Itchy&Scratchy

2nd day breakfast (Easter morning): Breads were usually good and varied: the gluten free seeded bread roll in the middle was unexpectedly savory. I enjoyed one almost every morning. Waffles were pretty good: Herring was identical to the Vita herring in wine sauce. Lots of fruits: There were two bacon and hashbrown stations. One always had overfried hashbrowns but great crispy bacon, and the other station had just right hashbrowns and floppy bacon. We liked chocolate filled croissants. Usually, there was one breakfast dessert which varied every day, and a bunch that stayed the same. Muesli toppings, also somewhat varied daily:

Boarding day dinner buffet... And a quick disclaimer: I don't usually take food pics at the buffet, but since this was our very first X cruise, and I saw a lot of people on this board also planning on trying X for the first time, so I went a bit crazy with snapping the photos. However, I wasn't the woman who was live streaming herself ordering and then eating her breakfast at the buffet... We didn't like the noodles: Super friendly staff! Vegetarian/Vegan section:

boarding day lunch continued: Gluten free dessert section usually had a couple of different desserts and jellos which were usually very good: more of the other stations: This chicken looked really good and was very popular: this beef was ok: I specifically asked whether the egg salad had any onions and was told NO. Not true - it has green onions which I am ok with, so I enjoyed it very much. But if someone is allergic - beware. Mediterranean section: if you are looking for pepperonchinis for your salad, like my DH, you will find them here: Our kiddo loved the pepperoni pizza. The chef told me he could make ANY pizza I desired and even a calzone. More veggies and salad toppings: Pasta station was good. I thought the alfredo sauce was very runny, though. I like it thick and creamy. I don't like red sauce, so no comment.

I will post my buffet food pics next. Just skip them if not interested. They will be posted in the order they were taken, by day. There was an ethnic food section, a Mediterranean section (cheeses, olives, etc.), Mexican food station during dinner, bread, salad, cold cuts, hot meat (like ham, lamb, chicken, turkey, etc.), a baked potation station, a vegan food station, etc. I may add a comment or two on the food we tried/liked/disliked. Boarding day lunch: My DH loved the salad station. Lots of different toppings and salad choices. Caesar salad toppings. That's anchovies bottom left. The grilled meats below weren't all that good: Baked potato station looked great. I don't think we ever tried it. Potato gratin was usually good. Very few shrimp in that paella. Vegan: Indian food: Cold cuts: I usually tried cheeses and salami. Good stuff! I think we tried most of the desserts every day and liked all of them.

So, let's talk about food! I know that food opinions are always super subjective, so I usually preface my food reviews with a warning: I am a glutton and love almost all food, except for beans and onions. I am not a fan of veggies per se, but I eat them for health reasons. Sometimes I even enjoy them. DH is a lot less of a glutton, loves variety, is a lot more choosy and has a completely different taste in food. DS has some texture sensitivities (as does DH), and is rather conservative with his food choices (not an adventurous eater at all). We were pretty happy with the buffet choices, and I snapped a LOT of random buffet food pictures which I will post shortly. We had all of our breakfasts and our sea day lunches at the buffet. We didn't have lunches on port days. We had all of our dinners at the Opus MDR. We sometimes stopped by the buffet after dinner for a cup of tea and a look around. We did not like the buffet coffee at all. We are not coffee connoisseurs at all, but we are very particular about the way we drink it. Heck, I drink instant coffee at home... (Taster's Choice). So, we stuck to tea. The buffet had a great selection of teas and sugar/sweeteners: They even had lemon and Truvia readily available!!!! That was quite a surprise. MSC didn't have any lemon, and the other lines don't usually provide Truvia (so we always bring our own). Not visible in this photo, but most definitely present are Taster's Choice packets of instant decaf coffee in the upper right corner. At peak times the buffet was pretty busy, but not an overwhelming zoo we experienced on other ships. Perhaps, it's due to the somewhat older demographic and the smaller size of the ship? We were always able to find a place to sit. Sometimes people joined us. Some asked before joining, some didn't. 🙂 We didn't mind either way. The buffet food stations were well organized, and even though the buffet is not as grand or sizeable as a Princess Royal class ship buffet, it was lovely, well stocked, had very good choices for all tastes, had a separate station for vegan food, also gluten-free choices, and several lactose-free milk choices available (at least in the morning in the cereal/muesli section). I couldn't exactly tell what these lactose-free options were, but I snapped a pic. If you need to see it closer, please let me know.

yes, that's the one. I didn't know there was another one close to FLL. 🙂 Yeah, it was shabby, but we've stayed in worse hotels (way back when), so, overall, it wasn't horrible or really bad, or even all that bad. It was clean, the furniture was old and worn, but not broken, we liked the free breakfast and the location was wonderful. Yes, the beds were awful. Not that our 13 yo noticed, but our older bodies weren't happy at all. For our next cruise, I managed to snag the valuetrips rate for the Hyatt nearby, so we'll be staying there in June.

we almost always end up flying with them because right between 90 and 60 days before the cruise, Spirit drops their prices to a reasonable level. Blink, and you'll miss it. They are ok. The only downside to us personally is having to pay for luggage (around $50 per suitcase) and the weight limit of 40# per suitcase. It's expensive.

w that's a no brainer for us. Sun Princess. Even though all I can afford on Sun Princess is an inside cabin. We were on Caribbean Princess in 2016. It was old and tired even then. It wasn't all that clean either, and we had a noro outbreak. I know it was refurbished a bit since then, but we will never sail on her again.

when we were on a Princess ship last time, I applied $400 worth of gift cards to our folio. The GS person took all 4 of my $100 plastic gift cards and taped them to some kind of a printout. I never thought of writing down the card numbers and/or pins in case they had to be refunded.

