Long Review of Reflection October 1-12, 2018 Western Mediterranean Cruise

ROWSE · October 25, 2018

5 minutes ago, jzad said:

We stayed at this B&B in May for our cruise as well. The host is lovely and we had a great evening pre-cruise.

Janine

We did not actually meet the host, but she kept in contact with us over e-mail, and we used a code to get in to get the key. It was so clean and comfortable! We would stay again in a heartbeat!

Jim_Iain · October 25, 2018

Thanks for posting. I pulled up a seat and anticipate the next installment.

Bon Voyage!

ROWSE · October 25, 2018

12 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Thanks for posting. I pulled up a seat and anticipate the next installment.

Bon Voyage!

Thank you for letting me know you are in your seat ready to go!

kenevenpar · October 25, 2018

Thank you very much for taking the time to do this review. I am enjoying it very much!

ROWSE · October 25, 2018

Once on the ship, we love to hit Sushi on 5. We were alone for most of our meal, and only one other couple came in toward the end. This is an a la carte restaurant, but at least one night is some kind of Indian meal that is one price for all. We love our Naan and it was not going to be offered, so we chose not to add this to our plans. I would love to hear if anyone actually had this Indian meal.

My hubby savored his first drink onboard. We had the classic drink package as a free perk, and this was a German Riesling which was $10. Our limit is $9 so they just added $1 to the bill for the overage. This did not use to be the case. It use to be that if you wanted a drink over your package you had to pay for the entire drink. This was very smart marketing on Celebrity's behalf as in our case paying the $1 or $3 for martini's was easy to do! Otherwise we just would have stuck to our included drinks.

My first drink onboard is usually a mudslide. It is a drink and dessert all in one!!! I am modeling my knitted scarf made

by my daughter Amy, knitter extraordinaire. I had read while flying one should keep your neck warm as it keeps your neck heated and kills germs entering. True or not, I did not get sick from the flights on this cruise.

We enjoyed edamame shared, and I had the veggie roll.

My hubby had the tuna roll.

After this beautiful, relaxing meal we were able to go to our room. We were very tired and while I usually never nap, that is solely my husbands specialty and he does it like a champ, both of us crashed for a little while. Our luggage was at the door upon waking and we started on and finished that project.

We had a balcony with obstructed view this time around. Room 6164 It was quiet and easy access to everything.

It was time for Muster Drill soon after and our meeting place was Celebrity Central. This was a great place and we even got a seat! I have read awful things about the little movie they are showing to cover this. It may be that it was our first time seeing it, but I thought it was rather entertaining and informative.

After this we headed to the top of the ship at the front for a bird's eye view of sail away. The Captain, Dimitris Kafetzis, told us we were in for some rough seas for our first night and next day. He wasn't kidding! Leaving port we already were seeing the swells pick up.

That felt like such a narrow opening when the wind was so fierce, but we made it! Phew!

We had anytime dining, and without even trying, we tested all different hours on this with no reservation. We just went with the flow of how we felt. A few times we were given a pager, but the wait was never more than 15 minutes top. More often than not we were promptly seated at our requested table for two. My notes said I had escargot, wild mushroom soup, salad, and mushroom pasta and it was amazing. Guess I was too busy eating to get pictures.

That evening we enjoyed the atrium show of Masquerade.

We finished the night by attending the comedian/variety show of Mark Walker. Again my notes say he

was very funny, but I can't quite remember much of it. We fell in to bed at 11:15 and ended another perfect day.

ROWSE · October 25, 2018

25 minutes ago, kenevenpar said:

Thank you very much for taking the time to do this review. I am enjoying it very much!

I'm so glad you are along for the ride!

Trixsea · October 25, 2018

Loving your review/photos! Thanks

ROWSE · October 25, 2018

On October 2nd, sea day, I awoke and looked at the clock. It said 8:47!! Oh my!!! We haven't slept that late in years!!! We are probably the odd man out, but the rocking and rolling of the ocean last night had us sleep like babies. We love it! We headed to breakfast at the Elite lounge which is at the back of the ship in the Tuscan Grille. What an incredibly beautiful view! The ship was so empty today. Apparently with the 20 foot waves a lot of people rode it out in their rooms.

