Photo Review: Celebrity Reflection - 29th May - 11 Night Western Med Cruise

[nekzaadvakil]

After some rest in our hotel, we took off again (on foot) towards the Colosseum. We had done the Colosseum tour before and had seen it before, but always during the day and we were most intrigued to see how Rome looked at Night. We let go of google maps and allowed ourselves to wander around in rome for a bit.

 

We came across this fabulous place called Venchi which is pretty close to the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Venezia and stumbled in by chance. There was a HUGE queue of people trying to get some ice cream and trust me when you read this, the aroma of the chocolate when you enter this place is mind blowing!

 

The place actually had a chocolate fountain with actual chocolate flowing as its backdrop. There were plenty of choices and DW agreed that this was one of the best ice creams we had ever had. Fabulous stuff. Wasn't expensive either. I think it was 7 Euros for 2 large scoops and a fancy cone. Definitely worth a visit in Rome.

 

With our huge ice-creams in hand, we walked the street from Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum. The city looked amazing as lights highlighted the monuments. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

 

 

 

[nekzaadvakil]

We continued our walk towards the Colosseum and it really looked just as spectacular at night.

 

 

DW and I were both stuffed with the ice-cream, so we decided to head back to the hotel and skip dinner. We knew that with the cruise coming up, I'm going to stuff my face silly anyway, so why start a day earlier. After a really amazing day 'roaming' around in Rome, I finally got to see something that I usually wait a year to see... the countdown clock to ZERO... it was finally cruise day! Woohoo!

 

We had requested for our pick-up at 11 and our driver was at our hotel lobby at 10:45 AM. We were really happy with the service of Rome Airporter and will definitely be using their services again. We paid 99 Euros + tip to our driver for our transfer from our Hotel to our cruise ship in Civitavecchia. DW and I were very comfortable taking the train from Roma Termini to Civitavecchia since we had done so on one of our previous day trips to Rome. But walking to the station with bags (short walk 2 mins) from our hotel, then lugging those bags on the train, then the long walk from Civitavecchia station to our cruise ship - we really didn't want to exert ourselves too much. So we pampered ourselves and allowed us to be driven to the port in a fancy Mercedes.

 

In less than 60 minutes, we were approaching our gorgeous ship, this is when our excitement is at its peak. We had sailed on the Silhouette thrice, in 2013, 2014 and 2015, after which we did the Allure of the Seas in 2016 as well as the Explorer of the Seas. The Allure of the Seas was fantastic, but when we were on the Explorer, we really started to miss Celebrity. We were very very happy to be back on Celebrity and a new S class ship this time!

 

 

 

Check-in was completed in less than 10 minutes, the line for Elite Members was short. We were finally ready to board the ship for 11 days of pampering! Our first view of the Gorgeous Reflection...

 

[Verfai]

I have a question, we are doing the same cruise upcoming Monday… Did you have a VAT on the cruise? Its unclear if this cruise is free of VAT due to the stop in Gibraltar or not. Thanks for the reply :)

[cruisecatmama]

Enjoying your review and beautiful photos, looking forward the rest! :hearteyes:

[Lastdance]

We did the Med/TA in April/May. It was a wonderful trip with friends. Even though we had been to all the ports several times, we never stop enjoying the reviews of others and remembering all of the experiences.

Thank you for sharing!

[nekzaadvakil]

I have a question, we are doing the same cruise upcoming Monday… Did you have a VAT on the cruise? Its unclear if this cruise is free of VAT due to the stop in Gibraltar or not. Thanks for the reply :)

 

I'm not entirely sure but I think the cruise was free of VAT. Let me look it up in the dailies. I can confirm that the booze in the cruise was cheaper than the duty free in Rome, Dubai and Mumbai. However, the perfumes that they were selling on the cruise were more expensive than the prices in Gibraltar.

 

Nick

[nekzaadvakil]

As soon as we got on the ship, the first place we wanted to go was to our stateroom, to keep our carry on luggage and store our passports and wallets in the safe. Our last 3 cruises were in Veranda/ Balcony cruises so I was quite bummed that we were in an interior stateroom after 3 years. We were not planning on doing this cruise, our friend booked this cruise way back in January, and since this was their first cruise, I had to help them with all the planning, excursions, things to do, etc. In the end, we got so tempted that we decided to do it as well, even though we had been to some of the ports a few times earlier. When we decided to book, the prices for the veranda were sky high and we booked a guarantee inside stateroom and hoped to upgrade if the prices fell.

