Reflection - Review - Ultimate Caribbean - April 2, 2018 - April 13, 2018

[Noreen411]

Monday 4/2/18 - Embarkation Day - Continued

 

When they brought out the dessert menu, nothing appealed to me. That’s surprising since I have a sweet tooth and always like dessert.

 

 

 

They offered me the menu from the main dining room to see if I liked those desserts better and I found one...the banana blueberry crumble.

 

 

Before dessert came out, they brought us each a palate cleanser. Sorbet. I think it was green apple flavor. This was very good. Are you supposed to eat just a bite to cleanse your palate? Or eat the whole thing? It was a small little scoop.

 

 

My banana blueberry crumble came with vanilla ice cream on top and hit the spot. I always like something sweet after I eat.

 

 

I forgot to mention it earlier but the little dinner roll we had was good too. Soft on the inside but crunchy outside. We were comparing it to the dinner rolls at Coastal Kitchen (Royal Caribbean’s suite restaurant) and the ones in Luminae were much better.

 

 

We enjoyed our dinner at Luminae even though Scott thought his duck was just OK. Everything else was very good.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Edited April 29, 2018 by Noreen411

[Noreen411]

Monday 4/2/18 - Embarkation Day - Continued

 

We stopped at Michael’s Club to get two small bottles of water to have for the gym in the morning. We stopped back at the cabin to drop them off. Walter was there stocking us up with a dozen small water bottles and told us we don’t have to ever get anything like that ourselves; he’ll do it for us.

 

He stayed chatting with us for a bit.

 

There were small roses on the coffee table. Walter did that too.

 

 

There were pillow chocolates on the bed. I was surprised by this since Royal Caribbean did away with pillow chocolates years ago. It was a nice little treat. We ended up putting them in the drawer since we were too full to eat them when we got back to the cabin. I think we may have eaten one over the course of the cruise. Scott brought the rest of them home and is enjoying them little by little.

 

 

We couldn’t get the empty luggage under the bed to store it so Walter stacked it in the living room. He offered to store it for us but we were fine with it in the cabin.

 

The reason it doesn’t fit under the bed like most cabins...the bed has those two remote controls, one for each side and we can raise or lower our heads or legs or both and we can turn on a massage feature. The mechanics of all this stuff for the bed take up room under it.

 

The head of housekeeping stopped by to ask how things are and if everything is OK with the suite.

 

We went to the first night show in the theater at 9pm. It was a comedian named Steve Bruner. He was very funny and not dirty. Some comedians need to be dirty to make something funny. He didn’t need to.

 

 

 

We stopped at the photo area to buy the embarkation photo. However, the employee working there kept pushing the packages. We probably won’t get that many pictures so we held off and didn’t even get the one we know we want yet either.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Noreen411]

Monday 4/2/18 - Embarkation Day - Continued

 

We went to the World Class Bar.

 

I tried the Sailors Crush. I liked this. It was kind of like a Mojito.

 

 

 

Scott had the Celebrity No 10. He liked his drink as well.

 

 

 

In the atrium area there is an interesting statue. The top is a tree, but the bottom is a fake metal tree (or maybe metal roots). It’s an interesting piece.

 

 

We went to the casino and met the host, Dimitri. We asked about the casino program. We are used to not being charged a fee to take money from our room card on Royal Caribbean since we are part of the Casino Royale program. It turns out that the fee is waived since we are in a suite. Since we still had some On Board Credit (OBC) we had to get $70 as a slot voucher before we were able to take cash against our account. That was no problem for us to do that.

 

We were there until the casino closed at 1am. We were surprised they closed that early.

 

We played some poker slots and 3 card poker at the table.

 

Back in our suite we ordered room service. A hot dog with fries, pizza, and shrimp cocktail. The shrimp and pizza were fine. The hot dog wasn’t that good. It was OK. The odd thing was the white stuff on it was cheese (who would expect cheese on a hot dog)? Royal Caribbean’s room service hot dogs on Anthem of the Seas were great and Scott had tons of them on our last cruise. This hot dog didn’t live up to those.

 

 

We sat out on the balcony for a bit.

 

Then we watched some TV and went to sleep.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Edited April 29, 2018 by Noreen411

[JMPBDP2013]

Hi Noreen,

 

The email I had for you was incorrect but I thought I would find you here! Great review. Look forward to seeing more of your pictures!

