Observations from our first time on Celebrity

[sandjb]

My wife and I just got back from sailing on the Celebrity Reflection out of Dublin May 26 - June 3. Since this was our first experience with Celebrity, I thought I'd share some of our observations and comparisons to other lines we've experienced (Princess and Royal Caribbean).

 

Embarkation - This was a major point of complaint for a lot of people on the ship during the week. None of the port contractors hired by Celebrity to handle embarkation seemed to know what was supposed to be happening in the big tent we were all herded into. We were told to take a seat "over there" with a vague wave, so we sat down in a group of chairs only to see the group next to us called up and led to a line to check in. Obviously we would have sat in that group, had we known what was going on. But we had plenty of time and I was just happy to be getting on a cruise ship. But that's just something Celebrity could iron out to ease some frustration for sure.

 

Once on board, we immediately made our way to Guest Relations. Our airline had lost our checked luggage so we wanted to pass all of the information we had so far to the crew, in case the luggage managed to catch up with us. Aroli in Guest Relations was very patient and helpful, and continued to update us each day of the cruise on the latest information she could get from the airline on the status of our luggage. It was a great relief not to have to worry about it so much. She also made sure we had plenty of laundry vouchers so we could clean what few clothes we did have.  Long story short, our luggage was reunited with us in our stateroom when we returned from our last shore excursion, about fifteen hours before we ended the cruise. 

 

One puzzling thing I did find about Guest Relations, though, is its placement right next to the Grand Foyer. While that makes it a convenient place to find it right near the middle of the ship, there was usually something going on in the foyer which often made it hard to carry on a conversation with a guest relations officer, or for them to make a telephone call at the counter. 

 

Dining - We ate breakfast in the main dining room once, and it lasted nearly two hours. That was far too slow for our preference, so we at the rest in the buffet, minus one via room service. We both ended up really liking the buffet choices for breakfast. Lunch in the buffet was a little more hit-or-miss. A lot of the dishes we really weren't impressed with, but we found enough to keep us well fed. We both enjoyed the panini station quite a bit.

 

For dinner, we had selected the 6:00 early seating when we booked our cruise. When we got to our stateroom, our information said we were in the 8:30 late dining. So we made our way to Opus to straighten it out. The maitre d' informed us that the 6:00 dining had been moved to 5:30, but he never explained why we had been moved to 8:30 instead of 5:30. In any event, he found a spot for us at 5:30. The food at dinner was good, but nothing really stood out to rave about.

 

My wife and I both have a sweet tooth, and we have really enjoyed the dessert offerings on our prior cruises. This may be the part of the cruise that ended up disappointing us the most. We were excited to try the cakes, pastries, and cookies at Cafe al Bacio, as well as the endless options at the buffet. But it seemed that unless a cake was soaked in something, it was almost certainly dry. Our reaction to almost everything else was something along the lines of "well that was ok."  

 

Stateroom - We had a standard verandah stateroom on deck 8 forward. It seemed larger than the other staterooms we've had in the past (as did the shower), and we both found the bed perfectly comfortable. There was plenty of storage area for our needs, but that may have been because we were missing two suitcases worth of our things. We were surprised we didn't see any towel animals, but we're not sure if Celebrity doesn't do that, or it just wasn't in our steward's skillset. Not a dealbreaker by any means, but something our kids loved about our last cruise (they weren't with us on this one).

 

Speaking of kids, that is another big difference between this cruise and our last one on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas. The demographic skewed much older on this one, and I'm sure our teenage boys would have had a much harder time finding things to do on this cruise, had we brought them along. It seemed that most of the kids that were present on board (and there weren't many) were pre-teens to infants. 

 

Shore Excursions - Four of our five shore excursions were done on our own or through a third party, so I don't have too much to say about Celebrity in this area. But I want to point out that the disembarkation/embarkation at each port was relatively painless and quick. We never encountered a line of more than a few people. 

