How does Carnival compare to Celebrity?

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

3 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Going on Eclipse, aqua class room

You should enjoy Blu. Does the Eclipse have Le Petit Chef? I didn't think I'd enjoy it, but we returned 3 times over different cruises. They'll generally run the same menu for 3/4 nights then switch to another. 

[jimbo5544]

2 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

You should enjoy Blu. Does the Eclipse have Le Petit Chef? I didn't think I'd enjoy it, but we returned 3 times over different cruises. They'll generally run the same menu for 3/4 nights then switch to another. 

Yes, good to know on menu

[AllenF]

For those who have vacationed in Mexico  for my comparison I would say Carnival is Cancun and Celebrity is Cabo.

 

[Drew B 58]

I’m going to share my experiences.  Forgive me for this being a long post.  
 

I’ve sailed twelve times on Carnival between 2000 and 2023.  My cruises have ranged from 3-7 days with two of them being B2B 7-day cruises for a total of 14.  Most of my cruises have been out of Los Angeles, my home port, but the B2B was Eastern/Western Caribbean out of Miami.  I’ve sailed on old ships (although they weren’t necessary old at the time) such as Elation and Paradise and on much newer ships such as Panorama.  I am planning a 10-day sailing on Venezia out of New York this Fall.

 

I’ve sailed twice on Celebrity.  Both times were to Alaska, and they were in 2006 & 2007 (which I understand is quite a long time ago, so my information may be outdated).  The 2006 cruise was a 13-day repositioning cruise from L.A. to Vancouver and the second was a 7-day round-trip out of Vancouver.  Full disclosure, there was a propulsion problem on the 13-day trip (more on that later), causing us to miss two of our scheduled ports.  Because of that, I’m not sure my experience was representative of the brand.  The 7-day was “normal”, so probably better represented the brand.  The first was on Summit, which I believe was the newest ship at the time, but is now one of their oldest.  The second was on Mercury, which was already an older ship and has since been retired.

 

Ships:  I see ups and downs with both line’s ships.  I find Carnival’s ships more visually… interesting.  That is both a good thing and a bad thing.  They’re not necessarily the classiest looking, but every nook and cranny has something to see that puts a smile on my face.  The Celebrity ships were lovely but felt more generic.  I really don’t remember too many things about them.  That being said, the Edge-Class ships on Celebrity look STUNNING!

 

Value:  All of my Carnival cruises have been quite inexpensive (several were “free” with casino offers).  I have always felt the value was exceptional for what I got.  The Summit cruise was far more expensive.  However, it was a significantly longer cruise and I had an extra special cabin (not a “suite”, but a “family veranda”, which I believe they now call an “ultra deluxe veranda).  It was on an aft corner with the largest balcony I’ve ever had with 270 degree views.  Based on what I was getting, I also thought this was an exceptional value.  My Mercury cruise was half-off (as recompense for the missed ports caused by the propulsion issue the year before), so it was also a great value for another aft balcony cabin (albeit not on a corner this time).  No complaints about what I paid on either line.

 

Food:  Celebrity wins this one hands down, both in terms of quality and selection in the MDR and especially the buffet.  I felt the steakhouses were comparable on both, and I really haven’t done any other specialty dining.

 

Service:  Celebrity wins again, but by a narrower margin this time, as the service on Carnival has always been wonderful as well.  My Mercury cruise is the only one from which I can remember my MDR waiter (Tyrone from Jamaica) and my asst. Maitre d’ (Ruby from the U.K.) because they were both so exceptional.  I’m pretty low-key, though, and sometimes found the Celebrity service a bit intrusive.  I don’t need to be smothered…

 

Entertainment:  overall, I’d say Carnival has MORE good entertainment than I saw on Celebrity.  However, I’d say I liked a few of the entertainment offerings on Celebrity more than any on Carnival.  These would include the aerialists in the Celebrity production shows and an AMAZING series of enrichment lectures on Alaskan wildlife on my Summit cruise.  However, I’m a big fan of (some of the) Carnival piano bars and Carnival offers a ton of comedy.  This category is a toss-up.  I will say, though, that the entertainment on Celebrity’s Edge-class ships seems to be a big step above!

 

Fellow passengers:  this is the big one for me.  I simply enjoyed my fellow passengers much more on all of my Carnival sailings than on either of my Celebrity ones.  Now, the Summit one could well have been an anomaly.  After the propulsion issue and the missed ports were announced, a sizable portion of the passengers (I’d estimate 20%-30% of the people on board). basically lost their minds.  They were holding loud, angry protests around the ship, and this went on for days. I don’t think I had a single open-seating meal (breakfast/lunch) after that point where I wasn’t seated with at least one person who spent the whole meal bitching! It was exhausting and dispiriting!  The missed ports didn’t ruin my cruise, but my fellow passengers threatened to!  The Mercury sailing didn’t have any notable issues and was probably more representative of what is typical on X.  What I found was people who were not UN-friendly, but were not terribly outgoing or social.  On all of my Carnival sailings, I found it really easy to strike up a conversation with people anywhere - a bar, the casino, the dining room, a hot tub, even an ELEVATOR…. I would see those people around the ship later and usually got a smile and a warm greeting and sometimes further conversation.  Nobody was pushy about it and you don’t have to engage with them if you don’t want to, but when I did, it made my trip better.  I even stayed in touch (casually) with some of them for years after.  On Celebrity, when I spoke to people, they were mostly polite, but not really engaging.  People tended to stick with their own party.  Even in the MDR with assigned seating, my table mates on Celebrity might exchange a few pleasantries, but then conversed exclusively with their own party.  On Carnival, I had tons of friendly interactions with tablemates and, on a few occasions, wound up hanging out with them around the ship and even in port.  Perhaps the sample size isn’t big enough since I only sailed one normal and one abnormal cruise on Celebrity, but I found the difference stark!  My takeaway (and I realize that it is a gross assumption and generalization) is that Celebrity passengers have high expectations.  When those expectations are met, they are satisfied and content.  When they are not, they become irate!  On Carnival, perhaps their expectations are lower, so I tend to find that they are downright THRILLED by their experience.  Their happiness spreads to me…

 

So in summation, it comes down to what your priorities are.  If you want a higher level of elegance and significantly better food, Celebrity should be your choice.  If you want a really fun experience with tons to do (and perfectly adequate food and service), then Carnival fits the bill.  For a round-trip cruise to Hawaii where I would be stuck on the ship for many sea days both ways, I would pick the friendly, upbeat fellow passengers every time!  For a port-intensive cruise, I’d be happy either way…

[jimbo5544]

21 hours ago, AllenF said:

For those who have vacationed in Mexico  for my comparison I would say Carnival is Cancun and Celebrity is Cabo.

 

I have never gotten into analogies, but if you are referring to costs for these vacations NS XOMPring it to the costs of the cruises as your analogy, it makes sense to me.