11/15/14 Reflection Top Chef Cruise Photo Review from the eyes of a family with teens

[ShellDil]

 

Today we would be docking in San Juan....this was a port day where we didn't really have a plan. I tried, I really did! Keith and I have been to Puerto Rico a couple of times and I really love it there. We'd been there on cruise stop before and that time went to the fort and did a food tour. Both enjoyable! Then Keith and I did a land vacation and really got to see more of what the island had to offer. We really would have loved to have taken the kids to the rain forest, or the beach, but our port times were just so inconvenient in my opinion - 3:30 - 10:00. Not beach time, can't really get to the rain forest in the day time.

 

We tried to arrange a private food tour in advance and thought we had something set up, and for one reason or another it just never materialized. So we decided we wanted to do the Segway Tour. Turns out that had to be booked directly with the ship, and by the time we decided to do it, it was sold out in advance. We tried booking on board, again full....so - we decided to just wing it. We were going to go to the fort and get dinner. Did we?

 

Well, first we had a full morning and early afternoon on the ship!

 

Megan just loved the Hideaway! It's a bit of a dark picture, but you get the idea of how the chairs were shaped!

 

 

After breakfast, we went to Hosea's demo! I don't really have much in the way of pictures, so here he is!

 

 

Hosea's demo was a very different style than Tiffany's. He didn't really talk much about what he was doing as he prepared the meal, which I believe was again a fish dish. But he did a Q & A as he cooked, instead of waiting until the end. He was very laid back and he talked about his new restaurant and like Tiffany, he talked about his experience on Top Chef and cooking techniques. At the end, he brought up a couple of audience members to taste his dish.

 

Afterwards we probably had lunch and then went to get our stuff together to get ready to head out as we neared San Juan.

 

 

Once we got off the ship, for some reason, our plans changed and we decided to take one of the taxi "Old San Juan tours" for $10 person. We thought maybe then we could get off at one of the forts and also see a bit more of the town than just walking up to the fort. The only problem with this was that they waited until the entire van was full, so we sat there for probably 30 or more minutes until we got started.

 

Our driver was pretty informative and took us by some government buildings. We stopped at one of the buildings, which I really wish I remember what it was now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

 

 

 

There was a nice view there and we had some time for some pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next he drove us around and just sort of narrated what we were seeing and the history of the town. Told us some areas we may or may not want to visit after his tour and we drove by San Cristobal. Then we went to Fort El Morro.

 

Again here we had some time to get out - but not at the actual fort, by the cemetery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

 

At this point, we could have been left off at the fort, which was our original plan, but it was so close to the closing time, which was 6:00pm, that it just no longer made sense. So we got back in the van and continued on with our tour.

 

We ended up at one of the squares and then walked around a bit before dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

 

 

 

Dinner at one of the restaurants with the outside courtyards....very pretty!

 

 

Mofongo - it was pretty good!

 

 

The Reflection at night, looks really nice!

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

 

We were back on board in time to see the 10:30 show, which was an Illusionist show. Kyle Knight and Mistie. If you like Magic, or Illusionist shows, this one was really good! We thought so anyway!

 

 

I'm not really one who watches that type of show to try to figure out the HOW they do all of the tricks. I of course wonder how they do it, but I don't try to break the magic of it all. I find it pretty amazing that someone can be so talented to be that quick with their hands or do whatever it all is!

 

And, for one of the tricks, my son, Alex got to go onstage as his assistant! That was pretty cool! Just disregard the bad picture of the illusionist! No flash so it blurred his face!

 

 

After the show, the kids went to the teen club - boy this day went on forever didn't it? And Keith and I went to the Martini Bar. It was really crowded, but we got a drink and sat for a bit.

 

 

 

And a couple of pictures as we left San Juan...

 

 

 

All in all, our San Juan day turned out pretty well. I still would have liked to have visited one of the forts - mostly because I know the kids, mainly Alex would have liked it. Megan, well, probably not as much. I'm a planner, and I don't really like to not have a plan going into a port. Even one that I've been to before. While we saved a lot of money by not doing the food tour or the Segway tour, I still would like to do a Segway tour on one of our future visits! I thought the $10/person was a decent value for what we got to see. But I regret the time we wasted waiting around for the van to be filled. For that reason, I wouldn't do something like that again.

