We purchased a four night cruise and hotel stay package through a local Groupon. Since we had never been on a cruise ship before, we figured it would be a great way to try it out, without spending thousands. Because of the short duration of the Groupon(24 hours), we didn't have a lot of time to do our research and comparisons.

Boarding the ship was quite the ordeal. The counters were generally understaffed, and the numerous forms required to board the ship were just laying on a table with no direction on how or what to fill out. Celebration requires either a $100.00 per person deposit, or your credit card on file, as you have to charge everything to your account on board the ship, no cash payment is allowed. Note, Celebration adds a $12.00 per person per day gratuity charge, plus a fuel surcharge of $9.00 per person per day. All hidden costs that were buried in the fine print.

After getting your boarding card, you are then whisked by a series of tables were Celebration offers to "upgrade" you to a shuttle from the harbor, upgraded meals, wine packages, excursions, etc. Everything was an additional fee or cost, plus the Raddison didn't even offer a complimentary shuttle from the hotel to the ship. Note, don't pay for the shuttle service the boat offers. It's more expensive than catching a taxi, which cost $5/person, plus you get to spend more time on the island. The boat wants you to spend as much time on the ship as possible. Read more