Live from reflection, nine October 2023, have questions? Just ask.

[renebfl]

It’s so great to hear positive.   Boarding soon for transatlantic Reflection cruise.   Leaving for Barcelona Saturday 

[cruisestitch]

They do seem to be offering off-menu choices each night. Tonight was fish and chips.

 

The menu choices were very unappealing to me, so I ended up with a bowl of the chicken soup for my dinner.

 

out of curiosity, and for research, I just went up to the Buffet. It is French night. I spoke to friends who ate there, and they declared it all delicious. I have to say that the menu, and the choices in the Buffet are far exceeding what is available in the main dining room so far.

[JDPCruisers]

On 10/11/2023 at 8:37 AM, cruisestitch said:

The captain will start his vacation tomorrow, and we will have a new Captain.  I heard his name, but I will figure out how to spell it tomorrow.

We have friends currently on Reflection (we were supposed to be on but had to cancel) and the new Captains name is...wait for it....Captain Kirk!

[dreamer321]

I've been following this thread as well as reviewing the MDR menus in the app since I will be sailing Reflection in December and it appears the Executive Chef is making daily modification to the standardized menus adding additional appetizers or entrees as recently as of the day of service. Both day 3 and day 4 menus are slightly different than the menus posted on day 1, improvements in my opinion.  I hope the preparation and presentation is improving from recent weeks.  Maybe all the complaints are having some effect.

[Captain-John]

1 hour ago, cruisestitch said:

They do seem to be offering off-menu choices each night. Tonight was fish and chips.

 

The menu choices were very unappealing to me, so I ended up with a bowl of the chicken soup for my dinner.

 

out of curiosity, and for research, I just went up to the Buffet. It is French night. I spoke to friends who ate there, and they declared it all delicious. I have to say that the menu, and the choices in the Buffet are far exceeding what is available in the main dining room so far.

 

I read with great interest. I wonder if they would consider plating some of the fare they serve in the buffet and serving it in the MDR? They're making it anyway, might as well offer some of it for variety to those who wish 'table service.'

 

The complete opposite to what I thought years ago whereby I'd be aghast if the buffet offered the same food as the MDR. Now it seems the buffet offering is better, so nothing to be aghast about!

[di T]

2 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

They do seem to be offering off-menu choices each night. Tonight was fish and chips.

 

The menu choices were very unappealing to me, so I ended up with a bowl of the chicken soup for my dinner.

 

out of curiosity, and for research, I just went up to the Buffet. It is French night. I spoke to friends who ate there, and they declared it all delicious. I have to say that the menu, and the choices in the Buffet are far exceeding what is available in the main dining room so far.

One night during our b2b last month on Reflection the buffet had a Portuguese theme and that was one of the best meals in 19 nights! Who would have thought the OVC would be better than the MDR a short time ago? Not us for sure, looked on the second cruise for the same offering but alas it did not happen.

[D. B.]

On 10/11/2023 at 6:47 AM, JBSteelerfan said:

Thanks for posting info!  Enjoy your cruises!

"How 'Bout Them Cowboys"? Oh sorry. I'm a 49ers fan..........

[D. B.]

16 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

Days 3 and 4

 

this year we tried other Cruise Lines to see what they offered. we tried  Azamara and Oceania.

 This Daily planner is a good example of why we have 7 Future Cruises booked with Celebrity!

 It seems that the higher priced Cruise Lines have Less activities and things to do that we enjoy.

   It seemed we were paying More and getting Less.

 

[JBSteelerfan]

1 hour ago, D. B. said:

"How 'Bout Them Cowboys"? Oh sorry. I'm a 49ers fan..........

 

I absolutely love it!!  I hate the cowboys.  Most overrated team year after year!

[chemmo]

14 hours ago, JDPCruisers said:

We have friends currently on Reflection (we were supposed to be on but had to cancel) and the new Captains name is...wait for it....Captain Kirk!

I have visions of ‘Reflection’ being crossed out on the hull and being replaced by ‘Enterprise’…

 

 

[cruisestitch]

14 hours ago, JDPCruisers said:

We have friends currently on Reflection (we were supposed to be on but had to cancel) and the new Captains name is...wait for it....Captain Kirk!

AKA Kyriakos Matragkas

[webecruzin2]

Thanks for the updates!  Was wondering how is the weather so far?  I'm so confused as to what to pack for the T/A 

[cruisestitch]

So far warm and dry with calm seas.  The TA is anybody’s guess.

 

BTW I put this on the roll call but will add it here, a plea to stick a book or two for the library in your suitcase if you have room.  Yes I know about kindles etc but some of us like real books and if you have one or two lying around you would otherwise donate to your local charity shop, please consider bringing them to leave on board.  TIA

[hcat]

Great Idea about donating to the library!  

