Bob7

Doing our first aft cabin next week on Navigator of the Seas. We have room 7366 reserved for 2018 on the Reflection. I am pretty sure I will like the aft cabin but in hindsight right now it is a pretty expensive upgrade. I could get a basic balcony in an basic spot for almost 1000 less on an 11 day cruise. 7366 appears to be a wider balcony but no where near the size we will be on next week from my understanding. Pretty sure next week will tell all but do you folks think an aft is worth 1000? Anyone know how much larger this aft is? Thanks

At least it's good you have deck 7 on the Refl, deck 6 is obstructed with the lifeboats. On deck 7 you can see out, but not down if 2D cat.

Hi folks - My daughter and I got a great deal on an inside cabin for Silhouette in the fall; however, it does not qualify for any drink packages. I have used the Classic Pkg and was totally pleased with it; however, I am not one who is fussy about alcohol brands; I like Bud Light; I'm not one for fancy cocktails; and I usually don't mind basic house wines. It sounds like the STD would work for me - There doesn't seem to be much info online as to its inclusions. So I'm wondering if anyone has actually used this package and how you made out with it? I wondered if there was any choice of a sparkling wine on STD and I think I read that the basic espresso based coffees from el bacio are included? Smirnoff Ice drinks would be the only other drink I had on Classic that was nice to have included. Can anyone confirm? Thanks :)

The Standard package description handed out on the Reflection a few weeks ago reads:

"Wines - house collection of most popular grape varietals, such as chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, merlot, pino nooir, and other red blends.

Beers - Heineken, Heineken light, Amstel, Amstel light, Budweiser, Bud light, Dos Equis, Tiger.

Spirits - variety of well branded vodkas, gins, tequilas, rums, and whiskeys."

Cocktails - (about 30 cocktails are listed).

We found the cab-sav that was easiest to get in any venue was the Sundance from Chile, but the sommaliers said the wines change all the time and by the time you go it could be all different.

To see if the package is a good deal for you, the cheapest glasses of wine are about $9-10, beers are about $6, and cocktails about $8-9 (rum and coke was $9.xx incl grat), so you can calculate about how much you would spend per week on booze and see if it's cheaper to buy the package.

-Bob

(snip) I assume if you book onboard you just pick the 3-4 restaurants you want and choose from available dates/times when you purchase the package? (snip)

Yes when you buy the package they take you to a booking terminal and book your dinners right then. We bought the 3 dinner pack late afternoon embarkation day and times were already tight, we had to change our plans a bit to get booked.

Any Reports Of Discounted Specialty Dining on Reflection Lately? We are particularly interested in the Lawn Club Grill for dinner.

2 weeks ago on the Refl, first night use only 30 % off any venue, and also 3 dinners any nights any venues $109 pp (= about 30 % off also). Qsine staff were always cruising around the ship all week with some kind of offer. They have the white jackets with orange cuffs if you want to talk to them.

We're on the 2/18 Reflection and very conflicted for the possibility of a wine package. The Celebrity website (if it ever works) stinks for appropriate information.

I am hoping that someone....

A) Currently on board

B) Very recently on board or

C) About to board

...would be kind to post a picture of the MDR Wine List.

I would be VERY thankful!

The cruise review referred to above … what an excellent job by Seadog67. His photo of the MDR wines list by the glass makes it look like the Castle Rock pinot is the only red wine within the price range of the classic package, $9 or less. The problem is that the list does not get reprinted often enough to show what’s actually available, as other cruisers have said. So the sales promo sheet for the wine packages has a more current list (photo of prem below), but even this is lacking several choices. Two weeks ago on the Reflection there were 2 new cabs not on any list: Sundance cab and Anakena cab both from Chile. Clos LaChance merlot was sold out, but they still had the Callia shiraz and the Excelsior cab. We found the best place to actually see what’s generally available on the ship is at the buffet bar, enter on the right side of the buffet, bar on the left, and they have many of the wines sitting on the left end of the bar counter, about a dozen “operating” bottles, incl a premium or 2, that you can pick up and inspect, and giving you an idea of what the MDR sommelier is going to offer you. Did you want to see the Classic list too?

