Live from…. Victoria, Cunard Vs Celebrity, Grills Vs the Retreat

[Victoria2]

36 minutes ago, swjumbo said:

Seems another has replied on your behalf and never cruised on Celebrity lol!

But seriously, your fans are awaiting with bated breath…..

As you have yet again, although indirectly this time, mentioned my post, may I again point out to you the comment was qualified with an explanation, one which you might not have taken onboard, hence your lol,  but which one of the Celebrity cruisers 'totally understood'.

 

*and yes, I have cruised on a shortie with Celebrity although definitely  not top end  [Aqua  if I remember correctly] but it did give me a superficial idea of the difference between the two lines.

 

 

Edited October 30, 2022 by Victoria2
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[groryjm]

I started this thread to compare, what on paper at least, seem to be two similar lines and share my experiences at dipping a toe in unfamiliar waters. Celebrity is our familiar place and one where we feel comfortable. We are trying to fly less and can’t fly long haul anymore and would like to be able to cruise around Christmas. Celebrity is from 2023 keeping one ship in Europe over the winter but it is Infinity and we prefer the newer S Class ships.

 

We have now dipped our toes and for the most part thoroughly enjoyed our experience. One of our growing regrets about Celebrity has been the decline of the formal dress code and we very much enjoy dressing for the evening. Both lines now seem to only have about three special dress nights on a two week cruise. Celebrity’s being now called Evening Chic and Cunard’s Gala nights.  For the remaining evenings Cunard set the dress code as smart attire and Celebrity as smart casual.

 

 

On Cunard we found the passengers generally adhered to the code with probably 90% of men in black tie (tuxedos) and the rest had jacket and tie for the more formal nights. The smart attire nights saw most men in collared shirts and even a few in black tie. On Celebrity out of the UK I would recon about 15% men in black tie on the more formal nights and very few even in jackets on the more casual evenings with this number dropping for European sailings. Of US sailings I have no first-hand knowledge but gather the level of dress is even lower. So for us in this Cunard is wins but for others Celebrity might.

 

So in answer to @swjumbo ‘s question If there were two identical itineraries out at the Southampton at the same time of year, one on Queen Victoria and the other on Celebrity Silhouette, which would we choose? On balance I think we would choose Celebrity. I suspect however someone who’s familiar safe place was Cunard and had just tried Celebrity for the first time would probably answer Cunard. We did very much enjoy our cruise and would do it again in a heartbeat but the itineraries of both lines are not the same and for the most part, out of Southampton, for us a mix of both lines would give us the best of what we want.

 

If we were traveling with my adult daughter and her girlfriend we would choose X but if we were going with my sister and law and her husband Cunard is definitely on the cards.  For a cruise for just us we steer more towards X, probably as it has been our familiar place for so long, but will certainly add Cunard to our list of possible for our next round of bookings. We are booked up with three Celebrity cuisses for 2023. We await 2024’s itineraries with much interest.  

 

To conclude my aim was to see the Northern lights for my Sixtieth and that I have now done, and in such style…….

 

Here are a few pics taken of the lights on three different nights. And of course a sunset or two wich is one of the joys of being on the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2022 by groryjm

[Petulia]

Hi Groryjm, it has been interesting to follow your comparison review, not to mention seeing all those cocktails! During the early to mid teens (2011….) we did a few cruises on Celebrity on M and S classes and enjoyed them all. The last cruise was in a midship Celebrity Suite shortly after Luminae opened. We also had a wonderful very proactive concierge called Sylvia. 
 

For the last several years we’ve been (mostly) cruising on Cunard and very recently again on the QV, which we thought looked very smart indeed for our enjoyable Med cruise. But for a change, although the itinerary is fairly similar, we have just booked a Celebrity cruise for next year. For us it will be interesting to see if the Celebrity ‘vibe’ has changed from what we remember and to see if we prefer the rather less formality than we’ve been used to on Cunard!
 

Many thanks for all the pics of the Northern Lights and the ports of call in your review. 

 

 

[LEESRE]

Many thanks for you input on both lines, enjoyable reading.

[swjumbo]

Thank you for an informative thread and for answering others’ and my questions.

 

Loved the photos and hopefully will bump into you on either X or Cunard and if we’re all inclusive I’ll buy you a drink!

 

Cheers and thanks again.

[groryjm]

30 minutes ago, swjumbo said:

Thank you for an informative thread and for answering others’ and my questions.

 

Loved the photos and hopefully will bump into you on either X or Cunard and if we’re all inclusive I’ll buy you a drink!

 

Cheers and thanks again.

Or if we're in an upper suite on either pop over and i'll mix you one 😎🍸🧉🍹🍾

 

Sadly though for two of our cruise next we've only got CS's booked. Like a Q3 but with a door to the bedroom are but saddly no included bar set up😧. That said we'll probably try for a move up bid 😉

[Windsurfboy]

Given that the hypothetical,  identical cruise on same day is very unlikely.  I take it , and please correct me if I'm wrong, you would be happy  with either if timing and intinerary was what you wanted.

