Have to wonder why I haven’t cruised with Celebrity in so many years. Our first cruise was with them 10 years ago, and since have been on RCCL twice, NCL twice and Carnival. I thought it was just the halo effect of enjoying our first cruise so much, but I really thought there was a difference.
We are from Southern California, so had been at every one of these ports before. I love the ports of call, and am definitely not a Sea Day person. This was a compromise with the DW as she didn’t want to be too far from home, nor go through the rigors of traveling by air to get to the cruise, and then traveling back. So we went with every expectation that this was going to be relaxing, rather than exciting.
Embarkation was a breeze. The ship was docked in the shadow of the Vincent Thomas Bridge and was easy to find in the Los Angeles harbor. We had our DD drop us off since we only live about 25 miles away. There was a strike amongst the porters, but substitutes were available at 11:30. We arrived just about at that time and were checked in an onboard ship by 12:05. The line for the non-Elite passengers was shorter than the one for Elite and we walked right up.
We were in an OV Cabin #5042. Great location midship just in front of the main lobby. The hallway there is nice and wide and while that may not seem like a big deal it actually made a difference not to have to squeeze by other people to get by. Osbert was the steward, and after a rough start the room was nice and clean every day. There was plenty of space, and a lot of storage areas- two closets, some open shelves and about 14 drawers to put things in. More room than I remember on other ships.