P&O vs Celebrity

[Cathygh]

Following on from Jean's report about P&O vs Fred, I thought I would give an overvie of my experience on my first Celebrity cruise. This was a much delayed cruise- 12 nights Best of Japan. We chose Celebrity for the itinerary, and because P&O don't go there for this type of thing. The following is just my opinion.

 

Checking in/embarkation.

Done online. 2 ladies waiting at the terminal, just before we got on the ship, mainly checking our ID on a tablet. 2 people in the queue before us. We could choose our own boarding time. Very efficient.

 

Passenger mix

900 Brits although it felt like more. The rest were from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South America and Europe. Most made an effort in the evening.I had expected it to be like the cruise we did on Princess in January 2023 where scruffy passengers were the norm

 

Condition of the ship/cabin.

Very good for a 24 year old ship. No leaks anywhere and no broken toilets. Had a $60m refurb in 2019. Cabins and public areas are very modern, but patio doors had a bit of rust. The first night was very windy and we could hear wind and the sea in the cabin. I thought maybe the door wasn't shut properly even though it was locked. I opened and found  I couldn't close it so my husband did and the door partly came off. We could still lock it! Maintenance arrived in about 2 minutes and fixed it back on. It happens a lot on this ship, and hearing the sea is also quite common. The next refit is this year and may be the doors will be replaced then.

The P&O bed is more comfortable IMHO

Hardly saw our steward but there is an evening turn down service. The chocolates were not nice.

Air con- I am not sure it worked well, but we didn't need it as we were never too cold/hot.

 

Dining.

We had freedom dining in Metropolitan. We ate there for all but 2 breakfasts and 1 dinner and also on port days.

Breakfast. Waiters come round with juice, water, tea, coffee and pastries while you wait. Wide choice and always hot. The quality of the eggs, sausage and bacon are superior to P&O.

Lunch - similar to P&O, but one day it was very bad and we sent it back, hot chicken was served luke warm with rubbery chips

Dinner. Usually a good choice and I only ate from the always available menu once. Always hot and tasty. 

Freedom dining was over subscribed so sometimes we were given a buzzer - the maximum wait was 20 minutes if you wanted to share

 

Buffet - manic as you would expect, but food was ok. 

 

Drinks package

We had the classic package, which included drinks up to $10. Alcohol wise the only drinks under $10 were 330ml cans of beer/lager. I drink white wine and there was a choice of 2-3 for $10. They were ok. Cocktails were all $12+. There were cocktails under $10 but there was no list so you had to suggest something and then find out if it was included or not. Baileys was $11 and I thought it was mean not to include it in the package and I was too stingy to pay the $1 and 20% service charge on top.

Wine service at dinner was slow one night. The waiter can take a drinks order, but not for wine, the sommelier does that, and they had a lot of tables to cover.

I think the drinks are unlimited and I was not aware of any drunken behaviour.

 

Speciality dining.

$60 per head plus 20% service charge. They were constantly trying to sell the speciality restaurants. Towards the end of the cruise they dropped the price of the Indian to $45 so we did that. Food was good but the service was terrible. The waiter got our order wrong 4 times. 

 

Note regarding eating in Blu, for which you pay a whole lot more for an Aquaclass cabin, people were complaining that they had to wait to get in, rather than walking in when they wanted and it wasn't worth the extra.

 

Little extras, sometimes they came round with free prosecco or canapes, as a gift from an officer

 

Captain/ officers

Captain Pierre was quite shy, I think, but he did do the daily update himself and & an info session in the Theatre. The hotel director was very visible, she was always there when we left and returned to the ship. Ents Director was also very visible

 

Entertainment

Good and varied but we rarely got to the evening shows which were at 7 and 9. We heard good reports.  We did go to the Skylounge every night where the Ents Director would have a bit of fun and created a great atmoshere. eg on Beatles night there would be a quick quiz which involved most of the audience followed by dancing. He is one of the best ets directors I have come across.

 

The App.

Useful for checking in beforehand. The drinks, menus for each restaurant and the entertainment for the whole cruise was listed before we arrived, You could book dining and shore excursions on it. What surprised me  was that they still use pen and paper to take orders, not tablets. It worked well.

 

Shore Excursions

Very expensive. You got up to 15% off if you prebook. We did our own thing. Food and transport was cheap in Japan and the metro system was easy to use, once you got the hang of it.

