11/15/14 Reflection Top Chef Cruise Photo Review from the eyes of a family with teens

Hi there everyone! For those who like a long review with lots of pictures, that really details our whole experience, I hope you'll enjoy this one! I wasn't really sure if I was going to do a trip report of this cruise, but this cruise was so unique for us, first being one of the Top Chef Cruises and second, there's often so much discussion of kids or teens on board the Celebrity cruises, that I thought it would be great to share our experience!

First just a little background - my husband and I are in our mid 40s and we have a daughter, Megan who is 13 and a son, Alex who is 15. The kids and I love to cruise and have sailed on several different lines, as you can see by my signature. Do we have a favorite? Not really. We've found each has something unique to offer. Usually we choose our cruise by the itinerary not so much the line. My husband on the other hand, is not a fan of cruising at all. He much prefers a land based vacation.

We chose this cruise solely for the Top Chef aspect. It was initially going to be just a getaway for my husband and I but at the time we booked, there was a great deal for the third and fourth passengers, so it seemed like a no brainer to bring the kids since they love to cruise! And with the Top Chef experiences, I knew it would be fun for them!

Would I be right, or would they be bored on the "grown up" Celebrity ship???? Well.....you'll have to read on to see! I will admit, my son was concerned. He loves the teen clubs on the other ships and he knew that school was in session so there wasn't going to be many kids his age on board. And his fear was having to spend every moment on the ship with his sister! The horror! It wasn't the lack of a rock wall or ropes course or water slides that concerned him, but the lack of potential other kids his age.

So, our story begins!

We had an evening flight out of PHL into MIA and it was delayed, just a bit. Made me glad that we didn't fly in the day of our cruise though!

We spent the night at the Intercontinental which is right by Bayside. We got a great rate, or what I felt was a great rate. It was quite busy when we checked in. The first thing my son said was that it definitely did not feel like a hotel for "kids" - too many adults going out on the town. Too chic. He thought it seemed to set the tone for the entire trip. Too grown up. He was starting to feel a bit discouraged. But he's a bit like that.

We walked over to Bayside the next morning and grabbed a bit to eat before boarding. With the new staggered boarding times we weren't scheduled to board until close to 2:00. At first I was a bit disappointed by this, but in the end, it was nice to have a leisurely morning and not have lines checking in on the ship.

Whenever there is talk about sailing with kids on Celebrity, there is talk about taking them out of school! It's an interesting topic isn't it? My kids do Cyber School and are lucky enough to be able to take it on the road. I was super proud of the kids that they worked on some assignments while we were gone.

Checking out the view before heading out for the morning

The lobby of the Intercontinental

I went to college in Miami, (cough ahem a somewhat long time ago now) but I always love coming back and visiting the places I used to hang out with my friends! So going over to Bayside which is sort of like what it was so many years ago brings back a flood of memories for me!

And there's my group with the Reflection in the background!

Heading back to the hotel to pack up to leave for the cruise!

more, please. I'm already having trouble dealing with the suspense. ;)

Thanks for the detailed review - I love picture reviews! Thanks!

Yes! More, please! I'm taking my 11 yr old grandson on the Equinox TA in April and share some of your concerns; i.e. too grown up, too many sea days, no kids onboard, etc. I'm getting him to do loads of research on our ports, so he's more engaged than he might be otherwise.

more, please. I'm already having trouble dealing with the suspense. ;)

Thanks for the detailed review - I love picture reviews! Thanks!

Yes! More, please! I'm taking my 11 yr old grandson on the Equinox TA in April and share some of your concerns; i.e. too grown up, too many sea days, no kids onboard, etc. I'm getting him to do loads of research on our ports, so he's more engaged than he might be otherwise.

Thanks for reading along! I hopefully will be able to post some more this afternoon. First though, I really have got to get some Christmas shopping done and if we don't get our Christmas tree and so some decorating, I think the kids will start to think we're going to skip Christmas all together! ACK!

And so we continue!

