Question?

[GranysT]

I have booked my 1st Celebrity cruise for this September. I''ve been on 41 cruises, so not new to cruising. However they have all been with Carnival, and Royal Caribbean. Can anyone tell me how a Celebrity cruise is different? I will be on Equinox. 

How do people dress on elegant night? people have gotten pretty lax on the other lines. I still dress nicely, but no longer in gowns, is that ok?

Any tips or help is appreciated..

[WestLakeGirl]

Which cruise? What is the itinerary? 

[hrhdhd]

Celebrity has Evening Chic nights, and even jeans are acceptable on those nights.

 

Dress info from the FAQ on Celebrity's website: 

EVENING CHIC

Each itinerary features one to two “formal” nights we call Evening Chic. Evening Chic means you dress to impress, glamorous and sophisticated in your own way, with a cocktail dress, skirt, slacks, or designer jean, an elegant dress top or blazer—some guests even pack a tuxedo or gown for onboard photos. The Daily program, delivered to your stateroom and available at the Guest Relations Desk, will be your guide to the correct attire each evening. If you do not wish to participate in Evening Chic, Smart Casual attire is acceptable for dining and theater.

 

[GranysT]

7 minutes ago, WestLakeGirl said:

Which cruise? What is the itinerary? 

Sept 10 to 16. Going to Bimini, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.

[GranysT]

Celebrity is part of Royal, right? Does anyone have the number for Captains Club?

[WestLakeGirl]

Royal Caribbean Group owns both lines, is that what you are asking about?  If you have a Crown and Anchor number it will give you some status on Celebrity,all spelled out on each lines’ websites

[MarKay525]

1 hour ago, GranysT said:

Celebrity is part of Royal, right? Does anyone have the number for Captains Club?

800-760-0654

[MarKay525]

1 hour ago, GranysT said:

I have booked my 1st Celebrity cruise for this September. I've been on 41 cruises, so not new to cruising. However they have all been with Carnival, and Royal Caribbean. Can anyone tell me how a Celebrity cruise is different? I will be on Equinox. 

How do people dress on elegant night? people have gotten pretty lax on the other lines. I still dress nicely, but no longer in gowns, is that ok?

Any tips or help is appreciated..

While you may see a few ladies in long gowns on the Chic nights, you'll see more in cocktail dresses, simple summer dresses, nice slacks and tops or designer jeans and tops. You'll probably even see nice capris & tops.

Dress code says no shorts at dinner. Chic night is not "observed" in Blu (Aqua dining room), Luminae (Suite dining room) or in the specialty restaurants. Just need "country club casual" or Smart casual in these dining areas.

Enjoy your first Celebrity cruise - we like Equinox.

[aml3679]

Carnival is more of a party atmosphere 

food is better on Celebrity

fewer kids on Celebrity 

Carnival is less expensive 

[Arizona Wildcat]

A Caribbean cruise will have less formal attire on Chic nights.  Men with a sportscoat and tie.  Ladies with a fancy  top.  

You just need to provide your Crown and Anchor number.

The reciprocal benefits are on both Royal and Celebrity websites.

We think food is a bit better on Celebrity.   On board activities similar.

[Honolulu Blue]

6 hours ago, GranysT said:

I have booked my 1st Celebrity cruise for this September. I''ve been on 41 cruises, so not new to cruising. However they have all been with Carnival, and Royal Caribbean. Can anyone tell me how a Celebrity cruise is different? I will be on Equinox. 

How do people dress on elegant night? people have gotten pretty lax on the other lines. I still dress nicely, but no longer in gowns, is that ok?

Any tips or help is appreciated..

My two cents on the differences between Celebrity and Carnival (I've sailed on Royal twice, but both were charters):

 

* Celebrity's passengers are generally more sophisticated travelers, both cruising and not

* Relatively few kids on Celebrity

* Far fewer announcements on Celebrity

* Celebrity has generally better food, except...

* You can get a burger and fries on Celebrity, and it's all right, but Guys is in a class by itself

* Turndown service still the norm on Celebrity

* They still leave chocolates on the pillow after the turndown

* No towel animals on Celebrity

 

I think you'll enjoy your time on Celebrity. Enjoy your cruise!

[davekathy]

Also with Celebrity there is no inside smoking anywhere on the ship. RC needs to follow Celebrity's lead. 

