PurpleTraveller

You are very welcome. Thank you for reading along. Hope you enjoy all of the review. 😊

I spoke to my PVP today about a problem with my booking (which he has hopefully resolved) and as soon as I mentioned my issue with not being able to log in to my account he said that he knew of the issue. He told me to email Captain's Circle with details of the issue I am having and gave me an email address to do so. I will report back the result of my email when I get a reply. Unfortunately a number of service reps do not seem to have any idea about a number of issues which means that you have to ring more than once to get issues resolved. Good luck with getting your Future Cruise Deposit reinstated.

We really enjoyed our Celebrity cruise and loved the design of Reflection but did miss some Princess things. I think we would be very happy to cruise with either Celebrity or Princess in the future. It would come down to itinerary and price. This week I booked an Alaskan cruise for June 2023 with Princess and are really looking forward to it as we haven't done an Alaskan cruise before. We did 21 days on Royal Princess leaving from Barcelona on June 25, 2016. Was that the cruise you were on? We weren't on your tour to Cinque Terre as we went there in 2014 but went to San Gimignano and Pisa when we were in Livorno in 2016. We find six weeks is about our limit to travel overseas before we start to fade. What was the other cruise we were on together? It really is a small world when it comes to cruising, isn't it? Maybe we'll meet up in person on a cruise one day. It was a pity we missed our second cruise but we were lucky to not be sick and we made the best of it. Now I have to start planning for Alaska! I hope you enjoy your Celebrity cruise next year! 🛳️

There are so many different issues people are having with the website and it really is not good enough. I am not willing to open a new email account or change my password, which meets all their criteria, just because Princess has an IT problem. I still can't access my account though I can access my booking by using my name, birthdate and booking number. I also only booked with Princess because I had expiring credits to use but I am now rethinking. Good luck with making your booking.

I was able to login to my account with no problem on the weekend. On Monday I installed the Medallion app on my phone and since then I have been unable to login to my account on my phone or laptop. I get a message asking me to complete missing information which Princess already has. When I enter the information I get a message saying that the information is incorrect. When I spoke to Princess they told me to wait a few days and then try again. Annoying to say the least and this was after I was trying to do a courtesy hold on a cruise until I could speak to my PVP and an error message came up apologising for the inconvenience but my request could not be completed. Ten minutes later I received an email with a Booking Confirmation for the cruise. When I spoke to Princess they confirmed that the cruise had been booked and two FCD used as the deposit despite me not making the booking. Good thing I do want to go on the cruise. Princess seems to be having a number of IT issues at the moment!

It was on June 13, 2022. Barcelona may be different and it may be different in Madrid now as things are constantly changing with regard to Covid.

It was after we had left the gate and in a large area where everyone from arriving flights had to go through. There were a number of people checking arriving passengers and a number of people in full PPE waiting at the side for I assume anyone that needed to be tested.

I am Australian and flew from Sydney to Rome before doing a cruise and then flew to Spain after the cruise. It was June when I flew from Rome to Madrid. When we arrived in Madrid we were greeted by a gentleman who asked where we had flown in from. As soon as we said Rome he waved us through and did not want to see our SPTH QR codes which we had or our vaccination certificates.

Thanks! Hope you have a wonderful cruise and enjoy it as much as we did. 😊

Thank you so much for your lovely comments! I'm so pleased that you enjoyed the review and photos. I love taking photos even though I'm a rank amateur but I do admit I am pleased with the quality of photos taken on my fairly new phone. I did worry that relying just on my phone may result in disappointment but I'm pleased to say that I wasn't disappointed at all. Phone cameras have come a long way in recent times. I hope you have a wonderful cruise! The itinerary is great and I hope you enjoy the ports. Happy sailing and thanks again! 🛳️

Thank you so much! I am with you as Reflection is now my favourite ship. We had such a wonderful time with our new friends on the yacht that we will remember that day with immense pleasure forever. It was a shame that we tested positive before our second cruise but we did make the best of it. We did wonder if the result was false since we had no symptoms and we tested negative two days later but it is what it is and we still had a good time in Spain before we returned home Hopefully my review will help and inspire future cruisers. Thanks again and you never know, we may meet up one day on a cruise! 🛳️

Thanks! Thank you for reading the review and hope you enjoyed it. I was also very pleased to see that they removed the food. The thought of the food being left for other passengers to eat makes me shudder. I don't know why that man and others helping themselves with their hands think that their behaviour is acceptable but unfortunately is seen frequently. It is disappointing to hear that they didn't take action when you pointed out something.

