Celebrity vs Royal Caribbean

[ljandiernp]

Hi, Having just taken my 4th cruise (all on Princess) and being pretty disappointed in the last two, I am starting to investigate other cruise line options. I have two good friends; one is a Celebrity fan (16 or more cruises) and the other is a Royal fan (8 or more cruises). Each recommends their favorites and have good reasons for thier choices.My specific dislikes about my last two Princess cruises were declining food options (escargot 1 night, no crab legs, no ability to request these options on other nights as I did previously) and presenation and style (bland and WAY TOO MUCH salt). I also disliked being hurried in the dining room, and an overall feeling of increased sales pressure (wine tastings, drink cards, ship-board sales). My husband and I are definite "foodies" and the culinary experience is very important to our overall enjoyment; on my first 2 Princess cruises I thought the food was excellent. I also felt there were fewer excusion options that suited me, but I can solve that by booking my own excursions. I did like the art auctions and would like to be on a ship that offers art sales. If you have sailed both lines, please share with me your preference, and why. Thank you, Laurie

[SuiteTraveler]

Celebrity and RCCL are related. Celebrity is considered more up-market. RCCL has multiple specialty dining restaurants on their newest ships - Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas. I've been on Oasis. The food in the various special restaurants as well as the Chef's dinner (call RCCL to reserve - it's not advertised) was fabulous! I never actually ate in the MDR - we just kept going to the specialty restaurants and paying the additional fee. It was well worth it! We are foodies. I'm getting ready to try Celebrity Eclipse and expect great food again. We shall see...

[Gonzo70]

RCI would be the better choice if you are bringing children (lots of venues for them such as ice skating, rock climbing, mini golf etc.) or like a lot of nightlife & constant activities. Celebrity is a better choice for a more upscale ambiance and a relaxing, pampered type experience. In order to have "foodie" quality food on a cruise, you either need to sail on a luxury line or utilize the specialty restaurants on the mass market lines; the food in the MDR and buffet in all mass market cruise line is good for the circumstances (low budget and mass produced) but can never compare to food at a nice land based restaurant. Celebrity's newest ships (S-Class) thrive in the specialty restaurant area, each offering at least four different specialty restaurants. The S-Class ships are also beautiful and unique vessels (i.e. they have a large natural grass area with activities like bocce ball, croquet, picnics, hot glass blowing shows etc.). I believe that both Celebrity and RCI offer art auctions, but this is not something that appeals to me so I have no information about them.

[rollie]

I agree with Gonzo. RCCL is now a more family oriented line. We cruised many times on both RCCL and Celebrity. On the last 2 cruises on RCCL we were very disapointed with the food in the MDR. I am a foodie, so this was a big issuse for me. Our last cruise was on Celebrities, Millennium, and the food, overall was wonderful. Also, their speciality dining is the best on the high seas, IMHO.

 

Rollie

[baggal]

If you're looking for a "foodie" dining experience you won't find it on RCL. Their food in the MDR, is at best, closer to a mediocre meal at a banquet than a fine dining experience.

[tropicbird]

RCCL also only offers escargot one night and there has never been crab legs on any of our 26 or so cruises. The longer cruises have lobster one night, but is is the spiny lobster, not the cold water ("Maine") lobster. So.... if these are the things that cause you to take pause with traveling on Princess again... RCCL will likely be about the same (same thing with the "add-on sales")

 

Like the previous poster noted, you may want to consider a luxury (instead of mass-market) line, or choose a mass-market line but take advantage of the for-fee restaurants (though this kind of conflicts with the desire to stay away from the add-on sales).

 

Celebrity, and to an extent Holland America, offer a more upscale (but still mass-market) experience and the food is considered by many (but of course not all) to be generally better than on the mid-mid-market brands such as RCCL and Princess.

[caripoo]

We are Elite on Celebrity and Diamond on RC, so we have sailed them quite a bit. We have been on Celebrity more as of late because of the smaller ships, service and the food. I must also add thought I will say I even think SOME of the quality of the food has gone down even with Celebrity. Again food is always a BIG difference of opinion from one person to another. We were on the Connie in the Med in Sept and they now have 2 speciality restaurants that are FABULOUS!!! The food and service was outstanding. The food the other nights in the MDR was well presented, mostly good choices, and tasy, that being said, I have seen some decline over thew years. The food in the buffets are wonderful. You will not be hungry. The service is wonderful on Celebrity.

 

We still look at RC, we also gaze at Princess and Hal, when we are planning a trip, but if Celebrity has the similiar itiniery, we will choose them. ENJOY!!!:):)

[We're The Groupnors]

We've been on four Princess Cruises, five Celebrity Cruises, and one on RCI. Of the three lines we think Celebrity has the best food overall, although I've never seen crab legs offered (one of my favs). You can get escargot every night, along with a whole host of other passenger favs such as French Onion Soup (very good) and Caesar salad, to name just a few. Aside from the quality of the food being better, we find the big difference with Celebrity is that they are willing to make changes and honor special requests a lot more readily than Princess. Case in point: on our recent Solstice Cruise they had rum raisin one night. The next night they didn't have it, but when our table mate requested it the waiter made a point of saying he'd have it for him the next night. In fact, he had it available, and on the table without it even having to be requested, for the rest of the cruise. On our last Princess cruise the waitress kept saying "I'll have to check with my Manager" whenever we made a special request.

