APDMOM

We enjoyed our first Captain’s Club Breakfast in the Tuscan Grille. I love the small, fresh bagels. Since we don’t get the drinks packages, we appreciate the free options. This morning’s selections included Cafe Latte and a Bellini. Tuscan Grille - A favorite space for the amazing breakfast views:

More ships coming in...details to follow:

Sunrise over Nassau: Upon closer look, we noticed the lighthouse seems to be solar powered.

Happy 2023! We still have some Christmas decorations to enjoy: TIP: If you want to take pictures of the decorations, don't procrastinate. They took down the gingerbread display today (official day 3, since I am behind on this 'live' posting)...

My View: Day 2 - Nassau, Bahamas

It does at the pool - even on the port day yesterday. It can also get crowded at popular venues, like Cafe Al Baccio. However, we were able to get seats at the pool yesterday. Today, we had to go to the Solstice Deck to find 2 loungers. There are also quite a few teenagers that are a bit rowdy at times, but overall it is not too bad.

Yes, will gladly share with pictures when it allows me to upload 🙂

In the present... We are currently enjoying a day at sea. I will try to post our Bahamas views today. So far, the internet is doing okay at the moment. This "View" is more SEMI than LIVE, for sure! If you have any requests, I will gladly see if I can find answers for you. That is the best I can do for now to serve the CC community. I am not trusting the internet to complete this review very timely. TIP: Realy more of a tidbit of information: Our cruise as over 2900 passengers. The next cruise, for all my followers who board on Sunday, January 8th, has about 2600 passengers. I was quite surprised that it is only about 300 fewer passengers... Got this info from a reliable source 🙂 aka our Hotel Director.

My View: Favorite view of Day 1 - Love that large balcony!

Boarding Day info in our Stateroom:

Thanks for following along. Those who know my trip reports know that I love posting in pictures... thus, My View. With this frustration with the internet not loading, I am going to call it a night. Hopefully, I will have better connection tomorrow to post pictures of our day in Nassau...

Before rooms were ready, I did the spa tour and entered the drawing. No luck there. I do look forward to spending time in the Persian Garden on a port day (Elite perk). TIP: Rooms were ready at 1 p.m. You are allowed to drop off your carry on bags in your room and grab your seapass cards from outside the stateroom door when you board. No announcement was made about rooms being ready, so just head to the room at the assigned time. I tried to post 2 pictures with a total of 4.5 MB here about information in our room, but I watched the minutes tick down from 71 minutes to 65 and not even the 2.3 MB picture is uploaded yet. So, I will wait until tomorrow to post more pictures. 😕 Due to the warning about peak dining times, we decided to show up for our reservation 15 minutes earlier than our booked time of 6:30. We were seated immediately and had excellent service from Michael and One (Rizki). Wish we could have them for a regular seating. The food in the MDR was overall very good. The tomato bisque is the best I have ever had - and I have tasted more than my fair share of tomato bisque, as it is my favorite soup. The leg of lamb was disappointing - not comparing at all the the Royal Caribbean equal. The salmon and lobster were very good, per DH and DS. The baked Alaska was not worth the calories. The chocolate trifle was good. However, I think the soft serve ice cream was the best dessert of the day. Sorry, forgot to take pics of the food! We skipped the show and enjoyed the music of Chloe in Ensemble. We called it a night, ringing in the new year our style - sleeping on a comfy bed at sea. (Hope the more adventurous ‘young’ CC members will post their experience of the New Year’s party on the pool deck.)

Well, that was disappointing! Took more than 5 minutes to upload those few pictures... Not very impressed with wifi, but we will plug along later. Loving the cruise, despite the wifi woes. 😁

Sailaway and Dinner: Harmony of the Seas was the only other ship in port on this New Year's Eve Sailaway: We loved the enthusiasm from these Celebrity fans sending us off with a smile and a wave: That pilot boat got right under the lifeboats - to the point that you could barely see it: See you in 8 days, Port Everglades:

Lunch with a view:

Hopping offline to get the next batch ready. I am trying to maximize this 90-minute Elite wifi...LOL!

“Muster drill” I absolutely love this new muster ‘drill’. You watch a security video in the app, then go to your muster station anytime between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. on boarding day. It is very simple and prevents the stampede that normally ensues when the announcement for the muster drill/safety briefing is made. Lunch in Oceanview Cafe Plenty of Gluten Free options: TIP: Walk all the way to the back of the cafe to find a more quiet spot for lunch. You can also sit outside if you walk all the way aft. TIP: Ice cream is available on the opposite side of the bar. So, one entrance is by the bar, the other entrance is by the ice cream. There are options for scoops of ice cream, sorbet, and soft serve ice cream. They also had toppings for ice cream. Another place where you can find soft-serve ice cream is by the Mast Bar Grill. We loved the variety offered in the Oceanview Cafe. The tandoori chicken was a favorite. However, we noticed that the food is quite a bit more salty on Celebrity than on MSC - something we knew, but forgot how noticeable the increased salt is. This is one reason we like MSC the best - their food is more Mediterranean and you don’t get that ‘bloated’ feeling after meals on MSC.

