Semi-live review - Reflection 10 nights Malta and Greek Islands - 17 July 2023

[LouChamp]

Aloha. Love Celebrity, Love Rome, Love the Med, Love your reviews and pictures and wish you a fantastic voyage!

[Les43]

2 hours ago, Esprit said:

We are on board too.

No dramas for us but people on a flight from Manchester never got their luggage. Airport staff on a go slow. We waited ages for ours so didn’t get on board until 4.30 pm.

Those affected can’t get their luggage until day 4 when we dock in Athens. They then have to make their own way to the airport to claim it in person. Celebrity have said it not their problem!

Sail away was different. Sitting in the Sunset bar we were showered in what we thought was rain. The black spots on our clothes confirmed it was soot!

Ship is no different from 5 years ago and NO vibration whatsoever even when travelling at 16.9 knots.

How awful! Poor folks with no luggage. We can feel a slight vibration in our stateroom - deck 10 midship but nothing to spoil our enjoyment. 😎

[Les43]

The end of Day 1 and Day 2 onboard - a sea day! So far I have not taken any more photographs as my phone has been in the safe - oops, epic fail and must do better. 
 

First of all some thoughts on the rest of day 1 onboard. After unpacking, we dressed for dinner and headed to our favourite spot at the Martini bar for a pre-dinner drink. It was still around 5.30pm so still quite early but the bar was quiet. After a drink we headed for an early dinner in Luminae. We were seated by the window and had fantastic service from Vikal. He simply could not do enough for us. I had the crab cake starter and then the black bass. My DH had the roasted apple green salad and the chicken from the MDR. Vikal insisted on bringing us all of the desserts to try. We couldn’t resist! Food was superb - only the MDR chicken was a bit dry. Everything else was great. 
 

After dinner, we wandered through the shops and then ended the evening in the Ensemble lounge for an after dinner liqueur. We opted for an early night as it had been a long day. 
 

Clocks went forward an hour overnight which means I have been permanently confused about what time it is! We slept well - we can feel a very slight vibration in our stateroom but nothing that detracts from the experience. We ordered room service breakfast to enjoy on our balcony and it arrived around 9.20am. We had the fruit plat, yoghurt and we both had an omelette. It was nice eating on our balcony before getting ready for the day albeit that the omelette was barely warm. 
 

We spent this morning in the solarium, enjoying the hot tub and pool. There seems to be quite a few children on board and we noticed a few families being moved on from the solarium by pool staff. Bar staff were very attentive and bringing drinks to try. We stayed for a while and then headed indoors to get ready for lunch. When we got back to the room , our stateroom attendant was still at work but he stepped aside to let us get a quick change before heading to Luminae for a very civilised lunch. 
 

I tried to have a ‘light’ lunch - soup and the Cobb salad. My DH had the frisée salad and the petit filet mignon. We are now back in our room and enjoying the lovely balcony. 
 

Tonight is Evening chic so more on that later / tomorrow and hopefully some photographs too! 

[Esprit]

2 hours ago, Les43 said:

How awful! Poor folks with no luggage. We can feel a slight vibration in our stateroom - deck 10 midship but nothing to spoil our enjoyment. 😎

We are on deck 8 port side forward slumming it in a standard balcony cabin😂

We too have had a chilled day. Mostly up in the sunset bar. The two musicians play great relaxing music compared with the band down by the main pool.

Looking forward to the Chic night and silent disco

[boykin]

We are also on board. After dinner in the Blu last night we went to the atrium for 80s music night. Tons of people there having a great time. The staff is probably one of the friendliest we have encountered. I will also second that the solarium is policed very well for people with kids. A previous cruiser posted comments regarding vibration and I’m happy to report from deck 11 so far no vibration. 

[ladylemondrop]

53 minutes ago, Esprit said:

We are on deck 8 port side forward slumming it in a standard balcony cabin😂

We too have had a chilled day. Mostly up in the sunset bar. The two musicians play great relaxing music compared with the band down by the main pool.

Looking forward to the Chic night and silent disco

Silent Disco is so much fun! We loved how the Atrium was like a 'hub' for socialising in the evenings.  

 

[PTC DAWG]

On 7/13/2023 at 8:42 AM, cruzfiend said:

Following along...we are on the Equinox next Sept. this exact itinerary. Your hotel looks very nice. Enjoy 😎

 

Same here…also looking forward to this. 

Edited July 18, 2023 by PTC DAWG

[KKB]

@Les43 Thank you for this lovely TR!

DD & I are doing 2 nights in Rome & 10 day Greece/Italy cruise soon (on another, less desirable line...)

Your TR gives me ideas of what to expect--we too like to wander. We do have a Food tour booked one night & a cooking class the next day & plan to wander otherwise.

