Reflection March 11th 2019 - Live! 🍸😎

[mafig]

14 hours ago, romesauce said:

Hi! We'll be staying in this exact room in 2.5 months while we sail the Norway fjords on the Reflection! How did you like the room? I booked it specifically because it was on the hump and we'd get the larger balcony.

 

Perfect choice.  Balcony is nice and big....with a lot of furniture (maybe a little too much if there's just two of you).

Right near the elevator but very quiet.

Nando was our room steward.  Hope he's yours too because he is very efficient, prompt and remembers any requests you might make.

[MR_T]

Cafe al Bacio - 

 

good is to see some new additions, I’ll have to try a couple at some point. 

[gfkcruiser]

We thought the coffee cocktails looked and sounded great.  Heck - we have the drink package - let's try them!  Looked better than tasted.  Did not find one that either of us liked.  Of course, there were plenty of other drinks for us.

 

Gail

[bikerunner]

Thank you for the details, I do not sail to Nov and well it will be a long 250 days to then.  Been on multiple of the S class ships but not this one and enjoying your review.  You pretty much sit where I do at the pool.  I stay away from poolside and the well the interesting dynamics of the people down there at times, in general have seen the lady you described in Murano at the pool, tho I really have no issue saying something to them or laughing at them. 

[MR_T]

39 minutes ago, bikerunner said:

Thank you for the details, I do not sail to Nov and well it will be a long 250 days to then.  Been on multiple of the S class ships but not this one and enjoying your review.  You pretty much sit where I do at the pool.  I stay away from poolside and the well the interesting dynamics of the people down there at times, in general have seen the lady you described in Murano at the pool, tho I really have no issue saying something to them or laughing at them. 

Yes we’ve seen plenty of said people like her at the pool also, and I’ve found myself having to say something on many occasions much to enjoyment of the others around us 😂 these people need to be told it’s not ok to ack that way to crew members or other guests, 

 

the amount of cruisers we've seen over the years that seem to think it’s ok to treat other human beings as their personal slaves on the ship is truly shocking, this is never ok and shouldn’t be tolerated, 

 

the crew should be able to make a personal complaint to their manager and if found to be true that guest should be kicked off and banned from the cruise line! 

 

 

[MR_T]

First Chic Night Tonight - 

 

We decided we’d try the main dining room tonight as it’s chic night and thought there would be a better menu, however looks like I may end up eating off the everyday menu as personally the main menu isn’t very exciting! 

[Ma Bell]

On 3/7/2019 at 9:44 AM, MR_T said:

 

 

Off to a great start Tony!  Thanks for the insight on what's going on.

 

It's sad to see how miserable some people can be and no excuse for taking their misery out on others.

 

Hope you have a wonderful evening!

[romesauce]

2 hours ago, mafig said:

 

Perfect choice.  Balcony is nice and big....with a lot of furniture (maybe a little too much if there's just two of you).

Right near the elevator but very quiet.

Nando was our room steward.  Hope he's yours too because he is very efficient, prompt and remembers any requests you might make.

 

Thank you! This is very helpful. 🙂

[gfkcruiser]

We will be sailing Reflection TA in April.  Have been on all the other s Class many times but first time on Reflection.  I did not realize the Reflection has less deck space for lounging.  I also prefer to sit a deck up from the pool.  Curious if you find it difficult to find seating on sunny days.

 

Gail

[MR_T]

On 3/7/2019 at 5:27 AM, Eloise4Ever said:

I will be following along your live review Tony. Thanks for doing it. I will be sailing Reflection for the first time on her Transatlantic to Dublin in April. I will be interested to see the differences between Reflection and the other Solstice class ships we have sailed on. I have been somewhat alarmed to read recent negative reviews of Reflection so it will be good to hear how you find things onboard.

 

It's probably too early to ask, but if you remember, could you please ask the Cruise Director Eddy Jenkins if he will still be onboard for the Transatlantic? He is such a great CD and organised a wonderful schedule for us on the 2018 Transatlantic. 

We just spoke to Eddy and he’s due to leave on the 12th April so I believe that’s 1 cruise before the TA? He said someone called Simon (think he said Simon) was taking over? 

[MR_T]

2 minutes ago, gfkcruiser said:

We will be sailing Reflection TA in April.  Have been on all the other s Class many times but first time on Reflection.  I did not realize the Reflection has less deck space for lounging.  I also prefer to sit a deck up from the pool.  Curious if you find it difficult to find seating on sunny days.

 

Gail

To be honest we are early risers and generally we (I) am amoung the first there so for us we pretty much always have our pick, it does tend to get busier as the cruise goes on depending on the amount of sea days etc but I’d say by 9am the pool is pretty rammed and it’s near impossible to get 2 beds together, if you are not wanting to be by the pool and don’t care about the location there’s generally beds available in other areas (solstice deck always seems to have free beds), we had a walk around this morning around 11am and there was plenty available away from the main areas 👍🏼 

[gfkcruiser]

We thought Eddy was great on 2 of our Eclipse cruises last year, especially the TA.  

