CHICAGOPAUL - LIVE!!!! - Finally heading back to sea!!! - Celebrity Reflection Nov 27th

[NCHPcruiser]

Cranston and Michael’s Club evoke wonderful memories for my husband and I and for many others!  It doesn’t get much better.   Following along with envy!

 

[TPCRUISER2]

Paul, Good to see you and Edward cruising again! Looking forward to following the two of you again this week!

[Lovesealife]

15 hours ago, chicagopaul said:

Good Morning everyone! Currently we are sitting at Cafe Bacio waiting on an americano to bring us back to life. Before we get into last night let me briefly explain our upgrade situation. 
 

As you know we originally booked a concierge class cabin. 
 

There is a butler on the reflection that we’ve known for years. We knew him from about 10 years ago when he was a bartender and have cruised with him many times and have remained friends on social media. He is an amazing guy. We told him we were coming on board and yesterday when we were headed back to our cabin around 2pm he was there waiting to greet us. We chatted and caught up. I made a passing joke about wishing we would have upgraded to a suite and he said he could get the pricing to do so. He made a call, gave us the $ number, and 10 minutes later we moved to cabin 9301. A beautiful corner sky suite. And the best part is he is our butler! His name is Chairul and he is absolutely amazing. Our state room attendant is Laliana and she is equally amazing. 
 

So that is how we quickly made the upgrade happen. And as far as the flowers go yes those were complementary in the concierge cabin! 

We love Chairul! We met him at the Sunset Bar on Reflection. When we learned he was at the Passport  bar in the afternoon we had our whole crew join him to keep him company. Ask him about his antics with the music speakers for the ballroom dancing!

[Jthans24]

Paul,

 

Do you recall how the amount you paid to the Sky Suite compared to the minimum bid on the move-up offer? I don't want to pry and ask specifically how much you paid to upgrade, just wondered how it fell in line with move-up offers.

 

We are 27 days out from the Reflection and anxiously awaiting our Move-up offer. Didn't think about checking when we get on the ship until reading your review.

 

My wife and I are so glad to be reading your reviews again.

 

Thanks!

 

[chicagopaul]

A little late today in posting! Here is the daily from today 

 

 

 

 

 

[spammie]

1 hour ago, Jthans24 said:

Paul,

 

Do you recall how the amount you paid to the Sky Suite compared to the minimum bid on the move-up offer? I don't want to pry and ask specifically how much you paid to upgrade, just wondered how it fell in line with move-up offers.

 

We are 27 days out from the Reflection and anxiously awaiting our Move-up offer. Didn't think about checking when we get on the ship until reading your review.

 

My wife and I are so glad to be reading your reviews again.

 

Thanks!

 

Hi.  Sorry to hijack your question.  We leave this Saturday and are in an Aqua Class cabin.  The minimum bid for a Sky Suite was $1,000pp.  We passed.  The other Suites obviously were a lot higher.  From what I can tell there are still a LOT of Suites available on a website I check.  I might ask once we board on Saturday.  

[wrk2cruise]

There probably won't be suites available after they finish processing MoveUps later this week.

[chicagopaul]

Yesterday we had lunch in Luminae. It was excellent. We both started with the feta salad. It was basically an arugula salad with feta asparagus and pesto style dressing. It was great. We then both had the salmon. The salmon was incredible. See photos below of the menu and food from lunch. 
 

 

 

 

 

[chicagopaul]

Service in Luminae has been stellar. It is easier when you don’t have so many guests! 
 

Our waiter each day has been Alfred and he’s been great!
 

Right now only 35 suites are occupied with a total of 80 suite guests. Total passenger count on board is 738. 
 

Here are a few random photos from yesterday. 

 

 

 

 

 

[floridatravelersforlife]

On 11/28/2021 at 9:25 AM, chicagopaul said:

Good Morning everyone! Currently we are sitting at Cafe Bacio waiting on an americano to bring us back to life. Before we get into last night let me briefly explain our upgrade situation. 
 

As you know we originally booked a concierge class cabin. 
 

There is a butler on the reflection that we’ve known for years. We knew him from about 10 years ago when he was a bartender and have cruised with him many times and have remained friends on social media. He is an amazing guy. We told him we were coming on board and yesterday when we were headed back to our cabin around 2pm he was there waiting to greet us. We chatted and caught up. I made a passing joke about wishing we would have upgraded to a suite and he said he could get the pricing to do so. He made a call, gave us the $ number, and 10 minutes later we moved to cabin 9301. A beautiful corner sky suite. And the best part is he is our butler! His name is Chairul and he is absolutely amazing. Our state room attendant is Laliana and she is equally amazing. 
 

So that is how we quickly made the upgrade happen. And as far as the flowers go yes those were complementary in the concierge cabin! 

 

For our reflection cruise that ended Satturday, my Daughter and her husband had Charul in their corner Suite.  Excellent Butler.  He helped our Butler, Peter arrange our Thanksgiving feast in our Royal Suite.  The drive and energy from all staff to please is incredible on this ship.  

[CruiserMickey]

Thanks for live blogging your cruise again, Paul! We just booked the Reflection for the Jan. 12 sailing and are excited to see how things look on the ship. The world might even feel “normal” once we are back in a cruise ship again!

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, chicagopaul said:

 

Right now only 35 suites are occupied with a total of 80 suite guests. Total passenger count on board is 738. 
 

Here are a few random photos from yesterday. 

 

 

 

 Would you mind asking how many suite guest they are expecting for next week's cruise?  

