Trying to Decide on Celebrity Cruise

[63 Super Sport]

Hi-

We are thinking about booking the 12 Night Great Barrier Reef Cruise March 30 on Celebrity. We are Elite passengers on Princess but felt this cruise offered more time in port than the one Princess was offering. Can anyone give me some pros and cons over Celebrity vs Princess? We are considering concierge class. We are figuring that would give us some of the perks who get with Princess. Any advise will be appreciated.

Thanks.

Debra and Gary

[4774Papa]

Hi-

We are thinking about booking the 12 Night Great Barrier Reef Cruise March 30 on Celebrity. We are Elite passengers on Princess but felt this cruise offered more time in port than the one Princess was offering. Can anyone give me some pros and cons over Celebrity vs Princess? We are considering concierge class. We are figuring that would give us some of the perks who get with Princess. Any advise will be appreciated.

Thanks.

Debra and Gary

Debra and Gary,

I assume that your cruise is from Sydney on the Solstice. We have cruised on the Solstice on the Top End Australia cruise. It was great. The ship is very nice.

 

I have never cruised on Princess, but friends have told me it is more similar to Celebrity than different.

 

Princess has the laundry facilities that Celebrity does not have. However, Celebrity routinely wins awards for its cuisine. The atmosphere on Celebrity is a more quiet having an ambiance than cruise lines like NCL or Carnival.

[Mr. Click]

Like 4774 Papa we have no experience with Princess but we have done a lot of cruises with Celebrity including Australia to New Zealand. We have talked to a lot of friends who have taken Princess cruises and the only difference we have found is the laundry and that is not a big deal to us. As far as Concierge Class, it is not something we would pay for anymore on an S class ship. We did on our first Celebrity cruise because it sounded nice but on the S class ships the cabins are the same and the other perks are not really worth the extra money to us. On the older M class ships the CC cabins are bigger so maybe on those ships. For Australia I would book a nice veranda and spend the extra money on specialty dining or Cafe al Baccio drinks. :)

[ECCruise]

26 Celebrity cruises, 12 Princess cruises. In Oz/NZ 1 each Celebrity and Princess.

Yet to find the huge differences that some people seem to find. We are 1) itinerary driven and then 2) price driven. Sail both interchangeably, along with NCL, RCCL, all in the same class for us.

If the itinerary was considerably better, might pay an extra $50 per day for Celebrity. Otherwise, not so much.

[ChucktownSteve]

If you like the itinerary and the price, book it. Only you will know whether you really like Celebrity or not. I suspect you'll see little difference between the two.

 

Regarding Concierge...nothing special about it. I did it last December sailing solo to get more club points to hit Elite status. Otherwise I would have preferred Aqua which we've done more times. BUT if the price difference is a big gap, even Aqua is not worth the extra fare. Save it and use it to buy the specialty restaurants.

 

More people than not think Murano is the best paid venue. I really liked Silk Harvest on the Equinox. Tuscan Grille gets mixed reviews. We had slow service and overcooked steak on our Summit cruise. I don't feel the extra e at the end makes the food any better. lol

 

However I would suggest you wait until boarding to buy specialty restaurants unless you can get a great package deal. I got Silk Harvest for $20 and if you are good at negotiating, you can probably get a BOGO price the first day right at boarding. Otherwise 30% off is pretty common.

[Cruise Raider]

We've sailed two dozen times on Princess and a dozen on Celebrity .... in all different cabin types on each.

I don't feel as though they are that similar although many others have noted they are. Celebrity is by far my favorite line, but a little variety never hurts anyone either.

I am not sure what additional perks in concierge class on Celebrity would be given that are equivalent to those given as elite on Princess unless you are speaking of priority check in, boarding and tendering and debarkation. There is no free laundry, minibar, internet and you won't be allowed into the elite breakfast or happy hour event with Concierge Class. You will receive a special luncheon upon embarkation, though. On any M class ship, the concierge rooms are a bit larger but exactly the same size on the S class ships. If it isn't that much more, you might prefer Aqua Class instead of Concierge Class on Celebrity ... at least there is a true difference in perks over a regular veranda room.

As you know, Princess has laundromats but no so on Celebrity. Smoking policies are a lot more restrictive on Celebrity.

Food is pretty much equal on both in the MDR and specialty restaurants between the two lines ... very good to excellent!! The buffet is so much better on Celebrity, though and the pizza on Princess wins by a landslide. The specialty restaurants on both lines are awesome but the ones on Princess are much cheaper. Celebrity does offer specialty dining discounts and packages that make them equal in price to those on Princess, though. Murano on Celebrity is more elegant than the Crown Grill on Princess.

