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LIVE BLOG - First time Celebrity Cruiser - Reflection 1/31-2/10/2020

Scuba_Tom

By Scuba_Tom,
in Celebrity Cruises

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DrKoob "Live from...." Rare

DrKoob

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Well done sir! This has been outstanding. I only hope we get a chance to sail together in the future. You have made our February 21 cruise that much better. Plus you have made us really increased our anticipation but letting us know that Olexi is still in the World Class Bar. 

 

Jim

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DrKoob "Live from...." Rare

DrKoob

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On 2/11/2020 at 3:43 AM, terrydtx said:

We learned years ago how much better a wine tastes with Riedel glasses and have a full collection of them in our home. Does the $100 voucher have to be used for a purchase on the ship? If so can they be shipped to you or do you have to walk off with them?  We would be very interested in doing a similar wine tasting next year on our cruise of Spain and Portugal but I wouldn't want to haul them around after we leave the ship for a land tour. Loved your whole blog, thank you for taking the time to let all of us cruise with you through your words.

 

We have done the Reidel tasting before on two separate occasions and you get a certificate that has a website link. You go to the site and order what you want then they ship it to you.

 

Hope this helps. We love our Reidels.

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Drews_Cruise

Drews_Cruise

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Wow what a great review.  Well done and thanks for taking the time each day to write it.  We will be on our first Celebrity Ship (also the Reflection) in just over 2 weeks and were really excited.  Your comments about the CBP wines has me rethinking on taking an upgrade for the PBP.  I love my Malbec's but didnt see any in the price range of the classic plan so I think its time to pull out the credit card again..my DW also likes Crown Royal and its also not available so to get her something better than Canadian Club, it appears I need to upgrade her too... Thanks again for all of the time you put into this.  Cheers

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terrydtx Great Review Rare

terrydtx

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2 minutes ago, gardening_guy said:

Your comments about the CBP wines has me rethinking on taking an upgrade for the PBP.  I love my Malbec's but didnt see any in the price range of the classic plan so I think its time to pull out the credit card again..my DW also likes Crown Royal and its also not available so to get her something better than Canadian Club, it appears I need to upgrade her too...

We will be on the Infinity next year and after seeing the CBP wines and spirits we will be upgrading to PBP too. I like my martinis with Bombay Blue Sapphire or Tanqueray 10  gins which are only on  the PBP. 

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Scuba_Tom

Scuba_Tom

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Wow…life got back to normal way too quickly!  My apologies for the delay in providing a “final thoughts” post.  We landed at 9pm and I was back at work 6am the next morning and never looked back.  Can I get back on the ship yet?  I miss the Martini Bar. 😭

 

First, I want to comment on the Celebrity experience.  There are so many things that I loved about Celebrity.  Actual towels in the public bathrooms, cold towels and water coming back to the ship, our cruise director welcoming us to port each morning we docked, and the overall professionalism of the staff and crew. 

 

We made a point to single out a few people via comment cards and many of them made a point to find us on the ship to say thank you.  They told us that they were recognized in front of their peers with our comments.  Elle tells me that sometimes the employees get awards like days off or bonuses for these types of comments and I was happy to know that people actually read them. 

 

Food

 

Elle and I discussed whether or not we would change anything with regards to our meals, and I think not visiting the MDR more (we only went once) was the only thing that came up.  We enjoyed our specialty dining package but I think in the future we may skip the package, maybe purchase 1 or 2 nights for specialty dining, and spend more time in the MDR.  The package was great, but we thought it was unnecessary.  The MDR food was good, enjoyable, and our experience was fun.  We even enjoyed the buffet a couple of nights!

 

Elle and I got room service for breakfast each day except for the final two sea days.  The last two days we meandered up to the buffet for breakfast, which was also enjoyable.  In the future we may split it up a little more evenly between room service and the buffet because we really enjoyed sitting out on the back deck and having a wider range of selection for breakfast.  However, it is super hard to beat rolling out of bed, throwing on a comfy robe, and enjoying a private balcony breakfast! 

