Still a little room to improve

Celebrity Reflection Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 4
Helpful Votes: 206

Overall rating:

3 out of 5
Verified Review
Celebrity Reflection

11 Night Eastern Mediterranean (Rome Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 19, 2016

Ship: Celebrity Reflection

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 8325

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

Nice ship, cabin was excellent.  Balcony, and bathroom larger than normal. Cold refrigerator - yeah!  embarkation/debarkation very fast & easy.  Overall service was good.  

entertainment okay, but not as good as in the Caribbean - needed comedian(s).  

Our other 2 Celebrity cruises were better, especially the food.

Food was good, but repetitive.  Food menus for the Dining Room were not available on the TV, and often not posted until meal time.  Large variety to appeal to global audience, but execution could be better.  Breakfast- same every day, same potatoes, daily muffin (not labeled, and same nearly every day), fruit selection.  Lunch - outdoor grill open only a few hours - product selection limited.  Specialty salads limited, and repetitive.  Quality control - lettuce? Soups - almost no selection unless you want broth.  Crackers stale. Management present, but not paying attention - staff performing their daily ritual.  Dinner in the dining room good, but menu had some unusual choices. Dining room service was very good.  

 

Good itinerary.  Need more time/earlier arrival in Santorini.  Poor excursion in ephesus, not as advertised by ship, focused on shopping for crafts & carpet.

Favorite ports were Mykonos & Bodrum.  Castle tour in Bodrum was good, and allowed for option to walk back to ship through the shopping area - vendors not as pushy as Kusadasi.

 

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ports of call

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

3 out of 5
Sailing from Civitavecchia - Civitatours offers bus transport from Cruise port entrance to Airport for $20 euro, much less than that offered in most transfers. Find on Trip Advisor. There is a free bus from the port entrance to the ship. Need to be sure that it will meet your time requirement.

Santorini, Greece

3 out of 5
May want to take an inexpensive excursion in order to get expedited tender & tram to the top. We tried to do it without excursion, and the lines were too long to make it worthwhile going up the tram.

Piraeus (Athens), Greece

3 out of 5
Walked/taxi to Piraeus market area.

Mykonos, Greece

5 out of 5
On our own. Good shopping - some expensive. Unique town, enjoyable.

Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey

1 out of 5
We chose a lower cost Ephesus tour through the ship. Not a good tour - waste of time, and did not see much of ephesus. Find another source or tour.

Bodrum, Turkey

5 out of 5
Booked castle tour through ship. Inexpensive, and good tour. Considerable climbing of steps. After tour, had option to walk back or take the shuttle boat. We walked through the shopping area, enjoyable but it is a bit of a walk. Vendors not pushy,

Souda (Chania), Crete

3 out of 5
Stayed on ship

Naples, Italy

5 out of 5
No excursion, took ferry to Capri - purchase tickets on adjacent pier. Then took boat tour around the island. Did not go up to top of island as we were concerned of running short on time.
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3 Comments

glomarrone    8 years ago

So sorry to read about all the things that went wrong with your cruise.  I hope your next cruise goes smoother.

noname111    8 years ago

cfisch63 - I appreciate your thoughtful review.  Thank you!  We enjoyed the Reflection cruises we took in 2015.

 

Beverly - You should write your own review rather than post a rant in response to someone else's positive comments. That way, your can specifically rate your experience.  

Beverlystone    8 years ago

My man & I sailed September 29th, for a 10 da cruise, arriving in Rome airport started our nightmare, he was in a wheelchair which wasn't attended to positively, 3 celebrity agents gave us 3 different answers to questions, no one to help us W/ our luggage, when we finally got to our luggage it was sitting by turnstile by itself, leaving it vulnerable to anyone, since we were held in a room waiting for someone to help us, no help, finally the person W/ celibrty had to take our luggage, to appropriate place to board bus, terrible services. Was told by airport staffers, it wasn't her place to help w/ luggage, try to manage 2 carry ons, 3 pieces of luggage & a wheelchair, not to mention, I had hand surgery a few months earlier . . . Arriving @ ship went pretty good, but finding out that they didn't apply my mans premier wine pkg to his sea card, we payed for everything 3 mos prior, bac to passengers service, then found out w/ my premier drink pkg, I was only allowed to get one drink @ a time, WHAT . . . I have a beer & a shot when I drink, but OH NO, You have to have another card, why did I pay for a premium pkg, we weren't gonna pay for that, since he had a wine  Pkg . . . Our meals in dining room were so so, steak being so tuff, my waiter had to cut it, & it just got bigger when chewed, we both didn't eat that meal, tried the sirloin stk, medium, STILL unacceptable, it seemed like after I complained to the desk, everything went south . . . We were moved from the front of the dining room to the rear, making it harder for the Mr. to negotiate through the tables, being on his cane, but to our delight we got a FANTASTIC waitress, Marsha, & her staff. Some of the staff were rude, not to mention passengers were the same, having NO consideration for the handicapped. We tried the Mask Grille repeatedly for cheeseburgers, but constantly cold, even after complaining to staff. Drinks at the upper bar was inconsistent, having to ask for more shots, what a disappointment, NO excuse, being in the bar restaurant business, I was totally unhappy. We were givin a complimentary dinner for the Porch, which we saved, upgraded to the Lawn Grille for steaks, I only eat filets, OMG, the service was sporadic, we ordered medium steak, got medium-rare, when cut into there was NO juices flowing, NO seasoning, the Scallops weren't done, but were seasoned well, we even asked if the steak was seasoned, was told yes, but of course was NOT. We bounced back & forth from dining room & buffet, trying to get a decent meal, what a disappointment, for the price we payed I exspected better quality meals, food was cold on buffets also on some foods. We went out to Turkey, which was Grt, but paid for the pop off & on, which we were quoted $20 a piece from desk, but the was charged $39.99 from Co. They had NO respect for the handicapped, leaving us behind when going to buses, my partner had to stop & rest while the others disappeared. I had NO idea where to meet bus, I went back through security to get his wheelchair to take him back to ship to get a refund, finally we made it back, I was totally horrified by the treatment that was put upon us, finally one of the cruise directors took us to another bus, which we weren't told of that time schedule, left his chair in a closeur closer to buses, so we went, Ha-Ha, all they did was go around the city in circles, how many times can we see the same thing . . . Was a rip off . . . Bac to ship, we finally went to the Porch for dinner, only to be totally disappointed in that meal, picture showed colossal prawns in picture only to get smaller ones, the cold tower was a joke, what a disappointment, we were told, he only had a classic wine pkg, but not true, it seemed as though they didn't know how to read the sea card pkg's . . . What's wrong w/this picture . . . We only had two great meals, being Prime Rib & Beef Wellington, choices were repeated a lot on appetizers, totally disappointed. . . Entertainment, we should have researched the club scene, NONE, standing around Foyer was unacceptable, definitely not enough sitting, but we made the best of it, have never been on a ship that was suppose to b a 5.5 rating as bad as this one. We thankfully had a great room porter . . . Louis, & our wait staff for dinner, Marsha, I will never promote this ship it was a nightmare, I wasn't the only one that had problems, which I overheard while I was at the desk trying to resolve problems, & talking to other people on ship. Good Luck to others . . . 

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