WesternBroncoCruiser

On 2/22/2024 at 1:50 PM, Redtravel said:

Yes, they are looking for younger cruisers who take shorter trips.  I used to really like 2 week or longer winter Caribbean cruises.  Sadly X gave them up. I don’t like b2b on X.  I found that other cruise lines do longer cruises.  

Yep, we are still doing the shorter cruises on Celebrity with our Adult kids who can't take two weeks off of work, but to fly to florida for just 7 or 8 days seams like a wast, so we either do BTB on Celebrity or Combine our Celebrity cruise with another cruise experience.  This year we are taking HAL through the Panama Canal to get to FLL, then we are doing back to back Celebrity.   We are later taking a 28 Day HAL Trans Atlantic and Baltic cruise followed by a river cruise.   

So interesting.  The wife and I are late 50's early 60's and we took our first Celebirty cruise in 2003. 21 years ago.   We take about 2-5 Celebrity cruises a year now.   We have been doing longer cruises on other cruise line and taking Celebrity as a more affordable option with friends and family.   Occasional it is just the two of us.   I can say that I have never ever been board on a Celebrity cruise and we tend to be night owls.   Love the music, bands and food, but also love that its is more centered around food and service than bells and whistles like NCL and Royal have.   I still enjoy the MDR but am one that is glad that they are bringing back things that were cut from the menu.   We sailed a few sailings in 2022 that were understaffed, but sailings in 2023 felt like they were fully staffed.   We have 5 Celebrity cruises scheduled for 2024, but we have been changing it up a bit more in the last few years and doing Holland America, Azamara, Oceania, and some river cruises.   We are even doing another Seabourn this year.   

We still feel like Celebrity delivers a quality product even with all the changes.  Shoot when we first sailed Celebrity there was no drinks package and no buffet in the evenings.   Good times then and now, but Celebrity doesn't have every itinerary or everything we want to do so we change things up a bit every now and then.   Not that one is bad or one is good, but just that we want and expect different things from different cruise lines. 

Interesting, I have a friend that is on the Constellation New Orleans Mardi Gras cruise right now and he said that it is mostly older folks.  He's early 40's and has a 4 year old, said that he and his wife are on the younger side and son is one of 2 or 3 in the kids club.   We cruise again in April on the Beyond back to back, and we do like that ship.  Will be interesting to see the crowd on board. 

6 hours ago, Liao said:

I'm relatively new to Celebrity, first cruise was in 2022, but I'm not younger than 50.  Happy to give my thoughts, but don't want to skew your demographic information request.  

Would love to hear your input.  I am wondering if it is just those of us who have been cruising Celebrity for 20 years plus that are doing all the complaining.   Not that we don't have a point, but if Celebrity is getting positive survey scores, us oldies with our nit picking may not mean much. 

The scuttlebutt is that Celebrity is trying to appeal to a younger demographic, and that the customer survey cards from the guest who are new to Celebrity are extremely positive.  This is despite all the changes that us old timers have been complaining about.   If you are younger (say than 50) and tried Celebrity for the first time in the last year or so, I'd love to hear what your impressions were and how the value of the product felt to you, maybe compared to other types or vacations or other cruise brands? 

We are doing the Nov 25th Koeningsdam Sea of Cortez sailing and Holland America does not have an excursion to Espirito Santo Island that appeals to us.  We are looking for an independent excursion but all seem to be out of La Paz which is a 30 minute drive from Pichilinque.   

Does anyone know if a company that will come to Pichilinque to star an excursion to Espirito Santo Island?   or.... Does Holland America provide a shuttle to La Paz?

Suggestions and thoughts appreciated. 

We just booked the Westerdam in an Ocean View on deck 1, Port side, it is under the Gallery Bar maybe even the Casino.   All the Ocean Views currently available seems to be under potential noisy area like the Galley or other areas where they would have music in the evening.   Or they have connecting doors to another cabin.  Does anyone have experience sailing in Ocean Views on the Westerdam?   What was your experience. 

I need help to reassure the wife that we won't be bothered by noise.  Is there a better choice I could have made besides upgrading to a balcony?   

From what I understand concierge class lunch is not necessarily on the embarkation day.   

Is there anyone who sailed Infinity South America in Concierge class on Dec 31??? or Jan 14, that can tell me if the lunch was on the embarkation day and what hours it was open.  Want to make sure I arrive on time to partake. 

On the infinity, Constellation, Summit and Millennium all of the balcony and concierge cabins have the bed by the bath and the sofa by the balcony door.  I am 99% sure of this.  Can anyone else confirm? 

