back from Celebrity sailing

[L2J]

Ok, so bottom line.....was the cruise what you'd expected/hoped?

 

Halos they do fedex don't cha know :eek: No I'm not going to post over there...I know where I don't belong. LOL.

[robbyxoxo]

Laura....LOL @ the ego boost!....i hear ya there:)........you did really well on your price!.....I was amazed at all the people wanting to ask how much everyone else paid......same as you, in person id never ask anyone how much they paid or tell them how much i paid unless they ask........here on the chat boards is a diff story, lol......knowing prices here helps in deciding how much to pay looking for future cruises............so what did you two think of the cruise??....did you stay up and party late???:)......i didnt see you two on the video at the end of the cruise showing all the older people dancing the limbo at 2 am.......i did see your hubby at the midnight gala buffet, so i know yall werent asleep before midnite each night........we averaged about 8-9 hours of sleep per day, including naps.......slept half of our cruise away:)

[robbyxoxo]

i guess thats the downfall of doing too much research ahead of time.....the cruise was almost EXACTLY as we expected.....hardly any surprises either way, good or bad.......i expected the service to be quite a bit better than weve experienced, and it was....and i expected the food to be a little better, which it was.....expected the entertainment to be limited and geared towards older crowd, and it was...........the ship was a lil bit uglier than i expected...kinda just drab.....i expected something a bit more fancy, despite its age.........i like the idea of staying on a cruise for 2 weeks......one week passes so darn fast......but listening to the same band playing the same 15 songs each and every night, gets a bit tedious.........i think all cruiselines need to find some better musical talent.......sooo many musicians out there in the world.....seems like the best bands are the philpino groups that you find on most of the carnival cruiseships..................so no real regrets to this sailing.......the people that would enjoy it most would be those who enjoy the whole fraternizing with your fellow passengers....if you rely more on the ship for entertainment you'll be in bed a bit earlier than youre used to:)

[halos]

Halos they do fedex don't cha know :eek:

 

Meat mail?????? :eek:

[halos]

..if you rely more on the ship for entertainment you'll be in bed a bit earlier than youre used to:)

 

Not quite sure if this is good... :D or bad....... :confused:

let's see....14 nights..... :eek:

Maybe when I do the Canal, I'll need to be on a group cruise to cause a bit of a distraction...... ;)

[L2J]

I don't think one can do enough research LOL. Probably the only thing that would get to me would be the "music". Entertainment....I could care less and most likely would find something else to do...casino perhaps.

 

Halos I hear tell that's the latest craze...

[halos]

Halos I hear tell that's the latest craze...

 

LOL!! I live a sheltered life obviously!!!! ;)

[CrazyCruisingFamily]

Robby:

 

I posted my overall review on the X board, but will add a few thoughts for the younger generation....

 

We had booked this cruise as our honeymoon, but for various reasons did not actually get married as planned. But hey, since we already had the cruise booked and someone watching the kids, we figured "practice honeymoon".

 

Yes, it was a slllooowww pace, but I truly did not mind. I have two kids (3 and 5) that my parents were watching, so I was all about sleep and reading and relaxation. We made a huge mistake in going with early seating at dinner -- it was dead from 8:30 until 10:30, and then barely a pulse, so we were not doing much late-nighting.

 

So funny about the midnite buffet -- we were practically asleep in our room still completely dressed in our formal gear when I sort of roused Brad to say let's change and go to bed. But not Brad! If there's a meal there's my man -- he was up and ready to go in a minute.

 

Being a mid-thirties-mom-of-two generally disqualifies me from any sort of "hottie" competition, but by god, compared to the group of 60-70 year olds, we all looked like movie stars! I would never say this on the X board, but there was this hilarious guy Barry (did you meet him?) that followed us around the ship -- we weren't sure if it was a crush on me or a "man crush" (circa Seinfeld) on Brad or both!!

 

How about that body builder guy with the silver helmet of hair -- I could barely contain my laugher each time I saw him. And the number of overdone facelifts -- yikes! Did you see the woman with the silver-blond hair that wore loads of make-up and far-too-revealing clothes for her age?? I know, I should respect my elders, by lol......

 

I did my Carnival partying when I was in my 20's, and have done the Disney (land and sea) with the kids. I'd like to try RCCL to see if we can find a happy medium. ;) In the meantime, we are booked for another X cruise in the fall with my sister and her husband (again, no kids, yipee!) as my BIL is "Mr. X" and nearly and elite member. Brad and I may actually get around to getting married on that cruise...

