This is a great itinerary if you're looking for a tour to the Panama Canal and/or South America, and also want a relaxed, "disconnected" feeling with a lot of days at sea. It would have been a great cruise, but sadly, Celebrity wasn't on top of its game. Three ports were affected due to lack of proper planning regarding immigration requirements, and the customer service reaction was poor, to put it mildly.

Pre-cruise/embarkation - we arrived two days early to rest up and stayed at the Hampton Inn Cruise Port in Ft. Lauderdale. This is a good hotel for a short stay before a cruise. Free shuttles are available to both the airport and cruise port, there is a shopping center next door if you forgot something before leaving home, and there are a few restaurants within walking distance. Embarkation was chaotic, though. The Celebrity website had said for several days that check-in would be at 1:30, though it didn't say why. We later learned this was because of a norovirus outbreak on the previous cruise, and they had to deep clean the ship as a result. Celebrity decided to summarily revoke priority boarding for Concierge Class without telling anybody, so when I dropped my parents off at 1:15, they reported standing in line for an hour and a half, and rude personnel to boot when they asked about priority boarding. I should note that by the time I dropped off the rental car and returned at 2:15, it only took about 25 minutes to board. I had also mistakenly forgotten the printout of our cruise ticket, but was accommodated by the check-in and security personnel with no problem.

Room/ship - our stateroom was fine, and for what I wanted to accomplish most on this trip - sit on my balcony and vegetate while listening to the sea - it fit the bill perfectly. The bed was comfortable and I slept very well all cruise long. I was a little disappointed that the bathroom had only a shower, though, and no tub, plus the wardrobe closet door was broken. I thought the layout of the ship was fine overall, with plenty of viewing areas on the open decks. My wife and I especially enjoyed the back of the Oceanview Cafe to watch the sun set. One quirk with the Millennium Class setup is that it's hard to figure out how to get to Deck 11 at first, at least until you get used to the layout. Public areas were generally spacious and well laid-out. The whirlpools on Deck 10 were great, especially towards the end of the cruise when it was a bit on the chilly side at sea. Read more