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

[Marvy Mare's Daughter]

 

Back to 2018. As usual, I don't remember what we had for dinner. Next cruise I'll take photos to jog my memory, even if I don't share them. My daughter has a good Sony point and shoot that I'm sure she'd let me borrow. We gave it to her as we wanted them to take better photos of our grandchild. But alas cell phone photos can be instantly shared - only with family mind you, and I take lots of photos for them. The Sony sits in a drawer somewhere. It would fit very well in my purse for another vacation.

 

 

Hi Mom,

The Sony is getting lots of use and is taking beautiful pictures, they just haven't been uploaded to our computer yet. It's only been 8.5 months since he was born, stop rushing me!

And of course you can borrow the camera for your next cruise. Maybe by then I'll have uploaded the photos ;)

[long time lurker]

Marvy Mare-

 

They do have Overdrive in the states. I use it too with my local library. It does keep you “on pace” for your reading as you always have a deadline to finish a book.

 

LTL

[Marvy Mare]

 

Back to 2018. As usual' date=' I don't remember what we had for dinner. Next cruise I'll take photos to jog my memory, even if I don't share them. My daughter has a good Sony point and shoot that I'm sure she'd let me borrow. We gave it to her as we [/i']wanted them to take better photos of our grandchild. But alas cell phone photos can be instantly shared - only with family mind you, and I take lots of photos for them. The Sony sits in a drawer somewhere. It would fit very well in my purse for another vacation.

 

 

Hi Mom,

The Sony is getting lots of use and is taking beautiful pictures, they just haven't been uploaded to our computer yet. It's only been 8.5 months since he was born, stop rushing me!

And of course you can borrow the camera for your next cruise. Maybe by then I'll have uploaded the photos ;)

 

:') I forgot that you were reading this & how quickly you can read. You can teach me how to use your camera over the next couple of years.

 

Mom/ aka Marvy:hearteyes:

[Marvy Mare]

ST MAARTEN - Good Friday (cont)

 

After a fairly short scenic walk to the beach (about 20 minutes) we followed the first beach attendant (he could have been some random guy for all we knew) who approached us. $20 for 2 chairs and an umbrella. A little more than Barbados, but we had front row seats. He tried to seat us right next to another couple but we asked to seat further down. There was only one other cruise ship in port. A smaller ship and German I think. Most likely German - it was called the Hamburg.

I tried the camera again now I could sit & sort of relax. Still no luck. I tried to change the Primary slot to the SD card. Still no luck. Finally took out the SD card, and the camera was fixed. So I guess the SD card was corrupted. Back in action for a relaxing final beach day.

 

 

The sky was becoming much more interesting than the cloud free early morning sky.

 

There's that grey yacht. Even bigger than the dark blue one. You can also see the Hamburg in this photo and of course, the Reflection.

There wasn't much open in town. Apparently none of the businesses in the road behind the beach were open - whether because of damage, or the holiday, I'm not sure. We didn't venture back there.

 

Can you see Ken sitting under one of those green umbrellas way down the beach?

 

Down our end of the beach, there was only one beach bar/restaurant open, at The Holland House Beach Hotel (not sure if the hotel was open). There was a young girl sitting at the bar reading a book. Must have been the owner/managers? daughter. He had a Dutch accent and spoke to me in German? at first. My brother (our cruise manager) had sent us a message about the $10 for 5 beer bucket. We weren't sitting up in front of this bar, but delivery and pick up of the beer bucket was included for a small tip. When I went up later to order fries, they were delivered to our seat at well. The server remembered where we were sitting from the earlier delivery.

 

I was going to go back to Lightroom to cut this gentleman from the photo, but I don't feel like it today. Anyway, I'm thinking, seeing his outfit that he was from the German cruise ship and won't be reading this. The reason I put this one up is because I think there is a web cam on one of these buildings. Neil (my brother) let me know when it was first back on line & we watched cruise ships in port. We tried waving at him from our veranda, but I don't think he could see us.

I went on to the site and checked again. The Web Cam is at the Holland House Hotel. So I was right there. Cool.

Edited May 9, 2018 by Marvy Mare
addition

[Marvy Mare]

ST. MAARTEN

 

A resort across the bay.

