Live From Celebrity Reflection: 6 Day Caribbean 1/28-2/3/24

[jam19872016]

1 minute ago, DeanDeeDee said:

I'm following along! I've never been on a Celebration cruise, so this should be really eye opening!

Thanks for following along!

 

[JandPB]

I was wondering where the next live was going to come from. Happy to see you’re back on a ship. This will tide us over until our Feb sailing on VV. 
 

~PB

[jam19872016]

2 minutes ago, JandPB said:

I was wondering where the next live was going to come from. Happy to see you’re back on a ship. This will tide us over until our Feb sailing on VV. 
 

~PB

Nice! Never done VV. It's been on my to do list since day one and somewhere along the way of reading review after review, I realized I was reading the same story with different characters.

 

I have to wonder how sustainable that is for the brand long term with identical ships and experiences. I've just kinda scratched my VV itch without ever sailing them. 

 

If the stars lined up I would still love to give them a try though.

 

Enjoy your trip and thanks for following along 😀 

[jam19872016]

I love piano bar. They don't have that on Celebrity but another favorite of mine is silent disco which they offered every single night on my last cruise.

 

I love listening to music in general while enjoying a beverage and then I remembered one of my favorite things about the celebrity app, it loads before the cruise.

 

So I had to take a peek.

 

Looks like this time on Sunday I will be winding down silent disco and about to head to the sky lounge for some more live music.

 

 

For now the only music is in my car as I head into work for an overnight shift 😞

 

Say my name 🎶 

[#55worktoplay]

Joining!  Have a great trip!

[jam19872016]

17 minutes ago, #55worktoplay said:

Joining!  Have a great trip!

Thanks for following along! Glad to have you along for the trip 🙂

 

[jimbri]

Have a great time!

[WELDON]

I am also on this cruise and traveling solo. Looking forward to Sunday. I'm approx. a half hour from the port.

[ninjacat123]

13 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

I've got a helper. Packing should be done quick.

 

 

Laying down on the job.

 

Looks like one of my helpers! Looking forward to your review 👍😁

[PayneAS]

I'm sneaking in from the Carnival boards to see your review 🤫

I'm a little envious you live close to three ports. I live 45 mins from one but 3 hours and 8 hours from two more so needless to say I really only go out of the one. 

Kitty! I have four kitty helpers that miss me terribly when I do last minute cruises. 

Looking forward to your review!

[meskel503]

Following along.  Really enjoyed your previous reviews.  When is mom sailing with you again?

[GenerationX]

Following!  We’ll be getting on Reflection as you’re getting off!  
 

My TA actually called me last week when a concierge cabin popped open on your sailing (looks like it’s pretty much a sold out ship) and asked me if I wanted to make a last minute B2B.  
 

Unfortunately my better half was not game for the scheduling and budget challenges that an extra impulse buy week at sea would bring.

 

These things are so much easier when sailing solo…😂

 

Looking forward to virtually sailing with you!

[Dawnya00]

Yay! Perfect timing. I just booked myself and my daughter on X, my first line to try outside of NCL. I am on the 5 day in April so I am excited to see the itinerary on these shorter trips. Glad to see they do the silent disco on a short one! I am all about the food, drink and good times! Thanks for taking us with you!

[Gaynors]

Following along!  Looking forward to following your adventure.

I'll be boarding the Reflection about 1 month after you get off'

Another silent disco fan here!  I hope on our 8 night they offer it multiple times.  

[jam19872016]

So for anyone who did not read my last review, I've been on a weight loss journey that started in August 2021 when I hit 300 LBS. I've always been big, but that was a pretty startling number to see staring back at me from the scale. I'm also not getting any younger and am becoming more aware of the looming health problems if I don't take control of the situation. Especially as I see how my mother struggles with back pain and knee problems that impact her ability to travel comfortably for any length of time.

 

The first several months I yo yo'ed between 285 and back over 300 again. Then my friend recommended the myfitnesspal app in May 2022 and that has been a game changer for me. It's essentially a calorie counting app and it made me conscious of the calories I'm consuming. It also opened my eyes to some foods that are not worth the calories. I was shocked at how many calories are in a caser salad. If I'm going to use up that many calories, it won't be on a salad! I don't bother with the three bites of lobster at formal night anymore either.

