Celebrity Reflection Live 11/22/16

[Georgia_Peaches]

Greeting!

 

I write this from my Sky suite balcony with a coffee and danish in hand. Waters are choppy and there's a good deal of wind. The captain hasn't called off Grand Cayman yet but he might before too long. Apparently, there's a storm brewing somewhere in the Caribbean.

 

So let me fill you in the the Cozumel day. We rarely do an organized excursion opting to go it on our own but Cozumel was different because we've been there many times. We opted for the Secret River and shopping in Playa Del Carmen. What a great experience! The only bad part was getting to Playa Del Carmen...a 45 minute ferry ride. And that's not usually so bad but like today, yesterday's waters were very choppy. We sat on the lower level which was inside and stuffy. After about 25 minutes of the choppy ride, a symphony of up-chuckers could be heard through out the boat. I myself, lost my breakfast into a bag they passed out to everyone.

What a way to begin!

 

Once off the boat we were met by Carlos who guided us to the secret under ground river system. We were given water shoes and snorkeling gear to use inside the caves. Carlos explained the history as we explored. It was truly amazing...water was cold at 73 degrees F. After the tour we were treated to a traditional Mayan lunch alongside the water in one of the caves. Lunch was great but I was a bit tentative considering I had a ferry ride back to contend with.

We did a little shopping on famous 5th street and then made our way into a beach side bar for some authentic chips and salsa and cold beers. It was a great venue to people watch and the ocean was stunning. BTW and FYI, we took advantage of the many pharmacys along the way to stock up on some antibiotics. I like to have them on hand, just in case. Got 90 count Amoxicillin 500mg for 18 bucks a bottle.

Our tour group was led by Carlos back to the pier where we boarded the dreaded ferry. This time we sat upstairs in the open air. It didn't seem as bad up there and fortunately, there was no more vomiting. However, our ferry full of Celebrity passengers was almost an hour late returning to the boat. Fortunately, since is was a Celebrity excursion, they waited for us.

 

Evening entertainment included silent disco in Cellar Masters or Tenors of Rock in the Reflection Theater. There was also live music in the Grand Foyer. We passed on the Tenors of Rock and people watched in the silent disco venue. Great fun!

 

Dinner in Lumane was quite good but I have to say, we both ordered from the MDR menu. Tonight we will try Murano.

 

We are supposed to tendar at 10 am. If that happens, we will check out Grand Cayman via bicycles. Gotta find some way to burn some calories.

 

Cheers,

Christina

[cruise47]

Wishing you smooth seas and nice weather. Thanks for your review.

[easyboy]

Glad you had great fun in your port visit. Will be following along.

 

 

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[Clarea]

Following.:)

[akowilm]

Loving your review! Can't wait to hear about the day in Grand Cayman, just hoping you can tender. We were there in April and its was smooth sailing, but several years ago we cruised in January and while they let us tender, all water related excursions were cancelled by the Cayman Authorities. We still had a great day wandering around and dropping around $200 at Margaritaville on a few cocktails....Oh well, still a great day!

[jewliana]

Thanks for your review! We will be on the Reflection in a Sky Suite in a few weeks! We have no idea what to expect as far as the "suite benefits" other than Michaels and Luminae.

Is there a special room service menu for suite guests? Can you make special requests for dining service via your butler?

Thanks in advance!

[riclop]

Enjoy your cruise.

[H2OH!]

wow! what a ride ...I hope the seas calm down a bit and you are able to drop anchor for Grand Cayman.

[brockmom]

We just spent 3 weeks on Reflections. Wonderful crew and lovely ship.

The Tenors of rock are amazing. If there is a repeat performance check them out. Next time you can see them will be in Vegas that is where they are headed.

 

If you see Damien around the pool pushing the drink carts - please tell him hello from the Canadians. Is he still wearing the bell on his pant loop ? Fantastic bartender ! Was our daily entertainment for sure.

 

Enjoy your cruise !

Brockmom

[Bobal]

We just spent 3 weeks on Reflections. Wonderful crew and lovely ship.

