Celebrity versus Princess

[Tatka]

For us both of them are #1 out of 8 lines we cruised with although due to logistics and not a large presence in Northeast we only have 6 cruises with each. (At this point our "leaders" are Royal Caribbean with 14 and NCL with 9. Both of them beat Princess and Celebrity in entertainment, but lose at refinement)

 

• Celebrity is a bit more refined with more touches of luxury. I always thought cabins were the only one weakness of Princess.. now after upgrade "Revolution" Celebrity added even more luxury there. This is how our inside room on Summit looked like last week. There are other nice touches like nice towels weighting for guests at loungers,  headphones in gym etc.
• Food is the best on both lines. Although buffet on Royal Princess to us was the best in the industry.
• We love Princess's pool setup especially on Grand class, but  Princess lacks indoor pools which is a shame as cruises convenient to us to Canada/NE require indoor pool. Celebrity's inside pools are beautiful and on Millennium class they are even therapeutic.
• Internet is more expensive on Celebrity and streaming internet is TOO expensive especially if you compare to new internet on Princess.
• We are Elite on Celebrity (via Royal Caribbean) and perks for Elites are amazing and better t what we saw for Princess Elites (Breakfast daily with Mimosa/BM/Bellinis in special restaurants, Happy 2 hours in special lounge and any bars from limited menus etc). Princess provides 150-250 Free minutes at Platinum level (but internet is so cheap we just bought unlimited for upcoming cruise. Actually our TA gave it to us for free for 4 devices, but at that price we would buy it without second sought)
• None of these lines is famous for active night life or entertainment, but we find Princess  to be more fun in this regard.

[Cruise Raider]

17 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Cruise Raider, how many X cruises have you been on and which 3 cruises and associated number of days and which years were these cancellations in? You’re making it sound like X does this all the time. 

 

I didn't mean to make it sound like that and don't think they cancel any more cruises than any other line.  This probably wouldn't have even happened to me once except for the fact that these sailings were booked way out ahead of time.  

 

We've had over a dozen cruises on Celebrity so far over the last 2 decades. 

 

One was a 7 night in 2004 on the old Mercury. I was offered an 11 night sailing with some OBC in exchange.

 

One was a 14 night sailing on the Infinity to Alaska in 2015, was offered other sailings for the same price or a 9 night Pacific Coastal sailing at a greatly reduced price with OBC + retention of perks from the original booking.   

 

The last one was a 7 day sailing on the Eclipse for next month.  Again, they offered us other sailings including a more expensive 9 night sailing for November for the same price + OBC and the perks that came with the original booking.  

 

So, they really do compensate those passengers quite generously that have to rearrange their schedules ... at least, that's been my experience. 

 

We were also on the other end of one those itineraries that was rerouted from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean.  We got an awesome deal on that sailing in Nov 2017 plus all 4 perks.  Again, I may have been miffed if I had my heart set on a particular time and itinerary or event.  But, as it worked out, all of those sailings above were an opportunity for me, though.   Not sure if there was an asterisk by our name while on those replacement sailings but we sure were treated like royalty.  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

[suekay]

We are in the opposite situation. We are Platinum on Princess but haven't sailed with them since 2002, whereas we are Elite on Celebrity.  We've booked a Far East cruise on Princess as it's going to three ports we haven't  visited on the same old same old Celebrity itineraries.  We'll miss the Celebrity Elite perks but are looking forward to re-visiting Grand Princess. For us it's about itinerary and price. We're pretty easy to please and have enjoyed all our 40 cruises on nine different lines. 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

I didn't mean to make it sound like that and don't think they cancel any more cruises than any other line.  This probably wouldn't have even happened to me once except for the fact that these sailings were booked way out ahead of time.  

 

We've had over a dozen cruises on Celebrity so far over the last 2 decades. 

 

One was a 7 night in 2004 on the old Mercury. I was offered an 11 night sailing with some OBC in exchange.