 

I've had to adjust my strategy as my metabolism adjusted to less calories and heard about intermittent fasting which was a great addition to my diet plan. When I'm fasting, I can eat for eight hours, and then I fast for 16. Since you are asleep for 8 of those, its easier than it sounds especially after a day or two.

 

In total, I was down to 198.8 when I started my 56 day journey in September. Over 100 LBS lost from my starting weight.

 

Since that trip and my last cruise that lasted 26 days I gained back 37.8 lbs. I have been working hard while not cruising to take it back off but it has been slower than I would like between the holidays and just a general struggle keeping the calorie count down. My daily allowance is 2085 but I've found anything over 1200 and I am in danger of putting pounds on.

 

In total I've lost 21.4 since getting off the ship just before Christmas and I can get back into my skinny clothes although they are tight, and will only get tighter as I misbehave for six days.

 

I suspect I will go up when I weight today since I gave into the munchies yesterday but as of yesterday I am back down to my lowest weight since September 30 🙂 

[jam19872016]

7 hours ago, jimbri said:

Have a great time!

Thank you!

7 hours ago, WELDON said:

I am also on this cruise and traveling solo. Looking forward to Sunday. I'm approx. a half hour from the port.

Isn't solo travel great!! Can't wait for Sunday to get here. Enjoy your cruise 🙂

 

[jam19872016]

7 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

Looks like one of my helpers! Looking forward to your review 👍😁

 

Kitty!!

 

I have been super busy and all my free CC time has been spent trying to keep up with the two mega reviews (I'm still not done with either 🙂) but I'm looking forward to bingeing your Freedom review. That was such a great crew to sail with even if the ship could have used more TLC in its dry dock.

 

Thanks for following along!!

 

5 hours ago, PayneAS said:

I'm sneaking in from the Carnival boards to see your review 🤫

I'm a little envious you live close to three ports. I live 45 mins from one but 3 hours and 8 hours from two more so needless to say I really only go out of the one. 

Kitty! I have four kitty helpers that miss me terribly when I do last minute cruises. 

Looking forward to your review!

Thanks for taking the journey over! I love all the familiar faces! 

 

It is great living so close to the ports. Tampa and Jacksonville are pretty close as well although I have never sailed from either. First time out of Tampa is scheduled for March.

 

Edited January 25 by jam19872016

[jam19872016]

2 hours ago, meskel503 said:

Following along.  Really enjoyed your previous reviews.  When is mom sailing with you again?

Thanks for following along!

 

I am not sure when she will be cruising with me again. She is not as excited about cruising as me and needs some rest time between trips. She was invited on Magic but was not ready. I thought she would be ready again by now and I am doing a really nice cruise in March I thought she would be interested in but she is working on losing weight so she can qualify for weight loss surgery and also has been given one last chance to get her sugar down before her doctor puts her on insulin.

 

With these health challenges she is putting off cruising for now. Maybe in May for her birthday but that is probably still too soon since if she qualifies for the surgery, she will probably be fresh out of it around then. I hope we can get her onboard and in another review soon!

[jam19872016]

2 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Following!  We’ll be getting on Reflection as you’re getting off!  
 

My TA actually called me last week when a concierge cabin popped open on your sailing (looks like it’s pretty much a sold out ship) and asked me if I wanted to make a last minute B2B.  
 

Unfortunately my better half was not game for the scheduling and budget challenges that an extra impulse buy week at sea would bring.

 

These things are so much easier when sailing solo…😂

 

Looking forward to virtually sailing with you!

Even with going solo, I find myself running into both scheduling and budget issues after cruising so extensively 😂

 

I'll try to keep her in good shape for you, but I can't make any promises 🙂 

 

Thanks for coming along!

1 hour ago, Dawnya00 said:

Yay! Perfect timing. I just booked myself and my daughter on X, my first line to try outside of NCL. I am on the 5 day in April so I am excited to see the itinerary on these shorter trips. Glad to see they do the silent disco on a short one! I am all about the food, drink and good times! Thanks for taking us with you!