The last time we were on a ship this breakfast was served buffet style but this time it was off the menu with a small selection especially for non-meat eaters. We did enjoy the fruit, danishes, and specialty coffees.

We met Captain's Circle Hostess Anishka from Africa. There could be an "r" in there- Arnishka. Sometimes it is hard to catch the spelling of names when they are moving so quickly. She was bar none the best Captain's Circle Hostess I have had the pleasure of meeting. She was always on hand to talk at the Elite breakfast; and she did many recorded calls to the room so that we would be sure not to miss any events for the Elite, and later in the cruise, because of her, we had an unforgettable experience.

Our Cruise Critic Meet and Greet was set for 10:15 in the Cellar Masters. I was the list keeper on our Roll Call and though a lot of people attended a greater number were probably in their room nursing some serious sea sickness. The following are my pictures from the event when I remembered to snap some. If you are reading and you were there, please chime in!!!

Toby

Jane

It was a pleasure to meet those of you that I talked to and hope to sail again together in the future!

Serve yourself wine in Cellar Masters.

Odd little bench outside the specialty restaurants.

Edited October 25, 2018 by ROWSE

ROWSE · October 25, 2018

18 minutes ago, Trixsea said:

Loving your review/photos! Thanks

Thank you for chiming in!!!

English Voyager · October 25, 2018

2 hours ago, Devo1459 said:

Looking forward to your review!! We did the Med about 5 years ago. Loved it. We will be sailing on the Reflection June 26th for a 12 night Baltic cruise. Thanks for posting.

Prepare to be bowled over by St. Petersburg.

I have booked the 14 night June 16th Baltic cruise on the Silhouette from Southampton.

ROWSE · October 25, 2018

After our Meet and Greet we wandered up to the buffet for lunch. Wasn't super hungry but my rule of thumb is to keep that stomach full when there is a possibility of sea sickness. It was windy, but for the Sunset Bar area to be this empty it was more than that!

We enjoyed sitting just inside the door. It really rock and rolled back here!

A few odd little places on the ship..

We love trivia and followed lunch by three in a row. This one was in Celebrity Central.

Afterwards we spent time in the room and my husband practiced his napping skills. We decided on doing the show before

dinner tonight. Shows were at 7 and 9 p.m. each night. This was two brothers from Scotland, one on violin and other on accordion and singing, and they were wonderful!

The 20 foot waves outside began to calm down by evening and the Captain promised only 4 foot waves by morning. Fellow cruisers were out and about and ready to eat, so we had to have a pager to hold when we appeared at our Anytime Dining. No problem we were lucky enough to snag seats at the Martini Bar.

Love that they put those little special touches in like the hearts of chocolate inside my Banana Split Martini. My hubby enjoyed his regular gin martini. Yes, that is definitely a frozen bar in front of me. Without the napkin the drink sticks and I watched a bar tender smack his fist down next to the glass to dislodge it. Clever!

It was Abba sing along night in the Atrium and we finished the evening on an upper level dancing and singing all by ourselves.

Another perfect day!

Edited October 25, 2018 by ROWSE

ROWSE · October 25, 2018

October 3, Sea Day: This was the second of our only two sea days, so more Elite events happened for us today. Today we decided to try out the buffet for breakfast. It was packed!

I got a chuckle that this couple came to breakfast in their ship robes. Good for them!

The Captain was spot on with his prediction of calm seas. This sea day was as smooth as glass. Most of our coming days it was hard to even know we were on a ship it was so smooth.

We soon headed to our 11 am wine tasting, which was held in the lower level of the main dining room.

This was the wines we were served.

We had a lovely visit with another Cruise Critic couple as we were leaving the tasting. Greetings to Cindy and Joe (lucinjo) if they happen to come by here!

Back in our room I found a lovely rose from Captains Circle. Such a nice gesture!

Later that day at 3:00 Elegant Tea was served in Blu. This is such a lovely area for those sailing Aqua class.