We are visting Bermuda which might mean we still have to test. 

What Oceania is sending me says that it needs to be a medically administered test, and yes still required on literature, but I am watching to see if there are updates. I have done the BinaxNOW Emed test probably 12 times in the last year for lots of cruise lines, but not Oceania.  Technically it is self administered and medically monitored, and when I call reservations, they just read off the same PDF that I already have.   

I called Oceania about our test requirements for our cruise and all they could tell me was that the test had to be medically administered.

I specifically asked if I could use the Binax Now Emed test and the rep said that she was just reading off the script that it has to be medically administered.   She could not tell me if they accept the E-med medically monitored test.  

We will be embarking in Montreal on 10/31.   

Maybe it is just the solstice class ships and newer.  We were on Solstice class for 4 of our 5 cruises and I can't remember if they had it on the Constellation when we were in Greece, the wife was working,  emailing and making phone calls because of the time zone difference in the early evening on that cruise so she didn't do much night life on that cruise. 

Well after the last cruise, my wife is a very good singer, had a few issues mostly because the song list was not a broad as what is available at karaoke and she spoke with the sound tech three times because they had no vocals on the monitor so she said she was just guessing if she was hitting the right notes.  LOL  She did a great job, but she said "Good cause  couldn't hear my self at all!"  

Again the activities person told us that "Karaoke is now a bad word on Celebrity".  So maybe they are just moving in another direction. 

The wife and I have been on 5 Celebrity cruises since Dec of last year and there was no Karaoke.   The wife the singer, I just sit at the bar and hang out. 

Anyway, we first thought it might be because of Covid protocols, but the last two cruises have had "Headline the Band".   I aske someone about it in jest and the activities staff person said - "oh don't say Karaoke, that is a bed word around here".  Not sure what he meant.   Maybe Celebrity is too cool now for lowly Karaoke?   

I don't really care, the wife likes to sing, and she'll sing with the band thing, but she complains about the lack of song choices.   LOL. 

Just checked the App!   They have entertainment scheduled, but not the shows yet.  I'll keep checking.  We board Saturday.   

My wife talked me into going on Allure of the Seas next week - she wants to see Mamma Mia and the Ice Skating shows.  

I have to admit I am not a big fan of the MDR food on Royal, so we splurged and upgraded to the unlimited Specialty Dining Package. 

We know we have to make our reservations once on board for both.  

The wife wants to reserve her show tickets first and then plan dinner around the shows.    

I am not sure that will work, but I am looking for input as to when they usually schedule Mamma Mia and the Ice  Shows?  We usually like to dine around 8:00 or 8:30,  I would even go for 7:30 by the wife thinks that will interfere with the shows.   

We have cruised Royal Previously, but it was on a ship that did not have a full Broadway production.    I think we attended the ice shows on Sea Days as Matinees.   

Just needing some advice since it has been a while since we cruise Royal Caribbean and the first time on an Oasis Class Ship.   

Thank you, either I missed that notation or it wasn't on the version of the deck plan I was looking at. I very much appreciate the information.  

I have friends joining us on the Niew Statendam.  They have three in their party and booked a Cat V 5096 with the larger balcony.  It has a square in the graphic which indicates it is a quad.  What will the 3rd and 4th beds be?   Pullmans, or one sofa bed and one pullman?  They want to know if one of them is going to have to be in an upper berth? 

OK folks, I almost forgot about this thread, but we are back from our 6 nights on Hal and 12 Nights on Celebrity.    The wife and I would both rate them as excellent cruising experiences, but with a few subtle differences.   

We found that both cruise lines had amazing service in every aspect, cabin steward, dining room staff, bar staff, everywhere.  Food was excellent on both lines with a wide variety of choices every night.  We did specialty dining on both lines and I would rate the experience on both lines as top notch. 

We had Have It All on HAL and Always Included With Celebrity. 

We had to upgraded wifi on both lines to stream and cost seemed comparable. 

We had pre-paid gratuities on Celebrity, and had to have them added to our account on HAL

Beverage Package is unlimited on Celebrity, and has a 15 drink per day max on HAL.   There was only one day when this was a problem. On Embarkation day, I got 4 waters to take back to the room,  and didn't realize that they would count against my total.  I think I ordered two dinks in the bar for my wife that got charged to my card, so there was just that one day, embarkation day, that I exceeded the max on HAL.  They don't tell you that you are over the limit, they just start charging you for drinks.   Not a big deal, and when my wife went down and explained about the 4 waters for the room, they took off the extra charges for the drinks.

