jzad

Late to the party but excited to follow along,  

Looking forward to this.  Between you and Charla I should have some good reading!

So excited to follow along!

On 8/2/2023 at 12:03 PM, AbbyCruiser45 said:

 

Hello everyone! I am not sure if people are interested in a post like this, but I shared at the end of my live trip report this June that I would do a comparison of Celebrity and Princess after a recent trip. Well, I just got back from Alaska with Princess, and I thought the comparison might be interesting for people here to read. First, why do I think this? Princess is usually the line I see recommended here after Celebrity in terms of how they compare to each other. It seems that a lot of people here have experience with both lines. I also think taking the Celebrity and Princess cruise within a month of each other allows for a good comparison because cruise lines can change quickly in terms of the offer. 

 

So, why did I book the Princess trip? This was a family cruise with my parents, sister, and my boyfriend. We wanted to see Alaska. Previously, we sailed Disney to Alaska over 5 years ago. We went to Tracey Arm Fjord (Sawyer Glacier). While this was beautiful, we really wanted to go to Glacier Bay. This meant knocking Celebrity out of the options, as that is now our go-to cruise line.  

 

I’ll provide a breakdown of the different areas below, but here is my takeaway for those who don’t want to read all of that. For Glacier Bay alone, I would book Princess again for Alaska. The Glacier Bay day was stunning and long. We were there from 6 AM to 4 PM. For any other cruise, I would only choose Princess over Celebrity if the price difference was above $1,000. Otherwise, Celebrity is the better product in every category. Overall, the service and quality were just really lacking. The crew was strangely unfriendly, and often any request was met with resistance or confusion. 

 

Dining
All right, we know dining is a big issue for Celebrity. I was a part of the ever-so-lucky two-week trial on the Equinox with the severely limited menu. The Princess menu was more expansive than the typical Celebrity menu. It offered five starters, one pasta, six entrees, and three desserts each night. This is on top of the every night items, which included three starters, one pasta, and two entrees. So, Princess wins in terms of menu diversity and size. However, Celebrity won in terms of the quality of the food. Even with the limited menu I had on the Equinox, the quality of each item was excellent. And from what I’ve read, the menu is back to normal, so the diversity of the menu is less of an issue. 

 

Drinks
I am not really one to be super picky about wines, but I learned that I actually might be. Princess has a tier of all-inclusive offerings, and I was on the first tier, including drinks up to $15. The biggest issue here was the wine. On this tier, they do not tell you the wine that you are drinking. The menu only offered the variety (e.g., Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, etc.). They also did not have sommeliers in the dining room. When I asked the dining staff what type of wine it was, they could not answer. The lack of sommeliers was a huge issue, too, because our dining team had to run to the bar for each order. There were no bottles of wine waiting at the dining station, as with Celebrity. This resulted in wine taking as long as 20 minutes to arrive to the table, and usually the white wine was room temperature by that time. In this regard, Celebrity is also the winner. Celebrity also has better quality wine glasses, with the wide mouth and customized to red or white wine. On Princess, it was one type of glass, which was shorter and thicker. 

 

 Service 
The service was also superior on Celebrity than on Princess. On Princess, it took two days to meet my stateroom attendant. He did a great job, but I thought it was strange that I did not know who it was for so long. The bar staff on Celebrity also cannot be beaten. They are always so friendly and personable. At the coffee bar on Princess, the same crew member was there every morning and did not greet me when I went to order. He just would stay silent until you ordered. Maybe this is a petty thing to compare, but it made the Celebrity experience far better. The officers were also not visible on Princess if this is important to you. One super strange thing on Princess is that I asked a few crew, while attempting to chat, where home was. They all answered something along the lines of “oh I am from XYZ but my home is this ship”. At the beginning of a show, the cruise director said for the crew this ship was home, and we are all family. I thought this was incredibly strange and really dehumanizing, and it seems this is a point Princess is trying to make and seemingly instruct their crew to say. I know there contracts are long and they are on the ship more often than home, but on Celebrity, it is always interesting to hear the crew talk fondly about their home and family. 

 

Cost
I do not have a comparison of the cost for the cruise I took because I did not know I would be making this comparison. Instead, I went ahead and priced out both a trip to Alaska and the Caribbean in 2024. Both inclusions are similar (tips, wifi, drinks), time of year (June 2024), ports (Eastern Caribbean) and the stateroom (inside). For a Caribbean, Celebrity didn’t offer a 7 night and Princess didn’t offer an 8-night, so the price comparison is by night. Celebrity comes out to $430.25/night and Princess comes to $397.57 a night ($3,011 vs $2,783). For the same trip I went on this year, but in 2024, the price difference comes to $396.28/ night with Celebrity and $371.42/night with Princess ($2,774 vs $2,600). For these could hundred-dollar differences, I would choose Celebrity any day (with Glacier Bay access as the exception). If that price difference grows substantially, I would consider giving Princess another chance. 

