RCCL fans…thinking of trying Celebrity?

[davekathy]

1 minute ago, kimlovesfl said:

We have done 4 cruises with Princess, 5 with Celebrity, and are booked on our first Royal cruise, on the Brilliance, out of Ravenna on Oct 2. We are wondering how we will find the differences. I know we are on an older ship, and that's ok, especially for a port-intensive trip like this. I am dying to try one of those big, flashy ships with the Central Park area and all the bells and whistles. 

Only you can answer that. Just like your first cruises with Princess and Celebrity you can make that determination after your first RC cruise. 

[davekathy]

16 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Is Elite Plus higher then just plain Elite. If so how does one on RCCL become Elite Plus since you said all 3 groups on RCCL are Elite= Diamond, Diamond Plus and Pinnacle.......

 

Doesn't make sense?

RC C&A Diamond, Diamond +, Pinnacle are reciprocal to Celebrity Elite. Zero Captain Club cruise points if you've never cruised with Celebrity. 

 

Celebrity CC Elite, Elite+, Zenith are reciprocal to RC Dimond. Zero C&A cruise points if you've never cruised with RC.

 

 

[steveru621]

RCI and Celebrity are subsidiaries of RCCL.

[Ozark_Kid]

For those who has cruised both, how does the evening entertainment/shows compare.

[Biker19]

14 minutes ago, Ozark_Kid said:

For those who has cruised both, how does the evening entertainment/shows compare.

RCI is better on the bigger ships, most of the time.

[leaveitallbehind]

49 minutes ago, steveru621 said:

RCI and Celebrity are subsidiaries of RCCL.

You are on the right track. But over time the names have changed as the company has grown and the current nomenclature is:  Royal Caribbean Group is the holding company for Royal Caribbean International (RCI) , Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea Cruises,  They also have a 50% share in TUI Cruises.  They used to own Azamara Cruises, but recently recently sold them during the pandemic.  🙂

Edited May 8, 2022 by leaveitallbehind

[leaveitallbehind]

42 minutes ago, Ozark_Kid said:

For those who has cruised both, how does the evening entertainment/shows compare.

RCI (as @Biker19indicated) on their Oasis class ships has an outdoor Aqua theater, indoor Ice Shows, Broadway based shows, Comedy Club and other venues with entertainment.  (Freedom and Voyager class ships also have the Ice shows and some, along with Quantum class have Broadway based shows, and other venues).  Their smaller ships have the typical ship based theater shows.

 

Celebrity has the more typical ship based theater entertainment such as revue and theme shows, comedians, cover bands, etc.

Edited May 8, 2022 by leaveitallbehind

[Marie51]

 In recent months celebrity has been offering free drinks including alcohol, free Wi-Fi and free gratuities which for me is a big plus. I’ve cruised both Royal Caribbean and celebrity many times and I thoroughly enjoy both of them. 

[leaveitallbehind]

34 minutes ago, Marie51 said:

 In recent months celebrity has been offering free drinks including alcohol, free Wi-Fi and free gratuities which for me is a big plus. I’ve cruised both Royal Caribbean and celebrity many times and I thoroughly enjoy both of them. 

The "free" drinks, wifi, and gratuities you refer to is Celebrity's new fare structure called "Always", as in always included.  But to be certain, this fare structure has increased with the introduction of this program to cover those included items.  While IMO it is reasonable pricing and nice to have this now as essentially an all inclusive cruise, you are definitely paying for it - none of this is "free".  

 

On select cruises and stateroom categories they still offer the standard pricing without these items included and a price comparison of the two will show the very definite fare increase with "Always".

Edited May 8, 2022 by leaveitallbehind

[MrCruzdoggie]

We do both, next two are Celebrity Silhouette and Beyond then back to Royal. 

[emory2001]

We’re diamond on Royal and just booked Celebrity Beyond for next year. The ships are beautiful, but I do find in the Celebrity groups people are a bit more pretentious, so we’ll see how the experience actually is. We can more than afford to sail Celebrity, but we are not pretentious. We’re also taking our teens with us, who are very introverted and only ever went to Adventure Ocean a couple of times because they really don’t like big group activities, especially with kids they don’t know (don’t need anyone’s comments on that - that’s who my kids are). They enjoy traditional cruising like mom and dad, but there’s a lot of “don’t bring your kids” in the Celebrity groups. Oh well 🤷🏻‍♀️

[leaveitallbehind]

9 minutes ago, emory2001 said:

We’re diamond on Royal and just booked Celebrity Beyond for next year. The ships are beautiful, but I do find in the Celebrity groups people are a bit more pretentious, so we’ll see how the experience actually is. We can more than afford to sail Celebrity, but we are not pretentious. We’re also taking our teens with us, who are very introverted and only ever went to Adventure Ocean a couple of times because they really don’t like big group activities, especially with kids they don’t know (don’t need anyone’s comments on that - that’s who my kids are). They enjoy traditional cruising like mom and dad, but there’s a lot of “don’t bring your kids” in the Celebrity groups. Oh well 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don't find Celerity cruisers pretentious at all.  Certainly there are all types of personalities that sail on every type of cruise line.  But I think that is an unfair characterization of the Celebrity passenger demographic. 

