A Princess fan tries Celebrity

[Suskies]

After several cruises on Princess and, until a few years ago, Holland America, I planned a Caribbean holiday cruise for my extended family on the Summit on December 19-26. I’ve always had an image of Celebrity as roughly on par with Princess, and the only reason we hadn’t tried Celebrity before was either the itineraries or prices weren’t quite as good. So we were looking forward to checking out Celebrity.

 

Here’s what we found.

 

What we liked:

• Port-intensive itinerary: We chose this cruise because it visited 5 ports in a week; most other Caribbean cruises that week visited only 3. We had a lot of active 20s and 30s in our group, and with cutbacks everywhere in onboard activities, I knew they’d get bored on 3 days. It was a great decision—there was plenty for everyone to do, and for those who wanted to stay on board, the ship was quiet every day except the one at-sea day. I will keep looking for port-intensive itineraries no matter what cruise line we go on.

• An attractive, clean ship in surprisingly good condition: We knew the Summit is an older ship soon to be rehabbed, and we were very pleasantly surprised by the condition. Yes, there are spots of wear and tear, but you really have to look hard to find them. One of our cabins had a drainage problem and one had an AC problem, but both were quickly resolved by the staff. The only real dirt I noticed was that the tops of the Oceanview chairs were grubby.

• Ship size: After the behemoth Princess ships, it was nice to be on a mid-size ship. It was easy to find our way around and meet up with others.

• Plenty of quiet spots: During the day, we always seek quiet lounges with comfortable seating when we can curl up with a good book or have a conversation, and the Summit has plenty of these.

• Dress code: While some in my extended family disagreed, my immediate family loved the move from formal to evening chic. We had less to pack and were more comfortable on those two evenings.

• Large bathroom and shower: We were pleasantly surprised at their size, and the nightlight was a great touch.

• Staff: Almost all the staff we encountered were very pleasant and helpful. I was ill for part of the trip, and our room steward was very accommodating.

• Classic beverage package: We really enjoyed this as a booking perk. DH and I don’t drink much, so we’d never pay for one of these, but this perk freed us to try lots of different cocktails and not feel obliged to finish them if we didn’t care for them.

• Breakfast room service: Princess offers only a very limited continental breakfast for room service, but on the Summit we could get things like ham and eggs. A much more pleasant start to the day!

• Pricing: The Summit was a good bit less expensive than most of the other Caribbean cruises that same week. While there were things that disappointed us (see list that follows), overall this was a very good value for a holiday vacation.

 

What disappointed us:

• Advance info from Celebrity: We were surprised that Celebrity never e-mailed us to let us know about the evening chic dress code change—we only learned about it through these boards. Celebrity’s website describes shore excursions only vaguely, unlike Princess which gives a minute-by-minute breakdown of how you’ll spend your time. And the names of some of the spaces on the website’s deck plans didn’t match their onboard names.

• Dining room dinner service: The staff are clearly understaffed and overworked. Our dining room steward never checked to see if our food was okay—he clearly didn’t have time--and the sommelier didn’t always ask for everyone’s drink orders.

• Cabin storage is tight: There was only one shelf suitable for stacking folded knit tops, for example, and the desk had virtually no storage space. Storage was a real problem for our 3 family members who tripled. I can’t imagine how 4 people in one cabin would manage

• Third-passenger berth: It folds out from a small couch, not a full bed that pulls out from sofa or drops down from a wall or ceiling. A folding mattress may be fine for a child but not for the three men in their late 20s/early 30s who occupied our triple. The room steward brought in an additional mattress, but that meant the sofa couldn’t be folded up during the day, making a cramped room even worse.

• Food portions: We know all cruise lines are downsizing portion sizes, and generally we think this is a good idea, but the portions on the Summit were embarrassingly small. The salmon was about 1 by 3 inches, and the “roasted potatoes” accompanying a steak were in reality 3 large french fries. Some members of my family took to ordering 2 entrees so they’d get enough to eat, which held up service.

