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Celebrity or Royal Caribbean???


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I'm trying to avoid NCL unless they have a great deal (and for the date that would work for me, they don't). I want to take a 1 week cruise to the Western Caribbean but unfortunately I don't have much flexibility with the date. I'm looking at either the Celebrity Equinox or Royal Caribbean Serenade during the 2nd week of December (kids will just be ending school before Xmas Break....). With airfare and transfers Celebrity is $100 more for the whole trip. My understanding is everything with Celebrity is top notch...Even the passengers seem a bit more professional than redneck from what I've heard.

 

The only thing I'm wondering though is if there's many solo cruisers on Celebrity. I went to the RC board and they said that they usually have someone working for RC coordinate things like meals and happy hours. Is there someone on Celebrity who does that? I'm just trying to find ways to meet other solo travelers other than the roll call on here. I know I could do trivia, activities, request to eat with people etc, but it's just a lot easier for me to have someone actually arrange things. It also wouldn't hurt if there's a decent amount of single men in their 20-40s for me :)

 

What are either cruises like solo if you have been on them?

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I had a whole long reply written out and then my internet conked out and I lost it, so I'm going to make it short and sweet in hopes this reply will get through before the internet conks out again!

 

With what you are describing, I really would recommend NCL--one of the newer ships like the Getaway. They do by far the best job of organizing single/solo meetups and activities.

 

Celebrity has an older crowd than you are looking for, and in my experience does absolutely nothing to promote solo/single meetups...sometimes a passenger might try to organize something and post it on the message board near the service desk, but Celebrity doesn't organize a thing.

 

Royal in my limited (1 cruise) experience with them does no more than post a date/time for a solo meetup in their daily--they don't staff it, so it's a matter of showing up at the spot and trying to discern who else there is a solo passenger looking to meet other solos. I didn't attend any of them though, so maybe I am wrong about that but that's what I've read.

 

Between Royal/Celebrity I'd recommend Royal, but honestly I would choose a new NCL ship over Royal for myself at my age (mid-50s) and also if I were 30. More dining options, spa is to die for (extra charge for a weekly pass was SO worth it), just as many "active" options like rope climbing, rock climbing wall, dancing, etc.

 

NCL tends to have great deals as you get closer to the date of the cruise, and early December is typically a low demand time for cruises so they ought to have great offers--I would at least wait until you are less than 90 days out from your planned travel week and see what specials pop up on all 3 cruise lines.

 

Any of the choices will be a wonderful vacation, though! Good luck choosing! :)

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I appreciate the response :)

 

Again, no NCL. Unless I could find something so super cheap, I will pass on it. For the dates that I have in mind, I don't have a lot of flexibility with my work schedule. Because this would be a week before Xmas, even if the cruise ends up being a bit cheaper, the airfare goes up (I would be coming from CA...airfare roundtrip is already between $450-$500).

 

 

 

Yeah I figured Celebrity might be older. I just figured the food, amenities, and entertainment would just be better. I just imagine RC would have more families because of all the kid friendly amenities.

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Most of my previous cruises have been solo on Celebrity. There's often a solo/singles meet-up, but I've never gone to one. I meet people at the Connections party, or at trivia, or at the dinner table, or by the pool, or my favorite haunt-the Martini bar. I've never wanted for nice people to chat with when I wanted them and never felt beholden to anyone when I wanted my personal space or just didn't feel like meeting up for dinner one night.

 

There have been a dearth of single men on my past Celebrity cruises recently, however. Almost everyone I've met cruising solo has been female. Maybe I'd do better if I went to the singles meet-up. ;)

 

Good luck, whatever you decide!

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What do you have against NCL? Just curious, ive been solo on Carnival, NCl and RCCl and NCl was by far and wide the greatest one out of them all. The fact there is a solo lounge where you meet up and there are usually 2 floors of solo travelers, it was great fun. On the Escape there will be a LARGE crowd of that age group, which I am in.

 

If you are very against NCl, then I would do Carnival. There is a large group of our age groups. There is always a nightclub full of people and just over all fun. Plus the deck parties and food is great. Guys burgers are addicting. Carnival prices are usually low too.

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The food on NCL is repetitive and not particularly amazing. The staff on the last NCL cruise I took was AWFUL including the customer service people who ironically were the worst! I had complained to them about service and they said in order to remove the now "mandatory" gratuity I would have to wait until after the cruise, call up, and that a rep would take care of it for me so I did that. I called and the rep said that he would email me a form to fill out...I waited and never received such an email so I called. That rep said no such form existed but that she would remove the charge for me. I saw that the charge was never removed so I called up my American Express to file with them. They removed the charge but then NCL added the charge back on to my card. They went as far to send American Express a letter saying I never spoke to the customer service reps on the cruise to voice my concerns (I did) and that I only had record of calling them after the cruise 1x!!! All were lies. I called up after all that and asked if they recorded conversations in which they said that they did. I said I would like a manager to play them and they said the manager isn't there but that I could keep calling. I did that until I gave up. It just put a really bad taste for NCL. I even messaged them on Facebook and received no response, and emailed them on their website in which I just got a "Sorry you had a bad experience" response with no contact information.

