back from Celebrity sailing

[robbyxoxo]

testing

[robbyxoxo]

just back from my 2 week cruise on the Celebrity Zenith.....thought id do some quick comparisons to our past Carnival cruises.....the Zenith was built in 1992 and is only 47,000 tons in size......so its older and smaller than any Carnival ships weve sailed.....that meant having fewer options when it came to entertainment and dining...........the majority of the crowd was retirement age...........we found the fellow passengers to be friendly and well mannered.....almost TOO friendly!......like on Carnival with the younger crowd, most people are too busy doing their own thing to get too involved with people around them....but with an older crowd and a slower pace, a lot more mingling goes on between the passengers and between the passengers and the staff............so like we had hoped to dine in the dining room more for breakfast and lunch, but it seemed like each time we did it became an all day affair.....everyone wants to talk and tell their story and meals become a 2 hour event.....and you know me, im like trying to avoid talking to fellow passengers!.........so thats a bit different from the carnival experience.........the service was the biggest difference from Carnival....the service was as outstanding as Celebrity gets credited for.......the staff sincerely looked happy and like they were having a good time.....they were everywhere and always wanting to help......during dinner they would ask us after every course if everything was ok and if they could get us anything else......if you had a special request they would fill it without even a thought.......the tea glasses never got half empty.......never in the 14 days did they get one order wrong......amazing service.............the food wasnt all that much different/better from Carnivals in our opinion......Id give Celebrity a slight edge.....carnival does some things better in the dining dept.....of course the pizza, but i rarely eat that anyways.....the duck on carnival is way better.....i actually liked carnivals soups a bit better.....Celebrity did better desserts, and id give them an edge with the steaks and seafood........the buffet upstairs was very small being an older ship so they obviously couldnt provide the variety of options that weve found on the larger Carnival ships..........people complain about Carnivals buffet dining being too spread out and takes too long to get around....but it sure beats being in a tiny cramped buffet on a small ship.....we struggled to get around the crowd at the buffet and to even find a seat in the celebrity buffet dining area.......all other areas i found little problems with the crowd.....getting off and on the ship at ports seemed less crowded....................the decor of the ship was very BLAH compared to Carnival.......i missed the glitz!.......entertainment, as bad as we thought it was on the Miracle, it was even worse on Celebrity.....but mostly because it was a smaller ship and catering to an older crowd....so obviously they werent gonna be playing music from the 90s.......most music was from the 40s and 50s if not older......they had some nice solo acts come on for the main show.....but if you're younger than 40ish you prolly would find it tediously boring.........they had lots of activities during the days....some similar to carnivals, but also stuff to cater to the older crowd....like lectures and such.............they had MORE public announcements on this sailing than we had on our carnival Miracle cruise!!!!.....who'd of thunk that!??........there were no noticable drunks on our celebrity cruise, probably because they were more seasoned drinkers:).....ha..........the photographers sucked.....Carnival takes some really good pictures.........our waiters didnt sing and dance!!!....i loved that...............so thats about that.........we loved the service on our cruise but coulda done with a bit more to do as far as entertainment......but we knew that beforehand.........people that go on these 14 day sailings plan on doing lots of socializing with their fellow passengers as a big part of their entertainment....so if you dont really like to socialize, like me, youre just stuck out in the middle of the ocean with a band playing music from the 1920s..............next cruise now is with royal caribbean......we booked while onboard Celebrity............we are planning on doing more land vacations in the future and less cruises.....seems like the more cruises we take, the less special they become....the magic is diminishing...........

[halos]

Nice review XO, thanks!

 

Was this cruise so boring that you wouldn't do it again?

What type of cabin did you have?

How were they size/storage space-wise? How was the bathroom?

Was your steward visible at all during those 2 weeks?

Was this your first long cruise...or have you done 2-weekers previously?

Oh...and wher'dja go???? :D

[L2J]

Nice review XO, thanks!

How was the bathroom?

 

 

Let's try this again.

 

Robby....2 hrs socializing at dinner? :D Heehee....Perhaps payback for previous comments about not wanting to socialize with Carnival cruisers :D Glad you had a good cruise....hope to do an adults only with them someday.

 

Halos - Potty issues?:p

[halos]

 

Halos - Potty issues?:p

 

LOL!!

Yeah..I guess I do. I like lots of space..or, as much space as possible on a cruise ship. Since I've only sailed Carnival..and found the bathrooms to be a decent size, I was wondering how big they are on X....the basic cabins are smaller on X, so I assumed the bathrooms would be tinier as well.

Size is important, after all Liv... ;)

I can think of very few instances when smaller is better...... :D

[L2J]

LOL!!

Yeah..I guess I do. I like lots of space..or, as much space as possible on a cruise ship. Since I've only sailed Carnival..and found the bathrooms to be a decent size, I was wondering how big they are on X....the basic cabins are smaller on X, so I assumed the bathrooms would be tinier as well.