 

Wine

 

We originally booked our trip through a TA and got the CBP as a perk.  We decided to upgrade to the PBP and have zero regrets.  We each had our favorite wines, most of them found in Cellar Masters.  Wine is so personal and subjective, and tastes can vary not only on what you’re eating but also on what you may have eaten earlier.  Many people asked about my favorites and I’ll try and give an overview. Elle enjoyed the Mountadon Champagne the entire trip.  I really enjoyed the Malbec found in Murano to be the best for a wine with the entrees available there. Some other standouts were the pinot gris in Cellar Masters, valpolicella in Tuscan, and the Bordeaux blend in Murano.

 

Elle and I tried a lot of wines in the PBP and we enjoyed probably 95% of them.  We didn’t try anything more expensive than $15 (PBP limit) and we didn’t buy any bottles.  I’m sure that like most things, you probably get what you pay for (of course there are exceptions). 

To be honest, I think the Kendall Jackson wines will do very well for most wine drinking moments.  We were happy with their wines, and they’re offered in the MDR.  Of course, you can always grab a glass from Cellar Masters and bring it to dinner with you.

Elle and I decided that if/when we do another Celebrity cruise, we will still get the PBP. 

 

Concierge Class

 

Our cabin (Concierge class on deck 11) was comfortable with PLENTY of storage.  The bathroom also had lots of storage and was more than enough for our needs.  We have nothing to compare Concierge class against, but we really did enjoy the embarkation day lunch in the MDR, the helipad sailaway from St. Lucia, and being able to go to the Concierge on deck 12 rather than trekking all the way down to Guest Relations when we needed assistance with something.  Ross the concierge was so helpful with many of our issues and requests, and I’m not sure if we’d have had such great resolutions from regular Guest Relations.

 

Entertainment

 

We only went to two shows, one comedy and one aerialist show.  The comedy show was average and the other was pretty mediocre.  We didn’t feel like we missed anything by not going to more. 

 

Favorite bar?

 

Elle and I didn’t really end up having a favorite bar because every placed served a distinct purpose.  As I mentioned before we never made it to the Sky Lounge.  The Passport Bar was great for a quiet spot during the day or a front row seat for the activities in the Grand Foyer in the evening.  The Martini Bar was always a great time of course, we loved Putu and I Made and they’re amazingly delicious martinis.  The World Class bar had some fantastic cocktails and it was a more subdued atmosphere than the Martini Bar, so when we wanted a quality drink in a quiet setting we’d head there.  We visited Cellar Masters every single day for a pre-dinner glass of wine, and it was well-visited by others on the ship.  The only disappointment really was the Sunset Bar due to the smoking area nearby.  The cigarette smoke would drift into the bar area, which not enjoyable in the slightest.  We attempted some extended time there a couple of times, but each time we were “smoked out” and ended up leaving sooner than we’d have liked.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Elle and I were surprised on how much relaxing time we DIDN’T get on the sea days.  It is amazing how much stuff there is to do on the ship and how quickly time flies.  I also thought I would have spent more time in the casino than I did, but I actually didn’t get in there much.  Elle and I never really found time to spend at the pool or solarium, but we also aren’t really pool people.  No regrets, just surprised at how things went. 

 

Overall, we had a very enjoyable time and thought the Celebrity product was great.  Did this experience turn us into “cruise people?”  No, probably not, but we have discussed future cruises to throw into our vacation rotation and we’re excited to see what else we find!

 

Thanks so much to everyone who followed along and commented, I had a really fun time blogging about this experience and it would have been much less fun without your engagement.

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hlmmurphy

hlmmurphy

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Really enjoyed reading your blog. Myself and my husband are headed to the silhouette next month and I will definitely be trying some of the wines you suggested. I love hearing how others spend their time on a cruise. Your blog made me excited for our upcoming trip - thank you! 

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Suse57

Suse57

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Thanks for taking the time to document your cruise experience in this very informative and enjoyable blog.  We are taking our first Celebrity cruise on the Reflection next February; so, we really appreciated your insight/perspective, as well as the humor in your writing.  All the best to Elle and you.....happy travels going forward!!

 

 

Susan & Bruce

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