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

[Cruising Forever!]

On 6/20/2021 at 7:29 PM, jg51 said:

.

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?

.

 

😆😆😆

 

So, I'm not sure why you keep referring to "decades" in the way that you do... sorta sounds like a challenge.  It's best to make sure you have your own facts straight before throwing down the gauntlet. Have YOU ever heard of the Celebrity ship "Horizon"?  We sailed on her in 1995 and that was 26 years ago... certainly decades ago. In fact, we were sailing on Celebrity BEFORE Royal Caribbean bought or merged that company up.  Celebrity's Horizon and her sister ship were sailing before the "M" class ships.  As to your question with regards to the size of the buffets and selections, we have enjoyed the excellent buffets on Reflection's sister ships, Solstice, Silhouette and twice on Equinox.  All of those sisters have the exact same size buffet.  Royal Princess' was bigger and had more selections.  Period.  I can say that because I've experienced both fleet offerings.  Btw, we are Diamond Plus on Royal (and of course, Elite on Celebrity), so that should tell you that we've had a lengthy sailing career, thank you very much.  

 

As to your 2nd question, generally speaking, the specialty restaurants are about $30pp on Royal Princess.  Princess has added some new specialty restaurants on the newer Royal class ships.  They might be slightly higher.  Still cheaper than the Celebrity specialty locations.  (We never miss the Tuscan on Solstice class ships... didn't care for Q'sine... I loved Murano, but no one else in our party liked it there.  We like Silk Harvest, but it's not a can't miss for us)

 

As to your 3rd "question" where you once again put "decades" into quotes in a feeble attempt at a challenge of my actual decades of sailing both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, was I aware that Celebrity has room service?  Is this really a question on your part? 😆  Well, I should tell you that I would never eat dinner in my stateroom by choice on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean or Princess.  We've done breakfast on the balcony, but I find that to be less wonderful than it's portrayed. 

 

I think your final paragraph... 

 

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. 

 

... is a bit odd, don't you?  How would you know whether the Royal Princess buffet is better or not than that on Celebrity ships without trying it yourself?  I never said it was better... I said at least as good (imo) and bigger.  But it seems to me that you really aren't interested in switching from Celebrity at all.  So why even bother considering it?

 

PS- I don't do drinks packages as they are a rip-off in my opinion.  I generally do Soda packages and they cost about the same across Princess and Celebrity, but Princess includes some other kinds of non-soda, non alcoholic drinks in their soda package.  This is all easy enough to research on your own at the Princess site.

[Cruising Forever!]

2 hours ago, sergel02 said:

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.

If you do choose to cruise on Royal Caribbean again, I would recommend taking one of their specialty restaurant packages.  The MDR aboard their ships are ok, just not SPECTACULAR as in the old days.  Celebrity is best on MDR all around, imo.  Princess MDR is a step above Royal Caribbean MDR, again, imo.  We had a B2B on Allure of the Seas, and we ate in the MDR (again, it was ok...) the first week, and then took a f 5 or 6 night specialty restaurant package for the second week to avoid a repeat of menus.  (Note, Allure treated us to a free lunch in Giovanni's Table... or whatever they call the Italian specialty restaurant in Central Park these days... between the two weeks just for doing the B2B sailing.)

[Cruising Forever!]

On 6/20/2021 at 2:50 AM, Esprit said:

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.

 

Silhouette is a WONDERFUL ship!  I remember her fondly...  On "S" class ships, I live in the Solarium!  Also, the Persian Gardens are awesome!  We did Aquaclass on our only sailing on Silly... maybe that's why she brings back so many great memories, too!

[Tatka]

As we cruised on most massmarket lines it’s easier to say which one we wouldn’t choose. It’s Carnival. Less likely MSC.

We were a bit disappointed in our very last cruise on Princess, which we always put on the same level with X. 

[kelmac]

4 hours ago, Cruising Forever! said:

 

😆😆😆

 

So, I'm not sure why you keep referring to "decades" in the way that you do... sorta sounds like a challenge.  It's best to make sure you have your own facts straight before throwing down the gauntlet. Have YOU ever heard of the Celebrity ship "Horizon"?  We sailed on her in 1995 and that was 26 years ago... certainly decades ago. In fact, we were sailing on Celebrity BEFORE Royal Caribbean bought or merged that company up. 

