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Our 5th cruise and first with Celebrity, we are both in our very early 50's from London, United Kingdom. We stayed in the Pan Pacific hotel overnight, it sits atop Canada Place which is also the cruise terminal.
Check-in was a breeze once we had queued for around 30 minutes getting through US border control, five minutes later we were onboard. Although the ship is the oldest in the Celebrity fleet the stateroom was still in good condition although there were a few minor faults these could have been found on even the most modern ship.
Cova Cafe had a great atmosphere with windows to view the passing scenery while listening to one of the great entertainers on board. There is a daily info sheet delivered to your stateroom for the forthcoming days events, read it carefully so you don't miss anything of interest. Island Cafe/Pizza Bar/Burger Bar/Ice Cream bar being the very casual venues that serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. There was plenty to choose from at breakfast for example there were six styles of Eggs Benedict. I saw separate areas marked English, American and Asian breakfast. Everything we ate in the island cafe was enjoyed. The main dining room was excellent with a great choice on the menu with good variation over the seven days, one evening we arrived 20 minutes after closing, the staff pulled out all the stops got us seated and served an excellent 3 course meal all with a smile. We used Marano the menu was interesting and the food and wine served was wonderful with service to match. Ana was particularly memorable for her pleasant manner and humour.
The only onboard activities we got involved with were the talks given by Silos the ships guest naturalist. He was a most engaging speaker who was able to convey the excitement of the natural world around us.
All members of the crew were very friendly and welcoming. We did see on one occasion a crew member being quite short with a passenger after the passenger refused to use the hand sanitisers when returning to the ship after a trip ashore. Our only negative comment about any crew member was our butler (Gene) who decided to relieve us of our bottle's of scotch and vodka without a word on the last morning of the cruise. As it was, I was going to give him the scotch plus a $50 tip, he got the scotch but didn't get the $50 and was lucky I was unable to find him before we disembarked.
Sue (from Northwest of England) the cruise director was quite a character full of fun and a very good entertainer in her own right. She was everywhere but never in the way, a true professional, always available to help if you had any questions. One treat that was organised for us, was a trip to the bridge for the last few miles to the Hubbard Glacier, affording us a spectacular view and the added interest of watching the ship being manouvered through the ice strewn disenchantment bay.
Disembarkation was so easy it took all of 20 minutes before we were back ashore where again we stayed in the Pan Pacific hotel so again we went from ship to room without stepping outside.
In summary we had a fantastic holiday. Alaska was even more wonderful than we expected it to be while Vancouver was also a gem, we would have organised a longer post cruise stay had we known it was such a great city and area, would recommend getting a car or motorcycle and going up the Sea-to-Sky highway to Whistler. Would we go with Celebrity again? I'd have to answer no, I'd go with Princess Cruises.
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