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Does anyone go back to Carnival after trying Celebrity?


mfs2k
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My wife and I are going on our first Celebrity Cruise in March (Equinox)

 

We've been on 11 Carnival cruises. In the past 8 years, we've mostly done All inclusives in Mexico instead of cruising.

 

For our 20th anniversary, we decided it was time for us to try Celebrity.  We're not in our 30's anymore, and the Spring break party is a bit much too for us now. 

 

Obviously on this Celebrity board there are mostly Celebrity fans but I'm wondering if any of you decided to go back to Carnival after trying Celebrity because you missed what Carnival offered.

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We have cruised quite a few cruise lines including Carnival. We have been on Carnival after we had been on Celebrity probably 20 times. Only reason we went on Carnival is an itinerary or cost that another couple we were traveling with was interested in.  There are certainly differences between all lines. So it depends on your preferences. Enjoy Celebrity and you decide. 

Edited by Mirage
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We are going on the Celebrity Edge and a couple of weeks later on Carnival Breeze.  We cruise a lot and every line has its pros and cons.

 

We enjoy have tried all the lines and will continue to book Carnival as well as everyone else.

 

Its a cruise what is not to like.

 

Sue

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I sailed on the Edge last week and went on the Breeze about 5 years ago. The Breeze was fine but the Edge blew us away! Everything from the food, service, quality etc. Wow! Also, Celebrity is generally a more mature crowd and a higher price point so you’re going to have generally speaking a higher class crowd. Compare the Carnival clientele to Wal-Mart and the Celebrity clientele to Publix. Maybe that’s the easiest way for me to describe it. As far as prices...I find that Celebrity is the same price as Carnival once you purchase a beverage package on Carnival. I’m on my 30s and my girlfriend in her 40s. I say try it out and see...

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Just now, go fish 44 said:

We are going on the Celebrity Edge and a couple of weeks later on Carnival Breeze.  We cruise a lot and every line has its pros and cons.

 

We enjoy have tried all the lines and will continue to book Carnival as well as everyone else.

 

Its a cruise what is not to like.

 

Sue

I agree with that assessment. Each cruiseline has their own benefits and negatives. I love Celebrity for the sophisticated look of their ships and the quieter, more refined atmosphere. 

 

But sometimes you really do like that fun, party atmosphere that Carnival provides. And as I have said in numerous threads here on CC I LOVE that fact that Carnival cruisers are on the ship to have FUN, NOT Complain at every little thing. With regard to Celebrity's passengers, that's the thing I most dislike. 

I do love my Guy's burgers and the hand tossed made to order pizzas on Carnival though!

 

 

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We went back a couple times, mainly because our first cruise on Carnival Victory was nearly flawless.  Carnival Elation in 2015 started to feel like a 2 star hotel, and the mattresses were so bad that staff were shuffling them around to deal with the complaints.  Service was still excellent, and MDR food decent, and it was a fun Halloween cruise.  

 

In 2017, we did a 14 Journey Cruise on the Carnival Pride.  Cruise from hell, more problems than I even want to get into here.  Done!

 

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We are platinum on Carnival and Elite on Celebrity.  Both have their virtues.   We have never had a bad cruise on either one.  We last sailed on Equinox in Aug/Sep 2018.  We have an MSC, two Carnival and A Cunard booked.  We book for itinerary or price or...whatever.  EM

Edited by Essiesmom
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3 hours ago, mfs2k said:

My wife and I are going on our first Celebrity Cruise in March (Equinox)

 

We've been on 11 Carnival cruises. In the past 8 years, we've mostly done All inclusives in Mexico instead of cruising.

 

For our 20th anniversary, we decided it was time for us to try Celebrity.  We're not in our 30's anymore, and the Spring break party is a bit much too for us now. 

 

Obviously on this Celebrity board there are mostly Celebrity fans but I'm wondering if any of you decided to go back to Carnival after trying Celebrity because you missed what Carnival offered.