 

DH & I got a fab deal on Retreat on Beyond in April & really enjoyed it (our 30th is next year...but the deal was this year!...)

 

Looking forward to more!

[Les43]

So nice to have a few others joining in the review - thanks! I agree the staff are superb. Was looking forward to the silent disco tonight but alas we have decided to call it a night.

 

Sorry to hear that there are a lot of passengers from the UK with no luggage - what a nightmare. Hope they have it returned soon. 

[Visitors4]

11 hours ago, Les43 said:

The end of Day 1 and Day 2 onboard - a sea day! So far I have not taken any more photographs as my phone has been in the safe - oops, epic fail and must do better. 
 

First of all some thoughts on the rest of day 1 onboard. After unpacking, we dressed for dinner and headed to our favourite spot at the Martini bar for a pre-dinner drink. It was still around 5.30pm so still quite early but the bar was quiet. After a drink we headed for an early dinner in Luminae. We were seated by the window and had fantastic service from Vikal. He simply could not do enough for us. I had the crab cake starter and then the black bass. My DH had the roasted apple green salad and the chicken from the MDR. Vikal insisted on bringing us all of the desserts to try. We couldn’t resist! Food was superb - only the MDR chicken was a bit dry. Everything else was great. 
 

After dinner, we wandered through the shops and then ended the evening in the Ensemble lounge for an after dinner liqueur. We opted for an early night as it had been a long day. 
 

Clocks went forward an hour overnight which means I have been permanently confused about what time it is! We slept well - we can feel a very slight vibration in our stateroom but nothing that detracts from the experience. We ordered room service breakfast to enjoy on our balcony and it arrived around 9.20am. We had the fruit plat, yoghurt and we both had an omelette. It was nice eating on our balcony before getting ready for the day albeit that the omelette was barely warm. 
 

We spent this morning in the solarium, enjoying the hot tub and pool. There seems to be quite a few children on board and we noticed a few families being moved on from the solarium by pool staff. Bar staff were very attentive and bringing drinks to try. We stayed for a while and then headed indoors to get ready for lunch. When we got back to the room , our stateroom attendant was still at work but he stepped aside to let us get a quick change before heading to Luminae for a very civilised lunch. 
 

I tried to have a ‘light’ lunch - soup and the Cobb salad. My DH had the frisée salad and the petit filet mignon. We are now back in our room and enjoying the lovely balcony. 
 

Tonight is Evening chic so more on that later / tomorrow and hopefully some photographs too! 

Vikal is one of the best staff in Luminae on the Reflection! Attentive service! 

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for taking the time to post.   Looking forward to follow..... I'm already 4 pages behind.

 

 

[SUESEABE]

Who is captain now?

[TPCRUISER2]

Hello, Following your review! Is the Rose wine in Rome on the dry or sweet side? TIA!

[Esprit]

3 hours ago, SUESEABE said:

Who is captain now?

Michael Karatzas.

Seems friendly and personable. He and his fellow officers lined the corridor to the Martini bar to greet the passengers. 

 

[Les43]

7 hours ago, TPCRUISER2 said:

Hello, Following your review! Is the Rose wine in Rome on the dry or sweet side? TIA!

We had both - very nice!

[Les43]

Update on Tuesday evening and first port of Katakolon ( sorry it’s a bit long!)

 

Slightly behind with the review so hope to make up time now - Yesterday afternoon after lunch we relaxed on our balcony and enjoyed the bottle of champagne from embarkation day and some afternoon ‘nibbles’ left by our Butler, Kate. Last night was Evening chic night and there was a real mix of those passengers who were dressed in formal attire and those who were more casual. I wore a longer dress and my DH wore a button down , no jacket. As an aside, someone tried to enter Luminae for dinner in shorts and was turned away. The staff there have been fabulous. The right blend of attentive but not OTT. 

 

We enjoyed a pre-dinner Martini and enjoyed some people watching. We noticed only one photographer at work and very few people having photographs taken. This has been a big change for us. Our last cruise 4 years ago always seemed to have photographers around, this time we have seen hardly any and no-one has approached us (thankfully). The MDR appeared to be very busy with long lines of passengers from as early as 5.30. We went to Luminae around 6.30 /6.45. It seemed relatively quiet and the staff were as attentive as ever. I had the lobster salad and the Halibut and my DH had the Jerusalem Artichoke soup and the pasta. Vishal also brought along the cauliflower steak for us to try and it was very tasty. We enjoyed all of the food as well as sampling all of the desserts  (again!). We also enjoyed a glass of the Cabernet Sauvignon along with a nice dessert wine. All in all a very nice meal. 