 

Entertainment - We didn't spend much time at lounges or bars, but we saw a few of the shows. And they were ok. I don't expect Broadway-caliber production or talent on a cruise ship. But I wouldn't call any of the shows we saw "must-see." If you're near the theater and you have the time, why not? But looking back, I wouldn't have rearranged much from my schedule to make time for any of those shows. The last show of the cruise, Euphoria, had some great aerial and acrobatic acts, but also had some puzzling and somewhat embarrassing acts involving giant balloon animals and spinning hats. I guess it was a little something for everyone. That being said, I don't think these shows were any better or worse than shows I've seen on other cruise lines. And shows are far down on the list of reasons I book a cruise. 

 

Disembarkation - The easiest we've ever encountered. We did self-assist, left our room around 7:00am and were off the ship and at the taxi queue less than five minutes later. The entire cruise long, everyone on the ship (including crew) was repeating how difficult it was going to be to find a taxi on the morning of disembarkation, so be sure to have a transfer lined up. We did, but lots of people didn't, and it seemed like there were lines nearly constantly at Guest Relations of people trying to get information on reserving a taxi. Well, when we got of at 7:00am there were far more taxis than people outside. Our transfer to the airport ended up costing us twice as much as the taxi ride from the hotel to the port, but we thought we were playing it safe by having something lined up. And maybe this cruise was the outlier, I don't know.

 

In Conclusion - I wouldn't have a problem booking a Celebrity cruise again, or recommending the line to anyone. I think I would be interested in doing a Princess cruise again soon to see how my memories stand up to reality. As of right now, I'd put the two lines very close in comparison. If I were booking a cruise, I think price and itinerary would still be more important factors to me than cruise line. But I'd be happy to cruise Celebrity or Princess again before Royal Caribbean, just because of the more relaxed atmosphere we encountered on board (maybe that was also a result of the ship and itinerary, I don't know).

 

Happy cruising!

[micheleata]

Thanks for your review.   

[Luvcrusn]

Thanks for the review. We usually find that X offers a much more laid back atmosphere than Royal. There tend to be far fewer children (all ages) probably due to the absence of rock climbing walls, water slides, wave riders, carousels, bumper cars and the like. DH and I usually book cruises that are longer than 1 week, and I think that that also tends to be a factor in fewer children on board. I can't remember there being towel animals in many years...if ever on X.

Edited June 6, 2019 by Luvcrusn
Addition

[yorky]

Thanks for the review, we have cruise Celebrity, Princess, Royal, Thomson, Cunard and still feel Celebrity is the right cruise line for us if the price is right. Cunard probably just has the edge on overall quality if you like formality but it’s more expensive. Not a big fan of RL in truth but we feel Princess can be good value and not a million miles away in overall quality. In our view Celebrity is a notch up on room service and the buffet, we are also a big fan of the pool area and the undercover seating on the S class. We have always found staff great on any cruise line.

[cruisingnewtoit]

My DH & I want to try RCL because off the dining options & shows but we don't like lots of kids. We want to try Princess not sure on the kid situation.

 

 

We really liked HAL.

 

 

My DH was not a fan of.the desserts on X except for a few. He also thought the pastries at the Cafe were dry.

 

The vegan desserts are yummy.

[yorky]

28 minutes ago, cruisingnewtoit said:

My DH & I want to try RCL because off the dining options & shows but we don't like lots of kids. We want to try Princess not sure on the kid situation.

 

 

We really liked HAL.

 

 

My DH was not a fan of.the desserts on X except for a few. He also thought the pastries at the Cafe were dry.

 

The vegan desserts are yummy.

We find Princess a lot closer to Celebrity than Royal regarding the average age and children, dependant on the particular cruise to a degree.

[Armac]

Thanks for the review. We have not tried Princess yet but if we find the right itinerary at the right price I would give them a go. We disembarked in Dublin last year. The story pasted to us about the taxis is that it is a hassle for the Taxi's to get through port security so if they can find business elsewhere they will not come to the port, so the Taxis situation can be hit and miss. When we got off the ship about 8:30 there was about 100 people in the Taxis line and no taxis in sight.     

