Celebrity vs. The Ultraluxury Lines

[CajunLiner]

I've seen a few comparisons of Celebrity to RCCL, Princess, NCL and HAL, but I've never seen anyone say how it compares to, say, Crystal, Silversea, or Radisson. I know there is a "You get what you pay for" component but since I'm unlikely to ever be able to afford their stratospheric fares, I am curious. How do the Celebrity and ultraluxury experiences compare?

 

Justin

 

Until Galaxy Panama Canal Cruise

 

[Lois R]

hi I am in the same boat as you...oh gosh, that was bad ..but I probably won't ever be able to afford those Luxury Lines either.

 

From what I gather, you can't really compare...its like apples to oranges...example...the liquor is included in the price...up front so you aren't paying for it while on the ship. Also, I think the amount of pax are much less...Zenith holds 1350 pax...I think? ....where the luxury lines hold 350...

 

Next up...HORIZON Sept 18th to Bermuda!

 

See My Century and Mercury Pictures at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/lovescruising

[thesums]

I can tell you that there is no comparison. This Feb I was able to go on Radisson's PG and the food and service were excellent. The cabin was beautiful and it was close to all inclusive, which is really nice. The rest of my party had been four months prior and they loved it so much, that they went again. Plus, we want to go again this summer. I can tell Tahiti was beautiful, but it was so much nicer sharing with 300 ppl than thousands.

It is not cheap, but with 2 for one deals and if you pay for a suite on celebrity, it ends up sometimes being quite reasonable. Plus, they are ever so friendly and everyone wants to make your vacation enjoyable. There are not as many activities, but they have tonnes of movies and room service will pretty much bring you anything you want. Requests like Beef Wellington were made (even thou it was for just our small party). They were great and it was a lot less formal than Celebrity. The ppl were nice and it was great that I hardly charged anything to the room (1 drink).

[Lois R]

Justin, I will never be able to afford it...I sail solo..and even if they have "low single supplements"..the price itself is wayyyy more than I could ever afford...the low supplement is more than my price on Celebrity.

 

Next up...HORIZON Sept 18th to Bermuda!

 

See My Century and Mercury Pictures at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/lovescruising

[Brucemcdou]

I've never had the pleasure of sailing on Radisson or Seaborn (the "all-inclusive" luxury lines), but when I make a comparison of prices it doesn't seem close. If I compare a Sky Suite on a Celebrity ship to one of the luxury lines' "regular" verandah cabins, which I think are roughly comparable sizes and finishes, even including the $$$ I pay on Celebrity for my tips, drinks, wine, and specialty restaurant charges the Celebrity prices are still significantly lower for a similar itinerary.

 

I think it comes down to the experience you want - the size of the ship, the fellow passengers. Personally, I like Celebrity's larger ships for the mix of fellow passengers, the great amount of space, the huge gym, the different bars and lounges and dining options. And, I've seldom had a bad experience with Celebrity service.

 

Based on their prices, cabin sizes and itineraries, I do think the more valid comparison is with the other "mainstream" cruise lines: Princess, HAL, RCCL, Carnival and NCL (been on all but Carnival). Of those, Celebrity has a sophisticated elegance the others don't have, but at very affordable prices. And that's why they've got me as a loyal customer!

 

There are never enough days at sea!

[CajunLiner]

Thank you, all. I realize that to "compare" the two types of cruising is difficult because the products are not made to compete with each other. I did not think that you could rate Celebrity relative to those other lines. I was just wondering if anyone had experieced both types of cruise and might be able to describe how the experiences differ. I am not really looking for hard facts so much as impressions.

 

Note: I am very happy to have chosen Celebrity for my first cruise. I do not say that I regret not having been able to afford more. (In fact, if I had been able to afford more, I'd have chosen back to back Panama Canal and Cape Horn on Celebrity!) This is just my curiosity seeking to be satisfied.

 

Justin

 

Until Galaxy Panama Canal Cruise

 

[sensasianl]

Justin,

 

Have you tried posting this query on the luxury-line forums (Crystal, Radisson, Silversea)? I suspect that most cruisers move from mainstream to premium to luxury cruiselines, in that order, and typically not the reverse. Additionally, most people typically do not "trade-down" (e.g., people comment that once they've tried Celebrity, they can't go back to Carnival, etc.). You may get the type of perspective that you're looking for answered there. I'm curious about general impressions as well, but I believe you get what you pay for. Myself, I was very pleased with the value I got from Celebrity and will be trying Princess next.

