Reflection 4 Night Cruise 6/10-6/14 Review

[fac429]

Just got home from our 4 night sailing on the Reflection to Key West & Coco Cay.  I would say here's the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but there really wasn't any ugly and really nothing that bad.  Mostly different shades of good.

 

BACKGROUND: My wife and I are in our 40's, and we were on this cruise with my son (16) and my parents (70's).  This was my 6th cruise, 5th for my wife, 4th for my son.   First time on Celebrity for the three of us, my parents previously sailed to Alaska nearly 2 years ago on the Solstice.

 

EMBARKATION: Our checkin time was supposed to be 11:30, but I knew from reading prior reviews that check-in times are kind of meaningless if you have a suite (which we did).  So we got to the port about 10:40 and were whisked to the suite embarkation lounge.  Got checked in and were just about to go grab some of the bites to eat when they told us we could start boarding (it was now about 10:50).  We breezed on to the ship, then tried to check in at our muster station (we were too early, they weren't ready for us until about 11:20).  So we went to our cabin with the intention of dropping off our stuff but it turned out our cabin was already ready so we hung out there until it was time to do the muster thing.

 

CABIN: Wife, son and I had an aft Sky Suite.  Parents were in a veranda room (which I never saw, but they seemed happy with it).  The cabin itself was quite spacious, but surprisingly lacking in storage given the size.  Since I know someone may ask, we seemed to have a butler.  Or at least someone came by on the first day with a business card that said "butler" and he introduced himself and gave us an overview of some stuff.  I haven't had a butler before and don't really know what they're supposed to do for you, so that was pretty much the extent of my butler experience.  And again, this was my first cruise with Celebrity so I don't have any basis for comparison.  I can tell you that I saw my room attendant all the time and he did an awesome job.  I didn't feel that I was lacking for anything with respect to the cabin.  Also, for anyone about to ask about loungers on our balcony: I forgot to check.  Between the extreme humidity and rain on this cruise I didn't spend almost any time out there after sail away, and we were standing for that.

 

DINING: We ate at Luminae for dinner on 3 nights and twice for breakfast.  We also had dinner at Le Petit Chef.  I think we ate all of our other meals at the buffet.  Personally I really enjoyed Luminae.  The turbot on the first night was the best meal I had all week.  Many of the other dishes were also excellent.  I don't think my wife and son enjoyed it quite as much as I did, but they liked breakfast (I did as well).  The buffet was... a buffet.  Can't say I thought it was that much better than the previous cruises I've been on, and it was often quite crowded.  The surprise hit of the week was Le Petit Chef.  We went because my parents wanted to go, and my wife and I fully expected it to be gimmicky and the experience a bit geared towards younger ones.  But the animated presentations were both witty and informative (certainly wasn't expecting a shout out to Duchamp during the meal), and the food was (mostly) excellent.  The short rib in particular was perfectly cooked and delicious.  I had one course that was a "miss" for me personally (the shrimp) but all 3 of my other courses were excellent.  

 

SERVICE: The service on this ship was incredible.  Staff was friendly and attentive all across the ship.  There was one small hiccup with one drink my wife ordered, but otherwise everyone we encountered was going above and beyond to make the cruise as enjoyable as possible.  I can't say enough about how well we were treated throughout our cruise.

 

SHOWS/ENTERTAINMENT: This was a bit more of a mixed bag.  I liked the magician and the comedian, my wife was less impressed.  The production shows- Elysium and Broken Strings- were both puzzling in terms of story.  I couldn't tell you what was really happening in either show outside of the first moments.  Which is a shame, because the cast was quite talented.  But the real hit of the week was Rock the Reflection led by Captain Kirk.  It wasn't just the novelty of "hey, he can command a ship and also play a G chord!".  He's genuinely talented, knows how to hold an audience's attention, picked great songs, and was backed by the extraordinary orchestra. For an hour he led the crowd through a singalong ranging from the Eagles to Metallica, and it was awesome.  People talked about it for the rest of the cruise, and for good reason.  The other bands we saw on the ship were also quite good.

 

ACTIVITIES: The ship's activity calendar was a little light in our opinion.  Past cruises we've done seemed to have more going on, particularly when it comes to trivia, game shows, etc.  Those things seemed fewer and farther between on this ship (or scheduled at really weird times, like when we were in port).  It was most noticeable on our sea day, when it seemed that almost all of the activities were geared towards stuff going on at the pool.  But the stuff they did have was mostly good.  Most of the trivia sessions were fun, live band karaoke on the first night was very fun, and there was a marathon karaoke session on the second night that was a blast.  The ship DJ's also did a good job of keeping the party going.

 

PORTS: Key West was really, really hot, but we managed to cool off in sloppy Joe's where the music was good and the rum runners even better.  Coco Cay is Coco Cay, there's a million reviews of that place so I'm not sure that I can add much that's novel.

 

SPA: I had the Persian Garden pass for the week, and it was quite relaxing.  I've always heard horror stories of people being bombarded with upsells at the spa, but that's never happened to me.  It's probably evident from looking at me that beauty products are not my thing.

 

RETREAT EXPERIENCE: I've already covered Luminae, so the only other thing to really talk about is Michael's Club.  I was a big fan.  The drinks were great, and there was almost always someone in there to have a good conversation with.  Met some great people on this cruise, mostly there.

