Have always tried to stay on the small side for cruises, but this itinerary attracted us, so we gave it a try. Having experienced embarkation disasters before we were expecting the worst. Wow!! Walked right in and were directed to a line with no one in it. Walked right to the waiting area and barely got sat down when we were called for the bus to take us to the ship. Right on board. Ordered a drink and prepared to sit awhile. Did not even finish it when it was announced, early, that our room was ready. Bags were in the room. Rocky, our room steward met us and walked us through his spiel. He was great the whole time. Smiling and happy. What can I do for you. Room was a standard balcony. Typical cruise ship room. No problems the entire voyage. I am a big guy (6'1" 260) and the shower was just fine. Wandered up to the Oasis Café for lunch. The variety of food was excellent. Drink folks were around a lot, but not pushy. The food was so good in the Oasis, that we only went to the main dining room one night. A great selection and they would cook chicken, steak, fish, or burgers very quickly. Always a carving station. Loved the gyro meat when it was on. Dinner had most of what was available in the main dining room. Our main dining room experience was good, I just hate dressing up and waiting for the courses. Casino was good. Did not lose money. Can't say that I made a bunch, but I didn't lose. Getting on and off the ship was not a huge problem. There was usually a line, but no big deal. Only used 2 of Celebrity's excursions and only because we had On Board Credit (OBC). Trip to Cork and Jameson was very good and worth the money, but the trip to Honfleur was a serious rip. Just a bus tour with a confused young man in charge of the bus. We used About Dublin Taxi Tours in Dublin and a private tour in Bruges. Those and others were booked with folks on the Cruise Critic thread for our cruise. This was our second Celebrity cruise and I am impressed that they are not pushy about selling you their overpriced art, jewelry, etc. I like the lack of sales announcements, but at the same time we could not hear any announcements because if the TV was not set to the right channel you never got them w/out opening your door. How's that for the biggest complaint....couldn't hear the announcements?? The one early in the morning told you that we were docked and you could get off. Elevators had signs that told you what deck to go to. Hints/Tips... Had to track down the good beer. The Master Cellar wine bar is where they hide the good stuff (Duvel, Leffe, La Fin du Monde). Sunset Bar at the back of the Oasis Café was a great place to watch the world go by. Rarely crowded and if it got cool they brought out the blankets. If Kennedy is working, you will have some great laughs. Brought too many clothes. Entertainment was OK. Best stuff was the folks they brought on for one night. Not a big song and dance guy, so the productions did not thrill me. Never got my chance to call the ship a "boat" in front of a ship's officer. The look that you get is priceless. A great trip. Read Less

We chose this cruise because of the itinerary and because friends had recommended the Aqua Class cabins and dining room. Positives: Comfortable cabin, very well maintained by our excellent steward, Leslie. Ports were all very good and the ship schedule also. Aqua class dining room a pleasure with excellent service and generally good cuisine. If your entrée was unsatisfactory, you could request something else, and it was delivered promptly. Some dishes were too salty. We enjoyed the first night's Irish dance and music performance very much. Lido café food was varied and delicious, with superb Asian and Indian dishes. Negatives: The muster drill was ridiculous with a cartoonish film which made light of what should be a serious subject. With the exception of the first night's entertainment, we skipped the rest, which did not interest us (also the music was far too LOUD). Excursions were expensive and some were excellent, but some poor. Drink prices and wine costs very expensive. Same for Wi-Fi. No free shuttles to ports. Library poor with no daily newspapers and very few books. We attended one lecture on Paris architecture and wish there had been more comparable educational offerings. No self serve laundry. Laundry charges exorbitant. Celebrity fares seem attractive, but they do not offer many inclusions. Everything costs extra! Would we cruise with Celebrity again? Probably not unless the itinerary was very attractive and the price right. Read Less

This was our 13th cruise and third with Celebrity. We sailed on Equinox in 2016 and Silhouette in 2013. Lately we sailed on Oceania and Azamara, and it was interesting to see how it would be to go from Oceania back to Celebrity. So first, is Celebrity going down the hill as many posters claim? In our opinion, the answer is NO. We actually have seen some things improved compared to our previous Celebrity sailings, I will go into more details later. Second, can you go back from Oceania to Celebrity? The answer is YES, as long as you come with proper expectations. Don't expect service and food similar to Oceania - they are in a different league. But you can still have a very enjoyable experience on Celebrity. Now to some details. Entertainment: very good most of the time, beats Oceania hands down. The ship is very alive in the evening, the shows are very professional and evening activities are very attractive. We were especially impressed with guest entertainers, the productions shows were just okay. Buffet: We liked the buffet very much. Huge selection and pretty good quality most of the tiime. It is nowhere close Oceania, but it's pretty similar to a decent buffet on land. Not a gourmet food, but good overall. And many new items daily which is also not what I remember from the Equinox. Very crowded on sea days, finding a table was a real challenge. MDR was a bit disappointing. I wouldn't call it bad, just not inspiring. Presentation is good, the taste so so, with few exceptions. Deserts are amazing, probably among the best we had on any ship. We also liked the fact that buffet is open long hours, unlike Oceania and Azamara where after 10pm there is nothing to eat except room service. Service: good overall, considering the amount of passenger and crew passengers ratio. The wait for coffee can still be long, but they are trying their best. Just take it with patience and smile and don't expect the service to match Oceania. The staff is very friendly and helpful. Excursions: expensive as usual, but very well organized most of the time, with few exceptions. Mostly very good guides, and the groups were fairly small on most occasions (around 20-30 people). Daily activities: a bit disappointing. We were missing the art seminars and guest lectures that we had on Oceania, Azamara and Cunard. I was surprised to see the art gallery shrinking in size by more than half. Internet: It was pathetic and miserable on our previous Celebrity cruises. I could see some improvement on this cruise when most people were in port. In the evening when people are on board, it is still pathetic (speedtest shows less than 0.5 mbps). Getting off and on the ship was not an issue most of the time, while still longer than Oceania or Azamara. Room is fine. No issues. Bed ok. Bedding pretty basic. Room attendant not very good. We have to ask for everything starting from extra towels and bathrobes, soap and shampoo. We noticed a relatively high number of children, teenagers and young couples. Also overall demographics is very different from what we have seen on previous cruises. Could be related to the fact that they dropped the prices by 40% few weeks before the cruise. Overall we were impressed with Celebrity and would return, given the right itinerary and price. At the end of the day Celebrity provides a good overall package with decent value. But it's not Oceania. Just don't expect a Honda to be a Mercedes.  Read Less

