Celebrity reflection 10 night ultimate caribbean cruise - march 23, 2018

This was only my second cruise and my first attempt at a review. I'm just going to start with our itinerary and post a few pictures to see if this works and then I will get more organized. I need quiet time early in the morning or late at night to concentrate. I was up most mornings on the cruise by 4:30am so did not make it past 10 or 10:30 at night. No reports on late night activities.

Day 1 March 23, 2018 -Departure - Fort Lauderdale, Florida - 5pm

Day 2 March 24, 2018 - at Sea

Day 3 March 25, 2018 - at Sea

To be continued later tonight.

CELEBRITY REFLECTION

MARCH 23, 2018

 

This was only my second cruise and my first attempt at a review

To be continued later tonight.

Thanks for posting. :)

Looking forward to your review and some pics of the ship as I will be sailing on the Reflection September 2019.

Cheryl

Day 4 March 26, 2018 - St. John's, Antigua

Day 5 March 27, 2018 - Bridgetown, Barbados

Day 6 March 28, 2018 - Castries, St. Lucia

Day 7 March 29, 2018 - Philipsburg, St. Maarten

Technical difficulties - Our rural internet is very slow. I'll try to post what I have so far. :D

Looking forward to your review and some pics of the ship as I will be sailing on the Reflection September 2019.

 

Cheryl

Thanks Cheryl. It's a beautiful ship. I didn't get pictures of all areas of the ship. Maybe next time I'll plan ahead.:D

Maris

Day 8 March 30, 2018 - Philipsburg, St. Maarten

Day 9 March 31, 2018 - At Sea

Day 10 April 1, 2018 - At Sea

Day 11 April 2, 2018 - Fort Lauderdale

I was on the same cruise. Your photography skills are excellent. I saw many of those same sights including the sunrise on day 10. I see from your profile that you also like birdwatching. On this trip I picked up two new lifers: brown booby and white-tailed tropicbird. Both on sea days. Hope you picked up some lifers too [emoji211][emoji846].

In st Lucia were you on a Cosol tour?

Can't wait to read the rest of your review.

I was on the same cruise. Your photography skills are excellent. I saw many of those same sights including the sunrise on day 10. I see from your profile that you also like birdwatching. On this trip I picked up two new lifers: brown booby and white-tailed tropicbird. Both on sea days. Hope you picked up some lifers too [emoji211][emoji846].

 

In st Lucia were you on a Cosol tour?

 

Can't wait to read the rest of your review.

Hi Nigel

Thanks for reading. We had some beautiful mornings. Looking out at snow covered ground here in south central Ontario. The birds in our yard are very thankful that the feeders are full again. And it’s cold.

I do enjoy watching birds .More of an enthusiast. I even use a Sibley’s bird app when on vacation and have access to the internet. I did see a few birds following the ship at times. May have been your lifers.

We booked our St Lucia tour through Celebrity. Being our first and possibly only visit to the island, there were a number of places I wanted to visit. My husband tends to worry and we wanted to be assured that the ship didn’t leave port without us.

Maris

Thanks for posting. :)

Thanks for reading and being my first responder :')! I have a question for you. As I said, I'm new to this. How do I make the font larger?

Maris

Thanks for your review,,, we were on this cruise too. it was a very nice getaway... as you we are back in Nova Scotia looking at snow..... :(.... we have the a nine day cruise on the silhouette booked next March so I have that to look forward to..... :)

Your photos are beautiful Maris! Can’t wait to read more. Spring is sure slow coming to Ontario this year.....:)

Sharon

Looking forward to your review and some pics of the ship as I will be sailing on the Reflection September 2019.

 

Cheryl

Cheryl

You've got a while to go. Lots of time to plan. Have you cruised before?

Thanks for your review,,, we were on this cruise too. it was a very nice getaway... as you we are back in Nova Scotia looking at snow..... :(.... we have the a nine day cruise on the silhouette booked next March so I have that to look forward to..... :)

We may have met you with the group at the Sunset Bar at sail away.

Thanks for reading and being my first responder :')! I have a question for you. As I said, I'm new to this. How do I make the font larger? Maris

When you choose to quote and/or post on, there are options at the top of the enclosed section where you are posting.

