Reflection LIVE 6/21-7/1/24: A Perfect Day for a Suite Girlfriends Getaway

[miched]

19 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Nope I’ve not given up on MSC at all!  It’s just been the case that the past few cruises the dates and rates ended up working out better on Celebrity. Yacht club prices have jumped quite a bit in the past year too.  
 

I’m looking at Seascape vs. Ascent for booking my winter 2025 solo cruise and will probably be making a decision in the next few weeks.

 

Funny you mention that horse. Are you familiar with the Clydesdale breed? I’ve wanted one ever since I was a kid.  They’re massive and very expensive around here to get and keep up and they really aren’t bred for any of the riding disciplines that I do.
 

But I don’t care. When I retire I shall be the crazy grey haired lady showing in the hunter/jumper ring on a big ole tank of a Clydesdale! 

You live near St Louis so you must know that Clydesdales can only eat the brewers spent grain from Budweiser, and drink their beer instead of water.     That is what makes them so large and why they are they are used to promote the brand.   🤪🤗

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[Barwick Cruiser]

Very happy to see a new Charla cruise! You and the girls are sure to have an absolute blast, I’m very excited to follow along! 
Cheers!

Cathy

[GenerationX]

Hello from the Four Seasons St. Louis!  Kati and I have a very early, 5am wheels up, flight to Miami tomorrow and we knew we wanted to get pedicures at the spa here before we left anyway, so we decided to add an extra day to our vacay and check into the hotel for tonight. In addition to allowing us to work on our base tans by the pool this afternoon, and try out Gordon Ramsay’s new restaurant, it’s also giving us an extra hour and a half of sleep since we’ll only be about 20 minutes from the airport.

 

Since we have early appointments at the spa, I leveraged my first name basis status with the concierge here to get us an early morning check in.

 

When we got to our room, the cover of this month’s Four Seasons magazine quickly caught my attention.  It looks like in 2026 Four Seasons will be following Ritz Carlton into the cruise business!  Now THIS I am very interested I !

 

Who am I kidding though, it will probably be 2036 before I could even begin to afford what they’re probably going to charge for fares.  But hey, that gives them plenty of time to work out the kinks!

 

While we’re relaxing in our room pre-spa, here’s a bit about our plans for the cruise…

 

Long gone are the days of Celebrity making it rain onboard credit with retreat bookings, but fortunately I started working with a new TA for my Celebrity bookings earlier this year (I use a different TA for MSC, I like to work with specific line specialists) and for the three cruise bookings she was able to offer a total of almost $1000 in OBC.  So we had plenty of fun money to use in making plans (especially since specialty dining is complimentary for cruise #2 with the signature suite).

 

Here’s a quick run down of our shore plans:

 

Cruise #1

 

Port 1: Coco Cay

 

For this stop, all 4 of us got passes to Hideaway Beach, the adults-only pool and beach area.  We briefly discussed all going in to book a cabana, but even with a 30% discount sale going, the price was over $1000! From reviews I read, they sound very nice, but $250 per person was a bit rich for everyone to invest 24 hours into the cruise.  Especially for Kati and I who’ll be staying on another full week.

 

Port 2: Bimini 

 

Tesla and Liz are doing an excursion in the morning to go snorkeling with stingrays, while Kati and I have passes to Resort World.  When Tesla and Liz to get back to the ship, the plan is for them to pick up a golf cart rental, pick Kati and I up from the resort and then for all of us to spend a couple of hours in the afternoon exploring the island.

 

Cruise #2

 

Port 1: Key West

 

This is such an easy nice walkable port to explore, so we plan to go independent and check out my favorite artisan shops and bars.

 

No trip to Key West would be complete for me without a stop at Sloppy Joe’s and then some live music and conch fritters at Willie T’s.  Kati and I are both big country music fans (no judgement, people!) and I know she’ll get a kick out of hanging at the actual bar that inspired Kenny Chesney’s “Bar at the End of the World”.

 

Stop 2: Nassau

 

This is one of those ports I always take as a “bonus sea day” unless I’m sailing with Gen Z and she wants to go to the water park at Bahia Mar.  This cruise will be no different.  We’ll hangout by the pool and enjoy a quiter ship and enjoy a nice specialty lunch at The Porch.