 

One was a 14 night sailing on the Infinity to Alaska in 2015, was offered other sailings for the same price or a 9 night Pacific Coastal sailing at a greatly reduced price with OBC + retention of perks from the original booking.   

 

The last one was a 7 day sailing on the Eclipse for next month.  Again, they offered us other sailings including a more expensive 9 night sailing for November for the same price + OBC and the perks that came with the original booking.  

 

So, they really do compensate those passengers quite generously that have to rearrange their schedules ... at least, that's been my experience. 

 

We were also on the other end of one those itineraries that was rerouted from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean.  We got an awesome deal on that sailing in Nov 2017 plus all 4 perks.  Again, I may have been miffed if I had my heart set on a particular time and itinerary or event.  But, as it worked out, all of those sailings above were an opportunity for me, though.   Not sure if there was an asterisk by our name while on those replacement sailings but we sure were treated like royalty.  

Thanks! Makes sense. We book as soon as a cruise comes out as well.

[Cruise Raider]

6 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! Makes sense. We book as soon as a cruise comes out as well.

 

I just have to mention ... we were booked on an NCL cruise a couple of years back.  They switched their itinerary from Alaska to Cuba .  They only offered us $25 in obc to change our itinerary.  I don't dislike them for this but it was the first time I gave a cruise line a flat out, 'no thanks'.  

 

I also noticed another one of your posts on these boards.  One of our cruises was chartered by Salesforce and another was for, I believe, an LGBT sailing.  Sometimes, Celebrity charters their cruises for a Bliss cruise ... 'anything goes' and we have no interest in that.  

[Ken the cruiser]

14 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

I just have to mention ... we were booked on an NCL cruise a couple of years back.  They switched their itinerary from Alaska to Cuba .  They only offered us $25 in obc to change our itinerary.  I don't dislike them for this but it was the first time I gave a cruise line a flat out, 'no thanks'.  

 

I also noticed another one of your posts on these boards.  One of our cruises was chartered by Salesforce and another was for, I believe, an LGBT sailing.  Sometimes, Celebrity charters their cruises for a Bliss cruise ... 'anything goes' and we have no interest in that.  

It was our discussion on this thread that got me curious about chartered cruises in general and why and how often they occur on X. As it turns out, it seems quite often.

[Tatka]

7 hours ago, suekay said:

We are in the opposite situation. We are Platinum on Princess but haven't sailed with them since 2002, whereas we are Elite on Celebrity.  We've booked a Far East cruise on Princess as it's going to three ports we haven't  visited on the same old same old Celebrity itineraries.  We'll miss the Celebrity Elite perks but are looking forward to re-visiting Grand Princess. For us it's about itinerary and price. We're pretty easy to please and have enjoyed all our 40 cruises on nine different lines. 

 

Grand is such a nice ship. We sailed on her out of Southampton to Bruges and Scandinavia. Loved the ship and indoor pool came handy. I wish Princess kept indoor pools!

 

Elite perks on X are amazing. We just sailed as Elites for the first time and loved breakfast in Tuscan Grill... Sky lounge end other perks. Princess has much cheaper internet, and Platinums (which we are) have free 250 minutes on 8 days or longer cruises.

[dog]

On 2/7/2019 at 11:51 AM, Ferndale Girl said:

I just saw a Celebrity cruise advertised that Princess doesn't offer.  Iceland and Greenland back to back from New Jersey - no flying involved.  We've taken many Princess cruises but never one with Celebrity.  I think I read somewhere that Celebrity isn't as good.  Has anybody that has been on Celebrity have anything good to say about it?  Any comments would be appreciated.

 

I've been on 14 Princess cruises and 3 Celebrity cruises. IMO, Princess food quality and service are a step below Celebrity. I like Celebrity balcony cabin better with the sofa--have to take a higher category to get that on Princess. Otherwise, they are comparable, IMO.