We also have pics of the wines by the glass in the specialty restaurants, but again they aren’t complete. The Qsine wine list actually shows nothing available at all in the Classic range of $9 or less, cheapest one is $10, but when you show them your Classic plan they will get you something, they got us the Anakena cab. The Tuscan list is better, and they have one of their own Classic-level house wines not available elsewhere, Poggio al Tufo.

Genuinely don't know about any rules forbidding wine in checked baggage. But we've done it and never had an issue.

Same here, no issue.

You're right, nothing on the Celeb site about how to bring it on board, I assumed it was like the other cruise lines. So if some is in your checked and some in carryon, how do they know when you reached your limit of 2?

(snip)Anyhow, they were collecting all bottles of wine and champagne when pax were boarding and then you had to get it back once you boarded. When you picked up your wine, they checked off how many bottles went to each room and kept anything beyond the two bottles you were allowed to bring.

That would be a way to control the amount, but they weren't doing that on the Refl this month. Of course no way to know if they were scanning checked bags.

We are booked on the Jan 2018 Ultimate Caribbean cruise..We have been on the Equinox which we loved during the day, but after the show and dinner,found very little to do at night except drink or go to Karaoke which was usually near empty…Does anyone know if the Reflection is any different?

We were on Reflection in Dec and the night life was really hopping every night. They have not one but two DJ's on the ship and theme party's almost every night. The 80's disco night was jammed with people on all 3 levels.

Just got off the Refl in January, Fielddreamer is right, below is taken from my cruise review:

... new entertainment feature which was awesome – the Silent Disco. (It should not be called a disco). The first one was held in the largest dancing venue, the Sky Lounge. On entering you get wireless sound-proof headphones which play 3 different music channels, and glow green, red, or blue depending on what channel you selected. Your color is quite visible to everyone else, so you can see what others are dancing to, and what is the popular song of the moment. One channel is older mo-town style, one is 80-90’s rock, and one is new rock. So everyone dances to the song they like, and you can’t hear anything except your song. If you don’t like the song, you just change channels. When you take off your headphones it’s hilarious, no sound on the dance floor except ppl singing along, groups of girls jumping up and down singing “I Don’t Care! … I Love It!” and “I wanna be Jesse’s girl!”. Like very bad karaoke, or a zombie dance party. When there wasn’t room on the dance floor ppl danced around the tables. Some couples were dancing together but listening to a different channel, but they seemed to make it work, and no argument about what song to dance to. A DJ cuts into the song when the crowd needs to know something … like “take the drinks off the dance floor”. The headphone staff told us this started at land clubs about 6 months ago. It was just a hoot. DW said she would order a drink when a bad song came along, but it never did, and she danced so long she got a blister (but it would not be hard to get a blister in those little strappy “shoes”).

Another night it was held in the Solarium with all the loungers removed, but that had less of a club atmosphere and was more like a rave. The host did a drink event where everyone was asked to test and rate 2 new cocktails. Large tables were filled with champagne glasses half full of one of the cocktails, they were fairly strong, and ppl could drink all they wanted. It was being videoed, we had to sign a release on entering. The object seemed to be to get everyone buzzed fast for a hot video. One drink was ok, the other was weird. We got better drinks on our drink plan at the bar there. Everyone still had quite a hoot, it gets a lot of ppl dancing and singing. They also did this one late afternoon at the pool, and everyone screamed for more when the DJ tried to shut it down. It didn’t look like the older folks wanted to try it, there was no one at any of these events over 45 or so, but there was lots of big band swing music in the foyer area for them, and they were having a good time.

Will be on the Reflection in a few weeks, has anyone been able to order escargot at dinner in the MDR?

Perhaps someone will answer if the escargots have been available in 2016/17.

