Celebrity Reflection Review
I recently returned from a nine-night cruise of the western Mediterranean on the Celebrity Reflection. This newsletter will be my review.
Before I begin, let me say that this is the fourth multi-day cruise I have taken. I have done two of Alaska, one of the Mexican Riviera and a short one of Catalina/Ensenada. This review will be relative to the expectations for cruising established on those previous cruises.
The best thing about Celebrity was it was NOT kid friendly. There were no water slides, zip lines nor obstacle courses, which makes a statement about who the company is not marketing to. If you aren’t traveling with your own kids, whether you choose Celebrity or not, I would try hard to plan your cruise on ship that doesn’t market to families with kids and for added measure, go when kids are in school (thus avoiding the summer, winter, and spring breaks). The brand that seems to target families with kids the most is Carnival.
I found the food on Celebrity to be on par with other cruises I have taken. Maybe a little better. The up-charging at the finer restaurants was more than I recall on past cruises, about $40 per person per meal. There were incentives to do this over multiple meals. Word of mouth among the passengers was that it was not difficult to get a 30% discount when making the reservation. I found that strategy to work only about half the time. In my opinion, it is worth it to pay extra for the nicer restaurants. The food in the main dining room was good, but the service was slow (about 2.5 hours to get through a dinner), there was less elbow room, and it was very noisy. I’ve found this to be the case on other cruises as well.
There was a private party on the helicopter pad for who were in the concierge and higher classes. To be honest, I'm not sure what I did to get invited to this level. You could tell a guest’s status by the color of his room key. I tortured the staff with magic tricks.
The cost of drinks was also on par with other cruises. As I recall, a beer was about $6 and a mixed drink was about $12. There were various drink packages available, but they ranged from about $60 to $100 per day, and everybody in the cabin had to do it. As for me, Mrs. Wizard and I don’t drink enough to make it a good value. While on the topic, I believe every cruise ship allows passengers to bring on two bottles of wine only on the day of embarkation. Where I began my cruise in Barcelona, in additional to invoking this rule, I was given the opportunity to buy more alcohol in a duty-free shop between passing security and before getting on the ship. I purchased a couple of bottles. In retrospect, I should have purchased much more, to last me and Mrs. Wizard the full time. However, in all my cruises leaving out of the U.S. or Canada this opportunity was not presented to me. I did find a bartender at one of the poolside bars who kindly gave me any free drink I wanted, a courtesy he didn’t extend to other guests. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I didn’t find him until near the end of the cruise.
The entertainment was on par with other cruises. In the evenings there were at least two shows going on at any one time. They didn’t get any big names in the main showroom and unfortunately for me, no magic show. In this case, I think they were hiring acts that were safe and catered to an older audience. A tribute act to Carol King and James Taylor is a good example. Something surprisingly fun was the Silent Disco, which they offered many times. This is something where guests wear headphones with three choices of music. You could tell which channel anyone was listening to by a colored light on the headphones. It seemed most guests, including me, were on the 80’s channel most of time. It was interesting to see people dancing in what was almost a quiet room, save for people mumbling the lyrics. Most people knew the choruses pretty well, but there was a lot of mumbling through the rest of well-known songs. If you ever have the opportunity yourself to attend a Silent Disco, I highly recommend it.
The staff were all very friendly. It seemed every time you passed anybody they greeted and smiled at you. If you engaged in conversation, they were always happy to go along with it, to the extent it didn’t keep them from their job. Meanwhile, I was probably very annoying as I switched between French, Spanish, and Italian, according to where the ship was going any given day. I think it was a lot for the staff to know basic English and here I was bothering them with other languages they probably knew little to nothing of. Not to say I know much French and Italian, but I seize any opportunity I can to practice what little I do know. Italian is especially fun.
Onto my favorite part, the casino. Here were the table games available and brief comments on the rules.