 

I also think Murano's and the Tuscan Grill on the Celebrity S-Class ships and the specialty restaurants on the M-Class ships are far superior to the specialty restaurants on Princess. Lastly, the buffet fare is much better and more varied on Celebrity. However, I'm not a buffet fan in general, so perhaps I'm a little jaded in this area.

[masterbaker]

For a "foodie", I would recommend choosing a ship with a variety of specialty restaurant choices. There has been a decline in food quality and choices in the MDR on most mass market cruislines. Both RCI and Celebrity have good food in the MDR, but if you really want meals to remember the specialty restaurants are your best choice.

[Realblonde474]

We took a Princess Cruise last year and hated the food. We love RCL and are looking forward to this Solstice cruise next month.

 

Of course, there lot's of things to consider...when looking over a cruise line but truly I haven't read or heard one bad (or at least worth considering) thing about the quality or level of service on Celebrity....

[cirpi]

If you're looking for a "foodie" dining experience you won't find it on RCL. Their food in the MDR, is at best, closer to a mediocre meal at a banquet than a fine dining experience.

 

This is off topic and I apologize, so flame me if you wish. The baby-talk words foodie and veggie are among the worst assaults on the English language. If those words are acceptable, shouldn't one who loves fine beer and wine be called a drinkee? In fairness, I think so.

[jannandjohn]

shouldn't one who loves fine beer and wine be called a drinkee? .

no, they are called alcoholics;)

[UB & AS]

Hi, Having just taken my 4th cruise (all on Princess) and being pretty disappointed in the last two, I am starting to investigate other cruise line options. I have two good friends; one is a Celebrity fan (16 or more cruises) and the other is a Royal fan (8 or more cruises). Each recommends their favorites and have good reasons for thier choices.My specific dislikes about my last two Princess cruises were declining food options (escargot 1 night, no crab legs, no ability to request these options on other nights as I did previously) and presenation and style (bland and WAY TOO MUCH salt). I also disliked being hurried in the dining room, and an overall feeling of increased sales pressure (wine tastings, drink cards, ship-board sales). My husband and I are definite "foodies" and the culinary experience is very important to our overall enjoyment; on my first 2 Princess cruises I thought the food was excellent. I also felt there were fewer excusion options that suited me, but I can solve that by booking my own excursions. I did like the art auctions and would like to be on a ship that offers art sales. If you have sailed both lines, please share with me your preference, and why. Thank you, Laurie

We are Elite on Celebrity and Diamond on RCCL. We have had good experiences on Celebrity and two disastrous cruises on RCCL so never again on RCCL. Our next 50 days of cruising are booked on Celebrity. We are just off a 30 night RCCL cruise and you might want to look at our travel blog:

 

http://HOMESTEADER999.blogspot.com

[ljandiernp]

RCI would be the better choice if you are bringing children (lots of venues for them such as ice skating, rock climbing, mini golf etc.) or like a lot of nightlife & constant activities. Celebrity is a better choice for a more upscale ambiance and a relaxing, pampered type experience. In order to have "foodie" quality food on a cruise, you either need to sail on a luxury line or utilize the specialty restaurants on the mass market lines; the food in the MDR and buffet in all mass market cruise line is good for the circumstances (low budget and mass produced) but can never compare to food at a nice land based restaurant.

 

Hi, I really appreciate your thoughtful answer that went beyond my original question. It is the ambiance and relaxation that we are looking for, and some great eco-type or cultural tours, not the constant flow of entertainment. What I really cherished about this last trip was time with my husband without distraction, and great meals really enhance that overall experience. I agree with you about mass produced food, and despite that, I thought it was quite good (as you say for the circumstances) on my first two Princess cruises. It was the latter two on which I felt there was a distinct decline. The other factor that may be in the mix is that my first two cruises were on two of the smaller ships in the Princess fleet, and I think they may still do things well on the smaller ships (ratio of staff to passengers may be better).

Thanks again for giving me your thoughts; yours was one that made me think Celebrity over RC. Laurie

[ljandiernp]

Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful replies; many of you went deeper than the original question and I appreciate that. I can appreciate that I have certain expecations that may be beyond the mass market ability, but those expectations were founded in the reality of two cruise experiences in February of 2006 and 2007, so not that long ago. As I pointed out in my response to Gonzo, one factor in these experiences was sailing on the smaller of the Princess ships for the first two cruises; it may be that staffing ratios are better or they just have fewer meals to turn out that make things better. Although I really enjoy a great meal, I am pretty tolerant of circumstances and not really one to complain; I think what got to me most this trip was not the overall decline in food quality and choice so much as feeling rushed through the meal. The waitstaff were hovering and scooping plates and pushing the next course when I wanted to linger with the other guests I'd just met. One adaptation that Princess has made is to dress the buffet service tables in the evening with tablecloths and silverware, so the ambiance is a little better; we ate at the buffet a number of evenings because the food choices were often the same and we could control meal timing by going back to the buffet for each course on our own time. We sat at a larger table and invited others to join us, and in this way felt we had the best of both worlds.

Thank you again for your thoughts, Laurie