Will I be disappointed with RCCL?

[ldparker]

In researching my next few cruises I have found that Celebrity doesn't have a sailing where I want to go, when I want to go, but Mother company, RCCL does.

 

I am looking at RCCL for a Mexican Rivera cruise on Vision & a Caribbean cruise on Jewel through 2007 but will likely to come back to Celebrity for an Alaska cruisetour in 2008. We intend to sail on off-peak months to enjoy a more adult experience.

 

We did sail RCCL on two 3-day cruises years ago but have been on Celebrity for our last 8 cruises. We like Celebrity for the relaxed and mellow ambiance, and of course the food.

 

 

Will I be disappointed in RCCL?

 

Thanks, David

[skandls]

We like X a lot but we have been sailing RCCL for the last couple of years. DH and I were very impressed with the Navigator - Western Caribbean from Miami. There were a lot of activities - and the ship itself is very nice.

 

The Vision is an older ship. We had a great time when we did a Whodunit cruise. Capt. George has moved on to the Serenade - he ran a great staff.

 

We are scheduled on the Radiance a Jewel sister. I have read good things about this class of ships. But haven't sailed on one so I don't know about these ships.

 

We like X a lot also. We are booked for a Baltic on the Connie 2007. For a port intensive - 14 nighter we want a more adult trip - with better dining. Had great food on the Mercury (M Roux) was on board. We enjoyed the Summit - nice size and beautiful decor.

 

As long as you realize that RCCL is more casual - you should have a great time.

[Nancyquilts]

We sail both. My main complaint with RCCL is the constant broadcasting of announcements - art auction or bingo in 30 minutes, 15 minutes, etc. They even made an announcement during dinner about bingo. X assumes you can read the daily bulletin and plan where you want to go. Our next trip is on RCCL. Nancy

[MISSYLOU]

As long as you know what to expect you won't be disappointed. We were on Vision in April and thought it was a lovely ship. The atmosphere on RCCL is more casual. The food is okay, you won't go hungry but X is better. I have also sailed on Radiance and thought it was truly beautiful. More dazzle than X. Haven't been on a bad cruise yet so I am not reluctant to try another cruiseline. Would just prefer X.

[J&G]

We haven't sailed X yet (Infinity 2 weeks tomorrow) but did sail on Jewel last Christmas. It was wonderful - we found the food really nice (except for Christmas day - we've know learned don't order turkey on Christmas). The speciality restaurants were great and well worth the extra money.

 

All members of the crew we met (including the Dr - thanks to a sinus infection) were very friendly and attentive. As one poster said though - the one thing was the announcements.

 

Looking forward to Infinity after hearing all about Celebrity on the boards. But the next cruise will be back on RCCL (Brilliance to Panama Canal)

[the_woodman]

I have taken 3 cruises on Celebrity (Infinity, Mercury, Century) and 4 on RCCL (Rhapsody, Radiance, Enchantment, Grandeur). As far these ships go, I like the Infinity best, followed by the Radiance, the other three RCCL ships (they are all similar), and then 2 the Celebrity Ships.

 

Although both are good, I actually prefer RCCL. I always let price and intinery be my guide when choosing a cruise. Click the link below to see ship pictures.

[Fang]

I have sailed on X 15 times and recently took the Adventure of the Seas on July 30th.

 

Things X does better:

 

Food in Dinning Room, Service in Dinning Room, better Wine list, Aqua Spa Cafe, Cushions on Pool chairs, very few announcements, Cold towels when you come onto the ship from shore excursions, hand sanitizers at buffet area,

Childrens program (according to my two daughters), more "upscale" feeling, room service.

 

Things RCI does better:

 

Crown and Anchor perks, Windjammer buffet area, Embarkation and Disembarkation (at least for us), lots of activities (golf, rock climbing), ice shows, stronger drinks (at least to me, but sometimes I could not remember!!), Concierge lounge.