We attended a wonderful wine tasting with the sommelier on HAL. He was quite knowledgeable and impressed me with both his knowledge and the way he conducted the tasting.  We have always been impressed by the Sommelier staff on Celebrity and have attended many wine tastings that I would say were comparable to this one.   Just as a comparison, I did a wine tasting on Princess once with stingy pours and not the most knowledgeable staff that I felt like was a complete waste of my time and money. 

Wine list was very extensive and well thought out on both lines.  The nice thing was they were different, so I got to try different wines on the two cruises. 

I'd probably rate food, drinks and service equal on the two lines, so lets talk about the difference.

Entertainment was probably the biggest difference:

Loved the Music Walk and BB King All-stars.   Love the Comedians in the same space. We pretty much hung out in that space most evenings.  We are not sure why but they never had the Rolling Stone Rock room band going.  They might have been in quarantine or something. 

We enjoyed the BBC Earth Live Music and Videos -  a different concept and enjoyable.   The dance group only peformed once, latin ballroom show, very enjoyable.   

I preferred the entertainment on Holland America, but my wife loves the entertainment on Celebrity.  To be fair, she actually goes every night to the show on Celebrity, and I might go to the comedian.   She raved about some Icelandic violinist and some Irish tenors.   She has probably seen all the production shows on Celebrity several times but she said she loved listening to different singers put their own touch on the songs.   

On Celebrity I prefer to go to the lounges and listen to the smaller groups or band play, and though they didn't have that on HAL, the BB King All Stars really were right in my wheelhouse. 

Club Orange Vs MDR on Celebrity 

We did the Club Orange Upgrade and I loved the smaller more intimate dining room experience and not having to have reservations or a fixed time.   We dined usually after 8 pm most nights. 

We did the MDR on Celebrity and with the ship only 40% full it felt like a more intimate private dining experience.   However, on a full cruise, I think we would have much preferred the Club Orange experience to a full packed MDR on Celebrity.    

We did lunch at the Dive In and New York Pizza Deli most days and loved the offerings.

I loved the snacky things in the Dutch Cafe.  On Celebrity we ate lunch usually in the buffet where we could get pizzas or at the Mast Grill for burgers.   But we also enjoyed the international offerings in the Buffet area.  We were on Celebrity for many more days, so we ate in the buffet a lot more.   My wife ate a couple of lunches in the Lido Cafe on Holland and said she loved the food. 

Rooms - The rooms were similar, with a convertible bed next to a sofa and desk area.   Celebrity had slightly more square footage in the Standard Balcony Category.   

All in All, I would rate both lines slightly over Princess which is thought to be in the same category.   Also I thought it was going to be all "old people" on HAL, but acutally it skewed more to 50's 60's and early 70's, but perhaps the older people are still a bit nervous to cruise.   

On 1/17/2022 at 5:43 AM, HALrunner said:

I am curious, too. We are in the opposite situation: loyal HAL cruisers trying Celebrity for the first time. We typically sail in verandah cabins on HAL, but will be in a Sky suite on Celebrity Apex. From what I can tell, it appears Apex cabins/suites are smaller than similar HAL cabins/suites. That is just a guess, though. 

Can I guess from your profile pic you are WMU alumni? I am also a Bronco:)

Yes, Bronco, class of 87

The wife and I were on Rotterdam 3 weeks ago!  Loved it, had a fabulous cruise!    We upgraded to the streaming Wifi package on board, and for the life of me I can't remember if we did it that way because that is the only way to upgrade or if we were waiting to see how the regular package performed. 

So can anyone tell me do I have to wait until I am on board, or can I call in and do it before I depart?  We have Have It All so we just need to upgrade, and I cannot remember the price difference either to upgrade?

Help!!!   Feeling stupid because I can't remember. 

I'll be able to answer you in two weeks.  The wife and I a big Celebrity fans, but haven't sailed on HAL in 29 years.  We are booked to do 6 nights on the Rotterdam starting next Sunday.   I will come back and answer for you when we return.   I hope that is soon enough. 

I have looked at pictures of the deck plan and videos on line.  I can't seem to figure out if there is a bar on Serenity Deck on Carnival Freedom.  Do  waiters come and bring your drinks if there isn't a bar up there? 

Thank you Gary,  I hope someone knows the answer - does a massage appointment grant access to the thermal suite for the day, and if not what is the additional fee to access it.  🙂