 

Price

On one TA website a week to the fjords in an inside cabin on June 8th is £660 on Iona, Celebrity  Apex is £1007 plus gratuities. Is Celebrity worth the extra? Not really TBF but Celebrity is meant to be a 5* line, not a 4* line, so perhaps a better comparison would be Cunard. 

 

 

 

 

[Angel57]

Very interesting report. Thank you.

[Megabear2]

34 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

Following on from Jean's report about P&O vs Fred, I thought I would give an overvie of my experience on my first Celebrity cruise. This was a much delayed cruise- 12 nights Best of Japan. We chose Celebrity for the itinerary, and because P&O don't go there for this type of thing. The following is just my opinion.

 

Checking in/embarkation.

Done online. 2 ladies waiting at the terminal, just before we got on the ship, mainly checking our ID on a tablet. 2 people in the queue before us. We could choose our own boarding time. Very efficient.

 

Passenger mix

900 Brits although it felt like more. The rest were from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South America and Europe. Most made an effort in the evening.I had expected it to be like the cruise we did on Princess in January 2023 where scruffy passengers were the norm

 

Condition of the ship/cabin.

Very good for a 24 year old ship. No leaks anywhere and no broken toilets. Had a $60m refurb in 2019. Cabins and public areas are very modern, but patio doors had a bit of rust. The first night was very windy and we could hear wind and the sea in the cabin. I thought maybe the door wasn't shut properly even though it was locked. I opened and found  I couldn't close it so my husband did and the door partly came off. We could still lock it! Maintenance arrived in about 2 minutes and fixed it back on. It happens a lot on this ship, and hearing the sea is also quite common. The next refit is this year and may be the doors will be replaced then.

The P&O bed is more comfortable IMHO

Hardly saw our steward but there is an evening turn down service. The chocolates were not nice.

Air con- I am not sure it worked well, but we didn't need it as we were never too cold/hot.

 

Dining.

We had freedom dining in Metropolitan. We ate there for all but 2 breakfasts and 1 dinner and also on port days.

Breakfast. Waiters come round with juice, water, tea, coffee and pastries while you wait. Wide choice and always hot. The quality of the eggs, sausage and bacon are superior to P&O.

Lunch - similar to P&O, but one day it was very bad and we sent it back, hot chicken was served luke warm with rubbery chips

Dinner. Usually a good choice and I only ate from the always available menu once. Always hot and tasty. 

Freedom dining was over subscribed so sometimes we were given a buzzer - the maximum wait was 20 minutes if you wanted to share

 

Buffet - manic as you would expect, but food was ok. 

 

Drinks package

We had the classic package, which included drinks up to $10. Alcohol wise the only drinks under $10 were 330ml cans of beer/lager. I drink white wine and there was a choice of 2-3 for $10. They were ok. Cocktails were all $12+. There were cocktails under $10 but there was no list so you had to suggest something and then find out if it was included or not. Baileys was $11 and I thought it was mean not to include it in the package and I was too stingy to pay the $1 and 20% service charge on top.

Wine service at dinner was slow one night. The waiter can take a drinks order, but not for wine, the sommelier does that, and they had a lot of tables to cover.

I think the drinks are unlimited and I was not aware of any drunken behaviour.

 

Speciality dining.

$60 per head plus 20% service charge. They were constantly trying to sell the speciality restaurants. Towards the end of the cruise they dropped the price of the Indian to $45 so we did that. Food was good but the service was terrible. The waiter got our order wrong 4 times. 

 

Note regarding eating in Blu, for which you pay a whole lot more for an Aquaclass cabin, people were complaining that they had to wait to get in, rather than walking in when they wanted and it wasn't worth the extra.

 

Little extras, sometimes they came round with free prosecco or canapes, as a gift from an officer

 

Captain/ officers

Captain Pierre was quite shy, I think, but he did do the daily update himself and & an info session in the Theatre. The hotel director was very visible, she was always there when we left and returned to the ship. Ents Director was also very visible

 

Entertainment

Good and varied but we rarely got to the evening shows which were at 7 and 9. We heard good reports.  We did go to the Skylounge every night where the Ents Director would have a bit of fun and created a great atmoshere. eg on Beatles night there would be a quick quiz which involved most of the audience followed by dancing. He is one of the best ets directors I have come across.

 

The App.