TIP: If you can get to the port early, the garage parking is a good option. We used to recommend Park ’n’ Go, but there is no longer a savings factor, and you may have to allow them to valet park your car at peak times. We were at the front of the terminal at about 10:10. The terminal doors opened around 10:15, we breezed through security, and we experienced a new check in process. Instead of going up to a counter, there are several rows where someone with a tablet meets you, scans your passport, and scans your Express pass (either hard copy or from your phone). You do not receive your keys here, but proceed to a seating area. We would have been sitting down within 5 minutes if it weren’t for the wifi going out frequently. The tablets they use to scan us in use wifi to confirm your documents and when it goes out, it is a mess. After about 15 minutes, we were able to get cleared through the check-in and waited to board. Boarding started at 11:00 and we were on the ship by 11:15. TIP: If you are one of the first groups to arrive at the port, find the closest seats that are empty. The started boarding groups based on where you sat, rather than handing out numbers for boarding. We ended up in boarding group 2, but would have been in group 5 if the agent had not advised us to sit closer to the rest of the passengers.

My View: Day 1 - Fort Lauderdale Our first glimpse of the ship - clipped from a video: Arrival: We were going to use Park ’n’ Go, but changed our plans when we saw that Reflection was docking at pier 25 instead of 29. With the fact that Park ’n’ Go now charges the same as the port ($15 per day) and we can enjoy shaded garage parking at the port, we cancelled our reservation at Park ’n’ Go and parked at the Palms Garage. It was quite full at our 9:52 arrival time, but there were only 2 ships in port today, so very few cars left from the parking garage today. TIP: Take a picture of your suitcases before you check them in - just in case it gets lost. Much better to have a real picture than the generic description:

My View: Day 0 - Pompano Beach We decided to spend the week before the cruise in an Air BnB in Pompano Beach. We loved this pre-cruise vacation and enjoyed watching the yachts pass our ‘home’ in Aloha Condo Resort. TIP: I highly recommend a stay at Aloha Condo Resort - very affordable and a fun pre-cruise stay. A few views of our Pompano Beach Christmas:

Welcome to 2023 from the beautiful Celebrity Reflection. I will try to post as much as possible, but the internet has already proven to be less than reliable. So, most of this ‘view’ will probably wait until after we return. If you post questions or requests, just know that I may be delayed with answering and replying. For those who like to ‘skim-read’, I will post Tips in bold red. That way you can just read right past the riffraff and enjoy the nitty gritty of what you want to know. We are a family of 3, traveling on our 38th cruise. We have cruised on Celebrity, Costa, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and MSC - with MSC being our current favorite. However, we were happy to return to Celebrity for this New Year’s cruise. We do enjoy the brand and try to catch a Celebrity cruise when the price is right.

Definitely not worth it for 2 nights! We ended up only using the 1 hour pass on our recent cruise. It is not nearly as nice as the Seaside thermal area. I would not even buy this pass for a week on Meraviglia.

@lele100 Thank you for reading along! There is a smoking room right outside the Sky Lounge. I also know there is a smoking area by the main pool on the port side (left as facing forward). I don't know if there was a smoking area by the aft pool, but it is probable - I just did not notice. I am not sure if cigars are allowed in any smoking area, or if it is limited to specific areas... Hope this helps at least a bit! The beach at Lighthouse Bay was very quiet in the morning, with plenty of seating and umbrellas. It got busy around 11 a.m. It is a pretty beach with some of the best snorkeling, according to friends who like to snorkel. There are small to medium rocks on the beach and in the water, so most people would prefer water shoes. I grew up barefeet, so it doesn't bother me 😁 If you want a different time or table for dining, go to the entrance of the dining room where the maitre'd is set up on boarding day. I would do that first, as soon as you get onboard. There was a long line after lunch. I believe he was set up on deck 6 by L'Olivo d'oro Restaurant when we boarded. Enjoy your cruise!

I would definitely encourage a change from 4 nights to 7 nights. A longer cruise is typically more calm as far as the passengers go - at least in our experience. We don’t take any cruises shorter that 5 nights anymore. 🙂

Fun! We did not get into the shark tooth hunting game - did find amazing conch shells at Blind Pass Beach. We miss the island - we actually had a week booked there before we found out we could cruise on Thanksgiving. Love that we can cruise again though! 🙂 Hope you are enjoying your cruise!