If you weren’t cruising Celebrity, what cruise line would you choose

[Ken the cruiser]

4 hours ago, ECCruise said:

Pretty bad when the OP says "similar priced" and a number of responses are "Oceania" "Crystal" "Silversea" "Viking Ocean" and "Seabourn"

If they are similarly priced, something is way out of whack. 

Not if you book a Celebrity sky suite.

[ECCruise]

19 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Not if you book a Celebrity sky suite.

That's the point. 

[iamaqt2]

I'm a huge Princess fan. I'm low budget, and book insides mainly. I'm not a huge foodie, and find their menu offerings to my liking. I also have found that they have the best evening entertainment( quantity, not quality) as far as sheer variety. The demographic is mostly my age,  and not too many children.

I also get a lot of value out of the Princess Plus promo.

I enjoy the more relaxed feel as well.  

Slightly dressy works just fine for formal night.

I've cruised HAL, Celebrity, NCL and MSC, and hands down Princess is my go to.

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

We are Regent cruisers…. Coming back to Celebrity because we want to sail this summer out of Florida, rather than fly to Europe. . Let’s see what we think.  Just getting on a ship is going to be great!

[Ken the cruiser]

14 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

That's the point. 

Then I missed the point obviously because we'll book a Celebrity SS on a similar itinerary every time over any of the "smaller ship" luxury cruise lines.

[Carnevale]

Cunard is our first choice IF there’s an itinerary we want (which can be tricky since they don’t have a lot of ships ).  We love the elegance of their approach in particular their formal nights (especially when they have a special theme we can dress for).  They also have good dance floors with appropriate music for ballroom dancing.  While we know all of this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, we love this style of cruising.

[Esprit]

Princess is my preferred line but looking forward to boarding Silhouette next month.

We too ballroom dance and the opportunities with Celebrity are limited compared with Princess.

[GlobalMethod]

14 hours ago, jelayne said:

If not on Celebrity we choose based on itinerary.  Next 2 non Celebrity are on Azamara, we only sail them for the itinerary not the on-board experience.  We have looked at Seabourn & Regent and may try them for 2023.

Everyone is different ... 😇 ... Our choice is the smaller ship on-board experience with Azamara and not for any specific itinerary. We did have a Regent booked but it was cancelled due to C19 ... Happy Travels!

[verizon]

Like poster #82 said every one has their own stye of cruising.

Hope i didn't offend anyone if I said something wrong.

[Cruising Forever!]

Princess.  We have cruised Royal and Celebrity exclusively for decades, but in 2019, we did our first Princess cruise aboard the Royal Princess.  We were in love immediately.  The food in the buffet is at least as good as Celebrity buffets but with far more selections.  The specialty restaurants are on par with Celebrity's but much less expensive.  The main dining room is better than Royal Caribbean (which has gone way down hill in our opinion) but almost up to Celebrity's main dining rooms.

 

Fellow passengers aboard Princess align with that found on Celebrity... more of an older, more sedate crowd.  

 

Princess ships are larger and gorgeous (and we consider Celebrity to have gorgeous ships as well).  Shows are more traditional than that found on Celebrity ships.  Live bands are in the theater on Princess.

 

Pools and loungers are about the same across both fleets, but Celebrity ships have nicer adults only pools.  

 

Princess has their Medallion class ships (all now, I think) and the Medallion service is spectacular!  You can summon drinks or food to you from your phone, or locate fellow passengers in your group, amongst other amazing things!  

 

[jg51]

1 hour ago, Cruising Forever! said:

Princess.  We have cruised Royal and Celebrity exclusively for decades, but in 2019, we did our first Princess cruise aboard the Royal Princess.  We were in love immediately.  The food in the buffet is at least as good as Celebrity buffets but with far more selections.  The specialty restaurants are on par with Celebrity's but much less expensive.  The main dining room is better than Royal Caribbean (which has gone way down hill in our opinion) but almost up to Celebrity's main dining rooms. ...

.

Thanks for your comments, "Cruising Forever!"  We have not seen similar words before (concerning Princess).  May we ask you a few questions?

 

(1)  You say that you "have cruised Royal and Celebrity exclusively for decades."  We know that it is possible for someone to cruise Celebrity "for decades" -- but only on Millennium-class ships.  Have you ever been aboard a Solstice-class ship?  The reason we ask is that we think that the S-class buffet restaurants are tremendous -- at least with regard to variety.  You said that the Royal Princess's buffet had "far more selections" than "Celebrity buffets" have.  We can believe that the RP's buffet may have "far more selections" than, say, the Summit, but we would be amazed if the RP's buffet has "far more selections" than the Reflection.  What more can you say about this?

