????

[grandgeezer]

Well a poster mentioned that some suggestions could me made (even tho I'm not the OP). I want a cruise on a "premium but NOT luxury) that starts or ends in Istanbul. It needs to be in May or late Sept. / Oct. Not a Holy Land or Black sea itinerary. This would be for 2016. We had planned to do a Venice to Istanbul HAL sail in Spet. 2015 that I was so excited about but now for personal reasons, I don't think it will be happening. So if anyone can hook me up a similar voyage, I would be much appreciative.

 

Celebrity Constellation might have a cruise that meets most of your needs and it is for October 2016. Go to celebritycruises.com and do a search.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

Not sure what you mean exactly, by "premium but NOT luxury." ???

There are mass market lines (Celebrity, Royal, Norwegian, Disney, Holland, Carnival, Princess) and then there are the upper end lines (Regent, Oceania, Silversea etc.; amongst those I'm not sure how one distinguishes "premium" from "luxury."

 

Either way, it sounds like you know what you want but don't want to take time to research it, so talking to a travel agent who specializes in cruises might be your best bet.

 

I know I am probably going by a generic industry model, but my take is this:

 

Budget: Carnival, Norwegian, Costa

 

Premium: RCL, Princess, Celebrity, Disney, HAL, MSC

 

Luxury: Crystal, Seabourn, Azamara, Silverseas, Regent

Edited March 20, 2015 by Stateroom_Sailor

[cruzsnooze]

Having sailed on both cruise lines I give Princess a slight edge.

[cruzsnooze]

I know I am probably going by a generic industry model, but my take is this:

 

Budget: Carnival, Norwegian, Costa

 

Premium: RCL, Princess, Celebrity, Disney, HAL, MSC

 

Luxury: Crystal, Seabourn, Azamara, Silverseas, Regent

Are you kidding? What you consider premium is mass market'

Premium would be Azamara and luxury I think you're correct

 

NO mass market line is premium and NCL is more like RCl then different.

[Go-Bucks!]

I have also sailed Princess because Celebrity does not sail from the West coast and I think Celebrity is a much better product. On the two Princess ships (Golden and Crown) I've sailed, in mini-suites, I have found the staff to be incredibly disinterested. I felt they behaved as if I was lucky to be on the ship and should take what ever subpar service they provided. One example was an audible sigh when I asked a server if a salad contained nuts followed by singing in a different language. I've read other posts comparing Celebrity to a W hotel, if one were to follow that analogy then Princess would be a Holiday Inn.

 

 

This post shows how people can have totally different expectations and experiences with the same cruiselines. :o

 

I've sailed on both Celebrity and Princess. Each have their own pros and cons, but overall both give good service, food, cabins, etc. Both have excellent workers and sometimes workers who are not the most friendly or customer service oriented. But that certainly can't ruin my vacation and I've enjoyed both lines. I have one more scheduled on each.

 

I recommend you try Princess once and see what you think. They are much more similar than different.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Go-Bucks!

[Stateroom_Sailor]

Are you kidding? What you consider premium is mass market'

Premium would be Azamara and luxury I think you're correct

 

NO mass market line is premium and NCL is more like RCl then different.

 

I am using the terms I've read online, maybe you don't agree with the term "premium", but obviously Celebrity fits in a category between "Budget" and "Luxury". How about "Budget Plus", or "Luxury Challenged"?

 

When you talk about hotels and restaurants, nobody really complains about star ratings because the establishment in question part of a chain vs a Mom n' Pop. I want to have some kind of standard to compare Bob's Grill to Texas Roadhouse.

[GazW]

I am using the terms I've read online, maybe you don't agree with the term "premium", but obviously Celebrity fits in a category between "Budget" and "Luxury". How about "Budget Plus", or "Luxury Challenged"?

 

When you talk about hotels and restaurants, nobody really complains about star ratings because the establishment in question part of a chain vs a Mom n' Pop. I want to have some kind of standard to compare Bob's Grill to Texas Roadhouse.

 

Agree...There are a few classification "attempts" out there on the WWW, but most seem to agree that Celebrity falls in the Premium Category.

 

RCI seems to, variably, hover between the budget/"contemporary" & premium category.

 

According to one cruise website:

 

Contemporary Cruises - "Value-packed vacations..."

 

Carnival Cruise Lines

Norwegian Cruise Line

Royal Caribbean International

 

Premium Cruises - "Up-scale cruises..."

