CHICAGOPAUL - LIVE!!!!!!! CRUISE BLOG - November 5th Celebrity Reflection!!!!!!!!!

[chicagopaul]

Cheers to everyone from the Centurion Lounge in Miami. We had a great time in Miami, albeit it was short. At home I'll have the videos put together, but I've started editing some photos from around the ship. I know a couple people were asking for ship photos so I'll post a few and I also took a video walk through of the Sunset bar area as well as the lawn club area since there are some differences on the Reflection compared to other S class ships.

 

I am also going to post a walk through video talking about the benefits and how you sign up for the MLife card and Hyatt program using your Captain's Club. I think it is a great way to maximize your Captain's Club program so why not. Even if you don't presently have a use for it you may in the future.

 

There have been a few posts about tipping recently. I know tipping is a personal matter and we all hail from different parts of the world where tradition is different, but I do know that some people are looking for some general guidance and the proverbial "tip what you feel is appropriate" can be quite vague. So I will let you know what I tip bartenders, wait staff, room attendants, butler, etc. I'll list these out just so you know what I do and you can make your own assumptions from there.

 

I saw someone on here asked who my TA is. Per Cruise Critic guidelines I cannot mention who they / she is. But I can tell you I first met them about 6 years ago when I transferred an onboard booking to them and kept using the same woman I spoke to. I usually do all the research myself (actually Edward does the research, I can't take credit for that) and we then just e-mail our TA and have her take care of it. Half of the time we book on board and keep those bookings. Other times we use an onboard booking and transfer (move) it to a new reservation.

 

So while I sit here at the bar at the Centurion Lounge and on the plane I'll get to work on a full review for all of you and then when I'm back at home I'll upload a dozens of photos on here and get video put together for you all too. Thank you again for following along and helping enhance my vacation. That is really what you all do by reading and commenting. Also please feel free to continue to ask questions.

 

 

[chicagopaul]

9 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Roy and Jennifer are a delightful couple.

 

Phil

 

I don't think I ended up meeting them by name, but I may have chatted with them. We were at Sunset every day but only in the morning. Only once up there at night but we sat by ourselves smoking cigars. Hope they had a wonderful cruise and Jeff I hope you enjoyed the Reflection as much as we did!

[wave rider]

3 hours ago, chicagopaul said:

 

I don't think I ended up meeting them by name, but I may have chatted with them. We were at Sunset every day but only in the morning. Only once up there at night but we sat by ourselves smoking cigars. Hope they had a wonderful cruise and Jeff I hope you enjoyed the Reflection as much as we did!

Hi Paul

We were at Sunset mostly in the afternoon which is when we met Roy and Jen.  We had a great time on Reflection.  Now that I have had a chance to do laundry, pay bills, etc I can catch up with your report and learn again how much fun we had!  Great to talk to you and Edward.  Hope to see you both again on another cruise.

 

Take care.

 

Jeff

[mit429]

Paul, thanks for posting another amazing review. I always love living vicariously through you and Edward as you definitely cruise style as I do!

 

On 11/5/2018 at 11:12 AM, chicagopaul said:

We’re currently in the suite waiting area. The coast guard is conducting a drill and inspection so we just need to wait for that to complete. Hopefully it is soon! I want my drink at the bar! 

 

Were you able to check-in via the updated app?

If so, did you find the process any easier than handing over printed Xpress Passes? 

 

 

On 11/16/2018 at 8:16 AM, chicagopaul said:

Good Morning Everyone. Well, we are back in Port Everglades. Edward and I are sitting in Michaels Club killing some time before disembarking. We’re heading to South Beach for one night before flying out if MIA late afternoon tomorrow. 

 

I know given the new mobile site and the internet on the ship my blog was not up to what I usually post. However I’ll have that all corrected in the next day with my full recap, additional photos, and video that I took. I do have photos and video of everyone at the Martini Bar so I will have that posted first since I know many of you wanted to see that. 

 

To all thise boarding the Reflection today, I hope you have a wonderful cruise! 

 

Do you have any tips/hints that you've uncovered that might help with using the mobile site to run a Live Blog?

 

 

On 11/12/2018 at 1:06 PM, chicagopaul said:

So last night we had dinner in our suite. We asked our butler Walter to create an Indian dinner for us and did he ever. It was perfect. Notice how much we loved the fish! 

