bedrick

Thanks for this really relevant information,  The trips we are deciding between are Celebrity Silhouette May 5th 8 nights Norway. 11 nights Britain, 13 nights Baltic, 11 nights Iceland all starting and finishing in Amsterdam or Rotterdam or Niew Statendam 27 nights 5th May to 1st June Norway, Baltic’s and Britain Amsterdam to Copenhagen then 1st June to !5th June Iceland to and from Copenhagen.  I am not concerned about the ports being boring on either more  about the entertainment in the evenings being repetitive.  Cost for Celebrity (43 nights) is about A$3,000 per person cheaper and includes gratuities than HAL (41 nights) with no gratuities included.  Celebrity does repeat a few of the ports.

4 hours ago, C 2 C said:

The service on both lines is very similar since both companies employ many Filipinos and Indonesians, outstanding service training.  In September a year ago we took our first HAL cruise in 14 years after dozens of Celebrity Cruises.  The food was great, the music walk on the Nieuw Statendam was fantastic but their nightly shows were a big yawn.  We liked our experience so much we booked 8 one week B2Bs over the holidays.  I never eat desserts on Celebrity.  To me they are tasteless.  On HAL I had dessert every night.  We loved this class of ship.  On one of our Back to backs, there were 700+ repeaters, a number we have never seen on Celebrity.  We are about to go on 7 B2Bs on Constellation, our favorite Celebrity ship, and because we get a lot of perks for our status.  Both lines will give you a great experience but you may have fewer repetitions on a longer cruise than on a shorter one.  You have not mentioned price or ships that you are considering.

2 hours ago, Cruising Is Bliss said:

 

I love doing back to backs but my preference would be the two longer cruises. I've done B2Bs on Celebrity and on HAL and I prefer HAL for longer cruises. 

 

2 hours ago, Cruising Is Bliss said:

 

I love doing back to backs but my preference would be the two longer cruises. I've done B2Bs on Celebrity and on HAL and I prefer HAL for longer cruises. 

 

Would you please tell me why you prefer HAL?  I really appreciate your feedback.

If anyone would like to be our friend so we can both benefit with $200 onboard credit for a referral please email me at cruiseanywhere@outlook.com.

Regards, Lee

Wow - Thanks so much for the incredibly helpful replies.  14 day turnaround for menus is great, we recently did a 21 day cruise on P & O Australia and the main dining room only had two different menus for the whole trip, that is why I was concerned.  I agree about having time on land too.  We will be touring Spain, Italy and Switzerland by train before we head north.  We also want to relax and spend time in ports, definitely won’t be doing excursions every day.  We were trying to decide between HAL and Celebrity for this part of the trip.  HAL has better itineraries but we know it can be very quiet at night and it is considerably more expensive than Celebrity.  The amazing responses to my question has helped us decide on Celebrity - you are the kind of people we want to spend time with.  Thanks again.

Hi, we are planning a trip to Scandinavia, Norway, Iceland and Britain in May 24. Trying to decide between 4 back to backs on Celebrity or 2 long itineraries on Holland America.  If we string together the cruises on Celebrity are we likely to get repeat entertainment and menus on each of the back to back cruises?  Thanks for your help.

Hi, We have never cruised with Azamara and are considering taking back to back Mediterranean cruises with them.  We usually book direct with the cruise line, however, I have noticed experienced Azamara cruisers seem to prefer booking through a travel agent.  Could you tell me why please?  We are booking from Australia.

Thanks for the information, much appreciated.

Can anyone tell me the system for using the laundry on Pacific Explorer is and what the cost of getting your laundry done is.  Thanks.

1 hour ago, windsor26 said:

I am surprised at the OP comments  we left Majestic last week and never were anyone allowed near the self service tea and coffee machines   we always had to have a server do the necessary  even mixing my coffee tubes I bring  I also noted they filled cruisers flasks for them by using cups as a half way container     How can this have changed so quickly??

we were on the cruise to New Zealand on 25/11/22 too.  The NZ Cruise had 990 passengers this one has about 3200 - a completely different experience.  Different demographic as well.  Lots more younger people with and without children .  Children allowed to run riot in the Hollywood Club driving out passengers who want to enjoy a peaceful experience taking in the scenery.  Poor staff cannot possibly provide the same level of service with so many passengers.

