Celebrity Reflection Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We are a couple in our 60’s. We cruise once a year. We do not use the pools, fitness room, spa or bars so have no comment on these areas. (Yes, I know, what do these people do? We read, socialize and eat and eat and eat. We are boring.)
Tip: Celebrity Cruises caters to an older crowd. The longer the cruise, the older the guests. I bet the average age on our 11 day cruise was 75.
Fort Lauderdale: We stayed at The Holiday Inn Express near the port. The price includes a buffet breakfast. Our room in the new tower was very nice. (Make sure you get a room in the NEW tower.) We like this location because it is close to restaurants, a dollar store, Walgreens and about a 15-20min walk to the water taxi (beside the Hilton Hotel).
Cabin Review
Deluxe Ocean View with Verandah 2B
Our balcony room was clean and spacious (for a cabin) but the storage was not great and much of it was over the bed. This meant climbing on the bed to get your clothes (my husband had those cubbies).
Since most of the cruisers were elderly, I’m not sure who thought this was a good idea.There were areas that more storage shelves could have been placed. It’s too bad they didn’t take advantage of them.
Our room steward, Nanda, was wonderful. We were on the odd # side of the ship (port? starboard?) so our balcony was mainly in the shade, which we like.
Tips:
You can tip your room steward/waiter using your credit on the ship. It’s a good way to use your remaining credit.
There is a laundry special towards the end of the cruise.
Port Reviews
Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades)
We stayed at The Holiday Inn Express near the port. The price includes a buffet breakfast. Our room in the new tower was very nice. (Make sure you get a room in the NEW tower.) We like this location because it is close to restaurants, a dollar store, Walgreens and about a 15-20min walk to the water taxi (beside the Hilton Hotel).
Tip: If you have time, I would suggest taking the water taxi. It’s pricey, around $25-$30. We didn’t go this year (thanks to my husband who insisted on a marathon walk instead) so I’m not certain about the exact price. (I did get to go to a multimillion dollar open house by chance though, which was neat, and met an adorable teeny Yorkie rescue dog at the beach.) The water taxi takes you all around Fort Lauderdale and you can go off and on as much as you want. They also tell you quirky stories about the people living in the houses on the canal. And one of the stops has The Cheesecake Factory. I love their chocolate mousse cheesecake.
Colon (Cristobal)
It was strongly recommended that you NOT walk around the city as it is unsafe. As we had no excursions planned, we just got off the ship to the port area to use the WIFI.
Puerto Limon
We were supposed to go on our much anticipated (and sole) excursion to the Botanical Gardens and a wildlife refuge. It was to be the highlight of our cruise (at least for me).This was cancelled at the last minute due to lack of participation. I was very disappointed and feel that Celebrity should have made up the difference so the people who were booked could go. At least there were numerous kiosks in the port so I had fun shopping, much to my husband’s chagrin.
Costa Maya
The taxis were on strike and blockaded the port so no one could go in or out which meant there were no excursions. Inside the port area (shops cater solely to people from the ships) it was packed since three ships were docked. The ship behind us heard about the situation and just sailed by. Wise move.
Cozumel
I remember really liking this city years ago. This time, I didn’t. There were very pushy sales people. No shuttle was provided, so to get into town, you had to take an $8.00 cab ($16 round trip).