 

We have sailed on 7 cruise lines now. They are all great, they all have drawbacks.  We tend to cruise now either for a specific trip we want to try (usually the Caribbean) or an itinerary we want to sail (Alaska / Europe).  Don't go into Celebrity with expectations.  Enjoy it for what it is and then decide for yourself if it's a cruise line you want to sail again.  We love the Solarium on Celebrity the most of any cruise line indoor pool.  I think the World Class Bar on the S class ships are the best bars at sea.   But then the original stage shows are the worst at sea.  So you take the good with the bad on any cruise line.   Have a great time on your cruise!

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We are also Elite on X...started cruising on Carnival.  We had been on the Carnival Conquest previously in 2004, out of New Orleans and decided to do it again in 2012 because we love NO.  At that time we had done 4 Carnival, one Disney, 2 HAL, 5 Princess and one Celebrity, the Equinox in 2010.

 

That Conquest cruise was a wake up call.  We found we really valued the relative peace and quiet of Celebrity...the food was much better (except for the Guy Fieri hamburgers), the dress of the passengers was more in line with what we expected on a cruise, the lack of smoking was a huge relief.  We have been on 13 subsequent Celebrity cruises and frankly, would never, ever, no never go on Carnival again.  There is too much we like about Celebrity, and not enough that we like about Carnival.  We didn’t have a BAD time on Carnival; we come from the “how can any cruise be truly bad and there’s always something to like” camp.  Just feel Celebrity is much better.

 

That is not to say we don’t currently have reservations about the Celebrity prices and Edgification, but that wasn’t your question.  😊

 

 

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We’ve been on Carnival, mainly with family or a large party group, and enjoyed. But when i plan a cruise for us, i’ts not Carnival. We are Elite Plus on Celebrity because it meets what we are looking for at this time in a Cruise LIne: exellent dining; Top Service; common areas not crowded. Carnvail was OK on those three areas, but with the common areas being way overcrowded for us. But with that said, never been on a bad cruise.....just some (Celebrity) many notches above others (Carnival). 

 

But do remember, we are all biased. We went on a Crystal Cruise, considered a LuxuryLine, recently and loved it - really fantastic, and the pricing wasn’t that much more than Celebrity for that specific itinerary. But (should be a Big But) when I looked at other Crystal itineraries, the pricing was way over what we paid for a similar Celebrity. So for me, I’d not that interested in a Luxury Line when it would cost me close to 2 Celebrity cruises. 

 

Enjoy your Celebrity Cruise and hope you find it as nice as we do. 

 

Den

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3 hours ago, mfs2k said:

My wife and I are going on our first Celebrity Cruise in March (Equinox)

 

We've been on 11 Carnival cruises. In the past 8 years, we've mostly done All inclusives in Mexico instead of cruising.

 

For our 20th anniversary, we decided it was time for us to try Celebrity.  We're not in our 30's anymore, and the Spring break party is a bit much too for us now. 

 

Obviously on this Celebrity board there are mostly Celebrity fans but I'm wondering if any of you decided to go back to Carnival after trying Celebrity because you missed what Carnival offered.

 

We have sailed CCL a few times--and had a nice cruise on the Sunshine years ago-- in an aft cabin

We had a great time at the Chefs Table which is hands down a terrific meal/molecular gasto. and plenty of great techniques that show off what the Chef and sous chefs can do.  WAAAAY btter than Celebrity's offering.

Our bartender at the Sunshine Martini bar was so great--he went on to win some recognition by major liquor vendors and won cruise ship awards. We have followed his career. 

 

That said-- early on whenever we compared cabins/service and bev packaged etc... and itinerary for the avg Caribbean sun and sea air...and a week get away-- Celebrity wins hands down

And when looking for itineraries other than Carib... we preferred Cel over CCL.

Interesting CCL added a Trans Atl  coming up and it sold out quickly.

Clearly CCL sees that there are other options than their previous markets.

 

A drawback with CCL is the lack of perks and better rooms/services and suites. And the loyalty program does not take into account the level of room--So whether you sail inside or the best rooms--it is per night....  

 

Celebrity is a different product in many ways/entertainment etc... 

You may have to try more than one Celebrity cruise to decide--- Routes/time of year all impact the experience

 

Have a great cruise! 

