Cunard - Celebrity comparison - just one more persepective

[Wiltonian]

Hi!

 

I'm posting this on both boards - the same text - and it may be interesting to compare responses. . . . 

After four very good cruises with Celebrity (3 Med, 1 Norway), we tried Cunard (Queen Elizabeth) to the Canaries, 14 days, balcony cabin, largely because Cunard was coming in several hundred pounds cheaper, and we wanted to test the waters.

The cabin was slightly larger, having no "bulge" round the bottom of the bed, with a sofa, and a little more hanging space. Bathroom fine, apart from clingy curtain. Room steward was low-key, but very efficient and effective. Bottle of "bubbly" on arrival. No problems there.

Dining in the MDR (Britannia) was fine, early eating, although 2 people on our table for 6 never appeared. Waiting staff excellent and comparable with Celebrity. We thought the food quality marginally better, and on several nights I could have happily have chosen at least four of the main course options. Apart from one night, meat quality was excellent. 

Dining in Buffet (Lido), OTOH, was nowhere near as good; the linear serving stations make getting the choices you want difficult, as some Brits (it was 90% Brit) seem to think you should join the queue 20 feet back to get one item! Celebrity's "duck and weave" island service stations work better. Food quality was good, but less cosmopolitan than Celebrity. Staff very attentive and helpful.

The Garden Lounge offered a wonderful day-time lounging space.

Afternoon tea with scones, jam and clotted cream had to be timetabled carefully with early eating at dinner, let the reader understand.

Ambience was more restrained. No loud contemporary music intended to attract a younger clientele, but alienating the existing ones. Lots of live music - e.g. pianists, harpist, string trio. Decor is also far more restrained - less "bling" - but perhaps rather too muted for some. Note QE is about to have a refurb. Generally a more gentle, refined feel.

Dress standards seem to be enforced - men were turned away from the MDR on the first non-formal (technically non-Gala) night for not having a jacket - and for the Gala nights, you cannot be over-dressed. Like it, or loathe it, that's Cunard's USP, so avoid if it's too onerous for you!

Clientele were definitely "mature" - but a cruise out and back from Southampton to "the" winter sun destination for retired Brits may not be typical of all Cunard, and especially trans-Atlantics and those starting outside the UK.

Theatre productions were very good; apart from a very weak magician. We thought the resident dancers/singers were slightly better than on Celebrity, but have been impressed on both lines - apart from some of Celebrity's recent "in house" productions. Excellent theatre band.

We enjoyed the promenade deck, with a 0.3 mile circuit, and the ability to be close to the sea. Pools were much smaller than on Celebrity.
"Enrichment talks" were very good, and port talks were far more than advertising shopping outlets!

Having had drinks packages on Celebrity, we were hit by Cunard's very high drink prices - we eeked out 6 bottles over 14 nights!  Adding a service charge and THEN having a space on the "chit" for gratuity is really taking the mick. And the Lido ran out of Sharp's Doombar beer- not good!

Overall, it took us a while to adjust to the more laid-back feel, but we enjoyed it. $830 OBC for the two of us for booking on-board, at a price a bit less than Cunard web-site, meant that we booked for the Baltic on Queen Victoria in 2020. 

Would we book again with Celebrity? Of course, but they need to get their Med offer a bit more competitive again.

 

Stuart

Edited October 23, 2018 by Wiltonian

[Host Hattie]

Thanks for posting, it's always interesting to read comparisons and Celebrity is on my "might try" list.

[Stella1250]

Interesting review. We have never tried either Celebrity or Cunard. Mostly HAL cruises. We are booked on the Baltic QV July 2019 in Queens Grill. Hope to seriously enjoy it. We love to dress up, so Cunard was a no brainer. While researching Baltic cruises, I found the 7/16 sailing much less costly in QG that other sailings, so we took the plunge. This is a bucket list item for me, so I am glad to be going. We will definitely review afterwards. Thanks for the review!

[Windsurfboy]

We're also looking forward to  Baltic on Q.V., in July 2019, our first Cunard and first QG

[Stella1250]

Well that is very interesting. We have to compare our views! What cabin are you in? We are 5190, rear of the ship on Deck 5.

[Windsurfboy]

6106 midship, you'll recognize me I'm the one in the wetsuit on formal nights 

[FennoExpress]

Thanks for the comparison. Nice to hear that you actually liked many things that usually get criticized on this forum (mdr food, entertainment). A Canaries cruise on QV is on my bucket list for next year, but the prices have to come down quite a bit before we book.

[Stella1250]

Wet suit in the DR? I would like to see that - and the reactions from everyone else LOL

[grayjay]

We have sailed on Celebrity ships numerous times and still love their service and crew especially in Aqua class, the food stations in the buffet restaurant and the great Loyalty perks from some free laundry to daily cocktail parties or free specialty coffees and teas and the cabins and ships (esp. Solstice class) are beautiful. On the other hand, the exceptionally high prices and the loud music in all parts of the ship - no quiet reading except in your cabin - drove us away, first to Holland America then in part to Cunard because we fell in love with the quiet elegance despite the clingy curtains in the bathrooms and the fact that we need to bring adapters to use electric or electronic devices.

We personally were ( and still are) a bit averse to the formality of the crew and sometimes especially to the slowness of service in the buffet restaurant ( compared to HAL's mostly Philippine and Indonesian eager, exceptionally friendly and helpful crew) and and the dress code  - jackets on after six.... - even if we accept it and adhere to it even if after a strenuous day in port we sometimes pull at the bit and stay in the Lido area or slightly grumblingly put on evening finery to be able to go to the theatre.

We like the ambience, the promenade deck, the kettle in our cabin complete with teas and cookies, the terrific library and the quiet spaces you find everywhere on the ship to quietly read a book, the elegant afternoon teas in the Queen's lounge or the ability to grab the same scones with jam and clotted cream (!!!!!) in the buffet area. We liked the Queen Mary a bit less, haven't been on Victoria, yet.

So we couldn't close our cruising year without a December cruise to the Canaries - and we'll compare with Celebrity new "Edge" in 2019! I think this really will be interesting - perhaps the classic and the jazzy???