My husband and I are in our early 40's and we were traveling with our 16 year old son and my 29 year old niece. We have cruised several times before, but only on Carnival because they sail out of our home town of New Orleans. We were looking for a more upscale experience. The ship is beautiful and I loved the understated elegance of the decor. It is very well maintained. We were in Aqua Class cabins. The cabins were very clean and the decor was lovely. I loved the fact that the beds had white duvet covers. The bathrooms were a good size, lots of storage and loved the shower door as opposed to a shower curtain. I felt that the room itself had adequate storage. We had no problems finding a space for all of our things. I did bring some extra hangers so that I could hang all of my clothes, though. Also, our cabins were under the pool (midship) and I never found noise to be a problem. We were next door to my son and niece, but we had different cabin attendants. Theirs was much better than ours. On several days, we were out of our room by 8:30 and at 1:00 in the afternoon our cabin was still not attended to. Sometimes he would forget the bottled water that comes with Aqua Class or half fill the ice bucket. One evening it looks like he started to attend to our room and stopped. We had fresh towels, but no ice, the bed was not turned down, no newsletter for the next day, etc. We I called him from the phone and it said his number was out of service; I had to call guest relations to get a news letter and ice. We did love being in Aqua Class, though. We used the Persian Gardens quite frequently and had quite a few spa treatments. The staff in the spa is wonderful! Also, eating in Blu was a definite plus. We loved that it was more intimate and uncrowded. We really don't like crowds so we really didn't eat in the buffet. We had breakfast two mornings in Blu, but really preferred breakfast on our balcony. My husband went to the buffet one morning because his room service eggs were cold and said it was a mad house. I ate in the main dining room twice for lunch and it was very good. We tried all three of the specialty restaurants. Silk Harvest and Tuscan Grill were okay, but I found the food to be americanized. Murano was exceptional, though. I think that coming from such a food town, New Orleans, our expectations were high. Also, I thought that the services was just okay. We dine out quite a bit and the service at a restaurant at home is much better. It seemed to take forever to get an ice tea at all of the restaurants. Also, one night in Blu I asked if they had Caesar Salad and the waiter's response was a reluctant, "Well, I could get it if you want me to..." From what I had read in other reviews, I was expecting the answer to be, "But of course!" I stressed out a lot prior to the trip about formal nights and I should not have. A handful of men wore tuxedos and a some women wore long dresses. We opted for dark suits for the men and cocktail dresses for the ladies; we were more than dressed appropriately. I just don't understand the whole formal night concept and it was quite amusing to see different peoples take on formal night. A long, cotton pool dress with flip flops is not my idea of formal, but I saw quite a few women dressed this way. I think that Smart Casual to Dressy Casual would be best for dinner. All in all, we had a great time. After a day or so of having time to adjust my preconceived expectations, I really enjoyed it. The positives... a beautiful clean ship and staterooms, uncrowded spaces, great spa services, and well mannered, for the most part, fellow shipmates out weighed the negatives of spotty service. Because of the positives, I will definitely sail on Celebrity again, but I did not really see the exceptional service that Celebrity claims to have. Surprisingly, I have had better service on Carnival.