[mnocket]

Thanks for the review.  I've sailed both Celebrity and Princess.  Pretty much agree with everything you said.  I too have a sweat tooth.  The desserts on Celebrity always look so good, but fall short once you bit in.  Still, the Reflection is one of my favorite ships.

[citronella]

Currently on Silhouette in Baltics and also first time on Celebrity. All in all, a good experience and maybe a notch above Princess (sailed with them in Med) for the public areas.

 

Embarkation a breeze in Southampton. In a regular verandah cabin on the hump - cabin is very nice. 

 

Food - leaves a bit to be desired. Buffet not bad at all. Have eaten only twice in dining room and both meals okay to poor. Muranos just okay - disappointing really and will not book again.  The Lawn Grill for steaks was very good. Have booked Tuscan and will try the Japanese.

 

Many of the venues have a very limited wine selection. Service is good everywhere on board. 

 

 

[Miss SeaBee]

Nice review! Thank you!  BTW, some of us find the lack of children and children's activities the biggest plus of a Celebrity Cruise! 😉

[katiegirl1264]

nice review!

[hiccups]

We just finished our first cruise on X, on Equinox.  I'm surprised (and disappointed for you) that the desserts at Café al Bacio weren't better.  They were very good on Equinox--some of the best we've had on any cruise line (I also have a sweet tooth).

We thought the food was better on X than on Azamara, which we did not expect.  Oceania is still probably our favorite for dining.

Agree with the placement of Guest Services--trying to get our OBC refund last night during the (not-so) Silent Disco was an experience, to say the least.

[Luckiestmanonearth]

Is it just me or are all the cruise lines like Carnival, Royal, Norwegian , HAL all offering the same old port stops

 

We booked for next March because they offered an itinerary that offered Tortola and St Maarten on the same cruise.  We just haven’t seen itineraries like that

[I_r_a]

Thanx for sharing, S

[hcat]

2 hours ago, Luckiestmanonearth said:

Is it just me or are all the cruise lines like Carnival, Royal, Norwegian , HAL all offering the same old port stops

 

We booked for next March because they offered an itinerary that offered Tortola and St Maarten on the same cruise.  We just haven’t seen itineraries like that

We did that itin on EDGE.. and enjoyed it very much, esp Tortola. , .one of our fav places.  .Both ports are coming along quite well but more work needed. All locals  we encountered were so pleased to have the ships returning. Enjoy yoyr cruise.

 

 To the OP...Nice review. Thanks for postiing

[gogiantsfan29]

Hi,

Our group of 8 (all first timers with Celebrity) were on the same cruise and I agree with you on everything.  Embarkation was just a mess.  Nobody knew where to go or sit and they they call sitting areas prior to other areas that had been waiting.  A mess.  I thought the stateroom was nice size.  We has deck 9 balcony and we opened up all 4 rooms balcony blockers so it was nice to have a big area to talk to the rest of our group.  I thought the food on Celebrity was better the Royal minus the desserts.  Everyone in our group thought they were terrible.   Getting off the ship at ports were simple.  We were first off in some location and I know our group was last on in two ports:) . We did everything on our own.  Which was excellent.  From renting cars in Olden and getting to the glaciers before the tour buses to have the whole thing to ourselves as awesome .  We hike in Alesund up sugar mountain (what a day for views).  We did the segways in the rain in Bergen.  We rented the Twizzy cars in Geiranger in the rain:) . We never stopped.  I did think the entertainment  was lacking compared to Royal.  Our Royal cruise on sea days we had lots of fun with different game shows, trivia and contests...  We were bored on sea days.  The weather did not help not being about to go up on deck.  Maybe it was because it was an older crowded then Royal but we did have more fun with the Royal cruise.  We loved Norway and will be looking to go back at some point.  

 

 

[rknee]

On 6/6/2019 at 3:00 PM, sandjb said:

My wife and I just got back from sailing on the Celebrity Reflection out of Dublin May 26 - June 3. Since this was our first experience with Celebrity, I thought I'd share some of our observations and comparisons to other lines we've experienced (Princess and Royal Caribbean).