 

My wife and I are "foodies" and love to cook and eat different things. We really never had a bad meal on X, but on RCI we found the food (in the dinning room) to be very hit and miss. Somethings were very good (duck, lobster, prime rib) and then somethings were very bad (Eggs Benedict, Veal Parm., Thai BBQ Chicken). We also thought that RCI used a lot of rice instead of other type of starches. Many meals just had a meat and then starch, no vegies. We also liked the fact that on X the kids menu changed every night, not so on RCI, but then again many times our kids ordered off of the adult menu.

 

With the cut back of X in the Caribbean for seven day cruises, we will sail RCI again. It was not a bad cruise at all, but just different.

[lkb125]

In researching my next few cruises I have found that Celebrity doesn't have a sailing where I want to go, when I want to go, but Mother company, RCCL does.

 

I am looking at RCCL for a Mexican Rivera cruise on Vision & a Caribbean cruise on Jewel through 2007 but will likely to come back to Celebrity for an Alaska cruisetour in 2008. We intend to sail on off-peak months to enjoy a more adult experience.

 

We did sail RCCL on two 3-day cruises years ago but have been on Celebrity for our last 8 cruises. We like Celebrity for the relaxed and mellow ambiance, and of course the food.

 

 

Will I be disappointed in RCCL?

 

Thanks, David

I don't hink you will be disappointed, the Jewel is a lovely ship I have sailed on her twice. Lorelle

[CGTNORMANDIE]

FANG got it right...LOL. RCI is a different breed of cat but it is wonderful for a lot of reasons. I would stay away from the VISION and concentrate on the JEWEL. The JEWEL OF THE SEAS is our favorite RCI ship and seems to come closest when winning over Celebrity diehards. She is one of the most beautiful ships sailing today.

 

The thing I love about the JOS is what I call "The Activity Level"...the ship realy humms with things to do. Forget about the announcements etc...you will survive.

 

The "Suite Experience" is really nice...no butler but you get the Concierge and this is nice touch...complimentary cocktails every night.

 

Forget the food...it is adequate and sometimes very good...just order 2 dinners and take your chances...LOL. The Windjammer Cafe is good and the alternative dining is some of the best at sea. Great entertainment, bands and live music in the stunning atrium and myriad activities makes this a welcomed change from Celebrity. You will not be disappointed with the JOS.

 

ROSS

[Host Anne]

We sail RCI and Celebrity interchangably. We have been on the Jewel in Scandinavia and Brilliance (her sister ship) to the Panama Canal. These ships are built on the same hull as Celebrity's M-class ship so size wise, they are pretty much the same. Actually, we love the Jewel and Brilliance. They were two of our favorite cruises and remain two of our favorite ships. I do think Celebrity's food is slightly better, but we don't cruise for the quality of the food. As long as it's decent, we're happy and we've only ever had one less than OK food experience on RCI and that was on Vision about eight years ago.

 

It's funny, I don't recall announcements on RCI to be that bad. Perhaps I've adjusted to them and tuned them out. I can honestly say I've never heard an announcement in the dining room at dinner. Our last RCI cruise was last summer on Jewel. It was a terrific cruise.

 

We have two more cruises booked on RCI ships and one on Celebrity. We're happy on either.

 

Have a great time!

[ldparker]

Thank you all for the comments, you have eased my mind. I don't think I could have a bad cruise, I'm just not that hard to please.

 

I had heard about the announcements from others and I guess we are all spoiled by Celebrity with only the single noontime announcement. I hope the announcements will simply fade into the background.

 

I will try both Vision for Mexico and Jewel for Caribbean in 2007, plus I can still apply the shareholder benefit. It will be nice to try something different.

 

David

[negc]

We sail RCI and Celebrity interchangably. We have been on the Jewel in Scandinavia and Brilliance (her sister ship) to the Panama Canal. These ships are built on the same hull as Celebrity's M-class ship so size wise, they are pretty much the same. Actually, we love the Jewel and Brilliance. They were two of our favorite cruises and remain two of our favorite ships. I do think Celebrity's food is slightly better, but we don't cruise for the quality of the food. As long as it's decent, we're happy and we've only ever had one less than OK food experience on RCI and that was on Vision about eight years ago.

