Just Back From The Star...Some Impressions from a Celebrity Cruiser

[richsea]

We are just back from our 4th Princess sailing, & had a great time! I thought I would share some of my thoughts.

 

I thought that the service in all areas was fantastic. Our room steward was top notch; always with a smile, & the knack of somehow knowing when we were out, & magically having the room done. We had a balcony (big!) room on Caribe deck, which was fine, even without the couch. But can they make the shower any smaller?!, don't drop the soap!

 

We had anytime dining, which we have had on all of our Princess sailings, however, this was the 1st time we experienced waiting just about every night. Not fun. However, we enjoyed the food, & found the wait service great. We ate breakfast in the Dr most days, & were impressed with the fact that they NEVER let you run out of coffee, & are ready with the pepper mill immediately; something that has been lacking on Celebrity in recent cruises.

 

Probably our biggest disappointment was the buffet, which we found to be cramped with too few offerings, which were just so so. We much prefer the layout & selection on Celebrity S class ships. However, we love the fact that you no sooner sat down, & someone was there with a smile to offer coffee & juice, & at lunch, a cocktail server was always there to take our order.

 

It was nice to see that Princess still has a full activities staff; Celebrity has cut theirs about in half. Also, it was very noticeable to us how much the crew seemed to get along, with a lot of interaction & smiles when dealing each other. This transcends to the passengers.

 

The new terminal in SF was fine, but the lack of inside waiting area would be missed if it were not a nice embarkation day. We were lucky to have a beautiful sail away day. We also took a very reasonably priced Princess transfer to SFO, & were entertained by a very charming bus driver!

 

Overall, a great cruise, & we are looking forward to some Platinum perks after our next Princess cruise!

 

Any questions, I will try to answer them.

[Croptop]

Thank you for posting about your experiences. My wife and I are soon to embark on a cruise on the Star and are currently devouring any and all information we can find about her (along with general info about SFO, and the various ports of call).

 

Much appreciated.

[MTJSR]

Thank you for taking the time to write and post your review. I have not sailed Celebrity so your comparisons help.

 

Like you, one of the biggest disappointments for me (a Princess loyalist) is the buffet. I started my work life in the food business, went to school for it and am a self appointed chef at home. The buffet is just plain mediocre and I am being nice. Time after time I give it a try only to be underwhelmed again. I know some love the stuff, but for me its dead flavors and overcooked proteins. The pasty fake scrambled eggs are gross, the overcooked broken shards of bacon dripping in fat etc are not what a $2700.00 cruise fare should be rewarded with.

 

I am hoping Princess is willing to go from an good cruise line to an outstanding one during my lifetime. :)

[pusywillow]

Thank you for posting about your experiences. My wife and I are soon to embark on a cruise on the Star and are currently devouring any and all information we can find about her (along with general info about SFO, and the various ports of call).

 

Much appreciated.

 

San Francisco is a great city. Book some extra days before or after your cruise to tour the city and dine in their awesome restaurants. Chinatown is not to be missed. A tour of Alcatraz is also an interesting thing to do.

 

I sailed out of SF on the Star in June before the new terminal opened. I liked everything about the Star. You will have a fabulous trip!

 

Sue

[geoherb]

Thanks for posting your review. It's been a few years since we sailed on Celebrity. Sorry to hear they have cut back the activities staff. That's one of our objections to sailing on HAL--although I still look at cruises on both when trying to decide. Sailing on Princess has worked out better for us most of the time, although we have sailed on HAL ships twice in the past couple of years.

[RickEk]

, the overcooked broken shards of bacon dripping in fat etc are not what a $2700.00 cruise fare should be rewarded with.

 

 

The vat o' bacon is one of the things that I absolutely look forward to when I cruise... :p

[Pam in CA]

The vat o' bacon is one of the things that I absolutely look forward to when I cruise... :p

Same here. I like well-done bacon and if they're broken, so much the better. If I take it off the top, there isn't much fat/drippings. It's subjective but I find barely cooked bacon gross and can't stand it. :( Edited November 18, 2014 by Pam in CA

[leonardofan]

We are just back from our 4th Princess sailing, & had a great time! I thought I would share some of my thoughts.

 

I thought that the service in all areas was fantastic. Our room steward was top notch; always with a smile, & the knack of somehow knowing when we were out, & magically having the room done. We had a balcony (big!) room on Caribe deck, which was fine, even without the couch. But can they make the shower any smaller?!, don't drop the soap!

 

We had anytime dining, which we have had on all of our Princess sailings, however, this was the 1st time we experienced waiting just about every night. Not fun. However, we enjoyed the food, & found the wait service great. We ate breakfast in the Dr most days, & were impressed with the fact that they NEVER let you run out of coffee, & are ready with the pepper mill immediately; something that has been lacking on Celebrity in recent cruises.

 

Probably our biggest disappointment was the buffet, which we found to be cramped with too few offerings, which were just so so. We much prefer the layout & selection on Celebrity S class ships. However, we love the fact that you no sooner sat down, & someone was there with a smile to offer coffee & juice, & at lunch, a cocktail server was always there to take our order.

 

It was nice to see that Princess still has a full activities staff; Celebrity has cut theirs about in half. Also, it was very noticeable to us how much the crew seemed to get along, with a lot of interaction & smiles when dealing each other. This transcends to the passengers.

 

The new terminal in SF was fine, but the lack of inside waiting area would be missed if it were not a nice embarkation day. We were lucky to have a beautiful sail away day. We also took a very reasonably priced Princess transfer to SFO, & were entertained by a very charming bus driver!

 

Overall, a great cruise, & we are looking forward to some Platinum perks after our next Princess cruise!

 

Any questions, I will try to answer them.

