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Celebrity Reflection

Celebrity Equinox

Saint-Tropez

The Celebrity Reflection is a very large ship - the captain called it the 'flagship' of the fleet. It is highly decorative and the cabins are well-appointed. It also had one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in. The cost of the cruise, itself, was reasonable: but that's all that is: the advertising states that it is "luxury cruising" and the costs for everything on offer certainly meet that criterion. For example, they have an all-inclusive drinks package which includes the more exclusive bottled water, bijoux coffees, alcoholic drinks and wines up to $13.00/glass: all for a price of $65.00 per person, per day - this means that a couple would spend $1950.00 for a 15-day cruise for drinks, plus the 18% gratuity, of course.  

They do not have a laundry room, and the costs for using their services aren't cheap. Same thing with the Salon: a shampoo/blow dry for 'medium' length hair is about $71.00. Also, the specialty restaurants are specially priced - $50.00 per person, not including drinks. If you want to include wine, add $39.00 per person for 4 glasses. The 'free' food is generally good, when it isn't so salty it's inedible (the lobster bisque, the spaghetti Bolognese, and the flank steak I had were really bad) , but the menu is repetitive - the same thing is offered for breakfast every day in the restaurant, and, if one is using the open dining option (for which we pre-paid the daily fees before we sailed), one is expected to call and make reservations - which isn't explained anywhere. 

We were 3 cabins from the front (forward) and for us, one of the biggest problem was the configuration of the ship: there is no way to walk from one end of the ship to the other except by traversing an endless maze of corridors, unless on is on one of the two top decks or on decks 4 and 5. They have maximized the number of cabins, so there is no access to the ocean - unless one has a balcony - other than the top decks or a small area on deck 5. It's like sailing in an enormous cavern, and the lack of fresh air throughout most of the ship leaves a rather damp, musty smell in many of the interior gathering places - the Casino especially sort of smells like an old Laundromat. 

They have a Library, and it's in the center of the ship, with elevators on each side and the ceiling going up to the top of the ship. While it's quite impressive, it's also wide open, and the noise level is not what one expects in a library (also, some of the books are about 15 feet above the floor, with no ladder - obviously for show, since no one could begin to reach them).  

Other than time spent eating and in the Fitness Center (which is way too small for the number of passengers, thus there is a wait for the various pieces of equipment), we spent most of our time in our cabin, since, for health reasons, we don't sun bathe, and the lounges, and other gathering places are kind of  dark and depressing because there is no sense of being on the sea. The majority of the movies on are on the cabin television, and there are almost no activities (other than sun bathing and swimming) planned that don't cost money. There is something on sale, all the time - I felt more like a revenue stream than a welcomed guest. Almost every passenger with whom we spoke had this same complaint - that Celebrity was "...nickle and diming us to death." as one put it. This is our 2nd Celebrity cruise, and the prior cruise was on a different ship, with a different configuration and we had more fun.

We were disappointed.

This was our 3rd transatlantic crossing (2nd on Celebrity). 

We spent 3 weeks in northern Italy and stayed at a B&B in Civitavecchia the night before the cruise.  The owner of the B&B took us to the port.

Check-in was very smooth and quick.  

Our balcony cabin 6302 was great. It was at the end of the corridor and it was always very quiet.  There was enough space to store all our things.  Our cabin attendant – Alfredo from Indonesia was very friendly and kept the cabin in a great condition.   He always had a smile and was always so helpful.

We ate most of our meals in the main dining room – Opus.  We had table 476 and our waiters Jay, I-Tenuk, and Abdul were amazing.  The food was always very good.   We also ate at a couple of the specialty restaurants and the food and service were outstanding in all.   We ate breakfast and lunch in the Oceanview Café.  It always had a great selection of foods, and they were all so tasty.   The staff in the Oceanview Café was very friendly and helpful.

The entertainment program was very good.  The ships own singers and dancers were excellent. 

We went to the theatre every night and the entertainment was better each night than the night before.  My favorite act was December63 – they are an amazing group of 4 young men that do a tribute show of Frankie Vallie.  Gareth Oliver, comedian/ventriloquist, was great.  Doug Cameron, a violinist, was outstanding.  Philippa Healey, singer and piano player, amazing voice.   The ships orchestra was incredible, amazing.  There was also a wonderful jazz quartet called Capricorn.   We had the opportunity to hear all the guest entertainers and the only one that I found very flat were Ear Candy, they had no charisma and had very little interaction with the audience.