We chose this cruise because of the itinerary and it did not disappoint. Quite the selection of interesting ports and activities. I've been fortunate enough to have been on over 10 cruises and the cafe on this ship is the best by far......both in terms of variety and quality. We found the entertainment in the other hand to be somewhat limited. The staff was AMAZINGLY friendly and helpful throughout the duration of the cruise. We ate in Murano (very nice) and Tuscan Grille...nice enough. We had access to Luminae which, while the food was of high quality the choices were more limited than I recall on other ships and I think they were short on staff, service was consistently slower than in other restaurants. We had 1 meal in BLU, which was much busier then we ever saw Luminae. The BIG disappointment (really the only disappointment) was Qsine. The format has been changed...now Le Petite Chef. Previously it was a truly unique "foodie" experience . Now its a bit gimmicky and ....juvenile. The service remains excellent and the food good but if you liked the "old Qsine" you will be very disappointed. All in all it was a great ship and cruise. I'd like to cruise on this ship on a warm weather destination to be able to take full advantage of all the unique outside venues. And I'd even do this exact itinerary again......which I've never said before. Read Less

This cruise offered many ports we had not yet visited. Three cities in Ireland plus Liverpool (I am a big Beatles fan), Dover, Le Havre, Bruges and Amsterdam. Plus we got a great deal which included free drink package, free internet, paid gratuities and $300 in onboard credit. On the plus side the drink package covered all drinks (which I only learned on the third day when an attendant mentioned it to me). On the negative side, the free internet only applied to one device. Embarkation was reasonably quick, but no paperwork provided now - hence my ignorance of my beverage package. My luggage never showed, I called twice and got put on hold and disconnected once, then told I would get a call back - I didn't. Finally went down to the desk and there it was. They said it didn't have a name tag - but it did have the room number luggage tag they provide, so not sure why they could not deliver it. Also discovered they have a new do-it-yourself system for scanning your sea pass when leaving and returning. First time I nearly walked off the ship without scanning as no one asked for my sea pass. Again some paperwork when signing in might have been nice for learning this fact. Our cabin was adequate but nothing special. We had a balcony that was slightly higher than the lifeboats. Storage space was ample and we got great service from our attendant Dina. We ate in the MDR the first two nights, then went to the Oceanview Cafe the rest of the time. We had anytime seating and requested table for two. We got that but it was sandwiched between several other tables for two so you might as well be eating at the large round tables. We checked the menus every night but did not see anything that would tempt us back to the MDR. The wait staff and wine steward were all very good when we were there. The food in the Café was very good with many options. The bartender always greeted us with our beverage of choice when we entered the room. We did not use any of the restaurants. We did make the theater almost every night. The ship orchestra was quite good and the cast was adequate. I didn't care much for the Celebrity shows Euphoria and Elysium. The singing was good but the plot/story line was thin/nonexistent. The guest stars were all quite good. A magician Mathew McGurk who did primarily card tricks while his wife joined to do some aerial stunts. A sax player/singer Hayden Smith who also had his wife (Alexa Jayne) join the show to sing. Both had quality voices. Mark O'Malley was another fine vocalist as was Helen Wilding. The flyboys are a grown boy band who sing boogie woogie style and do it well. We had seen them before on a prior cruise. Our favorite was Kyle Espin a Scottish piano player ala Jerry Lee Lewis. Tremendous self-taught talent. Dublin is a grand city with lots to see. We used a Hop On Hop Off bus which unfortunately did not have a working microphone. Belfast is still a very divided city to my surprise. They may no longer kill each other but there is no love between them still. We took a Giants Causeway Tour with Odyssey Coach Tours. Really wonderful tour. In Liverpool we took a half day Beatles and Sightseeing Walking tour through Brilliant Liverpool Tours. Our guide was quite knowledgeable and entertaining and we got to go inside the Cavern Club. Spent the rest of the day on our own. Next Stop was Cobh for 2 days. First day we walked around on our own and the second day we took a Cork and Blarney Castle Tour with Railtours of Ireland. Blarney Castle was fine, but we skipped waiting 2 hours to kiss the Blarney Stone. The gardens are very nice. We could have skipped the Cobh Heritage center portion of the tour. Must have been a school outing as there were a lot of loud teenagers roaming the place. We used our onboard credit to take a Celebrity excursion from Dover to Cantebury and Leeds Castle. Both were quite impressive. Le Havre was another 2 day stop and was the jumping point for Paris and D-Day tours but we have seen Paris many times and did not want to spend 5 hours on a train (roundtrip). So we booked a train ride to Honfleur through Bee LeHavre, a pretty little city an hour away from Le Havre where some Impressionists painted. The second day we walked around Le Havre - which did not take long. Our final port before disembarking in Amsterdam was Bruges (reachable by bus ticket). We just did a self guided tour there. Very pretty town, but it was very hot the day we were there. We did have 2 sea days and found sufficient activities to keep us busy. The temperatures were in the mid 50s in the British Isles so pool did not get much use. Fitness Center was adequate and we never had to wait for equipment. We made the mistake of paying for a wine tasting that was oversold and poorly organized. They set up six different stations but the stewards were too busy pouring to be able to tell each individual much about what we were sampling. Disembarking was smooth - we had to catch an early flight so handled our own luggage and were in a cab within 30 minutes. Read Less

