Has Anyone Sailed Recently on Celestyal?

[thekidsandi]

Just wondering if anyone has sailed recently on Celestyal and can give a report on how they are doing after their latest shutdown. I have the 3 Continents cruise booked for November and am unsure if I want to keep the booking or give up. I was originally booked for November 2021, which was cancelled, then moved to March 2022, which was also cancelled. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[travelingman]

I am also interested in responses also as we have the B2B booked departing Nov. 12 combining the Eclectic with 3 Continents.

 

Stan

[CityGrrl]

Quoting myself from another post:

 

I was onboard the Celestyal Crystal a week ago, and I can't stop talking about how much I loved the experience. 

 

I understand your concern. They had to cancel some sailings during Covid. I was super nervous that our sailing might be cancelled (we were the second sailing of our itinerary in 2022). There are technical upgrades they are working on that were launched too soon (the online platform isn't operational yet, and it made me nervous to keep seeing ”comimg soon!" when I tried to log into an online booking experience. And the app doesn't really work when you're onboard). 

 

However, once you're onboard, you are in good hands. The crew members were uniquely warm and friendly: it's the difference between employees and hosts. 

 

The food In the main dining room was outstanding! The one time there was a hiccup (bitter green pepper for the stuffed peppers) our servers were quick to remedy the issue. 

 

I live in New York City, I'm used to great service and great food, and I loved the Crystal. 

 

Our cabin stewards were professional, warm, friendly thorough and great hosts.

 

The bottom line with Celestyal is value. You visit several insanely beautiful islands, you unpack once. You eat well. You drink without worrying about the bill. Your bed is comfy. Your room (and the ship) is impeccably clean.

 

I suggest a balcony, so you can enjoy the show of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and islands floating by.

 

While onboard, you're treated like cherished family by the lovely staff. 

 

Go. You'll remember the journey in Technicolor for the rest of your life!

[thekidsandi]

Thank you so much for your detailed response. That is what I was hoping to see. I was so excited about this cruise 2 years ago when I first booked it, but now I'm just not sure. I'll give it a couple more months and hopefully there will be some additional positive comments to get rid of my concerns.

[GlobalMethod]

On 5/31/2022 at 5:46 PM, thekidsandi said:

Thank you so much for your detailed response. That is what I was hoping to see. I was so excited about this cruise 2 years ago when I first booked it, but now I'm just not sure. I'll give it a couple more months and hopefully there will be some additional positive comments to get rid of my concerns.

We're taking a "fling" on June 11th ... it is hard to find current reviews on Celestyal but we saw enough to take a "fling" with them ... after all, we live in Athens ... we're prepared for a reduction from the standards of our regular small ship cruise line, Azamara ... so ... bring on the Jim Beam! ... 🙂 ...

[thekidsandi]

Would love to read a review when you return, if you have a chance.

[ejincali]

On 5/30/2022 at 10:40 PM, CityGrrl said:

Quoting myself from another post:

 

I was onboard the Celestyal Crystal a week ago, and I can't stop talking about how much I loved the experience. 

 

I understand your concern. They had to cancel some sailings during Covid. I was super nervous that our sailing might be cancelled (we were the second sailing of our itinerary in 2022). There are technical upgrades they are working on that were launched too soon (the online platform isn't operational yet, and it made me nervous to keep seeing ”comimg soon!" when I tried to log into an online booking experience. And the app doesn't really work when you're onboard). 

 

However, once you're onboard, you are in good hands. The crew members were uniquely warm and friendly: it's the difference between employees and hosts. 

 

The food In the main dining room was outstanding! The one time there was a hiccup (bitter green pepper for the stuffed peppers) our servers were quick to remedy the issue. 

 

I live in New York City, I'm used to great service and great food, and I loved the Crystal. 

 

Our cabin stewards were professional, warm, friendly thorough and great hosts.

 

The bottom line with Celestyal is value. You visit several insanely beautiful islands, you unpack once. You eat well. You drink without worrying about the bill. Your bed is comfy. Your room (and the ship) is impeccably clean.

 

I suggest a balcony, so you can enjoy the show of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and islands floating by.

 

While onboard, you're treated like cherished family by the lovely staff. 

 

Go. You'll remember the journey in Technicolor for the rest of your life!

Curious as to what time you arrived in Santorini and if you felt you had enough time there?  

[GlobalMethod]

We just returned from our 1 week Celestyal Crystal. Every cruiser is different but for us our overall rating was "good". (using excellent, good, fair, barely passing, and avoid, as criteria standards). Considering all our cruises recently have been with Azamara, who we consider the best match for us, we were surprised at our overall impression being "good".

