A Princess/HAL Cruiser’s Celebrity Experience

[Tatka]

Princess also doesn't allow smoking in the aft dining area of the buffet, unlike Celebrity which does, so if you wanted to eat outside and watch the wake, you had to put up with the smoke as well.

 

I saw ashtrays and people smoking in the outside portion of the buffets above Terrace Pool on Caribbean and Ruby.

[Bimmer09]

Pam, thanks for the great, informative read and for doing all my research for me (LOL)

Just reading your sign-off and the cruises you have been on and the trips you have planned for the future (safari !!) remind me that I need to get off my couch more!

 

Keep on traveling-and writing.

 

Norris, who just got back from San Francisco where he was excited to watch the Sea Princess return from Alaska.

[shofer]

Having been on Summit twice and Princess twice I have to admit that the cabins are larger on Princess but the bathroom (especially the shower) is smaller. I think the square footage is the same but just laid out differently. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the cabin. The balcony felt the same. We have had a CC and a 2-C on Summit and the CC was slightly larger. Our suitcases always fit under the bed.

 

IMHO, I think the food on Celebrity was better than on Princess. Or perhaps it was just more to my taste. The specialty restaurant on Summit was much, much better than Sabatini's. One thing on Celebrity which was over and above Princess was the theater. On Celebrity the theater will hold fully one half of the passengers. On Princess, the two options for shows still does not have the capacity for that many people.

 

I liked that Princess kept the breakfast buffet up and running on at least on one side while they get lunch ready on the other. DH & I are late sleepers on sea days and he loves breakfast but Celebrity shuts down breakfast @ 11:00. Same thing w/lunch being over @ 2:00.

 

I do remember one time there were about 200 of us waiting for tendering back to the ship in Playa del Carmen. We had all left the ship about 6:30 for a long excursion to the Coba ruins. All we were talking about where we were going to get something to eat when we got back and lo, and behold, they had kept the buffet open for us. Thank goodness someone had some foresight on that day.

 

That being said, my last 2 cruises were on Princess and so is my next one. We were able to get very good prices on all three trips which of course influenced our decision.

 

But as far as I am concerned, there is no such thing as a bad cruise. All your meals are prepared and served to you, your room is cleaned twice every day, you unpack once and your hotel moves from place to place. For this WIFE/MOM, it is heaven!

[Pam in CA]

But as far as I am concerned, there is no such thing as a bad cruise. All your meals are prepared and served to you, your room is cleaned twice every day, you unpack once and your hotel moves from place to place. For this WIFE/MOM, it is heaven!

I agree completely. However, a working toilet is more pleasant than one that isn't... for the better part of three days. At least mine at home works, even though I have to cook and serve myself. :) Beyond acknowledging they had a problem, no one on the ship or since has acknowledged the inconvenience... not a peep, not an "I'm sorry", even though it was reported frequently to the Purser's Desk and I included the info on my cruise comments. For that reason alone, Celebrity is not on my list of cruiselines I'd cruise again. I can overlook a number of imperfections but a working toilet is a "must" for me. :)

[shofer]

I agree completely. However, a working toilet is more pleasant than one that isn't... for the better part of three days. At least mine at home works, even though I have to cook and serve myself. :) Beyond acknowledging they had a problem, no one on the ship or since has acknowledged the inconvenience... not a peep, not an "I'm sorry", even though it was reported frequently to the Purser's Desk and I included the info on my cruise comments. For that reason alone, Celebrity is not on my list of cruiselines I'd cruise again. I can overlook a number of imperfections but a working toilet is a "must" for me. :)

 

I am wondering if you posted this on the Celebrity site also to see if others had the same experience as you. I have seen posts on that site where people wrote to the president of the company w/their complaints and did receive replies. Perhaps this is an option for you.

 

I am not playing down your complaints. They are valid and you are correct to want some acknowledgment from Celebrity. You might want to reconsider and try one of Celebrity's new ships.

 

Many people were very unhappy the the TA crossing on the Grand and would never try Princess again. Yet, I think you would consider this an aberration and would defend Princess as your favorite cruise line.

[Coral]

The only problem I had with the smoking around the Terrace pool is the air currents would blow the smoke into the starboard side. We always though of it a being the smoking pool & never utilized it. Maybe it would be good to allow smoking all around the pool - at least they would have at least one place to smoke & swim nearby.

 

No! That is my favorite pool! Thankfully I have not had smoking issues back there. Most stay near the bar.

[Pam in CA]

I am wondering if you posted this on the Celebrity site also to see if others had the same experience as you. I have seen posts on that site where people wrote to the president of the company w/their complaints and did receive replies. Perhaps this is an option for you.

 

I am not playing down your complaints. They are valid and you are correct to want some acknowledgment from Celebrity. You might want to reconsider and try one of Celebrity's new ships.

 

Many people were very unhappy the the TA crossing on the Grand and would never try Princess again. Yet, I think you would consider this an aberration and would defend Princess as your favorite cruise line.

First, I want to say that I had a really good cruise with some terrific people, old and new friends. And I understand where you're coming from with your comments. I've had major problems with toilets (I must be a toilet problem magnet) on both Princess and HAL, and have posted my negative comments about them here. :) The difference is that both Princess and HAL acknowledged the issue while I was still on the ship and offered their apologies, and followed up afterwards to make sure I was a happy customer. Celebrity was well-aware of the issues as there were at least 60 cabins over 4 decks affected for three days, so they knew it was a major vacuum pump problem. Yet they did nothing, not even a form letter delivered to the cabin, zip, zilch. Yes, I could write the President of Celebrity with my complaint but that doesn't change the issue of how it was handled on the ship, which IMHO, was abysmally.

 

FYI, I haven't said I wouldn't cruise Celebrity again. From what I've seen, they don't have any unique itineraries so they don't offer anything that would prompt me to book Celebrity over HAL or Princess. If the right cruise or right group of people cruising came along, I'd consider it but to me, they offer a poorer cruise experience so they're not at the top of my list.

[4cats4me]

I agree completely. However, a working toilet is more pleasant than one that isn't... for the better part of three days. At least mine at home works, even though I have to cook and serve myself. :) Beyond acknowledging they had a problem, no one on the ship or since has acknowledged the inconvenience... not a peep, not an "I'm sorry", even though it was reported frequently to the Purser's Desk and I included the info on my cruise comments. For that reason alone, Celebrity is not on my list of cruiselines I'd cruise again. I can overlook a number of imperfections but a working toilet is a "must" for me. :)

 

But, didn't you have a cabin with a sporadically working toilet on the Princess ship, too, last year on a European cruise, or is my memory playing tricks on me? I thought it was the Crown Princess? A faulty toilet can and does happenon all cruise lines. In 2007 we rented a full suite on the Golden and our toilet was not working on the first day. I reported it to the powers that be who informed me it was a problem with all the cabins in our particular section. We luckily were traveling with others whose toilets were functional. Originally they'd told us the toilets would be out of commission for an hour. They were actually not functional until 8 p.m. that night:eek: We actually liked Celebrity a lot and were on the same class ship as you'd gone on. We didn't feel that our cabin was materially smaller than our usual Princess cabins either, and our bathroom seemed more spacious on X. We prefer the 24/7 buffet option on Princess.

We liked the Cova Cafe better on X than we did the IC on Princess.

We prefer the pools on Princess.

Entertainment was not as good on X but we did like the showroom more.

We liked the pop art on X

We do not like how X's ships kept breaking down in the early days, i.e., the Infinity after 4 months out and the Summit and the Millennium. It was the azipod propulsion system and X ended up suing Mercedes-Benz, the manufacturer of the above-mentioned.

[Crzn-Life]

First, I want to say that I had a really good cruise with some terrific people, old and new friends. And I understand where you're coming from with your comments. I've had major problems with toilets (I must be a toilet problem magnet) on both Princess and HAL, and have posted my negative comments about them here. :) The difference is that both Princess and HAL acknowledged the issue while I was still on the ship and offered their apologies, and followed up afterwards to make sure I was a happy customer. Celebrity was well-aware of the issues as there were at least 60 cabins over 4 decks affected for three days, so they knew it was a major vacuum pump problem. Yet they did nothing, not even a form letter delivered to the cabin, zip, zilch. Yes, I could write the President of Celebrity with my complaint but that doesn't change the issue of how it was handled on the ship, which IMHO, was abysmally.

 

Couldn't agree more with you on the issue being one of customer service while on board. We too have cruised on Celebrity ships where we had good cruises, good food and the best waiter and wine steward we've ever had on any cruise. On our 2nd Celebrity cruise we even received an invitation to the Captain's table for dinner which has never happened on our 30 Cunard cruises or 50 Princess cruises. But we also experienced absolutely bad customer service regarding a serious boarding incident with total lack of follow-up. To us that far out-weighed the good food, dining room service etc and put Celebrity at the bottom of our list of cruise lines to consider.

 

Enjoy reading your posts and am glad that you list your future cruises. With your apparent affinity for toilet trouble, we know that if we should be booked on the same cruise that we want to be sure our cabin isn't next to yours :D ;). That way if there are toilet issues in your area, we'll be somewhere else on the ship!! :) You must have a great attitude to be able to keep things in perspective. I think if I were confronted with the same issues I wouldn't approach them with the same degree of equanimity that you seem to.

[Pam in CA]

But, didn't you have a cabin with a sporadically working toilet on the Princess ship, too, last year on a European cruise, or is my memory playing tricks on me? I thought it was the Crown Princess? A faulty toilet can and does happenon all cruise line.

Good memory. Yes, it was the Crown three years ago and I had a hard time getting the Purser's Desk to act. But they did and I received a huge credit towards my next cruise. On HAL, that was a steward issue... There was nothing wrong with the toilet, and they were very embarrassed. I know that toilet issues happen all the time but when there is a major malfunction affecting over a hundred passengers for three days, that's a big deal.

[4cats4me]

Good memory. Yes, it was the Crown three years ago and I had a hard time getting the Purser's Desk to act. But they did and I received a huge credit towards my next cruise. On HAL, that was a steward issue... There was nothing wrong with the toilet, and they were very embarrassed. I know that toilet issues happen all the time but when there is a major malfunction affecting over a hundred passengers for three days, that's a big deal.

 

Hard to believe it's been three years! Time sure flys.;)

[dforeigner]

I agree completely. However, a working toilet is more pleasant than one that isn't... for the better part of three days. At least mine at home works, even though I have to cook and serve myself. :) Beyond acknowledging they had a problem, no one on the ship or since has acknowledged the inconvenience... not a peep, not an "I'm sorry", even though it was reported frequently to the Purser's Desk and I included the info on my cruise comments. For that reason alone, Celebrity is not on my list of cruiselines I'd cruise again. I can overlook a number of imperfections but a working toilet is a "must" for me. :)

 

What is it with you and broken toilets? Man, that definitely puts a damper on the cruise experience. :D

[Pam in CA]

Hard to believe it's been three years! Time sure flys.;)

Yeah. It was our Baltic cruise in July of '08.

[shofer]

We had an opposite experience w/Celebrity acknowledging a problem and trying to make it right. When we went to Hawaii in 2006 with my cousins, we had all booked our hotel thru Celebrity. As we shared the bus to the hotel with other passengers, they spoke about being "bumped" from the Hyatt to another, not so nice hotel in San Pedro.

 

It happened that the hotel had 3 conventions booked there and needed the space so several cruise ship passengers were inconvenienced. Our group was not moved however due to our TA making a big stink with the hotel manager. But our names must have been on the list because when we boarded the ship, there was a bottle of sparkling wine and a plate of chocolate covered strawberries in each of our cabins.

 

Several times during the cruise, we were called by customer service who kept asking if everything was to our taste and were we happy with the service. Needless to say, we sure were happy!

 

It is unfortunate that you had such a poor experience with them when you had a legitimate complaint. I still think you should take it "upstairs" to Celebrity management. I know they read these boards, at least the Celebrity one. The way your problem was not handled to your satisfaction should be addressed so it is not repeated.

[Toto2Kansas]

Shofer, that is great service, but I must say, a lot has changed with many lines in the last 5 years. What they did on your last X cruise 5 years ago, I don't think I would be expecting today. Times they are a changing!

[sammiedawg]

We had one unsatisfactory X experiene 6-7 years ago, shabby cabin in which many mechanicals did not work. We politely reported it to the pursers desk the afternoon we embarked (we listed the items in a polite note) , nothing was fixed and there was no followup communication from X. Telephone did not work, ( no wake up service), TV was on the fritz, broken leg on the upholstered chair. Our biggest issue was the shabby run down dirty upholstery, stained carpet, disgusting bathroom.

We followed up with our TA when we got home, he reported it to his Celebrity sales contact but we did not hear a word from Celebrity. This ship had also flunked a CDC inspection just prior to our sailing.

I posted the issues on the Celebrity boards, I was torn to pieces and called a liar.

We vote with our feet and Celebrity would be the last line I would consider in the future. I still follow their issues because it is under consideration for a family reunion because of convenient NE departures. If the reunion is on Celebrity I will attend and hope for the best.

There is a frequent poster on the HAL board who "won" a free cruise on Celebrity a year or 2 after my sailing, he was so disgusted with various issues similiar to mine he disembarked the ship early and no one asked him why.

[shofer]

Shofer, that is great service, but I must say, a lot has changed with many lines in the last 5 years. What they did on your last X cruise 5 years ago, I don't think I would be expecting today. Times they are a changing!

 

Yes, you are correct as to change. Some how it is never for the better, which is these economic times is becoming the norm. The best scenario would be to have no complaits at all, but I am a Pollyanna, sigh. ;-)