This was our eighth cruise. We along with six friends were trying Celebrity for the first time. We run the age gamut from 47 to 72. Among all of us, we've cruised over 35 times, but none of us had ever cruised Celebrity. We went on not knowing what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised as I shall detail below. EMBARKATION: I cannot emphasize enough filling out the Xpress Pass online before embarking. It really speeds up the process. The queue was rather long, but with 12 agents processing people, it went fast. While standing in queue, have passport ready, health questionnaire filled out (supplied while on line) and Xpress pass. It shortens the process to 10 quick minutes. We were issued SeaPass cards and entered the ship.

Once on the ship, we were greeted with flutes of champagne (classy). We wandered the ship a bit, got a bite to eat and our luggage was in our room within 2 hours.

CABINS: We had a cabin with a balcony which was very well appointed. There was lots of storage space, drawers, shelves and cabinets. Our luggage easily slid underneath the bed for storing. The closet was a good size and had sturdy wooden hangers. The bathroom was a bit tiny, but that is typical throughout most ships. Everything was very clean except the tile needed to be regrouted in the shower. Read more