My husband and I generally try to cruise the Caribbean at this time each year as a getaway from the cold northeast and the pre-holiday hustle and bustle. This was a wonderful cruise. The ship was beautiful (of course). Embarkation was very quick. We arrived at the port and were on board within about 5 minutes (10:30 AM port arrival). As we arrived at the port the heavens opened up in a torrential downpour (More about that later in the review). Celebrity personnel quickly put up canopies and escorted guests across the deck to interior ship spaces with hand held umbrellas held by staff members who were unselfishly getting soaked while keeping passengers dry. Kudos to them! Once onboard we were bombarded with staff hawking specialty dining options, beverage package upgrades, spa services and the like to a degree we've never seen on any of our many X cruises and with what seemed almost like desperation. This did last for the first 2 days of the cruise. We've seen the upselling on other cruises, but never to this level. Upselling has never bothered us before, we just walk by and they leave us alone, but this was VERY annoying.

We went to the OVC to await our rooms being ready and the staff were exceptional about finding seats for us. Since is was pouring out, no outside venues were being utilized so it did become crowded quickly. The buffet, as always offered lots of choices and by the time we finished our lunch, the skies had cleared and rooms were ready. We were in an Aqua Class stateroom and our luggage came almost immiediately. When I opened my suitcase I found that all the items within that were near the bottom of the case were soaked even though the suitcase itself was dry (weird I know). I assume that the deluge when we embarked and my suitcase had an unfortunate meeting in a large puddle (read as lake!). I went down to Guest Services and after some negotiation they agreed to launder and dry clean all of the soaked items complimentary. Quite a few other passengers had the same issue.

The dining in Blu was as good as usual. We love the breakfasts especially and the service in Blu was exceptional this trip. Our waiter, Michael (who we met in OVC on embarkation day) was excellent. He got to know our preferences almost immediately and had a great sense of humor. This was however the first cruise in Aqual Class that required us to wait with a beeper almost every night at least 10-15 minutes for a table, regardless of our arrival time. (We tended to dine at 8PM or later most evenings). Read more