Diamond Plus on RCCI tries Celebrity

We are Diamond Plus on Royal Caribbean and decided to try Celebrity. I won't go into a ton of detail but will leave this open for questions afterward. We sailed on the Summit repositioning from San Juan to Bayonne and stayed in an Aqua Class balcony room. As a Diamond or above, you are enrolled in Captains Club as Elite.

We found some key differences between the two lines, most of which we liked.

Food - the food was superior in my opinion. My disclaimer is that I am a picky eater. Not a fan of heavy sauces, and am much more comfortable eating a steak or chicken that about anything else. We found the food to be fabulous. For example, the first night they had Filet Mignon, and it was as good or better than Chops. When on RCCI, they serve cheap ice cream in the windjammer. The oceanview cafe on Celebrity had several rotating flavors of homemade ice cream that was as good as what you pay extra for on RCCI.

The Crowd - We are youngish empty nesters (either side of 50). We found the crown to be more laid back, more mature. Not old and stuffy but not overly obnoxious. We find RCCI hit and miss depending on the sailing. We did observe one person who clearly didn't know how to handle her liquor but in general it was a good group.

The ambiance - the age group and activities make the sailing more laid back than Royal. There was plenty to do but yet you didn't have things like the Quest or belly flop. The atmosphere was formal but you never felt out of place as you were. Since we ate in Blu, it was smart casual all week. But some people still went all out on formal night.

Canyon Ranch Spa - We booked spa treatments at Canyon Ranch. They don't necessarily have the best prices, but the quality of the treatments is excellent. I love deep tissue massage and it was really good. When you feel like you have been run over by a truck after a massage, you know they are doing well!

Captains Club - we enjoyed some of the benefits, including the nightly cocktail hour, the free laundry and the free internet. Many of the other coupons and perks were not all that good.

All in all we really enjoyed our sailing. We have three more Celebrity cruises booked and look forward to more about it. I will favorite this post and reply to questions.

Glad you enjoyed Summit. Your second last sentence says it all!

Thanks for your observations, on occasion we think about going back to RCCI but have enjoyed Blu so much on X we have been hesitant. Probably just as well. If any of your upcoming are on the S class ships (Summit is M class), I think you will be even further impressed.

Yes we have Silhouette and Equinox followed by Summit again. All are Aqua Balcony rooms

glad you enjoyed it

The solstice class ships may wow you even further, have fun on the next ones

We tried X having gained Diamond on RCL, and became converts thanks to sailing AQ on Equinox in 2010. We did try Allure once, but have been exclusively X otherwise. I believe RCI had this exact this

in mind when creating the reciprocity of loyalty points. Now that our kids are gone, we pay the difference for Celebrity.

Yes we have Silhouette and Equinox followed by Summit again. All are Aqua Balcony rooms

The S-Class are our favorite design. You are in for a treat.

We are Emerald on RCCL, but get Diamond benefits due to being Elite on X.

This will be our second yr on Equinox, but Reflection is our favorite.

EW

We switched to Celebrity from Princess I believe in 2008. First sailing was on the Century, a lovely small ship. When the Solstice class ships were introduced we tried them and fell in love with them. We have sailed all but The Millie of the M class and love them too.

We also on occasion sail RCCL and loved the Jewel when she sailed out of Tampa. We are booked on the Oasis when she moves from Port Everglades to Port Canaveral. We sailed the Allure. These ships are really to big for us but we will plan our Oasis sailing differently and not try to see and do everything and just enjoy the ship.

We had a suite when we sailed The Summit to Bermuda. We sail AQUA most of the time but occasionally splurge and enjoy the perks of a suite.

Need to save my dimes and dollars for a suite now that they are getting such rave reviews.

Any cruise is a good cruise. One must make ones own day....sorry Clint.

Grace

The homemade ice cream is awesome!!!

Beats those dirty self-serve machines on RCCL's pool decks, that's for sure! :)

We got in a routine of having that ice cream every afternoon as a snack.

We're diamond with RCI but Celebrity is our favorite. We live less than an hour from Galveston so RCI usually more of our business because we don't have the added expense of airfare and hotel. Oh how I wish Celebrity would come back to Galveston.

Thanks for the post. I am diamond and taking my first celebrity cruise soon. Glad to hear the food is better. How would you compare the entertainment? Did you try the elegant tea? Free drinks only in lounge or get at any bar?

Thanks for the post. I am diamond and taking my first celebrity cruise soon. Glad to hear the food is better. How would you compare the entertainment? Did you try the elegant tea? Free drinks only in lounge or get at any bar?

