and service were excellent. One night was a little slow but we just had an extra glass of wine. No biggie..

 

Specialty restaurants. We dined in 4 specialty restaurants (Lawn Club, Tuscan, Murano and QSine) over 8 evenings. All were excellent. Lawn Club is our favorite. The Porch has been reinvented with a new menu, but we did not dine there. We also did not try Sushi on 5 (see below)

 

Oceanview Cafe was great. I love Celebrity's approach to buffet service. Breakfast was especially and consistentIy good. It is amazing how they can put out such great quality food and serve so many people. I wish Royal's Windjammer on the Oasis class ships was this good.

 

Seas and weather

 

In our opinion overall the seas were good for us. For the most part we had smooth sailing. On a few nights and days we had "moderate" seas or swells but nothing really bad as far as we are concerned. I was worried about motion sickness in planning this cruise but it was not an issue. Ironically I'm having more motion issues readjusting our return to dry land.

 

There were two or three days with periodic showers but overall great weather with mild comfortable temperatures.

 

Ports of call

 

Ville Franche (Nice), Marseille, Barcelona overnight and Santa Cruz Tenerife. All were great. I think Tenerife was our favorite. No excursions for us. We could then do what we pleased on any given day.

 

We stayed on the ship while at Marseille (Sunday and rainy) but had a great relaxing day on the ship. All other ports we just wandered about the city. For our first day in Barcelona we did the "Citytours" HO-HO bus. Highly recommended. We also dined at BocaGrande restaurant in Barcelona Wow what a meal! Reservations required.

 

Sea Days

 

9 total days at sea for this crossing. We thoroughly enjoyed the lazy do nothing days.

 

The crew always had a full day of activities planned. From talks in the theater to events up on the top deck, a lot was going on. My wife enjoyed the variety of talks in the Reflection theater.

 

Me? I hung out at the Sunset Bar all day. Had a great crew at the bar. (See below)

 

Xcelerate (Wifi)

 

Internet was reliable and fairly fast all things considered. Greatly improved from the last time we sailed in 2014. In addition to emails, and social media, I was able to occasionally stream, periscope and FaceTime. In the middle of the day it seemed a bit slower, and streaming became "iffy", but it still worked. There was a noticeable increase in speeds once we got near the Caribbean seas.

 

Entertainment

 

Overall the shows I saw were pretty good. There was a wide variety of shows every evening. I only saw two visiting acts (magician and Juggler/Comedian) both well done. My wife saw a production show or two and enjoyed them also.

 

Sunset Bar. This is my favorite spot on Reflection. Kudos to "Ninja", Tespi, and Mario all great bartenders, but Santa Milton is the life of the bar.

 

Disembarkation

 

Wow this was the low point of the cruise for us, but I don't blame Celebrity too much for this. This is a TSA and port of Miami issue. They were at least an hour behind schedule in clearing passenger off the ship. It was sheer uncontrolled chaos in the terminal. The terminal is poorly designed and the flow is terrible. Also TSA was clearly undermanned. Fortunately we had a later flight and global entry (GOES) so it didn't impact us much at all.

 

Miami has a lot of work to do though. NOTE that there was a GOES line. It's not marked and there are no GOES machines but there is a global entry line. Just ask!

 

Nit picks. Nothing is perfect.

 

Televised Sports

 

Disappointed with management of televised sports. Only one dedicated international sports station (sky sports). No ESPN. They had Select NFL games on one channel but not games that many passengers were interested in watching. (Note, there was vast improvement once we reached the Caribbean.

 

The Big Oops, was having no plans to televise the World Series. After a near passenger revolt (and Elite protesters at Guest Services), they had regular showings in Celebrity Central. These were very popular. Until game 7 the game was not available in cabins.

 

Here Celebrity made lemonade out of lemons. And kudos to Celebrity for the quick fix. But who in the leadership thought no passengers would be interested in the World Series? Head scratcher.

 

Cellar Masters and Sushi.

 

These seem like a waste of space to me.

 

still not a fan of Cellar Master and the Self service wine machines. With the exception of special functions this place was always empty.

 

I don't recall ever seeing anyone dinning in Sushi on 5 at night. Was like a graveyard.

 

Casino. I didn't drop a dime in the casino. As a poker player it is offensive to me that they take a 10% rake on the poker table.

 

Conclusion

 

We love the Solstice Class ships. Overall our first TA was a great cruise. We really enjoyed the 9 sea days. I give this cruise 4 1/2 Beers ([emoji482][emoji482]1/2) out of 5.

 

Reflection and her crew were awesome, especially the Sunset Bar staff.

 

TAs aren't for everyone, but they are for us. We can't wait to do another.

