Celebrity Reflection January 14 to 21 2017

[Jasperdo]

I've just booked a Princess cruise to Canada and New England for this October so that will be my next Princess review. October 14 Regal Princess a class of ship I have steered clear of until now so it should be a voyage of discovery in all ways.

I've already added this to my calendar so I won't forget to look for it. I'm very interested in your thoughts about the Regal Princess, since I know you're not a fan of some aspects of the design, such as the Promenade. I'm also looking forward to the Ports of Call. I've been to the three New England Ports before on a road trip, and loved them. Haven't been to the two Canadian Ports yet, though.

[PghCruiseGrrrl]

Norris,

 

You are going to love the Regal! I've been on her twice and she is amazing. The atrium is huge with lots of new places to photograph. Also please make sure you pay a visit to both the Allegro dining room on deck 6 to photograph the Lumiere's Table where they hold the Chef's Table (in addition to the curtain of light they also have a wonderful glass centerpiece), and the Symphony dining room on deck 5 where they hold the Winemaker's Dinner in the "wine cellar." In fact, I highly recommend signing up for the Winemaker's Dinner. IMO it is better then the Chef's Table! $40/pp with a much more reasonable amount of food.

[fletch1027]

This app is called "Ship Mate".

 

I thought so because of the curvy boat logo, but mine doesn't have that screen. I kind of like yours better because the emphasis is on the days remaining. :)

 

These are the two options that I found for mine (iOS):

 

 

 

OR

 

 

[tigerbeth]

I thought so because of the curvy boat logo, but mine doesn't have that screen. I kind of like yours better because the emphasis is on the days remaining. :)

 

These are the two options that I found for mine (iOS):

 

 

 

OR

 

 

 

Tha ship mate App just changed , Norris's photo is of the old layout !

[Barky]

Norris that pole beside the bed looks like an accident waiting to happen. I can see myself bumping my head or swinging my legs out and meeting up with it rather painfully. I hope that didn't happen. When the bathroom was added I would have asked them to remove that pole for sure.:D

[christineboston]

If your name was called, please report to the Principal's Office immediately.

 

Norris, with thanks

 

 

This made me laugh out loud...I am a school administrator and was a principal for years :)

 

Loving the review Norris! Your posts are making the last two weeks before we embark the Reflection on 2/11 go much more quickly!

[Gabrielle R.]

Well so far this has been the toughest start to any of my reviews due to technical difficulties with the videos but I thank everyone for being supportive and enthusiastic.

 

Normally I respond to each and every comment but I am so far behind in that.

 

To keep the review flowing, especially as some of you are cruising soon I'd like to give a roll call and a shout out to those that have responded but haven't got a reply from me. I want you to see photos and not me thanking each person for joining us although I am truly thankful to everyone who does as it's more fun for me to have feedback and questions to answer

 

So in no particular order here is a list of people I want to thank for their unanswered comments.

And the Nominees are....

 

lienf

morbihan

G & G cruisers

Sassy cruiser

Jules815

Riclop

Shims dan

lola2013

jlfi (Judy)

luv2camp04

Jase0581

MinnesotaCruiser1974

Eloise4Ever

gold1953

pretty princess

I'm a Happy Cruiser

Destan71835

macsford

sajlm045

jzad

benne1ej

NCHPcruiser

Lin336

Lastdance

jg51

mrsgoggins (did you see me on the ship?)

Golfwife1

DJSchib

Princess Dano

cruisekrazykaze

perfect match (Nancy!)

nursedibdob

cruisehappy001

Tins

GabrielleR

Hockeyguru32(master of spotting my song references!)

Morton (Pam)

rcssmom

sparkins_mob

SOLIVITA LADY (Jackie!)

DavietheScot (hoots mon!)

christineboston

CoatRackOfDoom (Ed-best screen name ever)

Mit429

Gordoncruickshank

chat

walt fan

ILgirl

PghCruiseGrrrl

yovacruise

 

 

If your name was called, please report to the Principal's Office immediately.

