Celebrity reflection 10 night ultimate caribbean cruise - march 23, 2018

[Marvy Mare]

Monday March 26 - Day 4 - Antigua 8-4

 

I was up early, for a change. Up on the deck early anyway. There was only one other walker/runner - the tall barefoot fellow. As I passed the lawn club I noticed the lawn was being cut. Another day it was being fertilized and even aerated one morning. The things you see if you get up early. There was a group of smokers at the Mast Bar, as well as the Sunset Bar.

Generally no one spoke to me. Guess I don't look too friendly, but as I mentioned before, I have nothing against smokers, as I was once one of them. Anyway one of the fellows at the Mast Bar spoke to me. He had the greatest accent, Irish, so I kept the short conversation going every round, just to hear him speak.

I missed the sunrise when I went back to get my camera, but the light was still nice. I spoke to another photographer, who I saw frequently taking photos. This fellow was glad that he would be soon getting his feet on solid ground. I did try to make conversation with a few other people I saw with cameras, but they weren't overly friendly. I love talking photos.

 

I took photos as we came into St. John's, Antigua.

 

 

 

If I remember these were taken from Deck 16 at the front of the ship. We couldn't see port from our patio.

 

Deck 16, the view behind me.

 

Almost there.

 

That's it for today. I've got my photos edited through St. Lucia, thanks to be confined to home & so far we still have power.

[chemmo]

We were also on this cruise, you are bringing back some very happy memories!

[Pepsi36]

We were also on this cruise, you are bringing back some very happy memories!

I was reading about your horrific journey to get to FLL. Glad you enjoyed the cruise after all the worry you had.

[chemmo]

I was reading about your horrific journey to get to FLL. Glad you enjoyed the cruise after all the worry you had.

 

Once the first champagne was in my hand I saw all our cares and worries float away on the bubbles! I did follow our misadventures with a sort of report ‘Reflections from the Reflection’. We really had a wonderful time.

 

It is so nice to follow this very visual report now. It does bring back lots of happy memories....so nice to see a cruise through the eyes of others too.

 

Keep posting those wonderful photos, Marvy Mare!

[Marvy Mare]

Once the first champagne was in my hand I saw all our cares and worries float away on the bubbles! I did follow our misadventures with a sort of report ‘Reflections from the Reflection’. We really had a wonderful time.

 

It is so nice to follow this very visual report now. It does bring back lots of happy memories....so nice to see a cruise through the eyes of others too.

 

Keep posting those wonderful photos, Marvy Mare!

 

 

Chemmo- I just read through your review on the Reflection. An interesting insight on how ‘the other 1/2 lives’. :D I wish we’d tried Le Petite Chef. Just trying Muranos & Tuscan Grill was a great experience. Curious as to where I could read about your misadventures. I will try to get back to my review tonight. Our power has been out all day here, due to an ice storm. Having a lovely Spring here in Ontario.

 

Maris

[loving goldens]

Thank you for the great look back of our vacation....lol... it is like reliving it all over again.... :).... I remember seeing that PEI dirt shirt.... we are from Nova Scotia ... there was a lot of Maritmers on this cruise...

[chemmo]

Chemmo- I just read through your review on the Reflection. An interesting insight on how ‘the other 1/2 lives’. :D I wish we’d tried Le Petite Chef. Just trying Muranos & Tuscan Grill was a great experience. Curious as to where I could read about your misadventures. I will try to get back to my review tonight. Our power has been out all day here, due to an ice storm. Having a lovely Spring here in Ontario.

 

Maris

 

Maris,

 

‘The other half’ lived very much like you! I am sure we must have seen each other once or twice early morning top deck as it was a favourite place for me too.

 

A real highlight of this cruise for me was having the freedom to once again walk around the lawn area first thing in the morning....after two years, two surgeries (and two cruises) needing crutches and a wheelchair I could not complete that circuit without being so thankful. If you saw me I was a little lady with a great big beaming smile on her face!!!

 

My misadventures were in a post a few pages back entitled something like ‘Help, how often is Philadelphia Airport closed?’. We had our flights cancelled pre cruise owing to the NE snowstorm. Help from CC members ensured we did arrive on our cruise, even if a little frazzled! The advice and support sent to us was very touching....