We are Celebrity Aqua Class loyalists and chose this 12 night, 8 port cruise because it ticked off many new places on our bucket list. The overall Celebrity experience was exactly what we value and expect: an overall classy product, very well-maintained ship, exceptional dining experience in Blu, and generally attentive service throughout the ship. However, the itinerary that sounded so great on paper translated into an EXHAUSTING vacation with too few sea days sprinkled-in to even begin recovery onboard. Lesson learned. We arrived in DUBLIN on the morning of Jun 13th, which gave us a full day and night to explore the city before boarding the ship on the 14th. Embarkation was easy and efficient, and we gained access to our stateroom by mid-afternoon. Since we didn't sail until 8 pm on the 15th, we could have continued sightseeing but just didn't feel compelled to do so. Generally speaking, we found Dublin disappointing - not enough of interest to do or see, and a bit 'sad' overall. Weather was cool and misty, which didn't help. In BELFAST, we did the ship's Game of Thrones excursion to Winterfell, and found the trip entertaining, informative and quite memorable! The Celebrity tour guide was quite good, and the Winterfell personnel (who guided us through all of the onsite activities) were all former extras in the series who shared great insights to what went on both in front of and behind the camera. Highlights: an archery competition, mock sword fights, great scenery, and a chance to meet 2 of the Dire-wolves in person. We felt the port in LIVERPOOL was close enough to the 'action' to self-tour. We walked to the Cavern Club, good shopping, and a casual fish 'n chips eatery near the water. This actually turned out to be one of our more favorite stops, maybe because we could do it independently and at our own speed. Next up was the port of COBH/CORK, where we docked overnight for 2 full days of sightseeing. The first day, we took the commuter train from Cobh to Cork (very easy - station is adjacent to the dock) and self-toured the city for a couple of hours. The English Market (especially O'Flynn's gourmet sausage sandwich) was the highlight. Besides shopping, there isn't much there. We took an 8 hr Celebrity excursion to Kinsale and Blarney Castle on the 2nd day. Our time in Kinsale, where there are some cute shops but too many tourists, was too short - and we were running to the bus after about an hour there. The tour included lunch at a hotel outside of Cork ... this facility was very nice (tho not quaint or interesting in any way), and we had a surprisingly tasty lunch complete with Irish music and dancers. It left us feeling like we had attended a very restrained Irish wedding reception. This was followed by a bus ride to see Cork 'highlights' (completely unnecessary) and finally a lengthy stop at Blarney Castle and Woolen Mills. Underwhelming. Finally, we enjoyed a restful (and sunny!) sea day on the 20th. This would be a good time to point out that at no time on this trip did we feel we were actually 'sailing', since the distance between ports was always nominal and the captain maintained a very slow, steady speed. We did, however, have 1 or 2 (depending on who you talked to) medical evacuations while at sea. We arrived to DOVER early on Friday and were docked there from 7 am to 7 pm. Some passengers opted for excursions near to port, but we (and at least 25 busloads of people) headed into LONDON. Big mistake! We rode an hour before picking up our tour guide at a rest stop, then another 1.5+ hours before getting into London. The sheer number of tourists, cars, buses, demonstrators, and road closures made it near-impossible to get around the city or enjoy the sights. After several grueling hours in city traffic, we were deposited near the London Eye for a 'find it on your own' fast food lunch and toilet break. Friends on another bus weren't as lucky --- demonstrators sat down in the road just ahead of their bus, causing them to do a u-turn on a bridge(!), and taking so much time away from their tour that they never got lunch at all! I guess our tour guide was fed up too ... he exited the bus in London, and avoided the 3 hour trip back to the ship entirely. Note to Celebrity: consider providing a 'boxed lunch' on these very long excursions and require that the tour guide actually start and end the tour with the group. Next stop LE HAVRE for an overnight. On day 1, we did a 10 hour private, small group tour of NORMANDY with Overlord Tours. We saw Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, the American cemetery, and the town of Saint-Marie-Eglise. Overall, this was a long but fantastic day and our tour guide was amazing in his depth of knowledge and ability to transport us back in time to D-Day. We HIGHLY recommend this tour operator, and their representative, Thomas. On Day 2, we took a Celebrity excursion to PARIS and had a gourmet lunch and city tour aboard the Paris Bustronome, with 2 hours of free time after lunch to stroll/shop the Champs Elysees. The bus ride to/from Paris was long (2.5 hours each way even on a Sunday) but the tour guide was very entertaining. We thoroughly enjoyed this whole experience (except for inadequate a/c on the lunch Bus) and believe anyone who complained to Celebrity that they didn't enjoy the food or wine had clearly not done their homework - the menu was posted on the Bustronome website since April 1st and was done to perfection. After another sea day (where we absolutely crawled to our next stop), we arrived in the port serving BRUGES. We had pre-arranged a taxi with friends to take us into town, an easy and cost-effective way to get there and self-tour. We enjoyed walking this charming little town, chocolate shopping, and an outdoor cafe, especially before the crowds arrived around midday. Disembarkation in AMSTERDAM was crowded but fairly efficient. We walked to Central Station, bought a 3-day Amsterdam & Region Travel ticket (highly recommend this as it allows easy, unlimited travel on trams, buses, and metro), and proceeded to enjoy our 3 additional days in AMS touring the city, and visiting Zaanse Schans, Volendam, and Marken. The Heineken Experience was very well done and getting around in this city is a joy. Loved it. A few words about our shipboard experience. - BLU Restaurant has never disappointed us. We had exceptional service (thank you Mario and Raj), lovely meals, and entertaining dinner conversations with new friends. - At age 7, the Reflection is still a remarkably lovely ship. This was our 3rd sailing on her, and all of her public rooms and our stateroom, were in excellent repair. - The Martini Bar and Sky Lounge personnel need to take it up a notch - a BIG notch. Uncharacteristically, we found the service in these venues to be inattentive, disengaged, and terribly disappointing. Fortunately, we found better bar staff in the Passport Bar who were interested in knowing our preferences and anticipating our needs. - The Casino is sadly very 'tight' on this ship, even though our long port stays kept it closed for most of the trip. - Evening entertainment was uninspired. Read Less