 

As I've written earlier in this thread, my previous research on Celestyal had caused me to have some basic concerns. Thus we considered this to just be just a "fling" cruise. If it worked out great but if it didn't this was the lowest pricing we've ever had on a cruise, so no big deal.

 

• Specifically food in dining rooms (not the buffet which was "barely passing") was varied, always hot, and well prepared. We were shocked at how good it was. (excellent) Of course, Greek food was emphasized and we love Greek food. 
• Wine, beer and selected spirits are included. Whisky was J.W. Red Label, Smirnoff Vodka, Bacardi Rum, and Beefeater Gin.
• There were about 500 guests and way too many crew on board to service 500 guests, so a lot of standing around. All were friendly, helpful, and courteous.
• The variety of entertainment for us was was 'good' and also a real surprise as it was much better than expected. However, about 1/3 of the songs performed were in English, 1/3 Greek and 1/3 Spanish.
• The items mentioned above in this comment are the most important to us. The items below were not positive but relatively minor.
• The interior of the ship was kept very clean ... but ... there were dirty outside windows throughout ship caused by accumulated dirt on the outside windows over time. This constantly bothered us. I finally was able to ask an officer about this and was told only that I wasn't the first to mention this. They were trying to hire people for this outside work. ???? (barely, barely passing)
• It has been mentioned that the ship is "dated". However, this was not really a big deal to us as on the whole. Everything was neat, clean and organized. However, our cabin only had two electrical outlets which did cause some logistical issues. (fair)
• As a whole the cabin seemed dated in the size of items in the cabin. I am 6 foot 2 inches and in the bathroom everything seemed designed for a much smaller person including a very low bathroom toilet seat. (barely passing)
• We had been spoiled by Azamara on not needing a cruise card for anything except boarding. With Celestyal we had to show the cruise card for every drink (even ice water). Very annoying. (barely passing)
• Most cruise companies do announcements in the language of the last country they were in and English. Celestyal does four or five languages loudly for each message throughout the ship and inside your cabin. Very annoying. (barely passing)

 

All in all we do plan on doing another Celestyal cruise. They do provide a compelling quality/value offering. We hope they can work on some of the mentioned minor issues. I have written to Celestyal directly.

 

[ejincali]

Thanks for the info, GlobalMethod!!  Any comments on the ports and how long you were in them?  I'm especially interested in amount of time in Santorini.

[thekidsandi]

On 6/19/2022 at 12:34 AM, GlobalMethod said:

We just returned from our 1 week Celestyal Crystal. Every cruiser is different but for us our overall rating was "good". (using excellent, good, fair, barely passing, and avoid, as criteria standards). Considering all our cruises recently have been with Azamara, who we consider the best match for us, we were surprised at our overall impression being "good".

 

As I've written earlier in this thread, my previous research on Celestyal had caused me to have some basic concerns. Thus we considered this to just be just a "fling" cruise. If it worked out great but if it didn't this was the lowest pricing we've ever had on a cruise, so no big deal.

 

• Specifically food in dining rooms (not the buffet which was "barely passing") was varied, always hot, and well prepared. We were shocked at how good it was. (excellent) Of course, Greek food was emphasized and we love Greek food. 
• Wine, beer and selected spirits are included. Whisky was J.W. Red Label, Smirnoff Vodka, Bacardi Rum, and Beefeater Gin.
• There were about 500 guests and way too many crew on board to service 500 guests, so a lot of standing around. All were friendly, helpful, and courteous.
• The variety of entertainment for us was was 'good' and also a real surprise as it was much better than expected. However, about 1/3 of the songs performed were in English, 1/3 Greek and 1/3 Spanish.
• The items mentioned above in this comment are the most important to us. The items below were not positive but relatively minor.
• The interior of the ship was kept very clean ... but ... there were dirty outside windows throughout ship caused by accumulated dirt on the outside windows over time. This constantly bothered us. I finally was able to ask an officer about this and was told only that I wasn't the first to mention this. They were trying to hire people for this outside work. ???? (barely, barely passing)
• It has been mentioned that the ship is "dated". However, this was not really a big deal to us as on the whole. Everything was neat, clean and organized. However, our cabin only had two electrical outlets which did cause some logistical issues. (fair)
• As a whole the cabin seemed dated in the size of items in the cabin. I am 6 foot 2 inches and in the bathroom everything seemed designed for a much smaller person including a very low bathroom toilet seat. (barely passing)
• We had been spoiled by Azamara on not needing a cruise card for anything except boarding. With Celestyal we had to show the cruise card for every drink (even ice water). Very annoying. (barely passing)
• Most cruise companies do announcements in the language of the last country they were in and English. Celestyal does four or five languages loudly for each message throughout the ship and inside your cabin. Very annoying. (barely passing)

 

All in all we do plan on doing another Celestyal cruise. They do provide a compelling quality/value offering. We hope they can work on some of the mentioned minor issues. I have written to Celestyal directly.

