This was our first ever cruise. We chose Celebrity as our son and wife have cruised with them many times on the Celebrity Eclipse and they recommended Celebrity as opposed to P & O which they didn't like. We had a concierge cabin on deck 10 and therefore received an invitation on embarkation to a lunch for concierge guests in the main dining room prior to sailing. We went along as we thought we might receive valuable information about the ship and what is available on board. We were shown to a table for two near the kitchen entance and were then ignored for over half an hour. Not one member of staff noted our departure and other ignored guests were preparing to leave too. We found the main dining room overcrowded and claustrophobic and at that stage we didn't realise that we wouldn't actually be eating at level 3 of the main dining room in the evenings (we had anytime dining which meant we would eat at the less claustrophobic level 4 of the dining room). On leaving the restaurant without eating I did complain to the person at the desk. We were eventually contacted by the Maitre D a day or so later who wanted feedback. No gesture was forthcoming to help us forget this awful first experience. We seriously considered leaving the ship before it sailed as we could not have faced eating at level 3 of the dining room each day.

Our cabin was finally ready. We were rather disappointed by the ugly and dreary maroon and brown decor and the cabins certainly need refitting. However the bed was very comfortable and the bathroom good.

The final moan is that we had informed Celebrity of the need for gluten free food for my husband. The canapes delivered to our room were not gluten free initially until we spoke to our wonderful cabin stewardess who sorted it out. However as the canapes were mostly seafood we were concerned that they were not cold but room temperature and sometimes sat in the room for 2 hours before we returned to our cabin. We asked them not to serve any more. Read more