So for those who have recently sailed on Celebrity, and I think maybe Royal Caribbean too?? They have just started this staggered boarding system. A few days before your cruise you will receive emails, text messages, voice messages - you name it! They will be telling you NOT to come to the pier until your designated boarding time. And this boarding time is based on the deck your cabin is located. And if you have a suite, or maybe concierge class, or maybe a higher Captains Club level you can board earlier...those things I'm not too sure of because we had none of those things! We were on deck 7 and our boarding time was somewhere around 2:30. At first I was really bummed about that. I mean didn't we deserve to be on that ship just as much as the people boarding at 11:00? And didn't we have to check out of our hotel at 11:00 or maybe noon? What would we do with our luggage for hours? What if we were arriving on an early flight and heading straight to the airport? It just didn't seem like a great system to me.

But on the other hand, maybe staggered boarding would mean less of a wait? On the other, other hand...not everyone shows up at the port at the same time anyway, and I really didn't like being told when to get there when I paid to be on that cruise that full day...

However...I'm truly not a complainer at heart. I tend to go with the flow and it really is just the system now in place. We were able to get a late check out at the hotel, so no issue for us with the bags. And as I mentioned we had a late breakfast, or maybe it was an early lunch, at Bayside. We didn't rush in the morning and by the time we got to the port, there really was no wait. Well, that's because we were the 2nd to the last group to board they told us. Most people were already on the ship. Ok....So, check in was smooth, we got our Sea Pass cards and we were on our way!

I'll mention now that when we booked Keith and I did get the package with the Classic Beverage Package. We did choose to upgrade to the Premium Package before we sailed. Was it worth it? He likes the more expensive beers, so for him, yes. However, the selection of beers in that price range was really lacking. For me, I was glad to not have to pay extra for the Molecular Bar drinks or the Martini Bar, but I could never drink enough to pay for any of the drink packages. I did make use of it on this trip, just with bottled waters, coffees and teas, as well as drinks I tried out that I wouldn't have if I didn't have the package.

Ok...moving on! We boarded the ship, and you know how as soon as you cross over onto the deck, you get that feeling - even though we had been in Miami for a bit now, once on board the ship - Instant Vacation! Love it! We were handed our champagne and the kids again remarked that this was so not a kid ship! :rolleyes:

Since we boarded late, we were able to head right to our cabin. It was nice to not have to carry our carry on bags around while waiting for our room to be ready. I hadn't told the kids or Keith anything about the cabin we had. And it sort of surprised me that Megan hadn't asked a million times by now because she's a huge planner when it comes to our trips! Usually she likes to know every detail. So, I told them, we were on deck 7 and to walk ALL the way to the front.

They were thinking we were all going to be pretty cramped in one small cabin, but since the pricing was so great when I booked I was able to get one of the Family Ocean View cabins! They were shocked when they walked in! It was HUGE!

The living room

The view out the window towards the front of the ship

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The main bedroom

The kids bedroom

The bathroom was the standard bathroom as far as I know

The living room from another angle. I'm not sure, but the sofa may turn into a bed.

The balcony - this was the smallest part of the "room"

You can't really tell from the picture, but behind Keith is a metal "wall" and it curved out over the side so that our balcony was sort of covered on one side. It was the first one on the ship and it made it almost feel enclosed. We just didn't use it as much as we've used our balconies on our other cruises.

The best thing about this cabin was the huge amount of space. The tv was in the living area so no one kept anyone awake at night. We weren't living on top of one another. Our stuff wasn't all over the place. There was plenty of closet space.

But the cabin wasn't without it's problems. Even with all that space, and as lovely as it was...would I book it again? Hmmmmm.....

After checking out our cabin, it was about time for the muster drill. Our station was in the theater, which was nice. So off we went. The drill was pretty complete, and to the point.

Afterwards it was time to find a spot for sailaway. We decided to head on up to the lawn area. It was a beautiful day in Miami and the sailaway was just lovely!

Once we were underway, we took care of making our dinner reservations for the week at the Specialty restaurants and then did a bit of a mini-tour of the ship. If we would have boarded earlier in the day, we would have done a "tour" tour of the ship. You know, gone to the spa and done their tour, gone to the teen club and signed in the kids, gotten an overview of the ship. But by now, when we went up to the teen club, they were already closed until later in the evening. This was really the drawback of the later boarding time. By the time we got on, got to our cabins and did the muster drill - our day was already almost over.

Just some pictures as we walked around...

The Fun Factory for the younger kids....

And on the other side of the ship, the X-Club for the teens

The Hideaway - a place to just relax, in strange shaped chairs!

The library

The ship does have some very unique artwork, and there's a book in each room that explains each piece and where it's located.