 

Thanks for the info about the beds.  Perhaps it won't be so bad on the TA as may be a different make up of cruisers.

 

 

[MR_T]

Hi, 

 

we we went along to one of Eddys top 10 events today which was very good 👍🏼, it was about music and we both came away having learnt something new, not that that’s hard for me as I’m really not someone that knows anything about music or anything cornected to music in any way... Julie on the other hand was saying answer after answer, I guess she’s the smart one... well, she did marry me so I guess she must be pretty smart 😜😂  

 

during Eddys show he was joined by one of the solo performers (Danny) to sing some songs during the show and also we thought he was very good, so all in I’d recommend this show if anyone has the chance 👍🏼We 

[hcat]

13 minutes ago, gfkcruiser said:

We will be sailing Reflection TA in April.  Have been on all the other s Class many times but first time on Reflection.  I did not realize the Reflection has less deck space for lounging.  I also prefer to sit a deck up from the pool.  Curious if you find it difficult to find seating on sunny days.

 

Gail

Ref in  our expetience is more crowded in sev areas  including the pool..more guests.  But always some seats somewhere.  Hope with  the Renovation  of other ships and  adding cabins  they do not create crowding 

 

[MR_T]

20 hours ago, wendyam76 said:

I’m laughing as you have exactly the same boarding plans as me! We have a 6 night dining package and will be at least two nights at our favourite Lawn Club. Probably include sushi too - not the best use of the package but we enjoy it but wish they didn’t bring so much! 

A favour, if you happen to see where C3 muster station is could you let me know but please don’t go out of your way to look for it. May be daft to others but I travel with my 85 year old mum (who is amazing!) but knowing where the muster station is in advance allows me to work our how much extra time we need to leave to make sure she gets a seat.

Have a fantastic cruise! 

Wendy

No worries, I know exactly what you mean... I’m 47 and wherever ours is I make sure I get there early to make sure we can get a seat, luckily on this cruise ours was in the dining room so very happy with that, plenty of seats and not too crowded, 

 

i checked yours ours today and C3 is in Murano so all I’d say is get there early (around 15 mins should be fine) and you should get a seat no problem, I think think there’s always more people vs seats in them small locations but as I said go a little early and you’ll be fine  👍🏼

[wendyam76]

1 minute ago, MR_T said:

No worries, I know exactly what you mean... I’m 47 and wherever ours is I make sure I get there early to make sure we can get a seat, luckily on this cruise ours was in the dining room so very happy with that, plenty of seats and not too crowded, 

 

i checked yours ours today and C3 is in Murano so all I’d say is get there early (around 15 mins should be fine) and you should get a seat no problem, I think think there’s always more people vs seats in them small locations but as I said go a little early and you’ll be fine  👍🏼

Thank you so much!!! We’ve been in there for muster before so will be there in plenty of time. Last time we were early so got a seat but couldn’t see a thing, think we have the video memorised anyway. We’ll head to Cafe al Bacio before they stop serving and then just a short walk to Murano.

Enjoy the rest of the cruise!

Wendy 

[Gia2cats]

Tony,

 

Regarding the dress code for Smart Casual {not Chic night} in the main dining room. I don't recall it requiring men to wear a long sleeve shirt. This will be our 3rd Celebrity cruise and I know my husband wore long pants and a short sleeved collared shirt to dinner {Tommy Bahama, Underarmour, etc}. 

Can you check it out tomorrow when it's not Chic night. 

Thanks

[chamima]

2 hours ago, gfkcruiser said:

We will be sailing Reflection TA in April.  Have been on all the other s Class many times but first time on Reflection.  I did not realize the Reflection has less deck space for lounging.  I also prefer to sit a deck up from the pool.  Curious if you find it difficult to find seating on sunny days.

 

Gail

 

2 hours ago, hcat said:

Ref in  our expetience is more crowded in sev areas  including the pool..more guests.  But always some seats somewhere.  Hope with  the Renovation  of other ships and  adding cabins  they do not create crowding 

 

 

Hi Gail!

 

I don't remember hearing that the Reflection had less deck space than the other S class ships , just that there were more cabins and thus more passengers.

Right now we're scheduled to do the TA next fall on her so I'll be interested to hear your experience in getting chairs. I have to sit in the shade and that limits where we can sit.

 

 

As far as Eddie - we had him for several years as CD on the Eclipse and I love his dry sense of humor. I'll never again be able to say some of the island names the correct way. Ask him about BAR-be-DOS. 😊

[miched]

You mentioned Ray Brown Jr.   

