LIVE from Celebrity Reflection - 4/27/18 - 10 nt Italy & Greek Isles Cruise

[WonderMan3]

Our tour out of Naples on Sunday was supposed to visit Herculaneum first then Sorrento and concluding with a visit to Stabiae to see Villa San Marco. Alessandro told us that our guide for Herculaneum was reserved for 2pm, so that meant we needed to visit Stabiae first as we wanted Sorrento in the middle so we could have lunch there. Villa San Marco did not open until 8:30am though so we had 40 minutes to waste since it was about a 20 minute ride from the port. I suggested we do a drive through Naples to see some highlights of the city since we had never done that before. It was Sunday morning so the city was totally dead with no traffic. We made a few photo stops as we drove around and then headed off to Stabiae. The Villa San Marco was an elaborate vacation home for a Roman that was butied during the same eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that buried Pompeii. The Villa had a number of mosaics and frescos that could be seen and must have been gorgeous in its day based on its size and the luxury amenities it had like the large pool that was in the center of property. Because it was the first Sunday of the month admission was free so I’m not sure what the normal ticket price is. It was very quiet while we were there; only one other visitor was there at the same time. After leaving San Marco, Alessandro brought us down the road to visit the Villa Arianna which was in similar condition as Villa San Marco but a bit smaller.

 

After visiting Stabiae we drove on to Sorrento which took about an hour. Alessandro dropped us off in the center and we had two hours on our own. We were hungry all ready and since it was around 11am we decided to have lunch at one of the cafes in the square called Fauno Bar. It seemed like a total tourist trap based on its location but there were a number of locals sitting there and it gets high ratings on Trip Advisor. The food was actually quite good. I had a 4 cheese pizza with ham which was excellent while Mike had Veal Milanese which he enjoyed. After lunch we started to wander the streets of Sorrento starting with the pedestrian shopping ways. We found a store selling local lemon products from a family run farm adjacent to the square. They were very friendly here and we stocked on some favorites like Limoncello and chocolate covered lemon candies. We also picked up some more art as we were attracted to some pieces painted by a street artist. We made our way to a lovely park overlooking the Bay of Naples and Vesuvius in the distance before heading back to meet Alessandro. It was 1pm and we had about an hour’s drive to Herculaneum, stopping at Pompeii to pick our guide up on the way.

 

We had visited Pompeii years ago so wanted to try Herculaneum this trip. It was equally as fascinating as Pompeii although smaller. It was pretty busy that day due to it being the free admission Sunday. Luckily many people were leaving as we arrived. Some unique things about Herculaneum versus Pompeii include the presence of wood. Herculaneum was covered with lava unlike Pompeii that was buried in hot ash. Wood under the lava didn’t all burn up. A lot of it got compacted and turned to carbon and was fossilized. A whole group of skeletons was also found in compartments at the bottom of the town near where the ocean originally existed. It was amazing to see the nearly intact roads and remains of stores and homes with frescos and tiled floors still visible. Definitely a must visit if you love history or archaeology. Our guide was good but a little hard to understand at times due to her accent and habit of walking ahead of us and talking. We spent about two hours here and then Alessandro drove us back to the ship arriving just before 4:30. For this 9 hour tour day it cost us 500 Euro for the driver guide and 100 Euro for the guide at Herculaneum. Entrances to each of the historic sites is extra (we got in free because of the first Sunday) as well as lunch. We had a great day but I will say that Alessandro was a little less talkative and informative than he was last year although we also didn’t have as many questions. He was still pleasant and accommodating to any requests we made. I definitely recommend RomeInLimo for tours in Naples. http://www.romeinlimo.com

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[RickT]

Great review. Has me looking forward to boarding on July 30th. Just wondering if you've listened to any of the house bands (The Sammy Tones, The Cardinals or Guitarist Linda Capewell). Not sure if any of them will still be onboard for my sailing but curious to know what you think of them.