Useful for checking in beforehand. The drinks, menus for each restaurant and the entertainment for the whole cruise was listed before we arrived, You could book dining and shore excursions on it. What surprised me  was that they still use pen and paper to take orders, not tablets. It worked well.

 

Shore Excursions

Very expensive. You got up to 15% off if you prebook. We did our own thing. Food and transport was cheap in Japan and the metro system was easy to use, once you got the hang of it.

 

Price

On one TA website a week to the fjords in an inside cabin on June 8th is £660 on Iona, Celebrity  Apex is £1007 plus gratuities. Is Celebrity worth the extra? Not really TBF but Celebrity is meant to be a 5* line, not a 4* line, so perhaps a better comparison would be Cunard. 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your report which is very interesting. It sounds like a lovely trip.

 

Regarding Apex and Iona the whole set up and experience on Apex would be very different from your cruise on an older ship, a bit like comparing Iona to Arcadia for instance.  

[Cathygh]

29 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Thank you for your report which is very interesting. It sounds like a lovely trip.

 

Regarding Apex and Iona the whole set up and experience on Apex would be very different from your cruise on an older ship, a bit like comparing Iona to Arcadia for instance.  

Yes you are right. I only chose Iona and Apex as comparisons are they are both doing similar itineraries at th same time. I haven't done the Maths but I think Millenium prices are about the same as Arcadia. I was on Arcadia last year and I would choose Millenium over Arcadia at present

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, Cathygh said:

.I had expected it to be like the cruise we did on Princess in January 2023 where scruffy passengers were the norm

Was this in Japan? If not where did it embark and where was the cruise going to. 

[Cathygh]

1 hour ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Was this in Japan? If not where did it embark and where was the cruise going to. 

Sorry for the confusion I have severe jet lag. The Princess cruise was a partial Panama transit.

[waddle]

Which ship were you on? Apologies, couldn’t see it mentioned

 

We have sailed Eclipse (x2), Equinox and most recently Edge. We prefer the layout of their older fleet

 

I agree with your comments on the drinks package. On the Edge all the Martinis are priced at $17 + 20% gratuity! Given the Martini Bar is the focal point of the midship area, anyone on the Classic Package is effectively priced out of drinking there 

[Thejuggler]

The trick with Celebrity is to book when they have an OBC offer.

 

You can then use that to upgrade to the full drinks package and the cruise becomes almost all inclusive.

[sweep2907]

Interesting reading as I've only sailed on Edge class ships so far. Since trying celebrity, I've certainly cut right back on my P&O cruises as they don't really compare and unfair to compare chalk with cheese. Always worth looking for bargains as bagged 12 nighter on Apex for £500pp after they'd cancelled previous offering and changed dry dock dates. Food, entertainment, drinks all far better than P&O but as I said it isn't a good comparison. Love to do Japan cruise like you did at some point.

[Presto2]

Is this a constellation class ship? It makes a massive difference in terms.of the overall cruise from our experience with Celebrity.

[terrierjohn]

42 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Is this a constellation class ship? It makes a massive difference in terms.of the overall cruise from our experience with Celebrity.

Yes, although they are classified as Millenium class. Celebrity has come a long way since we first sailed on Millenium in 2008, they just had the 4 Millenium ships and were due to take delivery of Solstice at that time,  whilst the last 3 Century class ships were in the process of joining the TUI/RC joint venture Mein Schiff, plus the 2 R class ships that were eventually demerged to form Azamara.

Now the 4 millennium class are still sailing, along with 5 Solstice class vessels and the first 4 Edge class ships, plus the 3 Xpedition ships.

Edited April 12 by terrierjohn

[Presto2]

22 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Yes, although they are classified as Millenium class. Celebrity has come a long way since we first sailed on Millenium in 2008, they just had the 4 Millenium ships and were due to take delivery of Solstice at that time,  whilst the last 3 Century class ships were in the process of joining the TUI/RC joint venture Mein Schiff, plus the 2 R class ships that were eventually demerged to form Azamara.

Now the 4 millennium class are still sailing, along with 5 Solstice class vessels and the first 4 Edge class ships, plus the 3 Xpedition ships.

Thanks for some reason I keep calling them constellation class but that may because we have been on the Constellation. 

