Celebrity Reflection Review
10 Night Reflection Caribbean Cruise
Rating by category
Additional details
We joined our 4 cruising friends for an annual sailing on our preferred Celebrity Cruise line. We have cruised more than 35 times including on the Reflection in 2015, but enjoy the ships and the ports of call that were offered.
*Itinerary. St. Maarten - Celebrity made a bad choice in staying overnight at this devastated port. Although hurricane damage on the Dutch side is improving much renovation is still in progress; damage on the French side including beaches is very slow to improve. Due to the Christian Holiday, Good Friday, all of downtown merchants were closed for business on Friday our 2nd day. There were a few businesses open at the port terminal area. We would have enjoyed this cruise much more if another port of call was substituted such as St. Thomas or St. Kitts on the last port day. No where on Celebrity's survey did they give room to express this information.
*Entertainment is subjective to taste. We only got to see a few shows due to our dining time. MAXX was just out of our league. Linda the guitar soloist was excellent as well as the string trio. Service was excellent but the assistants and waiters pushing for our Excellent comments was getting to be a bit much. Food and variety was good to just OK. Some nights it was very hard to make a choice. I just didn't want to eat from the 3 basic dishes offered each night.
Cabin Review
Deluxe Ocean View with Verandah 1A
Our Hump Cat. 1A cabin was ideal; close to mid-ship elevators with no noise or obstructions. All of us were on the Starboard side, so it meant meeting up was not a problem. Only issue with this side and the port of St. Maarten was that we were docked right next to the Container Terminal which worked through the day and night. Screeching metal against metal sounds were very annoying to say the least. Celebrity could have made a better choice in docking at one of the other 3 dock areas knowing they would be docked for 2 days and this was a working terminal.
Port Reviews
Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades)
Terminal #29 is probably the worst terminal at Port Everglades. Port Staff at seating area need more training. At check in, they were great. Disembarkation was speedy.
Antigua
Went to Valley Church Beach. Water drop off was too steep for me to even venture into the surf. Very picturesque location and easy to get chairs & umbrella. Taxi to and from beach $32 per couple; $8 each.
Barbados
Love Barbados but stayed on board this trip.
St. Maarten
Port is still devastated after Hurricane Irma & Marie. Downtown has many stores closed or under renovation. Great Bay beach business was booming with chair & umbrella options with folks sitting like sardines on this polluted shore. Although a few other beaches on the Dutch side are operating those on the French side are still not up and running. It was unfortunate that Celebrity choose to stay at this port for 2 days. Our 2nd day was a religious holiday Good Friday and all Dutch side businesses were closed. Some stores were open at the port terminal but not all. The Container Terminal near where the ship docked was operating both days and night. The constant scraping sound of metal to metal was very annoying to hear.