[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[lola2013]

Good morning,

We are in the thick of making plans for this similar itinerary next May. I have contacted several tour operators that you've recommended along the way. We are now working on Naples/Sorrento (my favorite place on the planet). You mentioned Alessandro in Naples, but I may have missed the name of his company. Could you please tell me who he works for so I can contact the company.

Thanks!

Susan

[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

wow I keep thinking your pictures can't get any better! what would you say was your favorite part of the entire trip?

 

 

 

Thanks! Hmmm... well, our favorite part has been where we are now which is the time we have been spending in Tuscany post-cruise. But as far as the cruise goes I’d have to say that our days in Santorini and Mykonos were the best as we were mainly just wandering around without a guide and soaking up the beauty of those places; they were leisurely days.

 

 

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[abbydancer2003]

It was probably the same Katya; was she blonde?

 

We didn’t really interact with the concierges. Only met them briefly at the helipad sail-in. We never made it to Michael’s Club.

 

The Old City you see from the Malta day was on Gozo. It is the main town called Victoria and my photos were from the citadel overlooking the town. It does look similar to Mdina; we went there last year.

 

 

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Thanks.

 

Yes, she was blonde, so probably was at the beginning of her contract when we were on, and then end when you were.

 

By the way, I don't know if I missed the answer, but do you happen to know if Q'sine is now always Petit Chef or is that just done a few times with the regular menu the rest of the time?

[Lastdance]

Thanks.

 

 

 

Yes, she was blonde, so probably was at the beginning of her contract when we were on, and then end when you were.

 

 

 

By the way, I don't know if I missed the answer, but do you happen to know if Q'sine is now always Petit Chef or is that just done a few times with the regular menu the rest of the time?

 

I was on the same cruise and told it was every night...that cruise was so much fun, I hated to disembark; however, we are still in Cinque Terre and it is beautiful weather...lugging our suitcases on the train from Civi wasn’t easy, but it was so worth it...

 

 

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Edited May 10, 2018 by Lastdance

[abbydancer2003]

I was on the same cruise and told it was every night...that cruise was so much fun, I hated to disembark; however, we are still in Cinque Terre and it is beautiful weather...

 

 

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Bummer. I hope it's not a permanent change fleetwide. I thought the old menu was fun, and the one for this doesn't appeal to me.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

[WonderMan3]

After getting back to the ship we knew that packing was looming ahead of us but we needed some relax time after our busy day. We headed up to the Mast Bar to grab some drinks and so Mike could smoke. I had another tasty Mango Colada; wish I had discovered that earlier in the cruise. We went back to the cabin and Mike laid down for a nap. We had planned to go to dinner at Luminae for our final night and that is something we always do but we were very tired, didn’t want to deal with a long meal and honestly didn’t connect with anyone in this Luminae beyond maybe the bread server. (More on that when I do my review). So, as sacrilegious as it may sound for a suite guest, we went to Oceanview for dinner. I had a bacon cheeseburger with fries, a Caesar salad and a pork filet. Hit the spot!

 

After dinner we headed down to the casino to do some final play before we packed. We needed to play out the points we had accumulated on our cards during the cruise and we needed to meet up with the casino host Dimi to discuss any adjustments he would make to our account based on our play. He wound up wiping out all the charges on our shipboard account which was just over $700. ($200 of that would’ve come off anyway as part of our Sapphire level spa credits). He also presented us each with discount certificates off a future cruise. I earned $150 per night and Mike earned $110 per night. So we would be able to deduct $260 per night off our next new cruise within the next year.

 

With all of that settled we headed back to the cabin to pack. We were finished by around 10:15 and decided to go to bed shortly afterward as had a long day coming up next. I have included the debarkation information that was in our cabin.