 

It's funny, I don't recall announcements on RCI to be that bad. Perhaps I've adjusted to them and tuned them out. I can honestly say I've never heard an announcement in the dining room at dinner. Our last RCI cruise was last summer on Jewel. It was a terrific cruise.

 

 

We have two more cruises booked on RCI ships and one on Celebrity. We're happy on either.

 

Have a great time!

 

Anne, I'm with you. We absolutely love the Jewel and next October will be our 4th time on her and our 8th cruise on a Radiance class ship. When I read about the "constant" announcements I am puzzled. Perhaps, I, too have learned to tune them out but I don't recall there being that many and they seem such a minor part of the overall cruise experience that I don't even consider mentioning them. I do know that except for emergency announcements you can set the speakers in your room so that anything else, including the noon announcement from the Captain will not invade your space.

 

We will be going on our first Celebrity cruise next year and are looking forward to it, but hope that the atmosphere isn't so subdued and reserved that we will feel that we are in a library or retirement home.:)

[rebeccalouise]

negc- you are going to adore the Constellation. It is a great ship. Most people congregate in the massive buffet area/ pool deck by day and it is lively there. But the great thing about the Constellation is that the public rooms are so beautiful and I sit in the very uncrowded lounges during the day and read. It is the best of both worlds and I guarantee you will love the Constellation. It is beautiful.

[negc]

negc- you are going to adore the Constellation. It is a great ship. Most people congregate in the massive buffet area/ pool deck by day and it is lively there. But the great thing about the Constellation is that the public rooms are so beautiful and I sit in the very uncrowded lounges during the day and read. It is the best of both worlds and I guarantee you will love the Constellation. It is beautiful.

Thanks, we are looking forward to it.:)

[Host Anne]

negc ~ you'll enjoy Celebrity as well. Honestly, we haven't found our overall cruise experience (other than perhaps somewhat better food at times) to be that different between RCI ships and Celebrity. I think there are many things that go into making a cruise a good one -- other passengers, staff, ports, weather and so on. I was very disappointed when RCI cancelled their orders for the last two Radiance class ships. We prefer them much more than the megaships.

 

We haven't found the atmosphere on Celebrity ships to be subdued or reserved. You can have as much fun on a Celebrity ship as you want. The don't have all the bells and whistles some of the RCI ships have, but we've always had fun on our Celebrity cruises (and we typically cruise with a teenager who always has a good time as well).

 

ENJOY

[Kathie44]

RCI and Celebrity are the only lines we cruise and we have had fabulous cruises each time. We took Jewel to the Brit. Isles/Nor. Fjords in June and it was the best yet. I might have said X had a tiny edge in the food dept., but Jewel was the best of all our cruises. The service was wonderful as it has always been on both lines. Entertainment, excursions, and activities were all great. I will agree with the above poster that the Loyalty perks are better with RCI. We are taking our 3rd X cruise in Jan. and have been elevated to the next level in the Captain's Club (and Crown&Anchor!), so maybe we'll get something more than a package of candy this time. (Something diabetics can actually use, lol) Of course, everyone gets a free cloth tote bag, so I guess that makes up for it.

We are taking Mercury, a sister ship to Galaxy, to the Mexican Riviera on 1/29. It's an 11-night out of San Diego with 6 ports, all in Mex. It was $50 less per day than the 7-night Vision cruise and $41 less per day than the 11-night Infinity, which has 2 of its 6 ports in the US. DH overheard fellow passengers (sitting behind us in the theater) on Jewel rave about the Mexican Riv., so he insisted we book it almost as soon as we got back. I felt like asking, "Who are you and what have you done with my husband?" ;)

We got so spoiled last year with our 11-night Galaxy Panama Canal cruise that we now look for longer cruises. It is SUCH a hassle to fly and getting worse, that we feel we might as well stay longer. Also, it's so nice not to have to leave on the 7th day--a BIG bonus.