What a Fantastic Trip!! Our trip began in Tallahassee, Florida on May 29th as we drove to Atlanta for our Delta flight to Dublin. On this trip we used ChoiceAir through Celebrity Cruises to acquire our flights. We found several advantages in using ChoiceAir: excellent prices; ability to choose the flights; and, additional cost protection if you experience flight delays. We just told the ChoiceAir agent the Delta flights we wanted and once the purchase process was complete, we just went to the Delta site and selected our seats and provided additional personal information. We will definitely use ChoiceAir in the future. We chose to park at the Atlanta Airport and used the shuttle to transfer (5 minutes) from the International Park and Ride Garage to the International Terminal. We departed Atlanta at 9:40 p.m. and arrived in Dublin at 10:45 a.m. the following morning. Clearing immigration In Ireland took 30 minutes as there was a queue of approximately 300 people, but the line moved quickly. Expect questions about the purpose of your trip and what you will be doing in Ireland. Pre-cruise: Four Days in Dublin in order to experience Dublin, we arrived four-days prior to the cruise. For convenience, we took a taxi (25 euros) to our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn at 1 Custom House Quay. The cost for a four-night stay was 892 euros which included a full Irish buffet breakfast every morning. After checking in at the hotel, we walked around for a couple of hours in downtown Dublin to get our bearings. We checked for the nearest Laus (light rail) stop which was out the hotel’s back door, visited the main office for Elegant Tours to check on our two pre-booked tours for the next two days, and walked around the Temple Bar area. The hotel was conveniently located on the north side of the River Liffey and a 10 minute walk to O’Connell Street (the main north/south route) in downtown Dublin. I highly recommend the hotel. We found Dublin to be a very walkable city with a very active downtown during the day and in the evenings. There were always a lot of people out enjoying the many things that Dublin has to offer. We found it to be a safe and a fun city to visit. On Friday, May 31st (57 degrees and light rain), we toured with Elegant Small Group Tours (maximum of 25 passengers) to the Cliff of Mohrs. The cost for the tour was 85 euro per person. We were picked up at 7:30 a.m. at the Westin Hotel (a 12 minute walk from our hotel). The 12-hour tour included stops at King John’s Castle, a coastal ride along the Wild Atlantic Drive, a visit to Doolin Village, and a tour of the Cliffs of Moher. Our driver recommended a hour-long ferry ride (20 euros per person) to view the Cliffs from sea level to get a better view. Unfortunately, it was raining with a diminished view at the cliffs and the seas were rough resulting in a number of passengers getting sea sick. Unless the weather is clear and the seas are calm, I would not recommend the ferry ride. The highlight of the visit to the Cliffs was lunch in Fitz’s Pub in the Dollin Hotel. The seafood chowder and the fish potpie was excellent! We also enjoyed our visit to King John’s Castle in Limerick. The tour was self-guided and the view of the city from the armory tower was great! The Irish countryside is really beautiful and you really do see 50 shades of green. After a long day, we had dinner at Eddie Rockets on the River Liffey across from our hotel - a great place for burgers and wings. On Saturday, June 1st (58 degrees and sunny), we went on a 12-hour Elegant Small Group Tour to Giant’s Causeway. This tour included a stop in Belfast and a tour of Giant’s Causeway. In Belfast we took the Black Cab tour - this was included in the cost of the tour. The Black Cab tour took you to the wall that divides the two communities and explained the history of the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland. The visit to the Giant’s Causeway (UNESCO World Heritage Site) was excellent! The Causeway is a distinctive volcanic and geological formation. We enjoyed the commentary provided by our driver and really loved the drive through the Irish countryside. We were very pleased with Elegant’s small group tours and highly recommend their tours. On Sunday, June 2nd, (60 degrees and sunny), we toured downtown Dublin using Do Dublin’s Bus Tours (the Hop-On Hop Off - Green Bus). Two senior two-day passes cost $54.92. The buses departed at 9:00 a.m. from stop 1 on north O’Connell Street. I recommend walking to stop 1 at 9:00 a.m. to get the best seats in the top level of the bus. We rode the entire circuit and enjoyed the driver’s commentary on the numerous sites and history of the city. Stop 5 was outside of our hotel. In the afternoon, we toured the Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The architecture in all of these magnificent structures was amazing! All had an entry fee of less than 10 euros. We concluded our day of touring with an excellent early dinner at the Kingfisher Restaurant (fish and chips) on Parnell Street. Celebrity Reflection First of all, make sure to print the Celebrity Guest Ticket Booklet when you check in online for the cruise as it has detailed directions to the Dublin pier. On Monday, June 3rd, we took a cab to the pier to board the Celebrity Reflection. We had been assigned a boarding time of 11:30 a.m. In Dublin, check-in is not adjacent to the ship since the ship is docked in an active commercial port. We arrived around 11:00 a.m., but I would recommend arriving around 10:30 a.m. Embarkation was efficient, except that after checking-in you are directed to take a seat and wait until your number is called to board the shuttle. Unfortunately, the wait for us was more than an hour for the shuttle to take us to the ship. The Reflection is a beautiful ship and was clean and well-maintained. We stayed in cabin 7193, a veranda room. The room was well maintained and outstanding cabin service was provided by our Cabin Attendant (Diardra)! She was very friendly and was always asking if we needed anything. We also received excellent service from Zora and Benji in the Cafe al Bacio on Deck Five. The food in the Main Dining Room was good and the service was excellent (Joaquim - Waiter, Srdan - Asst. Waiter). We usually had breakfast in the Oceanview Cafe and we really enjoyed the made-to-order omelettes, the fresh fruit (especially the sliced oranges), and the daily featured danish and breakfast bread station. The walnut, cinnamon breakfast bread was delicious!! We did purchase the four-night speciality dinning plan for $149 per person. We had dinner at the Lawn Club Grill two of the nights; as usual, it was outstanding and I highly recommend this restaurant. What could be better, great food, great service and the cool evening air of Ireland and Iceland! We also had dinner one night in the Tuscan Grill; the service and the food did not disappoint! The fourth night we had dinner in Murano, a French restaurant, and the food and service were outstanding. The entertainment on the ship was good and we enjoyed several shows. The highlight was the last night in Dublin, where a Celtic band and dance group performed Irish music and dancing in the Grand Foyer. Disembarkation in Dublin was very efficient and began around 6:30 a.m. on Friday, June 14th, with passengers carrying their own luggage. Since we had a 12:20 p.m. flight (which originally was an 11:00 a.m. flight) we decided to stay another night in Dublin and fly home on Saturday. We departed the ship around 9:00 a.m. and took the bus transfer provided by the cruise line to the airport as we had booked the Crown Plaza near the airport (1.5 miles). There are limited taxis available near the ship and there was a long line waiting for taxis when we left the ship. If we had to do it again, we would do the express departure (carry your own luggage), take a taxi from the pier to the airport, and fly home the same day, especially if your flight is after 12 noon. Delta recommends that you arrive at least 4 hours before your flight time for international flights from Dublin due to the US Customs and Immigration clearance prior to boarding. Several sources recommend that you arrive more than three hours before international flights since there are a lot of international flights leaving around noon and the airport gets congested. A Delta agent at the airport told us to allow at least 2 hours just to clear the U.S. Security and U.S. Customs and Immigration. Most international flights, including Delta, leave from Terminal 2. We caught the 6:00 a.m. free hotel bus to the airport and at this early hour it took us approximately one hour to get to the gate with virtually no waiting in line. We are a member of the Global Traveler Program and this expedited our processing time in U.S. Customs and Immigration as there are separated kiosks for Global Travel members. This allowed us to clear U. S. Immigration in just a few minutes,. The check-in procedure was also different from the U.S. as we went to a kiosk to get our boarding pass, then to passport control in line waiting to check in/baggage to have our passports checked by a Delta agent (to get a passport sticker), then to the counter to check our baggage, then scanned our boarding passes to get to Irish security to have our carryon luggage scanned. Once past Irish Security, follow the American Flag signs to U.S. security screening and then to U.S.Customs and Immigration, as in Dublin you clear Customs and Immigration prior to boarding the plane. Once you are at the gate area, there are limited food services in the gate area. The advantage of clearing U.S. Customs and Immigration in Dublin is that when you arrive in the U.S., the flight is treated as a domestic flight and you do not have to go to Customs and Immigration. Read Less

