Enjoyable 14 Days in Aqua Class

An enjoyable 14 day cruise. The ship is very attractive and well maintained. This was our tenth cruise and third on Celebrity. Embarkation was quick and smooth - the Port of Miami seems to do it right! Disembarkation (Easter Sunday) was long delayed due to a shortage of port customs personnel.

Our cabin steward was excellent and the Blu restaurant (Aqua Class Stateroom) was a real highlight. The service was excellent and food quite good. The fellow Aqua passengers were enjoyable - we met a number of other couples and looked forward to seeing them again throughout the cruise.

We ate in Blu for both breakfast and dinner every day and only ventured into the Ocean Cafe for lunch - always crowded and similar aggressive behaviors we've witnessed on other cruise lines. The main dining room on sea days was nice for lunch. We skipped the specialty restaurants (the up-charge for Qsine was $45 per person) and hard to justify given the quality of Blu.

The entertainment was fairly good (the production shows: "Topper" and "Euphoria" were very good). "Rock City" was tired and the music was not well chosen for the singers' voices. In general the volume was too loud (and singers voices tended to be "screechy"). Many other passengers had similar complaints. The solo violinist, Amy Lee, and vocalist, Jane Curry, were exceptional. The string duo, Decameron, were also very good. We listened to them in the Ensemble Lounge before dinner each evening - very talented with an ever changing program.

The Corning Glass Works was great - we viewed the demonstrations 6 or 7 days. Unfortunately, Celebrity is ending its relationship with Corning and changing to a "revenue generating" company with passengers attempting their own "glass blowing".

We contracted for 4 of the ship's excursions - three "Highlights" tours of Barbados, St. Lucia and Antiqua and a "Sail and Snorkel" on Aruba. All 4 were a miss. Most of the 3 to 3.5 hours on the 3 land tours were spent traveling on bumpy, twisty island roads with two - 10 minute stops to view the sights. A real waste of time (and money). The bus broke down on Barbados and one of the passengers vomited on the Antigua bus (it was that rough of a ride).

The Aruba "Sail and Snorkel" was also unfortunately a miss - nothing to see and a long catamaran ride to the snorkel location. We chose our own excursion on Bonaire ("BonaireVistaTours" which was recommended by TripAdvisor) - about 40% the price of similar Celebrity excursions and much better quality.

The health and fitness gym was nice - we both used it on 7 of the 14 days. Nice equipment and very well maintained.

Aqua Class is nice for its access to the Blu restaurant and the Persian Garden spa. Location on the ship is very convenient. Not sure about the value of the special shower in the bathroom.