Considering Trying Celebrity - Need Advice

[lidopuppy]

Looking for feedback from fellow cruisers. We have cruised numerous times on Royal Caribbean and Carnival. We typically like RCCL for the ships (Oasis and Freedom class are our preferred ships) and we prefer the food on Carnival (again, we prefer the newer, bigger ships).

 

One of the things that my wife and I both like to do is try new and different ships. We are strongly considering booking a cruise on the Celebrity Equinox but due to both time and financial constraints, we can only cruise a couple of times a year. My question is, is it worth it for us to "jump ship" and try Celebrity, knowing that we are close to the next loyalty level on both RCCL and Carnival?

[Biker19]

Don't cruise for loyalty points - cruise for ship/itinerary/price - the loyalty perks are just that, an extra.

[rjrpar]

Celebrity is definitely worth trying. Like the poster above said, don't cruise for loyalty perks, not that important

 

 

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[Ocean Dancer]

Royal and Celebrity match status levels, but do not add to it.

 

Try the Equinox, we did The Silhouette, same cat of ship, a maiden Caribbean RT, Bayonne. The ship was very nice with lots of nooks and crannies to explore, but our sailing was very rude, one of the rudest ever.

 

Fortunately, that does not happen often all the time, but I would give it a try.

 

You can check the roll call for any sailing you are interested in and get a vibe of some of the passengers.

 

Don't worry about your status, just have a great cruise.:)

[lidopuppy]

We appreciate the responses that we have gotten so far. They confirm exactly what we were thinking.

 

Would love to hear any feedback on Celebrity's entertainment. We do love the entertainment on RCCL's larger ships.

[Scotty G]

We appreciate the responses that we have gotten so far. They confirm exactly what we were thinking.

 

Would love to hear any feedback on Celebrity's entertainment. We do love the entertainment on RCCL's larger ships.

 

We have cruised twice on Equinox. It is truly an amazing ship. When we were on the big show was called Equinox and was entirely written for the ship. We enjoyed it very much. It is totally musical in content with included aerial work ala Cirque du Soleil.

 

Recommend that you give the RCCL brand Celebrity a try!

[Langley Cruisers]

We absolutely LOVED our cruise on Solstice, sister ship to Equinox. The food and service were outstanding. The no-indoor-smoking policy is wonderful - smoke-free casino all the time! (important to us). Equinox has the Hot Glass Show, which is phenomenal.

 

Go try Celebrity. We can't wait to cruise with them again. :)

 

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[matj2000]

It is different, but just as good.

 

Service, Menu, Food quality are better.

 

The head waiter brought different bottle of wine to our table each night and left it there for us. He came back often and filled our glasses. And we just had the regular drink package.

 

That lawn area and bar in the back of the ship was pretty cool.

 

The only thing I did not like was that there was no where very good to watch the NFL games(we went over Thanksgiving).

 

They had 3 crappy TV's at the casino bar and only a few place to sit. it got pretty crowded with people standing around and then they tried to kick out my son after 2 hours.

 

The other place was a craft martini bar, that did not server beer.

 

It is definitely worth trying..

Edited December 11, 2016 by matj2000

[Ocean Dancer]

You won't find a skating show or a dive show, but as others have stated, Give it a try. All posters above are very reputable posters.:)

[Aquahound]

We are strongly considering booking a cruise on the Celebrity Equinox but due to both time and financial constraints, we can only cruise a couple of times a year.

 

Yes, go for it. Celebrity S Class ships are beautiful. If fact, I'd say they're my favorite ship class.

[Big_G]

We appreciate the responses that we have gotten so far. They confirm exactly what we were thinking.

 

Would love to hear any feedback on Celebrity's entertainment. We do love the entertainment on RCCL's larger ships.

 

I think you'll find the entertainment equal to or slightly better than Royal's Freedom Class. The food is slightly better in the specialty restaurants and they have more outdoor eating venues. It's a more laid back sophisticated cruise. The pools have a an outdoor grill but you won't find a belly flop or sexiest man contest nor a flowrider or rock climbing wall. You'll find nighttime has a Miami vibe atmosphere. No smoking indoors including the the casino. We enjoy both Royal and Celebrity equally but more for their differences than their similarities.

Edited December 11, 2016 by Big_G

[kpd21880]

We were just like you, 3 years ago! We tried Celebrity for the first time, after being "loyal to Royal" for many, many years. 3 years and 3 cruises later, we absolutely LOVE it.

