Skipping to Crystal over Food

[Able Seaman H]

Does anyone have any experience with Windstar, compared to Seabourn, Oceania, or Crystal? There is a transpacific that looks very tempting.

 

Windstar bought the 3 oldest ships from Seabourn and run them as Pride, Breeze & Legend. Personally coming from RC I think you might get distracted by the age of them. Older customers of Seabourn look back on the 3 sisters with rose tinted spectacles and are largely remembering the service but you would miss the decor and design of a RC ship.

 

I would suggest Seabourn on the basis their ships have the same modern fresh feel that a RC ship has. There isn't a huge culture shock and you don't keep thinking "it's old fashioned and a bit tired".

 

Also passenger numbers on Seabourn at between 450 - 600 are a great balance between having enough choice of who you socialise with and lots of space / individual service. The staff really will know you by name after the first couple of days.

 

Henry :)

[Able Seaman H]

Many of the replies supporting RC keep talking about how cheap the cruises are. The problem is we didn't find that once you factored in premium accommodation on board. If you price up a premium suite on RC you are comfortably in the realms of Seabourn fares.

 

 

Keep in mind the cheapest Seabourn balcony suite is 300 sq ft. The standard Royal Caribbean balcony cabin is 180 sq ft, a junior suite 270 sq ft and a Grand Suite 360 sq ft.

 

 

I'm also confused at some of the prices being quoted for premium dining on RC. Someone is quoting the Johnny Rockets cover charge as being $5 when others claim it is $13.95 - presumably plus additional costs of $5-6 for a milkshake bringing the total with service to $20 or more ?

 

 

Also is Chops $50 or $20? - for the main evening meal, I'm not interested in lunch when you should be out there doing stuff around the ship anyway :)

 

 

Henry :)

[Stateroom_Sailor]

Many of the replies supporting RC keep talking about how cheap the cruises are. The problem is we didn't find that once you factored in premium accommodation on board. If you price up a premium suite on RC you are comfortably in the realms of Seabourn fares.

 

I'm also confused at some of the prices being quoted for premium dining on RC. Someone is quoting the Johnny Rockets cover charge as being $5 when others claim it is $13.95 - presumably plus additional costs of $5-6 for a milkshake bringing the total with service to $20 or more ?

 

I would without a doubt, book Seabourn over a mass market suite. We just tend to go Veranda or OV, on discounted reposition cruises, where mass market is financially the best option. I would jump on luxury deal in a heartbeat!

 

Johnny Rockets was $5 in 2014. $13.95, I guess that's inflation. :rolleyes:

[rafinmd]

Does anyone have any experience with Windstar, compared to Seaboard, Oceania, or Crystal? There is a transpacific that looks very tempting.

On my next RCI cruise I go from Diamond to D+ and have 43 Crystal cruises and 4 on Windstar, including 2 transatlantics (all on the sailing ships). Windstar has fabulous service, great food and while the ships are old they are in excellent condition. I feel the price of Windstar tends to be a little too far along the line from RCI to Crystal but if you see something at a price you like that's not an issue.

 

 

One word of caution, there are very few activities on Seabourn crossings and you need to be able to entertain yourself. Daily trivia was a highlight for me and there were some other things like cooking demonstrations but not a lot. If you're comfortable with that I'll highly recommend Windstar.

 

Roy

[Garavar]

Why can't we all just live in harmony? (Not the ship). We are Diamond on Royal and Diamond on Crystal. We are booking Crystal 2-3 times a year and supplementing with Royal for short getaways, in between. Both can be done, we can co-exist.

 

But yes we prefer Crystal, 100 times better experience all around.

 

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[Cuizer2]

Or do land tours of cities with famous steak houses. For me, food is way down the list.

 

Yet I'll bet you can go longer without a cruise than you can without food. :evilsmile:

[Stateroom_Sailor]

Why can't we all just live in harmony? (Not the ship). We are Diamond on Royal and Diamond on Crystal. We are booking Crystal 2-3 times a year and supplementing with Royal for short getaways, in between. Both can be done, we can co-exist.