 

Since it was a holiday, there were a fair number of locals on the beach enjoying the day. The water was beautiful and warm.

 

It was warm enough, that Ken stood in the water and talked to a couple from our ship, for about 1/2 an hour. They had taken a tour to the French side of the island. We only made a couple of stops there. They said that the areas that they saw were utterly devastated.

 

There were a few sellers on the beach. All women this time and none of them were pushy at all. They were selling hats (we bought one - 1/2 the price the same hat was at the cruise port), cover ups (I should have bought one & put the orange dress away for awhile), jewellery of course, and foot and body massages. One women even stopped and asked if I wanted my hair braided. I said ' I don't have any hair to braid'. She said 'I have extensions'. It would have been fun to do just for a laugh, pretend that I liked it, post the photos on Facebook and have people say that I looked beautiful. The only people that look beautiful with those extensions are black people, some children & teens and Bo Derek.:')

 

Some more buildings across the bay. It looks like the waterfront properties haven't been repaired yet, but the houses up on the hill look like they are not as damaged.

 

A few beach goers opted for the massages. Looked like a great massage, but I don't think I'd want to have a massage in such a public place. There was at least one group of ship employees, young guys, who were having a great time.

 

A beachfront property behind where we were sitting. Looks like it would have been an amazing place to stay at one time. Doesn't look as if any work had been done on it yet. Insurance companies must be overworked on those islands and I don't imagine everyone has insurance. An acquaintance in our area lost her house to a fire. They did have insurance, but it took over a year before they had a new home ( that had to be built exactly like the old one) to move in to.

 

A handsome guy at the beach.

[miched]

A niece got her hair braided on a cruise. It looked nice but she regretted doing it when she undid. Her hair was a kinky frizzy mess. It made it into a Afro. She had to get it cut short to get rid of it. There may have been better solutions but that was her problem.

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[Marvy Mare]

A niece got her hair braided on a cruise. It looked nice but she regretted doing it when she undid. Her hair was a kinky frizzy mess. It made it into a Afro. She had to get it cut short to get rid of it. There may have been better solutions but that was her problem.

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

Love your signature. Retirement is great, but gets expensive. Probably depends on hair texture to begin with. Hope she enjoyed the short hair. It probably made her stand out from the crowd.

[Marvy Mare]

ST MAARTEN (cont.)

 

It was a very relaxing enjoyable beach visit. The beach remained uncrowded and quiet. It was probably a different story the day before with 3 large ship in port.I did mention that I had chair side delivery of my fries. I did have to walk over to place the order, but that wasn't a hardship. They were those great beach fries again. I think it's the addition of the sand that makes them extra great.

 

It looks at this is a cat that might actually sail.

 

 

 

You can see Saba here in the distance.

 

 

We walked back to the ship mid afternoon.

 

[Nanatravel]

Did you take any pictures on board ship like shows or public rooms?

 

Miched, my young granddaughters got braids on their first cruise; a blonde and a brunette. When they went back to their Catholic school, they were made to take them out. Not happy little girls at all.

[Marvy Mare]

Did you take any pictures on board ship like shows or public rooms?

 

Miched, my young granddaughters got braids on their first cruise; a blonde and a brunette. When they went back to their Catholic school, they were made to take them out. Not happy little girls at all.

 

That’s too bad. I’m a retired Catholic school teacher. We wouldn’t have done that at any of our schools. Was this in the states?

[Nanatravel]

That’s too bad. I’m a retired Catholic school teacher. We wouldn’t have done that at any of our schools. Was this in the states?

 

Yes Maris, in NH. They were only like 3rd and 5th grade, too, not that it matters.

[Marvy Mare]

ST. MAARTEN (cont.)

 

I took a couple more photos as we walked back to the ship for the last time. Just a couple of shots of box cars damaged in the hurricane. The car with the taped up window was probably left that way because the cost of repair would be a lot but less than the deductible.

 

 

 

 

Sail away was at 6. I didn't get any photos. Photoed out for at least 24 hours. We had dinner again at the main dining room at our 7:15 reservation time and sat next to a young couple from Birmingham, England. The close proximity to your neighbours in the Opus is good for conversation if the neighbours are so inclined. It can be uncomfortable if they're not. I had beef roulades. It was so good. I could have eaten a second helping but I resisted the temptation.

