Princess, I am coming back from Celebrity!

[DeRon]

My wife and I just returned from a cruise on the Celebrity Millennium. We had a great time, but we like Princess better for many reasons. So...I guess we are coming back over here. :o

[Coral]

Welcome back!

 

It is always good to try another line to find out "where you belong". I wasn't impressed with my Millie cruise either.

[DeRon]

Did you like the Explorer cruise? How did it compare to Princess and Celebrity?

[Coral]

Overall, I had a very good Explorer cruise. I sailed right after 9-11 and ended up with a very good pier upgrade to the Owner's Suite. My cabin was unbelievable (though balcony of the suite was very small). I have to say that the ship is impressive and everyone should sail the Voyager class once to experience it. The ice skating show was very good. Our service was also very good.

 

Though, for me, the ship was too big and too loud. The royal promenade reminded me of a shopping mall. I like to relax on cruises and it just seemed "too busy" for what I like on vacations. I was probably 31 when I sailed on the Explorer.

 

The food is better on Princess. The dining room is very impressive on Explorer (large 3 story dining room) but the dining room seemed loud - it was hard to hear my tablemates. I am sort of picky with my food and Princess seems to accomodate my requests while RCCL wasn't as good.

 

I prefer the fresh water pools on Princess. I prefer Princess Cays to Labadee. Sand is smoother on Princess Cays.

 

Entertainment was better on RCCL - they have some named acts perform. We had Yackoff Smirnoff (sp?) on one of my RCCL cruises and on another it was "the person who sang or wrote the Happy Days song". So some named acts but names from the past.

 

Overall, as a line - Princess is my favorite. RCCL is probably closer to Princess as a line then Celebrity is to RCCL (even though Celebrity and RCCL are owned by the same company).

 

I probably could go on and on but don't want to bore people.

[DeRon]

Not boring at all. Thanks! I had some problems with Celebrity. I was kinda hoping it would be the "perfect" cruise. I did like some things, but overall I liked the Grand and Star much better.

 

I have been on Grandeur of the Seas, and it was nice...but still Princess has us hooked. I agree with you on Princess Cays also. My favorite private island. Labadee was fun, but not as nice.

[Twaincruisers]

My wife and I are also back from the Millie and are looking forward to our second Princess cruise in Dec. We loved our cruise on the Golden even though we found the design of the ship to cause great crowding problems when you were headed to or from the back showroom. Everything else was great.

 

We chose Millie to experience Celebrity and won't need to go back. There was nothing outstanding about the ship or Celebrity and our bathroom and the tables in the Ocean Grill were filthy. We have cruised on several 37-50 year old ships that were cleaner than the Millie.

 

We chose the Princess cruise for the itinerary...after 16 cruises in the Caribbean it is getting difficult to get to a new island...we will make it to 3-4 new ones on the Sea Princess.

 

Last year we were on the Navigator twice and had very enjoyable experiences both times. My wife loves that ship, but has come to like longer cruises so Sea Princess may be the one!

[DeRon]

The Milli seemed more crowded than the Grand or Star to us. And they have a lot more people!

[mr green]

:( Came back from Celebrity in March, both sadder, and wiser. I will not put as much trust into ratings again, both for ships and cruise lines. In my opinion Celebrity has a lot to learn about public relaitions, the line seems to rest on its glory of yesteryear. :) Happy to be back with Princess! john

[cruiserforlife]

Interesting comments.Have always been more than pleased with the product Princess provides,never more so then our last 1/28 Sun cruise...PERFECT!

 

Strayed to RCL in '03 aboard the NOS and didn't care for the whole promanade thing.Food was horrible,service and entertainment was the best we've ever experienced at sea.

 

Always wanted to try Celebrity but based on what I've read recently,maybe I don't.Besides,those Elite perks sure make it hard not to sail Princess again.;)

[sammiedawg]

Agree totally Princess ships are much cleaner, nicer, better maintained and more appealing than Celebrity. Had one bad experience on the Century ,the physical plant was very rundown and our cabin carpet upholstery and bathroom fixtures were on the level of an airport Holiday Inn. Celebrity's dinner food and tableside service was a notch better than Princess but the overall experience was very disappointing. Celebrity let the Century deteriorate to the point it flunked a CDC inspection for health and sanitation.

[ambullmom]

Just returned from my cruise on the Summit. It was my first 11 night cruise but I would have enjoyed a 7 night cruise on Princess more. Whats the hype?? Princess, where I belong.

 

Mary Beth

[PescadoAmarillo]

Celebrity let the Century deteriorate to the point it flunked a CDC inspection for health and sanitation.

 

Which inspection was this? I just looked, and saw a 96% rating for the March 2005 inspection.

[Specs]

I feel the same way as everybody else. I feel like home on Princess. Last year we tried Constellation (Concierge Class) Celebrity Cruises, it was a nice cruise with good memories. However, I was expecting better food and service since everybody claimed that it was the summum but in reality for me it was the same quality that Princess offered. I prefered the Horizon Court to the Seaside Cafe. The Speciality Restaurant did not have a warm atmosphere and the service was too "theatrical" (We were 8 at the table so 8 waiter served us our plate simultaniously -- a bit too much ). For the show, I have to admit that Celebrity presented a better quality, more professional choreography. The activities on Princess were much more upbeat and varied. The activity crew were much more enthousiastic on Princess. So here's my opinion! VOILA!