 

It's time isn't it?

 

[Garavar]

It's time isn't it?

 

[ATTACH]422899[/ATTACH]

Love it

 

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[riandei]

We are elite on celebrity and made the jump to crystal. While have also cruised on celebrity since jumping and have enjoyed ourselves.

 

There is no comparison in the food department and also in the entertainment department. Crystal entertainment is for us...we enjoy it and find it to be high quality.

 

When we add all the EXTRAS in to a celebrity cruise the per diem comparison is very similar....and actually when comparing celebrity suite to crystal, crystal wins.

 

We still enjoy Rcl and celebrity...but im always looking for a good deal on a crystal and its my line of choice.

[papaflamingo]

No such thing as an "inside cabin" on Crystal so calling YOUR bluff. People don't knock it till you try it. Imagine not paying for specialty dining, room service free, specialty coffees and ice cream all included. It is a real vacation not a $999 cruise with thousands of dollars of add ons. We went from Princess to Crystal. Then again you guys are all experts on this luxury bashing you have never tried.

Try reading ALL the posts before ranting. I already responded to my error, read post 51. By the way, I never bashed luxury cruises, I am taking one this fall. :rolleyes:

[nelblu]

This thread is getting to be a joke.

[LMaxwell]

Loyal Royals think the food is great; they won't go on another cruiseline and don't break routine at home. They are comfortable in not knowing what they are missing.

[starrcards]

We've only eaten in one specialty restaurant in all of our cruises and it was the Italian place on NCL. Paid $15pp for it. The meal that we had would have cost about $50 in one of our favorite Italian restaurants at home. The apps and dessert were great, the entrée was so-so. The chicken parm was excellent, but the spaghetti side was atrocious. The noodles reminded me of canned noodles because they were so overcooked and the sauce was reminiscent of tomato soup. Our subsequent cruise was on CCL and we had the same dish served in the MDR and it was better than what we paid for on NCL. We don't put a lot of stock in specialty restaurants.

 

 

Way, way off topic I know, but why does RCCL serve chicken parm over mashed potatoes rather than pasta?

[boscobeans]

Our first cruise was in 2001 on Celebrity's Zenith. We booked a suite (before they had verandas) for a 7 day Bermuda cruise.

 

There were NO specialty anythings at the time, just a fantastic experience that was what got us hooked.

 

From excellent food and spectacular service at the buffet, the MDR as well as room service.

 

Formal nights with white gloved waiters and dressed seating in the MDR and meals prepared and served as close to many 5 star restaurants on land.

 

We paid $2,700. back then and would gladly pay the same, with an appropriate inflation amount added.

 

During the past 18 years and a few dozen more cruises on X, Royal, HAL and even one (never again) NCL even when staying in categories including several in Royal suites, Sky suites and others the experience has lost a lot in every aspect.

 

Specialty restaurants, from the earliest we tried on Celebrity (the Olympic on the Millie) to those on Royal and HAL, which were excellent in every way when they began have gone down to about the quality of the old days in an MDR .

 

STILL, we will continue to cruise as often as time permits and enjoy every minute of every one.

 

bosco

[xpcdoojk]

Loyal Royals think the food is great; they won't go on another cruiseline and don't break routine at home. They are comfortable in not knowing what they are missing.

 

Kind of simplistic don’t you think?:') Gotta love broad generalizations, that prove only your personal bias.

 

Love great food, and sometimes I get it on a RCI cruise. There are some things I don’t like on RCI cruises. I don’t eat that, I order something else. I am sure when I am ready for a hover round I will be sailing on Crystal. I might even go on HAL again.:evilsmile:

 

JC

[LMaxwell]

Kind of simplistic don’t you think?:') Gotta love broad generalizations, that prove only your personal bias.