The Tenors of rock are amazing. If there is a repeat performance check them out. Next time you can see them will be in Vegas that is where they are headed.

 

If you see Damien around the pool pushing the drink carts - please tell him hello from the Canadians. Is he still wearing the bell on his pant loop ? Fantastic bartender ! Was our daily entertainment for sure.

 

Enjoy your cruise !

Brockmom

 

We must have been on the same two cruises. Totally agree about crew, ship and Tenors of Rock and particularly about Damiean - what a character and such a lovely guy :)

[bonecrusha]

Greeting!

 

I write this from my Sky suite balcony with a coffee and danish in hand. Waters are choppy and there's a good deal of wind. The captain hasn't called off Grand Cayman yet but he might before too long. Apparently, there's a storm brewing somewhere in the Caribbean.

 

So let me fill you in the the Cozumel day. We rarely do an organized excursion opting to go it on our own but Cozumel was different because we've been there many times. We opted for the Secret River and shopping in Playa Del Carmen. What a great experience! The only bad part was getting to Playa Del Carmen...a 45 minute ferry ride. And that's not usually so bad but like today, yesterday's waters were very choppy. We sat on the lower level which was inside and stuffy. After about 25 minutes of the choppy ride, a symphony of up-chuckers could be heard through out the boat. I myself, lost my breakfast into a bag they passed out to everyone.

What a way to begin!

 

Once off the boat we were met by Carlos who guided us to the secret under ground river system. We were given water shoes and snorkeling gear to use inside the caves. Carlos explained the history as we explored. It was truly amazing...water was cold at 73 degrees F. After the tour we were treated to a traditional Mayan lunch alongside the water in one of the caves. Lunch was great but I was a bit tentative considering I had a ferry ride back to contend with.

We did a little shopping on famous 5th street and then made our way into a beach side bar for some authentic chips and salsa and cold beers. It was a great venue to people watch and the ocean was stunning. BTW and FYI, we took advantage of the many pharmacys along the way to stock up on some antibiotics. I like to have them on hand, just in case. Got 90 count Amoxicillin 500mg for 18 bucks a bottle.

Our tour group was led by Carlos back to the pier where we boarded the dreaded ferry. This time we sat upstairs in the open air. It didn't seem as bad up there and fortunately, there was no more vomiting. However, our ferry full of Celebrity passengers was almost an hour late returning to the boat. Fortunately, since is was a Celebrity excursion, they waited for us.

 

Evening entertainment included silent disco in Cellar Masters or Tenors of Rock in the Reflection Theater. There was also live music in the Grand Foyer. We passed on the Tenors of Rock and people watched in the silent disco venue. Great fun!

 

Dinner in Lumane was quite good but I have to say, we both ordered from the MDR menu. Tonight we will try Murano.

 

We are supposed to tendar at 10 am. If that happens, we will check out Grand Cayman via bicycles. Gotta find some way to burn some calories.

 

Cheers,

Christina

 

I'm sorry in advance, but I do feel obliged to respond to this not only for OP but anyone reading this as a public service announcement. As a physician, it is both dangerous to yourself and to the general public to be buying antibiotics without a prescription to "stock up." First of all, there is no FDA in Mexico. Lord knows what the h-e-double-hockey-sticks you are purchasing and ingesting, the purity of it, and the efficacy of it. Second of all, antibiotics are at their core, anti-biotic, meaning anti-life. They are designed to destroy specific types of bacteria via specific mechanism, depending on the drug. I tell my patients, for simplicity, that one antibiotic may target Volkswagen by being equipped to destroy their stick-shift while a different antibiotic is equipped to destroy only Japanese cars by attacking a special part that only Japanese cars have. The more concrete explanation is some antibiotics attack cell walls found in gram-positive organisms while others are meant for anaerobes or gram negative organisms. Either way, what happens over time with use of antibiotics is the bacteria mutate and the antibiotics no longer work. Think of a colony of those volkswagen's but one of them was built differently so when they all get wiped out, that one doesn't, and then that one divides and makes 2 daughter VW's that are immune to the antibiotic, and then those 2 divide, and so on*. This is what happens with antibiotics and is a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR public health issue, as we are running out of antibiotics that work on certain creatures and more and more are succumbing in our ICU's due to "superbugs" and septic shock. As physicians, we are SUPER careful in who we give antibiotics to and how they are used, as it is our duty to be gatekeepers and protect the public by ensuring that antibiotics will work as long as we can possibly allow. With no offense intended, the LAST thing ANY of us need are a bunch of non-licensed wanna-be (or maybe not wanting to be) "physicians" playing doctor and stocking up on medications that they have no idea their appropriateness**. And that's just assuming those Mexican meds are even what they say they are.

