LIVE from Celebrity Reflection - 4/27/18 - 10 nt Italy & Greek Isles Cruise

[WonderMan3]

I first saw the photos of your hotel room, and they looked so familiar. It wasn't until I went back and read where you were stayed that I placed the room. Had the exact same room or layout when I stayed at hotel San Giorgio too. And the shuttle service you described from the hotel to the ship was just as I experienced it over a year ago. Also stayed in a sky suite and there was no escort as they do in Florida either. It's Rome! :D:D

 

 

 

We are living parallel lives! [emoji1]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

So all our bags except Mike’s big suitcase had shown up by 3:30. Around the same time our butler Sujith stopped by to introduce himself. He was very friendly and definitely on top of things with answers to all of our questions. We made a few requests like having the afternoon snacks delivered to our room since we rarely make it to Michael’s Club, and to remove all the beer and soda from the refrigerator. He offered to replace those with items covered under our drink package so we requested bottles of regular water and Vitamin Zero water. Based on a note left in our room that said we should request reservations for dinner at Luminae we asked him to set up a request for 7:30pm. After he left the room attendant stopped by to introduce himself. I used the remainder of our time before the lifeboat drill to unpack my bags. I have to say that this cabin has SO MUCH storage. It looks like it will accommodate our stuff with no problem. Here’s some photos of our cabin.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

We headed to the lifeboat drill at 4:15. It was confusing for us because the muster station printed on our seapass did not match the muster station on the back of our cabin door. A staff member told us to go by what’s on your card. Our station was in the theater. We had to sit through the little spy movie again but at least they had eliminated the silly “wash your hands” cartoon we had to watch in January. The drill lasted almost 30 minutes by the time we were able to exit the theater. We decided to head up to the spa at that point in order to make some massage reservations for the first sea day on Monday. Once that was complete Mike wanted to smoke so we headed to the Sunset Bar conveniently right as the ship was setting sail. So we enjoyed some cocktails as we said arrivederci to Civitavecchia. We got there just in time as the place got packed right after with not a seat to be had; people were spreading out on the lawn. I’m not sure if it was because they were so busy and ran out but strangely the bar was out of Pina Colada mix so they brought me a Strawberry Daiquiri as a back-up which was nice.

 

 

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[Georgeven]

Have a smooth sailing... will be following along to make the coming week shorter before we go onboard just when you are leaving the ship... if I may ask you something... when you get sometime could you check who are the bartenders in the world bar? ...

Enjoy [emoji6]

 

 

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[Little London]

Thank you so much for your reports so far, I am really enjoying them. My sisters Julie and Joan aka Two Brits are on board with you, if you see them please say Hi from me. John my husband and myself are doing the same cruise in July. Looking forward to your next report. It is a cold grey and wet day here in UK.

 

Jane

[Sammy1]

We're really enjoying your live review, Adam, and look forward to following you on this cruise. We're doing the very same itinerary on the Reflection in June, and you're providing us with a fabulous preview.

 

I noticed in today's Daily that you just posted, the dinner concept for Qsine is again La Petit Chef. We were hoping that after the trial period on the just completed TA, the previous tapas style concept would at least be offered occasionally. Its always been one of our favorite Celebrity specialty dining venues. Can you please find out if there is any chance they might offer it again. And what is the current upcharge for LPC, is it still at the introductory price of $25, or have they raised the price to the anticipated $55?

 

Thanks again for all your insights, and especially for all your terrific photos!

