Where Should Celebrity Create New Routes & Sailings?

[Ken the cruiser]

57 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

 

We know X thinks a 15 cruise is way to long for anyone to cruise on , and everyone should book 3 day cruises b2b2b 🙄🤣

 

What are the main difference between Princess and HAL when sail in a balcony ? 

We used to cruise with HAL quite a bit up until 2019 when they eliminated their production shows and other main theater evening entertainment to focus on their “lounge-based” Music Walk strategy. HAL also has one combined Cruise/Excursion Director with only one assistant. As far as professionally given lectures go, HAL only offers them on select 15+ day “single itinerary” cruises. At least that was the case when we moved on to Celebrity and Princess back then.

 

Princess OTOH offers quality production shows and guest entertainers in the main theater every night, the CD usually has 4-5 assistants on the entertainment staff dedicated to making you laugh, and guest lecturers pretty much on every cruise with 3 or more sea days. 
 

We also give the edge to Princess when it comes to their 3-5 week offerings. For example, they have already posted many of their 2026 European itineraries, to include a 14-day August Solar Eclipse cruise and a 28-day Northern Lights/TA cruise. However, HAL has an awesome 28-day Alaska cruise we’re interested in that goes to the Bering Sea and Nome as well as some other rarely visited Alaska ports.

 

But what got us to recently take a fresh look at HAL again are their new lower prices, a variety of early booking bonuses depending on how early you book a cruise, as well as their new military appreciation and AARP membership OBC perks. Also, check out their Club Orange perks, especially the free cabin category upgrade within a given meta category.

 

That’s what comes to mind right now. 😁
 

Oh yeah, @Ex-Airbalancer, HAL is also bringing back the production shows fleetwide, which is also a big deal for us! 

 

Edited June 8 by Ken the cruiser

[Ex-Airbalancer]

6 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We used to cruise with HAL quite a bit up until 2019 when they eliminated their production shows and other main theater evening entertainment to focus on their “lounge-based” Music Walk strategy. HAL also has one combined Cruise/Excursion Director with only one assistant. As far as professionally given lectures go, HAL only offers them on select 15+ day “single itinerary” cruises. At least that was the case when we moved on to Celebrity and Princess back then.

 

Princess OTOH offers quality production shows and guest entertainers in the main theater every night, the CD usually has 4-5 assistants on the entertainment staff dedicated to making you laugh, and guest lecturers pretty much on every cruise with 3 or more sea days. 
 

We also give the edge to Princess when it comes to their 3-5 week offerings. For example, they have already posted many of their 2026 European itineraries, to include a 14-day August Solar Eclipse cruise and a 28-day Northern Lights/TA cruise. However, HAL has an awesome 28-day Alaska cruise we’re interested in that goes to the Bering Sea and Nome as well as some other rarely visited Alaska ports.

 

But what got us to recently take a fresh look at HAL again are their new lower prices, a variety of early booking bonuses depending on how early you book a cruise, as well as their new military appreciation and AARP membership OBC perks. Also, check out their Club Orange perks, especially the free cabin category upgrade within a given meta category.

 

That’s what comes to mind right now. 😁

Thanks ! 
we did buy CCL stock when it was under $10 and wife is a vet so that could help with OBC , just need to do something with the exchange rate difference between USD &CAD 😭

[Ken the cruiser]

9 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Thanks ! 
we did buy CCL stock when it was under $10 and wife is a vet so that could help with OBC , just need to do something with the exchange rate difference between USD &CAD 😭

Isn’t the exchange rate an issue with any cruise line you book with?

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Thanks ! 
we did buy CCL stock when it was under $10 and wife is a vet so that could help with OBC , just need to do something with the exchange rate difference between USD &CAD 😭

At least you are not paying with Argentine pesos 😱

[debfed65]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

HAL is also bringing back the production shows fleetwide, which is also a big deal for us! 

 

This is great news for us!  We booked a 14 night September 20 2025 which includes an overnight in Alexandria.  Got a great price, with premium drinks, tips, wifi, crew appreciation, specialty dining, shore excursion credit etc...  The only thing that really worried us about booking was the lack of entertainment (except for the music walk) in the evenings. I am very happy to hear the production shows will be back! Still wish we were doing a Celebrity sailing with the itinerary and inclusions we have booked with HAL. Thanks for sharing this information 😃

[81Zoomie]

We would prefer anywhere besides “Perfect Day” and the short 3-5 day cruises.  Much prefer at least 10 day cruises.  It’s difficult to really unwind in a week.  
 