 

(2)  You say that the Royal Princess's "specialty restaurants are on par with Celebrity's but much less expensive."  Suppose two guests would want to purchase a specialty-restaurant dinner package -- for all seven nights of a cruise.  How much would that cost on the RP?

 

(3)  Finally ... During your "decades" aboard Celebrity ships, were you aware that -- over the phone -- you could order a full dinner, on any (or every) night, from the Main Dining Room's menu ... specify the time you would like to have it delivered ... and then be in your stateroom to receive the delivery via a room-service crew member?  Is such a full-blown room-service delivery service available on the Royal Princess?  For many years, some people have loved to call for this "X" service, at least once per cruise, when they feel too tired (after an excursion) to visit the MDR.  Nowadays, even more people may want to use this service, if they are a bit nervous about avoiding illness (especially if they find that tables are close together in the MDR).

 

If the Royal Princess's buffet is really not better than that on "X" Solstice-class ships ... and/or ... if the RP will not deliver full MDR meals to staterooms, we doubt that we would be tempted to switch from Celebrity.

 

Thanks, in advance, for your reply.

PS:  Do you happen to know how much Princess charges, per day, for its basic and "premium" alcoholic beverage packages?  Or is it that beverages are now aggregated with Internet availability and service charges [possibly mislabeled "gratuities"], as on Celebrity?

.

Edited June 20, 2021 by jg51

[cluso]

1 hour ago, jg51 said:

(1)  You say that you "have cruised Royal and Celebrity exclusively for decades."  We know that it is possible for someone to cruise Celebrity "for decades" -- but only on Millennium-class ships.  Have you ever been aboard a Solstice-class ship?

 

Celebrity was founded by the Chandris Group (which we have sailed with) in 1988.  Millennium class ships didn't arrive until 2000.

[TeaBag]

Celebrity Century  debuted in 1995 with Galaxy and Mercury following.  We sailed the Meridian in 1994.

[Alushar]

We are trying our first Princess sailing end of October simply as Celebrity didn't have a comparable sailing from the UK. What we are seeing so far we like.

 

One thing I can answer @jg51 is that the Princess Plus package covers premium drinks, wifi and gratuities is a £30 per day. 

[basenji56]

14 hours ago, Cruising Forever! said:

Princess.  We have cruised Royal and Celebrity exclusively for decades, but in 2019, we did our first Princess cruise aboard the Royal Princess.  We were in love immediately.  The food in the buffet is at least as good as Celebrity buffets but with far more selections.  The specialty restaurants are on par with Celebrity's but much less expensive.  The main dining room is better than Royal Caribbean (which has gone way down hill in our opinion) but almost up to Celebrity's main dining rooms.

 

Fellow passengers aboard Princess align with that found on Celebrity... more of an older, more sedate crowd.  

 

Princess ships are larger and gorgeous (and we consider Celebrity to have gorgeous ships as well).  Shows are more traditional than that found on Celebrity ships.  Live bands are in the theater on Princess.

 

Pools and loungers are about the same across both fleets, but Celebrity ships have nicer adults only pools.  

 

Princess has their Medallion class ships (all now, I think) and the Medallion service is spectacular!  You can summon drinks or food to you from your phone, or locate fellow passengers in your group, amongst other amazing things!  

 

Thanks for your detailed review!  I sailed recently on Regal Princess and have also sailed on S, Edge and M class Celebrity ships.

 

I agree with much of what you say.  Princess has very good pizza.  I ate at the Crown Grill specialty restaurant and it was excellent--and superior and cheaper than Tuscan Grill.

 

I thought the Princess production shows were much better than the recent Celebrity shows--Celebrity's new shows are a lot of sound and fury but no real plot. 

 

I disagree about the buffet though.  I though Celebrity's buffet was much better than Princess both in variety and quality.  But, food is subjective and I can see that reasonable people can disagree.

 

I thought that Celebrity's MDR was superior to Princess.  But it wasn't a huge difference.  If I sail on Princess again, I will probably book a Specialty dining package because it is a very good value.

 

And, yes, Medallion class is very good!

 

 

 

 

[royalcruz]

Celebrity is our #1, then Princess or RC and maybe NCL.

 

We went on MSC (not Yacht Club, but on brand new Meraviglia in 2019).... the ship was gorgeous but the music (latin and club music) was always way too loud along the Promenade, which is where the specialty restaurants are, and food and service was awful in all of the restaurants, and it seemed there were always 2 dozen people in line at guest relations.

 

Also tried HAL and Carnival but they are just not our vibe. The more upscale lines look nice but we prefer larger ships.

