is Celebration tooooooooo big?

[Viajera7]

On 11/15/2022 at 7:22 AM, craig01020 said:

How about when they go to an island like Santorini?

I don’t know if Royal has big ships going to Santorini but one thing I noticed on my 3 European cruises this year was that all of them were in smaller and older ships. Brilliance of the Seas for the Greek Isles, NCL Dawn for the Baltic and NCL Jade for the Greek Isles ( and this one included Santorini).

[craig01020]

34 minutes ago, Viajera7 said:

I don’t know if Royal has big ships going to Santorini but one thing I noticed on my 3 European cruises this year was that all of them were in smaller and older ships. Brilliance of the Seas for the Greek Isles, NCL Dawn for the Baltic and NCL Jade for the Greek Isles ( and this one included Santorini).

Odyssey of the Seas is going to Santorini in 2024.

[CruizinSusan70]

On 11/9/2022 at 2:21 PM, Illbcruzn4life said:

That got my attention as well. I'm not a NCL fan but i'd give it a shot.

Was recently on the 11 day cruise from Galveston to Miami on the Prima.  Not a perfect ship, but we had a great time.  It will be homeported in Galveston as of Nov of 2023.  The Viva will home port out of San Juan and will have many 7 day cruises with zero sea days. The third Prima Plus Class ship has been pushed back till 2025.

[CruizinSusan70]

On 11/12/2022 at 11:11 AM, staceyglow said:

Yeah, I am not lining up 45 minutes ahead of time to watch a show on the MG when I can stroll straight into the venue 10 minutes before the start on a smaller ship. 

And people like yourself is why the older ships in the fleet will always have a following.

Choices are a great thing whether it's within Carnival or sailing on one of their many competitors.

[BlerkOne]

8 hours ago, craig01020 said:

Odyssey of the Seas is going to Santorini in 2024.

Santorini ports are tender ports. No thanks 

[BlerkOne]

Just now, CruizinSusan70 said:

And people like yourself is why the older ships in the fleet will always have a following.

Choices are a great thing whether it's within Carnival or sailing on one of their many competitors.

I prefer human sized bathrooms which is not typical on Excel class ships. And normal width cabins 

[CruizinSusan70]

On 11/13/2022 at 7:49 AM, Joebucks said:

 

Unfortunately, when you are on the MG, you do not have the option to jump to a small ship if you want to see a show. I really don't understand why Carnival can't get the comedy club size right. While I like the bigger ships better, comedy certainly was a much better experience in the smaller ships. Carnival just needs to move it to the main theater, and be done with it. 

I thought that the comedy situation on the MG was fine.  There were 3 different venues. Limelight lounge held the family shows, the Punchliner held the adult shows and the theater held the late night adult shows with 2 comedians.  With over 40 shows over the course of the week, it gave people multiple options to fill their comedic needs.

The comedians prefer the smaller venues because it's more similar to a comedy club setting.

[CruizinSusan70]

On 11/13/2022 at 10:03 AM, shof515 said:

its not just carnival, other cruise lines also have very small tiny room for the comedy club. the new Norwegian prima has lots of mixed reviews about this

The Improv on the Prima is about one third the size of the Punchliner on Carnival and the Prima holds 3100 people.  Reservations are taken and were gone within an hour of embarkation. There is a physical as well as virtual stand by list.

[CruizinSusan70]

On 11/16/2022 at 8:30 AM, Ilovesailaway said:

Is Celebration Too Big?

Well considering how small the elevators and bathrooms are maybe it's not big enough?

The elevators are not small at all.  Spent four weeks this year on the Mardi Gras and you can comfortably fit 9 people or 8 people and a scooter on one of them.

Edited November 21, 2022 by CruizinSusan70

[CruizinSusan70]

17 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

I prefer human sized bathrooms which is not typical on Excel class ships. And normal width cabins 

It's all a matter of perspective.  Now that you have had a taste of the Excel Class with your Celebration crossing, I have to assume that the Class is now in your rear view mirror.

You still have of course other ships in the fleet as well as Princess and other lines to cruise on.  Choices and options are always a good thing.

[pc_load_letter]

From a cruise vlog I watched today, it looks like the Celebration Central was a mess. According to the vlog, fights were breaking out for chairs in the extremely limited space deck 6.

 

The showed videos of the other levels where people were walking in front of them as they tried to watch the show. Looked very annoying. They went on to say that you could try deck 8 but that it's very noisy there with the dining, bars and foot traffic.

 

Seems like an odd design to put on great shows that only a couple hundred people can watch with bad and limited seating.

 

Again, this was what I gleamed from the video. They did not say if the issue was there on MG. 

[shof515]

On the newer Norwegian class ships they too do events in the atrium already and they also have issues with background noise complaints and lack of seating. Looks like carnival somewhat copied Norwegian 

[EngIceDave]

I tripped over booking on Celebration Jan 29 w/o realizing it was new and GIANT!

 

We've done large and small, from MSC's Armonia (went to Havana) to RCL's Allure of the Seas.

As well as Carnival Horizon and more...

 

Back to the question, is it too big?

No. Not in my opinion.

Why? Because you CAN'T do everything, and it really should be that way....Always leave your audience wanting more. Make them want to come back, try new and try again.

 

Too big is only restricted by design if designed well enough to disperse traffic and crowds,. Whether they can fit in ports and marked channels is another issue. 

 

I too used to think they could be too big, too many people....I hate people.....by the way, I hate all of you, you are people, you know....But they have done a good job in design to keep me away from you.

 

 

 

[CruizinSusan70]

4 hours ago, pc_load_letter said:

 

Again, this was what I gleamed from the video. They did not say if the issue was there on MG. 