After a few years, most of the Caribbean islands start to blend together.   We would love to circle Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Australia.  Visiting all the Baltic states and Finland would be interesting.  How about a 14 day Alaska cruise that goes out to the Aleutian Islands?  At the moment, between the bigger ships, pricing, and lack of interesting itineraries, we have only one remaining Celebrity cruise on the books.

Edited June 9 by 81Zoomie

[Gracie115]

18 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Thanks ! 
we did buy CCL stock when it was under $10 and wife is a vet so that could help with OBC , just need to do something with the exchange rate difference between USD &CAD 😭

 

I would add that at least for some of the ships HAL does have a nicer standard balcony room, they have a small loveseat in those rooms where Princess has only a chair. Also the bathrooms are nicer.... again on some ships, especially the newer ones.

 

Other than that I agree with @Ken the cruiser's comparisons....

[atakkat]

We would love to see a Celebrity sailing out of Galveston!

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, Gracie115 said:

 

I would add that at least for some of the ships HAL does have a nicer standard balcony room, they have a small loveseat in those rooms where Princess has only a chair. Also the bathrooms are nicer.... again on some ships, especially the newer ones.

 

Other than that I agree with @Ken the cruiser's comparisons....

I totally agree. That’s one of many reasons why we book mini-suites or higher when we cruise with Princess. When we cruised before with HAL, we would always book a vista suite to get the double cruise points to get to 4-star that much faster so we could take advantage of the free laundry perk and the other cool perks that come with making it to that Mariner level.

 

Now back to why Celebrities should put more thought into their new itineraries. 😁
 

Edited June 9 by Ken the cruiser

[phoenix_dream]

23 hours ago, paulh84 said:

Times change. Sooner than later the current loyalists, Zeniths, special people, whatever they title themselves will be washed out and replaced with a different segment of people. Just like the current crop replaced the ones that were the loyalists in the 80’s and 90’s who wore their dinner jackets and recycled mother of the bride dresses. That group has expired and so will this one. But now Celebrity tries to shift focus and gives the complainers some white haired people in the photos that represent them and it’s pandering. I think this group may be most content with having something to complain about. 

No need to be so rude about it, just because I disagree with you (which unlike you I did politely)

[C 2 C]

23 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Thanks ! 
we did buy CCL stock when it was under $10 and wife is a vet so that could help with OBC , just need to do something with the exchange rate difference between USD &CAD 😭

I have a problem with the way differential is calculated.  We booked a bunch of Celebrity cruises for this coming winter.  In some cases the exchange rate varied by 5% and we booked with US as well as CDN companies.

[C 2 C]

On 6/8/2024 at 2:26 PM, Baron Barracuda said:

What about regular Greenland / Iceland from Cape Liberty?  Summit was stationed there for years doing 7 nights Bermuda in the summer and 14 nights r/t Quebec in fall.  Pricing was always firm.  Now schedule has only 12 sailings total from NJ.

And it's changing for next year.  This year we will be jumping the hoops to cruise from Bayonne to Iceland and back to Boston.  Next year a B2B is nearly impossible unless you want to spend a month doing one week cruises around Iceland before returning.

[C 2 C]

On 6/7/2024 at 5:11 PM, WestLakeGirl said:

And yet how do explain this model?  She is in current ads

Where is the mayo?  No taste I say.

[C 2 C]

On 6/8/2024 at 11:07 AM, Jeremiah1212 said:

Not that it matters but the lady is 67 and quite an accomplished photographer herself. There is no 'max age range'.

Oh to be that young again!

[sofietucker]

20 hours ago, 81Zoomie said:

Visiting all the Baltic states and Finland would be interesting.  

Here ya go! With two ports in Finland (not Mariehavn)... Join us next summer.

 https://www.azamara.com/cruises/jr250630-015-15-night-baltic-intensive-voyage

 

[sofietucker]

On 6/8/2024 at 4:05 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

We used to cruise with HAL quite a bit up until 2019 when they eliminated their production shows and other main theater evening entertainment to focus on their “lounge-based” Music Walk strategy. HAL also has one combined Cruise/Excursion Director with only one assistant. As far as professionally given lectures go, HAL only offers them on select 15+ day “single itinerary” cruises. At least that was the case when we moved on to Celebrity and Princess back then.

 

Princess OTOH offers quality production shows and guest entertainers in the main theater every night, the CD usually has 4-5 assistants on the entertainment staff dedicated to making you laugh, and guest lecturers pretty much on every cruise with 3 or more sea days. 
 

