This was an enjoyable cruise overall in spite of disappointing food in the dining room. The ship is amazing and well-designed and comfortable. We liked the cruise director and enjoyed the music by the orchestra and other performers. The staff is friendly. We really like the ports that we visited.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
We arrived at 1:30 p.m. and no wait whatsoever.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Unfortunately, our experience at the main dining room was mediocre, not at all what we were expecting. We had several cruises with Celebrity some years ago and the food was wonderful on all four of those. It seemed like there might be some economizing as we didn't have shrimp (except for shrimp cocktail) until one of the later days of the cruise. This would not have been so bad, but the chicken I had one night was very difficult to get off the bone. Over the course of the cruise, several people in our group of 10 had fish that was dry or pork loin or steak that was tough. Never had we had so many complaints about food quality in a dining room. On the other hand, the food in the cafe on the upper deck was excellent. We didn't try any of the specialty restaurants.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
We didn't do many of the activities since we were mostly spending time together playing games or relaxing. I did go to several lectures that were quite good. I went to the fitness center most days and the equipment was excellent and in good repair.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
The music was quite good. We enjoyed the comedian and a singer who did impressions. The stage performers and orchestra were excellent and there were two performances by them that involved special performers ala Cirque de Soleil and those were fantastic. However, the sound was poorly mixed in the first show and the one where the singers performed Broadway tunes so that the orchestra drowned out the singers so that the words were pretty much indistinguishable.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
For the most part the service was excellent. Our room steward was great. The service in the dining room was very slow so that dinner generally took around 2 hours and sometimes longer. This was mostly because our head waiter left the ship after the first day either for his own illness or a family emergency. The waiter we had after that was his assistant and not very experienced. He had a lot of people to serve and he did his best. Our room steward (Marian) was very good.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
What an amazingly beautiful ship! It is one of the loveliest ships we've been on. It was always very clean.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Our cabin was very comfortable with excellent storage. When we first went in we didn't think there was that much, but as we unpacked we found that we had plenty of room, a good thing since there are no do-it-yourself laundry facilities and so we brought more than we would have otherwise. The bed was quite comfortable with good pillows. The sofa was a bit hard, but not a big deal. I REALLY liked the bathroom layout and especially the low level of light left on when the light was turned off. This was really nice for trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night since turning on the light at full power is kind of a shock and also makes it harder to see to get back to bed.
We did our own excursion after the cruise. It's a great port to sail out of because of the smaller airport and the closer port, but the hotels are really expensive.
We went to Pigeon Island on a tour by Viator and enjoyed that. We'd been to St. Lucia a couple of times, once taking an island tour arranged through the internet and it is really a great island to visit, another favorite.
We did one of the ship's excursions, the Fairlawn great house and Brimstone Hill tour. The great house wasn't especially interesting and we didn't have quite enough time at the fort. But the island is really beautiful and one of our favorites.
We used the luggage valet service and it was a great convenience since we could do things in Fort Lauderdale rather than go right to the airport and sit there until our plane left at 6:10 pm. We had done both of the tours that the ship offered twice before.
We went on the Reflection last March and overall thought the food was lacking quality. There are much less seafood options even in the main dining room. Seems like a lot of cheap unhealthy crap as a whole. We were shocked and disappointed to say the least. If you wanted a snack you got dessert and/or nasty pizza. I got a veggie patty at the mast grill and it was deep fried. Seriously?!?!?! I said after waiting 15 minutes to find this out to just give me a bunless burger...that was healthier is the sad part. We would have liked more healthy options.
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