4* Mariners Try Celebrity

[Djptcp]

This was our 76th cruise and let's just say that DH and I can't wait for our 2 booked HAL cruises in Nov. and Feb.! We debarked from a 12-day Central and South America cruise on the Constellation on Sat. Our complaints are really not related to the 22 year old ship as we knew ahead of time it was an old ship.

 

Our complaints are that service was non-existent, the crew was unfriendly even the officers, the food was mediocre at best. The friendliest person was our cabin stewardess. Bar service was spotty - DH finally told several of the bar waiters on Deck 10 who had completely ignored us and the other guests to please come around and their responses to us were snarky. No one asked for our names during the whole cruise. I mentioned to other passengers that the after cruise surveys on HAL ask if crew called us by name?

 

Food is subjective, but after HAL's great food in our estmation the Constellation's was bland and boring. We tried one of the specialty restaurants, supposed to be Italian,  but most of the selections were not Italian. We ate in the MDR once and service was awful. I did have room service breakfast every morning and it was pretty good, but on HAL the plates with hot items are placed on heated things to keep the food hot, not so on Celebrity. 

 

So, we tried Celebrity only because it sails out of Tampa and we live 45 minutes from the Port of Tampa. It was supposed to be on par with HAL but not even close.

 

 

[ski ww]

I have heard not very nice things about Celebrity from other long time HAL cruisers. Thanks for confirming it.

[visagrunt]

I did 10 days on Edge last year.

 

Entertainment was excellent and there is nothing on HAL that comes close.  But this is the only category where X wins in a head to head comparison.

I found the food generally good to very good. However, only Eden was on or above a HAL standard.

Service was poor (bars and one of the MDRs) to good (housekeeping and specialty restaurants) to excellent (Blu). HAL may be struggling in some bars at some hours--but nothing like the fiasco of Eden or the Martini Bar.  Housekeeping was a team of one person who had many cabins to attend to.
 

The cabin was fine (I don't hate infinite verandahs), but storage was a challenge.

But I really disliked the ship.  The best real estate was handed over to the Retreat, leaving no forward facing public space with general access.  There's no sheltered promenade (even Pinnacle class makes an attempt at this).  The atrium over the Martini Bar was an acoustic nightmare which invaded all the public areas surrounding it.  Public spaces were woefully inadequate for the passenger numbers.

And finally the value for money proposition was non-existent.  Celebrity was vastly more expensive than comparable accommodations and perks on HAL without providing a corresponding step up for that money.  

The same group are doing 10 days on Eurodam in February next year and I hope that she show off what HAL is capable of.  🙂

 

[Ferry_Watcher]

My two favorite cruise lines are HAL and Celebrity.  When I am on HAL, I am happy.  When I am on Celebrity I am happy.  This October I will be on a 21 night HAL cruise, and three days after disembarking our HAL cruise we will be on a 12 night Celebrity cruise.  It will be interesting to see/experience the differences between the two cruise lines.

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[Cruise Junky]

You only ate in the MDR once on a 12 day cruise?  Am I reading that right?  So you’re actually reviewing the buffet?  

[Sea42]

2 hours ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

My two favorite cruise lines are HAL and Celebrity.  When I am on HAL, I am happy.  When I am on Celebrity I am happy.  This October I will be on a 21 night HAL cruise, and three days after disembarking our HAL cruise we will be on a 12 night Celebrity cruise.  It will be interesting to see/experience the differences between the two cruise lines.

Great attitude!

[Cruising-along]

We cruise both HAL and Celebrity, HAL being our preferred line because of their itineraries and we get free laundry. 😁

I was very surprised at your remarks about the service on Celebrity because it has been excellent in our experience (most recent 9 months ago on Solstice. Celebrity’s entertainment overall beats HAL without question. I find the food to be on a par. 

[horseymike]

I am sticking out my neck here , but I have found among various cruise lines that the new ships tend to get the best crew and it trickles down from there, I know there will be exceptions to this , but it has been my observation.

[Ken the cruiser]

We’re in our early 70s and are 4* Mariners, Elite+ on Celebrity, Elite on Princess, and Platinum on NCL. We haven’t cruised with HAL since 2019 when we did an Australia circumnavigation cruise on the Maasdam. We have had a great time on all of our cruises and are looking forward to cruising with HAL again in Apr 2025 on the Eurodam.

