Just Off Reflection- Any Questions?

[Tenderpaw]

Hi,

 

We got off yesterday and just got home today. I'll post a review later, but any questions? It was a great cruise on a beautiful ship.

 

Dave

[smdubowsky]

I have been reading about smokey or mildew smells in the casino. I have been on three S class ships and never experienced this. We will be on the Reflection in January. What was your experience ?

[Tenderpaw]

That was actually one of the few negative things i was going to mention. The casino on this class of ship is wide open to the passageway that you pass through to the theater. One side of the passageway was the shops and the other side was the casino. A significant smell of cigar smoke came from the casino to the passageway and into the shops. My wife stayed out of the shops (a good thing for me) because of the smell.

 

Most ships i have been on have had a way to avoid the casino and its less open. Very different on the Reflection.

 

Yes. There was a smell. Didn't notice any mold smells though.

 

Dave

[Wine-O]

That was actually one of the few negative things i was going to mention. The casino on this class of ship is wide open to the passageway that you pass through to the theater. One side of the passageway was the shops and the other side was the casino. A significant smell of cigar smoke came from the casino to the passageway and into the shops. My wife stayed out of the shops (a good thing for me) because of the smell.

 

Most ships i have been on have had a way to avoid the casino and its less open. Very different on the Reflection.

 

Yes. There was a smell. Didn't notice any mold smells though.

 

Dave

 

We were on Reflection 21 Oct-16 Nov and 7-14 Dec, and we never noticed any cigarette or cigar smoke anywhere near the casino. Cigar smoking is only allowed on Deck 15, although I did notice some folks at the Mast Bar smoking cigars.

 

My major complaint about cigarette smoke was the smoking section back aft on the pool deck. When the sliding doors opened, and we were heading into the wind, the cigarette smoke drafted all the way into the buffet area.

 

I didn't notice any mold or mildew smells in the casino.

[MicCanberra]

Sounds (or smells) like thye need to amend the smoking policy or get better A/C and/or ventilation.:D

[drarill]

Sounds (or smells) like thye need to amend the smoking policy or get better A/C and/or ventilation.:D

 

Great idea!!! :):)

[cynbar]

How did you find the bar service? There have been recent reports about poor or inconsistent drink service on Reflection, just wondering what your experience was.

[TobyKnits]

Did you frequent the martini bar? I noticed on the menus that the Preisman's posted it said "social hour martinis available for premium beverage package only" - what I'm wondering is, if you happened to use the martini bar if you know about this?

 

It makes no sense to me - they posted a price of $5.50 for the social hour martinis, but if you have the premium package why would you care what the price is and why would you order one from the limited list.

[lennyaxeman]

I just got off the same cruise. There was a faint smell in the casino but didn't notice it in the shops. We did frequent the martini bar and no limits on what you can order up to 13$. Btw' had wonderful cruise on a wonderful ship!

[Tenderpaw]

This was our 7th cruise on Celebrity and our first cruise on a Solstice Class ship. We have sailed on all of the other classes of Celebrity ships except for the old Meridian from years ago, so i guess we are experienced. This is just my opinion!

 

Embarkation: We arrived at the port after parking at about 11:15-30AM. The boarding process was quick and we were on the ship before noon. No waiting. Of course cabins were not ready, but the buffet was open and we headed there. There was champagne and mimosas available for free upon boarding.

 

The Ship: The Reflection is a beautiful ship. The rooms are nicely decorated and very attractive. Instead of a HUGE atrium, there is one large atrium area reaching up several decks and another aft smaller 2 deck atrium. One negative about the design (to me) is the Reflection, like many new ships, has very few large spaces. In fact, the only large in door space besides the dining room is the theater. Since the theater was not available at all times, two performances i wanted to see were in the Celebrity Lounge (can't remember the exact name) and it was literally standing room only. This was for the comedy show and the matinee performance of the singing team "Uncommon Ground". Cruise ships built 5-10 years ago usually have another large lounge in addition to the theater. Celebrity might say the seating capacity is actually the same, and maybe it is. But the space is a lot smaller.

 

Otherwise, i liked the ship. She is very well done and has class.

 

Cabin: We had a Concierge Class balcony. The room was roomy and nice. One interesting thing is the bathroom was larger than most ship bathrooms by about 20%. The shower was larger too with solid doors instead of a curtain. Nice touch. However, my wife felt there was a bit less storage than other cabins we've had before. I'm not sure that was actually the case, there were a couple of huge bins above the bed, which was a little different.

 

Service: Cabin service was good. Our steward wasn't the personable, but he was friendly and did everything we asked. The dining service was efficient and well done. Our limited bar service was ok. Our initial drink purchase at sail away at the Sunset Bar on the stern was a fail because we attempted to order a Hurricane which wasn't on the menu. The bartender could not cope with that. Had to be off the menu. Other drink purchases went fine, but we aren't big drinkers. Add to that the fact we smuggled a small bottle on board for cabin use and we p robably only bought 4 other drinks. One of them was a martini at social hour and they gave us the reduced price.

 

Food: In my opinion, Celebrity still has the best food of the mass market lines. The dining room food was excellent. I had 2 entree's every night and they were very good. The buffet was hit or miss, but seemed better than other cruise lines. There was also the burger and hot dog bar which was fine but their fries were really good. A lot people liked the sushi bar at 5:50 every afternoon. Also, they had ice cream (real, not soft serve) every day in the buffet. They had soft serve too.