 

Next up, our day in St Thomas!

 

[ladylemondrop]

Your photos really are lovely! Enjoying this review, as others said, nice balanced view of everything.

[tutuwahineLV]

Sounds like y'all had a wonderful time.

The picture of your husband and son, getting the tie just right is beautiful. It captures such a wonderful moment, and is one I'm sure your son will absolutely treasure as he gets older.

 

Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

 

Tutu

[ShellDil]

Your photos really are lovely! Enjoying this review, as others said, nice balanced view of everything.

 

 

Thank you!

 

Sounds like y'all had a wonderful time.

The picture of your husband and son, getting the tie just right is beautiful. It captures such a wonderful moment, and is one I'm sure your son will absolutely treasure as he gets older.

 

Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

 

Tutu

 

Thank you....I really like that photo as well. It's those little moments that you just treasure! I was glad that I was able to actually get a picture where neither one of them made a goofy face or complained about me taking yet another photo!

[ShellDil]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had no wait getting off the ship and had instructions as to where to go for our sailing trip! We booked with Fury Sailing Charters and Captain Mike. It was a bit of a walk, but we had no problems finding our meeting spot and when everyone arrived, our final payments were collected and we boarded our sailboat. I'd say there were maybe 20 - 25 people tops on the sailboat. And that may be a high estimate.

 

This was our sailboat

 

 

 

The captain put the sails up and we were off!

 

 

[ShellDil]

I'm sorry for the big delay in posting! Between Christmas and then trying to catch up on work from having off last week, things have been crazy hectic! I'll do my best to get at least part of our St Thomas day posted now.

 

So, we left off heading out on a sailboat with Fury Charters and Captain Mike. We were going out to snorkel with the sea turtles. I love all things water and feel most at home on a boat. Not necessarily a cruise ship, for a vacation, it could be land or sea, but put me on a catamaran or a sailboat, give me a snorkel and just set me free. I am cut out to be close to the sea! Every time we get on a boat my kids laugh at me because I have to go through the whole bit about how much I just love being so close to the sea!

 

We enjoyed the ride out to snorkel. And it was really nice to see the sails being used. Sometimes on excursions, especially ones on catamarans, they go under engine power and never really use the sails. But this one really used the sails, to the point that the boat was at a nice tilt and we were moving pretty fast!

 

The views were beautiful and the day was just gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

 

We pulled up to our snorkel spot and could see that it was already pretty crowded with other excursions. They were all types...you had the pirate ship, the catamarans, the party boats...you name it. Here we were on the nice, calm sailboat. But our captain anchored away from the others, just a bit off to the side. I was glad to not be in the masses of other snorkelers looking for turtles, but I also wondered how we'd see them if all of the people were "over there"!

 

 

We were given our snorkel gear and mandatory life vests and the assistant, who's name totally escapes me at this time, went into the water with us. The first part of the excursion was him taking us on a guided snorkel tour to actually see the turtles. We followed him around and he swam to where they normally hung out. Actually away from the crowds. They were very conscientious of not harming the turtles. Cautioned us against touching the turtle and telling us to watch to not kick them by mistake as they surfaced. I really appreciated their approach. You could see other groups of people actively chasing turtles trying to grab them and I don't think that's what this area is all about.

 

So here I was, all ready to go, underwater camera in hand, battery fully charged, and first thing we saw was a barracuda! So cool! I turned on my camera and well, nothing happened. Tried again and still nothing. Took it out of the water and played around with it and it suddenly dawned on me that when I took the battery out last night to charge it, that I never put it back into the camera! Now that was a real bummer! Me, of all people...the queen of cameras and photography! How would I live that one down? Not one picture of a single sea turtle or of us snorkeling? UGH...now we have to go back! ;)

 

Once I got over the disappointment of having to carry around my useless camera, we really enjoyed this time snorkeling. We spent about 25 minutes I would guess with the guide. Maybe more and we saw a lot of turtles. And then he swam us over to one of the reefs. From here he told us we had some options as to what to do next: hang at the reef and snorkel, continue looking at the turtles, swim in the lagoon area and snorkel, or there's a bigger reef with more colorful fish across the way - but the current is stronger so watch your time getting there and know it's a bit more difficult to do. Of course Alex and I went to the other reef! Keith and Megan stayed at the first reef and then swam back via the turtles.