 

Celebrity Galaxy 3/04

 

  till Sapphire Princess

[Giorgi-one]

You may also want to consider the difference in clientele. For example, I have seen comparisons like this between Carnival and Celebrity. My guess is that most passengers on the luxury lines are well-healed. How much will you have in common with them? Even if you just talk about cruising, do you think they would be interested in your 4-day Carnival cruise to the Bahamas?

[nealberk]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Giorgi-one:

You may also want to consider the difference in clientele. For example, I have seen comparisons like this between Carnival and Celebrity. My guess is that most passengers on the luxury lines are well-healed. How much will you have in common with them? Even if you just talk about cruising, do you think they would be interested in your 4-day Carnival cruise to the Bahamas?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

One of our tablemates on the Century had been on a high end cruise the previous year just to check it out. She said it was interesting until one night the people at her table started commenting that help was so difficult to get. Apparently one of them wanted a head maid to work (actually supervise) the people at her home in New York. What made it so difficult was that she wanted the person to spend half the year at her place in Nassau supervising the people down there. Nobody up in New York wanted the job because of the travel. Our tablemate considered asking how much the job was paying as she was seriously thinking about it!

[NHcruisers]

As a preface, I used to be a regular poster here trying to help fellow cruisers but I have since found other venues which are friendlier (less troublemakers) and more in tune with our cruising preferences. Having said this, and having cruised Celebrity 8 times in the past, I still have a warm feelings towards Celebrity and was hopeful that their rebranding would enable them to make substantive improvements to the product but unfortunately this has not been the case.

 

I continue to believe that Celebrity offers outstanding value to those cruisers sailing in basic inside and outside cabins. The higher up in cabin accomodations you go, particularly in suites, the less value Celebrity offers in comparison to, most notably, Radisson, and to a lesser degree Crystal and others.

 

I will confine my comments towards a Celebrity and Radisson comparison even though we've also cruised on Crystal.

 

If you cruise in suites on Celebrity, you can often find per diem rates on RSSC (Radisson) which are lower (on selected but quite a few sailings) than on Celebrity. This is particularly true with Celebrity's Royal Suites and above. Then add in tips are included, no nickel and diming, complementary drinks and wine during dinner, etc. and the value scale tips strongly in favor of RSSC in our opinion. This doesn't even include the far better food quality, better service, and a far better space to passenger ratio passengers enjoy on RSSC. Also, keep in mind that RSSC extends a 5% discount for repeat cruisers and an additional 5% if you book on board a RSSC ship.

 

So my recommendation is that if you normally book suites on Celebrity, you should look at RSSC. (Silversea also has some attractive rates).

 

Okay, now for the direct comparisons:

 

-Food: RSSC and its not even close

-Service: RSSC

-Entertainment: Pre-Cirque, pretty much a toss up

-Nickel and diming: RSSC is a far more inclusive experience and on the things both lines charge for, e.g., alcoholic beverages in the lounges, RSSC is far more reasonable.

-Ships: With only 700 passengers (RSSC Mariner and Voyager, (their largest ships) and a much higher space to passenger ratio, the nod goes to RSSC. Also the reliability of RSSC ships are better than the M-class Celebrity ships.

Activities: There are more activities on Celebrity ships, to be expected as M-class ships carry far more passengers.

Enrichment activities/lecturers: RSSC

 

Our favorite line is RSSC, our next favorite is Crystal and our third, albeit a distant third favorite, is Celebrity.

 

Would we cruise on Celebrity again? Possibly. But for right now, we moved up to RSSC, and really haven't looked back. Its just a far better cruise experience than Celebrity at roughly equivalent costs if you are booking suites on Celebrity.

 

Just my (our) opinions.

 

Bill

[Giorgi-one]

I also was looking for someone to supervise at our house, however my wife would not let me replace her.

 

Can I just work the six months in Nassau?

[Donnaluv2cruise]

I'm looking forward to trying RSSC. I think with such few passengers it would be so relaxing and a great way to get reconnected with your spouse. We love to be pampared and RSSC sounds like it's just our style. And I think when you figure out the final tallies it's not that much more.

[Lois R]

Its interesting to read other people's opinions.

 

Maybe one day I will able to afford the "Luxury Lines".

When I look at the prices...maybe I am looking at the wrong places or sites...but when I look...the prices are wayyyyy higher than I can afford.

But then again, I don't even look for balcony's on Celebrity and I always have a good time..even with an inside cabin . Which I know some of you would NEVER do....

 

I suppose its all what you get used to...like anything else. I remember last summer when I took the 3 nighter on Soveriegn of the Seas...I came back and the general consensus was...I had gone from a Cadillac to a Kia ...won't be doing that one again anytime soon!