[chemmo]

17 hours ago, groryjm said:

Or if we're in an upper suite on either pop over and i'll mix you one 😎🍸🧉🍹🍾

 

Sadly though for two of our cruise next we've only got CS's booked. Like a Q3 but with a door to the bedroom are but saddly no included bar set up😧. That said we'll probably try for a move up bid 😉

Good luck for a move up!
 

Remember you can always pay for a bar set up in your room…Whilst the cost is prohibitive (especially when you already have a drinks package) but it is very convenient.
 

It is years since we did this now…I seem to remember there was quite a limited menu on line but our butler swapped out the ordered bottle for our preferred brand. Definitely worth doing when you enjoy in suite pre dinner drinks.

 

Thoroughly enjoyed your honest and descriptive review…It has been an enjoyable read with morning coffee. I feel I now have a bit better picture of the Cunard experience…
 

 

[groryjm]

Two little things I’d forgotten to mention coffee and overnights.

 

One thing I failed to find was a café style bar for a coffee similar to Café al Bacio on X in the central aitrium. There are a number of elegant places to have tea on Victoria and I felt that Cunard is very much more a tea ship than a coffee ship. It might seem an odd thing to say and coffee was most definitely available at most bars but there didn’t seem to be a café vibe as such. There is the Golden Lion pub which is similar to X’s craft social but these are more pubs than cafés. Also there is the Winter Garden but that lacks the café vibe too even if the smell wasn’t bad enough. So I think for coffee X wins. I may have missed a venue which would have been a shame.

 

The in suite coffee machine in the Qs is Illy and while it produces ok coffee. We did have to look up how to use it online, when we had a signal in port, as our butler didn’t know. The Lavazza machine in the upper suites on X does, in my opinion, makes better coffee. So good in fact that we bought one on amazon to use at home.  

 

Over nights…….

When you advertise on an itinerary that the ship is over night on Day 7/8 and Day 8/9 with 4 sea days and shows this on the website

 

DAY 5             at sea

DAY 6             Tromso (Norway)

DAY 7             Tromso (Norway)

DAY 8             Narvik (Norway)

DAY 9             Narvik (Norway)

DAY 10           at sea

DAY 11           Stavanger

 

One might expect to be able to book one of the many private and well-reviewed Northern Lights tours that operate out of both Tromso and Narvik. No. It took a bit of digging but I eventually found out a couple of months before sailing that days 7 and 9 were also sea days so 6 sea days and 4 port days not the 4 sea and 6 port advertised .

 

Despite numerous unsuccessful calls to Cunard to establish what time the ship was due to leave either of these ports the best I ever got was at “sometime in the morning of the second and the captain will confirm upon departing Southampton”. I found the actual departure times on the relevant port authority web sites, thank goodness for Google translate, to be 1.30am and therefore an all on board of 1am. As far as the most of the private tour companies were concerned they could not guarantee a return before 3am and I understand that that is to them the norm as the lights and weather are so unpredictable. We only managed to find the amazing tour we did through a German speaking member of our CC rollcall’s diligence. Thank you @HeinBloed.

 

For some reason Cunard no longer seem to publish their actual port times, as other lines do, making booking private tours quite tricky. Is this a deliberate policy to encourage people to book ships tours rather than risk private?

 

Don’t take this the wrong way I am not complaining about Cunard but saying how useful it can be to collaborate with fellow passengers via CC rollcalls to sort private tours and even if Cunard don’t advertise their times the port authorities usually list the time slots the cruise lines have booked.

Edited November 1, 2022 by groryjm

[kentishfred]

Further thought regarding restaurant experience. In Luminae you do not have an allocated table although you do tend to have the same waiter most evenings. This means there is an opportunity to sit at one of the window seats on occassons unlike a Grill restaurant. Obviously if you are in a Q1 or Q2 in Queens Grill you would expect, as would I, to get special treatment. Sadly that experience is beyond my finances.

[Victoria2]

Window dining table.

I don't think it's special treatment as such because we're all treated 'specially' in Queen's Grill but  I like to think of it as first dibs. After all, if it wasn't for Covid, we'd be asking for a large table and if the front 'bubble' table wasn't configured, then we wouldn't be by a window..🙂

[Solent Richard]

On 10/30/2022 at 12:52 PM, groryjm said:

I started this thread to compare, what on paper at least, seem to be two similar lines and share my experiences at dipping a toe in unfamiliar waters. Celebrity is our familiar place and one where we feel comfortable. We are trying to fly less and can’t fly long haul anymore and would like to be able to cruise around Christmas. Celebrity is from 2023 keeping one ship in Europe over the winter but it is Infinity and we prefer the newer S Class ships.

 

We have now dipped our toes and for the most part thoroughly enjoyed our experience. One of our growing regrets about Celebrity has been the decline of the formal dress code and we very much enjoy dressing for the evening. Both lines now seem to only have about three special dress nights on a two week cruise. Celebrity’s being now called Evening Chic and Cunard’s Gala nights.  For the remaining evenings Cunard set the dress code as smart attire and Celebrity as smart casual.