 

It will be interesting to see how much has changed and/or stayed the same since then. I even read here on CC singers and dancers might be coming back! 

[C 2 C]

3 hours ago, ski ww said:

I have heard not very nice things about Celebrity from other long time HAL cruisers. Thanks for confirming it.

I am in total disagreement.

We are 4**** with Hal and have been on Zuiderdam, N Statendam, Zaandam for about 20 weeks in the last two years.  We were also on Constellation for ten weeks from Nov to Feb 2024.

Food and especially the desserts are better on HAL.  The service on both lines are similar.. fantastic.  The food on Constellation was stellar over Christmas and New Year but deteriorated after that.  The entertainment on Celebrity is much better and varies whereas on HAL it was dismal.  On the N Statendam in September 2022 the music walk was great but Lincoln centre has been cut.  If you have a great Piano couple, the experience is magical.  You get a clunker as we did 4 months later, the experience is to be avoided.  The dance bands on Celebrity are fantastic.  Trivia on Celebrity is much better .  Our Zuiderdam experience last September was enough to wonder what happened.  We are booked on Volendam in September for a back to back from Quebec, but we chose Celebrity for a 10 week ocean side condo this winter.  

There are no two cruise lines that are more similar than HAL and Celebrity.  A different ship can make a world of difference.

[amandas friend]

We will never sail X again. Poor service and food. 

[albingirl]

We sailed with Celebrity years ago, and remarked at the time that it was so different in service.  HAL employees are always so sunny and Celebrity's seemed impersonal, at best.  But, hey, I am a totally committed HAL cheerleader and proud of it. Lol.

[FLCruiser97]

Celebrity has been my all time favorite cruise line for many years all the way back to the Century but my last sailing was on the Constellation on a TA October 2022 and I did notice it not up to "Celebrity" standards. With that said, we are on a TA next month on Oosterdam and I am looking forward to this sailing. I have sailed HAL only twice but many years ago.

[Eric from San Diego]

3 hours ago, C 2 C said:

There are no two cruise lines that are more similar than HAL and Celebrity.  A different ship can make a world of difference.

I have not cruised Celebrity because the presence on the west coast is non-existant.  For me, my second choice is Princess. Their itineraries are nearly identical and both lines have a west coast vibe being headquartered in Los Angeles and Seattle.  

[AliceS]

8 hours ago, Djptcp said:

This was our 76th cruise and let's just say that DH and I can't wait for our 2 booked HAL cruises in Nov. and Feb.! We debarked from a 12-day Central and South America cruise on the Constellation on Sat. Our complaints are really not related to the 22 year old ship as we knew ahead of time it was an old ship.

 

Our complaints are that service was non-existent, the crew was unfriendly even the officers, the food was mediocre at best. The friendliest person was our cabin stewardess. Bar service was spotty - DH finally told several of the bar waiters on Deck 10 who had completely ignored us and the other guests to please come around and their responses to us were snarky. No one asked for our names during the whole cruise. I mentioned to other passengers that the after cruise surveys on HAL ask if crew called us by name?

 

Food is subjective, but after HAL's great food in our estmation the Constellation's was bland and boring. We tried one of the specialty restaurants, supposed to be Italian,  but most of the selections were not Italian. We ate in the MDR once and service was awful. I did have room service breakfast every morning and it was pretty good, but on HAL the plates with hot items are placed on heated things to keep the food hot, not so on Celebrity. 

 

So, we tried Celebrity only because it sails out of Tampa and we live 45 minutes from the Port of Tampa. It was supposed to be on par with HAL but not even close.

 

 

Give them another try.   Was just on Silhouette and the service was excellent and if you like shows, try one of the Edge class ships.   The balcony thing there is odd, but the ships are beautiful and food and service are great…..shows are outstanding.

 

i am also 4 star on Holland and love the line.   The food is great and service is amazing, but ….shows?   Was just on Eurodam and no BB King?   Boardwalk was awful and there is no Lincoln Center and production shows are non existent.

 

celebrity also has the wine stewards 

[Ken the cruiser]

6 minutes ago, AliceS said:

Give them another try.   Was just on Silhouette and the service was excellent and if you like shows, try one of the Edge class ships.   The balcony thing there is odd, but the ships are beautiful and food and service are great…..shows are outstanding.

