AbbyCruiser45

Funny, this is actually why I popped on Cruise Critic today. I'm sailing the May 18 ABC and noticed this morning after getting my move-up bid email that they are all almost sold out. I was surprised! I have only sailed on Edge class right at the return from Covid, so the ship was only at about 40-50% occupancy.

As a (very late, almost not) 20-something who has sailed Celebrity several times, there usually are not a lot of other people around my age. But during the summer, it is more likely since cruising is a good multi-generational family vacation.

Hi there, plugging my own thread but I did a Celebrity and Princess cruise this past summer and posted a comparison. Link: The things I mention are largely nit-picky, but if they make a difference to you then you should choose Celebrity. If what you're proposing was my only vacation of the year, I would still probably go with Princess so I could have two extra days of vacation.

Wow what a combination of some of my interests, Taylor Swift and Cruising 🤣 good for Mama Kelce!

My parents are onboard the Beyond now and they have easily been able to send me videos of the waves. They have also quickly received videos from me of adorable kittens. They were surprised that Starlink is holding up in the middle of the Atlantic.

I'll board the ship and dream of pivot tables and functions.

Skip to 4 minutes if you want to hear about the food changes, the rest is just general intro and then expressing gratitude to crew and guests. As someone that had the misfortune of sailing the Equinox during the two week “burger menu” experiment with a really pared down menu, I’m excited for these changes. I’m sailing the Beyond next in May, and those restaurants always have more variety. I sailed Princess most recently and I thought the food quality was not as good as Celebrity, but still good. Their plus was a decently sized dinner menu. Usually 4 entrees, 1 unique pasta, 1 classic pasta, and 2 classic entrees. Can’t wait to see the Celebrity roll out.

@GenerationX I just got the funniest update from my mom. There is a bagpiper on board, apparently just a guest not an entertainer, who was going a little playing earlier today. I can imagine you might be able to hear it all around the ship based on the clip I was sent 😂 have you heard the bagpiper?

I just caught up with this thread! Thank you for sharing your trip. My parents are on board with you! My mom's daytime hallmark is a Costco bucket hat, not as fashionable as you! You have some fun ports coming up, enjoy! I look forward to reading about them.

Wow, sorry you felt it was useless. I mentioned later in the thread that I sailed on the Majestic, a modern ship that started sailing only in 2017. The price comp for Alaska was with the Millie because she’s sailing this season North and Southbound one ways. The Caribbean price comp was for the Beyond because that’s what I’m sailing next summer. The comparison was against the Caribbean Princess. Not the most even ship comparisons, but all are relatively new or really well updated (Millennium). I was really going for itinerary comparison.

I was on the Majestic! I failed to mention that. Maybe we were on the same trip, Northbound on the 22nd.

We had Mark the naturalist! I only attended one talk and it was good. He also narrated us exiting Glacier Bay after the National Park rangers left, as well as the College Fjord Day. The only (humorous) complaint is that he started every comment over the speakers with "Hello, it is Mark, your onboard naturalist" and by every comment, I mean every time he came on the speakers. By the 10th time on College Fjord day, we and the people around us were joking that we didn't know who was speaking! He also had a catchphrase of "This is Alaska, this is why you are here", which we quoted for the rest of our self-guided land portion. In contrast, our NPS ranger was Carly. She was great also but only introduced herself twice 🙂 We didn't forget who she was in that time though!