The embarkation was a breeze. We showed up around 11 (our onboarding time was 12) and were onboard shortly afterwards. A very beautiful ship! I was very pleasantly surprised at the ship shape 🙂 because it's an older ship which wasn't refurbished, and we haven't always had a great experience with older ships. Great size, great shape, we loved it. We have previously sailed with Princess, RCI, MSC and NCL. We love Princess and RCI. MSC and NCL - not exactly. We gave X a try and loved it. I booked my next two X cruises for next year before sailing on Reflection. I guess I was sure I was going to like it. 🙂 P.S. We are a smidge under 50, with a 13 yo son.

We were in an inside cabin for 4 (8149) which is located in the forward section of the ship. I was worried that due to the smaller ship size and cabin location we would experience seasickness, so I brought copious amounts of meclizine with us, but we felt very little movement and weren't seasick at all. Yay! I really liked it that we could drop off our carry on luggage and 3 12-packs of soda in the cabin before the rooms were ready for us. The cabin was great, and it had a pullman bed for our kiddo, which he loved. Our cabin attendant was terrific and kept the room immaculately clean. Here are some photos of the cabin for those who haven't yet traveled on Reflection: The bathroom was roomy, water temp and pressure was great. Our sink made a funny sound after the water drained. No funny smells. We usually bring our own toiletries since our kid usually breaks out in hives from using ship stuff. This time it was my poor husband who broke out in hives after using the provided body wash. ETA: the only gripe we had was the minibar-fridge temperature. It was a cooler at best. Kept the sodas at barely below room temp. We asked the cabin attendant to empty out the minibar and used it for our sodas.

our kid once again loved sleeping on the pullman bed. He just turned 13 and is the size of a small adult (5'5 and 120#).

reporting: we went to the beach in front of Divi Phoenix hotel and, when asked nicely, the hotel employee simply gave us the password for wifi.

We've just had a great first cruise with Celebrity! We traveled on an 8 day ABC island itinerary on Reflection, with our kid who turned 13 right before the cruise. I will post photos of all the dailies, menus, MDR and buffet food, and cabin pics. Please bear with me since it's a lot of images and info, and I came back to a rather large work backlog. 🙂 And don't forget - it's tax time, and I haven't filed the taxes yet. We started our journey the day before the cruise, flying on Spirit and staying at the Embassy Suites next to the airport. Took an uber to the hotel (no free shuttle available). I have been forewarned about the condition of the hotel rooms, so I wasn't unpleasantly surprised. It was the cheapest hotel I could find in the area, and beggars can't be choosers, especially during spring break. The room was rather run down and very dated, but clean, and there were no visible bed bugs. Our windows and balcony, unfortunately, had the view and the smell of the giant hotel dumpster. The front desk clerk told me that the renovations were starting in April. We had a nice dinner at Outback which is 1 minute walk away, and I was very sorry to have all the leftovers, but no use for them. The free breakfast was great - made to order omelets, cereal, coffee, muffins, fruit, pepsi, juices, etc. The beds were uncomfortable and very small, imho, but it is what it is. The location was superb, and we loved having both Publix and TJMaxx right next to the hotel, since we forgot a couple of clothing items at home, and wanted to bring soda onboard. We shopped in the morning before the cruise, and it was great. Got Dr Pepper (apparently, none on board), Diet Coke and Mountain Dew in blue raspberry flavor. Saved a lot of money, since one can of soda onboard is $4+20% grats. So grateful for this board, since it's where I learned that X allows you to carry on soda. Would definitely stay here again, especially after the renovations, if the price is more favorable than other hotels'. Took an uber to the port in the morning (around $20-25).

Last week we sailed on Reflection with our just-turned-13 DS, and the kids in the 13-17 club looked much older than him. We've only seen one other kid his age in the club, but neither he, nor my son stuck around. We've seen a few groups of kids of similar age running around, but I think they were cruising together. Other kids appeared super extroverted and were running around in a group doing digital scavenger hunt and other activities together. Mine's an extreme introvert when with strangers, so it was a no go for him. I don't know but my kid says they checked his name that one time he stayed in the club to play some video games.

we have received superb service in a lowly inside cabin on Reflection last week. The cabin was super-duper clean as well. This was our first X cruise.

wait, what?

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/386-florida-departures/

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have you tried introducing daily magnesium supplements? they do wonders for leg cramps and spasms, constipation and sleeplessness.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/317-east-coast-departures/

you mean to tell us that your son's college aged GF is not mature enough not to buy jewelry on the ship at someone else's expense? Have your son use his own credit card for all their purchases on the folio/onboard account (assign it either at check-in if on different reservations or at GS).

me before every cruise because I don't condition myself:

oh, so I am only 20???? Yay! Why does my back hurt so much, though?

June 1 for us! And I booked her again for summer 2025.