Reflection Dec 6, 2014 - E Carib, Aft Sky Suite, Specialty Dining

Just a few facts & our opinions, not many pix….

Takeaway: We thought Reflection delivered a wonderful cruise experience, and we were fortunate to have spectacularly gorgeous weather all week!

Background: This was my 34th cruise, 5th on Celebrity, 2nd on Reflection (the first time was Dec 2012), 1st in an X suite, 1st as a mother-daughter experience. It was my 80-something mom’s 4th cruise, 1st on X.

Overall Impressions: The ship was super clean, the food was the best I’ve ever experienced on X and the service everywhere was friendly and professional.

Random observations of note (and touching on some frequent CC topics):

• Kudos to Housekeeping - Almost every time we used a public restroom, an attendant was present keeping the sinks spotless, the cloth towels supplied and disinfecting toilets and mopping floors after nearly every use. I’ve never seen anything like it on a cruise ship! Also, public restrooms now have an automatic door opener button you can depress with your arm as you leave to keep your hands squeaky clean.
  
• Improved Guest Relations - Staffers were consistently cordial and much more customer service-oriented than I’ve experienced in the past.
  
• Jumping for Java Joy! - The restaurants and buffet are now equipped with Lavazza coffee machines for dispensing a regular cup of joe. It’s the first time I’ve had decent coffee on a cruise without paying for it (although I did hit Café al Bacio for specialty coffees a few times).
  
• Hip hip hooray for OJ! - The OJ now served for breakfast in the restaurants is pretty darned good, too. No more orangeade!
  
• Seamless traveling wine bottles – The last time I was on Reflection, they had the darndest time keeping track of our unfinished wine bottles between restaurants; this time, the system was faultless—wherever we dined, our wine quickly appeared.
  
• Fellow pax were mostly courteous - We didn’t experience much of the kvetching, elevator shoving, scooter abuse, chair hogging and unsanitary buffet behavior others have noted. The BIG exception was the frequency of incredibly arrogant talking during theatre performances and speaker presentations, including at the Captains Club Celebration. As Captain Peppas began his welcoming remarks, he pointedly stopped, expecting the talkers to quieten; when they didn’t, he shouted the last sentence again, which hushed a few, but unbelievably, some just kept jabbering away.
  
• Elevator wait time - I usually walk the stairs, but mom needed a lift, so for the first time, I realized, yeah, sometimes, you have to wait a while for an elevator with room to spare!
  
• Photography - I am annoyed by the increasingly high cost and hard sell to buy packages, but really exercised by the fact if you only opt for a print or two, they now skip the protective folder and give it to you in a cellophane sleeve, which makes it hard to transport home undamaged. Grrr!
  
• Beyond the Podium with David Stroh’s sea day astronomy talks – They always conflicted with something, but sounded so interesting! Hats off to X for providing a lecture series.
  
• Holiday touches - The ship was beautifully, albeit subtly, decorated for Christmas, with a few Hanukkah touches, as well. As you can see in my stateroom pictures below, we strung some lights on our balcony. And here's a shot looking down on the Grand Foyer depicting trees and garland.
  

Elite Benefits: Not having previously cruised with a non-Elite cabin mate, I had to do a bit of quick CC research pre-cruise to confirm my mom would be treated as Elite, and she was for the purpose of events, continental breakfast in Tuscan Grille and Social Hour in Sky Lounge. Of course, she didn’t get her own coupon sheet. I liked that the 90 free minutes of Internet was automatically activated when signing in. I bought a couple of bottles of wine on Embarkation day before reading through the coupons, which offered two different wine benefits, so I asked Guest Relations if they could retroactively apply the benefits, and they did so. Elaine Richelle Gan was the Captain’s Club Hostess.

Elite events our week were as follows:

• Casino Double Jackpot (I have no idea what this is!)
  