One thing that the Reflection does not have is nice dance areas.  Dancing was always taking place in the foyer.

The 3 Beyond the Podium Speakers were all great.   Mike Siegel did an excellent job with his talks on ancient history and British history.   Elin Haf Davies was a fantastic speaker.  She shared her experiences of rowing across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

The cruise director, Alexander, was one of the best I have seen on a cruise and his staff was excellent.   They were all very visible during the entire cruise.

We took a ships shore excursion in Madeira, which was very nice, we also spent a couple of hours downtown and had a typical lunch is a fantastic restaurant.    In St. Kitts we did our own shore excursion and visited the other side of the island.  It was raining on and off and very windy, so we only got out of the bus to take some photos.  In St. Maartin, we did some shopping for Dutch chees and other goodies, and spent the rest of the day at the beach in Philipsburg.  Labadee was absolutely beautiful.  We did the zip line which was nice, but I thought that it would be a lot higher.   We spent the rest of the day at the beach.

Overall, the crew was very friendly.  Everyone always greeted you and had a smile.  The crew seemed very proud to be on the Reflection.   The Captain ( Captain Peppas) was very personable, as well as his officers.

Great Transatlantic cruise on Reflections

Heading to Rome....our arrival was perfect and our Rome Limo was there as planned for our trip to the port city of Civatvecchia..  Our hotels  De La Ville was great and we had a lovely dinner  with Cruise Critic friends. Next day we were on the Reflection Transatlantic in Stateroom 6151 which by the way was a great location....just across from forward elevators. 

 If there's anyone who had anything negative to say about this cruise,they were on a different cruise then I was.  

 The weather was great the food was good the crew and staff worked so very very hard to make us all happy and they did.

I can't remember  A cruise where so many of the crew and staff went out of their way to make people on this cruise happy. They worked hard they gave their all and we had a wonderful time. The onboard activities were fabulous.  The specialty restaurants were terrific. The shows were great. And whatever and we asked for we got. 

We cruisers are so fortunate to have the ability to take a trip like this. But It's nice to come home. Thank you Celebrity for making our vacation spectacular.  

 And by the way, Julie, the guest relations manager did a fabulous job at disembarkation. Well done!

We are so fortunate

This was my wife's and my first time on Celebrity. We had been on 2 other cruise lines before coming to Celebrity Reflection. After reading about Aqua Class on cruise critic we decided to go Aqua Class. From the time we got on the ship on 23 October till the time we got off the ship on 7 November in Miami we where  treated as first class passengers.

Our room attendants went out of there way to do anything that we needed. From the champagne and fruit in our room the first day to the tea and the hors droves  and water each day.  We had been told by people who been in Aqua class before that once went Aqua you would never go any other class.

Eating in Blu was just great.  Not only the food but the service was just first class. Two of the people in Blu that made the experience even better was Igor and I Gede these 2 men went above and beyond for everything that we requested. 

As good as Blu was I must say that our 2 meals in Tuscan Garden was very disappointing. The food was good but the service left a lot to be desired. It seemed that the waitstaff was spending more time talking to each other than the clients. Having talked to other people who also ate in Tuscan Garden they had the same experience. 

As far entertainment I must say that it was the best from all the cruises that I have been on. I think they had a very good understanding of who their audiences was. The December 63 group was just over the top.

First Time on Celebrity

I was really looking forward to this transatlantic cruise, we have been with RCI, Carnival, NCL and Princess previously but this was our first time with Celebrity and had heard lots of really good things about this cruiseline.

My overall opinion of this ship however was disappointingly poor.

There are very few public places where you can go and sit quietly without blaring rap music assaulting the ears, all those venues have now been transformed into Specialty Restaurants or private lounges.

I was also quite disappointed in the rather crass way they seem to alienate anyone who is less than ’chic’ and wealthy. 

I find it objectionable to be approached half way through a meal by someone trying to sell you a meal at a specialty restaurant. I am eating, please show respect and leave me alone, the food is already only lukewarm at best and I do not talk with my mouth full of food, it is rude.

And while I am on that subject, why have a dress code in the evening in the main restaurant and then allow people in wearing baseball hats and dirty jeans? If I didn't know better I would say they had just come inside from doing some work in the garden. If you cannot dress properly then please go to the buffet.

