Live from Reflection Transatlantic to Dublin 20th April to 6th May 2019

[Sunshine summertime]

We are on the May 26th sailing to Norway from Dublin. I am enjoying your review 

Edited April 25, 2019 by Sunshine summertime
Spelling error

[cinnamon]

Loving your writing style and happily vicariously sailing along with you.

[IrishLassie]

2 hours ago, Eloise4Ever said:

 

Thanks IrishLassie. We live in Galway. Donegal is amazing and we love to spend time there. I have fond memories of visiting Carrigart years ago. The beaches in that part if the country are among the most beautiful I've ever seen anywhere.

Oh, we've been to Galway many times & have stayed out at Salthill.  We always go to O'Connor's Pub out there (hint, could be related! LOL)  If you get up to Donegal again, go to Ramelton, on the way out to Carrigart & visit Conways Pub.

Enjoy your cruise & looking forward to the rest of your posts.

[mermee]

Excellent review!  Humorous and entertaining! Looking forward to following your journey!

[jimbri]

Enjoying your review.  I've been tempted to take a cruise to Ireland and hopefully will someday.  My mother was from Sligo so I would love to stay post-cruise and go back again for a visit.

[Loucat]

Hoping for more great posts today. How many days until you reach your first port? Loved your thread counting research projects

[Swordfish1949]

Love your review - we're sailing to Dublin in 2020.....Thanks very much

[Eloise4Ever]

On 4/25/2019 at 11:04 PM, cinnamon said:

Loving your writing style and happily vicariously sailing along with you.

 

Thanks Cinnamon. You were on our 2013 Westbound Transatlantic and were kind enough to organize a tour for a very large group in the Bahamas. I hope you are well.

Edited April 27, 2019 by Eloise4Ever

[Eloise4Ever]

So, I have a bit of catching up to do. These long rambling posts take quite a while to write and we’ve been having so much fun chatting to people that it’s hard to find the time. I am having a cabin day today so will try to get up to date. By cabin day I mean a day when I just slob around in the cabin or on the balcony chilling out. Bob is kind enough to bring me sustenance from time to time between his breakfasts and lunches 😉.

[Eloise4Ever]

Day 3, Wednesday - At Sea

 

Our clocks went forward for the first time last night so I took the opportunity to conduct further thread count studies this morning. 

 

We went to the Mast Grill for a burger for lunch. My resolution not to eat there every day isn’t going well so far 😬. The burger was tasty as ever. I also had an ice cream from the machine - I love that stuff. Bob can take or leave ice cream so I was surprised when he said he was going to get one. I looked up when he came back with his cone and let out such a hoot that the poor guy nearly dropped it 🍦. The reason for my hoot of laughter being he had deposited one square inch of ice cream in the cone. Said that was all he wanted 😆.

 

After lunch we went down to the pool deck for a 1980s music quiz. Bob and I are huge fans of 80s music so this was a must do for us. What a blast we had. The cruise director Simon divided the pool deck down the middle into 2 teams and we each had a member of the entertainment team as Team Captain. A very short clip of 80s music was played for each team and the captain had to run around trying to get the answer from his team members. After giving the answer we all had to dance to the song. There were some twists and turns throughout and our team ended up losing by a small margin. My day was absolutely made when to finish off they played my favorite song ever, “Don’t Stop Believing”. I couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear and just kept thinking, how lucky am I to be dancing to my favourite music, in the sun, on a beautiful cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with my darling Bob? 😍

 

After that we sat up on the purple sofas at Sunset Bar with A and C and enjoyed a few Sangria Spritzes in the sun. We then got ready for dinner and headed to the theatre to see Mark Donoghue perform. He is a multi-instrumentalist and singer. We hadn’t seen him before and really enjoyed his act. As always, we were so impressed with the Celebrity orchestra. They have very little time to practice with each of the different performers and they do such an amazing job every time. 

 

After a drink at the Martini Bar we headed in to dinner and were lucky enough to get our favourite table. We both had the lemon roasted half chicken for main course and it was delicious.

 

We finished up the night at the Martini Bar and retired to bed where we lost another hour.

 

Not overheard today: anything from our neighbors. They have been quiet as buttered snails sneaking through a French chefs kitchen 🐌😂. Unfortunately, I can’t claim authorship of that wonderful phrase, Bob read it to me the other day from his Brandon Sanderson book.

 

Ratings:

 

80s Music Quiz: Hell Yeah x 2

Celebrity Orchestra: Hell Yeah

Mark Donoghue: Hell Yeah

 

As you can tell from all the Hell Yeahs and lack of Mehs, we are having a wonderful cruise so far 👍🏻🙏.

