New to Royal Caribbean

[hobgoblin]

I am normally a Celebrity passenger and have never been with anyone else and am currently looking at  a cruise to the Fjords on the Anthem Of The Seas ship.

Can anyone comment on what main differences will be in balcony cabins, food quality and ambience ?

Do you have to pre book the theatre /entertainment (noticed this was a thing on P&O ships )

Also  ,if anyone has visited the fjords with RCI  and how good the excursions were ?

Thanks in advance .

[Ret MP]

2 minutes ago, hobgoblin said:

I am normally a Celebrity passenger and have never been with anyone else and am currently looking at  a cruise to the Fjords on the Anthem Of The Seas ship.

Can anyone comment on what main differences will be in balcony cabins, food quality and ambience ?

Do you have to pre book the theatre /entertainment (noticed this was a thing on P&O ships )

Also  ,if anyone has visited the fjords with RCI  and how good the excursions were ?

Thanks in advance .

While I believe you will enjoy the cruise and all it's offerings, it's still way to subjective to say if you will like this, that, or the other thing.  It's way tooooooo personal.  

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of Royal Caribbean and I really do think/hope you enjoy it.  I've never been on a Celebrity ship.  But, I've read mixed reviews of them, mostly positive, though.  You'll find the same with Royal.  Again, it's very subjective.

[hobgoblin]

Thanks for your answer, maybe I should post on the celebrity forum ?

[firefly333]

I would say shows are better on anthem and food better on celebrity. Celebrity is more inclusive. Rcl everything is additional. 

[DaKahuna]

34 minutes ago, hobgoblin said:

I am normally a Celebrity passenger and have never been with anyone else and am currently looking at  a cruise to the Fjords on the Anthem Of The Seas ship.

Can anyone comment on what main differences will be in balcony cabins, food quality and ambience ?

Do you have to pre book the theatre /entertainment (noticed this was a thing on P&O ships )

Also  ,if anyone has visited the fjords with RCI  and how good the excursions were ?

Thanks in advance .

 

These are had questions to answer because the areas are so subjective.  

 

 We've never sailed the Fjords but have sailed quite a bit on both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity.  In our experience/opinion both the food and service on Celebrity is better than on Royal.  Celebrity usually has a higher staff to guest ratio than Royal.  

 

As far as rooms go, take the example of a veranda on deck 8 on Celebrity Equinox,  This room is 194 sq feet.  On Anthem, balcony stateroom range from 177 square feet to 198 square feet.  

 

For a given cruise there will be less children and more older adults on Celebrity than Royal Caribbean. Entertainment on Royal is much more varied as there are larger venues but like food and service, this will be subjective.  We have seen excellent shows on both lines but we have also had some that we would not recommend on both as well. 

 

 

[firefly333]

34 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

These are had questions to answer because the areas are so subjective.  

 

 We've never sailed the Fjords but have sailed quite a bit on both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity.  In our experience/opinion both the food and service on Celebrity is better than on Royal.  Celebrity usually has a higher staff to guest ratio than Royal.  

 

As far as rooms go, take the example of a veranda on deck 8 on Celebrity Equinox,  This room is 194 sq feet.  On Anthem, balcony stateroom range from 177 square feet to 198 square feet.  

 

For a given cruise there will be less children and more older adults on Celebrity than Royal Caribbean. Entertainment on Royal is much more varied as there are larger venues but like food and service, this will be subjective.  We have seen excellent shows on both lines but we have also had some that we would not recommend on both as well. 

 

 

I didnt notice sf. But I had nicer wood tall dresser and upgraded shampoo and stuff on celebrity .. though I've now had it on rcl but now I get them for loyalty on rcl. Subjective but nicer on celebrity.

 

I would look at what's included with celebrity now to decide. Pay restaurant or drinks. Rcl doesnt have any rates that include drinks. 

 

Rcl has better perks lol. ..I think I got elite perks on celebrity. Every line has some things better imo. No one basic line has it all.

[DaKahuna]

20 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I didnt notice sf. But I had nicer wood tall dresser and upgraded shampoo and stuff on celebrity .. though I've now had it on rcl but now I get them for loyalty on rcl. Subjective but nicer on celebrity.

 

 

 Yes, Celebrity is a step up from Royal Caribbean, except for variety of entertainment. 

 

20 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I would look at what's included with celebrity now to decide. Pay restaurant or drinks. Rcl doesnt have any rates that include drinks. 

 

Rcl has better perks lol. ..I think I got elite perks on celebrity. Every line has some things better imo. No one basic line has it all.

 

 Both true -- Celebrity does offer a booking rate that does not include the drink package, wifi, and prepaid gratuties so it is possible to do a comparable price comparison. I think that having the perks package included in the cruise price just makes it a whole lot simpler. 

