Considering booking our first Celebrity cruise but have questions.

[mumcat]

We usually cruise on small ships such as Azamara. Until recently we were booked with Silversea to cruise India to Singapore in December but they had to shorten the itinerary which no longer appealed to us even with a reduced fare. I have found an itinerary from India to Singapore on Millennium in December 2024 which is more appealing. I'm trying to get my head around the various permutations of cabin types and included/excluded amenities.  What I would like to know is, what are the excursions like - are they expensive / worth the cost or do most people organise their own? Also any advice or opinions on whether it's worth booking Aqua / Sky suites would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[mrgabriel]

We are not suite dwellers so can't comment on that. And we have never sailed on a luxury line but I suspect there is quite a difference in experience. Hopefully one of the many who have sailed both can help you there. 

 

Some people organise their own excursions. We normally use the ship's excursions even if they are more expensive unless we feel very confident that we will be able to get back to the ship on time. Especially in places where I don't speak the language and we would have difficulty if there was an issue. 

[jelayne]

We have done 2 versions of the India - Singapore itinerary and both times did private excursions  In all cases the ships excursions were much more than we paid for our tours which ranged in size from 2-10.

We have sailed primarily in Aqua or a Suite.  Both have their own dining room which we find to have better service, less noisy and while food is subjective we find them both to be better than the MDR.

 

We only once on Azamara and found it no to be a good fit for us.  We disliked the dining room ( noisy, long wait for a table, never had the same server twice, food served barely warm).  Generally we found the ship to be too quiet late afternoon and after dinner, with the exception of the White Night which was excellent.

[George C]

We always book suites everything from sky to penthouse, the suite gives you a suite restaurant and a suite lounge service is normally excellent in both , plus concierge is there to help with anything. I normally will try to do private tours , less crowded and normally cheaper. If ship is a E class you also have a great outdoor retreat with swimming pool, hot tubs and bar . Entertainment on E class is normally excellent. 

[LB_NJ]

If you generally like the smaller more exclusive ship lines you may not be as happy with Celebrity.

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, George C said:

We always book suites everything from sky to penthouse, the suite gives you a suite restaurant and a suite lounge service is normally excellent in both , plus concierge is there to help with anything. I normally will try to do private tours , less crowded and normally cheaper. If ship is a E class you also have a great outdoor retreat with swimming pool, hot tubs and bar . Entertainment on E class is normally excellent. 

the ship is Millennium - which is totally different to the experience they would get on E Class.

[the penguins]

5 hours ago, mumcat said:

We usually cruise on small ships such as Azamara. Until recently we were booked with Silversea to cruise India to Singapore in December but they had to shorten the itinerary which no longer appealed to us even with a reduced fare. I have found an itinerary from India to Singapore on Millennium in December 2024 which is more appealing. I'm trying to get my head around the various permutations of cabin types and included/excluded amenities.  What I would like to know is, what are the excursions like - are they expensive / worth the cost or do most people organise their own? Also any advice or opinions on whether it's worth booking Aqua / Sky suites would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

Millennium is the oldest and smallest of the Celebrity fleet with less choice of speciality restaurants.

We always book private excursions and share with 2 (max 4) other people from the Roll Call. Our preferred supplier is Toursbylocals as you deal direct with the guide, pay via the TBL head office in Canada, full refund if the ship doesn't dock/you are refused disembarkation and TBL will meet the cost of getting you to the next port if you miss the ship (never been an issue). Tours can be personalised, we take out the lunch and add coffee/cake breaks and makes for a much more relaxed experience.

[George C]

We sailed on sister ship summit in royal suite in March , i definitely prefer suite restaurant on M class over E class . Totally agree with roll call , only problem is not that many people sign up for roll call anymore, I remember before Covid you might find 50 now it’s closer to 5 . 

[Northern Aurora]

 

While the Millennium is the oldest ship currently operating in the Celebrity fleet it has been revolutionized (modernized) and, if my memory is correct, is going into dry dock this coming fall.  So a cruise booked for December 2024 is post dry dock.

 

We have been on the ship several times.  Most recently we spent 24 nights last spring.  There are pluses and minus on all ships, and the lack of specialty dining variety is a minus.

 

Prior to the covid-19 pandemic we booked Aqua Class about 40% of the time, Sky Suites 40 % of the time and 20% of the time we booked Celebrity Suites.  Now we only book suites.  Both Aqua Class and Suites have their own MDR which is a definite advantage due to the limited specialty dining venues.

[Jim_Iain]

If you are accustomed to Silversea, Azamara and Oceania I would definitely recommend traveling in a Suite.   While many prefer E-Class to M and S class ships,  I'm a contrarian and moving from Celebrity to Silversea and Oceania due to the decline in food quality and preparation on E-Class ships.  

