About us We are a couple in our very early '50s who chose this cruise to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in July. We combined it with a Continuing Education package for my husbands profession. This was our first cruise. At the last minute - literally, 2 weeks before - our almost 16 year old daughter and her friend joined us due to their "care arrangements" falling through (They had been going to stay with family in Europe, and those lovely folk changed their mind at the last moment) Both Celebrity and Cruise Connections were VERY helpful with getting the two girls on the same deck as us and other details pertaining to that issue.

Accommodation We had 1231 CC on Deck 10 with the slightly larger, angled verandah. I could find no fault with the cabin AT ALL. It was sparkling clean, there was tons of storage space and the area was quite big enough for the two of us to move around in. The bed (Queen near the balcony door) was very comfortable and no problem with its strange curved end, despite both being averagely tall. The linens were great. Sofa was comfortable enough for the amount of time you spent on it. We had 3 large cases plus a smaller one and massive camera bag, and it all fitted perfectly into closet, drawers and overhead lockers. The two girls had an inner cabin - 1164 also on Deck 10. It was quite a walk from us but we were able to telephone them at any time. Because they were under 18 we officially had myself and the friend in 1164 and my husband and our daughter in 1231. This was a mere technicality though and was actually quite nice as each "couple" had a card to each room. The room steward had made the girls room up with two single beds and apart from the lack of window or door it was almost identical to ours and even seemed a bit wider (more space at the end of the beds) The girls liked the music channels on the TV and the on-demand free movies for the short time they spent in the cabin and we liked the view and route features on our TV. Thats about all we watched though except for a bit of news. The safe was a good size, plenty big enough for a full size laptop and other things. We didn't use anything out of the mini-bar and still managed to cram a few extra drink bottles in there when necessary.

Embarkation The night before the cruise we stayed at a hotel (San Giorgio - OK, but pricey) in Civitavecchia and got a shuttle from the hotel to port at 2pm. The luggage was whisked away and we lined up and filled in a simple health questionnaire and then went through a security screening. At the desk we experienced a minor hiccup because they asked to see some proof that our daughter's friend was traveling with us legally. Now, we had a proper letter from her parents, drafted off the Foreign Affairs Canada website and notarised, BUT we had left it in one of the bags that we had already checked on to the ship. Idiots. The staff were very obliging but they wanted to see that letter and we were sent off to the "chairs of shame" to wait while they retrieved the bag. That took about 30 minutes or so, which was a drag, but again it was our fault and not theirs. Once we had found the letter and they had looked at it, we finished the check-in, got our SeaPasses and pictures done and headed on to the ship. One of the crew told the girls that there was food in the Oceanview buffet so they went up there while we had our champagne and checked the room out. My husband also had to go and do the formalities for his group sign-up so he went off to do that and I unpacked. We all went to deck 5 to watch sail-away from Rome - we never got tired of watching the ship leave and really enjoyed the announcements from the Captain. Read more