Cruise Arizona

Have they established a new venue for craft beers on the Solstice Class, or just no more craft beers with the re-purposing of Michaels

I am pretty sure that Celebrity Infinity does not have a molecular bar, but do they make the molecular drinks anywhere on board?

Suzanne

See the date when this thread was started

That must explain the price difference. With Island Princess being build specifically for Panama Canal cruise (Canal size will be expanding soon), it makes me wonder what Princess is thinking in adding all these cabin and decreasing public space.

Are they trying to make Panama Canal cruising more affordable? Will the ship be eventually leaving princess and/or doing more traditional routes when the new Canal opens.

With a 2k price difference between Celebrity and Princess it certainly makes the Princess option attractive, I'm just going to be watching very carefully the comments post re-fit to see how it affects the quality of the cruise.

I got a call from a client who is booked on Island for Panama Canal, he choose Princess over Celebrity because the price was over $1000 less for Princess in a mini suite over Celebrity st balcony.

He called yesterday because he heard about this and is concerned. We talked about it and decided that he would stick with the Island because he really wants to do the canal and the Celebrity price is just out of his range and their balconies are all sold out. He said if it is too crowded he can just order room service. (That doesn't sound fun) But he's got his balcony and the Panama canal so he is happy about that.

I did offer to cancel it for him. Hopefully with it being 6 months after the completion of the drydock it will give Princess enough time to make adjustments in the entertainment, activities, dining ect, that will allow guests to enjoy the cruise with-out feeling crowded and under served.

So I am trying to figure how behind the loop I am on the plans for this dry dock. When did it become know that Princess was replacing several public areas with hundreds of cabins? I feel like a crummy agent finding out about this from the client instead of proactively calling him with the information.

Are they adding crew cabins too? Because if they don't then service is going to suffer and this ship is going to feel crowded and under served.

What is the cost of medical evacuation? $50-100K possibly? Medical treatment not covered by your regular policy because it is out of network or what ever?

Make sure that you have coverage for these types of emergencies, because the insurance covers not only cancellation, which you could probably eat, and you'd just loose your vacation funds for the year, but imagine if you have 50K in medical or emergency evacuation bills? How hard would that impact you financially.

Some policies cover flight delays or interruptions. I had friends who got stranded in LA in Feb because of ice storms in Nashville after their Australian cruise. They got up to $200 a day per person to cover hotel and meal.

I always purchase it, but never used it until my Dad was terminally ill last year and we had to cancel our Norway cruise. Insurance is still probably ahead even with getting that 4K refund, but I buy it for the 50K coverage not the little stuff.

Yikes, I just found out about the changes today. I will be eagerly waiting to see how the replacing of public space with cabins affects the overall feel of the ship. I will be tuning in for reports from those booked in May.

I have been on many Celebrity cruises, and too my first Royal Caribbean, an inexpensive early Dec Western Caribbean on Visionof the Seas with my Mom last year.

Similarities

Well lets start with what I perceived to be similarities between the two brands. Quite frankly, I found the two brands, especially the with the smaller ships, like Vision of the Seas, to be very similar, probably more similar than different. The decor of the ships was very similar, in fact there were very many fabrics and color schemes on Vision of the Seas that reminded me of the Solstice class ships. The staff friendliness and enthusiasm was indistinguishable between the two brands. The basic amenities on the the Vision of the Seas match the basic amenities of the Celebrity ships on which I have sailed both including an outdoor pool area, solarium pool, spa, assortments of bars, assortment of specialty dining venues, a main dining room and a buffet area. The larger newer ships from Royal Caribbean have many more amenities like the ice rink, in line skating, sports area, surf simulators ect.

Most of us felt that the activities staff and entertainment was very similar. The production shows in the theater were about the same quality, you standard cruise musical reviews. Both brand had aerialists, singers, and dancers and even contract with the same production company to put together the shows. We enjoyed comedians and guest singers in the main theater on both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. Both brands utilize the centrum for dancing, shows, and activities. The centrum on Vision actually had more space than Solstice class ships, so it made for a better use of space. Both brands have great musical entertainers, rather it be the pool band or the trio from the Dominican Republic with a great lead singer who covered both pop hits and Latin dancing favorites. Both brands have annoying art actions, and port shopping lectures that are paid promotions for certain shops in port. Both brands have Karaoke and interactive game shows.

