Currently on B2B Reflection (4/3 night cruises)

[dcbiker97]

Hi all. I figured I would share some observations. We are on turnaround day for a b2b cruise on Reflection, which is doing the 3 and 4 night cruises out of Port Everglades.  
 
To provide some background, we are experienced Celebrity cruisers (and will reach Zenith in March 2025) and are staying in our favorite suite on Reflection, the Signature suite.  We wanted a quick week away and these cruises fit the bill. 
 

We love the S class and prefer to sail on them over Edge class, which has Beyond doing summer Caribbean runs. 
 

I won’t go into too much detail but here are some initial observations:

 

-The crew have all been top notch and are exactly the same as we’d come to expect.  

-We have eaten in all the specialty restaurants and Luminae and all of the food has been spot on and better than some previous cruises.
 

-We just saw the menus for the 2nd leg and they are only seeming to do 4 day rotations in Luminae, not the full 14 day rotation. So tonight’s menu is the same as when we boarded on Monday. 
 

-Because it is after Labor Day, the number of children has been minimal. 
 

-Folks are having a great time and we haven't witnessed any behavior that would be associated with a booze cruise (of course that could be vastly different depending on passenger mix)

 

-On the port days, they only have pool towels available at the kiosk right outside the solarium.  You don’t have to sign them out and they simply hand them to you. They are doing that to limit the towels that go to Cococay to the yellow beach towels.  The gray towels reappeared in their normal locations after lunch. 
 

-We haven’t been to any shows, but we are glad to see that Celebrity put back on board a steel drum player. That’s been nice to listen to outside in the evening.

 

-From what we’ve been told, the vast majority of passengers are new to Celebrity and want to get a feel for the brand. 
 

Any questions? I’ll post other observations over the next couple of days.  

 

 

Edited September 6 by dcbiker97

[chemmo]

So pleased to read your review. We are on Reflection next year in the same area. 
 

Usually I enjoy the lighter Tuscan Elite breakfast but as we are opposite ends of the ship I have been looking at the Spa cafe menus…Could you have a look and see if the actual food looks appealing? I know I can get room service but as I am often awake before the rest of the family I often prefer to go out.

Enjoy your cruise, I will keep following your posts…

 

[dcbiker97]

Here is something else. I’ve never seen more roving bar staff. We stay in the Solarium and at one point I counted 4 different ones constantly roaming.  In past cruises we’d only occasionally see 1 in there.  

[dcbiker97]

17 minutes ago, chemmo said:

So pleased to read your review. We are on Reflection next year in the same area. 
 

Usually I enjoy the lighter Tuscan Elite breakfast but as we are opposite ends of the ship I have been looking at the Spa cafe menus…Could you have a look and see if the actual food looks appealing? I know I can get room service but as I am often awake before the rest of the family I often prefer to go out.

Enjoy your cruise, I will keep following your posts…

 

The Spa Cafe offerings has been looking like every other Celebrity cruise. I didn’t see any new things.   

Edited September 6 by dcbiker97

[GilbyJoe]

Did you get the 2 bottles of alcohol on both your cruises?

How was turn around handled for b2b?

[dcbiker97]

7 minutes ago, GilbyJoe said:

Did you get the 2 bottles of alcohol on both your cruises?

How was turn around handled for b2b?

Yes. We got 2 bottles each cruise. I asked for Macallan (not on the precruise list) and it was provided both cruises.  The room also comes with a bottle of Veuve Cliquot.  I packed accordingly and will be bring all of that home. 
 

B2B was extremely simple. We showed up at 9 in the Retreat lounge. Sat for a few minutes in the terminal before going through facial recognition. We were back in board by 9:45. 

Edited September 6 by dcbiker97

[GilbyJoe]

Thanks dcbiker, we are doing the same but a 3/5 in November.  I too will pack accordingly.  

[1025cruise]

I'm not surprised about the Luminae menu repeating. I expect the MDR and Blu will be too since it's technically a different cruise.

[wrk2cruise]

Just now, 1025cruise said:

I'm not surprised about the Luminae menu repeating. I expect the MDR and Blu will be too since it's technically a different cruise.

 

It makes sense for provisioning.  Less items to stock.

[dcbiker97]

7 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

It makes sense for provisioning.  Less items to stock.

Totally agree. Makes sense from a provisioning standpoint.  Although somehow, they picked my 4 least favorite menus. 🙂
 

Just pulling away from the dock now.  The demographics changed significantly on this cruise to a much younger and local Miami crowd. I had expected this given the cruise is a Friday to Monday. Lots of groups of friends getting away for a long weekend. 

Edited September 6 by dcbiker97

[wrk2cruise]

1 minute ago, dcbiker97 said:

Totally agree. Makes sense from a provisioning standpoint.  
 

