My husband and I decided to take a cruise to escape winter. We sailed on 1/17/10. We are experienced cruisers and have been on 1 RCCL, 1 Carnival, and 3 Princess cruises - this is our first (and won't be our last) on Celebrity!.

Embarkation was a breeze. We took the free shuttle from our hotel (Courtyard Marriott Cruise Port in Ft. Lauderdale---free shuttle to/from airport and/or cruise port---nice hotel) and arrived around 10:30. We got rid of our bags and went through check in very quickly---no problems. We had to wait for a little while to board the ship - but it wasn't too long of a wait - we were on the ship by 11:30.

We headed up to the buffet and it was crowded, but people were willing to share tables and the food was really good! We were very impressed with the variety of food available at the buffett everyday. There was an Indian station, Pasta station, Mexican (best fajitas!), grilled station, lots of fruit and veggies. We didn't have a problem with no trays as the stations are set up in such a way that it's easy to go get your drink, then your food. Lots of choices of food---something for everyone. We did notice on this cruise the staff did not peddle drinks as much as we have experienced on past cruises. We have had it before where you had to beat the wait staff off with a stick asking you to buy alcohol...but not on this ship. It is sort of a positive thing - but kind of a negative thing. When you actually wanted a drink - sometimes you really had to search for one. Again - not that big of a deal. But something we noticed. Read more