Celebrity vs. Princess?

[Boo's Mom]

I agree with you, Lois...about the "aloofness" on Celebrity. What I have always experienced is "very professional".

What we did experience on Princess...on occasion...was very unprofessional demeanor...as if we were their buddies.

But, what I am learning in life...is that there are some who may be uncomfortable with the formal presentation....all the time. Some folks like the more relaxed service attitude.

I had a Carnival experience about 1.5 years ago...and the service (you are my buddy) attitude was way too relaxed for me.

Anyway, just wanted to comment that I do not see Celebrity as aloof at all. And....we all have our comfort levels...

Celebrity fits mine....just right! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Boo's Mom

Even the winds and the waves obey him!
Matthew 8:27

[Boo's Mom]

theawesome1..... about the short dining room: dinner the first night (Golden Princess Dec 2003) was my first disappointment! I did feel like I was on a Carnival ship. We were stuck in a corner near the noisy, swinging kitchen door. The low ceilings made me really miss the Grand Rooms on Celebrity.....grand staircases to the second level...live orchestra music gently playing on top of the stairway...beautiful view of the sea behind us as we sailed on to our next destination port...

sorry...getting carried away there! Headed for the Summit in about a month.... AAaaahhhhhh! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Now...let's not turn this post into a negative Princess board....let's express our opinions and experiences...and display our lovely manners as we do so! I know you [B]all[/B] can do this! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

Boo's Mom

Even the winds and the waves obey him!
Matthew 8:27

[Lois R]

hi Boo's Mom..yes we can[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] I guess that is why the original poster asked the question....to find out what people think!
You are right, we all have our comfort levels....I am very comfortable on a Celebrity ship [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Next up...HORIZON Sept 18th to Bermuda!

See My Century and Mercury Pictures at:
[url="http://community.webshots.com/user/lovescruising"]http://community.webshots.com/user/lovescruising[/url]

[theawesome1]

Do you know how one day I just want to hop the banister & ride it down from floor 2 to floor 1............. to experience the dining room, even with just a photo, is such a great event. People are just more relaxed & friendly.

I am not negative as a whole with Princess since as a Platinum member of Captain's Circle I get FREE Net access, upgrades from verandah to mini suites on every cruise, many friends from cruises from Captain Bernie Warner, CD Graham Seymour, Deputy CD Frankie, Captain's Circle Host Jennifer. These 4 folks all on our Med cruise just made it the dream cruise so far.

If they were cheaper than X, I'd be back on them.

My logo: When we disembark, I just have to book another!

[rwb]

To be fair, the choice depends mostly on what you value.

There is no doubt in my mind that Princess's food and service quality has suffered greatly under the new management. However, the emphasis on PC dining can overcome run-of-the-mill quality for some cruisers. Others prefer the companionship and experience of assigned dinner partners (especially those from other countries).

Princess has slowly been moving toward the mid-range of cruise lines. They recently eliminated sommeliers, no longer have butlers on most ships, and give cabin attendants twice as many cabins to serve, just to name a few of many small degradations in service that may or may not be significant depending on your personal tastes. At the same time, Celebrity has been adding and improving service-oriented features over the last year or so. It cannot be accidental that Celebrity's new ships have a much higher crew-to-passenger ratio than Pricess's new ships, a pretty good indicator of the differences in focus of the lines.

I think Princess excels in offering varied itineraries, good excursions, and PC and casual dining on attractive new ships at a reasonable price.

Celebrity has a much different focus, offering a more serene, low-key, (and dare I say elegant) cruise experience that emphasizes attention to detail, food and personal service.

[smudge's mom]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Celebrity is one that I always look forward to, as never had a boring table, tho we like 4-6 not 8-10. Seems that they go thru their records to pair folks up with similar ages, likes & dislikes, ports chosen to discuss, etc.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I've heard this comment before - and it makes absolutely no sense to me. Did you fill out a form stating your likes and dislikes? Did everyone on board choose their excursions prior to boarding?

Of course not. Then how in the heck would any cruiseline pair you up with people - and why would they even bother?

Your finding similar aged pax at your table was pure luck - probably based on the fact that you fall into the demographic age that cruises the most - thus, there are more people your age on board. And if you are on a more expensive cruise - you will find people who's education is usually higher because that's the way to higher income for most folks. And if you cruise 11 days cruises, you will find the majority of pax are older - retired - because that's the group that is able to get away for two weeks.

I just don't believe the cruiselines spend a moment thinking about who goes where at the dining table. They plug your "request" into their computer, i.e., size of table - traveling companions you want at your table - and let a computer do the work. I don't see someone sitting at a desk perusing 1000 cabins and making decisions as to who goes where based on other criteria.

Anyone out there know the actual procedure for dining table selection?

[Joe1690]

Well, Smudge's mom, I disagree with you with regards to the dining room theme. On my last cruise I was traveling alone and guess what, my whole table were traveling solo. On the cruise before that, I was paired up with people our age, and on every sailing prior to that I have been placed with people very similar to me and with the appropriate age range. Some cruise lines may not do this, but Celebrity and Carnival do and Princess used to ( I don't know if they do anymore).

JC

Celebrity Constellation December 27, 2003
Celebrity Galaxy June 30, 2003
NCL Dawn Dec 21, 2002
Celebrity Millenium 7/18/01
Grand Princess 2000
Royal Princess 1999

Other Cruises:
Carnival: Holiday, Jubilee (2 times), Celebration, Fantasy, Ectasy
Celebrity: Meridian
Dolphin Cruises: Island Breeze
Holland America: Westerdam
NCL: Dreamward (Pre-stretch), Norway, Southward, Norwegian Majesty(when owned by Majesty Cruise lines)
RCCL: Nordic Prince, Sovereign of the Seas
Several others can't remember
Carnival Destiny Spring Break Cruise 2/29/04
Cruise
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=000080&cdt=2004;02;29;22;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]

[theawesome1]

The last Princess cruise we did (#11) was E Carib & we had 8 kids with us...........parents had their own table. A true joke to us who were moved immediately & the parents never even offered us wine.

My logo: When we disembark, I just have to book another!

[smudge's mom]

Well, on my Celebrity cruise - the couples at our table were 15 and 25 years older than us - or how about the time we were matched with a honeymoon couple in their 70's and a family with a 2 year old and a 4 year old. I guess they didn't care about matching us up?

And what about the times people request late dining and they get early dining?

Maybe they do something for solo cruisers? I don't know.

I think when you have a table full of compatible people, it's just the luck of the draw.

It doesn't make sense to me that they would spend a whole lot of time doing something that isn't necessarily going to mean anything anyway.

[davis0056]

We've done both ships (Galaxy and Coral) and we 've been thru the Panama Canal. We just did the Coral in Alaska and every day we wished we were on the Infinity-or the Galaxy. Staff were mediocre, after 7 days, the wait staff in the dining room still didn't know our names or our preferences. Staff, with few exceptions, seemed indifferent. Most commented that they were tired of Alaska--we quickly tired of them. Our cabin on both ships were nice, but we felt like we were treated better on Celebrity. We've sailed both Princess and Celebrity 3 times and have 2 more scheduled on Celebrity, 0 on Princess. I will say though, the Coral had more dining options and more lounges, nice but not decision makers for us. Would we sail Princess again? Yes-if we got a great deal that Celebrity couldn't beat, both in price and itinerary.

Living in San Antonio, Galveston is so convenient! Be sure to fly in a day ahead (don't bother to go in much earlier, unless you want to see the Space Center a short distance away).

Dave and Elaine

Transatlantic sailing on the Constellation
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=111111&cdt=2004;9;7;17;0;00&timezone=GMT+0000[/img][img]http://www.zooish.com/_borders/drinkin_md_wht.gif[/img] [img]http://www.zooish.com/_borders/lickin_food_md_wht.gif[/img]

[woodofpine]

If you liked Princess, you'll like Celeb... if you're open minded.

If you hate Princess and camp out in front of the purser - well you hate Princess and your behavior is a bit radical...

Celeb does a few things better than Princess. It is more traditional - hence the "professional' or "traditional aloof" euro-style of Celeb. Princess crew is generally more gregarious, some may consider that "unprofessional" some may consider it "more friendly".

I've had friendly high level service on Princess, in demanding circumstances, whereas on Celeb I've had the line screw up royally (misbook my kids into a remote passageway rather than across from my cabin) and they could've cared less and wouldn't lift a finger to correct it (that was left to me [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]). My most recent experience with Celeb (this past month) was really excelent though. So my experience with Celeb competence and service is a little checkered. I strongly suspect Princess' seamen are superior to Celeb's (based on close hand comparative tendering on a near "chop" cancelled day in Grand Caymen) I think Princess crew maintain their ships a bit better than Celeb (in terms of paint, tile repair, etc.)

Celebs cabins and passageways are more nicely decorated Princess. Celeb is awesome at towels and linens (abbondanza). Princess 24/7 freshwater pools are better by far as is the 360 degree promenade on the Sun and Coral class ships (over Millenium class Celeb, I don't know Galaxy). You can book and retain the same table and staff in PC dining (at least we did in the Med on Golden last summer).

But Celeb does a really fine job on its own terms and seems to be improving while Princess (a fine line) is presently figuring out the Carnival Corp. relationship.

I think you'll enjoy Celeb and if the itinerary is perferable to you, then I would definately try X.

[theawesome1]

Sorry but I do not feel me sleeping on a sofa in the atrium absurd when 7 times we are at the Pursers Desk about the overly heated mini suite. At no time did any of them go to it. Their technician tells them nothing was wrong with the AC after he visited 223 & we were 233. We had been everywhere on the ship but our bed that we overpaid for. No luggage, no AC. & it is 1AM.

When I showed, they got into action remedying it, which was not done the previous 11 hours. Luggage was over 24 hours late & it was formal night! After the Captain of the Ship had to get invovled stuff happened. That was our LAST Princess cruise. Lori, my TA was equally upset & then when we tried to fly home from Barcelona to have Lufthansa tell us Princess bought us standby tix & their flights were sold out for 3 days. Luckily we had TravelGuard Ins, not Princess since theirs doesn't cover blizzards in winter. TravelGuard took the collect call from Germany, took the phonebooth # to call me back, & got us on Delta back to Atlanta, then Cleveland. Princess did -0- about what happened with Lufthansa & we paid nearly $3K for air to Venice & home from Barcelona.

My logo: When we disembark, I just have to book another!

[woodofpine]

But sleeping in the Atrium is a bit Much. And the Sun class atriums are superior...

[theawesome1]

A bit much? No bed to sleep in, no luggage, no stateroom fit for a human. How to get service when they don't know how to give service anymore, you wake them up! It worked.... which could have been done 11 hours sooner to move us next door, not to a suite.

My logo: When we disembark, I just have to book another!

[woodofpine]

Awesome - you had a bad experience and that's too bad for you and now for the line.

Celebrity booked my young children into a cabin in a separate passageway rather across the hall. It was a cabin numbering deck plan error. Since I particiapted in the TA's call making the booking - I know the error was the line's in total.

The sum total of staff effort to straighten out a situation that would have ruined our cruise was a snide/superior "Sorry - the ship's full" coupled by a refusal to let me speak to higher ups (result: on my own - with truly "dedicated" zero assistance from line staff - I was able just by good fortune to arrange a room swap; that shot the embarkation afternoon). Did that performance get me PO'd - obviously [still does]! But I gave Celeb a second chance, and I was glad I did. Maybe Princess deserves another chance too - it's a good line as is Celeb.

[mafig]

We were on the Coral (pre-Carnival, so things may have changed).

We thought Princess did "Italian" better than Celebrity. Their pizza and pastas were excellent. Also good was their cheesecake - truly New York style, dense, not airy. The Princes ice cream is great, with many exotic flavors to try.

They had different specials for breakfast in the dining room, not the same menu every day.

We kinda liked personal choice. We never had to wait. After a few days we found a serving team and table location we liked and reserved 7pm without a problem. The table was available for us from 6:30 on (probably earlier but we never checked).

As a matter of fact, when we were on the Summit, we were sailing next to the Coral for a few hours, and we looked over frequently with great fondness.

I think both lines are great and you'll find each does some things better than the other and, of course, vice versa.

[rftsr]

Hi there,

My two cents...I've done 5 cruises with Celebrity (the BEST) 2 with Carnival and 1 with Royal Caribbean and 1 on the Grand Princess and I will NEVER sail that cruise line again.

The food was horrible (albiet I am a "foodie'), the staff was robotic, indifferent and downright rude on occasion. The atmosphere smacked of snobby, uptight Britons...don't mean to offend, just my opinion. The ship was nice and the pools were nice. But a sad, sad, atmosphere.

Celebrity is a class act...casual elegance. The BEST food in this category of cruising. The staff on all ships are exceptional...you really can talk to them and find out about their lives onboard. Cruising doesn't get much better than this. Love this cruiseline!

[wv4891]

Hello, we have done several Princess cruises and one Celebrity Cruise so far. Our next cruise is on the Mercury over New Years. Our last cruise was on the summit, our previous Princess Cruise was on the Grand Princess. Entertainment on the Grand was superior in all categories to Celebrity (jusy my opinion, we all have them). Ther lounges on the Grand set up nicer than on the Summit. That said, the Summit was a far more beautiful ship in its layout. The dining room on the Summit put the one on the Grand to shame in it's physical appearance/layout. the Grand's tradinional dining room had very low ceilings. I am into fitness and go to the gym for a couple of hours every sea day. The one on the Summit was superior to the one on the Grand (Summit being a newer ship). While the Grand's sepciality restaurant was ver nice, the Summit's Normandie speciality restaurant was even better. I think the pool area of the Gran laid out nicer than the Summits. I am not into food so I don't get into opinoins on that. The servie was a notch better on the Summit than the Grand though. The Gran, at the time, probably had the best C.D. i I have ever met, Graham Seymour. He was just plain awesome. Simon Wier was good also, but not in the same league. The crowd was much younger and more livier on the Grand than the Summit, but we were doing the 14 day Panama Canal on the Summit. Overall, both lines are quite good and it all depends on what you are looking for in your cruise experience.

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Celebrity Mercury 12/27/2004

[Guest]

CruiserJill ~ We have sailed both Celebrity and Princess six times on a variety of ships. We haven't sailed Coral but have sailed Mercury (sister to Galaxy).

We just disembarked Golden Princess yesterday so my comments are from recent experience.

Before this cruise, we put Celebrity and Princess on a pretty even par. Each had their own strengths and not many weaknesses. While we had a great time on Golden last week (we were with friends that had never cruised before), I was terribly disappointed in the condition of the ship itself. Golden went to dry dock yesterday and in my estimation, it was about six months too late.

The pool areas had areas of missing tiles and broken drains all along the edge of the pool, many (not just one or two) of the deck chairs were broken (you couldn't put them up because the the arm on the back of the chair that holds it up was broken off), the carpet in our cabin (as well as the chair) were dirty and stained, there was lots of peeling paint (far more than you typically see on a ship), lots of areas where fixtures were tarnished and the finishing had worn away, the jogging track had holes and popped up sections everywhere,and one day even my bath towel left by our cabin steward had two large holes in the middle of it (about two inches in diameter -- pretty hard to miss). I returned the towel to the Captain's Club desk because I thought they might care a little more that a passenger cabin got a towel with holes.

I realize that the ship was going into dry dock this week, however, here's my concern. Golden should never have been allowed to get into this shape to begin with. It makes me wonder about the general maintenance on Princess ships these days. I know ships get a tremendous amount of wear and tear but I've never seen a ship in this kind of shape.

The good thing is that the staff and the food for the most part was terrific. Princess does Italian food very well. As a previous poster mentioned, the pizza and pastas are better than any other lines. And many of the dishes on the dinner menu were terrific as well. The lobster and beef wellington on the last formal night was one of the all-time best meal I've had on a ship.

Celebrity, on the other hand, has a consistently good product. Celebrity ships are always in top shape. The service and food are consistently very good and I think after our experience this past week, we now put Celebrity a notch or two above Princess.

One other thing that makes a difference for us is Traditional vs Personal Choice dining. I think Princess is trying to be all things to all people and it just doesn't work for us. We prefer traditional dining because we enjoy meeting and dining with the same tablemates and wait staff each evening. While Princess offers both types of dining, many typical cruise experiences suffer because of it. For example, many of the evening activities and shows that we would have liked to see or participate in started well before late seating traditional dining was completed. When I spoke with the cruise staff about some of the items, they didn't really seem to care. There were also two evenings when so many people were waiting for personal choice dining that people were sitting on the stairs in the atrium. Another thing I've never seen on a cruise ship.

Coral is a new ship so she should be in pretty good shape next January. But I think if it were us making the decision at this point in time, we'd go with Galaxy.

You will have a good time on either ship (we really did have a great time last week). It just comes down to preferences and only you can decide what those might be for you.

Good luck!

~Host Anne

[theawesome1]

We sailed the Golden on Thanksgiving E Carib & she was that bad. Tiles gone, rust all over mini suite balconies, spot on carpeting in the hallways too. Even chairs in the Michaelangelo dining room were split.

Our assigned mini suite with wrap around balcony was rusted out there. The handle on the sliding balcony door fell off 3rd day.

The robes were as stiff as cardboard & very fluffless. I have a Princess robe I bought on the Dawn Princess Alaskan cruise in 1999 & it is like brand new, very fluffy. The towels held no water from the shower & the tub was not holding water in it.

That was when Lori told me to listen to her & go back on Celebrity. Much superior product, worth the price & money saved. They would never leave us stranded in a foreign country when they bought our air for us as Princess did in San Juan with NWA on strike & Laufthansa last May telling us we had standby tix.

The nationality most on board besides Brits is Italians. From Matre D to the cooks & servers. Pasta & deserts, they can do it!

My logo: When we disembark, I just have to book another!

[theawesome1]

Graham Seymour is the best, formerly with Carnival. We have cruised 5 different ports with him & he just makes it so much better for us. I get emails from him inviting us to sail with him & Captain Bernie Warner. Last was Thanksgiving, after we had been with them in the Med in May.

His morning show is a scream, I have been there the night before when he tapes it, mocking drinks that sell like crazy to see if they are really that bad. If he compliments something, no one buys it...... He has a photo of his Blue Austin Martin framed on his desk.

My logo: When we disembark, I just have to book another!

[theawesome1]

So glad to here the mixup was fixed, good job for you! But a quick call to your TA should have gotten it resolved since she knew here the staterooms were assigned & then changed. A credit was due on your account to me.

So sad that Princess just went downhill very very fast after the takeover. Many left ships right during the sailing, joined Celebrity too. So we followed. After 11 cruises, Platinum status, respect is a major item to return customers & they just dropped that big time. So bye bye.......

My logo: When we disembark, I just have to book another!

[woodofpine]

I would generally avoid the grand class on Princess.

On what Anne said though, last summer I was impressed watching Princess crew painting (white of course) a clean but slightly scrapped bow anchor on Golden when docked in Venice. The ship had one small carpet tear I recollect.

On boarding Summit last month, I couldn't help but notice the completely orange rust covered bow anchor - with a lot of rust elsewhere on the hull at waterline. I noted some minor rust spots on the veranda too. My son began collecting loose pool tiles and I finally had to tell him to stop (it was getting to be too big a bag); most of the time the pool hot tubs had 1-3 inches of sand on the bottoms (what was that about!?).

That said, the overall Summit cruise last month probably ranked as #2 of 6 since '01... And only topped by that ("Oh Wow! I'm in awe") first 'modern' cruise experience aboard Ocean Princess in '01.

I've come to the conclusion that the crew is 90% of the experience... from maintainence to service...

[Guest]

Since I mentioned the poor condition of Golden Princess, let me also add that one place where the line was vigilant was in the area of sanitation. Automatic hand sanitizer dispensers were at all entrances to dining facilities (buffet area and main dining rooms) and I frequently saw crew cleaning and sanitizing all areas of the ship -- much more noticable than past cruises, even my previous two cruises earlier this year.

Because of the business we are in (we work with companies that finish products) I notice the condition of things everywhere I go. We've never been on a ship (regardless of the line) that was in such poor condition overall. I definitely got the impression that the attitude was -- "let's just let it go till dry dock." Not quite fair to the passengers who have been sailing on her for the past several months.

[woodofpine]

That is disappointing... 'Ya gotta wonder if that is Carnivalization issue.