Lack of daily activities

[hcat]

12 hours ago, Ktuluorion said:

Hi Jim - we have sailed with NCL about 14 times,  and the one area where they really destroy Celebrity is things to do.  The shows are flat out better,  and there are always way more lively things to do throughout the day (comedians,  dancing,  pub crawl, etc).  On an NCL, I can't get to everything I want to do - on Celebrity I find myself bored and only want to read a book.   Just glancing at a random  NCL flyer, i see things like a family circus workshop, poolside party,  hibachi cooking demo, celebrity heads game show.. and this is all during the day, among many other things.   I feel like Celebrity's day offerings are "spend 35/pp to get some drinks", "buy something," or "here's some lame game to play like shuffleboard," rather than well thought out entertainment.  

 

Personally, I don't care about all the bumper cars and rope course type of stuff that other lines have. 

 

I do find night time is at least decent, in that there is a show.. however,  later night would be nice to have karaoke or something like that. 

 

Not trying to totally beat up Celebrity, because I think it is wonderful in a lot of ways.  I just don't understand why they don't have a little more quantity and imaginative stuff to do (especially during the day).  Seems like *most* people here prefer being left to yourself a bit to relax, so I might be on the wrong track. 

 

X does have cooking demos, game show type activities, trivia, music, wine events,   and on the  EDGE there's more..archery, games  etc..not sure if the drone races are still  ongoing. Check the CLUB schedule,

 

Seems  NCL may be a better choice for you  if you prefer non stop activities like  daytime pub crawls.  We like  to relax at the pool ...They have the guest- officer pool volley ball, a few other things,,but for us less is better!

[TriciaCC]

1 hour ago, chemmo said:

 

Laughed at this one!

 

During a typical cruise we may go to an odd trivia, an odd lecture, an occasional show or activity but if we wanted more entertainment we would cruise on Royal Caribbean.

 

The highlights for us of cruising are....

 

Some nice relaxing lying by the pool in the sun,

Some nice relaxing star gazing late at night,

Some nice relaxing quality meals,

Some nice relaxing quality family time,

Some nice relaxing time reading, doing crosswords or sudoku....

 

 

 

 

 

 

SNAP!  Or could this be considered as an activity?😁

[Tourist1292]

I wonder what is the recent deal with the ballet. Not that I am really interested in it, but are they going to add/change some shows?

[agathasmum]

We have cruised Celebrity for years and enjoyed it. We didn't tend to do many activities and were happy to amuse ourselves.

 

Or so we thought.

 

We have just spent 14 days on Cunard in Asia and it was amazing. So many activities we were interested in doing. So many that they often clashed. Great live music, really good shows in the theatre, proper trivia, excellent guest speakers, a fabulous library, lively nightclub, really good food and excellent service. So many things we didn't even get chance to try. 

 

No gimmicks, just a good, solid experience. 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

58 minutes ago, agathasmum said:

We have cruised Celebrity for years and enjoyed it. We didn't tend to do many activities and were happy to amuse ourselves.

 

Or so we thought.

 

We have just spent 14 days on Cunard in Asia and it was amazing. So many activities we were interested in doing. So many that they often clashed. Great live music, really good shows in the theatre, proper trivia, excellent guest speakers, a fabulous library, lively nightclub, really good food and excellent service. So many things we didn't even get chance to try. 

 

No gimmicks, just a good, solid experience. 

 

 

 

Sounds great! Do men still have to wear a sports coat after 6 pm while the women can just dress "smart casual"?

[elaineb]

We will be leaving for our first Celebrity cruise next weekend.  I am a little concerned about the activities, or lack thereof.  We have cruised on Royal and Carnival.  Mainly we love to go to the piano bar after the evening show.  Is there any type of venue like that on Celebrity?  Thanks!  We are bringing cards and a Trivia book in case things get slow, lol.

[Alushar]

On our recent cruise on Millenium a couple of weeks ago there waas no piano bar as such but there waas generally live music in one or more of the bars through the evening until around 10pm to 10:30pm and then the house band usually played in the Cosmos Lounge until 11:30pm. In addition there was usually a dj in the Martini Bar 

[blueboro]

Unfortunately on most all lines now, the "activities" are something to hawk products that cost extra...facials, spa, wine tasting, art auctions, weight loss, etc.  Very few actual activities.

[Jim_Iain]

15 minutes ago, elaineb said:

We will be leaving for our first Celebrity cruise next weekend.  I am a little concerned about the activities, or lack thereof.  We have cruised on Royal and Carnival.  Mainly we love to go to the piano bar after the evening show.  Is there any type of venue like that on Celebrity?  Thanks!  We are bringing cards and a Trivia book in case things get slow, lol.

Unfortunately Celebrity doesn't currently have a piano bar.  That is something I would enjoy also.   they do have a number of musicians from String Quartet's to and entertainment that move to different venues.

[Ken the cruiser]

6 hours ago, villauk said:

 

Not a phrase I’d associate with X - nothing against the artists, but their production shows have definitely declined since they started producing them in-house.

All I know is we're in our mid 60s and love rock n roll and the early 7 pm show was packed every night on our Jan 2019 21 day Caribbean b2b on the Reflection and all the shows, both production and guest entertainers, got standing ovations. On the other cruise lines we've sailed on in the past few years, mainly HAL and Oceania, X blows them out of the water. Now, for those that have sailed on X for years, I'm sure you're right. But, even if they have changed, IMHO they are still much better than HAL, Oceania and probably Princess.

 

I will say, though, NCL did have some great shows and a lot of fun things to do on the Getaway, definitely more than X, when we sailed with them for 7 days in Dec 2017. However, there were so many people (around 4,000) on the ship, the same production shows would run 2 consecutive nights so everyone could see them. But that was definitely a 20-40 demographic targeted cruise.