 

Size is important, after all Liv... ;)

I can think of very few instances when smaller is better...... :D

 

Ok I get it now LOL. Come to think of it they were pretty darn small on NCL. Couldn't have two people in there at once.....and two in the shower at the same time.....not even worth attempting :D Wonder if X suites have a bidet?

 

ROFLMAO...ok...as GC said I just gave my keyboard a bath....*backing away very very slowly*:eek: but better is in the eyes of the beholder.

[palmbeach12]

Having sailed celeb twice and carnival four times I agree with your assessment of the situation. On my second celeb cruise I started to wonder "what kind of entertainment is this?" your choices are a conventional show (usually WEAKER than carnival) an old peoples band in the champagne bar or a dj in the disco. period. The food is very comparable and for me the service has been outstanding on both lines. I tried Carnival due to the fact the new ships were "so much better" and "offer a wide variety of entertainment." This has proven true on Carnival and is the reason I continue to sail them today. I too would like to try rccl but can't fathom returning to the big X.

pb

[halos]

 

ROFLMAO...*:eek: but better is in the eyes of the beholder.

 

Me? I'd rather beholdin' large! :D

[L2J]

Me? I'd rather beholdin' large! :D

 

Call Hickory Farms :D

[halos]

Call Hickory Farms :D

 

LOL!!

I don't even have a good come-back for that one!!! You got me :D

[halos]

When's XO gonna get back here and answer my bathroom question?????

[Nautical but Nice]

I was wondering if the staff working the buffet area still take your tray when you near the end, and seat you at a table? I personally really liked this extra touch. Except when one day the waiter tried to do a little matchmaking and sat me at a table with a guy old enough to be my grandpa. :eek: When my family found me sitting with him, they got a good laugh, especially when the waiter told them what he was up to. :D

 

Christine

[robbyxoxo]

Nice review XO, thanks!

 

Was this cruise so boring that you wouldn't do it again?

What type of cabin did you have?

How were they size/storage space-wise? How was the bathroom?

Was your steward visible at all during those 2 weeks?

Was this your first long cruise...or have you done 2-weekers previously?

Oh...and wher'dja go???? :D

...............Given the right price Id do ANY cruise!:)......also we wanted to go to some new islands, and this cruise had 3 ports that we hadnt been to before......we stopped at Cozumel, key west, grand cayman, costa rica, panama, coco caye, and Roatan......costa rica and panama are not two places id want to rush back to....like people say, its lots and lots of poverty....and panama is pretty much as scary as people make it out to be....we went to see the locks in panama, but thats like 5 minutes and done.....Roatan remains my fav stop and fav beach of all........YES this was our first cruise over 7 days.....it still went by amazingly fast....i would do it again but would love to do the other side with all stops that i havent been to before.....all but 2 of our cruises have been to the western caribbean......im dying to do the eastern ports again, but have a harder time finding one for the right price and stopping at at least 4 ports.......we were in the cheapest cabin available....very bottom and very front of ship.....i think it was only like 10 square feet smaller than the carnival cabins.....the bathroom and closet spaces seemed pretty similar to carnivals.....the cabin wasnt too bad for being 12 years old........we saw our cabin steward each and every day in the hallway......he did his job fine...no complaints.....he also was nice enough to bring us wine glasses to our cabin each day since he noticed the wine bottles that we had smuggled on:).........bringing alcohol onboard was as easy as with carnival......we brought both beer and rum on from the ports and just walked right in with it after scanning it........LOL at LIVTOJUMP.....i think youre right about that payback thang!....

[L2J]

have a harder time finding one for the right price and stopping at at least 4 ports.......we were in the cheapest cabin available....

 

we saw our cabin steward each and every day in the hallway......he did his job fine...no complaints.....he also was nice enough to bring us wine glasses to our cabin each day since he noticed the wine bottles that we had smuggled on:).........

 

 

What do you consider the right price? I did considerable research on another line and there are some good 10 day'rs out there.

 

Ok....Do we need to ask? :p

 

Halos - Wazzamatta? Kitty got your tongue?

[robbyxoxo]

Christine, LOL....yes they still do that, and yes i think they still try and do some matchmaking, lol.......during the 14 days, only once did they offer to take my tray....i think they focused more on helping those a bit older......one thing that i didnt see, which i had heard about prior, was receiving lemonade and cold towels as you walk back into the ship from your time at port.....none of the 7 ports did i notice them doing this.......HALOS...funny thing you should mention the bathroom....you know how Carnival comedians always make the jokes about how powerful the flush is on the toilets.....the flush on our ship was soooo weak!.....you had to flush twice just to get the job done, lol......so thats something for you to look forward to, lol.......