That's exactly what I love too!! Food and drinks and some music and I am good to go. And I've always found X to have a ton of silent disco which is great since Royal seems to do it once maybe twice, and Carnival only once a week if at all and it is always so much fun and draws a huge crowd. I can't wait to silent disco the night away!!

[jam19872016]

59 minutes ago, Gaynors said:

Following along!  Looking forward to following your adventure.

I'll be boarding the Reflection about 1 month after you get off'

Another silent disco fan here!  I hope on our 8 night they offer it multiple times.  

Enjoy! Eight days is so much better than six, but I will take what I can get 🙂 

 

I suspect you will get lots of silent disco, X does a really great job of hosting multiple silent disco events throughout the cruise. I will probably hit them all up, it's always so much fun.

[CruiseCrew123]

3 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Following!  We’ll be getting on Reflection as you’re getting off!  
 

My TA actually called me last week when a concierge cabin popped open on your sailing (looks like it’s pretty much a sold out ship) and asked me if I wanted to make a last minute B2B.  
 

Unfortunately my better half was not game for the scheduling and budget challenges that an extra impulse buy week at sea would bring.

 

These things are so much easier when sailing solo…😂

 

Looking forward to virtually sailing with you!

Are you on the ABC Feb 3rd ?

[balcony bound]

57 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

So for anyone who did not read my last review, I've been on a weight loss journey that started in August 2021 when I hit 300 LBS. I've always been big, but that was a pretty startling number to see staring back at me from the scale. I'm also not getting any younger and am becoming more aware of the looming health problems if I don't take control of the situation. Especially as I see how my mother struggles with back pain and knee problems that impact her ability to travel comfortably for any length of time.

 

The first several months I yo yo'ed between 285 and back over 300 again. Then my friend recommended the myfitnesspal app in May 2022 and that has been a game changer for me. It's essentially a calorie counting app and it made me conscious of the calories I'm consuming. It also opened my eyes to some foods that are not worth the calories. I was shocked at how many calories are in a caser salad. If I'm going to use up that many calories, it won't be on a salad! I don't bother with the three bites of lobster at formal night anymore either.

 

I've had to adjust my strategy as my metabolism adjusted to less calories and heard about intermittent fasting which was a great addition to my diet plan. When I'm fasting, I can eat for eight hours, and then I fast for 16. Since you are asleep for 8 of those, its easier than it sounds especially after a day or two.

 

In total, I was down to 198.8 when I started my 56 day journey in September. Over 100 LBS lost from my starting weight.

 

Since that trip and my last cruise that lasted 26 days I gained back 37.8 lbs. I have been working hard while not cruising to take it back off but it has been slower than I would like between the holidays and just a general struggle keeping the calorie count down. My daily allowance is 2085 but I've found anything over 1200 and I am in danger of putting pounds on.

 

In total I've lost 21.4 since getting off the ship just before Christmas and I can get back into my skinny clothes although they are tight, and will only get tighter as I misbehave for six days.

 

I suspect I will go up when I weight today since I gave into the munchies yesterday but as of yesterday I am back down to my lowest weight since September 30 🙂 

I do intermittent fasting as well, and I've been stuck for about a month now.  Can't really blame the holidays because I didn't do anything different.  

I cruised in November and actually lost a couple pounds - I am sure it was all the extra walking!

 

Hard not to eat what you want on a cruise - but it comes off pretty quick.

[janetz]

Our 8 day sailing had three silent disco events 😊
Such a blast!,

[peanut head]

Thanks for taking us along.  Keep up the weight loss--you are stronger than you think!

[jam19872016]

24 minutes ago, balcony bound said:

I do intermittent fasting as well, and I've been stuck for about a month now.  Can't really blame the holidays because I didn't do anything different.  

I cruised in November and actually lost a couple pounds - I am sure it was all the extra walking!

 

Hard not to eat what you want on a cruise - but it comes off pretty quick.

I find I have to still count calories in addition to the fasting even though when I first started fasting alone helped me achieve good results.

 

9 minutes ago, janetz said:

Our 8 day sailing had three silent disco events 😊
Such a blast!,

I can't wait!