Great food and exceptional service

As usual, Celebrity delivered excellent food and service on our recent Baltic cruise. Embarkation and disembarkation were smooth and efficient. Our balcony cabin was larger on the Reflection than on past Celebrity ships. The layout was great and the extra space was appreciated.

The entertainment was good, but not spectacular. We have become comfortable with the fact that if you want big productions, try Celebrity's sister line - Royal Caribbean. Rob Lewis, a Phil Collins tribute act, was great.

The service in the Opus restaurant was exceptional - as was the food. I can't imagine what our waiters and sommelier could have done any better. We did have dinner in the Tuscan Grille one evening and it was a disappointment. Three of us ordered steaks. Two were too rare and one was overdone. By the time we got one steak redone, everything was cold. We paid $45 each and wished we had eaten in the Opus dining room.

The ship is fabulous. Although we were with 3,300 other guests, the ship never felt crowded. There are enough small areas (library, Hideaway, etc.) that we could always find some quiet places when we desired.

We toured Berlin, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Stockholm with TJ Travel Tours. All were great experiences. Our guide in St. Petersburg was Natasha and she worked very hard for two 10-hour days. Her knowledge of Russian history was exceptional. She was old enough to have lived under Soviet rule, so she also had an interesting perspective on the czars, the Soviets and on life after the fall of the Soviet Union.

We toured Copenhagen on a Celebrity tour, since TJ was not able to form a group there. The guide was knowledgeable and we got a good feel for the city.

Overall, it was a great trip. We were extremely lucky with the weather. We traveled with a couple who had just gotten their first passports and this was their first cruise. We warned them that the Reflection experience will probably spoil them for future cruises.