• Captain’s Club Celebration (for all Captain’s Club members) - well-attended daytime party in the gorgeous Sky Lounge with wine and cocktails, passed hors d'oeuvres and dessert bites, Captain’s welcome and music + recognition of cruisers with most cruise days (the lovely Arno & Joanne were tops—I stopped by to say hello and thank you for Arno’s many helpful CC contributions—followed by the Chases)
  
• Senior Officers’ Cocktail Party - did not attend, as it was held mostly during first seating
  
• Wine Tasting Seminar - an informative event with four generous pours for midday!
  
• Backstage Tour - did not attend
  
• Elite Elegant Tea - held in Blu, they did not expect the large turnout, so wait staff had to scramble a bit to accommodate all, but it was a lovely event
  

Suite Life: The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are historically the lowest-priced cruise weeks of the year, even more so when you book at the last minute! We booked two weeks before sailing, and prices were so low, I quickly realized this could be my chance to try an entry level X suite. So…6307 was the last available S1—we took it and felt like queens all week!

6307 is the port aft “wraparound” Sky Suite on deck 6. In fact, there are only two suites of any kind on deck 6, and my pre-cruise crash course on suite life turned up some CC threads suggesting butler service could be disappointing as a result. Knowing we wouldn’t be demanding guests, but desiring that our few requests be promptly satisfied, I decided I’d tip our butler after he performed our few Embarkation day requests. I have no way of knowing whether that influenced his service the rest of the week, but I have to say, we received excellent service from the delightful and competent Dinu. Our stateroom attendant, Joaquim, was equally wonderful.

Just FYI, here’s a list of the suite services you can expect. http://www.celebritycruises.com/onboard-celebrity/staterooms-suites-stateroom The Suite Concierge was Chester. We did not hear from Chester pre-cruise or during cruise, except for his welcome letter, and we made no requests of Chester.

Here are a few pictures of Sky Suite 6307.

• The dreaded pole - Aside from providing pole dancing jokes, the pole didn’t impact us at all, except that we were so afraid we’d run into when making nighttime bathroom trips that it ended up being a welcome “I’ve reached the pole” navigation aid!
  
• The balcony - This was a shocker! I’ve never had a balcony so tiny! We did spend a fair amount of time out there, including one breakfast…but sheesh!
  
• The Bulgari toiletries are pretty luxe.
  
• The tub and Hansgrohe shower head are awesome! I love that it is very easy to figure out the controls (I admit to being flummoxed when it comes to some of these new-fangled showers!).
  
• The only possible negative for the mobility-challenged is the somewhat long walk from the stateroom to the elevator. I didn’t mind the exercise, as I felt like a beached whale while keeping my mom company eating a “try it all” cruise diet and foregoing my usual daily gym workouts and track jogs!
  

And here's the itty bitty balc!

Walk out and look right:

Then look left:

Chairs pulled out and arranged to illustrate dimensions:

Note that when you are on the balcony looking to the right, the "wraparound" to the actual port side of the ship is minimal. You can, however, crane your neck, as needed, to see things...like this sunset.

<Insert obligatory cruise sunset shot here!>

Day by day:

Here are the daily notes I dashed each evening, with a little translation and embellishment. If anyone wants elaboration on anything, just ask!

Sat Miami Embarkation – We entered the cruise terminal at 11:34a and were checked in by 11:46a. Staterooms were ready as promised at 1p.

Sat Embarkation day lunch at Bistro on 5 – Extremely prompt and capable service throughout meal (they must have read the CC thread complaining about poor service!), savory crepe overcooked (deep brown and crusty), soups and salads good, sweet crepe delicious [loved this option vs. fighting the buffet crowd, other option is The Porch]

Sat Embarkation day dinner at Tuscan Grille – [We pre-purchased the 4-dinner specialty restaurant pkg plus had 1 specialty dinner as a suite benefit plus had Blu as a suite guest option, which is supposed to be subject to availability, but Blu was able to offer at all times this cruise with no capacity issues] Filet mignon good quality piece of meat cooked to desired doneness, spaghetti Bolognese and spinach as shared sides, onion soup and calamari starters, mango sorbet and toffee panna cotta (deconstructed)

