Celebrity or P&O?

[Stellamax09]

Hi everybody,

 

I'm looking at the Fjords for this year. Have found good deals on both and was wondering if any experienced cruisers had any thoughts?

 

I've cruised twice with Cunard and loved it.

 

Any thoughts much appreciated, looking at Eclipse and Aurora/Azura.

 

Thank you!

[Talisker92]

My only thought is that P & O would have a more British flavour. Celebrity would have a more diverse mix of passengers.

[Stellamax09]

My only thought is that P & O would have a more British flavour. Celebrity would have a more diverse mix of passengers.

 

Yes, you're probably right.

[Scrapnana]

Eclipse is larger and newer than Aurora or Azura.

US$ would be the currency on Eclipse instead of GBP on P&O.

More "British" menu items on P&O.

[Stellamax09]

Eclipse is larger and newer than Aurora or Azura.

US$ would be the currency on Eclipse instead of GBP on P&O.

More "British" menu items on P&O.

 

Thanks Scrapnana, have you sailed with Celebrity?

[SuiteTraveler]

I've sailed on the Eclipse (13 night Med cruise from Southampton.) It is a beautiful ship and the food in the MDR is very good to excellent. I liked QSine (bring a large group to eat there so you can try many dishes.) I like Cafe il Bacio and this is where I hung out most sea days. The spa didn't have a thalisiotherapy pool, so was not interested. The gym was OK. They have a glass blowing show at the top of the ship and have a drawing for one of the things they have made at each glass blowing show. There is a small glass museum. A friend of mine won a large and very beautiful vase. There is a huge lawn on the top deck of the ship where people play croquet and other lawn games (not my thing) which appeared to be rarely used. There is a bar at the stern of the ship which is the best place to be for sail away.

 

We did a wine tasting at Cellar Masters which was very good. We also ate at Murano, but I found the food retro and overly fussy with confused flavor profiles. (I'm a chef.)

However the Murano restaurant was very pretty.

 

The ships cabins are done in beige and mauve. We had a family verandah cabin which is 500 sq ft and 2 bedrooms with a living room and dining room. It has the same standard furniture as other verandah cabins plus some chairs and the table and chairs and the same bathroom. The shower was good except no hand held wand. The toilet is wedged between the counter and shower and I found this a bit tight compared to similar type cabin bathrooms on other ships. The sink is a raised bowl with a faucet that is too big for it and in the way which makes it awkward to wash your face.

 

The ship had a British comedian onboard who was excellent. I didn't see any of the other shows. The casino seemed dead all the time - maybe it was the particular cruise since it was so port intensive. The ship seemed to go to sleep about 11:30pm which was fine with me as we were in the Med and going on tours early each morning. The ages on the cruise skewed much older than us - so much so that at ages 50 and 51 we were among the youngest onboard and got special attention from the crew because of this. LOL!

 

What was particularly noticeable to me and my husband was the great number of infirm elderly onboard, It seemed every day as we docked, some unlucky passenger would be disembarked into a waiting ambulance, sometimes there would be multiple ambulances on the pier. On one night an elderly woman had to be taken out of the dining room in a wheelchair by a medical team. I hope she was alright, but have no idea - she may have been disembarked the next day as there were ambulances on the pier (as usual.) The entire cruise, I saw only one child - a little girl of perhaps 2 in a stroller. There was never a time on or off the ship, even on disembarkation day, that I saw any other children at all.

 

On one of the few sea days, I decided to read my IPAD in one of the square canopied hammocks near the spa pool. Getting into the hammock I found it was extremely comfortable and passed several relaxing hours reading, but when I went to get out of the hammock, I suddenly realized this was going to be quite a challenge. I could not reach two poles at the same time and my legs are too short to touch the ground from the side of the hammock. There was no one nearby and few people had even passed by in the time I had been reading, so I realized I was going to have to figure this out. After several tries, and a lot of laughter on my part, I finally managed to get out of the hammock. So if you do go on this ship and you are petite - I'm 5'3", you might want to avoid those hammocks or at least be sure someone you know is nearby to help you get out of the hammock.

 

On the last night of our cruise, a couple at the next table got engaged with the help of the cruise director and some singers. Then there was a helicopter medical evacuation which we wanted to see (our cabin overlooked the helipad). On the way to our cabin we heard "Oscar, Oscar, Starboard. My initial thought was that some accident had occurred during the medical evacuation knocking a crew member overboard because this is such a dangerous operation to land a helicopter on a ship. However, when we looked out our forward facing window it became obvious that the medical evacuation was going smoothly. The cruise director came on the intercom and asked everyone to report any missing family members. It was soon determined that it was a crew member who had jumped off the ship. Shortly the helicopter took off and the cruise ship turned and immediately went into a full scale sea search for the person who had jumped. This went on for many hours until we were joined by the French Coast Guard who took over the search. Tragically, the crew member was never found. I was recently on Allure of the Seas and asked the crew members how often the helicopter pad is used. They said about twice a year. So I suppose it was very extraordinary that we were able to see a hell med evac. Of course the simultaneous man overboard was a very out of the ordinary and tragic event as well. How ill must the person who was taken off by helicopter been when we were only 8 hours out of the port of Southampton?