We spent some time on deck soaking up that glorious sunshine. Tonight was Elegant Chic night and we did an early dinner. The show tonight was MAXX. It was about a guy being sucked into a video game. It was different, but we enjoyed it.

We called it a night early and I will leave with an evening picture off our balcony and a view directly down onto the Promenade deck. Even though the lifeboats are there, during the day it is no big deal.

As always life gets in the way sometimes, and I will be off for a long weekend. I will resume on Monday with the first of our eight port days. Next up-Gibraltar! Have a great weekend everyone!!

Edited October 25, 2018 by ROWSE

gordylad · October 25, 2018

Great review thanks......the brothers are the mcdonald brothers who put on a great show.

ROWSE · October 25, 2018

43 minutes ago, gordylad said:

Great review thanks......the brothers are the mcdonald brothers who put on a great show.

Thank you for reading along! Thank you for supplying the name. Indeed the McDonald Brothers were a great show!

Taylor D · October 26, 2018

Really enjoying your review as we were on the Reflection in July had had a wonderful cruise. We live about 2 hours west of Spokane in a small town along the Columbia so we too just said ya we live by Seattle. Looking forward to reading along.

ROWSE · October 29, 2018

On 10/26/2018 at 9:40 AM, Taylor D said:

Really enjoying your review as we were on the Reflection in July had had a wonderful cruise. We live about 2 hours west of Spokane in a small town along the Columbia so we too just said ya we live by Seattle. Looking forward to reading along.

Thank you for writing! So great to know another Washitonian is coming along for my ride!

ROWSE · October 29, 2018

After a wonderful weekend visiting family but mainly our precious grand baby, who is not such a baby any more at two, I am back to continue reporting on our adventure.

Gibraltar, United Kingdom was our first port. Our port time was from 7a.m. with an all aboard at 5:30p.m.

This was the view out my balcony window this morning. Still shrouded in a bit of darkness is the Rock of Gibraltar!

We had joined on with a group organized through our Cruise Critic Roll call, for a wonderful tour through Gibraltar Rock Tours operated by John Lopez. This was a wonderful experience and loved every minute of it. Our tour guide was Christian and he was fantastic! Thank you Mary Jane (mjcooks201) for putting this all together! If any of you on the tour happen upon this review, it was a pleasure to tour with you, and we hope to see you again someday!

Our group met at the Passport bar to get off together, and we all had a discussion of whether we needed passports. My husband and I had color photo copies of ours, and we felt safe with that. Later John confirmed that we would not need passports so my advice is to leave them in the ship's safe.

We met our tour guide, Christian, once outside the cruise terminal main door. We loaded in a very comfortable van and we were off. First visit was to cross the airport runway and see what it was like for them to cross the border to Spain. We stopped short of crossing but it was interesting to see how it was set up. This is a car coming through the border.

A look back gave us a wonderful view of the ROCK!!

The sun coming up in a cloudless sky looks like this.

Now it was time to head back through the city and up on top of that rock!

Heading up we had a stop to see across the Strait of Gibraltar where what is called the Pillar of Hercules is seen.

Just in the mist you can barely make out a land form across the water and that is Morocco, Africa which is one side of the pillar while the Rock of Gibraltar is the second.

Our view into the Strait where our cruise ship is docked.

cachouonacruise · October 29, 2018

Thank you very much for your review! Nicely done!

ROWSE · October 29, 2018

Our next stop was St. Micheal's cave. Christian did not accompany us in to any of the sites but our tour included the cost of these places. We were given free time to explore on our own and to meet him back at a certain spot. He did tell us about everything we were seeing or going to see as we drove.

This cave was beautiful, and they often have events inside. I can only imagine the acoustics.

The lighting changes color as you are walking through.

Can you imagine have a coffee table out of this???

ROWSE · October 29, 2018

We traveled upward to the top area that we were allowed on. Just outside the cave and on up we encountered the Great Apes of Gibraltar. We had been warned not to have loose objects or food on us as they are thieves, and none of us had any of the apes try any shenanigans. They were wonderful!!