And then you have the really huge wine selection in the Main Dining Room!

Back up on the Lawn, you have these really big chairs

I'm pretty sure for dinner that night we ate in the Main Dining Room. We had the Celebrity Select Dining. Our dinner was good, our server was good as well. But to be honest, I can't remember anything as standing out about the meal. We've found that the food in the MDR of Celebrity has been very good in the past, and this lived up to our expectations.

After dinner the kids went to the teen club and Keith and I went to the show. It was a "beat box/juggler". We actually enjoyed it, and that's saying quite a bit as Keith is really not one for shows! It was just a bit different and that's a nice change of pace.

Afterwards we stopped at the Molecular Bar.

I have a really blurry picture of the drink I got, which I hate to even post, but here goes...just because it's got the liquid nitrogen thing going on!

All in all we had a great first day on the Reflection! It looked like it was going to be a great week!

Thanks for your review - I am enjoying it!

Great start! I am really interested in the Top Chef stuff. Can't wait to read about it. :)

Enjoying your review and photos. Can you tell me what camera you are using? I am considering purchasing a new one for my next cruise and like the sharpness of your photos.

Cannot wait for more. Great pic of you and your daughter.

Loved Reflection and cannot wait for Nov 2015 to sail on her again.

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Lovey photos! What was it about the family cabin that makes you unsure if you would book it again? We always choose them, for the space, was it the docking noise in the morning perhaps? Got to love that early morning wake up call!!

Looking forward to more of your review.

Enjoying your review and photos. Can you tell me what camera you are using? I am considering purchasing a new one for my next cruise and like the sharpness of your photos.

Hi! I actually have a couple of different cameras that I used this trip. My main camera is a Nikon D7000. I am a bit of a photographer at heart and splurged before our trip to Europe last year and got that camera. It's been just amazing! If you have the budget for a great DSLR, I highly recommend it! Feel free to check out some of the pictures in my European trip review in my signature!

Then this past year, I wanted something I could just grab and go - more of a point and shoot type. I needed one for quick trips where I couldn't take the DSLR with me. I found a little Samsung WB350F. I love it! It's got a great zoom at 21x optical zoom and for the most part great clarity. I also like that it has WIFI capability and allows me to directly upload pictures to either my phone (which is a Samsung) or directly to Facebook!

The pictures that aren't quite as sharp are cell phone pictures. But honestly, they're not too bad either!

If you have any questions, let me know.

Lovey photos! What was it about the family cabin that makes you unsure if you would book it again? We always choose them, for the space, was it the docking noise in the morning perhaps? Got to love that early morning wake up call!!

 

Looking forward to more of your review.

Thank you for the compliment on the photos!

Definitely a noise issue! But it wasn't so much the docking. I'll be going into it in the next posts....I knew about the docking noise before booking from reading the posts here, so I expected some noise on port days. When we docked in Miami coming back - well that was a bit more than expected. But there was a lot more than docking noise! Did you have round the clock slamming and crashing sounds every 30 seconds or so for hours at a time as the ship was sailing? Hmmmm....that was our experience during parts of the first days until we got to San Juan! :eek:

I always love sleeping on a cruise. The beds are usually super comfortable and I love the slight rocking of the ship. We had this great cabin, which Megan reminded me to mention that I forgot to say had a doorbell even! And of course, she had to ring it every time we came back to the cabin, even if she was sure we were all standing outside the door! But yes, it was pretty cool to have a doorbell!

But sometime during the night I woke up to a slamming sound. Maybe it was a crashing sound...At first I thought maybe it was the cabin above us moving something around. But boy, it would have had to have been them rearranging their entire cabin! It just went on and on and on! It would stop and start. Being the middle of the night, I sort of drifted in and out of sleep. When we got up the next day, the four of us mentioned hearing the noise. Keith was convinced it was the theater moving equipment...now that doesn't make sense since that is 2 decks below us. The kids figured it was the equipment in the front of the ship or the ship itself hitting the ocean. Sort of like when you're in a speedboat and you hit a wake. Yup, that's exactly what it sounded like. Only we were on a cruise ship. Imagine that sound on a cruise ship! So, no big deal, we left and went to breakfast.

It was a pretty windy morning, and the sea was slightly choppy. We all found something to eat in the Oceanview Cafe. We generally liked the buffet for the meals we had there. Usually breakfast and lunch. The overall opinion was that of all our cruises, they had the best "ship pizza"!

