Departure Port Everglades, FLL. As always everything is near in FLL ( airport, pre-cruise hotels and Port Everglades )so in no time we were ( a party of six )at terminal 26. Got there around 11AM, smooth embarkation, no hassle with our "allowed" wine bottles, and we were on the ship about noon: staterooms(3) ready and luggage already there.Greeted by June,our Steward,who did more than you can ask for for the 14 days.Do these guys really sleep sometimes?

The ship was clean, well maintained,no signs of wear and tear as on a previous cruise on HAL Zuiderdam.Nothing intrusive as far as HAL is concerned, discrete cruise directors ( there was a switch for the second week), occasional PA announcement, low level background music (60-70-80)at the AFT pool deck, well nothing to wake you up if you were taking a nap - the Carnival ships were providing that when they were sailing around us - and for the first week a nice crowd in their mid 50 for the most part, a "young crowd" compare to previous HAL cruises we did. Few well behaved kids and teens.

Food was to HAL/Celebrity standards in the main dinning room with no need to go to "upscale restaurants" unless you would like to really treat yourself as we did in the Tamarind a few times.We always ate around 8PM, no waiting and the busboys were efficient, and very friendly witch is new to us on HAL. On previous sailings the Indonesian personnel mainly were "too"polite" and reserved ... what a change on this cruise:smiles and friendliness across the board! Special kudos to Aris an Putu and Frank the wine cellar master. Read more