We also give the edge to Princess when it comes to their 3-5 week offerings. For example, they have already posted many of their 2026 European itineraries, to include a 14-day August Solar Eclipse cruise and a 28-day Northern Lights/TA cruise. However, HAL has an awesome 28-day Alaska cruise we’re interested in that goes to the Bering Sea and Nome as well as some other rarely visited Alaska ports.

 

But what got us to recently take a fresh look at HAL again are their new lower prices, a variety of early booking bonuses depending on how early you book a cruise, as well as their new military appreciation and AARP membership OBC perks. Also, check out their Club Orange perks, especially the free cabin category upgrade within a given meta category.

 

That’s what comes to mind right now. 😁
 

Oh yeah, @Ex-Airbalancer, HAL is also bringing back the production shows fleetwide, which is also a big deal for us! 

 

We quit Princess back when they put MUTS above the pool on all their ships; it was impossible to escape the blare on any of the outside decks. Very annoying and NOT relaxing to hear the constant gunfire, explosions, shouting, etc. At least X keeps their outdoor movies separate, up top and far away from everything else... Is that feature on Princess still in place?

[sofietucker]

On 6/8/2024 at 4:15 PM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

HAL also has one combined Cruise/Excursion Director with only one assistant.

Lol. On the final voyage of our dear Prinsendam, the new CD had just been jumped up from beverage manager... Completely clueless but very sweet.

[81Zoomie]

9 minutes ago, sofietucker said:

Here ya go! With two ports in Finland (not Mariehavn)... Join us next summer.

 https://www.azamara.com/cruises/jr250630-015-15-night-baltic-intensive-voyage

 

This cruise is one we are considering!

[sofietucker]

10 minutes ago, 81Zoomie said:

This cruise is one we are considering!

If you do book it, I urge you to immediately reserve your hotel in Copenhagen. Every professional organization on the planet seems to hold their conferences there in June and July and rooms become scarce pretty quickly. We once had to stay many miles out of town and take the train in to the ship...

[Ken the cruiser]

24 minutes ago, sofietucker said:

We quit Princess back when they put MUTS above the pool on all their ships; it was impossible to escape the blare on any of the outside decks. Very annoying and NOT relaxing to hear the constant gunfire, explosions, shouting, etc. At least X keeps their outdoor movies separate, up top and far away from everything else... Is that feature on Princess still in place?

Sorry to hear that. Maybe they adjusted the sound once they got a bunch of complaints that I would imagine they received. TBH we book aft-facing cabins, so the noise has never been an issue. However, we were on the Regal in 2022 in a mid-ship M1 cabin on the Aloha deck for 21 days and don’t remember hearing an annoying sounds from the MUTS when we were out on the balcony, which was quite often on sea days.

Edited June 9 by Ken the cruiser

[NMTraveller]

5 hours ago, sofietucker said:

Here ya go! With two ports in Finland (not Mariehavn)... Join us next summer.

 https://www.azamara.com/cruises/jr250630-015-15-night-baltic-intensive-voyage

 

Oh wow!  I would second that. Someplace I have not been.  A very nice itinerary.

[hcat]

On 6/8/2024 at 4:02 PM, paulh84 said:

Times change. Sooner than later the current loyalists, Zeniths, special people, whatever they title themselves will be washed out and replaced with a different segment of people. Just like the current crop replaced the ones that were the loyalists in the 80’s and 90’s who wore their dinner jackets and recycled mother of the bride dresses. That group has expired and so will this one. But now Celebrity tries to shift focus and gives the complainers some white haired people in the photos that represent them and it’s pandering. I think this group may be most content with having something to complain about. 

We have not all expired, do not all  have white hair,  and are still loyal..but looking around. Do not wear dinner jackets and or a recycled mother of bride dress..( & avoid ageist stereotypes!)

 

  Some recent  changes need to be called out..and a mix of cruise lengths might be workable..esp on the smaller older ships..but only if they are  updated !

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

19 hours ago, C 2 C said:

And it's changing for next year.  This year we will be jumping the hoops to cruise from Bayonne to Iceland and back to Boston.  Next year a B2B is nearly impossible unless you want to spend a month doing one week cruises around Iceland before returning.

 

Remember that fabulous itinerary we were all booked on that Covid killed two years in a row?  14 nights over and 14 nights back, no international flying involved.  

[Ken the cruiser]

11 minutes ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

 

Remember that fabulous itinerary we were all booked on that Covid killed two years in a row?  14 nights over and 14 nights back, no international flying involved.  

FWIW we went on it in August 2022 and had an awesome time. 

[C 2 C]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

FWIW we went on it in August 2022 and had an awesome time. 

Any advice?