 

 

We consider ourselves members of the Celebrity "Grand-Slam" club, as we have cruised every cruise ship built under the Celebrity brand.  Horizon, Zenith, Galaxy, Century, Mercury, Millennium, Summit, Constellation, Infinity, Solstice, Equinox, Silhouette, Eclipse, Reflection, Edge and the Apex coming up this fall.  We started cruising Celebrity in 1993, before RCCL purchased the line.

Coming up we are doing Carnival (our first, out of curiosity) 7 days; NCL 36 days; MSC Yacht Club 7 days; Celebrity 70 days; Holland America 56 days; RCL 12 days; and Cunard 7 days.  What you won't see is any Princess cruises, as we can't seem to make them "click" for us after our three tries (long story here).  I'm sure some day we will try them again, in one of their newer ships, to see if we can bound in any way?

 

We are willing to give every cruise company a try, and I believe most people, deep down, want to do the same.  Never, say never (see above -- 7 days on Carnival).  With loads of time and a little money, it can happen!

 

Enjoy!

Kel😄

[johare]

Have only previously sailed on Disney (13 times) and Carnival (twice).  Would gladly go on either of those again. Also looking forward to checking out NCL someday.  This will be our first Celebrity cruise.

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

As I said, Regent is by far our favorite.
We have sailed on Celebrity before, last sailing in 2011. Princess.. last sailing 2012. Hands down..Celebrity comes out on top. Much nicer cabin layout, food is better in MDR, prettier ships. 
We are sailing on Edge in August… Caribbean. Desperate to go on a cruise. No Regent sailings until December in US. Already booked for winter of 2022. 

[sergel02]

9 hours ago, Cruising Forever! said:

If you do choose to cruise on Royal Caribbean again, I would recommend taking one of their specialty restaurant packages.  The MDR aboard their ships are ok, just not SPECTACULAR as in the old days.  Celebrity is best on MDR all around, imo.  Princess MDR is a step above Royal Caribbean MDR, again, imo.  We had a B2B on Allure of the Seas, and we ate in the MDR (again, it was ok...) the first week, and then took a f 5 or 6 night specialty restaurant package for the second week to avoid a repeat of menus.  (Note, Allure treated us to a free lunch in Giovanni's Table... or whatever they call the Italian specialty restaurant in Central Park these days... between the two weeks just for doing the B2B sailing.)

Thanks!
How much are those dining packages anyway?

 

The last time we went in Royal Caribbean was 2003 I think so things have changed vastly. There weren’t and specialty dining options then, of course I was simply happy with cookies and soft-serve from Windjammer lol.

 

Princess always seems hit or miss with the food. People seem to say it was pretty great or pretty bad. We went on Princess in 2007 and nothing was bad but nothing was spectacular either. Again though, that was years ago.

[ridge4]

18 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

...  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. 

 

We are booked on our first Oceania cruise in September 2022.  I am excited to try them, and hear very good things. However, I soon realized the CC forum for Oceania is not for me. Hopefully the forum is not representative of the majority of passengers onboard. 

Edited June 22, 2021 by ridge4

[Orator]

4 minutes ago, ridge4 said:

We are booked on our first Oceania cruise in September 2022.  I am excited to try them, and hear very good things. However, I soon realized the CC forum for Oceania is not for me. Hopefully the forum is not representative of the majority of passengers onboard. 

I also was thinking about a cruise on Oceania. I posted a question about activities on TAs on the board and decided that the cruise I was thinking about is not a good fit.  Everyone looks for different things and I'm certain that Oceania is a great fit for many. They most certainly have their cheerleaders as does every other line.

[goofysmom99]

1 hour ago, ridge4 said:

We are booked on our first Oceania cruise in September 2022.  I am excited to try them, and hear very good things. However, I soon realized the CC forum for Oceania is not for me. Hopefully the forum is not representative of the majority of passengers onboard. 