 

[jagoffee]

2 hours ago, spammie said:

Hi.  Sorry to hijack your question.  We leave this Saturday and are in an Aqua Class cabin.  The minimum bid for a Sky Suite was $1,000pp.  We passed.  The other Suites obviously were a lot higher.  From what I can tell there are still a LOT of Suites available on a website I check.  I might ask once we board on Saturday.  

Did you check how much it would cost to just upgrade to the SS without using the move up bid process?  

[JustinAllen]

Welcome back to cruising!  Look very forward to reading your review as they are always very informative and highly entertaining!

 

Thanks to you, I booked dinner for my wife and I at Gianni's on New Year's Day.  Anything in particular you recommend us having?  Had no idea there was even a restaurant there!  My wife says we now have to watch the movie before we go 🙂. We will be in Ft. Lauderdale as we are embarking on the Edge on Jan 2nd but will drive down to Miami for the day.

 

Thanks again and have a great cruise!

[grandgeezer]

4 hours ago, chicagopaul said:

Service in Luminae has been stellar. It is easier when you don’t have so many guests! 
 

Our waiter each day has been Alfred and he’s been great!
 

Right now only 35 suites are occupied with a total of 80 suite guests. Total passenger count on board is 738. 
 

Here are a few random photos from yesterday. 

 

 

 

 

 

If the passenger numbers listed above are accurate, it doesn’t people are tripping over each other to get back to sailing. I think the ship holds 2900.

[Purplsmurf]

4 hours ago, JustinAllen said:

Welcome back to cruising!  Look very forward to reading your review as they are always very informative and highly entertaining!

 

Thanks to you, I booked dinner for my wife and I at Gianni's on New Year's Day.  Anything in particular you recommend us having?  Had no idea there was even a restaurant there!  My wife says we now have to watch the movie before we go 🙂. We will be in Ft. Lauderdale as we are embarking on the Edge on Jan 2nd but will drive down to Miami for the day.

 

Thanks again and have a great cruise!

Giannis on Aruba?

[JustinAllen]

6 minutes ago, Purplsmurf said:

Giannis on Aruba?

No, Gianni’s restaurant inside the Versace mansion in Miami.

[chicagopaul]

So I know I need to catch you all up on a lot! So I apologize for the lack of pictures and information.  It I need to touch on one thing now as we’ve had time to meet people and more crew. 
 

Each time we cruise, as many of you know, what makes or breaks my experience is not the destination or the weather or even the food in many cases. It is the people. In my 21 cruises on Celebrity I have never been more impressed with the people both on the crew side and the passenger side of things. This is regardless of being in a suite. This is the staff across the board and the people we’ve met across the ship. 
 

The staff has been truly amazing. But amazing in a genuine way that I can’t describe. Their happiness for us being back on board and their genuine gratitude is not just translated by their words or actions. But it is felt. It is felt in a way that envelopes your entire experience from the moment you wake up until you go to bed. It is felt in a way of coming in from the cold and wrapping yourself in a warm blanket by the fire. 
 

The fellow passengers we have met have been just as warm and welcoming. Their treatment and response to the crew has been refreshing. If something is delayed or the bar staff is missing something guess what, the passengers take it in stride. What a marvelous thing. 
 

I have literally lost count of the amount of wonderful people we’ve had conversations with. No matter income class, political party, religious beliefs, etc. the ability for everyone to connect in the moment never ceases to amaze me. 
 

So tomorrow I’ll update with some great food photos. Some nice updates about specific interactions around the ship and I’ll follow up on your questions! 
 

 

[chicagopaul]

FYI having some login issues with cruise critic so another reason for the delay in posting. Hopefully I figured out a way around the issues. 
 

Today we are in St. Thomas. It is definitely a warm one today with temps in the mid 80s and some decent humidity too. 
 

 

 

[GeorgiaPeach51]

I love your description of this cruise experience....coming in from the cold and wrapping up in a warm blanket by the fire!  A great way to describe what we also felt in our first cruise after Covid decimated all of our collective travel plans.  It felt so good to travel again, and we were certainly more profoundly grateful than we had ever been before.  I am loving reading your postings.

 

Joanie

[maggie.1008]

Paul, the next time you cruise to San Juan try and get the cruise that departs at 11pm. 

My favorite restaurant is there. Marmalade and well worth the expense. We just did that on November 4th Apex cruise. Enjoying following a long !

[mike x ftc]

We found the crew on our recent princess staff just the same, so friendly and welcoming, just happy to be doing what they do so well.  I really hope it's not because usually they are simply exhausted from serving so many people.

[Beachlover1989]

Thank you so much for letting us enjoy your cruise vicariously!  I have always loved your reports and especially enjoyed following your food adventures on Instagram!

[chuly]

9 hours ago, maggie.1008 said:

Paul, the next time you cruise to San Juan try and get the cruise that departs at 11pm. 

My favorite restaurant is there. Marmalade and well worth the expense. We just did that on November 4th Apex cruise. Enjoying following a long !

Excellent advice. We always go to Marmalade whenever we are in San Juan! Looking forward to go back next month when we will be there on the Apex.

[cinlo]

Hello ChicagoPaul, thank you for your review and amazing photos!  We are sailing Reflection the day you return, Dec. 4.  Getting more excited now, after reading this thread….so nice to hear of how happy everyone is to be on board!
Just a quick question….. have you noticed if they are offering discounts for the specialty restaurants?  I have Lawn Club booked with the “first night “ discount, and am thinking about booking Murano midweek.  In the past sometimes they offered a last minute discount onboard to fill the restaurants.

Thank you for any info you may have, enjoy the rest of your cruise!