Difference between Celebrity and Royal Caribbean

[JOHN 57]

Hello, I am considering taking a Royal Caribbean cruise, but I would like to know the difference Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. Thank you, John

[Lynnees]

Royal is far more family oriented so there will usually be more children. It has more "toys" such as flow riders, rock climbing walls etc. Basically much busier than Celebrity.

 

Celebrity does have a children's program but nothing like RCL. I would say it is more adult oriented and definitely more upscale than RCL.

 

My opinion only - so no need to get fire in your eye for those who don't agree with me.

[wah20]

Royal is far more family oriented so there will usually be more children. It has more "toys" such as flow riders, rock climbing walls etc. Basically much busier than Celebrity.

 

Celebrity does have a children's program but nothing like RCL. I would say it is more adult oriented and definitely more upscale than RCL.

 

My opinion only - so no need to get fire in your eye for those who don't agree with me.

Very well stated. I totally agree.

[mpbmark]

Both Celebrity and Royal are owned by the same company, but on Celebrity, you are allowed to bring on board a limited amount of wine whereas not so on RCCL. No reason for it, just company policy. :rolleyes:

[destiny217]

Very little smoking on the Celebrity ships. Here's the policy:

For all Celebrity ships, smoking is not permitted inside any stateroom or on any stateroom veranda. Cigarette smoking will only be permitted in designated indoor and outdoor areas of the ship, while cigar and pipe smoking will only be permitted in designated outdoor areas. Smoking will not be permitted in any dining venue, casino, theater, hallway, elevator or corridor. Violations to this smoking policy will result in a $250 cleaning fee being charged to the guest's onboard account and may also be addressed through Celebrity Cruises' Guest Conduct Policy. Cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco must be properly disposed of and never thrown overboard. A guest must be at least 18 years of age to purchase, possess or use tobacco onboard.

 

Additionally, there is a non-smoking policy on all components of the land tour portion of all Celebrity Cruises cruisetour products. We appreciate your understanding and adherence.

[dplusd]

Celebrity was my first cruise and is still my favorite cruise line, but they don't allow smoking on your balcony so I had to leave :(.

 

We don't have kids and don't flowride or climb rock walls, so that aspect of RCI's ships are not a benefit to us. IMO, Celebrity food and service is a bit better than RCI. Although we love Portofino's on Royal, the Celebrity speciatly restaurants are even better. Celebrity is a bit older and dressier and less active, which again is fine with us.

 

But, the two cruise lines are more alike than different and we enjoy sailing RCI just fine.

[wolfganghowell]

Food is much better on X. Higher quality ingredients, more sophisticated presentation. We don't go hungry on RCCL but it's not even close.

 

I think service is a little more formal on X. Not stuffy, just a more reserved atmosphere.

 

I agree - less families. I would say X caters more to couples in their 30s to 70s - with an emphasis on the 40s to 60s ages.

 

We divide our time between both lines and have learned to tailor our expectations accordingly.

[50cruiser]

I agree with the above. I always concidered celebrity the high end of cruise lines Ive sailed on most , if not all of the popular lines . Personally I put Celebrity no 1 , Princess no. 2 Rci no 3 , holland america no 4 . The rest are about the same . I usually watch for the best deal for any of my top 4 . These are the ones I like best . Each has its own corner and some here will like one over the other but I like these the best . Im going on RCI jan 3 rd . Got a great rate . I was on Holland america 2 months ago and on Celebrity Constilition in Jan. . This will be my 32nd cruise .I usually do 2 to 3 cruises a year . I watch for best deal for time Im ready to go more than a specfic line as long as its one of the 4 i like . CARL

[familycruising4ever]

My husband and I have only done RCI and the new Carnival Dream. We would love to try Celebrity sometime in the future as the kids are grown now. RCI is definitely better than Carnival in our opinion. Sure wish we lived closer to port so we could take more cruises as the distance/price to get to Florida etc from Michigan is crazy. Don't know how 50cruiser does it but we're certainly jealous!

[Annieeee]

Celebrity, in my opinion is more for the "more mature adult", while Royal Caribbean is more family oriented. The food may be a tad better, though not necessarily better tasting. AS for the guests themselves, holey moley, I met more mean, old, cranky, bitter, nasty people on Celebrity than anywhere else I have ever been too and I have sailed on Celebrity times. Far too many of them have this me, me me attitude and also a sense of entitlement. Seriously. Rude, rude, rude people, not all of them of course, but those mean old, cranky, bitter ones are the ones that left the lasting impression.

