Celebrity or Princess Baltic

[sondi 14]

We are planning to cruise the Baltic next year and are considering both

Celebrity and Princess. We have cruised with Princess several times, but never with Celebrity. The Celebrity ship is their new Azamara Journey which is a much smaller ship than the Crown Princess and there are some differences in the itinerary. I would appreciate any opinions or thoughts from those of you who have cruised with both lines on which might be the better choice.

 

Thanks,

 

Sondi

[SoCalGal]

I'm on the other side of the coin. We are huge Celebrity fans but next June we are taking the Royal Princess on their 16 night Rome-Stockholm cruise. The itinerary was just too good to be true....can't wait! We haven't sailed on Princess since the mid-eighties so it will be interesting to see how the new small Royal compares to Summit (Alaska 3 times) and Mille (Med.) which we thoroughly enjoyed. I believe the Azamara is one of the R-ships as is the Royal.

[sondi 14]

Hi SoCalGal,

 

We are going on the Royal this year from Venice to Rome in late September.

We have had good luck with Princess, but thought we'd try Celebrity/Azamara next year as we liked the three days in St. Petersburg as opposed to two on Princess. They also have longer in the ports than Princess does as well as it is a former R ship and is like the Royal. Having never cruised Celebrity I wanted some feedback from people who have.

 

Thanks,

 

Sondi

[dbh62ark]

Sondi, have you considered Oceania? They have the best itineraries in the Baltics in my opinion (we've cruised the Baltics twice) and would be comparable in price to the Azmarra with better itineraries. I've sailed Oceania, and that's a FABULOUS cruise line. Celebrity just will not be able to match the class of Oceania. Oceania is a small cruise line, and the president closely monitors comments on these boards and--shock of all shocks!!!!--actually responds to the needs and wishes of his "guests." He was on board the Insignia with us in St. Tropez last September, and I am very impressed with him and his company. Oceania has the smaller ships and will be head and shoulder above anything that Celebrity can produce. Celebrity just doesn't get it about customer service, and Oceania does.

 

Have a great cruise,

Donna

[Bruin Steve]

I wouldn't write off Azamara as fast as it appears Donna has...From all I have read, they will produce a product fairly similar to Oceania's, perhaps even outdoing it in some areas...

 

We took an Oceania cruise last July in Europe and though, overall impressed, it did have some drawbacks--among them, entertainment was amateurish and activities lacking...I don't know if the Celebrity/Azamara folks can do any better, considering a lot has to do with the economies and available space on the small ship, but I'd take a gamble on their abilities here...

 

I took a Princess cruise to the Baltic in 2001 and was left far from impressed...I felt Princess just cut way too many corners...including poor port choices (like using Nynashamn for Stockholm)...My experiences with Celebrity easily outstrip Princess...which is why when we booked for July 2008, we're going back on the Celebrity Constellation...

 

We also considered Oceania for this one (like the 3 days in St. Pete) but several things drew me back to the Connie...One is price (substantial savings over Oceania-not only in cruise fare, but Oceania tends to be outrageously priced in hidden areas: hotel packages, shore excursions, extra charge for transfers even when you're using their air)...

 

The other reason was a truly unique itinerary on the Connie for July 19: A ONE-WAY 14-night cruise starting in Stockholm and ending in Harwich that includes overnights in St. Petersburg, Stockholm and Copenhagen (plus one-day port stops in Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki, Oslo and Gdansk)...

 

But if you are choosing between the Crown Princess and the Azamara Quest, I'd go with the Quest any time...Isn't the Crown just a 10-night cruise???

[SoCalGal]

We originally planned to take the Connie next June but we liked the 16 night Rome to Stockholm itinerary better on the Royal. Also found that Azamara was much more expensive for fewer nights. There were some negative comments on the Celebrity board about Azamara. We'll always be Celebrity fans...love their ships and service, and we found our third time on the Summit was the best we've ever had to Alaska this past month. Never have sailed on Oceania because of it being so expensive.

[dbh62ark]

From all I have read, they will produce a product fairly similar to Oceania's, perhaps even outdoing it in some areas...

It would be nice if Celebrity would produce a product similar to Oceania because Oceania can't be everywhere with only 3 ships, but I just don't see it happening. Just for one example, there are conflicting reports, but I've read that Celebrity Azamarra will be charging for specialty restaurants. The customer service in the Celebrity offices is horrible. We have had all kinds of issues, including having our reservation cancelled through not fault of ours or our travel agents two weeks prior to sailing. Celebrity is a large cruise line that is just not able to look after their guests and provide the same service that we've had on Oceania. Celebrity was not even close for us, but some of the entertainment in the small venues is better than Oceania (that's not that important to us). There were a lot of complaints on the big production shows on our recent Millennium sailing, but I heard that the crew was new to that sailing. A lot of passengers got up and walked out (we only went to one and then didn't go back because it was so bad and time was better spent elsewhere). The string quartet and small band playing big band numbers was very good. We have been pleased with service on the ship for both lines, but we have a strong preference for Oceania overall (and that's just comparing the two cruise lines because we've sailed 10+ cruise lines). But as I said on another thread, different options are good, and it's nice to have so many choices.

 

Donna

[dbh62ark]

Never have sailed on Oceania because of it being so expensive.

