New to Celebrity

[GAMOMOF2]

After cruising with Carnival for many years, 29 cruises, I am tired of them and trying something new. Please let me know what to expect. Especially things that will be totally different from Carnival. Things like when can I go to room on embarkation, how is getting off ship, and anything in between. I feel like a first time cruiser with this new line.

[prmssk]

The general how a cruise runs is actually very similar to Carnival.  A cruise is still a cruise with many of the same protocols and routines.

 

What will be different is the vibe and activities offered.  Celebrity is a lot more relaxed and lower key.  You won't find water slides and roller coasters and things like that.  Instead, it is more of a resort atmosphere with pools, lounges, music, shows, trivia, etc.  You will also find that generally the service and food is a step up (although Carnival does have some good food at times).

[Arizona Wildcat]

15 minutes ago, GAMOMOF2 said:

After cruising with Carnival for many years, 29 cruises, I am tired of them and trying something new. Please let me know what to expect. Especially things that will be totally different from Carnival. Things like when can I go to room on embarkation, how is getting off ship, and anything in between. I feel like a first time cruiser with this new line.

There are lots of threads with hundreds of posts about exactly what you are asking.  

As for embarkation and disembarking without knowing where you are cruising and what type of cabin nobody could answer.

What I do know is Celebrity is a quieter and older group that doesn't tolerate the booze cruise atmosphere I experienced twice on Carnival.   The longer the cruise the older the cruisers and fewer children.  No rock climbing walls or the such.

[jelayne]

No belly flop or hairy chest competition at the pool,  rather pool volleyball or on some ship bocce on the lawn.

Only 1 announcement a day.

[prmssk]

3 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Only 1 announcement a day.

And not usually into the cabin unless important.  On my last Carnival cruise, I was so relieved the speaker in our stateroom was broken!  I really didn't want to be interrupted every time a new FUN event was starting.  I don't have to worry about that on Celebrity.

[davekathy]

33 minutes ago, GAMOMOF2 said:

After cruising with Carnival for many years, 29 cruises, I am tired of them and trying something new. Please let me know what to expect. Especially things that will be totally different from Carnival. Things like when can I go to room on embarkation, how is getting off ship, and anything in between. I feel like a first time cruiser with this new line.

Try Celebrity and decide for yourself. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. 

[Angua]

We have done many Carnival cruises and 2 Celebrity cruises so far (another celebrity cruise booked for December).

 

I have read that celebrity embarkation is more like Carnival now, at least for some ships, with the keys available at the cabin, which streamlines the embarkation process.  You can drop your bags off in your cabin upon embarkation then leave to allow the stewards to finish prepping the rooms, with no loyalty status required to do this early.

 

There are no towel animals in your cabins when they are serviced, but I think they are still performing 2X a day service instead of picking early or late service.

 

We find it to be a lot calmer, quiter and mellow than the average Carnival cruise.  Like mentioned above there are no water slides, roller coasters, sky rides etc.  Usually fewer kids running around. 

 

If I remember correctly the casino is completely non smoking. 

 

We really enjoy Celebrity for different reasons than our enjoyment of Carnival.  You probably will as well.

 

edited to add:  We are platinum on Carnival and one thing I will miss is the free laundry since we have no status on Celebrity ;-).

Edited October 19, 2022 by Angua

[mfs2k]

 

I, too, was a regular Carnival cruiser (12 cruises) before switching to Celebrity in 2019.

 

I was always amused by people's impressions of Carnival being a ship full of animals.  I never experienced that and I sailed on many Spring Break caribbean cruises. 

 

Carnival was fun and enjoyable for my wife and me.  We never travelled with children and never experienced anything crazy.

 

With that said, we decided, as we got older, it was time to step it up a notch and move to Celebrity.  Celebrity is a bit of an older crowd than Carnival, but there are many cruisers in their 30's to 60's.  Celebrity is more refined and has better service and mostly better food.  There are fewer "fun" cruise organized activities poolside but you definitely can have a good, fun time.

 

The room experience is nicer on Celebrity too.  It's like transitioning from a Marriott 3 1/2 star hotel to a 4 star hotel. If you want a 5 star hotel experience like Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton, you need to get out of mass market cruising and you'll pay a lot more. 

 

The music on board is good, but I found the bands to be better and more lively on Carnival.  Celebrity has many acoustical performances and no piano bars.

 

The shows on Celebrity are good, just as they were on Carnival.  Celebrity will bring in more entertainers for specific legs of cruises, which Carnival does less of.

 

Late night was more active on Carnival.  Celebrity cruisers go to sleep at 10 pm.  (kidding!  lol) (sort of)

 

 

[mfs2k]

28 minutes ago, Angua said:

We are platinum on Carnival and one thing I will miss is the free laundry since we have no status on Celebrity ;-).

same

[basenji56]

Reading the recent stories about several brawls on Carnival ships has given me a bad impression of that line.  But those brawls may be total anomalies. I've never seen a brawl on Celebrity--but Celebrity cruisers may just be wary of breaking a hip.

[JCruise85]

21 minutes ago, basenji56 said:

Reading the recent stories about several brawls on Carnival ships has given me a bad impression of that line.  But those brawls may be total anomalies. I've never seen a brawl on Celebrity--but Celebrity cruisers may just be wary of breaking a hip.

Never seen a brawl on a Celebrity ship but an elderly gentleman did bring a knife to the formal night party.

It was apparently to pop balloons, so it was both annoying and unnerving.