Sat Embarkation day entertainment – CD is Josh Riffe, highlight entertainment was David Meyer on xylosynth (although he was not our cuppa, it was a nice change from usual variety show on opening night)

Sun At Sea breakfast in Opus -- slow service, food good

Sun At Sea buffet lunch – Indian, stir fry and salad for me (my daily routine) and for mom, feeling queasy from the rockin’ and rollin’ we experienced from Miami to San Juan, potato and leek soup, jello, choc/strawb frozen yogurt (love that Reflection has a nice array of ice cream and sorbet flavors daily, e.g., today featured van, choc, strawb, no sugar van, rum raisin, cherry brandy and guava sorbet)

Sun At Sea shipboard activities of note – We had signed up for an art studio class on Embarkation day, but made a wrong turn at the elevator on deck 15 and by the time we walked around to the correct side and thus arrived 5 minutes late, our spot was gone! Classes are popular, and the current art instructor is rather strict on time (but we enjoyed her in later classes, see Friday). Enjoyed the afternoon tea service in our stateroom (a suite perk).

Sun At Sea dinner at Blu -- three seafood entrees, lamb and inedible (per waiter) pheasant, vegetable entree delicious, macadamia nut encrusted scallops starter (heavy breading, not spa food!), arugula and pear salad, lump crab morel mushroom risotto (very rich, more uncharacteristic spa food!), roasted chicken breast, Apple crumble, phyllo no sugar fruit tart [we probably hit an off menu night, but all in all, we were underwhelmed by Blu, and now after eating at both Tuscan Grille and Blu, realized that my non-seafood/lamb-eating mom would have a tough time at most of the specialty restaurants, as all menus are seafood heavy, with a dose of lamb and (usually lame) poultry, leaving filet as the default]

Sun At Sea entertainment -- Dinu met us outside the theatre and escorted us to suite seating center front level two -- "Center Stage" featuring Broadway/West End show tunes incl. Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Jersey Boys (loved this show, each of Reflection’s four lead singers right now is very strong, and I always admire the fabulous dance troupe and orchestra)

Mon San Juan breakfast -- slept in, had cappuccino en suite, did buffet as only venue open for breakfast after 9:30a

Mon San Juan shipboard activities of note – used the complimentary Persian Gardens spa pass today (an Elite benefit to be used any port day, including the onboard portion of a late San Juan port day)

Mon San Juan lunch -- buffet

San Juan 3:30-10p (only Club Med ship in port with us) -- released to disembark early, taxi to El Morro $12 (can also take free trolley), 4p ranger talk a joke, walked to Hotel El Convento for dinner at Patio del Nispero but it was closed for a private booking by the Club Med ship, so had fruit punch, then walked down Fortaleza, the square, down to pier, horse carriage rides already done for the day (??! Arrived just at sunset, best time to see Old San Juan with usual architectural lights + Christmas lights), back on board before 6p

Mon San Juan dinner -- MDR select at table #552 primo two-top on the rail – chef-recommended appetizer beef ragout with gnocchi, Waldorf chicken salad, trout with fruit and nuts on bed of spinach and white sauce, chef-recommended entree veal in phyllo pastry with purée of butternut squash, served with vegetables, cherries jubilee (not flambed at table) and chocolate lava cake with coffee ice cream (deconstructed—a theme with the ship’s signature desserts) [This was one of the best meals we had all week—truly impressed with how the MDR has stepped up their game!]

Mon San Juan entertainment – Sin City (didn’t do it—our fav default hangout became the Grand Foyer lounge watching the several expert dancers on board this sailing/listening to music by house bands Xtasea and Blue Note)

Tues St. Thomas breakfast - room service (served by butler)

Tues St. Thomas 8a-5p (just two other ships in port with us) – Godfrey’s shopping and sightseeing tour worked our great for us, we had lunch downtown at Greengo's

Tues St. Thomas dinner – Lawn Club Grille [tied w/ Qsine for fav specialty restaurant meal of the week, loved eating, doing show and returning later for dessert] yummy salad and flatbread, best filet all week + veal chop, sides are weak point here, had the gooey chocolate chip and delectable apple crumble

Tues St. Thomas entertainment – Holland’s Got Talent vocalist and pianist Claire Vinkestejin (very talented)

Here's a shot of Reflection from "World Famous Mountain Top" in St. Thomas (not sure why the hazy blue hue, but hey, it's just an iPhone snap!).