 

We got into port only a bit late. The luggage was brought off in a disorganized manner due to the lateness I guess. Our bags which were marked priority didn't arrive for over an hour. This caused one of the ladies we were traveling to the airport with to panic and take a taxi. Almost as soon as she entered the taxi our bags arrived and off we went to the airport, passing her cab on the highway. We arrived at the airport with several hours to spare before our 12:30pm flight.

 

What I can say about the Eclipse is that it is a beautiful ship. Food and service were good to excellent. We had a great cabin steward and a wonderful head waiter and good assistant waiter. Our sommelier did wine pairings for us nightly. The buffet was very nice and offered many choices. There was not much in the way of entertainment that appealed to us - except the comedian. I think the entertainment was more geared to elderly people who like to see young people singing and dancing in costumes. We did see a movie onboard one afternoon and a show with young people in costumes dancing in the atrium one afternoon. But mostly we were off the ship on various private tours which we thoroughly enjoyed. We bought the all-inclusive drinks package and that worked out very well for us throughout the cruise and I believe we got our money's worth - even though we mostly drink wine in the evening. We did have some martinis at the martini bar and that was fun as the bartenders make quite a show of mixing martinis. I think we used the drinks package the most in Cafe il Bacio getting various specialty teas and coffees almost any chance we got. I got hooked on the iced tea from Tea Forte that they served and bought the tea set for this and various teas as soon as I got home.

 

Let me know if you have any particular questions about this ship and I'll try to answer them.

Edited January 6, 2015 by SuiteTraveler

[Stellamax09]

This is great, thank you! We are in our mid thirties, will we stick out like a sore thumb?

 

It sounds like a nice ship though. Good food and wine are a major part of our holiday so goOd to hear a chef was inpressed!

[SuiteTraveler]

This is great, thank you! We are in our mid thirties, will we stick out like a sore thumb?

 

It sounds like a nice ship though. Good food and wine are a major part of our holiday so goOd to hear a chef was inpressed!

 

It's not always much older people on Celebrity cruises. I think the passenger mix was a combination of it being in early May when school was still in session and the cruise being out of Southampton and also it being a 13 day cruise. But this particular cruise - us and the couple who got engaged (they were in their 30's) plus one other couple with a 2 year old were the youngest on the ship. It was pretty funny except I felt bad that so many infirm were aboard they were constantly being taken off the ship via ambulance and then that helicopter med-evac on the last night. I've never seen anything like it on a Med cruise before!

 

I've also cruised on NCL in the Med which has a much better mix of ages. If you could be in The Haven, I think you would be blown away by all that NCL offers - especially if you could consider a The Haven Spa Suite on Epic which gives you full Haven access and then access to the Spa - where they have a thalisotherapy pool and dry saunas and steam rooms and heated tile loungers and these Spa suites come with a spa tub in the room and more importantly, the BEST shower at sea! The reason I like NCL so much in the Med is because you never have to dress up, which saves a lot of packing space and makes it easier to self-disembark on the last day. On NCL we always do The Haven and then we buy the dining package and eat in the specialty restaurants every night. We just consider the dining package part of the cost of the cruise. The specialty restaurants have food that is as good as the food on Celebrity. The NCL MDR is good enough - like hotel banquet food. Not great, but good. The buffet on Epic is the largest I've ever seen on any cruise ship and on land as well. It's absolutely amazing to watch how they manage it.

 

So anyway, The Haven experience is fabulous - large suites, butler service, concierge service and a special restaurant and lounge for the suites. Definitely check it out. I wish this type of cruise had existed when I was in my 30's - I would have definitely been onboard in a heartbeat!

[jocap]

We were going to go with Eclipse in her early days, but OH had an accident....we have every intention of going with her one day!

Of the 3 ships you mention, we'd go with either Eclipse or Aurora...and we love Azura, but we'll never again go to the fjords on a ship without an inside pool, so Eclipse, Aurora or Ventura for us!

Now umpteen people will come on and say that they had super weather in May/ June etc....well, there's also a lot of people who realise that you're talking about just across from the Shetland Islands here, and there's no way I'd go to the Shetlands in the height of summer without a good mac and a fleece...:D When you watch the BBC weather forecast, just look in the top right hand corner and see what's happening in Norway after the weather's left Northern Scotland....:rolleyes:

There are very, very few children on board ships in school term....our last 3 cruises have only had about 7 under 5s....you're breaking the law these days if you remove a child, and will be fined. As for casinos- they're not heavily frequented on a ship with mainly UK/Irish passengers.

Have a great time...we'd return to the fjords every year if we could. :cool:

Edited January 9, 2015 by jocap
silly typo