(This is a long report!)
October 2009. This cruise was booked back in April 2008. Tony (an airline pilot) was able to bid and get November for his vacation dates. However, this spring, there were lots of complications with his company and his annual leave. I won't go into the details, but will say that after careful consideration, Tony requested a leave of absence. We waited anxiously for two weeks to hear from the company. Tony checked his work schedule for November and saw that he did indeed get approval. I was so excited about this but also (like Tony) upset that he would take a hit on his paycheck in November. However, we decided it would be worth the loss of monies because we had not taken a real vacation together since October 2006 (our Celebrity Zenith Bermuda cruise). Also, Tony has never cruised in the Mediterranean, or a transatlantic cruise. Many of our cruise friends were happy to hear that Tony was able to go.
I met many fellow cruisers on our Cruise Critic (CC) roll call board. In addition, about two dozen friends from previous cruises were also going on this cruise with us. It was nice to have a good mixture of friends, old and new, on board with us. I also met fellow cruisers at a few pre-cruise get together luncheons, both at my house and in Atlantic City.
We were booked in room 1259 a C2 concierge class category. Cabin 1259 is on the Sky Deck and is located port side, towards aft and near the elevators. I liked the idea of being close to some of the important parts of the ship: Library on the same deck, the pool area two decks above (Resort); the outdoor bars and Oceanview cafe three decks above (Lido). The gym and sky lounge were located on the forward area of the ship, so we had a longer walk.
Our bed was located next to bathroom. People on cruise critic talked about wanting their bed close to the balcony door, as they like to sleep with the door open to hear the ocean waves. I prefer the sitting area next to the balcony, which helps, in a way, to extend the living area onto the balcony.
There wasn't a lot of counter top space for all of our things. I ended up putting my extra items in my suitcase for storage under our bed. The room could use more shelving and counter top space and also more hooks to hang things. We had a sofa that turns into a sleeper. Against the wall was a nice flat screen tv where we could view our photos that were taken while on board the ship. It also swivels so that one can watch tv while in bed. Options were: News, movies, CD's show, the web cam located at the front of the ship, and even a list of our onboard expenses.
The bathroom was compact, but laid out nicely. There were lots of place to store things. The shower stall had curved glass doors to make the space larger, along with a great shower head.
In our room were fresh flowers and a bottle of champagne. The concierge class perks were nice to have, especially the comfortable bedding and pillows. I slept well each night. We also enjoyed the foot rests on the balcony. Balcony: Small but we enjoyed our time sitting with drink in hand enjoying the sea view.