The selections include size, colors, script, etc. You will see it before you "submit reply". :)

Your photos are beautiful Maris! Can’t wait to read more. Spring is sure slow coming to Ontario this year.....:)

 

Sharon

Thanks Sharon. Where in Ontario are you? I thought we would come home to Spring. Can’t even bare to take photos of all that white stuff. I’ll add a little more to my post today to relive a bit of life in the sun.

On with the review. Again I hope that I'm typing this in the right place. A little bit about me to start. I'm a former teacher, now retired. I work part-time, do volunteer work, walk, read, cycle, take photos, camp, watch birds and I used to run (slowly). But when they say 'It's like running a marathon', I know what they mean. When I retired, my plans were to continue to pursue the 3 Rs - Running, Riding & Reading. Unfortunately, arthritis in my feet put an end to the running. That's when I got hooked on photography.

We have 3 grown children (who with their spouses, live in the area), 2 grandchildren, 2 grand dogs and two grand cats. We also have two yellow labs, Dexter & Stella. Ken calls them his favourite children. I can say that because our children won't read this and our labs though very smart, can't read yet.

I've been married to a wonderful patient man for 41 years. If you are old enough to remember Mad Magazine, you may be familiar with Alfred E. Newman. "What, me worry?". That's me. Ken does it for me. Though occasionally I do worry, with cause. Ken also hates heights and is a bit of a nervous passenger in a car. He did enjoy the 10th floor on the Reflection with our extra wide balcony. I can't say the same about our van tour in St. Lucia.

We have lived in a lakeside home north east of Toronto for almost 40 years.Our community has really changed over the last 10 years or so. People are selling their homes in the city and totally renovating or tearing down. We are asked why we would leave our beautiful home in the summer to camp in our 'tiny home' (travel trailer). It's for the peace & quiet.

My older brother has cruised for a number of years. He was an invaluable resource for us when he finally convinced us that cruising was great. We just didn't get it. Now we do. Our first trip to the Western Caribbean on the Silhouette was wonderful. Once on the ship, not a worry in the world. Even for Ken.

I will get to the review. I didn't take extensive notes. This is new to me. No food photos unfortunately. I love food and was so excited every time we went to dine that I forgot the camera. Really, every time. Anyway I will start the official review possibly later today, if I get a chance.

I will be starting from the beginning. That's home, because that's where trips start from. Our home didn't look like this when we left. We live in Canada, but I like the photo.

Maris,

We are in Ottawa (suburbs). We discovered cruising for our honeymoon 22 years ago and will be going on our 25th cruise in December on the Regal Princess, so you could say we are hooked! We have our first European river cruise booked in 2019 as well, to try something new.

Looking forward to more of your gorgeous photos!

Sharon

Maris,

We are in Ottawa (suburbs). We discovered cruising for our honeymoon 22 years ago and will be going on our 25th cruise in December on the Regal Princess, so you could say we are hooked! We have our first European river cruise booked in 2019 as well, to try something new.

 

Looking forward to more of your gorgeous photos!

 

Sharon

Sharon

I bet your weather is even worse than ours. Always thought that I'd like a river cruise. Maybe in the future. A few more photos and commentary this evening before I curl up with a good book under a warm blanket.

Maris

March 20, 2018 - Leaving home

The first day of Spring officially though I don't think Spring will arrive here in Ontario for some time. My brother Neil, our source for all things cruising and my sister in law Elaine were kind enough to offer us a stay at their place the night before our flight, a parking place for our car and a drive to Pearson airport. How could we say no to this kind offer. The weather was cold and clear as we packed up our unsuspecting dogs for a car ride (to the kennel).

They get so excited as we approach the 'Resort' and run in the door. The tiny young woman who runs the kennel takes them to the back and we see her flying the other way to where the food is stored. We sneak out. Our older dog is 10 1/2 and I have to say that we worried about him for much of our vacation. He made it home in good condition, but does seem a little older.

It was an uneventful drive from Peterborough to Mississauga. Traffic was fairly light in the late afternoon and we arrived in time to have a good visit and an excellent home cooked meal. Our flight was at 10am the next morning.