Celebrity is my cruiseline of choice and I am happy with my choice too

 

Next up...HORIZON Sept 18th to Bermuda!

 

See My Century and Mercury Pictures at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/lovescruising

[l929]

As for the price difference, I have to say it can be pretty close. We were booked on Seabourne last year in their lowest category room. We had to cancel b/c I was pregnant and my doctor wouldnt let me go. We are going on Celebrity Summit in three weeks (yea!) in a Sky Suite, with our baby. So the room is probably the same size, but on Seabourne we would have had no balcony. The price difference is about $1,000 less on Celebrity, but subtract the $400 we had to pay for the baby (what a ripoff!!) its a $1,400 difference. I guess if you figure in the tips, the alcohol, wine and one free excursion (a champagne, caviar and lobster bbq on a private beach in Virgin Gorda) and we plan to eat in the specialty restaurant at least once, the difference in price might not be so different, especially for what you get. But, we want to go with our baby and Seabourne, besides not even allowing children under one on board, is not kid friendly whatsoever while Celebrity has a kids program and babysitting, and has the reputation of better food and service (than the other more kid friendly lines) which is why we chose it. I'm hoping to get the best of both worlds, have my cake and eat it too, etc., etc., However, I will always wonder how that Seabourne cruise would have been.......

 

Holiday 8/89

Festival 8/90

Fantasy 1/91

Tropicale 8/91

Costa ??? 8/92

American Hawaii ??? 8/94

Imagination 8/96

Radiance 3/02

Summit 4/04

[ABSCruiseLuvers]

Well it all depends on what you want. Keep in mind that my only experience with RSSC was on an older (1992) and smaller ship; the Diamond. Perhaps it’s only fair to say also that we had been reading much of the same things that have been posted here saying that there was no comparison so it could be that we had raised our expectations a bit too high.

 

It was a wonderful cruise, I really enjoyed the complimentary wine with dinner and on our cruise they were experimenting with all inclusive drinks. More than the money it was just nice to be able to walk up to a bar and get a drink without presenting a card and signing for it. All of those slips of paper are bothersome.

 

Food was not measurably better in my opinion but it was good. Being open seating I assumed that prepared to order would be of much better quality than Celebrity but I was wrong. I think they must prep up as much as possible and the hold the product until it is ready to be plated. It certainly was not cooked to order.

 

It also turns out that I just like the feel of a bigger ship. I like the extra space and all of the choices of where to go. We never go to the disco on a ship so that’s not what I mean, just a choice of where to have a pre dinner drink is nice.

 

Will we sail with RSSC again? Probably…but…when we were in St. Thomas on Constellation we had not yet booked a future cruise on board as we usually do planning on booking our spring ’05 with RSSC. We were in port with Navigator (not of the Seas) and walked up and looked at her. We just don’t like the smaller ships. But keep in mind that many people do! We walked back to the ship and booked Summit that day.

 

Also the age thing. I am in my 30’s and my wife in her 20’s and we have been truly blessed to have these options at our age. But I may not be quite ready for as laid back of an experience with an older crowd that the “luxury†lines offer. I am well beyond Carnival but I think Celebrity is a good fit for us right now.

 

As far as price I don’t really know. We book suites on Celebrity and pay more I think than we did with Diamond. I am sure we pay more when you add in my wine bill!

 

You just have to pick out what’s important to you. Hope this helps.

 

July 1972 QE2 (I was but a child)

March 2001 Celebrity Century

March 2002 Celebrity Infinity

February 2003 Celebrity Millennium

July 2003 RSSC Diamond

January 2004 Celebrity Constellation

September 2004 Celebrity Zenith

February 2005 Celebrity Summit

 

 

[JRoeT]

Hello, All.

 

Interesting thread!

 

I have also wondered about Raddison and Seaborn, etc.

 

It seems like my husband and I would not get the value from a higher-end line because WE DON'T DRINK ALCOHOL.

 

Do you all agree with this assumption?

[Randyk47]

Can't really comment on the alcohol but this is an interesting thread. We struggled quite a bit with taking one of the luxury lines and finally settled on Celebrity because of the itinerary and cost. I've read what others have posted here but I can't make the numbers add up. If I compare apples to apples in terms of cabins there's just no way that I can get the same on one of the "better" lines for anywhere close to the same money. I've studied, looked, studied some more and asked for several quotes in making the decision. I just can't make it work unless I went with a pretty significantly lower category cabin on the luxury line and even then it's usually more expensive than say Celebrity or HAL.

