The Adriatic and Italy on Celebrity Reflection June 3, 2022

[asnaleah]

1 hour ago, PurpleTraveller said:

 

What I do remember is that along with orange and apple juice they ran out of English Breakfast Tea bags at the self service stations in the Oceanview Cafe one or two days before the end of the cruise, so it is a good idea to bring your own.

 

It was Tea Forte at Cafe El Bacio on Silhouette. But they are specialty teas. Try the spa cafe for coffee and tea. 

[terrydtx]

I am loving your review, we board the Reflection on Aug 5th for the same itinerary as yours. We booked this cruise after we canceled a Baltic cruise with Oceania. We will spend two night is Rome before we board and after the cruise we travel to Florence for 3 nights and then to Venice for 3 nights before we board a 14-night Greek cruise in Trieste. We are booked on a B2B New Zealand and Great Barrier Reef cruise in January 2024, and really looking forward to seeing your homelands. Looking forward to the rest of your fantastic review.

[Lastdance]

I loved walking the wall in Dubrovnik too, as it was such a great way to see so many wonderful views. Again, thank you for sharing so the rest of us can refresh memories, or plan trips as first-timers.  

[PurpleTraveller]

11 hours ago, Provence55always said:

Gorgeous photos of Dubrovnik brought back a lot of memories. We spend 6 weeks in Croatia 20 years ago island hopping. The seafood was amazing and so inexpensive we used to enjoy dinner every evening for under 20 Euro with wine. We finished our trip with a week in Dubrovnik in a lovely apartment facing the Cathedral. I know from friends that Croatia has now got very expensive to holiday there. 

 

Thank you! Your trip of Croatia sounds fantastic. Pre Covid we were considering a small ship cruise of the Croatian coast and after our wonderful day in Dubrovnik I think I may have to revisit that idea.

 

[PurpleTraveller]

9 hours ago, terrydtx said:

I am loving your review, we board the Reflection on Aug 5th for the same itinerary as yours. We booked this cruise after we canceled a Baltic cruise with Oceania. We will spend two night is Rome before we board and after the cruise we travel to Florence for 3 nights and then to Venice for 3 nights before we board a 14-night Greek cruise in Trieste. We are booked on a B2B New Zealand and Great Barrier Reef cruise in January 2024, and really looking forward to seeing your homelands. Looking forward to the rest of your fantastic review.

 

Thanks, I'm so pleased that you are enjoying the review. I hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did. It's a great itinerary and the ship is lovely. It's great that you are spending extra time in Italy, one of my favourite countries, before you board your next cruise. Also hope you have a wonderful time on your cruises down under. Happy sailing! 😊

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by PurpleTraveller

[PurpleTraveller]

9 hours ago, Lastdance said:

I loved walking the wall in Dubrovnik too, as it was such a great way to see so many wonderful views. Again, thank you for sharing so the rest of us can refresh memories, or plan trips as first-timers.  

 

Thank you for following along. We had a great time on the wall and we were lucky that as it was early in the day it wasn't very crowded.

 

[PurpleTraveller]

June 8 - Kotor

 

We have had the pleasure of sailing to Kotor twice before so we knew we had to get up early to enjoy the sail in. It was overcast but the views didn't disappoint. It was very serene as we glided in with the clouds low over the mountains. The sun was just peeping out from behind the clouds 

 

 

We sailed past the two islands of Our Lady of the Rocks and St George Island and the lovely town of Perast.

 

 

 

 

As we got closer to Kotor the mountains got more rugged.

 

 

 

 

When we got close to Kotor we could see the old city walls rising high above the city.

 

 

On our previous visits we had walked up the old walls to the St John Fortress on our first visit and caught the local bus to Perast and then got a boat to Our Lady of the Rocks island on our second visit. This time we wanted to go further afield so we booked the Celebrity Small Group Castelnuovo and Forte Mare Fortress shore excursion.

 

The original meeting time in the theatre was 8.15 am but we had received a message the day before to ask us to be in theatre at 8.00 am. We arrived at 7.50 am to get our tour number (Yellow 10) and sat down to wait. As the rules were to wear masks in the theatre during shows we were rather surprised to find that even though the shore excursion participants were seated much closer together than during shows, that about 75% of passengers were not wearing masks. As there were Covid cases on board and the captain had announced that another two passengers had tested positive it seemed to be an instance of inconsistent mask policy. 

