Southern Caribbean: Celebrity or RCCL?

[sister jo]

We have cruised twice, first on Oasis & then Allure. We would love to do the Southern Caribbean route next. We are a fifty-ish couple & I am picky. Plus I have only experienced the bigger, newer ships. I am thinking Celebrity may be a better fit for this itinerary than Jewel of the Seas. Opinions, please. If you have cruised this route on Celebrity which ship do you prefer? The more information you can give me the better!

[KeywestK]

The good news is you have options. You have the Jewel and Adventure out of San Juan doing the southern Caribbean, and also the Legend out of Ft. Lauderdale, and you have Celebrity Eclipse and Equinox out of Ft. Lauderdale, all going to the southern Caribbean. I have cruised on both Jewel and Eclipse and enjoyed them both. If entertainment and on board activities are important to you, then I'd stick with RCI. Celebrity, while it delivers an excellent product, does not, IMO, match RCI when it comes to entertainment. If all the bells 'n whistles of the larger ships are important to you, then you will have to weigh all your options and determine, based on ship/amenities/ports, what will be the best fit for you. Whatever you decide, I think you will have a wonderful cruise. The southern Caribbean is an awesome itinerary, and my personal favorite of all the Caribbean routes.

[OBX-Cruisers]

We did the Eclipse to the S. Caribbean and are repeating this year. Although the Eclipse has positives and negatives the food is good and the ship is beautiful. Entertainment and activities on RCI are probably better but the 14 day itinerary on the Eclipe is great, staff is good, glass show is a winner and overall a good choice.

[BonVoyage2010]

We did the 14 night Exotic Caribbean on Celebrity Eclipse (Hi KeywestK) and it was fabulous! I spent a year researching cruises that would take us to many new ports. We have down a few 11 & 12 Night Southern Caribbean cruise on the Explorer of the Seas but were getting bored wit always going to the same islands. We very much prefer Royal Caribbean for its entertainment, better food and no "Elitist" attitudes. (We are late 30's and are Elite level but got a lot of nasty looks and comments. X die hards don't seem to like that our RCI Diamond status carries over. We ended up not going to the Elite events as it was so bad.)

The Eclipse is a gorgeous ship, the staff was very good and the itinerary was unbeatable!

 

 

We have cruised twice, first on Oasis & then Allure. We would love to do the Southern Caribbean route next. We are a fifty-ish couple & I am picky. Plus I have only experienced the bigger, newer ships. I am thinking Celebrity may be a better fit for this itinerary than Jewel of the Seas. Opinions, please. If you have cruised this route on Celebrity which ship do you prefer? The more information you can give me the better!

[laurac22]

We are just back from the 10 day Equinox Southern Caribbean. First time on Celebrity, and had a wonderful time. We usually sail RCCL, sailed Oasis in April. I find these two cruise lines to be completly different IMHO. It totally depends on what your looking for at the time. We love RCCL, but were looking for a different experience for our 21ST wedding anniversary, so decided to give Celebrity a try. Was very happy with our cruise, as we were looking to just relax and enjoy each other. Lay on the balcony, read by the pool, take naps. We didn't want a lot of activities and feel pressure to go, go, go. It was the prefect blend of fun, busy days in port, and relaxing time on the ship. We enjoyed all the little special things that Celebrity did to made it feel a little fancier as well.

 

Having said that if we were looking for a lot of fun activities, that fit our lifestyle and a little more festive, party feel, Celebrity may not have fit that bill. Don't get me wrong, there were some fun things to do, and personally I enjoyed the entertainment very much, even though I expected not to after reading reviews. We found the food to be pretty much equal, some good, some bad. I will use both lines in the future, depending on what feel I'm looking for at the time.. Hope this helps. I don't think you could go wrong either way!