How does Celebrity compare to Carnival, RCI?

[leonardjan]

Hi,

 

We are considering doing either Celebrity Panama Canal or Hawaii cruise with our two boys, 9 and 12. We have cruised numerous times on RCI and Carnival and Disney. We find the food and service best on Carnival (believe it or not), the entertainment and activities best on Royal Caribbean and did not really care for Disney.

 

How does Celebirty compare? The prices seem very good! Is it more like a Carnival or Royal Caribbean ship? Is there a self-serve soft yoghurt/ice cream machine available?

 

How do the different "classes" of ships work? Thanks!

 

J L

[C 2 C]

I'm a frequent Celebrity cruiser but I don't travel with children. There is soft ice cream available and most posters on this board will tell you that service and food is much better on Celebrity. There is a children's program that others will tell you about. Celebrity cruisers are generally older than RCL and a little more formal in their dress codes. Holiday sailing will be younger but I avoid that time so again I can't offer much help.

 

The different classes of ships are from Zenith, Century-Mercury-Galaxy (77,000 tons) Millennium (90,000 tons)

The Panama trips are in Mercury, Summit and Infinity.

[Fang]

My family just returned from the Adventure of the Seas. We have sailed, as a family (girls 7 & 10) four times with Celebrity. This was my wifes and mine first RCI cruise in 11 years.

 

Because of our cruises with Celebrity we were given Diamond level perks of Crown and Anchor.

 

Things RCI did better than Celebrity:

 

Windjammer Cafe, Bar Service at pool, Embarkation and Disembarkation, Perks for repeat cruisers, More things "to do" on ship (Rock Climbing Wall, Miniture Golf, Johnny Rockets).

 

Things Celebrity does better than RCI

 

Dinning room service, Wine list, food in Dinning room, Service around ship (except for pool area), less pool games (horse racing, etc.), cold towels at pool and gangway. Kids are able to eat with Kids Club staff most nights. Kids menu changed everynight on Celebrity and not on RCI.

 

Our children thought, without us asking, that the Kids Program was not as good on RCI as Celebrity program was. They liked the more structured program that Celebrity has and not a lot of free time as was the case on our ship.

 

All in all, my wife and I will not sail on RCI again, unless the price is right or Celebrity changes to more seven day cruises.

[Drew B]

I thought the food was very comparable between Celebrity and Carnival. Many things were better on X, but some were better on Carnival (such as the cold fruit soups). Service is MUCH better on Celebrity from what I saw. I enjoy both very much, but I don't think Celebrity is nearly as well suited for kids as either Carnival or RCCI.

[uwbadger]

We just got off the Mercury and my daughter (10) was very disppointed with the kid's program. She has been on 11 cruises in the past five years (including Disney, RCL, Carnival and Princess) and she said that she did not like Celebrity. The other cruise lines had so much more to offer. Plus, on the Mercury the teen club (ages 10 - 12 meet there) almost seemed like an after thought on the ship. It was a very small room. My nephews (ages 13, 17 and 20) also commented that there was not much to do on the Mercury.

 

The kid's menu did change every night, however, a lot of the food was a bit sophisticated for my daughter (she's a pasta and chicken nugget, type of girl). There is ice cream (soft serve and hard) available up in the buffet. It is not self-serve like Carnival, but it is good.

 

Another note on the Mercury regarding traveling with a family. We got a 2A balcony so that once our daughter was in bed we could spend time out on the balcony; however, when the couch is pulled out for the evening, the only way to access the balcony is to crawl over the bed. It completely blocks the access to the balcony. Plus, our little coffee table in our room was moved outside onto the balcony to make room for the pull out bed.

 

I know we don't chose a cruise ship for the tv channels, but the Mercury had no children's channels. You could go down to Guest Services and borrow one of the VHS tapes to watch. Most of the tapes were fairly dated.

 

Right now, we don't think we would ever choose Celebrity again for a family cruise. Maybe if the two of us were going on a couple's cruise we would consider one of the newer Celebrity ships (the Mercury definitely shows wear throughout the ship, including the cabins). When our daughter was asked what her favorite part of the cruise was she said "getting off the ship." She has never said that before and we were stunned. Usually, she dreads the day we start packing.

 

I hope this information helps when your make your decision.