HAL fan trying Celebrity

[65 Gator]

One "trick" on the verandah/smoking issue is to book one high and to the front. On Vista and Signature ships these were formerly known as VQs. A smaller balcony, but less likely to have smokers in front of you than midships.

 

Ms. Sally... I wish this were true. We had a verandah on the Zuiderdam this month and the "inhabitants" of the cabin aft of us smoked both cigarettes and cigars and we were constantly exposed to their fumes, even while sailing. Our family agreed that this obnoxious intrusion has ruined our experience on HAL and we are 6 days shy of a 4 star rating. I REALLY hope this policy will change in the near future. We received brochures from X today and it looks promising.

[CowPrincess]

After reading a few fairly recent reports from HAL cruisers who are trying/have tried Celebrity, I am really getting interested in the Celebrity offerings. Will have to check out their winter 2015 itineraries!

[Cruising-along]

I can think of only one "complaint" after our one Celebrity cruise. HAL has them beat in the laundry service hands down. We were told that as first-time Celebrity cruisers we had no choice other than by-the-item laundry. :eek: I have since heard here on CC that *sometimes* they might make a one-time offer during a cruise of by-the-bag, but you never know if/when you'll get that option. They do not have self-serve laundries on any of their ships, so they really have you. You either pay a small fortune to have laundry done by the piece, or you don't have clean clothes. :eek: Of course if you're elite (?) then you get better deals.

 

Other than that, we were thrilled with the Silhouette and our cruise with Celebrity. Looking forward to our 2nd Celebrity cruise this summer.

[Lizzie68]

I really like those photos of the buffet on Celebrity - very similar to how the stations were set up on the RCI ship I was on. It really works well. I haven't done a Holland America cruise yet (booked for June:)), but hope it is just as good. I hate lines!

[CowPrincess]

I really like those photos of the buffet on Celebrity - very similar to how the stations were set up on the RCI ship I was on. It really works well. I haven't done a Holland America cruise yet (booked for June:))' date=' but hope it is just as good. I hate lines![/quote']

 

Haven't really noticed a lot of long line-ups on HAL, mostly lost people wandering aimlessly searching for food, unable to find the correct line-up :eek: ;)

[CowPrincess]

I can think of only one "complaint" after our one Celebrity cruise. HAL has them beat in the laundry service hands down. We were told that as first-time Celebrity cruisers we had no choice other than by-the-item laundry.

 

Wow! You'd think they'd want to do a lot to woo new cruisers, but that doesn't sound like it at all!

[foodgirl]

Celebrity (Century) has a separate Eggs Benedict station -- they make traditional, Mexican, Italian (weird) and Scotch (Salmon). It's very good and made to order :)

 

DH will be so excited to hear that. He loves eggs Benedict. He eats it almost every morning on our HAL cruises.

[cruisetrail]

Right but when full you at least know where the Celebrity lines form. Not so on HAL.

 

Never had a problem with lines in buffets on any ship.

Nothing to talk about. :)

The only thing that makes difference: food.

 

The only buffet I have seen that really suffers from lack of space (not from lines) is buffet on Costa. Awkward furniture is space killer.

 

[Cruising-along]

Wow! You'd think they'd want to do a lot to woo new cruisers, but that doesn't sound like it at all!

 

Right! We were pretty surprised to say the least. Just thankful we'll have oodles of OBC this next cruise and it won't hurt quite so much to send out laundry and pay by the piece.