Celebrity Constellation

[shsunseeker]

We just returned from a Baltic cruise on the Celebrity Constellation. This was our seventh cruise and our first on Celebrity. We thought we would try out a cruise with a gay group so we booked our trip through Pied Piper. We did have a nice time and we met some very nice people; however, we were disappointed with some aspects of Celebrity and our tour company Pied Piper.

The commercials say that Celebrity treats people "Famously". I suppose we expected to be treated with more decorum and formality. We paid quiet a bit more to travel with Celebrity than with competing cruise lines so we thought the product would be of superior quality.

The ship was beautiful but Celebrity proved to be the greediest cruise line that I have traveled on thus far. Not only did we pay about $1,000 more to travel with them but everything on the ship cost significantly more (usually almost double) what other cruise lines charged us. This included just about everything such as drinks and charges for activities on the ship.

At dinner the waiter would give us advice about each port of call. He was very specific that we wait to make purchases in Tallin, Estonia because Saint Petersburg, Russia was more expensive and the identical merchandise could be found and purchased in Tallin at much more reasonable prices. Further, the daily newsletter on the ship stated that tourists needed to obtain documents from vendors in Russia in order to bring purchased items back on to the ship.

This was a direct deception. I believe Celebrity does this to discourage passengers from making purchases in Saint Petersburg so that they will end up having to buy those same items on the ship at three times the price.

First, I made only a couple of purchases from vendors in Russia. I found out while I was there that you do not need to have any documents to bring purchased items back on to the ship. Second, the waiter gave us false information. Tallin was not inexpensive nor did Tallin have all the merchandise offered in Russia.

In reality, Saint Petersburg offered great prices for American tourists. Vendors are will to negotiate prices and the quality of the merchandise is equal to that offered on the ship.

After we left Tallin and realized we had been made fools of by the cruise line, there was an announcement and promotion of the Grand Russian Bazaar in the shops on the ship. This was a frenzy of people packed into the shopping area trying to grab any "deals" they could get. All I can say is that I did not feel that I was being treated "Famously". What a line of bull! Like I said, this was our seventh cruise. Never had I seen such tactics used to deceive the customer. I did mention my dissatisfaction to several staff members. In the most patronizing manner I have ever encountered, I was encouraged to "Just have fun" and my concerns were ignored.

Unfortunately, the travel company that we used furnished us with two guides who knew absolutely nothing about the countries that we were going to visit. When Pied Piper sold us the cruise package, we were told that the guides would take us on private tours of some of the cities and would be there to help us. How can you help people, when you have no knowledge of the region being visited?

I realize all the cruise lines are in business to make money. However, is it really necessary to deceive customers to make a profit. We were very upset by the way in which we were treated by Celebrity. We cruise every Christmas holiday and were prepared to book our Christmas cruise on the ship before departure. After our experience and the "Famous" treatment we received, we will probably never cruise with them again.

:mad:

[Blazerboy]

I responded to the identical thread posted on the Celebrity boards, and just wanted to add a response here. We have never had this experience with Celebrity, and am surprised to hear it. As I said elsewhere, I'm sorry you had this bad experience.

 

But in reading your post for the second time, your complaints with Celebrity seem to be entirely about shopping, and, as much of a gay stereotype as I am, shopping is not one of the important features of a vacation or cruise to me:D , so maybe, as on most cruise lines, I've been able to avoid the pitfalls of being steered to buy ship's merchandise or missing shopping opportunities ashore.

 

Hope you find a good match, both for cruise line and a group host if that's what you want.:) Celebrity has been a wonderful cruise experience for me.

 

Andrew

[RMS Olympic]

Almost all the cruise lines are finding ways to make money beyond that of the actual per cabin per passenger fare. I think if they priced the cruise out to make a comfortable profit margin, people would look at the price and go else where. Nickel, dime, now dollar you to death...is the name of the game. As Blazerboy mentioned.....if shopping is a key issue on your vacation perhaps using a web site like Cruise Critic could provide some precruise guidance from those that have been there done that. Historically the cruise lines have always recommended where to shop......perhaps there have been agreements resulting in kickbacks.....who knows.....