 

Until the Galaxy

 

 

[Lois R]

JR..yes, I agree with your assumption...I drink on a cruise and the Luxury lines are just way out of my league.

 

Next up...HORIZON Sept 18th to Bermuda!

 

See My Century and Mercury Pictures at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/lovescruising

[sailorbill]

Yesterday, I did a price comparison of the luxury lines to some mainstream lines for fun. I was trying to find where Oceania cruise line fit into the cruising marketplace. Since I was interested in a Baltic cruise, that is where I concentrated my efforts. The prices shown in the table are internet sale(?) prices from several sources for 2004 Baltic or Northern Europe cruises in the months of June, July or August. I tried for pricing only in July, but was surprised to find so many stateroom categories already sold out and prices not available. In a couple of cases I had to resort to Mediterranean cruises to find pricing. Prices given are per night, cruise only for a double booking. I looked at the lowest priced stateroom for each ship and at the stateroom category that best matched RSSC's Seven Seas Navigator lowest priced stateroom with 301 sq. ft. inside and 55 sq. ft. balcony. Numbers for staterooms are square feet inside the stateroom + square feet of balcony (where available).

 

Let's see if my tables can be made to line up properly!!

 

Lowest $ Equivalent Cruise only

Line Ship Stateroom Balcony double

----------------------------------------------------------------

RSSC Seven Seas x

Voyager Std 301+55 $512

 

Seabourn Pride out 277 $601

no bal

 

Silversea Cloud out 240 $567

Ver 240+55 $718

 

Crystal Symphony out 202 $328

PH 367 total $842

 

Oceania Regatta in 160 $157

PH 322 total $350

 

Cunard QM2 (med) in 194 $210

JS 381 total $1015

(Princess grill)

Bal 194+54 $304

 

Celebrity Constellation in 170 $169

SS 251+57 $379

 

Princess Grand in 147 $231

mini 370 total $377

 

HAL Westerdam in 185 $174

Sup Su 398 total $385

 

This answered MY question about Oceania (rather pleasingly!). I hope it helps to answer some of your questions about relative pricing. Please remember that this is just one snapshot of prices made on a particular day with whatever information was available. It is NOT comprehensive, and does not apply to other regions, most certainly not to the Caribbean.

 

 

Bill

 

Renaissance R6 Dec 2000

Galaxy Aug 2001

Volendam Nov 2002

Volendam Jun 2003

Constellation Oct 2003

 

Westerdam Nov 2004

[sailorbill]

OH NO !! The table did not line up. I will try again with a new format.

 

Bill

[mdobbins]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Randyk47:

I've studied, looked, studied some more and asked for several quotes in making the decision. I just can't make it work unless I went with a pretty significantly lower category cabin on the luxury line and even then it's usually more expensive than say Celebrity or HAL.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree completely Randyk47!

 

The well-known online agency we use discounts Celebrity and HAL quite extensively. We are in a Sky Suite on the Summit next week, a Royal Suite on Infinity in December and an S category suite on HAL's Veendam in November 2005. Our per diems work out to $210, $260 and $180 respectively per person. I just did a spot check on RSSC and for cruises greater than 7 days on the Diamond, the Voyager, the Navigator and the Paul Gauguin - even with the 2 fers and midline accomodations - the per diems were greater than $300 pp. The difference adds up to a heckuva lot of wine and/or cocktails !

 

We definitely plan to sail with RSSC and/or Seabourn in the future - using the savings we are receiving from Celebrity and HAL <font color=red>now</font>!

 

Mike

[sailorbill]

This is just the table for the previous message in what I hope is a more readable format. I could not erase the previous message.

 

Line - Ship - stateroom size - price per night double

 

RSSC - Seven Seas Voyager - Std Bal 301+55 - $512

 

Seabourn - Pride - outside 277 - $601

Seabourn - Pride - no balcony cabins

 

Silversea - Cloud - outside 240 - $567

Silversea - Cloud - Veranda 240+55 - $718

 

Crystal - Symphony - outside ltd view 202 - $328

Crystal - Symphony - penthouse 367 total - $842

 

Oceania - Regatta - inside 160 - $157

Oceania - Regatta - penthouse 322 total - $350

 

Cunard - Queen Mary 2 - inside 194 - $210 (mediterranean)

Cunard - Queen Mary 2 - balcony 194+54 - $304

Cunard - Queen Mary 2 - PGrill Jn Suite 381 total - $1015

 

Celebrity - Constellation - inside 170 - $169

Celebrity - Constellation - Sky Suite 251+57 - $379

 

Princess - Grand - inside 147 - $231

Princess - