CanadianDee

I was also on this sailing...I think we spoke on our bus trip to the resorts in Jamaica. Glad you enjoyed your trip with your granddaughter!

We had a fabulous time with her. :)

Were you the lady I sat beside, the one who loved Cool Running?

 

 

Conclusion

We enjoyed ourselves, had a rest from life, met some very nice people, and encountered some very good weather.

LOL. Well, we were definitely on the same cruise. I agree with everything you said. It is a quiet, beautiful ship indeed.

Very good review. We were on the same sailing. We don't have any kids (we are two sisters in our 40s), and we do like kids. I think the negative comments about kids that I've read have been about them running around other ships (Carnival, RCCL). I've never read about or had a negative experience with children aboard Celebrity. I believe that's because there are less of them and they are all incredibly well-behaved.

Oh, I just saw your review thread and I'm going to head over and read it right now!

There are a few posters on the Celebrity forum that are quite clear about their dislike of children sailing Celebrity. Thankfully, we didn't run into any of them. We had an extremely positive experience sailing as a family. :)

We were on the January 30 Western Caribbean Celebrity Reflection cruise and below is my review with the following riders:

• We were travelling with our five year-old granddaughter and tailored our time towards the things she wanted to do. That meant we didn’t do any of the adult shows or visit the adults-only venues aboard.

• For the same reason we didn’t do any of the specialty restaurants. We considered the Bistro, but given the lukewarm reviews here and the $10 per person upcharge (no discount for children), we decided against it.

Who we are: a mid-fifties couple travelling with our five year-old granddaughter. We have cruised Princess and Royal Caribbean several times on our own, Carnival and now Celebrity with our granddaughter.

First off, the ship itself. As so many others have said, it’s truly a beautiful ship kept spotlessly clean. The public spaces are nicely appointed throughout the ship, from the two-person alcoves poolside to the hammocks overlooking the ocean, to the small, quiet spaces in places like the library and the Hideaway.

Our Room. A Concierge balcony - 1063, close to the elevators. Fairly quiet, no complaints. Plenty of storage space for our needs. Our room attendants (Imade and Green) kept our space neat and clean. We even had a few towel animals, which was a welcome and unexpected treat. On the first day, I asked Imade to clear out the bar fridge and leave us a body pillow whenever he had time, no rush. Those requests were carried out within a few hours.

The Lawn. I think the space would be better utilized as something else, but we took a look. The grass struggles a bit and falls short of looking lush. Some spots really struggle to look healthy and I imagine this space takes a lot of work to maintain.

The Fun Factory. Fabulous. This is our granddaughter’s second cruise (the first was last year on the Carnival Sunshine, chosen for the waterpark and 2.0 upgrades). Carnival’s kids camp was crowded and noisy and she didn’t care much for it. There were 47 kids of mixed ages aboard our Reflection cruise, so any children going to the Fun Factory got a great counsellor to child ratio and plenty of fun. We met fellow travelling children from Russia, Pakistan, Canada, Switzerland, and Chicago - all were polite and well behaved. A shout out to Jordan and Alexis from Chicago, who we saw the most of - smart, funny kids who were fun to be around. We attended several family activities (Bingo, Scavenger Hunt, clay modelling) and were encouraged to stay and play with her if we wanted to. The counsellors were fun and attentive. Two thumbs up for the kids club.

The food. There was lots of it. But I admit to feeling a bit disappointed in its quality. That disappointment began the first morning at breakfast in the Main Dining Room when my hashbrowns came as the pattie you would see in a fast food restaurant.

MDR service was good, but rushed. That’s no slur on the staff; they were clearly run off their feet. We made a few special requests (soy sauce for rice once; an extra plate of frogs legs once), but felt a bit guilty making special requests - they were quick to grant them, but -as I said - they were clearly very busy. The soup and salad courses have been blended together, but most nights we did order both a soup and a salad. The food was always good, though seldom outstanding. I recall one poster some time back calling it “high end banquet food” and I think he nailed it. It certainly was not bad, just not as amazing as I’d expected. I’m sure the specialty dining venues would have been a different experience.

