Will this be a booze cruise?

[Guest Cruisenewbie20181]

Looking at 4 night cruise on the Silhouette out of Fort Lauderdale in November Thursday thru Sunday. Stops in Key West and Nassau. I have heard people say they avoid 4 night 3 and 4 night cruises because they tend to be booze cruises. Only cruised three times so your opinions would be appreciated.

[bEwAbG]

Short cruises that are over a long weekend tend to attract a different crowd, yes.  Especially if it's relatively inexpensive and they have a drink package.  That is also the weekend before Thanksgiving so airfare (especially on the return trip) might be more expensive than most weeks.

[DCPIV]

It's going to be more of a booze cruise than other itineraries.  Florida + 4-night + long weekend = party time.  That said, I likely will not be all hell breaking loose like you might see on Carnival or RC.  I suppose it's a matter of how much you can tolerate.

 

I was on a November 4-nighter on Millennium, also Thursday through Sunday.  It was also out of Fort Lauderdale but only one stop (originally Grand Cayman but rescheduled to Cozumel).  It was more "booze cruise" than other Celebrity cruises I've been on, but it wasn't terrible. A few loud groups and a handful of other passengers who most certainly on a drinking agenda, but I've seen much worse on longer, allegedly calmer itineraries (such as Alaska).

 

You can probably expect things to get crazy at times around the Martini Bar and Pool Bar (maybe the Sunset Bar at times and maybe Passport Bar while music is playing).  There always will be refuge, though,

[Shiba_Lover]

We just did a similar one.  It was Feb, 4 nights on Summit out of Miami.  Key west and Nassau. Also Thursday - Sunday.  It was a very different crowd than typical Celebrity, but not like you would see on Carnival.  There were lots of groups - birthdays, bachelor and bachelorette parties, family reunions.  But I will say the big parties were not insane.  They were just having fun - not drunk obnoxious, but just having fun.  For sure it was a younger crowd than typical on Celebrity - I think due to the 4 days and the Caribbean.  But - it was not as crazy as I expected it to be.

[Honolulu Blue]

1 hour ago, Cruisenewbie20181 said:

Looking at 4 night cruise on the Silhouette out of Fort Lauderdale in November Thursday thru Sunday. Stops in Key West and Nassau. I have heard people say they avoid 4 night 3 and 4 night cruises because they tend to be booze cruises. Only cruised three times so your opinions would be appreciated.

I did a 5-day on the Summit back in September '21.  That one went out of Miami.  The crowd was sedate as far as I could tell, but then again, we did only have 320 passengers on that sailing.

 

I did another 5-day on the Summit last February.  This one was a charter and mostly full - I estimate 80% or so.  This was a WILD! cruise and I'm sure they sold a lot of drink packages, but I didn't see anyone get really out of hand.

 

These may not be applicable to your future experience, but I wanted to share anyway.  Thank you for allowing me do so. 😛

[Stem to Stern]

I have been on a few of these similar to this.  I have two booked and would not hesitate to book something like this again.  Does that say something about me???  Seriously, the crowds that I have encountered have skewed younger and a bit boozier, but as what has already been stated above, not wildly out of control.

[DCPIV]

1 hour ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I did a 5-day on the Summit back in September '21.  That one went out of Miami.  The crowd was sedate as far as I could tell, but then again, we did only have 320 passengers on that sailing.

 

I did a 5-day on Summit in October '21 out of Miami.  We had something like 275-280 on board (I never got a certain number).  There were time I walked into a lounge and no one else was there except a bartender and, perhaps, someone playing music.  Sometimes that was the Martini Bar.  Talk about surreal.

[garyl62]

We did a 3 night, Saturday to Tuesday on the Summit out of Miami in Oct 2021.  Obviously this was just a few months after the re-start and we only had about 6-700 guests onboard, but I didn't notice anything significantly different.  We were in a CS so spent time on the Retreat deck, but also attended the silent disco around the Martini Bar and it wasn't any wilder than we experienced during the silent disco on a Reflection 7 nighter 4 months later. We are not the party crowd type of cruiser, probably the typical Celebrity guest, 60ish and look to have fun, but don't stay out and bar hop late into the night.  If I could get good airfare, or tie it to a land trip I'd go again with no concerns.  

[lhsail]

6 hours ago, ehall said:

We just did a similar one.  It was Feb, 4 nights on Summit out of Miami.  Key west and Nassau. Also Thursday - Sunday.  It was a very different crowd than typical Celebrity, but not like you would see on Carnival.  There were lots of groups - birthdays, bachelor and bachelorette parties, family reunions.  But I will say the big parties were not insane.  They were just having fun - not drunk obnoxious, but just having fun.  For sure it was a younger crowd than typical on Celebrity - I think due to the 4 days and the Caribbean.  But - it was not as crazy as I expected it to be.

