My wife and I are avid cruisers, no kids, live in Florida, just the perfect yearly vacation for us. We have cruised with Carnival, Costa, Princess, Royal Caribbean, and now Celebrity. Based on reviews, and what all our friends told us about Celebrity, we were looking forward to an unforgettable first cruise experience on Celebrity. Boy were we disappointed. The new Silhouette ship was very nice, and overall we enjoyed our vacation, but the level of service and the confusion we experienced with Celebrity was laughable. Read below for some of our comments and feedback we made to Celebrity.

1. EMBARKATION: On the very first day, we arrived early, around noon, to explore the ship prior to departure. Rooms were not accessible until around 2pm, don’t know if this is normal, just never had to wait for our room on other cruise lines. We booked the Aqua class Spa Balcony Rooms, which were very nice. The first issue we saw was that our luggage did not appear until after 6pm. This was a full two hours after departure and we were ready to eat dinner but had no luggage or clothes yet. I had to call guest relations several times who just repeatedly told me that I would have my luggage soon. We went down to Guest Relations, and there was a small crowd of angry passengers looking for their luggage as well. Again, maybe not a big deal, but every other cruise line we have used had our luggage to the room quickly, especially with an upgraded room.

2. CABIN SERVICE: Regarding our cabin steward, we were very pleased and happy with Viviana. She did her job very well. However Celebrity advertises on their website “Our signature friendly, personalized service with a guest to staff ratio of nearly 2:1” for the Aqua Class Rooms. I would like to understand what they mean by this? It was clear to us that either the ship was understaffed, or the statement about the 2:1 guest to staff ratio is completely false. Viviana did her job well, but it was very clear she was ALWAYS rushing around and appeared like she was running behind at all times of the day and night, and she was taking care of at least 25 cabins down the hall. I don’t know how this translates to 2:1 ratio. Again compared to other cruises we have been on, the cabin service just felt “mediocre” and we expected better from Celebrity, especially for an upgraded room. Read more