 

Embarkation - This was a major point of complaint for a lot of people on the ship during the week. None of the port contractors hired by Celebrity to handle embarkation seemed to know what was supposed to be happening in the big tent we were all herded into. We were told to take a seat "over there" with a vague wave, so we sat down in a group of chairs only to see the group next to us called up and led to a line to check in. Obviously we would have sat in that group, had we known what was going on. But we had plenty of time and I was just happy to be getting on a cruise ship. But that's just something Celebrity could iron out to ease some frustration for sure.

 

Once on board, we immediately made our way to Guest Relations. Our airline had lost our checked luggage so we wanted to pass all of the information we had so far to the crew, in case the luggage managed to catch up with us. Aroli in Guest Relations was very patient and helpful, and continued to update us each day of the cruise on the latest information she could get from the airline on the status of our luggage. It was a great relief not to have to worry about it so much. She also made sure we had plenty of laundry vouchers so we could clean what few clothes we did have.  Long story short, our luggage was reunited with us in our stateroom when we returned from our last shore excursion, about fifteen hours before we ended the cruise. 

 

One puzzling thing I did find about Guest Relations, though, is its placement right next to the Grand Foyer. While that makes it a convenient place to find it right near the middle of the ship, there was usually something going on in the foyer which often made it hard to carry on a conversation with a guest relations officer, or for them to make a telephone call at the counter. 

 

Dining - We ate breakfast in the main dining room once, and it lasted nearly two hours. That was far too slow for our preference, so we at the rest in the buffet, minus one via room service. We both ended up really liking the buffet choices for breakfast. Lunch in the buffet was a little more hit-or-miss. A lot of the dishes we really weren't impressed with, but we found enough to keep us well fed. We both enjoyed the panini station quite a bit.

 

For dinner, we had selected the 6:00 early seating when we booked our cruise. When we got to our stateroom, our information said we were in the 8:30 late dining. So we made our way to Opus to straighten it out. The maitre d' informed us that the 6:00 dining had been moved to 5:30, but he never explained why we had been moved to 8:30 instead of 5:30. In any event, he found a spot for us at 5:30. The food at dinner was good, but nothing really stood out to rave about.

 

My wife and I both have a sweet tooth, and we have really enjoyed the dessert offerings on our prior cruises. This may be the part of the cruise that ended up disappointing us the most. We were excited to try the cakes, pastries, and cookies at Cafe al Bacio, as well as the endless options at the buffet. But it seemed that unless a cake was soaked in something, it was almost certainly dry. Our reaction to almost everything else was something along the lines of "well that was ok."  

 

Stateroom - We had a standard verandah stateroom on deck 8 forward. It seemed larger than the other staterooms we've had in the past (as did the shower), and we both found the bed perfectly comfortable. There was plenty of storage area for our needs, but that may have been because we were missing two suitcases worth of our things. We were surprised we didn't see any towel animals, but we're not sure if Celebrity doesn't do that, or it just wasn't in our steward's skillset. Not a dealbreaker by any means, but something our kids loved about our last cruise (they weren't with us on this one).

 

Speaking of kids, that is another big difference between this cruise and our last one on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas. The demographic skewed much older on this one, and I'm sure our teenage boys would have had a much harder time finding things to do on this cruise, had we brought them along. It seemed that most of the kids that were present on board (and there weren't many) were pre-teens to infants. 

 

Shore Excursions - Four of our five shore excursions were done on our own or through a third party, so I don't have too much to say about Celebrity in this area. But I want to point out that the disembarkation/embarkation at each port was relatively painless and quick. We never encountered a line of more than a few people. 

