rodndonna

We sailed all the Pinnacles, the Eurodam. The Eurodam was our "first: after Covid and pretty empty thought that may have been why it was better but maybe not just that. The rest (all Pinnacles) seemed really noisy to me. Interesting assessment on the best areas - we are taking note!

Apparently (according to my husband), Celebrity (RCL) are built in southern France and Carnival mostly in Italy. The cruise was a "safe" intro to Celebrity, 7 day southern Caribbean out of San Juan. The ship size would be closest to Eurodam so was trying to compare those onboard experiences. Our "personal" assessment - Dining (we are slower relaxed non-meat eaters) - HAL wins for Main Dining food (much better fish and seafood offerings) Celebrity for Buffet (much better selection, especially for non-meat eaters) Celebrity for dining ambiance (less noise, nicer buffet layout and sitting options in buffet) Shows (we don't normally do shows, but saw 3 on our Celebrity cruise) Celebrity won, but that could be because their shows are 7 (or 9) and 7 worked well for us as we normally eat at 8. The shows we attended were music shows, so can't comment on Comedians, Magicians or Broadway type shows. Cruise Common Areas HAL - big winner for outdoor space (really miss promenade deck) Celebrity for indoor space (the lounges, atrium, coffee shop seemed nicer) Music entertainment HAL wins for overall quality of acts and evening music performances Celebrity wins for live daytime music (after you learn to not just plunk down thinking they are about to play when you see the band, only to realize you are watching 30 minutes of set and sound check ... lol) Rooms (comparing aft balcony in Eurodam and Millenium for size and age of ship) HAL wins for room (nicer room, better nook and cranny spaces and bigger bathroom) Celebrity wins for the balcony, it was HUGE (I think it was length of the main are of room with great shade cover) Pools and whirlpools (we actually don't do cruise pools or hot tubs) HAL wins for offering more shaded sit up (non lounger) chairs on the pool deck. Celebrity has a nice looking adult only (depends on ship and hours) Solarium (we didn't use it though) Activities (we don't participate except for maybe Trivia, but will lurk around to spectate) Celebrity wins with a really wide range of activities through day and night. I thought it was kinda interesting that they had activities (game shows, pool volleyball) with guests against officers. HAL wins for enrichment type offerings Casino (small players, $100-$300 maximum on 7 day cruise) Celebrity wins, non smoking! and they run alot of little promos Ambiance (likely impacted by itenrary) Celebrity more on the "fun" side, yet amazingly enough, better dressed in the evening (counterintuitive). Instead of thinking "Is this not Gala/Chic night??" on HAL, it was "Is this Gala/Chic night?" on Celebrity. I think folks dressed better on this cruise than our HAL Norway (mostly Europeans) cruise. It was unexpected, but kinda nice for a change. A few families onboard and for some of them, the young girls appeared to want everyday to be a GALA day!!! Final Synopsis If I was recommending a cruise line someone that wants to try cruising I would say Celebrity as it has a wider offering to get an idea of what cruising offers. Quite happy with both HAL and Celebrity, with maybe an edge to Celebrity (but that comes with a price difference). We have future cruises booked with both (and others) and look forward to them all equally for different reasons!

We gave just completed our first Celebrity cruise after 4 HAL cruises since Covid. Was not really surprised by anything as pretty much all of the "HAL verses Celebrity" aspects have been covered here on Cruise Critic with regards to dining, bars, ambiance, activities, shoes, etc .. Except for one thing that I have not seen anyone mention that really struct me on Celebrity, and am wondering if is just me? I though the "noise" level in the Celebrity buffet and dining room is much quieter. Yes, you can still hear the clanking of dishes and such, but it seems like maybe there is more noise mitigation (dampening) than on HAL, especially in the buffet. I even kept telling myself that maybe it was because it was not as busy when we were in there. But even in the buffet at disembrakation morning (like hard to find a seat full), it was nearly not as loud as the HAL buffet (I thought) Is there better noise mitigation in the layout design itself? (quite different), better acoustic ceiling tiles?, different materials for less echos? (chairs/curtains/carpeting/etc), the way they transport around stuff on carts?, or ???? Or ..... am I just imagining things....??

Love the pics. We are just off the previous cruise and had a fantastic time, and really enjoying your photos. Have a great cruise!

Does Celebrity not email out surveys after a cruise?

Maybe closer to sailing .. but it won't be cheap. Honestly it had just been released at a time when I happen to be looking to book Princess for Mexican Riviera (because I grew up watching the Love Boat) and when I saw it .. thought "I guess that could be kinda cool" . Really had no idea how big of a thing it is for some people but am getting pretty excited about it now. The cruise is a year away, and the original roll call is now at 51 pages and had to divide into a second roll call now at 10 pages. Crazy .... EDIT: As this thread was about cruise cost - I looked it up - For that Eclipse 10 day cruise booked when it came out - We paid $3046 US$ for 2 people, inside cabin, taxes and Princess package included (drinks, gratuities, wifi and shore excursion credit). I thought it was a great deal, and still do. 😃

We booked that Princess Eclipse cruise when it came out underestimating how popular it would be. Took the cheapest guarantee inside figuring we would look at upgrading cabins later. With a week it was clear absolutely no chance as it effectively sold out and the few available cabins were MUCH ore expensive.

