What is better on Celebrity now?

[LabGuy64]

We have all seen so many threads with a common theme...things were so much better on Celebrity in the past. The food in the MDR was better than it is i the specialty restaurants now...the service was better, the sun would shine brighter on the ship...drinks were tastier...towel animals would dance and sing.......you get the point :D....I want to know...(since I have not had the experience of cruising on Celebrity in the day's of legend) what....if anything.....is X doing better today then in the past.

[ClaudiaB]

We sail in sky suites and honestly having Luminae and Michael's Club and the service from their concierge and the butler make the cruises even more special than they were before.

 

I think the beverage package is a wonderful idea. Our first cruises didn't have those.

 

Internet is better and the unlimited internet that is given as a perk is something we really appreciate, as we couldn't cruise at all if my husband couldn't stay in touch with his company.

[riclop]

Nothing is better !!!!!!!!

[Cruise Junky]

I know this won't be popular but I find the food better now than our first cruise in 2005. I found it so over rated last two have been fabulous. Love the S class over the M class. Prices are good and now include drinks which saves us a boat load. Buffets are better, more choice of specialty restaurants. Interesting shore excursions.

[jelayne]

Beverage package is a plus, Internet is better. The oatmeal raisin cookies are to die for. Luminae is wonderful, Blu is less crowded with the addition of Luminae. Little touches like sparkling wine or Mimosas when bosrding, cold towels & cold drinks when returning to the ship from a hot day in port, the CD and/or the GRM at the dock to greet you when you return to the ship, officers and crew remembering you from past cruises.

 

We choose to look at the positive rather than focus on what for some are negative. For example, Aqua no longer gets bottled water except on embarkation day. Our first cruise on X we sailed in Aqua and purchased a beverage package; now the beverage package is a perk so the removal of water doesn't matter.

[Project_gal]

The whole package for suite guests, especially the high-end suites. By "package" I am speaking of both the published tangible perks and the intangible unpublished "perks". There is a world of difference between the experience before and after they introduced Suite Class but it is the intangible benefits where the biggest change has taken place and they are so difficult explain.

[ReneeFLL]

I haven't been cruising that long so I really can't compare how things have changed for the better. One thing that has changed that I don't like is there are no more formal nights. They now have ever evening chic nights. A lot of people would much rather have evening chic nights and not have to dress more formal. So I would say for a lot of people no formal nights is a plus. Guess they can't please everyone. :D

 

Also, you can bring on 2 bottles of wine or champagne. That's a plus for me. Not sure when they started to allow it but I don't think they did when I first cruised. Could also be that I just wasn't aware of it.

Edited October 7, 2016 by ReneeFLL

[lizmit]

The Internet was surprisingly fast and Luminae was great.

 

 

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[tercar]

The Internet was surprisingly fast and Luminae was great.

 

 

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Pleased to here this I will be dining in luminae and have free wifi [emoji847][emoji847][emoji847]

 

 

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[Castaway24]

Is M class so bad? We've never sailed with Celebrity before, only P&O. Does M class get free internet? Also, the drinks packages? We are family of 4 with 2 teen boys, are they worth purchasing and do I do that through my TA or direct with Celebrity or when on board? Celebrity 'newbie' so any tip, hints and advise really appreciated. Thx

 

 

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[chemmo]

The whole package for suite guests, especially the high-end suites. By "package" I am speaking of both the published tangible perks and the intangible unpublished "perks". There is a world of difference between the experience before and after they introduced Suite Class but it is the intangible benefits where the biggest change has taken place and they are so difficult explain.

 

How often we agree, Sue!

 

Our experiences on Celebrity recently have been hard to fault. We did say after our last Solstice cruise we were worried that our next cruise must be downhill because quite simply we could not think of anything else the crew (from room attendant to Captain) could have done to make our cruise any more special!

 

Hopefully the Eclipse won't let us down in the Spring!