 

I was on the Summit in January and we had asked the Luminae Maitre'd to see if the chef could prepare us Indian food one night, to which he readily agreed. It was definitely one of the best experiences I've had on a cruise - glad that you and Edward enjoyed it!

[sdnich]

 Thank you for another great review ! I do have a question we will be on the second half of the b2b next year that you two will be on in November!  we will be moving from a sky Suite  to an aqua class room and wanted to book specialty restaurants before the cruise I was looking at I believe three day package and my question is can we book those ahead of time ? I’ve been having trouble doing it online and was not sure if I needed to call or if it is something that we have todo when  we are on board ?  Will probably see you at the martini or the Sunset bar or two favorite places on all of this Celebrity  ships that we have been on !!

Edited November 18, 2018 by sdnich

[BridgeMates]

We were on the Reflection with you, but paths didn't cross. 

It was fun reading your blog and seeing the beautiful pictures. 

Happy cruising!

[chicagopaul]

12 hours ago, mit429 said:

Paul, thanks for posting another amazing review. I always love living vicariously through you and Edward as you definitely cruise style as I do!

 

12 hours ago, mit429 said:

 

 

Were you able to check-in via the updated app?

If so, did you find the process any easier than handing over printed Xpress Passes? 

 

We did not check in via the app, but we did our on-line check in on their website and we did upload our photos that we took at home so we could avoid that process at check in.  Our express passes were one page each, looking almost like a ticket to a movie. Different than we've had before. Nothing to sign at check in. They just had to swipe our passports, scan the express pass, and swipe our credit card. Very easy process. Looking forward to having everything fully on the phone including the sail pass card!

 

12 hours ago, mit429 said:

 

Do you have any tips/hints that you've uncovered that might help with using the mobile site to run a Live Blog?

 

 

I would recommend downloading an app that will quickly resize your photos. In the past TapaTalk and other apps that would work with the Cruise Critic app would resize the photos for you. The mobile site uploads the photos in full size up to 48mb and on the ships slow internet a 5mb photo would be hard to load and sometimes time out. If you can get your photos under 1mb that is ideal. Typically I'd resize the dailys to 1mb so they were still readable and other photos down to around 500k. I did not have an app instead I was using my e-mail to resize them and it was a hassle. If I had an app I would have had many more photos posted during the cruise instead of having to wait until now.

 

 

 

 

12 hours ago, mit429 said:

 

I was on the Summit in January and we had asked the Luminae Maitre'd to see if the chef could prepare us Indian food one night, to which he readily agreed. It was definitely one of the best experiences I've had on a cruise - glad that you and Edward enjoyed it!

 

We loved our Indian dinner! We were thinking of having it in Luminae but since our butler was Indian, and we have yet to have dinner in a suite on Celebrity we figured we'd have him arrange it. So glad we did and I think we will do that once per cruise moving forward.

[joand452]

Thank you for taking the time out of your vacation to keep us entertained!

[chicagopaul]

Martini Bar

 

The Martini Bar as you know is where we were every night. We knew three bartenders from previous cruises. Komang, Agung, and I Made. There are two others working the bar named Muni and the last I forget his name (it was a bit longer I want to say something along the lines of Nayoman? He was not there all the time and had a varied schedule).

 

Muni from India is heading home soon. Komang and I Made are there until end of March / April 1st I believe. The same goes for the person whose name I cannot remember but I'll post a photo below. He is tall and skinny, very very nice. Agung is scheduled to be on the ship until June (he just got on!) but his wife's due date is at the end of June and she is expecting twins so he wants to try to get home at least a month early since twins typically come a bit early!

 

Here is a video compilation from the Martini Bar

 

 

 

 

 

[chicagopaul]

 

To the left is I Made. On the right is the bartender whose name I forget. Do you know him? 

 

 

Left is I Made and right is Muni 

 

 

Agung hard at work 

 

 

Komang playing with balloon animals 

 

 

A rare site, an empty Martini Bar. Taken at 9am. 

[mit429]

1 hour ago, chicagopaul said:

 

 

We did not check in via the app, but we did our on-line check in on their website and we did upload our photos that we took at home so we could avoid that process at check in.  Our express passes were one page each, looking almost like a ticket to a movie. Different than we've had before. Nothing to sign at check in. They just had to swipe our passports, scan the express pass, and swipe our credit card. Very easy process. Looking forward to having everything fully on the phone including the sail pass card!

