Dinner and Cruise Operations

I want to make a few observations about our cruise. 1) the food has been incredible. We were upgraded to Aqua class which gives us access to a specialty dining room. The food has been amazing with plenty of selections. Tonight we had a nice sized lobster tail and baked Alaska. You can see how nice the presentation is. We've only had the buffet once for lunch but it was awesome as well. We've been to four specialty restaurants with very high quality. 

2) Celebrity is an amazing cruise line. Incredible customer service and for the most part no one wants to accept a tip unlike other cruise lines where people always have their hands out. We've been treated like royalty. 

3) This ship holds almost 3,000 passengers but there are no crowds. I often wonder where everyone is. We don't have to wait in lines or feel squeezed anywhere we are. 

4) We've arranged all of our excursions on our own which has saved us quite a bit of money but has also allowed us to go in smaller groups and customize more than you would in the big bus tours from the cruise line. 

5) We've made a bunch of new friends using the Role Call forum on Cruise Critic and then a private Facebook Page set up for just this cruise. There are about 10 of us that eat dinner together, do excursions together and spend hours talking around the pool. We do have our own time and eat by ourselves when we want to but it's nice to meet new friends from around the country. 

6) This is hands down the best way to see Europe. You get to see so many amazing places without having to pack up each night and deal with trains, planes and automobiles. You wake up and you are in a new amazing port with all kinds of interesting options. I would do this in a second. 

7) Find a reward point credit card and use it to pay every bill (but always pay it off in full every month). We use the Sapphire Card by Chase. We have been saving points and have been able to pay for 3/4's of this cruise, all of our airfare, 2/3's of our hotels with points we've earned on this card. It takes a while but it is quite worth it.