Wed St Maarten breakfast -- room service (served by butler)

Wed St Maarten 8a-5p (just one other ship in port) – Water taxi to Phillipsburg to shop, taxi to and from Marigot for market day, more shopping, Roland Richardson gallery and lunch at Sarafina's Patisserie (see TripAdvisor reviews)

Wed St Maarten dinner – Qsine (see menu, loved everything we tried!, such a fun dining concept)

Wed St Maarten entertainment -- Britain's Got Talent Gareth Oliver ventriloquist (CC’ers had been raving about this guy, so glad we got to see him, funny, funny!)

Here's a shot from the ship looking out at St Maarten just before we slipped the lines and departed. I took this from the Solstice Deck 16, which is the topmost deck of the ship--see map. It's secluded and has some nice, comfy lounge chairs (I had thought this was reserved for VIP guests, but there was no signage limiting access).

Thurs At Sea breakfast -- Opus

Thurs At Sea lunch -- Murano (special one-time lunch offering with live music, substituted this for pkg dinner, as we were feeling over-sated by rich food by this point) goat cheese soufflé and pear salad starters, filet and sea bass, soufflé and another deconstructed sweet treat – all good, but 1-1/5 hours three courses at lunch was a tad tiresome!

Thurs At Sea shipboard activities of note – Mom had her hair done in the salon for formal night and loved the stylist’s take on a mature woman’s do!

Thurs At Sea formal night -- table #552 not available, so #568 also good two-top on the rail – oops! forgot to record what we ate, my recall is that we weren’t jazzed about the menu for a formal night lineup, but it was good nonetheless

Thursday At Sea entertainment – second production show “Reflection The Show” featuring singers, dancers and Cirque du Soleil-like performers with hit 80’s tunes by Rolling Stones, Journey, Led Zepplin, etc. (terrific)

Friday At Sea breakfast – Opus

Friday At Sea lunch – buffet

Fri At Sea shipboard activities of note – We did two fun art classes today: watercolor postcards (free) and mosaic pendants ($20 per person? I can’t remember!). Art instructor Jenny is pleasant and well-organized with supplies and the brief tutelage required for each activity (she had a nice variety of offerings over the cruise week, including beaded bracelets, mosaic rings set in clear resin, an Asian type of brush painting and abstract acrylic). Getting creative for an hour in the atmospheric Art Studio (up top adjacent to the lawn) is a relaxing activity, promotes friend-building around the table, attracts women, men and teens, requires no art background (as she says, some newbies shine and so-called experts flail!) and yields a unique souvenir.

This afternoon, one of the lounge acts, a husband and wife duo named 5 O’Clock Somewhere, put on an afternoon concert in the Reflection Theatre.

Friday At Sea dinner – Opus at #568 again – kickstarting our anti-waddling program with salad starters and haddock mains, yet not going overboard with things = ending with crème brulee! All in all, our MDR meals were a surprise hit thanks to better than average food and superb service.

Friday At Sea entertainment – Illusionists Kyle Knight & Mistie (good if you like magic)

Saturday Miami disembarkation – Suite guests can disembark anytime, and our flight out of MIA wasn’t until 11:45a, so we were in no particular rush, except to grab a sit-down breakfast before the restaurants closed at 8a (buffet open ‘til 8:30a), so we headed to Opus. They were scrambling to accommodate because the numbers who chose the MDR this cruise were apparently higher than expected, but everything proceeded efficiently and we were walking off and into a waiting taxi, with surprisingly no queue, around 8:30a.

CONCLUSION: Hope this helps someone with their upcoming cruise! I have a full collection of the Celebrity TODAY newsletters if anyone wants it snail mailed to them (Arno has uploaded the majority in his Reflection Nov 29 Sailing thread here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2132962).

