LIVE!!!!! From the REFLECTION TRANSATLANTIC - CHICAGOPAUL -

[chicagopaul]

Last night we got back on board, took a shower, got dressed and went to the Martini Bar. We decided to eat at Lawn Club last night. We started with a flatbread (half veggie and half sausage and peppers) and I had the filet with tandoori chicken on the side. Edward had some tandoori chicken skewers and the bratwurst. I wasn’t too thrilled with the brat. It was cooked perfectly but compared to the bratwurst we get in the Midwest...well there just isn’t a comparison in my opinion. My steak was cooked perfectly and I did my best to finish it. We ended up skipping dessert because there was a chance I would qualify for the blackjack tournament. Unfortunately I needed 10hrs of table play to qualify and came up just short.

 

Here are photos from dinner last night.

 

 

 

 

After dinner, since I didn’t meet the qualifications for the blackjack tournament we stayed at the martini bar and chatted for a while. We’ve met so many great people on this cruise and we can just talk with them for hours. It’s amazing. Anyway, we eventually wandered over to the casino bar to see our bartender friend Ruel. Then our whole group followed. I felt bad since it seemed like they wanted to close up as we were getting there but Ruel was fantastic. He actually loved the company and was more than happy to continue pouring drinks and taking extra good care of us.

 

 

After the casino bar all of us decided to go back to one persons cabin. We left quickly though as it was getting late and we wanted to enjoy the port today. It’s a good thing we did because we had such a wonderful day today in port and the weather was gorgeous.

 

 

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

I'd be interested to know about the silent liquid party scheduled for tonight. I've never attended one but they seem to be getting more popular.

 

 

 

Peter

 

 

 

Hi Peter! We attended tonight and while it was a slow start it did start to pick up and it seemed like everyone who cane actually stayed. There was a small performance and then mermaids in the pool. I also finally was able to meet your daughter! She was an absolute pleasure to talk to!

 

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

Never eaten in Murano as we are new X cruisers. So, am I understanding correctly that if you wish to order the steak Dianne, you have to order it the day before your dinner reservation?

 

 

 

Yes, correct. You’ll just need to let them know a day in advance you’d like it. At least that is what they’ve always told us and we’ve always obliged.

 

 

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[kelmac]

Hi Paul,

 

As always, excellent "play by play" account of your cruise! Looks like you and Edward are making every minute count.

 

You probably don't remember, but we did a Xmas cruise together back in 2014 on the Eclipse. We had a very active roll-call and a large number of people involved. We have Celebrity cruise number 30 coming up in October on the Equinox and still believe this cruise line provides the best bang for the buck at sea.

 

My wife is retiring a month from now and that's going to free us up to travel off-season and cash in on all those cheaper cruise prices.:D She is a high school english teacher, and her reward will be a world cruise beginning in Feb of next year.

 

Have a wonderful wrap up of your TA and hope to see you both again soon.

 

Enjoy!

Kel

[abritinva]

Paul,

 

Many thanks for these posts, photos and your videos on YouTube. Quick question. Are those vintage ports included in your drink package?

 

Thanks

 

Ian

[chicagopaul]

Good Morning from Barcelona everyone. Here is today’s Daily.

 

 

 

 

 

Also see this letter we received regarding tomorrow’s port.

 

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

I’m sitting at the pool bar waiting for Edward. Just having one screw driver this morning before we get off the ship. We’re just waiting on final clearance now before people can get off. We’re told we need to carry our passports with us today. The weather today is perfect. Little to no wind. We’re good the high is 70 but it feels like it will be warmer than that today. There is also not a single cloud in the sky.

 

Here are some photos from around port yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[upwarduk]

Enjoy Barcelona.

Not sure I would be keen to tender in Ajaccio. Fortunately when we were there last year

we were moored and another ship tendered.

[Esprit]

Hi Peter! We attended tonight and while it was a slow start it did start to pick up and it seemed like everyone who cane actually stayed. There was a small performance and then mermaids in the pool. I also finally was able to meet your daughter! She was an absolute pleasure to talk to!

 

 

 

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Hi Paul

 

Nice to see you all met at last, and you dress up very smartly for the chic night. The picture captures Valentina in her best light too :')

I see she's hosting the Yes/No game show tonight. She always enjoys that one!.

 

Have a great time in Barcelona. One of my favourite destination ports.

 

Cheers

Peter

[chicagopaul]

Well our wonderful cruise is drawing to a close. Tomorrow is our last full day and we don’t want it to end. It is always amazing how quickly these days pass by. But, that is life.

 

Yesterday was a fantastic day. We hit three restaurants in Cartagena. Our last restaurant was our favorite and I highly recommend it. It was just slightly off the beaten path but had very good reviews. Our new friends we met on this cruise recommended it based on some research they did and it was perfect. The owners son was very accommodating. His English wasn’t amazing but he did his best to give us a history lesson on his town and even talk about influences of Cartagena in the Florida and California state flags. The tapas we had were excellent, albeit a couple you wouldn’t think you’d order (ribs for instance) but they were fantastic. Here are some photos from there.

 

 

 

 

The owners son is standing with us in the center with the yellow shirt.

 

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

We also were invited to the Elite Plus helipad sail away. It was a beautiful day for it and there was definitely a good turnout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[upwarduk]

Love your pictures of Sagrada Familia on Instagram. I have never been inside. Plenty of scaffolding outside when we were there in 2000.