 

After dinner we had a stroll via the shops and I purchased a new pair of Ray Bans with the OBC. We then saw the officer soirée in the grand foyer before heading to Ensemble for an after dinner drink and to listen to the music. Ensemble was pretty busy but mainly with folks heading to the speciality restaurants. (There is also a large Abraham Hicks group onboard although we have seen very few of those guests other than those wearing badges in the elevators and corridors). We had intended to try the silent disco but we decided to retire for the evening before 10pm. Our fantastic stateroom attendant had prepared our room for turndown. We were a bit perplexed that when we got back to our room, the people in the next cabin had the TV on very loud but to be fair they switched it off just after 10. 

 

Wednesday

 

So fast forward to today - we both slept very well and awoke at 8.40am to find we were already docked in Katakolon. We are next to the Norwegian Breakaway which looks like it’s more of a party / family oriented ship with flumes etc. We had breakfast in the OVC (our first visit) and found the selection to be very good.  We did notice that pancakes and omelettes are no longer made to order and are already pre-made. 

 

After breakfast, we headed ashore for a wander around the village of Katakolon. It was already very hot and we enjoyed a stroll along the Main Street followed by a cool drink in one of the sea-front tavernas. The shops are mainly tourist type shops with Greek souvenirs and clothes along with a few jewellery shops. After our wander and drink we headed back to the ship to cool off. We headed up to the sunset bar and sat in the shade where there was a bit of a breeze. I had a key lime daiquiri and my DH had a sangria. We then headed to the OVC for a light lunch. The selection was excellent with all of the usual items along with some Greek specials. We had a glass of rose wine with lunch and then headed back to our room to relax on the balcony and read for the afternoon.  All aboard is 3.30pm and then we will be set for Athens tomorrow. 
 

In my next post I will say a bit about Reflection and her condition etc. 

[Les43]

Thoughts on Reflection""

 

I know that the condition of Reflection has been the subject of another review so I thought I would add our thoughts here. As I said previously, we sailed on her 6 years ago in the Mediterranean in n AQ class stateroom. Overall, we are very impressed with how well she is looking. As usual, staff are doing a fantastic job in cleaning and maintaining her. We haven’t seen any rust so far and even although she hasn’t been revolutionised yet, they are updating some areas eg the sunset bar has new tables and chairs. Our Celebrity suite is lovely ( deck 10, midship) and we like the original colour scheme. I have noticed that there are some marks on the lounger on the balcony and on the floor of the balcony too. The bathroom is fine but there is some discolouration on the grouting and around the shower screen seal. Other than that, everything is good. 

 

We do think the staff are hard pushed an we noted that on embarkation day, there were a few things missing eg.no bar of soap in the sink in the bathroom, the bottles of body wash etc hadn’t been filled up (and still haven’t)  and there was no form for the laundry bags. The staff work so incredibly hard that this is no criticism of them, only an observation of a few noticeable things from our perspective. 
 

All public areas look grand and we really haven’t noticed any major post pandemic changes. We have been surprised by the lack of reminders to wash hands and sanitise and only the member of staff outside OVC with the sanitiser bottle we at washing and sanitising as we go though just in case. 
 

 

[39august]

Does Reflection still have  Cellar Masters?

[Esprit]

30 minutes ago, 39august said:

Does Reflection still have  Cellar Masters?

Yes opposite the Martini bar.

 

[Esprit]

Just a “heads up” for those on currently on board.

They no longer have fresh squeezed orange juice in the Ocean cafe. You can only get it in the Spa cafe.

My “go to” beer is Peroni but they palm you off with the red label bottles. I found out today they have cans of the stronger blue label Peroni. I’m not telling too many people though😂

[shirazcruiser]

2 hours ago, Les43 said:

Last night was Evening chic night...We enjoyed all of the food as well as sampling all of the desserts  (again!). 

Did Luminae have the macaron cookie and chocolate cart that they always had on Chic night pre-covid?  

[helen haywood]

The last time I was on Reflection in March they definitely were making omelettes to order.  They also have some premade ones in trays.  Are you saying at the eggs cooked to order station that they are not making omelettes now?

[Esprit]

1 minute ago, helen haywood said:

The last time I was on Reflection in March they definitely were making omelettes to order.  They also have some premade ones in trays.  Are you saying at the eggs cooked to order station that they are not making omelettes now?

They definitely are making omelettes to order as that’s what I live on for breakfast. Everything else is never hot enough for me hence why I avoid the buffet other times of the day.

 

[Baggy178]

Looking forward to hearing from Athens, or Dante's Inferno as the excitable British media call it.

Spoiler alert.

It's Greece.

It's July.

It's hot.

[Les43]

4 hours ago, shirazcruiser said:

Did Luminae have the macaron cookie and chocolate cart that they always had on Chic night pre-covid?  

They had a plate with the macaron and a few other sweet nibbles delivered to your table just before dessert but no ‘cart’.