 

 

 

[Eloise4Ever]

Day 4, Thursday - At Sea

 

Today dawned bright and sunny again. The weather has been great so far. My thread count survey was slightly curtailed as we were invited to play in the Roll Call LCR game by darling C. This took place at 11am in the Dining Room as arranged by C with the Events Coordinator. Unfortunately C was let down as there were 3 groups doing various activities in the Dining Room and only 2 areas prepared. Bridge players and an Origami class took the 2 areas and we all stood around for a long time while an area was identified and tables cleared for us. We need long tables for LCR. I really felt for C but she took it in her stride. My silver lining was being entertained by M/Larry David while we waited. At one point he said the most Larry David thing anyone who is not actually Larry David has ever said. He asked Bob if he minds when all these men pay attention to his wife (N.B. I am not sure who “all these men” are as I haven’t seen them!). Bob gallantly said he was fine with it and M said “Same for me, I’m happy when other men talk to C, it’s less for me to do” 😂😂😂

 

So eventually we got set up into 3 tables with each table playing their own game. I think we had 11 at our table. We had never played LCR before but were assured there was no skill involved. Our table mates kindly got us set up with 12 quarters each which we needed to play the game. You can also play with 3 dollar notes but as that makes the game go faster that would be better for larger groups. Anyhoo, I won’t go any further into the specifics here, suffice it to say it’s a simple dice game that’s a lot of fun. We had a hoot playing it and met some great people. The game lasted for maybe 45 minutes and the winner got to keep all of our quarters. We were very appreciative that C invited us.

 

After that we had a nice lunch out back of the Oceanview. Our fabulous sommelier Rolando from the Dining Room kept us well topped up with our favorite dry Rose wine and Evian. He’s a star ⭐️. Our friend M joined us and introduced us to her friends H and L who happened along. Somehow or another we got into a conversation about fishing that involved shooting the poor creatures and H told us about a fisherman’s country song that includes the lyrics “first I lobster, then I flounder”. This cracked me up. I googled the song later and it’s pun-tastically silly and hilarious 😆 .

 

Bob and I then sat up top on one of the purple sofas at the Sunset Bar for a while and enjoyed a few Sangria Spritzes and entertainment from Charlotte who sings and plays guitar.

 

After getting ready for dinner we went to the Theatre to see Claire Maidin who sings and plays piano. She does both well but also spends a lot of time talking about personal stuff. Some people love that kind of thing but it’s not our cup of tea so we left after a while and went to the Martini Bar. There we bumped into N and R and had a good chat. Bob and I dined on our own at our favorite window table where we have great waiters and the amazing Rolando. We both had steak and chips with Bearnaise sauce for our main course and it was good.

 

After dinner we had a drink back at the Martini Bar before going to the Ensemble lounge with A and C. Bob and I love the Ensemble Lounge but never seem to spend enough time there. This night we were lucky enough to hear Ray Brown Jnr sing jazz. He was amazing and I felt lucky to be there. I was surprised more people weren’t there, they don’t know what they’re missing. We finally headed to bed around 1:30am after another wonderful day at sea.

 

Ratings:

 

Ray Brown Jnr - Hell Yeah

Sommelier service from Rolando - Hell Yeah

Weather - Hell Yeah

[LEtue]

Great review and can't wait for more!

 

I have to wait until next year to board the Reflection in Dublin so reading your review and planning the trip helps to pass the time 

[cinnamon]

4 hours ago, Eloise4Ever said:

 

Thanks Cinnamon. You were on our 2013 Westbound Transatlantic and were kind enough to organize a tour for a very large group in the Bahamas. I hope you are well.

Very kind of you Eloise, I’m glad you remember the day well. Unfortunately some people were so nasty to me after that trip I’ve never been a group organiser since. 

We haven’t cruised on Celebrity since 2014, having stepped ‘up’ to Azamara but started reading these boards again after we booked Summit for late August next year to New England and Canada. I have written a few Live From blogs onboard Quest and an RCCL cruise but only in Europe with 4G coverage. 

I hope you continue to enjoy the cruise as much as we’re enjoying travelling along with you. 

Corinne

[Eloise4Ever]

I'm very grateful to everyone who has posted on this thread so far. However it seems this kind of review is of very little interest to most Cruise Critic members. It takes so much time to write my long, rambling posts while onboard I've decided to change tack and post  a summary after I get home. We are still having an amazing cruise 😀. See you on the other side 👍.

[pd7277]

1 hour ago, Eloise4Ever said:

I'm very grateful to everyone who has posted on this thread so far. However it seems this kind of review is of very little interest to most Cruise Critic members. It takes so much time to write my long, rambling posts while onboard I've decided to change tack and post  a summary after I get home. We are still having an amazing cruise 😀. See you on the other side 👍.