 

Sam

[WonderMan3]

After sailaway we returned to the cabin to complete our packing as Mike’s suitcase had finally arrived. We saw that the butler had already removed the items we didn’t want from he refrigerator, had confirmed our 7:30 reservation at Luminae and then showed up shortly after with some of the Vitamin Zero waters we requested; we are impressed so far! Once the packing was complete we got ready for dinner. I had hoped to make a stop at the Martini Bar for pre-dinner drinks but Mike got a bit behind with his shower and so we just went straight to Luminae. The very pleasant hostess Katja gave us a lovely table right by the window which allowed us to watch a beautiful sunset over the ocean. Our server was Miro who was very professional. For a starter I ordered the buratta while Mike ordered a small portion of the bucatini entree. For the main course we both had the Filet Mignon. Miro recommended having a side dish of the zucchini spaghetti just so we could try it. It was pretty good but we didn’t eat much since we were getting filled up with our main orders. For dessert we finished off with the almond cake. During the meal we also were treated to a chef’s special cheese croquette and a apple sorbet palate cleanser. It was great to see the palate cleanser return as they had vanished during our January cruise on Silhouette. The meal was excellent and a great start for our cruise dinners. This was our best experience at Luminae since January 2017 on Eclipse. Our last two experiences on Constellation and Silhouette had not been up to the standards we had been used to. This felt like the Luminae we fell in love with. Hopefully this continues through the cruise. On our way out we told Katja that we would love to have a table at 7:30 each night unless we visit a specialty restaurant, and she said that wouldn’t be a problem.

 

After dinner we headed to the casino to collect our free play as part of our Blue Chip Club Sapphire level. Luck was not on my side tonight as I just couldn’t win on any machine I played. Mike got lucky though and finished up $900 for the night.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

We're really enjoying your live review, Adam, and look forward to following you on this cruise. We're doing the very same itinerary on the Reflection in June, and you're providing us with a fabulous preview.

 

 

 

I noticed in today's Daily that you just posted, the dinner concept for Qsine is again La Petit Chef. We were hoping that after the trial period on the just completed TA, the previous tapas style concept would at least be offered occasionally. Its always been one of our favorite Celebrity specialty dining venues. Can you please find out if there is any chance they might offer it again. And what is the current upcharge for LPC, is it still at the introductory price of $25, or have they raised the price to the anticipated $55?

 

 

 

Thanks again for all your insights, and especially for all your terrific photos!

 

 

 

Sam

 

 

 

Yes, I noticed that in the Daily too and was wondering about the price. If it’s still $25 then we might check it out, but we don’t think it’s worth it for $55. Will let you know when I find out.

 

 

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[DavietheScot]

Following along.

 

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[New Yorker in Texas]

Adam & Mike,

 

Thank you very much for taking your cruise time to write this blog, we are already very excited reading it, for us it’s like the pre-cruise appetizer of our coming B2B ( 21 nights cruise on the Reflection June 08-29 ) its going to be our first time on the Reflection, so all your effort is going to be a great help for us!

 

Hope you enjoy to the maximun your cruise :ship: ... we all are going to be with you guys in spirit :p

 

Thanks,

Emy & Bob

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[travelling8]

Looking forward to reading your entire review. We are on this sailing in July.

Kim :)

[fielddreamer]

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[WonderMan3]

Good morning from Messina, Sicily! We were up at 7am this morning which was a little earlier than we originally planned but we had an invite on our bed last night to attend a helipad sail-in this morning as we arrived in Messina. We were a bit tired as neither of us slept great; the mattress was a little firmer than what we’re used to. We asked the room attendant to add a mattress topper to make it softer when he makes up the room today.

 

We decided to have a quick breakfast at Luminae before heading up to the helipad. Mike ordered scrambled eggs with bacon while I had a ham omelette with some potatoes and toast. Neither of us was overly hungry after the filling dinner we had last night. We advised the server that we needed to be at the helipad by 9am so he had our food out to us in an instant. Excellent service once again which is why we love Luminae.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

The helipad sail-in was at 9am with our arrival in Messina scheduled for 10am. The ship must’ve been early though as we were already approaching the pier inside Messina harbor when we walked out on to the helipad at 9. So this was a bit of an underwhelming event compared to other helipad visits we’ve done on prior cruises. It’s always nice to be invited of course. While on the helipad we spied a familiar face across the deck. We noticed a woman named Sylvia who had been our Michael’s Club Concierge on Eclipse last year. She is now the Suites Manager on Reflection. That was a well-deserved promotion as she was an excellent concierge. She was busy chatting up some other guests but hopefully we will see her again during the cruise.