 

The other reef had some huge sea urchins and some great little colorful fish. And yes, it was a bit strenuous, but nothing overwhelming. It was all shallow water. We just made sure to see our sailboat and know how long we had until we had to be back on board.

 

It was a pretty perfect morning so far, and we still had a sailboat ride back!

 

The pirate ship excursion, came in after us and left before us...it looked very crowded too!

 

 

Part of the area where we snorkeled

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

In all I would say we had at least an hour to snorkel. Then we were back up on the sailboat.

 

 

You can see the snorkel vests they gave us to wear - actual snorkel vests, which was really nice. This way if you were an experienced swimmer you didn't have to inflate it, or you could just put a little puff of air in. And if you felt the need for a bit more air, you could put more in as needed. When we got back on the boat they hosed us all down to get the salt water off of us. Another nice personal touch.

 

 

 

There was rum punch, water, granola bars and pretzels for everyone during the ride back. And mostly the crew walked around and just chatted with the passengers. It's was a really nice ride.

 

We got back to the dock, passed right by the Reflection....

 

 

and now we had to make a decision....what would we do for the rest of the day in St. Thomas? We'd never been here before, we definitely didn't want to go back to the ship! We still had hours before we had to be back on board.

 

 

 

While we were discussing what to do, we met this guy

 

 

So, I had heard about this world famous banana daiquiri....up on a mountain top....that would be our next stop! Off to find a taxi!

 

[galliegirlie]

Can't wait to hear more. We will be on the Reflection next July (our first time on Celebrity), so I've been seeking out good honest reviews like yours.

[TNhome]

Don't leave us hanging? What happened next?!?

[cruisinskier]

Enjoying your review! We snorkelled with Capt Mike and the Fury a few years back.....it was a great day! Looking forward to more of your review!

Jerry

[poffles]

Love your review. We will be on the Reflection in April so hanging on your ever word. Your pictures are great.

 

Bummer about the camera battery, that would really suck but may have been a blessing because sometimes the experience is better when you aren't busy trying to capture on camera.

[ShellDil]

Can't wait to hear more. We will be on the Reflection next July (our first time on Celebrity), so I've been seeking out good honest reviews like yours.

 

Thank you! I didn't see too many reviews of the Reflection, especially with pictures, so I'm glad too help!

 

Don't leave us hanging? What happened next?!?

 

Finally getting back to it! The holidays really took away from my review time!!

 

Enjoying your review! We snorkelled with Capt Mike and the Fury a few years back.....it was a great day! Looking forward to more of your review!

Jerry

 

 

We were really happy with Capt Mike. We thought they were very professional and really provided us with a top notch morning! The only downside, we had to go back and leave!

 

Love your review. We will be on the Reflection in April so hanging on your ever word. Your pictures are great.

 

Bummer about the camera battery, that would really suck but may have been a blessing because sometimes the experience is better when you aren't busy trying to capture on camera.

 

Thanks for reading along! I suppose I could agree with you about the camera battery. I know my husband feels that way. He thinks I spend far too much time snapping away taking pictures!

[ShellDil]

Happy New Year to everyone! Thank you for being patient while life gets in the way of continuing on with my story of our trip on the Reflection!

 

So.....back to it! We left of with still about 3 or 4 hours of time in St. Thomas and no plan! As I mentioned on our San Juan day, I'm a planner, and this really isn't like me to not have a plan, so we had to come up with something! There was no way I was going back on the ship. I'm not only a planner, but I'm a doer. If you ever read my other reviews, you can see that when we travel, we like to really make the most of our time in ports! So, I mentioned that I had heard about the Banana Daiquiri and he amazing view up on the Mountain Top, so the question was, how to get there and how to best spend the time!

 

So we found the taxi stand and talked to one of the drivers. He basically told us that for just a little more than the price of a round trip taxi ride up to the Mountain Top and back, he'd give us an island tour, with a stop at the Mountain Top and take us back to the ship when we were done. So, there we have it! We got a nice island tour. I want to say it was about $15/person but can't quite remember. It may have been a bit more or maybe less!