 

It was a pleasure meeting you and Paula, by the way.:)

 

Laura

[L2J]

LOL!! I live a sheltered life obviously!!!! ;)

 

LOL.

[halos]

LOL.

 

Liv...does it come in a discrete brown paper wrapper???

[L2J]

Liv...does it come in a discrete brown paper wrapper???

 

Nope it's my understanding it comes in a plain reinforced cardboard box/tube type thingy:eek:

[halos]

Nope it's my understanding it comes in a plain reinforced cardboard box/tube type thingy:eek:

 

ROFLMAO! Reinforced, huh????? That's some sausage!!

[Lauri32]

Halos, you are just too funny! You should come and go on the S&S II with us.

[halos]

Halos, you are just too funny! You should come and go on the S&S II with us.

Lauri...give me another year and a half and I'll be able to cruise a lot more...I Hope...at that point they'll be 2 college tuitions....BUT I will have gained FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

[robbyxoxo]

LAURA:):).....im sitting here laughing hard thinking about some of the sights you mentioned.....YESSSS we saw and noticed the body builder!!!....Paula thought he looked like Robert Conrad, the old time actor.....she had a crush on him the entire cruise, lol....she digs older dudes.....she swears his hair wasnt real......shes usually good at spotting these things.....that guy was fit as heck though.....there were some funny stories going on in the gym as well....we worked out way more than we usually do on a cruise....mostly from having little else to do.......and YESSS we always saw the lady with the make-up and cleavage!....so funny to think back and remember this stuff now......i joked with Paula that there was more cleavage on the zenith sailing than what we usually see on carnival, lol....lots of women of wealth who have had work done, like face lifts and bewb jobs......more power to em!:).......im dying to find out who this Barry is?.....was he sailing alone?...i need some description!:)........i feel for you guys having had the early dining....i hope at least you landed some good tablemates....we lucked out with a really great couple who were really funny.....i woulda never guessed you two as being mid 30s!.....if you guys woulda had late dining we prolly woulda crossed paths with you more often...i can tell it woulda been a hoot to dine with you nightly.....the few younger couples that were onboard seemed really nice....we ran into some of them here and there.........you're a brave woman booking another long cruise with X, lol................and wouldnt you know our CD player broke the first day of the cruise, so we didnt even have that as a distraction, lol.......i was having serious withdrawls not getting to hear any music from our generation.....

[L2J]

Halos, you are just too funny! You should come and go on the S&S II with us.

 

It'll NEVER happen.....she's WAY too skeerd.

[CrazyCruisingFamily]

Robby: Not mid-thirties because we look so much OLDER or so much YOUNGER??:) Ha ha.

 

I swear the silver helmet hair was real. I sat right across from him at the pool one day and just stared at it for about an hour.

 

Did you see the "scary lady" that you also recall (as I dubbed her) at the karoake? Omigod -- talk about unintentional comedy.....

 

Barry was traveling with his wife and two of their friends. They really were nice people. I wonder if they just don't get to talk to young(er) people that often? I swear, as soon as we came near the pool he would wave wildly and yell for us to come over and even try to find us lounge chairs near his -- he even gave me his business card to keep in touch!!

 

Our dinner companions were great. They said they would join us on the fall cruise if we actually got married on the ship. Though they were mid-sixties, they were far more active in doing snorkeling trips and such than we were.

 

I did a 7-day sailing on the Century in Sept 04, and it was a v. different crowd -- much younger, much livelier. Since the 9-day is a Sat-to-Mon, I was hoping it would draw a younger crowd as well. Its also ports I haven't been to (St. Martin, St. Lucia, Barbados, Antigua). But let me tell ya, any trip without the kiddies (tho I love them dearly) is a true VACATION!

 

Laura

[halos]

It'll NEVER happen.....she's WAY too skeerd.

 

Not even you can skeer me Liv........ :p

[newmexicoNita]

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...........

 

 

We have cruised all but one mass market lines and I think some of what you say is true, other things may depend on the timing. Our experience on Celebrity certainly was quite like yours. The crowd was very mixed, lots of young people but it was over a school break. You went on a 2 week cruise when most kids have returned to school The longer the cruise the more seniors you will find on any line. As for music mainly being 40s, 50s and even older. The 40,50s I can believe: older would only appeal to people approaching 90 years old. I agree with your opinion on the food: I don't think any of the mass market lines very much in the food dept. I am sure the long meals do not appeal to you as you don't care about socializing as much as some do, but most cruisers do like to get to know other passengers and the crew members and we have found other lines better than Carnival in the friendliness dept. Just a few comments; enjoy your RCI cruise. NMNita