 

After 5 Celebrity sailings I took Princess a couple of years ago and was much impressed--great service all around. My only quibble was the food -- high quality but to me unambitious--what my mom would have cooked thirty years ago if she had the time and the budget. I thought Celebrity at least makes a determined effort to have a sophisticated international cuisine--they screw up the odd dish, but it's a price I'm willing to pay. What's your take???

[joanne2]

Enjoyed your comments. We're Celebrity cruisers but saw some Princess ads about the 50th anniversary so thought we'd give it a try. We're doing a TA and the ports (Ireland and Scotland) are different and appealing.

[gkacky]

We had a wonderful trip on the Star out of SF 8/30. We were also on Caribe and our superb cabin steward was Roberto.

 

 

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[paul929207]

Thanks for the comments

[shepp]

After 5 Celebrity sailings I took Princess a couple of years ago and was much impressed--great service all around. My only quibble was the food -- high quality but to me unambitious--what my mom would have cooked thirty years ago if she had the time and the budget. I thought Celebrity at least makes a determined effort to have a sophisticated international cuisine--they screw up the odd dish, but it's a price I'm willing to pay. What's your take???

 

If your mom would have cooked chicken korma, escargots, ceviche, and Cajun crawfish pie, then you're lucky. Mine was all about the tuna casserole.

[Auntiejo]

Did you go in the Thermal Suite at all? Trying to figure out exactly what's in there in the Star and how it compares to the TS on the Ruby and Emerald.

[richsea]

After 5 Celebrity sailings I took Princess a couple of years ago and was much impressed--great service all around. My only quibble was the food -- high quality but to me unambitious--what my mom would have cooked thirty years ago if she had the time and the budget. I thought Celebrity at least makes a determined effort to have a sophisticated international cuisine--they screw up the odd dish, but it's a price I'm willing to pay. What's your take???

 

We thought that most dishes were good to very good. Food can be so subjective, but overall, I thought the food was fine. There were a few misses. Sabitini's had a special of a veal chop (huge) that I tried which was like eating a shoe sole. Their Fetticini Alfredo is excellent, as are their scallop dishes. I did miss the option of having onion soup whenever I wanted it. I agree that Celebrity's choices are a little more continental, but while still very good, their food has definitely gone down from what it used to be.

[lalabaster]

Loved the Blue Restaurant on the Celebrity Summit to Bermuda. Great international food without all the butter and sauce.

[#1Nanna]

Thank you for taking the time to comment about your recent trip on the Star. Was the dining room open for lunch on embarkation day?

We are sailing on her in Jan, out of SF & I also am excited to read any & all info... Would love to see some pics if you have any to share. Thanks again!

 

 

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[crush on cruises]

Thank you for taking the time to comment about your recent trip on the Star. Was the dining room open for lunch on embarkation day?

We are sailing on her in Jan, out of SF & I also am excited to read any & all info... Would love to see some pics if you have any to share. Thanks again!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

The dining room was not open on our October 25th sailing except for BVE folks. We missed it.:(

[Keith1010]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts from your cruise.

 

Keith

[Kingofcool1947]

Thanks for the report,

 

What did you think about quality and quantity of the dinner entrees in the Star Princess MDR vs. quality and quantity on your last Celebrity cruise?

 

Did you dine at Sabattinis or Crown Grill? Quality for extra cost? Would you recommend one over the other? Or reserve both?

 

As native San Franciscan's, we're looking forward to sailing out of San Francisco and under the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

Regards,

King

Edited November 19, 2014 by Kingofcool1947

[tml1230]

Hi Rich, thanks for the great review….we leave on the Star this sunday for hawaii…our first time in a caribe deck big balcony…looking at pics from other folks i still can't figure out what type of furniture is on the deck…can you advise what you had?…thanks much!

[elliair]

Probably our biggest disappointment was the buffet, which we found to be cramped with too few offerings, which were just so so. We much prefer the layout & selection on Celebrity S class ships. However, we love the fact that you no sooner sat down, & someone was there with a smile to offer coffee & juice, & at lunch, a cocktail server was always there to take our order.

 

 

This too is my biggest complaint about the Star buffet - except the majority of the offerings were sausage dishes. Even as you come into the buffet and to your right where the weird salads are, there was usually a salad with sausage. A lot of the items were also out of the can. Hash, canned fruit, and greasy limp bacon. We're on her for a sailing to Hawaii in January - I'm not looking forward to the buffet. I hope they change their buffet menu, that would make me happy. Even their salad bar dressings were awful. They put vinegar in their Ranch dressing to extend it!:eek:

[helenb]

We are elite on both Celebrity and Princess, so we have sailed them both a number of times! I would agree with the general comparisons by the OP.

 

On Princess, we avoid the buffet as much as possible, and consider it a 'failure' if we have to eat there. If we want a snack and it's not time for lunch/dinner in the MDR, we will head to the pizzeria at the pool or the International Cafe. In Celebrity, the buffet food (and layout) is much better and we enjoy eating there.

[Kingofcool1947]

Hi Rich, thanks for the great review….we leave on the Star this sunday for hawaii…our first time in a caribe deck big balcony…looking at pics from other folks i still can't figure out what type of furniture is on the deck…can you advise what you had?…thanks much!

 

LOL re: type of furniture is on the balcony deck? Seriously? :rolleyes:

 

I weigh 400 pounds and have no issue with the deck chairs.

[OCruisers]

Thanks Rich! Great well written comparison! :)

LuLu

[tml1230]

LOL re: type of furniture is on the balcony deck? Seriously? :rolleyes:

 

I weigh 400 pounds and have no issue with the deck chairs.

 

and the purpose of you posting this is what?