Considering Trying Celebrity - Need Advice

[Snit13]

We are D with RC and we always have gotten Elite on X. As long as you are already a registered Captain's Club member the status should transfer over. But as you say, not the points, just the tier status.

 

That is how we became Diamond with Royal. Our Celebrity Elite made us Diamond on our 1st Royal cruise. Unfortunately Elite+ does not become Diamond+, so we will be lowely Diamonds forever.

[4774Papa]

Looking for feedback from fellow cruisers. We have cruised numerous times on Royal Caribbean and Carnival. We typically like RCCL for the ships (Oasis and Freedom class are our preferred ships) and we prefer the food on Carnival (again, we prefer the newer, bigger ships).

 

One of the things that my wife and I both like to do is try new and different ships. We are strongly considering booking a cruise on the Celebrity Equinox but due to both time and financial constraints, we can only cruise a couple of times a year. My question is, is it worth it for us to "jump ship" and try Celebrity, knowing that we are close to the next loyalty level on both RCCL and Carnival?

 

We have don 9 cruises on Celebrity and love all the ships. Unfortunately, with bundling beverage packages that we don't want, the prices have become inflated. Because of this we booked two CRI cruises out of Sydney for 2018.

 

We are Elite on Celebrity and we were able to become Diamond on RCI.

 

Celebrity is great, but check your prices closely. Also, if you are close to Diamond, it might be better to wait until you achieve that, so you can enjoy the perks of Elite.

[Aquahound]

Would love to hear any feedback on Celebrity's entertainment. We do love the entertainment on RCCL's larger ships.

 

I had always ranked Celebrity's entertainment 1 step below RCI's. However, I recently sailed Eclipse and was surprised to see the Cruise Director was Richard Spacey, one of RCI's former CD's that worked on the newest ships. The entertainment on that ship was excellent. I wouldn't say Oasis Class excellent, but it was better than anything I've seen on Sovereign, Vision, Radiance or Voyager Class ships.

[lidopuppy]

We were just like you, 3 years ago! We tried Celebrity for the first time, after being "loyal to Royal" for many, many years. 3 years and 3 cruises later, we absolutely LOVE it.

 

Not sure of your age demographic or who you sail with, but for us, now: when it's just my husband and I, we sail Celebrity. When we have our son with us for a family vacation, we sail Royal. We love both, for different reasons.

 

Some of the reasons we now prefer Celebrity (when child- free): the specialty dining options, included drinks package, the R&R vibe of the ship's during the daytime, the bar options and entertainment options in the evening. My only advice is to use a good TA who will include 3-4 perks in your price (grats, drink package, OBC, internet) which makes Celebrity an outstanding value.

 

We sailed Equinox this past summer in the Med and absolutely loved it. Good luck!

 

 

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Thank you! You sound like you are in a similar position as we are. We enjoyed Carnival when our boys were younger and sailed with us. We switched to Royal for most cruises once they were in college. We just did the Mediterranean on RCCL in October. Only one left to get through college and then perhaps we can do more cruising! We will definitely give Celebrity a try!

[lidopuppy]

This could be crucial. We'll know more in about 90 days as we're on Equinox in 70. Currently we're D with RC, which should be matched as Elite w/Celebrity. This is test run to see just how well that works out. The cruel irony here is 11 nights in a Sky Suite for this trip will have us one, one point short of Select with X - and as others have noted while X and RC honor status with the other, points on one line are just that.

 

Our first cruise was X because that's been "The folks' ship of choice" when they made Christmas 2009 pretty awesome, but we went with RC for the convenience of the Galveston port... about a 4 hour drive from Dallas. Like you, it's only practical for us to take one trip a year (we'll take what others might spend on 3 or 4 balcony trips and do a GS), but from Galveston we've quickly learned there are basically two RC itineraries. Gotta sail from elsewhere if we want to go elsewhere - and RC quickly put a stop to sailing from New Orleans once we did that trip. :rolleyes:

 

Now we're kind of a weird demographic. We don't go for the limbo, belly flop or hairy chest stuff, so we blow off a lot of the stuff RC does to appeal to the 'fun' crowd who'd be more of a Carnival target market... and isn't there on a X cruise; but usually if we're not the youngest couple in the CL, we're in the running, and don't have kids so keeping them occupied on a trip is irrelevant. So yeah, as others have noted who you are has a lot to do with how you'd feel about X. It's not stuffy, but it's not a party animal ship either.