Just got off the Reflection, it was available every night in the MDR in the side menu of items that can be ordered any night, along with Caesar salad, etc. I have a money saving idea for the cruise lines regarding escargot ... folks me and my friends are just into the escargot for the garlic and butter, ya don't have to sell the farm to get snails, you can put a little button mushroom in there, call if faux-escargot, no complaints. Who out there would really miss the snails?

Indeed, it's 2 bottles per state room.

 

You can carry two bottles onboard in your carryon bag or in your checked bag. However if you were to make the unfortunate mistake of carrying two bottles in each it's fair to say that no one would ever know. :)

=Good idea about taking 2 in carry on and 2 in checked.

I thought no wine was allowed on board in checked bags, only carryons. If they scan and find bottles in checked you get called down to the naughty room to hand it over, or they can also remove the wine when they find it and send your bag up to the cabin.

If each person tries to bring 2 in carryon, when they see the 2 bottles they ask who you are with and see what that person has in their carryon. Ppl have said the only way around this is to board separately, tell them your partner is somewhere behind you, but it can't be too far away b/c you normally have to get your ship cards together, which is right after security. Has anyone here ever boarded at a separate time than their partner, each with a copy of the boarding pass, and got their ship cards separately? It's quite a game isn't it?

Just off the Reflection ... other posters have noted that not all wines are available in all venues, and the wine lists available are very incomplete, and both these turned out to be correct. A few sommaliers told us that the wines on board change all the time, such as 2 new red cab-sauv’s, Sundance and Anakena both from Chile, not on any ship wine list. It seemed like everyone was on a free (or purchased) drink plan, we only saw ppl sign for drinks about twice. For the past year or so it seems like both Celeb and the major USA TA’s have offered a free drink plan (along with free grats and OBC) for Celeb ships. We had the classic plan, which includes any wine $9/glass or less. The reds that qualified for the classic plan and were fairly easy to get at any venue were: Sundance (cab), Chile; Castle Rock (pinot noir), USA; Anakena (cab), Chile; Callia, Alta, San Juan (shiraz); Excellsior (cab), So. Africa; Gerard Bertrand, Minervais, France (syrah) (only in the Murano); Poggio Al Tufo, (cab) Toscana (house wine in the Tuscan Grill). They were out of merlots. You can see many of these displayed on the bar counter as you enter the buffet on the right side, and you can examine the bottles. We looked up ratings for them, and they all rated around 88-90, and retail for $8-13 a bottle. Many days they were selling them by the bottle for cabin use, at the buffet entrance, all priced at $20. We cannot tell a hint of caramel from a hint of vanilla, so we would not make it as wine snobs, but we were ok with the wines, much better selection than MSC ships. Here are the classic and premium wine lists below as handed out on the ship, which don’t exactly match with what’s available. The numbers after a few of them are ratings I found.

The entertainment was ok, comedian was very funny, but we have to mention a new entertainment feature which was awesome – the Silent Disco. (It should not be called a disco). The first one was held in the largest dancing venue, the Sky Lounge. On entering you get wireless sound-proof headphones which play 3 different music channels, and glow green, red, or blue depending on what channel you selected. Your color is quite visible to everyone else, so you can see what others are dancing to, and what is the popular song of the moment. One channel is older mo-town style, one is 80-90’s rock, and one is new rock. So everyone dances to the song they like, and you can’t hear anything except your song. If you don’t like the song, you just change channels. When you take off your headphones it’s hilarious, no sound on the dance floor except ppl singing along, groups of girls jumping up and down singing “I Don’t Care! … I Love It!” and “I wanna be Jesse’s girl!”. Like very bad karaoke, or a zombie dance party. When there wasn’t room on the dance floor ppl danced around the tables. Some couples were dancing together but listening to a different channel, but they seemed to make it work, and no argument about what song to dance to. A DJ cuts into the song when the crowd needs to know something … like “take the drinks off the dance floor”. The headphone staff told us this started at land clubs about 6 months ago. It was just a hoot. DW said she would order a drink when a bad song came along, but it never did, and she danced so long she got a blister (but it would not be hard to get a blister in those little strappy “shoes”).

