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How does Aida compare to Celebrity, RCL, or Princess


buffi001
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With the rumors of some Aida sailings out of Baltimore in the future, I

would appreciate any objective info about how this line compares to

the big three listed in the title.

 

How are the amenities, the food, the entertainment, and the staffs?

The only thing I have been able to ascertain is that it is German, has no

dining room, per se, and is very informal in dress/ attitude. any other insight would be great to hear.

Edited by buffi001
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I have made cruises with Celebrity, Holland America, The Royal Viking Sun and - three times - with different AIDA ships (basically, the AIDAs are very similar to each other).

 

Here are the differences:

- AIDA has 99% German-speaking passengers. Although virtually everybody of the staff is speaking English (many speak Engllish only, not German), the announcements and the entertainment program are in German.

- AIDA has no dining room, but several buffet-style restaurants with complimentary beer and wine plus several à-la-carte restaurants where you pay both for food and drinks.

- Entertainment on the AIDA ships is weak. They do not have the Broadway-style shows which are typical for American cruise ships. Instead, they have those pool-parties which are discotheque-style dancing parties.

- Health club and wellness are high-standard, saunas are coed and nude.

- The organized tours are with German-speaking guides.

 

Otherwise, the cruising experience is similar.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thank you

 

We have seen many Aida ships in Palma, my partner is fluent in German but I can only get away with a little bit. I understand more of what I hear than I can speak.

 

I really want to try different ships but would need to improve my german first

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  • 5 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Interesting; thanks. We've seen AIDA ships in ports with us, but other than realizing they aren't terribly huge ships (which is a plus to me) and that everyone coming off of them appear to be German, I didn't know a thing about them. I didn't realize any ship did not have a dining room with service - interesting!

 

Also interesting is someone's post that there are rumors of Aida ships sailing out of Baltimore. That would be nice, given that only RCL and Carnival are the choices now. However, I think I'll have to pass on a German ship! I know some German, but not enough to understand or converse without some difficulty! I also don't think I'd like to do buffet 3 times a day....

Edited by roothy123
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I will experience the differences between AIDA compared to Royal Caribbean in a few weeks, when I'm on my first cruise with the Splendour of the seas departing from Venice...

 

As I cruised with AIDA ships several times all I can say is that I enjoyed AIDA very much. There is always a relaxing and easy atmosphere on board. Buffet restaurants are included, there are specialty restaurants with service, you have to pay extra.

Of course personnel is part German, part International, so English speaking should not be a serious matter.

 

Although I love cruising with AIDA I wanted to try another cruise line, so I'm excited to get on board of an "American" ship.

Embarking in 22 days:)

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I cruised with AIDA many times and it was fantasitic :). I think cruising AIDA is different from cruising with "American ships". The buffet style restaurants are very different from the buffet restaurants on American ships. I think there is a larger variety of food. Have a look at the AIDA homepage: http://www.aida.de/kreuzfahrt/schiffe/aidaluna/360-grad-rundgang-aidaluna.26067.html So you can have a look at one of three buffet restaurants on AIDAluna. You should understand a little bit of German because everything is in German. Speaking shouldn't be a problem. Most of the younger germans speak English fluently so you will not have any problems to get in contact. I met some guys from GB on AIDA and we had much fun together.

In August I am going to try Carnival. Let's see how it works for me but the Board program seems to be likewise. I will report.

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Never been on AIDA, but when we were next to one in some port, I saw they had hammocks on the balconies!!!

Now that is something I could live with, spending my day at sea in a hammock! :)

 

Also, they seemed to have bikes and segways etc onboard, for use in ports.

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You can do several bike tours: soft tours or active tours through the citys or along the coasts. Segway tours are also available. They also have e-bikes for Seniors. The hammoks are fantastic but there is no room service on board. No Problem for me, I don`t need it.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 months later...
Aida is low class cruising for a high price! Never ever I would step a foot on that ships! They were good at the beginning, but now worst then Costa in Aida style. Not good for English speakers at all, uncomfortable, no luxury, bad food!

