Please sell us !

[fielddreamer]

I need some good selling points to convince me on sailing with Celebrity on 11 day South America this coming year or 10 day Southern Carrib !

[ghstudio]

I need some good selling points to convince me on sailing with Celebrity on 11 day South America this coming year or 10 day Southern Carrib !

 

only one PA announcement a day

 

food is generally thought to be significantly better on Celebrity

 

ships are kid friendly, but not tailored to kids (no climbing walls, water slides, zip lines)...result is less kids ( a plus for some, a minus for others)

 

excellent friendly service and friendly staff

 

Celebrity is a bit more lay back than princess or RCL....less rah rah activities, but still lots to do.

 

I'm sure others will chime in. We far prefer celebrity to the other mass market lines such as RCL/Princess/NCL.....

[Denny01]

We've cruised on a number of Lines and never had a bad cruise, but Celebrity is our favored Line. Why?

 

(the following is All Subjective!)

Excellent Service. A cut above the other Lines

Overall dining experience is better

Love going to one of the specialty restaurants once or twice

We use a set dining time because we find that handy for us, but the Line also has anytime dining options.

The buffet has a larger choice than most other Lines.

Live band at the big shows, and seating in the theater handles the number of passengers well.

Good cabin size. Love the glass shower doors on S-class.

The M-Class ships have the best inside pool (free, hot with lots of water action) afloat.

The common areas do not seem as crowded as other Lines

Few announcements and less hard-sell as other Lines.

Line treats me like an adult who can entertain themselves and doesn't need prodding to enjoy myself or have endless distractions.

Low-key and elegant.

 

Enough. We stick with Celebrity unless joining friends or for a special itinerary on another Line.

 

My opinion is, if you enjoy cruising, you'll enjoy Celebrity so give it a go. May not end up your 'top Line' but I'd find it hard to think you'd not at least enjoy the Line a good deal. So it's Win-Win.

 

Den

[fielddreamer]

We've cruised on a number of Lines and never had a bad cruise, but Celebrity is our favored Line. Why?

 

(the following is All Subjective!)

Excellent Service. A cut above the other Lines

Overall dining experience is better

Love going to one of the specialty restaurants once or twice

We use a set dining time because we find that handy for us, but the Line also has anytime dining options.

The buffet has a larger choice than most other Lines.

Live band at the big shows, and seating in the theater handles the number of passengers well.

Good cabin size. Love the glass shower doors on S-class.

The M-Class ships have the best inside pool (free, hot with lots of water action) afloat.

The common areas do not seem as crowded as other Lines

Few announcements and less hard-sell as other Lines.

Line treats me like an adult who can entertain themselves and doesn't need prodding to enjoy myself or have endless distractions.

Low-key and elegant.

 

Enough. We stick with Celebrity unless joining friends or for a special itinerary on another Line.

 

My opinion is, if you enjoy cruising, you'll enjoy Celebrity so give it a go. May not end up your 'top Line' but I'd find it hard to think you'd not at least enjoy the Line a good deal. So it's Win-Win.

 

Den

I agree with you on most of the things you posted and we believe we are going to try the 10 or 11 day southern cruise , but is the aqua class a better choice if we want the spa or can we purchase spa seperate ? Is Blue worth doing instead of normal dining and is Reflection a major diff. than than other solstice class ship's ?

[jayoldschool]

My list:

 

- less kids

- better service

- better staff/guest ratio in the MDR (waiter/asst. waiter/sommelier/bar waiter)

- no announcements!

- free ice cream

- less smoking

- robes

- glass shower doors on S class

- T pool on M class

Edited December 29, 2013 by jayoldschool

[riclop]

Give it a try some like it and some not so much, only you can decide after your first cruise.

[Denny01]

I agree with you on most of the things you posted and we believe we are going to try the 10 or 11 day southern cruise , but is the aqua class a better choice if we want the spa or can we purchase spa seperate ? Is Blue worth doing instead of normal dining and is Reflection a major diff. than than other solstice class ship's ?

 

Many really enjoy Aqua Class. We did it once and liked it, but it wasn't enough for us to do a lot. But it is very nice.

 

Yes, you can have full access to the Spa for a charge without being Aqua. No idea how much.

 

Reflection is much like the other S-Class ships. It has a few more Suites and more Aqua Class SR and Suites. They took part of the Sky Lounge which is the forward large lounge on the Bow for SRs so it is smaller and no portside views. To me, not a big deal. She is a great ship.

 

Enjoy!

 

Den

[bphman]

You never said what you were looking for in a cruise line. We look for itinerary first and then the cruise line. We recently came back to Celebrity after a long absence but that was due to a lack of itineraries that were kid friendly or at least interesting for kids. Our first 2 cruises were on the old Celebrity that was leagues ahead of what they have now but no need to reminisce.

 

We have been on 11 lines so far from outside to full suites on budget to luxury lines. Our 2 favorite mass market lines are HAL and Celebrity. I believe that they are ahead of the other lines without much difference in price. To put things in perspective, we are 63 and 58 years old and no longer travel with kids so our tastes have changed a lot. We prefer the smaller ship experience and, even though Celebrity ships are large by our standards, we never felt crowded. There is plenty of common space and plentiful bars so that you can always get served. We find the entertainment to be professional and generally good and varied. We were never bored. We liked the lack of announcements for Bingo, hairy chest contests and all of the other items in which we had no interest.

 

Service is excellent. Food is very good and varied. Presentation is well done. The ships themselves are elegant and not glitzy. The cabins are clean although the M class ship cabins are aging. They are not run down but could use a little sprucing up. The newer ships are beautiful. As far as Blu is concerned, we were Suite guests and had breakfast there every morning and dinner one evening. We enjoyed it and booked AQ for our Northern Europe cruise in June. We found Blu to be much more intimate and gave us a little of the small ship experience that we enjoy. We did not find it to be closed in as others have said.