Another night it was held in the Solarium with all the loungers removed, but that had less of a club atmosphere and was more like a rave. The host did a drink event where everyone was asked to test and rate 2 new cocktails. Large tables were filled with champagne glasses half full of one of the cocktails, they were fairly strong, and ppl could drink all they wanted. It was being videoed, we had to sign a release on entering. The object seemed to be to get everyone buzzed fast for a hot video. One drink was ok, the other was weird. We got better drinks on our drink plan at the bar there. Everyone still had quite a hoot, it gets a lot of ppl dancing and singing. They also did this one late afternoon at the pool, and everyone screamed for more when the DJ tried to shut it down. It didn’t look like the older folks wanted to try it, there was no one at any of these events over 45 or so, but there was lots of big band swing music in the foyer area for them, and they were having a good time.

Some wine info: other posters have noted that not all wines are available in all venues, and the wine lists available are very incomplete, and both these turned out to be correct. A few sommaliers told us that the wines on board change all the time, such as 2 new red cab-sauv’s, Sundance and Anakena both from Chile, not on any ship wine list. It seemed like everyone was on a free (or purchased) drink plan, we only saw ppl sign for drinks about twice. For the past year or so it seems like both Celeb and the major USA TA’s have offered a free drink plan (along with free grats and OBC) for Celeb ships. We had the classic plan, which includes any wine $9/glass or less. The reds that qualified for the classic plan and were fairly easy to get at any venue were:

Sundance (cab), Chile; Castle Rock (pinot noir), USA; Anakena (cab), Chile; Callia, Alta, San Juan (shiraz); Excellsior (cab), So. Africa; Gerard Bertrand, Minervais, France (syrah) (only in the Murano); Poggio Al Tufo, (cab) Toscana (house wine in the Tuscan Grill). They were out of merlots. You can see many of these displayed on the bar counter as you enter the buffet on the right side, and you can examine the bottles. We looked up ratings for them, and they all rated around 88-90, and retail for $8-13 a bottle. Many days they were selling them by the bottle for cabin use, at the buffet entrance, all priced at $20. We cannot tell a hint of caramel from a hint of vanilla, so we would not make it as wine snobs, but we were ok with the wines, much better selection than MSC ships.

Here are the classic and premium wine lists below as handed out on the ship, which don’t exactly match with what’s available. The numbers after a few of them are ratings I found.

The waiting area for all disembarkations is stated as the theatre deck 4 (main level), with graduated departure times depending on your baggage tag number, but if you wait on level 4 as suggested, when your number is called you have to exit and take either the elevators or stairs up to deck 5 to join the disembarkation line, which causes a huge jam. So if you wait on the balcony level of the theatre (deck 5) on the starboard side, when your number is called you walk out of the theatre, down the hall a bit (gangway sign is there), turn left and out onto the deck, much handier. Our number was called at 8, and we were at the taxi stand at 8:15. In the baggage claim area in the terminal you have to find the carousel with your number posted (there are 3 huge carousels), each about 4 times the size of an a/p carousel. Flat cab rate to the Miami a/p is $27, takes about 10-15 minutes.

We should mention there were several storm cells on our sea days, we could see them coming, and the captain announced he was changing course to get sunny weather and calmer seas, even estimating when we would hit blue skies, and he was bang on. They posted on one of the TV channels our intended route and the new route he used to miss the bad weather, nice touch.

We had a very nice time on the Reflection, but after our cruise on the mega ship Allure with the large variety of venues, upgraded entertainment, dining options, and latest features we will be looking to cruise on the new mega ships that are out and coming out. The problem we’ve found is the hot new ships have the worst itineraries and fewest port stops. Anyway everyone should have a great time on the Reflection and the other ships in her class.