Food

Well when it comes right down to it the food was much better on Celebrity. On Celebrity the buffet was much more elegant with a wider variety of choices. The desserts were individually plated on Celebrity. On Vision they had large plates and bowls of mousse and flan from which one used a spoon to serve their individual portion. Celebrity offered fresh made waffles. I much prefer the lay out of the Solstice buffet with the stations concept rather than the buffet line format on this ship. I understand that some of the newer Royal Caribbean ships have stations rather than a line.

I liked the exotic salads on Celebrity and the elegant carafes of dressing rather than the traditional salad bar style set up with two large bowls of lettuce and buckets with ladles for dressing on Royal Caribbean. I sometimes found the display on the lunch buffet to be very unappealing. Every day they had a big bowl of spaghetti and next to it a bowl of marinara. The noodles were always hanging over the side and there was always sauce on the buffet table. I know that is really “nit picking”, but it just made it less appealing. On the Celebrity ships they had an attendant to keep the buffet looking presentable at all times. This ship had a self service soft serve ice cream machine, but only two flavors available, vanilla and chocolate. Celebrity has hand scooped ice cream in many flavors and gelato for an extra charge in the Cafe al Bacio.

In the main dining, on Vision, room I also had a few problems. I had a problem with the temperature of some of my dishes in the main dining room. I ordered the New York strip medium the first night, and it was not hot and more like medium well. I ordered it a couple of nights later and ordered it medium rare, this time it came out cold, dry and rare. I sent it back and the replacement was just barely warm enough but this time juicy and medium rare. I am thinking that the kitchen must have a different cooking system, possibly due to lower staff ratios as opposed to the Celebrity system. Of course, no cruise line is perfect, but on ten cruises with Celebrity I think I can recall having to send two or three entree’s back. We took the kitchen tour on the Silhouette and learned that they actually fire all the entree’s when ordered. I also noticed that they have plastic plate covers on the Vision ship, as opposed to the metal ones used on Celebrity. This may not insulate the plates as well, and could account for the temperature problems. I did very much enjoy the appetizers on Vision, which included escargot every night, however, sometimes they were not hot enough, and some times just right. Portions were small in each course, but this is pretty standard for most cruise lines. If after your 5 courses your still want more, then you can always order a second entree. I really liked the Civiche on this Vision of the Seas cruise and my waiter seemed to anticipate that because when I asked for a second serving, he had one waiting (for me?) on the servers station. For dessert I usually request a bowl of berries in he main dining room, and the waiters had no trouble making this happen on either line.

Service

The main area I noticed a big difference was in the staffing. The Vision of the Seas was very understaffed. There were times I wanted to order a drink or a soda and I just couldn’t find any one around. It seemed like on the Celebrity ships I just had to look up and there was a bar waiter or waiter to take my order. Some of the venues were not even open during certain times of the day, like the Enchantment of the Seas lounge, was not open during cocktail hour, which meant we were either in the trivia bar or the centrum bar. On the Solstice class ship we had a choice of several venues at cocktail hour including the wine bar, martini bar, pass port bar, the little bar out side the specialty restaurants, the navigator lounge after the Elite event was over. The diamond lounge had one concierge and one waiter assigned. The appetizers were self serve, where as they are brought around by staff during the Elite event on Celebrity.

I even talked with one of the assistant maitre d’s regarding the fact that it seemed slightly under staff. He explained that when they added the new specialty dining venues in dry dock they did not add any additional crew cabins. This meant that they had to staff the expanded venues with the same amount of staff that they had before the addition of the new venues. I always felt that attentive service on Celebrity cruises was due to the fact that the ship carried enough staff to be able to assign and move people around as necessary. We saw this when they added servers to our section when they had a VIP next to us. They were able to meet his expectations while not neglecting us, the regular guy. We saw this when they had more than the expected number of people show up for British Pub night buffet dinner. About 20 minutes into the event additional 8 servers were sent up to better staff the event. However on this cruise on Vision of Seas, we saw the short staffing to be apparent several times during this cruise. One day we waited almost 10 minutes to even get our menu in the main dining room for lunch. The waiter handling our section was clearly working hard, but not able to serve all the tables he had been assigned. Eventually an office, perhaps a maitre’d, waited on us. We were in not hurry, but service was very slow.