[halos]

HALOS...funny thing you should mention the bathroom....you know how Carnival comedians always make the jokes about how powerful the flush is on the toilets.....the flush on our ship was soooo weak!.....you had to flush twice just to get the job done, lol......so thats something for you to look forward to, lol.......

 

J, M and J!!! That was TMI........ :eek:

[halos]

Halos - Wazzamatta? Kitty got your tongue?

 

Yup...you've rendered me, speechless! :D

That's quite a task you've accomplished there.... ;)

I will never be able to walk by one of those little kiosks (sp??) in the mall again without some weird s**t going through my head :eek:

[L2J]

I will never be able to walk by one of those little kiosks (sp??) in the mall again without some weird s**t going through my head :eek:

 

Freaky Deaky huh......(oh your bud is back..check my link in VV thread):eek: (sorry didn't mean to get off topic....so on that note)

 

Robby,

 

Does the potty really have a green light...or is that HAL?

[halos]

[quote name=livtojump

Robby,

Does the potty really have a green light...or is that HAL?[/quote]

 

 

 

*****??.....green light??? LOL!! Do old people need to be told when to stop and go????

[robbyxoxo]

LIVTOJUMP.....its gettin harder to find those real cheap cruises.....I dont think I like cruising enough to ever pay more than $500 per person for a 7 day cruise.....and i prefer to find something closer to $400 per person....thats total cost with no airfare.......everyone on our Zenith cruise was talking about how little they paid for the cruise....we paid 850 per person for an inside cabin for the 14 days....before the cruise i saw one price for as cheap as 800 for a window cabin.....i heard second hand about someone only paying 700, but i never saw any prices that cheap while tracking the price..........I didnt mind paying 850 since i wanted to try celebrity and wanted to try the 14 day cruise.....another perk was a $250 credit they gave us for owning RCL stock.......so that helped sway us to this cruise...........id love to try the 10/11 day cruises but all the ones ive looked at cost as much or more than the 14 day cruise we did........the royal caribbean cruise i ended up booking onboard was for the Grandeur sailing out of new orleans in early dec 2005....price seems really cheap at just over $400 per person for 7 days.....plus we got the the additional $100 credit for booking while onboard our celebrity cruise.......i hope carnival starts offering the same perk of giving out cash to book while onboard.....................my wife quit her job last fall so instead of cruising for a week we are gonna look to find monthly stays somewhere on land.......a week cruise cost us $1000 plus expenses.....where as we can find a monthly rental in miami or cancun or where ever for a similar price.....so the monthly thang seems like it would be a way cheaper way to vacation if you have the time......

[robbyxoxo]

LOL....the green light thang is new to me as well!

[halos]

Freaky Deaky huh......(oh your bud is back..check my link in VV thread):eek: (sorry didn't mean to get off topic....so on that note)

 

 

Freaky meat is more like it.... :eek:

 

I found the link....it looks as if she cleaned up her act, I'm happy to see. That's good. No more snobbiness and no more lies...

Well, she's got a fresh start and a new opportunity to play nice now.

[L2J]

Robby - I hear you about the prices LOL. Before I book the one I'm going on next month I was looking at the 10 day on the Sun or Dawn maybe. I believe there were 5 or 6 ports but even the cost of the cheapest cabin was prohibitive and while I've never had an inside, I don't think I could deal with one...especially on a long cruise.

 

Ok, maybe the "green light" thing was on HAL....

 

LOL Halos just remember that next time you're doing the wine/cheese/summer sausage thing at your house with friends. Bust out laughing and everyone will be like ***** is so funny :D

 

So much nicer than the last post. Maybe I should saunter over there and ask if she has the "means" LOL...

[halos]

LOL Halos just remember that next time you're doing the wine/cheese/summer sausage thing at your house with friends. Bust out laughing and everyone will be like ***** is so funny :D...

 

Liv... :D I SWEAR, I will never be able to look at a sausage again without cracking up...the bigger the sausage, the better the chance I'll be peein' my pants!

 

So much nicer than the last post. Maybe I should saunter over there and ask if she has the "means" LOL...

 

LOL!! I'd love to dare you to do just that...but I know you would.. :D ...so I won't dare ya!! The poor girl needs to redeem herself. Let's just sit back and observe.........she can be like a lab rat. :D

[CrazyCruisingFamily]

Robby:

 

Saw your post on price -- we did manage to score the same 14 day Zenith for abt $615pp -- but it was b/c of a future cruise certificate from a previous X cruise that had been delayed. We started at $950pp for an outside guarantee plus $200 off the cabin from a Yahoo travel special plus $225pp off based on the certificate. (W/o the certificate it would have been $850pp for the outside.) We couldn't pass it up and would have spent more staying home in Atlanta. Most of the people I heard talking said they paid about $1100pp or more. We never said out loud what we had paid.

 

It was odd feeling like the "youngsters" on the ship (we are 35 and 36) -- but it was a great ego booster!:)

 

Laura