We chose this cruise for it's itinerary and it 's departure port. We did back to back from Dublin to Norway and eventually to Iceland. The embarkation process was a nightmare for most travelers. The Muster Drill was rediculous with a stupid film that was shown and not visible to most and useless at best. So much for safety at sea.Cabin was fine. Always clean and tidy.Needs better storage as drawers were non existent We were concierge class and as always,the snacks were the pits. The entertainment was not great . The onboacrd entertainers were just OK. Some of the other acts could be replaced with better. Sit on an end so that you can escape if necessary. Odds at blackjack were too much in the houses favor. Food and service were fine. The presentation was nice and the chef did well in using what was inexpensive stuff and making it taste great. Seating at the buffet was difficult particularly on sea days.Dining room staff was really on their game and well trained. All other crew were most helpful and very pleasant. Read Less

The itinerary was excellent. Love that cruise ships going out of Dublin. The required need to use shuttle buses from makeshift passenger terminal was awkward. Much better at disembarktion. The staff friendly and very helpful. Food and overall service excellent. Staff did great job having cabins ready when guests boarded. Embarking and Disembarking was very smooth most of the time. Enjoyed Celebrity organized tours. The Destination Concierge was exceptional. Future Cruise staff very attentive and well informed. Felt the overall decor was a big miss. Art work, mostly dull or black and white very weird subject matter or abstract. Many chairs in public areas too low . Had a balcony room with 2 sharing...very small and sad inadequate storage. Had to keep climbing onto bed to access the over the bed storage bins. Inconvenient and dangerous. The Captain made appearances at events but otherwise was not very visible. The senior staff was out and about but were not particularly approachable. Read Less

We chose this cruise for the destination. It was my second cruise (my 1st was with Celebrity in 2017 to Alaska) and my husband's first cruise. We were in a suite. Embarkation from the Port of Dublin was a nightmare and took just shy of two hours. Our cabin was 2210 located aft on deck 12. We liked the layout of the cabin (sofa near balcony). The bathroom was spacious and had lots of storage. The cabin itself had sufficient storage as well. All was in good condition except the sofa was a little threadbare. We could hear a little scraping of chairs from the Sunset Bar above, but mostly in the morning. It was not enough to bother us. Our cabin steward kept our cabin clean and stocked. Our butler was eager and pleasant but was not as present as he should have been. He failed to continuously stock breakfast room service order forms and we had to ask for them. He failed to ask us if we intended to attend the performances, but we showed up anyway to be seated in the reserved seating area. We had to remind him several times for the blankets that we had requested to use on our balcony. He did clear the refrigerator and keep it stocked with water as we had requested. We ate breakfast in our room and were pleased with the quality of the food and timeliness of delivery. The food was warm, but not hot. The coffee was hot. We at most of the rest of our meals in Luminae. The service was exceptional. The food was very good. We did note, though, that the cooked fish dishes were what we considered over-cooked. We ate at the Porch once for lunch and found it very good. We also at Sushi on 5 for lunch and found it very good. The ramen was warm but not hot, but everything else was very good. We had lunch at the Ocean View Café once and found the service very good and the food good as well. We arrived right as lunch service opened and had no trouble finding a table. We were approached by wait staff several times asking if we had a drink order and tables were cleared quickly. We tried a number of the lounges. We enjoyed Michael's lounge for suite guests. Staff were very friendly and professional. They remembered us and our usual drink orders. We enjoyed the several times that entertainment was provided there. Our usual lounge, besides Michaels, was the Ensemble Lounge. We enjoyed the live music there. It could have used another waiter. The bar staff and wait staff were very busy and the wait to put in a drink order was a bit long. We particularly enjoyed the performer Charlotte who played acoustic guitar and sang. We saw the guest performers but not the Celebrity shows. We enjoyed the guest performers in the theater. We enjoyed the silent disco twice. The dance floor was packed both times. We also enjoyed the Beatles review and again the dance floor was packed. We did a Ridele wine tasting that focused on the most appropriate type of glass for a wine. The wines served were very good, the presenter was well informed and a good speaker. We 3 excursions through Celebrity: behind the scenes tour; kayaking; and a tour of a goat farm and dairy. 2 were great and 1 was not. The kayaking was not good because Celebrity had booked too many participants (29). For the operator to get all the participants in 2-man kayaks with the splash guards in place and the rudders set took nearly an hour. That left a little more than an hour of guided tour in the water. Also, it was difficult to keep everyone close enough to hear the tour guide. We did a smaller excursion boat up on fjord on our own and it was great. We did some hiking and some self-guided walks around towns on our own. All very easily. We flew into Dublin 4 days early, rented a car and drove out to the West Coast and along the Wild Atlantic Way. We did a tour of a fish smokehouse and a tour of an oyster farm. We enjoyed a self-guided walk of Galway. We found the Hop on Hop Off bus in Dublin to be a good way to see the city with limited time. We enjoyed all the ports, including Alesund and Bergen. We also enjoyed Belfast. We did Belfast on our own and went to the Titanic Museum and St. George's Market. Read Less

We chose this cruise because it was to the Norwegian fjords and departing from Dublin, hence no need for a flight as we live in Belfast. We travelled down to Dublin on the Enterprise train, which was great and when we arrived at Connolly station a taxi was easily obtained and only a short ride required to the dock. Embarkation was rather haphazard, however when we eventually boarded the ship it was the start of a great holiday. Officers always about keeping an eye on everything and very chatty. All of the staff were helpful and friendly which made our holiday, good atmosphere on this ship, much better than Equinox last year. Room Attendant Julio helpful and happy guy. Speciality restaurants v good, French, Tuscan and Petit chef good food and service, would definitely recommend, Pedro the waiter in the French restaurant very attentive. Martini bar good fun for a drink before evening meal. Great itinerary with beautiful ports. Very pleased with Celebrity Reflection. Read Less

Chose this cruise as departure was from Dublin and although it was quite chaotic to check in it didn't take too long. The ship itself was quite disappointing as I was expecting much more grandeur (having previously only cruised with Royal Caribbean (6 cruises) and had always thought that Celebrity were a step up but I was very wrong). Although the ship was clean, and staff were mostly pleasant I found the whole ambience to be uninviting. We only managed one good nights sleep as our stateroom was extremely noisey - not sure where the noise was coming from but it was constant nightly and sounded like clanging noise on metal stairs - so would advise avoiding stateroom 6203. As we had very little sleep, we were very tired throughout our holiday. Entertainment in the theatre was very good and meals in the dining room were also very good as was the buffet in the Oceanview Cafe. So, I think we will be sticking with Royal Caribbean for any future cruises! Read Less

I’ve been a bit concerned when reading some recent reviews on the Reflection so I was pleasantly surprised during this, my fourth time on this particular ship. I really cannot see what anyone has to complain about! It was my 23rd X cruise so I’ve had plenty of experiences to compare this with! The food quality, volume and selections were as good as usual. The Captain’s Club hostess (Luann) and the CD (Simon) were both efficient and entertaining. The Senior Officers were present on a few occasions and perfectly friendly. Guest Relations and Shore Excursions operated as normal. The check-in procedure was the fastest ever and debarkation went smoothly and ahead of schedule. Our waiter (Michelle) and stateroom attendant (Patricio) were excellent. Particularly good on this cruise were the bar and wait staff in the Sky Lounge during the 5-7 pm Elite and above “cocktail time”. Those were definitely the best appetizers I’ve had at these events! Even the entertainment was better than usual with the exception of a truly awful and embarrassing hypnotist show! Oh dear! My only complaint was that for the second cruise in a row X had arbitrarily changed my 6:00 pm early dining to 5:30 pm! That’s ridiculous (I’m not a 90 year old American living in Florida!!). I had no choice but to switch to late (8:30 pm) dining since selective was “full”. Anyway, I like set dining and having the same waiter and table mates! Read Less

We have always liked Celebrity. But, the Celebrity Reflection cruise last week from Ireland to the fjords of Norway disappointed us in several ways. First the pros: The shows each night were spectacular...the best we have seen on a cruise. The food in all the dining venues was excellent. Staying in the Aqua Class suite allowed us a tour of the galley and we felt so comfortable witnessing how clean and organized and focused on food safety they were. The waiters in the dining room were very efficient and kind. Our room steward got the flu, unfortunately, and we didn't see him again after the first few days, but the room was cleaned daily by different people. The cons: 6-months before the cruise, we realized that the two major shore excursions we booked the cruise to see (the major fjords) were already full. They did not open extra excursions and Norway does not have many private tours (the ones we did find were also already booked because the ship excursions were booked, or we were unable to book them because the ship offered such short time in several ports). We did luck out and find some city bus tours, but couldn't understand why Celebrity would take a ship full of thousands of people to such remote ports without offering sufficient things to do. We had bad weather (very windy) most of the time and four of us (in two separate cabins) were bothered intermittently with some kind of knocking or creaking in the walls when the ship would move with the wind. Our friends had someone come up to their cabin to see if they could find the cause, but it was to no avail. (Decks 9 and 11). All passengers had to get off the ship by 0730 the morning of disembarkation. This caused us to have to spend 6 hours at the airport before our flight was to leave back to U.S. If you want to actually "see" the fjords, we suggest that you try another cruise line or check the availability of the shore excursions before booking. Read Less

This itinerary to British Isles and Iceland was on sale so in general we felt a great value for money. Some said there was a downgrade of quality & service but we didn't see that at all. The ship was in good shape, well kept and clean. Service was as usual very good. Embarkation at Dublin was longer than expected. Check in tent was far away from the dock. Most people (except suite guests) needed to wait at least 30-45 mins to board a shuttle that took you to the ship. No excuse, Celebrity could have arranged MORE buses. Food at MDR was OK. Murano was still awesome. Le Petit chef was fun but tasted bad - steak was so tough, not really edible. Buffet was better than expected with paella, shrimp risotto, and fish & chips etc. We were really disappointed with entertainment though as there was no lectures on this cruise - sea days were boring. And because of weather we didn't spend alot of time on deck. Trivias and games were mostly small scaled and only lasted 15-30 mins. I'm not sure about others, many people might enjoy the shows but I found them extremely out-dated and corny. We didn't join any ship's excursions as some of their prices were outrageous. a 5-6 hour tour to Game of Thrones castle cost $399! Some said the bad itinerary was the reason it needed to discount to fill up the rooms. Overall very rushed as the ship departed at 4-5pm most of the ports. Clearly this cruise was not for someone who wished to thoroughly visit a place. Itinerary / embarkation / entertainment needed improvement but still an enjoyable cruise. At this price I would not hesitate to go again. Read Less

We have been on many cruises, in many parts of the world. Our cruises have been a mix of Oceania and Princess. We expect a clean ship. It’s the only way to avoid disease. We constantly wash our hands. The Reflection was by far the worst experience. No wash stations at the buffet. Many waiters pimping booze, but not cleaning tables. No beverage service at the tables, the centralized beverage station is a disease cluster with people coughing over it. No visible crew wiping down of common contagion points - elevators, handrails, etc for the entire cruise. The Celebrity Reflection is not a clean ship. We both got norovirus - medical support was good. Two days of quarantine, but stomachs have not fully recovered. Substandard entertainment. Princess far better. Theater not handicapped friendly. Dining room tables packed like sardines. Only good cooking in the specialty restaurant - which they constantly hawked to get you to sign up for. Poor quality of room service food. Never Celebrity. Never again. Read Less

