We had been on a Carnival cruise the week before and were looking forward to sailing on Celebrity Constellation. From the moment we walked aboard (and the boarding process was great) we found a beautiful ship that was well maintined. The people who greeted us to the people who worked in the buffet were all very friendly. The best one for the whole cruise though was the little guy who greeted people to the buffet at breakfast and lunch. Kind of made for a great start to the day to hear such a wonderful greeting. Cabin was 5 times better than Carnival and the bed didn't come apart in the middle at 2am!

The food left us disappointed however. Lunch in the buffet was great with lots of choices which was also the case for breakfast. Dinner however was pretty much the same thing night after night. We ate in the buffet due to a really bad experience in the San Marcos dining room the second night which was the formal night. Our seating was 6PM. Our table had only 4 people at it and as far as I could tell the waiter only had two table. After an hour and 5 minutes my wife had just gotten the dressing for her salad after being promised it for about 30 minutes. We looked at each other and got up and left never to return. They did call and apologize after I went to customer service and removed their gratuities. It may have been just that waiter or just that night but even the menu left us diappointed. The fine meals are one of the top reasons to cruise. We didn't get that experience.

One of the things we liked better on Carnival was the smoking locations. On Carnival my wife could sit at the bar near the Casino and we could listen to the wonderful band that played nightly. Celebrity did have a location where you could smoke outside one of the clubs but there were no chairs or anything beyond an ashtray. While I recognize many prefer not to be around smokers the failure to provide chairs for those who make that choice is wrong.