We chose this cruise as we had previously enjoyed the Eastern Med cruise leaving Barcelona on Celebrity Solstice and we thoroughly enjoyed that one. In our limited experience of cruising and having spoken to so very many regular cruise travellers, virtually all recommend Celebrity as being one of " the best ". We spent a couple of wonderful days in Rome prior to embarking - ((remember to purchase your tickets / time slot for the Vatican Museums/Sistine Chapel prior to travelling to avoid disappointment (we walked straight in) and we walked into the Vatican on Sunday morning at 8.10 am avoiding any queue at all and it was even more spectacular to see unlike previous times when there have naturally been crowds of tourists. The process of embarkation was excellent, rapid and ran very smoothly and we were in our cabin by 1pm. The ship was lovely, lots of activities to suit all ages and we especially enjoyed the adults only areas - the solarium and solstice decks as on our previous cruise. All areas were exceptionally well maintained and staff were extremely pleasant, helpful and hard working. Food choices were superb and varied to suit all tastes. The gym/ fitness area was superb. We enjoyed all of the evening shows we attended especially "the barricade boys" on our first evening.

We did two shore excursions - both Florence/Pisa and Nice/Villefranche/Monaco - both "on your own" and having done a little bit of homework and thanks to the maps / information/ commentary given by the fantastically helpful couriers, we had two amazing days and thoroughly recommend these tours as a "must see". Unlike our previous cruise on Celebrity it was disappointing to learn this time that shuttle buses charged up to 8 euros return per person to take you into the centre of town. We did this in both Ibiza and Malaga and having visited Barcelona before we enjoyed the walk from the ship, past Colom and up the Ramblas and back (takes about 25 minutes from the ship to the Ramblas).You can easily walk from the ship in Cartagena too.

We discovered a lovely area on this ship called "the hideaway" - extremely comfortable and quiet area with private seating/drinks station and since we are both avid readers it was initially great to be able to walk a few metres from our room and help ourselves to a coffee. However the only disappointment of this cruise for us was the last 4-5 days when several groups of children discovered the hideaway - quite natural you would say. It was shocking to walk past returning to our cabin to see them yelling and running around shrieking at each other - they has the circular seats upturned and were spinning them around - eventually over last 3 days 2 pieces of furniture were broken and had to be removed. I know that lots of people in cabins next to "the hideaway" on decks 7 and 8 had complained as it became extremely noisy on an evening for them - (some parents clearly weren't aware of what their children were doing). Eventually staff had to close the doors into the corridors to minimise the noise, despite the children still tearing around there and oblivious to the staff presence. Both of us are teachers and enjoy seeing children enjoy themselves on a ship, however I am sorry to say that we will certainly think twice about sailing on Celebrity Reflection during school holidays. Read more