 

The entertainment at the Refection Theatre that night was The Three Divas. They were great singers and did covers for a number of 'divas'. I couldn't quite put my finger on it but one of the Cruise Critic reports did; their banter was awkward. They just didn't seem comfortable with each other and didn't connect with the audience.

 

AT SEA - SATURDAY, MARCH 31

 

I didn't get any photos on this day. I will have to get more organized if we do another cruise. Even if we win the Lotto Max this evening (30 million) it will still be a couple of years before we go on a vacation as we can't leave Dexter - our 10 1/2 year old lab in a kennel again. There are service dogs, often labs. Dexter now needs a service person.

 

 

 

I wish that I had taken photos of more areas of the ship. For our next cruise I will have to borrow a small camera from Marvy Mare's daughter, that I can carry with me at all times. We should have bought her a waterproof one. It would also be helpful to get Ken involved in the project. Ken is better organized, more articulate, a way better speller and when he was into photography, a much better photographer than me. The only photos that we have ever framed, other than family pics were taken by Ken.

 

We had an early breakfast and were up on deck 15 before 8am. Just in time to grab two of the last chairs with views over the pool. It's a great vantage point to people watch.

 

If I got warm, rather than fighting the crowds in and around the pool I just went down to the Solarium pool. It was never crowded and you could almost swim in it. If you got there early in the morning (it opens at 7) it would probably be possible to swim lengths. Well, 2 or 3 strokes & turn but still...

 

This is the Solarium on the Silhouette but it's pretty similar. It looks at if there is someone swimming lengths.

[Marvy Mare]

SEA DAY - March 31 (cont)

There was a couple sitting next to us up on deck 15 who were speaking English and French. She arrived at her deck chair being pushed in a wheelchair. Apparently she had a lot of food allergies and had something for dinner the evening before that caused a problem. Not sure of the details, but by later in the afternoon she seemed to be feeling much better.

We figured that they were from Quebec, but turns out they were originally central northern Ontarians. There are a lot of French speaking people in the central north of Ontario. They were very friendly and we got talking. They were currently living near Calgary, Alberta, but had been in Fort McMurray at the time of the Fire. I have a fear/fascination with storms. Similar feelings about fires. We watched the TV coverage in horror as people drove out of Fort McMurray during the Fire on roads with blazing forests on either side. This couple and their children experienced this. He (I wish I could remember his name) was a great orator and told us the story of their escape. No one died in the fire, but I don't know if Fort McMurray will ever recover after the fire & with all the stress on renewable energy and reducing the use of fossil fuels.

 

I joined the dancers on the pool deck early afternoon, let by Valentina. It was lots of fun, but I made the mistake of removing my sandals and dancing in bare feet. A few of the people, at this point all women, were quite good. The rest of us just had fun. It was good practice for me as I have difficulty with left and right. I should have been wearing runners though. The next day, my feet were bruised and it was the end of my Reflection dancing career.:')

[Nanatravel]

Yes, leaving one's fur baby while traveling is a difficult situation. We are fortunate to have an adult son who lives with us, so when this has been an issue, our dog was in good hands. We are currently forstering a potential English Bulldog we are considering adopting. She is a retired show dog and owned by her breeder. To us she is beautiful, friendly and playful at only 4 years old. Just haven't made the final decision as yet.

[Marvy Mare]

Yes, leaving one's fur baby while traveling is a difficult situation. We are fortunate to have an adult son who lives with us, so when this has been an issue, our dog was in good hands. We are currently forstering a potential English Bulldog we are considering adopting. She is a retired show dog and owned by her breeder. To us she is beautiful, friendly and playful at only 4 years old. Just haven't made the final decision as yet.

 

There are advantages to having adult children still at home. Our youngest son was a great help with the dogs, but he has moved out and has an adorable Great Blue Dane. It is a 175# 'puppy' and just too rough to be around our old dog so our son can't help with the dog care as much, but he did pick up our dogs from the kennel, so they were here to greet us when we got home, which was wonderful:hearteyes:.