 

Cruise #3

 

Port 1:  Coco Cay (again!)

 

This time we are trying a different area of the island, Coco Beach Club.  It’s interesting, from what I’ve read, this area sounds a lot like the Ocean House area for Yacht Club on MSC’s Ocean Cay private island.  Except Ocean House was free for Yacht Club level guests, whereas even as Retreat guests this one cost about $130 per person.  We paid with OBC so no skin off our backs, but will be interesting to see if it’s worth the price they charge.

 

Port 2: Bimini (again!)

 

We’re fairly confident that we’ll have gotten plenty of Bimini on the first stop, so this will also be a bonus sea day where we stay onboard.

 

Over the course of the cruise we’ll also be dining at some point at every specialty restaurant other than La petit chef.  Fair warning, my favorite, Murano will make an appearance at least 3 times.

 

Tesla and Liz (who since they are only doing the 3 day cruise decided to spend an extra day in Florida) are currently on their way to the airport to fly to FLL  and have been carefully watching the flood water situation (another reason I prefer to fly into MIA even when sailing out of Port Everglades). Currently their flight is showing no delays.

 

In less than 24 hours, we’ll all be on Fort Lauderdale beach!

 

 

[GenerationX]

On 6/18/2024 at 6:26 AM, LouChamp said:

Aloha. So excited to learn about your upcoming voyage and wish you an excellent time!  As I have posted before we are blessed to divide our time between NY and Hawaii but are in NY now as we are going to be grandparents in August!  I also care for my 90 year old mom who is in assisted living with dementia so I visit every day. While cruising is on pause for this year we have reserved suites on Celebrity and two other lines where we are also top tier. Enough of us... looking forward to reading your journals and wish you and your friends a wonderful time and also the best to your family!!!

 
Oh my goodness! Congratulations on your grandchild!  
 

Personally, I think new babies are one of the few things in life even more exciting than a cruise.

 

Sending prayers for comfort for your mom.

[freshjive1479]

Great reading this so far. See you on the Reflection next week, Charla! We board on Monday.

[Josie201]

Glad to have another GenX cruise to enjoy.  We have only been to Key West once, many many years ago, but have a stop planned there on the Summit in February.  I need to hear more about the Kenny Chesney bar so will be watching intently.  Enjoy your cruises, as if you need any assistance in that regard ! 

[GenerationX]

In case anyone is wondering how all our pre-cruise diets have been going, I made my grandmother’s fried chicken and mac n cheese for our cruise planning dinner at my house earlier this week.  And this is what Kati and I had for our post-spa lunch today…

 

 

 

 

 

[DaKahuna]

3 hours ago, GenerationX said:

In case anyone is wondering how all our pre-cruise diets have been going, I made my grandmother’s fried chicken and mac n cheese for our cruise planning dinner at my house earlier this week.  And this is what Kati and I had for our post-spa lunch today…

 

 Looks to me as if it is going just fine!  Enjoy.  

 

[cluso]

12 hours ago, GenerationX said:

 

Cruise #2

 

Port 1: Key West

 

This is such an easy nice walkable port to explore, so we plan to go independent and check out my favorite artisan shops and bars.

 

No trip to Key West would be complete for me without a stop at Sloppy Joe’s and then some live music and conch fritters at Willie T’s.  Kati and I are both big country music fans (no judgement, people!) and I know she’ll get a kick out of hanging at the actual bar that inspired Kenny Chesney’s “Bar at the End of the World”.

 

 

 

 

Hi Charla,

I have read all your most excellent reviews.  We started going to Key West in the mid 80's due to work (military).  It has changed immensely, but we have been on a lot of cruises that stopped there recently.  A wonderful place to go for an hour is the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory.  It was so cool with butterflies landing on you and their plants were some of the most well-kept plants I have ever seen.  It's not too expensive, and if you pick up a local tourist rag, there are good discounts for this.  Their gift shop is great.

Across the street on the water is the Seaside Cafe at the Mansion.  Fun place with lots of options, even lobster pizza. 

We walked to these places.  You can even have time to hit up your other bars.

