Review: Celebrity Reflection-Eastern Caribbean 1/7/17

[CruisinNewb]

Today we got an early start. We had breakfast and were early off the boat and had a nice taxi driver named Elvis who took us to Carambola Beach Club. It was a fairly short ride but he gave us a little tour enroute which was appreciated.

 

We had made a reservation for 4 lounges and umbrellas. The beach is public but most of the space is taken up by the beach club with lounges. They also had a nice restaurant inside and waiters who would take drink and food orders.

 

It started out cloudy but except for a brief sprinkle it was a nice sunny day.

The club was nice but the cushions on the lounges could have used a little more cushion (for my boney butt at least ;) )

 

It was funny seeing american beers listed under the "imported" selection on the menu. The beach which was empty when we arrived at 930 was packed by 1130.

We stayed until the early afternoon and took a cab ride back to the port, shopped a little then headed back on board.

Edited January 19, 2017 by CruisinNewb

[easyboy]

Enjoying your review.

[CruisinNewb]

I'll wrap up the review later today with our review of the last 2 sea days and disembarking. Then I'll post the dailies and menus I have.

 

One point I think I forgot to mention.

 

My older daughter and I are both vegetarians. I was excited to hear that Celebrity reintroduced the vegetarian menu that I missed when I sailed on the Summit in 2011.

 

I had asked our waiter David the first night for it and every night there after he made sure it was there for me with the regular menu. I will post pictures of some of them at the end of this thread.

 

It was nice to have some variety in ordering and have a choice from the single vegetarian option on the regular menu. I know some say you can just ask them to leave the meat out of other entrees or let them know in advance and they can create something to your liking. In my past attempts I haven't had much luck in that regard. I also don't like to turn a simple meal choice into an "event".

 

The vegetarian menu always listed two options for the entree. Unfortunately one of them was usually the option from the regular menu. This was less the case with the soups, salads and appetizers.

 

All in all I was satisfied and always found something that sounded good. The quality of the vegetarian options was up to par with the regular menu. Quality and taste were good to very good with a few misses (like the yogurt cucumber soup, blahhhh! ;) )

Edited January 19, 2017 by CruisinNewb

[Clownfish Cruiser]

Thanks for your review! I have enjoyed reading it :)

[BlueSky100]

CruisinNewb, I loved your reviews! I haven't seen where your menus and dailies are posted, I would love to see them. And again, thank you for posting so much detail, enjoyed reading your review!

[CruisinNewb]

CruisinNewb, I loved your reviews! I haven't seen where your menus and dailies are posted, I would love to see them. And again, thank you for posting so much detail, enjoyed reading your review!

 

 

Thanks. I'm going to post the menu and dailies in their own thread as soon as I finish this review. Probably later tonight or tomorrow.

[CruisinNewb]

I forgot to mention in the last post we had dinner after St. Kitts in QSine. We had an early reservation at 6PM but by 7 it was fairly packed. The food was good but I think you are paying more for the experience. My advice to fully enjoy QSine would be to sample whatever you order. Do not feel compelled to eat every bite. Unless you have a large capacity for food you will quickly become overwhelmed.

 

So after visiting 3 islands and spending most of that time at the beach we were, of course, totally exhausted. So 2 sea days of rest and relation were just the ticket.

 

Before the cruise we had decided to try an alcove and decide for ourselves whether they were worth the up charge. Sea Days on the Reflection the price was advertised at $149/day and $99/day for port days. We liked the idea of having a reserved space as we are not early risers on sea days and by the time we make it to the pool the lounges are all taken/reserved/saved etc.

 

The first day it was very windy and the seas were rough. The captain had changed course to get away from bad weather. After a very rough night before the ship was still feeling the affects. We had breakfast at the Ocean View buffet and then headed up to our alcove.

 

Our first day was very sunny and very windy which meant the alcove canopy could not be unfolded and also meant it was hard to find a shady spot. My wife resorted to lying on the grass right in front of our alcove where it was shady for a time. It rained for a short time and we started to abandon ship uhhh I mean alcove but by the time we got to shelter it and stopped so we returned.