 

We had a great time and enjoyed meeting you a Scott.

 

Jamie Phelps

[Noreen411]

Hi Noreen,

 

The email I had for you was incorrect but I thought I would find you here! Great review. Look forward to seeing more of your pictures!

 

We had a great time and enjoyed meeting you a Scott.

 

Jamie Phelps

 

 

 

Hi Jamie

 

Glad you found me here

 

My email is NoreenChin at yahoo dot com

In normal email format

 

It was great meeting you and Doug too

 

Such a fun cruise

 

Are you planning the next one yet?

 

Noreen

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[miched]

Too late now but here is about the bed

 

The bed is a Reverie. It has latex cylinders that can be moved around to adjust the firmness where you want it to be. The whole bed can be made soft or firm by moving them. If you ask the butler if he can adjust it to your liking. He should have some charts showing the different configurations. You can also go on the reverie site for more details and show the butler if he says that isn’t possible. To see the cylinders unzip the mattress cover.

 

On the control under lift are 3 buttons. The top one is to make it flat. The middle one has a G and is for a “zero gravity” feeling. Nice after a tiring day. Makes the bed the same shape as the loungers in the Persian Gardens except softer. The 3rd is anti snore that has the red x on it. It makes the head a little elevated and is supposed to prevent snoring.

 

There is also a app that you can install and you can set the vibration to wake you in the morning. Don’t know if it will work on the ship.

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[Pavovsky]

Super excellent review.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Cruise a holic]

Love the ship and the Celebrity suite. Bedroom was a little tight-and not enough light- but a great cabin-plenty of storage- Cannot believe that you guys drove to Florida- My daughter in law also has a fear of flying. She was given tranquilizers by her physician and that allowed her to sleep through the whole flight. She is getting so much better about her fear, and has taken flights from NY to California. Even flew to Mexico and Aruba. The medication has enabled her to do so. She also went to a special fear of flying class which has helped.

 

We love the Silhouette and Reflection because the Lawn grill is such a treat. We also enjoy the Cabanas on the lawn. We have a few sailings before our next Silhouette cruise in March. First, the Adventure of the seas, our no fly cruise from Bayonne, then a b2b on the Edge in Dec and Jan.

 

Love cruising on both RC and Celebrity.

Edited May 2, 2018 by Cruise a holic

[Noreen411]

Too late now but here is about the bed

 

 

 

The bed is a Reverie. It has latex cylinders that can be moved around to adjust the firmness where you want it to be. The whole bed can be made soft or firm by moving them. If you ask the butler if he can adjust it to your liking. He should have some charts showing the different configurations. You can also go on the reverie site for more details and show the butler if he says that isn’t possible. To see the cylinders unzip the mattress cover.

 

 

 

On the control under lift are 3 buttons. The top one is to make it flat. The middle one has a G and is for a “zero gravity” feeling. Nice after a tiring day. Makes the bed the same shape as the loungers in the Persian Gardens except softer. The 3rd is anti snore that has the red x on it. It makes the head a little elevated and is supposed to prevent snoring.

 

 

 

There is also a app that you can install and you can set the vibration to wake you in the morning. Don’t know if it will work on the ship.

 

 

 

Happy cruising [emoji305][emoji568][emoji631][emoji560]

 

 

 

Hi

 

Thank you for the great info on the bed.

 

We took a picture of one of the remotes so we could look it up later

 

 

We figured out the zero G and thought it was super comfortable.

 

The up and down or flat was also pretty easy to use.

 

It would have been great to have all this info in advance.

 

Given all the papers they provide I am surprised there isn’t something about the bed.

 

This was the most comfortable bed on a cruise ship we have ever had.

 

Thank you

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Noreen411]

Super excellent review.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

 

Thank you

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Noreen411]

Love the ship and the Celebrity suite. Bedroom was a little tight-and not enough light- but a great cabin-plenty of storage- Cannot believe that you guys drove to Florida- My daughter in law also has a fear of flying. She was given tranquilizers by her physician and that allowed her to sleep through the whole flight. She is getting so much better about her fear, and has taken flights from NY to California. Even flew to Mexico and Aruba. The medication has enabled her to do so. She also went to a special fear of flying class which has helped.

