Alternatives to Celebrity

[terrydtx]

12 minutes ago, OysterD said:

I do agree that prices for Retreat/suite cabins on X have gotten pretty high recently, but if they're selling at those prices then hard to blame Celebrity for charging what they are.

 

However, looking at the 23 night Oceania cruise you highlighted, (I wish I could take that much time off work in one go, but sadly I cant), if you price a standard cabin and compare that to X then X is much more favourable. The cheapest balcony cabin on that Oceania sailing is £407 (flights not included in that) per person per night. If you compare that to the Silhouette 13 night Scandinavian cruise next May then AQ works out at £309pppn with AI still included at this point for that price. A standard balcony cabin is £161pppn and with AI it's £229pppn. 

 

So for a standard veranda cabin with drinks included Oceania is £407 while X is £229pppn. That's a big difference. 

Since 2019 we have only booked Sky Suites with Celebrity and when I looked at the O prices they are considerably less than a Celebrity SS on a cost per day basis. Being retired we are able to travel as long as we want and we do much longer sea and land trips. 37 days last year in Italy and Greece, 21 days next month on the Apex and land in Greece, 34 days in January in Australia with a B2B cruise and 13 land days. Both HAL and Oceania do longer cruises, which we prefer, Celebrity is doing too many 7 days and it is hard to find anything longer than 12 days without doing a B2B.

[terrydtx]

2 minutes ago, OysterD said:

 

Looking at that 13 night Silhouette cruise, whether its just a glitch with their website (it's Celebrity, so a good chance!), if you try and book a suite the only one available is a Horizon suite which works out at £660pppn. It's about 50% larger than the Oceania PH suite which comes in at £530pppn, which I agree if it was down to those two suites for those prices then maybe the Oceania would tip the balance maybe. But who knows what sky suites were selling for when they were available, might have been more comparable. But then I'm not sure I'd like such a smaller ship. Good to have choices though!

It is good to have choices and if any one cruise line fit everyone's needs and wants there wouldn't be the need for more than one. One other thing to consider with Oceania, there published prices includes all taxes, fees and port charges which are getting more and more expensive.

[OysterD]

2 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

It is good to have choices and if any one cruise line fit everyone's needs and wants there wouldn't be the need for more than one. One other thing to consider with Oceania, there published prices includes all taxes, fees and port charges which are getting more and more expensive.

Yeah I think that's an American thing - prices quoted on the Celebrity UK site always include any taxes fees and port charges in the initial quoted price. The price you see on the first page is the final price you'll pay (unless you add AI, grats etc on along the way).

[Moby Jones]

5 minutes ago, OysterD said:

 

Looking at that 13 night Silhouette cruise, whether its just a glitch with their website (it's Celebrity, so a good chance!), if you try and book a suite the only one available is a Horizon suite which works out at £660pppn. It's about 50% larger than the Oceania PH suite which comes in at £530pppn, which I agree if it was down to those two suites for those prices then maybe the Oceania would tip the balance maybe. But who knows what sky suites were selling for when they were available, might have been more comparable. But then I'm not sure I'd like such a smaller ship. Good to have choices though!

May 2022 we booked an S2 onboard Beyond for next January on an 11 night sailing. It cost £2900 per person and came with $1100 OBC from the cruise line and $425 from our US based TA and all perks. 

Today, an S1 on exactly the same sailing is £7640 per person with $800 OBC . I'm really struggling to understand how it's increased almost 165% in 15 months. 

To put this into context a 7 night all inclusive holiday in the 5* Raffles Resort, The Palm Jumeriah in Dubai including flights for the three of us cost just £3600  for all of us in their club class rooms this moth. 

It's becoming very difficult to justify Celebrity suite pricing these days when you consider other lines and land based holidays offer a lot more luxury for the money. The food, service and accommodations in Dubai buried that found on a Celebrity ship too. 

[terrydtx]

2 minutes ago, Moby Jones said:

May 2022 we booked an S2 onboard Beyond for next January on an 11 night sailing. It cost £2900 per person and came with $1100 OBC from the cruise line and $425 from our US based TA and all perks. 

Today, an S1 on exactly the same sailing is £7640 per person with $800 OBC . I'm really struggling to understand how it's increased almost 165% in 15 months. 

To put this into context a 7 night all inclusive holiday in the 5* Raffles Resort, The Palm Jumeriah in Dubai including flights for the three of us cost just £3600  for all of us in their club class rooms this moth. 

