Sailed with the hubby and 3 kids on the 5/30 Eastern Caribbean sailing. Hubby and I are in our mid-40s and kids are ages 16, 12, and 8. I have been cruising since the age of 15 as my parents were huge Royal Caribbean fans. More recently we have sailed on Royal C as well as Carnival. We booked an Oceanview Connecting State Room even though we could have gotten a Verandah State Room at about the same price. I was too nervous to book the balcony room with our 8 year old and didn't want to constantly be worried about his safety on the balcony. Having said that the ocean view room was actually quite nice with a larger than average window--not like the small, round ocean view windows that I remember on ships of the past. I particularly liked the connecting stateroom concept on this ship and it was one of the reasons we booked with Celebrity in the first place. The doors on the cabins are actually recessed and as a result allow for another double door to be closed allowing two state rooms to connect--so essentially what would normally be the "front porch" of the stateroom becomes the "connecting" hallway of the two rooms. This worked incredibly well for our family and did not require us to shell out the big bucks for a family suite, yet allowed us to be together when we wanted, but also allowed space for the kids and for mom and dad! I was actually quite surprised that the ship did not have more connecting rooms available, but maybe it is not as big of a seller as it was for us. Overall, I found most of aspects of the ship to be great. The food was actually better than I expected given some of the reviews I had read. Portions did seem smaller, but that was ok since the last thing I need after a week of ice cream and nightly desserts and martinis was larger portions! The lobster night on Friday (2nd formal night) was good, but very tiny and I mean tiny. Our waiter did not offer seconds, though it sounds like some of the other waiters made the offer to other guests. I am certain if we would have asked it would have been fine, but I would have preferred if the offer would have been made. Our waiter was nice, though rather quiet. I do think that the number of tables prevents the waiters and other staff from talking with the guests like I remember in the past. I very much enjoy hearing about life on the ship and about their homelands, but really did not find that there was much time for that or perhaps our waiter was not as interested in sharing that with the guests. The Wine Steward was actually a delight--Rolando from the Phillipines--every night he came to our table with a new riddle or puzzle for the kids to try solve. He was very fun and just a delight. Other positives include the lay-out of the ship--most rooms were lovely and as mentioned previously they never seemed to be crowd despite the fact that the ship was booked to capacity. I loved the eastern caribbean itinerary and we really did have a nice relaxing week.

Now for the less positive aspects of the trip.... 1) Though check-in was smoother than I ever remember in the past, we happened to get someone that did not seem to know what she was doing and while the other attendants were checking in 3-4 groups, she was still trying to handle our check in process. I think the fact that my son and husband have the same name totally threw her off and as a result she wound up printing 2 sea-pass cards for my son and using my husband's passport number on his card--she tried to insist that it would be fine and that when we tried to board they could figure out which was the "incorrect" card, however I insisted that the problem be solved right there, perhaps with the help of a supervisor as I was not going to come back down if the card did not work. She finally agreed and the problem was solved and we were on our way. 2) The next issue was our stateroom, when we arrived the bed in my hubby and my room was not together and instead was two twin beds, despite the fact that we had requested otherwise. The room steward quickly rectified the situation, but then when we reminded him of the fact that we wanted the room to be connecting--more problems ensued. For some reason the new connecting door would not allow for both sets of keys for the two staterooms to open the door. The room steward explained that he would call engineering, but then stated "if they don't come just dial "0". I thought this was not the best customer service, and really felt that they should have gone to more trouble to fix the problem. Someone finally came to fix the door, however we continued to have problems for the first 4 days of the trip. The keys would work for most of the day and then lo and behold we would go back to the room and find that none of the rooms keys would work--and no it was not our cell phone deactivating the keys as the room steward's key would also stop working. This would then require a trip to the guest relations desk and they would then insist that they had reprogrammed the keys and that they would now work--after several days of being told the same story, I finally told the young woman at the desk--"don't mean to be be rude, but these keys will not work, just follow me and I will show you, instead I need for you to call the engineer". Needless to say the engineer knew us on a first name basis after daily trips to our stateroom door--he finally figured out that the battery in the door needed to be replaced and that seemed to solve the problem. Would have appreciated a "sorry for your inconvenience" or better yet an on board credit however never got any of that. 3) Given that this is probably considered a more upscale/adult type of cruise, my kids found the Children's Club to be less than exciting. In the past they have enjoyed the programs offered by Carnival and Royal C--best I could tell was that the programming at Celebrity is just not all that great. The younger ages seemed to enjoy the activities--"Superhero" Day, Clown Day, make a birthday party hat, etc, but my 8 year old found the activities to be less than exciting. He decided he was done with it, after making an "arts and crafts folder" (to hold his artwork from the trip) the first night of the kid's camp. From there on out he spent time at the pool and with us and that worked out just fine. 4) As mentioned previously by others, I didn't find the entertainment to be all that great. The shows seemed like high school productions and were just not that professional looking. Other activities--like the a Capella group, the ITones were great, however, best I could tell they would perform for about 15 minutes. Literally on two different occasions we went to listen to them and may be got their 5 minutes late only to arrive as they were performing their last song--I guess they would perform all of 2 songs?!? It was very strange and a real shame since they were one of the few acts worth listening/watching. 5) It took 2 nights before we learned that there was a children's menu in the main dining room. On night 1 we had asked the assistant waitress (she was brand new to the ship) and she said they did not have a children's menu. Later when the maitre d came by, I told him how disappointed I was that no children's menu was available and he was the one that informed me that of course there was a children's menu--so glad I asked! Not sure how our main waiter didn't figure out that the 8 year old would probably want a kid's menu given that he could see that all he was eating was bread and butter during dinner. 6) Overall service was hit or miss and I did not feel that staff was all that respectful of the guests. On one occasion at the outdoor mast grill, I actually had one of the staff (not an officer, mind you) get in front of me for lunch (butted in front of several guests in line). Another staff--a female bartender was also extremely rude, chatting up some other guests while 4 or 5 of us waited to be served. She then proceeded to serve someone who had just walked up to the bar while the rest of us waited. When I pointed out that there were several others waiting before the guy who just walked up--she copped an attitude and told me to "relax"! 7) Finally I got the feeling that many of the wait staff and room stewards probably expected that they would receive extra tips from guests--not sure if others got that same feeling. I liked the fact that the gratuities were added to the tab and that we didn't have to go through the hassle of making envelopes with cash, however, I also didn't feel compelled to give more that the recommended amount. My hubby and I kind of got the feeling that perhaps staff did not try as hard any more to please the customer since the gratuities are now automatically charged?

So in conclusion, the trip was fun and relaxing with a few hiccups along the way. If my husband and I were traveling alone without the kids we would probably do Celebrity again, however I think if were to cruise with the family again, we would probably consider Royal Caribbean for a livelier time and more enjoyable activities..