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Good morning, I have been sailing solo on Celebrity since 2003.......my last cruise with them was back in February

over the Superbowl but going forward I am branching out so no cruises booked with them at this time. I have

cruised with Celebrity close to 50 times and been on Equinox twice.......she is a lovely ship.

 

I can only give you information from my own experiences.......you asked about single men between 20/40? I don't

recall that, but for me, it is not something I even look for......marital status is just not important to me. I look for friendly

folks and don't care if they are married, widowed, divorced, etc......I cruise for me and meeting other solos doesn't come

into play.

 

I have also sailed with Royal a few times....some things are the same and some are different. The demographic on Celebrity is

probably older than Royal and I would say (if you look at the ads that both lines put out) Royal shows more families

and family activities.. But Celebrity does have Kid's Clubs too.

 

For me, If given the choice, for 100.00 more? I would sail on Celebrity.

 

Hope you have fun, whatever you choose.

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Sorry you had a bad experience with NCL. Hope you give them another go. Last year my studio cabin was quite noisy (cleaning cupboards banging and a generator noise). Anyway I didn't complain as it didn't really ruin my holiday and to be honest I was having too much fun to want to spend time at customer service desk. Anyway when I got home I rang NCL, not to complain but just to give feedback as to the noise in case others had also had problems. These were brilliant and offered me £100 refund or £200 deposit for future cruise. Thought that was wonderful service!

 

I haven't tried RCCL solo but I was aware they had solo gatherings. We met a solo traveller on one RCCL ship (he joined our quiz team) but he didn't rate the solo offering as brilliant. However that might have just been his opinion.

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Sorry you had a bad experience with NCL. Hope you give them another go. Last year my studio cabin was quite noisy (cleaning cupboards banging and a generator noise). Anyway I didn't complain as it didn't really ruin my holiday and to be honest I was having too much fun to want to spend time at customer service desk. Anyway when I got home I rang NCL, not to complain but just to give feedback as to the noise in case others had also had problems. These were brilliant and offered me £100 refund or £200 deposit for future cruise. Thought that was wonderful service!

 

I haven't tried RCCL solo but I was aware they had solo gatherings. We met a solo traveller on one RCCL ship (he joined our quiz team) but he didn't rate the solo offering as brilliant. However that might have just been his opinion.

 

That's great. When I came to the customer service desk the first time, I was leaving feedback... In any case those *uckers put the charge back on my card after their rep said she would remove it for me and having to get American Express involved.

 

I'm glad you had a great experience because I didn't. Some experiences: The spa's steam room didn't work for half the cruise. I told the front desk this. I had to ask her if she or someone from the spa could call my room so that I don't keep going back and forth hoping it would be open. She said okay (you would think though that I wouldn't have to ask them to call me?). Did I ever get a call from them? Nope, and I still kept checking at the spa because I assumed (and was correct) that NCL would mess it up.

 

I ordered the unlimited internet package which was far from unlimited. I can say it maybe worked 70% of the time. I went down also to customer service to report my concern and they told me that they couldn't do anything about it and that I had to wait for the internet manager to get in so I did. She told me only at 1 port did people not get online (and they waited for us to go to them and not the proactive way....) and gave me a wonderful $20 back.... She also said that there was no way that I couldn't have had difficult getting on other times aside from that 1 time (I did). I didn't appreciate being called a liar.

 

On 3 occasions in the dining room I went for late night dinners. The place was fairly empty with cruisers but still plenty of staff. I was ignored most of the time and had to ask any worker who walked by for things like a refill on water, dessert, etc. I was the lonely party of 1 which is often ignored.

 

The hot tubs were also a joke. They weren't hot. I wouldn't even call them warm. On some reviews, many people noted the same thing. I told the pool attendant that the water was cold. He said that it gets warmer during the day (ummm doesn't everything get warmer as the day goes on due to the sun?!). I humored him and came back in the afternoon. No change in the water temperature. I reported that concern to the customer service desk and they told me that the heater wasn't broken and that there was nothing that they can do. All except 1 of the hot tubs had signs up that said 12 years old and up using the jacuzzi with a mention of kids being unattended. There were constantly kids unattended there so of which would go next to me with the full snorkel mask and everything swimming next to me. Not relaxing. I assume the parents were drinking at the bar or smoking not paying any attention. Pool attendants were always there but they never enforced anything. It truly was anything goes. I kept using the hot tubs because that was usually where I met the most people...not dining, not at the bar, and not during, activities.

