Back to Celebrity - 2/10 Reflection Cruise

[Jeremiah1212]

I won't do a full blown review, but I thought I would share our experience onboard the Reflection doing the Western Caribbean on 2/10. Overall, we had a great time! This was only my second Celebrity cruise, with the first being several years ago. I honestly don't remember too many details of that cruise at this point. I was with a larger group and didn't do any of the planning. Most of our recent cruises have been on Royal Caribbean with the exception of last years cruise when we did the Norwegian Escape. We are in our early/mid 30's so we are quite a bit younger than most other passengers. NCL Escape was just too crowded and busy for us and I have grown a little bored on Royal. We thought Celebrity was a great fit for us and booked another cruise while onboard. I loved the more relaxed atmosphere during the day and slightly more upscale evenings. We were in a standard veranda, so no Blu, Michael's Club, etc. for us.

 

We stayed at the Mandarin Oriental on Brickell pre cruise. It was fantastic, as it should have been, given the price tag. I love nice hotels but next time I don't think we will spend the money to stay somewhere of that caliber again. The Intercontinental at less than half the price is just fine for this situation. We used Uber to get from the airport to the hotel, to the ship and a few stops within Miami. I'm not a fan of renting cars prior to the cruise at all...especially with only 24 hours in town before sailing.

 

Food - we did Murano, Tuscan, Sushi on 5 and The Lawn Club Grill. All were excellent in my opinion. I'm not a MDR person on any cruise, but the few times we did dine there it was fine. Food was good and I felt it was a step above both NCL and RCL. We have never done fixed dining times so perhaps in the future that may change my MDR opinion, but for now, I like speciality dining as much as possible. We mainly did buffet food or breakfast. The selection and quantity of food was more limited than on the Escape, but I felt the quality of what they did have was better. Our last RCL cruise, the breakfast buffet was pretty poor. We didn't go hungry, but it was not good! The buffet servers offering drinks, even specialty coffees, was nice too.

 

Drinks - again, excellent. We enjoyed the Martini Bar on several nights. The World Class bar doesn't seem to get much attention here, but their cocktails were on par with some of the better craft cocktails we get at home. I think I tried everything on the menu at least once :eek:. No issues at all with drink service anywhere on the ship. There were pool bartenders with carts of beer and also taking orders. The pool bars did get fairly busy. I thought the main pool bar by far had the slowest service. A quick walk up the stairs and you could have a drink within a matter of minutes.

 

Internet - we had the Go Best with all 4 perks so we had internet for 2 devices. It worked very well in my opinion. I was able to send pictures, social media and FaceTime without any issues. I couldn't get connected while leaving Grand Cayman, but I figured that was probably due to the network traffic while everyone was returning to the ship. An hour or so later things were back to normal. I would not hesitate to spend the extra money to get Go Best again to have the Wifi access.

 

Chair hogs - The worst I had ever seen unfortunately. On our second (and last) sea day, I was out by 7:45am and literally no chairs were available. Lonely flamingo towel clips and stray flip flops were everywhere. The four chairs directly in front of us were occupied by towels and books the entire day and we never saw the people. Others reserved chairs in the sun and in the shade. Pool butlers would remove towels, but if there were any personal items on the chairs they would not touch them. Only one person caused a scene about it on our last sea day. However, he was the same guy that reserved 8 chairs, also directly in front of us, on the first sea day around 8am and they never used them until well after lunch. I guess it's different when the tables are turned?

 

Cabin/ship overall - we felt it was in excellent condition. Our cabin had no signs of wear and tear. Coming off of Escape last year which was about 3 months old at the time we sailed, I would say Reflection is in near-perfect condition. I felt the cabin may have been a tiny bit larger than the Escape, especially the shower. Escape did have more modern bells and whistles (LED lighting throughout, the electronic Do Not Disturb/Make Up Room lights, etc.) but that was to be expected give the two ships age difference.

 

Entertainment - We aren't really production show people. We saw the comedy guy at watch the Cruise Directors show. Both were okay. I'm actually surprised the demographic on board thought the comedian was funny, but they responded well. The did Silent Disco 3 different times. Once in Cellar Masters, once in the Sky Lounge and one day on the pool deck. It's a hit but the novelty seems to wear off after 10-15 minutes for most people.

