We booked this cruise for the itinerary, especially the Panama Canal. This was our 6th cruise with Celebrity. As usual, the ship's personnel provided excellent service and were very friendly. The ship itself, however, was showing its age, it was certainly a very tired ship with peeling paint inside and out, ceiling leaks, sloppy bathrooms, closed public bathrooms that were often under repair and lots of poorly looking chairs and tables.

Our cabin was very nice and we were well taken care of by our cabin steward, Ahmat. We told him at the beginning what we liked and he exceeded our expectations and was a large part of why we enjoyed our cruise. The only bad part of the room was the water temperature which was very hot, sometimes scolding.

The food quality was not up to the usual standards of Celebrity. The menu choices were poor for the most part and we found ourselves eating at the Specialty Restaurants. We dined there 7 nights out of 15. The food at Tuscan, the Italian themed restaurant, was fantastic and we got excellent service from our waiter, Walter, and from our sommelier, Carlos. Although we very much enjoyed the specialty restaurants, we can’t help question why they can’t provide the same quality food in the main dining room or the buffet. We shouldn’t have to pay extra to get great food and service! The main dining room service was good but not outstanding. The only menu that was great was lobster night. They had 4-5 things that were special on that menu alone, all looked very good. It is a shame they don’t spread this out to other nights and drop things like the pork and beans they had on one night’s menu. We used the buffet for breakfast every day. It was always overcrowded and the service there was poor. Especially the bar service, it usually took between 8 and 15 minutes to get a fresh squeezed OJ or a cappuccino. We had eaten most of our breakfast by then. In one case we had to track down our seapass that was taken but the drink never delivered. The table bussers either tried to take your dishes before you were done or were nowhere to be found to clean a table you wanted to use. Most upsetting was the poor quality of the food served in the Oceanview Café (the buffet). Things were stale or tasteless and were usually not very hot by the time you got to a table. Also annoying was the layout of the café. It is a very big area with things very spread out and hard to find. Omelets are made in the rear, carving is done in the front, rolls on one side and bread on the other and who knows where the butter is, certainly the staff didn’t the first few days. Read more