 

Entertainment - We didn't spend much time at lounges or bars, but we saw a few of the shows. And they were ok. I don't expect Broadway-caliber production or talent on a cruise ship. But I wouldn't call any of the shows we saw "must-see." If you're near the theater and you have the time, why not? But looking back, I wouldn't have rearranged much from my schedule to make time for any of those shows. The last show of the cruise, Euphoria, had some great aerial and acrobatic acts, but also had some puzzling and somewhat embarrassing acts involving giant balloon animals and spinning hats. I guess it was a little something for everyone. That being said, I don't think these shows were any better or worse than shows I've seen on other cruise lines. And shows are far down on the list of reasons I book a cruise. 

 

Disembarkation - The easiest we've ever encountered. We did self-assist, left our room around 7:00am and were off the ship and at the taxi queue less than five minutes later. The entire cruise long, everyone on the ship (including crew) was repeating how difficult it was going to be to find a taxi on the morning of disembarkation, so be sure to have a transfer lined up. We did, but lots of people didn't, and it seemed like there were lines nearly constantly at Guest Relations of people trying to get information on reserving a taxi. Well, when we got of at 7:00am there were far more taxis than people outside. Our transfer to the airport ended up costing us twice as much as the taxi ride from the hotel to the port, but we thought we were playing it safe by having something lined up. And maybe this cruise was the outlier, I don't know.

 

In Conclusion - I wouldn't have a problem booking a Celebrity cruise again, or recommending the line to anyone. I think I would be interested in doing a Princess cruise again soon to see how my memories stand up to reality. As of right now, I'd put the two lines very close in comparison. If I were booking a cruise, I think price and itinerary would still be more important factors to me than cruise line. But I'd be happy to cruise Celebrity or Princess again before Royal Caribbean, just because of the more relaxed atmosphere we encountered on board (maybe that was also a result of the ship and itinerary, I don't know).

 

Happy cruising!

We're Celebrity fans about to undertake our 4th with Celebrity from Dulbin.  So sorry to hear about your luggage issues - I would have been pretty upset.  Your review seems in line with our expectations.  We always book Aquaclass to get into Blu.

 

Thanks for your even-handed review.

[maggieq]

Thanks for posting.   This was actually a cruise we looked at for this year but didn’t have both flam and gerainger so will wait until next year. Can you post more about your stops?

 

also, did you arrive pre cruise 1 or 2 days and was your flight direct?   So sorry about your luggage.   

[wishuponasea]

We are booked on Reflection out of Dublin (Ireland, England, Scotland) in May 2020. We have not booked our pre-cruise hotel or flights yet. Do you have any recommendations for hotel? Would like to be able to walk to most sites since we plan to get in a day or two prior to the cruise). Thank you! I agree about most of the desserts, except I do like the lemon cup/tart at the coffee shop! Thanks!

[upwarduk]

On 6/6/2019 at 8:00 PM, sandjb said:

seemed that most of the kids that were present on board (and there weren't many) were pre-teens to infants. 

Although there is a kids club on Celebrity, Royal is known a the ‘family’ cruise line.

Its certainly too soon to have kids from the UK on the ship, as schools don’t break up for the summer until mid July.

[sandjb]

8 hours ago, wishuponasea said:

We are booked on Reflection out of Dublin (Ireland, England, Scotland) in May 2020. We have not booked our pre-cruise hotel or flights yet. Do you have any recommendations for hotel? Would like to be able to walk to most sites since we plan to get in a day or two prior to the cruise). Thank you! I agree about most of the desserts, except I do like the lemon cup/tart at the coffee shop! Thanks!

We stayed at the Davenport Hotel near Merrion Square. It was excellent, and the staff was very helpful with our luggage situation. Granted, this is the only hotel we've ever stayed at in Dublin (being our first and only visit there so far) so we have nothing to compare it to really. But we were very happy with it. There is a breakfast buffet that was really good. And it's easy walking distance to a lot of attractions. The national gallery and Trinity College are practically a block away. There are other hotels that we looked at in the Temple Bar area that would have been a little more central to some of the places we wanted to see, but they were more expensive and had reviews that mentioned a lot of street noise, so we went with the Davenport. It really wasn't that much farther away than Temple Bar.

