Celebrity is not any better than Royal Caribbean

[odysee]

On 6/6/2023 at 2:56 PM, NMTraveller said:

Not in a bubble.  Where are you visiting?  Chicago and NYC?  I have not had to order from an app for a very long time.  I get daily room service.  Maybe it is an east coast thing.

 

If I do live in a bubble it is a bubble of back to normal and a good one to live in.

 

I have not seen any of what you mention since the start of this year.  We have great Uber service with slow waits.

We visited Florida again recently.  Prices (hotels, restaurants) up a lot, service non-existent or subpar.  Worse was the attitude “take it or leave it”.  Eg stood 50 min in line at Avis FLL with 1 counter open (despite AVIS preferred).  Hilton hotel close to Dania Beach waited 25 min for drink to be served on outside terrace, then left after 2 friendly reminders if they forgot us.  They were not even very busy, just chatting.  Etc etc

Edited June 18, 2023 by odysee

[TeeRick]

On 6/3/2023 at 10:02 AM, Spif Barwunkel said:

I am embarrassed for and ashamed of Celebrity Cruise Lines. The blatant, purposeful swindling and pilfering of loyal, as well as new passengers is unacceptable. The disregard for their personal comfort and satisfaction is downright unconscionable. As a result, the ignominious taint that now permeates the heart and soul of many X cruisers might never wear off. Celebrity does not deserve you. Celebrity does not deserve your dollars, your euros, your pesos, your pounds, your francs, your krone or krona. What Celebrity does deserve is your divorce.

 

So, as you all move on to new and better adventurous offerings - land or sea - I will remain here and try, as best I can, to help offset the X debt. I don't yet reek of that ignominious taint, perhaps it's my genetic make-up. I wish you all well, I really do. Perhaps in the future the record will show that I took the blows while you all went off and did it your way. If we can all whistle a happy tune, that's all that matters.

Spif- Thanks so much for taking one for the team.  Enjoy the shocking food.

[C4HCG]

12 hours ago, Thameside said:

19 hours ago, C4HCG said:

How did you cope without a bathrobe? You must have been distraught. 
I’m surprised you Northerners know what a bathrobe is.

Us unrefined northerners know that a bathrobe is a robe you wear in the bath. We don’t use them though as we can’t work out why anyone would wear anything in the bath as surely it gets wet.

[montythecat]

Alternatives to Celebrity ?   For us, it is Holland America.

Vista Class are perfectly satisfactory, whilst the three

new Pinnacle Class vessels are, in our opinions, 

beautiful. They also have a variety of live music

which suits us and which is not matched on any other

cruise line.

[tserface]

On 6/6/2023 at 5:56 AM, NMTraveller said:

Not in a bubble.  Where are you visiting?  Chicago and NYC?  I have not had to order from an app for a very long time.  I get daily room service.  Maybe it is an east coast thing.

 

If I do live in a bubble it is a bubble of back to normal and a good one to live in.

 

I have not seen any of what you mention since the start of this year.  We have great Uber service with slow waits.

We were in Chicago last week and the hotel didn't do daily room cleaning, and several of the restaurants we went to had QR codes on the table for seeing the menu.  To be fair, they did say they could bring us paper menus if we didn't have the tech to do the QR code, but we did so...

Lyft and Uber seem to be working fine for us these days, but hotel prices have skyrocketed and there's almost no cleaning service any longer.  A couple of hotels have told us they will give us clean towels if we come down and ask for them.

I think Celebrity is going the route of only one time cleaning per day as well.  Another cut in service.  I know RCL has already started only doing morning or evening room setup, but not both.