Have to say comparing Constellation with the Edge class is like comparing apples with oranges. Totally different 

[Cathygh]

16 hours ago, waddle said:

Which ship were you on? Apologies, couldn’t see it mentioned

 

We have sailed Eclipse (x2), Equinox and most recently Edge. We prefer the layout of their older fleet

 

I agree with your comments on the drinks package. On the Edge all the Martinis are priced at $17 + 20% gratuity! Given the Martini Bar is the focal point of the midship area, anyone on the Classic Package is effectively priced out of drinking there 

Sorry I should have said we were on Millenium.

 

The drinks are priced in so that you ugrade to the premium package, so no martinis for us either. FYI Campari was $17!

Edited April 13 by Cathygh

[mrsgoggins]

17 hours ago, waddle said:

 

 

We have sailed Eclipse (x2), Equinox and most recently Edge. We prefer the layout of their older fleet

 

 

I have sailed mostly on Celebrity and on each class of ship and I am with you on preferring the layout of the older fleet, especially the Solstice class. Not as keen on the Edge class and as Constellation was the first Celebrity ship we ever sailed on (and we have sailed on Infinity) I have a soft spot for the Millenium class. 

 

Whilst their cruises are undoubtedly expensive compared with P&O, it is possible to get a bargain and I've had a few in the past.  My sailing on Silhouette from Fort Lauderdale to Amsterdam later this month was £103 pppn and that is all inclusive with $400 OBC (includes $100 for booking on board).  I also have a cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Southampton booked for March 2025 and that was £70 pp per night including gratuities only but with $100 of OBC for booking on board. These bookings are mid-ship balcony cabins. We are mostly doing these sailings because I loathe overnight flights and will enjoy the TAs on favourite ships.

 

We are Elite Plus on Celebrity and therefore get free drinks between 5-7 pm - DH will have a couple of glasses of wine and I am likely to get water and a soft drink as I have never cared for alcohol.  We will get 125 minutes of internet time each, 2 bags of laundry each and the perk I value most of all, free speciality teas and coffees.  I have never had any interest in the Martini Bar of course 😉

 

Edited April 13 by mrsgoggins

[Fionboard]

Started my cruising with Celebrity in 2011 but switched to other lines after 11 cruises with them. They were just too expensive and not at all solo friendly. Have stuck mainly to P&O since as it suits me better. 

[showingdiva]

5 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Started my cruising with Celebrity in 2011 but switched to other lines after 11 cruises with them. They were just too expensive and not at all solo friendly. Have stuck mainly to P&O since as it suits me better. 

 

I've just let a held booking lapse for this same reason on a short 2025 cruise.  I do understand that cruising solo, one's back is always going to be against a wall, but £300+ per day in a single cabin doesn't sit well with me (especially as travel to Southampton and a hotel also need factored in).   Seeing Apex does appeal to me, but not at those prices, so sticking with my two current loves, Virtuosa and Mary.

[LinniB]

Cruised both P and O and celebrity over the last couple of years 

my opinion is P and O are a 4 star experience and Celebrity are a 5 star option 

Our choice is Celebrity every time!!

[ScotchBoy]

On 4/12/2024 at 12:37 PM, Cathygh said:

Following on from Jean's report about P&O vs Fred, I thought I would give an overvie of my experience on my first Celebrity cruise. This was a much delayed cruise- 12 nights Best of Japan. We chose Celebrity for the itinerary, and because P&O don't go there for this type of thing. The following is just my opinion.

 

Checking in/embarkation.

Done online. 2 ladies waiting at the terminal, just before we got on the ship, mainly checking our ID on a tablet. 2 people in the queue before us. We could choose our own boarding time. Very efficient.

 

Passenger mix

900 Brits although it felt like more. The rest were from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South America and Europe. Most made an effort in the evening.I had expected it to be like the cruise we did on Princess in January 2023 where scruffy passengers were the norm

 

Condition of the ship/cabin.

Very good for a 24 year old ship. No leaks anywhere and no broken toilets. Had a $60m refurb in 2019. Cabins and public areas are very modern, but patio doors had a bit of rust. The first night was very windy and we could hear wind and the sea in the cabin. I thought maybe the door wasn't shut properly even though it was locked. I opened and found  I couldn't close it so my husband did and the door partly came off. We could still lock it! Maintenance arrived in about 2 minutes and fixed it back on. It happens a lot on this ship, and hearing the sea is also quite common. The next refit is this year and may be the doors will be replaced then.

The P&O bed is more comfortable IMHO

Hardly saw our steward but there is an evening turn down service. The chocolates were not nice.