 

[royalcruz]

On 6/19/2021 at 9:26 PM, iamaqt2 said:

I'm a huge Princess fan. I'm low budget, and book insides mainly. I'm not a huge foodie, and find their menu offerings to my liking. I also have found that they have the best evening entertainment( quantity, not quality) as far as sheer variety. The demographic is mostly my age,  and not too many children.

I also get a lot of value out of the Princess Plus promo.

I enjoy the more relaxed feel as well.  

Slightly dressy works just fine for formal night.

I've cruised HAL, Celebrity, NCL and MSC, and hands down Princess is my go to.

We LOVE the Royal and Regal Princess ships! We only wish that they had a solarium and more shaded loungechairs by the pools. 

[pumpkin 11]

Would consider RC again if we could get a junior suite and eat in coastal kitchen for dinner. Crystal interests as well as MSC Yacht Club. Would even consider NCL - their new ships have come a long way.

 

Celebrity's prices are getting out of hand, but we we're just on the Millennium and thought the service and food was phenomenal. However for the price of our Family Veranda, we could have gotten a Grand Suite on Adventure OTS. 

 

We also loved the QM2 on Cunard. The have some great deals on longer voyages on the Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth too.

[cruise47]

Azmara or Regent cruise line

[jg51]

20 hours ago, cluso said:

 

Celebrity was founded by the Chandris Group (which we have sailed with) in 1988.  Millennium class ships didn't arrive until 2000.

.

We have been aware of those facts, "cluso," since 2008!  Meaning no disrespect, but what you wrote did not address any of our concerns.  We really need a reply from "Cruising Forever!" concerning our specific questions regarding the Royal Princess buffet versus the Celebrity Reflection (or any other S-class-ship's) very fine buffet.

.

7 hours ago, Alushar said:

We are trying our first Princess sailing end of October simply as Celebrity didn't have a comparable sailing from the UK. What we are seeing so far we like.

 

One thing I can answer @jg51 is that the Princess Plus package covers premium drinks, wifi and gratuities is a £30 per day. 

.

Thank you, "Alushar," for that helpful explanation.  At current exchange rates, that works out to almost $42 per day -- which is much lower than we had expected for the aggregate of those three components.

.

[Csardas]

Cunard

[CruiseTimeAgain2]

We would go back to Holland America because of there longer Caribbean cruises and excellent service or Azamara because of there smaller ships which we really liked and excellent service.

[deliver42]

Princess. Been on Princess before, and their all in pkg includes drinks and grats. All in isn't the name, but I couldn't remember it.

[cruisemom42]

I cruise mainly for itinerary and much prefer smaller ships to larger ones. I started cruising in the 1970s as a kid and still like cruising -- but in addition to other kinds of travel and mainly to places in Europe, Asia, South America, etc. Not so much the typical Caribbean or Alaska cruises.

 

I am not a loyalist; have sailed with a number of lines over the years including three that are now defunct. Currently Celebrity's M class ships are about as big as I want to go and in general I prefer fewer pax than that. Opportunities are getting scarcer for those who like smaller ships and don't want to pay luxury prices, although as a solo I have also found some good deals on luxury lines at times that make the price per day fairly comparable. 

 

I liked Princess for many years when my son was younger but neither of us like cruising on their newer ships. We found Regal Princess incredibly crowded with lacklustre food and few places to sit and connect with actually being at sea. The 'ship in a ship' concept is not for me, so MSC is out of the running as well. 

 

Right now other lines I look at are pretty limited and include HAL (smaller ships), Azamara, and opportunities on luxury lines like Crystal and Seabourn, if they turn up. HAL seems to have the best longer itineraries and is fairly solo-friendly.  I've twice had Oceania cruises booked but ended up canceling both as their forum here on CC leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Viking seems a bit sterile and their itineraries don't excite me.

 

If I could turn back the clock and cruise more with the two British lines (each with one small ship of approximately 350 passengers) I sailed with primarily from 2005-2019, I would. Sadly, no similar options exist right now though I am also perusing cruises from Fred. Olsen....

 

 

 

[sergel02]

Well I don’t cruise suites sadly, and I’m not set on Celebrity. I like them enough though, even though the whole issue with the Apex crew was unfortunate.
 

Still like them a lot, but I like Disney as well a lot. They are more expensive and don’t have as varied ports though.

 

NCL was one I thought I wouldn’t go in again but I may consider them again. 

 

The atmosphere, food, and dumping issues with Carnival and Princess made me shy away from them.

 

RCI I have wanted to go back on since it’s been nearly 20 years, but it hasn’t worked. I wish their newer ships were a little smaller though.

 

Thus far Celebrity has been my favorite for the price, but maybe I’ll look into Crystal or Oceania.