 

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

[Marvy Mare]

Thank you for the great look back of our vacation....lol... it is like reliving it all over again.... :).... I remember seeing that PEI dirt shirt.... we are from Nova Scotia ... there was a lot of Maritmers on this cruise...

 

Yes, there were a lot of Maritimers on the cruise. They all seemed so friendly. I'm originally from the west coast of Canada. I've traveled back and forth to the west many times but have yet to make a trip east. It's on the bucket list. Wondering if you're having the weather there now that we had the last few days. Snow, ice & wind. I think there were so many Maritimers on the cruise because you have had an even worse winter than us.

[Marvy Mare]

Maris,

 

‘The other half’ lived very much like you! I am sure we must have seen each other once or twice early morning top deck as it was a favourite place for me too.

 

A real highlight of this cruise for me was having the freedom to once again walk around the lawn area first thing in the morning....after two years, two surgeries (and two cruises) needing crutches and a wheelchair I could not complete that circuit without being so thankful. If you saw me I was a little lady with a great big beaming smile on her face!!!

 

My misadventures were in a post a few pages back entitled something like ‘Help, how often is Philadelphia Airport closed?’. We had our flights cancelled pre cruise owing to the NE snowstorm. Help from CC members ensured we did arrive on our cruise, even if a little frazzled! The advice and support sent to us was very touching....

 

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

I think I did read a bit in our Cruise Critic Roll Call about your weather worries. It's been a brutal winter. My brother & wife who I mentioned were heading over to Ireland and leaving on Sunday, flew out of Toronto Saturday morning, just before the ice storm started.

I'm sure I did see you on deck. If you were smiling, I would have said hi. There was one little lady who almost flew around the deck - walking, but so quickly. If you are still in recovery, I imagine that your pace was a little slower. It was a great place to be on those early mornings.

[chemmo]

I think I did read a bit in our Cruise Critic Roll Call about your weather worries. It's been a brutal winter. My brother & wife who I mentioned were heading over to Ireland and leaving on Sunday, flew out of Toronto Saturday morning, just before the ice storm started.

I'm sure I did see you on deck. If you were smiling, I would have said hi. There was one little lady who almost flew around the deck - walking, but so quickly. If you are still in recovery, I imagine that your pace was a little slower. It was a great place to be on those early mornings.

 

No....I was not fast moving! It certainly was a great place to be early mornings!

 

I wasn’t on the roll call for the cruise, I am sure others would have had difficulty too. We were aware after chatting to the guest relations manager several guests (6 I think) joined the cruise in Antigua....I believe another couple didn’t get their luggage until St Maarten.....As things go we were very lucky!

[Marvy Mare]

Day 4, March 26 Antigua 8-4

 

A few more photos of our approach to Antigua. It was such a beautiful clear morning. Hot and humid, just as I like it.

 

 

 

I was excited about Antigua, because my husband had spent three months there in his youth. He started his 3rd year of university and after a month decided it wasn't for him. He did return to school eventually and lucky for him. It was in at the final pub in our final year at university that we finally figured out that we might want to take our friendship to another level. We were married a year after graduation almost 41 years ago.

Enough of the mushy stuff. Anyway, Ken went with a friend to Antigua for 3 months. They lived in a B & B. I don't know if they were called that at the time, but they boarded in someone's house. It was somewhere near the former American military base.

 

A view of the neighbours. The ship had turned and now we could see the island from our verandas.

 

It's cool to watch life on shore from the ship. If you can see the photo on the big screen, it looks like the family is getting ready for a drive to school.

 

I wonder how long this boat had been here & what happened.

[Marvy Mare]

No....I was not fast moving! It certainly was a great place to be early mornings!

 

I wasn’t on the roll call for the cruise, I am sure others would have had difficulty too. We were aware after chatting to the guest relations manager several guests (6 I think) joined the cruise in Antigua....I believe another couple didn’t get their luggage until St Maarten.....As things go we were very lucky!

 

I have a story about those guests coming up. We met them. They were actually feeling very lucky too.

[Marvy Mare]

Antigua continued

 

We had breakfast outside at the Oceanview. Our tour wasn't until 10:45 - Scenic Antigua and Beach, so we weren't in a rush to get off. Trying to play it cool but I was pretty excited for our first stop.

 

 

St. John's, where the port is has a population of 32,000.

