Celebrity Reflection NYE Cruise Sail Away from Port Everglades

Welcome, welcome Replay viewers. My name is Haley. I am a travel blogger, cruise lover, travel of all forms lover. I also host a travel group called Today in Travel on Facebook that celebrates all forms of travel. We share your travel favorites, ask questions, we're a group of now over 500 and growing. And I am getting ready to set sail on the Celebrity Reflection for a seven-night Eastern Caribbean cruise for New Year's Eve, well New Year's. But I thought I'd come on and show a little sail away for you guys. We're moving. I'm always fascinated by how smooth these ships move. I believe we're the last one out of port. We've already seen a Princess go, Odyssey of the Seas has gone, Celebrity Edge. There was a Holland America ship in that I could see, but it is our turn now. We are over at Port 29 in Fort Lauderdale. This is Port Everglades. If you like cruise travel content, please feel free to share my channel, check out some of my cruise videos. I will be vlogging a little bit, making some short videos for TikTok and Instagram, but it may not be as much as normal. I am trying to relax. It's been a crazy year building my own business, so I need a little mental time out. Thanks, Kara. So we are in an Aqua Class stateroom for reference, guys. There's Jeff tying his shoe. And if you're not familiar with Celebrity, with Celebrity, if you book an Aqua Class stateroom, which is a balcony room, it has extra perks. You get your own specialty restaurant called Blue, which is fabulous. It's some of the best cruise food I've ever had in my life. You also get access 24-7, well, not 24-7, but as long as it's open to the Persian Garden, which is amazing. I cannot wait to show you guys more of that. This is the best Persian Garden I've been in, so it is absolutely wonderful. I posted a picture of it in the Today in Travel group on Facebook. You can find that at todayintravel.live. Hey, Mark. Mark, I didn't see you sneak in here. But, you know, I haven't done a Salaway Scope in a very, very long time. I used to do these all the time on Periscope, and I'm just trying to find the right platform for it. Another amenity for the Aqua Class rooms is you get a bottle of champagne. You get afternoon canapes brought to your room every day as well. Yes. So right above us is actually the spa and the Persian Gardens. So we have a really great room location. We're forward on this ship. This ship's Persian Garden is actually double the size of what it normally is, and it has an icebox room. I mean, you just can't help but get excited at looking down and just seeing the water move in, knowing it's your turn to sail out into the horizon. So what kind of questions do you guys have? What would you like to see this week when I do broadcast? If you're on Instagram, definitely give me a follow there at Hayley with a Flare. I'll be posting more photo updates and questions there. Itinerary? Great question, Mark. Oh, who doesn't love that sound? That is a wonderful sound. Jeff doesn't want to be in the video, so I got to scoot up here. Mark's in here, Jeff. So the itinerary is Nassau. It is Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. It is St. Thomas, if they don't turn us away, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Tomorrow is Nassau. Jeff and I are starting the day, though, with an 8 a.m. couples massage, a bamboo massage. And then Jeff's going to the brewery I may not get off, but I told Jeff he could potentially sway me with Conquerators. Hey, everybody. So it's just Jeff and I. We don't really know anybody on board. I've met some people already. Jeff makes friends everywhere. I actually take cruising time on trips like this where it's just the family. This is actually mine and Jeff's first cruise with just him and I. We're always with Olivia or with friends, but I do so much talking and stuff for my job that I like to kind of have me time and quiet time. Jeff is chatty patty. Now that he works from home, he doesn't realize how much less social interaction he gets, so he has to just chat it up with everybody. Tell me I'm wrong. Hey, I found you some possible potential movement tonight. Yeah, you said that before. I'm probably going to do the majority of my live broadcasting from YouTube. I might do a couple in the Today in Travel group, but we'll see how this connection goes. Who knows? I may slip into a haps, but this is our first New Year's Eve cruise. We're super excited. Mark, have you ever done one? So as we pull out here, that's kind of what the stateroom looks like, you guys. I'm going to have a tour on YouTube later. So we stayed at the W for two nights before coming here. Honestly, don't recommend. I still like the Hilton and the Conrad better. A lot of issues on top of each other. And I'm very forgiving when it comes to Hostel stuff right now. I know people are running with bare bones staff, etc. But unfortunately, a lot of things that I cannot overlook. So therefore, it is not on Haley's list of recommended properties. We are going to be trying the Westin when we go back. So now I can literally give you guys the full rundown on some of the most popular hotels on Fort Lauderdale Beach on the A1A for your next cruise out of Port Everglades. But the W is a no for me. Not to mention lugging our luggage down seven flights of stairs. Yep. As we were getting ready to leave, the emergency alarm went off so we couldn't use the elevator and had to bring our luggage down seven flights of stairs. Not fun. No employees giving directions or keeping people informed. Thankfully, we were just leaving so we called our Uber and left. And thankfully for another hotel guest that offered to help us get our luggage down the stairs. Because I didn't want to leave the luggage because who knows when we'd be let back in the building and our check-in time was coming up for the cruise. So, we're all packed up. If we had left when my OCD said to leave, we would have been good. The one time, Jeff. The one time. Yeah, Mark. It was a bit of a wild, wild morning. But we're cruising. Got a drink. Got some good food. We're going to Blue for dinner tonight. What night are we doing Murano? Tomorrow. Oh, we're doing Murano tomorrow, which is really good. That was a recommendation. Jason took me to Murano on the solstice. So, I'm anxious for Jeffrey to experience Murano. Tuesday, we're doing... Tuesday, we're doing the Lawn Club Grill. For lunch. So, this was the terminal that the Edge was at. Odyssey was over here. Princess was up that way and so was the Holland America ship. There's a ship right in front of us right now. I can't tell which one. Jeff, I don't think that's a ship. The lights? That's a yacht. That's not a ship, Jeff. Never mind, I'm blind. Agreed, Mark. Agreed. Yep, we're just putting it behind us and enjoying our trip. There goes a little airplane going off. But I think we are the last ship going out of Port Everglades tonight for cruise ships. Let's talk about check-in. Did you already get there? Oh my god, check-in was so easy, you guys. Best check-in ever. So, so easy. So, this goes back and forth, back to, pardon me, being prepared. If you do everything online, have your set sail, barred code, I think they call it Express Pass, right? Express Pass, yep. For Celebrity, and have your documents out and ready. We walked onto the ship. We walked through security, like, and that was mostly walking, 15 minutes, and it was mostly walking. And the rooms were ready. Yep. And this was at, what, noon-ish? Yeah, we got on right at noon. Around that time frame? Very, very impressed. Hats off to Celebrity. Well, guys, I'm going to leave you off here. We've been on for about 11 minutes. Make sure you follow, subscribe, and share this, and check out the Today in Travel group at todayintravel.live, and I will see you on the next one. Pre-testing requirements? Great question, Mark. I'll answer that one. We had to do a test two days before getting on board. We did the at-home test from Binax. Make sure you have a spare. I highly recommend getting a spare one, getting two tests. Spare one came back invalid. Jeff's first test was invalid, so there's our little tidbit. And then, of course, everybody has to be vaccinated unless you are a child, and they are requiring children as well as their parents to be masked on board, although I've only seen, like, two kids. Yeah. Everyone that's vaccinated with no children, or unvaccinated guests in their party, do not have to be masked. Your choice. All right, guys, we will see you later.