After breakfast we went outside for a bit and found a few chairs and relaxed a bit...yes, just an exhausting morning!!

It was about time for the Top Chef Meet & Greet and also the Galley Tour. The kids went to the Teen club I think and Keith and I went to the Opus Restaurant for our Top Chef Meet and Greet.

The ship does have these ship map displays by the elevators so that you can find your way around. They're not the most detailed, but they get you where you need to go!

We probably wouldn't have done the Galley Tour if it wasn't right after the Meet and Greet. Keith and I had done one a few years ago on the Eclipse, and while it was really fascinating on that ship, it's sort of a been there seen it type of tour. Keith is also a chef himself. Which is a main reason we chose this cruise. And while he was really fascinated with the first Galley Tour we did, spending his outside cruise time walking through a ship kitchen, when he spends every day in a kitchen was a bit anti-climatic for him at this point.

However, the Head Chef and several of the Chef's from the ship were introduced and they do an amazing job on this ship.

And then the four Top Chefs came out and each gave a VERY brief introduction.

The chefs on our cruise were:

Tiffany Derry Season 7

Hosea Rosenberg - Winner Season 5

Casey Thompson - Season 3

Shirley Chung - Finalist Season 11

Also, one other Top Chef note - Season 11 was on a continuous loop on one of the channels on board the ship. I believe it's on every sailing, constantly. It would have been nice if all of the seasons that the Top Chefs on board were played because for those sailing who were not as familiar with the show, they only really saw Shirley since it was her season playing. The other chefs remarked about this a few times. Also, just watching tv, by about day 3, even not watching too much tv, you'd turn the tv on and there would be the same episode on...again! Some variety would have been great!

So after their introductions, we moved on to the Galley Tour - as each group was called the Head Chef would take some Q & A's from those waiting to be called. Pretty much anything relating to food operations on the ship.

Our group was called for our tour. We got to tour the "upper" kitchen. Every dining room has its own kitchen. I mentioned that we did a Galley tour on the Eclipse and we also did a cooking class when we sailed on that ship and got to cook in the Murano kitchen room at that time. Now we were in the upper kitchen of the Opus dining room. And every one has been incredibly spotless. For the number of dishes that go through those kitchens it is simply amazing how clean they are! That is what strikes me the most. That and how organized they are - although if they weren't so organized, they couldn't get the food out!

This is one of the boards that shows every dish and how it's prepared. This way the waitstaff will know what is in each dish and how it should look.

They even had the special dishes listed for the "Top Chef" night in the Main Dining Room listed

Overall the tour was interesting, but it was no where near as in depth as the tour we had on the Eclipse. I don't know if it was because we were in the upper kitchen, or if it was because they had so many people on the tour, or if they've just changed the tour itself. Here we just really had a quick walk through. But it was still very interesting and if you've never seen a professional kitchen, especially one of this scale - do it!

After this we had a short bit of time to spend outside in the sun before the first Top Chef cooking demo! It was tough to balance the fun in the sun with the Top Chef activities! Inside or outside??? The tough decisions of vacations.... ;)

The first of the no charge Top Chef events was Sunday afternoon. It was a cooking demo done by Tiffany. Keith, myself and the kids all were looking forward to attending. Keith and I have watched every season of Top Chef so we were pretty familiar with all of the chefs, but as we soon found out, some of the passengers on board were true Top Chef groupies! Yet at the same time, some of the passengers honestly weren't aware that there were even any Top Chef activities going on at all. And I think that's really as it should be. This wasn't a specially chartered cruise, so there was nothing overly intrusive for those who just wanted nothing to do with anything "chefy". Everything was totally by choice and there were no disruptions in the daily activities, at least that I was aware of!

So, as we were waiting for our first demo, up on the big screen was the loop of the Top Chef Season 14 that was playing on the TVs in our stateroom. So, just in case we had missed anything....here we go!

The stage was set and we were ready for some cooking!

Right on time, our Cruise Director, Josh (I hope that's the right name) came out and introduced Tiffany.

Tiffany came out and was incredibly personable. As the week went by and we watched each demo, each of the chefs had their own style of doing the demo - which was nice. Tiffany cooked and sort of narrated her cooking as she went. She told us what she was doing as she made her dish. Very much like a cooking show. She made a fish dish.