 

 

A few more views of port before we got off the boat. I did find in the bus tours that I was not too handy at taking photos from a moving bus. I may have to go on another cruise to practice that skill.

 

I love the colourful island homes. Much more photogenic than our drab suburbs.

 

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I'm not sure if this was a small cruise ship, a tour boat or a private yacht. I am quite sure that the photo isn't level but I'm not going back to fix it now.

 

Finally time to get off the boat. Our tour wasn't starting for a couple of hours but we thought that we'd do some exploring. Our first mistake. Anyway, one more photo and coffee is calling.

 

At the end of the pier just as you enter town.

 

The dogs are begging to be fed. Until tomorrow or later today.

Maris

[poffles]

Absolutely loving your review, your writing style is like how i think and I love the balance of words to pictures. Oh and your pictures, oh my your pictures ... they are incredible and so vivid that they take me there with you. I have been to all the islands you visited, some a few times, but looking at your pictures it feels new again like the first time and the excitement in me grows for the day I will be back there again. When you mention the weather as hot and humid it makes it even more real, love that feeling of the Caribbean.

 

Thank you so much for sharing and can't wait for more!

[Still Dreaming]

Just a photo hint. Put your camera in sport mode when your in a moving vehicle or boat!

[Marvy Mare]

Absolutely loving your review, your writing style is like how i think and I love the balance of words to pictures. Oh and your pictures, oh my your pictures ... they are incredible and so vivid that they take me there with you. I have been to all the islands you visited, some a few times, but looking at your pictures it feels new again like the first time and the excitement in me grows for the day I will be back there again. When you mention the weather as hot and humid it makes it even more real, love that feeling of the Caribbean.

 

Thank you so much for sharing and can't wait for more!

 

Wow! Thanks for the compliments. Glad you’re enjoying my review & photos. I have read that morning people aren’t creative. I’m trying to disprove the theory. We live on a lakefront with a western exposure and I see many beautiful sunsets. It’s the sunrise that thrills me as a photographer. In the summer when the sunsets are at their best, I may be asleep already:').

I don’t know what I’m going to do in the early morning when I finish this blog. Maybe catch up on some reading, either books or other CC reviews in anticipation of our next vacation.

 

Thanks again for following.

 

Maris

[24acorns]

Maris

I too am really enjoying your review here.

The sunrise images are so beautiful, I follow Norris's reviews and hope he will not mind my saying yours are equally as wonderful.

This year will be my first cruise to the Caribbean so this is just such a great intro, can't wait now.

Thank you

[Marvy Mare]

Just a photo hint. Put your camera in sport mode when your in a moving vehicle or boat!

 

Sport mode? Don't think I have that on my newish camera, but I'm still learning.

 

Thanks

Maris

[Marvy Mare]

Maris

I too am really enjoying your review here.

The sunrise images are so beautiful, I follow Norris's reviews and hope he will not mind my saying yours are equally as wonderful.

This year will be my first cruise to the Caribbean so this is just such a great intro, can't wait now.

Thank you

 

I love compliments and that is over the top. I follow Norris/Bimmer's reviews as well. He is my Cruise Critic idol!. I love his sense of humour and his photos are amazing. They get better with every review. He has been very helpful and has answered any questions that I have had.

When is your cruise? I really didn't think we'd like cruising, but one trip and we were hooked.

 

Maris

[Marvy Mare]

Day 4 Antigua continued

 

As I have mentioned before this was only our second cruise. I notice lists under reader's signatures of their many cruises. I don't think mine does that. Not even sure how to make the list but mine would be pretty short - Celebrity Silhouette March 5, 2017 7 day western Caribbean & this cruise. (Oops printing was too big.) Another issue I am having with this review along with my signature is my spelling. Spell check is my saviour. I know - a teacher who can't spell. The reason I preferred the Reflection to the Silhouette is that I never learned to spell Silhouette.

 

About our first mistake, getting off the ship early. We were the only ship in port, which we thought was a good thing. Wrong. Everywhere there were people trying to take us on a tour. We couldn't walk two feet without being harassed. Everyone was polite and friendly and we were friendly and polite but being Canadian but all we wanted to do was look around. Our second mistake involves the t-shirt Ken was wearing. He has t-shirts from all our travels and this was one of his favourites. The jury is still out on whether it was offensive or not but we were feeling a little uneasy about it, so decided to head back to the Refection to change the shirt & get away from the tour offerers. This gave me an opportunity to get photos of the boat.