Thank you so much! I really like to write reviews after my cruises because I get to relive them all over again. It still amazes me that a phone can take really good photos and this was my first trip not to take my DSLR camera to reduce the weight I had to carry. I have no regrets as my photos are good enough for my needs. You are absolutely correct in that one of the best things about cruising is the people you meet. We met another British couple on a cruise in 2016 and we are the best of friends and we have visited them twice in the UK and they have visited us twice in Australia. The friends we met on this cruise are gorgeous and we hope to meet up with them in the near future. We really did have a wonderful cruise and I hope that your cruise in October is just as wonderful and that you enjoy the ports as much as we did. Thanks again and happy cruising. 🛳️

Thank you! I'm glad the review has helped to get you really looking forward to your cruise, though I'm sure the prospect of enjoying your cruise and ports was already exciting. As you've read I loved Reflection and she really is a beauty. Have a wonderful cruise in September!

Thank you so much for letting me know this and giving me the link. The article made for very interesting reading and after experiencing Celebrity Reflection I'm not at all surprised that she was ranked #1. Now I'll just have to sail on more Celebrity ships. 😊

Thank you! I'm so pleased you enjoyed the review. We loved our cruise to the Baltics on Crown Princess so a Baltic cruise on Reflection would've been wonderful. Fortunately we did not have any symptoms and wouldn't have even known that we had Covid except for having our pre cruise test. Our plans did go a little haywire but thankfully we weren't sick and were able to enjoy the rest of our time in Spain. Thanks again. 😊

Thank you so much! It is a great itinerary and Reflection is a lovely ship. I hope you have a wonderful cruise and that all your other cruises are wonderful too!

Thank you! Hope you have a wonderful cruise in October!

Thank you so much. I'm pleased that you enjoyed my review and hope that some of my review is of some help to you and others on your Beyond cruise. It was such a pity that you didn't make the cruise especially after all your hard work on your wonderful cruise website and also keeping the roll call up to date. Thank you for making such a wonderful website that was so useful and helpful. I hope you have a great cruise on Beyond next May. I'm sure you will as the ports are all wonderful and from what I saw of Beyond when we finished our cruise in Civitavecchia she looks lovely. I also hope you have a great cruise on Apex in September. Have fun building the websites for each cruise as I know your fellow cruisers will appreciate your hard work and the information on them. Thanks again. 😊

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my cruise on the beautiful Reflection. Thank you to everyone who has followed along and for your lovely comments. I truly appreciate them all. Where are we off to next? To be honest I don't know. We will wait and see how the situation with Covid develops in the next few months but I hope to be cruising on another cruise ship sooner rather than later. Until my next cruise review, farewell and thank you.

