Timing and destinations were our main decision makers for this cruise. We had never cruised with Celebrity before (10 previous cruises) so thought we'd try them. On boarding there was no one to guide us to the lunch area set aside for "Concierge Class" guests, we did ask a couple of crew members but they seemed to have no idea what we were asking, so we ended up in the main buffet area.

Our "Concierge" cabin was stateroom 9350 and luggage was delivered in good time. We were a little disappointed with the size of this cabin, but it was clean and nicely presented. I soon found out that the hand basin tap (faucet for the American readers) had a long, obtrusive overhang thus risking hitting one's head on it when rinsing the face. That aside, the shower was very good with a really effective, but quiet, extractor fan, no misting of the mirror whatsoever.

We did not have a beverage package included with this cruise and soon found out the extortionate costs of ANY type of beverage (water, soft drinks plus, of course, alcoholic drinks). As an example one 330 cl bottle of Beck's beer was $7.50 plus 18%, so total of $8.85 (£7.38 @ $1.20 to the GB£) unbelievable! Needless to say we were careful when choosing any drinks. Had we opted into the "Premium Beverage Package" that would have cost over $2,000 or over £1,800. Okay, our cruise price was probably quite a bit lower than those who had it included, but our main objection to these packages is that both of you have to take it and my wife only has a couple of glasses of wine with dinner and a cocktail prior. We had what we wanted and our total bill came to £365, a saving of £1,445, not bad! Had we been on a package deal we would, I'm sure, have had more to drink, but silly to drink just to justify the package. Read more