Great Ports, Nice Ship, Efficient and Friendly Crew, 1st Class Blu Restaurant

We chose the cruise for its destinations and the Celebrity ship enabling us to book in Aqua Class. Starting in Venice then down the Adriatic to Slovenia, Croatia, Monte Negro, Naples, Catania, Ravenna then back to Venice for a full day in port before departing the following day. Great cruise very good ports of call although Naples a bit scruffy and needing a thorough up grade, saying that though the Naples Museum was excellent with rooms devoted to Pompei and the fabulous Farnese collection of Roman statues, did this unescorted finding the Naples metro easy to use and very well looked after.

The ship was in great condition having been upgraded relatively recently. The cabin was very good and the balcony very nice to sit out on to watch the world go by. First evenings departure from Venice was awesome sailing close to the Venice sights with superb views of St Marks square from our balcony. The service on board especially the blu restaurant was excellent and the food first class. Most of the evening shows were very good. The ships crew were friendly and we would highlight the Italian Captain, who we met at the Captains Club function as we believe his influence helped the ship run very efficiently The visits to Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro were brilliant. Many remains from the Roman and Venetian empires. Catania in Sicily was also very good and Ravenna was excellent.

The cruise was enhanced by great weather and sea conditions throughout and the time of year gave us wonderful evenings on deck for sail aways. A pity sail aways were not accompanied with music etc., unlike Cunard who make sail aways an event in itself.

Leaving and rejoining the ship at the various ports was fast and efficient but we made a point of not leaving or rejoining in the peak times.

We used the gym room everyday and found the facilities good and not crowded. Plenty of places to sit and relax on board. Maybe some upper deck sun shades would have been good as the weather was sunny and hot and there was very little space to sit in the shade other than around the pool which was very crowded and getting a chair in the shade at times was impossible.

Would have been five stars had in not been for the walk from Venice Airport to the coach carrying all our bags and even worse on the return from the coach to the Airport and the inadequate lifts to departures and a check in a mess due to many people not having reservations or correct reservations with the airline showing a lack of communication between Celebrity and BA. Luckily we telephoned Celebrity from the ship 4 days before and reserved our seats on the plane. BA identified us by the seat numbers we had been allocated and not our names! Many others were not so lucky thus having long delays.

Overall however a great cruise and recommend.