 

On the other hand I did meet some absolutely lovely people on Celebrity. Sadly the mean ones outnumbered the nice ones.

 

Annieeee

[50cruiser]

Ive found Airtran out of Flint has great flight prices . Iv goten many flights for under $200 rd trip.to FLL some under $150. This time I paid $238 Rd trip Jan 2011 CARL

Edited October 26, 2010 by 50cruiser

[Alliea]

I agree with the above. I always concidered celebrity the high end of cruise lines Ive sailed on most , if not all of the popular lines . Personally I put Celebrity no 1 , Princess no. 2 Rci no 3 , holland america no 4 . The rest are about the same . I usually watch for the best deal for any of my top 4 . These are the ones I like best . Each has its own corner and some here will like one over the other but I like these the best . Im going on RCI jan 3 rd . Got a great rate . I was on Holland america 2 months ago and on Celebrity Constilition in Jan. . This will be my 32nd cruise .I usually do 2 to 3 cruises a year . I watch for best deal for time Im ready to go more than a specfic line as long as its one of the 4 i like . CARL

I would put Holland America as no. 1.

[sargenet]

I think it is different for everyone. My sister is 45. She went on one cruise with RCCL, then she took a cruise on Holland, next she just went on Solstice. Her favorite so far is HAL. She didn't do her research though and they were upset because they could not smoke on their balcony. Seems everyone out there in the smoking area all said the same thing! They booked a balcony so they could smoke! Imagine their surprise (and anger...although they should have researched!!!)

 

We have sailed together on Hal and RCCL. I have also sailed on Princess, Disney, Carnival, and NCL. I am 43. I like RCCL the best. I did enjoy the food on HAL the most. So not a big age difference between us but we both liked different styles of cruising....

[Aquahound]

Hello, I am considering taking a Royal Caribbean cruise, but I would like to know the difference Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. Thank you, John

 

I think it depends on what RCI ship class you are considering. The differences between the ship classes are almost as big as the differences between the cruise lines.

[Mybearsbaby]

I, too have considered doing a celebrity cruise in the near future...DH and I are mid 20's but I consider us to be fairly mature for our age...;);):D We like shipboard activities and excitement, but also like to just relax and escape. Our perfect onboard experience I guess would be a 50/50 mix of active/relaxed.

 

Do you think 20 something married couples would have fun/feel at home on Celebrity?

[skandls]

Royal will have more families (we travel most when the kids are in school). X passengers are older and adhere to the dress standards more than the RCI cruisers (Carib and Mexico).

 

Dinner service on Celebrity is more formal - (I haven't checked in a few years but you used to be able to special order certain dishes.

 

Royal Caribbean is bright and fun ... Celebrity classier.

 

I have not been on the Solstice class I have heard good things about the class. I do really enjoy the big promenade ships that Royal Caribbean sails.

 

Most of the cruise lines in the mass market sector have a lot of similarities with a few differences.

[PirateGal]

Haven't been on a Celebrity yet but would definitely consider it for the future. The non-smoking aspect really appeals to us!

[05mak05]

I, too have considered doing a celebrity cruise in the near future...DH and I are mid 20's but I consider us to be fairly mature for our age...;);):D We like shipboard activities and excitement, but also like to just relax and escape. Our perfect onboard experience I guess would be a 50/50 mix of active/relaxed.

We're seniors and have been on Princess, Celebrity and RCI. Our Celebrity cruises were on the Millennium and the Galaxy. We didn't care for either ship. The Galaxy was run down and in need of a total overhaul. Food so-so. The Millennium buffet did not have a salad bar, soups were very disappointing, atmosphere a bit boring. We had no complaints with Princess. However, we LOVE Royal Caribbean! We think the food is pretty darn good. We missed having the option of an evening buffet on Celebrity and also the wonderful salad bars offered on RCI. I do think with Celebrity that much depends on the ship that you book. So many people say that they find Celebrity "upscale." I wonder what ships they were on. I don't doubt their opinion ... just curious as surely they don't mean either of the ones that I've mentioned.

[THEWIFE]

I agree with the poster who said that Celebrity is a classier ship. This is evident as soon as you step onboard. The age demographics are higher than that of Royal or even Princess. The food was a disappointment, if only because so many people told us how great the food would be. Sadly, we were not impressed, although most of it was edibile. Presentation was very nice, but the taste was anything but impressive: lots of salt and heavy sauces, etc. I will say that we did not see very many young people; most seemed to be in their fifties and up. We also found that the shore excursions sold by the cruiseline were very, very, very limited and many people, like us, were very disappointed with some of them.