 

Norris, with thanks

 

Can't scare me... I'm a HIGH SCHOOL teacher! ;)

Probably why I enjoy your humor so much... most of the people I work with do not always get good snappy comments and music trivia!

Gabrielle

[MisterMet]

I've just booked a Princess cruise to Canada and New England for this October so that will be my next Princess review. October 14 Regal Princess a class of ship I have steered clear of until now so it should be a voyage of discovery in all ways.

Coming soon to an IMAX near you!

 

I am off to work soon.

 

I am sure you could all use a vicarious lunch so let's go to Luminae!

 

We were not blown away by Luminae on the Silhouette. Oh, it was good but not memorable but we had to try it again as it beats the buffet on embarkation day.

 

As expected we were greeted warmly and quickly seated in this gorgeous room.

Water and bread were produced and drinks ordered. Once my Stella and Carol's club soda were delivered we sat for 15 minutes before our order was taken. Ho hum.

 

 

A raised eyebrow brought our waitress and we ordered our vittles...

 

We both had a delicious lobster bisque and bowls were licked or mopped with bread.

 

 

Next, my mouthwatering Luminae Burger with truffle fries and a tasty treat it was

 

 

and for Butternut Squash risotto which she loved and shared a forkful with me

 

 

Carol wasn't up for dessert but I sure was and this white chocolate Macadamia nut cake really hit the spot. We both agreed that lunch was fantastic and we would come back to Luminae without hesitation.

 

 

Lunch video coming much later tonight, followed by Muster and Sailaway in photos and video.

 

Norris

 

 

Norris,

 

You have us locked in to your review as usual, and you haven't even left port yet! We finally nailed down our Equinox cruise for Sept. 2018, a 10 day Southern Caribbean to the ABC Islands, Grand Cayman, and Key West. I had hoped to secure a corner aft cabin like you, but Mrs.Trip (Pam) is a bit prone to motion sickness and I got out voted. We still have a nice Concierge Class cabin on deck 9.

 

Even though we are native NYers (Sleepy Hollow and Groton NY), we always wanted to do the New England route. It looks like a wonderful itinerary and with your photography skills, that review my friend, is sure to be an instant classic!

 

We are looking forward to following you on this journey and hope we are good company. Enjoy the weekend!

 

Trip(and Pam):D

[Bimmer09]

Norris that pole beside the bed looks like an accident waiting to happen. I can see myself bumping my head or swinging my legs out and meeting up with it rather painfully. I hope that didn't happen. When the bathroom was added I would have asked them to remove that pole for sure.:D

 

Barky I only collided with the pole once-head first on Sunday morning in the dark and made a mental note with what remained of my brain to avoid doing that in future. No further problems!

 

Cheers!

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Norris,

 

You have us locked in to your review as usual, and you haven't even left port yet! We finally nailed down our Equinox cruise for Sept. 2018, a 10 day Southern Caribbean to the ABC Islands, Grand Cayman, and Key West. I had hoped to secure a corner aft cabin like you, but Mrs.Trip (Pam) is a bit prone to motion sickness and I got out voted. We still have a nice Concierge Class cabin on deck 9.

 

Even though we are native NYers (Sleepy Hollow and Groton NY), we always wanted to do the New England route. It looks like a wonderful itinerary and with your photography skills, that review my friend, is sure to be an instant classic!

 

We are looking forward to following you on this journey and hope we are good company. Enjoy the weekend!

 

Trip(and Pam):D

 

Trip, I love the A and C islands but have never been to B so I like your itinerary mucho and as I know you do great reviews with photos I'll be looking for one before we sail on Equinox January 2019.