Happy cruises, all!

Great job on the review. That balcony situation is interesting, I can't believe there's one like that for a suite.

Thanks for the review! You made it to some events we did not get to, and they sound like they were good.

5 O'clock somewhere also played at the Sunset Bar most late afternoons and were enjoyable. A couple got engaged on Thursday, and they did a nice job of announcing it and playing a couple of songs, all off the cuff as they were not aware that the engagement was going to happen.

Thanks for sharing.

Ken

gsu, yup, the balc was crazy small, even for two smallish women! Our butler expertly served us breakfast out there, but thank goodness we weren't in a "hang out and party on the balcony" mood! I'm sure CCers "in the know" realize to avoid it, which is probably why that was the only Sky Suite left when we booked 2 wks out! I did update the very handy stickied thread on S-class cabins, as I did check it before booking and wasn't forewarned.

ken, thanks for the 5 O'Clock sweet engagement story--I think that was the roar and clapping we heard one time! Those musicians were quite a talented duo and seemed to have developed a following.

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Wow! I had no idea there was that much difference in the S1 balconies. We also booked late - about 3 weeks out- and by just dumb luck chose an S1 on deck 7. We had plenty of room to put the chairs and ottomans facing directly aft with walk-around room to spare.

Do the balconies on decks 8-12 vary as much?

Babr, glad to hear deck 7 balcs had more room! I, too, would be interested in knowing how they progress up the decks. I am not likely to spring the $$$ for a higher suite category, but the Sky Suites are a good value, IMO, so I will be trying to educate myself on size and configurations.

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Great review, thanks!

I think it's just the deck 6 S1 balconies which are smaller. Reflection was slightly changed (as was Silhouette) by adding a cabin in length and pushing the last balconies further back over the Blu roof of Tuscan Grill. It looks like they ended up a bit short on Balcony space for your cabin.

Happy sailing,

Jenna

Sent from my iPad using fat fingers and Tapatalk

You made it to some events we did not get to, and they sound like they were good

 

Random observations of note (and touching on some frequent CC topics):

 

[*]Fellow pax were mostly courteous - The BIG exception was the frequency of incredibly arrogant talking during theatre performances and speaker presentations, including at the Captains Club Celebration. As Captain Peppas began his welcoming remarks, he pointedly stopped, expecting the talkers to quieten; when they didn’t, he shouted the last sentence again, which hushed a few, but unbelievably, some just kept jabbering away.

Very nice and detailed review of our cruise.

The passage between Miami and San Juan was very smooth compared to the previous cruise. The weather was spectacular, especially our entrance into the harbour.

The reason that Captain Peppas stopped and shouted was the result of a passenger rushing up to the front and telling the captain: "Speak up!"

I believe that the captain was not pleased with the abrupt tone of the demand.

We spoke to one of the dancing couples about their opinion of the atrium location for dancing.

We avoid it because once you get up to dance your seats will be occupied by others. They had a similar experience and they even had their drinks consumed while they were on the floor. :eek:

Thanks for your review, we'll be on Reflection in January are really looking forward to it. The dining room situation sounds promising, it seems that there are tables for 2 along the balcony that are comfortable and have a nice view. I'm thinking these are not the dreaded bench seats, where tables for 2 are lined up and only a few inches from the tables on each side. Did you find a good selection of tables for 2 or were you lucky enough to get a couple of the few available? Do you think being in a suite had anything to do with it? Did you ask the maitre d' for those particular tables or were you just lucky? Any tips to navigating Select dining are appreciated!

Thanks for clarifying about Capt. Peppas' stop/shout. From where we were sitting, I didn't see or hear exchange with the passenger. I could just hear the talking go on and on (which did make it hard to hear him--he is rather soft spoken, but so personable, informative and endearing for his really lame jokes!).

Interesting bit about dancers losing their chairs and drinks. Eek, indeed!