Hello everyone! I am not sure if people are interested in a post like this, but I shared at the end of my live trip report this June that I would do a comparison of Celebrity and Princess after a recent trip. Well, I just got back from Alaska with Princess, and I thought the comparison might be interesting for people here to read. First, why do I think this? Princess is usually the line I see recommended here after Celebrity in terms of how they compare to each other. It seems that a lot of people here have experience with both lines. I also think taking the Celebrity and Princess cruise within a month of each other allows for a good comparison because cruise lines can change quickly in terms of the offer. So, why did I book the Princess trip? This was a family cruise with my parents, sister, and my boyfriend. We wanted to see Alaska. Previously, we sailed Disney to Alaska over 5 years ago. We went to Tracey Arm Fjord (Sawyer Glacier). While this was beautiful, we really wanted to go to Glacier Bay. This meant knocking Celebrity out of the options, as that is now our go-to cruise line. I’ll provide a breakdown of the different areas below, but here is my takeaway for those who don’t want to read all of that. For Glacier Bay alone, I would book Princess again for Alaska. The Glacier Bay day was stunning and long. We were there from 6 AM to 4 PM. For any other cruise, I would only choose Princess over Celebrity if the price difference was above $1,000. Otherwise, Celebrity is the better product in every category. Overall, the service and quality were just really lacking. The crew was strangely unfriendly, and often any request was met with resistance or confusion. Dining All right, we know dining is a big issue for Celebrity. I was a part of the ever-so-lucky two-week trial on the Equinox with the severely limited menu. The Princess menu was more expansive than the typical Celebrity menu. It offered five starters, one pasta, six entrees, and three desserts each night. This is on top of the every night items, which included three starters, one pasta, and two entrees. So, Princess wins in terms of menu diversity and size. However, Celebrity won in terms of the quality of the food. Even with the limited menu I had on the Equinox, the quality of each item was excellent. And from what I’ve read, the menu is back to normal, so the diversity of the menu is less of an issue. Drinks I am not really one to be super picky about wines, but I learned that I actually might be. Princess has a tier of all-inclusive offerings, and I was on the first tier, including drinks up to $15. The biggest issue here was the wine. On this tier, they do not tell you the wine that you are drinking. The menu only offered the variety (e.g., Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, etc.). They also did not have sommeliers in the dining room. When I asked the dining staff what type of wine it was, they could not answer. The lack of sommeliers was a huge issue, too, because our dining team had to run to the bar for each order. There were no bottles of wine waiting at the dining station, as with Celebrity. This resulted in wine taking as long as 20 minutes to arrive to the table, and usually the white wine was room temperature by that time. In this regard, Celebrity is also the winner. Celebrity also has better quality wine glasses, with the wide mouth and customized to red or white wine. On Princess, it was one type of glass, which was shorter and thicker. Service The service was also superior on Celebrity than on Princess. On Princess, it took two days to meet my stateroom attendant. He did a great job, but I thought it was strange that I did not know who it was for so long. The bar staff on Celebrity also cannot be beaten. They are always so friendly and personable. At the coffee bar on Princess, the same crew member was there every morning and did not greet me when I went to order. He just would stay silent until you ordered. Maybe this is a petty thing to compare, but it made the Celebrity experience far better. The officers were also not visible on Princess if this is important to you. One super strange thing on Princess is that I asked a few crew, while attempting to chat, where home was. They all answered something along the lines of “oh I am from XYZ but my home is this ship”. At the beginning of a show, the cruise director said for the crew this ship was home, and we are all family. I thought this was incredibly strange and really dehumanizing, and it seems this is a point Princess is trying to make and seemingly instruct their crew to say. I know there contracts are long and they are on the ship more often than home, but on Celebrity, it is always interesting to hear the crew talk fondly about their home and family. Cost I do not have a comparison of the cost for the cruise I took because I did not know I would be making this comparison. Instead, I went ahead and priced out both a trip to Alaska and the Caribbean in 2024. Both inclusions are similar (tips, wifi, drinks), time of year (June 2024), ports (Eastern Caribbean) and the stateroom (inside). For a Caribbean, Celebrity didn’t offer a 7 night and Princess didn’t offer an 8-night, so the price comparison is by night. Celebrity comes out to $430.25/night and Princess comes to $397.57 a night ($3,011 vs $2,783). For the same trip I went on this year, but in 2024, the price difference comes to $396.28/ night with Celebrity and $371.42/night with Princess ($2,774 vs $2,600). For these could hundred-dollar differences, I would choose Celebrity any day (with Glacier Bay access as the exception). If that price difference grows substantially, I would consider giving Princess another chance. Final Thoughts The one category I’m missing is entertainment, that is because it was a cruise to Alaska, so I was on the deck basically all day. Otherwise, my final thought is that Celebrity has been experiencing a lot of cuts lately, but they still are a better product than other cruise lines in their category. Hopefully, this trend continues. I won’t be sailing Celebrity again until June 2024, but I’m hopeful that the experience will be as good as my last time on board, and I am really looking forward to it.

Agree. I just finished a Princess cruise with Alaska that I choose because of Glacier Bay access. Only a few cruise lines can access glacier bay every year (Celebrity is not one of them), but it’s well worth it. I plan to make a post when I get home about the Princess vs Celebrity comparison, but in short for Glacier Bay, it’s worth it.

I haven't seen this mentioned yet, so I'll throw out my favorite thing to do. This is only if I am sailing on a new to me ship! We'll go to the highest deck and walk the ship from the back to the front on each deck (skipping decks with only staterooms) to get a full ship tour! We, of course, get sidetracked with a drink or two, but it's always a highlight of the trip for me.

Any update to how this was during your trip? We’ll be sailing soon and a couple people in our group have online businesses they’ll need to check in with during the trip. I know alaska can be spotty regardless!

I thought there were a lot of great options every evening. There was usually live music in at least two venues, like the atrium and a lounge. Then there were shows at 7 and 9 that included from theater productions (which I did not attend) a comedian, a magician, and a singer. The ones I did attend were great, even the magician who was also quite funny. As for the age of the ship, I think the Equinox is in great shape. There are some signs of outdated design, but not really wear and tear. I didn’t notice things like rust and they are always cleaning and working on the ship. We even saw a crew member hauling a chair out of a lounge that had a broken spring. So to me, it seems like they do a good job at maintaining the ship.