 

We have done the Southern Caribbean and enjoy it more than the Eastern and Western Caribbean. We have never been to South America but it is on the bucket list. If you are concerned about Whether Celebrity has a good product, you have little to worry about IMHO. It is not luxury or near luxury but a very competitively priced line.

Edited December 29, 2013 by bphman

[bigbenboys]

I agree with you on most of the things you posted and we believe we are going to try the 10 or 11 day southern cruise , but is the aqua class a better choice if we want the spa or can we purchase spa seperate ? Is Blue worth doing instead of normal dining and is Reflection a major diff. than than other solstice class ship's ?

 

I would book the South American cruise. As to Aqua or not. We normally book Concierge. Sometime Aqua cost less than Concierge. Our next 3 cruises only 1 is in Aqua. It is more about the bottom line. Our next 3 cruises only 1 is in Aqua. Blu is not enough of a draw for us. Anyone can book spa treatments you don't have to be in Aquaclass. Blu breakfast is very nice. Blu for dinner is ok. The best thing about Blu is that you dine when you want. The tables of 2 are so close together, you might as well been at a table of 4 or 6. Check out some of the menus from Blu. See what you think. Richard

[20pluscruises]

I agree with you on most of the things you posted and we believe we are going to try the 10 or 11 day southern cruise , but is the aqua class a better choice if we want the spa or can we purchase spa seperate ? Is Blue worth doing instead of normal dining and is Reflection a major diff. than than other solstice class ship's ?

 

Reflection has more Aqua class cabins and on several nights there was a wait for dinner. They have also now started a set time on the first night...we had 6:30. We never eat eat at the early sitting and were none too happy with this new rule.

 

The good things...

 

Better wine steward....no long waits for drinks. Nicolina is excellent

 

Better waitstaff...we were very happy with Shilas and Oom. Shilas did his best to reccomend the better dishes. Better service all around.

 

For the most part ...no children. However, there was a baby in Blu on this last cruise. Penthouse??????? Not sure how they were able to pull this off. They had the same table for dinner and a different same table for breakfast each day.

 

Tips.....

 

Order pats of butter. The butter in the small dish is mushy and grainy.

 

Soft shell crab is very good

 

Breakfast smoothies are very tasty

[OhioDogLover]

We like Celebrity a lot. It is one of our favorite lines. We also like Princess. Generally, we pick the cruises by itinerary and price. There are more activities on Princess, so it is about what atmosphere you like between the two lines, I guess. I think the food and service are just a bit better on Celebrity, except for Aqua Class.

I am writing to put in my two cents about Aqua Class. We tried it in October on a 14 day cruise to Canada. It was an experiment. We loved it. The food and service in Blu were so good that we are doing it again this summer in the Med. The waitstaff was wonderful and remembered us. That helped with drink orders, especially at dinner. We did eat at the buffet for dinner once and twice for breakfast. That was ok, but not great. I don't know if we just caught a cruise with exceptional service and food, or if that is the way it always is. But to us it was like eating in a specialty restaurant for the entire cruise. Yes, it was that good.

Just my thoughts. I know that others have had other experiences.

 

Ohiodoglover

[baldercash]

I agree with you on most of the things you posted and we believe we are going to try the 10 or 11 day southern cruise , but is the aqua class a better choice if we want the spa or can we purchase spa seperate ? Is Blue worth doing instead of normal dining and is Reflection a major diff. than than other solstice class ship's ?

 

If you enjoy food you will enjoy Blu it is much superior to the MDR.

 

People are entitled to and can argue about personal food tastes and preferred preparations as we all have different tastes.

However when it comes to the quality of of the food the preparation and presentation there is just no comparison between Blu and the MDR!

 

Blu will offer Halibut or Snapper the same day the MDR offers Talapia or black cod or the MDR will offer boneless leg of lamb while Blu will offer rack of lamb or chops.

Blu offers quail, pheasant, venison, veal chops. They offer a boneless shank wrapped in crisp bacon that is unreal with a ragout wrapped in philo pastry not to mention the beef short ribs that are simply amazing.

Appetizers can vary from frogs legs or soft shell crab not offered in the MDR as well as escargot. The lobster is served in a broth and is one of the best I have had on any ship.

The soups are excellent usually presented with a small amount of vegetables in the bottom of the bowl the soup then poured hot from a carafe on top so presentation is also superior to the MDR.

 

One can even compare the cutlery between the Buffet, MDR and Blu with them each having a different weight and quality, Blu having the best and the same applies to the dishes and glass ware.

Breakfast service is far superior in Blu to the MDR. It is quicker, quieter and presented better. Blu offers smoothies and fresh squeezed orange juice.

Millie did have a very impressive breakfast buffet which we used on some port days.

 

Blu is a much quieter venue to eat with quicker and superior service to the MDR.

Buffet staff strive to work in the MDR while MDR staff strive to get into Blu. The waiter from the Captain's table would assist in Blu if slow in the MDR or when Blu was especially busy they would pull staff from the MDR or the Olympic restaurant to assist.

 

On Millie they have 2 tables for 8 in Blu but you need to create your own group or the restaurant needs to be packed for a couple to be placed at one of these tables. As well if one wants a truly intimate table for 2 it does not exist in Blu.

The deserts are not as substantial or traditional as in the MDR as well.

 

We just spent 35 days eating breakfast and dinner in Blu, the menu repeats after 14 days and these were my observations.

The M class experience is different then S class but for us the price is easily justified.

Edited December 29, 2013 by baldercash

[CruzyMary]

Clean, clean, clean!!!!!!!!!

Amazing service

Not once bothered about pictures, booking cruises or onboard packages.

All about making each day enjoyable