[agathasmum]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Sounds great! Do men still have to wear a sports coat after 6 pm while the women can just dress "smart casual"?

 

Not sure what you mean. Yes there is a dress code. Casual for men requires a jacket, casual for women is a dress or smart trousers and a nice blouse. Gala kicks it up a notch to suit and tie or tuxedo and evening gown or cocktail dress.

 

There are venues where the dress code isn’t required, ie the buffet, the pub, the Carinthia Lounge and the night club.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, agathasmum said:

 

Not sure what you mean. Yes there is a dress code. Casual for men requires a jacket, casual for women is a dress or smart trousers and a nice blouse. Gala kicks it up a notch to suit and tie or tuxedo and evening gown or cocktail dress.

 

There are venues where the dress code isn’t required, ie the buffet, the pub, the Carinthia Lounge and the night club.

You answered my question. If we want to go to an evening show or eat in the MDR on any night, men have to wear a coat. I don’t mind wearing a coat on formal nights, but I would have to bring 2-3 coats, as one would get pretty rank, if I had to wear one every night on a 14+ day cruise from 6 pm on if we wanted to enjoy all that Cunard has to offer. That’s cool, though, for those men that like doing that. For me, not so much and I just wanted to point out that one policy that keeps us from booking Cunard. 

[OCruisers]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Sounds great! Do men still have to wear a sports coat after 6 pm while the women can just dress "smart casual"?

 

No, men do NOT have to wear a sports coat after 6 PM.  

[mfs2k]

9 minutes ago, OCruisers said:

 

No, men do NOT have to wear a sports coat after 6 PM.  

 

i think they are talking about Cunard..

[Ken the cruiser]

8 minutes ago, OCruisers said:

 

No, men do NOT have to wear a sports coat after 6 PM.  

That's great news! We might even consider booking Cunard if I can just wear a polo shirt and Dockers on non-formal nights in the MDR and specialty restaurants as well as go to the evening shows in the main theater like on every other cruise line we sail. Thats great news! When did they change their policy?

[OCruisers]

16 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

 

i think they are talking about Cunard..

 

Ooooooops!  It's the Celebrity forum so I answered about Celebrity, not Cunard.  

Sorry, my bad!  

[tribbs1]

Love to hear live music and see the shows.  On sea days just like to hang by the pool and read.  On the Reflection we participated in a trivia game (we had a Dr., engineer, financial analyst, nurse, artist, travel consultant) and got 2 out of 30 questions right.  It is definitely no fun if the questions are too hard.  Just saying!

[Dreamcruise27]

For me, I think a perfect cruise vacation would be to spend a week on an Oasis Class ship and then a week on a Celebrity ship. I LOVED all the activities and bells and whistles on the Allure, but I got off the ship feeling like I needed another vacation to recover!  If I could have tagged on a laid back quieter vacation on a Celebrity ship afterwards, it would have been a perfect balanced cruise vacation :)

 

[Fogfog]

I really enjoy the Beyond the Podium and speakers. DH tends to sleep in and skip them

 

Have enjoyed the trivia on occasion - which is more fun with an inter-generational team imho. Our son was surprised at how much high school biology I remember after MANY years. And he knew things about current music/"stars" that we didn't. I think it would be nice if the moderators encouraged groups/teams so if someone shows up alone--they feel welcome. 

 

Have done things like bocce on our own and did join 2 other couples as a team for putt putt which was fun.

I have a hard time getting DH to join with me to do things as he is happy with his books.

 

I absolutely don't like the "pay for it -entertainment" like liquor tastings, wine tastings that want you to BUY glasses etc. I have plenty of great glassware and crystal at home. And skip the "art" auctions.

 

Somehow we have missed some of the items mentioned here like game show things... and such. We have never enjoyed the production shows. Some comedians are great... otoh I don't care for "blue" humor 

 

We have 7 seas days coming up --- so will take a look.

 

Would love a piano bar. We do enjoy the jazz groups etc and are often in the Ensemble Lounge. 

 

 

[wishuponasea]

Was on Reflection in Feb. Enjoyed the evening productions, but we would have liked other "shows" and more things to do during the day. Enjoyed their Band in the afternoons by the pool though. I thought it was just our cruise, but it sounds like it is Celebrity-wide. We did have a lot of elderly folks onboard, so maybe that is why it was "quiet" during the day? Lots of napping going on  😉  That being said, I still really enjoy Celebrity and cruising and can't wait till our next trip.

[OCruisers]

Sadly, the bands only play in the early afternoon by the pool on Sea days ... not on Port days.  More of this sort of activity is needed on Port days ... especially in the Caribbean where many have been often and sometimes stay on the ship for the day.  

[hcat]

In the Caribbean, we really miss the genuine island bands, reggae, calypso, steel drum...also Jimmy Buffet type guitar players.

 

Replacement cookie cutter bands and folk duos just aren't the same  tropical vibe!

 

[ipeeinthepool]

6 minutes ago, hcat said:

In the Caribbean, we really miss the genuine island bands, reggae, calypso, steel drum...also Jimmy Buffet type guitar players.

 

Replacement cookie cutter bands and folk duos just aren't the same  tropical vibe!

 

 

Absolutely.  The Caribbean cruises just aren't the same without the genuine island bands.

[ghstudio]

I agree.....your post just brought back the memories of the caribbean cruises with steel drums.  Very different than today's music which is location detached.  With so many cruises now in the Caribbean and the competition, maybe that would be something Celebrity really should consider adding back to the cruise experience.

[hcat]

We still have several CDs from the bands...Big Vibe etc 

Brings back great  memories of fun at the pool and aft bars...

Anyone remember the Dollar song`?

 

Do other cruise lines have the same bland music?  

 

Edited March 16, 2019 by hcat