My wife and I travelled in late September 2009 on Equinox's "Ancient Empires" 14 night cruise visiting Israel, Egypt, Greece, Turkey and Italy. This was a truly wonderful itinerary, whether or not you had great interest in the history of so many nations. We were also blessed with ideal weather, pretty well unbroken sun, but not too hot.

This new ship fully lived up to our expectations. The "real grass" lawn club is not just a clever gimmick, the experience of sitting on this deck whilst way out in the open ocean, is almost surreal, but at the same time is a welcome oasis of peace and calm. The traditional buffet facilities in the Oceanview restaurant are so much better than the the previous style of older Celebrity ships. The food both here and elsewhere is still of a high standard. Yes, you do hear a few grumbles, but that's just the way some people are! As regular Celebrity passengers, we were highly impressed.

Minor quibbles - some headline entertainers we felt to be little below par. The price Celebrity charge for shore excursions is still high, compared with "doing your own thing", but at least you are guaranteed, or so it appears, that the Celebrity shore excursion will be back before the ship leaves, even if departure is held up, as was the case on our voyage, for a couple of hours. Read more