 

Entertainment: Celebrity has really improved their entertainment. The shows were well done and the aerial acrobats were really impressive. There was also a Liberace style pianist and the usual juggler. The juggler was a husband/wife team who had lighted balls and pins. That was different. There was live entertainment at the pool and at various venues around the ship. There were several adult comedy shows at 11PM. The same show repeated 3 times. I attended one, and it was funny. There were 2 comedians, however one of them was trying very hard to be "adult" by using the F word constantly.

 

Other things: I agree with the comments about the chair hogs. It was unbelievably bad. On Friday, we left breakfast and went to the pool about 10AM. Only a few people were out there, but literally (no exaggeration) 90% of the chairs were taken by water bottles, shoes, and books. I observed the family from Cleveland reserving 8 chairs too! In frustration, i went and asked the 2 "security guards" that were standing around talking to each other what the chair policy was. They told me about the 30 minute rule thing. I told them that the lack of chair availability was a joke and they should enforce the rules. They made excuses. However, about 20 minutes later the pool butlers started bagging peoples junk. I saw one woman freaking out about her stuffing being removed. Friday was the first time i saw them pick up anything. I was out there a lot on Thursday and never saw anything being bagged. Friday was the only time.

 

One more comment: We were Concierge Class for the first time for this cruise. We upgraded to this for almost nothing ($30) over our original fare. Since we paid almost nothing, it had some value. But I wouldn't pay the normal rates for what you get. The afternoon canapes were unimpressive and only changed a little through the week. The priority boarding was nice as was the supposedly upgraded bedding. We were supposed to get a tote bag but we never did. I asked about it at the front desk and was told there weren't any, but we saw others with the bag. Not a big deal, but to be honest, i didn't see that being CC was a big deal either!

 

Overall, a good cruise! Let me know if you have questions or i missed anything.

Edited December 23, 2013 by Tenderpaw

[MicCanberra]

Thanks for posting your review. Interesting/strange that the pool chair policy is not being enforced even though they say it is. Anyway, glad you had a good cruise.:D

[Janet987]

"Uncommon Ground" is acapellla, so entertainment likely continues to be a wide selection of styles determined by availability and scheduling. If there was no acapellla early December and the group just started on board the Reflection last week, with luck they will be on for a few months. Thanks for the update!

[Tenderpaw]

"Uncommon Ground" is acapellla, so entertainment likely continues to be a wide selection of styles determined by availability and scheduling. If there was no acapellla early December and the group just started on board the Reflection last week, with luck they will be on for a few months. Thanks for the update!

 

They will be on board until February. The Cruise Director made a big deal about being only 1 of very few ships that had an acappella group. They were good.

[Tenderpaw]

I just thought of a couple more comments:

 

The "free" Coffee: Absolutely the worst i have every had on a cruiseship. Previous experience on other cruises was the buffet coffee was bad but the dining room coffee was good. Not this time. Bitter and burned repeatedly in both places.

 

The Cruise Director: He was an interesting person. I guess he was ok, but on the last day, he REPEATEDLY kept reminding us that this was the last day and we were getting off tomorrow. It was like HA, HA, your vacation is over. He over did it.

 

Ships Officers: They seemed more accessible on the this cruise. The Staff Captain did a program on the ship and navigation and there was a meet and greet for all the passengers with the ships officers. This was in addition to the usual "Captain's Party".

[newyorkray]

Thanks for the comments. I was on the Reflection last January and am booked for this January 4th. I have sailed Celebrity about 7-8 times, the Reflection was my first on the "S" class ships. It is a beautiful ship but took me a little time to get use to. Also got a good deal on the Concerge cabin (althoug I usually book Concerge but not sure why. There really isn't anything "special" about it and as to Concerge 1,2 and 3. only the location is different but there are C3's next to C2's. I see the coffee is still just as bad and I heard they changed from the round pizza to pizza squares like cardboard. We are big pizza fans and last January the pizza on Reflection was great. Also I see from posts people are just as rude in the Garden Buffet. I do my best to laugh it off, people act as if they are going to run out of food!! Anyway, I have never had a bad cruise (except on the old Celebrity Meridian in 1995 that caught the tail of a hurricane. I know we will have a good time on the 4th.

[drychi]

Just wanted to say my wife and I were on Reflection the first week of January, 2013 and are on the January 4, 2014 sailing in same cabin as last year. Hope this voyage is as good as last years. It was one of our favorites, so we booked it again. If you have not been on the roll call for this voyage, it is active. Also thanks to TenderPaw for his review.

[MicCanberra]

I haven't met a crusie ship/ line yet that serves palatable (free) coffee, thankfully Cafe' al Baccio comes to the rescue on this issue.:D

[sheista]

I sailed with you and would agree 100% with your comments. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[hokiecruisers]

Were there any happy hours on your cruise?

[H2OH!]

Did you frequent the martini bar? I noticed on the menus that the Preisman's posted it said "social hour martinis available for premium beverage package only" - what I'm wondering is, if you happened to use the martini bar if you know about this?

 

It makes no sense to me - they posted a price of $5.50 for the social hour martinis, but if you have the premium package why would you care what the price is and why would you order one from the limited list.

 

I am assuming they are smaller glasses where you can sample more martini's. The Martini flight is out of the price range for premium package so a smaller martini glass would help those of us on with the package sample more martini's...like the martini flight. :D

[Phxazzcruisers]

Boarding Reflection on the 28th and really looking forward to it. Thanks for your reviews

[packercruising]

Excellent review and comments. Can you get regular black coffee at the cafe?

[Ma Bell]

There are no indoor smoking areas on Celebrity ships, not even the casino.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[packercruising]

There are no indoor smoking areas on Celebrity ships, not even the casino.

 

Are Sunset and Mast the only two outside bars, other than the pool bar?