Return to Celebrity

[Dr. Cocktail]

1 hour ago, keithm said:

We love Oceania, but the late Feb. cruise on Riviera just doesn't work for us this time. McDonalds Corp. chartered the Riviera for nearly all of Jan. This really messed things up.

Seabourn's quality has really tanked since HAL took over managing the line. NEVER let a "standard" line manage another line. It's why Cunard had some real issues some years back when Princess managed their home office. Silver sea is a bit above our price range. Without a doubt Cunard's Grill class was the best we ever did back in 2009 & 2010. No problem dressing up. If anything, the downward spiral to trash dressing annoys the crap out of us. This is what we liked about Cunard. The Grills have really gotten expensive in the past few years. The reason we went with the Silhouette next Jan. is the fact it nearly matches the itinerary of the Riviera's cruise next Feb. As to comments about MSC Seaside, we had looked at doing an inside in the Yacht Club. It's an inside, but reasonably priced & you get ALL the perks the rest of Yacht Club gets. I'd like to hear about those who've sailed in Yacht club & whether they liked it. The Seaside is very new, so not too many responses there.

 

Hello KeithM!

 

Have spent 21 days in the Seaside YC this past year so I'm happy to comment.

 

The YC itself is spectacular with a fantastic lounge with live music every night from about 5:30 to midnite and a beautiful 
"private" sundeck and pool. Getting a chair is never a challenge and it's great actually having a physical bar in both venues where you can interact with the bartenders, staff and fellow guests.  There is a breakfast and lunch buffet  outside and a continental and hors' doerve buffet inside that is open for about 20 hours (!) a day.

 

The decor is totally MSC .... for better or worse, it is completely dictated by the Aponte Family (the owners) and I can assure you that Kelly Hoppen would be aghast .....

 

We visited an interior YC cabin and while it had all of the YC features and amenities, storage was extremely tight and there wasn't a lot of seating.

 

The YC restaurant is delightful with one glaring liability ... the beef is truly terrible. Like scary.

Still ... the seafood is excellent as are all the pastas and fabulous cheeses.

 

You can get a package for the specialty restaurants for about $100 which is for 3 meals. Unlike their competitors, it's a Prix Fixe type of package ... one ap, one main and dessert.

 

It's funny ... we left Celebrity after about 250 nights on board 6 years ago and will return this year in their new "Suite Class" . While people are petrified of MSC, we are scared about Celebrity!

[keithm]

51 minutes ago, Dr. Cocktail said:

 

Hello KeithM!

 

Have spent 21 days in the Seaside YC this past year so I'm happy to comment.

 

The YC itself is spectacular with a fantastic lounge with live music every night from about 5:30 to midnite and a beautiful 
"private" sundeck and pool. Getting a chair is never a challenge and it's great actually having a physical bar in both venues where you can interact with the bartenders, staff and fellow guests.  There is a breakfast and lunch buffet  outside and a continental and hors' doerve buffet inside that is open for about 20 hours (!) a day.

 

The decor is totally MSC .... for better or worse, it is completely dictated by the Aponte Family (the owners) and I can assure you that Kelly Hoppen would be aghast .....

 

We visited an interior YC cabin and while it had all of the YC features and amenities, storage was extremely tight and there wasn't a lot of seating.

 

The YC restaurant is delightful with one glaring liability ... the beef is truly terrible. Like scary.

Still ... the seafood is excellent as are all the pastas and fabulous cheeses.

 

You can get a package for the specialty restaurants for about $100 which is for 3 meals. Unlike their competitors, it's a Prix Fixe type of package ... one ap, one main and dessert.

 

It's funny ... we left Celebrity after about 250 nights on board 6 years ago and will return this year in their new "Suite Class" . While people are petrified of MSC, we are scared about Celebrity!

Love your ICON. I've heard a lot of good things about the Edge class, except it's pricy for what you get. Yeah, I think we'll skip the Seaside. More negs than positives, even in Yacht Club. We'll wait till we hear more as to whether the refit will screw up our trip on Silhouette. There's other trips we can do. We do like the Royal class Princess ships, though some of the pax were pretty terrible on the trip we did in 2016. I'll give the Regal credit for their buffet. Pretty much the best we've seen. I can imaging it's declined severely since 2016, as have many cruiselines's offerings.

[mahdnc]

2 hours ago, Arno. said:

We might be on the same cruise except our Silhouette sails Jan 31, 2020 but still for 14 nights,  about the same price but $300 OBC.

 

2 hours ago, keithm said:

 

Sorry, my screw-up! That IS the date of our cruise. We booked an inside for about $1850. It's now nearly $2400. A balcony for $4800?? That's $600 more than we paid on the Riviera & the food totally blows away what you get on Celebrity. I can only think that the on-line TA's are the cause of this high price. I will continue to watch the prices as we get further into the year. Should they drop to a more reasonable level(like $2500PP)then we'll be interested in an upgrade. If not, we'll use a lot of the savings on dining packages.

 

Hi, keithm.  I believe you were originally booked on the Jan 4 Reflection sailing with us but cancelled it for one of the Oceania cruises.

