Gracie115

On the Apex TA in Apr/May the future cruises were often empty. We never saw a waiting line.

Yes, I have been corrected several times. I just never saw one in MDR on Apex in April, must have been busy that night.

The thing is that Princess AND HAL for that matter offer much better itineraries to many locations including the one @Ken the cruiser was referring to, as he said the Princess cruise is longer, with more days in the Antarctica area and less expensive. Maybe doesn't have the bells & whistles of an X ship but on this kind of trip the itinerary would be a priority for me. Princess does fine in the other areas for us too, but that is subjective as you say.

Exactly...no brainer for me... ESPECIALLY on a cruise like this....

Glad you both enjoyed yourself. Obviously, Celebrity is making a lot of people happy. Good for them. I've been cruising on X since 1998 so have seen LOTS of changes, some good, some bad. Perhaps what we came to expect from Celebrity was/is too much to expect in the world today. We were younger then and perhaps our $$'s got tossed around a bit more carelessly than they do now. So we look elsewhere to make sure we are getting what we want. Maybe there will be another X cruise in the future, who knows. I do know it will not be an Edge class ship. There is still hope for an S class sailing someday.🙂 (oh....there was no Sommelier in the MDR on the nights we were in one in April...or maybe there was and he/she was too busy, we never saw them. )

You are a new cruiser so you are unaware of the downgrade in quality in food from prior years. Not just quality but the variety of choices is far less than it once was. On our sailings pre pandemic there was far more live music entertainment, strings trios around the ship, dance music in the atriums around dinner hours(E class doesn't have a real atrium area..though they call it that) late night live music in the Sky Lounge, frequently featuring some of the singers & dancers from the theatre groups to get the crowd going. Some of the ships featured piano bar entertainment(though that ended well before the shutdown). Guitar players in the Sunset lounge. It seemed there was live entertainment to be found somewhere all through the day and evening. Not so anymore. So many venues rely on "canned" music. On our 2 post Covid cruises over the last 10 months the daytime entertainment was basically trivia trivia trivia. The MDR used to have Sommelier's, haven't seen that in a long time. All suites had dedicated butlers, now Sky Suites have a "team" which I don't think will provide the kind of personalized service that a dedicated butler has. Vaping allowed in the Casino.... one of the things that brings (well brought) passengers to Celebrity was it's no smoking of any kind indoors policy. Luminae on the E Class ships is a huge step down from M & S class. Now just another MDR, just a bit smaller but just as loud. Service suffers and even the staff when asked which class they prefer if they have worked in all will tell you it's not Edge class. That's just off the top of my head. AND then the really crazy increase in pricing has us looking seriously elsewhere. As I stated in my post a TA for 17 nights in a PH3 on Sky Princess at $2500 less per person than on the Apex (12 nights) makes it a no brainer for us. We work too hard for our money to just throw it at Celebrity because of some misguided sense of loyalty.

THIS!! AND THIS!!! And so many more (including my own) talking about the large price differences with Celebrity compared to other lines. Both comparable lines(Princess) where the price is much lower or higher end lines like Seabourn or Regent which now seem to have comparable pricing but offering a much higher end product with FAR superior itineraries. All this talk about "the ships are full why drop the price" may well be one way of looking at things. But my thoughts are all those "NEW" people to cruising who are happy to pay the elevated prices will soon become "seasoned" cruisers and start looking around when they become bored with the same old same old itineraries and they see what other lines can offer them as far as price and amenities are concerned. It will take awhile but suspect it will happen. When it does Celebrity just might wish they had made an effort to retain their loyal base which seems to be eroding. As much we've loved the Celebrity product for 20+ years I just can't pay $9.5K plus for a CS on a 12 night Apex TA in fall 2024 when I can book a PH3(far superior suite than the CS) for $7K and 17 nights. No brainer. Why throw money at a line just because we have in the past. I'll keep looking at X's offerings....just not expecting much at this point.

And so is Holland America, Seabourn, Cunard........

We have been on 6 Princess cruises and have never had that happen. I do think it's possible for this to happen on any line though.

