Let me start by saying up until the final payment was made I wasn't sure we weren't going to have to cancel. My husband had back surgery in January and his recovery was taking time. This was our fifth cruise -- the third on Celebrity with our two previous cruises being on the Infinity. We thought the ship was beautiful, and while different than the Infinity, set up well and easy to navigate. We especially loved the tree suspended in the atrium outside the elevators. We had a balcony cabin on the 'bump out'.

Embarking: We found it to be about what we expected when you have to process 2800 people in a relatively short period of time. We had the 2:30 check in time but since we needed to vacate our hotel room prior to that, we arrived at the dock early. We checked in our baggage and found a seat to 'watch the world go by'. My husband, who uses a cane, has a hard time being in one position for any period of time so he would sit, then walk, sit, etc. After a couple of hours he noticed the line was very short and approached one of the crew members asking if it were possible for him to board a little earlier due to his discomfort. They directed him to a line right then. We very much appreciated that consideration. He was offered a chair later but we were nearly at the counter. I think we made it through the line in less than an hour and boarded the ship. Our cabin was ready so we were able to drop off our carry on bags and relax. All but one of our bags had been delivered by early evening -- the other later that night.

The ship: Even though there were more people on this ship than we have in our entire town we rarely felt crowded. Waiting for an elevator during busy periods was about as bad as it usually got. While maintenance was on-going we noticed rusty areas on our balcony and our portion of the giant "X" on the balconies was peeling. It did not have any bearing on our trip -- just something we noticed. Our cabin was better than we had expected. We liked the bed next to the balcony door. There seemed to be plenty of storage overall but when you pack for a nearly 3 week trip it's hard to find spots to put everything. The bathroom was well designed and we really liked the shower with the glass doors. There was plenty of storage in there as well. The cabin drawbacks: the one electrical outlet was too far from the bed for my sleep machine and little clock, and the extension cord I brought didn't reach. Our room steward, Gaston, was kind enough to bring in an extension cord. (I'm sure some people are wondering why I brought a clock. It's because the only clock in the room is on the telephone -- hard to see in the dark when you aren't wearing your glasses and in my case, on the opposite side of the bed. ) Another drawback -- no clothes line in the shower. I really missed that. While I don't hold it against Celebrity for wanting us to pay for their laundry services, I feel $1.95 for a pair of socks or ladies underwear is a bit steep. I ended up hand washing a few small items and hung them on hangers hooked to the chairs on the balcony (out of sight). Celebrity needs to understand that passengers are going to hand wash some delicate things and if they don't want 'tidy-whities' hanging from the balcony, a clothesline would be a nice option. We bought a couple of t-shirts on clearance in the gift shop -- they were cheaper than having Celebrity launder the dirty ones. Every review I give Celebrity has the same statement: do what Princess does -- put laundry rooms in. Most people will pay to use a washer and dryer. I'd much rather travel home with clean clothes than have to do 6 loads of laundry when I return. Our favorite place to hang out was in the Sky Lounge. In the morning it was a quiet get-away. Later on in the day there would be activities of some sort there. Read more