Wine Service

First, I need to qualify this statement by saying that I really only drank house wines on this cruise. When I cruise with my husband we have always enjoyed the experience of selecting a bottle of fine wine and enjoying it over dinner. For this cruise I mostly drank the free wine for Diamond members that was available at any bar between 4:30 and 8:00 pm. However, one night I ordered beef burgundy for dinner and thought it might be nice to have a Pinot Noir with my meal. When it came it was in a standard wine glass, not the proper bowl shape for Pino Noir. I asked if they had a proper Pino Noir shaped glass and the waiter had no idea what I was talking about. Lesson is, that if you want to enjoy fine wine with proper service and knowledgeable sommeliers, cruise with Celebrity. We have found that on Celebrity they provide knowledgeable wine service with the proper glasses and even food and wine pairing recommendations with the house wines, and even more so with the fine wines. That said, the house wine on Royal Caribbean was enjoyable, just not the total wine experience that they offer on Celebrity. We hope that the wine bar on the Freedom on the Seas will some how meet the gap between the two brands during our next cruise on Royal Caribbean.

Which Brand Would I Cruise

Most of the things I pointed out as differences were really quite minor and I have to say that I had a fantastic time with friends and family on this cruise. It probably seems like “nit picking” but I wanted to offer specifics between the brands. I could have just said that I thought the food and service was better on Celebrity, but I had heard that in a general sense from other cruisers for so long that I wanted to provide specific examples of the difference. I think that Celebrity Cruises will always be my brand of choice because of the better food, service and sommelier staff, but with that being said, depending on the ship, itinerary, and my travel companions, I would gladly choose Royal Caribbean again. I have a Celebrity cruise scheduled for this year, Solstice to Alaska in June, However, for a family reunion cruise with 5 young adults, we’ve selected Freedom of the Seas for next Christmas.

I have a friend who wants to do a cruise to Jamaica in August and Freedom of the seas seems to have the best price itenerary combination.

Where can she enjoy quiet and relaxation on this ship, as opposed to rock climbing and ice skating.

We did Summit on a TA in 2008 when my daughter was 10 and she had a great time. 8 or 9 days at sea on that cruise.

She did go to the kids club but quite honestly it was her, my son, one other boy my son's age and the counselor. So the couselors had things scheduled but pretty much if the kids wanted to play a board game or do a craft project, they set their own schedule.

We have taken quite a few Sea Day intensive cruises with our kids over the years and we bring along games that are easily packable like Apples to Apples, Balderdash, Carcasonne, and a few others. We don't pack the whole box, just the cards and playing pieces in plastic bags.

The kids have enjoyed the grown up things too like the concerts or presentations in the theaters. Food demos are another one they have enjoyed. Kids are actually great to have along for trivia, because sometimes the questions will be something they just learned about in school. They also enjoyed watching passenger participation activities like pool Olympics or volleyball. Since it is a special cruise with her grand parents, maybe there would be some events she could attend with them like line dancing or Zumba or ballroom dancing.

It has been a while since I've been on Summit, so can someone tell me if they have the on-demand in room movies that they have on the Solstice ships?

R205 is under the cabins that are located on the Lido deck. So I think it is a great location.

Hey everyone,

I just got off the Grand Princess, and loved it.

I am looking at a 7 day Western on the Caribbean Princess in Dec.

Questions 1 - Does the ship have a more Crowded feel due to the extra deck of cabins. Grand Princess never felt crowded.

Question 2 - Does service suffer at all due to extra deck of passengers? Our dining and overall service experience was amazing on Grand.

Question 3 - I am currently looking at a BF R205 on the Riviera deck, is this covered or open to balconies above?

Any help is appreciated.

We did Celebrity Alaska on the Mercury in 2007 when my kids were 9 and 11. They loved it. They do a lot of fun activities in the kids clubs and my two jumped right in. Brent Nixon's nature lectures were a highlight for my son. Kids loved the Glaciers, the wild life, the Skagway train ride and other Alaska things like whale watching. Did the lumber jack show in Ketchikan, very cute!

We also did a Trans Atlantic on the Solstice in 2010. My son loved the Hot Glass Show and the beautiful ship.

