I think the review was a fairly reasonable assessment of someone who has cruised on Celebrity and has some perspective of luxury and premium lines and a history of Celebrity. You can get bad Celebrity cruises. I was on the Constellation last December, almost a year ago, and had abysmal dining service, mediocre food, and just an overall mediocre and substandard effort by Celebrity in just about all areas. On the plus side the ship was constantly being cleaned, the Captain was warm and friendly, some of the service in bars and Cova was attentive and very courteous. But there was definitely a downgrade in the presentation and preparation of food onboard this ship compared to previous Celebrity cruises, and a general dumbing down feeling of the cruise.
I think in general cruising is turning into an almost bargain vacation. Celebrity is not excluded from this. Celebrity's prices are way too low for a line that is supposed to be premium. Premium should cost more than mainstream lines, not the same, and in some cases, less than mainstream. Sometimes Celebrity is less than Carnival.
I think Celebrity is a fine value now but I don't think they are the superb product they once were. I think they are a compromised product showing cutbacks, but I think the same holds true for HAL and Princess, the other "premium" lines. I think the fairly recent "enhancements" by both Celebrity and HAL shows that the management realizes that the lines aren't distinguishing themselves the way they once did.