The lighting in the main restaurant at night is also very poor, dim battery operated candles were inadequate, we had to use the torchlight on our phones to read the menu!!

Being English, I like my cup of tea but now have had to resort to bringing my own tea bags. Celebrity like RCI insist on providing the cheap Field & Select tea which is utterly tasteless and to serve that on an Elegant Tea Afternoon is an absolute insult to us tea drinkers.

We had an invitation to the Elegant Tea and elegant it most certainly wasn't. Not even any Twinings Earl Grey! There is a certain etiquette involved in serving Elegant Tea which sadly was missing.

After having had soggy smoked salmon open sandwiches on my plate, the waiter, instead of replacing the plate, proceeded to place small cakes and pastries on the same plate. Strangely I don't eat fish tasting desserts!

In fact if you wanted a cup of tea or coffee before 7.00am you had to go all the way up to the buffet on Deck 14. We were on Deck 7 same level as the Hideaway where the coffee machine was regularly out of service anyway and never before 7am, plus water is not available there either which was disappointing. 

All in all the service was pretty appalling. We had a few problems which were never addressed despite being assured they would be. Even our Cabin Attendant made us feel as though she was doing us a great favour by tidying our rooms and made a great deal of the fact that my husband asked for feather pillows. Her attitude was one of arrogance, the assistant attendant however was faultless, he saved the day!

The Cruise Director was a chap called Alexander and I have to admit, he also was excellent. One of the best we have come across who made the entertainment well worthwhile but he had his work cut out trying to organise events without there being an adequate size venue available to him.

And finally, on my early morning run around the jogging track, I was horrified to see that people were already 'bagging' their sunbeds for the day at 6am! 

Handbags and towels marking their territory, the moon was still in the sky and the sun still asleep!! It was like being on holiday with a bunch of twelve year olds!

Would I sail with Celebrity again? The answer is NO but unfortunately we are booked on the Constellation next year, I am somewhat apprehensive to say the least.

A Poor Reflection

This was our 1st transatlantic crossing and first with Celebrity Reflection.

The port we left from was Civitavecchia Check-in was very smooth and quick. 

Our balcony cabin 1297 was great. It was at the end of the corridor and it was always very quiet. There was enough space to store all our things. Our concierge cabin attendant – Colin was very friendly and kept the cabin in a great condition. He always had a smile and was always so helpful. 

We ate all of our meals in the main dining room – Opus. We had table for 2, we had various waiters but we found Jay, I-Tenuk, and Abdul were amazing. The food was always very good. We also ate one or two evenings in the ocean view and found it very good for casual eating with a good choice of food.  Breakfast was always great at the ocean view and most days we has lunch up on the Mask deck.  

The entertainment program was very good. The ships own singers and dancers were excellent. 

We went to the theatre a couple of times but the shows weren't really our choice of entertainment. We enjoyed sitting around the foyer and taking in the music and entertainment that went on there.  The cafe on deck 5 was also good to stop and have a coffee after your meal in the evening or a tea and cake in the afternoon.

The cruise director, Alexander, was one of the best I have seen on a cruise and his staff was excellent. They were all very visible during the entire cruise. 

Our first stop was Madeira, which was very nice, we spent a couple of hours downtown. 

In St. Kitts we did an excursion to a beach and barbecue on Nevis on a catamaran,  It was raining on and off and very windy but fun.  

In St. Maartin, we did some shopping and had lunch out, it was very hot, but enjoyed it lovely fun place to go.

Labadee was absolutely beautiful and the effort Celebrity made to bring everything onto the island was  incredible. 

Overall, the crew was very friendly. Everyone always greeted you and had a smile. The crew seemed very proud to be on the Reflection. The Captain ( Captain Peppas) was very personable, as well as his officers.

Great transatlantic cruise

This is our 41st cruise and our 2nd with Celebrity. The ship is beautiful and maintained superbly. Our suite was a corner suite on deck 8. Very large and well appointed. The only drawback here was a very large balcony that we could not use. We were told that due to the exhaust from the funnels there is constant black soot on all the aft balconies. And the staff told us it is impossible to keep clean. So if you walk out in the early morning to watch the sun rise and lean on the railing you are full of soot. And of course the bottom of your feet are full of soot too. Not a healthy place to relax and enjoy. 