 

Not sure of your age demographic or who you sail with, but for us, now: when it's just my husband and I, we sail Celebrity. When we have our son with us for a family vacation, we sail Royal. We love both, for different reasons.

 

Some of the reasons we now prefer Celebrity (when child- free): the specialty dining options, included drinks package, the R&R vibe of the ship's during the daytime, the bar options and entertainment options in the evening. My only advice is to use a good TA who will include 3-4 perks in your price (grats, drink package, OBC, internet) which makes Celebrity an outstanding value.

 

We sailed Equinox this past summer in the Med and absolutely loved it. Good luck!

 

 

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[SPacificbound]

We have only been on Infinity (for 3 cruises) so a smaller ship than Equinox.

 

I think RC and X are more alike than different. You will never know unless you try.

 

We will be back on X (this time a larger ship) in summer 2013 for 4 cruises, so it will be a new experience for us on Solstice.

[bertrande]

Would encourage you to try too. We really enjoyed Equinox and Solstice, are booked on Constellation in Feb 2017 and Reflection in 2018. We are big fans of RCCL for their child-friendly programmes and entertain but also really enjoy the service and relaxed classy vibe of Celebrity and can't wait to get back on in two months!

 

 

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[MandyGirl]

Don't cruise for loyalty points - cruise for ship/itinerary/price - the loyalty perks are just that, an extra.

 

 

Ditto... and timing [emoji106] We have cruised on NCL, HAL, Princess, Celebrity, Carnival, Disney and Fathom. Both Disney and NCL are over 50 nights each and over 30 on Celebrity with our first RCCL coming up in March. We are early 40s now and while we do miss those extra perks we get at times when doing a different Cruiseline, it was the combination of school calendar with the kids, price / promos, and itinerary that helped choose that specific sailing - and always gives us a great perspective [emoji106]2016 alone was Disney, NCL, Fathom and Celebrity... with RCCL and HAL in 2017 - so recent and variety. Itinerary and timing on the calendar can make demographics vary widely. Last cruise was November for Panama Canal full transit wrapping over Thanksgiving - over 2000 passengers onboard and our two kids were 2 of 16 under age 18 - but Christmas week and Alaska they said they can have 300-600 kids onboard. Just varies. Don't be afraid to try something different [emoji3]

[north29]

We enjoy both X and RC and D+ on RC. The service seems overall better than RC. The big difference is the physical activities, out side of the spa/work out room there are virtually NONE. One example is the sports court if in FRONT of the ship LOL, on sea days playing some Basket ball, you have to allow for 20-40 mile an hour wind.

I still prefer the Freedom class ships with the promenade and we do not care for the Oasis ships, well the entertainment is nice on them.

[sdbmd]

I've sailed the S class ships 3 times in recent years and loved it. The size of the ship, the decor, the crew, the average age of the guests....all were really ideal to me. When it came time to book my December vacation, I immediately gravitated to Celebrity. However, I couldn't find an itinerary I liked so I ended up on RC's Navigator. The price difference was notable (cheaper on RC) and now that I'm on ship, the other differences (like the demographics of the customers, the decor, and the cleanliness of the ship) is fairly notable. I also think the crew to passenger ratio is worse on RC than Celebrity, so we're seeing more waiting than on Celebrity.

 

Don't get me wrong...I'm happy to be on RC again but I think those 3 back to back Celebrity sailings spoiled me a bit. It is a bit of "you get what you pay for", no doubt.

 

 

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[MichaelCMTX]

My question is, is it worth it for us to "jump ship" and try Celebrity, knowing that we are close to the next loyalty level on both RCCL and Carnival?

 

This could be crucial. We'll know more in about 90 days as we're on Equinox in 70. Currently we're D with RC, which should be matched as Elite w/Celebrity. This is test run to see just how well that works out. The cruel irony here is 11 nights in a Sky Suite for this trip will have us one, one point short of Select with X - and as others have noted while X and RC honor status with the other, points on one line are just that.