Each alcove had a couch big enough for two with one arm so you could extend your feet off the other side, two comfy chairs with footstools and a oval table for snacks and drinks. There was also AC power with two plugs. They were advertised with wifi and IPads but we weren't offered any and we had our own devices so they weren't needed. Around noon - 1PM they would deliver two covered plates, one with assorted cheeses and one with sliced fruits. Both were enjoyable. They also brought an ice bucket with Evian and San Pelegrino with glasses. They would also get drinks for us from the sunset bar and we could order lunch at the lawn grill (for an additional charge) which they would bring to the alcove. We choose to get burgers on our own at the mast grill which was a short walk. Sometimes we'd order a drink sometimes we'd go to the Sunset Bar and get our own which was very close by. Restrooms were also close by. The first day several people set up towels on the lawn and enjoyed the sun and the grass.

There was a degree of privacy but not totally private.

 

We liked it so much we decided to see if there were any available for the next day. Alas they were all booked but they took my name and said they'd put me on a waiting list. Around 10PM that night we got a call that there was a cancellation and so we got one for the next sea day.

 

Our 2nd Sea Day was cloudy but without any wind. We asked for someone to raise our canopy. As it turned out it was good timing as 15 minutes later it poured. Fortunately it wasn't windy so we just snuggled in our "cove" and after a short while the rain stopped and the sun came out. Our neighbor alcove never had their canopy raised and make a beeline for indoors when the rain came.

 

Prior to sailing I had read a lot of debate of whether it was worth it. I can say that for us on this itinerary it was fabulous. We felt pampered, cozy and comfortable. Your mileage may vary of course.

 

Eventually we had to leave and get ready for our early seating dinner. Technically the alcoves are yours until 9PM but by the time we were done with dinner we never ventured back up top. I never saw all the alcoves occupied simultaneously but saw most of them occupied for some part of the day. I can't tell you what was going on when I was napping :)

Edited January 20, 2017 by CruisinNewb

[CruisinNewb]

The night before we were asked to have our luggage out by 10PM. Our room steward asked if we could have it out by 6PM to make it easier for them. I guess they have less staff handling the luggage. Anyway we somehow managed to shove 4 peoples stuff in an overnight and we put all our other luggage in the hallways by 6PM. I saw plenty of other luggage in the hallways so apparently it is a common request from all the stateroom attendants.

 

The written information asked us to vacate the state room by 8 AM. We left a few minutes before 8 AM. We headed to the buffet which was crowded but it was easy to find a table. When we finished around 830 AM we went to the theatre and our number was called almost immediately (16). We were off the ship and through customs in 5 minutes.

 

Overall we had a very nice time. I didn't personally experience many of the "complaints" I had recently read about Celebrity in general and the Reflection in particular. Almost all the ship staff was friendly, helpful and professional. Most of our fellow passengers were polite, friendly and generally very nice and considerate people. We enjoy meeting new people and chatting with them but never seem to run into them again later in the cruise unfortunately.

 

Comparing this cruise to the 3 others I took on Celebrity in 2008, 2009 and 2011 I would say that overall the product is the same or better then in the past.

So much so we booked two more cruises while on board.

 

I am going to post the 4 dailies I have as well as the MDR menus I photographed and the vegetarian MDR menus in a separate post in a day or so.

 

Thanks for reading my review. Any other questions, I'd be more then happy to try and answer them.

[easyboy]

Thank you for a great review!

[cruisebunny32]

Thanks for taking time to post the review. I enjoyed reading it!!

I am going on Reflection in April.

[deb18]

Thank you for the review. What was the room like for four? Was there enough places to store your stuff? Was the couch comfortable? Thanks

[CruisinNewb]

Thank you for the review. What was the room like for four? Was there enough places to store your stuff? Was the couch comfortable? Thanks

 

When we were awake the room was fine. There was enough room for our stuff but it was tight. When the beds were opened it became very tight. I couldn't make it past the girls beds to get to the balcony. The couch was comfortable as a couch. For a bed they put a thin mattress on top for sleeping. My daughters said it was fine the first few days but then became less comfortable.

 

If I had younger kids it would be fine or if money was tight and I didn't want to spring for a second cabin it wouldn't be an ordeal to deal with it. Me personally... next time we will get two cabins.

[cruisebunny32]

I am remembering our first S class trip after reading your last post

We had the 2 kids with us. They were younger-10 and 5. and it was very tight at night time. I do agree. My son was older, he slept on the couch part and my daughter slept in the lower pull out drawer.

They did have a full size pull out sofa bed on our Mercury cruise.

 

I will say there was plenty of space to put clothes and other possesions. we just divided up all the drawer space. and there are huge closets above the bed. we put a lot of shorts and tshirts in there. Girls on one side and Guys on the other. it worked out fine.

I was a little worried prior to the cruise, since I had read some not so great reviews about storage. I think those folks didn't find the above the bed storage.