We booked our cruise directly through Celebrity including the airfare. We flew from Roanoke Regional Airport (Virginia) to Miami. Took the shuttle (bus) that the cruise line provided. This went very well. The cruiseline personnel are very easy to spot and once we had collected our luggage, we were taken to the bus and only had to wait maybe 15 minutes before leaving for the pier. This worked out well for us, as the bus driver drops the luggage off for you and you can proceed with embarkation.

Like others have said, this went very smooth. There was a very large line when we arrived, but it moved very very fast. Our documents were checked and before we knew it we were having our picture taken. We dropped off our carry ons in our stateroom and went to the Island Cafe to enjoy our first meal on board. While we were eating our meal, we heard the announcement that staterooms were now ready for passengers. This was around 1 pm. Oops! Guess we had dropped our carry ons too early. We did get our welcome glass of champagne, but didn't receive an escort to our room so maybe that service is only provided to people with more expensive staterooms. We were trying to keep costs down and had an inside stateroom on Panorama deck.

After we finished our meal, we went exploring a little and found everything beautiful just like I had read. Everything was so clean & shiny, that I would have sworn the ship was new if I had not known so previously. Later on in the cruise, we found the Crystal Room and the seat we had was quite frayed & worn. That was the only time I really noticed any bad wear. One of our table mates mentioned that the chairs in their cabin were worn, but I did not personally see this. Read more