We booked this cruise for our anniv. The date and location were the primary reasons for choosing Celebrity. We have mostly cruise on Carnival with the family (2 teenagers and Mom and Dad) because of port locations and value for your $$. I had very high hopes for the Celebrity line and was comparing many things to the Carnival line. What Celebrity DID that I liked: Every time we boarded the ship we were greeted with ice cold hand towels to wash away the travel grime, the daily salt air, or just simply refresh yourself while waiting in line.

Boarding the ship was very easy - we were Concierge Level- so got a few perks, we were also some of the first in line so really I don't know what the wait would be like later in the day.

They greeted us with Mimosa and Champagne and keep it going for awhile. Our balcony room was very spacious and tons of storage space in that level of room. I did like the sliding door to the balcony better than the swinging door, much easier to open and close and the floor to ceiling window and door was nice. The Food area (AKA lido deck) was very calming and had beautiful ceiling to floor windows, you didn't feel like cattle going to eat with a crowd. There was tons of sun deck chairs all over the place in different levels - it was never crowded and always some place to sit. The Martini Bar is very cool! and the best part of Celebrity ship was there was NO SMOKING in the casino, THANK YOU! The ice cream bar on Celebrity was very nice. Celebrity was very limited with food choices and the food was OK - they had steamed buns, lots of meats, salmon and herring and baked beans for breakfast on deck (I guess European?), Belgium waffles were OK, not much flavor but pretty and made fresh, desserts we just OK during lunch and dinner. Dinner on the deck was the same every night. Stir Fry and Pasta Bar are made fresh, didn't eat anything else. We were eating on the deck 2 nights because dinner in the dining room wasn't worth getting dress for. And really 2 formal nights, UGH! They start closing up the food on deck around 9:30am and just have bread and some cold take away items. Our level provided fresh fruit (Whole Apples, Whole Pears, etc.) and a bottle of sparkling wine, which we didn't drink the 1st night and they took it away and we never saw it again, so drink up! We ordered room service 1 time, Pancakes, eggs, yogurt, smoothies, etc. and every thing was cold, so stick with bread and other cold items. Read more