[SECdawg]

Do they list the theme for OVC each night in the cruise planner?

[JDPCruisers]

17 hours ago, D. B. said:

this year we tried other Cruise Lines to see what they offered. we tried  Azamara and Oceania.

 This Daily planner is a good example of why we have 7 Future Cruises booked with Celebrity!

 It seems that the higher priced Cruise Lines have Less activities and things to do that we enjoy.

   It seemed we were paying More and getting Less.

 

This is interesting to know as we are looking at smaller cruise lines like Azamara, Oceania and Regent but are concerned about less activities to choose from onboard, particularly for a TA, having been RC and X (mostly X for the last few years with an occasional RC thrown in). Will keep your experience in mind.

[cruisestitch]

54 minutes ago, SECdawg said:

Do they list the theme for OVC each night in the cruise planner?

It does not show in the cruise planner— I have had to ask every day at lunch what the nightly theme will be. And then that night at the entrance to the OVC is a sign showing the theme.

[cruisestitch]

Tonight, the off menu special was some sort of duck, not recommended by our waiter so none of us tried it. I ended up with tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich off the children’s menu. Then I went to the ocean view because it is Greek night, and I had some very delicious baklava there.

[D. B.]

1 hour ago, JDPCruisers said:

This is interesting to know as we are looking at smaller cruise lines like Azamara, Oceania and Regent but are concerned about less activities to choose from onboard, particularly for a TA, having been RC and X (mostly X for the last few years with an occasional RC thrown in). Will keep your experience in mind.

We also did a Crystal cruise just before Covid. Our Experience was that the higher priced cruise lines seem to have a lot of "Culturally Enriching" type of onboard things to do But not much of the Fun things we love about Celebrity. If they have Bingo it's done in a deadpan way that makes it boring.

  We don't need a belly flop contest or a snipe hunt But Fun type guest participation activities are something we like.

   We are one and done with Azamara because all their ships are  small and subject to a lot of Ocean Motion.

  My wife has never had a bad experience on ships at least 60K tons but the 30K ton Quest really got to her.

 

 u

onboard 

Edited October 13, 2023 by D. B.
added content.

[JDPCruisers]

29 minutes ago, D. B. said:

We also did a Crystal cruise just before Covid. Our Experience was that the higher priced cruise lines seem to have a lot of "Culturally Enriching" type of onboard things to do But not much of the Fun things we love about Celebrity. If they have Bingo it's done in a deadpan way that makes it boring.

  We don't need a belly flop contest or a snipe hunt But Fun type guest participation activities are something we like.

   We are one and done with Azamara because all their ships are  small and subject to a lot of Ocean Motion.

  My wife has never had a bad experience on ships at least 60K tons but the 30K ton Quest really got to her.

 

 u

onboard 

Thanks, D.B. Good to know your experiences as we enjoy the ability to choose different activities if we wish so I think we would miss that. Also have some concern about the ocean motion as our only TA, so far, was on Edge and there were no issues during high seas, which were the exception on our April TA as the seas were mostly nothing to talk about but that could have been because of the size of the ship. So, we're thinking if we go smaller it may be to the Caribbean to try some smaller ports and see if we like that size of the ship. 

[cruisestitch]

Correction!

 

The themed dinners in the Ocean view café are listed in the program, just not in the daily activities, but on the backside of that sheet where they have the opening hours of each venue, it does say what the theme is for the night.

[denuzzo]

On 10/9/2023 at 2:07 PM, cruisestitch said:

Happy to answer any questions you might have. Also on the upcoming cruise which is a transatlantic so I will be back to back. Ask away.

Hope you are having a wonderful cruise!

I will be sailing her next month 😁

2 questions.. how is the sunset bar? Do you know who the casino host is?

TIA

[the penguins]

9 hours ago, webecruzin2 said:

Thanks for the updates!  Was wondering how is the weather so far?  I'm so confused as to what to pack for the T/A 

The answer is, or should be, always the same - layers. The top one wind and water proof.

[Ciaranaman]

11 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

So far warm and dry with calm seas.  The TA is anybody’s guess.

 

BTW I put this on the roll call but will add it here, a plea to stick a book or two for the library in your suitcase if you have room.  Yes I know about kindles etc but some of us like real books and if you have one or two lying around you would otherwise donate to your local charity shop, please consider bringing them to leave on board.  TIA

Excellent idea!  I'll be sure to do just that on our next cruise.

~Bernadette

[cruisestitch]

Days 5 & 6