[abbydancer2003]

16 hours ago, Tatka said:

For us both of them are #1 out of 8 lines we cruised with although due to logistics and not a large presence in Northeast we only have 6 cruises with each. (At this point our "leaders" are Royal Caribbean with 14 and NCL with 9. Both of them beat Princess and Celebrity in entertainment, but lose at refinement)

 

•  
• We are Elite on Celebrity (via Royal Caribbean) and perks for Elites are amazing and better t what we saw for Princess Elites (Breakfast daily with Mimosa/BM/Bellinis in special restaurants, Happy 2 hours in special lounge and any bars from limited menus etc). Princess provides 150-250 Free minutes at Platinum level (but internet is so cheap we just bought unlimited for upcoming cruise. Actually our TA gave it to us for free for 4 devices, but at that price we would buy it without second sought)

 

 

I tend to agree with much of this post, but I wanted to point out that the Mimosa breakfast on Princess is for suites - not for Elites, unless they are in a suite.    And the drinks in the Elite (and Platinum so after 5 cruises) lounge aren't free, but a special menu of discounted specific drinks.  Also Elites on Princess get unlimited free laundry and a few other perks.  It's also much easier to reach, I think.

[villauk]

6 hours ago, Tatka said:

 

Grand is such a nice ship. We sailed on her out of Southampton to Bruges and Scandinavia. Loved the ship and indoor pool came handy. I wish Princess kept indoor pools!

 

Elite perks on X are amazing. We just sailed as Elites for the first time and loved breakfast in Tuscan Grill... Sky lounge end other perks. Princess has much cheaper internet, and Platinums (which we are) have free 250 minutes on 8 days or longer cruises.

 

 

We enjoyed the Grand to Alaska last year from SF. 

 

Yes, the perks are nice but we don’t cruise for perks - itinerary is top of our list. We’ve always had the Elite perks on X as we moved over from Royal as Diamond. Tbf, we didn’t miss them on our Princess cruises, except for the priority tender boarding at one port. The internet is so much more reasonable on Princess and the Edge prices have been astronomic for a cabin with a pull down window (aka the new balcony on X). I would agree with dog that the food is slightly better on X. Entertainment is better on Princess. Overall, it’s six of one and half-a-dozen of the other - more similar than different.

[Cruise Raider]

14 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

It was our discussion on this thread that got me curious about chartered cruises in general and why and how often they occur on X. As it turns out, it seems quite often.

 

I can see where you may think that although, there is a significant difference between canceling an itinerary for the sake of chartering a particular sailing after it has been released to the public and originally scheduling the ship for a charter.  I don't think either is a very common occurrence, though.  But, social media brings attention to it like we've never had in the past.  And, it's the ones that are require canceling booked passengers of a cruise that garner the attention.  Other lines may have a charter in mind so they don't release that itinerary very far in advance so, they risk losing out on those that book early.  It's probably more economically feasible for them to cancel a small percentage of booked cabins along with offering some compensation than to keep the sailing off the radar when most companies won't commit to a charter more than a year in advance.  It doesn't make it easier for some passengers that have already booked if their heart was set on that particular sailing but, I can see where is understandable as to why they do this.  

I know others may disagree with this tactic but, I almost always book under refundable deposits when I book out over a year in advance ... and I book a back up sailing on another line as well.  That way, I don't get burned.  I do pay more for the cruise under refundable deposits but that is the price I am willing to pay.  

[Tatka]

10 hours ago, abbydancer said:

I tend to agree with much of this post, but I wanted to point out that the Mimosa breakfast on Princess is for suites - not for Elites, unless they are in a suite.    And the drinks in the Elite (and Platinum so after 5 cruises) lounge aren't free, but a special menu of discounted specific drinks.  Also Elites on Princess get unlimited free laundry and a few other perks.  It's also much easier to reach, I think.

 

 On Celebrity you have 2 hours breakfast for Elites with all mentioned drinks and 2 hours Happy hours for Elites daily except for the first day with limited menu in Sky lounge or any bar except for World bar and MDR.

