On Reflection

We had 11 days on a ship in the sun in February, and brought back the photos to prove it. These are the “touristy” photos, the ones with us in them and the snapshots from traipsing around the towns near the ship’s docking. I also have a bunch more artsy-fartsy photos of sunrises and sunsets, butterflies and birds, which I’ll add on other posts.

We flew down a day early (a precaution against a flight delay) and enjoyed shopping at a local Publix supermarket, including getting the makings for a do-it-yourself breakfast. The next day, Monday, we boarded the ship and spent Tuesday at sea. It turns out that Celebrity Reflection has a very similar layout to Celebrity Equinox, so we found our way around quite easily. Anna had stored her entire life and trip research on her phone, and had some anxious moments when her iPhone screen was all black. Turned out to be a bum charger cord, and a quick (but expensive) purchase at the iStore fixed that and saved the vacation.

Our plan to use the ship’s wi-fi and Facebook messenger to stay in contact was almost useless, because the notification did not work consistently, but did so a couple of times, including the classic message from Anna: “the butler food-bombed our suite again”. Most of the time we’d get a stream of messages a day or so later!

On Wednesday we had a beach day in Grand Cayman. Thursday was at sea and Friday we were in Cartagena and took a tour to Aviario Nacional where I was pecked by a Grey Crowned crane, Anna posed in from of flamingos and Mary-Jo showed off by walking around the entire exhibit. Back at the cruise terminal, I revisited the macaws and Anna and Mary-Jo revisited the emeralds that we had seen two years previously. We were in Aruba late Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday. On Saturday we walked into town a short distance and found the trolley car that loops through the main street, saw what was where and then shopped our way back to the ship. We stayed overnight in Aruba and on Sunday Mary-Jo and Anna beached and David took butterfly photos and then joined the ladies later on.

On Monday we were in Curacao and walked around the town and shops, and on Tuesday Mary-Jo and I went on a glass-bottomed tour and discovered that taking photos of fish (or even a turtle) through a glass bottom does not produce an impressive photo. However, it was a nice boat ride and we found out that the population of Bonaire is about equal to four cruise ships. Apparently crime is very minor as the police know all the bad guys by name. Then two more days at sea to complete Anna’s survey of every mixed drink on the ship, and home – very pleased to find that reports of 20cm snow accumulations had been greatly exaggerated.

Here’s a preview of the birds and butterflies: