Recommended Celebrity to Good Friend

[katiebeth]

We are loyal Celebrity cruisers and could even be considered cheerleaders so to speak. We have cruised Europe 5 times with celebrity Constellation (twice), Millemnium (twice), Eclipse once and Azamara once. Each and every cruise was fantastic and exceeded our expectations. My friend and her family have always cruised Holland America and loved the cruise line. I have always spoken so highly of Celebrity that they decided to give them a try and booked the New Years sailing on the Solsice. They just disembarked today and I am concerned my friend is VERY disappointed with my recommendation with Celebrity. I started to have second thoughtsbabout recommending Celebrity after our Thanksgiving cruise. I was hoping our experience wAs a fluke and never mentioned anything negative to my friend because they were son looking forward to their upcoming cruise and totally trusted my judgement. The truth of the matter is that our Thanksgiving cruise was very very disappointing in terms of the staff ....many were down right surly and quite unpleasant. Overall, there seemed to be a serious morale problem. We had a great cruise regardless and enjoyed the food and spotlessly clean ship. As I said we were hopeful our experience was just an off week.

 

Anyway, I spoke with my friend this evening and she said the ship itself was very very nice, but as far as service there was no comparison between Celebriry and Holland America. She said many of the staff were downright rude and very inattentive. Neither of us are at all demanding and since I truthfully had the same experience had no reason to question her observations. I told her that our European experiences had been fantastic as well as out 2 cruises to Alaska on the Infinity and I could only attribute the poorer service to some type of moral problem on the Solstice, the shorter itinerary and maybe a higher demand on bar staff on the Caribbbean. Anyway, I am sad that I have squandered my credibility with my dear friend and wish she would have had the experience on Celebrity that we have had so many times in the past!!! Wondering if it is the Holiday cruises that should be avoid or if there really is a serious moral problem on Solstice???

[yogagal47]

We are loyal Celebrity cruisers and could even be considered cheerleaders so to speak. We have cruised Europe 5 times with celebrity Constellation (twice), Millemnium (twice), Eclipse once and Azamara once. Each and every cruise was fantastic and exceeded our expectations. My friend and her family have always cruised Holland America and loved the cruise line. I have always spoken so highly of Celebrity that they decided to give them a try and booked the New Years sailing on the Solsice. They just disembarked today and I am concerned my friend is VERY disappointed with my recommendation with Celebrity. I started to have second thoughtsbabout recommending Celebrity after our Thanksgiving cruise. I was hoping our experience wAs a fluke and never mentioned anything negative to my friend because they were son looking forward to their upcoming cruise and totally trusted my judgement. The truth of the matter is that our Thanksgiving cruise was very very disappointing in terms of the staff ....many were down right surly and quite unpleasant. Overall, there seemed to be a serious morale problem. We had a great cruise regardless and enjoyed the food and spotlessly clean ship. As I said we were hopeful our experience was just an off week.

 

Anyway, I spoke with my friend this evening and she said the ship itself was very very nice, but as far as service there was no comparison between Celebriry and Holland America. She said many of the staff were downright rude and very inattentive. Neither of us are at all demanding and since I truthfully had the same experience had no reason to question her observations. I told her that our European experiences had been fantastic as well as out 2 cruises to Alaska on the Infinity and I could only attribute the poorer service to some type of moral problem on the Solstice, the shorter itinerary and maybe a higher demand on bar staff on the Caribbbean. Anyway, I am sad that I have squandered my credibility with my dear friend and wish she would have had the experience on Celebrity that we have had so many times in the past!!! Wondering if it is the Holiday cruises that should be avoid or if there really is a serious moral problem on Solstice???

 

Don't you mean "morale problem?" I was on Solstice this past August and there was no "moral" problem or "morale" problem. We thought the service was excellent.

[katiebeth]

Yes, I am so sorry ... Please forgive me... I did leave out the "e" on morale in one of the sentences ...although did spell it correctly in another sentence. .....trying to get use to typing on the I-Pad as it is quite challenging with my rheumatoid arthritis . I definitely prefer a regular keypad.

 

Glad you had a fantastic cruise in August on the Solstice! I am hoping it is the Holiday cruises that maybe are nor up to par and put additional demands on staff. As I said, I just felt bad that I had spoken so highest of celebrity and my friend was disappointed

 

We are elite with Celebrity and lover he line, but definitely had a different experience on the Thanksgiving cruise.

 

Nancy

 

P.S. Please forgive my misspelling ... There was no moral problem on the cruise ....these stiff fingers don't work like they used to!!!

[katiebeth]

Oops, noticed a few other misspelled words in the above post....may need to give-up the I-pad and go back to my computer with an old-fashioned keyboard ....can't get my stiff and twisted fingers to work ...very frustrating ....but oh so grateful for all my blessings. ...can't complain!!