I'm sure there are many of us out here reading.  I'm sometimes annoyed with the continued responses of "following" or "thank you", but I guess if you are not getting them, you don't know if anyone cares and therefore not worth doing.  I'll have to adjust my attitude.  Enjoy your vacation, we can wait until it has been enjoyed and you can savor the recollection with us.

Edited April 30, 2019 by pd7277

[bunnyette]

Nooo, I’m loving your live posts....

[cruise kitty]

On 4/25/2019 at 11:29 AM, Eloise4Ever said:

 

 

Thanks folks. Thankfully, the Sunset Bar now has a supply of Aperol which we enjoy either in an Aperol Spritz or in the Sangria Spritz they serve up there.

<my snip>

 

Enjoying your review, we leave in a little over 4 days to visit Scotland & Ireland before we board her on the 16th.   Please let them know to stock up on the Aperol for me :)

[DENIE]

Oh no!  Was loving your posts and writing style!  Very entertaining.  Look forward to your review at the end.  We just booked a November 2020 cruise on the Reflection, so enjoying your thoughts and opinions!  Have a wonderful cruise...

[Lindagop]

Have so been enjoying following along, please continue . Hoping your cruise is fantastic

[sootydog]

Love following your great review, going on the Reflection on the 26th May. First cruise we won’t have to travel to join 😀 - we live in Dublin.

[happy cruzer]

Live the cruise, then tell us about it!  I'm ok with it not being LIVE.  enjoy.

[Member123]

I'm sorry that you feel there was little interest in your posting! 

 

Let me explain my lack of response. Having been on ships where the internet has been abysmal (being kind in my word choice), I know how patient you have to be to send notes to loved ones, etc. I've never done a LIVE trip report posting, but I've read from others that beg CC members to stop quoting picture-heavy posts because the trip reporter must load up the pages before posting a continuation of their report... and that can take forever. I've read that responses get in the way of the OP trip reporter being able to post their information for that day! So, purely out of POLITENESS, not a lack of interest, I didn't respond to even the post that you directed towards me. I was saving my response for the end, and for that, I'm truly sorry that you felt a lack of enthusiasm.

 

Enjoy your cruise! I got a note from my friends onboard that the seas were fairly calm heading into the Azores. Her note to me caught them up with their activity right before arrival. You would have met my friend if she had stayed for the train game, but she was a bit put off by the lack of organization and the waiting for the table, and she wanted to hear the enrichment speaker. 

 

Looking forward to reading your postings when you return home. I love your sense of humor and your rating system for the events of the day!

[Eloise4Ever]

12 hours ago, sootydog said:

Love following your great review, going on the Reflection on the 26th May. First cruise we won’t have to travel to join 😀 - we live in Dublin.

 

Being able to sail in and out of Dublin is heavenly. We also sailed Dublin to Norway and back again last May. The cruise itself was spectacular and being able to park at Dublin port was the icing on the cake. Wishing you a fabulous cruise 😀.

[Eloise4Ever]

5 hours ago, Member123 said:

 ...purely out of POLITENESS, not a lack of interest, I didn't respond to even the post that you directed towards me. I was saving my response for the end, and for that, I'm truly sorry that you felt a lack of enthusiasm.

 

Enjoy your cruise! I got a note from my friends onboard that the seas were fairly calm heading into the Azores. Her note to me caught them up with their activity right before arrival. You would have met my friend if she had stayed for the train game, but she was a bit put off by the lack of organization and the waiting for the table, and she wanted to hear the enrichment speaker. 

 

Thank you Member 123, your explanation is very sweet and kind. Internet etiquette is hard to figure out sometimes!

 

I believe your friend was just about to sit beside me at the LCR game until she changed her mind and left. It's a shame I didn't get to meet her.

[Eloise4Ever]

16 hours ago, cruise kitty said:

 

Enjoying your review, we leave in a little over 4 days to visit Scotland & Ireland before we board her on the 16th.   Please let them know to stock up on the Aperol for me 🙂

 

They will definitely need to stock up on Aperol as we are making serious inroads on their stock 😁. Apart from an Aperol Spritz which you can get at most bars (although how it's made depends on the bartender. I wish they would just stick to the recipe that's printed on the back of every Aperol bottle), I highly recommend the Last Voyage at the Ensemble Lounge and the Sangria Spritz at the Sunset Bar. Just be sure to give the latter a good stir.

 

On the subject of drinks, Celebrity are now using paper straws. That's great to see but they do tend to wilt after a while 😗. Note to self: Must drink more quickly!