Celebrity Reflection Review
Beautiful Ship, Wonderful Itinerary
Rating by category
Additional details
We stayed on the Reflection for the Eastern Med cruise back to back from the 16-night Transatlantic. It was a great choice.
We were fortunate to score an upgrade to a balcony cabin. The only problem with that was that our room steward was not informed of the cabin change before he moved our belongings to our originally booked cabin. When we arrived at our upgraded cabin our stuff was not there. It took until 3 pm to finally locate and have our belongings moved into the correct cabin, so the day in port was pretty much wasted. That was the first major glitch on this cruise.
This ship is beautiful and well-appointed. We thoroughly enjoyed being on the Reflection, having previously cruised on the Silhouette and the Solstice.
Cabin Review
Deluxe Ocean View with Verandah 2B
Lovely cabin with standard Veranda. We had moved for this leg of our trip from a "bump" veranda which was half again as large as the standard size, but this one was adequate. Note that most verandas, except for bump and aft, are the same size, whether you book Aqua Class or Concierge Class or just "Deluxe" Veranda. The location of this cabin requires a fair bit of walking, but that's not all bad. Plenty of storage space.
Port Reviews
Santorini
Tender port. Long lines for the cable cars. Took the local bus to Oia (easy and cheap). We have lots of gorgeous pictures taken in Oia. So ok, been there done that. Probably won't go back. Liked Mykonos much better.
Istanbul
We went on our own with another couple, taking the tram to Sultanahmet. We were "helped" by the usual number of carpet salesmen, but one actually did help us, showing us where at the Hagia Sophia to find the shortest line to get tickets and go right in. He probably saved us an hour of standing in line. After the Hagia Sophia we toured the Basilica Cistern (excellent). Then we stood in line for the Blue Mosque. In the Blue Mosque line there were several groups who tried to sneak in line out of turn and were caught and turned away by the guards. We had brought our own headscarves, but they do have coverings (body and head) you can borrow if you are not appropriately dressed. There were plastic bags to carry our shoes in.
From there we walked to the Grand Bazaar (a fair walk uphill but doable if you are in good health for walking) and spent a half hour being dazzled and buying souvenirs. It would take weeks to see the whole thing.
Then we walked back to the tram stop at Sultanahmet and got on the very very very crowded tram. When we reached our stop, one of our party was stuck in the middle of a group of locals and we had to hold the tram door open and literally pull him out. The locals were not helpful.
Overall, we're glad we saw Istanbul but will not be going back. The attitudes toward Westerners are not particularly friendly, and the young women will try to obstruct you on the sidewalk and can be openly hostile. My husband saw a local woman literally push a young Western-dressed woman into the street in front of a tram. We did not encounter hostility like this in Kusadasi and were surprised to see it in Istanbul. The second day in Istanbul we stayed on the ship.
Mykonos
Lovely island, lovely town. Very relaxing to just stroll around or sit in a sidewalk cafe sipping a glass of wine.
The ship provided buses back and forth to the town from the dock.