We very much enjoyed our cruise. While the menu choices were quite limited, the selections were all excellent. Our stateroom was on the small side. It made us think that either a mini suite (we sailed the Ruby in one, it was a deal - this past January) on Princess ships or maybe going back to Carnival is the next choice we will make. We have an Alaska cruise coming in August on the Celebrity Solstice - that will be our first Celebrity cruise so we have to reserve final judgement until then.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Easy! Whisked through without a hitch, we were early for our actual boarding reservation (due to early hotel check out), but we only had to wait about 25 minutes at most to board the ship -- and that was 30 minutes earlier than our reservation!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
While the menus are a bit limited, the food was excellent. We ate at Sabatini's the last night and it was wonderful. Service in all areas of the dining on ship is impeccable. Even in the Horizon Court and Caribe Cafe, you no sooner sit at a table before a waiter comes over for beverage service. And the buffet offers made to order omelettes - they give you a ticket, you put in on your table and a waiter comes over, picks it up, and waits for it to come out, delivering a very hot omelette to you! It's hotter than in the Main Dining Room!
Dining Room
5 out of 5
Service in both Da Vinci and Michelangelo was excellent. We had Anytime Dining and if we found a delay at Michelangelo and it was 7 pm or later, we would to up to Da Vinci, which opened to Anytime Diners at 7:15. I had fish most nights and all of it was wonderful!
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
I did use the treadmills, but they were a bit hard to figure out as to menu offerings and such. We used the pool downstairs from the Tradewinds Bar area (my girlfriend smokes and we were there a lot). Not very many children aboard and none were in that pool.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Our Room Steward was over the top!
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
As to layout, we didn't like the two story shopping, it was hard to find things that way. It was rather confusing, actually. Cleanliness was fine, I would see it going on early in the morning when I would take a walk.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Comfortable but very small, we though. Smaller than any ship we'd been on before -- mostly Carnival. We loved the big closet and more than enough hangers, though! Plenty of storage in the bathroom, too, and shelves in the closet area made it very easy for unpacking and packing again.
Ship tip
It's going into Dry Dock -- ours was the last cruise to the ABC Islands this year, too. I think the work they are doing will be an improvement but I'd have to reserve judgement until we see it again. I do know they are tearing up the shopping area -- maybe they will put in all on one floor? That would be a great improvement!
We stayed at the Ramada Port Hotel. Older rooms but certainly comfortable. Free breakfast, free wifi and free transport to and from port and airport. Fun Tiki Bar there and a very nice pool area. We ate at two wonderful restaurants for dinner -- one, The Rendezvous, within walking distance of the hotel, we had two dinners there and one lunch. We took the Water Taxi one day - what a great trip it was! We went to the Doubletree Hotel at the end of the route for lunch and had a really nice, delicious, reasonably priced meal! Fun city, wouldn't mind going back!
Bonaire was a town we walked through. Found a very nice jewelry store that was on the ship's list, the jewelry company's VP was there, too! Great deals were had there!
We took the Semi Submarine Excursion. Our only disappointment was not getting enough of the shipwreck that we only passed at the start, they couldn't go back to it due to the number of divers in the area. We also visited the big rock area there, I climbed to the top, it's kind of hard to do with a very low rock ceiling to go under. Also the Natural Bridges, nice gift shop there, too. Aruba has some really nice branded stores like Gucci, Prada, but we did not go there.
Great walking town! No excursion, we walked on our own and bought a few things. Had lunch at the Royal Dutch Cheesery, quite good. Note that they list the food on your receipt in Dutch funds and only the total at the very bottom is USD. Be careful, as you could pay more if you don't pay attention.
Excellent! We were scheduled to leave the ship at 8:45, we were in our airport transfer by that time. We had bought the transfer for $10 per person at the Ramada Inn when we were going to the port. We had a bus there right away -- he did go to other terminals, but we had plenty of time before we had to fly -- it was fun seeing how huge the port really is!
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