We booked an outside balcony category because we wanted to go with a particular group and this is what was left. We have in the past ruled out balconies because we don't use them. It seems like we just get smoked out and it is separate from the room and we don't enjoy it and have found being up on deck more pleasurable. Not this time. We LOVED this balcony concept. We spent a LOT of time enjoying having the cruise right in our room. Every time we came in the room for any length of time we rolled down the wonderful window and listened to the ocean rather we were sitting out there or not. We could enjoy it from our couch or our bed, not to mention just walk over and hang on the rail if we wanted. To us, it was worth the entire cruise to have the cruise come right to us! The only people that I might think might not enjoy it are people who really want to sit out there and smoke. (you really cannot do this because it is part of your room), or maybe people who want to be separated, though there were some glass doors you could pull shut to make it more like a separate area, we never did. It made our room larger. It made us enjoy every minute of being out on the ocean. The pull down shade made it really dark and great for sleeping. A little tough for the person who wakes up first as it is a bit invasive to open up the loud shade and have the light come in - to enjoy the ocean. But we didn't mind that too much for the trade off of having the ocean in our room!

The embarkation process was easy peasy. We got our photo taken at the top of an escalator, a couple of looks at our passport and scanned our prefilled out paperwork that we did at home, and got our keys in our room, which was actually ready when we arrived. So super easy and very little waiting at all. Maybe the entire process took 20 minutes. But the Disembarkation was by far the easiest ever. We were off in 3 minutes! Face recognition technology made this a breeze! Really great!

The food was eh. We had heard Celebrity had the most amazing food. We didn't spend the extra money for the specialty restaurants. We figured we didn't want to spend the hefty $65 each only to be disappointed and would rather spend it at a restaurant we know would be good at home. So we ate at the restaurants for every dinner but one. Buffets mostly for breakfast. Lunch in the dining room twice. The rotating dining room concept was confusing, and quite frankly not that good. And the rooms were so small and crammed with the ceilings low. The noise was unpleasant. The wait staff was unfriendly, stressed, and unlike ANY cruise I have ever been on. Even Carnival has amazing service in comparison. The desserts were awful. I mean AWFUL. Not one was good. One night everyone at our table (not with us) ordered Tiramisu. Every SINGLE person took one bite and pushed it away. I even tried the ice cream and it was just crystilized and cheap tasting. I was super disappointed with the restaurant concept and the food. It's not to say it was inedible or awful (well maybe the desserts, but hey I saved a lot of calories that way!), it just wasn't great or what we were expecting. I miss the days of having the same wait staff night after night where they get to know you and what you like. And though we could have probably had that if we had stayed in one restaurant night after night, then we would have missed out on the experience of the different atmosphere and cuisines offered. Actually, maybe you couldn't have had, as they seated you based on when you arrived, so probably not. We didn't like the restaurant situation whatsoever. The hamburger in the pool bar was really good and sorry to say the best thing we had other than the welcome aboard lunch we got with our Concierge class which I had short ribs and ceasar salad which both were excellent. Desserts weren't that day either, a sign of things to come. Read more