• Oceanview dinner selection: Princess tries to have some appealing dinner options in their pool deck café, to draw some passengers up there and relieve the pressure on the dining rooms. On the Summit, however, Oceanview dinner options were largely limited to pasta, sushi, and stir fries.

• Food limited hours: I’m an early riser and used to being able to get a light continental breakfast starting around 5 or 5:30 AM. On the Summit, food is not available until 6:30 at Café al Bacio and 7 in Oceanview. Also, the only food available from 11:30 AM to 12 noon is hamburgers and hot dogs at the pool grill. This made it hard for us to get a decent lunch before leaving for our early-afternoon shore excursion.

• Décor: The Summit is attractive but I would not call it beautiful. The colors are mostly dull browns, and I found the artwork more odd than attractive.

• No self-serve laundry or iron: This meant we had to pack extra clothes in case we accidentally spilled something plus a bottle of wrinkle release.

 

Altogether, it was a nice cruise but not in any way a standout for us. If a Celebrity ship had a great itinerary at the right price, I’d consider it, but all else being equal, we’ll probably continue on Princess when we can.

[ClaudiaB]

Glad you enjoyed your X cruise. We've only ever sailed Celebrity so always interesting to read what people think.

 

Storage --- aren't there those big storage bins on the wall above the beds?? I know I've heard where some people don't even know that they store things. We always find more than enough room to put our stuff.

[lovemylab]

Glad you enjoyed your X cruise. We've only ever sailed Celebrity so always interesting to read what people think.

 

Storage --- aren't there those big storage bins on the wall above the beds?? I know I've heard where some people don't even know that they store things. We always find more than enough room to put our stuff.

 

I believe those are only on S class ships.

 

When we cruised the Summit there was no storage area above the bed.

[TN Vol Fan]

On every M ship like the Summit, the back of the Buffet at dinner has cooked to order meats like chicken, steak, usually some cut roast. Many people never walk all around the Buffet and miss it.

Also no X ship has ever had washing machines or irons. We've always packed less and sent dirty items to the laundry/dry cleaners.

There is a huge space over the TV cabinet that we have always used for folded shirts. Hope you used it. We have never found a lack of storage, but we have not had 3 in the room.

 

Sorry you found so many problems with the Summit.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Thanks for the very fair, well-written review. Your points are very valid IMO. As a long-time Elite passenger with Princess, we've made the switch to Celebrity due to the smaller ship size, the cost and the perks offered. I wish Princess would step up their promos to be more like Celebrity's. Princess still feels like "home" to us, but we're finding we may need to move on to greener pastures.

[El Crucero]

Thank you for your comprehensive review. We sailed aboard Princess for the first time earlier this month, sort of doing the opposite of what you did. You can find my review here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2290868 I think our impressions of the two lines coincide for the most part. Having sailed on Celebrity several times, I think you missed some of the items that were available to you. For example, the evening buffet on Celebrity offers a wonderful selection of hot items including a carving station. Sometimes we eat at the buffet in the evening rather than the MDR or Blu, just for all the good choices at the buffet.

 

We are not fans of laundromat type of washing. You never know what went into that machine before your load and beside we are on vacation and the last thing we want to do is our laundry. Fortunately, we are Elite on Celebrity and we get free laundry (yes, I know, we don't know what went into the washer before our laundry in Celebrity's laundry room). I know Princess has this too for their Elite members. Anyway that is just us, and I can see the public washing machines on Princess could be a big benefit to some.

 

We order room service breakfast on Celebrity with the expanded menu. Ham and Eggs, pancakes, smoothies, and more are available. We indicate what time it is to be delivered. Breakfast at 6am is no problem. It has always arrived within 5 minutes of our order time.

 

I know that sailing on Princess for the first time, I missed a lot that was available to me, but I will know better the next time. We will make more use of the International Cafe in the future. We will also choose our stateroom more carefully, now that we know the general layout of Princess ships.

