Great Reflection Transatlantic experience

[FrankinPA]

Internet was slow and down often, and they gave back lots of minutes to passengers buying the packages to make up for the access being down so much. I connecterd all over the ship, and found for me the best connection time was either very early in the morning or around 7:30 p.m. at night. Midday, I didn't have as much luck in staying connected. There is always room for improvement there.

 

 

I think the major problem was that 1100 Elites were on board and all had 90+ minutes free on the internet. With the limited bandwidth allocated to the ship, that was like making 25 people go thru a doorway-all at the same time. I had speeds of 1 kps at some times during the day. But, I found if I got on between 2am and 4am, it was much faster and similar to what I have at home.

[librarylady19]

I am with Librarylady19, was hoping to book the Lawn Club once on the ship to use up some OBC. Might have to get on that as soon as we board.

Hope you'll report back on your experience as I see you are sailing before me!

[Jimsgirl]

KK99

 

A very BIG THANK YOU from me, reading those dailies have been a delight. I is years since I cruised Celebrity, and I feel like a "newbie". I am so pumped up with enthusiasm now that Nov 2013 seems a very long way off.

 

Lynn

[kk99]

Ya'll are more than welcome. It has always helped me to see what activities are available on the ship. We had 13 days to see and do everything on the TA, and we still only did about 70% of everything. So we will definitely have a repeat trip on the ship. I'm sure you will have a wonderful time on your future sailing.For those of you who are coffee drinkers, they did have a coffee station in the hideaway lounge area where it was nice to sit and read(assuming it wasn't as the same time as the party band in the deck 3 atrium). I hope everyone really enjoys the newest ship.

[NorthCarolinaBelle]

Thanks SO MUCH for the informative review! Did you happen to notice how dressed-up people were for the formal nights? We are cruising with friends Jan 11th. My husband always takes his tuxedo for formal nights, but our friend doesn't own one and is wondering if he should rent one. Thanks again for your review.

[FortyNinerLiz]

What Celebrity Life demonstrations/lectures did people enjoy the most??? Doing TAs provides so many opportunities for that type of venue. We have done two and enjoyed the educational opportunities!!

[Zoey1]

Thank you so much for your review! We are going on her next month and this has made me even more excited.

We sailed on the Eclipse last year and it sounds like there are some new restaurant venues?

Am I correct that there is still Tuscan Grille, Murano & Quisine

but now "Lawn Grill" is that lunch or dinner and you help prepare the food?

Also what is the porch, just breakfast or lunch?

 

So excited, this will be our third Celebrity cruise!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!

[FrankinPA]

Thank you so much for your review! We are going on her next month and this has made me even more excited.

We sailed on the Eclipse last year and it sounds like there are some new restaurant venues?

Am I correct that there is still Tuscan Grille, Murano & Quisine

but now "Lawn Grill" is that lunch or dinner and you help prepare the food?

Also what is the porch, just breakfast or lunch?

 

So excited, this will be our third Celebrity cruise!

 

The ship still has Tuscan, Murano, Qsine, Blu and Bistro on 5. Plus, they have the Lawn Club Grill but it is only open once or twice for lunch during the cruise. In fact, all the Speciality restaurants except for Bistro are only open once or twice for lunch and we think that is for advertising purposes as much as anything. You can help grill your seafood and steaks and make your own pizza or flatbread under the guidance of their grill masters. It was fun to do that

 

I think The Porch is open for breakfast and lunch every day.

[kk99]

As far as the Celebrity Life activities, I thought that the variety of speakers was very good on this trip. The shipbuilding contest between passengers making a floatable vessel out of recycled materials was great fun to watch. They had two trivias that I recall that were conducted in German. Let's just say that I was out of my league in those, but it was still great fun. Zumba and walks for cancer were also done on the ship. They also had some entertaining cooking demonstrations of the "Top Chef" variety. In Celebrity Central, they had game shows similar to versions of Family Feud, Jeopardy, and the Officerss Q & A.

 

Several of the gym classes were for a fee, and they have a separate small gym room with equipment that you can rent out separately and also book a trainer if you like.

 

In all of the time we were on the ship, the most underutilized area was the pay for use cabanas on the Lawn Deck. I still don't see how they make any money off of them , unless perhaps on a Caribbean cruise and people want to sit facing inwards and visit with one another and with no direct view out to the sea. I still hope they remove them at some point in the future and just have more open lawn space.