[chemmo]

Is M class so bad? We've never sailed with Celebrity before, only P&O. Does M class get free internet? Also, the drinks packages? We are family of 4 with 2 teen boys, are they worth purchasing and do I do that through my TA or direct with Celebrity or when on board? Celebrity 'newbie' so any tip, hints and advise really appreciated. Thx

 

 

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Greetings from a fellow U.K. Cruiser. I think you will find Celebrity a little quieter than P&O. I suggest you look at the Celebrity website and maybe the Royal Caribbean website to try to get a flavour of a couple of different cruise lines.

 

Celebrity has fewer children on board generally and less activities and noise...it suits us well now but when our son was your sons age we tended to cruise Royal Caribbean. You tube tours will give you a good idea of the spaces and ambiance of both lines.

 

After doing some general research it could be worth starting a new thread asking how Celebrity compares to P&O...

[Castaway24]

Thank you chemmo - well we are committed now as booked on Arabian cruise Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Muscat and Khasbah in December BUT the boys are very excited about the ports so I'm hoping they will be fine on ship and we've only 1 sea day. Fingers crossed!

 

 

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[claudiniusmaximus]

Greetings from a fellow U.K. Cruiser. I think you will find Celebrity a little quieter than P&O. I suggest you look at the Celebrity website and maybe the Royal Caribbean website to try to get a flavour of a couple of different cruise lines.

 

 

 

Celebrity has fewer children on board generally and less activities and noise...it suits us well now but when our son was your sons age we tended to cruise Royal Caribbean. You tube tours will give you a good idea of the spaces and ambiance of both lines.

 

 

 

After doing some general research it could be worth starting a new thread asking how Celebrity compares to P&O...

 

 

I'd agree with this. We sailed twice on P&O and once on Celebrity and thought Celebrity was much, much nicer in many ways for lots of reasons. We'd do P&O again at a pinch for the lower prices but Celebrity was head and shoulders above P&O and if you do start that thread I'd chip in.

 

 

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[AnOnymously]

2 teen boys, are they worth purchasing

:rolleyes:

[hcat]

We like the S class ships...

Enjoy expansion of non smoking policy...

Canyon Ranch spa better than prior company

 

Nice to have Specialty Restaurants...hope they adjust pricing down, elim a la carte and put in something like Bistro on 5..for lunch, brunch, crepes and paninis..maybe at the Porch

 

AQ class and BLU keep us cruising on X.. we would like our daily delivered water back!

Edited October 7, 2016 by hcat

[chemmo]

Thank you chemmo - well we are committed now as booked on Arabian cruise Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Muscat and Khasbah in December BUT the boys are very excited about the ports so I'm hoping they will be fine on ship and we've only 1 sea day. Fingers crossed!

 

 

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Enjoy! In that case coming back to your previous questions...The M class ships are nice although smaller and older than the S class. There should be some teen club activities, check when you board.

 

Re drinks packages. We always got our son a soda package at this age and always found it value for money. With reference to yourselves try adding up how much you drink (water and coffees can mount up)...You can pre purchase or buy on board.

 

Internet is pay for although some suite rooms get it free.

 

Re ports...they are interesting but you will need to look at the excursions, for example Muscat is just a small port town... Also these countries have very strict rules on drugs (of the prescription variety) so check on their websites thoroughly.

 

Have a great time!

[TriciaCC]

We like the S class ships...

Enjoy expansion of non smoking policy...

Canyon Ranch spa better than prior company

 

Nice to have Specialty Restaurants...hope they adjust pricing down, elim a la carte and put in something like Bistro on 5..for lunch, brunch, crepes and paninis..maybe at the Porch

 

AQ class and BLU keep us cruising on X.. we would like our daily delivered water back!

 

Sailing AQ for the first time in November and I was disappointed to see that daily bottled water has been discontinued bar day 1. Seems a bit penny pinching to dispense with this 'benefit'.

