My wife and I have four kids and we have been on quite a few family cruises - having been on Princess, P&O and Royal Caribbean. We fancied a change this time so we opted for Celebrity. Although we have four kids just the two younger ones (12 and 15) wanted to come this time.

Embarkation was quick and easy. The only slight irritation was that, apparently, you have to specifically ask for luggage tags online two weeks before the cruise - and we didn't know that. Why they simply don't mail them to you is a mystery to me. As such, we (and many others) had to join a queue in the freezing cold dock-side to be given luggage labels. A crazy system which Celebrity would do well to improve. That aside, check-in was quick and easy.

Once aboard we went straight to our rooms - which were ready and very nice. We had two rooms, both with a verandah - which had connecting doors. The rooms were of a good size and the bathrooms were the biggest I've seen - even on some suites. The TV was pretty clever, with lots of channels, and you could view the onboard photos as the cruise progressed. The face recognition software automatically sends the photos to the relevant TV's. Impressive technology. As always, we had an initial explore of the ship and found it to be well designed with lots of lounges and bars. The general ambience was that of a 'relaxed modern' feel. The mustering was quick and easy and without the need to take life-jackets, which was easier than normal. Read more