Reflection review Mediterranean October 12-23,2015 part one

[Zoey1]

I know there have been so many, but despite having sailed on her twice already, before our sailing I loved reading things about it.

 

We have been on many many cruises, on various lines, this was our fifth time on Celebrity and third on the Reflection.

 

We used DriverinRome for airport transfers and a short tour, whole certainly not the cheapest, they are extremely reliable and it is the second time we have used them. We arranged to have them drop off our luggage at the hotel then a three hour " tour"

 

 

Pre cruise we stayed one night at Waldorf Astoria Rome Cavalieri . A bit off the beaten hotel but an excellent hotel, beautiful and so accomadsting! We booked a prepaid, non refundable rate an I. imperial room, very worthwhile. Concierge even contacted us prior to see if there was anything they could do for us. We arrived early but the hotel was able to get us in a room with only a 10-15 minute wait. The staff is wonderful, Imperial rooms are concierge type rooms with a concierge lounge and amenities. Loved this hotel and would stay here again in a heartbeat ( they have a free shuttle every 15 minutes or so into town)

Our rate included a really lovely buffet breakfast, the. We were off to the ship with DriverinRome .

 

Emarkation was really swift and easy, , and we were quickly escorted to Michaels club to wait for our room, after being offered drinks and hors d'oeuvres . We were staying in a royal suite (which was totally amazing.) and were again escorted to our room after a brief wait and check in with Marita the MC Conceirge.

 

Originally I had booked a signature suite ( having stayed in one this past March and loved it) but as the time got closer we were able to upgrade to the royal suite for what we thought to be a reasonable amount.mit was worth it to have the extra powder room.

 

Our butler Rudolph and his stateroom attendants were perhaps the best that we have ever had , any request was done very quickly and you never had to ask a second time. They were on the ball without being intrusive.

The ship is in really good shape and kept immaculately clean.

 

Part who to come.....

[ShawninFL]

Sounds like a wonderful start to your vacation. I look forward to the rest of your review.

[Zoey1]

I am going to post part two a little later this afternoon is it better to finish in this thread or start another?

[Grandmaanne7]

Better to continue here I think. Thanks for the review!

 

Sent from my SM-G386W using Tapatalk

[Zoey1]

I know there have been so many, but despite having sailed on her twice already, before our sailing I loved reading things about it.

 

We have been on many many cruises, on various lines, this was our fifth time on Celebrity and third on the Reflection.

 

We used DriverinRome for airport transfers and a short tour, whole certainly not the cheapest, they are extremely reliable and it is the second time we have used them. We arranged to have them drop off our luggage at the hotel then a three hour " tour"

 

 

Pre cruise we stayed one night at Waldorf Astoria Rome Cavalieri . A bit off the beaten hotel but an excellent hotel, beautiful and so accomadsting! We booked a prepaid, non refundable rate an I. imperial room, very worthwhile. Concierge even contacted us prior to see if there was anything they could do for us. We arrived early but the hotel was able to get us in a room with only a 10-15 minute wait. The staff is wonderful, Imperial rooms are concierge type rooms with a concierge lounge and amenities. Loved this hotel and would stay here again in a heartbeat ( they have a free shuttle every 15 minutes or so into town)

Our rate included a really lovely buffet breakfast, the. We were off to the ship with DriverinRome .

 

Emarkation was really swift and easy, , and we were quickly escorted to Michaels club to wait for our room, after being offered drinks and hors d'oeuvres . We were staying in a royal suite (which was totally amazing.) and were again escorted to our room after a brief wait and check in with Marita the MC Conceirge.

 

Originally I had booked a signature suite ( having stayed in one this past March and loved it) but as the time got closer we were able to upgrade to the royal suite for what we thought to be a reasonable amount.mit was worth it to have the extra powder room.

 

Our butler Rudolph and his stateroom attendants were perhaps the best that we have ever had , any request was done very quickly and you never had to ask a second time. They were on the ball without being intrusive.

The ship is in really good shape and kept immaculately clean.

 

Part who to come.....

 

Royal Suite- Wow! On this ship we have stayed in CS, SS, and this time in Reflection suite, I would just like to comment on the Signature suite for a moment as we stayed in that on the last cruise, they are gems! Plentry of room, storage, you need a key to get to that area of the ship, we loved being right off the solarium too. We were booked in these again but upon checking we were able to upgrade for a reasonable amount more and being this was an 11 day cruise, we liked the thought of the 2nd bathroom, just a powder room but perfect. Their is tons of room in the Royal suite and the perks that come with it are wonderful. One of which is " complimentary unlimited speciality restaurants.

 

Embarkation day we decided to try the Porch restaurant t to avoid the crowds I. The Oceanview cafe. They have a relatively new menu. Our server was totally unfamiliar with all aspects of it. The shrimp cocktail was really good, very large form shrimp, after that it went downhill. The seafood tower would have been an additional $5p/p upgrade making it a $30p/p lunch, imho totally not worth it.