Air con- I am not sure it worked well, but we didn't need it as we were never too cold/hot.

 

Dining.

We had freedom dining in Metropolitan. We ate there for all but 2 breakfasts and 1 dinner and also on port days.

Breakfast. Waiters come round with juice, water, tea, coffee and pastries while you wait. Wide choice and always hot. The quality of the eggs, sausage and bacon are superior to P&O.

Lunch - similar to P&O, but one day it was very bad and we sent it back, hot chicken was served luke warm with rubbery chips

Dinner. Usually a good choice and I only ate from the always available menu once. Always hot and tasty. 

Freedom dining was over subscribed so sometimes we were given a buzzer - the maximum wait was 20 minutes if you wanted to share

 

Buffet - manic as you would expect, but food was ok. 

 

Drinks package

We had the classic package, which included drinks up to $10. Alcohol wise the only drinks under $10 were 330ml cans of beer/lager. I drink white wine and there was a choice of 2-3 for $10. They were ok. Cocktails were all $12+. There were cocktails under $10 but there was no list so you had to suggest something and then find out if it was included or not. Baileys was $11 and I thought it was mean not to include it in the package and I was too stingy to pay the $1 and 20% service charge on top.

Wine service at dinner was slow one night. The waiter can take a drinks order, but not for wine, the sommelier does that, and they had a lot of tables to cover.

I think the drinks are unlimited and I was not aware of any drunken behaviour.

 

Speciality dining.

$60 per head plus 20% service charge. They were constantly trying to sell the speciality restaurants. Towards the end of the cruise they dropped the price of the Indian to $45 so we did that. Food was good but the service was terrible. The waiter got our order wrong 4 times. 

 

Note regarding eating in Blu, for which you pay a whole lot more for an Aquaclass cabin, people were complaining that they had to wait to get in, rather than walking in when they wanted and it wasn't worth the extra.

 

Little extras, sometimes they came round with free prosecco or canapes, as a gift from an officer

 

Captain/ officers

Captain Pierre was quite shy, I think, but he did do the daily update himself and & an info session in the Theatre. The hotel director was very visible, she was always there when we left and returned to the ship. Ents Director was also very visible

 

Entertainment

Good and varied but we rarely got to the evening shows which were at 7 and 9. We heard good reports.  We did go to the Skylounge every night where the Ents Director would have a bit of fun and created a great atmoshere. eg on Beatles night there would be a quick quiz which involved most of the audience followed by dancing. He is one of the best ets directors I have come across.

 

The App.

Useful for checking in beforehand. The drinks, menus for each restaurant and the entertainment for the whole cruise was listed before we arrived, You could book dining and shore excursions on it. What surprised me  was that they still use pen and paper to take orders, not tablets. It worked well.

 

Shore Excursions

Very expensive. You got up to 15% off if you prebook. We did our own thing. Food and transport was cheap in Japan and the metro system was easy to use, once you got the hang of it.

 

Price

On one TA website a week to the fjords in an inside cabin on June 8th is £660 on Iona, Celebrity  Apex is £1007 plus gratuities. Is Celebrity worth the extra? Not really TBF but Celebrity is meant to be a 5* line, not a 4* line, so perhaps a better comparison would be Cunard. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your report; really comprehensive. We have sailed P&O for about a decade, and Celebrity on 4 occasions, and Cunard on 4 occasions between 2007 and 2021. We've enjoyed our Cunard experiences, but don't think that they are worth the money, so won't bother again. P&O are our go-to cruise line, but we have sailed Celebrity when we fancy somewhere more exotic, such as the Far East. The Millie (as the Americans call her) is a lovely ship, and we're sailing on her again next year. 

We would agree that the Celebrity excursions are very expensive, and we try to find a way of reducing that expense. The Celebrity drinks package is very good; whereas I have never been tempted by the drinks on P&O. The Celebrity Specialty dining is also a bit pricey, but we felt it was worthwhile overall, whereas The Beach House and Sindhu were a huge disappointment when we sailed on Azura in November last year. We loved the easy checking in on Celebrity, plus you watch the Muster Drill online before you leave home! Fantastic benefit. 

On balance, for us:- Celebrity for exoticism/adventure every time, but possibly because P&O don't go to those locations, unless you're on a world cruise segment (and I won't do that again; too many cliques and too little sight-seeing).  P&O for the Med/ Caribbean. 