 

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Always a subjective thing.  We've done 1 cruise on CCL and 2 on Celebrity (with 2 more booked).  Granted the CCL was not on a "flagship", but for various reasons we prefer Celebrity.  We thought the Celebrity ships were much better maintained (one of them was an older M-class ship, the Infinity).  The CCL ship was also old (Paradise), and clearly looked older and more worn.  I cannot compare a newer CCL ship, though.

 

We like what Celebrity offers, and plan to stick with them.  But that is our taste.  We also sailed on the MSC Divina, and do recommend that for folks who have not otherwise considered MSC.

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5 hours ago, mfs2k said:

 

Obviously on this Celebrity board there are mostly Celebrity fans but I'm wondering if any of you decided to go back to Carnival after trying Celebrity because you missed what Carnival offered.

 

While Celebrity is normally a way better fit for us, we would cruise and have cruised again on Carnival just "for the FUN of it".  :classic_laugh:

Edited by OCruisers
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We cruise mainly on Celebrity, but we enjoy other cruise lines as well, including Carnival from time to time. 

 

Despite Carnival's reputation as a party cruise line, since the proliferation of the drink packages on Celebrity we have seen more drunks on Celebrity cruises than we ever saw on Carnival.

 

But for Carnival, we select longer, preferably one-way cruises that are not during school vacation times.  Those do not attract the party crowds. 

 

We like variety and believe the key is to enjoy each cruise line for what it offers. 

It is similar the way that we can enjoy steak one time and hotdogs another time.

We enjoy Chinese food,  Greek food,  Mexican food, ...... you get the idea.  When we go to a Mexican restaurant we are not disappointed that they didn't serve Italian or French food.

 

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2 minutes ago, varoo said:

 

 

But for Carnival, we select longer, preferably one-way cruises that are not during school vacation times.  Those do not attract the party crowds. 

 

 

 

 

I'm assuming you mean cruises like Alaska, Hawaii & full transit Panama Canal? Those are generally the only one- way regularly scheduled cruises besides repo cruises for new ships. Most other lines have regularly scheduled European, South American and Asian destinations that would require bi-annual transatlantic or transpacific sailings. 

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1 hour ago, kwokpot said:

I'm assuming you mean cruises like Alaska, Hawaii & full transit Panama Canal?

 

Right!  Really enjoyed their one-way Hawaii cruises, which we have done several times through the years.  I admit that our main reason for selecting Carnival was that they happened to be the only cruise line offering the itinerary we wanted at the time we wanted to go, and the price was quite reasonable.

 

Being rather quiet, laid-back types, we did have some trepidation about cruising with Carnival the first time, but not after that.

 

The two main things we disliked about Carnival were:

(1) the numerous annoying PA announcements interrupting whatever we were doing throughout each day to remind us that it was time for this activity or that activity (as though we were incapable of reading the activity schedule and deciding for ourselves)

and

(2) the equally annoying and intrusive rah-rah promotion of their childish color war type competitions. 

Some have described it as treating their passengers like children at summer camp. 

 

But Celebrity has started doing that same sort of thing (although a little more subdued) on some  cruises with their Port vs. Starboard competitions.

 

We found the itinerary, the accommodations, food and service to be just fine on Carnival, as were the staff and fellow passengers.

 

The Carnival decor (which many complain about), although not to our taste, really did not bother us.

We attended the activities that were of interest to us, and ignored the others, just as we do on any other cruise line, including Celebrity.

 

Yet even though we do like to try other cruise lines from time to time and enjoy variety, somehow Celebrity just feels like "home" to us.

 

Edited by varoo
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14 minutes ago, varoo said:

 

(2) the equally annoying and intrusive rah-rah promotion of their childish color war type competitions. 

Some have described it as treating their passengers like children at summer camp. 

 

 

How about using passenger's children against them?  On our 2nd cruise, they announced that there were free frisbees and beach balls to give away in the central atrium.  While not a ton of kids onboard in the Fall, they did come running.  No, only if the kids convince their parents to sign up for a Carnival Credit Card.  Some parents did!

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We do not stick just to Celebrity and are open to trying different lines. 

We've cruised Carnival two times, and that was one chance too many. 

The poor maintenance, condition and cleanliness of both ships was not only unexpected, but in some instances dangerous. (Holes in drapes, rotten floor, musty smell, threadbare towels, rough metal edges in the pool, poor sanitation practices in pool areas, leaky stateroom window, etc) Their vessel sanitation scores consistently fall below X's.