We are off to Oceania for the next few cruises.  😁

Edited June 20 by cluso

[SpookyGirl75]

Hi Charla

 

A fellow St Louisan here. Well like you about an hour south. I’ve mostly lurked on the boards preparing for our first X cruise in October. Looking forward to following along!

 

Becky

[GenerationX]

17 hours ago, freshjive1479 said:

Great reading this so far. See you on the Reflection next week, Charla! We board on Monday.

 

Thank you! Looking forward to sailing with you guys! Hopefully we get to meet! 

[GenerationX]

On 6/18/2024 at 1:31 PM, Aunt P said:

Hi Charla,

 

Long time CC lurker here, haven't posted much before. But I had to chime in because I will be on your first leg! Girls cruise for me too, but with my mom, sister, and 12yo niece (her first cruise!). We in are Aqua, so can add even a third perspective. Interested to see your plans and follow along!

Looking forward to sailing with you!  I hope your niece has a great time. My Mini Me is about the same age and LOVES Celebrity.

 

If you see us around the ship please come say hi!

[GenerationX]

A very good early morning to everyone from STL!

 

Can you tell we just rolled out of bed at 2am?

 

Our flight is boarding and it looks like we’re on track for an on time departure.  
 

Next stop: Miami! 
 

[hcat]

safe travels..

 We have an early flight to Fl on Sunday..no cruise..just care and maint of our place as hurricane season begins! Benefit to early flights are early arrivals!

 

will be following your adventures!

[Stem to Stern]

6 hours ago, GenerationX said:

Next stop: Miami! 

[twins_to_alaska]

Looks like off to a great start! Will be following along. Hope weather is awesome for you.

[tcmagnum]

On 6/17/2024 at 10:26 AM, GenerationX said:

I’m Charla, in my early 40’s. Seasoned Celebrity cruiser (elite plus, but with little hope of ever making Zenith unless sometime in the next few decades I stumble upon a winning lottery ticket and/or extremely wealthy distant relative who dies intestate) and occasional MSC cruiser when the price is right.

 

Pretty excited to find this trip report from the one and only Charla!!!

Love your writing style.

And really love your fashion, can't wait to see what new outfits/dresses you have for this trip.

[GenerationX]

We made it to Fort Lauderdale and are getting settled into our poolside suite at the Conrad beach resort.

 

This hotel is not a budget pre-cruise accommodation, but it’s worth every penny.  Normally when I’ve splurged for suites for the cruise, I scale back a little on the pre-cruise hotel and stay at the Hyatt Centric Las Olas but since Kati had never seen the ocean before, I wanted to book us somewhere that she could see a lot of it.

 

Unfortunately, we won’t be swimming in said ocean due to both red flag waves AND a shark sighting.

 

We just connected up with Tesla and Liz who told us about a rough start to their time in FLL.  

 

A quick warning for anyone flying in to FLL soon, apparently there is a scammer working the airport.  When they landed last night around 10:30, they went outside to wait for the Uber driver Liz had ordered.  Then a woman approached them carrying an Uber sign and asked if they’d ordered an Uber and then asked to look at Liz’s phone.  The woman told them that the app was malfunctioning and that their $22 ride wasn’t still 10 minutes away.  That she was their Uber driver.  

 

It was late at night and the ladies were tired and ready to get to a warm bed to collapse, so they went with this woman.

 

When they got to the hotel, the woman disclosed that she didn’t really work for Uber started screaming and demanded $50 in cash for the ride.  She had put the child locks on the back doors and refused to let them out of the car until she had been paid.  If it had been me, I would’ve dialed 911 right then and there, but I think the ladies were so tired and shocked, and scared of what this woman might do if she thought she was going to get in trouble, they just paid to get out of the situation.

 

Luckily it didn’t end worse!  A scary reminder to ALWAYS check the plate number on your Uber and don’t get into any car claiming to be yours if the plates don’t match up.

 

We’re currently relaxing poolside with cocktails and a light snack of chips and guacamole so that we don’t ruin our appetite for dinner. Tonight I’m taking everyone to dinner at one of my Fort Lauderdale favorites: Boatyard.