 

But like I say, how this next one turns out has major bearing on whatever we book for 2019. In that 'one cruise a year' boat like us you don't want to make the wrong pick. I don't think you'll come off the Equinox hating yourselves for the choice, but I understand your concern about loyalty points and the long-term outlook. Hey, we did the calculations and at our normal rate of cruises, this means it'll be age 89 when we hit Pinnacle instead of 88.:D

 

Enjoyed your post! :) We feel the same way! We recently relocated to FL from Wisconsin so cruising will be a little easier now that we don't have to spend $600+ to fly to a cruise port.

 

Happy Cruising!!!

[WhenIsLobsterNight]

Sailed on Celebrity many times. Celebrity is like RCCL wearing a tuxedo. Passengers tend to be a bit older, slightly better food, passengers will be better dressed, shows will be pretty comparable, not as crowded overall, much less children on board and I think Celebrity has noticeably better customer service from the crew. I have a family of four with two daughters ages 11 and 14. When we sail as a family we sail RCCL. When we sail only as a couple, my wife and I greatly prefer Celebrity.

Edited December 12, 2016 by WhenIsLobsterNight

[RCI Cruisers 004]

Definetly try Celebrity! We were on Infinity a couple months ago and loved it. Make sure you get a room class that allows you to dine at Luminae. With the room we had and the deals they were promoting, we had full beverage package , gratuities paid and speciality dining. We are still loyal to Royal, but have also ventured off to Disney too.

[capecruzer]

We are in the opposite dilemma...my husband and I really like Celebrity but have never cruised RCCI. He's a newbie to the cruise market (2 Celebrity and one Carnival) and always comments on the huge RCCI ships we've seen in port and how he never wants to go on one lol.

 

Fast forward to the upcoming cruise with my college-aged (non-drinking) daughter. I was looking for a value, both from an airfare pov and the cruise itself. RCCI sails out of FLL and I have SW points. The IOS cruise price couldn't be beat and I'm excited to try the ship out. I think it'll hold more interest for my daughter as well. She loves Grease, she can't wait to try the FloRider, and I'm suspecting she won't think everyone is an old fart :D She has only cruised Carnival and Disney with me in the past and loves, loves, loves Disney but hey, lets face it, we could stay in a suite for that price and she's nearly 20, so Mickey isn't the man he used to be.

 

Like I said, I'm excited to try RCCI out. Not sure I'd care about the "points", I think most "adults" would agree that Celebrity has a more sophisticated, for lack of a better term, aura. And lets not forget...awesome martini bars!

[knittinggirl]

We're Diamond and our TA called the Celebrity Captain's Club and made us Elite on Celebrity.

 

Lots of nice things on Celebrity. We love the Elite special breakfast. Took them a while to work out the kinks, but they did much better on Infinity than Century.

 

We love the refreshments when returning from shore excursions. We love the welcome aboard champagne.

 

For Junior Suite lovers, Celebrity has moved the rooms the size of a JS into their regular suite category. More benefits, and much more expensive.

 

We've done Concierge Class a couple of times. I call it a Balcony w/ benefits. Nice, but small when used to Royal Caribbean Voyager Class Junior suites.

[oldplayer532]

We appreciate the responses that we have gotten so far. They confirm exactly what we were thinking.

 

Would love to hear any feedback on Celebrity's entertainment. We do love the entertainment on RCCL's larger ships.

We did Caribbean cruise on Eclipse and Alaska on Solstice, the sister ship, and both were wonderful! I guess it depends what type of entertainment you like. Personally, I got tired of Quest and typically "Royal" shows. I did enjoy all nature presentations on Alaska cruise.

About food. Bistro on 5 was excellent and Qzine is not to miss! Definitely try!

[Arubamoose]

They say the best thing about turning Diamond on RCCL is that you are now Elite on X.

 

 

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