It's becoming very difficult to justify Celebrity suite pricing these days when you consider other lines and land based holidays offer a lot more luxury for the money. The food, service and accommodations in Dubai buried that found on a Celebrity ship too. 

Also consider all future Retreat cruises booked after Oct 4th will not include paid gratuities and OBC. That makes a much bigger difference too.

[bnurick]

18 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Also consider all future Retreat cruises booked after Oct 4th will not include paid gratuities and OBC. That makes a much bigger difference too.

I’ve noticed the price drops on X have decreased on CruisePlum, there are none listed today, a first for me. I think prices will hold here to a drop if 2025 bookings slow and more a la carte or premium selection items will continue to surface.

[poeticlicensed]

4 hours ago, Boatharbour said:

We’ve just booked a HAL cruise to Alaska after only ever sailing Celebrity. The price difference was so large that we couldn’t ignore it just because of loyalty.

 

Celebrity Aqua sky suite was over AU $20,000 AI - for a 7 day cruise! With HAL we booked a Neptune suite AI for just under AU$12 000. 

We have one more cruise with Celebrity coming up in 2024 (booked at 2022) pricing and will then look elsewhere. 

 

 

This is my take. We aren't Retreat or Suite people. We book plain old balconies. We want to cruise the Fjords so I've been looking for some time now. What I've noticed is that while everyone is raising prices, something is out of whack with Celebrity. Looking at next July, with similar itineraries, dates, cabin class, I'm seeing celebrity is much pricier. We are talking the difference between 330 pp pd and 490 pp pd if you add each cruiseline version of all in. And some lines are more generous, including specialty dining or shore x. So after Oct 4 that 490 a day will be over 500. That is too big of a difference to ignore. And while I like the Celebrity experience, I dont like it enough to accept such a large disparity in pricing 

[JackE]

11 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Today in the mail we got our 2024-25 Oceania Grand Voyages catalog and found some interesting cruises at remarkable costs per night. One we are going to look at is the 23 day Amsterdam to London June 2024 cruise on the Marina. We can book a Penthouse Suite from $600pp per night or a Veranda from $452pp per night. This why so many Celebrity customers are jumping ship after all the recent changes to the product. We never book the air with Oceania as it is mostly a rip off but the non-air prices include the beer and wine beverage package, free Wi-Fi, all specialty restaurants and a $1600 shore excursion credit.  At these prices similar on other cruises, we will no longer be booking with Celebrity with their continued diminishing amenities and higher costs.

 

Thanks for sharing @terrydtx. Very interesting. Two weeks ago we were on the Edge in a Sky Suite. When I asked Future Cruises about a 7 night Caribbean cruise in a Sky Suite on the Ascent in the Fall of 2024 between Thanksgiving and Christmas (not a holiday cruise), they quoted me over $10k. The same as your veranda 23 day sailing on Oceania. Why continue with Celebrity??

[terrydtx]

30 minutes ago, poeticlicensed said:

This is my take. We aren't Retreat or Suite people. We book plain old balconies. We want to cruise the Fjords so I've been looking for some time now. What I've noticed is that while everyone is raising prices, something is out of whack with Celebrity. Looking at next July, with similar itineraries, dates, cabin class, I'm seeing celebrity is much pricier. We are talking the difference between 330 pp pd and 490 pp pd if you add each cruiseline version of all in. And some lines are more generous, including specialty dining or shore x. So after Oct 4 that 490 a day will be over 500. That is too big of a difference to ignore. And while I like the Celebrity experience, I dont like it enough to accept such a large disparity in pricing 

When we booked our HAL 11 night cruise next August from Boston, we looked at Celebrity as they also had a 11 night cruise from Boston. The Celebrity SS was over $8000pp so we looked at doing an Aqua Class which with AI was about $4800pp. On HAL we booked their highest category Vista Suite for $4400pp with the early booking premium Have it all promo and with Club Orange. We get premium drinks, Premium Wi-Fi, all tips, $200 OBC, $200pp shore excursions credit, and 2 specialty restaurants credit. Club Orange gives us priority boarding and tendering, enhanced dining with extra special entrees every night, and a CO concierge and several other benefits. The decision to go with HAL was a no brainer.