 

Embarkation/Debarkation - both went very smoothly. We arrived to port at about 10:15am via Uber. We were quickly through the security line and then stood in line for check-in no more than 10 minutes. I think from door to ship was less than 30 minutes total. Getting off the ship was a little more challenging. An escalator in the terminal broke down and they forced everyone to use the elevator. Customs was a literal breeze after that. I don't think the guy even looked at my passport. Back to the airport via Uber again which took about 5 minutes for the driver to arrive.

 

Evening Chic - I know this is a hot topic. I felt the passengers reflected what Celebrity was aiming for. Nearly everyone was more dressed up on our two Evening Chic nights. Lots of suits and dark ties and the women a little more glam than the other nights. Definitely a more updated look than old penguin suits and reused Mother of the Bride dresses you sometimes see. A handful of tuxes but not many. Even on the non-Evening Chic evenings, I would guess roughly half of the men still wore jackets. It was a nice change from NCL which is super casual. But we don't mind dressing up. I took 3 suits this trip which was overkill. Next time I will take 2!

 

We only encountered a few people who really put the Critic in Cruise Critic. I'm not sure why some people continue to spend money on a product they're so unhappy with? We had the guy at the Ensemble Lounge who wanted a solo piano player. Not a quartet. Just a piano. The bartender explained they don't have a solo piano act on board. The man legitimately wanted the bartender to do something about it? Then we had the man at Guest Services who racked up at $250 laundry bill and felt that it was too expensive. He wasn't disputing the charges or the quantity of items he sent out. He just thought it was too much money and wanted something done about it. A bit baffling...

 

Feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to answer. I didn't scan the Daily schedules but I did save most of them. We're already looking forward to our next trip aboard the Silhouette. After this cruise I was thinking we would probably take a cruising break for a while, but for the money I think it's a great experience. We had a wonderful time and despite the age difference, met a lot of great people on board. 5 stars for this cruise!

[foodsvcmgr]

Excellently thought out well presented review.

We have also enjoyed two cruises on Reflection.

Thanks for taking the time.

[easyboy]

Great review! Thanks for sharing.

[Tonichef]

Really enjoyed your review

 

Many thanks

 

 

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[jules815]

Thanks for your review. Counting down the days until we sail on Reflection. :cool:

[wallie5446]

Ya done a really great job with the cliff notes of your cruise! :D

[danstr1]

Jeremiah1212,

 

Just laughing to myself over the NCL Escape. The screen name sounds familiar! You didn't happen to be on the September 3rd 2016 sailing of the Escape? I recall speaking to a couple in the District Brewhouse as we compared notes and shared sentiments over the Escape and how we missed Celebrity during this sailing. I too just got off the Equinox last week which I had booked shortly after sailing the Escape. I now feel redeemed over the last cruise experience and I too proceeded to book my next cruise with Celebrity while onboard. Sometimes a bit of a change is good to gain a better appreciation of what you really like.

 

- Dan

[Jeremiah1212]

Jeremiah1212,

 

Just laughing to myself over the NCL Escape. The screen name sounds familiar! You didn't happen to be on the September 3rd 2016 sailing of the Escape? I recall speaking to a couple in the District Brewhouse as we compared notes and shared sentiments over the Escape and how we missed Celebrity during this sailing. I too just got off the Equinox last week which I had booked shortly after sailing the Escape. I now feel redeemed over the last cruise experience and I too proceeded to book my next cruise with Celebrity while onboard. Sometimes a bit of a change is good to gain a better appreciation of what you really like.

 

- Dan

 

 

We were on Escape in late January '16. Over Super Bowl weekend I think. Missed you by a few months! We did have a good cruise on the Escape but I would compare it more to Carnival than RCL. Just a different ballgame. It had been 6 years at the point since I had been on Celebrity (and I was 24 years old at the time!) I was hesitant to book Celebrity thinking it would be too boring and stuffy but I was very pleasantly surprised and am ready to go again next year! In fact after Silhouette in Jan 2018 I think we may do Alaska in June too.

 

 

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