[Marvy Mare]

AT SEA - March 31 (cont)

 

We had early reservations at the Tuscan Grill again. We managed to score window seats as well. At the specialty restaurants the seating is more spread out, it is quieter and there are real candles. The Tuscan Grill seemed quieter than Murano's. Maybe it was just that we were at the Tuscan early (6 pm) and Murano later (8:30). The servers are also more attentive at the specialty restaurants. They may have less tables to serve. I did record what we had for dinner that night. On the recommendation of our server (I remember that he was Serbian, but I don't remember his name) we had the filet mignon for our main. He claimed that 'you could cut it with a fork'. Not quite, but it was good. I had crab cake, arugula goat cheese salad and garlic potatoes as well. All good. The server also brought us a rather large 'sample' of the lobster pasta for us to try. Since Ken doesn't eat seafood, it was up to me to try it. Very good, but I was way too stuffed for dessert.

 

We had to do a lot of walking around and climbing up and down stairs afterwards to try to wear off some of the excess food.

 

AT SEA - APRIL 1 - EASTER SUNDAY

 

I was up early as usual. Up and down the stairs a couple of times with coffee. I could see when I went in to the cafeteria that the Easter Bunny had been there overnight. It was all decorated.

Sadly, we were getting further north and the sunrise wouldn't be until 6:46. I bought a small travel tripod for the trip and hadn't used it yet. I thought that I could put it on the table on our veranda and use take photos, but it wasn't tall enough. I even considered wrapping it around the railing, but was nervous about doing that. Finally this morning I decided to try to take some photos using the tripod. There was hardly anyone around.

 

Notice the art work on either side & you can see the reflection of the stairs in the glass.

 

You can see the library here and the games room below it. Again you can see the reflection of the stairs that I climbed so many times.

 

Here is the 9th, 10th, 11th and a bit of the 12th floor.

 

The beautiful library.

 

[Marvy Mare]

The stairway looking up from the 10th floor. Our room was just around the corner.

 

One last library photo.

 

Looking down the hall. Ours was the 2nd room on the right. I don't know if those red lights were marking Port side or just red lights?

6:10am and there is a chair being saved -top left. I even saw the woman doing the saving. If I'd had a flash for my camera I would have taken her picture.

 

The Studio. I don't know if they took portraits here? Is this where you would pick up random photos that were taken on the ship and as you were leaving the ship? I did drag Ken in for a few of those ship leaving ones to prove that we were there together, but never figured out how to purchase them afterwards?

 

The Alcoves at the Lawn Club. Guaranteed seating for a price. Not too bad on Port Days (but then there would be seats by the pool) and way beyond our reach on sea days. An the people watching wouldn't be as good.

[Marvy Mare]

The real lawn club again. Looks like a football game on the big TV. I think they were running the basketball some mornings. I don't follow basketball, but I think March Madness is a bit deal.

 

The outside of the Oceanview Cafe where we had most of our breakfasts, most lunches and even one dinner. The Reflection has a bigger outside area than the Silhouette had which is something we enjoyed. We spend so much time inside in the winter at home, it's great to be outside.

 

The stairs lead up to the Sunset Bar on deck 15.

 

Looking into the Oceanview Cafe. Almost 6:30 and all is still quiet.

You can see my Reflection just above the caution sign on the door.:D

 

[Marvy Mare]

I did my regular morning walk around the track. I think I was a little later this morning, as I'd been taking pictures. The real 'Mary' was also walking. She is very attractive and looks like a runner, but maybe she was walking so her husband could keep up:D. I do tend to blurt out what I'm thinking at times. As I came up behind her & her husband and said 'Hi Mary" and explained quickly my Mary alias. I'd let on to her the other morning the I really was Mary. Anyway she smiled politely but I think she may have avoided eye contact with the 'crazy person' when she saw me again. As fate has it you see some people on a large cruise ship again and again & others never again.