 

The prices never fell and infact in the end, there were no staterooms available in any category. I knew it was going to be difficult to adjust back to an inside stateroom after experiencing a balcony, but we were also happy to just be on a cruise. Plus we got lucky with our allocation of staterooms, we got Deck 9 and a large accessible stateroom. That did make things easier since it was MUCH bigger than a balcony stateroom. Here's our cabin #9206 on Deck 9.

 

 

The bathroom too was huge. Didn't like the shower curtains instead of the usual sliding doors, but since this was an accessible stateroom, we understood why we had to make do with the shower curtains. Didn't really bother us since the shower section was also huge.

 

We were waiting for our friends to join us on the ship. They had planned to arrive in Rome on the day of the cruise, get picked up by the Celebrity team at the airport, do a half day Rome excursion and then meet us on the ship by 3:30 - 4:00 PM. So we decided to grab a quite meal at the Oceanview cafe and explore the ship. Here's a view of the Sky Lounge on Deck 14...

 

The amazing open library, we loved how beautiful this looked on both the Reflection and the Silhouette.

 

And of course, the solarium, where we spent alot of our time....

 

 

[nekzaadvakil]

We then went up to the Alcoves on Deck 15 and lazed around in the hammocks. We hadn't spent time here on any of our 3 previous cruises and really wondered why! This place was beautiful.

 

 

Continuing our tour of the ship, the amazing Molecular Bar on Deck 5 near the shops...

 

We also took a quick tour to the Opus dining room to check out what table we had been assigned for our sit down dinners. We didn't really like the table which we had been assigned and requested for another table if it was possible. The Maitre'D promised to do what he could, but said it wouldn't be possible till the 2nd night. We thanked him for his efforts and left.

 

However when we got back to the room to get ready for dinner, we saw a note from him stating that we had been moved to another table. We were originally planning on grabbing a quite bite at the Oceanview cafe for dinner, however since he had gone through so much trouble and got us another table so quickly, we decided to head down for formal dining at our 8:30 PM seating. We loved our table for 4 which was right next to a window. Since most of the sunsets were at around 9:30, we had some spectacular views during dinner each night.

 

Here's my dinner on the first night...

 

The cheesecake is available every night and I think I ate this every time we dined at the Opus dining room. The quality of the food was top notch and the desserts were really good. We were really happy to be back to Celebrity.

 

We consider ourselves to be loyal to Royal & Celebrity, we don't even consider other cruise lines, even if there is a huge price difference. Before this cruise, I'd say we were 51-49 in favour of Royal Caribbean, especially due to Royal's Oasis class and Quantum class ships. But this changed completely in favour of Celebrity after this cruise.

 

We felt completely at home on the Celebrity Reflection. The ship was contemporary and modern. It felt luxurious and we got the feeling that every member of the staff was eager to please every request. Unless its on the Oasis Class/ Quantum class ships, we do not see ourselves sailing on Royal Caribbean if Celebrity has a similar itinerary.

[jules815]

Also subscribing. Reflection is our favorite ship, and can't wait to sail on her again in December.

 

Thanks for your review!

[fielddreamer]

We were on this ship last Dec 16 and booked it again on a 10 day this Dec 8 . This time we booked Aqua and we are now looking next April 27th in the Med. Your blog is awesome so keep up the great work ! Bob

[lukaaj12]

We are on this sailing in October this year, counting down the days! Looking forward to more of your posts!

[mthomp5]

Wonderful pics! Thanks for posting and letting us follow along.

[MacThespian]

Looking forward to your review, Nick, as we are completing the same itinerary in July ;).

I guess we both found this before our cruise in July. I love reading the review and seeing the pictures--even if we won't have the same time available in Rome. I'm getting reallly excited about this, and wanted to thank OP for writing it up,

[nekzaadvakil]

subscribing. anxious for more!

 

Thank you :) this is just the start. Plenty of pictures coming up of the ship, the food and the amazing ports of call.

 

Also subscribing. Reflection is our favorite ship, and can't wait to sail on her again in December.

 

Thanks for your review!