 

The Porch was open for breakfast and lunch everyday. They had some special lunch meals in Tuscan and Murano but I believe it was only twice during the cruise. They also had(for a fee) wine and cheese pairings, and special dinners at Murano and Tuscan they were at a higher cost than the regular upcharge for those restaurants. They also had special tastings of martini flights, beer flights in Michaels, and some wine tasting events as well.All of these had an additional charge unless it was a Captain's Club wine tasting.

 

They also had the usual Lawn club games of croquet, bocce, and baggo every day, as well as water volleyball on certain days.

 

If you want to be active, there is certainly a lot to choose from, or you can just hang out on the ship and relax.

[boogs]

The ship still has Tuscan, Murano, Qsine, Blu and Bistro on 5. Plus, they have the Lawn Club Grill but it is only open once or twice for lunch during the cruise. In fact, all the Speciality restaurants except for Bistro are only open once or twice for lunch and we think that is for advertising purposes as much as anything. You can help grill your seafood and steaks and make your own pizza or flatbread under the guidance of their grill masters. It was fun to do that

 

I think The Porch is open for breakfast and lunch every day.

 

The Porch is open for breakfast and lunch from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm. Paninis, soups and salads are it's specialty. The Lawn Club Grill is open from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm. This is where you can, if you want, grill your own meats and fish with the guidance of a chef. On our 14 day cruise out of Barcelona on Oct 21, it was never open for lunch, probably because the The Porch and the Grill use the same staff. Tuscan Grille was open for lunch on a couple of our sea days.

[Janet987]

Kk, thank you so much for taking the time to write a wonderful and thorough review and to answer our questions. This thread has been a big help for our trip next week.

 

The one new venue I have not read much about, except at the Celebrity Tumblr project design article, is the Game On Lab. Our 21 year old DD is looking forward to using the Art Studio and maybe this. You mention it was fun...could you give us a bit more info about the games and passenger response to them? Popular with young and old? Busy place? Thanks again.

[kk99]

Hi Janet,

The game on had tables set with computer screens where you could play games like bumper, snag em, checkers , team draw, word power, memeory match, think faster, and moving puzzle, either alone or against others. We always played the ones against others. It was fun to draw like a pictionary contest. We did not have any trouble getting tables after dinner or earlier in the day. It was full during the daytime when we had so many sea days. I think it will be very popular with families as more people discover it as it is a fun interactive thing to do. We saw people between 10-80 using the games. There was something for all age groups to participate in.

 

The art studio space, is the very small room where on the other S class ships the Hot Glass Museum had its display on Deck 15. Most of the time for the free events, it was held in the conference center, as there were so many participants. You do need to sign up on the first day for whatever classes you want as space is limited. I think it will be a huge success on the Reflection.

[Sanatee]

Kelcie,

 

Couldn't agree more with your thorough review (and HostJoe's in another post.)

 

LCG was great and maitre d' Jordan was super helpful on our group dinners and other specialty reservations.

 

My only quibble on the elite cocktail vouchers was that it really overcrowded the bars between 5 and 7 and made it hard for paying guests to get seats or drinks. X did add bartenders at Martini and Ensemble bars after the first few days and that helped. Our favorite bar was Molecular for the neat drinks, no crowds, and the friendly female bartender.

 

Food was still great in Blu, but the added AQ staterooms overtaxed Blu. It appeared that more tables were added to the same sized room, resulting in noisy overcrowded conditions during peak dining hours. The food and wine servers tried their best, but were often overstressed. You will need to dine early between 5:30 and 6:30 to avoid the problem. You can try late dining, but the servers will have been through a lot by that time. We ate more often at the wonderful specialty restaurants to avoid this, but at added expense. We will always book AQ on any other X ship for the Blu experience, but would have to reconsider for Reflection unless X fixes the problem.

 

The casino lost space to the art gallery. So they lost the regular poker table which was a big disappointment to DW and other Hold'em players. It also baffles me that the casino management will let many tables sit empty with paid dealers (too high stakes or unpopular games) and not try other popular games like Let it Ride.

 

The entertainment was really good. All production shows were new and excellent. Specialty acts were also very good, especially comics, magicians, and Sean O'Shea (impressions and hilarious Elvis act got standing o's) The whole orchestra is excellent.

 

I was a gym rat to pay for the super food and drinks. The fitness center was nice and only got a little crowded after 8 in the morning. But you could still get on the equipmant. Valuable space was taken up by 2 personal training room that were expensive and seldom used. Resulted in the spinning and yoga rooms (which were used a lot) being overcrowded. The men's locker room was also reduced a lot from Millie class ships and was often overcrowded. Persian Garden was very nice with a beautiful sea view portside.

 

Capt Pagonis is the most personable master we've sailed with on X. His excellent attitude reflected in most of the staff. But that makes his and X's refusal to describe the propulsion problem even more puzzling.

