We drove down to Fort Lauderdale the night before our planned cruise and stopped at J. Alexander's for a french dip and Mr. Jack's Chicken Finger platter before crashing at a local hotel. The next morning we drove to the port. J. R. dropped Janie off with our luggage and parked the car and then met her back at the terminal entrance. She explained the port team tried to get her to go to the new Xpress line instead of the Suite line and apparently this happened to a few others. We headed upstairs to the Retreat lounge where we checked in and had some sodas and snacks before boarding the Reflection for the third time. We dropped our backpack in our room where we met our butler Rudy before heading to the martini bar for our first drink of the day.

We did our muster drill and then went to Luminae for lunch where Janie was excited to have the lobster roll and J. R. had the Luminae Signature burger. After that, we headed to Future Cruise to book a cruise for 2027 and get a free bottle of wine for booking on the first day.

We headed back to our stateroom after Future Cruise. We were booked in an Aqua Sky Suite and it wasn't as large as the suite we had last fall on the Reflection, but definitely bigger than the normal verandah rooms. J. R. found our luggage down the hall and brought it down and we started unpacking which made us happy for all of the drawer and closet space.

For sail away, we stayed in our room and watched us leave Fort Lauderdale from our verandah. We made our first stop in Michael's Club. J. R. asked which scotch varieties were on the premium package and the waiter pointed to the menu, which had wine and beer. He went to the bar to ask and got a vague answer so he asked for a Glenlivet. We only found out at the end of the cruise that Macallan 12 was on the premium package and he could have been drinking it all week. After Michael's Club, we went to World Class Bar so Janie could get a Double Piquant.

The evening production show was "Feel the Funk" which we had seen last fall. The singers and dancers were excellent as always but this is one of our least favorite of Celebrity's shows. They have cut out the acrobats and aerialists and the show's music is not as engaging.

Filet mignon was on the menu tonight in Luminae for J. R. and we met our server Lloyd. He was very good although a bit stiff and did not offer any suggestions.

While every day was going to be a 'day at sea' for us since we had no plans for the port stops, this was an actual day at sea as we made our way to Key West at a whopping four miles per hour. We started the day in the Persian Garden, one of the Aqua Class perks, then headed to Michael's Club for morning drinks. Lunch was in Luminae again where the shrimp pasta was very good. We attended the food and wine pairing seminar. It was very slow and took more than 15 minutes before we had our first sip of wine which made the end very rushed. After heading back to the room to relax, we went to World Class so Janie could get a Rose Water. We skipped the evening show and hung out in Michael's Club before dinner in Luminae. Due to Janie's ankle injury, we didn't attend the Shine the Night party.

After docking in Key West and breakfast in Luminae, we went back to the Persian Garden to relax.

Our original thought was to head into Key West for lunch and key lime pie but it was very hot and Janie was not quite up for a long walk yet so we decided to have lunch at Sushi on Five. Following lunch, we hung out in Michael's Club before our Mixology 101 Caribbean Edition at World Class Bar. Daniil, who we had met on a previous cruise, was our bartender and did a great job walking us through making three cocktails.

The show tonight was "Broken Strings", a show we have seen a couple of times before. It seemed to us that they had updated some of the music, which was nice and it was a very enjoyable show.

We were back in Luminae for dinner. J. R. didn't fancy any of the appetizers on the menu so he ordered the escargot off the main dining menu. Janie wanted the carrot cake but was full, so Lloyd arranged to have it sent to our room for her to eat later.

It had rained overnight and into the morning, so were greeted with a double rainbow as we headed back to the Persian Garden after breakfast.

We ran into Rudy in the hallway and he asked us if we needed anything and Janie asked for some chocolate chip cookies. He sent up an assortment of cookies and macaroons as well as some chocolate covered strawberries which we enjoyed that night. We spent the afternoon either on our verandah or down in Michael's Club before going to the martini bar and World Class bar. We skipped the show again but did see the magician perform in Michael's Club while we had some drinks.

We gathered in Michael's Club after breakfast to wait as we were doing a back-to-back cruise. Shortly after 9, we had to go stand in the hallway before being taken down to the waiting area which was different than on previous consecutive cruises. This meant we were waiting with non-Retreat guests and when the time came to head through border control, they were called first so we didn't get any priority embarkation. We asked later and got two different stories, one that they were waiting for wheelchair guests and the other that they had to wait for the President of Celebrity Cruises to board. We looped through border control and were back on board quickly. We headed to the Solarium to relax.

Our first stop was the martini bar for a quick drink and then lunch in Luminae where we had the same meals as the first day last cruise. We didn't have to unpack this time, so we spent the afternoon in Michael's Club then headed to World Class Bar where J. R. got a smoked Old Fashioned and Janie enjoyed the smoky smell. Dinner was filet mignon again and we both had that. We decided to skip Feel the Funk in favor of hanging out in Michael's Club.

We sailed back into Key West today but we again decided not to head off the ship so we spent some more time in the Persian Garden. We went to the buffet for lunch for only the second time in two weeks where we had 'key lime soup', their attempt a key lime pie. It was tasty despite not having the structure of a pie. We bar hopped in the afternoon before settling in Michael's after dinner.

Our last day was a return to Bimini, which we spent similar to our previous days, starting in the Persian Garden and Solarium and spending the day bar hopping and relaxing in Michael's Club.