As to being treated famously......on a mass market ship.....just by the number of passengers......I doubt it. Perhaps if your click with a few specific crew memebers (cabin staffor a bartender) you might get that little extra attention you seek. But to get a standard upscale treatment...it might be better to check on an upscale line with smaller ships. Some of them with their specials and their all inclusive pricing maybe similar in price to the mass market lines. Some swear by Seabourn, some Crystal or Silver Seas.....me its Regent (formally Radisson seven Seas). Their pricing often beats Celebrity that charges me 200% as a single....and rRgent does treat me fabulously.

Food for thought.....my 3.5 cents which does not include the 15% built in gratuity.....LOL

[flag fan]

I was considering a Pied Piper tour on a Celebrity ship to the Caribbean. Assuming the tour guides will be more familiar with the sites and being foreawarned about shopping advice from ship personnel (I read on other posts that the excursion staff often push certain venders with whom they have special arrangements, so I suspect Celebrity is not the only line to do this), would you recommend a Pied Piper group cruise or going independently?

[Tedson]

I'm sorry to read your cruise with Celebrity was less than wonderful. I can't comment on Pied Piper as I've never tried them, or shopping (not a big shopper), but what stood out for me was your comment "At dinner the waiter would give us advice about each port of call.". I've never received any unsolicited advice regarding shopping from the waiter or asst. waiter on any cruise I've been on. Their primary function on a cruise is to serve the meal and make it a pleasant experience. Giving advice about ports of call or where to shop seems way beyond their realm of expertise.

[shsunseeker]

There were other guys on our cruise who had traveled with Pied Piper before and received much better services than on this cruise. They expressed dissappointment with Pied Piper as far as the Constellation Cruise. This was our first cruise with Pied Piper and they grossly exagerated what they were going to do for the clients on the cruise. The guides with us seemed basically to be on vacation and did little else than pass out papers. You could try it and maybe you would have a better experience. Princess and some other cruiselines are very good about having friends of Dorothy meetings. We have met a lot of nice guys at those. We figure that we might as well just attend those instead of paying extra for services that are not rendered.

 

We understand that advertising can overstate what one might receive in reality and this was our seventh cruise and we have never complained before. The difference this time was that we felt we were deceived and lied to.

 

I don't think that it's unrealistic to expect corporations/ businesses to operate within reasonable ethical guidelines.

 

Good luck in making your choice.

 

Sunseeker

[eroller]

I have never sailed with Pied Piper, but I have sailed on Celebrity several times along with most other major cruise lines. I actually rate Celebrity very high so I'm disappointed to hear of your less than stellar experience. Frankly I've never had a bad cruise, just some that are better than others.

 

As for the excessive charges, this is nothing new and all the cruise lines are doing it. All major cruise lines have raised onboard prices and started charging for premium "extras". It's a way to offset low ticket prices. In fact I'm sailing on CROWN PRINCESS in September and all the reviews point out the many 'extras' that Princess is charging for. Some are calling it the "nickel and dime" ship but I'm sure I will have a great time anyway.

 

Might I suggest Silversea, SeaDream Yacht, Regent Seven Seas, and Seabourn. I can assure you on any of these lines you will find an inclusive first class experience that is second to none. My partner and I sailed on Silversea and it was truly fantastic. None the less I still enjoy my cruises on the large mass-market lines too. I just put my expectations in line and frankly I can't complain too much as cruise prices are cheaper today then they were 25 years ago. There are not too many products or services that you can say that about.

 

Ernie

[LuvCelebrity]

I've sailed several times with Celebrity and have always experienced the best food and service. I'm also surprised to hear of your disappointment. I think the Constellation is a beautiful ship and her staff is so friendly and hard working.