 

DISEMBARKATION: Just as easy as getting on.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS:  This was a great cruise, and I would definitely sail on the Reflection again.  Though I would probably pick a different time of year for both weather and crowd related reasons (the ship did feel a bit busy at times, particularly in the buffet and certain bars).  

 

I think that's about it, but feel free to ask any questions.  Thanks!

[C4HCG]

Great review, thank you. We are on the Reflection next September. Sailed the Equinox before and love the Solstice class, how did you find the Reflection generally as have seen the odd post saying she’s looking tired in parts.

[Georgia_Peaches]

Did you visit the casino at all?

[fac429]

5 hours ago, C4HCG said:

how did you find the Reflection generally as have seen the odd post saying she’s looking tired in parts.

 

That wasn't my experience- I thought she looked great. I didn't see any noticeable wear in any areas.

[fac429]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Did you visit the casino at all?

 

Yes, but my wife and I spent a lot less time there than we have on other ships.  The casino is small, and we struggled to find slot machines that we enjoyed playing.  (It probably didn't help that we were losing pretty fast.)  I mostly played roulette over the first couple of days, though I probably didn't play for more than an hour altogether.  It wasn't difficult to find a seat for roulette during the three or 4 times I went there.

[mazeke77]

I was wondering if there is soap, shampoo, and conditioner in the showers on the Reflection? Thanks

[fac429]

1 hour ago, mazeke77 said:

I was wondering if there is soap, shampoo, and conditioner in the showers on the Reflection? Thanks

 

We had all 3 in our suite, not sure about other stateroom classes.

[George C]

We love Le Petit Chef ' we do it at least once every cruise , haven’t done a S class in over a decade need to do one again. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

8 minutes ago, George C said:

We love Le Petit Chef ' we do it at least once every cruise , haven’t done a S class in over a decade need to do one again. 

My perception of LPC is that it's gimmicky but I've never tried it.  I will be on Reflection at the end of July and we have included specialty dining.  I am considering taking my mother, just to try it.  What's the menu like and how's the pacing of the meal?  Do you have to wait for everyone to finish their course before moving on?

[Liao]

2 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

My perception of LPC is that it's gimmicky but I've never tried it.  I will be on Reflection at the end of July and we have included specialty dining.  I am considering taking my mother, just to try it.  What's the menu like and how's the pacing of the meal?  Do you have to wait for everyone to finish their course before moving on?

It is gimmicky, but a good/fun gimmick for a first timer, food is pretty decent IMO.  You do wait for tablemates to finish each course.  I will not do it again, but I am glad I did it once.

[helen haywood]

6 hours ago, mazeke77 said:

I was wondering if there is soap, shampoo, and conditioner in the showers on the Reflection? Thanks

Yes.  In all classes of cabins.  

[fac429]

5 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

My perception of LPC is that it's gimmicky but I've never tried it.  I will be on Reflection at the end of July and we have included specialty dining.  I am considering taking my mother, just to try it.  What's the menu like and how's the pacing of the meal?  Do you have to wait for everyone to finish their course before moving on?

 

I definitely thought it would be gimmicky, and in some ways I suppose it is- but much less so than I feared.  There's two menus you can mix and match from (the one that matches the show, and another one that has alternate options).  Basically an appetizer course, a soup/salad course, main and dessert.  Like I said, outside of my salad course they were all excellent.  Good question about waiting!  During the first course I noticed there was one couple that REALLY seemed to be taking their time, and the show moved on without them.  (They picked up the pace for subsequent courses).  We had plenty of time to finish each course, I'm not sure why this couple was so slow on their first course.  I think the whole meal took a bit under two hours.

[chemmo]

12 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

My perception of LPC is that it's gimmicky but I've never tried it.  I will be on Reflection at the end of July and we have included specialty dining.  I am considering taking my mother, just to try it.  What's the menu like and how's the pacing of the meal?  Do you have to wait for everyone to finish their course before moving on?

Really gimmicky but the first time we visited we giggled right through it. Definitely worth experiencing once. Second time we went the ‘novelty’ wasn’t there and there won’t be a third…Must agree with others who have said it is a ‘once and done’.

 

I believe there are three storylines but we have only seen two. Different menus accompany each so it may be worthwhile popping into LPC on boarding, look at the different menus and specifically book an evening with your preferred choices. We didn’t find any issues with the all eat at the same time routines and at each break the waiters were quick to spot and refill empty glasses. We preferred the menu that started with bouillabaisse but I can’t remember the rest!

[chemmo]

17 hours ago, fac429 said:

 

That wasn't my experience- I thought she looked great. I didn't see any noticeable wear in any areas.

Thank you for your review. We are back on Reflection next year, last visit was (I think) 2016! Pleased to hear she is still in good shape.

[George C]

17 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

My perception of LPC is that it's gimmicky but I've never tried it.  I will be on Reflection at the end of July and we have included specialty dining.  I am considering taking my mother, just to try it.  What's the menu like and how's the pacing of the meal?  Do you have to wait for everyone to finish their course before moving on?

You are not rushed , it’s a four course meal menu changes there was a couple of menus when we were on summit . The first had short ribs as main course , and there was less than half full , second time lobster was on the menu and it was almost full .

[Epperbiker]

Have to agree with you regarding "Rock the Reflection" led by Captain Kirk. In our opinion, It was easily the best entertainment we experienced on our June 3rd sailing!