I'd heard good things about Celebrity. We booked a holiday cruise just to enjoy a week of doing not much of anything, just some time in the sun doing a bit of reading. We chose a big boat because we thought the variety in dining and entertainment would be better. Boy were we wrong. Celebrity has three classes of passengers. The top are the "suite" passengers, the next are the "aqua class" passengers, and the rest are "Walmart" passengers. As Walmart passengers, we had exactly 2 choices for restaurants (unless we wanted to pay an up charge $90/couple at one of the speciality resturants). We were not allowed into the suite or Aqua class bars or restaurants. The quality of the food was comparable to a Ruby Tueday's.

The hard sell on beverage packages by the entire staff on the first two days was annoying. It was even more annoying when those who bought the package realized they'd need to drink 8-10 beers/cocktails per day to break even. Most gave it their best try and drunken loutishness was common. I expected to have families with children onboard but I was not prepared for the sheer quantity of newborn infants, toddlers, feral children, and the playground-level screaming around the pool. I cannot understand why these families didn't book with Disney.

Well, we've learned our lesson. One additional thing...if you decide to go with Celebrity, pray you will never need to leave the ship in a lifeboat. Our lifeboat drill was a complete joke. We assembled in a location that was not the actual place we'd need to go. We were told to watch video. Unfortunately, no one could find/see the screens. People never stopped talking long enough to listen to instructions. I've cruised with 6 different cruise lines over the years...they all took the lifeboat drill very seriously. Not so with Celebrity.