The closet design on Princess ships is fabulous ... no so on Celebrity. However, the room design on Celebrity wins by a mile; not only are the rooms larger but each veranda room has a couch instead of that one silly little chair that Princess provides.

Princess may have a slight edge on entertainment and activities....but it realy all depends on which sailings are being compared to one another.

Beverages are much cheaper on Princess although Celebrity oftentimes offers at least one free perk, in which case, the price of the beverages rarely come into play for us.

Overall ship design and maintenance clearly goes to Celebrity in my opinion.

Bed comfort used to go to Celebrity but we understand Princess is updating each of their ships with new mattresses so cannot currently compare them. Our last sailing on Princess was less than a year ago and they had yet to get the new mattresses onboard.

Celebrity will have less children onboard; I feel as though the service provided is a little more white glove. However, I have been on cruises on several Princess where the service has been beyond excellent.

Regardless of being in a concierge cabin, there are no separate lines at the guest services desk that you currently find on Princess for elite passengers.

The Officers, Captains Club Hostess, etc are definitely more engaged with their passengers on Celebrity in our experience. We've had officers join us for coffee in Cafe Al Bacio or stop to have a conversation with us in the hallways on Celebrity many times. We've also been invited for special events on Celebrity but with more than double the number of cruises on Princess, this hasn't happened once. I am not complaining but haven't seen that opportunity present itself on Princess.

Princess does provide additional onboard credit for passengers that have sailed on them over 20 cruises, then more for over 30 cruises, etc. They also allow you to stack your discounts and OBC opportunities whereas Celebrity is not so flexible with combining discounts or adding obc. The FCC's (future cruise credits) are much more flexible on Princess.

 

I am a little biased towards Celebrity but tried to give a fair analysis of both lines.

I am sure that you will have a great time on Celebrity and would encourage you to give it a shot. We just sailed on the Solstice a couple of weeks ago and had one of the best cruises ever!! It is a beautiful ship and has so much to offer. We have future cruises booked on both lines and on NCL as well ... variety is the spice of life, you know!!

[63 Super Sport]

Many thanks for the great information! It is very helpful.

DEBRA

[OhioDogLover]

I am Elite and Celebrity and nearly Elite on Princess. (one more, I think) I have always cruised based upon itinerary and price. I agree with Cruise Raider. While I like Princess a lot, I think that the product has suffered recently. (I have a Princess cruise booked, so that should tell you my feelings about the product generally.) I always told DH and that I thought Celebrity was just a better all around. After cruising Aqua, he agreed. Everything (except the pizza and sometimes the entertainment) is just a bit better on Celebrity. I think the entertainment has improved on Celebrity recently.

We never saw the benefit of Concierge and tried to cruise Aqua. It is more expensive, but we always really liked it. We played the watch the price game once, and got Aqua for the cost of a balcony. We never looked back from that. DH was tall and really liked the showers. We both thought Blu was terrific. I don't like hassle on vacation and cruising Aqua took care of that for us.

I think you'll like Celebrity but all cruises are great, aren't they?

 

Ohiodoglover

[SargassoPirate]

Many thanks for the great information! It is very helpful.

DEBRA

 

Love your handle - My retirement bucket list included a red '63 Corvette Convertible. Checked that one off in 2009.

 

All things being equal, I would choose Princess just to be able to do my own laundry and iron a shirt once in a while. Also, keep in mind that you'll be in the tropics and it will be hot and humid. In my case, I sweated through everything as soon as I stepped outside (we were just there this past March on a land-based tour)

 

Enjoy OZ

[wallie5446]

Looks like the main points have been covered.

 

We have sailed 7 diff lines since 1987, our first Princess was in 1992, and it became our bench mark others were compared by. Our last was on the Ruby in 2012 and was a bit of a disappointment. We love the Emerald mini's almost Aft that are covered. Something off, not bad, just meh.

 

Our first Celebrity was in 1994, our last 3, 2013,14,15 and next up are all with Celebrity, with 3 in a row on the Equinox. The S-class ship are a joy to sail on.

 

Deb n Gary,

Being very experienced cruisers, you probably won't have that ouuuu, n awwwww feel, but when handed a glass of bubbly when first boarding to sip as you explore a new place, you may wonder why you didn't try Celebrity sooner.

EW