 

We love the Silhouette and Reflection because the Lawn grill is such a treat. We also enjoy the Cabanas on the lawn. We have a few sailings before our next Silhouette cruise in March. First, the Adventure of the seas, our no fly cruise from Bayonne, then a b2b on the Edge in Dec and Jan.

 

Love cruising on both RC and Celebrity.

 

 

 

Hi

 

We really enjoyed our first Celebrity cruise.

 

While we originally booked the Celebrity Suite, we upgraded to the Royal Suite so never got to see the Celebrity suite. I heard about the enclosed bedroom in that cabin.

 

The Royal Suite bedroom has a wall of glass looking out to the balcony so didn’t feel enclosed.

 

Surprisingly the road trip down to Florida was fun. It was more fun than our flight home was.

 

Scott isn’t afraid of flying. He can fly planes himself as a pilot. He doesn’t like being a passenger on a plane.

 

I thought I would hate the long drive but having the control and flexibility was great. We are even thinking of driving round trip to Disney World in our own car.

 

Our flight home took so long. We were delayed a bit in the airport then on the plane. For a 2.5 hour flight we were traveling for almost 10 hours when you add in the waiting time at the airport, flight, then getting home from the airport.

 

Sounds like you have several great cruises coming up.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Noreen411]

I forgot to mention, when we got back to our cabin Monday night there was a postcard d in the mail slot confirming our dinner reservation at Murano for Tuesday.

 

 

 

That was a nice touch

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Noreen411]

Celebrity Today for Tuesday 4/3/18

 

 

 

 

 

Inserts that were in the Celebrity Today

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[teltrainer]

Hi Noreen,

 

Thanks for your detailed review. We are on the same itinerary in late November this year so appreciate you observations.

 

Also we drive to Florida for all of our cruises and never fly. I used to for business but a few bad experiences and the hassles with flying now made the driving a win for us. We love the road trips (except the last couple of hours on Florida toll roads and crazy traffic).

 

Looking forward to your next installments! :cool:

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 4/3/18 - At Sea

 

We went to the gym in the morning around 7:15. Normally we try to go when they open, but we must have been tired since we slept a bit later than normal. We didn’t set an alarm, just woke up when we woke up.

 

It was pretty crowded but we were able to get on the machines we wanted to use.

 

Exiting the fitness center, you are near the spa. You can use the locker rooms that have showers and bathrooms if you wanted/needed to. I appreciated this as I’m a bit germophobic and like to wash my hands after using the fitness center. On Anthem of the Seas (Royal Caribbean), there is a one stall bathroom outside the fitness center. If you want to use the spa showers you are supposed to purchase a spa pass. I asked on the last Anthem trip if people are able to just use the showers if they wanted to after a workout and they were very hesitant. They said maybe, depending if it was crowded since they are meant for those who purchased spa passes. On Anthem you didn’t feel welcome there. On Reflection it was there for you to use as you wanted to.

 

We went back to the cabin to shower and get ready.

 

I wanted to try the jacuzzi in the bathroom but was running into technical difficulties. I had trouble filling it, it kept draining. I finally was able to fill it but couldn’t figure out how to turn it on. I gave up and just jumped in the shower.

 

Scott, on the other hand, tried out the jacuzzi on the balcony. He was able to get it filled and turn it on. He enjoyed some time out there before coming in to shower and get dressed.

 

We wanted a small breakfast since we want to have lunch at the Lawn Club Grill.

 

So we went to the Ocean View Cafe (buffet) for breakfast.

 

I couldn’t find yogurt and granola so had some fruit and a piece of chicken sausage.

 

Scott had hard boiled eggs and smoked salmon. He really liked the salmon.

 

We picked up beach towels from the pool deck for tomorrow and dropped them off in the cabin.

 

We stopped at the logo shop on board and bought an ornament, a magnet, and a post card.

 

Just before 11am we went up to the Lawn Club area for bocce ball against the crew. Each couple was a team.

 

 

We won the first round for our team. It was cute how they did this game - by elimination. The next round we played against one of the couples we met at the muster drill. We were knocked out that round.

 

We stayed to cheer on our friends from muster. It was pretty fun.

 

We took a picture in the big Adirondack chairs out there.

 

 

We changed our mind and decided instead of lunch at the Lawn Club Grill to go to the Porch for lobster rolls. We went to the Porch at 12 when they opened.

