Overall, I will gladly recommend this cruise and Celebrity cruise lines. Unfortunately we have nothing to compare it to but friends experiences with other cruise lines. Judging by that, the Celebrity cruise was great and way above normal. I would strongly recommend doing your own excursion research if you want to do something very active (hiking, biking, etc). The helicopter and seaplanes got very good feedback from others on the ship but were out of our large group price range. There are tons of things to do other than the normal but you will need to do your research. The Celebrity excursions were great, but because of our group size, we did passive things like take busses and boats to see things.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
This was our first cruise ever so it is hard to rank the Embarkation process compared to other cruiselines. We had a "good" experience, our luggage made it to our rooms. The place was packed which is to be expected. I'm not really sure how it could have gone better except for the sheer mass of people at one place at one time.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Again, first cruise but we have had many friends that went on other cruises and did not speak highly of their particular cruiseline's food. Celebrity did an outstanding job of providing a great variety at the buffet of different cultural foods as well as keep hands clean by appointing people to stand in the front with portable hand sanitizers during the peak periods as well as self serve hand sanitizer stations throughout.
The main sit down dinner for non premium users was awesome. The food was great each night and the service was outstanding and something you would expect from a very expensive restaurant. Food delivery was prompt even at peak times. The wait staff was amazing and very personable.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
I'm probably not a good judge of onboard activities as we had our favorite places to go on the ship and did not venture out too far. The coffee shops were great, the lounges were very comfortable and offered a wide variety of drinks and music. Our daughter attended several of the teen activities and enjoyed them even-though she is very shy.
There was plenty of things to do. There was high end shopping experiences but that is not our thing.
The main negative for us was the expense of the internet access. This also worked out great because all over the ship, only a few people were actually on their phones. This made a great atmosphere for social interaction in person vs everyone looking at their screens all day. We loaded up our ebooks before we left and would catchup with the world when we were at ports as we did not have an international plan.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
We really enjoyed the variety of jazz, acoustic, and cover band music. We are not the swimming type so we did not frequent the pool deck. Several days in Alaska, the pool deck was too cool to enjoy anyway.
Children's Programs
Our daughter was a teen and they had many things to do for teenagers.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
The Celebrity customer service was something that you would associate with Disney and other top notch customer service. They hire really positive people and the staff gets along with each other very well. They always help each other out which was great to see.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
We thought the layout was appropriate.
The cleanliness was top of the line.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We had done research before the trip so we sort of knew what to expect. The cabin was small but worked well for 2 adults and 1 teenager sleeping on the sofa bed. They even added a topper of foam during the evening hours to make the sofa bed a real bed experience. Under bed storage was great and allowed us to stow our large suitcases and backpacks to keep them from taking up room in the closet. The over the bed storage was also handy. The desk/dresser was designed well as it was a makeup station for our daughter most of the time. An added bonus was the way they can attach the rooms together if necessary as we were traveling with inlaws. This feature worked very well.
Ship tip
Balcony views are great but the weather in Alaska is somewhat cool and wet so you may not get to spend as much time on the balcony as you wish. The balconies are great but are likely better suited for cruises further south.
We thought all the Alaska stops were good. Not sure if any would rate grate as they were all tourist shops and the food was extremely expensive. It was hard to get the local feel as we did Celebrity excursions. Pretty much same for all Alaska ports. We did excursions provided by Celebrity and those went very well.
Wow, what a wonderful place to visit. It does not get all the rain that Seattle and Alaska gets so the weather is actually sunny and dry. Absolutely so many things to do that we were totally caught off guard. It was our last stop and to us, likely the best.
This was disappointing which is bad to leave on a bad note. The process to get your luggage directly to the Sea-Tec was great. However, there one was a but. They charged you some insane amount like $30 or more each to take you via bus to the airport. We were traveling with 5 people which would have been $150. The cab and Uber was only $50 for all of us. This to me was shameful. It is likely worth it if only traveling in pairs though but not friendly for a large group in our opinion. It upset several of us and not just me.
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