We chose this cruise because some friends were available and both our children were all out of school. We are usually loyal Holland America clients but have cruised Celebrity before about 10 years ago on both Solstice and Equinox in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. I was dramatically surprised at the drop in quality of the main dining. Celebrity once had an advantage on Holland in main dining experience but that certainly was not the case here. I found the food bland and unimaginative and sometimes bad. I love french onion soup and ordered it on several nights but on one evening it was demonstrably sweet. As though someone had dumped sugar in it. How could this happen? Are the chefs and cooks not testing the food?

It also appeared as though they were nakedly recycling last nights unused dishes as next night leftovers. One evening we had portobello mushrooms and the next evening they featured "portobello mushroom caviar"

Another problem was the air-conditioning. We had to change rooms on the first night as our room was incredibly warm. In fact, the whole hallway was hot. Near the end of the cruise contractors came on board and were working on the HVAC of each room, changing some sort of settings. Was this some sort of seasonal change that was not done prior to the ships movement from Europe to Caribbean? If so, I am super angry. They should know that the carribean in summer puts intense strain on the ship's HVAC system yet waited to do it until a bunch of people had suffered through the cruise in hot rooms. Read more