 

i am also 4 star on Holland and love the line.   The food is great and service is amazing, but ….shows?   Was just on Eurodam and no BB King?   Boardwalk was awful and there is no Lincoln Center and production shows are non existent.

 

celebrity also has the wine stewards 

If I might ask as we are booked on the Eurodam next year. What exactly did you do for entertainment in the evenings?

[cruisemom42]

I suspect anyone can have a one-off bad experience (or good experience) on just about any line. 

 

I like both Celebrity and Holland America (and other lines too). I don't expect them all to be alike -- each line has its own strengths and weaknesses. 

 

I've always found the X onboard experience as friendly as -- if not more friendly than -- HAL's. Officers on X are usually more social. Bar staff on X have always been very friendly and attentive, especially to this solo, which is nice. I don't really want or need someone to be super-friendly or to know my name (although it's nice); I just want good service. And I have to say that I haven't gotten great service in HAL's MDR on either of my most recent cruises.

 

Celebrity has certainly gone through the mill in the last year as regards food. They cut things to the bone about 15 months ago (after coming back strong right after Covid) and I think that only now are they starting to build/add back. That said, I've never found HAL food to be particularly great or inspired. For want of a better word, I like 'fancy' dining and plain grilled/roasted proteins, rustic lasagna, fruist crisps and the like are not my dream menu.

 

At any rate, it's always good to try something new once in a while, if only to confirm that your preferences like elsewhere.

[Djptcp]

We were not the only passengers to comment on the lack of service and the unfriendly crew. In fact, on the 10th day some people we talked to remarked that someone higher up must have told the crew to lighten up and be more friendly. One husband told his wife to never select Celebrity again.

 

I was commenting on the buffet. DH and I rarely eat in the MDR on HAL either, mostly in the buffet, NY Pizza for breakfasts, and in the specialty restaurants.

 

I will give Celebrity the benefit of the doubt and agree that others on the ship said the newer X ships had better service and more to offer.. That said, we still will stick to HAL. We love our 4* perks and free casino offers and those are hard to give up.

[boulders]

I had a similar experience on the Constellation last year on an 11 night cruise, also out of Tampa. The itinerary was great. The service was excellent but the food was just bad. I think I lost weight. There were hardly any vegetables available. There was a salad available once on the 11 night cruise. Contrast that to my repositioning cruise across the South Pacific on HAL where we spent almost 3 weeks between ports where we restocked food. We always had plentiful veggies on that ship. They ran out of bananas/other fruits a few times, but only a few times. Entertainment was much better on HAL, imo. Their Step One dance company was excellent. 

 

It was my first, and probably last, cruise on Celebrity. 

[C 2 C]

It is amazing that our experiences with staff and crew vary so much.  We find the service of the Indonesian and Filipino crew members to be outstanding on both Celebrity and HAL.  We find the officers on HAL to be very cool and distant compared to Celebrity officers.  We have been invited to bridge tours frequently on celebrity, never on HAL.  We have had pictures with every Celebrity Captain, none with any HAL captain.  We know most of the Celebrity cruise directors and met only one HAL CD in 14 weeks in the last two years.

[crystalspin]

7 hours ago, Djptcp said:

I will give Celebrity the benefit of the doubt and agree that others on the ship said the newer X ships had better service and more to offer.. That said, we still will stick to HAL.

This is what we heard after our one-and-done experience on NCL. That we should try a newer, larger ship than the N.Star. Why would we give a company our money, that does not keep all of their ships in good condition and all of their crew members in high morale?

[mawvkysc]

5 hours ago, crystalspin said:

This is what we heard after our one-and-done experience on NCL. That we should try a newer, larger ship than the N.Star. Why would we give a company our money, that does not keep all of their ships in good condition and all of their crew members in high morale?

We were one and done as well with NCL. It was an older, smaller ship too. But the food was just so bad. 

[Cruizer Bill]

This is good info, thanks!

[Ipeeinthepools]

After many years on Celebrity, I have jumped ship and moved over to HAL.  HAL is simply a better value proposition for us and HAL has longer more interesting itineraries.  There are two features about Celebrity that I miss. First, Celebrity does not allow smoking inside on any ship, period.  There is never any second hand smoke drifting through the ship.  Second, all Celebrity ships have a Solarium, an indoor, adults only pool area.  This area is always quiet and is a great place to read, relax or take a nap.  HAL doesn’t have anything even close.