[sammiedawg]

Just prior to my December trip,Century failed its inspection, score was 79 as I recall. The full report was disgusting, roaches, unpotable water, food handling and storage problems. I learned about this 30 hours prior to my trip on the celebrity boards. . I tried to get switched to another ship and Celebrity refused. You will have to go to the CDC web site and look at historical scores to see this. We were very shocked to say the least, then when we saw the ships condition , run down, we were more upset.

[phillipahain]

The Galaxy was very run down maintenance and paint wise on our Feburary Panama Canal cruise

 

Food was OK although the menus were same as they have been for years

 

The one thing Celebrity excells at is their production shows

 

Princess ones are pretty amateur by comparison

 

However overall Princess has X beat

[BigTimeCruiser]

We have switched to Princess 100%. In January 2005, we were on a B2B for a month on the Celebrity Infinity. Literally hundreds of people were sick and some were confined to their staterooms. But, if you search the CDC web site you won't find any report of this http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/GIlist.htm. We even ran into people from other ships in the Falklands and other ports that referred to us as the people from the sick ship.

[sammiedawg]

I'm trying to post the link to the failed Century score. Date of inspection 11/16/04. Score was 79

http://www2a.cdc.gov/nceh/VSPIRS/ReportPreview.asp?intInspectionID=131694

[cruising with marti]

Ok, you people have me convinced, I am going cancel all of my Celebrity cruises, even tho my past Celebrity cruises were just as great as my many Princess cruises.:D

 

 

 

 

Phil

[sammiedawg]

We like Princess a lot but we dont sail it exclusively. We enjoy trying different lines and ships. The Century's physical condition turned us off. People who post on the Princess boards are loyal to Princess, Hal posters to Hal, etc. But the Celebrity board regulars are FIERCELY loyal to Celebrity and are totally intolerant of any dissent. I was villified for my critical comments. While onboard Century, we noticed lots of indoctrination into the "excellence of Celebrity". It started with the captain and the CD, by the end of the week even the maitre D's, waiters, room steward were cajoling us to mark surveys as excellent. I think Celebrity treated their ships as cash cows and did not earmark sufficient money to maintain the physical plant.

[DeRon]

Sammie, I agree with what you are saying. Especially about the fierceness of the Celebrity cruiser's loyalty on the boards. We are not "Princess only" cruisers now, its just the best product (for us) that we have found so far.

 

BTW, what do you mean when you say "physical plant"?

[Druke I]

We tried Celebrity's Mercury Mar of last year, RT San Francisco to Mexico, and enjoyed the trip. We thought the ship very comparable, at least size-wise, to Sun class of Princess ships.

 

Princess gets the bulk of our business because of the wide variety of itineraries, particularly their "exotics". No other line offers as wide a variety.

[shirlmac]

Galaxy food far surpasses any of the Princess ships we have been on. Further, X never once charged for room service juice if ordered after breakfast. Can drink the coffee on X. Shows were much better quality.

 

Princess has better prices "at certain times and certain sailings" It all comes down to what ship, what itinerary, what cabin, what weather, etc. We have sailed on all the lines and many times. Most were good to excellent and there has been a few that were not so good. Where we rate the cruise line is when something does go wrong, how do they handle it - If they feel loyalty does not matter then we change lines. We have had some wonderful treatment from several of the lines and they are always our first choice when considering another cruise.

 

Many things go into where we spend our hard earned dollars and who we will give them to. But over and above everything is how we are treated as a return customer. Of all the cruise lines Princess needs to work on this a little more. Now having said all of this we are sailing the Golden in June....So we will always give another chance.

[DAJ]

As a point of reference I have no where near the number of cruises under my belt that most on this board have....Commodore (at the dawn of time)..RCCL..HAL..Celebrity and I'm about to step foot on the Diamond Princess. So at this point I have no favorites. Before I leave for a cruise I haunt these boards for any and all information.

 

From what I read prior to my cruise on Celebrity...Yes Sammi you were villified... yes those on the Celebrity boards are fiercely loyal... yes the Century scored an abyssmal and inexcusable 79 on the CDC score... But to be fair that score was on 11/16/2004. I think it is fair to say that the Century would have passed with flying colors on the cruise you were on and since then the Century has scored 97 on 01/08/2005 and 96 on 03/05/2005.

 

As late as this morning you were still raising this issue. While it is certainly your right to continue to do so, and it is just my opinion, but I think it is time for you to give this up and spend your efforts on more productive pursuits.

[mr green]

On Mercury last March, I found the entertainment very poor, as far as 'production shows' were concerned. Granted, the costumes were good, but as one person said of the majority of the performers, 'They would not get a job anywere else'. Mercury is the same size as the 'Sun Class' but in my opinion while Mercury had better stores, and theater, every other aspect on Princess ships was superier, including the food. john

[DeRon]

...yes those on the Celebrity boards are fiercely loyal... but I think it is time for you to give this up and spend your efforts on more productive pursuits.

 

Case and point.

 

Why would anyone complain about someone else needing to "spend their efforts on more productive pursuits"? DAJ, is it well time spent correting someone you don't even know? I am personally not brewing about the November report, but if I was, that would be my opinion and business.