 

They do cater more to adults than families, so clearly there are less children that cruise on Celebrity - most typically less younger children. But Celebrity also has children's programs and activities, and at the age that your children are, there will be activities for them to join in with if they wish - or just enjoy the cruise experience as you if preferred.

[lenquixote66]

We love Celebrity,especially the Silhouette.

[crzndeb]

I’m excited to try my first Celebrity cruises next year on the Edge. Rome-Dubai and Dubai-Singapore.

[Marie51]

1 hour ago, leaveitallbehind said:

The "free" drinks, wifi, and gratuities you refer to is Celebrity's new fare structure called "Always", as in always included.  But to be certain, this fare structure has increased with the introduction of this program to cover those included items.  While IMO it is reasonable pricing and nice to have this now as essentially an all inclusive cruise, you are definitely paying for it - none of this is "free".  

 

On select cruises and stateroom categories they still offer the standard pricing without these items included and a price comparison of the two will show the very definite fare increase with "Always".

 I recently took a celebrity cruise “always included” and it was still less than the Royal Caribbean cruise for the same number of days and the same itinerary. I got a great rate, maybe I just got lucky. 

[mac_tlc]

7 hours ago, billslowsky said:

I find that the "nice" things are nicer on Celebrity, and the "fun" things are funner on Royal.

Very well said and very few words. Bravo!

[mac_tlc]

34 minutes ago, crzndeb said:

I’m excited to try my first Celebrity cruises next year on the Edge. Rome-Dubai and Dubai-Singapore.

We will be there with you!
 

mac_tlc

[leaveitallbehind]

1 hour ago, Marie51 said:

 I recently took a celebrity cruise “always included” and it was still less than the Royal Caribbean cruise for the same number of days and the same itinerary. 

I was referring to the Celebrity Always fare relative to the Celebrity standard fare in terms of the cost of the now included "free" items - not Celebrity Always fares with other cruise lines with similar itineraries, etc. 

 

Certainly it can happen both ways when comparing fares between different cruise lines.  Obviously, there any number of reasons why any given similar itinerary between two different cruise line companies will result in different fares.

Edited May 8, 2022 by leaveitallbehind

[Ocean Boy]

2 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

I don't find Celerity cruisers pretentious at all.  Certainly there are all types of personalities that sail on every type of cruise line.  But I think that is an unfair characterization of the Celebrity passenger demographic. 

 

I agree. I have many more RCI cruises under my belt than I do Celebrity, but I have found nothing pretentious about those who choose to sail with Celebrity.

[Tom47]

DW and I have cruised both Celebrity and RCI  We like X better when we are cruising w/o grandchildren.   X's no smoking indoors policy  is a big plus for us..    We have been on 8 X cruises and 2 RCI.  We have 1 booked with each cruise line.  We have also taken  4 Azamara cruises. 

[kateg]

We only sail the Oasis class ships on Royal... but a few summer ago we went on Celebrity to Alaska.  We had a suite-the perks and dining were fantastic.  Otherwise we were bored silly.  And I'm not an exciting person...I'm pretty happy to sit and read.  Lets just say the library and game room were hoppin on that ship...We attended every lecture....but you can only watch so much glass blowing .Luckily when we were close to land it was lovely to just sit and look.  But when we were fogged in-or out to sea...I was very bored.

[maggieq]

We have been on 50+ rccl cruises and 6 celebrity.   Our first cruise post Covid was on the edge last September, we loved it.  
 

we are  fans of the oasis class on rccl and looking forward to our first post Covid oasis class on 5/22. 
 

we love the oasis ships for variety and entertainment.   However, we have seen most of the shows on all but wonder quite a few times.  
 

While we like entertainment at night, we are quite happy to bounce around the celebrity ship and end up at the Martini bar.  
 

We are all about best deal moving forward.  

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

I agree. I have many more RCI cruises under my belt than I do Celebrity, but I have found nothing pretentious about those who choose to sail with Celebrity.

 

3 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

I don't find Celerity cruisers pretentious at all.  Certainly there are all types of personalities that sail on every type of cruise line.  But I think that is an unfair characterization of the Celebrity passenger demographic. 

Me three. 🙂 I've encountered some degree of pretentious behavior on every line I've tried--even once on Carnival, because "Excuse me, I'M in a SUITE!!" 😆 😂 😁 But in my experience, Celebrity pax aren't any worse than their RCI counterparts.

Edited May 9, 2022 by la_croisiere_s'amuse

[dleahy4444]

I’m a big fan of both lines. I find the edge series of ships on Celebrity to be a more upscale experience in terms of ambiance, food and service. As noted it is more adult oriented than child oriented. Their “always included” program which includes the drink package, Wi-Fi and gratituties in the base rate makes it price competitive with RCCL when you figure in the price of buying these perks Al la cart on RCCL. However I find the entertainment better on Royal as well as the Diamond tier perks

[PhillyFan33579]

I like both cruise lines but the experience on both lines is very different. Celebrity is a lot more laid back, great service every where, a much older crowd and from what I have seen not very kid friendly. Every time I cruise on Celebrity I see and hear kids who are bored. I have never seen that on an RCI ship.