CHICAGOPAUL - LIVE!!!!!!! CRUISE BLOG - November 5th Celebrity Reflection!!!!!!!!!

[chicagopaul]

Good Morning everyone! We are anchored in Grand Cayman today. I am going to try to post the daily below but internet is quite slow this morning. Let’s see if it goes through! 

[chicagopaul]

Ok I was right no daily uploads for right now. I’ll get to them shortly. 

[ASell]

Enjoy your day Paul !!!

[chicagopaul]

[RealDeal]

Hello Paul! I am just off the TA. If you happen to go by Ensemble after 4:30, could you do me favor and tell Vladimir (the good-looking Russian guy...LOL) that Elizabeth from the TA misses him and says hello? If you want to further blow someone's mind, tell the singer Daniel Smart (sort of Ed Sheeran-ish) that you heard he does a mean version of Springsteen's Point Blank.

 

Have a good trip!

[chicagopaul]

Ugh Oh I posted the wrong one. Here is today’s. Thank you to Milton at Sunset for letting me borrow his. 

 

 

[chicagopaul]

3 minutes ago, RealDeal said:

Hello Paul! I am just off the TA. If you happen to go by Ensemble after 4:30, could you do me favor and tell Vladimir (the good-looking Russian guy...LOL) that Elizabeth from the TA misses him and says hello? If you want to further blow someone's mind, tell the singer Daniel Smart (sort of Ed Sheeran-ish) that you heard he does a mean version of Springsteen's Point Blank.

 

Have a good trip!

You got it!! 

[RealDeal]

Just now, chicagopaul said:

You got it!! 

Thanks!!!  Vlad was great....I had a blast making him blush...LOL. 

[chicagopaul]

4 hours ago, cruizefam said:

 

 

There was a great bartender onboard Refections last December, Campbell, from Guatamala - such a fun witty big guy. He would wear one name tag in the morning, when he worked the pool bar and a different one in the evening when he worked the bar down on deck 4 near the future cruise booking area - I've been wondering if he's still there?    

 

Watch the white stools around the sunset bar if it rains.... they seem to collect some water and it's hard to tell because of the slight dip in them, I may or may not have got a wet bottom from that experience.  

 

I think some of my past crusing friends are on board, you might run into them at the pool bar, Karen & Henry, they are lots of fun! 

 

I believe we met them at the Martini Bar last night. From New York State? Rochester perhaps? 

 

Also thanks for the reminder on the seats at sunset. I’ve made that mistake before! 

[cruizefam]

3 minutes ago, chicagopaul said:

 

I believe we met them at the Martini Bar last night. From New York State? Rochester perhaps? 

 

Also thanks for the reminder on the seats at sunset. I’ve made that mistake before! 

 

 

Yes, that is them, we have cruised with them on many occasions, and they are a lot of fun! If you run into them again, or can remember our names, please tell them Denise & Sam said hello, they will know who we are.  🙂    

 

Enjoy the day! 

 

 

 

[brockmom]

1 hour ago, chicagopaul said:

Ugh Oh I posted the wrong one. Here is today’s. Thank you to Milton at Sunset for letting me borrow his. 

 

 

 

 

enjoy Grand Cayman....we love 7 mile beach !

In March we found a guy at the end of the strip that hooked us up with beer , ice etc...great day !

Barefoot on the lawn sounds like fun !!!! at 10 pm.

we ate at the Lawn club once and the band was playing on the lawn...it was awesome to eat and hear the

music at the same time !!!

whatever you choose to do- have fun !!!

Brockmom

:)

 

[chicagopaul]

1 hour ago, brockmom said:

 

 

enjoy Grand Cayman....we love 7 mile beach !

In March we found a guy at the end of the strip that hooked us up with beer , ice etc...great day !

Barefoot on the lawn sounds like fun !!!! at 10 pm.

we ate at the Lawn club once and the band was playing on the lawn...it was awesome to eat and hear the

music at the same time !!!

whatever you choose to do- have fun !!!

Brockmom

🙂

 

 

Funny you should mention lawn club and the music. We just booked the lawn club bbq which is in a few days and will have live music on the lawn. We’ve done lawn club many times but not this special night so it should be interesting. 

[chicagopaul]

Well we are having a mini downpour here in the caymans. I’m staying dry at the sunset bar after lunch. Edward has gone back for his afternoon nap. Just me and my beer and a few travelers from the UK who says the rain reminds them of home. Cheers! 

 

 

[chicagopaul]

Good afternoon everyone. I’m sitting on our balcony with my laptop. It is a little after 4:00pm and we are anchored off of Grand Cayman. The seas are calm and there is barely any breeze. There are some clouds in the distance that are hovering closely and may bring a few showers again. I can hear water lapping against the side of the Reflection and the sound of ship horns as a ship is leaving port.

Internet has been a little spotty today so I apologize for not getting photos up. Hopefully once I post this I can post a few photos from last nights dinner as well. If you’ve been following me on Instagram you’ve seen some photos of food, martini bar, and some activities around the ship. I saw someone comment asking for ship photos so I took a few today and if the internet allows I’ll have them posted today too.

 

Yesterday was “evening chic” night. We noticed a few tuxedos and a few gowns. Overall everyone was dressed very well. I saw more men in sport coats that I remember seeing recently so that was a nice plus. Photographers were out taking pictures around the bars and in the restaurants. Not intrusive; just friendly offerings of photographs. The bars were not as crowded as I though they would be before dinner last night. I think people went pretty hard during the day and they were taking it easy at night.

