Long time Princess Cruiser trying Celebrity for the 1st time - Line tips please

[broadwaybaby123]

This is a much more subdued line...think of cruising like it used to be.

[abbydancer2003]

58 minutes ago, jb008 said:

 

The 8 & 10p showtimes were also used on HAL too (at least the two sailings we've done so far) and I much prefer the 7 & 9p times that X uses.  Catch the 7p show and then dinner at 8/8:15.  With the 10p shows we'd finish our 8p second seating and have to kill 30-45 mins before the 10p show and several times ended up skipping the show and calling it an earlier night.

 

 

 

From our 2/17 Silhouette sailing, the biggest difference we noticed was the different "levels" on X made it feel more premium if you were in a higher "tier" (e.g., Suite, Aqua, Concierge) while a couple we hung out with remarked that a basic inside cabin felt like a "coach" experience (e.g., diff lines for embarkation, restaurants, tenders).  PCL and HAL didn't have as noticeable of a difference (although suites got VIP treatment and they've added the Club Orange and Club Class on HAL and PCL, respectively - but it was still less intrusive than how X does it, partly due to volume of "premium" categories on X).  We're booked in an ocean view on X, so this wasn't a deal breaker by any means - just an observation we noticed.

 

Added in Edit: Also word of warning if you don't have a beverage package, drink prices on X were higher than on Princess.  I haven't sailed on X since '17, but from what little research I've done I think that trend is still running true.

Yeah, X does differentiate more between the levels - and having had Blu, Luminae (on X) and Club Class (Princess), the difference is bigger.   Club class dining is the same menu, with one or two extra things, whereas both Blu and Luminae are separate restaurants.  And a minisuite on X gets you suite perks, on Princess it gives you a better bathroom, and CC for some minis.  Of course, you pay for that different.

 

And yes, drinks are still more expensive on X.  

[Reel Love]

Hi KristyMisty.  I echo jb008's recommendation of the Silent Disco.  It really is a lot of fun!! 😊  

I hope that you enjoy your first Celebrity cruise!!  Our first Celebrity cruise was also on the Eclipse...she is a lovely ship 

[KristyMisty14]

14 hours ago, Reel Love said:

Hi KristyMisty.  I echo jb008's recommendation of the Silent Disco.  It really is a lot of fun!! 😊  

I hope that you enjoy your first Celebrity cruise!!  Our first Celebrity cruise was also on the Eclipse...she is a lovely ship 

I have heard about this Silent Disco sounds fun and hilarious lol!

[Lolabunny488]

We recently came back from our first princess cruise over Xmas and new year! Having done celebrity for the last 5 years and royal before that. Being younger cruiser we had heard different things about princess. 

We love blu and the differences you get, also silent disco is a must and some of the adult late game shows are good too. We did Alaska last year and the information given out by the guides on board regarding the animals and nature we were seeing was great. 

We felt the staff were by far in front and the variety of food far in front. We also liked the fact you could get different juices apple, raspberry etc at breakfast even though we always purchase the drink so package. 

Cafe al bacio is our favourite place to go the lime green chairs are lovely and high and coffees are delicious along with the breakfast pastries particularly the almond croissants. 

The choice of ice cream again is far in front being able to choose and knowing they are made onboard. 

Im sure you’ll enjoy the experience again everyone expects different when they have there cruise. 

[KristyMisty14]

53 minutes ago, Lolabunny488 said:

We recently came back from our first princess cruise over Xmas and new year! Having done celebrity for the last 5 years and royal before that. Being younger cruiser we had heard different things about princess. 

We love blu and the differences you get, also silent disco is a must and some of the adult late game shows are good too. We did Alaska last year and the information given out by the guides on board regarding the animals and nature we were seeing was great. 

We felt the staff were by far in front and the variety of food far in front. We also liked the fact you could get different juices apple, raspberry etc at breakfast even though we always purchase the drink so package. 

Cafe al bacio is our favourite place to go the lime green chairs are lovely and high and coffees are delicious along with the breakfast pastries particularly the almond croissants. 

The choice of ice cream again is far in front being able to choose and knowing they are made onboard. 

Im sure you’ll enjoy the experience again everyone expects different when they have there cruise. 

Good to know!  We are also younger (sh) and we are travelling with my sisters in law and their husbands and so good to hear the late night game shows might be fun!  We are doing Alaska (not sure if that's in my original post or not) as well! We are very interested in the naturalists/guides!   

[cardiffman]

We have done a few Princess Cruises and one long Celebrity Eclipse cruise. We enjoyed all of those. The thing is, we were in a suite for our Eclipse cruise and most of our Princess cruises have been CC-mini suites. So we did come away with the impression that X is better than PCL but we can’t say we were doing an apples-to-apples comparison. We are looking forward to more cruises on both lines, though. 

[abbydancer2003]

1 hour ago, cardiffman said:

We have done a few Princess Cruises and one long Celebrity Eclipse cruise. We enjoyed all of those. The thing is, we were in a suite for our Eclipse cruise and most of our Princess cruises have been CC-mini suites. So we did come away with the impression that X is better than PCL but we can’t say we were doing an apples-to-apples comparison. We are looking forward to more cruises on both lines, though. 

You were closer to apples-to-apples than you think.  The only difference between an X full suite (at the Celebrity suite level - I think above gets specialty dining added) and a Sky Suite is space  (A Sky suite is pretty similar to a Princess mini).  So if you figure you'd have gotten the same service in a Sky Suite, you're doing apples-to-apples.

[jb008]

4 hours ago, abbydancer said:

You were closer to apples-to-apples than you think.  The only difference between an X full suite (at the Celebrity suite level - I think above gets specialty dining added) and a Sky Suite is space  (A Sky suite is pretty similar to a Princess mini).  So if you figure you'd have gotten the same service in a Sky Suite, you're doing apples-to-apples.

 

Sky suite and above on X gets access to Michael's Club, Luminae restaurant, suite boarding line, butler and concierge (who actually gets stuff done) - full suite treatment in other words. 

 

We did a Sky Suite when we sailed the med, and the suite concierge escorted us from the pier side check-in directly to the Michael's Club lounge to wait, even though the ship wasn't open otherwise yet. She also remembered us when we ran into her on our next cruise 7 months later. Also Capt came to the suite lounge to greet all the guests there and thanked us for sailing Celebrity. 

 

Minisuite on PCL is similar size to sky suite, but I don't think I'd compare CC dining to Luminae and I don't remember Princess having dedicated lounge space for suites. It also didn't look like CC was the red carpet treatment that suites get on X.  Instead of a dedicated lounge I thought on PCL suites got a special reception at one of the bars for a few hours every day. 

 

After sailing in sky suite on X, they totally beat the "baby" suites on both PCL and HAL.  We don't really care about the extra space over a regular balcony/verandah room, it's all the extras (better dining, lounge access, etc...) that make the room upgrades appealing.  Aside from the smaller room size, i thought Aqua class was more comparable to CC (although I personally liked Blu over Luminae, and based on reviews I think either still sounds a step above CC dining), with no lounge access, but priority lines for embarkation. 

 

That all being said, cost to go from balcony to CC minis is much less of a price jump than balcony (or even concierge balcony of aqua) up to sky suite on any of the sailings I've looked at. 

Edited February 6, 2020 by jb008

[jb008]

For reference though in terms of numbers:

Equinox as of 2016 had 40 sky suites, 12 celebrity suites, 8 royal suites, and 2 penthouse suites.

 

Crown Princess (which is only a little bit bigger ship by pax capacity) has >150 Club Class minis, according to cruisecritic.