Princess offers quite a variety of foods in their MDR and Reserve areas. We aren't a fan of the Crown Grill, one of the specialty restaurants but Sabatini's is great and the cost for either of them is far less than X's specialties. Not really any Cirque de Soleil shows that I've seen on Princess. They do have some good shows in the theatre, but Celebrity is better in that regard. We found there was more to do as far as activities are concerned with Princess. During the day on Apex it was mostly just trivia... If I had a daily listing of the last Princess cruise we were on I'd post it but I don't keep those. Am sure you could find them on the Princess CC boards.

The OP was comparing 2 new ships, Apex and Discovery with Discovery being slightly newer and much LESS expensive...so your theory doesn't work out in this situation.

Should be FOOD

Thank you for your review. We have enjoyed all the cruises we have done on Princess. Our next booking on Princess is a TA in 2024 and the pricing for similar categories is about 40% less on Princess and that's for a 17 night cruise, not 14 which was the closest I could find on X. That price difference alone is enough to book Princess. We, like @Ken the cruiser book Reserve (formerly Club Class) and find that the service and found is very comparable to Celebrity MDR's with many more choices. Never experienced the lengthy wait you mention for wine service, but we have not sailed the Majesty so perhaps it is an issue with that ship. One of the things that we liked about Princess over Celebrity is the entertainment. They offer more options in the evenings. There aren't as many big theatre shows but they generally offer several live music lounges with a variety of styles, piano, jazz, folk etc. Celebrity, on our last 2 Apex cruises offered very little outside of Eden and you had to arrive there at least an hour before any show in order to get a decent seat. It's mostly about pricing and itineraries for us and we find that Princess is winning in those areas pretty much every time.

How has your cruise been? Hopefully things have improved since Monday.

This is a great idea. I wouldn't even care if they charged a bit extra. I bring so many toiletries and OTC meds and most of the time don't need any of them. This would save a lot of space in our carryon.

A "Winemakers Dinner" could be offered for half the price of the "Chef's Table" We've done that on other lines and enjoyed it far more than the Chef's Table.

The medallion for opening your door is pretty neat, especially if you happen to be carrying anything. As you approach your door you can hear the lock click and then it's just a push to open it. I didn't think I'd like it, I was wrong. Never used it to order drinks and I gather it's hit or miss for that.

Don't care about the umbrella but a Keurig in every room would be great. Some suites get them now but only the higher end ones above the CS level.

Princess has done this for a very long time and it's a great perk especially for longer cruises.

If you want to consider the Caribbean then I would look at early to mid-December. Kids aren't out of school then and pricing is usually a bit better. Or you could try a transatlantic in late Spring or mid-Fall. There are never a lot of kids on those. This holds true for both Royal or Celebrity. No matter what Royal is much better equipped to keep children busy so they aren't running rampant around the ship as they may do on Celebrity sailings which are definitely NOT accented towards children.

No, full suites on Princess don't have to pay for room service. It IS lousy that Princess isn't grandfathering in all those who bought the Plus or Premier packages before December. Doesn't make sense. We are still VERY pleased with the cost of our Sky Princess sailing in 2024, the same type room and itinerary on Celebrity would be nearly double what we are paying for Princess.

And our Sky Princess 17 night TA with Premier Package is $7500 in a PH3 versus $12000+ for a CS on the Apex TA next spring which is also 4 nights less than the Sky sailing. We worked too hard for our $$ to throw it away out of some perverse sense of loyalty to Celebrity. The PH3 suite on Princess is a far superior suite to the CS on any Celebrity ship.

If you get the Princess Plus or Premier package they are included and still the totals are much less than what X is charging for similar staterooms/suites.

The PH3 is a wonderful suite, especially the corner aft ones, the balconies are enormous! It is very roomy, the bathroom is very large with separate large tub and standing shower. As a comparison we think it falls somewhere between a CS & an RS on Celebrity. No butler, of course, but they have never had them. We are booked on the Sky in a PH3 with the Premier package in 2024.🙂

Interesting, our next cruise is on the Sky Princess. We found pricing to be quite a bit lower and have already had a price DECREASE on our sailing, saving us over $1200. I've been on the Princess boards and it looks like what people are most upset with are the recent changes adding room service charges and a charge for Alfredo's pizza venue. 70+ pages of comments about it. I get that no one wants to spend more, we booked the Premier package so this change doesn't impact us and even with the additional cost for that package our sailing is still significantly less than it would be on X.