Kimimila

Choppers above Reflection - wow - I hope the guest will be well soon. Thank you so much for your "live TA trip review" - it is great to hear about your adventures! Also looking forward to the food, sounds extremely yummy ;) Our countdown is now below 10 days, cant wait but still - wishing you a great time and smooth sailing on Reflection!

Thanks for the update on the Reflection ;) We are going to sail on her Nov 1st - start of her Caribbean Season - so bring her back to MIA in good shape for us and enjoy the rest of the cruise!

Our first cruise was with AIDALuna. We wanted to check if we like cruising, they had a 7-day "European-Cities" cruise sailing out of Hamburg so we booked it as we did not have to fly in. We are Germans so we did not have any issues with the language but it would be good to understand a little German, the crew will be able to understand English but all documents will be in German only.

Back to our "LUNA" cruise: She is a wonderful ship, very clean with one of the most spacious spa areas on the upper deck - all spa treatments are done in rooms that have ocean view and the massages are amazing. Prices are reasonable, not more than what you pay in a good wellness-center. You can also book their special "Spa-Suite" for 4hrs or more - The Spa Suite includes a Whirlpool directly in front of a huge panoramic window, a water bed, a private balcony, a private sauna, two massage beds and a Rainforest-Shower. A bottle of Prosecco and fruit are also included and you can use as many of the high-end "Ligne St. Barth" products as you want.

We had a balcony cabin which was very spacious, a nice bathroom, Shower with Glass doors, lots of storage and all AIDA Ships provide HAMMOCKS on their balconies. The cabin was very clean, however now Mini-Bar and there was also no Room Service available. I do not know if that would be available in Suites.

The Main Buffets are indeed very crowded but we always ate at the "Italian Bistro" which was located on the upper deck, you had a great view, not so much people, outside seating (weather permitting) and the food was really good. For breakfast they have a huge selection of fresh breads and bakery, fruit, all kinds of cakes and Danish and the usual hot selections. In the evening there was also a huge selection, always very good quality. What we did not like was the regular coffee in the morning, that was bad but you could get "Premium coffees" for additional charge. Soft Drinks and Beer are included in the meals, also a red and white wine which is however not really that good. Outside of the meals you do have to pay for all Drinks, I do not know if they have introduced drink packages yet - our cruise was two years ago - we did not have that option at the time. Cocktails ranged in the prices of 5 - 10 EUR per drink.

We loved the shows in the evening. The theater on the LUNA was 3 decks high so they had some acrobats doing a wonderful "in-the-air" Show with long flowing scarfs, really good. We also watched an "ABBA" Show, the performing was excellent and there was a musical-Show, again performance was excellent and we liked this entertainment.

All AIDA Ships do have Specialty Restaurants for extra charge- we went to a Steak-Restaurant on the LUNA, it was very good, Service very friendly and accommodating - this might also be an option for people that do not like Buffet.

I would again do a cruise on an AIDA Ship if the Itinerary and price was right. I would however avoid any German School Holiday times as you will have lots and lots of families with children on board and it will be crowded on those times.

We loved our cruise on the AIDA - we have been pleasantly surprised by it.;)

How thoughtful and sweet of you to let us know that we made your day! Jerome and I truly love to sail, we are on The Celebrity Equinox on November 10th, and trust me, that ship is going to rock! Our roll call is off the chain and so many folks have sailed with us before, and several were actually in the Lawn Club Grill the night we filmed! Oh we have so much fun! That's why I always say,"I want to have as much fun as possible and take as many people with me as I can!"

 

I do wish you could see our Christmas House in person, but there is another way to see it. The photos are all on our special page, "The Port Saint Lucie Christmas House", appearing on that happy face reading a book site.

 

Glad you got the cubes, they really work and you are going to love The Celebrity Reflection. Amazingly fun, gorgeous ship, wonderful service and the food is incredible. Be sure to do The Lawn Club Grill.

Thanks for the tip where to find the photos of your Christmas House - got it ;) ....when we leave the Reflection, we can almost wave to your guys Sail-Away - already excited to hear what you think about the Equinox

Read through your reviews the last couple of days and had lots of laughs with them - thank you for that. Also for the videos, your Lawn Club Experience - HILLARIOUS - makes me laugh to even think about it and I LOVE the Cabin Review of the Reflection, have already gotten those collapsible storage thingys :p - we do not have a Target over here but thankfully lots of things can be ordered via Amazon. We are sailing Reflection on November 1st and thanks to your review I am really looking forward to that one.

I am a little sad to read that you are cutting back on your "Adventurous Tales" but I can fully understand the reasons behind it. Wishing you and Jerome great future sailings - maybe we will be happy enough to stumble upon you guys at some point ;)

And one more thing: DARN I wish we could come to see your X-Mas home, it sounds great but we will be flying back on 21st November so just gonna miss it - Wishing you a great success with it, sure looks like a lot of work and you have some really worthy causes selected. Thumbs up to you guys!

We went on our first cruise on the Luna - very nice Ship, enjoyed it a lot - thanks for those pics ;)

Thank you for this excellent review, we are going on an EC cruise with Reflection in November - really looking forward to it and your review clarified some questions I had, i.e. dress code for Blu.