Side Note: Formal vs Evening Chic. Within our immediate range of vision, we saw lots of people glitzed up for formal night/evening chic, and one pair of jeans. My husband and granddaughter love dressing up; I do not.

The drink package. My husband always gets a soda package, but I’ve never taken a drink package, always preferring to sample one or two a day; water and coffee are my beverages of choice. The Classic package came with our booking, but we stuck mainly with non-alcoholic drinks. Both my granddaughter and I loved the virgin mudslides and the Strawberry-Banana soda. We also loved the ginger lemonade, but most bartenders didn’t know how to make it, so we gave up asking. Some bars could get quite crowded, particularly the one by the Oceanview buffet.

The Buffet. It seemed like there were a lot of items repeated. One afternoon we went down to a lovely selection of cupcakes, the cookies were good. Nothing really stands out as overwhelmingly delicious, but there were certainly lots of selection and fresh options available.

Café el Bacio. We went less often than we expected to. It was frequently crowded and a bit out-of-the-way for us. The drinks and pastries were good.

Room Service. A fairly extensive menu. We quickly found our favourites - fruit and cheese platters, and chocolate cake before bed. We had coffee and orange juice from room service most mornings and I stocked up on packages of Frosted Flakes, which our granddaughter likes to snack on during our “pajama party” at night. I meant to order enough orange juice to mix with the bottle of wine that came with our Concierge booking, but never got around to it and the bottle of wine stayed behind, unopened, in our room.

The pools. The solarium is adults only so we only saw it whilst walking through. I did pick a peach bread pudding off the lunch offerings at the Aqua Spa Cafe one day and it was quite good. On the pool deck there are two pools and four hot tubs, but one pool and two hot tubs are dedicated to adults only. Our family pool was often quite crowded, but we discovered that if we came out around 7:30 - after dinner - the pool was beautifully lit up and completely empty. We had the pool and two hot tubs to ourselves.

The entertainment. We only caught one show: the magician, Alex Ramon. Our granddaughter was completely captivated by his magic. Eyes big as saucers. She’s been practicing magic tricks ever since.

Guest Services. By our third day, we noticed we were missing our TA’s onboard credit. Went to Guest Services and waited while they sorted it out. Painless and easy. Because they had to contact our TA to sort it out, it was a bit of a wait and I had a chance to watch them interact with other guests. Pleasant, professional, and fun with all the guests.

Concierge Class. We booked this because it was a good deal for us as part of the Spring Into Summer perks package (Classic drink package, gratuities, and $300 onboard credit included). We’d read here that the benefits of Concierge were minimal or nonexistent. While we didn’t feel the Concierge cabin was really a must-have for us, we did see some perks to it:

• Priority boarding. Others have said this is a noncontender, but we did see a difference. We were led to a seating area (which is always nice with a kid in tow) and called aboard before the line up behind us. So yeah, we liked the comfort of that.

• Yes, those footstools on the balcony are hella nice to have. Very comfy. Ditto on the showerhead.

• Binoculars and umbrellas. Didn’t use the umbrellas - from the frozen North, a little rain doesn’t bug us - but our granddaughter made good use of the binoculars.

• Shoe shine - didn’t use.

• Afternoon canapes. They weren’t amazing, but it was fun to lift the lid and we did have a few that we quite liked. Something I’ve read people complain about is that they didn’t get their canapes after the first day. Every day we got a little slip of paper with our daily that told us we’d have to fill it out (with a delivery time) in order to continue receiving the canapes. Midway through we decided we wanted a fruit and cheese plate instead of the canapes, so we wrote that in and it was delivered, usually just before we came to the cabin from our excursion.

• Fruit. Each morning our steward refilled a silver fruit platter with an assortment of fruit. It was always a mixture of pears, apples (several varieties), and oranges. We liked them, and our granddaughter nearly always finished them by the end of the day. I’m sure we could have asked for other fruits, but she was happy with what we got.