On every Celebrity cruise we have taken we the kids have loved the dining experience in the MDR, the shows and the wonderful crew members who spoil them a little.

I think the Celebrity does a nice job with the kids and with limited numbers of triples and quads on a Celebrity ship, there is never too many kids for the experience to be overwhelming.

On the Vision of the Seas they had a "Parade of Nations" in the atrium where they introduced members of the crew and the countries they represented. It was very festive and fun and let us show our appreciation for the crew with-out disrupting dinner. I think this might rotate but they even had crew from some countries do a dance and something that resprsented their country. The Jamaicans wore running clothes, the lady from Bali wore a beautiful Balinese dress and did a quick traditional dance. One of the guys from India did a quick Bollywood number. It was really enjoyable.

Well that is what I thought, we must have sailed on one of the last cruises to have that event last Feb. Do they have any other special food events? maybe the new president will come up with something exciting. I used to love the midnight buffet.

For those of you who have sailed recently I need to know if the Grand Brunch Buffet is still a thing or if they have eliminated it?

I am trying to plan a group activity, and need to know if they are still having the brunch buffet on one of the last sea days.

thanks.

If a TA is getting you the OBC by moving you to a group so that you get a group perk, then it is Celebrity that requires the additional deposit not the TA.

TA's have promotional groups where they get extra on board credit for their clients. It is not that you would ever see or do anything with the other people in the "group" but the TA has committed to a certain amount of cabins on the ship.

Most agents will explain why the additional deposit is needed and give you a choice as to which option you would prefer. Additional deposit with extra OBC, or keep your reduced deposit and not get the additional OBC.

Seriously, ??? you knew the answer before you asked it, you have read cruise critic a lot.... you just want someone to justify you wanting to cheat the system..

To whom are you referring in this comment, it seems out of context so you you just clarify a little better?

Thanks you for all the reports. I suppose if the non-elite is your spouse and you share everything any way (community property and the like) that it is ethical to send the spouses luandry out for free with the elite perk. Otherwise the Elite would just be doing it when she got home.

Though I see that how if the two guests come from separate households one might feel differently about the ethics of sharing the laundry perk.

If not shared, it would be the Elite members responsibility to protect the mini-bar from the other passenger.

I think the elite should share with cabin mate, if he doesn't drink, then just grab a random person and share.

can she throw her husband's laundry in with her stuff? It will obviously not be hers, XXL :)

How does Princess do the Elite benefits if one guest is Elite and the other is new to Princess?

Most travel agents, at least good ones who do trade shows and marketing keep them in stock. Your travel agent should be able to get you one in a few day via the mail.

I think some here are VERY confused. On the 123 GO promotion the credits do not appear until the FINAL invoice. THe final invoice comes from Celoebrity about 2 or 3 days ahead of when your final payment is due - NOT BEFORE.

 

It has nothing to do with Select Dining or anything else. Is simply procedural. The money is not repaid. It will not be charged.

When a booking is made, the promotion code is added to the reservation. Then Celebrity has a "Coupon Redemption Team" that goes in reviews the booking to make sure nothing funny is going on, then they actually apply the coupons which will appear as a corresponding negative line item against the cost of the beverage package and the cost of the gratuities, the $300 OBC should appear towards the bottom of the reservation.

This is done in about 4-7 days, however if you do not request a second invoice, you would not see it until your receive your final invoice. Most people want confirmation that they are getting this, so I always request and send a second invoice about a week after a booking is initially made.

Not every kids is alike but we did Celebrity Alaska with my kids when they were 9 and 11. Older one, my son, never missed a Brent Nixon presentation. So entertaining and informative too.

We took the Solstice on a trans-Atlantic and the high light of the kids day was going up to the law club to check out the Hot Glass Show.

Celebrity has also just designed some family friendly interactive excursions that include things like Geocaching and other family game type activities.

Things like whale watching and glaciers are especially fun with kids.

You can purchase more OBC through the website

Another suggestion is that most debit cards or pre-paid cards have a daily spending limit. If you haven't yet paid for your cruise in full, it would probably make sense to spread out your final payment over the weeks between now and the final payment date. Don't wait till the last day and find out the amount you owe is more than your daily limit.

Have your tried calling back with your booking agent at Celebrity to get details about all of this?