I noticed that, too.  I'm hopeful my cruise will be more fun than their boards. 😉

[LGW59]

4 minutes ago, goofysmom99 said:

I noticed that, too.  I'm hopeful my cruise will be more fun than their boards. 😉

I recently booked an Oceania cruise not only for the itinerary and ship but because of the nice positive feedback from so many there.  I call it maturity and I am not referring to anyone’s age.  Almost zero vax slamming, jealous because one may have paid less than your cabin or got an upgrade , drink package nonsense AI…

[Lady Arwen]

We have Apex booked for 2022 and Enchanted Princess, also for 2022.  We’re loyal to everyone!  We take into consideration so many things before choosing one particular cruise.   We tried NCL, Carnival and Costa a few years ago.  No thank you.  We stick with Celebrity, Princess and an occasional HAL.  Would love to try a luxury line, but that would cut down on the number of cruises we could take.  We’re never disappointed with our big three!

 

 

[tfred]

2 hours ago, ridge4 said:

We are booked on our first Oceania cruise in September 2022.  I am excited to try them, and hear very good things. However, I soon realized the CC forum for Oceania is not for me. Hopefully the forum is not representative of the majority of passengers onboard. 

there are a few posters on the Oceania forum who rule that board with an iron fist - pretty tough to read. They are not representative of pax on O

 

That said, We have been on both X and O and enjoyed them both in different ways .  Somewhere there is a topic that goes over the details of the two.  If you are a foodie then O is nirvana.  If you are steak and potatoes it may be a waste of money.  Good service, food and ship.  Sedate at night with people in smaller groups 

[ridge4]

15 minutes ago, tfred said:

there are a few posters on the Oceania forum who rule that board with an iron fist - pretty tough to read. They are not representative of pax on O

 

That said, We have been on both X and O and enjoyed them both in different ways .  Somewhere there is a topic that goes over the details of the two.  If you are a foodie then O is nirvana.  If you are steak and potatoes it may be a waste of money.  Good service, food and ship.  Sedate at night with people in smaller groups 

Thanks for the post, that is what I hoped. We’re certainly not gourmet experts, but we’re definitely not the “steak and potato” type. We like to try new things, and we have heard lots of high praise for the food. Quiet evenings will fit us just fine. 

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, tfred said:

That said, We have been on both X and O and enjoyed them both in different ways .  Somewhere there is a topic that goes over the details of the two.  If you are a foodie then O is nirvana.

 

Compared to Celebrity, that may true.  And much of the food raves come from the variety of venues on their larger ships (the smaller only have a steakhouse and an Italian).  However, the meal items at Tuscan on Celebrity match the equivalent on Oceania.

 

But compared to luxury lines (as opposed to premium), the Oceania advantage goes away, IMO.  The MDR on Crystal, Regent and Seabourn beats Oceania hands down.  And there is probably no better specialty restaurant at sea than the Nobu-affiliated "Umi Uma" Asian restaurant on Crystal.

[jg51]

On 6/22/2021 at 4:18 AM, Cruising Forever! said:

 

😆😆😆

 

So, I'm not sure why you keep referring to "decades" in the way that you do... sorta sounds like a challenge.  It's best to make sure you have your own facts straight before throwing down the gauntlet. Have YOU ever heard of the Celebrity ship "Horizon"?  We sailed on her in 1995 and that was 26 years ago... certainly decades ago. In fact, we were sailing on Celebrity BEFORE Royal Caribbean bought or merged that company up.  Celebrity's Horizon and her sister ship were sailing before the "M" class ships. 

 

As to your question with regards to the size of the buffets and selections, we have enjoyed the excellent buffets on Reflection's sister ships, Solstice, Silhouette and twice on Equinox.  All of those sisters have the exact same size buffet.  Royal Princess' was bigger and had more selections.  Period.  I can say that because I've experienced both fleet offerings.  Btw, we are Diamond Plus on Royal (and of course, Elite on Celebrity), so that should tell you that we've had a lengthy sailing career, thank you very much.  

 

As to your 2nd question, generally speaking, the specialty restaurants are about $30pp on Royal Princess.  Princess has added some new specialty restaurants on the newer Royal class ships.  They might be slightly higher.  Still cheaper than the Celebrity specialty locations.  (We never miss the Tuscan on Solstice class ships... didn't care for Q'sine... I loved Murano, but no one else in our party liked it there.  We like Silk Harvest, but it's not a can't miss for us)

 

As to your 3rd "question" where you once again put "decades" into quotes in a feeble attempt at a challenge of my actual decades of sailing both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, was I aware that Celebrity has room service?  Is this really a question on your part? 😆  Well, I should tell you that I would never eat dinner in my stateroom by choice on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean or Princess.  We've done breakfast on the balcony, but I find that to be less wonderful than it's portrayed. 

