Having cruised numerous times, but never on Celebrity, we decided to give them a try on an 8 night California Coastal cruise. Check in at the pier was under staffed. There was a one to two hour wait to check in, depending which line you were put in. Our balcony room was nice, but smaller than comparable on other lines. The regular lock on the balcony door was broken...a difficult to use deadbolt had been added as a replacement lock. The balcony floor was uneven and one had to be careful not to trip...just outside the door the floor was raised by what appeared to be an air pocket and the floor bottom went down when you stepped on it...further out, what appeared to be cement had been used to repair other parts of the floor. The cement was raised and was cracked in several spots. It was difficult to find a flat space so the chairs would not wobble. The first night, one of the glasses in the bathroom was found filthy, with a dried white gunk with hairs stuck inside bottom of the glass. Tendering was poorly handled (at our first stop, it took 4-1/2 hours to tender those with tickets).

The food on the ship was poor (both how prepared and in quality). Hanburgers poolside were spongy, probably because they were frozen when put on the grill and partly cooked, then they were put in water and cooking was finished later when the Grill started serving. Processed, formed chicken was served (in place of fresh grilled chicken) on a luncheon salad in the dining room. The quality of the lobster served was found to be mushy and ineditable. We ate as many meals as possible on shore. Overall, the crew didn't appear happy and seemed short-staffed. The ship's appearance was not being maintained, with noticeable rust not addressed. And, in some cases, staff meetings were held or staff was reprimanded in front of passengers making for uncomfortable situations (I really didn't care to hear about a department's $15,000 monthly budget expenditure which was not being adequately covered by sales).