March 21, 2018 - Trip to Fort Lauderdale

I was still up at 4:30am. So excited. I checked our flight status 5 times, Marine Traffic, the Port Everglades Port Schedule, Port Everglades web cam,the Flight Radar24 app & Accuweather. All good to go. I love technology.

Neil drove us to the airport. There was very little traffic. Check in, customs, baggage check all went smoothly.

It was quite quiet at the airport when we arrived.

This is similar to the plane we were on on the flight south.

This was possibly the plane that brought us home almost 2 weeks later.

West Jet in the sky and on the tarmac.

We sat in the emergency exit row on the plane. More leg room. There was a Cruise Critic member on the plane a few rows behind us. It was Bill, who organized the Pub Crawl. We meant to talk to him. Circumstances kept us busy and we never saw Bill again. Hi Bill if you happen to read any of this. I hear the pub crawl was a success. I always take the window seat. I'm still slightly thrilled by plane travel, though less so all the time. My first ever large airplane flight was from Toronto to Busan, South Korea when I was 54 years old. I was probably the only person on the plane who wasn't bored on the flights. Over 24 hours of travel and 14 hours of time change. Back to the recent past. I was by the window, then Ken and then another gentleman with a really nice camera. We talked photography and took photos out the window. I imagine his turned out better than mine.

He asked me what I do with all my photos & I said that I print very few and mostly just keep them on the computer. He said that he did the same but had recently discovered Instagram. Gave us his name and when I checked him out at the hotel later it turns out that he's a very talented commercial photographer.

I mentioned earlier that I don't worry. I did have one worry that I didn't want to talk about. Our hotel room. I booked a room way back in August at a price that was 'too good to be true' through booking.com. I am not a seasoned traveler and booked the room at the Hilton Beach Resort on line through a company called Airpads. Our reservation was accidentally cancelled in January and when I tried to make our final payment there was a problem as well. I was ready to cancel the whole thing but when I checked the price of rooms on the Fort Lauderdale beach in March I/we decided to take a chance.

At the Fort Lauderdale airport our bags were almost the first off the flight. We had prearranged a ride and when we went out to the waiting area our car was there. Everything was going so smoothly. I was getting more nervous about our accommodations.

I shouldn't have worried. Check in was a breeze. Our room was on the 22nd floor with a great view down the beach. I'll post a few first day photos before I go catch up on a good book.

Turns out I can only put 6 images in a post. I didn't know that. I guess I'll wait until tomorrow to post hotel pictures. The book is waiting.

March 21, Fort Lauderdale (cont.)

After checking in to the hotel, we had a late lunch by the pool. It was quite cool. I think only mid to high 60s. The people in the pool must be Canadians.

From our balcony at night. There was a party going on at the top floor of the Conrad.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida - March 22, 2018

It was cool again. We were up and out early after a quick breakfast in the snack bar/Starbucks downstairs. The Starbucks in the Westin(?) was closed so the snack bar in the Hilton sold some Starbucks products. Therefore it was quite expensive. We were greeted by Jorge, the friendly server who also worked in the poolside restaurant. He had family coming to visit from New York and was worried about the stormy weather on the east coast.

I stepped outside to check the sunrise and to see if there were any ships coming in.

I went for an early morning walk down the beach. It was still very cool. Your feet really sink into the sand on the beach so it was a good work out. With my feet, I find that walking barefoot in the sand really helps with the pain. I asked my doctor for a Beach Rx. He laughed, so I had to do it myself.

Maris

Loving your review we have till next February until we get on Reflection from Fort Lauderdale, great pics , cheering me up when I wake up at 5 to set of to work.

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March 22, 2018 Fort Lauderdale (cont.)

After the beach walk I came back to the hotel and took a few photos of the outside of the hotel and the pool area during 'the golden hour'.

Then Ken and I went for a walk around the area.

Can I ask what hotel that is that you stayed in.... thk u

Loving your review we have till next February until we get on Reflection from Fort Lauderdale, great pics , cheering me up when I wake up at 5 to set of to work.

 

 

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Thank you. You have something to look forward to next February and tomorrow morning I should have some Reflection photos posted for you to check out before work.

Maris