Considering Celebrity

[Cayman1]

We are typically Royal Caribbean cruisers, and just got off Carnival Mardi Gras today. We keep having the same complaints... too many wild and unruly kids, poor service, poor food and poor entertainment. We are in our early 50's and traveling with a 17 year old daughter. 

 

That being said, would Celebrity possibly satisfy the negatives that we face, which I mention above? I get nobody can make this decision for us, but we have never been on Celebrity thus far and it seems to have more of what we want. I think one of the biggest concerns is if the 17 year old would be bored or would she have things to do as well with other later teens.

 

Any opinions and advice is appreciated.

 

Thank you.

 

[realnice46]

Celebrity definitely older crowd not so much party atmosphere, but decent entertainment.  There will be some children but not like Carnival Royal Caribbean.We recently tried Princess and weren’t impressed with ship design, entertainment wasn’t that great either, food pretty good. Celebrity food quality not as good as it once was, but ok.  All in all we like Celebrity and have several cruises booked this year and next. I guess you’ll just have to try it.

[C4HCG]

I will offer you a 100% biased opinion having only sailed on Celebrity. In my experience everything you cite as bad on Carnival is good on Celebrity. Good for a 17 year old, impossible to say not knowing her. But we are taking our 24 year old in September and know he will love it. Go for it.

Edited March 18, 2023 by C4HCG

[cyntil8ing]

My kids, age 16 and 19, prefer Celebrity over Royal Caribbean. But they prefer Carnival over Celebrity. They have been on about 8 each Carnival and Celebrity and 4 on Royal, but never yer on Oasis class. We are trying Harmony this summer.

 

My kids are quiet, laid back, content to hang with us, enjoy dining in the dining room, like the shows and other entertainment. They have never been kids club fans even though they have been cruising since ages 3 and 5. They usually manage to make some friends on board.

 

I think it comes down to how much your daughter needs to be entertained vs how well she entertains herself. If she doesn’t care about the water slides and bumper cars, she will enjoy Celebrity.

 

My 19 year old loves the Solarium on Celebrity and loves to complain that Carnival’s somewhat-equivalent, Serenity, is 21 and over.

[Cayman1]

It may be worth adding that we are not big into the loud party scene. We like to have a few adult beverages here and there though. Also, we do like the entertainment on Royal for the most part as well, just not Carnival.

 

As far as our teen... she just likes to have some other teens that she can socialize with on the cruise... be it laying out, sitting around chatting, etc.

 

 

[Rockymaya]

Sailed Celebrity in February.Food was a disappointment .Had the premium drink package and half of the alcohol brands were not available.

[C4HCG]

6 minutes ago, Rockymaya said:

Sailed Celebrity in February.Food was a disappointment .Had the premium drink package and half of the alcohol brands were not available.

Were the other half any good? 

[keesar]

56 minutes ago, Cayman1 said:

We are typically Royal Caribbean cruisers, and just got off Carnival Mardi Gras today. We keep having the same complaints... too many wild and unruly kids, poor service, poor food and poor entertainment. We are in our early 50's and traveling with a 17 year old daughter. 

 

That being said, would Celebrity possibly satisfy the negatives that we face, which I mention above? I get nobody can make this decision for us, but we have never been on Celebrity thus far and it seems to have more of what we want. I think one of the biggest concerns is if the 17 year old would be bored or would she have things to do as well with other later teens.

 

Any opinions and advice is appreciated.

 

Thank you.

 

I believe you will enjoy Celebrity.  Not so sure for your daughter as there are very  few teens on Celebrity. That was even the case during a recent school vacation break.  Royal Caribbean may be continue to be a better choice for your family.

[CU64]

44 minutes ago, C4HCG said:

Were the other half any good? 

😉😉😉

[Cruising89143]

Based upon your comments I think Celebrity would be a good match. Definitely less kids on board with it being a much more laid back experience and the top two things for us would be no smoking allowed anywhere inside of the ship and only one announcement per day. I would suggest at least giving it a try. We like RCI but know what to expect when we cruise with them. 

[Cayman1]

If it makes a difference, we are looking to book for a Christmas cruise. 
 

Thank you for the replies thus far. 

[rs45thompson]

We are in the same boat.  We are in our early 50's with a 17 year old son.  We like Carnival, with Royal being a close second.  On Carnival Celebration (my favorite ship) the kids were running up and down the hallway at 11-12:00 at night.  On Mariner we had kids running (almost knocked a lady over) and preteens pushing buttons and running out of the elevator.  Hoping Celebrity will be better.  

[Cruising89143]

21 minutes ago, Cayman1 said:

If it makes a difference, we are looking to book for a Christmas cruise. 
 

Thank you for the replies thus far. 

Holidays and spring break can bring more kids on board but it will still be far different (less kids) than Carnival or RCI. 

[sunonfire]

14 minutes ago, rs45thompson said:

We are in the same boat.  We are in our early 50's with a 17 year old son.  We like Carnival, with Royal being a close second.  On Carnival Celebration (my favorite ship) the kids were running up and down the hallway at 11-12:00 at night.  On Mariner we had kids running (almost knocked a lady over) and preteens pushing buttons and running out of the elevator.  Hoping Celebrity will be better.  

Carnival and Royal and Celebrity all sail out of Tampa. The Carnival Pride is always filled 85% old people. I’m in my late sixties and the Pride reminds me of HAL cruises we were on. We were on her for Easter and that was the most kids that we ever saw. They were probably 40 to 50 kids aboard and they were very well behaved. Port Canaveral cruises always seem to have a lot of kids.