 

Although Celebrity is a quieter cruiseline with less physical activities available, we found ourselves as busy as we chose to be with more than enough things to do on sea says.

 

We have reached a point where we realize that where one cruise line excels in one area, another might be weak. To that point, we simply choose the line that offers the best itinerary at the best price at the time that we would like to go. We will not starve, by any means, and we manage to enjoy ourselves.

Edited October 27, 2010 by THEWIFE
Error in icon placement/want to add more

[tip]

Haven't been on a Celebrity yet but would definitely consider it for the future. The non-smoking aspect really appeals to us!

 

We have sailed on RCCL three times with a fourth coming up this weekend which will probably be our last with RCCL. We have decided that our next cruise will be with Celebrity due to their 21st Century attitude toward smoking.

[tinaparrotthead]

We love Royal, have been on Celebrity Millie and Celebrity Summit....The food and service on Millie was the best we have ever experienced but the food and service on the Summit was NO different, in any way than on the Royal ships we've been on.

 

ENTERTAINMENT - For us entertainment was where the biggest difference was. If you love Jazz, and Big Band music you will love the entertainment on Celebrity. That is all they had outside the one band at the pool deck. We got so board and irritated because there wasnt much going on in the evening outside of the big theatre. We were board.

 

If you want things to do, music to listen to, and the ship not to basically shut down after 10:00, then don't go on Celebrity. Our first cruise on the Millie, my daughter called and wanted to know how it was....my DH responded jokingly and said, well, the ship paper says there will be a metimucel (sp?) shooters contest scheduled.....that pretty much said all she needed to know about the demographic of the ship..... :)

[BillOh]

We have sailed on RCCL three times with a fourth coming up this weekend which will probably be our last with RCCL. We have decided that our next cruise will be with Celebrity due to their 21st Century attitude toward smoking.

 

If I cared about Casinos, I would disagree with you. While I consider myself an anti-smoking activists, I've had so little difficulty with that on RCI. Give it another 20 years and there will be no smokers left to worry about.

[jmraggs]

We have sailed on RCCL three times with a fourth coming up this weekend which will probably be our last with RCCL. We have decided that our next cruise will be with Celebrity due to their 21st Century attitude toward smoking.

 

I am planning an X cruise in 2012 mainly because we have never tried one of their ships. I do like the fact that the food is supposed to be better and the non-smoking part. I have had several cruise balcony cabin experiences ruined because of a chain smoker next door.

[Muushka]

Food is much better on X. Higher quality ingredients, more sophisticated presentation. We don't go hungry on RCCL but it's not even close.

 

I think service is a little more formal on X. Not stuffy, just a more reserved atmosphere.

 

I agree - less families. I would say X caters more to couples in their 30s to 70s - with an emphasis on the 40s to 60s ages.

 

We divide our time between both lines and have learned to tailor our expectations accordingly.

 

Good comparison, I agree. I have only done 1 RCI cruise, but I found the food to be much better on X.

 

 

I am planning an X cruise in 2012 mainly because we have never tried one of their ships. I do like the fact that the food is supposed to be better and the non-smoking part. I have had several cruise balcony cabin experiences ruined because of a chain smoker next door.

 

That would be us on our last FOS. So sad.

 

Also, Celebrity does not have a man SCREAMING outside the buffet area in the morning. That poor man.

If it had been X he would have been wearing coffee and scrambled eggs!

Edited October 27, 2010 by Muushka

[Mack2]

My first Celebrity cruise was aboard the Celebrity Mercury on it's inaugural year in '97. What a wonderful time... They stopped at Coba, Mexico... and saw the ruins of Nohoch Mul.

 

What I remember back then was white glove service in the MDR (I have pictures of our waiter wearing white gloves). The guy took our orders by memory (no pad to write down our orders). There was a sommelier, so we got to try wines outside of our comfort level that was matched to our meals and recommended to us by the "wine expert".

 

It was a wonderful cruise.

 

 

Then we had kids.. couldn't cruise for a few years, took the kid on Disney, had more kids, one more Disney, then it was almost ALL RCI from there (with a Princess and Carnival in the mix).

I'd love to take the kids on the Solstice... but there's more for them to do on RCI's ships.