Celebrity Royal Suite or Seabourn V4?

We have a limited time frame to travel within. Our choices have narrowed to two sailings. A 16 night on the Encore or a 15 night on the Constellation. If we sail on Celebrity we would take a Royal Suite, otherwise a V4 on Encore. There will be three of us including our 16 year old daughter.

We have sailed on Seabourn quite a few times, not as much on Celebrity and not in suites. The Royal Suite on Celebrity would include a premium drink package, private restaurant, private club, all specialty restaurants, unlimited internet, butler, etc. Seabourn would include what Seabourn includes plus our Gold benefits.

I am leaning towards Celebrity given all the inclusions and the space of the suite, but we are also very interested in trying the Encore. Price diff is $2000 more for Seabourn. Which would you choose? We don't sail for the itineraries, so that is not a factor, but our daughter needs reliable internet for her university courses.

I would take the Royal Suite on X. It's humongous and comes with a Butler, all the inclusions you mention, priority seating everywhere, priority embarkation/disembarkation/tendering, etc. The huge balcony has a private jacuzzi. The Luminae suite dining room is exceptional and very intimate.

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We have a 16 year old daughter with us at the moment on Encore who lives off internet. She is also revising for exams.

I suspect the Royal suite will be a bit bigger than a standard cabin on Encore, more like a Penthouse suite. The 2 are quite different products, on Celebrity whilst you have upgrades the rest of the ship is geared towards lower fare generating passengers. As you are aware on Seabourn the answer tends to be yes, now what's the question.

Even things like getting on and off the ship, particularly if tendered is often a hassle on larger ships.

One product isn't bad, they are just different. If you've become used to Seabourn you will find moving back to a mainstream cruise line difficult. We constantly found ourselves looking at each other and saying "It isn't Seabourn is it !"

This cruise our daughter was upgraded to her own cabin so we haven't had 3 people in a standard suite but in the past it has been do-able. Last time we paid for an upgrade to a Penthouse suite which gave a bit more room.

You won't need me to tell you that 2 women in any sized cabin will prove trying at times, particularly when they are getting ready to go out and 1 of them is 16!

Henry :)

It also depends in the type of thing your daughter enjoys when she isn't revising. Seabourn does not have very many teenagers sailing and activities are more low key. If she likes a more varied entertainment package and more people her own age to befriend then Celeb may be a better option.

Hi Dana, I've done royal suite on Solstice and agree with what has been written. My suggestion would be to do Encore later. Sure enough, you will find some real annoyances with Celebrity. 90% crew related on my scorecard.

Another vote for celebrity royal suite.

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Forget the Royal Suite,I'd rather sleep on deck on a Seabourn ship than sail on a Celebrity ship again.

The two lines just do not compare when you leave the size of the accommodation out of it.

$2000 is not much when you look at what you might spend on extras on X

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We have a 16 year old daughter with us at the moment on Encore who lives off internet. She is also revising for exams.

 

I suspect the Royal suite will be a bit bigger than a standard cabin on Encore, more like a Penthouse suite. The 2 are quite different products, on Celebrity whilst you have upgrades the rest of the ship is geared towards lower fare generating passengers. As you are aware on Seabourn the answer tends to be yes, now what's the question.

 

Even things like getting on and off the ship, particularly if tendered is often a hassle on larger ships.

 

One product isn't bad, they are just different. If you've become used to Seabourn you will find moving back to a mainstream cruise line difficult. We constantly found ourselves looking at each other and saying "It isn't Seabourn is it !"

 

This cruise our daughter was upgraded to her own cabin so we haven't had 3 people in a standard suite but in the past it has been do-able. Last time we paid for an upgrade to a Penthouse suite which gave a bit more room.

 

You won't need me to tell you that 2 women in any sized cabin will prove trying at times, particularly when they are getting ready to go out and 1 of them is 16!

 

Henry :)

Well it would be a no-brainer for Seabourn if our daughter received an upgrade to her own cabin!!! However, the upgrade fairy has never visited us on any line, so probably highly unlikely this time...