After we’d booked this cruiseline, we were a little alarmed by some of the negativity expressed by some cruise critic members towards kids on Celebrity. We needn’t have worried. The other passengers were respectful and friendly. In the main dining room, we were bordered by three tables. Every person from each of those tables complimented our granddaughter on her behavior and her looks at some point during the cruise. One table asked to have their pictures taken with her, saying they looked forward to seeing what she’d wear every night (she truly is a fashion diva).

The staff was the same. Many would address her by name, one of the wait staff in the Oceanview sat down beside her to play a game on her app - she had the same app as our granddaughter and gave her some tips. :) On our last day, she got hugs from several of the staff members we saw regularly. She made a lot of new friends, young, but mostly older, on this cruise.

We always bring (sorry, more than 5):

1. COLORFUL DUCT TAPE wrapped around the handle of our suitcase. We can spot our bag in a sea of similar ones AND we always have an emergency supply of duct tape (which we have used)

2. MAGNETS for the walls. We like to bring a large map of the area we are cruising and hang it on our cabin wall. We post a lot of stuff on the walls because we don't like the clutter on the table surfaces. If I find some funny/cute ones at the dollar store I'll use them while on board and then leave them as an extra gift for our cabin steward.

3. SMALL BOTTLE OF HAND SANITIZER with attached strap for our "port" bag and travel size KLEENEX. Anyone who has ever had to use a port-a-potty or traveled outside the USA will agree with these essentials!

4. FIRST AID KIT..a little bit of a lot of things. Z-pak of antibiotics for exotic locales.

5. GARBAGE BAG for dirty laundry

6. ZIP LOCK bags in sizes from Jumbo to snack for so many uses from wet bathing suits to ice packs to organizing receipts and papers. I usually pack in zip lock bags. Keeps clothes wrinkle free and great for liquid toiletries that may leak.

7. BACK-UP CREDIT CARD/MONEY/COPIES OF DOCUMENTS. We keep these in the cabin safe. We also leave copies of our itinerary, credit cards and passport documents at home with a friend or family member.

8. PLASTIC BINDER SLEEVES/ENVELOPES/FOLDER. Before we leave home I organize my paperwork for flights, hotels, port tours, gratuities. I want to do all the work ahead of time so I can just get on the ship and RELAX.

9. MESH POCKET ORGANIZER. Much lighter than the over the door type. I took out the hanger hooks and replaced with ribbon laces. This way I have the option to tie it on a hanger in the closet or on a towel bar in the bathroom or a bar in the cabin if available. I don't bother to take it for a short cruise but it really helps on a longer one.

10. SWITCH-FLOPS (by Lindsay Phillips) for warm weather cruises. A pair of their flip-flops, a pair of their wedges and several different straps to change with my outfits and I have a full shoe wardrobe in only 2 shoes.

Love this list and already do most of them. We travel with our granddaughter and I'm definitely adding your map idea to my list.

At least for this day of the year, Shabby Chic is celebrated.

Happy International Sweatpants Day!

Also, I could not bear to see this thread die. :D

Why, I'm going to print it out and take it with me, of course. :)

 

When faced with an array of goodies at Café al Bacio, I want to know that I should try the coconut cake first. And I certainly want to remember not to order the Butternut Squash w/ caramelized apples under any circumstances.:D

Also making note of the favourites from your spreadsheet.

As someone who plans meticulously, I think every occasion should have a relevant spreadsheet. :)

Why not just trust your judgement and if you take a bite of something and don't like it then throw it away and get something else.... it's not like it is costing you any money to do that.

Or, you know, do both. Use the spreadsheet to try other people's favourites and then take some risks.

Truthfully, though, taking a bite of something, then discarding it kind of goes against my grain. I would probably get my husband to eat it.