Edited August 30, 2023 by terrydtx

[terrydtx]

4 minutes ago, JackE said:

Thanks for sharing @terrydtx. Very interesting. Two weeks ago we were on the Edge in a Sky Suite. When I asked Future Cruises about a 7 night Caribbean cruise in a Sky Suite on the Ascent in the Fall of 2024 between Thanksgiving and Christmas (not a holiday cruise), they quoted me over $10k. The same as your veranda 23 day sailing on Oceania. Why continue with Celebrity??

I agree, why continue with Celebrity and we will not. We are going to most likely book that Oceania cruise and Oceania has a 100% refundable deposit. Also the Oceania prices include all taxes, fee and port charges another plus for them.

Edited August 30, 2023 by terrydtx

[poeticlicensed]

7 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

When we booked our HAL 11 night cruise next August form Boston, we looked at Celebrity as they also had a 11 night cruise from Boston. The Celebrity SS was over $8000pp so we looked at doing an Aqua Class which with AI was about $4800pp. On HAL we booked their highest category Vista Suite for $4400pp with the early booking premium Have it all promo and with Club Orange. We get premium drinks, Premium Wi-Fi, all tips, $200 OBC, $200pp shore excursions credit, and 2 specialty restaurants credit. Club Orange gives us priority boarding and tendering, enhanced dining with extra special entrees every night, and a CO concierge and several other benefits. The decision to go with HAL was a no brainer.

We did the same. Booked a 14 night TA on HAL. Got the have it all pkg which includes tips, wifi, drinks, 2 nights specialty dining and 2 shore x. With all that, the price was 30% cheaper than a similar itinerary, albeit fewer ports, all in package on X that doesn't include any shore x or specialty dining. And I would have to upgrade my bev pkg out of pocket. It was a no brainer

[terrydtx]

7 minutes ago, poeticlicensed said:

We did the same. Booked a 14 night TA on HAL. Got the have it all pkg which includes tips, wifi, drinks, 2 nights specialty dining and 2 shore x. With all that, the price was 30% cheaper than a similar itinerary, albeit fewer ports, all in package on X that doesn't include any shore x or specialty dining. And I would have to upgrade my bev pkg out of pocket. It was a no brainer

If you needed better WiFi on Celebrity that would also have been an upgrade out of pocket. This year with all the Celebrity changes to the negative we took off our Celebrity blinders and now see the cruising world totally different.  After our first Retreat cruise in 2019 we thought Celebrity was going to be our cruising home for a long time.

[goofysmom99]

This thread has certainly been enlightening.  It's kicked me into researching several other lines to see what folks have to say about how well they handle gluten-free for all meals plus room service.  Some look very promising and I've taken a leap of faith and booked two.  Haven't been on HAL in decades (3-star but last cruise was Zaandam in 2002) but I'll be doing a deep dive today to see what might work. 

 

Very, very useful thread indeed.  Thanks OP, Islander500. 🤗

[RichYak]

I may have missed it, but I don't recall seeing Seabourn mentioned in this thread. Any insight from anyone on where they might fall in the pecking order?

[Jim_Iain]

Stay tuned we are taking our FIRST non-Celebrity cruise 12 days from today.  I will probably be a Live Post Comparison and will fire it up in about a week from now.

 

Like many of you, I guess I qualified as a "Loyal" Celebrity cruiser as we have not ever sailed another line in 23 years.   Like many when too many things change in a relationship it is time for either a separation or a divorce.  We will be hitting Double Zenith soon and to tell you the truth not excited about it (Except for the free Aqua Class Cruise). 

 

We have also been looking around and so far Seabourn, Azamara and Silverseas is popping to the top of our research list.

 

Enjoying everyone perspective as many of us have different priorities.   Our main priority are longer cruises (14+ days) and NON-Caribbean itineraries.  Bermuda an RCL/Celebrity Island are definitely not of interest. 

[Poconolady]

Jim_Lain,

looking forward to your next Live report. What line will you be sailing?

[Ken the cruiser]

11 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Stay tuned we are taking our FIRST non-Celebrity cruise 12 days from today.  I will probably be a Live Post Comparison and will fire it up in about a week from now.

 

Like many of you, I guess I qualified as a "Loyal" Celebrity cruiser as we have not ever sailed another line in 23 years.   Like many when too many things change in a relationship it is time for either a separation or a divorce.  We will be hitting Double Zenith soon and to tell you the truth not excited about it (Except for the free Aqua Class Cruise). 

 

We have also been looking around and so far Seabourn, Azamara and Silverseas is popping to the top of our research list.