 

The Luminae was created for the M and S class ships as meals prepared to order as opposed to banquet style cooking -  My experience has been less than stellar on Edge and Apex.  

 

I've done Singapore to Rome (via India and the Suez) on an M-Class ship and loved it.  While you do not have as many specialty restaurants - the ones they do have a very quiet and intimate as oppose to the E-Class concept of no walls an booming noise so loud you can't carry on a conversation while dining.    Just watch a video of the Martini Bar Light Show which is open to Raw, Bistro and Fine Cut.    Luminae on E-Class also have 2X the passenger load in suites and can be extremely loud also .

 

While you have fewer choices of Specialty you do have the advantages that you can order from MDR and Blu menus which isn't usually available on E-Class ships.

 

Just my 2 cents worth -  I'm sure the E-Class cheerleader's will lambaste me.  Just not my thing after spending about 3 months on E-Class in the last year an half.

Edited June 12 by Jim_Iain

[ScottC4746]

9 hours ago, mumcat said:

We usually cruise on small ships such as Azamara. Until recently we were booked with Silversea to cruise India to Singapore in December but they had to shorten the itinerary which no longer appealed to us even with a reduced fare. I have found an itinerary from India to Singapore on Millennium in December 2024 which is more appealing. I'm trying to get my head around the various permutations of cabin types and included/excluded amenities.  What I would like to know is, what are the excursions like - are they expensive / worth the cost or do most people organise their own? Also any advice or opinions on whether it's worth booking Aqua / Sky suites would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

I only have experience with Alaska.  We took the White Passage Railroad and booked with X and then we looked on line directly and it was very close to what we would have paid.

The difference between Aqua Sky and regular Sky appears to be that Aqua you are closer to the spa and eat at Blu whereas the regular Sky Suites you eat in Luminae. 

 

From what I can tell, I believe you get full access to the Retreat areas of the ship, but someone else will need to confirm this.

[George C]

22 minutes ago, ScottC4746 said:

I only have experience with Alaska.  We took the White Passage Railroad and booked with X and then we looked on line directly and it was very close to what we would have paid.

The difference between Aqua Sky and regular Sky appears to be that Aqua you are closer to the spa and eat at Blu whereas the regular Sky Suites you eat in Luminae. 

 

From what I can tell, I believe you get full access to the Retreat areas of the ship, but someone else will need to confirm this.

If in a suite you get suite restaurant and suite lounge where you can have drinks and sometimes snacks all day , staff is normally great if they don’t have the liquor or wine you like they will try to get it . Outdoor retreat is almost nothing except for E class , but they have a limited lunch menu which is nice on port days since suite restaurant is closed . 

[mumcat]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to give quite detailed replies to my question. I really appreciate it. I spent quite some time going over all the different options but for now, I have decided that I'm not ready for the 'big ship' experience so I'm putting off the decision for a while.😊

[billc23]

42 minutes ago, mumcat said:

Thank you to everyone who took the time to give quite detailed replies to my question. I really appreciate it. I spent quite some time going over all the different options but for now, I have decided that I'm not ready for the 'big ship' experience so I'm putting off the decision for a while.😊

I sailed on the February Silver Moon trip you canceled and I continued the sailing onto Hong Kong. I then joined the Celebrity Solstice - Hong Kong to Singapore - I continued on to Solstice to Vancouver. Silver Suite on the Silver Moon and PH on the Solstice. Very different onboard experience and I preferred the Silver Moon. The crowds, the noise level, the variety of dining venues, the attention to detail... all favor the Silversea ship. For example, on the Solstice, having to shout to talk to the bartender in a nearly empty bar because of the excessively loud piped in music is ridiculous. I have sailed a lot on the M class ships, having enjoyed the spectacular PH for 10+ weeks post Covid, and I do prefer the M class experience to the S class except the lack of specialty dining. 

 

The larger difference, and this is important to me when visiting unique destinations, is where the ship docks and how long it stays in port. We sailed the same route on each ship (SIN to HK, HK to SIN) and, after being on a smaller ship that actually docks where you want to visit, it was frustrating to have a 2 hour drive to see the destination. A private excursion cannot get around that. We did a mix of private and ship excursions. As far as ship excursions, on Celebrity, the 48 passenger bus usually had 40 plus passengers On Silversea the same bus typically had 16 to 20 passengers and someone from shore excursion was onboard to help out if needed and also taking notes to improve the tours description. If you are traveling for the off the ship port experience, Silversea is nicer regardless of a ship or private tour - mainly because of where the ship docks and the minimal need to use tenders. The difference between docking in Ho Chi Minh City proper and docking a 2 hour bus ride away is priceless. 

 

Without taking into account the included shore excursions or private limo transport from my home to the airport on Silversea, or the OBC provided by Celebrity that was in place when I did the booking, the Celebrity sailing was 60% more per day than the Silversea sailing. Hard to figure that one out...