 

TL;DR = :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

 

Dr. Bonecrusha, MD

 

* = Ever heard of Augmentin? This is amoxicillin + clavulanic acid. Essentially we had just penicillin and amoxicillin, which break the beta-lactam ring of the gram-positive organism cell walls and destroy the organism. What happened due to overuse? the bacteria mutated and now pack a "beta lactamase," meaning a code in their DNA to destroy this mechanism that penicillin and augmentin use. Therefore, amoxicillin and penicillin will NOT WORK on those organisms anymore(!!!), and Augmentin was created (in essence, they added clavulanic acid) to neutralize the beta lactamase so we can still kill those bugs. This is but one example and one with a happy ending. Luckily we have great researchers and NIH funding to have created a work-around, but unfortunately, we have stalled in our progress and have run very short on back-up plans. We are in a crisis these days, sadly. The bacteria, thanks to overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics, are outpacing our research.

 

** = Yes, appropriateness. Not only do antibiotics not work against viruses (and most non-physicians are incapable of differentiating between a virus vs bacterial infection...even we get mixed up on occasion), but antibiotics aimed against gram positive organisms (like Amoxicillin, or the "amoxicillin" you bought) will not work against gram negative organisms. Therefore it would just be another misuse of antibiotics and yet another opportunity for bacteria to evolve against us. Shorlty stated, leave the medicine to the doctors and pharmacists. There's a reason we have 8-10 years of additional training after college and $250k of debt.

Edited November 23, 2016 by bonecrusha

[bonecrusha]

That aside, I'm glad you're enjoying your trip and appreciate reading about it as I was on Reflection only a few weeks ago for the TA. Grand Cayman is gorgeous!

[Sandtrap328]

I have seen the term "silent disco" but I have absolutely no idea of what it is. Can anyone enlighten me?

[Kylomom]

I'm sorry in advance, but I do feel obliged to respond to this not only for OP but anyone reading this as a public service announcement. As a physician, it is both dangerous to yourself and to the general public to be buying antibiotics without a prescription to "stock up." First of all, there is no FDA in Mexico. Lord knows what the h-e-double-hockey-sticks you are purchasing and ingesting, the purity of it, and the efficacy of it. Second of all, antibiotics are at their core, anti-biotic, meaning anti-life. They are designed to destroy specific types of bacteria via specific mechanism, depending on the drug. I tell my patients, for simplicity, that one antibiotic may target Volkswagen by being equipped to destroy their stick-shift while a different antibiotic is equipped to destroy only Japanese cars by attacking a special part that only Japanese cars have. The more concrete explanation is some antibiotics attack cell walls found in gram-positive organisms while others are meant for anaerobes or gram negative organisms. Either way, what happens over time with use of antibiotics is the bacteria mutate and the antibiotics no longer work. Think of a colony of those volkswagen's but one of them was built differently so when they all get wiped out, that one doesn't, and then that one divides and makes 2 daughter VW's that are immune to the antibiotic, and then those 2 divide, and so on*. This is what happens with antibiotics and is a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR public health issue, as we are running out of antibiotics that work on certain creatures and more and more are succumbing in our ICU's due to "superbugs" and septic shock. As physicians, we are SUPER careful in who we give antibiotics to and how they are used, as it is our duty to be gatekeepers and protect the public by ensuring that antibiotics will work as long as we can possibly allow. With no offense intended, the LAST thing ANY of us need are a bunch of non-licensed wanna-be (or maybe not wanting to be) "physicians" playing doctor and stocking up on medications that they have no idea their appropriateness**. And that's just assuming those Mexican meds are even what they say they are.