 

It's a fair generalization of this forum; any of the brand forums on here. there is a set of vocal loyalists that think everything is great, but they won't try anything else. How do you take seriously the opinion of people who at the same time have a lot of knowledge, but almost no comparative basis? This has nothing to do with bias and I'll thank you to save your personal cheap shots for just one day, as difficult as it will be for you to do so.

[Garavar]

This thread is getting to be a joke.

Isn't every thread on CC a joke?

Loyal Royals think the food is great; they won't go on another cruiseline and don't break routine at home. They are comfortable in not knowing what they are missing.

My fiancé is like this about dessert. She is a Registered Dietitian and won't try a dessert she has never had because she might like it, crave it, seek it and get fat.

 

She believes if she never has the dessert she won't know what she is missing. It's a good strategy since she is a bone and I am a house. She eats nasty diet desserts and moans thinking they are so delicious.

 

Anyway the Loyal Royals are the same, comfortable with Royal, not knowing what they are missing. But if they ever go on Crystal get a taste of 6 star, they will likely forever be tainted and unable to return to the Diet Cruise Line.

 

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[StolidCruiser]

Kind of simplistic don’t you think?:') Gotta love broad generalizations, that prove only your personal bias.

 

Love great food, and sometimes I get it on a RCI cruise. There are some things I don’t like on RCI cruises. I don’t eat that, I order something else. I am sure when I am ready for a hover round I will be sailing on Crystal. I might even go on HAL again.:evilsmile:

 

 

JC

 

Gotta love broad generalizations, that prove only your personal bias.

[Garavar]

I am sure when I am ready for a hover round I will be sailing on Crystal. I might even go on HAL again.:evilsmile:

 

JC

 

I have seen exactly 0 Hover Round/Scooters on Crystal. In contrast I have seen hundreds on Royal.

 

The median age seems to be 60s. We are 33 years old and not always the youngest cruisers.

 

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[sparks1093]

Way, way off topic I know, but why does RCCL serve chicken parm over mashed potatoes rather than pasta?

 

Isn't there a law against that?:') Still, I probably would have enjoyed mashed potatoes more than the overcooked noodles they gave me.

[st5310]

Doug and Cindy, I hear ya. Crystal? You go for it! Higher-end luxury lines spend more per passenger on food quality and it definitely shows. If food is that important, then you certainly have my blessing (not that you need it). For us, a good alternative is suite level on Celebrity (Sky & above) that provides access to Luminae which several on this thread have mentioned. Luminae has the look and taste of a specialty dining venue, but is open to suites for every meal. After you've experienced your first Crystal cruise, I would love to hear about it.

[xpcdoojk]

Gotta love broad generalizations, that prove only your personal bias.

 

That part was making a joke. People who know me, know I cruise RCI because of the Flowrider. I don’t think Crystal or any of them have a flowrider.

 

We sailed HAL one time and there was not a single person on the ship under the age of 18.

 

JC

[Artful]

I'm a bit of a foodie and have been disappointed with the food on my last Royal and NCL cruises. I was looking for an alternative one day and stumbled on a thread someone started in the Celebrity section about jumping from that line to Oceania. Oceania claims to have one of the better culinary programs at sea. After a little homework, I was pretty surprised at how close the all-in number is for an Oceania cruise when compared to the RCI cruise I have booked in January. I'd have to make some sacrifice in cabin (JS vs. Balcony) but might be worth it for some.

 

If it is an R class Oceania ship, that sacrifice might be greater than you think - we were on Regatta last April and found our concierge balcony room small with the bathroom tiny and the shower a bad joke. The food was sometimes excellent and other times not. Afternoon tea was lovely. We did not care for the buffet at all and never ate there after the first time or two. The highly touted lobster and beef sandwich was horrible - lobster undercooked and steak tough. Specialty restaurants were very good. Main dining room hit or miss.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

That part was making a joke. People who know me, know I cruise RCI because of the Flowrider. I don’t think Crystal or any of them have a flowrider.

 

We sailed HAL one time and there was not a single person on the ship under the age of 18.

 

JC

 

HAL has flowriders coming to the Crow's Nest next drydock cycle :p