Reflection LIVE 2/3/24-2/11/24: 8 Crazy Nights of ABC Islands

[georgiaguy]

Welcome back and hope all goes well traveling home. Thank you for taking us along on your journey!

[GenerationX]

Sigh…all good things must come to an end.  

 

Well, at least they have to end when according to future cruises the cruises leaving today on Reflection and Ascent are sold out.  Otherwise MY good thing might have lasted another week.  But my marriage may not have lasted that much longer especially considering I would be standing my husband up on Valentine’s Day for the Cayman Islands.

 

Happy embarkation day to all the lucky people boarding today!

 

I’m currently sat in the MIA D30 admirals club with the first mimosa I’ve had to pay for in 9 days.  

 

I’m super paranoid about making it to airports on time, so I decided to do walk off with my luggage at 7:30.  For people who always ask about how early of a flight you can make morning of the cruise, just my personal preference but I won’t fly on anything that leaves before noon.  Yes, you can definitely make something much earlier than that, especially if docked in port Everglades and flying from FLL, if all goes right.  But emphasis is on “if all goes right”.

 

I’ve been on a cruise where facial recognition in the terminal crashed and getting luggage and through immigration took an hour and a half.

 

This morning, it took almost a half hour just to get an elevator from my stateroom on deck 9 on the ship that had enough space for me and my luggage to go down to deck 5 to disembark.  I wasn’t in a super rush so I didn’t mind standing back and waiting a bit.  Others waiting in the hallway were trying to make early flights and getting quickly frustrated and aggressive about getting on an elevator.  One man went up to a packed elevator when the doors opened and shoved himself and his carryon in saying “no I’ve been waiting forever and you guys are gonna make room for 2 more” and then made a lady near the front pick up her rolling carryon and hold it at her chest and barked at his wife to squeeze herself in too!

 

Cruising isn’t a cheap vacation and it seems a bit of a waste to me if I spend all that money to relax and then immediately have to start stressing about something before I’m even off the ship.

 

When I did make it to the gangway, our cruise director Dave was there saying goodbye to everyone and I got to get one last hug and thank him for a great cruise.

 

MIA is also particularly slammed today. My Uber driver told me that both Port Miami and Port Everglades are completely full for cruise ships today and rides have been nonstop.  Lots of people heading home. BTSA precheck security line took 45 minutes to get through.

Well, Reflection, it’s bye for now!

 

Soon to come: 

 

-a report on the rest of yesterday (including my VIP cooking demonstration)

 

-a back in time post about first evening chic night dinner

 

-final thoughts and future cruise plans

 

 

 

[bjahil47]

I have enjoyed “cruising with you”.  Safe travels home!  

[What A Market]

Charla

Thank you for the amazing live report!

We missed being able to join you by a couple of weeks.

We board the Reflection next Saturday (Feb 17).

 

I’ll be making my usual attempt to post live, but likely, it won’t approach your level of commitment.

 

Thanks again for all the posts! Safe travels.

[sdnich]

I always enjoy your trip reports!! I just started this yesterday and I am now waiting for your final thoughts of your cruise. Enjoy your trip with your next trip with your husband!! 

[cinderellen]

Safe travels home.

[mac_tlc]

Safe travels home, Charla. What a fast 8 days! Wonderful review, thanks for taking us along. 
 

Hope to sail with you again soon! 
 

I may do another “LIVE” from Beyond next week —— just to help you get through those post cruise Midwest winter blues!!
 

mac_tlc

[scrapcreator]

Thank you! I always enjoy your cruise reviews. Safe travels home.

[Lastdance]

Thanks for mentioning the elevator.  Last December, there was no line(just a huge crowd),but we were told to go there.  We always take the stairs and just suck it up with our luggage; however, helpers(hahaha)were blocking the stairs...finally, down the stairs we went, along with a few others following.  Glad you were on your time and disembarked without incident.  Had we known things would be such a crowded mess, we would have made other arrangements, as we have never experienced anything like this.  I was sorry that I ever mentioned this on Cruise Critic, but hey, glad you did just fine and had a lovely trip!

 

P.S.

I am always very jealous of those small bottles of Evian water, as our last cruise had tons of the large ones🤗

Edited February 11 by Lastdance

[Kteacher]

Safe travels and thank you for taking us along on another great trip report! I always love your reviews. Reflection is one of our favorite ships ❤️.

[asnaleah]

Thank you Charla! Best wishes to you and Jeremy. And Gen Z!

[bluwes]

Safe journey home, loved the live follow. That will be us April 2025, I’ll be celebrating my 70th birthday on board. Have just booked Murano to celebrate 

[rzyjzq]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us and hope you got the recharge you needed/deserved! 😀

Susan

[llamasox]

Hi Charla!  Really enjoyed your live review...we'll be sailing her in March for a well deserved Spring Break for this teacher, LOL😍  I enjoyed reading about yours and Jeremy's engagement while cruising...and wanted to share some photos I have from your wedding ceremony on the beach in Cozumel.  Best wishes for a safe trip home!

 

Bethany and Rhonda

[lori-annk]

I always love cruising vicariously through your fabulous live reports! Thank you

[vanislandcruisers]

Thanks for taking us along!

