Background - We are a couple in our late 20's from the UK. This was my 15th cruise and my 4th on Celebrity. For this cruise we booked a concierge class cabin due to it being cheaper than a standard balcony.

We sailed from Harwich in the UK and as we only live 2 hours away we drove down the afternoon before and stayed in the Premier Inn. The hotel was great and is only a 2 minute drive from the port gates. Also nearby are a couple of supermarkets for getting last minute supplies E.g Wine.

Embarkation - On the day of embarkation the weather was awful, it rained heavily all day. We left the hotel at 11.15 to drive the well signposted route to the port car park. Having found the car park we then had to queue for approximately 40 minutes before we dropped our luggage off and parked the car. I heard quite a few complaints about this on the ship and believe that later in the day the queue was even worse. Yes it was an inconvenience but did it ruin our experience? NO! Read more