We are Elite members with Celebrity in our fifties and retired so suffice it to say we feel this cruise line is the best match for our interests and demographic. But this cruise left us wondering if perhaps Celebrity missed the mark.

This was our first T/A, and we had high expectations given we had also not been on an S-class ship before. Yes, she is beautiful ship but we never got that feeling that she was "ours" for the 13 days. We didn't care for the flow of the ship, especially around the elevators which we had to wait for many minutes no matter when we used them. Why a large ship would only have 2 elevator areas was poor planning. The flow was also a factor on all the upper decks. We really like to be able to go to the buffet on the same deck as the pools as on the M-class ships. Having to go up a deck was a pain. The Aqua Spa cafe is great but it is very poorly placed. There is little room for people to eat and there are constantly people trying to get through that area on the way to the spa -- again poor planning. We gave up eating there. Instead we went to the Bistro on Five which we loved -- great food, lots of space, quiet and lovely views so it was well worth the $5 upcharge to us. Be sure to go on embarkation day -- a real sanctuary away from the masses at the buffet.

Stateroom and its Perks -- As many have said, the staterooms are fabulous. The bathroom is roomy with plenty of storage space -- really lovely. We upgraded to an Aqua Spa room for very little, but would not do that again for many reasons. Yes, the shower head is nice but after all it is just a showerhead. Yes the towels and robes are better, and you get 2 bottles of water daily. But the drawback for us was the placement of these spa rooms. They are right under the pool deck so we had furniture being dragged overhead that started at 7AM every morning and high heels late at night. An easy fix would be to switch deck 11 and 12 but no one has done that yet. We were looking forward to dining in Blu, but that turned out to be a huge disappointment. The atmosphere is lovely and the assistant matre d' does a fine job. But the food choices are very odd. Many times, the 4 of us found nothing we wanted on the menu. So we succumb to going to the 4 Specialty restaurants, which were absolutely amazing, but added more than $100 to each account. Breakfast in Blu was wonderful. We also went to the main dining room 3 times to avoid going to Blu and had a good meal, although the service was mediocre -- maybe because we hadn't made a connection with a waiter. It was also very loud and crowded in the MDR on the lower level. We were also looking forward to using the spa without a fee, but that proved to be much more easily said than done. Because the weather was poor, the outdoor decks were almost empty and everyone came inside. The spa was packed every day. Some who had bought the spa package were understandably angry that they could never get one of the amazing heated chairs; 9 for 3000 passengers are not enough. The spa staff didn't enforce the quiet zone in the spa and some staff members even came in to talk to clients, ruining the spa experience. It was certainly not a reason to get a Spa stateroom again for us. The stateroom has little drawer space and so I had to climb up onto the bed to get golf shirts etc from the large space above the bed. I can't imagine older passengers doing that. It would have been simple to have the closet like the M-class closets that work -- half hanging and half bank of drawers. The balcony was large with chaise loungers but we never got a chance to use them because it was too cold or windy or raining with spray from large waves that kept the chairs soaked. Staterooms -- 4, because of the lack of drawers as well as noise from above. Read more