This is my fourth cruise overall and third with Celebrity, and with each one I find myself being more demanding in what I expect, which is not necessarily a good thing. Overall it was a very enjoyable cruise with a couple negatives that I’ll address. The ship is beautiful, the ports were generally fun, and our weather was just about perfect all the way through. Drink package is a home-run if you’re a booze-hound like me – I upgraded from classic to premium package a couple days in so that I could enjoy the martini bar on deck 4, which is awesome if you like a top-shelf mart. Pool scene was always fun, though I find it annoying that everybody stakes out their chairs first thing in the morning on sea days. If people didn’t do this chairs would always be available, but as it is, you can’t find an available chair in a good spot by the pool after about 10 am, even though less than half of them are occupied at any given point. I liked the lawn, though would prefer some activities for the kids to do there (like croquet maybe).

Embarkation: Not good. Arrived after 2 pm thinking the main rush would have died down. No luck. It took us 50 minutes to get through security and then at least another 30 minutes to check in with Celebrity. They have got to figure out a way to streamline this process. Not sure what other cruise lines are like now but when I took Holland American back in 2010 the entire embarkation process took 10 minutes. Took Celebrity two years ago (also out of Port Everglades) and check-in was just as long but no security wait.

Once I got on the ship there was no champagne as the security exercise was about to begin. We hi-tailed it to the cafeteria and got there just before it closed. Wolfed down lunch and ran to security briefing. As that finished the ship was departing so raced up to the lawn deck for the festivities. Grabbed a drink and was able to finally relax. But a fairly chaotic three hours from port arrival to cruise departure. Read more