 

 It is similar to Royal which is parent for Celebrity. But there you don't have a breakfast with drinks, but your happy hour is 3.5 hours at night and you have access to lounge whole day with breakfast (no drinks) and specialty coffee throughout the day

 

 

I do not see brandy or cognac, but my husband was getting Hennesy or Courvoisier

[abbydancer2003]

2 hours ago, Tatka said:

 

 On Celebrity you have 2 hours breakfast for Elites with all mentioned drinks and 2 hours Happy hours for Elites daily except for the first day with limited menu in Sky lounge or any bar except for World bar and MDR.

 

 It is similar to Royal which is parent for Celebrity. But there you don't have a breakfast with drinks, but your happy hour is 3.5 hours at night and you have access to lounge whole day with breakfast (no drinks) and specialty coffee throughout the day

 

 

I do not see brandy or cognac, but my husband was getting Hennesy or Courvoisier

Yes, I know.  I usually have the drink package on Celebrity, so don't need the free drinks, but I do enjoy sitting there.  I've also been in a few suites on Princess, and their suite breakfast has a full menu.  We've also ordered off the menu a couple of times.  The Elite breakfast on X is also very nice.  On Princess, no Elite breakfast perk.  

[dianedebuda]

Interesting thread for me since my whole cruising history consists of a single Alaska cuisetour last month on the Coral.  I'm still trying to thaw out from that.🤭  Have now booked a Celebrity Summit Caribbean cruise just because of the itinerary.

 

My Coral cruise was nice, but not spectacular for a few reasons:

1-the weather, cold, overcast and rainy with the wildfire smoke making some of land portion difficult.  Truly just bad luck and nothing anyone could do anything about.

 

2-Ate in the MDR (early seating) where I found most of the food was just "ok".  Hot dishes served luke warm; beef dishes were low quality - gristly and had little taste; Alfredo noodles hard with little sauce; etc.  Nothing really good or bad to say about the service.  Will be doing Anytime-type on the Summit and hoping for better.

 

3-The shows - one of the reasons I'd booked Princess originally.  The 2 that I saw, Bijou something and Encore were basically just back-to-back songs.  So how is that different from Celebrity's shows?  I'd expected Silk or Magic, but the only other show was a rock-review from a singer and that's not my genre.

 

The Coral was nice & seemed to be the right size for us which prompted us to look for a similarly sized ship for the next cruise.  We had a balcony cabin on the Coral which was fine size-wise for us; we'll have an inside on the Summit.

 

Just a couple of points from my current readings on the Celebrity board related to earlier thread posts here:

-The free in cabin movies are being brought back because of public uproar; don't know when or any other details. 

-The footstools are also supposed to be back in a couple of months again because of public uproar.

 

Thoughts from a lowly, non-perked perspective.

 

 

Edited September 23, 2019 by dianedebuda

[villauk]

On 9/14/2019 at 11:50 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

From your experience, what happens when you have a cruise booked with X and it is subsequently chartered? We have booked the Apr 2021 14 day Japan circumnavigation and subsequent TP cruise back to Vancouver. How much time in advance does X usually let you know if they decide to charter it out?

 

 

Ken,

 

7 months out on this one and they have now chartered the ship:

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by villauk

[Ken the cruiser]

9 hours ago, villauk said:

 

 

Ken,

 

7 months out on this one and they have now chartered the ship:

 

That’s a bummer. I wonder how full that Equinox cruise was when they decided to charter it out? Didn’t I read somewhere they wouldn’t do it if the ship was at least 25% booked?

[NantahalaCruiser]

On 2/7/2019 at 12:53 PM, ggprincess2004 said:

We did not like the elevators, as they were all mid-ship, none were forward or aft, so our aft suite was not a really convenient location. But there were lots of elevators.

Celebrity's S-class and E-class ships DO have both mid-ship and forward elevators. And their M-class ships have forward, mid-ship and aft elevators.

[villauk]

11 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

That’s a bummer. I wonder how full that Equinox cruise was when they decided to charter it out? Didn’t I read somewhere they wouldn’t do it if the ship was at least 25% booked?

 

 

Personally, I think that it doesn’t matter how many cabins have been sold - it’s all about the bottom line. If chartering it out results in more $, that’s what they’ll do.