 

There was also a show I wanted to see in the Daily. I went down to see it and there was nothing in the theater. I asked someone working in there about where the show is (something like that) and he said he didn't know (again this guy works in the theater...). I later found out there was a venue change however this was not communicated by anyone. I would have even taken a sign that said "Show moved to _________" but that wasn't there.

 

In addition, the people who answer the phone at NCL were just as bad with their fake promises. Like I said earlier, never again with NCL unless the date I want is ridiculously cheap.

 

I'm very impressed that when you voiced your concern after the cruise that they gave you some $ back because they didn't offer anything as a courtesy. I had to ask them to remove the grautity because the staff on the ship was awful and useless. Again that's where I was told that she would remove it only to not have it remove where I had to call up American Express for them to remove it, only with NCL adding the charge back on!

 

At this point in time, I would rather spend a it more for an experience with acceptable service, better food, and a higher caliber of people.

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I honestly think you might not enjoy a cruise on either Celebrity or Royal, given how upset you were about the items that you listed. Maybe a higher-end adults-only ship with more space per passenger would meet your needs better. I'm just afraid that either Celebrity or RCCL may have the glitches you experienced as well, and though Celebrity tends to have fewer children, if it's during a school holiday period there will be kids, and cruise lines can't ever completely control their behavior. Was the NCL cruise your first cruise, or have you had better experiences on other cruises before that one?

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When I went to customer service on ncl I had problem removing the gratuity while on board. I never went to the dining room so I was taking care of my cabin steward and others. Why pay to the waiter in dining room and the matre de? I know I am spelling it wrong. The food was awful.the worst I have had on a cruise ship. But you can go to the cafeteria and 24 hour restaurant to get decent food. I had to choose carefully in the cafeteria.

 

 

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I didn't like the spa. I was under the impression that there was a woman's only area but no. I go and it was just old, icky men with shorts lying on the lounges with large naked beer bellies. I stopped by twice and also saw couples making out in the hot tub. Not the atmosphere I wanted. So, I was immediately refunded my money. It shows up in your account immediately.

 

 

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I honestly think you might not enjoy a cruise on either Celebrity or Royal, given how upset you were about the items that you listed. Maybe a higher-end adults-only ship with more space per passenger would meet your needs better. I'm just afraid that either Celebrity or RCCL may have the glitches you experienced as well, and though Celebrity tends to have fewer children, if it's during a school holiday period there will be kids, and cruise lines can't ever completely control their behavior. Was the NCL cruise your first cruise, or have you had better experiences on other cruises before that one?

 

Yes, I've been on cruises with Princess and DSV or whatever it is called.

My main complaint is just the service across the board was terrible and I didn't appreciate the service I got with NCL after I got off the ship!

 

I only listed what went wrong because someone asked.

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Glad someone else doesn't think NCL is all that. I was beginning to think I was the only one on CC who felt like this!

 

The food for me sort of ranged. A lot of it was edible but not particularly great. Felt like food you could get from Home Town Buffet or some mediocre catering hall who does weddings. Some of the food combinations were bizarre. I remember there being a chicken parm that wasn't even chicken parm. It was chicken with rice and I don't think there was cheese or marinara on it. I kind of chuckled about that. There were a couple of others but I don't remember. The desserts were the worst. I can say though that most of the meat that I had was cooked well and had lots of flavor.

 

The spa on my NCL ship had separate men and women's areas. When the steam room was working, it was fine and hardly anyone was ever in it. It was a pretty basic steam room like one a gym might have, but good enough for me.

 

Like I keep saying I would only go on a NCL again if and only if there was some ridiculously cheap rate. What I can say is that NCL is impressive to some degree but being the first line to actually consider solo cruisers. On my particular line, there was no assigned solo cruisers person for meals and events. I met a guy in a hot tub who regularly goes solo on NCL. He said all of them but the particular ship we were on together had staff really just try to make it fun for solo cruisers. On this cruise, the Daily would just list a time for a solo cruiser dinner but only a few people showed up. I understand that Alaska may not attract solo cruisers as much as say in the Caribbean, but I would have thought that they would at least pretend to make an effort.

 

 

When I went to customer service on ncl I had problem removing the gratuity while on board. I never went to the dining room so I was taking care of my cabin steward and others. Why pay to the waiter in dining room and the matre de? I know I am spelling it wrong. The food was awful.the worst I have had on a cruise ship. But you can go to the cafeteria and 24 hour restaurant to get decent food. I had to choose carefully in the cafeteria.

 

 

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