 

Talk to y’all later tonight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

One of my must haves in Key West is key lime pie on a stick dipped in chocolate.  Yummy.  Fits right in with your diet plan.  😁

[cruisetonowhere10]

8 minutes ago, GenerationX said:

We made it to Fort Lauderdale and are getting settled into our poolside suite at the Conrad beach resort.

 

This hotel is not a budget pre-cruise accommodation, but it’s worth every penny.  Normally when I’ve splurged for suites for the cruise, I scale back a little on the pre-cruise hotel and stay at the Hyatt Centric Las Olas but since Kati had never seen the ocean before, I wanted to book us somewhere that she could see a lot of it.

 

Unfortunately, we won’t be swimming in said ocean due to both red flag waves AND a shark sighting.

 

We just connected up with Tesla and Liz who told us about a rough start to their time in FLL.  

 

A quick warning for anyone flying in to FLL soon, apparently there is a scammer working the airport.  When they landed last night around 10:30, they went outside to wait for the Uber driver Liz had ordered.  Then a woman approached them carrying an Uber sign and asked if they’d ordered an Uber and then asked to look at Liz’s phone.  The woman told them that the app was malfunctioning and that their $22 ride wasn’t still 10 minutes away.  That she was their Uber driver.  

 

It was late at night and the ladies were tired and ready to get to a warm bed to collapse, so they went with this woman.

 

When they got to the hotel, the woman disclosed that she didn’t really work for Uber started screaming and demanded $50 in cash for the ride.  She had put the child locks on the back doors and refused to let them out of the car until she had been paid.  If it had been me, I would’ve dialed 911 right then and there, but I think the ladies were so tired and shocked, and scared of what this woman might do if she thought she was going to get in trouble, they just paid to get out of the situation.

 

Luckily it didn’t end worse!  A scary reminder to ALWAYS check the plate number on your Uber and don’t get into any car claiming to be yours if the plates don’t match up.

 

We’re currently relaxing poolside with cocktails and a light snack of chips and guacamole so that we don’t ruin our appetite for dinner. Tonight I’m taking everyone to dinner at one of my Fort Lauderdale favorites: Boatyard.

 

Talk to y’all later tonight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks amazing!  We are staying at the Hyatt for our April cruise…hoping it’s okay.  

[Les43]

Looking forward to your review Charla. We were on Reflection last summer in the Med. It’s our favourite ship. We were in a Celebrity Suite which we loved - interested to hear your views on that leg of your trip! I wrote a semi-live review of our experience in case it’s helpful. Have an amazing time and can’t wait to follow along. 

[hcat]

12 minutes ago, cruisetonowhere10 said:

Looks amazing!  We are staying at the Hyatt for our April cruise…hoping it’s okay.  

you are looking good.!

 

. Scary Uber Scam.  1st thing we do in any taxi or limo is take a photo of the driver's info and the meter, if any. Cab't trust everyone these dats..sad!

 

Being from  an older generation,  a Pvt limo/ car service  is our preferred ride in cities..esp Fort Laud, Miami, LA.. No guarantees but we believe  our  chances for comfort, safety and promptness are better and we use several  companies we trust!

[luvcruzing]

I was approached by a pretend Uber driver at the Miami Airport. I said no, thanks. After reading this, I think the safest and easiest way to catch a ride at the airport is to use a cab.  

[Lena11033]

Cabs aren't always safe either, I've had a cab show one price but then be 'more' once I got to the destination.

 

I normally am very paranoid about checking make, model and plate of the car for my Uber especially as I am alone. There are some safety preferences in the app too, there is a PIN to make sure you have the right car. Audio recording if you don't feel safe and share trip status (I do this one with my husband so he can see where I am).

 

But some of these are only useful once you have the right car, so checking the car/plates and the PIN are most useful. Easier said than done when tired I know

[JackE]

2 hours ago, luvcruzing said:

I was approached by a pretend Uber driver at the Miami Airport. I said no, thanks. After reading this, I think the safest and easiest way to catch a ride at the airport is to use a cab.  

I thought the same thing, but I had a terrible cab experience at FLL airport. The driver refused to turn on the meter as we were driving, and then wanted to charge us too much for the short ride to the Riverside Hotel. We got into an argument while he was driving us. I then vowed to not use cabs! It seems like you can't win!