-Bob and Wendy

There hasn't been any recent posts about this, I'm wondering if there shops or beaches or anything within walking distance from pier. I don't plan on doing an excursion here and am just wondering if a free "walk" or short taxi ride from the ship will be entertainment enough.

If you just want to do a half hour to 1 hour walk, the boardwalk around the bay is nice. Walk into town from the pier and turn right at the first street. When you get down to the bay there is a paved sidewalk about 7-8 feet wide that curves around the bay, but not all the way to the ships docked on the other side of the bay (if there are any, CCL uses that dock). On the land side of the walk there are parts that aren't pretty, some run down shacks, other better ones, but we didn't feel unsafe, lots of traffic.

There is also a good sized park inland from the pier about 3 blocks, nice to stroll around, old church on one side, benches in the shade.

I agree that the lifeboats don't really block the view, my concern would be noise. Do you hear any noise from the lifeboats if they are moving during rough seas? Perhaps squeaks, rattles etc?

Funny you should mention lifeboat noise ... one night we woke up to a noise that sounded like balls bouncing around a metal bingo drum, or gravel going down a tin shute. It was coming from outside, we opened the balcony door, it was raining pretty hard, then it stopped raining a bit, and the noise stopped, then it started raining again and the noise started too ... it was rain falling on the roofs of the lifeboats. I guess they are tin cans.

We got to know the lifeboats pretty well, we used the walkway on deck 5 under them for our jogging b/c the real jogging track was a mess weaving through loungers, and we never heard any noise from them. We peeked in one and Wendy said "how can they fit 400 ppl in there"? And I said you will probably have to lay on top of me. And she said "maybe I'll swim for the shore." Oh that girl.

There have been several good Reflection reviews lately, time to pay it forward with ours, and cover some things and offer some detail that we haven’t seen posted yet. We’ve also been following the wine threads and have some detail on that. 31st cruise, 8th on Celeb, Jan 7, 2017. Cabin was a cat 2D partly obstructed balcony, deck 6, $949 p.p. with free classic drink plan, free grats, and $300 OBC. Embarkation was the fastest ever, dropped the bags at 11 and walked on the ship at 11:50. Quite short security and ship card lines. Cabin hallways were closed off to cruisers until 1:00 when prep was done, so we had to take our carryons to lunch instead of leaving them outside the cabin and taking them in later when prep was done.

On boarding the sales pitch for specialty dining offered 2 options: 30 % off first night in any venue, and 3 dinners any nights any venue for $109 pp which equals about 30 % off, which we bought and used in the Murano, Tuscan, and Qsine. Bookings filled up fast for Murano and Tuscan Grill, and we had to scramble to get the dates and times we wanted (wanted to be in the MDR on chic nights for the good menus). Regular prices were Murano $50, Tuscan $45, and Qsine $45.

Lots of loungers at and above the pool, with some even open at prime time, due in part to the pool butlers who go around with a rolling cart and pick up any towels on loungers that do not also have some personal items, first time we’ve seen that actively done. So this solves the problem of ppl who abandon a lounger leaving a towel on it so others can’t tell if it’s in use (there are no towel police, you get them w/o beeping your card), so no incentive to return used towels to the bin.

The cabin was fine, good shower, enough seating. Duvets are too hot for us and the steward replaced it with a blanket. No dining venue menus on the TV, but nice that you could check your ship account. Cat 2D is often used for promotional pricing, and some of these cabins are luckier than others regarding the obstructed view due to the lifeboats. Looking each way from our balcony we could easily see that some of the lifeboats come up to about 4 feet below the balcony railing, while on the lucky cabins the lifeboats come up to about a foot below the balcony floor. The higher lifeboats mean when you are sitting on the balcony you don’t see much ocean, but you can see the land if there is some. The lower lifeboats allow lots of ocean view. We might not have noticed this except our balcony view was half a higher lifeboat and half a lower one. The cabins with the poorer view on the starboard side are about 6188 – 6198, and either direction from this range has a better view. Don’t know if the port side is configured the same, and don’t know if the other ships in the same class are configured the same. Ppl who like to sit and watch the ocean go by would not be happy with the higher lifeboats. There should be a price difference for these. Here’s shot of it below, but if seated on the balcony you have to drop this view to the level of the balcony rail, so the tugboat and barge would just barely be in view.