 

 

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[travlchicky]

Hi Adam,

Following along! We ( My husband and two kids) are also from Massachusetts (West Newbury) and are on the July 20th sailing of this itinerary. This must be a welcomed vacation after the horrendous winter we had in Mass! Looking forward to your posts as I have been planning our excursions over this past week.

[chgoguy1971]

Thanks for the updates on your cruise! My husband and I are sailing on the May 7th cruise, right when you return to Rome. I look forward to reading about all your adventures onboard! Any staff you can recommend would be great. We typically like to find our "favorite bartenders" and stick with them at their bars during our cruises...they can really make the cruise!

 

Thanks!

Chad

[phabric]

I am following along.

 

What time are the shows?

[WonderMan3]

Today we embarked on our first excursion. After reviewing all the excursions offered from Celebrity and private tour operators I chose to go with the Celebrity tour titled “Beautiful Taormina & Blue Grotto” as it offered time in Taormina, which I really wanted to see, and also included the boat ride to the grotto. That was a unique offering that I did not find with any other tour operator. The ship arrived in Messina at 10am. We met in the theater at 10:15 for the excursion. They called us after about 10 minutes. Then once on the pier and on the bus we had to wait another 15 minutes for all passengers, so we were finally on our way by 10:45. The drive to Taormina took about 40 minutes. Along the way, our guide Marina gave us some background on Messina and the area. She was very pleasant although a bit hard to understand at times with her thick accent. Once we arrived in Taormina, Marina got a call from her office giving us some bad news. The boat part of our excursion was cancelled due to weather issues (there were storms forecasted for the afternoon and clouds were already starting to build). The resolution to this issue was they added an extra 15 minutes to our time in Taormina and would refund us a portion of what we paid for the excursion once back onboard. That was disappointing as I only booked this excursion with Celebrity to get the boat ride.

 

We followed Marina into Taormina. There was no guided talk at this point as we were a group of 40 plus people and had no whisper headsets. Turns out our time in Taormina only included one refreshment stop and then we were on our own. The description of the tour had mentioned things like the Greek Theater so I thought a visit there was included. We followed the group to a restaurant at the center of town to enjoy the included treat which was granita (like Italian Ice) with brioche to dip in it. We chose the strawberry flavor and it was wonderful. We finished the treat quickly though so we could move on to our sightseeing. It was around noon now and we had until 2:35pm before we had to meet Marina to leave.

 

We walked quickly to the far end of Taormina to visit the ancient Greco-Roman theater which is the key archaeological site here and has a spectacular view of Mt. Etna in the distance. Entrance fee was 10 Euro pp, plus another 5 Euro pp if you want an audio guide. Luckily the sun came bursting out during our visit which made for great photos. After spending about an hour there we then wandered back through Taormina to take photos and pop in to some shops. Our last stop was at a restaurant that Marina had recommended called Cristina which she said had great pizza and arancini, a local specialty which are fried croquettes full of rice, cheese and varying other items. I love arancini but had never had it here in Sicily so I had to try. The place was very busy even with locals and for good reason; the arancini were huge and delicious! After finishing those we wandered back to the meeting point and our tour was over. It was another 40 minute drive back to the port. Once onboard we already had a letter in our cabin confirming a refund of $100pp for the cancelled part of our tour. In the end we had a good day and were quite tired so we actually didn’t miss not doing the boat ride.

 

I’ll share photos of our day in my next several posts. Note that my photos may not seem as high quality as they actually are. I used my full camera for most shots today instead of my IPhone but they are so large in data size that I can’t post them without compressing size. Hope they still come through okay.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

I am following along.

 

What time are the shows?

 

 

 

The shows on Celebrity are always at 7 and 9pm.

 

 

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