 

 

When we first walked in, one of the employees explained how it works and that it is a $30 charge per person and you get items from different parts of the menu (basically an appetizer, entree, and dessert). He asked for our cabin number then said it’s all included for us and why didn’t we tell him we are in a Royal Suite so he wouldn’t have gone through the whole speech. When he said that it wasn’t in a rude way, he was smiling and laughing.

 

He told us to sit wherever we wanted. The waiter brought us menus and took our beverage order. We both had soda and Pellegrino.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Edited May 2, 2018 by Noreen411

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 4/3/18 - At Sea - Continued

 

They brought out this square bread with cheese stripes on it to start. I didn’t like the bread. The cheese reminded me of Velveeta which I don’t like. Scott liked it.

 

 

For my appetizer I had the Pil Pil Shrimp. This was very good.

 

 

Scott had the citrus red snapper ceviche. This was very good as well.

 

 

For our entree we each ordered a lobster roll. Imagine our surprise when these huge sandwiches appeared. I’m used to lobster rolls being much smaller in a toasted hot dog bun. They were delicious and we both ate them. I ended up only using half the bun since it was so big.

 

 

For dessert we shared the mini signature tasting trio. This included vanilla cheesecake, light chocolate mousse, and lamington vanilla cream. Sharing dessert worked well for us since we were already full but we wanted a little something sweet. I liked the Lamington the best and Scott liked the cheesecake and mousse.

 

 

 

We really enjoyed our lunch at the Porch

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Noreen411]

Hi Noreen,

 

 

 

Thanks for your detailed review. We are on the same itinerary in late November this year so appreciate you observations.

 

 

 

Also we drive to Florida for all of our cruises and never fly. I used to for business but a few bad experiences and the hassles with flying now made the driving a win for us. We love the road trips (except the last couple of hours on Florida toll roads and crazy traffic).

 

 

 

Looking forward to your next installments! :cool:

 

 

 

Hi.

 

You are going to have a great time. This was a great itinerary.

 

Glad to hear we aren’t the only ones who enjoyed the road trip. We found traffic to be very light considering it was Easter weekend.

 

I’m probably not the best to judge traffic as I drive into NYC for work and after dealing with that traffic, most everything else is a piece of cake.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 4/3/18 - At Sea - Continued

 

After lunch we stopped by Michael’s Club to ask the concierge about how the priority tender works tomorrow in Grand Cayman but they were on break.

 

We ended up chatting with another guest for almost an hour. He cruises Celebrity often and is Elite Plus and expects to reach Zenith in another year.

 

On our way back to the cabin, we looked around at some of the other areas of the ship. We found a game room. Not an arcade game room, but a place you would play board games. It was another one of those areas that is set up for guests to have a place to hang out. It was pretty empty when we were there.

 

 

 

We also found these interesting basket looking chairs.

 

 

There are a lot of these areas where people just hang out, read or relax, around the ship.

 

I wanted to try the Jacuzzi on the balcony. Scott filled it up for us and we hung out on the balcony in the Jacuzzi. Sometimes we would pop out and sit on the lounge chair for a bit too. It was so nice to have this private space to hangout.

 

The pool deck was pretty crowded. I was surprised there isn’t a suite sun deck similar to what we see on many of the newer Royal Caribbean ships.

 

Walter (the butler) must have come while we were in the jacuzzi since there was a bowl filled with fruit and a plate with cheese and crackers on the table when we came inside.

 

 

Scott wanted to go back to the gym for a quick workout.

 

I stopped at Michael’s Club to ask about the priority tendering. They said to come down whenever we are ready and they will escort us onto the next tender.

 

I stopped at Cafe Al Bacio for an iced white chocolate mocha but no whipped cream. I wanted it to go thinking I would read on the balcony. The guy working there was sort of snooty. I was surprised since everyone else has been so nice. He put my beverage in a hot cup (the paper cups that hot coffee goes in) rather than a plastic cup like cold drinks normally would go. I should have asked him for a plastic cup.

 

Back at the cabin, I read on the balcony until Scott got back from the gym.

 

My iced mocha in the hot cup didn’t fare too well. The cup got mushy.

 

Once Scott returned, he showered and got dressed. We are still in shorts/casual clothes. It’s too early to dress for dinner.

 

We walked around the ship a bit. I think we spent a little time in the casino.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Edited May 2, 2018 by Noreen411

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 4/3/18 - At Sea - Continued

 

Later we came back to our cabin to get ready for the evening.