 

The downside was that we were exhausted from the snorkeling, so it was a bit hard to stay awake for the drive. I think Keith and Alex fell asleep as soon as we started driving! But our driver drove us around and told us about the different neighborhoods we were going through. He talked about his life, which was colorful! And then we stopped at some stands and mainly just took some pictures. It overlooked an airstrip. Also overlooked the Allure!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

We drove up to Mountain Top and our driver told us we had about 30 minutes or so to walk around the store, check out the view and whatever else we wanted to do. I really liked his laid back attitude. He was pretty much on our time and that was nice!

 

 

If you couldn't find a souvenir here, I'm pretty sure you weren't going to find one anywhere on the island! It was a bit crowded, but not overwhelming at all.

 

 

 

There was a bar at the back making the daiquiri's and decided to get the one with the souvenir cup. Why not! And do I have a picture? No....boy, I was falling down on the photo requirements this trip! I actually had just come back from a business trip to Mexico the previous week and had less than 12 hours at home to unpack, do laundry and re-pack, so I think I was still recovering from the whirlwind turnaround! But still - it's not like me to miss all of these photo ops!

 

Here we are outside - one of the few group shots of all four of us! Oh, Keith does have the souvenir cup in hand! Whew!

 

 

The view was just stunning....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made another stop on the way back to the ship. Another photo stop and some more vendors selling things there. Here there was a really nice view of the ships in port.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our driver brought us back to the ship in plenty of time, but not so much time that I felt like we had time left wasted that we could have spent it in port, know what I mean?

 

We really enjoyed our time in St. Thomas and I was glad that we chose to stay in St. Thomas instead of heading to St. John. I'm sure we'll be back here some day and that will definitely be an option, but for our first time here, this was a great port day for us!

 

[ShellDil]

 

Keith and I went up to Lawn for sail away. This was one advantage of having a drink package. On a typical cruise, I'm not much of a drinker, mainly because I just don't like having the additional expense at the end of the cruise. I'd much rather spend my money on excursions or specialty restaurants. I'm perfectly happy with an iced tea. But with the free drink package, which we did upgrade to the premium, it really was nice to just go get a drink here and there and know there was no added cost to deal with at the end of the cruise!

 

So, we went up to the lawn and watched the Coast Guard boat clear us (I assume) for sailing out.

 

 

 

This one is through the glass on the deck, so there's a bit of reflection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now it was time for dinner....tonight would be Qsine! I was really looking forward to this! Keith and I went to Qsine back on our cruise on the Eclipse and really enjoyed it. I knew Megan would love it, but Alex, my picky eater....well, I'm not sure what he's going to think!

[ShellDil]

 

Back from our fantastic day in St. Thomas, tonight we had our first specialty dinner reservation in Qsine! I was really looking forward to this. However my kids really are somewhat picky. And not the most agreeable! The good thing, they keep bringing food! The bad, what one likes, the other generally doesn't! But we knew we'd have a food adventure one way or another!

 

Both kids loved the atmosphere and while they thought the menu on the iPads was pretty unique, being raised in the tech age, they weren't quite as "wowed" by it as Keith and I thought it was unique. They wanted to know why there weren't games on it! Although we did enjoy watching the little video clips of the menu items!

 

 

We chose our menu selections, and like so many people probably do, we chose far, far too many options! But after discussing it with our server, he told us that when we got full, just to let him know and he would talk to us about where we could thin out the choices and we could start cutting back. It was still a tough choice though - Alex wanted such different choices from Megan and we probably ended up getting a lot of food just to try a few bites here and there!

 

The Sushi Lollipops

 

 

This was maybe Voodoo Shrimp? I'm not sure about the names of the dishes at this point - but it was good!

 

 

Another one you apparently eat with chopsticks!

 

 

 

This one was Alex's favorite by far! I think if he ever went back, he'd order four or five of this course alone!

 

 

 

Just look at how happy he finally is to be getting some food HE likes!

 

 

[ShellDil]

One of Alex's favorite things to do with a burger is to put fries on it, and yes - he even got to do that here with the sliders!

 

 

 

Megan made a ketchup smiley face on hers - yes it was quite the whimsical evening!

 

 

 

It was about here that we hit the wall...we truly didn't need this GIANT kebob!

 

 

But, then they brought this, and this was another really huge hit at our table!