 

Celebrity Cruises

Holland America Line

Princess Cruises

 

Deluxe Cruises - "Positioned somewhere between 'premium' and 'luxury' "

 

Azamara Club Cruises

Oceania Cruises

 

Luxury Cruises - "For those demanding the finest quality..."

 

Crystal Cruises

Paul Gauguin Cruises

Regent Seven Seas

Seabourn Cruise Line

Silversea Cruises

Viking Ocean Cruises

 

Are you kidding? What you consider premium is mass market'

Premium would be Azamara and luxury I think you're correct

 

NO mass market line is premium and NCL is more like RCl then different.

 

The thing about "Mass Market" is how do you define it? If RCI have a 16.7% share of the cruising market and Celebrity a much smaller share (4.2%) - does that make them "Mass Market"? And if we define "Mass Market" as above a particular market share percentage point, does "Mass Market" in anyway diminish the product or does it necessarily follow that anything below "Mass Market" is "premium" or above.

 

Carnival 21.3%* - 4.7m** - 0.37***

RCI 16.7% - 3.7m - 0.85

Princess 7.9% - 1.75m - 1.1

Costa 7.4% - 1.64m - 0.9

MSC 5.2% - 1.15m - 0.8

Celebrity 4.2% - 0.93m - 1.38

AIDA 3.7% - 0.82m - 0.92

Holland America 3% - 0.66m - 1.46

Disney 2.8% - 0.62m - 0.8

P&O 1.7% - 0.38m - 2.17

Thomson Cruises - 1.3% - 0.28m - 1.38

Fred Olsen - 0.05% - 2

 

*Passenger Share %

**Passenger Share millions

***Ratio of Revenue share to Passenger share.

 

Having sailed (quite extensively & exclusively) on P&O (and not yet on Celebrity) I get the impression (mostly from these boards) that the overall experience on Celebrity should outweigh what I have experienced (and thouroughly enjoyed) on P&O.

[waterbug123]

I know I am probably going by a generic industry model, but my take is this:

 

Budget: Carnival, Norwegian, Costa

 

Premium: RCL, Princess, Celebrity, Disney, HAL, MSC

Luxury: Crystal, Seabourn, Azamara, Silverseas, Regent

 

What you have listed as budget and premium are both "mass market" for all intents and purposes. Similar prices, similar service, similar size ships though fleets differ in number of ships. I keep hearing people say Princess is a premium line but I sailed Princess once and found no discernible difference between them, and Royal/X/Carnival.... certainly nothing that would cause me to classify them in a different category.

 

Agree...There are a few classification "attempts" out there on the WWW, but most seem to agree that Celebrity falls in the Premium Category.

 

 

The only thing that people seem to agree on is that the lines listed in these various threads as "luxury" (Regent, Oceania etc.) are definitely in a different category than the others. As to breaking down the mass market lines into different categories, that is so subjective that a lot of people are bound to be disappointed if they go by a particular list than rates Celebrity or Princess as a "premium" line above other mass market lines. Take a long enough look around Celebrity board and read some of the threads about people complaining about the music, the service, the food etc. It doesn't take long to find a lot of people who feel they were duped into believing it was "premium" and found that it wasn't.

Caveat Emptor.

Edited March 20, 2015 by waterbug123

[Stateroom_Sailor]

What you have listed as budget and premium are both "mass market" for all intents and purposes. Similar prices, similar service, similar size ships though fleets differ in number of ships. I keep hearing people say Princess is a premium line but I sailed Princess once and found no discernible difference between them, and Royal/X/Carnival.... certainly nothing that would cause me to classify them in a different category.

 

I don't see how "mass market" makes any difference in evaluating quality, with anything. If I stayed at a Hyatt, called it a 4 Star, and a Howard Johnson, and called it a 2 Star, I would be creating division for 2 "mass market" hotel chains. The cars we drive, the food we eat, and the clothes we wear, it mostly comes from "mass market".

 

To take things to an extreme, let's say Crystal orders 6 new ships, which are fairly large considering, so they enter the "mass market". Then there's Bahamas Celebration Cruise Line, remaining independent.

