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The wife and I were looking to try eastern Caribbean itinerary and our travel agent talked us in to trying Celebrity. We had had good experiences on two previous RC cruises and consensus of our research was that Celebrity was a step above and the Reflection was a new boat.
First, the positives :
- if you are looking for a relatively peaceful, semi-formal cruise with a predominantly older crowd ( in our 50's, we were easily on the youger half ), you might consider it,
- staff leave you pretty much alone ( see negatives), guests pleasant and well behaved,
- new boat, not a full boat ("where is everyone " confirmed by crew)
- fitness center, RCs seemed bigger and we did not have to wait for equipment
- " celebrity select" dining option.
Areas that were adequate, but where IMHO Royal Caribbean did better:
- food quality and selection, both in formal dining and self serve dining
- general cleanliness of the boat - from table busing to sun deck trash and towels - surprising, Who was in charge of keeping things picked up?
- activities: shipboard and adventures; we do recommend the bike tours and the snorkel in St. Kitts, there are no reefs in St. Martin so snorkeling was a waste of time
- staff on the whole seemed lackluster, unenthusiastic, and absent when needed (related to not a full boat?), with the exception of the two lead female singers(great Madonna/GaGa piece) the show resembled the Zumba class
Areas Celebrity should consider changing:
- lose most if not all the grass - wasted space, messy; try another pool & hot tubs, sun space, activity space
- basketball court in the bow next to the sun deck? Lost half the sun deck since no one could sit close to the racket
- musac? Lose it or pick real music and turn it way down
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