 

 

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[WonderMan3]

Monday morning we awoke at 6:30 to get ready for disembarkation. We had no rush to get off the ship as we could not pick up our rental car in Civitavecchia until 9am. So we headed down to Luminae for a final breakfast around 7:50. (They stop serving at 8 in disembarkation day). Service was very slow for some reason even though there were only a few tables occupied. I ordered the strawberry pancakes with hash browns and bacon while make had his usual scrambled eggs and bacon. It was okay but overall just as average as the other Luminae breakfasts on this cruise. The Luminae maitre’d was present that morning and was still going around and visiting tables but ignored ours. At the end of the meal Mike went off to the bathroom while I was finishing up. I then gathered my things and walked out to the Luminae entryway where our bags were. The young lady who always served our bread and water with a smile gave a nice and happy farewell, while from a few tables over the waiter Miro who we had several times have a canned goodbye without even looking up from setting up a table. As I waited for Mike near the host station the maitre’d came near but ignored me and shortly after walked out of the restaurant without saying a word; no goodbye or thank you for sailing or anything. Then Katya the hostess also came up to her station but also ignored me and then left the restaurant without saying a word. It was all very cold and totally unlike any debark day at a Luminae that I had experienced but not really a surprise at all. The service was pretty lackluster on this cruise in Luminae. No staff member would I classify as outstanding and some were mediocre at best. The friendliness seemed forced from most with a few servers not being social in any way and others being extremely awkward with it. The only really genuine staff members were the water/bread servers who were usually always smiling and were sincere and really made an effort like remembering our drink orders from prior nights. I think part of the problem is that we kept being rotated around to different servers every time we dined there. We were used to other cruises in Luminae where they always tried to pair you with the same server each night. When that doesn’t happen there isn’t any relationship building. The sommelier was the worst having been a bit distant anyway after the first night when we ordered cocktails instead of wine, then seemingly annoyed when we had him bring out a bottle of champagne we had sent down to the restaurant from our room, and even argumentative one night (I mentioned in a previous post). We basically never saw him again after midway through the cruise even though we still had champagne left from our bottle to drink. Yes, on us to ask for it but since he never came by to our table and no server asked us if we wanted the sommelier to come by we actually forgot we still had some left. And as for Katya the hostess. She was pleasant enough but in a 10 day cruise she never remembered our room number or our names and at the last day despite us having eaten there 10 different times during the cruise. Normally the host knows your name and room number by the second time you visit. She also always seemed a bit frantic. I understand that this Luminae is busier than the other ships but you should never let the customer see you sweat. Part of the problem though may be that she was not getting any help from the maitre’d. I’m not sure what his job was but I never saw him helping Katya out seating people or clearing tables or any of the other things that I’ve seen maitre’d’s do on other ships. All he would do was visit tables asking how things were but really never engaging much further than that or stand around observing everyone else working. He was not a hands on manager at all.

 

So that ending at Luminae left things on a bit of a sour note but thankfully debarkation was a breeze since there was no customs to go through. We had our bags and were headed out of the terminal at 8:45.

 

Well that wraps up my day to day updates of my cruise experience. We have been in Tuscany ever since and are having a great time post cruise. Sorry that I was not able to keep this as LIVE as possible but we were so busy and so tired that it was hard to keep up. Hope the few of you who are still following along enjoyed it. Happy cruising!

 

 

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[trosebery]

Thank you so much for sharing! I'm eagerly anticipating our cruise in July.

[Taylor D]

Thank you for sharing your trip with everyone, we will be on the July 20th sailing to all the same ports and it gave us so many things to plan and look forward to. Safe travels home and i hope our cruise is as enjoyable as your was.

[Pavovsky]

Followed along. Great reviews of ports etc.. I am summarising the ship and some venues could do better. But some of the destinations based on photos were great.

 

Enjoy the land vacation in Tuscany:

 

 

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[lindy sails]

This review has been wonderful! Very well written and awesome photos. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your trip and thoughts. I will be on the Reflection for the first time in December. I've been on five Celebrity ships and looking forward to this Reflection 14 day cruise. I've added your itinerary to my bucket list.

I hope you have a great time in Tuscany! Question about the casino-I've not had much luck with

slots-do you play a particular machine?

 

Linda

 

 

 

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[SF]

Thank you for taking the time to let us share your cruise through your posts and your photos. Just curious how come there was no customs when disembarking?