[mahdnc]

thank you for writing your review.  I enjoyed reading it.

[sandjb]

15 hours ago, maggieq said:

Thanks for posting.   This was actually a cruise we looked at for this year but didn’t have both flam and gerainger so will wait until next year. Can you post more about your stops?

 

also, did you arrive pre cruise 1 or 2 days and was your flight direct?   So sorry about your luggage.   

We changed airlines and terminals in Newark (part of the problem that led to losing our luggage). We arrived early Saturday morning and the cruise left at 6pm on Sunday. So we had the whole day on Saturday for sightseeing (we walked around Dublin in the morning, saw Trinity College, Temple Bar, the river, and lots of other things in that area, then a bus trip to the Wicklow mountains and Glendalough in the afternoon). We planned to do more exploring of Dublin on Sunday morning before checking out of the hotel, but that time turned into clothes shopping, unfortunately.

 

As for the stops:

 

Alesund - this ended up being our favorite stop, mostly because it was the best weather day, and the tour we went on was really interesting. We booked a sightseeing tour through Norway Excursions, a tour service I highly recommend (they handled our tours in Geiranger and Olden also). The tour took us to several surrounding islands (via tunnel), and a museum featuring old traditional houses and viking-era longboats, and the mountain viewpoint overlooking the city. It really is a beautiful city, perhaps the most photogenic of the cities we visited. After the tour we still had time to walk around downtown a little bit (it's right next to the pier).

 

Bergen - this city was really similar to Alesund except much bigger. There is a funicular train that goes up to the mountain viewpoint here. If you plan to go up there, GET THERE EARLY. Go first thing. We did our own thing in this city, and made our way to the funicular right after we got off the ship. We ended up waiting about 5 minutes for the next train. When we came back down, the line had filled the entire station building and extended down the street. It had to be an hour wait or more at that point. I can't imagine spending so much time in a port stop in a line like that, when you have so little time in port to begin with. You can buy tickets in advance, but it's not going to save you much time. If you do encounter a long line, I would suggest just walking to the top (if you're in shape). I believe it's a 45-minute to an hour walk and would have to be more interesting than standing in line. The view from the top is definitely beautiful and there are countless hiking trails up there to explore too. 

 

Geiranger - this port day turned out to be a bit of a bust for us. It was the port I was looking forward to the most, just because of the scenery, and we ended up with mist and snow and rain almost all day. There was so much snow that the road up to the Dalsnibba summit was restricted due to threat of avalanche so our tour bus didn't go all the way up there (I don't believe any tours made it up there that day). Despite not really seeing what we wanted to see, it was fun and interesting to be in the snow and feel like we saw the "real Norway." 🙂 Geiranger really is a beautiful town, and easily walkable. There is a bakery right across the main road from the dock that sells the best pastries. We tried their skolebolle (a pastry with custard filling, topped with frosting and coconut) and it was maybe the best treat we ate on the entire trip. There is also a webcam at the Geiranger tourist office right by the pier. You can stand there and wave at the camera and your friends and family at home can see you and even take a screenshot. That was fun to do with my parents and our kids.

 

Olden - this was an odd stop. Olden is a small town and about a half mile walk from the dock. We drove through the town on our tour bus, and there really didn't seem to be much in the town worth walking over there to see. So the only really worthwhile things to do ended up being the Loen skylift (which we didn't see) or the Briksdal glacier hike (which we did). But since there are so few options, everyone ends up doing the same thing, so there were lots of people on the hike with us. And the hike ended up being a bit more strenuous than we were expecting. There are carts that you can pay to ride up most of the way, but you still end up walking a good bit. The area itself is really pretty and the houses around the dock reminded me of a train set. There were some souvenir shops right by the dock so we didn't have to walk all the way to town to pick something up. Overall, the town was fine to see once, but if we ever visit Norway again, we'll definitely not include Olden as a stop. 

