We originally booked this cruise to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, but due to covid, it was delayed for nearly two years and despite wanting to replicate our very first cruise with Celebrity, now 27 years ago, the route was changed. Nevertheless we wanted a Celebrity ship. In our early days of cruising, we always chose Celebrity, but for the last 15 years plus we have sailed on every other line but Celebrity; numerous times. Our fond recollections of Celebrity was that it was very premium line, that the food was exceptional and everything about the experience was about elegance, dressing up etc.

Sadly, the experience was just more of the same formulaic offerings that all the other mainstream lines offer now offer. Nothing particularly bad, but at the same time nothing exceptional either. Nevertheless they still charge a decent premium over RCCL, NCL and HAL etc. We were on the whole disappointed. Gone are the exciting dining room menu's, 5-6 courses etc. Now replaced with the same menu each night aside from 3 "exclusive" starters and mains. The food was ok, but nothing special. We ate in sequence in each of the 4 main dining rooms and the service was excellent until we went to the Tuscan "version" which was a disaster. We waited 25 minutes to be given a menu, another 25 minutes for our order to be taken and another 20 minutes for our starter to be delivered. When finally the main was delivered in was barely warm. A solo cruiser next to us had an even worse experience. It was basically rubbish. We decided the next night to try the Prime Cuts steakhouse, the most expensive speciality restaurant on the vessel. It was good, the service excellent, though a little rushed [it was sold out for most of the cruise] but again no better that the same restaurants on lower cost lines. We purchased a decent wine and asked for it to be sent to the Cosmopolitan restaurant for the following evening. Suffice to say, they lost it and only "found it" when we basically finished our meal.

On the upside, the food in the buffet that we used for Breakfast and Lunch was very good; an excellent range, all very well cooked and hot. There was always somewhere to sit and none of the relay runs for food whilst guarding a table. Read more