We were recommended Celebrity by our TA who said once we had used them we would never go back to other cruise lines. The check in was very good and we were on board by 11am in good time for lunch, but our first impression of the ship was dull and drab. The general look was brown and beige with seating that would not look out of place in a nursing home. but I will go in more detail later.

The food in the buffet was very good and the service for drinks was quite quick, there is enough seating in the buffet and the staff were good and always happy to have a chat. We ate most of our evening meals in the MDR and found the food to be of good quality and with a good range of choice but they do seem to have a thing for mashed potato. the service was quick but a little strange. We were on a table for 10 (though it should have been 2) my wife sitting next to me was always served first followed by the other ladies on the table and then the men were served with me last, this meant that my wife had almost finished her course by the time I had got mine served. I know its manners to serve the ladies first but I did think we were in the age of equality. There was no issues with the drinks though at all times even in the bars they need both of your cards when you are on a package and yet other lined seem to cope with only one, it is pretty obvious when you are together and not getting drinks for a third party, but I guess rules are rules.

we were very disappointed with the entertainment on many levels, firstly the theatre shows; the Jersey Boys tribute on the first night was very good but things went down hill from there. On the second night the team did a vocal tribute to the shows, starting with La Mis. and then they got very self indulgent singing songs from shows that no one seemed to have heard of. The stage setting is just a blank black stage with no props and no scenery. We went to the next production show and once again it was a blank stage and just about killed the show, a lot of people were walking out but out of respect we sat through to the end and it was dire. Other acts around the ship (at most 2) were set either in the atrium of the pub style bar on deck 5. The atrium has big nursing home style chairs and a capacity for about 30 people. if you are not in a seat by 6pm then you have to either stand or sit on the floor to see the act. In the bar on deck 5 there is more seating but most of it is well away from where the act is performing, once again the chairs are large high back and they take up a lot of room limiting the availability. Every other ship we have been on (and there are a lot) have an entertainment lounge at the back of the ship to compliment the theatre at the front. On this ship that space is taken up with select dining that does not seem to be used as much as it should.If you like to dance then this is not the ship for you, there are only two spaces; one being the atrium with a very small odd shaped space and the other is the sky lounge with a good floor that goes wasted for much of the time. They advertise a "Ballroom playlist hour" in the sky lounge each evening at 8pm and we went very expectantly. The music was on auto play at background music level and there is no member of staff to organise it. The music is so quiet that you can hear your feet on the floor over the music. Some novice dancers were unsure what dance was playing and it ended up with about four different dances being attempted at the same time. We gave up after that but asked the entertainment manager if they could sort things out but her reply was "we only really do food and if you like dancing you would be better going on P&O) not a good representative for the company. On the day we were to land at the Azores we were informed that we would be 3 hour late but as a sweetener they would show a film, the film was set to run from 12 noon for over 2 hours so the choice was either lunch or film, bit of good organising there. Read more