About the Ship - We traveled with Bill and Lisa (myself) both 45, Tyler, 15, and Kyle 14.  We really enjoyed our cruise experience, and the crew worked very hard to see that every need was met and problem solved, especially the room stewards who everyone agreed were outstanding.  I would say, however, that Celebrity is designed for morning people, not night owls.  The dining options, the entertainment, etc, is heavy on the morning and mid-day, with fewer options in the evenings.   I felt that the ship itself was very nice, and they did a great job refurbishing it during dry dock.  The carpets all seemed brand new, the furniture was all fine, the bedding was nice, the beach towels were awesome, the bath towels were okay, not great.  The grand foyer is definitely not grand, only a few stories, and no bar or music there.  It is basically only the pursers and excursions desks.  But who spends time hanging out there anyway? If you need Euros, they will exchange your money at the desk for 2.5%.  If you're a soda drinker, you may want to skip the card, which bills you $5 per day, and opt for the ala carte price, which is only $1.50 per glass.  My kids are dedicated soda drinkers and they probably only drank them once or twice all cruise, except at dinner, because it "wasn't convenient."  If you opt for the card, buy it at the Cova Cafe.  The pool bar also sells them but they run out of stickers quickly.  They will give you a free thermal cup to use throughout the trip; however you cannot just take that to the bars to refill (which I saw some little kids trying to do.)  You must have your room card.  If you're still looking for a cabin, it doesn't matter tremendously which side of the ship you are on because most of the ports are industrial and there is no good view, but for the two tender ports, it would've been nice to be on the starboard side of the boat.   The food in the Cosmopolitan is very good, but not fantastic.  Selections were limited.  There were five daily entrees plus five standards (steak, etc) that are available every night.  The biggest star was dessert, of which there were always interesting choices.  We did get lobster on the last formal night, it was okay, and of course the big baked Alaska event, which was fun.  On the first few nights or on formal nights, when it is crowded, the wait staff does not have time to be chatty, but they are still great at what they do, and fun to get to know on the other, quieter nights.  In the Waterfall, the drink machines are frequently out of order, with some nights all machines out of order except one.  They served iced tea, lemonade and fruit punch.  Ice machines are often empty.  However, we really like the layout of the Waterfall.  There is plenty of seating by the windows, and as a very cool touch there are glass circles on the floor where you can look down and see the water.  The kids loved standing on those (okay, I did too.)  When it is open, the food in the Waterfall Grille is plentiful, and pretty good.  Lots of interesting choices.  We all raved about the pizza and the fries at the poolside grille.  The problem is that food is not available whenever you want it.  Breakfast is until 1130, with lunch starting at 12.  There is no real "dinner" in the Waterfall.  Once lunch is over at 2:30, you can have sushi from 5-9 and pizza or pasta until 11pm. After that you rely on room service (which is free.)  The room service menu is plentiful with sandwiches, burgers, fries, pizzas, quesadillas and desserts.  The internet is horribly slow in the evening when many people are trying to get on.  One night we spent $5 and 9 minutes waiting for Facebook to load before we just shut it down.  The next day at 2pm there were only one or two people in the cafe and we were online in just a minute.  The TV choices are terrible.  There are only a handful of channels and they just rotate the same pre-determined shows.  The only real network on and in English is CNN.  1/3 of the channels are ships channels.  My biggest complaint is the hairdryer.  The hairdryer is a very strange tube, like the old kind that came with a hat, only no hat.  It also got so hot in my hand that after a few minutes I had to wrap a washcloth around the handle to hold it.  I must confess we didn't see much of the entertainment; however, I was excited about the Broadway show on the first formal night. After tunes from Gypsy, the Producers, and Modern Millie, I was getting a little bored because they weren't really shows I was that familiar with, when Tyler announced that someone behind him had become ill.  After that we all left.  We gave high marks to all the music on board.  The band that played at the pool, and the one in the Rendezvous lounge were outstanding, as was the string ensemble.  The dance club Revolution sounded really fun but we didn't have much time to hang out in there. You may have heard people talking about White Night.  We never saw anything about it, however there was a Mediterranean night by the pool in which a lot of people wore some white, including the band.  The casino was nice, the photographer did a great job, and the dessert night where they bring up all the fancy desserts and the ice sculpture to the dance club was really outstanding.  It was so fun to watch people dancing to the old disco music while enjoying three kinds of crème brulee, cheesecakes, among other wonderful confections.

