A Tale of Two Cruises by RedneckBob (A Reflection of so)

[RedneckBob]

It was the best of cruises, it was the worst of cruises.

 

Kinda spend off of an old English classic "A Tale of Two Cities by Charley Dickens except no one loses their heads over this cruise !

 

Now that I got y'all's attention, Hi Y'all, RedneckBob hear. Me and the Misses just finished one of those back to back cruises on the beautiful and elegant Celebrity Reflections, 21 days in Caribbean, one departing 11/16/18 and the other 11/26/18. The story I'm about to tell is true, the names were changed to protect the innocent and me, there are no pictures, my writing is based on my observations and may not reflect the observations of fellow cruisers, since everyone may have different views,and I guess it's time to begin. (Ok English experts, rip apart that rambling sentence). Hear is my story.

 

Actually both cruises were great except the first cruise was by far the best. We had one of those single wide balcony cabins where if there was an emergency you could climb over the balcony railing and hop into the life boat. Room was spacious with an abundant supply of toilet tissue (TMI). As usually my DW helped the cabin steward by putting the point at the beginning of the toilet paper. But again the cabin steward became concerned and instead of leaving chocolates on the pillow at nite he left prunes !

 

Food was great especially in the Oceanview Cafe. We been cruising for 40 years and never saw such a display of desserts and at Thanksgiving; there were these two huge turkey's with dumbsticks in the dessert display. They were chocolate cakes. No one wanted to cut the turkey cake; it looked great. Staff were great. On two nites during the cruise the Oceanview had a gyroscope buffett station, I mean a Greek gyro (ye row) station; it was great; never even seen this on any cruise ship. MDR food was ok but Celebrity has gotten way to fancy with their dishes and soups. Can we please have just a cup of chicken noddle soup in the MDR and not cream of squash, cream of zuchinni or cream of cumquat.

 

At the pool they put these cards on the pool chairs that stated. "Don't reserve or after 30 minutes your belongings go overboard", Well not quite that dramatic. But it did stop the "chair hogs" and there were plenty of chairs until 10-11 am. But not on the second part of our cruise. They came out in full force. Almost saw a fight between two chair hogs and what happened to ones belongings. 

 

As usual the entertainment was great overall with the singing group December63, a Four Seasons tribute band performing several times and once in the afternoon even though they did not have to. They was great. And then there was this singer / piano player, Clare, who we had seen before and was excellent performed one afternoon even though she was on vacation.

 

Weather was great at most of ports. The ABC islands are our favorite especially Bonny air. Ran into a 4 foot barracuda while snorkeling and made sure he or she knew was boss in the water; only got my finger nails trimmed.

 

Well that's all I will say now. We really like Celebrity.

[floridacruisers]

Just read your report on the Oosterdam and loved it. Looks like our plans to go on both ships (Reflection & Oosterdam) is a good plan. Do enjoy your points of view on cruising. Keep up the good work....

 

 Phil...........floridacruisers

[davekathy]

Thanks for taking us along on your cruise. 

[Jim_Iain]

Enjoying your review.   Can't wait for the next installment. 

 

 

[cruisefan123]

So enjoying this review. We are doing this itinerary in late February.  Any suggestions  of what not to miss?!😁

Edited December 28, 2018 by cruisefan123

[RedneckBob]

On December 27, 2018 at 12:03 PM, Jim_Iain said:

Enjoying your review.   Can't wait for the next installment. 

 

 

 

There is no more installments

[RedneckBob]

27 minutes ago, cruisefan123 said:

So enjoying this review. We are doing this itinerary in late February.  Any suggestions  of what not to miss?!😁

 

Which Itinerary, ABC Islands of Eastern/Southern Caribbean. If ABC and you like to snorkel take water taxi to Kleine Bonaire and go to Mambo Beach at Curacao

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for posting your comments.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[bikerunner]

Good to know about the spread that is put out for Thanksgiving.  I am on the Reflection next year over the holiday and looking forward to it.  Love the entertainment the pool deck can give with the chair hogs and there complete crankiness and breakdown to 2 year old temper tantrum levels.  Its makes for good sport.  Get a drink and sit back and watch the show! 