 

As always, we met many neat people on the cruise and that overcomes most issues. Like Kelcie and Joe, we did run into a few duds, but they were a tiny (albeit obnoxious) minority.

[Sanatee]

The Porch is open for breakfast and lunch from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm. Paninis, soups and salads are it's specialty. The Lawn Club Grill is open from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm. This is where you can, if you want, grill your own meats and fish with the guidance of a chef. On our 14 day cruise out of Barcelona on Oct 21, it was never open for lunch, probably because the The Porch and the Grill use the same staff. Tuscan Grille was open for lunch on a couple of our sea days.

 

On the TA, LCG did open a couple times for lunch at $25 pp. There were also some special lunches in Murano and Tuscan. Check with the maitre d's when you board.

[FortyNinerLiz]

Did anyone go to the cooking demonstrations??? Other Celebrity Life events???

[Sanatee]

Did anyone go to the cooking demonstrations??? Other Celebrity Life events???

 

Went to one of guest chef Franco's demos and it was fun and informative. So I booked his food and wine pairing dinner in Tuscan Grill. What a disappointment. Except for truffle ravioli, food was unimaginative and mediocre. Fish stew was tasteless and meager and osso bucco was tough and undercooked.

 

Standard menu in Tuscan was excellent on other nights.

[Sanatee]

We used an iPad and found the wifi connectivity to be very strong in various areas around the ship including our stateroom 1601. Internet access was very good before 0730 and various times at night. But it would get sporadic during the day due to lots of users and practical bandwidth limitations.

[zeeke42]

The casino lost space to the art gallery. So they lost the regular poker table which was a big disappointment to DW and other Hold'em players. It also baffles me that the casino management will let many tables sit empty with paid dealers (too high stakes or unpopular games) and not try other popular games like Let it Ride.

 

So there's no poker at all on Reflection? That's pretty disappointing; I was looking forward to playing on our cruise in February. There were two electronic poker tables on Eclipse.

[Sanatee]

So there's no poker at all on Reflection? That's pretty disappointing; I was looking forward to playing on our cruise in February. There were two electronic poker tables on Eclipse.

 

The space for the electric tables was taken by the Art Gallery. The only thing left was a curved convertable table (like blackjack) that could seat about 6-7 players. It was used for 1-2 limit and tournaments. Not very good layout at all and hard to get a spot to play. The only other poker was 3 card and Ultimate Hold'em.

[pmk515]

The space for the electric tables was taken by the Art Gallery. The only thing left was a curved convertable table (like blackjack) that could seat about 6-7 players. It was used for 1-2 limit and tournaments. Not very good layout at all and hard to get a spot to play. The only other poker was 3 card and Ultimate Hold'em.

 

Most sad.

[sginva]

We are frequent Celebrity cruisers however we will clearly not fit the demographics Celebrity is newly in search of however our tablemates in the dining room were just what Celebrity wants to attract. They frequent many cruise lines and go to the casino nightly. It was a table for eight.

They loved everything about the transatlantic on the Reflection but were livid about the casino. They wrote about it on their opinion cards in great detail and asked that Celebrity contact them to discuss. We listened intently about their opinions of other cruise lines in general and felt they were very fair and informative. We were on the back to back and felt the first cruise was wonderful and we took all Celebrity excursions and found them to be exceptional.

We found the transatlantic not as good as some thought and not as bad as others.We felt our previous two TA on the Equinox and last year on the Eclipse and Constellation better.

Like many the communication concerning the ships problems was not stellar although we did not allow it to ruffle us too much.

Just as Celebrity must increase their yield so must we and we will still sail with Celebrity but will begin to shop around. In reality it is kind of exciting to consider new experiences.

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there's no poker at all on Reflection? That's pretty disappointing; I was looking forward to playing on our cruise in February. There were two electronic poker tables on Eclipse.

[LAH718]

Kelcie,

 

Great review. Thanks for all the events you planned for the TA cruise. So glad to have met you and a chance to join you for dinner in the MDR.

 

Linda

[kissimmee family]

:) Glad to hear you were able to meet up with Rory! I'll pass the comment on, thanks!

 

He was amazing. It dawned on me how hard his job must be. Learning a complete set for each new performer is not a small task. The band was definitely an entertainment highlight.

[dpryo319]

He was amazing. It dawned on me how hard his job must be. Learning a complete set for each new performer is not a small task. The band was definitely an entertainment highlight.

 

Yes, it is quite the task :) The process to get on a ship as a performer--much less, the opening of a NEW ship, is tough. He is very talented, and just loves it!