 

There was a delay in the shore excursions being tendered to the dock and we didn't leave the theatre until 8.50 am. When I saw that they were using small local boats to tender I understood the delay. We went to deck two to get on the tender and it took about ten minutes to get to the dock.

 

The weather was still very overcast and we had had a few rain showers but the captain had told us that the local weather forecast was that the weather would clear up and be sunny by 11.00 am and he was correct 

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by PurpleTraveller

[PurpleTraveller]

When we got off the tender the bus was waiting for us on the dock and we left at 9.25 am.

 

When I had booked the excursion for some reason I assumed that a small group would be 15 - 20 participants. It was my fault for not checking but I was surprised that our small group numbered 29. On the bus we were the only people wearing masks. So much for the Celebrity "All guests are required to wear face masks during transit in Shore Excursion buses".

 

We made sure to sit on the left side of the bus so that we could enjoy the views of the waterfront and bay as we drove to Castelnuovo or Herceg Novi in Montenegrin. The very scenic drive took one hour.

 

When we got there the bus parked on the edge of the town as buses can't drive into the centre and we walked into town. We passed through a square to the clock tower. In the archway underneath the clock tower was a "black Madonna".

 

 

 

 

We continued on through the very pretty town to Belavista Square. There we visited the Orthodox Holy Archangel Michael Church.

 

 

 

The square was lovely with the church, a fountain, restaurants and the Town Hall.

 

 

 

 

 

[terrydtx]

1 hour ago, PurpleTraveller said:

 

Thanks, I'm so pleased that you are enjoying the review. I hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did. It's a great itinerary and the ship is lovely. It's great that you are spending extra time in Italy, one of my favorite countries, before you board your next cruise. Also hope you have a wonderful time on your cruises down under. Happy sailing! 😊

 

This will be our fourth trip to Italy, and it is one of our favorite places to visit. the last trip was in 2018 we spent 14 days on a land tour seeing south Italy and Sicily. My sister and BIL are traveling with us and for Italy we are their tour guides as this is their first trip there.  Our total trip is 34 days.

[PurpleTraveller]

After visiting the church we were given free time from 10.45 am to midday. We decided to walk up to the Kanli Kula Fortress and visit the Blood Tower. It cost €3.00 each and was worth every cent for the magnificent views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There wasn't much to see in the fortress - it was all about the views!

 

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by PurpleTraveller

[PurpleTraveller]

We made our way back down to the town and visited the local market where the stallholders were very friendly and we tasted some delicious local cheese.

 

 

 

We then found a bakery where we bought lunch which we ate back at Belavista Square. The group met up and we walked through the very pretty streets to St Jeronim Square to see the Catholic Church of St Jeronim and it's Bell Tower.

 

 

 

 

 

This square was also lovely with views across the bay.

 

 

 

 

We then walked down to Fort Mare Fortress which also had great views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by PurpleTraveller

[PurpleTraveller]

We then got back on the bus for a very short ride to the Savina Monastery. There we saw the church, cemetary, vineyard and could taste their wine at a cost of €2.00 each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got back on the bus and had one last stop at a viewpoint opposite Perast and Our Lady of the Rocks and St George Islands. We had five minutes to get out and take our photos before get back on the bus and returning to Kotor. We got back at 2.30 pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed our shore excursion and were very lucky that the weather turned out to be sunny. It was a very relaxed and easy excursion to a lovely town with great views.

 

[PurpleTraveller]

As it was only 2.30 pm we still had time to go into the old city of Kotor. The old city is just across the road from the dock and since our last visit they have put an underpass with escalators under the road so now you don't even have to cross the road.

 

 

We made our way to the old city and had time to walk around the cute city and buy some of the lovely ceramics they have there, before heading back to the ship on a tender at 3.45 pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by PurpleTraveller

[amcco]

Great reviews! Just getting caught up. Thanks for taking the time to write this up. Beautiful pictures!