The entertainment was good. Outside entertainers were quite good and the production shows were similar to royal.

We did not do the tea.

Drinks were in the lounge but I have heard that once they have a certain number of Elites on board they do the vouchers so you can drink anywhere.

I've done HAL, Princess, NCL, and X. By far Celebrity is my favorite. It, in my opinion, has the perfect balance of everything my DW and I look for on a cruise. I cant imagine ever paying a dime for NCL again (terrible, and I am not a picky or hard-to-please person! honest!), HAL is very sedate but I would sail them on a good itinerary, Princess just seemed kind of bland, not bad, but nothing that stood out. Celebrity, at least based on my two experiences with them (most recently on the Solstice) just gets everything right. They have the perfect balance of activities, food, experiences, their ships are beautiful and the rooms are as comfortable as ever. We are booked on the October TA of the Equinox, simply to be on this S class ship!

That being said, I am thinking of sailing with my kids, 11 and 8, but would most likely choose RCCL because of the activities and design being more in tune with what they would want. Though I am sure they would love a cruise on Celebrity I think they would have more fun on RCCL. (At least based on what I've read and researched about them, haven't ever been on them). But if you are sailing without young kids Celebrity is the only way to go!!

We were also D+ when we started cruising with Celebrity and now we are Elite on our own right. Even our teenage children prefer to cruise with Celebrity. Looking forward to the Equinox in July. :)

We think the OP did a great job laying out some of primary differences between the two lines. DW used to love cruising on RCI and really loved the line (especially the Radiance Class ships). But RCI has morphed into a cruise line who tries to act like a land-based resort more then a cruise line. I guess one could say that we outgrew RCI. These days we cruise 70-100 days a year, primarily on HAL, Celebrity and Princess (we have also been on about 10 other lines). Our current favorite mass market line is Celebrity.

Hank

do the vouchers so you can drink anywhere.

No they are not good everywhere. You can not use them in the MDR, Blu, or any of the specialty restaurants and the Martini bar and whatever the Molecular bar is now called (World Class - or something like that).

Glad to see this post! We're platinum on RCI but I've been looking at X for a Thanksgiving week cruise thanks to some of the bonuses they're offering. It sounded like we might prefer X and this helps with the decision.

Glad to see this post! We're platinum on RCI but I've been looking at X for a Thanksgiving week cruise thanks to some of the bonuses they're offering. It sounded like we might prefer X and this helps with the decision.

Our Roll Call on the Equinox 10 day over Thanksgiving is full of some very 'lively' folks!:D Just sayin! Come visit and look around.;)

EW

Glad to see this post! We're platinum on RCI but I've been looking at X for a Thanksgiving week cruise thanks to some of the bonuses they're offering. It sounded like we might prefer X and this helps with the decision.

We are booked on the Silhouette that week. We got a decent deal and the perks for booking Aqua Class. And only 3 vacation days to boot.

We are booked on the Silhouette that week. We got a decent deal and the perks for booking Aqua Class. And only 3 vacation days to boot.

That's the cruise I'm considering, for exactly that reason :D We're doing a 2-week European river cruise in August that's eating up most of our vacation days (but will be worth it!).

Now I just have to get DH to agree...

That's the cruise I'm considering, for exactly that reason :D We're doing a 2-week European river cruise in August that's eating up most of our vacation days (but will be worth it!).

 

Now I just have to get DH to agree...

As an FYI I recently saw a good special on this sailing. I can pass it along if you want to email me at sonvoltken@yahoo.com.

As an FYI I recently saw a good special on this sailing. I can pass it along if you want to email me at sonvoltken@yahoo.com.

Great, thank you! We won't be booking now, unfortunately, because DH is skittish about booking up all his vacation days so far in advance. But I'll send you an email so I can see what's being offered now just in case he changes his mind!

Can someone explain to me about the Crown and Anchor vs Captian's Club?

Are you saying that once you become Diamond on RC, you automatically become Elite on Celebrity?

We are close to being Emerald so what class would we be with the Captian's club or must we be Diamond to make any difference?

Can someone explain to me about the Crown and Anchor vs Captian's Club?... Are you saying that once you become Diamond on RC, you automatically become Elite on Celebrity?... We are close to being Emerald so what class would we be with the Captian's club or must we be Diamond to make any difference?

Hi, yes you are reciprocal status on the sister line but you only accumulate points on the line with which you cruise. Does that make sense? Lists of benefits are available at each website. Also, you need to enroll in the Captain's Club with Celebrity; it is not automatic. We just had our first Celebrity cruise to Alaska on Solstice, and were Elite status as we are Diamond on RCI. It was wonderful. :)