Arno, it was such a pleasure for us to meet you and Joanne. Thanks for taking the time to chat. I trust you two are enjoying being at home for the holidays and not missing the sea condo too much!

cynbar, there is no banquette seating in Opus, just tables. Traditional is first floor, Select is second floor. There are several two tops along the rail overlooking the first floor (I am guesstimating 8 on each side of the dining room, so 16 total?), but they are definitely "hot property," so you may have to work with the maitre d' to try to lock one down for the week. Note that there will be another two top fairly close to you--they fan out three two tops from the rail back into the body of the restaurant. We just lucked into #552 that first night we ate in the MDR--it is centrally located on the rail, hence considered primo. When we asked to be seated there the second night we dined in Opus, the maitre d' said that table was unavailable, even though it was then empty and she acknowledged my electronic dining record showed I had specifically requested it (when I tweaked our week's lineup with the specialty restaurant reservations manager, they input our request for 6p Opus #552 on those two nights). She emphasized that table reservations are NOT accepted in Select and that it was critical we be there right when the doors open at 6p (I guess it would be 8p for late?). Of course, this was all hogwash, as she was clearly honoring some other pax's reservation for that table AND we were among the nutty group of pax that stands in line waiting for the doors to open at 6p! Anyway, the alternate table she gave us, #568, was fine. I didn't try to use suite status as leverage. And I didn't go the "tip the maitre d'" route.

Good luck!

Very nice and detailed review of our cruise.

 

The passage between Miami and San Juan was very smooth compared to the previous cruise. The weather was spectacular, especially our entrance into the harbour.

While I agree that entrance into San Juan was smooth and beautiful- I'm scared to think that if the Dec 6th sailing MIA-SJU leg was smooth what rocky actually felt like. lol

 

Arno, I trust you two are enjoying being at home for the holidays and not missing the sea condo too much!

The time at home is a welcome change. Except for 3 days prior to boarding Reflection, we have been flying/cruising since September 11th. However we will be back on our condo soon enough.

While I agree that entrance into San Juan was smooth and beautiful- I'm scared to think that if the Dec 6th sailing MIA-SJU leg was smooth what rocky actually felt like. lol

The previous sailing on Nov. 29th was much rougher and we arrived nearly an hour later than the Dec 6th sailing. The week before that, seas were so rough that Reflection did not arrive until after 6pm. (According to onboard sources).

cynbar: Those two tops near the rail are hard to get. Senior suites and back to back cruisers often have a little more pull (influence) when they are recognized by the dining room staff. We normally eat at 6 and are out by 6:50. It is really tough to time arrival to pick up those tables unless you are first in line or can arrange a table through a concierge.

 

The previous sailing on Nov. 29th was much rougher and we arrived nearly an hour later than the Dec 6th sailing. The week before that, seas were so rough that Reflection did not arrive until after 6pm. (According to onboard sources).

YIKES! Okay, NOW I see why you said it was smooth. Hubby and I thought the seas were relatively calm, but the ship just seemed to like to rock. However, once we got close to SJU, it was like a bathtub for the rest of the trip. That sail into SJU was as smooth as butter.

Thanks for your review, we'll be on Reflection in January are really looking forward to it. The dining room situation sounds promising, it seems that there are tables for 2 along the balcony that are comfortable and have a nice view. I'm thinking these are not the dreaded bench seats, where tables for 2 are lined up and only a few inches from the tables on each side. Did you find a good selection of tables for 2 or were you lucky enough to get a couple of the few available? Do you think being in a suite had anything to do with it? Did you ask the maitre d' for those particular tables or were you just lucky? Any tips to navigating Select dining are appreciated!

We also enjoyed the rail table one evening, and not being a suite pax, we still had our pick of tables. Of course, it was a little after 9:00 :D

We love the sky suites but I would not be happy with that very small balcony. I thought the pole would be a problem but after a few days did not notice it.

Great review!

~Steve:cool:

Thanks for reading and providing feedback, Sterlruth! Your post made me smile--it seems long ago now, but it was a good time at sea! Best wishes on your future sailings!