[GAMOMOF2]

Thank you for the good info. We have never had the crazy party atmosphere on Carnival people complain about it is more we are empty nesters and want to get away from kids and have a more relaxed atmosphere. We don’t party but we aren’t dead yet either. We are 50. I do love a comedy show so hope they have that.  Looking for more upscale cruise. Announcements dont bother me as they have never been inside my room.  I have never seen a fight either just ones online.  I will miss my towel animals though.

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, GAMOMOF2 said:

Thank you for the good info. We have never had the crazy party atmosphere on Carnival people complain about it is more we are empty nesters and want to get away from kids and have a more relaxed atmosphere. We don’t party but we aren’t dead yet either. We are 50. I do love a comedy show so hope they have that.  Looking for more upscale cruise. Announcements dont bother me as they have never been inside my room.  I have never seen a fight either just ones online.  I will miss my towel animals though.

No dedicated nightly comedy shows. Usually a guest comic entertainer that does their routine in the main theater as one of the scheduled evening shows. Sometimes that same comedian if still onboard  will do an adult only comedy show later in the evening on a different night. 

[WKUTopperFan]

I'm a platinum on Carnival and will be taking my first X cruise next month Thanksgiving week. Bummer on the towel animals 😕

[Saturngrl]

Celebrity stewards do several towel animals in your stateroom, but not every night.  The showers in the bathrooms have sliding doors instead of shower curtains.  This leaves a little extra room in your luggage because you won't need to pack as many clothes pins for the shower.  I bring a few just to close the cabin curtains. 

 

Cloth towels in the public restrooms are another Celebrity plus.  

 

No upsell of shot glasses or other kitschy stuff while dining in the Celebrity MDR. 

 

If you have the beverage package, you don't have to repeatedly sign for EVERY drink like the Cheers package requires. 

 

Lots of little touches that bring Celebrity way above the Carnival experience.  

 

I think you will LOVE Celebrity! 

[zitsky]

On 10/19/2022 at 3:40 PM, mfs2k said:

 

I, too, was a regular Carnival cruiser (12 cruises) before switching to Celebrity in 2019.

 

I was always amused by people's impressions of Carnival being a ship full of animals.  I never experienced that and I sailed on many Spring Break caribbean cruises. 

 

Carnival was fun and enjoyable for my wife and me.  We never travelled with children and never experienced anything crazy.

 

With that said, we decided, as we got older, it was time to step it up a notch and move to Celebrity.  Celebrity is a bit of an older crowd than Carnival, but there are many cruisers in their 30's to 60's.  Celebrity is more refined and has better service and mostly better food.  There are fewer "fun" cruise organized activities poolside but you definitely can have a good, fun time.

 

The room experience is nicer on Celebrity too.  It's like transitioning from a Marriott 3 1/2 star hotel to a 4 star hotel. If you want a 5 star hotel experience like Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton, you need to get out of mass market cruising and you'll pay a lot more. 

 

The music on board is good, but I found the bands to be better and more lively on Carnival.  Celebrity has many acoustical performances and no piano bars.

 

The shows on Celebrity are good, just as they were on Carnival.  Celebrity will bring in more entertainers for specific legs of cruises, which Carnival does less of.

 

Late night was more active on Carnival.  Celebrity cruisers go to sleep at 10 pm.  (kidding!  lol) (sort of)

 

 

'

For someone who has never been on Carnival, can you explain what you mean by "fun"?

 

Someone else said Celebrity is not a booze cruise but we seem to talk about alcohol in every other post.  LOL.

[jelayne]

No smoking anywhere inside the ship or on balconies. 
There are a few designated outdoor smoking areas.

[mfs2k]

25 minutes ago, zitsky said:

'

For someone who has never been on Carnival, can you explain what you mean by "fun"?

 

Someone else said Celebrity is not a booze cruise but we seem to talk about alcohol in every other post.  LOL.

 

Activity by the pool during the day on a carnival ship is lively.  There's a live pool band playing good music, various pool games and contests organized by the activities staff which is amusing (to me) to watch if you choose to.  (There are also many quiet areas of the ship with lounge chairs to enjoy the sun too).  The bars are generally livelier than a Celebrity ship.  There's usually a piano bar which is crowded with people singing along.  Theres a club lounge at night with great bands playing, in addition to the shows in the theater.  The late night club has lots of younger people dancing till the early morning hours.  The activities are geared more to the 25 to 45 age crowd vs the 45 to 85 y/old crowd.   I did enjoy those cruises, but now that I'm 63 I don't mind the relaxation and less noise. 

[Angua]

2 hours ago, Saturngrl said:

Celebrity stewards do several towel animals in your stateroom, but not every night.  The showers in the bathrooms have sliding doors instead of shower curtains.  This leaves a little extra room in your luggage because you won't need to pack as many clothes pins for the shower.  I bring a few just to close the cabin curtains. 

 

Cloth towels in the public restrooms are another Celebrity plus.  

 

No upsell of shot glasses or other kitschy stuff while dining in the Celebrity MDR. 

 

If you have the beverage package, you don't have to repeatedly sign for EVERY drink like the Cheers package requires. 

 

Lots of little touches that bring Celebrity way above the Carnival experience.  

 

I think you will LOVE Celebrity! 

I have only been on 2 Celebrity cruises and didn't get towel animals either time, but it's nice to know that they are a possibility occasionally!

 

I did forget about the cloth towels in the public restrooms, they were nice.

[JCruise85]

The towel animals are probably based on who your cabin steward is and if they have the time to do as such.