This was our thirty-second cruise, but only our third trip on Celebrity. We have done six Transatlantic crossings and this was our second crossing on Celebrity. We made a similar cruise on the Celebrity Equinox last April. We have Elite status on Princess, but we have given up our perks on Princess and have now decided that Celebrity is our cruise line of choice.
We flew from Tucson to Ft. Lauderdale a day early and stayed at the Crown Plaza hotel the night before sailing. We stayed at this hotel last year before boarding the Equinox and were again very pleased with the hotel's amenities and service. We had a wonderful room, shuttle service from the airport and a pre-paid breakfast at the hotel (a buffet, we ate only cereal, coffee and fruit, but a nice variety of items was offered). We also ate dinner at the hotel the night before departure and it was pleasant, but nothing special.
The morning of embarkation, we took the hotel's shuttle to the port. It left the hotel at 10:00 AM and we arrived at the port within a half hour. We were booked in consierge (C2)class (which we have always used on Celebrity). We were promptly processed and led to a waiting area. We were among the first to board and we decided to wait in the library on deck 8. This area was very close to our room. We sat comfortably in the library area playing games and reading from our iPads while we waited. It was about 2 hours before we could enter our cabin but we were comfortable so we didn't mind the wait. We were not hungry, so we decided to wait until our room was available before going up for some lunch.
We have been to Gibraltar many times and have taken all of the tours offered by the ship. Therefore, we just walked off the ship and enjoyed the local shops and cafes.