Stayed at the Hilton Hawaiin Village for 7 days prior to cruise -been to Hawaii too many times to mention so just kicked back & relax in lead up to cruise. Shuttle to terminal, drop off bags outside then go through customs, checkin & security, embarkation in Honolulu was an easy process - was less than an hour. Booked a balcony cabin mid ship deck 7 & it was well appointed, plenty of room to move around, lots of storage & hanging space, bathroom was big and fully stocked of all amenities. Large flat screen TV and small fridge which cabin steward emptied so we could put our own drinks in that we bought on board, plus for soft drink package we would purchase later. When moving around the ship it was well appointed and looked after in all areas, a quick tour of the ship got us our bearings.

Once on board we started to hear about Celebrity jacking up prices because 2000 Aussies had boarded, it didn't take long till we could see personally that it was true. The TV in the room besides movies has your own account and menu for drinks & restaurant -availability, booking & pricing. We soon realised that the price on the TV in all stateroom said one price but in bars they were another, soft drinks went up by $2US per item, cocktails, spirits, wine & beers by $3US per item, water $1.50US per item. My husband doesn't drink ( had medical certificate to support) we were going to get one ultimate drinks package & one soft drink package, but were told we would need to buy 2 alcohol packages, I declined to buy anything & just bought soft drink packages & bought on a number of bottles of wine to drink at each of the ports.

We witnessed people who had been on the ship since Vancouver who had prepurchased drinks packages to be told at Hawaii they would need to upgrade their packages again as the drink prices has gone up due to Australian Taxes, that was a lot of rubbish, celebrity had the alcohol already in a US port & would be highly likely to have very little left by the time the ship arrived in Australia - so why should be there a tax ? There were some other poor excuses and the result meant that the individual price increases all of a sudden pushed you out of a cheaper package into another higher package and you were stung another $15-25US per day for it. interestingly the cruise that would later leave Sydney on 21/10 prices were dropped back - so it was a money grab by celebrity nothing more - nothing less. We felt sorry for older people who were small drinkers 1-2 a day - prices were ridiculous - a corona $15au, a Peroni $17.50 au, a lady was charged $25au for a double shot espresso. To get my very short hair trimmed, roots coloured and a wash and dry they wanted to charge me $400US - it was a joke! From that point on I made a choice not to give Celerbrity any more money than I needed too, my prior cruise ship bills have been no less than$2000 sometimes up to $5000 but not this one, got off at the end of the cruise with a $600 AU bill. Read more