 

 

On Cunard we found the passengers generally adhered to the code with probably 90% of men in black tie (tuxedos) and the rest had jacket and tie for the more formal nights. The smart attire nights saw most men in collared shirts and even a few in black tie. On Celebrity out of the UK I would recon about 15% men in black tie on the more formal nights and very few even in jackets on the more casual evenings with this number dropping for European sailings. Of US sailings I have no first-hand knowledge but gather the level of dress is even lower. So for us in this Cunard is wins but for others Celebrity might.

 

So in answer to @swjumbo ‘s question If there were two identical itineraries out at the Southampton at the same time of year, one on Queen Victoria and the other on Celebrity Silhouette, which would we choose? On balance I think we would choose Celebrity. I suspect however someone who’s familiar safe place was Cunard and had just tried Celebrity for the first time would probably answer Cunard. We did very much enjoy our cruise and would do it again in a heartbeat but the itineraries of both lines are not the same and for the most part, out of Southampton, for us a mix of both lines would give us the best of what we want.

 

 

As a long standing traditional Cunarder I found your synopsis most interesting,  particularly as my wife and I have recently returned from our fifth Celebrity cruise....

 

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2022/10/19/celebrity-silhouette-9-night-spain-france-cruise/

 

...and I have no compunction whatsoever in agreeing with you on your 'statement of balance' above.

 

For myself in particular, dress codes are no longer of a greater importance:  particularly as Cunard have been on a dumbing down exercise for a number of years. When the occasions arise on the ships we now tend to cruise with -  preferences  generally being itinerary driven - when the occasion arises to 'dress up' we take it. Celebrity, MSC, Saga, you name them, we dress formally when a formal, or whatever they now choose to call the evening, occurs. 

 

 

 

PS. The Celebrity whole ship entertainment on that 9 night cruise was nothing short of outstanding.

 

[ballroom-cruisers]

Interesting comparison between Cunard and Celebrity.  We too are long standing Cunarders, but there has been a gradual erosion of the things we like on Cunard ships - the erosion of the ballroom dancing in the Queens Room, which is key for our choice of voyages since without ballroom dancing in the evenings we are now looking at land based ballroom holidays increasingly over time, the Queen's Room orchestra is not generally as good at playing quality music for ballroom and Latin dancing at the level (tempo and vocalist quality) it should be - on some voyages the past year or two it has still been very good, but on others it is less than acceptably mediocre.  The increasing number of evenings with party nights, or musical non-dancing sessions with seats placed on half of the dance floor area, when they could just as easily be in the theatre instead, all makes for less of what we like on a voyage.  But there are other things that are changing too, including changes to the dining to move away from the kind of fixed dining we enjoy most, with less emphasis on fine dining as used to be the case. Only a few years ago re rarely saw anyone behaving inconsiderately, but now people increasingly abuse the fixed dining - and when nobody should arrive more than a quarter of an hour into the early sitting, we have seen people amble in over half an hour late, and act as if it is acceptable. It is very inconsiderate to the dining staff, as their management of the meal depends on a known time plan to deliver all the dishes at optimum. On Gala nights there never used to be anyone who would arrive inappropriately dressed to dinner or any of the evening's public events and areas of the ship, but now more people do so, and it shows disrespect to both the ship's management as well as to the other passengers who love the atmosphere where everyone is doing their best to dress to give the uniformity of standards.  For us there is not enough (or any really) ballroom dancing on other lines for us to still enjoy cruises away from Cunard, but already we are booking land based ballroom dancing holidays and that will likely increase in the future. We will continue to enjoy Cunard voyages provided the things we enjoy are not reduced below the level where we would feel that the cruises are no longer value for money in terms of fully enjoying those holidays. I feel that some Cunarders are already abandoning Cunard, and it would seem from your comparison that you are exploring other options too.  The nature of discussion on the Cunard forum is changing too in the past year and a lot of posts are from regular posters. I will continue to follow to see how the discussions change in the coming year or two.

[Jacqueline]

The only distinction that I would make is that in my experience it was a very different traveling in the Grills as opposed to Brittania.

I like Celebrity and would choose it if I could not afford the Grills experience on Cunard. That’s just me and if you look back at how long I have been on this board (not to mention the predecessor board) I would just say that it’s not just that my preferences have changed over time, it’s that the cruise experience has changed over time.

Back in 2000 I sailed on the Grand Princess Mediterranean itinerary (few ships did this back then). We had formal nights, semi formal and casual. Men wore tuxes and gals wore gowns. But more than that the dining experience was entirely different than it is today. Table side preparation. Multiple courses . An actual sommelier. I still recall that the fourth person on an inside cabin was $999 (kids). We were across the hall. We really did get what we paid for. With the rush to the bottom on pricing, the common experiences have declined. There aren’t any non revenue generating spaces on those ships anymore, libraries gone. There were actual room where you could play board games at night as a family. Gone. Quality of the food and the dining experience has suffered. 

 

That said, I would choose X over the Brittania experience on Cunard (Aqua class) And I would only sail Cunard in grills. But then again, I don’t sail as many times a year as many of you. 

Edited November 3, 2022 by Jacqueline
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