Reflection with young adults (non-drinking)--a quick review

[schlimazel_traveler]

Just off the 1/3/15 Eastern Caribbean sailing of the Reflection. My husband and I have done only two previous cruises, both on Royal Caribbean out of Baltimore on smaller ships. This was our first experience with cruising from Florida and first on Celebrity.

 

Our party: my husband and me (50's), our 18 year-old daughter and her 19 year-old friend (I'll call them Princess 1 and Princess 2). Neither is an adventurous eater and they don't drink. I don't really care to drink myself. Just not my thing. These are girls who know how to have fun. They are fun and friendly and outgoing. They (and we) were looking forward to dance lessons, karaoke, games, dancing, and hoped the girls would meet other college-aged passengers to have fun with.

 

Long story short: they never met any other young people at all! I'm not sure where they were, because I know there were several on the Roll Call. Now, we did miss the Connections party (it conflicted with trivia!), but didn't even spot many other young adults!

 

We got to almost all the trivia games, a number of dance lessons, and almost every night of karaoke, and the girls also made a game of getting as many portraits as possible (they changed outfits three times the second formal night), and made friends with the ladies at Cafe al Bacio and with all the photographers (to the point that the photographers were taking portraits WITH them). But it did feel like activities are kind of an "afterthought" for Celebrity. If we lost our copy of Celebrity Today, it was tough to get another one (they'd run out at the display at Guest Relations, unless you could read it in another language), and there isn't a touch-screen display in the elevator lobbies with a "what to do right now" button the way there is on Royal. Also, the spaces used for the activities are really not suited to them. The way the staircase lands in the middle of what could otherwise be a dance floor on Deck 3 cuts the space awkwardly, limiting both the room for dancing and the sight lines for people watching the band. The odd "entertainment court" that is essentially a spot in the hallway outside the art gallery was used for various game shows, indicating that they really don't much expect people to watch. I mean, there were only a handful of chairs. The karaoke host was the surliest, most unhappy person, almost like he'd been kidnapped off the street and forced into indentured servitude as a cruise DJ.

 

On the good side: Princess 1 is a picky eater in the extreme. We had select dining but were seated every night but one in Raul's section where he took GREAT care of us and never made her feel silly for wanting chicken fingers or a grilled cheese sandwich. Princess 2 liked to try different things and Raul was happy to bring her something else when her selections didn't work out. Nor did he embarrass me for trying two different entrees a few nights!

 

Princess 2 bought the "classic non alcohol package," and this was a puzzling thing. It was never clear to us what was included and what was not. She chose it because it said it included "juices" and she was envisioning that she could get bottled juice drinks, but the juices seemed to be limited to whatever is behind a bar (cranberry, orange, grapefruit, essentially). Eventually, it turned out that she could get Arizona Iced Tea, which made her very happy, but you couldn't have figured that out reading the description. At Al Bacio, she could get the hot coffee drinks (which she didn't care for) but not the frozen drinks--those are "specialty," while the "classic" NA package covers only "premium" coffees. She'd need the next level up to get those. I really don't know if it was worth $16/day, because the girls liked the lemonade and fruit punch in the Oceanview a lot. (It's surprisingly good fruit punch.) And that's accessible 24 hours. I had brought some big drink mugs along that they could pour a couple of glasses of juice into, and that probably would have been fine.

 

I'll share more detail in my official review. Thanks to all who gave me advice on this forum.

[sheista]

I just returned from 1/3 sailing on Reflection with my 18 year old son and would say the same thing about his experience socially. We participated (like you) in a lot of activities as a family but he didn't meet any kids his age at these activities. It seemed there was zero options available to the 17-21 year old demographic. He actually said that he had a good time and was grateful to be with his family but would not be interested in going again(not enough to do).

[schlimazel_traveler]

I just returned from 1/3 sailing on Reflection with my 18 year old son and would say the same thing about his experience socially. We participated (like you) in a lot of activities as a family but he didn't meet any kids his age at these activities. It seemed there was zero options available to the 17-21 year old demographic. He actually said that he had a good time and was grateful to be with his family but would not be interested in going again(not enough to do).

Our 2 previous cruises (on Royal Caribbean) had a meet-up for the 18- to 20-year-olds on the first night of the cruise. I know my girls would have gone to that if Reflection had had one. I was surprised that they didn't, because just from the roll call I knew there were quite a few kids and that demographic. I'm sorry your son never met my girls. They might have had fun together.

[sheista]

Our 2 previous cruises (on Royal Caribbean) had a meet-up for the 18- to 20-year-olds on the first night of the cruise. I know my girls would have gone to that if Reflection had had one. I was surprised that they didn't, because just from the roll call I knew there were quite a few kids and that demographic. I'm sorry your son never met my girls. They might have had fun together.

 

I thought the same!

[dodger1964]

Regarding X daily. I take a picture of the events on my phone (which I always carry with me in case want to take a picture or check email) and access the daily schedule from that.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app