 

The Canada/New England trip was Carol's idea and yes I would be very interested to take some pics there, especially around Bar Harbor. I have seen some nice pics from reviewers there....low key towns which is what I like to mosey through. I picked the Silhouette to Norway in 2018 for two reasons;

 

1 We couldn't get anything other than an unobstructed balcony cabin on this year's Eclipse sailing August 26 this year.

 

2 Princess only had a Baltic capitals trip and if you read my point above you'll see that I like those little towns more where I don't need to take busses.

 

Reason 3 of 2 is that the Silhouette is the most gorgeous tub afloat and even knocks the marine socks off the Reflection....but I'll get to that later.

 

Reason 4 of 2 is that by then in late 2018 I'll have all the upgraded camera gear locked and loaded, if not paid for (LOL)

 

Reason 5 of 2 is that the Silly goes to the small towns like Flam and Alesund and those are eye candy!

 

Big bonus re the Regal Princess this Oct is that we will have before and after days in one of our favorite haunts- New York City! So we're gung ho!

There are also no International Flights to consider and therefore no jet lag.

 

Cheers!

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

YAY a new Norris review!

 

I love Borrow Lenses. Great service and willing to work through any issues with planned delivery times. I used them for a selection of potential lense purchases in my full frame Canon days. I hope you're loving the 6D and it works out for you. I miss being able to weild a camera of that weight.

 

Thank you for the Miami intro, we're taking our first cruise that departs from there in April so I was looking for things to do on our safety day (I know end of April snowstorms are wildly unlikely but hey, Northern habits are hard to break :D)

 

Can't wait to see the rest!

 

I was loving the Canon 6D and will get one. I love Full Frame and RAW now too and am excited to get better and learn more. Each review should have better pics from here on in.

 

Great to see you again and thanks for the comments!

 

Miami sail away-the best I've had since Venice in 2014 coming up Saturday.

 

Norris

 

[perfect match]

I'm glad you have your difficulties with Youtube sorted out. You have certainly gone above and beyond the call of duty to get those videos to us, and I appreciate the time and effort both you and Carol put into them.

 

I was excited to see your newly planned itineraries. I am making a note to be sure I don't miss those reviews when they come out. :D

[fletch1027]

Tha ship mate App just changed , Norris's photo is of the old layout !

 

 

 

That definitely explains it! :-)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bimmer09]

Here's a little video clip of our excellent first experience in Luminae on this ship.

 

[YOUTUBE]5F0a8JAguoY[/YOUTUBE]

 

Lunch was served from 11.30 a.m until 2 which is a generous open window.

 

The next main event would be Muster drill at 3.15, followed by Sail Away at 4 p.m. Sail away is always the most exciting part of the cruise for me-yeah it's all downhill from there LOL! When I was sailing on the Song of Norway I was always in the My Fair Lady lounge behind the drums at sail away playing "Quando quando quando" or such and staring out the big windows to port. No chance to get the wind in my hair. We only had to play 45 minutes and then had a break until 11 p.m. We stopped playing in the Land of the Rising Sun disco at 3 a.m and there were still passengers game to party after that.

 

Our luggage wasn't here yet so we just relaxed which for me meant Sunset Bar.

 

Our Muster was in Tuscan Grille and oddly we didn't have to go down the emergency exits but rather just went down the stairs as we only had two floors to cover. No lifejackets with us as on Princess. We just had to watch a video and then watch crew members putting on their lifejackets.

 

We were back in our cabin ready to pop the bubbly for sail away. There was a Roll Call for the cruise which I looked at in CC but decided not to partake in and so I resisted the urge to watch from up at Sunset Bar where they were meeting in favor of taking pics and video from the comfort of our balcony.

 

On my "GO!", the Captain pushes us away from our berth

 

 

MSC Divina

 

 

Carnival Glory

 

 

Carnival Vista

 

 

[Bimmer09]

I'm glad you have your difficulties with Youtube sorted out. You have certainly gone above and beyond the call of duty to get those videos to us, and I appreciate the time and effort both you and Carol put into them.

