An enjoyable and relaxing experience

The Celebrity Reflection is an immaculate ship.  The staff was always courteous and helpful.  The itinerary was just what we expected.  As far as the likes are concerned, we were particularly impressed with the cabin layout and expertise and responsiveness of the cabin steward.  We were very pleased with the select dining option.  We made reservations on a couple of nights and had no wait.  We went to the dining room on a couple of nights without reservations and had almost no wait.  The main dining room was formal yet relaxed.  It was quiet and the food was top notch.  We went to the specialty dining once and, by comparison, can say that it was not on par with RCL's specialty dining.  The casual dining buffet venue (Ocean View Café), however, provided an excellent relaxed atmosphere, was well laid out and  the food was excellent.  By comparison, it was an all round better experience than similar RCL venues.  The entertainment was disappointing.  One of the headliners, Claire Vinkesteijn, was excellent.  The xylophone (sp) act was entertaining but a bit frenetic.  The ventriloquist was not appropriate for a headline act but better suited to a bar.  The singers and dancers in their two performances were quite disappointing and was the themes of the shows they performed.  The small orchestra, on the other hand, performed their parts of the shows with great skill.  The house band performing generally at the centrum was not good at all.  However, two other acts, 5 O'clock Somewhere and the jazz duo, Blue Note, were excellent.  As indicated, the ship was immaculate.  However, in our view a lot of the space was mis-utilized.  There were a number of high it shops with watches, jewelry and hand bags that were generally empty and that significant amount of space could have been better utilized with mid-range shops or perhaps game rooms with billiards and ping pong.  The Celebrity experience was somewhat more sedate than RCL, the demographics were older and we came away with the overall impression that Celebrity was not quite sure of what demographic they were aiming at.  Overall, cruise was very enjoyable.