We are planning two more X cruises, as yet unbooked: 11-night on Galaxy to the MED for summer '08 and 14-night on Mercury to Aus/NZ(another destination raved about by total strangers on the Jewel) in winter of '09. I will be also working on DH to do a 14 (or more) night S. America cruise on RCI or Celebrity in '10. We are already in our 60s and "time's a'wastin' " :D

 

1/02 Explorer E. Carib. 7-night

1/03 Explorer W. Carib. 7-night

8/03 Summit Alaska cruise/tour 7 nights on ship/5 on land

2/04 Adventure S. Carib. 7-night

2/05 Galaxy Panama Canal 11-night

6/06 Jewel Brit. Isles/Nor. Fjords 12 nights on ship + 3 days in London. (So glad we're not doing this now!)

1/07 Mercury Mexican Riviera--hoping airport security overkill has eased a bit.

[QueensChick]

I've found that there are more similarities than differences between the two lines. Both lines have wonderful cabin and dining room service and good food. I found the captains and senior staff friendlier and more accessible on RCI. I don't think you can go wrong on either line.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[rubrrick]

We sail RCI and Celebrity interchangably. We have been on the Jewel in Scandinavia and

 

It's funny, I don't recall announcements on RCI to be that bad. Perhaps I've adjusted to them and tuned them out. I can honestly say I've never heard an announcement in the dining room at dinner. Our last RCI cruise was last summer on Jewel. It was a terrific cruise.

 

We have two more cruises booked on RCI ships and one on Celebrity. We're happy on either.

 

Have a great time!

 

Anne...............It's funny that we don't notice the announcements either. However we have a tendency to spend more time in our cabin (we cruise in an OS) during sea days..........enjoying reading and relaxing.

 

Our last cruise, which was a transatlantic and Baltic cruise on the Jewel, was wonderful. We can't wait to be back aboard for a fall New England/Canada cruise on September 30th.

 

Rick

[cavkc]

We were in the fortunate position to sail on Celebrity & RCI within the last couple of months. I wrote a detailed comparison between the 2 lines at the following link:-

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=392725

[Fang]

I've found that there are more similarities than differences between the two lines. Both lines have wonderful cabin and dining room service and good food. I found the captains and senior staff friendlier and more accessible on RCI.

 

I agree 100 %, on our recent AOS cruise, at the Crown and Anchor party the Captain answered questions from the passengers for at least 20 minutes. I have never seen that on Celebrity.

 

I also saw the Captain and Staff Captain talk to passengers while they walked around the ship. I have seen that on Celebrity but not to this extent.

[bpolan]

i've sailed on 5 RCCL ships and just got off the Century (Celebrity). In my opinion, the food on the Century was a huge improvement over any of the RCCL ships we have sailed (Soverign, Legend, Vision, Voyager and Navigator). Maybe it is the size, as Century is half the size of the Voyager class, and definately smaller than the legend and vision class. The service was a bit better on Celebrity, however, all the ships are equally as beautiful. If you are taking kids along, I would probably recommend RCCL as there are many more activities for kids of all ages, than on the Century, although there were families abord on our Baltic cruise. Since we are now travelling mostly without our kids (they are adults now) we most likely will stick with Celebrity over RCCL for future cruises. Our cruise director (Allan King) was excellent, the shows were very well done and the specialty restaurant, Muranos, was exceptional. Having said all of that, I will also say we really enjoyed our cruises on Royal Carribean and our kids (teenagers at the time) definately preferred the voyager class over all the other ships we had taken them on.

bp

[jmd2189]

My husband and I sailed RCCC 2 1/2 years ago and abosolutely loved it! We would give it 5 stars. I don't think you will be disappointed! We had great service, great food, lots to do and I researched the islands ahead of time and knew what got good reviews to go to and we had great excursions! We went to the Western Caribbean and left from Miami. We can't wait to go with RCCC again!:)