This is definitely a case of you get what you pay for if Oceania is affordable. Azamarra pricing on the smaller Celebrity ships is comparable to Oceania, but Oceania has a far superior product in my opinion. I like the smaller ships better on any of the cruise lines. We noted on our May 25th Millennium cruise that we had lower rates booking in advance but those that didn't book early paid prices as high as Oceania sailings or higher. So Celebrity is not always cheaper.

 

By the way, I've sailed Princess in Europe three times and liked those cruises. I don't doubt that others have had different experiences and don't discount that, but our sailings on Princess have been very good.

 

Donna

[sondi 14]

Thank you all for your comments and opinions.

 

We considered Azamara over Oceania as the ports were almost exactly the same and the Oceania cruise was two days longer. We had been to a couple of the ports already and wanted to use the extra time to see Prague before the cruise. Also, the Azamara cruise was quite a bit cheaper in the category that we wanted as compared with the same cabin on Oceania. We do hope to try Oceania one day as we have heard wonderful things about them.

 

We liked the smaller size of the Azamura Journey as compared to the Crown

Princess. It also gave us more time in some ports than Princess as well as the extra day in St. Petersburg. Yes, Bruin Steve, the Crown cruise is only ten days and two days in St. Petersburg/

 

I have read that there were some problems with Azamara when it was first launched but that they were really working hard to correct them and hopefully by next summer they will have ironed out all or most of the problems. We will probably go with them as I have also read good things about Celebrity and it might be a good opportunity to give them a try. We've sailed a lot on Princess and a few other lines, but not Celebrity.

[dbh62ark]

Ah yes, Prague is on my travel wish list in the next few years (and will work well with our Delta frequent flyer miles, but are you using train or plane to go from there to your embarkation port?). We've also been known to pick a cruise based on our pre/postcruise plans because sometimes we spend more days on the ground portion than we do on the cruise (although our sailings in Europe have always been at least 10 nights, we have stayed 3 weeks ground and then added a cruise too). We're not impressed with Celebrity as compared to Princess, Holland, Oceania, etc., but we all have our different likes/dislikes and have never been on a bad cruise because we go mainly for the destinations and not the ship. It was an added bonus for us to like the Insignia so much as well as the ports, but I would sail any ship other than the NCL Dream in Europe on the right itinerary. Are Bruges and the Kiel Canal on your itineary? Those are two fabulous additions to the Oceania Baltics itineraries. We loved sailing the Baltics and hope you have a great cruise.

 

Donna

[sondi 14]

Hi Donna,

 

We are planning to fly into Prague and then take the train to Berlin for a couple of day. We will then take the train to Copenhagen to get on the ship. We decided we wanted to see more of Berlin than the one day from Warnemunde would allow us.

 

Our itinerary does include a stop in Kiel, but not Bruges. We have been to Bruges on another cruise and that is one of the reasons we decided to not go with Oceania. It included Bruges and Amsterdam, which we have seen and we wanted those days to see Prague and Berlin. Also, it was harder to fit in our pre-cruise stops with the London/Stockholm combination of embarkation and disembarkation. I know there have been many opinions on Azamara, but I'm hoping that by next June they will have their act together and be more organized.

 

Thanks for the comments.

 

Sondi

[dbh62ark]

The stop in Kiel sounds interesting. Does the ship offer excursions into Hamburg? We stayed on the ship for the scenic cruising through the Kiel Canal and loved that (it was a bonus, but we wouldn't pick an itinerary based solely on that option). I know Prague is not a port, but I'd love to hear your thoughts/tips when you return. If you love French Impressionist paintings, I hope you have time to visit the art museum on museum island in Berlin. That is a small slice of heaven for loves of the works of Renoir (my favorite), Monet, Manet, etc. It sounds like a very nice precruise itinerary, so my best wishes to you.

 

Donna

[sondi 14]

Hi Donna,

 

Thanks for the good wishes and the tip on the Impressionist gallery in

Berlin. My husband and I both love Impressionist art - it's my favourite - and we'll make sure to visit the gallery when we're there.

 

I don't know if they offer excusions to Hamburg from Kiel. I haven't been able to find anything as yet on what they will be offering on the cruise and none

of the Celebrity cruises go there now. I hear that Hamburg is really lovely. We thought we might stop there for one night enroute from Berlin to Copenhagen as we have to change trains there.

 

I would be happy to share any thoughts/tips with you on Prague when we return. Let me know how to get in touch with you and I'll share anything I can.

 

Thanks again,

 

Sondi

[dbh62ark]

My e-mail address is dahillark @ yahoo.com (remove the spaces), and I'd love to hear from you. I loved the scenic cruising in the Kiel Canal so would recommend that over a tour to Hamburg if that's offered anyway (although Hamburg is great). So it's great that you'll be able to do both. You must be so excited anticipating a great trip, so my best wishes to you with your planning.

 

:) Donna

[Nana4x]

You wrote "We liked the smaller size of the Azamura Journey as compared to the Crown

Princess. It also gave us more time in some ports than Princess as well as the extra day in St. Petersburg. Yes, Bruin Steve, the Crown cruise is only ten days and two days in St. Petersburg/"

 

Hello,

 

Can you tell me the dates of this cruise please. I checked the web site and the only cruises I could find were the Black Sea and Italy.

If you could send a link that would be great. We booked Oceania but would like the opportunity to consider an alternative if a good one is out there.