 

I think your final paragraph... 

 

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. 

 

... is a bit odd, don't you?  How would you know whether the Royal Princess buffet is better or not than that on Celebrity ships without trying it yourself?  I never said it was better... I said at least as good (imo) and bigger.  But it seems to me that you really aren't interested in switching from Celebrity at all.  So why even bother considering it?

 

PS- I don't do drinks packages as they are a rip-off in my opinion.  I generally do Soda packages and they cost about the same across Princess and Celebrity, but Princess includes some other kinds of non-soda, non alcoholic drinks in their soda package.  This is all easy enough to research on your own at the Princess site.

.

Hello again, "Cruising Forever!"

Thanks for responding (partially) to our comments and questions.

 

The fact that you answered some questions straightforwardly was good (e.g., the price of specialty restaurants on Princess ships).  The fact that you sidestepped some questions (especially the very clear question about the availability of delivery of full MDR dinners via Room Service) was troubling.  Ironically, we suppose that your avoiding giving some answers was itself informative (favoring Celebrity over Princess).

 

We could "follow up" on some things, to try to persuade you to say more, but we have decided not to do that, because we were so troubled about the fact that you became very defensive, and we don't want to bother you further.   We will try to explain what we mean by saying this ...

 

It appears that, as soon as you saw that we thought that you might be mistaken about the buffet, you (wrongly) assumed that we were trying to insult you.  [You used the words, "challenge" and "gauntlet."]  In reality, we were merely quoting your words (about "decades") -- not doubting your words! 

 

The reason we quoted you is this:  Some people have cruised Celebrity ("for decades"), but only on M-class (or even smaller) ships, which have much smaller and "weaker" buffets than S-class ships have.  That's why we were afraid that you might have been comparing something like the Summit's buffet to that of the Royal Princess -- rather than comparing the RP's buffet to that of a ship like the Reflection.  We hope that you can now understand the motivation behind what we wrote.  [You have made us very curious to see the RP's buffet, because it is so hard for us to imagine that it offers "far more selections" than the Reflection.]

 

Now, before we go, it's time for a bit of "disclosure" that may surprise you.  We have been aboard three different Princess ships (four cruises totaling a whopping 66 nights [10+10+18+28]) -- but between 2010 and 2015.  That is part of the reason for us being  genuinely interested in questioning you.  We hoped to get further (and more up-to-date, c. 2019) information from you about the Princess experience.  We weren't trying to merely attack you!  You have given us some of what we sought.  [Another CrCr member, yesterday, answered a question that you declined to answer (about the surprisingly low cost of the Princess package that includes internet, beverages, and service charges -- about $42 per day.]

 

Thank you.

PS:  Yes, we have been aware of the Horizon (and the Zenith) since about 2008!  We are not as ignorant as you may have thought we were 😉.

.

Edited June 24, 2021 by jg51

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, jg51 said:

The reason we quoted you is this:  Some people have cruised Celebrity ("for decades"), but only on M-class (or even smaller) ships, which have much smaller and "weaker" buffets than S-class ships have.  That's why we were afraid that you might have been comparing something like the Summit's buffet to that of the Royal Princess

 

Just a note to you -- on forums boards like these, using quotes the way you do (e.g., "for decades") is often meant to be a challenge. So don't be too upset that the poster took it that way.

 

Imagine a conversational tone where someone deliberately emphasized the words "for decades" (perhaps adding air quotes for additional impact) --that's more or less the equivalent of what you posted. It's similar to considering the use of all caps to be SHOUTING at someone.