[Jim_Iain]

Enjoyed your live post.   Sorry it is over so quickly. 

[dock]

Thanks for the review. 
Love reading your posts. 
Currently enjoying Ascent, but I don’t have your skill or stamina to do a live. 
Will post a review when back home. 

[Missusdubbya]

On 2/10/2024 at 11:13 AM, GenerationX said:

2 young, crazy, student loan debt ridden kids feeling like the luckiest people in the world to have Celebrity Cruises and to have each other.

I love your engagement story! Thank you for a wonderful review

[2Long2NxtCrz]

Thank you so much for such a wonderful review! Work keeps me from CC, so I don't always get to read on here, but your reviews are always such a delight! We may not be able to control everything, but a positive attitude always helps when things go awry and you have the best attitude and a great smile! Also a great husband! What a trooper to stay with the animals so that you could get the break you needed.

 

[JackE]

On 2/9/2024 at 8:13 PM, GenerationX said:

SOMEWHAT MUSHY AND PHILOSOPHICAL POST WARNING…

 

I was just looking at my Facebook memories and realized that today is a very special anniversary.  On this day 7 years ago, Jeremy and I had a cruising experience on Silhouette that made us Celebrity customers for life.

 

A couple of nights before, my then boyfriend Jeremy had asked me to be his wife on a starry evening chic night.  It was our first cruise sailing in a suite and our suite concierge Niko said that to celebrate our engagement she’d arranged “a little surprise dinner for us” for the next chic night.

 

When the night came we were escorted up to LCG where all the ship’s senior officers were waiting to greet us and applauded and an alcove on the lawn was set up with a full romantic dining table and bar.  I’d mentioned to our butler that one of our dreams was to save up and do a Mediterranean cruise one day (dream finally fulfilled October 2023 btw, definitely worth the wait), and it turned out that the ship food and beverage team had put together a SIX COURSE dinner tour around the Mediterranean for us with drink pairings!

 

At the time, we were lowly classic status captains club members, in the cheapest sky suite, I’d never once posted on cruise critic and I don’t think Instagram even existed.  We were absolutely no one this cruise line should have cared enough about (not that we even are now) to have put so much time and effort into giving such a special, amazing experience.  But it still lives in our memories as one of the best nights we’ve ever spent together and as a result we never even considered sailing another cruise line until last year.

 

Seeing the memory tonight got me thinking, I’m sure it wasn’t at all cheap and took a TON of manpower for Celebrity to pull off that night for us. But I’m pretty sure that investment paid out in spades in terms of the amount we’ve invested booking and spending onboard during Celebrity cruises since then (and I always have and still do consider it money well spent) and from our friends and family who have sailed with Celebrity at our suggestion.

 

It also got me thinking about the current state of Celebrity, and wondering whether today, the cruise line that (until recently) wanted to charge suite guests $5 a glass for Target wine and $12 a bottle for Evian in the stateroom would do anything like what was done for us back then for a young, budget conscious, newbie cruising couple (and see the long term financial benefit of the investment that came of it with us).

 

I will say this though, what wowed us most about that evening was how far above and beyond crew members clearly went with their time and energy to give us a vacation experience we’d never forget.  Dollars and cents aside, I still 100% see that same attitude of above and beyond customer service attitude in Celebrity crew members today, even though they’ve been given a more limited resource toolbox by the corporate office to make that magic with.

 

I know there’s been a lot of talk by many, myself included, of making moves to other lines.  I won’t lie, with current state I am price comparing other lines when making my booking decisions (whereas 3 years ago I would always go Celebrity no question or shopping).  But I think there’s still something very special about the Celebrity experience for me that I’ve still felt on this cruise (on an older ship in a stateroom class far below the Retreat and Aqua) that will keep Celebrity in consideration for my future cruise plans and it’s definitely still my preferred choice when price/value is a wash.

 

Ok, sorry, I’ll get off my soapbox now.  Just for fun, some pics below of 2 young, crazy, student loan debt ridden kids feeling like the luckiest people in the world to have Celebrity Cruises and to have each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a beautiful post Charla. Reminds me of how fortunate I am to even be able to cruise. We celebrated our honeymoon on the Apex and our room steward and butler (we got our move up bid!) treated us like royalty. 

 

I hope you enjoyed your time on board, and hug GenZ and Jeremy tightly tonight.

 

[Jazzbo]

On 2/11/2024 at 5:54 PM, bluwes said:

Safe journey home, loved the live follow. That will be us April 2025, I’ll be celebrating my 70th birthday on board. Have just booked Murano to celebrate 

A great Charla live again! We’ll be celebrating my 70th (and my retirement) in January 2025. Charla’s report just increases the anticipation, doesn’t it?

[swigso]

Charla you need to post your cruise plans. There are so many people who want to meet and sail with you xx

 

[boxkite]

Charla, thanks again for all your live posts and pictures!. Have a safe trip back home.

[cheeseheads4ever]

Charla,

 Thanks so much for the incredible cruise report.

We are on Reflection in a month. Do you recall the names of any of the bartenders at the martini Bar? Just curious!