All of the public rooms are wonderful, maintained nicely and comfortable. 

The bars/lounges are staffed with friendly and engaging crew. 

The entertainment is almost abysmal. But this is the case, now, on almost all cruise ships. Amateurish house productions, almost non-existent lecturers or lecturers talking about obscure subjects. With so many sea days we look forward to enrichment programs but there were some days with nothing. But what they did offer were: Canyon Ranch teeth whitening, Canyon Ranch, anti-ageing, spa talks, healthy spa lecture, etc. So most days, you read and sit around the pool. Thankfully we brought cards with us and engaged other couples for card games. 

The Guest Relations Desk:  This group of staff should be ashamed of themselves or Celebrity has trained them to treat each guest like an idiot. If you have a problem, they look at you as if you have 2 heads and they never heard of your problem and the problem must be your own fault. For us, it was our access/ship ID cards. I needed to replace my card 8X and my partner needed the card replaced 4X. We were told we are doing something wrong. Their system was perfect. Twice as we got on or off the ship the cards did not work at security. The security staff made adjustment directly. Almost everyone we met had issues with their cards. But Guest Relations just look at you. Oh, on the last day, we got a phone call from a manager with apologies and we each received at $200 credit on our next cruise. But was this necessary? Why were we treated so shabbily by the Desk Staff? & why so many defective cards?

Now the best of the worst:  Luminia the new restaurant for Suite class guests. I understand that this new restaurant is only months old but come on now. Service in the general cafe was better. Twice we were the first to arrive for breakfast and waited 10 minutes for a server to even appear & ask us if we wanted coffee, let alone order anything. The female hostess was useless. She wouldn't pour you a glass of water if your life depended on it. I asked, she said sure then walked away looking to send someone over. And there was no one else in the room. We found out that their lunch menu is only 3 menus. So you get different meals for only 3 days then they repeat the same menu. Now dinner - We sent back over 5 meals (oh yeah, 4 breakfasts had to be sent back, cold eggs, really cold out of the frig). 

It took till day 6 to find out other guests were eating food  not on the Luminia menu. Oh yeah, the maitr 'de stated that we could order off the main menu too. Why didn't you tell us before? You never asked before, was his answer. We started to have lunch in the main cafe buffet. Sushi daily and at least 6 sections with a nice daily variety & different regional dishes too. Thank God for the specialty dining rooms. We loved them. And the last 3 days we never went back to Luminai. Not worth the aggravation. Oh and the decor looks nice but not too usable. The chairs are so heavy you get a hernia just trying to move your chair in. And chairs are so deep, the staff run around looking for pillows to support you or you sit on the edge of your chair. 

Murano - Qsine - Tuscan Grill all wonderful specially dining venues. 

Cafe - Even the buffet was bette the Lumania

Lastly the suite category has butlers. Nice extra but unfortunately other then waking me from afternoon naps (yes,we had the do not disturb on the door) to ask me if I wanted tea, we never saw her. Was that all the butlers do on Celebrity is bring afternoon tea? Weird. 

If they don't improve Lumania and have it as good as the specialty dining rooms this is just another wasted perk for the added price of a suite. The staff were OK, somewhat inexperienced, only one sommelier who was good but overworked, a hostess that did nothing but had you a menu and a maitre'd that was annoying because he kept apologizing but nothing changed.

I would definitely sail on the Refection again but not waste money to a suite. They extras you don't get aren't worth the added cost.

Wonderful Cruise with a Few Failures

We loved the Southern crossing which was calm and warm.  Loved our room and our cabin stewards Jason and Tre were excellent.   The food in the Opus Dining Room was the best we have had on the five Celebrity cruises we have taken and much better than Norwegian, Cunard and Costa.  We followed the recommendations of our waiter IKetut and he always provided excellent advice.    The Cruise Director Alexander was excellent.

The only downside with the cruise was the fact that the Reflection has less public space than other Celebrity ships and so it is crowded when at full capacity.  The Reflection has one additional deck of passengers and has cut the Sky lounge in half to put in more suites and also removed the disco so there is no where to dance except in the atrium.  Alexander tried a number of different theme nights including one in the solarium pool area so that passengers had more room to gather and dance. The atrium is also used to sell "art" from Park West so it difficult to get to reception when the atrium is full of paintings.   Events held in the Sky Lounge are standing room only if you do not arrive at least 30 minutes in advance.  Smoking is allowed on half of the open decks so it is hard to avoid. The lack of public space really detracts from the feeling of modern luxury.    Hopefully Celebrity will not "reflectionize" the rest of the fleet.  Otherwise a great cruise!