Conclusion These are my opinions only and I'm sure others on the cruise will have had different experiences and opinions. EMBARKATION AND DISEMBARKATION Both were very smooth and quick. An easy process for both made getting onto and off the cruise very easy. CABIN We were in an Oceanview cabin at the very front of the ship on deck 8 (8106). We really liked this cabin. It is very spacious with the extra space under the window which looked out over the helipad. The bathroom was well designed with a shower door rather than a curtain and plenty of storage. We really liked having a couch in the cabin. There was a lack of drawer storage in the cabin but had plenty of hanging space in the wardrobe. We did not hear any noise from our neighbours and liked that the door to the cabin was in a private vestibule shared with the family suite next door so that there was not any passing traffic. The only down side to this cabin was vibration from the thrusters when the ship was manoeuvring when arriving or leaving ports and the loud noises from the ropes being let out when docking. This did not worry us as we were usually awake when arriving into port and weren't in the cabin when leaving but it could be an issue for others. We would happily sail in this cabin again. FOOD I know that food is very subjective but we were very happy with the food in the Opus Dining Room. We felt that there were good choices and the quality of the meals were very good. We thought the food in the Oceanview Cafe at breakfast and lunch was good but that the food at dinner was repetitive and not of a particularly high quality. We really liked the self service drink stations and that you could get juices and lemonade. SERVICE We thought that the service we received everywhere was excellent. I don't know if it was because the ship was only two thirds full (1950 passengers) but we thought it was great. Our steward was great and our servers Jessie and Edward in the Opus Dining Room were wonderful. I know that there were a lot of new crew but everyone was friendly and helpful. A huge tick for service. ENTERTAINMENT We only went to one full show in the theatre of singer Stephen Barry which we enjoyed. We went to the start of a couple of shows by the Production Team but didn't stay for long as we did not feel that the quality of the singers was high and we weren't enjoying the shows. The music played at bars and around the ship was good and we particularly liked the music played at the Sunset Bar. INTERNET I only had the basic internet included in the Always Included package. This was quite sufficient and fast enough for my needs. PASSENGERS There were only 1950 passengers on board so nowhere was very crowded (well, except in the main foyer during the ABBA Mania show). The demographics of the passengers was of a lower age than our latest cruises with Princess but I don't know if that is because Celebrity passengers are generally younger or because it was a Mediterranean cruise. We had the great pleasure of meeting many lovely people and making new friends. THE SHIP We loved Celebrity Reflection! She is absolutely beautiful and we loved her design. We thought she was in very good condition and we really liked the outdoor areas, particularly the Sunset Bar and back deck of the Oceanview Cafe. We also liked that there was a bar and open areas that allowed you to look forward. We liked the layout of our cabin. This was our first Celebrity cruise after sailing with Princess. We did miss having a guest laundry and a full Promenade (I know only on the older Princess ships). We also missed Princess's International Cafe that has sweet and savoury food, great tea and coffee and is open 24 hours a day. Cafe al Bacio just doesn't compare. The drawer storage in cabins is also better on Princess ships. Saying that, those were the only down sides and the positives of what we really liked on Reflection far out way those few things. We loved everything else about Reflection and we now have a new favourite ship! WEATHER We were blessed with wonderful weather during the cruise. We had a short shower of rain when in Sicily and Kotor but for remainder of those days and the other days in port the weather was wonderful. The days were warm to very warm and usually sunny. PORTS We really enjoyed visiting all the ports even the ones we have been to before. It was a pity that La Spezia was changed to Livorno but didn't affect our enjoyment of the cruise. COVID It is unfortunate that Covid is still with us and that I even have to mention Covid. I was really pleased that the pre cruise testing requirements changed to two days prior to the cruise as it made my life a lot easier when planning where and when to get tested. I am glad that the pre cruise testing was in place as I know a few cases were prevented from coming on board. During the cruise there was almost no mask wearing except in the theatre during shows. It seemed to be odd that you had to wear a mask in the theatre during shows but not when gathered together in the theatre for shore excursions. Although masks were supposed to be worn on shore excursion buses we were the only ones wearing masks on the bus in Kotor but everyone wore masks on the bus in Sicily. There were a number of cases of Covid on board but after the Sea Day on June 9, when the captain announced that there were 19 cases, he did not mention numbers again. Mid way through the cruise there were quite a number of people coughing, sneezing and spluttering and not wearing masks. A man sitting behind me on the shuttle to Livorno was sneezing so violently I could feel the sneezing on the back of my head and he was not wearing a mask. Obviously I don't know if these people had Covid or not but after hearing of a number of people who tested positive after the cruise, I daresay some of them did. The Oceanview Cafe is still not self service with the crew members serving everyone. This does slow down getting food but was not a problem at all for us. Sometimes you had to ask for more to be put on your plate. Once I asked for some dried apricots and was served one. I asked for more and was given another one. I then asked for ten and got them. Celebrity must be saving a fortune on the amount of food being used. Unfortunately some people were impatient and would help themselves to thing they could reach, using their hands. The worst instance I saw of this was one morning when an older man helped himself to food at the bakery section with his hands. He even bent down so he could lean under the glass/perspex screen while breathing all over the food, not wearing a mask and help himself to food at the very back. The poor crew member working there was calling out "Sir, please stop. Please don't do that" but the man ignored him. A short time later I saw all the food from that section being removed. I felt safe on the ship but I did wear a mask when in the hallways, in the lifts, in the Oceanview Cafe and when in crowded areas. I felt that Celebrity was doing it's best and all crew members wore masks. Hopefully in the future Covid will be behind us and we won't even have to think about it. OVERALL This was a wonderful cruise and we loved every moment of it. We are now Celebrity converts and look forward to another Celebrity cruise in the near future. I would happily cruise on Celebrity Reflection again.

Before I forget these are the ship's officers.