As you have said - most importantly you have to be able to limit your loses which we can (I'm a poor loser, so it comes naturally). It also only works if you actually enjoy gambling as a form of entertainment which we do. Really not hard to avoid the smokers at the times we ave spent in the Casino. For those reasons, for us, it is well worth saving a few hundred dollars.

I would have thought so as well, but no idea what a "mocktail" costs (yet) on Celebrity. Hitting an "age" where we having more drinks which are more low or no alcohol .. but don't drink soda and water is just .. well .. you know ...water Looking forward to checking into the options on out first cruise this Saturday. 😃

I thought (could be wrong) the Celebrity and RCL Casino reward program was a little more straightforward (at least for slots) in terms of being able to know "if I have earned X points what will that get me". We are leaving for our first Celebrity cruise Saturday, but not sure if we will check out the Casino program. We seem to be getting more Casino deals than we can take advantage of already with Holland and Carnival. 🙂

It looks like there are no "mocktails" on the Classic package? It would seem only the Elite or the non-alcoholic package. That strikes me as odd .. can anyone confirm?

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that it is not actually HAL footing the bill for those discounts but the Casino club which is financially separate. Maybe someone else can provide better insight ... We receive them (typically 30%) and by our definition - the answer to "how much do you need to gamble" is "not alot" or at least it has always been less than we then get in future discounts. Ball park taking $50 a day to play in the slots, We play more for entertainment and "points" than expecting to win, so games that have alot of up and down so we can milk that $50 as long as we can. Even if we lose every night of a 7 night cruise (rare to have that happen), worst care we are out $350 - not hard to make that up in a discount on the fare for future cruises. Not sure if they apply to World Cruises, but I kinda doubt it.

Very true - an oddly I think the OP of this thread knows that - jus look at the title (intended to lure people in yet again) and it worked - here it is - 6 pages in (yet the original post point was pretty much just dismissed by the majority os posters).

Hard to imagine, I expect your husband was likely a teen with friends just smoking a joint .. and the farthest thing from his mind would have been to say to his friends .... "Hey guys, maybe this is a mistake - this could come back to bit me in the a$$ someday if I want to go on an Alaskan cruise" Enjoy your cruise!

Pun intended? 😃

If our PCC were to leave (she is the only PCC we have had and just started as we came out of pandemic) I would insist on one with call appointment booking or just not bother. As it is we really just do our own research and preselect/hold and then throw it to her for booking. I figure they work (she at least) seems to work hard enough that we can throw an easy commission (or whatever) and then we do have someone to call if we need to help if something comes up. I have zero patience to wait on hold or phone tag with someone if I have any other option.

I would just request a new PCC. I suspect there are many that would be thrilled to get your business if you last PCC is gone or just too busy. https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/postbooking/lead-sign-up-ca.html?pccChecked=true Our PCC is trialing a new system of booking appointments for call back on line - I really like that option. Apparently just a trial with some PCC's right now.

We're booked in Sunset (Aft) Verandahs for both as we wanted to compare to HAL aft balconies which we have really enjoyed. Next week is Millenium (smaller/older than Edge guess) and then the Edge for Hawaii. We got pretty good deals on those "afts" though ....(we like to think)

Exactly. Travelling is a "discretionary" expenses. If you can't afford (or don't like) the cost, don't book it and look for something else. I really can't sympathize with people bemoaning "the holiday I want costs too much" . There are so many options out there, and if you can afford to be looking at holidays at all, then you are among the lucky.

I agree. We currently have 2 HAL and 2 Celebrity cruises booked (and one with NCL and one with Princess). We are definitely paying a premium on the Celebrity cruises compared to HAL. HAL is pretty much coming out as the most affordable of those lines for us (we always looks at equivalent of HIA and includes gratuities for our comparison). We leave for what will be our first Celebrity cruise on Saturday, and curious to see if the premium is worth is for us. The other Celebrity we booked was due to limited options for single direction cruises to Hawaii (RCL or Celebrity). The Casino discount is a bonus (we don't get freebies, but we do get a discount) so will continue to visit the Casino on future HAL cruises as the 'payback' in discounts is quite good for our level of play.

Thanks Jim. Our cruise leaves this Saturday (Millenium) and a previous poster looked and let us know they are the 2nd and 6th nights, but we still don't see them in our app. Not a big deal, more of a curiosity to know why we can't see them ...🤔

I like the others have no experience in this (thankfully) other than watching those Border Control reality shows .... As another posted ha stated, the only thing you can do is just make sure he is on his best behavior. The fact that you are prepared to be asked about this at the border and speak to it should help. I would be surprised (or at least really disappointed) if he is refused but my opinion means nothing.

Wow ...😒

Maybe just a bug ... we still don't see anything even when set to "Show all" for activities.... I wonder if it is because we are on "any time" dining? Maybe as we have no dining time reserved for those days, there is nothing to tag the note for "chic" to?

I don't see them in our planner though - weird. I scroll through the entire time schedule of the days and nothing is noted....