 

Enjoying everyone perspective as many of us have different priorities.   Our main priority are longer cruises (14+ days) and NON-Caribbean itineraries.  Bermuda an RCL/Celebrity Island are definitely not of interest. 

You may also want to check out the “new” Crystal. We used to enjoy cruising with them before their parent company went under. But from what I reading on the “new” Crystal forum, folks have been quite impressed with the “new” Crystal as well. 

[Ocdublin]

I think everyone is looking elsewhere.  I’m done with celebrity no more calls or email to executive offices!  Like you all have said they are not listening to their loyal customers. This is over when you can’t even totally understand the program. Dead on arrival!  Previous elite member!

[Orator]

4 hours ago, terrydtx said:

I agree, why continue with Celebrity and we will not. We are going to most likely book that Oceania cruise and Oceania has a 100% refundable deposit. Also the Oceania prices include all taxes, fee and port charges another plus for them.

Oceania most of the specialty restaurants are free.Celebrity charges for specialty restaurants.

[terrydtx]

21 minutes ago, Orator said:

Oceania most of the specialty restaurants are free.Celebrity charges for specialty restaurants.

Yes and many cruise critics consider Oceania to have the best cuisine at sea.

[Dolebludger]

As you can see from my information to the left, I’ve been posting here for almost 23 years. I have never seen a  customer revolt like this about any cruise line before. We have only two Celebrity cruises under our belts — 4 and 5 years ago in RS and CS suites. Those were great, with a lot of value for the money.  So when we were looking for a cruise very recently,  we looked on this forum, And as a result we booked on a different line. I don’t put much stock in an isolated negative post, but when the vast majority of posts are negative, there is credibility. I just hope X can clean up its act before it is too late. And it’s getting rather late! The good thing for us is that there are many alternatives that give us better content for less money right now. Does anybody from Celebrity read this forum? I know other lines look at it. I hope X does, and begins corrections.

[Traveling Fools]

6 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Being retired we are able to travel as long as we want and we do much longer sea and land trips

 

Ditto...We depart Miami on Nov 8th for a combined land journey in Morocco and Lisbon followed by a TA aboard Azamara's ONWARD from Lisbon arriving at Ft. Lauderdale Nov 30th.  We have an overnight stop at Hamilton, Bermuda.  The cost for this 23 day adventure is substantially less than our 25± day Sept 2024 land/cruise journey of Greece and it's Islands.  We will be sailing aboard X's INFINITY.

 

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Our main priority are longer cruises (14+ days) and NON-Caribbean itineraries. 

 

We are with you.  The two itineraries in the Caribbean, Central America and South America of real interest to me is an Amazon cruise and a journey to Ecuador, Bolivia, and the Galapagos. 

[Orator]

3 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Stay tuned we are taking our FIRST non-Celebrity cruise 12 days from today.  I will probably be a Live Post Comparison and will fire it up in about a week from now.

 

Like many of you, I guess I qualified as a "Loyal" Celebrity cruiser as we have not ever sailed another line in 23 years.   Like many when too many things change in a relationship it is time for either a separation or a divorce.  We will be hitting Double Zenith soon and to tell you the truth not excited about it (Except for the free Aqua Class Cruise). 

 

We have also been looking around and so far Seabourn, Azamara and Silverseas is popping to the top of our research list.

 

Enjoying everyone perspective as many of us have different priorities.   Our main priority are longer cruises (14+ days) and NON-Caribbean itineraries.  Bermuda an RCL/Celebrity Island are definitely not of interest. 

You might look at Crystal.

[poeticlicensed]

3 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Stay tuned we are taking our FIRST non-Celebrity cruise 12 days from today.  I will probably be a Live Post Comparison and will fire it up in about a week from now.

 

Like many of you, I guess I qualified as a "Loyal" Celebrity cruiser as we have not ever sailed another line in 23 years.   Like many when too many things change in a relationship it is time for either a separation or a divorce.  We will be hitting Double Zenith soon and to tell you the truth not excited about it (Except for the free Aqua Class Cruise). 

 

We have also been looking around and so far Seabourn, Azamara and Silverseas is popping to the top of our research list.

 

Enjoying everyone perspective as many of us have different priorities.   Our main priority are longer cruises (14+ days) and NON-Caribbean itineraries.  Bermuda an RCL/Celebrity Island are definitely not of interest. 

What is double Zenith? 

[goofysmom99]

9 minutes ago, poeticlicensed said:

What is double Zenith? 

6000 points.  Triple Zenith is 9000 points.