We had high hopes for this cruise, having cruised with Royal we thought this was an upgrade. WRONG, the service was awful from the moment we got on. Don't ask for anything in the restaurant you will be told no and forget asking for a bottle of water with another drink. That is frowned upon. Granted we did speak to the customer services manager and then they let us have a bottle of water with another drink, but the service in the restaurant was still lacking. Probably didn't help being put on a table under the stairs with the spare furniture and general walk through to the kitchen, perhaps our standards were too high. We didn't enjoy the fact that so many places on board had extra charges, especially since we only saw one family use the 'alcoves' for the entire trip. (2 weeks). The excursions were hit and miss, some good some poor. Lucky for us we booked this trip for the destinations which were outstanding, no hassle to get into Russia either.

Overall we wish we took a different company for this destination cruise as we were disappointed with the food and service on board. Royal, Princess, Marella and P&O all have better offerings in our opinion. Perhaps if you haven't cruised with another line you would enjoy this with nothing to compare it to. I had cruised on Princess only 2 weeks prior and the difference in service was vast. If you enjoy walking around the deck don't come on this ship. The only jogging track has a cigarette pit stop and then round the corner a burger pit stop. Not enough open and non smoking places. The saving grace was our cabin, thank goodness we had a wonderful aft view and attentive steward. Needless to say we won't cruise with Celebrity in the future.