[RedneckBob]

On December 27, 2018 at 10:06 AM, floridacruisers said:

Just read your report on the Oosterdam and loved it. Looks like our plans to go on both ships (Reflection & Oosterdam) is a good plan. Do enjoy your points of view on cruising. Keep up the good work....

 

 Phil...........floridacruisers

 

Thanks Phil. Liked both cruises but prefer Celebrity since there price includes drinks, Internet, etc

[cruisefan123]

On 12/28/2018 at 2:23 PM, RedneckBob said:

 

Which Itinerary, ABC Islands of Eastern/Southern Caribbean. If ABC and you like to snorkel take water taxi to Kleine Bonaire and go to Mambo Beach at Curacao

ABC islands.   We are booked to snorkel with Seacow in Bonaire and to a beach in Curaçao.   Any thoughts on Aruba?  We are overnighting and thought about a sunset catamaran cruise.   

[RedneckBob]

3 minutes ago, cruisefan123 said:

ABC islands.   We are booked to snorkel with Seacow in Bonaire and to a beach in Curaçao.   Any thoughts on Aruba?  We are overnighting and thought about a sunset catamaran cruise.   

 

We go to Eagle Beach via City Bus. Sunset cruise sounds great.

[cruisefan123]

Thank you for the info!  

[RedneckBob]

On December 28, 2018 at 3:46 PM, bikerunner said:

Good to know about the spread that is put out for Thanksgiving.  I am on the Reflection next year over the holiday and looking forward to it.  Love the entertainment the pool deck can give with the chair hogs and there complete crankiness and breakdown to 2 year old temper tantrum levels.  Its makes for good sport.  Get a drink and sit back and watch the show! 

 

Friday Night Fights at pool?

[BosoxI]

Hey, Redneck Bob, I can open a can of chicken noodle soup at home.  When I'm on a ship, I want things I don't encounter easily or regularly at home.  I can grill a steak with the best of them, so why would I order it on a ship, if more challenging dishes are on the menu?

[RedneckBob]

22 hours ago, BosoxI said:

Hey, Redneck Bob, I can open a can of chicken noodle soup at home.  When I'm on a ship, I want things I don't encounter easily or regularly at home.  I can grill a steak with the best of them, so why would I order it on a ship, if more challenging dishes are on the menu?

 

As Charley Harper would say, "I Understand".

 

The problem is all cruise lines including Celebrity want to be the best, so called luxury, 5 star lines, so to achieve such a status, they must make everything top of the line including the food served in the MDR, half of which I never heard of. On several occasions I did try a soup that was Greek to me, like a Greek potato soup, I tried it, it was nothing special. Also on the menu was beef cheeks. Now I can take beef tongue but cheek?  I talked with the MDR Assist Manager and he did complaints about soups were too spicy, etc. Now do you understand.

[BosoxI]

5 hours ago, RedneckBob said:

 

As Charley Harper would say, "I Understand".

 

The problem is all cruise lines including Celebrity want to be the best, so called luxury, 5 star lines, so to achieve such a status, they must make everything top of the line including the food served in the MDR, half of which I never heard of. On several occasions I did try a soup that was Greek to me, like a Greek potato soup, I tried it, it was nothing special. Also on the menu was beef cheeks. Now I can take beef tongue but cheek?  I talked with the MDR Assist Manager and he did complaints about soups were too spicy, etc. Now do you understand.

 

Oh, I understand but too spicy?  The trouble with much of cruise ship food is that it's too bland.  Soups usually are too salty.  Cooking for 3000 people can't be easy. 

[G&G]

Enjoyed your review RNB!

[RedneckBob]

On January 4, 2019 at 8:47 AM, G&G said:

Enjoyed your review RNB!

 

Thanks G&G. After cruising 35 straight days in the Caribbean my tee shirt size is now the same Roman numeral as this year's Super Bowl