We just disembarked from our Mediterranean cruise today. Having previously done a Mediterranean cruise on Princess, I am using that as my bar when comparing to Celebrity. Would I take a Princess Cruise again? Absolutely yes. Will I ever book with Celebrity again? A strong no. I liked the ship itself, but the service was overall quite bad. I’m an easy going, reasonable person and do not expect to be treated like royalty, but many of the staff on this ship have a hard time hiding how much they despise the passengers. Perhaps because they seem so overwhelmed and overworked. The up-sell on this ship was ridiculous and often pushy. It seemed like they purposely provided poor service in the included food venues to drive you to the specialty restaurant. We paid for the zero-proof package, but good luck actually finding someone to bring you a drink when in the buffet. In the main dining room they seemed annoyed if you wanted anything besides wine and they only offered one zero proof option.

I pre-booked AND prepaid for 2 bags of laundry and a standard stateroom bar set up, but there was no record of that for our stateroom attendant and he seemed like he didn’t even realize you could order alcohol for your room for the cruise. We were able to get the bottle of vodka, but never were able to get the mixers to go with it. We wrote prepaid on our laundry slips for the bags he got us and hoped for the best. They thankfully did not charge us again. I also booked and pre-paid for two spa treatments with the same issue. The spa staff had no record that we had paid in advance. When I explained she said that it was just my receipt that I was signing and that we wouldn’t be charged. We were of course charged again, but they didn’t enter it until days later and on the morning of disembarking. Luckily we checked one last time before getting off the ship and we’re able to sort it out before getting off.

The spa area was lovely, but had a serious lack of beds and passengers turn feral in trying to secure one. This could be easily solved by getting rid of some of the excessive and under used tables in this area. We had booked this cruise specifically because it said that this area was adult only and were really disappointed that this was not enforced. There were a fair number of small children and teenagers under 16. If you’re hoping for quiet, adult only area, this is not it. Read more