 

Hola Cowboy!

 

AIDA better or worse than NCL?:p

 

xoxoxo Doctora C en Atenas

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

From what I understand and what my friends told me AIDA is different than US mass market with own pluses and minuses. I only saw pictures of buffet and it looks terrific. So many varieties of cheese, meats, sausages. Lobsters and other seafood. Also there is a set of great saunas dry and wet. Entertainment is fine. Shorter shows, but fine.

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  • 3 months later...

Did lots of cruises on AIDA´s ships, so here is my opinion:

 

:)

very good buffet meals with an awsome variety of very good quality food

buffet restaurants have complementary beverages including alcohol

I like the style of the cabins

great wellness area

part of the entertainment is very good quality

on board language is German (good if you know German well)

lots of different on board entertainment either included or for rather small extra fees

lots of different "motto parties"

tips are included in the price also for drinks at the bars

prices at the bars are not too high

with many ships they cover lots of different routes

they offer bike tours in almost every port and segway tours in some ports

they have their own diving lessons on board

very often they have special price offers; you sometimes get a cruise for less than 100 € per day (tips and beverages in restaurants included)

discounts for youngsters up to 24 years

reasonably priced drinks passes available

kids travel free or for a very low charge in their parent´s cabin and don´t even have to pay for extra tips

discount for pre-booked shore excursions and some on board extras

 

:(

it sometimes feels crowded especially on sea days with bad weather as there is less space per passenger as on other cruise lines

cabins are quite small (14 qm most cabins)

part of the entertainment is not good quality

their bigger ships don´t have a real theater, from most seats at the so-called Theatrium you don´t have good view to the stage

no real pool on the bigger ships

on board language and all information is German (not good if you don´t know German well); only safety anouncements are also in English

 

you can avoid some of the :( items by:

booking a balcony cabin or Suite

dine in specialty restaurants

Show up early for Theatrium entertainment and grab a seat on deck 9 in the front rows

if you are not in a balcony cabin or Suite: pay for the "Wellnes Oase" on sea days (20-25 € per day and only 60 passengers per day are allowed in)

Edited by AntjeG
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some more details which are neutral to me and it depends on your personal attitude if you like it:

 

It´s Freestyle cruising. No formal nights, no captain´s dinner or things like that. No Dress code except no beach wear in the restaurants and men are asked to wear long pants for dinner.

All included restaurants are buffet except "Brauhaus" (beer garden style) on some of the larger ships (meals are included but beverages have to be paid).

Ships with a "Brauhaus" produce their own beer and you can do a brewery tour on board.

Cabin service once a day. Towels for use on the pool deck or a beach are provided for a deposit. You get your money back upon return of the towel.

As with all cruise lines, Internet access is quite expensive. But on the larger ships you get your own email account and can send/receive emails for 0,50 €. You get the email address with your travel documents and can arrange your mails being forwarded from your home account to the ship.

On the larger ships they provide a bath robe for use on the ship.

Every time the ship leaves a port this event is celebrated with their own port leaving music.

The ships are decorated with a large kissing mouth on their front as if the ship is kissing the sea.

Crew are allowed to mix with passengers on the public areas while not on duty.

They produce their own TV Show on board.

They offer diving and gulf for shore excursions.

For active People they offer lots of sports activities on board such as volleyball.

Edited by AntjeG
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  • 3 months later...
  • 6 months later...

Although I might get flamed for the following and without making my post 10 pages, I would like to express that after many RCCL cruises I finally did one (my first and last one) Aida cruise on AidaBlu (Med) as I have heard soooo often on my RCCL cruises and on land that Aida is good or even best.

On the ship we have experienced a loyalty to Aida of 95% of the people we met. Even cold food was named good as it has this brilliant variety that you can get nowhere.

 

If you love American ships and you don't ahere to German (as a language on a ship) don't do Aida.

