Reflection Cruise Review - Trip - 12/10/2016 through 12/17/2016 By Thomas Treimel

This cruise started when I was looking for a cruise in December and contacted my cruise agent Deb. I talked to Deb about a few cruises and then booked the Celebrity Reflection out of Miami. This was a double and triple win on booking this cruise. I got to Cruise with Deb my cruise agent and her husband Bill, my daughter Jenna, my longtime friends Bob and Eileen Sausa and Deb Brown my friend from Texas. I booked a standard balcony cabin at what I thought was a good price in a great location. With the timing of the booking you got to choose two of four perks. I took the on-board credit and the classic drink package. Then Deb the cruise agent, as she usually does, worked her magic and got my cruise credit expanded from the original amount to 3 times the original. I’m left thinking how am I going to spend all that credit while on board. Some of it would go to cover the tips for the crew but that still left about $500 to cover. Then Deb the cruise Agent got me a cabin upgrade to the next level. With three months to go and some cabin turn backs in Aqua class I found out from Deb my cruise agent that she got my cabin upgraded again into Aqua class. Yiiiii….. And this was before even stepping onto the ship. Aqua class cabins come with auto entry into the Spa located on the same level as the cabin. This also gets you entry into BLU the upscale restaurant. Deb the cruise agent also worked her magic and got the same level cabin for Bob and Eileen. As Bob would say Sweet…… I then pre-booked one of the upscale restaurants on the ship – Murano. This was for Bob & Eileen, Jenna and my friend Deb. The only time open was at 6:00PM on Monday. I wanted to book in about 7 to 8PM but those times were already gone. I later was able to adjust the time to 6:30PM when on-board. You can do this at any specialty restaurant as all bookings come up to look at.

I flew into Miami from Texas the day of the cruise with my friend Deb. We got our luggage and contacted Jenna who had flown in from New Jersey the same day and was on a different airline. I used UBER to get taken to the pier. The pickup area under the airport in Miami is mostly covered. We picked up Jenna after getting our bags stored in the UBER driver’s car. Note – if you use UBER, which is very quick and efficient, make sure to use the right size level. I used regular UBER where I should have used UBER X it was a tight luggage fit in the car. The UBER driver did not know the exact pier the Celebrity ship was at and it was raining. So we ended up driving through a lot of other ship boarding areas till we got to the Celebrity ship at the very end. Then sat and waited till a spot opened up to swing into to get the luggage unloaded. UBER is very cost effective and quick to most places I have used them. Their APP is easy to install on your phone – but be aware it’s a bit hard to key in the pickup and drop off points into their screens. We had landed about 10AM and were at the pier by 11:30AM. Not bad in dealing with the rain, the second pick up for Jenna and waiting in traffic. I contacted Bob and Eileen. They were already there and had dropped off their luggage for check in. We dropped ours off. Bob had found a different entrance into the check in area and upstairs we went. It took a little longer for the check in process this time as I forgot to log into Celebrity and pre-register all the information needed. But Celebrity had our ship pass photos taken and both of us checked in and done. Then we were going up the escalator to the ship before noon. Through the ship picture taking, which I looked rotten in when I saw it later on the ship, and then actually boarding the ship. I’ve been on the Solstice the sister ship to the Reflection about 6 years ago. So I kind of remembered the ship layout. We boarded on Deck 5 to a nice welcome and a glass of Champagne. Unfortunately it was still raining off and on throughout the afternoon and night. Read more