 

Also, I've been in several Pied Piper groups and have always enjoyed myself immensely. I think they've always done a fantastic job. But, I definitely don't expect the Pied Piper escorts to provide professional tour advice. They are tour escorts, not professional tour guides. I'm sure I've never seen anything in their literature or website that should lead anyone to believe otherwise. If you want professional tours then you go on the cruise line tour or hire a professional guide. The Pied Piper escorts are on the cruise to make sure everyone is having a good time on the cruise and arrange all the social activities to make it happen. I know they wouldn't be in business so long and have such a loyal following if they weren't doing a great job. I'm booked with them on two upcoming cruises and am looking forward to another great time.

 

David

[flag fan]

Thanks for the information about Celebrity and Pied Piper. The cruise I am thinking about is in 2008, so I'll mull my plans over a little. These board are a great source of information.

[voyagerx]

We are coming up on our 40th cruise, of which 10 have been on Celebrity. With the exception of a very bad experience with a homophobic cruise director and an equally homophonbic waiter on a xatlantic crossing on the Millenium, we have completely enjoyed our voyages. The beauty of the public rooms, the better than average cruise-ship quality food, the generaly good entertainment, the quiet places to read and the usually affable crews have all added to our enjoyment. I should add that the social hotess to whom we complained about the cruise director was most empathetic and apologetic, buying us drinks and inviting us to dine at the captain's table.

 

We have also traveled with Pied Piper on 3 trips and are about to do a xatlantic on the QM2 with them in August. Indeed, for the most part, the escorts were pleasant and helpful, though not very knowledgeable about ports of call. On each cruse several members of the group were displeased with Pied Piper for a variety of reasons; many of them quite justified. The problems, however, were more related to home office blunders and insensitivity than to the escorts. I must admit though, that on one cruise, the escort, while very pleasant and outgoing, was an incompetent twit.

[02143]

In my experience on the 300+ passenger Caribbean Pied Piper sailings, the purpose of the PP escort is to enhance socializing, make sure everyone is having a good time, run events (like the pool olympics), and help Derek keep everything in order. If you're in the Caribbean they might know something about a given port if they'd been there before and give you unofficial advice, but that's not their expertise. They're no substitute for the local tour guide you can hire in a port or who conductsts a shore excursion.

 

I've always had good experiences with Pied Piper. It's not comparable to the Atlantis/RSVP experience but the pricing is much more reasonable. We encountered primarily long-term couples, average age probably in their 50s but there were plenty of us in our 30s and 40s.

 

Note that when you get away from the week-long Caribbean cruises and the prices go up, you will have smaller groups and fewer escorts.

 

When booking our cruises, we always found Derek extremely helpful and quick to respond, and he worked out all of our problems. Some people posting here have had complaints, but I can't speak for them.

[02143]

Shunseeker, here's a question--did you compare the price of your Pied Piper trip with a different TA's price for the same cruise? On the big cruises, we actually paid less than the standard fare because of the volume discount, and the PP extras were gravy; you may not have been paying anything extra for the disappointing escorts on your Baltic Cruise. I don't know, it was a smaller group so they may not have been able to swing a discount.

[teleskier]

I was on this same Connie Baltic cruise as Shsunsheeker. It was our first Pied Piper cruise. If I have time, I’ll post a full review later with the various cruise elements broken down, but for now I wanted to share my comments on this thread. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, that’s what makes Cruise Critic so useful and fun, so here’s mine.

 

In short, I felt this was very good and enjoyable cruise over all!

 

Many of your complaints are really directed at Celebrity, not at Pied Piper. I have several Celebrity issues myself (yet found their parent RCCL far, far worse on my prior cruise in terms of deceptive practices, where X seemed better by comparison).

 

However, I have to say that I was especially happy with the level of service and support we received from Pied Piper themselves, both in the NYC home office pre-cruise and on ship. We were particularly impressed with the two provided Pied Piper escorts onboard. We found them affable, intelligent, warm, capable, calm, PATIENT and caring. Those are tough qualities to find.