[mahdnc]

1 hour ago, Cayman1 said:

If it makes a difference, we are looking to book for a Christmas cruise. 
 

Thank you for the replies thus far. 

 

Depending on the location and length of the Christmas cruise (e.g. 7 night Caribbean cruise out of Florida), you should have a lot of families on board that will have kids the same age as your daughter to socialize with.

Edited March 19, 2023 by mahdnc

[cyntil8ing]

1 hour ago, Cayman1 said:

If it makes a difference, we are looking to book for a Christmas cruise. 
 

Thank you for the replies thus far. 

We were on Celebrity Edge for Christmas 2019. Probably my favorite cruise of all time! We have also done Christmas on Carnival in 2017 and RCCL in 2021. Lots of families, yes, but not crazy.

 

Photos, Celebrity Edge, Christmas 2019

 

To minimize foot traffic near or cabin, we usually choose a cabin right in the middle of the hallway. We figure most people behind us will go aft and most people ahead of us will go forward. Worst ever cabin booking mistake was across from the self service laundry on Carnival Pride. Never, ever again!

[SRQbeachgirl]

3 hours ago, Cayman1 said:

As far as our teen... she just likes to have some other teens that she can socialize with on the cruise... be it laying out, sitting around chatting, etc.

 

 

This may be the challenging part with Celebrity. We took our first Celebrity cruise in January and loved it, but there were maybe seven or eight teenagers/kids on the whole ship (which was one of the reasons we loved it). Sounds like Celebrity would be a good match for you and your husband, though.

[rj59]

I just got off Apex, with 100 or so teen girls, and they all seemed happy and well-behaved. I did the Norwegian Joy a few weeks earlier, and there were too many kids, more annoying and out of control. I got the same vibe when hordes of families came off Wonder of the Seas next to the Apex in St. Kitt's. My impression was that Celebrity attracts more affluent parents, so the teens were generally well-behaved, particularly in restaurants. They enjoyed dressing up, taking endless Instagram photos, sampling food and the incredible variety and quality of entertainment on Apex, sunning themselves, and going on excursions. I saw fewer packs of wild teens running around, and none that made me want to throw them overboard, as on Joy. To me the go karts and bumper cars and such aren"t enough to outweigh the stresses for parents and probably for teens. I can also say my teen niece loved going to Alaska on Solstice last August, whereas Ovation of the Seas that sailed next to us would simply have been overwhelming for her and for her parents. That was also my first Celebrity cruise, and I booked 4 more when I got home, since it felt more alive and innovative to me than previous favorites like HAL and Princess. 

[d9704011]

7 minutes ago, rj59 said:

My impression was that Celebrity attracts more affluent parents, so the teens were generally well-behaved, particularly in restaurants

Affluence leads to good behaviour in children?

[Honolulu Blue]

5 hours ago, rj59 said:

I just got off Apex, with 100 or so teen girls, and they all seemed happy and well-behaved.

Two instant thoughts when I saw this:

 

1. Chaperoning 100 teen girls - you poor thing! 🤣
2. 100 teen girls - where do I sign up? 😈

[Cayman1]

5 hours ago, d9704011 said:

Affluence leads to good behaviour in children?

In all fairness, rj59 stated “generally”.

[Cayman1]

We did an 12 night Christmas/New Years cruise on Serenade of the Seas back in 2018. This was our absolute favorite cruise ever. Smaller ship and everything was more intimate with no unruly kids. The Carnival Mardi Gras cruise that we got off of yesterday was our least favorite.

 

While it appears post-covid cruises are different than before, we are just looking for that balance. This decision will be much easier when we are cruising without our teen, but need to bridge the gap until then. 🙂 

[Cayman1]

9 hours ago, cyntil8ing said:

We were on Celebrity Edge for Christmas 2019. Probably my favorite cruise of all time! We have also done Christmas on Carnival in 2017 and RCCL in 2021. Lots of families, yes, but not crazy.

 

Photos, Celebrity Edge, Christmas 2019

 

To minimize foot traffic near or cabin, we usually choose a cabin right in the middle of the hallway. We figure most people behind us will go aft and most people ahead of us will go forward. Worst ever cabin booking mistake was across from the self service laundry on Carnival Pride. Never, ever again!

Beautiful family and looks like you had a blast. Love the pic with Captain Kate! She seems to be a great captain and very personable.

[Tapi]

5 hours ago, d9704011 said:

Affluence leads to good behaviour in children?

Affluence doesn’t translate automatically into “good behavior” (we all know that there are some rich folks whose behavior is cringe worthy). But it does provide the means for more frequent and diverse travel. 
 

When parents expose their children to travel from an early age, the children have the opportunity to learn what is and isn’t appropriate in various settings, locations and cultures. Whether the parents enforce what’s learned through experience is another story. 

[broadwaybaby123]

I've done both Royal and Celebrity.  If you like one, you'll most likely like the other.  They are owned by the same company.  Celebrity tends to be slightly higher-end, in terms of food, and tends to appeal to a slightly more subdued crowd.  Royal tends to be aimed more towards young adults and families.

 

That said, the number of kids on the ship tends to correlate with school vacations.  If you want to have less kids on the ship, avoid going during those times.  For example, I'm in NH, our school vacation weeks are the last week of February and April.  While I don't know the school vacations of other states, I know that if I cruise during those times, there tends to be more children due to families taking the children on vacation.  If I don't want so many children, I usually cruise during an off-time such as September or March.