[BEAV]

Great photos of your fun in Cartegena and the helipad sailaway. :D

[Chrissi3010]

Will you still be staying in Italy when your cruise ends?

[StillLooking4Adventure]

Just a quick thanks for the great live review. My DW and I will be on the October TA on Reflection and I can't wait. Your review has really helped give a sneak peak at what it will be like. Thanks again.

[gowentgone]

Just curious...how much weight do you typically gain when on cruise?

[BEAV]

Just curious...how much weight do you typically gain when on cruise?

 

I can't speak for Paul, but I've gained 5 pounds following this thread and food photos.......;p

[CYNSport]

We stayed three nights at the AC Marriott in Malaga following a Transatlantic cruise on the Equinox that ended in Malaga. We were upgraded to a suite with a balcony that overlooked the harbor. We loved Malaga and the hotel is in a great location. We also enjoyed the roof top bar.

[chicagopaul]

Good Evening Everyone. My continued thank you for following along to everything.

 

Let me start with last night. Last night we ate in MDR. It only took us a few minutes to get a table for 2 in select dining. Our waiter took a few moments to come over to us. He was very matter of fact. I wouldn’t say abrasive, but his initial bedside manner left a lot to be desired. However, our appetizers came out quickly and then he started small talk. When we told him we were from Chicago he brightened up and was much more personable. I don’t think our origin should dictate the level of service but it could just be he was having a rough night. One thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was when we ordered dessert I told him we wanted two double espressos. He quickly told me that his assistant would take the coffee order. His assistant was fantastic but remembering two double espressos is a simple task and he could have simply passed this on to his assistant waiter. I think the issue here is, and I see this in my profession, is the fact of one person gaining a bit too much control and going on a power hype. They feel they’re too good to do what they probably used to do. The problem here is two fold. You upset your customer and client and two you put yourself in a position of not advancing. Any good executive or manager knows they need to get their hands dirty. The positive side to this dinner was the food came out promptly, was served properly and we were followed up on properly. I think if the server could check his ego at the door he could be a rockstar. He just needs a little adjusting.

 

For dinner we ordered Rockefeller scallops, French onion soup, and lobster with a beef Wellington to share. Scallops and French onion soup were incredible. Absolutely perfect. The lobster was good, but we’ve been spoiled with Murano. The sides with the lobster were cooked perfectly (rice and veggies) but were bland. The beef Wellington was done slightly more than we ordered but was very tasty. Going back I think I would’ve just ordered a bunch of appetizers because the kitchen hit it out of the park with the apps. While the entrees were good I got the impression they were almost an after thought.

 

Dessert was of course the baked Alaska.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

Just curious...how much weight do you typically gain when on cruise?

 

 

 

You’re going to hate me but honestly I don’t gain any. I have a freakishly good metabolism. The downside is when I want to gain weight properly I can’t.

 

 

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[New Yorker in Texas]

Paul & Edward:

 

Thank you very much for taking your cruise time to write this blog, we really have enjoyed reading about your journey!

 

We are doing a B2B cruise on the Reflection on June 08-29th and its going to be our first time on the Reflection, so all your effort is a great help for us! ;)

 

Also our first TA is going to be on November 23th on the Eclipse for 16 days (Barcelona to Argentina) but even though it is a different ship you gave us a lot of information for our TA cruise.

 

We are going to keep following you here on CC and on Instagram, maybe one day we get lucky and see you onboard.

 

Safe Travels!

 

Emy & Bob

.

[nigel_c]

You’re going to hate me but honestly I don’t gain any. I have a freakishly good metabolism. The downside is when I want to gain weight properly I can’t.

 

 

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Give it another 10 years or so [emoji6]

[Dsciorti]

Do all of the speciality donning restaurant offer a vegetarian option. I am vegetarian but my fiancé(soon to be husband) is not. I would hate for us to pay for dinning package if I won’t benefit from it.

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

Good Morning Everyone from the pool bar one last time. Ugh, the last day is always a bit depressing. I forgot to take Daily photos this morning so I’ll get that to you momentarily. In the meantime I’ll fill you in on yesterday’s activities.

 

Yesterday we were in Barcelona. We’ve been here once before so we had some familiarity with it. Everyone was eager to get off the ship. They had to tell people to stop lining up in the morning because they were lining up to leave before the ship was cleared and it was getting crowded!

 

We got off the ship around 10:15 and purchased a shuttle ticket for 5euro each. The shuttle takes you to the end of the port. It’s roughly a 30/40 minute walk just to the end of the port so the shuttle is well with it. There were long lines waiting for the shuttles but they moved quickly and it was well organized.

 

We had tickets for la Sagrada Familia for Noon. We decided to walk all the way there after being dropped off by the shuttle. It was a pretty long walk but fun to see the city as we walked. We found la Sagrada Familia to be very well organized from entering to picking up our audio tour to leaving.

 

Here are some photos from there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[chicagopaul]

After seeing the church, which took about an hour, we did some quick shopping at Zara (didn’t buy anything though) and then we walked the Las Ramblas back.

 

Once we got back to the ship we had late lunch at Mast Grill which was pretty crowded. We both had burgers. This time around they were very good actually. Cooked perfectly.

 

We then went to sunset bar. I only had a ginger ale believe it or not! We watched some of the small ships coming into and out of port.

 

 

 

 

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