This was a cruise for my 27-year old daughter and myself (50+ mom). We have crusied before in the Carribean and have also been to Europe several times, but not on a cruise. In fact, I have really enjoyed traveling thru Europe by train and have been on trips thru Italy, France and Spain. Quite a few of the places we were to visit on this cruise we had visited before, which played a part in our choice of excursions in port. But my daughter wanted to do something different this year and a cruise it was to be. We have cruised Celebrity, HAL, RCCL and Costa before; Celebrity being the line we like best. When we decided to book the cruise I liked the itinerary - I had never been to Greece and have recently heard alot about Dubrovnik, so the ports offerred some old favorites along with a few new places.

We actually booked somewhat at the last minute (at least by our usual planning standards). About a month and a half before the sail date we booked an inside cabin over the internet, then about a week or so later I decided to upgrade to a "Verandah Guarantee" cabin. Boy did that work out for us! We ended up on a verandah in Concierge Class at the back of the boat - 7212 - it was fantastic. The largest cabin I have ever been in (it was handicap accessible) and the balcony was just HUGE. I am so glad I decided to spend the bucks to do that upgrade. I loved the little extras that came with the CC cabin - fresh flowers, afternoon nibbles, priority tendering and also it helped put us in the late dinner seating which was great for a European cruise. Gave me time to take a nap, then sit out on the balcony, sip some wine and then go to dinner!

Here are some general observations - then I will cover the ports. We like the food on Celebrity - we live in Atlanta so we are used to good restaurants. I have also spent a lot of time on my other European trips enjoying the local cuisine....a vacation is alot about food to me. Now I don't necessarily like the very highbrow gourmet food...but well prepared foods with good ingredients. I would rate the Celebrity food good or very good. As others have said, listen to what your waiter tells you is good that evening; the items I had that I would say were mediocre were those not suggested by the waiter (but he was always willing to then bring me a second item that I should have ordered in the first place!) We had some very nice fish, my daughter likes beef and it was usually very good with tastey sauces. We like the dining room experience and we were fortunate to have some great table mates. Another family with a daughter the same age as my daughter and a single woman...in fact we enjoyed our table so much we never ate away from the table on any nite except the one that was "open seating" - the nite we were in Santorini. We always think about going to the specialty restaurant, but in the end decide against it - the food in the dining room is definately very good - why pay more? But I must admit I did miss some of my usual European vacation foods - as good as the food was, it was not the same as what we usually eat on the land in Italy, France or Spain. Read more