 

A few images of Reflections passengers as well. Be sure to let me know if you see your image here, so maybe I can put a face to a name or vice versa.

 

 

You will have to really zoom in on this to see faces.

 

Even more zooming for this one, but I had to share it because I really like the clouds in this photo.

 

Another photo of the large sailing craft. I'm thinking it was a cruise boat?

 

After going back into the Reflection to get a shirt change, we waited for a while by the ship and then ventured back into port. The crowds had thinned and harassment had slowed down. When I said something about the 'tour guides' to another passenger, they said 'They are just trying to make a living.' and she was right. We found a restaurant where we could wait out of the sun and had our first Carib in the Caribbean. I do enjoy beer. I'm not a beer connoisseur. I don't really enjoy craft beer and my beer of choice is Canadian 67, which Ken calls water. Carib is my kind of beer and at $3 a bottle even better.

 

[

Ken enjoying his Carib wearing his non-offensive Killbear Park t shirt. Maybe the kill bear part might offend some people but we didn't get any uneasy vibes. I must post this photo quickly before Ken see's it and says don't put up photos of me.

[Marvy Mare]

Antigua again

 

As we were heading back to meet our tour group, I stopped to take a few photos. There was a family standing near the end of the pier with their luggage. They were from England, I can't remember where (Cornwall rings a bell, but don't quote me). Anyway, they shared their story.

They had booked a trip for the family. There were 8 of them - mom, dad, children & in-laws. Somehow there was a mix up and there were only accommodations or tickets? for 7. I think that was that was what happened. Anyway, due to some mix up, they were unable to board the ship in Fort Lauderdale and the mix up was Celebrity's. Celebrity flew them from Fort Lauderdale to Antigua, where they spent 3 nights at a hotel. They were just getting ready to board the ship and were very excited.

 

A couple more photos of the street in St John's. Most of the people you see are probably off the ship. The orange shirts are worn by 'authorized taxi drivers'.

 

 

Our tour started at 10:45. Scenic Antigua and Beach. We chose our tours for this trip equitably. Ken feels, probably correctly that the best experiences we have had are just going to a beach. They are always beautiful in the Caribbean. I like to experience new places. If I've never been before & may never be again I just want to see a bit of what is there. So we did two land tours, booked through Celebrity, one (this one) included 'beach', two days just a walk to a beach and one tour booked privately.

The two land tours, this and the one at St. Lucia were booked through Celebrity because they were fairly long and got back close to sail away time. Ken worries about the ship leaving without us. It is a legitimate worry. I've seen the videos. I can relate as well. I don't remember clearly but I've been told that I used to worry too. As a child I traveled by train with my mother across Canada. I refused to get off the train at any of the stops as I was afraid that it would leave without me. She could not convince me that I would be better off on the platform with her than alone on the train. So I can empathize with Ken.

Anyway, I'll cover our first shore excursion later. The dogs are ready to start their day. Just one photo of our tour van.

 

[loving goldens]

Yes, there were a lot of Maritimers on the cruise. They all seemed so friendly. I'm originally from the west coast of Canada. I've traveled back and forth to the west many times but have yet to make a trip east. It's on the bucket list. Wondering if you're having the weather there now that we had the last few days. Snow, ice & wind. I think there were so many Maritimers on the cruise because you have had an even worse winter than us.

Our winter this year was not bad at all....we had not nearly as much snow as usual.... :)..... we got rain instead of the ice storm.... hope everything melts soon for you......:D

[helen haywood]

Loving your review!!! What beautiful pictures of the sky, clouds, sunrises (I'm a night owl; I'll never experience one except this way. Thank you!) and the Reflection.

[Pepsi36]

Keep em coming. It's bringing it all back to me after being home for over 2 weeks.

[Marvy Mare]

Loving your review!!! What beautiful pictures of the sky, clouds, sunrises (I'm a night owl; I'll never experience one except this way. Thank you!) and the Reflection.

 

Thanks for following. I did actually get a few sunsets in too. Our dinners mostly coincided with the sunsers. We did want to get to some of the late evening activities on this cruise but never managed.