[Vampiress88]

It sounds cool. We’ve looked at doing a cruise around Japan next year with celebrity but then we decided to go back to Disney instead, but now there is a spanner in the works with that so might rehash the Japan idea. 
 

[Cathygh]

1 hour ago, ScotchBoy said:

Thanks for your report; really comprehensive. We have sailed P&O for about a decade, and Celebrity on 4 occasions, and Cunard on 4 occasions between 2007 and 2021. We've enjoyed our Cunard experiences, but don't think that they are worth the money, so won't bother again. P&O are our go-to cruise line, but we have sailed Celebrity when we fancy somewhere more exotic, such as the Far East. The Millie (as the Americans call her) is a lovely ship, and we're sailing on her again next year. 

We would agree that the Celebrity excursions are very expensive, and we try to find a way of reducing that expense. The Celebrity drinks package is very good; whereas I have never been tempted by the drinks on P&O. The Celebrity Specialty dining is also a bit pricey, but we felt it was worthwhile overall, whereas The Beach House and Sindhu were a huge disappointment when we sailed on Azura in November last year. We loved the easy checking in on Celebrity, plus you watch the Muster Drill online before you leave home! Fantastic benefit. 

On balance, for us:- Celebrity for exoticism/adventure every time, but possibly because P&O don't go to those locations, unless you're on a world cruise segment (and I won't do that again; too many cliques and too little sight-seeing).  P&O for the Med/ Caribbean. 

I agree wholeheartedly. I had forgotten you could watch the muster drill online before hand, and just scan your card at the Muster point. It is shame P&O don't do more indepth voyages across the world. I am not keen to try a world cruise or a segment, too many sea days for us.

[scouse mouse]

Thank you for the review - much appreciated.  We are sailing on Millie in a few days time, around southern Japan and South Korea.  Can I ask how dressed up the evening chic nights are?  I’m slightly confused with the dress codes tbh.

[Cathygh]

They aren't as dressy as P&O but most people were smart. A few men had DJs but most were smart casual. I did not see anyone scruffy in the evenings. For evening chic I usaully wore a cocktail dress, or sequined top and black trousers. 

 

I hope you  have a good time

[scouse mouse]

Thank you Cathygh.

[Traderboy]

On 4/12/2024 at 12:37 PM, Cathygh said:

Following on from Jean's report about P&O vs Fred, I thought I would give an overvie of my experience on my first Celebrity cruise. This was a much delayed cruise- 12 nights Best of Japan. We chose Celebrity for the itinerary, and because P&O don't go there for this type of thing. The following is just my opinion.

 

Checking in/embarkation.

Done online. 2 ladies waiting at the terminal, just before we got on the ship, mainly checking our ID on a tablet. 2 people in the queue before us. We could choose our own boarding time. Very efficient.

 

Passenger mix

900 Brits although it felt like more. The rest were from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South America and Europe. Most made an effort in the evening.I had expected it to be like the cruise we did on Princess in January 2023 where scruffy passengers were the norm

 

Condition of the ship/cabin.

Very good for a 24 year old ship. No leaks anywhere and no broken toilets. Had a $60m refurb in 2019. Cabins and public areas are very modern, but patio doors had a bit of rust. The first night was very windy and we could hear wind and the sea in the cabin. I thought maybe the door wasn't shut properly even though it was locked. I opened and found  I couldn't close it so my husband did and the door partly came off. We could still lock it! Maintenance arrived in about 2 minutes and fixed it back on. It happens a lot on this ship, and hearing the sea is also quite common. The next refit is this year and may be the doors will be replaced then.

The P&O bed is more comfortable IMHO

Hardly saw our steward but there is an evening turn down service. The chocolates were not nice.

Air con- I am not sure it worked well, but we didn't need it as we were never too cold/hot.

 

Dining.

We had freedom dining in Metropolitan. We ate there for all but 2 breakfasts and 1 dinner and also on port days.

Breakfast. Waiters come round with juice, water, tea, coffee and pastries while you wait. Wide choice and always hot. The quality of the eggs, sausage and bacon are superior to P&O.

Lunch - similar to P&O, but one day it was very bad and we sent it back, hot chicken was served luke warm with rubbery chips

Dinner. Usually a good choice and I only ate from the always available menu once. Always hot and tasty. 

Freedom dining was over subscribed so sometimes we were given a buzzer - the maximum wait was 20 minutes if you wanted to share

 

Buffet - manic as you would expect, but food was ok. 

