This was my second cruise. The first for our honeymoon, and this one for our 10th anniversary.

Unlike some other reviewers I am not a "seasoned" cruiser, but I do know what works and what doesn't in general terms, so here goes. My wife however is a seasoned cruiser, traveling on Royal Caribbean, Holland America and Carnival. The only line she will not return to is Carnival.

Embarkation was not without its flaws at Bayonne. The plus was we were registered to stay in a Celebrity suite, so didn't have to join the huge queue of passengers, and immediately were pointed to a much smaller line. That is when things went slightly downhill. My wife had booked 3 drink packages. On our first cruise years ago on Holland America Line beverage packages were not being offered. Now that Celebrity is offering these, we decided to go for it. We had a non-alcoholic for our 8 year old daughter, the same for my wife, and the Classic Package for me. Prior to arriving at Bayonne, we had received confirmation of the beverage package purchases and they were incorrect. My wife spent a great deal of time on the phone correcting this problem, so to arrive at embarkation and discover they were still in disarray was a huge letdown. They did correct the problem immediately, but we did have issues with the cards scanning for the first two days. This led us down to deck 3 Guest Services on more than one occasion. My wife is in sales and her comment was that if Guest Relations knows her name (which they did after multiple trips there) it's not a good sign. Additionally it's important to note that my wife travels extensively for her career, and has a vast understanding of expected perks for frequent travelers. Read more