Great food, Great Cruise Director, Fun Entertainment, Not enough Public Space

Left from Civitavecchia, Italy. After being dropped off by shuttle it was a treacherous walk from gate of Port Security with our heavy luggage to find information on how to get to the ship. Upon arrival by bus we were told we had to get tags and check our luggage in. We have always carried our luggage on all the other ships before so we were upset. 

Check-in was speedy and rooms were ready upon embarkation so we went to eat lunch.

Cabin with a balcony was roomy with lots of storage space. Our steward was very nice and our room was spotless. He was very helpful whenever we needed help with a problem.

We had a problem with a loud clanking sound heard throughout the ship all night keeping us awake. We complained to the desk and they finally offered us a change of cabins. We tried one more night in our room because it was too much to pack everything up and move. The noise did stop but returned the last two nights of our cruise. Don't know what was causing it but others on our floor heard it too and they complained.

Overall appearance of ship was good, staff very courteous and friendly. Food in dining room was good most of the time. Entertainment was good part of the time but we found the sound system is way too loud and the orchestra seemed to drown out the entertainers.

We found that every time we turned around there was a charge for everything. No free exercise classes or things to do. They took out the mini-putt and put in real grass which was a waste of space. You had to belong to the Lawn Club  in order to sit up on the top deck in special cubicles. 

We did not appreciate being charged $7 each for a 5 minute ride to the shore at St Martin's. We used to be able to walk to town from the ship. The tours were expensive for what you got so we never went on any. 

Labadee was just a commercial venture and we went directly to the beach, had a short swim then went back to the ship before lunch.

Disembarkation was also good.

The only plus was you could bring two bottles of wine on the ship upon embarkation to enjoy on the balcony every day.

Disappointed

We did a back to back transatlantic cruise after a Mediterranean cruise.  The transition was very easy and smooth.  We stayed in the same room and had no issues.  The entertainment was top notch.   The Four Seasons tribute band was astonishingly great.  It was the first time I saw the entire audience demand an encore.   Wow!  The other entertainment was also very good, a Carnegie Hall pianist who did a second show of Chopin was excellent, also the ventriloquist comic, singer and as was most of the others, the only exception was one comic who fell kind of flat.  The cirque style big stage show was okay and you could tell the performers tried hard but its a preference thing as I am not a fan of that type of entertainment.  Overall, I credit the Cruise Director with making this a four star cruise.  He was dynamic and all over the ship making sure people had a good/great time.  Best CD ever.

Generally, the food was fair, with many complaints at our table about too much salt as a seasoning versus the use of any herbs.  The buffet on deck 14 was also pretty bland with an overuse of Mexican, Indian and Asian food, night after night after night.   Boring.   We did eat at each of the specialty restaurants.  The winner was the lawn grill with great steaks.   We ate there twice.  Go to Qsine hungry, because they give you plenty of well made delicacies.  The chicken skewer was super.  The Tuscan Grill and Murano were also excellent.  We liked Tuscan and went there for lunch as well.  The lunch menu is a bit skimpy.  But the food is excellent.

The ship made four stops.  The stop at Madera was very nice and we would like to return, as well as St. Maartan.  St. Kitts, not as nice but okay.  The stop in Haiti, at Celebrity's private resort, was not so good and we would look for a future cruise that did not include this as a stop.  

Service overall, impeccable.  

Considering we were cruising for a total of 29 days, you would think Celebrity would provide at least one bag of laundry for free.  But, it seems the Celebrity motto is nickel and dime you to death so I got off the ship in Rome, as did a number of others and went to the local laundry to do our undies. About two to three hours.  It turned out to be fun and the local deli had some excellent wine and I brought back two bottles which we enjoyed.

The disembarkation was fairly smooth, although everything was delayed about an hour or two.  I think because of customs, but not sure.   Celebrity did not provide any feedback as why we were sitting for a few hours and after all their great customer service, they fell flat on this one.

Smooth Sailing

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