 

TL;DR = :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

 

Dr. Bonecrusha, MD

 

* = Ever heard of Augmentin? This is amoxicillin + clavulanic acid. Essentially we had just penicillin and amoxicillin, which break the beta-lactam ring of the gram-positive organism cell walls and destroy the organism. What happened due to overuse? the bacteria mutated and now pack a "beta lactamase," meaning a code in their DNA to destroy this mechanism that penicillin and augmentin use. Therefore, amoxicillin and penicillin will NOT WORK on those organisms anymore(!!!), and Augmentin was created (in essence, they added clavulanic acid) to neutralize the beta lactamase so we can still kill those bugs. This is but one example and one with a happy ending. Luckily we have great researchers and NIH funding to have created a work-around, but unfortunately, we have stalled in our progress and have run very short on back-up plans. We are in a crisis these days, sadly. The bacteria, thanks to overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics, are outpacing our research.

 

** = Yes, appropriateness. Not only do antibiotics not work against viruses (and most non-physicians are incapable of differentiating between a virus vs bacterial infection...even we get mixed up on occasion), but antibiotics aimed against gram positive organisms (like Amoxicillin, or the "amoxicillin" you bought) will not work against gram negative organisms. Therefore it would just be another misuse of antibiotics and yet another opportunity for bacteria to evolve against us. Shorlty stated, leave the medicine to the doctors and pharmacists. There's a reason we have 8-10 years of additional training after college and $250k of debt.

 

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Georgia_Peaches]

Thanks for your review! We will be on the Reflection in a Sky Suite in a few weeks! We have no idea what to expect as far as the "suite benefits" other than Michaels and Luminae.

Is there a special room service menu for suite guests? Can you make special requests for dining service via your butler?

Thanks in advance!

 

There is a special room service for suite guests. You will receive some hang tag cards that have many options for breakfast. Just fill it out hand hang in on your door before 2 AM. Your breakfast will arrive at the specified time the next day. Your butler will set it up for you on your balcony. We do this each morning and review the daily activities. You can also order room service via your television but there is a charge for some of the things, like OJ that they don't charge extra for if you use your little hang tag. Also, your butler can arrange your dinner reservations for you at Lumane or any other speciality dining location. Reservations aren't necessary for Lumane but try to avoid the are at 8:15.

 

You are going to love being in a suite!

Christina

[Georgia_Peaches]

I'm sorry in advance, but I do feel obliged to respond to this not only for OP but anyone reading this as a public service announcement. As a physician, it is both dangerous to yourself and to the general public to be buying antibiotics without a prescription to "stock up." First of all, there is no FDA in Mexico. Lord knows what the h-e-double-hockey-sticks you are purchasing and ingesting, the purity of it, and the efficacy of it. Second of all, antibiotics are at their core, anti-biotic, meaning anti-life. They are designed to destroy specific types of bacteria via specific mechanism, depending on the drug. I tell my patients, for simplicity, that one antibiotic may target Volkswagen by being equipped to destroy their stick-shift while a different antibiotic is equipped to destroy only Japanese cars by attacking a special part that only Japanese cars have. The more concrete explanation is some antibiotics attack cell walls found in gram-positive organisms while others are meant for anaerobes or gram negative organisms. Either way, what happens over time with use of antibiotics is the bacteria mutate and the antibiotics no longer work. Think of a colony of those volkswagen's but one of them was built differently so when they all get wiped out, that one doesn't, and then that one divides and makes 2 daughter VW's that are immune to the antibiotic, and then those 2 divide, and so on*. This is what happens with antibiotics and is a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR public health issue, as we are running out of antibiotics that work on certain creatures and more and more are succumbing in our ICU's due to "superbugs" and septic shock. As physicians, we are SUPER careful in who we give antibiotics to and how they are used, as it is our duty to be gatekeepers and protect the public by ensuring that antibiotics will work as long as we can possibly allow. With no offense intended, the LAST thing ANY of us need are a bunch of non-licensed wanna-be (or maybe not wanting to be) "physicians" playing doctor and stocking up on medications that they have no idea their appropriateness**. And that's just assuming those Mexican meds are even what they say they are.

