We were using up a credit and this was the easiest cruise to get too. Cruising for us is mainly focused on the good beds and the variety of the eating venues. Both scored *. The bed was the worst we have ever tried to sleep on. Thin hard mattress, very uncomfortable. The free restaurants were the Oceanview Cafe Buffet , always the same menu with minor variations, dessert menu had lots of lovely looking cakes that all basically were the same, didn't even have a Pavlova. The main restaurant wasn't too bad, though at breakfast you were rushed, toast was always cold and it closed at 9am. The Mast Grill okay for the one time I used it. On a twelve day cruise we like a variety of eating venues. We had a 400 USD onboard credit which I had planned to use at a couple of the Specialty Restaurants. I booked online before the cruise and no where on the ship site did it say the currency I was using. Fifty-five dollars per person seemed fairly expensive but once on board discovered that it was in US$ and in AU$ it was about $160 each. We cancelled that booking plus the other Specialty Restaurant we had booked. On the nights that I looked through the windows into the restaurants they weren't crowded which didn't surprise me. This was our third Celebrity cruise and definitely our last. NCL cruises leave Celebrity for dead. We do have one more booked but after reading your reviews for that one we intend to cancel that. They can keep their credit.
The bed was the worst we have ever tried to sleep on. Thin hard mattress, very uncomfortable.
A coolish day when we were there but a great place to visit. Good to see how the city has moved on since the earthquake.