 

We are also booked on the Jan 31 Silhouette sailing however this cruise disappeared from Celebrity's reservation website yesterday!

[Tarwood3]

21 hours ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

We have matching MSC status, but I can't get over the food photos and reviews.  Maybe if they introduce an affordable dining package.  We're planning to book Allure of the Seas next month onboard Eclipse, and that's the only way I'll return to RCCL.

 

We're also going to put a deposit down on Azarama.  Hopefully we'll get to try Oceania and Windstar before too long.  I would never pay Luxury-Light prices for X.

Azamara is one that has really raised their prices a lot.  We have sailed all the luxury lines, and have done a lot on Celebrity as well.  Azamara has gotten as expensive if not more so than Silversea and Seabourn and AZ isn’t as inclusive as the others.  Therefore we haven’t booked Azamara lately.  We have an Azamara booked Sep 2020 only because no one else is doing the itinerary...but we are paying $17k for a 14 day and we booked way in advance.  

Ive noticed the most price increases in Suite class on X.  In many cases, its same as Silversea and the others and for that kind of money, we prefer Silversea and Seabourn even though we do love X.  The last couple X cruises we booked, we dropped down to Aqua class because we thought Sky Suite was too expensive for the itinerary.  

[Stateroom_Sailor]

15 minutes ago, Tarwood3 said:

Azamara is one that has really raised their prices a lot.  We have sailed all the luxury lines, and have done a lot on Celebrity as well.  Azamara has gotten as expensive if not more so than Silversea and Seabourn and AZ isn’t as inclusive as the others.  Therefore we haven’t booked Azamara lately.  We have an Azamara booked Sep 2020 only because no one else is doing the itinerary...but we are paying $17k for a 14 day and we booked way in advance.  

Ive noticed the most price increases in Suite class on X.  In many cases, its same as Silversea and the others and for that kind of money, we prefer Silversea and Seabourn even though we do love X.  The last couple X cruises we booked, we dropped down to Aqua class because we thought Sky Suite was too expensive for the itinerary.  

 

Overall, Azamara is way out of our price range.  I would only book on an interesting itinerary, or discounted transpacific.  They have an interesting one this year that goes to Charlottesville for 3 days, then Bermuda, supposedly following a golf tournament.  We're fine waiting for the right thing to pop up.

[Ken the cruiser]

Keith, we love Oceania for their great food, whether it's at one of their specialty restaurants or up at the Terrace Cafe. Doesn't matter. It's all great! We love Celebrity for the energy and the variety of things to choose from on sea days, whether it's lectures, up to 4 trivia games a day, or any of the other fun things there are to do.

 

But, I will say we just got off the Reflection after a 21 day b2b Caribbean cruise in a corner aft-facing sky suite on deck 11 for about $350 pp/day, about the same price as an "A1" veranda on an O ship, and had a blast! But more importantly we got to eat breakfast and dinner in the Luminae as well as lunch on sea days. Talk about great food and service! Definitely a step up from Oceania IMHO. For us the trick to get a good rate on X is to book a cabin as soon as it becomes available as X definitely raises the prices if it's a good itinerary. 

Edited March 10, 2019 by Ken the cruiser

[Host Jazzbeau]

None of the things that drove you away from Celebrity have changed, at least below the Suite Class level.  After Oceania you will be very disappointed.  If you prefer 'O' class to Oceania's R-ships, you might not like Azamara because they are also R-ships – but you might consider Viking Ocean.  If you want really interesting itineraries, the three lines that I find most tantalizing are Azamara, Ponant, and Windstar.

[keithm]

14 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

 

Hi, keithm.  I believe you were originally booked on the Jan 4 Reflection sailing with us but cancelled it for one of the Oceania cruises.

 

We are also booked on the Jan 31 Silhouette sailing however this cruise disappeared from Celebrity's reservation website yesterday!

Yes, we originally were booked on Reflection in a Concierge cabin for $2500PP. A good price considering that a standard room is over $4K as listed. We decided that the time was just too early after the holidays. We did love the Oceania trip. You're correct about the Jan. 31 trip disappearing off the web site. I'll have to contact my TA & find out the details. I do have time to make other plans, but don't want to wait a long time to make necessary changes. It certainly would be nice for Celebrity to contact us, as I get numerous "last" second cruise info. from them al the time. 

[keithm]

8 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

None of the things that drove you away from Celebrity have changed, at least below the Suite Class level.  After Oceania you will be very disappointed.  If you prefer 'O' class to Oceania's R-ships, you might not like Azamara because they are also R-ships – but you might consider Viking Ocean.  If you want really interesting itineraries, the three lines that I find most tantalizing are Azamara, Ponant, and Windstar.

We cruise a line for the food quality & the itinerary, & the food quality had declined dramatically on the Eclipse in 2017. The Specialty rest. were great as always, but the MD was just totally inferior to what we had on the previous cruise. Azamara has great itineraries & really just "ok" food. Ponant, I'm unfamiliar with. Windstar, is just at another level compared to most lines. Viking Ocean is a nice line, though, I feel you pay a heck of a lot for what you get. To me the Queens Grill on QM2 was as good as it gets.