 

I really appreciate your very detailed information.

[GlobalMethod]

19 hours ago, ejincali said:

Thanks for the info, GlobalMethod!!  Any comments on the ports and how long you were in them?  I'm especially interested in amount of time in Santorini.

Santorini is always extremely crowded. We have been many times and didn't want to fight the crowds on this visit. We had other passengers tell us they regretted walking down the path to the tender port, which is steep. The cable car's pricing keeps going up and up. The actual time in port was 'different'. 4:30 PM to 2:00 AM

[GlobalMethod]

19 hours ago, ejincali said:

Thanks for the info, GlobalMethod!!  Any comments on the ports and how long you were in them?  I'm especially interested in amount of time in Santorini.

I forgot to comment on the port of Milos. This was the only port we hadn't visited previously on this cruise. We did the paid excursion and were so glad we did. If you every wondered what it would be like to walk on the moon then you would have a good feel for it after visiting Milos. It is just a different type of volcanic reaction that occurred there with the volcanic ash. Very unique.

[ejincali]

6 hours ago, GlobalMethod said:

Santorini is always extremely crowded. We have been many times and didn't want to fight the crowds on this visit. We had other passengers tell us they regretted walking down the path to the tender port, which is steep. The cable car's pricing keeps going up and up. The actual time in port was 'different'. 4:30 PM to 2:00 AM

Thanks again.  I've done that walk, wasn't so much the steepness that bothered me as the aftermath of the donkeys...

[Colorado5358]

GlobalMethod, I really appreciate reading your review, it is very helpful, thanks!

We’re debating about the Nov. 12 fourteen day trip vs Oceania’s on October 18. We like the ports of the Celestyal trip, and it has two less sea days than Oceania, but we’re concerned since we have read reviews on Celestyal of musty/moldy smells since it’s such an old ship. We would definitely enjoy and appreciate the luxury of Oceania but wonder if Celestyal would be ok and the smaller ship sounds good. We’re usually too tired after touring to take advantage of entertainment, so that’s not really a concern for us.

Does anyone have details about the dining experience, such as can you eat dinner on your balcony after a long day, or do you have to eat in the dining rooms? is the Buffett always available or only at breakfast/lunch? Why was it barely passable?

 

Also, how was the WiFi, embarkation, noise level in the rooms, laundry availability?

 

Thanks for any information you can give.

[GlobalMethod]

12 hours ago, Colorado5358 said:

GlobalMethod, I really appreciate reading your review, it is very helpful, thanks!

We’re debating about the Nov. 12 fourteen day trip vs Oceania’s on October 18. We like the ports of the Celestyal trip, and it has two less sea days than Oceania, but we’re concerned since we have read reviews on Celestyal of musty/moldy smells since it’s such an old ship. We would definitely enjoy and appreciate the luxury of Oceania but wonder if Celestyal would be ok and the smaller ship sounds good. We’re usually too tired after touring to take advantage of entertainment, so that’s not really a concern for us.

Does anyone have details about the dining experience, such as can you eat dinner on your balcony after a long day, or do you have to eat in the dining rooms? is the Buffett always available or only at breakfast/lunch? Why was it barely passable?

 

Also, how was the WiFi, embarkation, noise level in the rooms, laundry availability?

 

Thanks for any information you can give.

The thing with Celestyal is they have a low base price but everything else is additional, like room service. This is handled with an extra charge. So understanding that, you can eat on your balcony but with this extra charge. There is no room fridge.

 

I probably should have rated the buffet "fair" and not "barely passing". I really isn't bad for breakfast. As you can tell we are not really "buffet" people.

 

We didn't leave the ship at every port since we had been to most of them several times. WiFi had an additional charge attached but we didn't feel we needed it on board since it was always available right off the ship in most ports.

 

Embarkation is never too bad on a smaller ship with fewer passengers, so we had no complaints.

 

No washer/dryer area like on Azamara but they will do your laundry, but of course, for extra charges.

 

Noise levels were never a problem anywhere on the ship, including our cabin. (except for blasting announcements loudly in several languages)

 

In summary, we think Oceania is a lot more like our regular cruise line, Azamara. It would be our preference but Celestyal is great bang for the buck to see the Greek Islands ... just don't expect it to be a direct competitor to Azamara/Oceania in overall quality. We thought it was worth a "fling"!