 

Some dining room servers are better than others, but we have always had prompt, courteous servers on Celebrity, but I know that others have complained about the service. I guess we have been lucky. I can say that the servers on Princess were every bit as good as we have had on Celebrity.

 

Every ship and every cruise has a different vibe and I am not going to judge Princess harshly by one experience, positive or negative. We look forward to more cruises on both Celebrity and Princess, the best of both worlds for us.

[DancerOT]

Thank you for the balanced review. It actually makes me think at some point, I ought to give Princess another try as maybe my one experience was "off".

 

Happy cruising!

[josephsschmoe]

 

...

 

We order room service breakfast on Celebrity with the expanded menu. Ham and Eggs, pancakes, smoothies, and more are available. We indicate what time it is to be delivered. Breakfast at 6am is no problem. It has always arrived within 5 minutes of our order time.

 

 

Mr and Mrs Joseph S Schmoe (representing the Schmoes of Tallahassee) suggest that you exercise care in what you wish for.

 

Mr Schmoe ordered a bacon and cheese omelet from room service on a recent trip. Room service supplied us with two omelets...one with bacon and one with cheese.

 

Oh well...at least the meal arrived in a timely fashion.

 

Life's not easy when you're a Schmoe

 

Arghhh.....

[varoo]

Thanks for your well-written review.

Every cruise line that we have ever been on had some pluses and some minuses.

 

Celebrity has been our favorite for quite a while, but we are not "married" to any one cruise line and book whichever cruise comes closest to meeting what we are looking for at the time.

What disappointed us:

• Advance info from Celebrity: We were surprised that Celebrity never e-mailed us to let us know about the evening chic dress code change—we only learned about it through these boards. Celebrity’s website describes shore excursions only vaguely, unlike Princess which gives a minute-by-minute breakdown of how you’ll spend your time. And the names of some of the spaces on the website’s deck plans didn’t match their onboard names.

I agree. For more details, we needed to go down to the Shore Excursions desk and speak with an agent who had actually taken the excursion we were considering.

• Cabin storage is tight: There was only one shelf suitable for stacking folded knit tops, for example, and the desk had virtually no storage space. Storage was a real problem for our 3 family members who tripled. I can’t imagine how 4 people in one cabin would manage

 

Our desks on the ships have had storage cabinets below them on both sides.

 

IMO the storage space in the standard cabins is fine for 2 people.

I would not want to try putting a 3rd person into the one room with one bathroom, except perhaps a small child, (while understanding how some may wish to economize and squeeze in a third or fourth person).

 

Maybe it is just my advancing age, because when we were kids, 5 or 6 or us would happily bunk together in a one room cabin at summer camp and it was fine. :)

No way would I want to do that now.

 

• Third-passenger berth: It folds out from a small couch, not a full bed that pulls out from sofa or drops down from a wall or ceiling. A folding mattress may be fine for a child but not for the three men in their late 20s/early 30s who occupied our triple. The room steward brought in an additional mattress, but that meant the sofa couldn’t be folded up during the day, making a cramped room even worse.

 

Different cabins have different configurations on Celebrity ships.

Some of them do have a full sofa that opens up and/or beds that drop down from a wall or ceiling.

There are usually symbols on the deck plans to indicated which type additional beds the various cabins have.

 

This may have just been a matter of selecting a cabin with the wrong layout for your preferences.

 

 

• Food portions: We know all cruise lines are downsizing portion sizes, and generally we think this is a good idea, but the portions on the Summit were embarrassingly small. The salmon was about 1 by 3 inches, and the “roasted potatoes” accompanying a steak were in reality 3 large french fries. Some members of my family took to ordering 2 entrees so they’d get enough to eat, which held up service.

No matter what size food portions they serve, they will always be too large for some and too small for others.

It is easy enough for big eaters to order double (or even triple) servings of whatever they want.

