Celebrity Reflection

The last of the 5-ship 'Solstice'-class that was built for Celebrity Cruises is the Celebrity Reflection. She follows her sisterships Celebrity Solstice, Celebrity Equinox, Celebrity Eclipse and Celebrity Silhouette. Celebrity Reflection differs externally from her sisters in several ways, the most innovative are the all-glass showers just above the bridgewings, from where you can shower with an almost unlimited view. It sounds a little bit strange, but who would probably see you at sea? Besides, you can also black out the windows when you are in a port or so, and you don't want people to see you take a shower while admiring the ship from the quay... 

Next to this rather awkward but also rather cool innovation, the newest member of the Solstice-family has her pooldeck raised one deck, and within the extra space, more suites have been added. This gives the ship a somewhat larger passengercapacity (72 more) in comparissement with her earlier sisters, and of course it also makes the ship itself bigger, so she is the largest ship within the fleet of Celebrity Cruises, her tonnage measured at around 126.000. Like her sisters, she is 319 meters long, 37 meters wide and she has a draft of 8,30 meters. The ship was built at the Meyer Werft in Papenburg, northern Germany as yardnumber S691 and she floated out at the early morning of august 12th, 2012. This event was watched by hundreds of people on the banks close to the wharf. The ship was floated out without her two funnels and her radarmast, due to the height of the buildingshed. These were added later, while the ship was berthed to the pier at the premises of the wharf. Here, the ship was also completed internally, before she set sail over the river Ems to the Dutch Eemshaven, from where she undertook her trials and where she also was handed over to Celebrity Cruises. This handover was formally done at the 9th of october. 

Celebrity Reflection followes the path of the other Solstice-class ships, in being one of the most eco-friendly cruiseships in the world. Only LED-lighting is used within the ship, a highly efficient coating is used on her hull so se uses considerably less energy then other cruiseships of her size and also part of the ship's energy comes from solar-power. 

The space-like shower overhanging the bridgewing. Probably, someone is in the shower right now, and because the ship is still sailing within the Northsea Canal, the windows are blacked out. Imagine yourself here, but then at the middle of the ocean...

Celebrity Reflection has a total passenger capacity of 3046 and a crewstrenght of 1271. For these passengers, there are several new types of suites, including the ones with the outside showers, and also the ship offers more seating in the restaurants, more seatings in the theater, more sunloungers at the pooldeck and an enlarged Michaels Club, where at least 50 international beers are served. Of course, also a great choice of whisky, cognac and other drinks are offered here and you can enjoy these from your comfortable leather chairs. Next to the lawn there is an outdoor grill called The Lawn Club Grill. In the Art Club, you can follow painting-classes, jewelry-making lessons, drink mixology, taste tests and culinary lessons that are organized by Master Artists from the ArtCenter South Florida At the Lawn Club, there is some cabana-style seating available, overlooking the lawn. These are called The Alcoves and they offer private seatings, a-la-carte foods and beverages brought to you in picnic baskets and they are also equipped with Wi-Fi!

Celebrity Reflection arrived at Amsterdam in the early morning of october the 12th, 2012 to prepare for her maiden voyage that takes her to Barcelona. Just two hours into her maiden voyage, that started the same day, I had the opportunity to take the pictures shown above while the ship passed the village of Velsen-Zuid. Quite a big number of people showed up along the canal to see the ship, expecially because the Dutch press called the ship 'the biggest ship that ever docked in Amsterdam',  which it of course wasn't. This title is still held by Navigator Of The Seas. But it is of course still the second largest ship that ever visited Amsterdam, so a marvellous sight indeed. 

The ship was named in Miami on the 1st of december, and to highlight Breast Cancer Month, she has four godmothers, unique in cruise history. The ship was named by two women who work aboard the ships of the company and two who work in the corporate offices. Jovanka Goronjic is the AquaSpa Manager on Celebrity Constellation and her mother suffers from breast cancer. Megan Mathie is a glass-blowing artist in the Hot Glass Show aboard Celebrity Solstice. Her sister and mother were diagnosed with breast cancer and now Megan is hosting a Hot Pink Glass Show on every cruise, creating awareness about the illness. At the end of each cruise, one of the creations is auctioned and the funds go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, a foundation where Celebrity Cruises is partnered to. The thirth godmother of Celebrity Reflection  is Helen O'Connell, the Community Relations manager of Celebrity Cruises, who was diagnosed with breast cancer herself in 2009. She also is the companies primary liaison for the Make A Wish-foundation and supporting the fundraising activities of the company for the BCRF. The loast of the ships'godmothers is Rosey Rodriguez, manager of the companies Special Events team and one of the key figures to organize the events around every Solstice-class launching. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in the same year Celebrity Reflection was named.

A Solstice-class tradition is that every godmother of the other ships within the class will also be present during naming, so this ceremony had a very bunch of godmothers who wishes this newest member of the Celebrity fleet all the best.