As mentioned the destination was amazing and the ship was wonderful, as we knew it would be having sailed on every one of the solicited class Ship except FOR the Reflection. I do like that the Sky lounge is now the focal point for late night drinks as I have always felt that this is an amazing space that was never fully utilized, and have to mention that the Bar staff there are all amazing. Before the cruise we bought a 4 night dining package and was given a 5th night by Celebrity as per an agreement on a previous cruise. True to their word the invitation was waiting on the ship on arrival thank you Celebrity. This meant that on an 10 day cruise we had 5 specialty dining evenings, we had a few dinners in the Main dining room and one dinner at the Ocean view Cafe. The meals and service in the MDR was OK but not great, while the food and personalized service in the specialty restaurants were amazing. I must however mention that I would have thought that as a premium cruise line I would have expected the service and not the quality of the food should have been the reason for going to the specialty restaurant. However it is clear that unless you are happy with mediocre food you have to pay for great food. Entertainment was as good as can be expected, with some great voices and excellent acrobats and good comedy. Credit to the ships theater staff for the amazing costumes that really made some of the shows extra special. One thing I have to note is that the band although great would sometime drown out the singing, but something that can easily be fixed by the sound engineer. The negative point was not having any of the 6 Spa Baths working 3 days after we set sail and on the 1st sea day, for whatever the reason was, and we heard many conflicting stories . The second issue was the constant selling of drinks packages, upgrading of packages or selling of specialty dining packages. I am sure it must be as painful for the staff as for the guest and really puts a damper on the cruise. A few of the people in our group went so far as to wear a T shirt that they have had made that read “ No Thanks I have a drinks package already”. Sounded like they have cruised on Celebrity before! To Celebrity’s credit this now seem, to be the norm on most cruise lines. The last and probably more serious is the number of people that was getting sick, including more than half of the 80 people that we were travelling with. The ship was immaculate and constantly being cleaned but somehow many passengers ended up with a cough / cold and it could be heard through out the ship. To sum-up the trip was great the and I would not hesitate to recommend the destination or the ship, but please stop selling me stuff I already have or that I don’t need Read Less

This was a Back to Back cruise, from Dublin to Iceland on May 16, then Dublin to Norway on May 26. Celebrity runs these routes only a few times a year. Because of the weather, balcony and outside deck use was minimal, if at all. The only outside features that were used were the hot tubs. The Celebrity excursions were double to triple the price of private excursions. In all cases, our private excursions returned to the ship with plenty of time. As we have found with all Celebrity ships, the crew is always glad to see you. We noticed this especially with our cabin attendant, our server in the main dining room, and the sanitizer lady in front of the buffet. Speaking of the buffet, we always got fresh made omelets to order very quickly. There was always something delicious and as always, the pastries were created by a master; they always looked so enticing. For those wanting coffee, there is a free coffee/tea station in the Hideaway Lounge on Deck 7. Speaking of free, Celebrity doesn’t tell you that the pastries in the Cafe al Baccio are free. We did have two instances where a bit of communications would have made the cruise better. First, Celebrity decided to perform heavy maintenance directly below our cabin. They were cutting the wall on the Promenade deck with heavy saws, drills and other tools. Our cabin was shaking. Our first complaint to Guest Relations received a “Huh?” They couldn’t find anything going on. We continued to complain, and by the fifth day, the supervisor gave us a partial credit for a future cruise, saying they were doing work on the emission system. A letter saying they were going to do maintenance would have been helpful. Second, Celebrity decided to turn on the spray washers to wash the balconies. A letter telling us about the washing would have been nice, just in case we left a door open. Even though Celebrity says there is a shortage of taxis at the Dublin dock (and maybe you should buy a Celebrity transport), we didn’t see a slowdown. Disembarkation was smooth. Read Less

For the destination. Sadly The ship was not spectacular or beautifully decorated. Their main focus was having alcohol available everywhere . Loud blaring music instead of relaxing Pianos, orchestras, or talented musicians. Only the last night was an Irish band and dancers presented at the theatre. Of all my cruises, the main dining room was the worst I’ve experienced. Main courses were plainly presented, over cooked, nothing special. My own meals are tastier at home. Most of the desserts were pretty but made with fluffy frosting in different flavors. No flourless chocolate cake my favorite. I will say the gelato was very good. The food in the Ocean View was much better than the Opus dining room. When we asked about getting a taxi to get off of the ship the last day guest relations was untruthful telling us we had to have a reservation because no taxies would be available.Also that we must meet in reflection Theatre before getting off the ship but when we got up that morning people were getting off of the ship at 5 AM and taxies were available. This is my first and last experience with Celebrity cruise line. Read Less

On second thought whoever approved it should be too. Believe me there were a lit of pluses on this cruise but that just started it off on the wrong foot. Forced to watch a completely agonizing movie that was supposed to be funny but truly asinine. People were actually trying to bust out but were forced to stay until the end. Give us the facts and let us go already. Safety is first but that was far from enlightening. OK now the cruise. The good...ship was beautiful, dining room food very good, except when before lunch and after breakfast there was some time when you could not get anything? That was kind of odd, associates all very friendly, housekeeping (Marvin) excellent, entertainment good, public room plenty, good movie choices on sea days, fitness room very nice. The bad...disembarkation for daily stops was horrendous. One line out and one line in...specialty restaurants pricing is way too high. Plan on spending $90 minimum plus cost of drinks unless you can snag a special. The food was very good to not good and for the price it should be exceptional....wine pricing on board is way too high also. We bought a five bottle classic wine package, these were $12 wines in a store, cost came to $216 with the 20% gratuities. Seeing we brought most of the wines back to our room without opening them we paid that gratuity for ? We did use our credits for that but really not worth it. Cappuccino, five bucks a pop..ouch! At least fill the cup! Overall we did have a very good cruise as the destinations made it great. Iceland is fabulous and Ireland was too! Read Less