After the first day, most people are aware of whether they find the portions to be too large or too small for their preferences, and adjust their orders accordingly.

 

Ordering 2 entrees does not hold up service if you order both initially, at the same time, which is how the servers prefer that we order them.

 

• Oceanview dinner selection: Princess tries to have some appealing dinner options in their pool deck café, to draw some passengers up there and relieve the pressure on the dining rooms. On the Summit, however, Oceanview dinner options were largely limited to pasta, sushi, and stir fries.

Sorry if the Oceanview Cafe on your cruise did not offer the usual choices of grilled to order meat, chicken and fish.

 

Some of the red snapper and tillapia they grilled for us there have been among the best fish dishes we have had on any cruise ship.

 

There is usually a carving station at the buffet where they carve roasts of various kinds on different days.

 

We enjoy the international foods as well, such as curries and guacamole.

 

On nights when we are in the mood for a casual dinner, we like to pick up our grilled to order entree with veggies, a salad, even soup and baked potato, and take it outside to eat on the open back deck.

Then we head back to look over the dessert section, and usually end up at the ice-cream bar trying to decide which flavor to pick.

(We were told that all the Celebrity ice-cream is made fresh on board except for the sugar-free.)

 

• Food limited hours: I’m an early riser and used to being able to get a light continental breakfast starting around 5 or 5:30 AM. On the Summit, food is not available until 6:30 at Café al Bacio and 7 in Oceanview. Also, the only food available from 11:30 AM to 12 noon is hamburgers and hot dogs at the pool grill. This made it hard for us to get a decent lunch before leaving for our early-afternoon shore excursion.

No advice available here other than ordering room service as I like to sleep in when I am on vacation, so typically will have a late breakfast (actually brunch) before heading out for an early afternoon excursion.

• Décor: The Summit is attractive but I would not call it beautiful. The colors are mostly dull browns, and I found the artwork more odd than attractive.

I agree here too. I find the layout of the Summit (and other M-class ships) to be convenient and comfortable, with some rather interesting and unusual artwork. They do not have the "wow" factor of Celebrity's S-class ships.

Sometimes we want "wow" while other times we just want convenient and comfortable.

 

• No self-serve laundry or iron: This meant we had to pack extra clothes in case we accidentally spilled something plus a bottle of wrinkle release.

We do not find that to be a problem at all as we prefer to pack light and send out the laundry.

Having absolutely no desire to do laundry or any other type household chores ourselves while on vacation, we are very happy to let others do the laundry, cooking and cleaning for us.

 

Hope that you enjoy your future cruises, whichever cruise line/s you choose.

[Savoyard]

On every M ship like the Summit, the back of the Buffet at dinner has cooked to order meats like chicken, steak, usually some cut roast. Many people never walk all around the Buffet and miss it.

 

We were just on the Constellation and observed the same thing. If you look at the Deck 10 plan of an M-class ship, you'll see that the buffet is divided in two by the aft elevators. If you're standing at the aft end of the forward half of the buffet, it looks like that's all there is; you can't see the aft half. On the Connie, the meat-cooked-to-order station is at the very back, facing the stern and the outdoor seating. You could eat at the buffet all week and never know that station was there. I'm guessing it's the same on the Summit.

[cb at sea]

No self-service laundry or ironing is the big downside (for me) of RCI and Celebrity.....it would be nice to have the option!

[OCruisers]

Thanks so very much for your well written and balanced comparison.

Sort of like you ... we have no problem taking a Celebrity cruise from time to time but still like Princess better.

LuLu

[Cruise Raider]

We are elite on both Celebrity and Princess and far prefer Celebrity.

 

Below things we actually like on Princess better:

 

Their open closets and drawers on the desk and nightstands

The pricing on their specialty restaurants

Rooms are ready when you board

Embarkation lunch in the main dining room

Ability to stack discounts and promotions

Future cruise credit flexibility

Referral rewards when referring your friends / family

MUTS - complete with popcorn

Self Service Laundry rooms

Itineraries - especially out of San Francisco and the west coast

 

But just about everything else, I feel that Celebrity has the edge for us.