 

Our first cruise was X because that's been "The folks' ship of choice" when they made Christmas 2009 pretty awesome, but we went with RC for the convenience of the Galveston port... about a 4 hour drive from Dallas. Like you, it's only practical for us to take one trip a year (we'll take what others might spend on 3 or 4 balcony trips and do a GS), but from Galveston we've quickly learned there are basically two RC itineraries. Gotta sail from elsewhere if we want to go elsewhere - and RC quickly put a stop to sailing from New Orleans once we did that trip. :rolleyes:

 

Now we're kind of a weird demographic. We don't go for the limbo, belly flop or hairy chest stuff, so we blow off a lot of the stuff RC does to appeal to the 'fun' crowd who'd be more of a Carnival target market... and isn't there on a X cruise; but usually if we're not the youngest couple in the CL, we're in the running, and don't have kids so keeping them occupied on a trip is irrelevant. So yeah, as others have noted who you are has a lot to do with how you'd feel about X. It's not stuffy, but it's not a party animal ship either.

 

But like I say, how this next one turns out has major bearing on whatever we book for 2019. In that 'one cruise a year' boat like us you don't want to make the wrong pick. I don't think you'll come off the Equinox hating yourselves for the choice, but I understand your concern about loyalty points and the long-term outlook. Hey, we did the calculations and at our normal rate of cruises, this means it'll be age 89 when we hit Pinnacle instead of 88.:D

[Snit13]

We are Celebrity Elite+ and absolutely love Celebrity especially AQUA class with BLU dining and SPA incluced.

 

We find the food on Celebrity superior, that being said, we do not dine in MDR. We dine in BLU and in Specialty restaurants.

 

Celebrity is much cleaner and the staff always goes above and beyond to see that your every need is met and with a smile. We have had issues with dust and dirt in cabins and hallways on Royal which we reported to officer in charge of housekeeping.

 

Entertainment is far superior on Royal but we don't sail for the entertainment. We sail to relax and enjoy the ocean from our balcony.

 

We prefer the Solstice class ships but have sailed on all but the Millenium of the Celebrity fleet. Our most recent cruises have been on the Constellation and we love sailing on her. We did B2B on her in February and had a great deal with free gratuities, free beverage packages and OBC. We normally book early so had a great price on AQUA balcony too.

 

We are currently booked on Oasis sailing next Sunday and on Brilliance in April 2017, so we are giving Royal a try again.

 

You can't go wrong with Celebrity, unless you have children as there is much more for them to enjoy on Royal.

 

Happy Sails

[emilygrace]

Currently we're D with RC, which should be matched as Elite w/Celebrity. This is test run to see just how well that works out. :D

 

We are D with RC and we always have gotten Elite on X. As long as you are already a registered Captain's Club member the status should transfer over. But as you say, not the points, just the tier status.

[Clarea]

We are D with RC and we always have gotten Elite on X. As long as you are already a registered Captain's Club member the status should transfer over. But as you say, not the points, just the tier status.

Not sure the reciprocity is an automatic thing. In any case, I call C&A with the Captain's Club number handy and confirm.

[Ocean Dancer]

Not sure the reciprocity is an automatic thing. In any case, I call C&A with the Captain's Club number handy and confirm.

 

It is not automatic ,you have to join Celebrity's Captain's Club, better to call and set up your Elite status before sailing. Elite pretty much means Diamond.

[MichaelCMTX]

We are D with RC and we always have gotten Elite on X. As long as you are already a registered Captain's Club member the status should transfer over. But as you say, not the points, just the tier status.

 

Thanks for the clarification, we'd heard to be safe we should ask our TA to note something on the reservation. If all goes as smoothly as it has for you, it'll be considered for sure on future bookings.

 

It is not automatic ,you have to join Celebrity's Captain's Club, better to call and set up your Elite status before sailing. Elite pretty much means Diamond.

 

Got a whopping 60 Captains Club points from that first sailing in '09, that ought to be no problem.

[sleepless]

We were on the Solstice to Alaska this summer. The ship was beautiful. The food was comparable to Royal Caribbean. However, DH and I found the service to be lacking. We had a hard time getting waited on in the bars at night. In fact one evening, we went to three different bars, and left, because of the lack of service - meaning we could not get waited on. Not much fun. Missed the Promenade for evening snacks, also.

[Tedw]

We appreciate the responses that we have gotten so far. They confirm exactly what we were thinking.

 

Would love to hear any feedback on Celebrity's entertainment. We do love the entertainment on RCCL's larger ships.

 

I would put the celebrity entertainment in the middle. A step up from Carnival.

 

As to food we like Carnival main dining best but the buffet on Celebrity is great; a significant factor in my sailing with them. If we want a truly relaxing vacation Celebrity is our go to option. Great service and it never seems crowded to us.