 

NANCY

[cruise crazed]

I went on the 11/29 sailing of the Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam and the service exceeded Celebrity. I have sailed on many of the Celbrity ships and am going on the Eclipse 1/22, I enjoy Celebritry but I do think Holland America has them beat with service.

 

However, I have never had a bad cruise and enjoyed alll of them.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I've actually had the opposite experience--I thought the service on HAL was underwhelming/nonexistent. Haven't been on the Solstice, but just got off a Thanksgiving cruise on the Connie and the service was great. We were welcomed back with hugs & big smiles by our waiter & assistant waiter from our previous cruise on the Connie and everybody else was great as well.

It's the wonderful crew on Celebrity that keeps me coming back.

[katiebeth]

Constellation is probably our favorite Celebrity ship! We cruised her 2003 on a Northern Europe Norwegian Fjords itinerary and again in 2007 in the Baltics! We also had OUTSTANDING service on the Eclipse this year to the Canary Islands and she had only been sailing for one month!! The staff was amazing!

 

Also, LOVE the Azamara Quest and would sail Azamara again in a heartbeat!

 

The food, cabin, ship, and entertainment were great on Solstice, but cannot deny that many of the staff, particularly bar and pool butlers seemed miserable. we have never experienced it before and others were commenting on it as well. I am not sure if the Holiday sailing had anything to do with it, but we are unlikely to do another 7 day Caribbean itinerary on Solstice ....just our experience......everyone is entitled to their own opinion. My friends recent experience on Solstice confirmed our experience that something is a bit off ....not horrible, but enough to make us look at other options for the Caribbean itinerary!

 

Happy New Year to all my cruise critic friends!!

[lusitanica]

We are loyal Celebrity cruisers and could even be considered cheerleaders so to speak. We have cruised Europe 5 times with celebrity Constellation (twice), Millemnium (twice), Eclipse once and Azamara once. Each and every cruise was fantastic and exceeded our expectations. My friend and her family have always cruised Holland America and loved the cruise line. I have always spoken so highly of Celebrity that they decided to give them a try and booked the New Years sailing on the Solsice. They just disembarked today and I am concerned my friend is VERY disappointed with my recommendation with Celebrity. I started to have second thoughtsbabout recommending Celebrity after our Thanksgiving cruise. I was hoping our experience wAs a fluke and never mentioned anything negative to my friend because they were son looking forward to their upcoming cruise and totally trusted my judgement. The truth of the matter is that our Thanksgiving cruise was very very disappointing in terms of the staff ....many were down right surly and quite unpleasant. Overall, there seemed to be a serious morale problem. We had a great cruise regardless and enjoyed the food and spotlessly clean ship. As I said we were hopeful our experience was just an off week.

 

Anyway, I spoke with my friend this evening and she said the ship itself was very very nice, but as far as service there was no comparison between Celebriry and Holland America. She said many of the staff were downright rude and very inattentive. Neither of us are at all demanding and since I truthfully had the same experience had no reason to question her observations. I told her that our European experiences had been fantastic as well as out 2 cruises to Alaska on the Infinity and I could only attribute the poorer service to some type of moral problem on the Solstice, the shorter itinerary and maybe a higher demand on bar staff on the Caribbbean. Anyway, I am sad that I have squandered my credibility with my dear friend and wish she would have had the experience on Celebrity that we have had so many times in the past!!! Wondering if it is the Holiday cruises that should be avoid or if there really is a serious moral problem on Solstice???

 

Hmmmm.. I am in a similar situation.

I have recently introduced two people to cruising. I carefully selected a ship that would combine best of all cruising pleasures at affordable price. In the result we had a wonderful cruise on the Ruby Princess.

My people wanted more.

No matter how wonderful their (our) Ruby cruise was, I strongly recommended them not to be a one cruise line cruisers.

So, the next cruise ship has to be as close in class and amenities to the Ruby as possible but not a Princess ship.

The closest option is one of Solstice class ships.

I clearly see what Solstice class lacks in comparison with the Ruby so I actually lowered their expectations. Just in case.

The second option I considered was HAL, but I decided that they would be more impressed with the Solstice class.

[Aussiemick]

I went on the 11/29 sailing of the Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam and the service exceeded Celebrity. I have sailed on many of the Celbrity ships and am going on the Eclipse 1/22, I enjoy Celebritry but I do think Holland America has them beat with service.

 

However, I have never had a bad cruise and enjoyed alll of them.

 

I am considering Celebrity after our 12 night HAL Mexican Riveria in December. They were comming off a long world cruise and going into drydock and it seemed they gave everyone the week off even if they were still working. There were several exceptions with outstanding service like the spcialty dining room and breakfast room service but overall it was lilke the left hand did not know what the right was doing, couldn't even get clean glasses in the bathroom. Even the people in the Penthouse Suite had a couple of issues and to top it off there was not one single Christmas decoration, so we should expect less because they were going into drydock?

[Hapytocruise]

Personally I think poorer than expected service can happen on any cruise or cruise line. We love Celebrity AND Princess - had a bad experience on Holland a few years ago in their dining room..the head waiter was on a power trip (ie..a shrimp cocktail (if not ordered the night before) required his permission to be served..we are not talking about a "big" shimp cocktail..we are talking about the little shrimpy ones.. also comes to mind...my husband ordered a baked potatoe and it came after he was halfway throught his steak!!! ) was still a great cruise but put them last on our list of fav. cruise lines. My sister on the otherhand..LOVES Holland..they did Solice based on my ravings about Celebity and still prefer Holland (thought the dining room was stark, service not great and prefer the old world feel of the Holland ships).

Celebrity Equinox knocked our socks off this last cruise..the ship was spectacular and service was best we can recall having...in particular there was a very friendly vibe between all level of staff - officers very visable and lots of smiles and kidding around between ranks - staff we chatted with had nothing to say but really nice comments about working for Celebrity and their bosses(which is not always the case on past cruises once they get to know you a bit) :)

[yogagal47]

Yes, I am so sorry ... Please forgive me... I did leave out the "e" on morale in one of the sentences ...although did spell it correctly in another sentence. .....trying to get use to typing on the I-Pad as it is quite challenging with my rheumatoid arthritis . I definitely prefer a regular keypad.

 

Glad you had a fantastic cruise in August on the Solstice! I am hoping it is the Holiday cruises that maybe are nor up to par and put additional demands on staff. As I said, I just felt bad that I had spoken so highest of celebrity and my friend was disappointed

 

We are elite with Celebrity and lover he line, but definitely had a different experience on the Thanksgiving cruise.

 

Nancy

 

P.S. Please forgive my misspelling ... There was no moral problem on the cruise ....these stiff fingers don't work like they used to!!!

 

LOL I am just getting used to my new ipad as well. i notice i make quite a few mistakes typing with it. I do love it though. hope i will be able to read my books outside! There is a thread about it on the Celebrity board and some are saying one cannot read it in the sunlight.

[Denny01]

We are experienced Celebrity cruisers too and it's sad to hear the issues you had with Solstice. we cruised Solstice last year and it was great. But that was a number of months ago. Since you don't sound as if you are the 'wasn't perfect, so it was terrible' types, sounds like Solstice had/has some issues.

 

As to spelling, one of the 'rules' on this forum is we aren't suppose to point out spelling errors. I assume the poster who did on the 'moral/morale' mistype was just pulling your leg a bit. So don't worry about it and just send it out as needed. I sometimes switch to my iPhone and boy do I make mistakes.

 

Friends got an iPad this week and we loved it when they let up play with it. Looks like we may switch over too...and just work our way through getting get use to the keypad.

 

Den

[redjetz]

Oops, noticed a few other misspelled words in the above post....may need to give-up the I-pad and go back to my computer with an old-fashioned keyboard ....can't get my stiff and twisted fingers to work ...very frustrating ....but oh so grateful for all my blessings. ...can't complain!!

 

NANCY

 

Hi. Santa brought me a keyboard that attaches to my iPad because I find the onscreen keyboard display difficult, too. There are a couple models out there, around $99, that you might check out. Makes the iPad much easier and more fun to use!

[David V]

Service and morale on the Solstice Christmas Cruise was great.

Smiles and a warm greetings from all of the staff all day.

I had read some less than raves reviews about Solstice staff before we embarked and was concerned. But from the moment we entered the embarkation "barn" till we disembarked and cleared customs everyone we encountered was very welcoming.

[phoenix_dream]

I have cruised Celebrity 19 times and have never, ever, encountered the issues mentioned. Was on the Solstice when it first came out, and most recently the Eclipse and found the employees to be just as friendly and helpful as they always are. Sure, now and then we have found one or two of the staff to be less than enthusiastic, but never to the point of unfriendly or down in the dumps looking, and certainly never a large number of staff - always the exception of one or two if any. I suspect this was just a unique situation and not the norm at all.

[louwoz]

We were also disappointed in the service in the dining room and especially the pool bar on this cruise. I have seen several posts lately that specifically mention rude, abrupt service at the pool bars...I wonder if Celebrity monitors these posts.

 

This was our first Celebrity experience and I'm inclined to go back to Princess or RCL.

[Canadianhey!]

Funny how much difference a few days can makes. We finished a cruise at the end of October and found the X staff as excellent as always.

[Oceangoer2]

Oops, noticed a few other misspelled words in the above post....may need to give-up the I-pad and go back to my computer with an old-fashioned keyboard ....can't get my stiff and twisted fingers to work ...very frustrating ....but oh so grateful for all my blessings. ...can't complain!!

 

NANCY

:)Don't worry about someone commenting on 'spelling'..what we understood was the content. Picky, picky!!! I'm a very quick typist, and when using my little notepad the keys are so close together that what comes out isn't what I intended sometimes. Your arthritis would stop a lot of people from even trying. Have a great day and ignore the posting.

[yogagal47]

:)Don't worry about someone commenting on 'spelling'..what we understood was the content. Picky, picky!!! I'm a very quick typist, and when using my little notepad the keys are so close together that what comes out isn't what I intended sometimes. Your arthritis would stop a lot of people from even trying. Have a great day and ignore the posting.

The comment about "moral" was a joke, albeit not a very good one since folks seem to be taking it seriously. I did not find the crew on Solstice to have a "morale" or a "moral" problem. The appeared to us to be enthusiastic, warm, and eager to please. One lovely young lady in the cafe remembered my name and how i liked my coffee after the first morning. Service in Blu was excellent and Murano was a standout. We loved watching Kelby make our drinks at the Molecular bar. My daughter and I were very happy with the instructors for the pilates classes. We had an Aqua Class cabin and were pleased with service and cleanliness there. We had sailed on small ships previously and were wary of trying Celebrity Solstice but once we did we were hooked. We sail Eclipse Saturday! Happy cruising to all!

[Fishndawg]

We are big Princess fans -primarily because it fits us. However, we decided to step it up a notch and go on the new Eurodam. We were sorely disappointed with the service and bad attitudes. Now we've decided to try Celebrity and hope the same thing doesn't happen.

[cherylroslyn]

Have fun on your cruise "yogagal47". Your "moral" vs. "morale" comment made me laugh.......it is funny how the connotation completely changes when you drop the "e".

 

There would really be a problem if a crew had a moral problem as opposed to a morale problem....considering how insane these boards become when someone doesn't want to dress up for formal night I can only imagine they would be on fire if the crew developed a moral problem........ I would grab my popcorn for that discussion.........

[yogagal47]

Have fun on your cruise "yogagal47". Your "moral" vs. "morale" comment made me laugh.......it is funny how the connotation completely changes when you drop the "e".

 

There would really be a problem if a crew had a moral problem as opposed to a morale problem....considering how insane these boards become when someone doesn't want to dress up for formal night I can only imagine they would be on fire if the crew developed a moral problem........ I would grab my popcorn for that discussion.........

 

LOL now i can go pack!

[Blazerboy]

Gee, and in my younger days, I would have HOPED that the crew had a problem with their morals...:D

We.sailed on Solstice twice this year, once in the Spring and once at Halloween. Both times were great, including service. I've always avoided holiday cruises out of fear that the experience would suffer. No excuse for poor service , but reinforces my decision.

 

I would never hold a friend responsible for their recommendations unless I was foolish enough not to do my own research- I manage my expectations, and realize that "stuff happens." My mother was underwhelmed by Crystal Symphony...on the same trip where I had a great time. So who knows?

 

Hopefully, they'll try it again and have better luck...or. convince you to try HAL, which you can then hate!;)

 

And try posting without spelling mistakes from a Droid! It's taken me forever!

 

Andrew

[Leesie6351]

from the captain to the crew to the passengers. We used to love HAL. We took a western caribbean on the Veendam around 5 years ago. The minute we entered the ship during embarkation you could feel the heaviness in the air and it was as though a dark cloud was hanging over everything. As the days passed, we saw and heard the captain barking orders to some crew over and over again; in turn the crew didn't smile much or greet passengers warmly; in the MDR, the servers were almost sullen. Most of the passengers commented on it. Even in Bingo, the social directors' staff rarely cracked a smile. Needless to say that was our last HAL cruise despite having has 3 previous great experiences.

 

We went on Princess and had nothing nice to say about the cabin, food, service or entertainment. We will not go on Princess again.

 

Went on 6 RCL cruises and were generally satisfied until the last one-- food was awful; cabin attendant rude; dining room staff never smiled. We spoke to some of the crew who said the captain was new and was a martinet and the entire crew was miserable. (maybe he was the captain that had been on the Veendam??) Soooooooooooooooo-- we switched to X. Have been on 2 cruises on X and going again in July. On both X cruises, the captain and crew were always smiling, greeting passengers, bending over backwards to please. The captain always told jokes over the PA system.

 

JMHO but I really firmly believe that good service and morale definitely starts from the top and trickles down to the passengers. I'm hoping X continues to hire great captains so we don't have to change lines again.

[arpster]

The 'happiest' crew and atmosphere we've encountered was on Ruby Princess last year...fabulous ship..couldn't fault it