[Host Jazzbeau]

We are not fans of laundromat type of washing. You never know what went into that machine before your load and beside we are on vacation and the last thing we want to do is our laundry. Fortunately, we are Elite on Celebrity and we get free laundry (yes, I know, we don't know what went into the washer before our laundry in Celebrity's laundry room).

 

So I'm guessing you never lived in an apartment? Whether your building has a laundry room or not, you never know what's been in the machine before yours. AND -- when you send your laundry out on the ship, do you assume you get an entire machine to yourself? More likely your stuff is mixed in one of their giant machines with several other peoples'! [That's why every item is tagged] But the bottom line is, it hasn't killed you yet! :)

Edited December 31, 2015 by Host Jazzbeau

[Keith1010]

Thanks for your report.

 

In the end I am so happy that each cruise line is different unlike say the USA based airlines.

 

Keith

[El Crucero]

So I'm guessing you never lived in an apartment? Whether your building has a laundry room or not, you never know what's been in the machine before yours. AND -- when you send your laundry out on the ship, do you assume you get an entire machine to yourself? More likely your stuff is mixed in one of their giant machines with several other peoples'! [That's why every item is tagged] But the bottom line is, it hasn't killed you yet! :)

 

I totally agree with you, and perhaps you missed the part where I said,

 

"yes, I know, we don't know what went into the washer before our laundry in Celebrity's laundry room...........Anyway that is just us, and I can see the public washing machines on Princess could be a big benefit to some."

[Host Jazzbeau]

I totally agree with you, and perhaps you missed the part where I said,

 

"yes, I know, we don't know what went into the washer before our laundry in Celebrity's laundry room...........Anyway that is just us, and I can see the public washing machines on Princess could be a big benefit to some."

 

My point was that having other people's stuff mixed in WITH mine in the ship's laundry is scarier than worrying about what was in the machine BEFORE mine.

[Lastdance]

Oh, Please choose Princess; I love Celebrity "S" class ships and hope lots of princess fans stay far away. There are huge differences between S & M!:)

Edited January 1, 2016 by Lastdance

[jb008]

One of the biggest "issues" with Princess for the Caribbean itineraries is the port of departure. Princess wants you to spend more $ on board, so they are prioritizing FLL over SJU as home base to increase the number of sea days.

 

We did an FLL Caribbean sailing w/Princess, and even though we love the line, we hated having so many sea days and the weather in the Bahamas was nice, but not tropical. We've since switched to SJU for port of departure to maximize days in port and increase the odds of warm weather. Tried RCL, found it to be "fine" but not the same level as Princess, tried X and was very pleased. I'd happily consider Princess again, but the perks for booking your next X cruise while still on board are a mark in favor of staying with X for the foreseeable future.

[NOSaints1]

My sister in law whose a TA went on the Caribbean Princess a few years ago out of SJU to the ABC islands on there honeymoon.

[cruisemom42]

One of the biggest "issues" with Princess for the Caribbean itineraries is the port of departure. Princess wants you to spend more $ on board, so they are prioritizing FLL over SJU as home base to increase the number of sea days.

 

We did an FLL Caribbean sailing w/Princess, and even though we love the line, we hated having so many sea days and the weather in the Bahamas was nice, but not tropical. We've since switched to SJU for port of departure to maximize days in port and increase the odds of warm weather. Tried RCL, found it to be "fine" but not the same level as Princess, tried X and was very pleased. I'd happily consider Princess again, but the perks for booking your next X cruise while still on board are a mark in favor of staying with X for the foreseeable future.

 

To provide the opposite perspective, I think there are many who prefer the (generally) lower cost and ease of getting to the FLL port versus SJU. I am certainly one. :)