We have always liked Celebrity. But, the Celebrity Reflection cruise last week from Ireland to the fjords of Norway disappointed us in several ways.

First the pros: The shows each night were spectacular...the best we have seen on a cruise. The food in all the dining venues was excellent. Staying in the Aqua Class suite allowed us a tour of the galley and we felt so comfortable witnessing how clean and organized and focused on food safety they were. The waiters in the dining room were very efficient and kind. Our room steward got the flu, unfortunately, and we didn't see him again after the first few days, but the room was cleaned daily by different people.

The cons: 6-months before the cruise, we realized that the two major shore excursions we booked the cruise to see (the major fjords) were already full. They did not open extra excursions and Norway does not have many private tours (the ones we did find were also already booked because the ship excursions were booked, or we were unable to book them because the ship offered such short time in several ports). We did luck out and find some city bus tours, but couldn't understand why Celebrity would take a ship full of thousands of people to such remote ports without offering sufficient things to do. Read more