We started our night at the Martini Bar of course and met a few friendly people that we chatted with. We decided to leave the Martini bar a bit early and have a drink in Michael’s Club. We met the bartender Riz (or Raz? I’ll confirm his name tonight). He’s been with Celebrity for some time. He was very friendly and very engaging. I’ll be sure to get the correct spelling of his name tonight. I forgot how much I enjoy the layout of Michael’s club on the Reflection versus the other S class ships. I like having the refrigerators where we can take drinks to go. The bar i

s a little larger and the overall space feels a bit more casual to me than on the Eclipse for instance.

We had dinner in Luminae yesterday. We had a very nice table by the window. We both started with the beef tartar and Edward had the artichoke soup, I had a cesar salad. The salad was underwhelming. Edward’s soup looked much better and he confirmed it was quite good.  Yesterday was my favorite entree in Luminae, the halibut. It was served over sticky rice with fried onion strings on top. It was finished off with a miso sauce (not a broth, but more of a cream / white sauce). The fish was cooked perfectly. The fish by itself did not have much flavor, but when you take a little of the sauce, mixed with the sticky rice and onion strings, it was heaven.

 

Last night as silent disco in the atrium. What a turn out! I think everyone on the ship was asleep earlier just so they could go to silent disco. I have some video that I’ll try to get posted as well. We had a few drinks at World Class bar last night. The bartenders are Dimitry and Adrian. Both are pretty quiet, but after a while Adrian started chatting and we had a greet conversation with him. So much so that our original 1 drink stop turned into 3.

 

We’ve been waking up without any issues on this cruise and feeling wide awake in the morning. We’ve been keeping an eye on how much we’ve been drinking late, but I think the reason we’re waking up easily is because of the extra window. The amount of light coming into the cabin has been wonderful.

This morning we eagerly approached the sunset bar at the opening time of 9:30am, just like any good alcoholic would do. We were chatting with Milton and he told us that 2300 guests had drink packages prior to boarding. 2300! One of the highest they’ve had. He said this did not include those who may have purchased the package yesterday. That is a lot of drink packages!

 

So since we’ve been here many times we decided to make today a private ship day and stay on board. We had some drinks at sunset bar. then went to the pool bar and had a couple drinks there. Chatted with the bartender (Alena from Russia) and Singh. It was nice to chat with Singh and catch up. His wife is on board as well this contract, just like his last contract, so they’re happy that worked out. We ate lunch from Ocean View cafe today and grabbed a nice table outside. I ate mostly indian food today (which was very good as usual) while Edward had a mix of everything from Pizza to random little bites of pasta salad.

 

I think we will do dinner one night in our suite and ask our butler to have the chef create an Indian dinner for us. Have any of you done that? I’d like to welcome your thoughts and input before I ask him to arrange it.

[cheeseheads4ever]

Boy you two are bringing back memories from your past posting. Great job..will you be posting more pics on here as well as Instagram?  We havent did Instagram yet.. I know we are technically challanged.

 

[chicagopaul]

I definitely will post much more photos on here. Today the internet seems to be dragging. We’re leaving port now so hopefully in an hour or so it will be running better and I can get more posted. 

[cheeseheads4ever]

No problem. It is much appreciated...

[Ravbo]

Hi Paul and Edward,

Sounds like you are having a GREAT time on Reflection.

Really appreciate your postings and information about your cruise.

I hope someday to meet you both.

We seem to always have a cruise scheduled close to yours BUT off by a week or 2 or on a different ship.  Our signature has our past cruise information.

We leave on Sunday November 18 for 21 days on Silhouette (B2B).
Continue to enjoy your cruise.

Hope your new apartment is ready when you get back to Chicago.

I saw earlier photos of the new building and it looked to me like they were behind and wouldn't maker the anticipated move in date (construction is my profession).

Good luck.

 

Bob (and Terry)

Edited November 7, 2018 by Ravbo

[CanadianTourist]

2300 drink packages!  Wow!  That is a very high percentage of the guests.  Which package do you typically get?  

 

Thanks for posting all of this!  Enjoy!

[chicagopaul]

Thank you all so much for following along. We had a wonderful evening. Great dinner. Met some wonderful people. I’m looking forward to updating you all in the morning. 

[Eliz]

Hi Paul. I so enjoy your cruise blogs. You really have a gift for bringing us all onboard with you and Edward. Your posting about the onboard staff was lovely and very heartfelt. 

 

What are your plans for Cartagena? I lived in Colombia for eight years and often visited the city. A few years ago our ship docked there and I was so excited to return. Wow, had the city grown! Since my husband had never been there, we did a private tour in a well air conditioned car. Be prepared as it can be extremely hot and humid. Bring aqua...no martinis! Have fun.

 

You sure picked a good time to be away from home. Weather is dismal. 

 

Elizabeth

[taylortime05]

Paul,  is the pool area packed by early morning?  I've read that the Reflection seems busier than Eclipse or Equinox because on the Reflection they got rid of some common space and added more cabins.  We were on the Eclipse couple of years ago in December and were always able to find 2 chairs around the pool.  It could get busy at times but even if we couldn't get 2 chairs right around the pool there were chairs available near by looking out over the water.  I'm hoping it's the same on our 14 night Reflection cruise leaving Dec 7th. 

[FlamingJune1967]

thanks for this info!  we leave on Reflection Nov. 26th and I am loving the daily schedules!!

[chicagopaul]

Good Morning everyone! I think the internet is working well today so I should be able to plenty of pictures posted today. Today is our second sea day. Weather is warm, but with quite a breeze so it does not feel too hot. The pool deck is pretty crowded already and it’s 9:30am. 

 

 

[chicagopaul]