 

[Cruising89143]

On 6/22/2021 at 1:33 AM, Cruising Forever! said:

If you do choose to cruise on Royal Caribbean again, I would recommend taking one of their specialty restaurant packages.  The MDR aboard their ships are ok, just not SPECTACULAR as in the old days.  Celebrity is best on MDR all around, imo.  Princess MDR is a step above Royal Caribbean MDR, again, imo.  We had a B2B on Allure of the Seas, and we ate in the MDR (again, it was ok...) the first week, and then took a f 5 or 6 night specialty restaurant package for the second week to avoid a repeat of menus.  (Note, Allure treated us to a free lunch in Giovanni's Table... or whatever they call the Italian specialty restaurant in Central Park these days... between the two weeks just for doing the B2B sailing.)

When we were cruising RCI we budgeted for special dining all nights unless we were in a port late enough to grab dinner. The MDR quality left a lot to be desired. 

[choose2cruz]

I prefer Celebrity for certain itineraries, but I'm always open to trying something new. So far I've sailed with Celebrity and Princess. I'm booked on my first cruise with Norwegian. I wouldn't mind trying Holland America and I'll definitely sail with Princess again.

[jg51]

20 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Just a note to you -- on forums boards like these, using quotes the way you do (e.g., "for decades") is often meant to be a challenge. So don't be too upset that the poster took it that way.

 

Imagine a conversational tone where someone deliberately emphasized the words "for decades" (perhaps adding air quotes for additional impact) --that's more or less the equivalent of what you posted. It's similar to considering the use of all caps to be SHOUTING at someone.

 

.

Don't worry, "mom."  We were not "upset" at all.  We were just surprised, because, in the past, we had not encountered a reaction that was similar to the one that we unintentionally evoked from "Cruising Forever!" this time. 

 

We don't really agree with what you stated in the second paragraph, above, but we respect your right to hold that opinion.   Perhaps you didn't notice that we have posted more than a thousand times here at CrCr, over the last eleven years.  And you could not have known that we started posting messages at other forum boards 'way back in 2001!  We aren't mentioning these things to boast, but only to say that we are very aware of customary etiquette -- avoiding upper-case SHOUTING and other bad habits. 

 

We can say that, in twenty years of posting messages, we cannot recall ever having had an experience similar to the one we had on this thread.  We think that what happened was just due to a difference in personalities and/or a misunderstanding.  You know that such things happens simply because all of us are fallible human beings!  We are putting it behind us and moving on.

.

[cruisemom42]

42 minutes ago, jg51 said:

.

Don't worry, "mom."  We were not "upset" at all.  We were just surprised, because, in the past, we had not encountered a reaction that was similar to the one that we unintentionally evoked from "Cruising Forever!" this time. 

 

We don't really agree with what you stated in the second paragraph, above, but we respect your right to hold that opinion.   Perhaps you didn't notice that we have posted more than a thousand times here at CrCr, over the last eleven years.  And you could not have known that we started posting messages at other forum boards 'way back in 2001!  We aren't mentioning these things to boast, but only to say that we are very aware of customary etiquette -- avoiding upper-case SHOUTING and other bad habits. 

 

We can say that, in twenty years of posting messages, we cannot recall ever having had an experience similar to the one we had on this thread.  We think that what happened was just due to a difference in personalities and/or a misunderstanding.  You know that such things happens simply because all of us are fallible human beings!  We are putting it behind us and moving on.

.

 

I did see you had been here for a while. But things change over time, especially when accelerated by social media. My son informed me, about 6 months ago, that ending sentences with several dots (an ellipse) is now considered by readers on many social media platforms to be passive-aggressive!  Who knew.... 🤣

 

I won't drag this forward, but will just say that my first reaction when you put part of my user name (not even using my whole name) in "quotes" is to make me think you are being dismissive or even questioning whether I am even a "mom".  And you may be unintentionally sending such messages to others as well with your usage of quotes.

 

But, carry on!  🤨

[2Long2NxtCrz]

We have only cruised Royal and Celebrity.  We do Royal when it's a large extended group with varying ages because our kids (teens to young adults) want to stay busy.  And the shows are amazing.  But when it's just hubby and I, we love Celebrity.

 

I hope to take hubby to Alaska for his 60th in 2023, so that'll determine which line we go on after Royal and Celebrity, unless it's Celebrity, but I haven't even begun to plan that!

 

I fully suspect that once we retire and have much more flexibility we'll look into trying quite a few more lines and it's always good to read others' takes on what's out there.