 

I was excited to see your newly planned itineraries. I am making a note to be sure I don't miss those reviews when they come out. :D

 

Nancy it's not normal for us to have 3 cruises lined up over a two year span but in the X case we had to nail down our cabin choice as we love those aft S1 suites on the corners. We don't intend to abandon Princess and sail just on X-we have the best of both worlds sailing the two lines.

 

I'm happy to see you following along ,yet again on what is my 12th review in 5 short years.

 

Cheers!

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Norwegian Escape

 

 

Three Breadwinners

 

 

It's uuuuuuge....

 

 

 

 

[Bimmer09]

We are both loving this sail away moreso than the Port Everglades one where the journey to the sea is so brief. Our heads are on swivels (bought from Amazon)

 

People on deck 14 outside the buffet, line the rails to enjoy the view

 

 

We love working commercial cargo harbors and their cranes

 

[Bimmer09]

 

We are being followed. The Escape is escaping!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Kismet is a $200 million motor yacht owned by Shahid Kahn.

[Bimmer09]

 

Coast Guard Boats

 

 

 

 

Fisher Island car ferry

 

[Lois R]

 

We are being followed. The Escape is escaping!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Kismet is a $200 million motor yacht owned by Shahid Kahn.

 

Good morning......Shahid owns The Jacksonville Jaguars....I don't know

him personally, but I am in Jacksonville......that yacht was down there

for a good long while and NFL folks were invited on board while being

interviewed for coaching positions (just a tidbit).....

 

Oh, I am sailing REFLECTION next Saturday and am very much enjoying

your review.....What suite were you in?

Edited January 28, 2017 by Lois R

[Bimmer09]

Back in London in August 1985 a friend who lived across the hallway got an unexpected call-could he be in Miami in two days to play piano on a cruise ship?

 

It sounded like fun and he wasn't currently working...

 

As he left two days later I said to him jokingly "let me know if you need a drummer" and laughed, years before LOL was invented. He left on Friday and on the next Tuesday I got a phone call from Jamaica- Hey Norris, the drummer and guitarist have given two weeks notice-can you find a good guitarist and be in Miami in two weeks?

 

I was aware of Miami as my favorite TV show at the time was Miami Vice starring Don Johnson who was the coolest in my book. I loved his pastel colored clothes and the look of Miami (not realizing that much of it showed the Art Deco district). The energy-rush theme tune was written and played by Jan Hammer one of my favorite jazz musicians of that time.

 

Miami? Cruise ship? Sure! Count me in!!

 

I found a good guitarist and was in the RCCL offices two weeks later and took up residence on deck C on the Song of Norway. And from that I came to live in America in November 1986....from one chance remark and a lot of luck.

 

Now I was in Miami again, but this time sailing away as a passenger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Smith and Wollensky steak house (white building on the shore) has a nice view of the departing ships)

[Bimmer09]

Good morning......Shahid owns The Jacksonville Jaguars....I don't know

him personally, but I am in Jacksonville......that yacht was down there

for a good long while and NFL folks were invited on board while being

interviewed for coaching positions (just a tidbit).....

 

Oh, I am sailing REFLECTION next Saturday and am very much enjoying

your review.....What suite were you in?

 

Lois, thanks for the info!

 

We were in 7358, starboard corner suite.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

 

As we are leaving the calm channel and heading into the windy Atlantic the Pilot boat scampers to catch up.

 

 

 

 

 

[El Crucero]

 

Norris, happy to note you directed the Captain to keep the red buoy on the port side, otherwise you'd be in a heap of trouble!

 

"Red right returning, Red left leaving"

[Bimmer09]

Through the long lens I see the Pilot boat stopping at Norwegian escape.

 

 

 

Here's the sail away video

 

[YOUTUBE]ptGlRQgc97E[/YOUTUBE]

 

We have two major events planned for our first night on board;

 

#1 A good nap

 

#2 Dinner at the Lawn Club Grill

 

Norris