Itinerary and specialty restaurants were great. I can only think of 2 reasons someone might like this cruise: 1. You like large crowds (~2900 passengers); 2. You have enough points to defray the added costs. We purchased thru Celebrity and bought the classic drink package. One day 1, we found out that was extremely limited, and got the "hard sell" to upgrade. Seemed like every day we got a hard sell, from dining at the restaurants to buying art. Instead of staff asking "how can we help you" it was "what can we sell you." You room key is color coded according to your "class" and it seemed we were treated accordingly. Many of the "programs" on the sea days were also geared to sales (e.g., a seminar on Swiss watches, with many for sale).

The excursions were, on the whole, reasonably priced, but our trip to the Hermitage was awful. It was extremely overcrowded and we were herded through with no room to appreciate the art unless one elbowed yourself to the front. We contacted Celebrity prior to the cruise to inquire about our options in Russia and were told the 72-hour visa only applied to Celebrity excursions - found out from other passengers that they did private excursions.

We did enjoy the specialty restaurants (for an additional cost, of course), especially Qsine. But overall, our experience was that everything had an extra cost, from exhorbitant laundry fees (no self-serve laundries or irons available) to the shuttles into town (keep in mind that a ship this size must often dock far from the city center). This was our 7th cruise, 1st with Celebrity. For future cruises, we'll look for smaller ships and pay a little more for all-inclusive service (or actually, maybe a little less in the long run).