 

Final Thoughts
The one category I’m missing is entertainment, that is because it was a cruise to Alaska, so I was on the deck basically all day. Otherwise, my final thought is that Celebrity has been experiencing a lot of cuts lately, but they still are a better product than other cruise lines in their category. Hopefully, this trend continues. I won’t be sailing Celebrity again until June 2024, but I’m hopeful that the experience will be as good as my last time on board, and I am really looking forward to it. 

Great outline of both and I totally agree with you!  While not horrible by any means, Princess just doesn't live up to Celebrity in my books.  

16 hours ago, frenchmeg said:

Hi,

 

I booked a cruise on board a few months ago, came back, my travel agent took it over (she is no longer with the agency, retired), and I want to change my cruise, new travel agent told me I lose all my obc (that I was given for booking on board) does this make sense, no fun!  

 

thanks everybody, am sure I am not the first asking..

Yes, we had the same issue, you will loose all of your perks from the previous booking as well as costing $100pp to make any changes.  I was bummed too.

Oh am I excited to follow along!  

Following along

Wishing you a very safe flight and following along!

We went in the solarium hot tubs every evening after dinner in February.  There were lots of folks in the outside ones as well.  They were available until at least 10pm which was the latest we got out.

On 12/23/2022 at 10:23 AM, Kelownadon said:

Just received an email from Celebrity encouraging me to sign up for Celebrity Wonderverse. Is this something worthwhile or a waste of time?

Don’t work at all for me.

Celebrity is not really known for its parties, its usually much more of a laid back quiet vibe.  There will be music at the pool during the day.  Its not overly loud but they do sometimes have some activities out there on sea days.  You can check your Celebrity app and it will give you a run down on the things going on during the day.  I honestly can't recall seeing too many teenages on any of my sailings but I also haven't been on during spring breaks so you may luck out there too.  Hope you enjoy your cruise! Its a great itinerary!

We had only bar soap on Beyond at the beginning of February in a regular IV cabin.  There was a pump body lotion on the counter as well but it was not soap.

We are recently off Beyond (February 12) and used some of our OBC for Eden and Rooftop grill.  They were both very good meals but Eden was just amazing.  Our food was delicious and the service outstanding.  Would book it again in a second.

I'm thrilled to see you are off again!  Following along.  Congrats on Jeremy kicking the habit!  That's a big celebration.  

Following along!  We get on when you get off 

Wow!  Following along, this is a dream for me 🙂

Thank you so much for another fabulous review!  What a great trip along with you and likely the closest I’ll get to being in a suite 😉 thank you for taking the time to share through your vacation!

Thank you all!  I will try doing it online in my reservations and see how that works before trying to call Celebrity.

Good morning!  I was wondering if anyone can tell me the best way to change a sailing we have booked?  We are currently booked on the Pacific Coastal in September on Eclipse.  We booked this while onboard a cruise in April and got a very good deal on a SV, All included (premium) and ended up with $450 OBC.  Our friends have decided to get married during the time of the cruise.  If we want to change it will we loose all of the perks we currently have?  Am I better to wait and change it until I'm onboard Beyond in February?

Any insight would be appreciated. 

Thank you! Janine

On 1/6/2023 at 4:55 PM, bnurick said:

Take II! I butchered the sailing dates. 😞

 

It has been just over 6 months since our Bermuda cruise on the Summit.  Looking forward to being back on the Edge again (last was March 2022) and in the same cabin which we really enjoyed (Sky Suite).  Our last Retreat Host on this ship was Anastasiia and we are hoping we might get her again.  Will be trying out the Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach hotel for a couple nights before Embarkation, a first for us.  Making the final packing list, packing our four bottles of wine and making last-minute Amazon orders.  Still polishing out the dining lineup as we need to find out when the Veuve Clicquot dinner is once onboard and will then add a couple Raw on 5 nights.  The excursions are in good order.  Below listed are both by day number and while we have been to these islands at least once before, any tips or ideas are welcome.

 

1) Eden

2) Luminae

3) Fine Cut Steakhouse, received a voicemail it is now not being offered on night three 😞

4) Luminae

5) Luminae

6) Luminae

7) Luminae

Eight) Fine Cut Steakhouse

9) Lumine (think it is lobster night)

10) Eden

 

4) St. Maarten: Booked a boat day with Billy Bones Charter.

5) St. Lucia: Chef's Market Discoveries & Private Dinner.

6) Barbados: Carlisle Bay Beach Break.

7) Antigua: Catamaran Cruise with Lobster Lunch.

Eight) Kitts & Nevis: Catamaran Fan-ta-sea to Nevis with Snorkel.

 

Seven days to go!

Brian and Cameron @mcclarke1

If you are doing the Catamaran Cruise with Creole Antigua you will LOVE it!  We have done it 2x before and they crew is just fantastic.  We have also done the Carlisle Bay Beach break and love it too.  Have  a great cruise

Looking forward to the comparison and your lively review!

Following along!  Sailing beyond in 27 days!

I heard from a Celebrity Employee a month or so ago that it was not longer going to be available.  I had called in to change our room and she told me it wasn't worth it, we'd loose too much including our AI.

Following along as we are on Beyond in February!  Have a wonderful cruise!

Following along, thank you for posting.