1 hour ago, Ozwoody said:

Actually your not supposed too, there use to be a sign not to fill bottles from the dispenser, would be surprised if they have been removed.

I think people use them for the chilled water, but the same can be achieved, by filling in your cabin and leaving the bottle over night in your fridge.

This is the only ship I have been on that does not have signs asking people to use clean glasses/cups provided to fill their bottles.  Staff watch passengers filling their own used containers directly from the dispensers and say nothing.  No signs at all.  

Passengers are frequently filling their private drinking bottles and flasks, that have been used by them and are therefore contaminated with their saliva,  by pressing them against the nozzles on the drink dispensers.  Anyone using the dispensers is likely to get a dose of someone else’s saliva in their beverage.  This disgusting practice was banned on other lines years ago to prevent spread of disease long before covid.  No wonder Majestic Princess has had so many covid cases.  I have reported this poor practice to the management.

Thanks for the informative input everyone. I have been convinced to give Carnival a try particularly as we loved Princess overseas but were disappointed in our last two Princess cruises from Australia, both were ghost ships in the evenings.  Now I have to try to find reasonable airfares, at the moment the lowest is between $500-$600 each return from Tasmania to Sydney or Brisbane plus hotel.

Hi, I’ve never cruised Carnival before but am tempted by current prices.  Can anyone tell me how the entertainment and food compare to Princess or P & O?

Thanks

I absolutely love cruising solo.  Advantages are you can do whatever you please when you want to.  No need to consider if your room mate wants to sleep in or eat breakfast.  You can choose to eat when and wherever you choose to, go to whatever activities suit you, keep whatever hours you wish and change your mind about what you want to do at the last minute without worrying about how it affects anyone else.  Enjoy spoiling yourself.

Thanks very much I couldn’t find it on the itineraries.  The link is extremely useful.

Can anyone tell me if Pacific Explorer and Coral Princess dock in Cairns or at Yorkys Knob?  Thanks

I wish I had a US agent.  The Australian ones are pretty much useless and have totally different booking conditions to the US ones.  They require full payment months before the cruise line need the money and have very limited knowledge.  No such thing as getting the price reduced if the fare drops before final payment and they charge a minimum $100 fee if you cancel and rebook.

I have found the information given by people like you on this site to be much more accurate and valuable than any Australian agent is able to provide.

Thanks for this helpful information.  I have tried ringing Celebrity twice and given up after being on hold for more than an hour each time.  I also sent them an email 3 days ago to which there has been no reply.  Their lack of customer service certainly doesn’t encourage me to book a cruise with them.

Hi, I’m looking at booking a 13 night New Zealand cruise from Sydney.  The balcony cabin price is more for a guarantee than if you choose  a cabin number, the cost for an inside is less for a guarantee than a chosen cabin.  In the past I have always found the guarantee cabins to be cheaper because it’s a “lucky dip”.  Any ideas why this should be the case on this particular cruise and category?  Thanks for your help.

11 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

I believe it’s 55% capacity passengers? 953 with 900 crew?

there are quite a lot of passengers I would say in the 40’s and 50’s not all in the upper category as we are?

Thanks so much cbtours.  It’s great to have a variety of age groups makes it much more interesting.

Wonderful to have live reports thanks so much for your time and trouble.  Could you please tell us how full the ship is and if the number of staff still seems to be about the same ratio to passengers as before.  What is the age group of most of the passengers?  Thanks

Thanks for explaining this.  Really glad I was worrying with no reason.

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

The policy they have referred to applies to $US cruises based in most of their markets, particularly the US. They have pretty much had smoking on one side of the casino, and for the Grand class ships, there is a dedicated small sports bar outside of the theatre.

 

Carnival Australia applies their own policy to there ships in Oz, including Princess. There are no indoor smoking areas - just starboard side promenade deck, and either one side of the pool deck and/or sun deck.

 

Those areas outside the theatre on the grand class Princess ships are a perfect compromise, as they are an enclosed space with an inbuilt filtration system. They were a great hangout spot for officers and CDs who smoked, and a great spot to chat with them. In Australia though, that bar is closed. I wonder how they will utilise the space on Pacific Adventure and Encounter?

I have sailed in Alaska on Princess too pre Covid and agree it was not an issue.  However, according to people on the Princess forum the policy changed very recently (a few weeks ago) to allow more smoking and  some passengers are not at all happy.