 

i dont know if you ever googled him.  Google his name and you will find a lot of interesting reading about his background.  

 

Here is one.  I don’t think many know who raised him and his musical ties.  

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Brown_Jr.

 

It seems as if you have a lot of good entertainment on board

 

happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

 

 

[MR_T]

2 hours ago, Gia2cats said:

Tony,

 

Regarding the dress code for Smart Casual {not Chic night} in the main dining room. I don't recall it requiring men to wear a long sleeve shirt. This will be our 3rd Celebrity cruise and I know my husband wore long pants and a short sleeved collared shirt to dinner {Tommy Bahama, Underarmour, etc}. 

Can you check it out tomorrow when it's not Chic night. 

Thanks

I will double check but from experience you would definitely be fine in a short sleeve shirt/polo shirt, I wear that every time on casual nights so I wouldn’t worry 👍🏼 

 

And to to be honest I’m sure that would be also fine on chic nights as it seems very casual in my opinion tonight 

[MR_T]

Dinner Tuesday 12th March - Tuscan Grill 

 

overall not a great night 🙁 

 

first of all just just to mention we were going to eat in the main dining tonight but we really wasn’t impressed with the menu so decided we’d change Tuscan from tomorrow to tonight, 

 

First we were surprised how empty the place was... I guess there was 10 tables with people at and to be honest it only got quieter as the night went on! Maybe this cruise is one to get a deal on... but saying that Murano was pretty busy last night so who knows, 

 

food - 

i has the Berkshire pork belly & fillet minion which I really enjoyed and couldn’t fault it, if I was being picky the fillet was slightly over cooked but only slightly so it was good for me, I ordered medium but I’d say it was just a little over that, 

 

Julie had the fish cake to start and really liked that, however that’s when it took a turn for the worse... as we planned on coming here 2 times Julie didn’t want steak both times so opted for the fresh tuna dish, she was asked about the degree of cooking and she asked for rare, now bare in mind it really wasn’t busy at all tonight our main courses took I’d say around 45 mins to show up... and cutting into the tuna it wasn’t anyway near rare, I’d say it was medium to well at best if not slightly more... so the waiter came over and agreed it was well over cooked and said they’d bring another one and not to worry as a rare tuna should only take a couple of mins to prepare... over 10 mins later the second one turned up and again it was over cooked... on on first view it looked a lot better but as Julie got into it it was clear it was over cooked again 🙄 not as much this time but I’d say slightly over medium, (a rare tuna steak really should be a simple thing to get right)  so I guess tonight we have to say the meal wasn’t great although mine was good the overall experience was left a bit flat,

 

Personally to make matters worse we didn’t even get a visit from the restaurant manager or chef to discuss our issue, and as a fully qualified chef that’s cooked around the world I fully understand how a kitchen works and how issues like this should be dealt with and in my opinion it wasn’t as we were dealt with tonight, 

 

Anyway, day 3 tomorrow and I’m sure it’ll be fine, onwards & upwards as they say 👍🏼 

 

 

[Luvcrusn]

Sorry to hear about your disappointing visit to Tuscan. It sounds like our last visit to Tuscan on Connie several years ago. We were left disappointed with the food and service and we haven't returned since. You both seem like seasoned cruisers who keep a great attitude and will have a good time. 

If you get a chance could you please check out what cameras are for sale? DH and I are planning to upgrade our digital cameral and are hoping there's something that will do the job and use up some of our OBC. Thanks in advance. Your review is helping us count down the days for our next cruise on Reflection. 

[mnocket]

7 hours ago, Gia2cats said:

Tony,

 

Regarding the dress code for Smart Casual {not Chic night} in the main dining room. I don't recall it requiring men to wear a long sleeve shirt. This will be our 3rd Celebrity cruise and I know my husband wore long pants and a short sleeved collared shirt to dinner {Tommy Bahama, Underarmour, etc}. 

Can you check it out tomorrow when it's not Chic night. 

Thanks

Same here.  On my last Reflection cruise I'd say many (most?) men wore polo shirts or similar short sleeved collared shirts.

[Eloise4Ever]

17 hours ago, MR_T said:

We just spoke to Eddy and he’s due to leave on the 12th April so I believe that’s 1 cruise before the TA? He said someone called Simon (think he said Simon) was taking over? 

 

Thanks so much for finding that out for me Tony. It's disappointing news but I'm glad to know in advance. It's a double whammy as last year we experienced the dream team of Eddy and Giuseppe twice but Giuseppe has since been promoted to CD. I'm not familiar with any CD by the name of Simon.

[Eloise4Ever]

I'm just curious Tony, do you notice the lack of the Quasar space on Reflection? I feel I will miss it as we do spend time there on the other Solstice class ships. Where do they hold events like karaoke on Reflection?