 

 

I would recommend downloading an app that will quickly resize your photos. In the past TapaTalk and other apps that would work with the Cruise Critic app would resize the photos for you. The mobile site uploads the photos in full size up to 48mb and on the ships slow internet a 5mb photo would be hard to load and sometimes time out. If you can get your photos under 1mb that is ideal. Typically I'd resize the dailys to 1mb so they were still readable and other photos down to around 500k. I did not have an app instead I was using my e-mail to resize them and it was a hassle. If I had an app I would have had many more photos posted during the cruise instead of having to wait until now.

 

 

 

 

 

We loved our Indian dinner! We were thinking of having it in Luminae but since our butler was Indian, and we have yet to have dinner in a suite on Celebrity we figured we'd have him arrange it. So glad we did and I think we will do that once per cruise moving forward.

 

I’ll definitely download a resizing app - thanks for the tip!

 

I’ve been tempted to do an en-suite dinner, but always unsure how it would be executed and end up just defaulting to Luminae or a speciality. Your review has definitely made me more confident that I’ll have to give this a whirl in the future

[AnJ]

Good morning, Paul, I was wondering, I have the Classic Drink Package, and I was wondering what the price is for the Martini and do you have to pay for the whole cost or just the difference?  Thanks in advance for answering 

[chicagopaul]

1 hour ago, AnJ said:

Good morning, Paul, I was wondering, I have the Classic Drink Package, and I was wondering what the price is for the Martini and do you have to pay for the whole cost or just the difference?  Thanks in advance for answering 

 

You just need to lay the difference. I believe for most martinis it will be $3 from what I overheard. 

[chicagopaul]

1 hour ago, mit429 said:

 

I’ll definitely download a resizing app - thanks for the tip!

 

I’ve been tempted to do an en-suite dinner, but always unsure how it would be executed and end up just defaulting to Luminae or a speciality. Your review has definitely made me more confident that I’ll have to give this a whirl in the future

 

I was worried too. Also worried that the butler would be in suite too long and make it awkward. But it was the opposite. He was barely there and had us call him when we needed the next course or told us he’d be back in 10 minutes with the next. It was exceptional service and the food was hot. 

 

If you do it don’t order off the menu. Just have them arrange whatever type of food you’d like and let your butler take liberties probably like you did with the Indian food in Luminae. It was quite fun. Though I think next time around we will try your advice in Luminae too and see how things turn out. 

[Eloise4Ever]

Paul, thank you so much for the Martini Bar video and photos. It was great to see Agung, Komang and I Made. Good news that Agung has twins on the way, hopefully I will see him onboard on the April TA. Thanks again for taking us along on your cruise.

[happycruisenut]

Hi!  Thanks Paul.

This was a great preface to my upcoming cruise on Reflection 11/26!  Did the Mardi Gras cruise 2/18 and loved the Reflection..   Looking forward to next Monday!

Bonnie

[ryansmousehouse]

On 11/18/2018 at 11:41 AM, chicagopaul said:

 

I was worried too. Also worried that the butler would be in suite too long and make it awkward. But it was the opposite. He was barely there and had us call him when we needed the next course or told us he’d be back in 10 minutes with the next. It was exceptional service and the food was hot. 

 

If you do it don’t order off the menu. Just have them arrange whatever type of food you’d like and let your butler take liberties probably like you did with the Indian food in Luminae. It was quite fun. Though I think next time around we will try your advice in Luminae too and see how things turn out.

Hey Paul..we too had a corner sky suite on Reflection last week and had Walter as our Butler...he went out of his way to suggest and bring us appetizers when were out on excursions all day..in addition he put together an in suite dinner for us....traditional fair but not off the room service menu...definitely was spoiled by his service... He told us he was flying back to India to visit family last friday but hoped to come back to the Reflection

[chicagopaul]

Hello Everyone - My apologies for the delay updating all of you with the correct recap of our trip. On Monday we moved into a new home and until everything is unpacked and set up exactly how I want them I cannot function. So, the past week (coupled with Thanksgiving) was spent organizing and getting everything into place. Now we're 100% settled and I can get back to my day job and fun things such as this.

 

Here are a couple links to some videos I uploaded.

 

Video 1  - Videos from Martini Bar, Sunset Bar, and World Class Bar

 

 

Video 2

 

Tour of the Lawn Club area and Sunset Bar

 

 

[Smmessineo]

Thanks for the update, Paul!

Best of everything to you and Edward in your new home !!!