This was our third cruise, first time on a Celebrity Cruise. The reviews scared us, but we went in with a neutral attitude and were truly blown away with the service from this cruise. We are a family of four: 2 adults and 2 elementary school-aged kids. We arrived around 1 pm and was on the ship within an hour. We had forgotten our paperwork at home, and they helped us to get checked in with no problems. We were concerned when they put our credit card number on our kids' seapass (one kid has no concept of money), but they told us that on board, the guest relations would remove the ability for our kids to be swipe-crazy, so it was resolved. [One family forgot to remove that ability, and their daughter bought $600 worth of goodies before they found out.]
We tried the Oceanview Cafe (buffet) and the Main Dining Rooms, and both were excellent. In the main dining room, they treated us like royalty, as our server was both professional and entertaining, making us laugh every night. Spa Cafe was simple but delicious. It's tucked away, so we think several people didn't see it. The food there was excellent and provided a lot of organic, diet friendly options. We tried the food there every day. Celebrity had a great mix of different foods to try each night. On formal night, they did have lobster tail, which was simply delicious.
We remembered the best kept secret of eating free pastries in Cafe El Bacio without needing to order a coffee. Those desserts were even better than the ones in the dining rooms, as they were fresh and just melted in the mouth. Each day, they changed the pastries around, which kept our waistlines from shrinking too much.
The cabin initially looks very small, but it really used the space well. We had two beds that were tucked into the ceiling that came down for the kids, and the two beds (pushed together) we slept on. The mini sofa also converted into a bed, which our son ended up using because he's not as adept at climbing the stairs to the upper berth. The bathroom had shelves for us to put our toiletries in. The towels had loops so we could easily hang them on the door to dry. The window seat was our kids' favorite spot to sit at to watch the world go by.
We drove to Fort Lauderdale and didn't have a chance to do any excursions before going onto the boat. We drove to the ParknGo parking lot which was very efficient and took us straight to the port. Friendly and inexpensive way to park the car.