[PurpleTraveller]

Sail away was at 5.15 pm. We went up to the top decks and enjoyed every moment of the sail away. As it was Formal Chic night and we were planning to eat at the Oceanview Cafe we had no time restrictions and ended up staying there until we sailed out of the Bay of Kotor into the Adriatic Sea.

 

 

 

We passed Perast and Our Lady of the Rocks and St George Islands again.

 

 

 

We were following a MSC ship out and as she passed through the narrowest point of the bay you could see how little room there was for these large ships to manoeuvre.

 

 

 

As we got close to the exit of the bay to the ocean we passed a disused submarine tunnel built by the Yugoslav Navy in the 1970's.

 

 

As we sailed into the Adriatic Sea we passed Prevloka Fortress on our right and Mamula Island on our left. The fort on Mamula Island was built in 1853 and was an Italian Concentration Camp during WWII. It is currently being converted into a luxury hotel and resort.

 

 

 

There was another lovely sunset.

 

 

After dinner we went to the Martini Bar where we met some friends to help her celebrate a significant birthday. At 10.00 pm the ABBA-Mania & Disco Times show in the Grand Foyer kicked off. There was a lot of singing and dancing but when it got too loud to talk and extremely crowded we returned to our cabin to get a good night's sleep .

 

[PurpleTraveller]

13 minutes ago, amcco said:

Great reviews! Just getting caught up. Thanks for taking the time to write this up. Beautiful pictures!

 

Thank you! So pleased that you are enjoying the review and following along. 😊

 

[PurpleTraveller]

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

This will be our fourth trip to Italy, and it is one of our favorite places to visit. the last trip was in 2018 we spent 14 days on a land tour seeing south Italy and Sicily. My sister and BIL are traveling with us and for Italy we are their tour guides as this is their first trip there.  Our total trip is 34 days.

 

Sounds like a fabulous trip. Enjoy! 😊

 

[gareths]

Definitely a significant birthday!

 

We are enjoying this so much and even though we were on the same cruise it shows how everyone's experience can be so different, depending on what you decide to do and where you decide to go.

 

As you know, this was my first cruise and I can't wait to go again. Celebrity and the team on Reflection have set a very high bar for future trips though.

 

Gareth x

 

PS We definitely want to go back to Croatia too!

 

 

[Andrea stringer]

12 minutes ago, gareths said:

Definitely a significant birthday!

 

We are enjoying this so much and even though we were on the same cruise it shows how everyone's experience can be so different, depending on what you decide to do and where you decide to go.

 

As you know, this was my first cruise and I can't wait to go again. Celebrity and the team on Reflection have set a very high bar for future trips though.

 

Gareth x

 

PS We definitely want to go back to Croatia too!

 

 

Loved Croatia 🇭🇷  loving the review ❤️ 

[vickykay]

Which side of the ship were you on for the sail into Kotor?  Thanks.

[carlmm]

Lovely pictures. Thank you for your review!

[theopup]

Lovely review and beautiful pictures 

 

[Lastdance]

Kotor, Montenegro is such a beautiful Medieval town that has quite a few interesting hikes with gorgeous views.  We loved the zigzag road and how everything was so unspoiled.  The views in and out were absolutely gorgeous, as your photos show...thanks for rekindling the memories.  Now, I cannot wait until my return next year, as my first time visiting was one with a sinus infection that started in Lake Bled.  thank goodness I had meds with me, so I was on the mend.  Sometimes you just want to pinch yourself to make sure that you are not just dreaming!

Edited July 17, 2022 by Lastdance

[PurpleTraveller]

10 hours ago, gareths said:

Definitely a significant birthday!

 

We are enjoying this so much and even though we were on the same cruise it shows how everyone's experience can be so different, depending on what you decide to do and where you decide to go.

 

As you know, this was my first cruise and I can't wait to go again. Celebrity and the team on Reflection have set a very high bar for future trips though.

 

Gareth x

 

PS We definitely want to go back to Croatia too!

 

 

 

One thing I love about cruising is finding out what others have done on the cruise. You can speak to three people and hear three completely different experiences.

 

I agree that the bar has been set high. We had a fantastic cruise!

 

[PurpleTraveller]

10 hours ago, Andrea stringer said:

Loved Croatia 🇭🇷  loving the review ❤️ 

 

Thanks! I want to go back to Croatia.