[poeticlicensed]

We have been loyal to X for years. Love the food, love the atmosphere. Were on the millennium last year when they were at limited capacity and it was fabulous. We are booked for Alaska in August. We did an MSC at the request of our adult children and liked it, didn't love it. We were given a Royal cruise as a gift for a timeshare presentation (whole other story) so we did that pre pandemic. My issues with Royal are twofold. One, they don't bundle the bev pkg so you have to buy it outright. Paying for drinks as you go always leaves us with a big fat bill which I hate. Second, Royal is loud. They turn it up to 11. I couldn't sit by the pool it was so loud. Music blasting all day is not my idea of relaxation. Plus I dont think I can cruise with 6000 others. 

 

That said my eye is starting to wander to other lines. We retired during the pandemic, so we have much more flexibility and can travel for longer periods of time and and during off season. I've been looking at Princess, HAL and Viking ocean. Some of the upscale lines charge a lot more but they also include more in the price. I'd love to try Cunard but I know hubby would think its too formal. Some people have been raving about Virgin. Its worth a look. 

 

I'm sum, I like the X product, it aligns with what I want in a cruise, but I'm open to other lines, as they are all different. 

 

I also think that when we return from a trip we have an immediate reaction because we still remember all the details. Time softens everything. 

[debsjc]

Not sure about Royal, because I haven't cruised with them for a while..... but I can tell you Celebrity isn't better than Princess! 

[Gracie115]

2 hours ago, debsjc said:

Not sure about Royal, because I haven't cruised with them for a while..... but I can tell you Celebrity isn't better than Princess! 

 

Not in anyway to defend either Celebrity or Princess but your cruise summary doesn't include any Celebrity cruises.  Have you cruised with Celebrity?

 

We have cruised both and have enjoyed both but now find that Princess prices are more reasonable and food very comparable to Celebrity.

[coffeebean]

On 6/17/2023 at 8:32 PM, davekathy said:

We always hand our bathrobes to the stateroom attendant when we first meet. We never wear them and they take up room in the closet and hangers we need. 

Next time, I'm going to do that. I usually fold them up and place them on the top shelf of the closet. We don't wear them either.

[palmsandpines]

We like both, but very different. Celebrity has way better food (no comparison) and way better service. The furnishings and art are nicer as well. Royal on the other had is more active, lots more things to do and maybe more fun. All depends on what type of cruise you want to experience and how many port days you have. 

[conquesodor]

I am Elite with Celebrity and took my first RCL cruise on Freedom of the Seas just last month. I very much enjoyed my first experience with RCL and I even found things about Royal that I wish Celebrity did. However, there's still no question in my mind that Celebrity is a superior product for my taste and interests. Some thoughts in no particular order:

This ship was LOUD. Music was pumped up to 11 on the Royal Promenade and all the upper decks. Royal has a lovely wine bar (Vintages) but you can't enjoy it because of the relentless BOOM BOOM everywhere. There was also much more of a party atmosphere and everything that comes with that.

 

The only way to get a beach towel is to stand in line to sign out a towel that will be charged to your account if you don't return it.

 

No iced towels to refresh you when you return to the ship. Only plain water if offered.

Cafe al Bacio is superior in every respect to Cafe Promenade's very basic selection of coffee drinks and snacks.

 

Food in the MDR where we ate most of our meals was good. A few dishes were very similar to what Celebrity offers, such as the escargots, but as far as menu selection and quality of dishes, it was a notch below Celebrity.

 

We prefer to have internet and a beverage package when sailing Celebrity, but Royal not only forces you to buy each a la carte, you won't even know how much it will cost until you book your cruise with Royal. This is because Royal doesn't have a set price for anything and the price can vary significantly from one ship or sailing to the next. This is bonkers and I don't know how they get away with it.

 

I am a wine drinker and Celebrity is far and away superior in terms of wine selection and service.

 

Basic vanilla and chocolate soft serve for your complimentary ice cream, versus the variety of ice cream on offer at the Oceanview Cafe.

 

All this said, here are a few things about Royal that stood out in a good way.

Service from the staff was uniformly excellent and was comparable to the great service I am familiar with from Celebrity.

 

My family and I had a great hibachi meal at Izumi, which is something that Celebrity does not offer. That said, hibachi is probably better suited to Royal's brand than Celebrity's. 