Chairs on deck were filling up quickly. I went back to get Ken so we were able to grab two chairs in our favourite spot. There was an article in the Toronto Star this week, complete with pictures, about a unique method of saving seats on the subway. A man (don't think I should call him a gentleman) had placed live crabs on the seats around him to discourage others from sitting there. I hope this doesn't give any cruise chair hoggers an idea. :')

 

Seats were at a premium, and I didn't know about the crab idea so we took turns going to breakfast so we could hold onto our chairs. This was at 8am but I have photo proof that people were saving chairs before 6am. When Ken had gone for his breakfast, I got up for a moment to go to the washroom. I left all the requisite stuff on the chairs - clips, books, bags, water bottles, etc. When I came back less than 5 minutes later a chair policeman was getting ready to tag the chair. It's entertaining to watch the reactions of people who have had their chairs reclaimed but I wouldn't have found it funny if it happend to me.

There was more dancing with Valentina by the pool. Unfortunately I couldn't join in. The bruises were showing on the top of my feet by now. Weird! Every time I hear 'Havana' now, it takes me back to dancing by the pool in the hot, humid sunshine.

The Captain's daily message was alway very funny and was a classic this day. He made an announcement that the first person to come to a particular location, would win a free cruise. That announcement may have freed up a few chairs. I'm sure a few runners were on their way until they realized that Easter Sunday happened on April 1. Captain Kafetzis was alway entertaining. He'd been the Captain on the Silhouette when we cruised on her as well & apparently is headed for the Edge next. He could Captain the ship and headline the comedy show at Reflection Central.

For the first time I lined up at the Mast Grill to get us burgers for lunch. It was quite the line up and I was in line before it opened at 11:30. I love turkey burgers, but there was a longer wait for them, so just went with beef burgers. They were great. Starting at 12:30 there was the Guests vs. Guests Volleyball qualifier, followed at 1 by the Officers vs. guests. It was very entertaining. Some good volleyball players. We watched the end of the tournament and then wandered down to the cafeteria early in the afternoon. The counters were stocked with all kinds of treats for Easter. I'm not really a sweet lover. My dietary weakness is salty chips, but we both enjoy sweets with our coffee in the morning, so we stocked up. I do wish I'd had the camera with me to get photos of all those sweets.

[Pepsi36]

It's cold and has been raining here all day in the UK so you'r posts have cheered me up Maris.

I hate to admit this but I had a cheeseburger almost every ag=fternoon and they were fab.

[Marvy Mare]

It's cold and has been raining here all day in the UK so you'r posts have cheered me up Maris.

I hate to admit this but I had a cheeseburger almost every ag=fternoon and they were fab.

 

Hey Pepsi. Glad to hear my posts cheered you up. I hear it’s supposed to be hot over there for The Wedding. Big excitement here about the nuptials.

It was beautiful here today. Warmish & sunny. It’s supposed to go down to 1 tonight though. Guess it beats the rain.

[Marvy Mare]

AT SEA - April 1

 

We went to the Future Cruise office, just to have a look and ended up booking a 14 day Caribbean for 2020. I did make room location changes after we got home. We were just so excited about a future cruise that booking a room on the 12th floor didn't seem to be an issue at the time. I would have thought that the booking agent might have told us that we'd be right under the busy 14th floor. Maybe she thought there was a floor 13. :rolleyes:

We took a last wander around the ship, sat on our veranda for the last time and then packed our bags.

 

We were ready early for dinner so decided to go the the Martini Bar for a drink before dinner. The bar was crowded as usual, so we found a seat over by a window. Two young couples joined us. One couple from England, who had a 6 year old son and the other from Quebec with a 10 year old son. The boys were having a great time with lego and had become fast friends on board. I had seen a few children and young people on board, but these were the first we had met. The parents sang the praises of the Kid's Club. The mom of the 6 year old said that her son was anxious to go there every day and she was a little hurt that he would rather spend time at the Kid's Club than with his parents. The Quebec couple had cruised frequently with their son, and had the past used babysitting on board. Two babysitters are sent to your room for child care. There is also a late evening program 'sleep over' at the Kid's Club that goes to 11 so parents can spend an evening out. It all sounded great. I had noticed groups of young teens at some of the evening shows. They had probably met at the Teen Club.