  1. Excursions
    VERY good. A+++. Really loved them. Very good tours. All in German, with highly motivated guides, all well educated. Wireless hotspot with FOC internet in bussed... RCCL is much weaker here.
  2. Route / Stops
    Very well picked. Many of Aida's routes RCCL does not do yet.
  3. Ship
    Small, had trouble to find my way, often felt to be on a one-way-or dead end street. Hard to find floor signs. I have been on Oasis class 3 times and there it was very easy. I'm spoilt by RCCL. On Aida my mom (74), who was also on Oasis already, did often end up somewhere wrong. Much to little amount of public toilets.
    Reception: Mid of the 'queue' (if you want to call this a queue) ends in front of the elevators.
    Cabins are nice coloured though.
    NEVER saw our cabin attendant.
  4. Food
    Good variety. FOC beer and wine during dinner. Loved the burger place. Very good food in there and very friendly staff.
    In my one week all our food (and I had many in any restaurant that was included) was in max. lukewarm to cold, except in the burger place. Filet steaks were cooked to be dry and were served once half cold.
    Nice remarks and requests from us, e.g. requesting for warm fried egg, were in max. answered grumbling. Requests were not taken but I was asked to provide online feedback myself after the cruise. And believe me, we were really trying to be polite.
    There are often many times during the day you can't get ANYTHING to eat nor drink on the ship that you don't have to pay for. No coffee served 24/7 FOC.
    Could post more ...
  5. Pool site
    The biggest pool was smaller than a bigger sized RCCL whirl pool. In ANY whirlpool on the ship I was not able to sit with my feet stretched (I'm 6 foot 2) leading me to issue with my feet (under water, bubbles) touching somebody else in areas I don't want to ...
    Nude area: Big nude area, taking many of the little pool area space. So called SPA area you have to pre-book and pay. Don't even start to compare this with BOS or Oasis solarium nor think of the entire pool deck comparison.
  6. Entertainment
    Anytime bar had nice disco music. Biergarden (own beer brewed on ship) had 2 nice day music session during our 1 week, felt like in Spring break on those occasions/days. Really nice. Also the staff cocktail mix 1h on the pool site was nice.
    Theatre in size is smaller than the shows of RCCL being done in the atrium of the ships. Shows are weak to horrible. 1 'big' show per day ... which some were even distressing. E.g. one night the show of the day was two performers were doing adhoc-theatre with no 100% story line, both playing drunk people ... this was even transmitted to the pool site in loud sound ... even the Aida fans were requesting to have the sound turned off.
    Captain was almost invisible. His introduction was weakly done poolside.
    After half of our trip we stopped participating in most entertainment.

Edited by ChristianDecker
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  • 5 months later...

just did my first mini-cruise on Aida which they offer out of Palma as one night cruises to nowhere.

 

I have previously been on RCCL, Holland America, Costa, NCL.

I am glad i did the mini cruise so now i know that i wont book Aida again.

My mini-review:

 

Pro:

- Reasonable prices at the bar

- free style cruising

- good shops with quality goods

- very friendly and approachable european crew

- free beer / wine / coffee in the restaurants

 

Contra:

- didnt like the interior design, some areas appeared very plasticky to me (however, this is really subjective)

- No traditional restaurant, only buffet (i dont mind a buffet except for dinners where i really like to be served)

- Buffet food variety was a bit limited, and the 'italian' style restaurant really didnt have much italian choices except for a pizza and some pasta.

- In all fairness, the dishes at the buffet were prepared well, however they were luke-warm at best, which is a shame

- pools were really the smallest i've ever seen on a cruise ship

- asian crew was not trained well, they were not attentive, didnt greet and you could tell some didnt enjoy their work - we were astonished as normally these guys are the nicest people amongst the crew

 

everything kinda reminded me of a european 3 star hotel, it was not a feeling of luxary but reminded me more of what they usually call 'value'.

 

Again, your milage may vary, as they say ...

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