Edited April 12, 2023 by davekathy

[39august]

Love the smoke free casinos on Celebrity. As RCI PInnacle, we have never gone back to RCI since our very first Celebrity cruise Dec, 2017. It is a more elegant and laid back experience with much better food and service. I love the live orchids in the womens' public restrooms. Just so elegant. And the free ice cream in the buffet every day is delicious. You really don't have to dress up for chic night if you don't wish to. Also I saw a mention of sport coats for Chic nights. I maybe have seen 5 or 6 sport coats total in the last 4 cruises on Equinox. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

10 hours ago, GranysT said:

I have booked my 1st Celebrity cruise for this September. I''ve been on 41 cruises, so not new to cruising. However they have all been with Carnival, and Royal Caribbean. Can anyone tell me how a Celebrity cruise is different? I will be on Equinox. 

How do people dress on elegant night? people have gotten pretty lax on the other lines. I still dress nicely, but no longer in gowns, is that ok?

Any tips or help is appreciated..

 

Entertainment is a biggie, while most of the time there's a solo/duet playing music somewhere, it will usually be older and softer music.  Other than that you generally only have one show option per night which is one show at 7pm and it's repeated at 9pm and between the two there's a 8pm passenger participation game-show.  If the main 7/9pm show is a comedian, that will be the only time they'll typical be a comedian on the ship.  This is a bit different than CCL/RCI who have their own dedicated main show, dedicate comedian venue, dedicated piano bar, dedicated karaoke, etc.  In another words, on CCL/RCI you have a choice of going to four different types of venues in the same night.  X is also lacking on daytime shows, at best there could a speaker doing a 45min talk

[davekathy]

3 minutes ago, 39august said:

Love the smoke free casinos on Celebrity. As RCI PInnacle, we have never gone back to RCI since our very first Celebrity cruise Dec, 2017. It is a more elegant and laid back experience with much better food and service. I love the live orchids in the womens' public restrooms. Just so elegant. And the free ice cream in the buffet every day is delicious. You really don't have to dress up for chic night if you don't wish to. Also I saw a mention of sport coats for Chic nights. I maybe have seen 5 or 6 sport coats total in the last 4 cruises on Equinox. 

And the men's public restrooms. 😉 The cloth hand towels are also nice in the public restrooms. The covered sitting area, iced towels and the water station for warm weather cruises and hot drinks for cooler weather cruises before retuning to the ship is also a nice touch.  

[TeeRick]

11 hours ago, GranysT said:

I have booked my 1st Celebrity cruise for this September. I''ve been on 41 cruises, so not new to cruising. However they have all been with Carnival, and Royal Caribbean. Can anyone tell me how a Celebrity cruise is different? I will be on Equinox. 

How do people dress on elegant night? people have gotten pretty lax on the other lines. I still dress nicely, but no longer in gowns, is that ok?

Any tips or help is appreciated..

The biggest difference you will find with Celebrity vs Carnival and Royal- and it is quite noticeable- much less noise, far fewer kids, no amusement park atmosphere.

[Boo's Mom]

11 hours ago, GranysT said:

I have booked my 1st Celebrity cruise for this September. I''ve been on 41 cruises, so not new to cruising. However they have all been with Carnival, and Royal Caribbean. Can anyone tell me how a Celebrity cruise is different? I will be on Equinox. 

How do people dress on elegant night? people have gotten pretty lax on the other lines. I still dress nicely, but no longer in gowns, is that ok?

Any tips or help is appreciated..

Celebrity is just better. 

A little more refined. 

My opinion, having sailed on Royal, Carnival and Celebrity. (and Princess)

 

Now I only sail on Celebrity or Royal. 

Celebrity is my favorite though. ✅

 

🛳enJOY

 

 

[Royal_Cruise_Bear]

No personal  experiances on carnival, only the keyword of a Royal Captain, that "Royal ships are faster backwards (if needed),  than the most Carnival Ships go forward...."..

 

As for the difference between Royal and Celebrity:

 

Fun things are funnier at Royal,

Classy things are classier at Celebrity.

 

(Stolen from another Fred in this Board, but it hits the nail!)

[judatt]