We were on this same cruise. I would agree with these comments. Definitely more of a party atmosphere, but nothing obnoxious. Would not book it on Carnival, Royal or NCL. 

[Project_gal]

15 hours ago, Cruisenewbie20181 said:

Looking at 4 night cruise on the Silhouette out of Fort Lauderdale in November Thursday thru Sunday. Stops in Key West and Nassau. I have heard people say they avoid 4 night 3 and 4 night cruises because they tend to be booze cruises. Only cruised three times so your opinions would be appreciated.

In our experience, even a 5-night cruise with a similar itinerary was what we would consider a booze cruise - not only much drinking but also open smoking in the wrong places. Our fellow guests were not particularly young - although, perhaps, a slightly younger demographic than other Celebrity cruises. It certainly was not the type of cruise we would usually associate with Celebrity. We would never do such a short cruise again.

Edited February 21, 2023 by Project_gal

[chemmo]

We have only done two shorter cruises on Celebrity (4 nights, five nights) and we did them back to back. The four night was livelier than usual but not excessively so. It was only the pool areas mid afternoon that seemed more ‘party’ than the usual laid back atmosphere. Breakfast was very quiet, later evening the bars were still busy. Didn’t spoil our pleasure.
 

Our second cruise was full of older guests and we were not Spring chickens! However, along with a very quiet crowd there was one, very extended (20ish) multi aged ‘loud’ family who did make a negative impact…Their presence in the pool area was noticeable. Shouting from the bar across the pool to other family members, teenage boys jumping in and out of the pool unchecked by parents. We only saw them poolside once, that was enough. We had a big balcony that cruise so spent most afternoons there. According to others they were loud and oblivious to fellow cruisers in the restaurant too. Fortunately we tend to dine earlier so at least our paths didn’t cross. I mention this simply to illustrate that it isn’t always a particular age of group or length of cruise that can be an issue simply just a few selfish individuals. The only other time we have come across a group like this was on a South Pacific cruise of 16 nights. One couple of the extended family were in the PH, the rest of the family were in a range of other rooms ranging from Sky Suites to inside…The suite experience, particularly the ambiance in Luminae, was badly affected until the management team reacted (very well). Goes to show, hard to predict exactly what fellow guests on a cruise will be like…

Edited February 21, 2023 by chemmo

[Project_gal]

On reflection, I should add something to my earlier post. The five-night cruise was immediately following a TA from Europe. There had been no health authority inspection of the ship when we arrived in Fort Lauderdale and, thus, the crew were still preparing for a possible inspection when we docked at Fort Lauderdale again. Added to this, the Celebrity CEO was on board for an internal marketting conference. In other circumstances, when the crew were not as preoccupied with other things, they may have been more in control of the smoking issue. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

I think you will find that a Celebrity booze cruise is much more tame than what you might encounter on Carnival or MSC.  Personally, I love a good booze cruise but my joints ache more than they used to so I'll take the sleepier Celebrity over the others.

[Keys Kathy]

We earned most of our CC points on 4-5 night X cruises. The ONLY time we had a problem was on the Connie one spring when it was spring break. There were over 1000 kids from one college. They were pretty raucous, but security did a good job. 

 

Being some of the few "grown-ups" on the cruise, when we walked to a bar for a drink, we were immediately waited on.

 

When some cruisers were making out in the pool, I said something to them about them having a room, the rest of us weren't interested. They smart-mouthed back and some of their traveling companions went after them for being rude to an Adult. They went away. 

 

I was getting a nightcap at a Bar and a young lady came to the bar with her sea pass and her ID. I told her she only need her sea pass. She said they were required to show ID because too many people were sharing drink packages. I asked what deck she was on. She said deck 2. I asked if it smelled like oil, pot, beer, or vomit. She just said YES. 

 

You are fine on the shorter X cruises, just don't go during spring break. On second thought, with the cost of the drink packages now, I doubt they would be willing or able to pay the price!

[Stem to Stern]

2 hours ago, Keys Kathy said:

asked if it smelled like oil

Sorry for my curiosity and naivety, but I have to ask.  Oil???

[Keys Kathy]

48 minutes ago, Stem to Stern said:

Sorry for my curiosity and naivety, but I have to ask.  Oil???

I guess diesel fuel/oil? We stayed on deck 2 ------ once!

[Stem to Stern]

6 minutes ago, Keys Kathy said:

I guess diesel fuel/oil? We stayed on deck 2 ------ once!

Oh, that would be unpleasant.

[Keys Kathy]

26 minutes ago, Stem to Stern said:

Oh, that would be unpleasant.

It was, never did deck 2 again, on any ship.