Comparisons; Carnival/Celebrity

[gone_cruisin]

My husband and I are booked on the Zenith for Feb 2006. In the past, we have only cruised with Carnival. We are in early to mid 30's and have always shied away from RCCL and HAL because Carinval catered to the younger crowd (maybe a little too young for us now, if you know what I mean). Due to several minor nuissance from the cruiseline, we decided after the last cruise that we wanted to try something different.

 

What I am looking for is a comparison between the two as to what I can expect. In particular, what costs extra (ie, coffee and tea at dinner; some eating areas having a surcharge).

 

Any other differences anyone would like to point would be greatly appreciated also.

 

I look forward to trying Celebrity and hope that they surpass my expectations.

 

Thanks

[donnaw]

Welcome to X and if the crowd at Carnival is getting a little too young, you'll have a wonderful time. The link to the review below will go over some of the highlighted differences. We have only done one Carnival so no specific comparisons though much will be similar to Princess since Carnival is their parent company.

 

As to the Zenith, no specialty restaurants. You can eat in the buffet area (table service) at night and there is a minimal charge (something like $2.50/pp) for tip. Charge for specialty coffees and teas in the dining room and Cova (or Tastings based on ship).

 

Have a great cruise!

[Tatka]

What Carnival ships have you sailed on?

[gone_cruisin]

Victory 2001

Inspiration 2002

Paradise 2004

[chessbriar]

The Zenith is not a good comparision to the ships you have sailed on. It's much smaller and doesn't have the features of the newer ships. On top of that the short 4/5 doesn't give you a complete X eperience. that's one of the problems with the shorter cruises.

[tuggers]

I love the smaller ships so Zenith is one of my favorites, well, I guess now with Horizon gone, it is my favorite!

 

I'm not sure about the crowd you will get on a very short cruise. It may be more in the vein of a Carnival just because of the type of crowd you will have.

 

Menus will be different. Carnival, I believe, still uses a menu with 'Starters' where they lump Appetizers, Soup and Salads together. Celebrity serves those and has a menu for, three different courses as mentioned above. Then your Entree, Dessert and Cheese and Fruit. Dinner may take a little longer than you are used to because of this.

 

Service should be much better.

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise.

[donnaw]

I love the smaller ships so Zenith is one of my favorites, well, I guess now with Horizon gone, it is my favorite!

 

I'm not sure about the crowd you will get on a very short cruise. It may be more in the vein of a Carnival just because of the type of crowd you will have.

 

Menus will be different. Carnival, I believe, still uses a menu with 'Starters' where they lump Appetizers, Soup and Salads together. Celebrity serves those and has a menu for, three different courses as mentioned above. Then your Entree, Dessert and Cheese and Fruit. Dinner may take a little longer than you are used to because of this.

 

Service should be much better.

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise.

 

Yes, I know I'm shouting. We all thought you were going to be back on Monday! Great Cruises? No injuries? More later!

[gone_cruisin]

Thanks for all your info everyone.

 

To be honest my husband has cruised on Celebrity during Century's first year of service. He couldn't remember much about the little things, but he did say he liked Celebrity alot better than Carnival.

 

I am absolutely amazed at the amount of cruises people in here take a year (and how far out you plan ahead). I didn't know it was possible. My husband and I swore to take one cruise a year, mainly because our work isn't so forgiving about allowing us that much time off all at once. I envy you guys! Maybe when we retire?

[Setme2sail]

Hi Gone Cruisin,

My DH & I sailed on the Zenith on Nov 28th for our first X cruise and we both loved it. My DH loves Carnival, we have sailed them 7 times. I have gotten him to sail other lines, Princess, NCL, RCI and he always said that Carnival was his favorite until after this X cruise. Me, any cruise, away from phone calls from work is a good cruise.

 

The ship is older and smaller but IMO it was well maintained. The only inconvience was having a cabin key and sea card instead of both being the same card. We enjoyed the food and the service was good. The staff went out of their way to learn and use your name. I also had my tray carried for me by staff everytime we ate in the buffet, something that I have never had happen on a Carnival cruise. Another difference on this cruise from Carnival was you didn't have constant announcements, but they were just as annoying selling the Drink of the Day, and water. The deck chairs on pool level were padded and covered instead of just the strap chairs on Carnival. You could also get towels at the pool without having to give your sign & sail card.

 

My DH was won over to X by our cabin steward. My DH had medication that requires being kept cool. He always take a small cooler and has our cabin steward fill it with ice. He ask our steward for ice when we meet him. We then went to eat lunch, when we returned there was no ice, and DH made comment about him not getting ice yet. But, I reminded him that he was very busy with everyone boarding and I was sure that it would be taken care of that night when he turned the bed down. Well, when we got back from dinner, there was still no ice in the cooler-BUT I noticed a small refrigerator on the floor. Needless to say DH was very impressed.

 

If you have any specific question I will try to answer them for you. We still like Carnival and will sail them again when we cruise with family with children, but for a relaxing adult cruise X is it.:)

[gone_cruisin]

We still like Carnival and will sail them again when we cruise with family with children, but for a relaxing adult cruise X is it.:)

 

That's the main reason why we wanted to switch. I had nothing against Carnival, they had always treated us great. It was the kind of cruisers they attracted that made us decide to switch. There were just too many unruly/unsupervised children. I'm not faulting Carnival because we knew going into it that they drew a younger crowd.

 

My heart was set on going on RCCL (one of their mega ships), but couldn't get enough time away from work for a 7 day cruise. So we shopped the 5 days and couldn't resist this one.

 

I am not opposed to ever sailing with Carnival again, but it would definitely have to be during the school season. Who knows, maybe this cruise will make me change my view?

[CruiseReg]

We're literally in the same boat, literally and figuratively. My Wife, 3 yr old daughter and myself will be on the same cruise. We've done 15+ cruises (3 with our daughter) on Carnival and this is our first time trying another cruise line. We're also in our mid-30's and we're also interested seeing what our lines are like. Lastly, we're going to be on the 2/11 Zenith sailing :)

 

Its definitely going to be interesting since there were several things I liked about Carnival, mainly being able to be truly laid back with regards to dress. For the Zenith cruise, I'll once again pack my tuxedo. We'll sail Carnival again, but we definitely want to sample HAL, NCL and Princess also. It makes me sick to think that if we had been sailing on some of the other lines we'd get *real* amenities for the number of cruises we've been on. On Carnival I got a Platinum Sail & Sign card that was good for nothing more than shipboard personnel saying "welcome back." That was nice, but I'd rather have free internet time!

[donnaw]

We're literally in the same boat, literally and figuratively. My Wife, 3 yr old daughter and myself will be on the same cruise. We've done 15+ cruises (3 with our daughter) on Carnival and this is our first time trying another cruise line. We're also in our mid-30's and we're also interested seeing what our lines are like. Lastly, we're going to be on the 2/11 Zenith sailing :)

 

Its definitely going to be interesting since there were several things I liked about Carnival, mainly being able to be truly laid back with regards to dress. For the Zenith cruise, I'll once again pack my tuxedo. We'll sail Carnival again, but we definitely want to sample HAL, NCL and Princess also. It makes me sick to think that if we had been sailing on some of the other lines we'd get *real* amenities for the number of cruises we've been on. On Carnival I got a Platinum Sail & Sign card that was good for nothing more than shipboard personnel saying "welcome back." That was nice, but I'd rather have free internet time!

 

If that is one of the things that is a priority then try Princess. Second level on Princess gets unlimited free access during non peak times. That said, we still took X where we are one short of the next level with 10 minutes of free access! Enough other plusses to make up for paying for internet.

 

I'm sure that the 5 day X is much better than the short Carnival cruises and you'll have a fantastic vacation!

[Shellyld6]

Hi there we too have only cruised on Carnival BUt will be on the Mercury Mon. We loved Carnival but it wil be just my husband and myself (36-33).So we wanted to try somthing new that was a little more upscale.I wil let you know when I return on my thoughts and differences. It wont be the Zenith but my have info to help.. Good luck Shelly

[CruiseReg]

If that is one of the things that is a priority then try Princess. Second level on Princess gets unlimited free access during non peak times. That said, we still took X where we are one short of the next level with 10 minutes of free access! Enough other plusses to make up for paying for internet.

Its not really a priority, just an example when comparing past guest programs. We'll still end up sampling more lines.

I'm sure that the 5 day X is much better than the short Carnival cruises and you'll have a fantastic vacation!

I'm sure we will too, simply being on a cruise ship is usually good enough for us to have a great time!

[CruiseReg]

Hi there we too have only cruised on Carnival BUt will be on the Mercury Mon. We loved Carnival but it wil be just my husband and myself (36-33).So we wanted to try somthing new that was a little more upscale.I wil let you know when I return on my thoughts and differences. It wont be the Zenith but my have info to help.. Good luck Shelly

I hope you guys have a great time! I'm 36 and my wife is 35, so I'll be very interested in your experience next week.

 

Have a great cruise!

[gone_cruisin]

I'm sure we will too, simply being on a cruise ship is usually good enough for us to have a great time!

 

 

Here here! Anything to get away from this cold weather.

[gone_cruisin]

Look forward to seeing you there Cruisreg.