We tend to remember ships by cool features that other ships usually don’t have. We still remember the old CCL Destiny which had an upper level to the buffet with some lovely seating and views, and easy to find a nice seat b/c many didn’t want to climb the steep narrow staircase carrying food. The Reflection has some cool features. We like 2 person dinner tables so we have the privacy to reconnect with each other. We’ve never had a bad experience at a larger table, and actually met our favorite cruise couple at one. But anymore we want the private time, and often the dining rooms will jam 2 person tables several inches apart, so you might as well dine with your neighbor. Or they will be jammed close to larger tables, lots of distracting noise. In the Select dining area of the Reflection (anytime dining) there are 8 lovely 2 person tables along the glass balcony rail, nice view and private. The 2 closest to the entrance are the best (#417 and 517), but the others at the back are nice too. We asked for one of these every time we were there and never had to wait more than 15-20 minutes (they give you a beeper and you can go off for a drink or to shop until you get the signal to return). Another way to get private dining is to ask for a 4 person table for just the 2 of you, which we’ve seen happen on various ships. But sometimes these are jammed close to other tables too.

Other little cool things are almost too silly to mention: on some days there is a complete food station in the buffet devoted to donuts … glazed, iced, filled, all kinds. It was either breakfast or lunch, and there was always a crowd there. And on some days there is a chocolate fountain in the buffet, where you pick what you want dipped … donut holes, fruit chunks, marshmellows, etc, and the staff put them on scewers and dip them for you, just like in the old midnight chocolate buffet days. My DW knows her chocolate and said it was quite good quality, worth lining up for, and worth a couple hours in the gym. The Mast Grill burger station at the pool was great, had the gourmet toppings … bacon, fried onions, fried mushrooms, cheese, and warm buns, and great fries, not those stringy fries like McD’s. And you can get to the other end of the ship w/o clawing your way through the casino every time, a large walkway avoids it.

Tomorrow part 2 – an entertainment twist and wine etc

-Bob and Wendy

Nice thing about our recent cruise on the Refl, no one was wearing sweaty old ball caps in the MDR. But we recall seeing a few shorts.

Just curious about recent boarding times. Trying to come up with our action plan.

Fastest ever of 30 cruises boarding the Reflection early January. Dropped the bags with the porters at 11, walked on the ship at 11:50. Security lines were short, same with the ship card lines.

(snip)

I had the impression that Standard package was only on non-US sailings. Is it now offered on all cruises ? Not that it matters - I did not see a single drink for $6 except for a lite beer - no wine or cocktails.

Just got off the Refl and all the people that we met with the Standard drink package were from the UK or Australia. The big USA TA's don't seem to offer the Standard package perk, just Classic and Prem. Everyone on the Refl seemed to have a drink plan, we only saw 2 ppl sign for drinks. It's been a free perk for many months now, both from Celeb and from the TA's.

We're on the Reflection 2/25, and have some OBC we would like to use towards dining. I understand that there are sometimes reduced prices for the specialty dining restaurants. How do I find those and how much better are they likely to be? While I'd love to save some money and maybe do three instead of two, I don't want to end up missing a restaurant we really like waiting for a discount either.

We followed the deals too and they change from time to time, probably based on demand. Early Jan on the Refl they offered 20 % off 1 dinner that had to be used first night, and they offered 3 dinners for 2 people any nights for $109pp, equal to about 30 % off, which we did. It seemed the Qsine staff were always cruising around the ship offering dining deals. Tuscan and Murano booked up fast and we had to juggle our days and times to get what we wanted (to be in the MDR on Chic nights, better menu).

