We recently had a couple of friends celebrating a special anniversary. To mark the milestone, we were lucky enough to be invited along with a few other friends to join them on a Bahamas weekend cruise. Our friend took care of organizing everything and reserved several cabins abord the Celebrity Reflection leaving out of Port Everglades in Fort-Lauderdale.
To be quite honest, our recent cruise experience had us somewhat skeptical, and we probably would not have booked this on our own. We decided to go more to spend time with friends and had pretty low expectations about the cruise itself. After all was said and done, however, we found the cruise to be a pleasant getaway and ultimately a fun way to spend the weekend.
Boarding
Getting onto the boat with Celebrity was a breeze. We basically Ubered to the port, showed our online check-in docs and walked on. No lines, no number calling, no queues. We had opted for a later boarding time, so we don’t know if the earlier boarding times were crowded but all our friends said they had the same fast and efficient experience.
And, lucky for us our cabin was ready on arrival so we dropped-off our bags before going to our muster station for the obligatory security presentation. It took less than 5 minutes and then we were free to roam around the ship and ease into vacation mode.
Another high point was the quality of the food and the shows. You may not expect that on a weekend cruise, but Celebrity delivered above and beyond.
Meals
For dinner, our group had a reserved table with a dedicated waitstaff. They were super friendly, and the choice of meals was varied. Everything we tried was delicious. I even got to try an interesting pear and honey soup which I might try to make at home. The portions were large, and no one minded us ordering two appetizers and occasionally two deserts!
Lunches were mostly at the buffet as there was a wide range of choices. The pizza was quite good as were all the stations. Don’t miss the ice-cream on those hot days. Yummy!!
Breakfasts were either sit-down in the main restaurant or self-serve at the buffet. We tried both and enjoyed them equally. The sit-down meal takes more time so when we were ready to run off the ship to explore the private island, we opted for the buffet.
There were also à-la-carte restaurants such as a sushi, Italian, and a steakhouse. We didn’t partake in any of these on the short cruise, but they looked nice.
See our post: Anytime Dining or Traditional Dining: Pros & Cons
Entertainment
The shows we attended were all excellent. The dancers and singers were talented and quite honestly, fantastic! As good as many we had seen on Broadway. They also had excellent comedians and magicians. We were very impressed with the shows on the short itinerary and they exceeded our expectations.
Other activities
When we got off the ship and back on from the private island, CocoCay, it was also seamless. No lines, a streamlined on and off. This was really well managed.
Unfortunately, when we were there, it was very windy, so almost all water activities such as diving, snorkeling or kayaking were off limits. We had once before snorkeled off one of the private islands and we didn’t think we were missing much. We had at first considered bringing our dive gear, but it would have been a lot of trouble. See our post: Is Going on a Cruise for Scuba Diving a Good Idea? Our Experience
On board there was a slew of activities, and we joined several of them including a paper airplane flying contest and even an art history lesson. Others from our group joined the casino or played bingo.
There was also plenty of shopping, and the stores are all duty free while at sea.
Getting off the ship
The disembarkation process was really easy as well. We only had our carry-on bags, so we basically headed down (the stairs, since the elevators are generally very busy at that time) and we were off in minutes. And in a taxi on our way back home, a few minutes later.
Conclusion
Our cruise was with Celebrity, and we left out of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. The 3-day cruise boards Friday around noon and returns Monday early morning. We were home for 9am.
Many of the cruise lines offer similar itineraries including NCL that offers cruises for both 3 and 4 days. Some of the larger lines have their own private islands in the Bahamas, in fact the NCL one, Great Stirrup Cay, was right next door to CocoCay which belongs to Celebrity and Royal Caribbean (and we also saw another ship in port there, the Utopia of the Seas).
When you add it all up, the cruise came out to about $500 a person, and these do go on sale quite regularly. We had a balcony stateroom which was nice, and we didn’t bother with any of the other packages. For the short duration we had more than enough to explore on the ship itself and enjoy what was included. Some of our party spent time in the casino, while others enjoyed the on-board activities.
When you consider that we enjoyed 3 shows (good ones!), had a nice day on the beach in the Bahamas, along with 3 fancy dinners, 3 lunches and 3 breakfasts, not to mention a room with a water view, the price was quite reasonable. We even though we might look to do it again sometime in the future.