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Just back from Reflection

LiseD

By LiseD,
in Celebrity Cruises

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LiseD

LiseD

Posted
Posted

ok....a bit longer review:

 

Review of Celebrity Reflection

 

Background: My husband and I are in our early 50’s and we brought our 20 year old twin daughters. This is my 9th cruise but first with Celebrity.

 

We arrived in Miami around noon but since it was raining decided not to rush to get on the ship and instead did a little sight seeing/shopping. We drove from NC and spent the night in Orlando. As we approached Miami, my husband starting laughing and when I asked why he said he had forgot to pack his bathing suit!! No problem with finding another in Miami! We had booked a guarantee suite and were able to get right on without any lines.

 

STATEROOM: We were in 2174 a sky suite on deck 12. Loved the room and the balcony! I will say that we heard noise from the floor above. We were right below the Oceans dining room. This was not an issue for me as I wear ear plugs at night when I travel but you could defiantly hear people walking and carts being pushed, etc A few things I didn’t realize would be in the room were an umbrella and binoculars. Nice to have and we used both! The suite came with a butler and tea time in our room at 3pm was one of our favorite things to do on the ship!! Our room also had a large overhang from the deck above. We loved this as it kept the balcony from getting so hot during the day since it blocked the sun. Only downside was you couldn’t see the stars at night. There were only 2 chairs on our balcony but when I asked about getting 2 more chairs they were brought right to us! Great since all 4 of us liked to eat our breakfast on the balcony in the mornings. My girls were a bit disappointed that we didn’t get “towel animals” each night…a fun thing they have always enjoyed on other cruises but on this ship they only did them on formal nights.

 

FOOD: We ate once in the main dining room and then found out we could use Blu. After eating there the next night we never went back to the MDR. Blu was wonderful. Much smaller, no reservation needed, great service and food! One night we ate at Qsine since our suite came with one specialty dinner reservation. We enjoyed it but were glad we had not paid the extra charge. We enjoyed room service one night. Ordered pizza and watched the college football national championship game on TV! We didn’t use any drink packages and after looking at our bill, I am glad we didn’t as we didn’t spend that much each day on drinks.

 

SHIP: Reflection is a large ship, but we never felt crowded. There are many wonderful places to hang out. I loved the different types of seating you could find from regular lounge chairs to hammocks and clam type chairs. There were a few things I didn’t like about the actual ship. One is there is no promenade deck to walk around. I also didn’t like the set up of the gym. They have all the treadmills facing out the side window and it made it a bit harder to walk when the ship was moving. I prefer when the treadmills face out the front window. I also found the grassy area to be a bit strange. They had it roped off most of the time, so no one ever used it. It was pretty but seemed very underused.

 

ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC: The evening shows/entertainers were some of the best we have seen on a cruise ship. The acapella group was amazing. The singers and dancers were all great and we enjoyed the added afternoon shows. We didn’t enjoy the music played in most of the common areas like the pool and the foyer. Music is based on personal preference but many times it was so loud that you could not speak to the person next to you. We enjoy dancing but they only offered one hour of dancing music played by a DJ from 5pm to 6pm…way to early for us as we were usually still at the pool or just getting back on the ship. Sadly, this is the one reason we might not sail with Celebrity again. The cruise director mentioned several times that they are going for an “edgy” feel and so guess we are more traditional in the type of music we prefer. We did play trivia almost every day. I guess we just liked feeling stupid since we never did very well at it!! We usually like to play BINGO but never seemed to see when they were doing that. My husband and I took a few of the dance classes offered but as mentioned above there was no where to actually dance and practice the skills.

 

PORTS: San Juan we just walked around old town and stopped for drinks and appetizers at an outdoor restaurant. St Thomas we took the ferry ride offered through the ship to St. John and then hired a taxi/tour around the Island. Beautiful Island and I would do this again. In St. Maarten we took a taxi to Maho beach to watch the airplanes. Very crowded but my husband loves planes and really enjoyed this!

 

DISEMBARKING: We carried off our bags and were driving away at 8am. Had a 14 hour drive ahead of us so was great to get off early.

 

CONCULSION: We had a great week with our girls and enjoyed missing A LOT of very cold weather back home!! Reflection is a beautiful ship and it sure seemed like everyone on it had a great time. The music would be the main obstacle for us in booking again with Celebrity but we still had a great time! Can’t say enough about how nice all the staff was how pretty our room was and by the sight on my scale this am…how good the food was!

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mrsdoc3

mrsdoc3

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I was on the Silhouette a couple of years and went to the gym one day. I don't usually do the treadmill (I prefer to walk outside, even if there is no promenade deck); I was going to do some work with the free weights, but the size that I can lift were in use. I got on the treadmill while I waited, and it wasn't long after that I started to feel somewhat sea sick. It dawned on me then that it was because the treadmills face to the side of the ship instead of the front. Who thought up that idea? Bad, bad.