 

 

 

Finally, flag waved, make the food stop! They brought these little cubes to order dessert. As if we could eat another bite! What does our server say? No need to decide, I'll just bring you one of each? Are you out of your mind? Ok - fine....do it -

 

 

 

I don't really remember what was all there - a chocolate wall, decorate your own cupcakes, little donut things, a couple of other things. I really couldn't even take a bite of most, and I feel bad because we didn't eat even a dent in it!

 

But we did get the Strawberry Fields Forever brought to us, and that was the perfect ending to a great meal that was a lot of fun after a pretty perfect day!

 

 

[ShellDil]

Today was our day in St. Maarten! With the pretty much perfect day we had in St. Thomas, could this day compare? Keith and I had been to St. Maarten a few years back on the Eclipse cruise, but I felt like on that day we didn't really get a good feel for the island. We did a land/sea type excursion. I think it was one where you drive the jeeps and then drive the little speed boats and maybe snorkel? I know we had a blast! And while we did drive across the island, I don't feel like we "saw" the island! I'm pretty sure that time we did have some short beach time, which I'm sure was great - but this time, I wanted to actually get a feel for St. Maarten/St. Martin itself! I'd always been intrigued by this two country little place!

 

So, I booked an island tour with Bernard's tours. I picked the one that had some time in Marigot as well as about 2 hours at a beach. Originally the scheduled beach was supposed to be Orient Beach, but this was shortly after the hurricane and I think the beach and the bars or area around it just wasn't the standard that Bernard's tours wanted to take us to.

 

It was again, another early morning and today, Megan just didn't feel well, she says. Honestly, I think she wanted to sleep in. Or maybe it was just a bit too much Qsine last night! There really was a LOT of food! So, after a long discussion Keith decided he would stay back on the ship with her - he was actually looking forward to a day with most people off of the ship and relaxing...and Alex and I would go to St. Maarten by ourselves. I was a bit disappointed, but Alex and I really have a great time when we travel together. As far as the four of us in our family, Alex and I probably have the most similar vacation styles when it comes to exploring, touring, types of vacations....that type of thing - so I knew we'd have a pretty great mom/son day!

 

We got off the ship and were to meet our guide as early as possible to start the tour.

 

 

We walked by the St. Maarten sign and found where the private tours were meeting

 

 

And were given a sticker to indicate which tour we were on....the 1 hour beach or the 2 hour beach, and then went to wait for everyone to arrive. Interestingly everyone was actually on the same tour. So if you did the 1 or 2 hour beach, the rest of the tour was exactly the same. The only difference was the beach time. It seemed to me in reading the descriptions there were other differences, such as the amount of shopping time...but no big deal, the tour was still good! Alex again, felt like it was a "grown up tour"....Here we were docked right next to I think the Oasis...and not one family with kids was on our tour! There was a family with some older teens, but everyone else was adults. And I think it made him a bit uncomfortable since there is free flowing beer and whatever they call their island punch being passed about. Of course there's water, and it was by no means a "party" atmosphere, but I think he may have felt just a little out of place. Had Megan come, he may have felt a little more comfortable. That being said, it's odd because he does tend to relate a bit better to adults than kids at times, so go figure!

 

Anyway....I didn't take notes, so I don't remember the name of our guide, but he was very good and we all piled on our little bus. Maybe 25 people or so. We started driving and he told us about the island and the history and just talked freely about what we were seeing and his life. I like a talkative guide. To me, it helps to get to know the place you are visiting.

 

He told us about crossing freely from one country to the other, as we crossed into the French side

 

 

 

 

And we stopped at one point to take some pictures at a higher point on the island with nice views

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ShellDil]

 

Next we stopped at what might have been Oyster Pond??? I'm not sure. I'm just looking at our itinerary now and guessing. But it was a beachy area. Before we left our guide told us we would have the opportunity to see some sea "creatures"...like urchins, star fish, things like that. That he has someone on the beach that we can visit with and he will show them to us. This should have been that stop. When we got off the bus, I know the guide said something like "oh, I don't see xx down at his spot"...

 

Now, it was a really pretty area, with a look out platform. We stopped for about 5, maybe 10 minutes. Took some pictures and got back on the bus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may be able to see up there on the hill...there's a goat - I don't know if it was a random goat, or if there was a farm of sorts, but there were a few up on that hill.