June 13 - Debarkation Civitavecchia This was the very sad day that we had to leave the ship. 🙁 We had breakfast for the last time on the back deck of the Oceanview Cafe. After breakfast we went to take our last look of our favourite watering hole - the Sunset Bar. We had a good view of the other ships in port which included the beautiful Celebrity Beyond and Queen Victoria. We watched the huge Costa Toscana come into port. Eventually we had to leave the ship so at 7.50 am we did self walk off with our luggage. It only took moments to get into the shed they use as a terminal at dock 25. It was a little disorganised and we had to ask where the free shuttle bus was. It turned out that unlike the marked shuttle buses going to the train station they were using coaches from various companies as the free shuttle buses. A quick ride to the port gate to Varco Vespucci shuttle stop. This was the shuttle stop that was used in recent times while the Largo della Pace shuttle stop area was being used as a drive through Covid testing area. I have heard that since we were there that the shuttle stop has reverted back to Largo della Pace. Originally we had planned to get the train to Fiumicino Airport but decided not to risk dealing with the chance of a sudden train strike and had booked a transfer from the shuttle stop to the airport. We booked with Civita Tours in mid May and the cost was €20.00 each. Shortly afterwards the cost went up to €25.00 per person. We got to the Varco Vespucci shuttle stop very early for our airport shuttle so we sat down to wait. Shortly after arriving the staff of Civita Tours arrived dressed in their yellow shirts. They put up a large sign so that new arrivals would know where to find them. They marked our names off their list and when everyone had arrived we made our way to their mini bus. There is no parking for vehicles other than the shuttle buses at Varco Vespucci so we had to walk to the port gate with our luggage to just across the street from the previous Largo della Pace shuttle stop. Now that the shuttle stop has reverted to Largo della Pace this step would be obsolete. There we got into the mini van and our luggage was loaded into the back of the mini bus. There were ten passengers. We left at 9.30 am and arrived at the airport at 10.20 am. We arrived in plenty of time for our flight to Madrid. We liked this Lamborghini Police car on display in the departures hall. When the check in for our flight opened we checked in and dropped our bags off. It took a little time to get through security as it was very busy but it was moving quickly and wasn't too bad. We continued our trip with five days in Madrid, an eight day coach tour of Spain which ended in Barcelona and then were supposed to do an eight day cruise of the Western Mediterranean on Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas. Unfortunately when we did our pre cruise Covid test we both tested positive even though neither of us had any symptoms. The next three days were spent trying to contact Royal Caribbean to tell them that we would not be boarding the ship and to cancel our cruise for a refund. The emergency numbers provided were only for US passengers and when we were transferred to the International line they could not help us because we booked in Australia. The emergency number for the Barcelona port service would not answer their phone (we rang them about 20 times) with a message to call back later. We got our son to ring the Australian service line but they could not help. We made dozens of calls and spent hours on hold (bearing in mind that we were ringing from Spain) to no avail. It was very frustrating and stressful! Fortunately along the way I was given an email address and I sent an email with our test results. Three days later I received a reply that they had cancelled our cruise and we would receive a full refund in 30 - 45 days. Amazingly, five days later the full refund was credited to our credit card. Yay!!! We tested negative two days after our positive test and we were able to spend the eight days that we were supposed to be on the cruise, in Spain enjoying the sunshine. We returned to Australia after six great weeks in Europe. Next I will do a Conclusion of the cruise.

I used Civita Tours after our cruise on June 13. We got the free shuttle bus to the Varco Vespucci shuttle stop (but I believe the shuttle stop has now returned to the Largo della Pace shuttle stop). We were quite early for our transfer so waited for the staff from Civita Tours to arrive. They arrived shortly after and wear bright yellow shirts. They also put up a large sign with the company name on it so you could see where to meet them. Our names were marked off their list and when everyone had arrived we had to walk with our luggage, out of the port and to the road across from Largo della Pace. This step will be obsolete now that the shuttle stop is back to Largo della Pace. We got on a mini van that was waiting for us and our luggage was loaded into the back. There were ten passengers. We left at 9.30am and arrived at Fiumicino Airport at 10.20am. I would happily use Civita Tours again.

We have never felt unsafe in Naples. We have walked in narrow laneways and been in areas that are definitely not on the tourist track. I wouldn't go down an alley that looks really sketchy or dangerous. The area around the train station is not that nice but we have previously walked from the port to the train station and did not feel unsafe. I think the area around the port is fine and there are usually plenty of people around. There are also plenty of other tourists around tourist spots. I describe Naples as gritty but I still love exploring there. Like many places I think you need to be alert and confident and if you feel uncomfortable or unsafe don't stay where you are but return to where there are more people and you feel safe and comfortable again. You will know your level of comfort and be sensible and have a great time in Naples. Oh, and I should add that there are many ways (and probably more direct ones) of getting to the places I went to but those shown on the maps just happen to be the way I went. 😊