Getting off Reflection this morning. Hubby and I dined in Tuscan Grill a couple of days ago. We weren't quite sure what the chef had done to the food as it was very sweet. Hubby asked me to taste his pasta and chicken Parmesan because it tasted odd to him. I tasted it and realized it was so sweet; as if sugar had been added into the sauce pot and the chef didn't realize it. I had lemon chicken so that wasn't sweet. Then I tasted my sautéed spinach and it was sweet. We mentioned the sweet food to the waiter and he came back to the table and told us the chef says he uses a special sweet tomatos. I told him my sautéed spinach was not prepared with tomatoes but the dish was very sweet. Hubby and I spoke to the Maitre D and he told us they have had that complaint before. The chef said the cheese he uses is sweet.

 

The Maitre D comped each of us lunch the following day in Tuscan Grill. We did not go as we didn't want more sweet Italian food.

Went twice early January, they must have fixed it, everything tasted great.

Mr Yan, we're on the Refl in a week, just wanted to say thanks for all your observations, information, and humorous take on situations. We enjoyed your posts. Happy sailing.

Thx for the review ... we're on the Reflection in a week. About the Silent Disco at the pool, we like a Caribbean style band at the pool, maybe some steel drums ... was this headphone music old style disco?

And did you feel that drink service on the drinks package was prompt?

True and I was reading this afternoon that RCL has raised the price of a lot of drinks, not just wine above the premium package price. I hope Celebrity does not follow suit.

A few weeks ago on the RCL Allure incl the auto tip a standard beer was $6.xx and a basic rum and coke was $9.xx

I’ve asked this before but never found anyone who has done this …. has anyone who had a bev package taken their own bottle of wine to dinner? … if so, did Celeb try to charge you their huge corkage fee even after you showed them you had the pkg? … (and thereby saving Celeb the cost of providing wine). If you did this, was your bottle opened already or unopened?

We’ve got the basic bev package included as a perk next month, and are thinking of using it just for cocktails, beer, pool drinks etc and avoiding the wine selection problem and often slow service by bringing our own, but not if we have to pay $25 a bottle. If they insist on collecting the fee, we could start bringing our own (double) glass to dinner, we see lots of people doing that, but it’s nicer to have the bottle so my DW doesn’t have to walk halfway across the ship in heels balancing a full glass of wine. That was one sweet thing about our last RCL cruise, they dropped the corkage fee, and we somehow came up with 7 bottles of our own to use up. Didn’t have to wait forever for our first glass, and wait forever again for a refill. I guess cash tipping would solve the slow refill problem.

Hey Paul, thx for all the info, we're on the Reflection in 2 weeks. There are some reports of weird tasting food in the Tuscan Grill, many dishes tasted over-sweetened, would you give us your opinion, thx. And what area of the MDR is used for Select dining? Also, are drink orders in the MDR slow to come?

-Bob

Only a very small percentage of people who cruise post here (some more than others). While there are many people here with years of cruising experience and great advice,I would imagine most people cruise once in a while and are more than happy with their experience on the mass market cruise lines. Many use the ship as a hotel and spend as much time as possible off the ship. Everyone has different tastes in food and for some people, whatever is served on a ship is fine with them. One only needs to analyze the various "chain" restaurants that seem to attract a dedicated audience.

Agreed. We've taken many cruises over the years and we and our friends have often asked ppl on the ship if they know about Cruise Critic, and we've only found a few who did. That's surprising considering all the great info you can get from CC'ers.

About rating food, remember that thread a couple years ago, 2 ppl were on the same ship, went to the MDR the same night, both were big risotto fans, both ordered it that night, one hated it, the other loved it. Go figure.

About chain restaurants and MDR's, we've used this yardstick when discussing it with our friends .... if the pasta on the ship is as good as the Olive Garden chain we are happy, if the seafood is as good as Red Lobster we're happy, if the Asian is as good as PF Chang we are happy, and if the steaks/meat is as good as the Outback, Black Angus, or in Canada the Keg, we are happy. Entrees at these are about $17-20, except the Keg is more.