Our Adventure begins...Layover in Dublin - With an 8-hour layover in Dublin (we give kudos to Aer Lingus, by the way) we first make sure our ATM card works in Europe by getting out our first Euros from the airport, then took the opportunity to grab a taxi and head downtown to see the sites.  Our cabbie was quite chatty, telling us all about the differences between soccer and futball, and how they all want to know why we call our American Football "football" when you only kick it two times per game.  Hmmm.   When asked what they think of Barack Obama, he says Ireland is trying to claim him as one of theirs, since apparently his mother has Irish roots.  Interesting.  So after a 20 minute ride we arrive at Dublin Castle, in what is know as "South of the Liffey (River)" in downtown Dublin.  There is not much to see inside, so we walk around the outside and into the courtyard and take some photos.  It looks like what you would expect, with tall doors (so people could ride in on horseback - who knew?) A turret, some statues, etc.  It wasn't that big, and not well respected by the Irish as it was built by the British when they ruled over the country.  Still for a couple of tourists from Kentucky it was pretty fun to see a real castle!  By now it was about 1130, but none of the Irish pubs were open until noon, so we walked over to Trinity College to look around there.  It is the largest and oldest university in Ireland, and has a real Ivy League look to it.  We enjoyed walking around there and reading a little bit about the history.  Finally noon arrived so we walked a few blocks over to the Temple Bar area (a few long streets with many restaurants and bars, including Hard Rock Cafe.)  We found a place that looked fun and served fish and chips and shepherds pie...real Irish food.  They also had a little band that played Celtic music while you ate.  We sat at this big beer barrel table and had a great time chatting with the people in there.  After lunch we still had an hour or so to kill, so we walked back to Christ's Church, which was back by the castle.  It is one of the oldest churches in Dublin, and had some impressive stained glass windows, old doors, and stonework.  Finally we hopped in a cab back to the airport where we were regaled with our driver's stories about ignorant tourists who think leprechauns are real and that Irishmen go around saying "Top o' the morning to ya" all the time.  Too funny!  We all agreed that we enjoyed the people of Ireland and would like to see more of the country someday.

Days One and Two - Venice - I was prepared to not like Venice, as I heard it was falling into disrepair, covered with pigeons, and being swallowed back into the sea.  All I can say is We're in Love with Venice!  All four of us loved this city.  We are water people, we love to ride on the water, sit by the water, look at the water, and Venice certainly delivers that.  The Venice port is very industrial and hard to navigate.  You feel like you are going to be mowed down by a truck, taxi or scooter as you make your way either to Celebrity's water shuttle ($20 US for a 24 hour pass, but it only gets you to St Marks and back to the ship) or to one of the two nearby vaporettos.  When I say nearby, they are not really all that close.  For either one you have to walk to the entrance of the port.  For Trachetti you then go left, across the bridge, and you will come to a large parking garage (from here, follow the signs with the boat on them.)  Turn left down a narrow sidewalk towards the port.  When it opens up, turn right and go into the building to buy your tickets (vaporetto desk is on the left.) Buy a 24 hour ticket for $18e, you will use it!  If you have a 24 hour pass you don't have to validate (they are small tickets that look like movie tickets.)  For shorter rides you get a white card, for which you will have to validate the first time in the yellow box, they wave in front of the white box before each ride.  I can tell you that no one ever checked our tickets in two days, but you are supposed to do it in case they ask.  If you opt to go to the Piazzale Roma stop, at the port entrance go up the hill (slight right) to the road and turn right.  (You are up on a bridge.) Keep going down the road past the police station, and then turn left when you see a bunch of motorcycles parked down the hill.  Piazzale Roma is down there.  Read more