 

Leading such a large group of such differing, varied, (and sometimes instantly critical) people is difficult, but they managed to pull it off. While they had not been to these ports personally before (some in the group unfairly complained about that), they however DID do their homework prior and provided the group with useful port information and put together some good group outings. Their relaxing Berlin bike trip sounded like it was quite a lot of fun, and in the end, almost matched my own “more hectic and intensive” self-itinerary in pure sightseeing value. And their trip even added a fun dip in the Spree River which mine did not [a fair trade for my getting into the long-line Reichstag, and getting to drive a powerful TDI Audi A4 135 mph for two electrifying non-stop hours each way from the Baltic ship to Berlin and back on my much-loved Autobahn! :-)].

 

I witnessed our two Pied escorts taking great efforts to try to make everyone’s trip as much fun as they humanly could. As a couple they would gladly share the tips they gleaned from both their own personal guide books, as well as from the notes from prior Pied Piper trip leaders to these same ports. I never once saw them push anyone away, despite a barrage of questions; rather they seemed excited to share the trip as a communal group experience. This was in direct opposite contrast to the “I don’t give a flying flip” that the Atlantis personnel gave customers onboard whenever they were asked any sight-seeing or port related questions. It was wonderful to see, and basically restored my faith once again in gay cruising after Atlantis had destroyed it.

 

Pied Piper never bills itself as providing its customers with “full-serivce, expert tour guides”. I cannot imagine where you might have gotten that impression. That is what the Celebrity excursion tour guides are for. As I recall, you had asked our St. Petersburg tour guide so many trivial to expert questions which only someone expert in Russian history and art could answer (luckily she was). You would have received empty-brained blank stares from anyone on Atlantis. Yet our group tolerated them, and the tour guides answered them. Were there any suitable questions you asked of the Pied escorts that didn’t get answered? They may not have been art/history experts (but knew much more than most), but did seem to be caring enough people who would have made it a point to search their books, or even the web, in order to provide the group with answers.

 

Rather Pied is upfront that you are paying the same cruise rate (if not cheaper group rate) as everyone else aboard the mainstream Celebrity ship. Pied Piper trips cost half what RSVP and Atlantis trips do. And yet, despite that cheap rate, I felt they also afforded me several fun paid group cocktail parties, shared dinner tables with other interesting gay men, and two wonderful tour escorts who worked and strove to make it a fun trip to all – basically for free. These guys led group trips, gave out port information, offered advice, suggested bars in ports for all of us to later link up in, took care of a lot of behind-the-scenes work few probably saw (like making sure we were all together on the excursion busses despite Celebrity/Hermitage rules saying our group was “too big”, etc). They had to get up early and stand in line to get a private bus for us. All we had to do was roll out of bed and walk onto that prepared bus. I’m sure they did even more work like that which I didn’t see. Honestly, did they not get us the best Hermitage tour guide? Did you think that just happened all by itself? All for the same price of a cheap, on-your-own, self-booked cruise. Not a bad deal in my book!

 

I am quite rigorous in MY OWN preparation for my European travel trips. I had read fourteen guidebooks prior to the trip and had them highlighted and condensed into daily schedules . My timed itinerary was chock full from the moment the gangway hit port to the minute before the ship left each day. I don’t suffer sloppy preparation or execution well at all. Given that, I felt the two Pied escorts did a fine job of preparation. And I feel they made their trips much more fun for a bigger shared group, while still seeing the same sights, than my own intensive itinerary would have been for a varied group. Speaking perhaps for myself, but Kudos to Donald and Bryan for making it a fun trip for us!

 

I was not someone who just sat back, not having read any books myself on the ports, and just expected to be led around all day and having tour experts answer my art and history questions all day (you did seem to take more of the tour guide’s time than anyone else in the group). Lucky for you, and credit to them, they did answer your many questions despite the fact that anyone (as I did) would have seen most of those questions already answered in the first introductory “Lay of the Land” pages from any Frommer (etc) guide book. They had way more patience than I would have had. Ditto for the Pied tour escorts. They had way more patience with a larger group than I might have had, to their credit.

 

I felt that Pied provided about the same level of sightseeing guidance as RSVP did (which I liked), but where RSVP also charges double the Pied prices. And Pied was much better than Atlantis who charges double yet provides no information at all on ports and even seemed to take steps to discourage sightseeing (“you’ll miss hour number three hundred of the 24/7 circuit environment”, “No, no, renting scooters is strictly forbidden”, “Train station to Rome??? We have no idea where that is, why not sit by the party pool instead.”).

 

And who the heck would take shopping advice from the young ‘exchange student’ Celebrity waiters at dinner anyway?? We moved around dinner tables and experienced four (of the 7?) assigned waiters. Not once did any of them mention any shopping (they were far too busy running food). Did you corner your waiter with questions where the poor kid had to come up with something on the spot? Did you ask anyone else in the Pied group, many were experienced travelers, where they themselves planned to buy items? You didn’t ask me. The guidebooks had whole chapters devoted to what to buy, when and where. The Pied escorts would have gladly helped you here and even loaned you their own personal books. Did you ask? The ship library also had these same guidebooks. My view is that the best trips come to those who prepare well for them.

 

Personally, I found that the nested Matrioshka dolls were indeed cheapest in St. Petersburg. The Celebrity ship-board ones were 5x the price for the same exact doll – a total rip off. But I knew and expected that. You pay through the nose for the ‘convenience’ of buying on-ship. Conversely I was rather impressed that they actually had some of the better, higher-quality items that I had seen in ports for sale on board, as if someone had hand-picked the best pieces available. Perhaps that’s how they justify their ship prices?

 

On the flip side, I found that of all the vodka bottles I purchased throughout the entire trip, the cheapest (of the good ones) were in Estonia. So perhaps your young waiter buys vodka and not Matrioshka dolls, and perhaps could have still answered your question accurately based on his own limited college-boy priorities and knowledge.

 

Throughout this trip, I felt that Pied Piper MORE than delivered what they promised. They impressed me, and made for a fabulous trip. All for the same cost as you would have paid booking with Celebrity directly yourself.

 

They were nice people. And provided a great value add! For free! How can anyone complain about that? :-)

[teleskier]

To answer FlagFan....

 

Yes, I would recommend Pied Piper after recently having done my first.

 

I feel they offer the biggest value for your travel dollar. You get to :

 

- travel with great personable gay people for a shared communal experience

- to be comfortable in gay-only space for most of the trip (Pied excursions, private parties, private dinner tables, and in ad hoc congregated gay gatherings onboard the open ship such as Martini Bar, pool-side, gym, etc)

- have some level of sightseeing support and direction from Pied escorts

- have the freedom to be with group or not depending on your mood, with ability to be separate then meet up later with new cocktail friends

- I felt comfortable and safe as an obvious couple 100% of the time onboard Celebrity. (I did tone down some PDA behavior when alone in primarily older straight crowds, but probably did not have to).

- Many opportunities to converse and connect with members of the group (vs sterile unfriendly Atlantis)

- Free parties and free drinks (worth it alone)

- All for the same price – or cheaper - of a normal self-booked mainstream cruise

 

Right now my personal order of cruise preference is 1) RSVP, 2) Pied Piper, 3) your own self-booked non-gay cruise and 4) Atlantis (only if forced to via cruise itinerary).

 

The caliber of people was very high on RSVP. Pied was close. RSVP was a delight in being a 100% gay cruise. It was always 24/7 “being yourself” whereas on an ‘open’ mainstream Pied ship, I was only 90% as non-self-censoring (ie, on RSVP we kissed and held hands in public on the ship slightly more). We actually have to limit that “too cutesy” PDA among gay friends too (“will you two stop it”), so some limitation may be a good thing. :-) Seriously, the only place I saw us censor ourselves was walking to dinner through corridors of slow elderly straight people, but at our own dinner tables we did behave normally and it was fine (even getting a wink or two from waiters).

 

RSVP was wonderful. I’d even say it is worth its double the cost of Pied. However Pied was 90% as good as RSVP, but for 50% the price. Personally I can see myself mixing and matching between both of these for the future. Sort of the way we chose uber-gay Ptown for some weekends, less-gay Ogunquit for others. Or save our favorite high-end restaurant for some weekends, while more often doing our favorite mid-range restaurant. It’s nice to have both.

 

I met more intelligent and interesting people in this Pied group of 70 people, than I found on the entire Atlantis ship of 3,000 circuit boys. I also had gained a lot of weight before this trip, where I still felt comfortable on Pied (to their credit). Whereas I never would have even set foot on an Atlantis party ship this out of shape. I was closer to circuit shape back on Atlantis (and yet still found it cold and unfriendly). Yet in full disclosure, the age was younger and body types more Abercrombie-narrow on Atlantis. Pied was more varied in ages and sported more average body types than the shaved-chest Atlantis circuit set. I found being surrounded by those restricted pretty bodies wasn’t worth the attitude or that “trapped in competitive this-group-won’t-talk-to-that-group gay high school” feeling though.

 

Give Pied a try. What’s the worst you could experience, say even if it comes off the worst it possibly could? A normal regular vacation cruise to a place you wanted to go anyway?

[shsunseeker]

Teleskier,

 

Do you work for Pied Piper? You seem very ready to defend the company at any cost.

 

The bottom line is that Pied Piper promoted and sold a product based on certain criteria. The product turned out not to be what was advertised. The tours that the company described as "Private escorted tours" were in reality Hop on Hop Off tours by the local double decker bus company.

 

When I asked the guides about any aspect of the trip, they told me that they had no information. Other than those few interactions, the guides never spoke to me.

 

Apparently you were part of the privileged "In group" that was graced with the constant attention of the two "Pied Piper Guides". It was also noted by many people in the group that a clique had formed of "favorites" that hung together. So typical of the bars and gay men.

 

There were also numerous people in our group who had traveled repeatedly with Pied Piper and were particularly dissapointed with the serviced rendered on this cruise.

 

Finally, if you want to issue personal attacks on me, I'm sure I can find plenty of faults with you.

 

Have a nice day.

[teleskier]

No, I don't work for Pied, nor even in the travel industry. I simply had a great trip. And having just returned from it, perhaps I'm still animated and on a high from it.

 

And frankly I’ve recently been so disappointed in so many service areas lately where its workers never seem to care about their own product, that it was refreshing to run across people who were both 1) capable, and 2) did care. Nowadays if I’m lucky, I normally only find one of those qualities present.

 

No personal attack was intended, sorry. I wrote it quickly on the fly. My intent was to share my impressions where I found the Pied group to be very accepting of a wide variety of types of people. The group ran the wide range from party boy to experienced hands-off older world travelers to people who wanted more handholding to hell-bent intensive sightseers to people who were into art and history lectures to easygoing vacationers who wanted to relax by the pool. (All of these could probably apply to me any given day). IE, the Pied group seemed to represent the full range of our community.

 

Naturally, it’s human to make direct comparisons to my last cruise I experienced, which was Atlantis, similarly in Europe. On that party ship, people who were merely seen as “being into going to ports” were viewed as ‘weird’, and were ostracized by the pool-only crowd. My point was that someone even a step beyond that who was curious about art and history (a cool thing) would have been WAY outside their “party boy” restrictive norm. My gut reaction during the time of our Pied trip was how refreshing it was that our tour bus did not have that Atlantis party boy “gay high school” restrictive environment where such questions (I asked them too) would have been met with giggles and ridicule. I thought everyone in the group was very respectful of each unique individual in general. Not ridiculing anyone outside the narrow Abercrombie and circuit norm in barely masked hushed breath (as I saw throughout Atlantis).

 

We all view the world through the lens of our own experiences. My take on it - if you thought Pied had in-crowds and cliques, then you’d find Atlantis would have 20x that amount. Coming from my last Atlantis trip, I conversely found Pied wonderfully restorative for its lack of any cliques and in-crowds. I didn’t witness any of that Atlantis “this group won’t talk to that group” clique environment during this Pied trip. I was very happy to see that everyone pretty much spoke with everyone else. Sure, one or two single individuals had attitude or weren’t talkative, but on the whole, I witnessed a relaxed non-competitive group ease where everyone spoke to everyone else, in the cocktail parties, before dinner, during dinner, and hellos even said when passing in the hallways. That did not happen, ever, on Atlantis.

 

But we all view the world through the lens of our past experiences, as I said. This is just my take on the trip, with my one man’s vote. This doesn’t mean your take on it isn’t true for you. It doesn’t mean that your take on it isn’t valid. Your vote counts too. That’s what makes open forums so cool.

 

I actually agree with some of your Celebrity points. I found some of their practices deceptive as well (but RCCL was far worse). There were a lot of places where you had to “read” the wink-wink hints in their ‘suggestions’ (not rules) that were meant to persuade the easily persuadable into making Celebrity purchases. Take just the alcohol policy alone. You are supposedly forbidden to bring any alcohol onto the ship. But then, those same set of ‘rules’ also list a corkage fee for wine bottles brought into dinner (so they acknowledge alcohol does come onboard). There was a lot of reading between the lines required. But RCCL was much worse. Celebrity at least told you when you could walk to the ports and even gave port maps. RCCL gave no port information at all, insisting that you pay for their shuttle or their excursions each time if you ever wanted off-ship to visit a port.

 

Hopefully the silver lining of this Celebrity experience for you is that it afforded you the experience to now see through the similar sales-generating schemes of other cruise lines. Atlantis/RCCL educated me, where the Celebrity traps now seemed much easier to avoid. Best of luck...

[twonpcb]

Voyagerx,

 

Who was the homophobic Cruise Director? Is he still sailing with Celebrity?

 

Robert

[voyagerx]

His last name was Rivera, I don't recall his first name. I am also unaware of whether he is still employed by Celebrity; certainly hope he is not

[ORDPLATAA]

Interesting comments as my partner and I will be on the Connie next year with Atlantis (just waiting to get slammed by teleskier on that!). We found our June cruise on the Infinity (also with Atlantis) to be on par in relation to shipboard expenses with our Holland America trip last year.

[teleskier]

General question:

 

Why would anyone slam someone else over his or her choice of vacation? Seriously. That would be a mean thing to do. I certainly wouldn’t do it. So far I have not seen anyone do it.

 

There are many differences in one's moods (even daily) and many venues which cater to them. That's a great thing! Sometimes you feel like fast food and next time want a nice dinner. It'd be like slamming someone who felt like going to McD at any moment. Who would do that? Everyone should be free to eat what they want, and vacation how they want. Who would say otherwise? Allowing peer pressure to decide what you eat would be sad.

 

Now critiquing a service provider for misrepresenting their product, that's fair game, and in fact a critical check and balance in any free marketplace. If a fast food joint continually makes false promises that it serves gourmet food, luring victims in deceitfully, you mention it. If Atlantis makes false promises that it is the “exact same” as the more elegant RSVP for European cruises when I personally found it not, I felt it was deceiving to the public, and I simply challenged them – the company - on it. If RSVP would likewise make false promises that its parties are as wildly fun as Atlantis’s top-DJs circuit parties are, I feel it would be fair game for that customer (me) to comment on them (the company) too whenever they did not deliver what they promised after taking the customer’s money.

 

But why would anyone slam anyone else simply because they felt like going to a party or felt like taking their vacation on a party boat next time? I certainly would not do that. Different strokes. One person’s delight is another’s dread. Atlantis does lots of repeat business. Therefore, they have to filling a desired and valuable need for the community. That’s what the game is all about. Win/win for both parties (customers and company).

 

Having a variety of different and honest “truly deliver what they promise” venues available to the community and catering to everyone’s whims is a great thing!

 

So seriously, rock on dude! I’m sure the party will be blast, and I hope it turns out to be your most fun vacation ever (or at the very least meet your expectations). That’s what everyone hopes for every vacation, right? Have a blast! And let us know how it was personally for you.

[ORDPLATAA]

Teleskier-

 

I guess I was trying to be funny and forgot the smiley face! Seriously, from the tone of some of your comments, it's like we must be crazy for doing an Atlantis vacation. We did the June Infinity trip and we : 1. Did not go to any of the late night parties, 2. Did not do any of the Tea Dances (okay, we went to Dog Tag for about 10 minutes and decided it wasn't for us), 3. Did not witness a bathouse mentality throughout the ship (the Persian Garden was a different story - but then again, so is our local Bally's). It could very well be that you hit a bad trip - it happens. I have never done a Pied Piper trip nor have we sailed with RSVP so I can not comment on their product. I can say that we had a great time, met a ton of great guys (actually signed up for this cruise with two other copules we met onboard) and met some wonderful people. Whether it was having a glass of wine, riding in the tender or dining with different people every night, we constantly had great conversations with a vast array of people. Now, we are not 20 year old gym bunnies so I think that looks were not the deciding factor in people chatting with us. Finally, the Atlantis Staff were great to us - friendly, outgoing and also willing to chat. We didn't count on them being Alaska "experts" - that was our job and we deferred to Celebrity staff with explicit questions.

 

Now, we made the conscious decision to avoid the Caribbean & Mexico cruises because we thought it would be a party & bake mentality - and I am sure that the Med falls into the same category. We felt that Alaska would be closer to our demographic and we were right and, using the same logic, the Baltics should also be about the same.

 

So, not every Atlantis cruiser is a gym bunny poser looking to party all night (and yet they can have a great time as well).

[Sacstephen]

Just want to state my agreement with the prior poster. The reaction some people have to Atlantis is just bizarre. Sure, they attract more of the young and buff than the other companies, but that hardly warrants all the condescension you hear here.

[Jim_Iain]

I would like to toss in my positive experience with PiedPiper. We have booked with them on 5 gay group cruises and have always had a wonderful time. I have also had PiedPiper book us on a number of non-gay cruises. They have always gotten us very good rates and keep abreast of any drops in cruise prices. 4 or 5 times we have gotten reductions in our fare from the original booked fare.

 

All of the escorts I have met have been very professional and work their tail off keeping things running smoothly. The owner is very accomodating and I have been surprised when I ask a question of him late in the evening West Coast and he is on-line and answers me immediately.

 

Jim

[flag fan]

I know this started as a negative post and I appreciate the warnings giving by the Original Poster based on his experience, but I've decided to go ahead and book a Celebrity cruise with Pied Piper. There seem to be a lot of satisfied customers with Celebrity and positive comments about Pied Piper. I'll keep my expectations realistic and hope for as good an experience as many others have had. Thanks for all the input from those who posted.

[1male]

Thanks Teleskier for your Atlantis & RSVP comments. I had recently seen the travel channel "Gay Travel" episode and did feel that neither of them was for me. I was once in a PP group which was quite small and I thought not very interesting or enjoyable, but then chemistry has so much to do with it. I only found out about FOD meetings last year, after many cruises. I have been to a few, and it seems to me that again, it is mostly couples. Since I travel as a single, and at the FOD meetings men seem to sit in one place, I find it difficult to "mingle". I am looking forward to sailing on the Crown Princess the end of August and will see what happens this time. I have also seen the group disolve from maybe 30 the first night to 3 the next night.

From what you have said, I might consider PP again. so thanks!