This 11 day ultimate Caribbean cruise was our 5th cruise, we are a couple with 3 teenagers and previous to this Celebrity cruise enjoyed a pretty good cruise on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas during the Summer 2007. Having heard good things about Celebrity especially - the food and service - I cannot express just how disappointed we were to the point that we feel we deserve a refund and will pursue it.

Embarkation went smoothly bar a little run in with a rather patronizing lady who booked us in and insisted that we each held our own passport in our hands rather than one of us hold them all. in comparison to the Navigator this ship is tired, old and poorly designed. There is no decent atrium, dining rooms have low ceilings and feel dark and poky. I recall going on the RCCL Sovereign of Seas back in 1988, it was a far better and more impressively designed ship even then. Externally the ship is far uglier than the Navigator.

Our cabin was smaller than the Navigator cabin by some margin even though it was a concierge class Skydeck cabin (9th floor) and we were surprised to see a large overhanging extension about 18 foot that prevented us seeing to much of the sky and gave a claustrophobic feel we noted this extended all the way along the ship both sides.. This eyesore was the lower side of the upper deck. The carpets are old and cheap looking. Bathrooms small and space tight. The absolutely horrible smell of burnt/unburnt gas presumably from the gas turbine engines ruined what should have been the smell of clean sea air rendering the balcony almost useless. Our cabin steward was friendly enough but the other waiters were often abrupt and rude. One of them holding the door wide open whilst he called down to see if an item was chargeable or not - we were only half dressed and had to almost throw him out of our cabin. TV channels were v.poor the only semi live channel being CNN there really is no excuse for that these days. The Navigator carried many more live channels and it really is not so expensive to provide them. All in all CC class is just not worth it. Read more