 

I am not sure i agree that RCL has better perks.  The Unlimited free drinks for Elite (which you get for being Diamond or above on Royal) at most all bars. Granted the drinks are limited to certain beers, wine, and bar stock liquor it's still a good thing.  Free. bag of laundry, free access to Persian Gardens on one port day, etc.. are pretty good perks. 

 

But I do agree - no one basic line has them all.  However, if you really want to be spoiled, sail in a Suite on Celebrity. 

 

[klfhngr]

Can anyone comment on what main differences will be in balcony cabins, food quality and ambience ?

• Rooms are about the same, might be slightly larger on X. Very nice though.
• Food? Hmmm. I would've said X hands down before our May 10 day Med cruise. The food was so-so and the service was TERRIBLE!
• Ambiance is a little more laid back on X, service outside of MDR is also very good on X. Also good on Royal. We'll be going in Royal in 2 weeks, so I'll be able to do a better/more current comparison to both!

 

Do you have to pre book the theatre /entertainment (noticed this was a thing on P&O ships )

• I didn't see any options on X to book before cruise, and the same applies to Royal.

 

Also  ,if anyone has visited the fjords with RCI  and how good the excursions were ?

• N/A

[RobInMN]

In my opinion, I'd recommend the Jewel Artic Circle over the Anthem Fjords as it goes up to Tromso and Honningsvag. Discussed in thread below.

We did a combination of RCI excursions and third party. It depends on the port. In Honningsvag, the Blue Puffin (3rd party) North Cape tour came highly recommended, and it did not disappoint. In some ports, it didn't seem to matter, we'd see the same groups at all the stops. I had no complaints about any tours we did, RCI or 3rd party. There aren't enough adjectives, I can only sum up Norway as just absolutely stunning. I can't imagine any cruise line or tour company could mess it up and make you disappointed. Main thing is, book your excursions early!! There were some highly recommended third party tours that we missed out on, but still enjoyed similar RCI ones. And if you go to Flam, the train will book up fast.

 

Here's a couple recent threads about RCL Fjord cruises.

 

[Ret MP]

26 minutes ago, RobInMN said:

In my opinion, I'd recommend the Jewel Artic Circle over the Anthem Fjords as it goes up to Tromso and Honningsvag. Discussed in thread below.

We did a combination of RCI excursions and third party. It depends on the port. In Honningsvag, the Blue Puffin (3rd party) North Cape tour came highly recommended, and it did not disappoint. In some ports, it didn't seem to matter, we'd see the same groups at all the stops. I had no complaints about any tours we did, RCI or 3rd party. There aren't enough adjectives, I can only sum up Norway as just absolutely stunning. I can't imagine any cruise line or tour company could mess it up and make you disappointed. Main thing is, book your excursions early!! There were some highly recommended third party tours that we missed out on, but still enjoyed similar RCI ones. And if you go to Flam, the train will book up fast.

 

Here's a couple recent threads about RCL Fjord cruises.

 

The Fjords of Norway, Norway is a beautiful country.  I was there in the 80's, in Bardufoss (sp?) on a NATO exercise.  I was in charge of a security unit and we'd would go west to the Fjords.  We didn't get up close, we'd go to the mountain tops overlooking the Fjords, not unlike the picture above except in the middle of the winter, in support of a fictional navel movement going through the Fjords.  I had a hard time keeping my eye on the prize, I'd be looking around the beauty of the Fjords and country side.  I'd love to go back and actually cruise through the very very very beautiful Fjords, in the summer.  

[Donsyb]

Assuming Anthem still has We Will Rock You, then entertainment is better on Royal.  The show was as good as the West End version in our view (we had Curly Watts from Coronation Street play the Nigel Planer character).

Food was a bit better on X, however I haven't sailed Royal since Anthem launched, so unsure on current offering.

Both Anthem and X were beautiful ships.

[Tulsacoker]

20 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

But I do agree - no one basic line has them all.  However, if you really want to be spoiled, sail in a Suite on Celebrity. 

 

Hi John, Stacey and I just booked our first Celebrity cruise! Its not till spring 2024 but loved the itinerary to Columbia, the ABC's and Grand Caymen. Cannot wait to see and experience the retreat as compared to CK/SL on Royal. 

[DaKahuna]

 That's great news.  You guys are going to love it.  Which ship did you book?   Our last Celebrity cruise was 12-day Southern Caribbean on Silhouette in March/April of this year. 

 

Some of the things that you will find different is that unlike Quantum where Coastal Kitchen is open for lunch on port days, Luminae is not open for lunch on port days.  What we would do depends on the ship. On Reflection there is no Resort Sun Deck so we would have our Personal Host (formerly called Butler) bring us sandwiches and eat on our balcony.  When we were on Silhouette which had a Resort Sundeck we would have lunch up there or in our room, depending on weather.  There is always the Ocean View Cafe (Celebrity equivalent to Windjammer) as well. 

 

Drop me an email if you want additional details, recommendations, etc... 

Just my username @ gmail.com   

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by DaKahuna