And then as her dish was finishing up, and plated, she fielded quite a few questions from the audience. Everything ranging from cooking tips, to questions about her time on Top Chef to what she's doing now, her favorite foods to eat and to cook. You name it. She was really great.

At the end several audience members were able to go up and taste her food.

I thought the whole demo was done very well. There were some great tips shared on cooking and the Q & A at the end was really great!

So far, the Top Chef experience was a hit with our family! :D

I'm not really sure what we did the rest of the afternoon. I think the kids went back to the cabin and Keith and I sat out on the deck and read. It was formal night and we decided to "go formal" and eat in the Main Dining Room again.

So we went back to the cabin to get ready and immediately noticed that the slamming and crashing noise continued. This again prompted the debate of what was causing the noise. We had really been all over the ship during the day and didn't hear any noises, the ship wasn't really rocking too much, although for the first time in 5 cruises Alex was feeling somewhat sea sick and that was unusual for him. Keith and Megan continued with their theories that it was noise from above or below and Alex and I were sure it was the ship itself making noise because we were sailing fast and the waves were a bit high.

In any event, it was Formal Night and we all had to get ready!

A little help with his tie

When the constant noise finally wouldn't let up, and more so, the constant, discussion of what it was kept going...I finally called guest services. I honestly wasn't calling to complain so much as to settle the argument of what the noise was! While I was somewhat annoyed at the fact that it was LOUD and going on for more than 12 hours now and given that we weren't in our cabin for most of the day it didn't matter, I was now starting to wonder if it would continue all night long! So - I called and spoke to a very nice rep who's name escapes me at this moment. She was very apologetic, and told me she was going to get to the bottom of this and call me right back. She called back about 10 minutes later and told me she spoke to someone - I can't remember who, and was told that yes, in fact it was definitely the noise the ship makes when the seas are a bit rough and the ship is moving a bit fast - for example, when they are traveling to the destinations. It is the ship hitting the waves. They offered to move us to another cabin, and I declined because where could they move us? We didn't want a standard cabin. And my hope was that once we got to San Juan, we'd slow down going to the other islands and the noise would stop. She said she would check back in and she did more than once to see how the noise level was. She wanted to make note of it to "make improvements for future guests". Which I thought was a bit odd - had no one else ever noticed this before??

Anyway - we left for dinner, which was very good...

We really enjoy the Select Dining and though the service in the dining room was great.

After dinner, Megan and I went to the Captain's Gala Toast & Center Stage Show. Alex went to the teen club, and Keith went back to the cabin.

Sorry for the blurry pictures! I really liked the Captain's overall personality. Not that I met him in person, but the image he presented was great! He was seen about the ship and there was just something in his voice when he made his daily announcements that I really liked!

A little bit from the show -

Another great day on the Reflection! Tomorrow we head to San Juan!

On our last cruise, we were in cabin 6103 which is near the front of the ship. We too had a banging noise throughout the cruise. Sometimes it would wake us up. Our cabin steward told us it was from the ocean hitting the ship.

I did notice that once you were a few cabin in, that you couldn't really hear the banging. I'm not sure if you were in a forward cabin and on a higher deck if you would still hear that noise, but going forward I will be avoiding a cabin so far forward.

On our last cruise, we were in cabin 6103 which is near the front of the ship. We too had a banging noise throughout the cruise. Sometimes it would wake us up. Our cabin steward told us it was from the ocean hitting the ship.

 

I did notice that once you were a few cabin in, that you couldn't really hear the banging. I'm not sure if you were in a forward cabin and on a higher deck if you would still hear that noise, but going forward I will be avoiding a cabin so far forward.

It's interesting because I had done what research I could here on the Family cabins and while there was mention of noise while docking, there was no mention of the banging noise while sailing. I don't know if it would have prevented me from booking, but knowing now just how frequent it was...I definitely would reconsider!

I've also been in the 2nd to front cabin on the Norwegian Breakaway, on Deck 8 - so what seems like a similar position on the ship, and we didn't have any similar noise. But maybe the speed of the ship, design of the ship and the seas were just different!

It's just a lesson learned I suppose!

I'm hoping one day we (entire family including nieces that are going to be teens) can take an X cruise.

Thank you for this trip report! I love your 'fair and balanced' style!