 

TL;DR = :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

 

Dr. Bonecrusha, MD

 

* = Ever heard of Augmentin? This is amoxicillin + clavulanic acid. Essentially we had just penicillin and amoxicillin, which break the beta-lactam ring of the gram-positive organism cell walls and destroy the organism. What happened due to overuse? the bacteria mutated and now pack a "beta lactamase," meaning a code in their DNA to destroy this mechanism that penicillin and augmentin use. Therefore, amoxicillin and penicillin will NOT WORK on those organisms anymore(!!!), and Augmentin was created (in essence, they added clavulanic acid) to neutralize the beta lactamase so we can still kill those bugs. This is but one example and one with a happy ending. Luckily we have great researchers and NIH funding to have created a work-around, but unfortunately, we have stalled in our progress and have run very short on back-up plans. We are in a crisis these days, sadly. The bacteria, thanks to overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics, are outpacing our research.

 

** = Yes, appropriateness. Not only do antibiotics not work against viruses (and most non-physicians are incapable of differentiating between a virus vs bacterial infection...even we get mixed up on occasion), but antibiotics aimed against gram positive organisms (like Amoxicillin, or the "amoxicillin" you bought) will not work against gram negative organisms. Therefore it would just be another misuse of antibiotics and yet another opportunity for bacteria to evolve against us. Shorlty stated, leave the medicine to the doctors and pharmacists. There's a reason we have 8-10 years of additional training after college and $250k of debt.

 

I fully expected flack about the whole antibiotic thing.. While I am not a doctor, I do hold three degrees and consider myself to be a pretty smart person. Your perspective is quite valid but until you've heard my story, you shouldn't judge.

Edited November 23, 2016 by Georgia_Peaches

[Georgia_Peaches]

I have seen the term "silent disco" but I have absolutely no idea of what it is. Can anyone enlighten me?

 

Sure. I've only recently been introduced to it myself. You wear a set of headphones that have random dance music playing...different music in each set of headphones. People dance and (some sing along) to the music they hear but nobody else can hear it. It's pretty funny to watch.

[gentle@spici]

Great post Bonecrusha. I have 0 degrees but read a LOT and have told my friends for yrs that we are in a losing battle with antibiotics and sooner or later we are going to be in a front line battle with some illness that will be resistant to anything we throw at them. Might be 50-100 yrs down the rd but it will happen.

With that said I'm looking forward to being on the Reflection Saturday with drinks in hand for the 2nd cruise on her. Love reading the updates and hopefully you "loosen" up the slot machines a bit for us lol.

[bonecrusha]

I fully expected flack about the whole antibiotic thing.. While I am not a doctor, I do hold three degrees and consider myself to be a pretty smart person. Your perspective is quite valid but until you've heard my story, you shouldn't judge.

 

It's this teenage "not me, I couldn't possibly be the one contributing harm to mankind, I am but one person" mindset that is detrimental to all of us. I am likely going to get badmouthed for what I am about to say, but frankly, I don't need to hear your story. It's irrelevant, and as a professional with a license to practice medicine, I will judge. It is within my scope of practice and my duty to ALL of us, including you and your children, to speak up. It is the oath I took the day that I graduated from medical school.

 

Best,

Bonecrusha MD

 

edit: I don't want you to think that I'm trying to say you don't matter as a person or that I don't respect your achievements in life, but rather to say that as a qualified specialist, they are not relevant to this conversation. It is like listing off my degrees (which are in medicine and finance) while attempting to fix a Boeing 737 that you're about to fly across the country on. I could tell you until I'm blue in the face that I am intelligent because I am a doctor and hold high academic honors, but I don't think you would find that all too relevant or beneficial when it comes to repairing your airplane or building a skyscraper where you will be working on the 80th floor. I hope that makes sense. I mean no disrespect, but in my experience in the medical field, this is a major problem both in behavior and mindset and all of us need to be held accountable for the benefit of our fellow man.