The crew was fantastic and did their best to provide top notch service.

Perhaps Carnival has improved in some areas as their ships do not seem to be experiencing the repeated mechanical breakdowns of a few years past. 

As with all choices, everyone balances out their tolerances and perceived value based on personal preferences.

 

 

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We did 11 Carnival cruises and 6 Princess Cruises before we tried X.  We now have over 20 on X  with 9 more booked.   We did one more on Carnival, and Princess after our first sailing on X. 

 

We enjoyed many things and had great times  on Carnival and Princess but like the smoking policy and loyalty club better on X.  

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

Edited by miched
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We have been cruising since 1996 and our first cruise was on Celebrity.  Fast forward 20 years and 13 Celebrity cruises.  I received a free Carnival cruise from my land based casino.  Not many restrictions on the offer, but we already had some land based vacations scheduled, so we decided to tack the cruise on to a Florida vacation in March 2016.  What were we getting ourselves into?  A Carnival cruise (I shuddered to think of the drunks and unruly children) during Spring Break. 
Everyone I spoke to (not one of them had taken a Carnival cruise) said we would hate the cruise, we would come home and be glad to sail Celebrity again.  You get the idea.

 

We went into this cruise with very low expectations.  We even chose an aft-extended balcony so we could escape the lowly masses if it got too much too bear. 

 

This was one of our favorite cruises to date.  Without going into a lot of detail I can say that we thought the ship (Glory) was very clean and well maintained.  The service was top notch, everything done with a smile and not once were we asked to give excellent reviews on the end of cruise survey.  Food is very subjective....with that said, we found the food in the MDR to be on par with Celebrity (last cruise on Celebrity was on the Millie).  Guy's Burgers and the Blue Iguana Cantina had excellent free food.  The entertainment on Carnival is more upbeat, we liked the live music available and people watching in the atrium (a lot of salsa dancing going on).  Yes, there were children, hundreds of them, they were not a problem, we found them to be well behaved.  We did not see any obnoxious drunks, just people having fun.  What a waste of that aft balcony-we only sat out there one time.

 

Since that cruise we have sailed Carnival twice and are sailing again in three weeks.  The prices just can't be beat, we would not get the drink plan and the other perks are not important to us. We hope to try MSC in the near future, and we would certainly sail Celebrity again if the price and itinerary were what we were looking for. 

 

This is why it is so important to have choices, there is a cruise out there for everyone.   

 

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I have alternated back and forth between Carnival and Celebrity over the last decade, and my next cruise will be in March on Carnival.  It will be interesting to return to Carnival since my last cruise with them was in 2015, but I am looking forward to it.  Carnival and Celebrity offer different kinds of vacations, but I enjoy them both in their own way.  I booked this Carnival cruise because I wanted to cruise out of New Orleans (which I don't think Celebrity does aside from stopping there as a port during Mardi Gras), and I wanted to visit a few ports in the Western Caribbean where Celebrity does not go.  I'm also looking forward to all the comedy club shows, piano bar, and kareoke that Carnival does at night.  It will be a fun change from the more mellow vibe that we also enjoy on Celebrity.

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I agree with much of the above. If you look at my signature you will see I have tried out quite a few different lines in multiple price points. EVERY single cruise had things that were great, just so-so, and even a few negatives. 

 

That said were i to go on Carnival now I’d probably be inclined to stick with their newest vessels- Breeze, Vista, Horizon, Panorama and Mardi Gras.  I came VERY VERY close to booking the latter yesterday but found a deal on Harmony of the Seas that provides me with superior value for the same timeframe/ports. 

 

I shop for itinerary, ship and value all in equal regard. I also base decisions on whom I am traveling with. I will find enjoyment in any cruise I take, but Celebrity has always hit the sweetest of the “sweet” spots for me personally. 

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Went on Carnival 4 times- now only sail on Celebrity or Royal Caribbean.  Carnival has too many wild young adults on it.  One cruise, I remember a large group knocking on cabin doors in the middle of the night- another guests fighting-

 

No longer an option for us- even for free!

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