We’re diamond plus on RCCL and elite plus on celebrity so we’ve been on a few cruises with each line. We’re the second level up on Carnival. Only cruised on them a few times with our kids and grandkids. My observations will mainly be comparing celebrity and royal with a few comments on carnival. 
biggest difference between celebrity and royal - add 20 years to avg age for celebrity and subtract 90% of the kids. Yes, there will be a few kids but not many. Carnival will have kids everywhere. 
now that we’re retired we often cruise in suites. Royal has coastal kitchen and celebrity has luminae. No comparison - luminae wins hands down. CK is good but it’s in the lounge. Luminae just has an upscale experience and the food is better. 
on celebrity and royal you will get one announcement per day, although on our recent royal cruise the cruise director got very long winded. I think he liked to hear himself talk. Don’t get me started on carnival with their 40-50 announcements per day. 
royal has larger ships with big promenades that are a lot of fun. Celebrity’s largest ship is about 3000 passengers. No promenades. 
entertainment on royal is more varied with ice shows, Aqua shows etc. however celebrity will typically have some kind of show every evening in the theatre. I missed that on our most recent royal cruise.
finally, I’d say the food on all 3 lines in the mdr is pretty good. I give a slight nod to celebrity but carnival does a good job in the mdr. I found the last time on royal the food was Luke warm at best. I like it hot and Ive always been amazed how cruises ships could serve so many people hot food. We’ll, now they evidently can’t at least on royal. Pleasantly surprised that carnivals food was so good. 
just my opinions, fwiw. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

While I do see children on every X sailing and they're generally not disruptive as they can on more kid friendly RCI/CCL, I haven't noticed 

9 minutes ago, judatt said:

We’re diamond plus on RCCL and elite plus on celebrity so we’ve been on a few cruises with each line. We’re the second level up on Carnival. Only cruised on them a few times with our kids and grandkids. My observations will mainly be comparing celebrity and royal with a few comments on carnival. 
biggest difference between celebrity and royal - add 20 years to avg age for celebrity and subtract 90% of the kids. Yes, there will be a few kids but not many. Carnival will have kids everywhere. 
now that we’re retired we often cruise in suites. Royal has coastal kitchen and celebrity has luminae. No comparison - luminae wins hands down. CK is good but it’s in the lounge. Luminae just has an upscale experience and the food is better. 
on celebrity and royal you will get one announcement per day, although on our recent royal cruise the cruise director got very long winded. I think he liked to hear himself talk. Don’t get me started on carnival with their 40-50 announcements per day. 
royal has larger ships with big promenades that are a lot of fun. Celebrity’s largest ship is about 3000 passengers. No promenades. 
entertainment on royal is more varied with ice shows, Aqua shows etc. however celebrity will typically have some kind of show every evening in the theatre. I missed that on our most recent royal cruise.
finally, I’d say the food on all 3 lines in the mdr is pretty good. I give a slight nod to celebrity but carnival does a good job in the mdr. I found the last time on royal the food was Luke warm at best. I like it hot and Ive always been amazed how cruises ships could serve so many people hot food. We’ll, now they evidently can’t at least on royal. Pleasantly surprised that carnivals food was so good. 
just my opinions, fwiw. 

 

We already knew Guys burgers, the BBQ, big chicken and the chocolate melting cake were great but the MDR food surprised me

[2Long2NxtCrz]

I think you've gotten a lot of good answers from others and I cannot speak to Carnival as we haven't yet been on that line.

 

I started on Royal and have done many cruises there, from the Caribbean to Alaska and the Med. I like Royal, especially for multi-generational trips. I do think the experience has greater variation on Royal than Celebrity between the ships and classes of ships. I love the radiance class and those are very similar to Celebrity's S- and M- class ships. We're not big on the mega ships even though Harmony of the Seas was a destination in and of itself.

 

When it's just hubby and I, we prefer Celebrity. Celebrity just suits us and we come home rejuvenated by the experience, not exhausted. I now work from home full-time and the crush of people and the noise level on my last Royal cruise got to me. To be fair to Royal, it was a class of ship I don't particularly like, the Voyager class, and it was a 4-day cruise which was 100% booked, so atypical and can be termed a "booze" cruise. (It is funny that I don't care for that class of ship when I've been on it 3 times, though 2 were back when I started cruising and I never noticed the actual ship I was booking on.)

 

As for specifics on the Equinox, which was our first Celebrity cruise, back in November 2018, it's a beautiful ship, well appointed and easy to get around. It feels elegant, but not over the top. Understated class. All of the venues were great, but I particularly enjoyed getting to make a glass piece myself and watch the sea flow by with a really good glass of wine. All of the bars are amazing and fun places to be. There's the Lawn Club with it's real grass. We received amazing service at every turn with a truly helpful and accommodating staff. They clearly enjoyed their jobs. I know that was pre-COVID, but we cruised on the Eclipse (a sister ship) in May 2022 and our experience was similar.

 

I think you'll have a wonderful time aboard the Equinox.

[deliver42]

We're Diamond on Royal, but went on the equinox just prior to Covid. We've since been on the beyond, and are booked again on the Equinox. Great cruise line across the board, and enjoy the equinox. If you get a chance, sail on the Beyond. It blows everything else out of the water.