 

There was a live thread for this cruise that can be found here.

 

LIVE!!! The Reflection Transatlantic - Oct 21st - 2016! Are we the YOUNGEST again?!

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=http%3A%2F%2Fboards%2Ecruisecritic%2Ecom%2Fshowthread%2Ephp%3Ft%3D2414356&share_tid=2414356&share_fid=24703&share_type=t

 

Cheers

Tom

Edited November 7, 2016 by Tommy3putts

[Clarea]

Appreciate the feedback, especially about the hotel. We will be looking for a hotel in CV next year.

[Tommy3putts]

We liked Hotel Miramare a lot. Note it's not fancy. (3 stars). It's more of a B&B. Great restaurant!

 

Check out TripAdvisor for reviews. I'll post mine in a day or two.

[ORV]

Thanks for your review, and thanks for using paragraphs.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Great review! Well written and easy to read, thank you! Welcome home.

[xmarksx]

 

Wow this was the low point of the cruise for us, but I don't blame Celebrity too much for this. This is a TSA and port of Miami issue. They were at least an hour behind schedule in clearing passenger off the ship. It was sheer uncontrolled chaos in the terminal. The terminal is poorly designed and the flow is terrible. Also TSA was clearly undermanned. Fortunately we had a later flight and global entry (GOES) so it didn't impact us much at all.

 

Miami has a lot of work to do though. NOTE that there was a GOES line. It's not marked and there are no GOES machines but there is a global entry line. Just ask!

 

 

Tom

 

We noticed the same thing with GOES in August, complete lack of signage and several of the machines were not working. Lots of grumpy people because of it.

[bonecrusha]

Enjoyed reading your review and take, Tom. You're a better stalwart for brevity than I am, so kudos to you; I lack that skill (thanks Mom). I thought maybe somehow, I just happened to miss the times that Sushi was busy or something, but glad to see someone else saw it like a graveyard too. Also found it odd that the NFL London games (of which there was one BOTH weeks we were across the pond) were not broadcast. You know, the only games on at a reasonable time for us.

[travelpeon]

We noticed the same thing with GOES in August, complete lack of signage and several of the machines were not working. Lots of grumpy people because of it.

 

I was told they didn't have a GE line in March, so a relative improvement.

[Tommy3putts]

Thank you all for the compliments.

 

As for GOES. I didn't see any machines. We were processed by a TSA agent. I viewed it as a special line for GOES passengers. Just needed to ask.

Edited November 7, 2016 by Tommy3putts

[Texed]

Mr. 3Putts,

 

We will be on Reflection starting November 19th.

 

So, thanks for posting. :)

[easyboy]

That was a nice review. Glad you liked it overall.

[bazbov]

Thanks for posting your thoughts on this cruise. I'm pleased you had a good time. Happy cruising. :)

[Mango Mike]

I just want to know where I can find a sport coat like the one in your pictures :eek::eek::eek:

[Tommy3putts]

You'll have to post that question to the OP of the live thread

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Nice review

 

Thanks for the spacing :)

 

I have a hard time reading a wall of words

[portofrome]

Thanks for the review.

[chicagopaul]

Hi Tommy - Great meeting you at the Sunset Bar and it was great reading your review. I'm hoping to have mine done in the next day and all my videos and photos uploaded. Hope to run into you again on a future sailing.

 

Cheers!

[Tommy3putts]

Thanks. It was fun. I wish we had connected earlier in the cruise!

 

Cheers

Tom

[Compass Rose Monica]

Thanks Tom for your great review. Short but sweet and detailed enough for me.

 

You mentioned, "The Porch has been reinvented with a new menu, but we did not dine there." Do you recall what was on the menu? I've dined there twice but not thrilled with the food there.

 

I'll be on the Reflection next October 2017. Join our group!! I have a web site for it too in my signature. :)

 

Monica

[Tommy3putts]

Hello Monica

 

The Porch menu focuses on seafood items. Looked good but a $30 up charge for both lunch and dinner.

 

Sadly we won't be able to do a TA next year.

 

Tom

[ORD1166]

Hello Monica

 

The Porch menu focuses on seafood items. Looked good but a $30 up charge for both lunch and dinner.

 

Sadly we won't be able to do a TA next year.

 

Tom

 

 

Tommy,

 

You nailed all right on the head. Good cruise and meet a lot of great folks along the way:eek:. To bad they did not have the world series games on every night in your room. But had a great time for the last game:eek:. Cubs win!!!

 

Global entry was great thing to have in POM. You had to ask for it, have your card and were direct to a separate line. What a pain that can be.

 

Send me your email at my screen name @ aol dot com.

 

Great meeting you and your better half.

 

Vic