No beverage perks or OBC included on our cruise - unfortunately.:(

Looking forward to experiencing Blu though.:)

[CruisingChick]

Nothing is better !!!!!!!!

 

Agreed. I can't think of one thing that is better. At least on the M Class ship, they totally ruined them when they Solsticized them and the food and service is no where near what it use to be back in 2002 when we started sailing them.

 

We have only sailed one S Class ship - Silhouette in 2012 and were not overly impressed with it.

[bottomfeeder]

My very first cruise was on Celebrity Century. I enjoyed it, as did the rest of my family, so much so that cruising became an annual (or almost) event for us. I giggled at the "crumb guy" scraping crumbs from the tablecloth between courses--it has always been my definitive sign that I'm in a fancy restaurant to have a "crumb guy." The lobster was horrid and tough, but one of our waiters did magic tricks for my sons that they loved, and we had very nice assigned tablemates.

 

However, after that first cruise we discovered that other cruise lines had anytime dining, which Celebrity did not offer, and so we switched to Princess for that perk, and found we enjoyed that line which at the time had a lot of quite new ships. So we kept sailing Princess.

 

Fast forward a few years and I was divorced (and recovered from the shock) and my kids were grown up and I was ready to start cruising again. I was researching cruise lines, and found that Celebrity now had anytime dining and also had new ships...took another Celebrity cruise and I've been mostly loyal since. (I do sail other cruise lines if they better fit my desired budget/timing/itinerary, but my default is always Celebrity.)

 

Compared to that first cruise, there are lots of things better now. The ships are lovely, the pool area is much more open and there's a lot more seating around the pool. Anytime dining, of course. Buffet hours much expanded, more additional dining options. And I agree that food is better now--it was fancier then, but fancy doesn't always work well in banquet-style dining, and there are so many more options now that it would be hard not to find something to eat at each meal that tastes delicious to you. Lots more balcony cabins. Prices are much better than they were back then. The debarkation morning experience--something that Celebrity still doesn't do as well as other lines IMO--is much better. I don't even remember if we could get internet in our cabin then--I don't think so. (I work in an IT-related field, as did my ex-husband, so I think I'd remember!) More ships, more itineraries. Cafe al Bacio! I could go on and on!

 

People comparing Celebrity now to Celebrity 5 years ago may have a few things to quibble with, but comparing Celebrity now to Celebrity 15 years ago, IMO there is no contest which is a better experience.

[awhcruiser]

Why do you continue to post without any explanation????

Nothing is better !!!!!!!!

[BettyCruiser]

The Martini Bar is better now!

[CruisingChick]

The Martini Bar is better now!

 

The M Class Martini Bars are terrible. First they moved them and made them smaller and cramped. They were so nice before the Solsticization. Then they have a DJ playing LOUD club type music so you cannot even hear yourself think let alone have a conversation with some one.

 

We much preferred it when it was on Deck 5 near the restaurants and they had the hole in the floor and you could look down onto the Rendezvous Lounge.

 

As I said earlier, t hey ruined the M Class Ships when the Solsticized them. They should have left them as there were for those of us who really enjoyed sailing that class of ship.

[Dawg67]

We recently sailed millineum to Alaska. We loved the ship and Blu restaurant. We will sail again on Millie to Asia oct 2017

 

 

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[chemmo]

The M Class Martini Bars are terrible. First they moved them and made them smaller and cramped. They were so nice before the Solsticization. Then they have a DJ playing LOUD club type music so you cannot even hear yourself think let alone have a conversation with some one.

 

We much preferred it when it was on Deck 5 near the restaurants and they had the hole in the floor and you could look down onto the Rendezvous Lounge.

 

As I said earlier, t hey ruined the M Class Ships when the Solsticized them. They should have left them as there were for those of us who really enjoyed sailing that class of ship.

 

...and returning to the OP's original question 'what is better on Celebrity now?'....