This sailing was way too busy. The first two days of the cruise were sea days but after that, it was port after port after port. A saving grace was an overnight in Barcelona. I just wished the overnight was in La Spezia. The itinerary was a big blur as I tried to look back. * I booked a Suite Class room directly through CelebrityCruises.com. The website indicated in-suite espresso. I was expecting an espresso/cappuccino machine as NCL provides in suites; to my disappointment, I walked into a rather bare room - no plush amenities. The bathroom had a nice jetted tub, but no bath sheet. In fact, the towels were small and very worn. When I come out of a hot bath, I like to wrap myself in a plush bath sheet. The bedding was standard and probably no different from the Veranda and lower staterooms. I have booked Aqua Class many times in the past and bedding and linens were much more plush; perhaps I should have booked Aqua Class on this cruise. * Suite Class has their own dining room, Luminae as well as a private club, Michael's. Both venues are wonderful in that there are no crowds. The staff are very attentive and really get to know their passengers' likes and preferences. Luminae offers great food and allows you to order from the Aqua Class dining room (Blu) or the Main Dining room increasing your options - I truly liked that! * The entertainment provided by the ship's production cast seemed amateurish; the singing sounded out of tune. However, the last performance, "Elysium," had great choreography. Guest performers were a little better. I always enjoy a hypnotist! * We did a ship's excursion in Ibiza to Can Marca Caves and D'Alt. It was a 4.5 hour tour which went past 13:30. Nice tour of the caves and Old Village but for it to go that long, time should have been set aside for lunch. The tour provided no down time. * The Reflection is a beautiful ship that is impeccably maintained. It's a very clean ship with a wonderful crew. For what Celebrity offers to Suite Class passengers is lacking and definitely not worth the money. There should be more pools and a thelasso therapy pool for a ship this large. There are way too many passengers and not enough things to do.. Read Less

We choose this cruise because of the itinerary, price and our past experience on the Eclipse. We booked Aqua Class because of our past experience on the Equinox. The Aqua Class Balcony rooms are small but access to the Blu Restaurant makes up for that. ...... or so we thought.. The Blu experience was just ok from a food and service perspective. Our favourite lounge was the Ensemble. Andre was a great waiter, lots of character. We only liked one of the entertainment acts. Dany Smart had a solid repertoire of songs. Our first experience with Celebrity and the Eclipse was five years ago. The experience was so awesome we stated we would only cruise with Celebrity. That was four Celebrity cruises ago. I am not sure if Celebrity changed it's philosophy since our orginal experience, but we have gone from being awed to disappointed. This will be our last Celebrity cruise. Read Less

After 3 Mediterranean cruises, we picked this unique itinerary with 2 overnight ports. The ship was fantastic but crew was not very enthusiastic compared to previous cruises. The crew seemed overwhelmed initially especially in the Sunset Bar. They ran out of many popular items the first day! The bartenders at the World Class Bar were exceptional. The main dining room menu selections could use some updates too - nothing special for those who don't eat meat or fish. Overall, prefer to use Buffet due to variety - especially the grill. Cheese & meats selection was good. Love the fresh omelet every morning. Major kudos to Stanley our stateroom attendant for amazing service. He was perpetually pleasant & professional. Also, thanks to Roxanna the masseuse for the best massage experience ever! Giuseppe was always upbeat & entertaining. The shows were very good. Loved the silent disco! The ports were great. Sad we missed Belfast due to weather. LeHarve is a long distance to Paris & Normandy but will need to go back again for more French flavor. Read Less

We had not been to Ireland until this trip. We found it friendly, warmer than expected, beautiful, work very good food. The Eclipse is a Soltice class ship and we love all of them. We have friends that know Captain Michael, so we may have had a few special touches. We had to miss Belfast because 70 knot winds closed the port, first time fo us on 15 cruises. That meant we missed the Giant Causway which was a bummer. We had that day at sea, and Celebrity organized a few lectures that were quite interesting. All in all, this was a delightful 12 days around a beautiful country I was also impressed with Liverpool and our brief joint through Wales. We always sail Celebrity and we have never been disappointed. I would recommend this cruise line, this ship, and this itinerary to anyone who enjoys new experiences. We have 3 more Celebrity cruises booked. We ate in Moreno, the main dining room, Blu, Tuscan Grill, and the Oceanview cafe. All were good. The servers will help make your meal special. The specialty restaurants were good, at a discount. We always enjoy the entertainment and this cruise was no different. The Captain and his Senior officers were accessible and were very informative. Read Less

The itinerary is why we chose this cruise to see Iceland and spend time in Dublin. We flew into Dublin 4 days early so we had plenty of time exploring the city, took tour to Northern Ireland to see Giant Causeway (wonderful) and enjoyed the restaurants and pubs including Guinness tour. The Eclipse is a Solitice size ship with lots to do. We were disappointed they changed the Hot Glass from a show by Corning Glass experts to just classes for passengers (no expert shows). We have sailed 5 times on the 3 Celebrity ships with the Glass show and spent lots of time watching the glass blowing experts. Now this format of glass show is very boring. Our cabin was nice but not much storage space. The bathroom is a nice size. We were first seated a table for 2 when we requested 6 or 8. We were able to change to a table with 8 which was wonderful! Our waiters were wonderful and the food was great every meal. We did eat in the Oceanview Cafe where the food was good but it is crowded so finding a table was difficult at times. We enjoyed the production shows most of the other entertainers. The nightly game shows were a bit lame like the Liars Club. Our last cruise was on the Princess Emerald where the game shows had us laughing from start to finish. The Eclipse staff needs to see how other ships do it. The ports on this itinerary were great except for Lerwick. Iceland we booked online before arriving and the tours were wonderful. We were lucky to have blue sky for our 2 days in Reykjavik and a dry day in Akureyri. Lerwick was disapointing because we decided walk around and explore. Very few shops and just 1 restaurant and no pubs were open. In Cobh, we totally enjoyed walking around seeing their beautiful church and musuem, shopping and visiting the pubs. The only tour we booked on the ship was the behind the scenes which was terrific seeing all storage rooms, food preparation like meat rooms, food and drink storage areas, crew bar and dining and of course Engine control room and Bridge. We have been wanting to do this tour for years since Celebrity lowered tour to a reasonable price $99 we finally did it. Totally loved it! Read Less