Since the ships are identical in that area, the issue of course would be the same on the MG.  On deck 8, behind where people sit looking at Celebration Central is where the Sushi and Teppanyaki restaurants are located.  On deck 7, behind the area is the casino on both sides aft and front.  The area where people were walking was just aft of the Aquaria Bar.  On deck 6, the rear area is adjacent to JavaBlue Cafe.  So basically the rear section contains noise or obstructed views on all three decks, which makes certain seating areas up front very popular, especially on deck six, which is where the commotion occurred on the video.

[CruizinSusan70]

4 hours ago, shof515 said:

On the newer Norwegian class ships they too do events in the atrium already and they also have issues with background noise complaints and lack of seating. Looks like carnival somewhat copied Norwegian 

Comparing apples and oranges.  Having sailed on multiple Breakaway Plus ships on NCL as well as their new Prima, the set up on those ships is nothing like the centralized deck 6-7-8 set up on the Excel Class.  The Excel Class ships are larger than anything in NCL's fleet and none of their ships have a centralized stage area with three decks of tiered seating.  But of course both lines have a main theater where many shows occur.

[WhaleTailFlCruiser]

On 11/8/2022 at 11:29 AM, havanadaydreaming said:

not that it will keep us cruise fanatics from booking a voyage, but i think i heard Celebration runs 5500+ capacity?  

 

whooo boy, dat a lot of humanity on one ship.  we've never sailed the RC monsters, i think our biggest ship we have sailed is right about 4k  (Escape, Epic, Divina, Panorama/Horizon) 

 

 

 

She is literally the same size as MG. Although MG weighs more for some reason they share the same Pax count.  

[WhaleTailFlCruiser]

On 11/8/2022 at 7:36 PM, mz-s said:

 

It'll be fine on Dodge Island or whatever its home port is. And ports like Nassau will adapt. But tender ports will be extinct before long. There's no way you can tender that many guests efficiently.

 

I have noticed MG doesn't call on Belize or GC. But I have seen a Vista class tender in those ports so I wonder if Carnival has found that the XL class is just too many people to try and Tender. 

[BlerkOne]

7 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

It's all a matter of perspective.  Now that you have had a taste of the Excel Class with your Celebration crossing, I have to assume that the Class is now in your rear view mirror.

You still have of course other ships in the fleet as well as Princess and other lines to cruise on.  Choices and options are always a good thing.

I had a taste of Excel class with Mardi Gras. Celebration is a little better. Unlike others I don't wear blinders and ignore any ship. The bathrooms in normal cabins on Excel class are tiny. Period. The cabins are also more narrow. These are facts, not opinion 

[BlerkOne]

45 minutes ago, WhaleTailFlCruiser said:

 

She is literally the same size as MG. Although MG weighs more for some reason they share the same Pax count.  

Tonnage has nothing to do with weight 

[CruizinSusan70]

1 hour ago, BlerkOne said:

I had a taste of Excel class with Mardi Gras. Celebration is a little better. Unlike others I don't wear blinders and ignore any ship. The bathrooms in normal cabins on Excel class are tiny. Period. The cabins are also more narrow. These are facts, not opinion 

It obviously wasn't a deal breaker for you since you sailed on the MG previously and then decided to sail on the Celebration TA even though the bathrooms were tiny and the cabins were narrow. 

[Old Fart Cruisers]

18 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

It obviously wasn't a deal breaker for you since you sailed on the MG previously and then decided to sail on the Celebration TA even though the bathrooms were tiny and the cabins were narrow. 

 

I've seen a few comments about the tiny bathrooms, but I haven't been able to find any pictures of them.   Are they really much smaller than other ship classes.  Would appreciate if you could post some pictures.  Thanks in advance. 

[BlerkOne]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

It obviously wasn't a deal breaker for you since you sailed on the MG previously and then decided to sail on the Celebration TA even though the bathrooms were tiny and the cabins were narrow. 

Tiny bathrooms and narrow cabins are just factors to consider if/when booking a cruise. 

 

Tiny bathrooms and narrow cabins are clearly not game changing 

[CruizinSusan70]

49 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

 

Tiny bathrooms and narrow cabins are clearly not game changing 

But food and entertainment options that exceed what you get on the other 23 ships in the fleet besides the two in the Excel Class are game changing.  

[BlerkOne]

7 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

But food and entertainment options that exceed what you get on the other 23 ships in the fleet besides the two in the Excel Class are game changing.  

A new pay restaurant that I had no interest in trying is not game changing. And Carnival should never have traded JiJi away for Chibang. 

 

Neither food nor entertainment can be objectively judged. Both are highly subjective.

[CruizinSusan70]

47 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

A new pay restaurant that I had no interest in trying is not game changing. And Carnival should never have traded JiJi away for Chibang. 

 

Neither food nor entertainment can be objectively judged. Both are highly subjective.

 The food, entertainment and different bars that are available on the two Excel Class ships blow away anything else that the rest of the ships in the fleet provide.  Other ships in the fleet may have some of the shows or some of the food venues that are available on the Excel Class, but certainly not all of them.  I've cruised on the MG four times, more than any other ship I've cruised on and currently have five reservations on the Celebration since I knew that Carnival would make adjustments and Latitudes and Golden Jubilee are an improvement over Fortune Teller and Brass Magnolia.

I have said it before and will say it again even though you may disagree with the statement that the Excel is a game changer for Carnival because they finally came up with a larger ship that had more food, entertainment and adult beverage options than the rest of their fleet that was more in line with the ship options that their competition has been offering for years.