My wife and I have taken a number of cruises with Celebrity, and last June we completed a Mediterranean fly/cruise out of Civitevecchia, Italy on the Solstice.
With Celebrity nothing is too much trouble.
They have representatives at the airport to assist in your departure, and in Italy they meet you, and your luggage is taken from you at the airport and whisked away to re-appear later in your stateroom.
We always have a concierge balcony which is spaceous, especially the bathroom area.
Concierge benefits include a choice of pillows on the bed, a welcome bottle of bubbly on arrival, fresh flowers, fresh fruit, and canapes daily, and the stewards are always there to keep everything neat and tidy.
The Solstice class of ships are large at around 125,000 tonnes which means they sail well if the weather turns rough, and there is plenty of space per person to suit all tastes and activities.
Food has always been a Celebrity plus point, and although we have tried the speciality restaurants we generally find the main Dining Room food excellent quality.
Celebrity have formal nights on ‘sea days’ where dressing for dinner is required.
This will normally be 2 or 3 days on a 10-12 night cruise.
The rest of the time the dress code is smart casual.
The highlight of our cruise was the arrival in Venice at around midday.
The approach was accompanied by appropriate classical music provided by the Ship’s external loudspeakers which had been erected for the event, and it was almost surreal to pass gondolas moored at St Marks, looking down from 16 decks high.
On our departure from Venice the following midday we endulged in a wine tasting experience on the Lawn Deck, which featured 12 wines from around the world selected by the very experienced Sommeliers.
In our experience Celebrity Cruises provide a 5-star service for a comparable price to many other cruise lines.
