Celebrity Reflection Review
Rating by category
Additional details
I regret that this will be a longish review, but it is focused mainly on Celebrity's new combined charter and cruise package, which seems the have been a new idea aimed at cruisers in Canada during a (VERY) long and cold winter. I first noticed an ad for the package in late January. It was an excellent package, which included the classic beverage package and gratuities for each of us. It also included a charter flight from Ottawa (and three other cities, including Hamilton and Winnipeg, I understand). The price, to put it simply, blew our minds. When I showed the ad to my wife, she said simply 'Book it!'. Two hours or so later, we were booked. Since we are Elite Captains Club members, we got an upgrade to C3, which we then upgraded to C2. We also upgraded my beverage package (I do love my scotch).
This was our first time sailing on Reflection, although we have sailed in Concierge class on Constellation and Summit and in suites in Century. We've also sailed in RC's Explorer of the Seas and the QM2. I've sailed on two other liners from the 50s/60s - Home Lines' Italia and Homeric and a whole bunch of destroyers and other ships (cruise ships are better LOL).
EMBARKATION/DEBARKATION
Cabin Review
Although the cabin felt smaller than same category cabins on previous cruises (based on pictures from this and previous cruises, the cabin appears to be about 9 inches narrower), this was offset by the very large balcony. We had one of the 'bulge' balconies (where the ship's side bulges out starboard side aft of the bridge) and the balcony was at least 50% larger than on any ship except the Summit, where we had a suite, and on Century, where we had an aft facing suite. There also seemed to be less storage space than on other Celebrity ships. Our cabin attendant, Allan, was excellent, always polite and helpful. As Concierge class, some minor things, such as binoculars, which should have been in our cabin, weren't, but Allan quickly resolved those issues. The location of the cabin was was perfect, in that it was just aft of the forward elevator but not close enough to hear any movement or voices, and on the tenth deck, so there were no sounds from above. On rare occasions, we could hear our (pleasant) neighbours in the cabin forward of us, but, again, never loud enough to bother us, and we never heard them at all with the balcony door closed.