Why does dinner take so long?

We drove to Bayonne and parked at the cruise line terminal.  There was one person taking each person's credit card for $133 for the week.  The line was incredible!  I turned my car off and just sat for almost 45 minutes.  Why they didn't have 3-4 people is a mystery to me!  I had a very short walk, about a half a block to get back to the check-in area.  We had concierge level so had a faster line.  Would do that again.  Price wasn't that much more and the perks were worth it.  In fact, next time will go Aqua class so that I can have "my own" restaurant.  

Our room was adequate--about what I had expected.  We were on deck 8, room 8165.  We had a balcony and while docked, overlooked Manhattan and the Statue of Libery.  Since this was my first ime to almost NYC, I was very impressed with the view!!  The shower was one of the biggest I have had on a ship which I loved.  The showerhead was the massaging type.  The only negative to our room was the "free binoculars" were not functioning--brought things closer but were all blurry.  Our cabin steward took them day 2 and they were never returned.  He did a great job of cleaning our room though sometimes it was after lunch which I did not like.  Not sure how many rooms he was responsible for, but I am guessing too many.

My only real complaint was how long it took to eat dinner.  We had "anytime" dining and even though we would go at 5:30, we often had to leave before dessert if we wanted to go to the early show.  The shows were either at 7:00 or 8:00.  We didn't want to go to the late shows which started at 9 or 10:30.

One night we were seated at a table for 8, waited for 20 minutes before the next couple was seated at which time I said we'd like to order.  The next couple wasn't seated for another 20 minutes.  Crazy.  So we all ate our different courses at different times--and then we left the others who were still eating after we'd finished.  We needed at least 2 hours to eat all courses without rushing.  Way too long.

Another minor complaint was that there is no promanade deck on this ship.  If you want to do any "power walking" you have to go to deck 12 which is all in the sun.  There were portions of one deck you could get outside on, but the walkable deck area did not go totally around the ship.  

And, last complaint--we have many sea days on this cruise and if you were not up and saving chairs early, you were not able to find any chairs near the pool--at all!!  Too many people; not enough chairs!

Bermuda was a very expensive country which I expected.  We took a 5 hour tour which was enough for us.  It was a bit cool to snorkle or dive.  Did some shopping but I liked things on the ship as well as the stores and the prices were much better on the ship.  Glad I went; won't go back!

We did not eat in the 2 main specialty restaurants but did eat at the Bistro on 5 which has crepes--all dif. flavors which cost $12 each.  There was also a coffee bar that always fresh pastries and cookies that were free--you did have pay for the coffee.

We had room service once and they were a bit early, but that was fine.  

The on and off procedure while docked in Bermuda was extremely easy.  Lines were short and quick.

All in all, a good cruise. Would use Celebrity again; would go Aqua Class, and would like to try one of the newer ships.