10 Nights Aboard the Celebrity Reflection: Italy, Greece, Croatia & Montenegro

For our 10th anniversary, my husband and I sailed on the Celebrity Reflection. This was a 10-night itinerary, with stops in Italy, Greece, Montenegro, and Croatia. Our anniversary happens to fall during shoulder season in this area, which we actually loved. There weren’t as many crowds or people onboard the ship, and the weather was lovely!

The ship

We really enjoyed the smaller size of the Celebrity Reflection. It has a capacity of just over 3,000, but our cruise was definitely not sold out, which was great. We had originally booked an inside room, which we were fine with, but about a month before our sailing date, we received an offer to bid up our stateroom. We decided it couldn’t hurt and put in an offer. To our surprise, it was accepted, and we were upgraded to a Sunset Veranda. The room was great, and we loved having the sunset balcony on the back of the ship. It made the views amazing sailing in and out of some of the beautiful ports.

We ate in the main dining room for all but one dinner, and were very impressed with the quality of food onboard. The buffet was what you would expect, and it was pretty tasty! On our anniversary, we ate at Murano. We decided to splurge and do the offered food and wine pairing meal, and I definitely recommend that if you have it in your budget!

During the cruise, we participated in some wine tasting experiences, which were fun and informative. We also really enjoyed the live entertainment—both individual performances in the bars, as well as the shows in the theater.

The excursions/ports

This cruise was a round-trip sailing from Civitavecchia, which is just a short train ride from Rome.

• Katakolon (Olympia), Greece: For this port, I booked us an excursion to tour the ancient ruins of Olympia, where the original Olympics were held. It was a really informative tour, and we even got to walk where they had the original “track” foot races (you can also run if you want).

• Corfu, Greece: In Corfu, we went to Paleokastritsa, which was beautiful. We had time at the beach, but didn’t swim, as the water was a little on the chilly side. We also had a wine tasting, which was delicious.

• Dubrovnik, Croatia: We walked the walls of the historic village, and had some free time for shopping, sightseeing, and, in our case, lunch at a local restaurant. I really enjoyed this tour, and thought it was cool to see where they filmed some of the Game of Thrones scenes.

• Kotor, Montenegro: This was by far the most scenic port. If you have a balcony, you will want to be on it when you are sailing in and out of this port. If you don’t have a balcony, it is worth it to go to an upper deck to enjoy the view. We did another sightseeing excursion here and enjoyed it.

Bay of Kotor

• Messina, Sicily: We booked a tour of Taormina, and really loved the quaint village. We got to sample some local food—cannoli and arancini—which we loved. Honestly, the cannoli there ruined all other cannoli for me!

• Naples, Italy: When in this area, I highly recommend checking out Pompeii. It was pretty busy (even in the shoulder season), but well worth it. It was one of my bucket list places to visit, and I learned so much! I honestly could spend more than one day there, but I took what I could get.

• Livorno (Florence and Pisa), Italy: We decided to book a tour of a winery, and we really loved it. They took us to the property on a horse-drawn carriage, which was fun. The wine they let us sample (with snacks!) was great! We loved their wine so much that we brought a few bottles home with us.

The Colosseum in Rome

Overall, this was by far the best cruise we have been on. The staff was great (especially Ifran in the Ensemble Lounge) and very attentive. As I previously mentioned, this type of cruise with such scenic ports is really worth the extra money for a balcony. We spent more time on our balcony this cruise than any other combined. I was happy with all of our excursions (booked through Celebrity), but knowing what I do now, if we go back, I will likely book with third-party tours. This was a dream trip for us, and there isn’t one thing I would change—except maybe staying longer!

Make sure that you plan for some extra travel time from Rome to the cruise port in Civitavecchia.

For more inspiration and insider recommendations, visit our cruises page.