 

We always LOVED the Silhouette and was our favorite ship till we sailed on the Allure of the Seas. But after the Reflection, we may have to give it back to Celebrity's S class ships :)

[nekzaadvakil]

We were on this ship last Dec 16 and booked it again on a 10 day this Dec 8 . This time we booked Aqua and we are now looking next April 27th in the Med. Your blog is awesome so keep up the great work ! Bob

 

Thanks Bob. :)

 

Wonderful pics! Thanks for posting and letting us follow along.

 

Thank you :), lots more to follow...

[nekzaadvakil]

Tuesday, 30th May 2017

1st port of Call: La Spezia, Italy

 

After a fairly relaxing 1st day on the ship, we woke up feeling refreshed and raring to go out and check out La Spezia, our first port of call. I must say that while I prefer Balcony rooms, the sleep that one gets in the inside staterooms is really good. No noise, no light. We were very keen to check out Cinque Terre. We had spent Christmas and NY in Milan 6 months ago, from where we did multiple day trips to Lake Como, Lugano, Venice and a couple of days in St. Moritz. We didn't have the time to check out Cinque Terre and everyone told us that its more of a summer destination than a winter one.

 

So on this cruise, we decided that we would spend the day here exploring Cinque Terre. Our friends were very keen to see Florence, so they went on an excursion with Celebrity and they loved it. We had done Florence/Pisa earlier, and hence decided to see something new. And we were not disappointed.

 

We knew there was going to be alot of walking today as well, so time to stuff my face. Nice view at breakfast... I miss this breakfast already... Scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese, hash browns and chocolate croissants. Yum!

 

We headed out and started walking along the promenade towards the train station. It was a 15 minute walk but the promenade was beautiful and reminded us about Kusadasi(Turkey) & Split (Croatia), both which had a very similar walkway along the sea.

 

 

We chalked out a plan before the cruise, that we would try and catch a glimpse of all 5 villages which make up Cinque Terre. Having travelled by train in Italy extensively, we were very comfortable understanding how to buy tickets, and how to read which train goes where. Plus google maps is always there are back up. We decided to go all the way to the furthest of the 5 villages, Monterosso and then make our way back so that as we got closer to departure time, we were closer to port. The train journey took between 20-25 minutes and is very picturesque when we're not going through tunnels.

 

As soon as we exited the train station at Monterosso, here's the beautiful view that welcomed us.

 

 

[nekzaadvakil]

Some more views of Monterosso al Mare. DW and I thought this was the most beautiful of the 5 villages.

 

Beautiful walk-way towards the next village - Vernazza

 

 

There were plenty of signs put up so one doesn't go the wrong way. There were quite a few people who were walking from one village to another. It was way too hot for us to do so, nor did we have the time. Maybe next time we're here.

 

 

One final view before we got back to the train station and made our way to Village #2 - Vernazza

 

As you can see, the train tracks are right next to the Med sea, which makes it very convenient to travel by train from one stop to the other. You just get off the train and you're bang in the middle of where you want to be.

[nekzaadvakil]

From Monterosso al Mare, we started making our way back, one stop at a time. To Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and finally Riomaggiorie. Each of the villages was really beautiful and one could have easily spent more than a day exploring these villages at leisure.

 

 

 

 

We made it back to La Spezia station and walked past the narrow streets with shops and eateries on the way to the promenade close to the cruise port. Italy is really beautiful.

 

[nekzaadvakil]

After heading back to the ship, DW and I were hungry, so we headed up for a quick snack to the Mast Grill on Deck 15. This has always been one of our favorite places to eat. They do awesome beef, turkey and vegetarian burgers along with hot dogs and freshly made french fries. Since DW is a vegetarian, she really enjoys the vegetarian burgers here, while I get some amazing beef burgers and fries. Perfect way to unwind after a nice day at port.

 

We decided to catch the evening show at the Reflection Theater. The performer that night was a guy called Kev Orkian. This turned out to be the best show of the entire cruise. He was absolutely hilarious and super talented and had the entire audience in splits. We are not allowed to take pictures/ videos of performances, hence the no-flash picture below.

 

Of all our cruises so far, he was in the top 3 shows we had seen. Mama Mia on Allure of the Seas (2016), Fred Klett on Celebrity Silhouette (2013) and Kev Orkian on Celebrity Reflection. Do not miss his show.

 

I tried my luck in the Casino after the show, I think I lost $75 at the roulette table, but managed to play there for a couple of hours. We decided to get to bed by midnight since we had another long day in Nice the next day.

 

Wednesday, 31st May 2017

 

Nice was our 2nd port of call and the only port where we would be tendered. We left the ship quite late, around 10:00 -10:30 AM and there was a long queue for the tender boats. I think we waited for at least 20-25 minutes before we got on the tender boat.

 

After the tender boat dropped us off, we walked around the port area which had some nice eateries and shops. We wanted to go to the Promenade des Anglais and we decided to Uber it. So while we waited for our Uber, we took a quick stroll to check out the sites.

 

 

[nekzaadvakil]

A short 15 minutes later we reached the Promenade des Anglais, the Uber was only 20 Euros and made sense since there were 4 of us travelling. We then spent the day walking along the promenade and the multiple shops in the by lanes.

 

 

 

 

We also spent some time on the beach. We bought crisps, drinks, snickers ice cream, and some croissants and had a lazy afternoon. The beach was quite pebbly and certainly wasn't one of the best beaches that we had been to. The weather too was quite overcast. But hey, you're on holiday in the Mediterranean, so we were certainly not complaining.

 

We also managed a bit of shopping at H&M, Zara and the Tiger store. The tiger store is an amazing store with really innovative knick-knacks. We love this store and we usually always visit it when we come across it. We took an Uber back to the port from where we took the 3:30 PM tender to be back on the ship by 4 PM. It was good since this was the first chic night, and we wanted to relax for a bit before getting ready for our dinner.

 

[nekzaadvakil]

This was the first time we were on Celebrity after they changed Formal Night to Chic Night. However we were pleasantly surprised to see ALOT of people dressed quite formally and there was really a lively atmosphere on Deck 3,4 and 5.

 

On the upper decks closer to the pool, the atmosphere was more informal and relaxed. I noticed this on both the Chic nights, if you were dressed formally and headed up, you would be in the minority, where as if you were dressed informally and on deck 3,4,5 - you may feel out of place.

 

Again, its a holiday that everyone has paid good money for, so its completely their call on what they want to wear. I think everyone was quite comfortable and everyone was having a good time. Alot of people were taking pictures too. We had some time to spare so DW and I headed to the casino for a bit. We actually managed to convert $20 to $70 in slots!

 

 

Since it was Chic Night, we decided to dine in the MDR / Opus Dining Room. Here's a better view of the table we spoke about earlier. It was right next to the window, from where we had some amazing views of the sunset.

 

 

The food and the dessert was excellent. Celebrity really offers quality food (and service) in the MDR. I think our sommelier was over worked/ confused. DW asked for a Cosmopolitan and she got us the wrong drink thrice.

 

 

 

After a heavy meal, DW and I headed to the Refelection Theatre to catch the Wedding show which was hosted by CD Maarten and featured 3 couples - newly married, married for 15-20 years and a couple which was married for 30+ years. It was really funny and great fun.

 

We also decided to check out the silent disco at the sky lounge on Deck 14. Very innovative concept. Everyone is given a pair of headphones, with 3 different channels - each represented with a different colour - blue, green and red. The headphones change colour depending on the channel that you're listening to. So everyone can listen to music of their choice.

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It was fun and after an hour or so, around midnight, we decided to head to bed and catch up on some rest, before our 1st of 2 days in Barcelona.

[TMLAalum]

Am enjoying your photo review since we are on the Reflection with the exact itinerary as yours this fall. Loved your Cinque Terre pix especially since we are in Monterosso al Mare 3 nights before heading to Civitavecchia the day prior to sailaway.

 

Thanks!

[nekzaadvakil]

Am enjoying your photo review since we are on the Reflection with the exact itinerary as yours this fall. Loved your Cinque Terre pix especially since we are in Monterosso al Mare 3 nights before heading to Civitavecchia the day prior to sailaway.

 

Thanks!

 

Thanks! Cinque Terre was really beautiful. 3 days will do justice. We love Italy and can't wait to go back.

[champagne123]

Wow!!!! You have some of the most amazingly beautiful pics I have ever seen. Thank you for sharing.:cool:

[nekzaadvakil]

Wow!!!! You have some of the most amazingly beautiful pics I have ever seen. Thank you for sharing.:cool:

 

 

 

Thank you for those kind words. Encourages us to keep sharing [emoji4]

 

 

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