 

We had dinner at Murano

 

 

 

We were promptly seated.

 

Scott was happy they had his favorite wine, Mer Soleil, so he had that. I had Sprite. We also both had Pellegrino.

 

There are two menus.

 

There is the regular a la carte menu:

 

 

 

Then there is a special five senses menu. I think this one is a higher price and includes wine pairings, but I could be wrong. I didn’t ask.

 

 

 

Many of the items appeared on both menus.

 

We ordered from the regular menu. I’m not a wine drinker so the pairing would be lost on me. Scott has his favorite wine so he’s happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Edited May 2, 2018 by Noreen411

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 4/3/18 - At Sea - Continued

 

There was a single rose on the table.

 

 

The butter was shaped like a cone. Again, I’m amused easily by things like that.

 

 

 

We were served an amuse bouche which was a chicken mousse with lingonberry sauce. Neither of us liked this. The flavor was OK, but the texture was weird. It reminded me of hard baby food.

 

 

For my appetizer I had the Diver Scallop Wellington. This was good and the perfect size for an appetizer

 

 

Scott had the Smoked Salmon & Peekytoe Crab Parfait. He enjoyed this.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 4/3/18 - At Sea - Continued

 

For my entree I had the Murano Lobster. They prepare this table side. They actually cook it in the kitchen but then do a display table side of making the sauce and lighting the sauce on fire. This was good.

 

 

 

 

 

Scott had the Whole Nova Scotia Lobster. This was really good. Scott chose the better lobster.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 4/3/18 - At Sea - Continued

 

We were brought the dessert menu.

 

 

Surprisingly, Scott didn’t want anything.

 

I had the Grand Mariner Soufflé. I always like soufflés for dessert.

 

 

 

They also brought us a plate with some candies on it. This was good too.

 

 

We enjoyed our meal at Murano. The atmosphere and service is very nice. The food was very good (except the weird amuse bouche).

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Edited May 2, 2018 by Noreen411

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 4/3/18 - At Sea - Continued

 

After dinner we ran into some people Scott met earlier so we hung out with them for a little while.

 

A little before 9 we went to the theater for the 3 Divas Show. At first we thought it would be corny but we ended up enjoying it.

 

 

We stopped at the World Class Bar for a drink.

 

I had the bartender’s version of the Zacapa Old Fashioned that he makes with ginger beer. It was OK but I preferred the drink I had last night. I did like the big square ice cube in this drink. Again those little things that amuse me.

 

 

 

Scott had the El Don Julio which is a tequila drink. He thought it was OK but he wasn’t crazy about it.

 

 

 

We went back to the theater to see the 10:30 late night comedy show with Steve Bruner. We both enjoyed the show. And found it amusing that 10:30 is considered late night.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 4/3/18 - At Sea - Continued

 

We went to the casino after the show. After playing our normal 3 card poker at the table and the poker slots, Scott found a cute penny pirate game and I found a cute penny Grease game. On the penny Grease game, I put in $20 and cashed out $100 in a few minutes. I was at $160 at one point. I only played that game for maybe 10 minutes max. It was much lower stakes than we usually play for but it was fun.

 

 

We saw a guy get a Royal Flush at the 3 card poker table. Surprisingly, the payout wasn’t as high as you would think. His bonus pay was $5,000. In land casinos that bonus is more like $50,000 or so.

 

Scott wanted a snack and since the Oceanview Cafe is open until 1am, we went up there. It was maybe 12:45am at that point. They didn’t have the whole buffet open but a few areas like desserts, pizza, pasta, salads, etc.

 

Scott had them make him a pizza with meatballs.

 

 

And we also got red velvet cupcakes.

 

 

And then Scott added macaroni salad to the plate. I know - what an odd combination.

 

We brought it back to our cabin and started watching the movie John Wick while snacking.

 

 

The TV has several movies available to watch that you can pause, fast forward, restart, etc as you want.

 

Remember the throw blanket that we brought for the car ride? It came in handy for watching a movie too while we sat on the couch and cuddled under it. Kind of like what we do at home watching movies on the couch.

 

We were supposed to move the clocks back one hour, but I messed that up.

 

There was a letter describing the tender service for tomorrow in our cabin.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Noreen411]

Forgot to add...

 

In our mail slot was our reminder postcard for Lawn Club Grill dinner for tomorrow night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums