Over At Celebrity...

[djludwig@prodigy.net]

I just got back from a week on the Zuiderdam. Last August my family sailed the Celebrity Zenith to Bermuda. While I was VERY happy with the Zuiderdam, the dinner expereince on the Zenith was slightly superior. The food, the level of service and the atmosphere all were SLIGHTLY superior to what I experienced on the Zuiderdam.

I will state however that I am referring to Dinner ONLY. I felt Breakfast and Lunch were to close to call. In fact my wife and son would be fast to point out thar room service on the Zuiderdam beat Celebrity Zenith by a wide margin.

[Landlubber54]

...beware of the Cheerleaders also...

 

Absolutely right! In some of my previous posts I have mentioned that I try to discount BOTH extremes of the spectrum...:cool:

[Tatka]

I just returned from my second cruise on Celebrity (Mercury this time) and I sailed on Zuiderdam in August.

 

 

I'd honestly say that I like buffets on HAL better than on Celebrity and dinners are very close (each line has strong points). I also found lamb on HAL to be better, there seemed to be more sea food, and I loved caviar... On the other hand on X I had several different kinds of escargot and frog legs.

 

I also think room service selections on HAL are better.

 

However service was much more superior on Celebrity... in both dining room, buffets, front desk etc.

 

Both of our head waiters (HAL and X) were from Indonesia and both were friendly, but on Celebrity our waiter was much more professional... he was older (as was our head waiter on Century ) and definitely had more experience. He didn't make a single mistake all cruise long... (learned our tastes very well). Also assistant always took time to talk to us and our 13 years old (and he called Mike by name). Assistant M'D also stopped by every dinner and we had nice conversations. None of them seemed to be overloaded with work and dead tired as our waiters on Z.

 

Celebrity definitely has more staff members and it's noticeable in both buffets and dining rooms.

 

PAX was on the older side during this (X) cruise and it looked like most of the passengers where older than 60.. (some of them much older), many in wheelchairs , but there were still enough waiters in the buffets to offer help to carry my food. ( Once I was asked 4 times during 1 trip to the table;) )

 

Same applies to the state room attendants service. I love smiling attendants...but when my room not made by 12 PM - 1 PM 4 times during 7 day cruise?:confused: (HAL)

 

Loved production shows on both lines. (didn't go to the other shows)

 

All being said we loved both experiences and if itinerary and price was right would gladly sail on both.:)

[bepsf]

Tatka--

 

 

How have you been? Haven't seen you over here on the HAL boards in a while! :)

Glad you had a great experience on X - Maybe HAL needs to hire back some more of the dining room staff....

[peaches from georgia]

However service was much more superior on Celebrity... in both dining room, buffets, front desk etc.

.........

Celebrity definitely has more staff members and it's noticeable in both buffets and dining rooms.

 

Glad to see you posting back here. And enjoyed your review. HAL is making such a huge mistake. 90% of the current complaints about HAL relate to the cut in staff, both directly and indirectly.

[Tatka]

Thank you for welcoming me back :) ,

 

We just returned from California Coastal (on Mercury) last night.

 

San Francisco - Monterey - LA - Catalina - Ensenada - San Diego - San Francisco.

 

Loved California... Probably would love to live there if it was closer to Europe and other popular destinations.

 

Absolutely loved Monterey ... 17 miles drive , Carmel and route 1 drive were out of this world! Add to that that Enterprise didn't have car we requested (Dodge Stratus) and we got Cadillac :) !!! Also had great weather everywhere except for some rain in San Diego.

 

 

Mercury is a vry nice ship in great condition... I would recommend to try her.

 

I hope to post pictures soon.:)

 

Oh..and I re-read my post...sorry for grammatical errors.

[C 2 C]

All being said we loved both experiences and if itinerary and price was right would gladly sail on both.:)

 

Agree with it all... Anyone who enjoys one line will enjoy the other..

 

Anyone who has not tried both, should... Two different companies but both offer an excellent product.

[dakrewser]

Loved California... Probably would love to live there if it was closer to Europe and other popular destinations.

 

It's only about 3 hours further away from Europe - and a lot closer to Hawaii, Australia, Alaska, Japan, China, etc. :)

 

It's even closer to Russia than the east coast. Maybe not Moscow, but Vladivostok is much closer!

[calicruzer]

Loved my last HAL cruise, but think I'll head back to Celebrity for the next one.

 

Just missed the superb service especially in the dining room. The little extras like great waiters, carrying my tray in the buffet and cold towels waiting at the gangway are all things I missed on HAL.

 

The dining room food was much better, but like others, I thought the buffet on HAL was better.

 

My kids really felt there wasn't enough to do on HAL and want to go back to Celebrity. Too bad there aren't any great Caribbean sailings this summer, or we'd do it!

 

We just can't make ourselves try RCCL, now that we have been spoiled by X and HAL. Thought about doing the Radiance this summer to Alsaka, but am a bit worried that we won't like it.

[Tatka]

We just can't make ourselves try RCCL, now that we have been spoiled by X and HAL. Thought about doing the Radiance this summer to Alsaka, but am a bit worried that we won't like it.

 

As a person who tried all 3 lines in the last 2 years I say they all have own advantages and disadvantages.

 

IMHO, RCCL is lower than the HAL and X in food quality category, although I wouldn't call food "bad", it just wasn't excellent. We received great and friendly service from both state room attendant and waiter. I'd rate dining room service lower than X (Mercury/Century) , but higher and faster than on HAL (Zuiderdam). State room we had (inside) was smaller than on Zui and X but very nicely appointed and clean. Actually our HAL large inside beat X and RCCL by size. (it was almost 200 sq ft!!!), and bedding was the best.

 

RCCL ship (Splendour) had feature that none of X and HAL ships we sailed had. It was open 24 hours a day beautiful solarium pool made in old Roman style. Pool hours were very convenient for us who had very long trips every day (Med cruise). Also Splendour has 2 story windows in the dining room and you have beautiful views while eating. Actually at any place on the ship you have great views.

 

From what I heard Radiance (and all Radiance class ships) the most beautiful ships. They are built on the same base as Millennium class of Celebrity.

 

I am thinking of trying Radiance class also.

 

Good luck with any cruise you choose.