 

Restaurants, partial comparison to last time in Reflection six months this ago( I realize of course that food can be very subjective)

Bistro on five, ( last March the cover charge had just gone up to 7 p/p but it was sooooo good

Ever crowded. We had shared an Italian crepe which was LOADED with Nutella, bananas and pistachios , heaven. We heard they had a new menu and the up charge was $10p/p. Again never crowded , but service was painfully slow Started with french onion soup, which tasted nothing like onion soup or even beef broth, al out no onions and cheese was not per usual. We shared a sirloin chopped salad, beef was a bit tough but tasty. For the dessert we had been waiting so long for. Nothing inside the crepe except some sliced banana and a very slight drizzle if Nutella on top, very disappointing, DH had gelato which he said was just fair. To top things off, the waitress took out cards and presented us with a $20 bill, we called her back and after quite a long wait, she came back and said she had not looked at our cards ( RS comes with complimentary restaurants)

 

Luminae was good, with OUTSTANDING service but the menu is quite limited, they will also bring you anything from the MDR but imho that defeats the purpose of eating here. Food was decent and plated nicely and the staff could not do enough for you but again menu is very limited.

 

Murano- wonderful food and service, a bit less " stuffy" than when we were on her last. I had asked for the lobster tail to be served without the butter, crew, etc and it was really good.

 

Lawn club grill- service is slow, Matrd D not overly pleasant. Loved the flatbread pizza started, the this was our impression last time as well. I remembered from. Previous experience here that they were overly heavy handed with the spices so requested my salmon without pepper, the first time this week, both DH and I had a wonderful meal here, the second time in me ( in fairness we did see a different chef) main entrees were not cooked through, when sent back they came back over cooked, however saving grace is the warm chocolate chip cookie served with vanilla ice cream, DO NOT MISS THIS...lol

 

Tuscan Grill, every time we ate here was wonderful, service ( Valen was our server) was outstanding as was the food, large menu and delicious meal.

 

Quine is always one of our favorites! Ask for Eva ( pronounced Ava) she makes for a really fun dining experience. Even though we alwaYa ate here with just the two of us, we always s found nice people seated near us and alwaa s had fun. Highly recommend the disco shrimp, lava crab,slider party, tacos,meatball trio and fa r dessert the chocolate tombstone !

 

We had room service most mornings for breakfast, so delightful having breakfast on the balcony or even the dining room. Love their muesli and bran muffins are great too.

 

Entertainment needs lots of work ( I hear they are rolling out new shows) entertainment is really the same old tires ship entertainment. Also the last two times on the ship, the majority of shows are now 7 & 9 pm, which being we eat later means the show first and after a full day of touring we liked the extra time to relax before dinner.

 

We were so fortunate to meet people from our roll call, looking for two other couples to join us on private tours, we met two other couples, we ended up pre booking all our private shore excursions together, this could have gone either way but we hit the jackpot!

The three is us women started emailing back and forth getting to know each other for several mo this before the trip, and by our sailing date it was like we were old friends! The six of us really had a blast together.

 

Ports to come later....

[mafig]

Thank you so much.

 

We are on Reflection in less than two weeks.

 

I appreciated your feed back on The Porch. :( We love seafood. Why can't they do better.

 

Bistro on Five. Yours is not the first review I've read where people complain about the service being so slow. And the food not as good as before (when it was $5.) If we're lucky to be on board early on embarkation day we'll probably skip it, otherwise, we'll try it just to avoid the rush upstairs. Again, why can't they do better.

 

Tuscan Grille sounds like the place to go!

 

Entertainment? We were on our first Celebrity cruise in 2003 and the entertainment was soooo bad. I kid you not, part of the entertainment was someone dressed in a bear outfit lying on his back kicking his feet in time to the music. I stayed away from Celebrity for over five years.

Please don't tell me they're still doing acrobatics hanging from curtains.

 

You know, Las Vegas is not doing any more cirque-type shows. People are tired of them. Seen one seen them all.

 

 

How's the casino?

[Zoey1]

Thank you so much.

 

We are on Reflection in less than two weeks.

 

I appreciated your feed back on The Porch. :( We love seafood. Why can't they do better.

 

Bistro on Five. Yours is not the first review I've read where people complain about the service being so slow. And the food not as good as before (when it was $5.) If we're lucky to be on board early on embarkation day we'll probably skip it, otherwise, we'll try it just to avoid the rush upstairs. Again, why can't they do better.

 

Tuscan Grille sounds like the place to go!

 

Entertainment? We were on our first Celebrity cruise in 2003 and the entertainment was soooo bad. I kid you not, part of the entertainment was someone dressed in a bear outfit lying on his back kicking his feet in time to the music. I stayed away from Celebrity for over five years.

Please don't tell me they're still doing acrobatics hanging from curtains.

 

You know, Las Vegas is not doing any more cirque-type shows. People are tired of them. Seen one seen them all.

 

 

How's the casino?

 

I do love the hip, it was our third time on her. If you are in a suite Liminae is also one for lunch

Qsine is also one of those ur favorites, so much ffor n and we like the food a lot. I so agree on the entertainment but did hear they are rolling out new shows, badly needed. The casino is on the small side de but I do love it lol.