Just pulling away from the dock now.  The demographics changed significantly on this cruise to a much younger and local Miami crowd. I had expected this given the cruise is a Friday to Monday. Lots of groups of friends getting away for a long weekend. 

 

Good luck.     The provisioning thing reminded me that a post covid (Nov 2022) B2B on Summit, 2 5 night sailings they didn't provision anything between the 2 sailings.  They were reduced passenger so that may have contributed.

[celebrity cruiser]

On 9/6/2024 at 11:46 AM, dcbiker97 said:

Hi all. I figured I would share some observations. We are on turnaround day for a b2b cruise on Reflection, which is doing the 3 and 4 night cruises out of Port Everglades.  
 
To provide some background, we are experienced Celebrity cruisers (and will reach Zenith in March 2025) and are staying in our favorite suite on Reflection, the Signature suite.  We wanted a quick week away and these cruises fit the bill. 
 

We love the S class and prefer to sail on them over Edge class, which has Beyond doing summer Caribbean runs. 
 

I won’t go into too much detail but here are some initial observations:

 

-The crew have all been top notch and are exactly the same as we’d come to expect.  

-We have eaten in all the specialty restaurants and Luminae and all of the food has been spot on and better than some previous cruises.
 

-We just saw the menus for the 2nd leg and they are only seeming to do 4 day rotations in Luminae, not the full 14 day rotation. So tonight’s menu is the same as when we boarded on Monday. 
 

-Because it is after Labor Day, the number of children has been minimal. 
 

-Folks are having a great time and we haven't witnessed any behavior that would be associated with a booze cruise (of course that could be vastly different depending on passenger mix)

 

-On the port days, they only have pool towels available at the kiosk right outside the solarium.  You don’t have to sign them out and they simply hand them to you. They are doing that to limit the towels that go to Cococay to the yellow beach towels.  The gray towels reappeared in their normal locations after lunch. 
 

-We haven’t been to any shows, but we are glad to see that Celebrity put back on board a steel drum player. That’s been nice to listen to outside in the evening.

 

-From what we’ve been told, the vast majority of passengers are new to Celebrity and want to get a feel for the brand. 
 

Any questions? I’ll post other observations over the next couple of days.  

 

 

Glad you’re having a great time on RF! Congratulations on reaching Zenith in 2025!!!  

We had the Signiture suite booked on that ship but decided to go for the RS and we are glad we did. Size matters! Two bathrooms! Really one full plus one half. Main bath is large. A nice bar area that doubled as a device charging area. Two free bottles of liquor. And free specialty dining.

[Syd58]

We were on Reflection in May, and for us, it did not compare favorably to Ascent and Edge. The Retreat Lounge is smaller, we did not find the food nearly as good in Luminae, and some cabins are showing some wear.

Edited September 8 by Syd58

[dcbiker97]

2 hours ago, celebrity cruiser said:

Glad you’re having a great time on RF! Congratulations on reaching Zenith in 2025!!!  

We had the Signiture suite booked on that ship but decided to go for the RS and we are glad we did. Size matters! Two bathrooms! Really one full plus one half. Main bath is large. A nice bar area that doubled as a device charging area. Two free bottles of liquor. And free specialty dining.

Thank you!  I agree. The RS with that extra half bath is lovely and our pick on other S class.
 

 
I will say that this cruise really exceeded our expectations. I had assumed that these short cruises

would attract the most junior/green crew.  I was wrong.   While it has been more of a party crowd than the normal Celebrity ship, the crew has been phenomenal and really exemplify why we love the product.  

Edited September 8 by dcbiker97

[Syd58]

2 minutes ago, dcbiker97 said:

Thank you!  I agree. The RS with that extra half bath is lovely and our pick on other S class.
 

 
I will say that this cruise really exceeded our expectations.  While it has been more of a party crowd than the normal Celebrity ship, the crew has been phenomenal and really exemplify why we love the product.  

I did a short Reflection cruise from Fort Lauderdale with our adult daughter in May and did not care for the boisterous crowd either. Will not do this again..

[phoenix_dream]

Can you tell me if Fazli is currently Maitre d' in Luminae and if so, if he will be there through November?  Met him as a waiter over 20 years ago and last we sailed Reflection he was Maitre d'.  Our waiter was Putu if that rings a bell as well?

[dcbiker97]

51 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

Can you tell me if Fazli is currently Maitre d' in Luminae and if so, if he will be there through November?  Met him as a waiter over 20 years ago and last we sailed Reflection he was Maitre d'.  Our waiter was Putu if that rings a bell as well?

Isn’t it always fun to sail with someone you have a long standing relationship with.  I don’t believe he’s the maitre’d but we’ve really only eaten there for breakfast this cruise and I’m never awake until my 3rd cup of coffee to remember a name. Our waiter is Pandae, who ranks among the best we’ve had though. 

Edited September 9 by dcbiker97