- • Blackjack – Dealer peeks for blackjack, dealer hits soft 17, double after split allowed, re-splitting aces not allowed, surrender not allowed. Blackjack paid 3-2 at $25 tables and higher. At the $15 tables, it sometimes was 3-2 and sometimes 6-5. Six or eight decks (I don’t remember) with a continuous shuffler. Lucky Ladies side bet.
- • Roulette – Both single-zero and double-zero wheels were available.
- • Craps. Sorry, I forgot to ask about the odds.
- • Three Card Poker – Stingy 1/3/4 Ante Bonus pay table. $5 minimum.
- • Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em – Standard rules. $10 minimum (on both Ante and Blind).
There were four video poker machines, as I recall. I looked at the pay tables and noted they were set all the way stingy, as at the Las Vegas airport. For example, 6/5 Jacks or Better. Sorry I forgot to note the specifics. No video keno.
The slots were mostly modern popular ones. Vulturable slots they had were Hexbreaker 3, Regal Riches, Prosperity Pearl, Rich Little Piggies and Scarab. Of these, I found Regal Riches in a positive state only once. Piggies and Scarab I never found to be positive. However, Hexbreaker 3 was kind to me. A few times I found it in a temporary good state, but once found the game with a middle stack of 6, which I played for about three hours until it reached the top. All things considered, I won about $700 on the slots, most of it from the long Hexbreaker 3 sitting. Fortunately for me, there were no other vultures on the ship. Reminder that you can read about how to play and beat these games in my page on slot machines, in the section for advanced readers.
The drink policy was drinks were free for “active players.” However, said free drinks were low-end beer and wine only. The beverage service was slow regardless of whether you were paying or not. Table game players got better attention than the slot players. It seemed the waiter had to be reminded of the free drink policy every time.
On the last day of the cruise there was a blackjack tournament. The cost of an entry I believe was $35. Top prize was $300 in promotional chips (the use until you lose type) and second place was $200. Since second place was not much less than first, it was my goal to come in the top two. I won’t bore you with the whole story, but the competition was very soft. The first step was to compete in one of five qualifying rounds, where the top seven scores would advance. Per my tournament formula, the multiple of your starting bankroll to shoot for in this case is sqrt(35/7) = 2.24. The starting bankroll was $500, so per my formula, my goal should have been 2.24*$500 = $1,118. I got to $1,100 and it easily held as the third highest by the end. Most players simply dinked around with their $500 as if they were playing regular blackjack, ending close to their $500 starting point. You see the majority of players making this mistake in every table game tournament. Remember, in tournaments your goal is to beat the other players. Don’t play like you usually do, but in a way that you either achieve your goal or bust our trying.
At the final table, I bet small until the last hand, hoping the dealer would be hot and could sit there and do nothing and win. By the last hand, there were four players left. The scores were roughly as follows:
- • Me = $1200
- • Man 2 = $1300
- • Woman 1 = $650
- • Woman 2 = $650
Unfortunately, I was first to act. My wager was $200. This was enough to overtake the chip leader if I won and he didn’t, plus stay above either woman if they went all in and won.
Both women did go all in, which they had to do. To my pleasure, Man 2 bet $500, which was too much. In his shoes, I would have bet $125, enough to cover me if both of us won. If he had done that, the only way I could have won is for me to win and him to lose. However, because he over-bet, I only needed him to lose or that I win and he tie. A significant increase in my chances.
As I recall, the dealer had a strong up card. Both women busted out. The chip leader and I both stood on mediocre totals. Fortunately for me, the dealer drew to a 20, as I recall, beating both of us. My opponent lost more than I did, putting me on top. Before the dealer finished counting the chips, the former chip leader, who I sat next to, said “I over-bet.” When I was announced the winner, he congratulated me as did many in the crowd. Besides the $300 in free play, I also was given a trophy! This is actually the first blackjack tournament I have ever won, if you don’t count the one at the Blackjack Ball.
Overall, I give the Celebrity Reflection a good review. I would be happy to cruise with Celebrity again on any ship.