Background
I cruised with my only sister. We are both unmarried, although she does currently have a partner, and childless (we do like children). I am 45, and she is 42. We live in Cleveland, OH and have lived there most of our lives. We are first generation American on our mother’s side (she was Irish) and about 15th generation on our father’s side (Irish and English ancestry). I have traveled to five continents so far, but we are by no means well-off. Consider us upper middle-class. We are new to cruising – this was my third and her second cruise. Our first cruise together was on the Reflection in January 2014. As we have only sailed Celebrity, the only comparisons that we can make are based on what we have heard from others. We’re quite sure that Carnival is not our cup of tea. We are intrigued with the idea of trying NCL or RCCL. We’re not sure if HAL is different enough (in a good way) from Celebrity for us to give it a try. Our goal is to somehow see the world before we get too frail or sick (our parents died relatively young – at 64 and 74). I wanted to try RCCL this time around, but my sister liked the quietness of the Celebrity experience. There are kids on board, but you’d hardly notice them. I’ve provided all this information, because I feel that who each of is does greatly influence our views of our experiences. We booked this cruise on a whim when I received a message over Labor Day Weekend (2015) about a large sale going on for that weekend only. It took us all of 90 minutes to decide on a ship and itinerary. This was a 7 night cruise on Celebrity Reflection calling at Cozumel; Georgetown, Grand Cayman; Ocho Rios, Jamacia; and Coco Cay (we were actually unable to call there due to high winds and went to Nassau instead).
Check-In
AREA: Starboard Aft
BED NEAR: Balcony
QUIET?: Yes
BALCONY VIEW: Looking down and somewhat out to the blue roof of the restaurant that is below the cabin. You can look out to the water and to the scenery, but if you want to look straight down, then this is not the cabin for you. Likewise, I doubt that any cabins above this one can look STRAIGHT down.
BALCONY SIZE: Somewhat larger than the standard balcony due to the location.
WIND A PROBLEM?: No
SOOT A PROBLEM?: No
PROBLEMS/COMMENTS: Make sure your Fitbit is charged, because you will rack up steps walking to this cabin. It's very far from the elevators as it is nearly at the back of the ship. It's very quiet at the back as you don't have many folks walking past your room. We loved our room attendants and the larger balcony. Only con was the long walk when you just want to quickly drop off something to your cabin. Otherwise, I would book this cabin again. Toiletries in the bathroom: shampoo, conditioner, soap, and body lotion (Gilchrist and Soames), as well as tissues. There were no cotton balls or q-tips. The hairdryer, a hotly debated topic on this board, was fine for us as it has been in the past.
Snorkeling off the boat was much easier and safer, in my opinion, than swimming out from the beach. Also the staff kept an eye on us and guests were helping each other out.
Stingray Swim and Snorkel – boat over to sandbar to swim in the open sea with the stingrays and then boat over to another location to snorkel off the boat. This was my favorite excursion, and that’s saying a lot. I was very uncomfortable when we snorkeled off the beach at St. John USVI two years ago. I don’t like if my feet can’t touch the bottom. I promised my sister that she could pick all of the excursions, so away we went. The stingray swim was fabulous! You descend from the boat to stand on a sandbar and stingrays of all sizes are around you. The water is very blue and very clear.
I had intended to climb the waterfall, but my allergies were really bothering me and I was a bit dizzy, so we just walked up. We watched others from our group climb, and I would like to climb it if I ever go back to Jamaica.
We were supposed to call at Coco Cay, the line’s private island, but the winds were too high. Instead, Celebrity secured a berth at Nassau. When the staff heard the announcement they were all visibly relieved, as they have to carry off food, drinks, etc. from the ship to Coco Cay. We didn’t book any excursions as the prices were much higher than what we wanted to pay for a day that was supposed to be a low cost day. So we walked off the ship around Noon and found the information desk where nice young man explained that the public beach, Junkaroo, was a short walk away. So we walked there and got a drink and a lounge chair each for $10 from the Tiki Bikini Hut. The afternoon turned cloudy and windy, so we left the beach around 3pm (all aboard was 4:30pm). We wandered very leisurely back to the ship, stopping to pop into shops along the way.
It's Miami. Not much to say that you can't find in other reviews.