First time with Celebrity

After cruising with Carnival, Disney and Royal Caribbean and friends raving about their Celebrity experience ... we had high expectations with Celebrity.

The Reflection is a gorgeous ship.  Great design, easy and convenient layout and the fit and finish is superb.  Our balcony stateroom was the best.  Spacious and comfortable.  Largest bathroom ever and the glass shower doors were a huge plus!   Very impressed with the cleanliness throughout the ship.  Overall, the staff was friendly and efficient. 

 We purchased a Specialty Restaurant package so 5 nights of the cruise were in one of the restaurants.  QSine was outstanding.  Great menu choices and service with excellent food.   Lawn Court was disappointing.  Steak house menu which we were looking forward to.  However, we observed the chef precooking our ordered steaks, placing them on a warmer and then finishing them off before serving.  The restaurant was not busy and we're not sure why they did this.   Murano.  Another disappointment.  Restaurant was very busy.  Service was slow.  Meal was unimpressive.   Tuscan Grill.  We enjoyed this restaurant 2 nights.  Service was outstanding and the dinner choices and quality of food was excellent.  One night we did go to our assigned seating in the main dining room.  Our table servers were beyond excited to see us and therefore the dinner service was very attentive.  The menu, food presentation and quality.... most disappointing.  Far from spectacular.

We purchased the premium beverage package.  Best deal ever.  They swipe your Ship card and that's it.  No tickets to sign. 

Breakfast and Lunches were in the Buffet offerings or around the pool areas.  Quality and selection was very good.  Very typical of most cruise ships.  Enjoyed the coffee bistro for lattes in the morning and some late evenings.    The most disappointing was bar service around the deck areas.  Wait staff was pretty much non existent or occasionally 1 lone server.  If you wanted a beverage, get up and get it yourself.

Martini Bar was fantastic.   Great service and all of the bartenders not only made a great drink .. they were entertaining as well.

If you enjoy your time out on the decks .. on sea days .. deck chairs go quickly.  Also, on the majority of the outside deck areas, the loungers are placed side by side with no way to move them around.  You are sitting right next to the person on either side of you.  You cannot walk between the loungers.  You crawl into them.  This was a first for me .. and I didn't care for it!

Another surprise to us were the Spa facilities.  The work out area is complimentary.  Sauna, Steam, etc are charged items.  They are also co-ed.  You can purchase a package for the cruise duration ... we opted not as I don't care to be in a co-ed steam room!   Just a preference!

Ship's entertainment venues were good.  We really never left the theatre saying ... WOW!    The best entertainment was in the evenings in the open Atrium by the various DJs.  Several of the other evening entertainment offerings around the ship ... not well attended and not entertaining.

Overall, we enjoyed ourselves.  Had a great time.  We just felt there are things that we were looking for or expecting .. that didn't happen.