 

Drinks package

We had the classic package, which included drinks up to $10. Alcohol wise the only drinks under $10 were 330ml cans of beer/lager. I drink white wine and there was a choice of 2-3 for $10. They were ok. Cocktails were all $12+. There were cocktails under $10 but there was no list so you had to suggest something and then find out if it was included or not. Baileys was $11 and I thought it was mean not to include it in the package and I was too stingy to pay the $1 and 20% service charge on top.

Wine service at dinner was slow one night. The waiter can take a drinks order, but not for wine, the sommelier does that, and they had a lot of tables to cover.

I think the drinks are unlimited and I was not aware of any drunken behaviour.

 

Speciality dining.

$60 per head plus 20% service charge. They were constantly trying to sell the speciality restaurants. Towards the end of the cruise they dropped the price of the Indian to $45 so we did that. Food was good but the service was terrible. The waiter got our order wrong 4 times. 

 

Note regarding eating in Blu, for which you pay a whole lot more for an Aquaclass cabin, people were complaining that they had to wait to get in, rather than walking in when they wanted and it wasn't worth the extra.

 

Little extras, sometimes they came round with free prosecco or canapes, as a gift from an officer

 

Captain/ officers

Captain Pierre was quite shy, I think, but he did do the daily update himself and & an info session in the Theatre. The hotel director was very visible, she was always there when we left and returned to the ship. Ents Director was also very visible

 

Entertainment

Good and varied but we rarely got to the evening shows which were at 7 and 9. We heard good reports.  We did go to the Skylounge every night where the Ents Director would have a bit of fun and created a great atmoshere. eg on Beatles night there would be a quick quiz which involved most of the audience followed by dancing. He is one of the best ets directors I have come across.

 

The App.

Useful for checking in beforehand. The drinks, menus for each restaurant and the entertainment for the whole cruise was listed before we arrived, You could book dining and shore excursions on it. What surprised me  was that they still use pen and paper to take orders, not tablets. It worked well.

 

Shore Excursions

Very expensive. You got up to 15% off if you prebook. We did our own thing. Food and transport was cheap in Japan and the metro system was easy to use, once you got the hang of it.

 

Price

On one TA website a week to the fjords in an inside cabin on June 8th is £660 on Iona, Celebrity  Apex is £1007 plus gratuities. Is Celebrity worth the extra? Not really TBF but Celebrity is meant to be a 5* line, not a 4* line, so perhaps a better comparison would be Cunard. 

 

Thank you Jean for this very helpful description of your recent Japan cruise.

We too have been on a recent Asian cruise on Celebrity Millenium.

The general standard of the Celebrity experience was very good and far superior in my opinion to what is available on P&O.

We did have a few niggles though especially about the included basic WiFi and the basic drinks package. Everything is geared to persuading you to upgrade.

Another problem we thought was lack of space allocated to indoor seating particularly when the weather precluded any outdoor activity.

Far too much space on the ship was given over to Shops and the Casino. Yes I know that is where they make a lot of money.

The ships excursions were far too expensive - though very well organised. We did not feel the need to pay $60 for a speciality restaurant. The food in the main dining room was excellent.

We’re still unsure whether we prefer Princess Cruises ahead of Celebrity because we have all the benefits of elite loyalty tier.

On Celebrity we seem to have no benefit at all from our blue tier or whatever they call it. We have now been on 2 Celebrity cruises.

 

 

 

 

 

[Traderboy]

Thank you Jean for this very helpful description of your recent Japan cruise.

We too have been on a recent Asian cruise on Celebrity Millenium.

The general standard of the Celebrity experience was very good and far superior in my opinion to what is available on P&O.

We did have a few niggles though especially about the included basic WiFi and the basic drinks package. Everything is geared to persuading you to upgrade.

Another problem we thought was lack of space allocated to indoor seating particularly when the weather precluded any outdoor activity.

Far too much space on the ship was given over to Shops and the Casino. Yes I know that is where they make a lot of money.

The ships excursions were far too expensive - though very well organised. We did not feel the need to pay $60 for a speciality restaurant. The food in the main dining room was excellent.

We’re still unsure whether we prefer Princess Cruises ahead of Celebrity because we have all the benefits of elite loyalty tier.

On Celebrity we seem to have no benefit at all from our blue tier or whatever they call it. We have now been on 2 Celebrity cruises.