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drarill

drarill

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Thanks for your review. We are booked on the Reflection in July. Did your daughters disliked the music as much as you? We are traveling with our teenage children, and they really had a great time last summer on the Eclipse. :):)

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LiseD

LiseD

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They have a group that I think they call their "party band" or something like that.....they played at the pool and also in the foyer area....maybe someone else here can tell you exactly the songs....but they were just really LOUD! The foyer opens up to 3 or 4 floors in the middle of the ship...so what ever was playing there carries through to a lot of the other areas and main bars/seating. There was one group that played more easy listening music but they mainly played in a place called Ensemble or something like that.....a very dimly lighted bar area with no dance floor. One night we went to the martini bar and there was a duo using a ipad and it was really loud also!

 

I was laughing with my girls saying, "Oh my....I think I have turned into my mom (their grammy)" I can always remember my mom saying my music was too loud!! ha ha

 

The 4 of us would literally be yelling at each other to try and speak over the music. It was really strange, I have just never experience this on a cruise ship before! But like I said....it's a big ship and many other places to escape to!!

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LiseD

LiseD

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Music is not an issue for my 20 year olds and their only comment was that it was too loud for conversation on the evenings when we tried to sit and have a drink before dinner...but don't think the style bothered them!!

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LiseD

LiseD

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One day the female lead was dressed like Lady GaGa...but again...issue was more with the volume as you just couldn't carry on a conversation many times!

Edited by LiseD
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20pluscruises

20pluscruises

Posted
Posted (edited)
I'm early fifties also. So I would love some classic rock with some cheesy 70s disco mixed in, but loud modern urban hip hop and rap would definitely be a turn off.

 

This is the music blarring from the Martini Bar...

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im6Xz...ature=youtu.be

DJ Xio

 

DJ Xio & JJ Drums @ Celebrity Equinox Europe!

by Xio Fermin

Miami DJs Live! featuring DJ Xio & JJ Drums rocking the Celebrity Equinox in Europe. Leaving from Barcelona and sailing the Mediterranean.

Edited by 20pluscruises
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LiseD

LiseD

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Alex asked about boarding time....we arrived about 1:30 or 2? The suites have their own line for check in and there was only one person in that line ahead of us.....so went really fast.....but the main line was not that long either.

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shipshape sam Great Review Rare

shipshape sam

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Try this link....the only difference is that on our ship no one was dancing or seemed to be enjoying the music!

 

 

Watched the video and have NEVER seen that many young people on a Celebrity ship. Thought I was watching a Royal Caribbean or Carnival sailing.

 

In the video it looked like they were having fun jumping up and down.

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20pluscruises

20pluscruises

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Watched the video and have NEVER seen that many young people on a Celebrity ship. Thought I was watching a Royal Caribbean or Carnival sailing.

 

In the video it looked like they were having fun jumping up and down.

 

There were that may on our cruise a couple of weeks ago...doing the same jumping up and down dance in the Martini Bar. They were having a great time. (I was getting a heaache :D)

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F5Loar

F5Loar

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Sounds like you wrote a review for our cruise on Reflection on their NYE cruise a few weeks ago. Same young crowd at Martini bar every night and when that closed they moved up to Sky disco lounge. Great ship and a great cruise is what we had too. I heard no RAP music the week we were on. Current pop I guess is what they call it. Katy Perry, Pitbull, etc music is what we heard. But you real disco lovers, the BeeGees are not all dead yet. Barry Gibb is embarking on a USA tour soon and will do all those 70's tunes we loved so much to dance to John Travolta style.

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Oceanview77

Oceanview77

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This is the music blarring from the Martini Bar...

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im6Xz...ature=youtu.be

DJ Xio

 

DJ Xio & JJ Drums @ Celebrity Equinox Europe!

by Xio Fermin

Miami DJs Live! featuring DJ Xio & JJ Drums rocking the Celebrity Equinox in Europe. Leaving from Barcelona and sailing the Mediterranean.

 

 

Thanks for posting some actual proof of what music is playing. Looks like a great time to me! Can't wait to board the reflection on feb 22!!!

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20pluscruises

20pluscruises

Posted
Posted
Thanks for posting some actual proof of what music is playing. Looks like a great time to me! Can't wait to board the reflection on feb 22!!!

 

My daughter would love it, too :D

 

Me, I'd rather hear blarring from the Martini Bar a little Molly Hatchet, Robin Trower, Mott the Hoople, Jethro Tull, etc. ...now that's music! :D

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