Traveling with young children is something I haven't read about in Cruise Critic. I'm sure it's covered on Disney Boards and it looked to me when I saw Carnival Ships in port, that there were a lot of children on board. But then again, what parent of young children has the time to write a cruise report. It wouldn't have been me. These parents certainly loved Celebrity. As a mean parent who never took our children to Disney World, our Disney was camping and our kids had a fantastic time (right daughter of Marvy?) a Celebrity Cruise sounds like a great choice for parents and their children.

 

Our Easter Sunday supper was in the Opus. I thought turkey would be a choice but surprisingly it wasn't. I don't think ham was on the menu either. The prime rib, served first and last night at the Opus, was excellent. I think Frankie, our server could tell that I have the biggest appetite, because I got the biggest piece. I think I'll throw in a photo here as I actually didn't take any at dinner.

Guess I won't share a photo right now. Something isn't working right. I'll have to check that later. Time for coffee & cookies back in bed. It's Mother's Day back in the real world.

 

Maris

[oskarNZ]

A huge thank you for taking the time to write this wonderful trip report. I spent much of today reading it from the start and have enjoyed it all. Your photos are beautiful.

 

I was so excited to read that the tour you booked in Antigua is the same one we have booked for January. For what it’s worth, my favourite photo from the Shirley’s lookout was the first of the 3.

 

The chair hogs you mention have me a bit worried. That is the sort of thing that will aggravate me even though I will try hard to not let it.

 

On the plus side, it’s great to hear from your latest post that kids were enjoying the ship. We are taking our 11 year old, who I’m confident will enjoy himself despite being one of probably only a handful of kids on the cruise.

 

Thanks again.

[Marvy Mare]

A huge thank you for taking the time to write this wonderful trip report. I spent much of today reading it from the start and have enjoyed it all. Your photos are beautiful.

 

I was so excited to read that the tour you booked in Antigua is the same one we have booked for January. For what it’s worth, my favourite photo from the Shirley’s lookout was the first of the 3.

 

The chair hogs you mention have me a bit worried. That is the sort of thing that will aggravate me even though I will try hard to not let it.

 

On the plus side, it’s great to hear from your latest post that kids were enjoying the ship. We are taking our 11 year old, who I’m confident will enjoy himself despite being one of probably only a handful of kids on the cruise.

 

Thanks again.

 

Thanks so much OskarNZ. Wow, all the way from NZ. January would be mid summer there wouldn't it? I hear it's beautiful and green with lots of sheep:D. I looked back on those photos. I think the first photo at Shirley Heights was the best too. We enjoyed that tour. Lots of great photo opportunities.

 

Chair hogs were entertaining anyway. The deck chair 'police' will find you seating if you ask them. I'm sure your 11 year old will like to be by the pool. That's where a lot of the young people are during the day. As far a a handful of kids; the parents that we were talking to told us that there were a few hundred children & teens on the ship. I would think they got that number from the ones registered with the Kid's & Teen's clubs.

 

Thanks for reading and for the compliments and comments.

 

Maris

[Marvy Mare]

SEA DAY - April 1 (last full day):(

 

The reason the photo wouldn't share before was because I had the privacy setting to Restricted in Flickr.

Looking across deck 4 of the Main Dining room to where we had most of our dinners. When we sailed on the Silhouette, we had one breakfast in the main dining room. I guess it was called the Opus too. I can't remember. The meal was good, but this time we had all our breakfasts seated outside at the Oceanview - other than the one morning with the 'chair hog'. We must have been late to breakfast that day, because other than that, there was always lots of seating on the back deck outside the buffet.

 

We did attend the Celebrity Showtime show that evening. It was another comedian - Steve Bruner. He was quite funny. The comedian that I enjoyed the most was near the beginning of the trip, but I can't remember which one. I did comment on the show, but I had forgotten that as well as comedy, he was also a juggler. If anyone is still following that was on the trip maybe you can enlighten me. I do remember the comedy and the juggling were very entertaining.

 

When we got to the theatre, we sat up on the railing to the left in our favourite spot. A young woman from Boston? came and sat next to Ken and then tried to save a bunch of seats. Usually it bothers me but she was so funny and friendly that it added to the fun of the last evening. She was almost laying over the seats. Her family did finally arrive. She had told us that her brother was a lawyer. The comedian that night actually made a lawyer joke. We laughed. I don't think the lawyer did.