How is the internet if I may ask? Can you download videos quickly on Encore? The last time we sailed on SB the internet was almost unusable.

Forget the Royal Suite,I'd rather sleep on deck on a Seabourn ship than sail on a Celebrity ship again.

The two lines just do not compare when you leave the size of the accommodation out of it.

$2000 is not much when you look at what you might spend on extras on X

 

 

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I appreciate your view, but this particular suite pretty much includes everything that you would get on SB, and some extras like internet. The only thing we'd be missing is our daily allotment of caviar!!:D

Once you leave the beautiful suite you are among how many people on X? We left the mass market lines years ago and not going back. It will be Seabourn or Crystal for us. Tried Regent and Silversea not to our liking. Encore coming up later this year and excited.

I appreciate your view, but this particular suite pretty much includes everything that you would get on SB, and some extras like internet. The only thing we'd be missing is our daily allotment of caviar!!:D

The suite will be lovely I'm sure but once you step outside of the suite you are on another large mass market ship with all the problems that involves.

Try it then come back and post about your experience

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The suite will be lovely I'm sure but once you step outside of the suite you are on another large mass market ship with all the problems that involves.

Try it then come back and post about your experience

 

 

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Well actually, we have stepped away a few times. We've had suites on NCL, RCL and tried the Yacht Club on MSC. The Yacht Club was our favorite. Its like one of the triplets (aka Legend) set atop a giant ship. All of our experiences were really good with maybe RCL our least favorite. Large mass market ships are fine with us if there are areas to escape to or a 'ship within a ship' concept.

We were actually surprised at how close some of the new suite classes were to Seabourn (new). I added new because we feel Seabourn has deteriorated since we first started cruising with them back some 16 years ago. If I compared Seabourn of 16 years ago, then it would be no contest-Seabourn would win.

Oh, I forgot trivia as another point! Seabourn is better in that regard!!

Well it would be a no-brainer for Seabourn if our daughter received an upgrade to her own cabin!!! However, the upgrade fairy has never visited us on any line, so probably highly unlikely this time...

 

How is the internet if I may ask? Can you download videos quickly on Encore? The last time we sailed on SB the internet was almost unusable.

I'm still a little baffled as to what happened this time round. Not complaining - far from it. Strange goings on with the powers that be !!

The internet is ok depending on the time of day. I'm not sure you'd be downloading films, upload of video is very slow but youtube does work subject to other users.

Emily has done facetime with her friends whilst being on board.

Henry :)

I was on Odyssey in 2015 and in a sky suite on Inifinity in 2016. I never used the pools on either. In terms of dining the service and ambience in Luminae was much more personal and intimate. The actual food in Luminae while good does not reach Seabourn levels. But you never have to see a buffet at breakfast or lunch.

True getting on or off with 2,000 other people can be a hassle and sometimes the suite priority isn't worth much. This mainly applies to tenders and embarkation including passport control. (And don't forget Encore has 30% more people than Odyssey.)

And I don't think anyone will claim the shows on seabourn are superior. On celebrity your butler will get you a great seat for the shows if you need one. Speaking of butlers, the butler we had on Inifinity outshone the one we had on Silver Whisper.

We didn't really make much use of Michael's club but it's there if you want a change of scenery from your suite and Luminae. There isn't any other "suites only" area, no exclusive sundeck or pool. (Except your very own in your suite!)

I would agree with an earlier post mentioning the company of young persons. There will be many more on celebrity, even just in suites.

The PH suite on X M class ships is the one to go for. Royal suite is 538 sq ft/ 195 sq ft balcony. PH suite 1432 sq ft and 1098 sq ft balcony. So if you can swing it I would get the PH on the Constellation.

It will not be Seabourn but your daughter might enjoy teens her own age.

We love both lines for different reasons. Celebrity is the best (IMO) of the large scale cruise lines. HOWEVER, on the last cruise I found the up-selling of everything tedious and annoying. I wanted to wear a sign saying 'NOT INTERESTED'. They are two different products. I'd say there is more 'going on' on Celebrity, but service, cuisine, elegance are more in abundance on Seabourn. Neither are bad, just different

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