Yes, I thought it was strange that neither mentioned the protein. The brochette I knew only because my parents were on the Silhouette at the same time and they were a night ahead of our menus, so my mom recommended that. The linguine was a complete surprise though. If I was vegetarian, I’d be frustrated. As someone that loves shrimp, I was thrilled 😂

This will be my last narrative post in this thread! I wanted to wrap it up with a little review/reflection. After getting off the ship, I have had a whirlwind of the last few days. We had moved before the vacation but saved the unpacking and decorating for after. Now that we have that all done, I can make this post! Overall my review is extremely positive. I also sailed the Equinox last summer, so I have a decently even comparison. The service on this trip was much better. Nothing was super lacking last year besides a really poor Tuscan experience, our stateroom attendant was slow in making up our room, and main dining was super slow. The opposite was true here! Our Tuscan experience was great, our stateroom attendant was fast and fantastic, and MDR was fast and good quality. Maybe it was the luck of the draw, but maybe it's a trend. Now I know some of you are already reacting to me saying the MDR was good quality. Here is what I think. The menu trial on the Equinox was not great because it was a limited menu. However, the dishes they did prepare were still really nicely done. I hope they return to the normal menu permanently because I missed some favorites. Bar service was also much faster and better this year than last (same capacity). The servers were super attentive, and they were personable too. As for the casino, yes, there was the vaping change. No, it was not noticeable. I imagine it would be unpleasant if someone sitting beside you were vaping. I was sure to leave strong comments in my survey because I recommend Celebrity often to friends and family because of the no vaping rule. Alas, as @Georgia_Peaches mentioned in her live report going on now, surveys likely won't matter, as revenue is the bottom line. Now I want to say something that might be a strong opinion or not well-received. I've been browsing the boards and the last few months while on board. When doing that, you might think that Celebrity has gone downhill, and it's similar to a line like NCL or Carnival. Similarly, there have been several mentions that you won't be satisfied on X unless you go suite class, and that's what these changes are intended to push you towards. I really do not think that is the case. I had a perfect vacation and felt well taken care of on board. This is my third cruise with X, and I've previously sailed in an IV room and an inside room, this time in a balcony. My level of service has not felt different across the different room types, nor did I ever feel neglected/looked down upon since I was not in a suite. All of the crew were friendly, helpful, and just the best. I recognize that people's tastes and opinions differ, but these are just my two cents. So with that being said, go enjoy your next cruise without too much worry. I think most everything is just fine on board. Thank you to everyone that has read this far and followed along! I'm still happy to answer any lingering questions. For those interested, I am sailing on the Majestic Princess to Alaska on a family trip at the end of July. Because it is a family trip, I will have less free time and won't do a live thread over on the Princess boards, but I am thinking of doing a post here comparing this Equinox sailing to the Majestic. Happy sailing!

I'm so glad you had a good Tuscan experience! Joel was the best.

A sad hello from Georgia! We had a super smooth travel day back home. We did self-assist walk off this morning and we were off the ship at 7:30 and through security in the airport at 8:05. We had a 10:20 flight, so this was perfect. Always a little risky because there could be delays coming into port, but glad that it went so smoothly. Yesterday was the perfect last sea day. We spent most of our day reading, hopping from Sky Observation, Al Bacio and our balcony. The ocean was so calm yesterday, it was like sailing on a lake! We spent the late afternoon bar hopping to say goodbye to our favorite bartenders. The crew at Sunsetbar was the best with Arny, Shamora, and Eric. Widyamara in Sky Observation was also fantastic. We spent about an hour chatting with him and he even ran somewhere to get us bar snacks! I’ve only seen those in Ensemble, so that was a treat. For dinner, I did something I’ve never done and I got the Thanksgiving 😂 I asked our server what he recommended and that was the first thing he said. Now, I was a little tipsy so I went along with it and I have to say it was actually pretty good. I took the picture before our server came by with a gravy boat of cranberry sauce. There is more I want to say about the trip overall (all good, some mild), but I’m about to have a busy few days unpacking our new townhouse. When I’m a little settled (which could be as soon as tomorrow evening) I’ll write up a review overall to share here. In the meantime, I’m happy to answer any lingering questions. Otherwise, go follow @Georgia_Peaches as she is now on the 6 night sailing on the Equinox!

No. That was my picture that was shared to social media, not by me. It was not photoshopped. I have better things to do than that 🤣

I meant in general, non-smoking casinos are rare. So people that gamble on Celebrity tend to gamble elsewhere and are used to smoke. Regardless, this is overblown. The vaping is not noticeable. I’ve seen some people vape at the tables but I have not smelled anything.

Strangely enough, escargot was actually on the menu tonight!

I haven’t heard anything. Non-smoking in the casino is rare, so I suspect most regular gamblers are not bothered.