 

I like GazW's categorizing, but I see your point too. I like Celebrity and Carnival, but I would be hard pressed to call them equal, even though 80% of the time it's basically the same amenities. Not everyone here is going to go for the neon lights for decor, loss of refreshments upon returning to the ship, or bean bag tosses for entertainment. ;)

Edited March 20, 2015 by Stateroom_Sailor

[waterbug123]

I don't see how "mass market" makes any difference in evaluating quality, with anything. If I stayed at a Hyatt, called it a 4 Star, and a Howard Johnson, and called it a 2 Star, I would be creating division for 2 "mass market" hotel chains. The cars we drive, the food we eat, and the clothes we wear, it mostly comes from "mass market".

 

To take things to an extreme, let's say Crystal orders 6 new ships, which are fairly large considering, so they enter the "mass market". Then there's Bahamas Celebration Cruise Line, remaining independent.

 

I like GazW's categorizing, but I see your point too. I like Celebrity and Carnival, but I would be hard pressed to call them equal, even though 80% of the time it's basically the same amenities. Not everyone here is going to go for the neon lights for decor, loss of refreshments upon returning to the ship, or bean bag tosses for entertainment. ;)

 

Are there differences between mass market lines? Of course. But for the most part there are far more similarities between the those considered "mass market" (as I've listed them) and the rest, when you consider the price, the target market, the overall service level and so forth. Compare a Celebrity cruise to an Oceania cruise and you'll see that Celebrity is far more similar to Royal or Carnival than to Oceania or Regent. :)

[dst87]

RCI seems to, variably, hover between the budget/"contemporary" & premium category.

 

According to one cruise website:

 

Contemporary Cruises - "Value-packed vacations..."

 

Carnival Cruise Lines

Norwegian Cruise Line

Royal Caribbean International

 

Premium Cruises - "Up-scale cruises..."

 

Celebrity Cruises

Holland America Line

Princess Cruises

 

Deluxe Cruises - "Positioned somewhere between 'premium' and 'luxury' "

 

Azamara Club Cruises

Oceania Cruises

 

Luxury Cruises - "For those demanding the finest quality..."

 

Crystal Cruises

Paul Gauguin Cruises

Regent Seven Seas

Seabourn Cruise Line

Silversea Cruises

Viking Ocean Cruises

 

I very much agree with this categorisation, at leas when it comes to RCI and Celebrity. The RCI product feels younger and more 'fun' that the Celebrity product, but Celebrity ships have fewer passengers in the same space so they feel less crowded, the food is in a completely different league (Speciality Dining on RCI is closer in quality to the MDR on Celebrity. There's nothing on RCI comparable to Murano on Celebrity).

[ptrpanpens]

Well a poster mentioned that some suggestions could me made (even tho I'm not the OP). I want a cruise on a "premium but NOT luxury) that starts or ends in Istanbul. It needs to be in May or late Sept. / Oct. Not a Holy Land or Black sea itinerary. This would be for 2016. We had planned to do a Venice to Istanbul HAL sail in Spet. 2015 that I was so excited about but now for personal reasons, I don't think it will be happening. So if anyone can hook me up a similar voyage, I would be much appreciative.

 

Too bad you dont want the Holy Land cruise. I took it from Istanbul last year and it was the best cruise I have ever taken. israel is unbelievable. I plan to go again on the same cruise next year after spending a week in Istanbul. I think the cruise right before it October 10 begins in Venice and ends in Istanbul so that sounds like it would be just what you are looking for.

[Champagne Cruiser]

We have cruised X, HAL, and Princess. IMO there is no such thing as a bad cruise, but here is my take. We cruise HAL and Princess for price and itinerary (The best private island by far is HAL's Moon Cay). We cruise X for the best overall experience by far. The food on X both MDR, buffet, and especially Blu is so much better. The entertainment is also much better on X. Princess uses canned music for their production shows, but MUTS is actually the quiet pool and fun during the day. The demographic on HAL is much older and Happy Hour starts at 4. We had a tough time finding anything to do before dinner since we like to eat around 7 to 7:30. It is easier to find loungers around the pool on HAL since a lot of passengers are not pool types. I found the crew on both ships to be very good, sometimes better than we have experienced on X at times. The officers are not visible on Princess and HAL. There are no sommeliers on Princess, your waiter is your wine steward so there is no help in choosing wine. The pools on HAL and Princess are not salt water which I missed a lot. After a while the little things just start to add up.

[suec12]

Ptrpanpens - I'd like to do a Holy Lands cruise but my DH doesn't want to. Thank you for the suggestion.