 

Belfast - we did the ship's tour to Giant's Causeway. It included a panoramic tour through the city that allowed us to see quite a few sites, the Titanic museum, a Game of Thrones studio lot, and a lot of murals. The tour guide talked a lot about the Troubles and it was really interesting to hear some of the recent history of the city. Giant's Causeway was beautiful, interesting, and crowded (we were there on a Sunday afternoon with two big cruise ships in port in Belfast). We had just under two hours there, and even with the included shuttle bus that takes you down to the shore and back, that doesn't end up being very much time for you to explore. Our dinner table mates ended up doing the Titanic museum, and they said it was also quite crowded and rushed, so they felt they didn't really get to take the time they wanted to see everything. I guess that's the result when you only have seven or eight hours total in port to begin with. 

Edited June 10, 2019 by sandjb
added flight info

[gogiantsfan29]

Here is what our group of 8 did on this Cruise..

Alesund - Fantastic Day .  We got off the ship and head right for Fjellstua Viewpoint.  Walked up the 400+ stairs for a great view that day. We then head to Sugar Mountain where we hiked to the top.  This was a great hike the views were spectacular.  Head back into town with enough time to walk around, shop and we ended getting dinner at a great place before being last to board the ship.  Got our full day in. 

 

Bergen- Head right for the funicular and brought our tickets on their app on my phone to save us a long line.  By the time we got to the top it was snowing, sleeting and raining.  Headed back down and made our way with some shopping stops to Bergen Segway where we had a private tour for the 8 of us.  This was awesome.  Did rain on us as some points during the 2 hours but we all enjoyed it. 

 

Geiranger - As the poster said due the weather we could not do everything on our list.  We had rented the little electric cars which were so much fun just could not go to the top.  But, we went to two other look out instead which were nice.  We were supposed to do a hike but the weather got worse as the day went on and just too rainy to enjoy the hike.  We shopped in town before getting back on the ship a little earlier then planned. 

 

Olden - Another excellent day. We rented two cars and left the ship right at 7am to beat the tours bus up to Briksdal Glacier.  We had the whole place to ourselves we never saw a single soul the entire time until we were leaving.  Then we headed to Kjenndal Glacier.  Again timing it in between tour bus tours and had the place to ourselves. We finished the day at the Leon skylift were it was snowing at the top.  But, sure enough the clouds opened up for a fabulous view and enjoyed Lunch up there.  We were last back on the ship again.:)

 

Belfast - We hired a private driver and van to take the 8 of us up to Rope Bridge, Giant Causeway, Dunluce Castle, Dark Hedges and tour of Belfast. Excellent day with great weather.

 

We arrived in Shannon ,Ireland the Tuesday before the cruise were we hired a private driver to take us around.  We did the Cliffs of Moher 7mile walk to the town of Doolin Galway, Biked Slea head drive in Dingle.. So much fun.. Stayed in Killarney at an awesome hotel Killarney Park  for 3 nights and took the boat out to Skellig Michael island, Ring of Kerry etc..

 

We stayed the Hilton Garden inn Custom House .  Great location, Hilton honors members for breakfast to be included which was very good.  Beds a bit hard for me but would stay here again.  Used Hilton points for free:)

[Tatka]

Thank you for review.

 

Even though we lately cruise mostly with RCCL(14 times) and NCL(9) (due to convenience of the ports) our  favorites in previous times were Princess(6) and Celebrity(5). Celebrity was my first cruise and love and Princess was our #7 cruise and we were absolutely amazed.

 

As far as embarkation goes.. in December of 2016 we had a combo Celebrity Silhouette (4 days) and Royal Princess (10).

In some reason embarkation on Princess (second terminal) was unbelievable long... so un-Princess like. While service on Silhouette in MDR was so un-Celebrity like. In our experience prior to that Celebrity was absolutely the best among premium massmarket. So even the best can fail sometimes. 

 

 As for kids and teens. Our son had lots of fun on Celebrity cruises prior to teen years, but as a teen he wasn't impressed by Teen club. Although Princess is also not the best in this department. RCCL in his opinion was absolutely the best out of 8 cruise lines. With NCL following close.