We sailed on Celebrity Cruise Line, Ship was Reflection. The Cruise line was fantastic. The ship had everything. Since it was a special anniversary I splurged and got the Aqua Sweet. Nice size room. Fantastic shower. bigger than normal balcony on top floor of ship (top floor for cabins). Free use of spa and sauna (that we did not use at all ...no time for, we had other things we wanted to to). Food was top notch. We had a private dinning room just for those of us in Aqua Class Suites. Very upscale. The Main Dinning Room was also very nice. So many options for food. I gained 4 lbs and I tried to be good. I failed.
A Casino on the ship was okay. We donated a few bucks there. A theater with 2 shows nightly. More bars than I could count. Live music every night in multiple locations. Two pools and 10 or more hot tubs. Upscale store, jewelry, ladies clothes and purses. And the dang jewelry store gave away a charm every day. All the women just had to go them them. And then they offered a 'special' discount. So I had to go with wife back to store. Ended up buying her an anniversary gift that she picked out.
We had a semi private butler. He brought breakfast to our room each morning. And took care of any other needs or questions we might have. The ship truly had it all. Amazing. Loved the cruise days in open water.
Aruba was the nicest Island we visited. We had from 8am to 10pm there. Still seemed rushed. We took a taxi to Eagle Beach. Beautiful Beach. Such blue water as you see in the pics at beginning of this thread. Our first taxi was a Tesla. Our first ride in a Tesla. Very nice. Lots of power. He bought it in Miami. I asked about service. He said no problem, he gets email of what updates are available. He picks the ones he wants and they are downloaded while it's charging overnight. Very slick. Another taxi driver drove a GMC Yukon. Obviously these taxi drivers do pretty dang good. Shopping area was huge. Lots of stores. We spent as much time shopping as we did on the beach. We got to the beach at 930am. We left at 1. By then the beach was extremely crowded. Uncomfortably crowded. We had an umbrella and could have stayed all day but at that point we were glad to move on.
I truly enjoyed the cruise but if you want to really get to know Aruba I would suggest flying and staying a week or so. One day where you have to be right back to the ship was not enough. Same with Curaçao and Bonaire. Curacao was interesting. We did a tour bus ride around the island. Very informative and fun. We also did the tour bus on Bonaire. Such a different island. Mainly sage brush and narrow dusty roads. We saw slave huts. So small. The slaves were Indians from Venezuela. Slavery ended there in 1863, same as US. It has been said the best part of Bonaire is below the water. The Reefs there are fantastic. Their main industry is scuba diving tours. Aruba was by far the most desirable island to visit.