Yikes! Yeah I have no problem getting out of there when she makes so much as a peep, or at least coming up with a solution to the situation, such as walking her around to calm her down or something. I'm so paranoid of being disruptive! The only place we won't have control will be on the plane. There's no escape. Agh!! I'm glad to hear that you like the Summit. As of right now we're leaning towards that ship!

 

Laura

We've travelled quite extensively with our granddaughter and she always flew fairly well with a bottle on take-off and landing. I did read somewhere that crying is actually a good way for them to relieve the pressure and help their ears pop. I think of that whenever I hear a Little crying on the plane.

And if you're anxious about your babe crying, it's almost like they pick up on it and cry more. LOL.

We also travel with our grown children as you are doing with your parents on the cruise. Handing off the baby from one adult to the next gives everyone the best of both worlds: precious time with the baby and adult time for a quiet dinner.

Keep in mind you can order dinner from the MDR to your room if things go astray with you baby. Lots of options for every possibility.

Even though my Reflection cruise is 14 months away, I decided to book one of the Alcoves. Everything I've read and heard from others told me that I should do it sooner rather than later.

 

I had a couple of questions when I did some research online so decided to call Celebrity for some help. The wait time for a customer service rep was minimal and I was connected to Jennifer who was pleasant and very helpful. Within a couple of minutes, I picked out the date that I wanted to use the Alcove and gave her my c.c. #. Easy peasy! By early this morning, the information was attached to my reservation. Done & done.

 

After all the negative comments I've seen, I thought it would be nice to say all my Celebrity experiences...both online and on the phone...have been great. I plan to share that with the Celebrity reps at the upcoming Chicago Travel Show!

Lovely to hear. :-) I think people are often more motivated to complain than to praise.

If I have to look at nasty men boobs I should be able to let mine fly too.

LOL. Amen, sister. Ours are both useful and ornamental. If anyone should be covering up, it should be the lads.

Hi Linda,

I'm the list person. :)

Our clothes for our cruise at the end of this month are mostly packed - I pack our winter trip clothes as soon as summer's over. Just this morning, our granddaughter tried on her summer clothes to make sure things still fit.

I'm a detailed planner in most aspects of life and vacations are no different. I have vacations planned out on spreadsheets, beginning as soon as we know where our next trip will be. We'll be heading to Disneyworld in Sept next year and I've got a folder and spreadsheet started for that.

I do the packing for us. It's a control issue. :)

I'm loving this review, can't wait to read more. :)

I guess, perhaps because of my profession, I feel differently than many on this issue. My thoughts are:

 

1) the people are wrong to film;

2) the media is wrong to show it, indulge it, and try to make money off such a tragedy - the purpose of media is the educate and inform on the issues - a mission they have long forgotten, rather than attempt to make a buck by sensationalizing a tragedy;

3) the family of the deceased deserves any assistance Carnival can provide, and I am confident that they will. The reason I say this is even for a burial at sea, for guests, they charge nothing. The provide a time and place, staff to accompany you, and without request, a letter memorializing the event with a large photo of the ship in an album. If they are so generous when essentially doing a guest a favor, I am confident they will take care of their own.

4) no one else deserves anything. Crime, violence, accidents, death, and destruction happen everyday all around us. For the most part, we live in a bubble so we seemed shocked when we witness or are victimized by it, but it can happen at anytime. It is simply a fact of life. What if, as another poster said, you were witness to an equally horrific car crash? Who is going to compensate you for the horror? We have turned into a society where we are so "me first" and "what can I get out of this" that we have lost all perspective.

 

Personally, I watched the video. And believe me, I see, hear and smell much worse in my job as I have been a prosecutor working first hand with cops for almost 20 years. Most people have no idea what humanity can really do to each other. The news might report a robbery in a nearby city each night - I promise you there were 5 more that went unreported by the news, here in my area alone.

 

So what should be do? We pray for those who have died and those who grieve, discuss any fears with our kids and families, and move on and live our lives as a source of light against such darkness.

Agree with every word you've said and most particularly your last paragraph.

You know what's great about this site, other than the helpful people? It's that it will put the accent mark on café! I love that.

Ah, you and I are kindred spirits.

Can't decide whether to try Bistro on 5 on our next cruise and this thread hasn't helped. :D

I understand X is offering Timmys Anonymous meeting on their ships to help cope with the withdrawal.

 

If that doesn't help I find that if you get your standard X coffee with a shot of Rye will taste almost like a Timmy's. OK, not really, but after your second one, you won't care.;)

LOL. I love this whole thread. I don't care how good Cafe al Bacio is, I will still miss my Timmy's.

It is definitely OK to go topless at Coco Cay - we were there for hours and I don't think my husband put his top on once!

I know, right? It's so unfair.

That's it. I'm liberating *the girls* on CocoCay next cruise.

Yes, we would not like little Johnny to be scarred for life is he saw...

LOL. I'm 57 and if I went topless I'm sure more than little Johnny would be scarred for life. :D

Seriously though, they're just mammary glands. I suspect little Johnny's parents would be more scarred than little Johnny and that all would be fine once the novelty wore off.

It's a musical instrument for high-tech Jug Bands. :D:D:D

LOL. I stepped into that, didn't I?

It is like an electric knife (which is not allowed) except it is a spoon.

This is the most intriguing post in this thread. What do you use an electric spoon for?

Paul, I love your attitude. I hope my upcoming cruise on the Reflection is full of people with your upbeat outlook.

Thank-you all for the well wishes, I do feel like I won the cruise lottery. To answer the questions it was complimentary, we are sailing 12/12/15 on the Reflection. I haven't been this excited about a cruise since our first one.🛳🛳🛳🛳🛳.

This is awesome - have the best cruise ever. :)

I read all the forums. If using tapatalk, you can do this by using the "timeline" mode. On web, I think it's quick links / today's posts. Observations:

 

NCL = frequent drama. Many customer unfriendly policy decisions this year, made worse by many troll/cheerleaders who try to stifle reasonable discussion. But also a lot of generally happy folks.

 

Carnival = occasional drama, usually of the booze smuggling or pot smoking sort. Generally cheerful and upbeat.

 

Princess - minor grousing, but they don't seem to be getting bait and switched like X and NCL, so I'm trying them next.

 

DCL - everyone posts on disboards instead.

 

Cunard - Not terribly active. Occasional class warfare and dress code drama.

 

Luxury lines - itinerary change drama. Luxury line cruisers are ever so slightly more likely to receive sympathy, not judgement, for issues that seem incredibly trivial to me.

 

RCCL - too many ships to really summarize anything. The massest of mass-market lines, I guess.

 

Celebrity - ok, I will admit you folks have a certain world-weary cynicism that has me slightly dreading my upcoming maiden voyage, but X isn't helping matters with their Stone Age website and following in NCL's bait and switch tactics. It seems clear to me that whoever manages this line is delusional, or distracted by something else. Also: Italian Stakehouse.

I think you've really captured the vibe the of the boards I follow!

Any yes, I'd agree that the Celebrity board has a general world-weary cynicism to it. Sometimes I wander over the Carnival threads for an injection of vacation enthusiasm. :)

Also. Stakehouse. :'-(

Another vote for nail-head hit, Chemmo.

I had a long rambling response written, but I deleted it because ... well, essentially I think you said it better. :)

I'm also a non-smoker - never smoked - and my husband is a former smoker. On our last cruise, he was bothered by the smoke far more than I was. :)

As others have noted, the world and its attitude towards smoking has changed a great deal in the past few decades. I know many people who struggled with quitting. It's not easy.

I don't begrudge the smokers their few smoking areas. Pretty simple for me to avoid and certainly not enough for me to complain about. While a smoke-free cruise wouldn't impact me, I see no reason to bar smokers from cruises by eliminating all smoking spots.

Lovely, balanced review. Thank you!