Edited November 23, 2016 by bonecrusha

[Georgia_Peaches]

It's this teenage "not me, I couldn't possibly be the one contributing harm to mankind, I am but one person" mindset that is detrimental to all of us. I am likely going to get badmouthed for what I am about to say, but frankly, I don't need to hear your story. It's irrelevant, and as a professional with a license to practice medicine, I will judge. It is within my scope of practice and my duty to ALL of us, including you and your children, to speak up. It is the oath I took the day that I graduated from medical school.

 

Best,

Bonecrusha MD

 

edit: I don't want you to think that I'm trying to say you don't matter as a person or that I don't respect your achievements in life, but rather to say that as a qualified specialist, they are not relevant to this conversation. It is like listing off my degrees (which are in medicine and finance) while attempting to fix a Boeing 737 that you're about to fly across the country on. I could tell you until I'm blue in the face that I am intelligent because I am a doctor and hold high academic honors, but I don't think you would find that all too relevant or beneficial when it comes to repairing your airplane or building a skyscraper where you will be working on the 80th floor. I hope that makes sense. I mean no disrespect, but in my experience in the medical field, this is a major problem both in behavior and mindset and all of us need to be held accountable for the benefit of our fellow man.

No, doctor..not a teenaged mentality. In fact, quite the opposite. I own a dog rescue shelter on my land. I am a nonprofit so all expenses are out of my own pocket with the exception of the time that our local vet volunteers in aiding with getting our rescues back to health. They come to us with all manner of ailments from starvation to both internal and external infections. If you think human healthcare is costly, try animal healthcare. So yes, I purchased some antibiotics to help off set the cost of caring for these dogs. Nobody will adopt a sick animal so it is imperative that they get better or get euthanized. If I need an antibiotic, I see my doctor...end of story. So thank you for making everyone more aware of the dangers and I truly do not discount anything you said. But as I mentioned, we all have a story...mine is simply to help sick dogs find a loving home. So now I am going to get back to the business of enjoying my cruise...tonight is dinner at Murano. I hear its wonderful!

Cheers,

Christina

[mmp13]

Bone Crusha, As a nurse, all I can say is thanks! The rise of antibiotic resistant diseases is frightening!

[opa&oma]

Bone Crusha, As a nurse, all I can say is thanks! The rise of antibiotic resistant diseases is frightening!

Here's another THANK YOU! I was hospitalized for 2 weeks this year fighting a super bug infection contracted from a splinter! The vast majority of educated, well read people have no idea of the seriousness of this antibiotic issue. So yes, Bone Crusha, you were just doing your job in your post and thank you for taking the time to do it.

[misha1]

OP...thank you for taking in our less fortunate furry friends...keep up the good work.

[lilghallinsf]

Interteresting post!

:-)

 

Enjoy your trip and thanks for explaining the reasoning behind your purchase.

When you post that you did it, you opened yourself to criticism, so you can't really be upset that a certified Dr made a comment. Thank you for helping those less fortunate and thank you to the Dr for explaining your reasoning.

 

Now, since we all want the same thing, a wonderful review, back to your regular scheduled programing....;-)

[mlrandpkm]

Sure. I've only recently been introduced to it myself. You wear a set of headphones that have random dance music playing...different music in each set of headphones. People dance and (some sing along) to the music they hear but nobody else can hear it. It's pretty funny to watch.

 

 

My husband and I just came off of Reflection yesterday--was a great cruise. We went to the silent disco and had so much fun! There are 3 different channels to listen to--and are represented by red, blue or green on the headsets...so everyone that you see with red is listening to the same music, and so on. Lots of fun to participate and even more to watch it and hear no music!! [emoji16]

 

 

 

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