[travelingman]

Have not said Celestyal yet.  We are booked on the Nov.12 14-day Crystal cruise.  From the reviews I have read the bottom line seems to be @GlobalMethod has said.  Do not be comparing it to Oceania or other "premium/luxury line.  The Celesyal Crystal is an older and smaller ship.  Might show some aging here and there.  Since the basic cruise cost is low there are up charges for things that you might get for free on some lines.  But with the low basic cruise costs I'm not worried about some additional charges.  One thing I did read was the WIFI might be slow in some areas.  The overall reviews I read were mostly positive.  The main opinion seems to be to go for the destinations.  Some of the mid to lower tier cabins will be smaller than the newer lines.  Need to move up to the "suites" to have larger cabins.  Obviously reviews are subjective.  Some I have read did not think the food was all that great while others thought it was good.  There are some pretty good YouTube reviews from prior to COVID that you might want to look at.

Guess the bottom line is you can do Oceania and have what you are used to (ship wise) or go for a lower cost cruise with a good port itinerary with a new adventure.  I chose the new adventure.

Good luck on your choice and your cruise.

 

Stan

[weatherman46]

Does anyone know if the XD grade outside cabins on the Crystal have got mini-fridges?

[GlobalMethod]

14 hours ago, weatherman46 said:

Does anyone know if the XD grade outside cabins on the Crystal have got mini-fridges?

Not that I know of ...

 

https://www.greek-*****/cruise-ships/cabins.asp?c=celestyal-cristal/XD

[kilili]

On 8/4/2022 at 5:19 PM, weatherman46 said:

Does anyone know if the XD grade outside cabins on the Crystal have got mini-fridges?

Ours did (Sailed July 16)

[CityGrrl]

On 6/7/2022 at 3:10 PM, ejincali said:

Curious as to what time you arrived in Santorini and if you felt you had enough time there?  

 

I'm just seeing this question, months later. The time on Santorini does feel short. I think we were able to get onto a tender around 2p and took a tender back around midnight. 

 

I was a bit of a contrarian when it comes to Santorini. I knew several ships were in port, so, even though I've never seen it, and I know it would have been stunning, we skipped Oia. I knew that it wouldn't be as fun for me to explore if we were shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of people trying to enjoy the sunset.

 

Instead, my hubby and I headed the other direction, to go to Santo Winery https://santowines.gr/ in Pyrgos. The Sunset was stunning, and we had a beautiful wine tasting and dinner, soaking up the beauty of the caldera. 

 

We were crazy enough to walk up the stairs (it was mid-May and the sun was already blazing!), but then took a cab to and from the winery, and the funicular down, back to the tenders.

 

The reality of that volcanic island and it's extreme terrain hits you immediately as you sail into the harbor, and it is stunning! 

 

If Oia is your main reason for visiting the Greek Islands, I'm not sure cruising is the idea way to visit. But if you have seen Oia before, or could enjoy it in a crowd or could enjoy the beauty of the Caldera from another vantage point, then why not!    

[travelingman]

@Colorado5358 which cruise did you decide to take - Celestyal or Oceania?

 

Stan

 

 

[travelingman]

On 5/31/2022 at 10:46 AM, thekidsandi said:

Thank you so much for your detailed response. That is what I was hoping to see. I was so excited about this cruise 2 years ago when I first booked it, but now I'm just not sure. I'll give it a couple more months and hopefully there will be some additional positive comments to get rid of my concerns.

What was your decision on taking the 3 Continent cruise in November?

Stan

[thekidsandi]

I decided to postpone until November 2023. My traveling companion does not want to get a Covid booster, which is required this year, but won't be next year, unless something else happens. I really want to take this cruise. I love the itinerary and am a bit concerned with Celestyal, but I'm willing to take the risk.

[travelingman]

We have stayed the course and are leaving in 2 weeks (Nov. 😎 for Athens to board on Nov. 12 for our B2B 14 night Eclectic Aegean and 3 Continent cruise with the cruise completion on Nov. 26,  We will then fly to Vienna for 3 days for the wife to visit a Christmas Market.

Stan

[thekidsandi]

18 hours ago, travelingman said:

We have stayed the course and are leaving in 2 weeks (Nov. 😎 for Athens to board on Nov. 12 for our B2B 14 night Eclectic Aegean and 3 Continent cruise with the cruise completion on Nov. 26,  We will then fly to Vienna for 3 days for the wife to visit a Christmas Market.

Stan

That is exciting. Have a wonderful time and pop back in here with a review when you have a chance.