Last impression: as we left our room to disembark three or four crew members were walking down the corridor and at least one was smoking. This reminded me of a few other experiences I had with inappropriate behavior on the part of a partially trained crew. The ship and crew are new and my previous experience with Celebrity convinces me that they will get a lot better. Both the Captain and Cruise Director rotated off the ship during our cruise so this may have contributed but I'd have to say that in the area of entertainment, we were shocked at how good it was, especially the ship's productions. Lots of folks will tell you that Celebrity isn't as good as other cruise lines in this area, if so; the other guys must have gotten a lot better.

Based upon some of the earlier reviews we expected problems with unruly children, smoking all over the ship and lousy food in Rome. Other than our unfortunate experience while leaving the ship, none of this was accurate. The food in Rome was different but quite enjoyable. The dollar is and has been weak for some time. Hotels and restaurants are roughly twice what they would be in the USA. Although not as pronounced as our experience living in Europe in the mid-80s, we have devalued our dollar to improve our balance of trade. In Rome, we did something we haven't done in years--ate fast foods. As a point of reference, two Whopper combo meals came to approximately USD 30.00. Some previous reviewers complained about Europeans. Not a good move in my opinion. Although I didn't feel all that welcome in Palermo, Sicily the Roman's were wonderful. That goes for Naples and the folks we encountered along the Amalfi Coast.

Last February on the Millennium, the ship was about half French Canadian and European. Simply a great bunch of people. We are heading to Disney World mid-December and expect to encounter many more wonderful Europeans and why not? Compared to the Euro zone, America is on sale. Read more