We really chose this cruise for 2 reasons: 1. it stayed a total of 3 days in Israel, rather than 2, as many others do ; 2. Celebrity does an excellent job of cultural/educational lectures on a daily basis. Both of the lectors were excellent and well-prepared. In addition, the shore excursion lectures were informative, helpful , and interesting, not just meant to sell us another excursion, as on many other cruise lines.

My best advice would be to check the CruiseCritic posts for Israel shore excursions you can set up for yourself, rather than do those with the Celebrity large bus tours. We could not have been happier with our guide Moshe Kally (Cally?)(he's on Facebook), from GTI, Guided Tours Israel. Rather than doing their small group tour of 8 up to 16 maximum, we asked for a price for a guaranteed 8 people. It was worth the extra money (not much, considering this might be a once in a lifetime experience, and all time wasted is so precious), to be comfortable in a van with only 4 couples, good AC, able to hear/understand the guide talk and keep up with him walking, etc.

Activities: Celebrity should have more aerobic type activities for seniors, as well as their excellent fitness room. It's a shame to charge for yoga, dance, etc., when we have already paid a fairly good price for the ticket, but it seems that's the custom now on all the lines. Read more