 

Royal offers a program called The Key which we loved. For less than the price of a typical specialty dining charge, each of us got a basic internet package, an exclusive embarkation day lunch featuring selections from their steakhouse menu, and an exclusive disembarkation day breakfast with an upscale menu. It also includes priority access to certain shows and activities onboard that we did not take advantage of, but both meals were excellent and provided an oasis away from the usual chaos during those times. I wish Celebrity offered something similar.

 

Our sailing stopped at Perfect Day at Coco Cay, which is an amazing place that's exclusive to Royal.

 

Freedom of the Seas has a true promenade deck that wraps around the entire ship! It incorporates the bow helipad and the stern with a great wake view. So nice.

 

In summary, our cruise on Royal was a family cruise and we had a great time. I will probably book Royal again under similar circumstances. Depending on your values and interests, you might prefer Royal too. However, when it's just my wife and I cruising, we'll continue to prefer Celebrity because it delivers a superior product for the things that we value. The only exception might be if there is an itinerary that Royal offers that Celebrity doesn't, which isn't out of the question due to Royal having a much larger fleet.

[debsjc]

15 hours ago, Gracie115 said:

 

Not in anyway to defend either Celebrity or Princess but your cruise summary doesn't include any Celebrity cruises.  Have you cruised with Celebrity?

 

We have cruised both and have enjoyed both but now find that Princess prices are more reasonable and food very comparable to Celebrity.

 

Good point! I just got back yesterday, so i've edited my signature now. I'll write a mini review when I get time. 

[basenji56]

"Basic vanilla and chocolate soft serve for your complimentary ice cream, versus the variety of ice cream on offer at the Oceanview Cafe."

 

I believe that this varies ship to ship.  I found that Odessey of the Seas had a similar hard ice cream set up in the Windjammer to that of Celebrity.  Although the ice cream was not as good.  On the other hand, Harmony of the Seas didn't have hard ice cream in the Windjammer all the time.  I had to purchase ice cream on the Boardwalk.

 

[poeticlicensed]

6 hours ago, conquesodor said:

This ship was LOUD. Music was pumped up to 11 on the Royal Promenade and all the upper decks. Royal has a lovely wine bar (Vintages) but you can't enjoy it because of the relentless BOOM BOOM everywhere. There was also much more of a party atmosphere and everything that comes

That was my biggest complaint with Royal. I couldn't sit by the pool deck. We ended up escaping to other outside parts of the ship to get away from the music. 

[KKB]

On 6/2/2023 at 1:52 PM, Static events said:

I have been on loads of cruises with various lines but now trend to cruise only with RCCL or Celebrity. 
 

I recently got off the Silhouette and I can say without question it was THE worst cruise I have been on in every aspect.

 

Food was shocking

Entertainment in the main theatre was beyond awful, every show was extremely poor.  
Service in the bars slow 

Room attendant non existent 

Queues getting back onto the ship 

Cruise Director poor

 

Given the higher price point (which I don’t mind paying) I no longer see why I would cruise on Celebrity and would rather opt to cruise with RCCL. 
 

If not RCCL or Celebrity who else should one try?

I never pass judgement on a line for one sailing. 

Perhaps it's that ship.

Perhaps it was just that sailing. 

(I do find a poor CD can affect my whole cruise)

 

I find Celebrity a small step above RCCL in service & food.

Haven't sailed RCCL since 2018 but will be on Quantum in Sept.

Have sailed Celebrity 5x post-COVID--all Eclass plus Equinox, all in Caribbean.

EVERY one of those sailings was OUTSTANDING. Food, service--plus I find Eclass to be a step above Celebrity's other ship classes. 

 

Interesting, I don't generally find Celebrity to be more expensive than RCCL when we factor in AI.

In fact, we were offered a free Bermuda cruise on RCCL (casino offer)...once we added in tips, wifi & drinks it was NO CHEAPER than to book it on Celebrity!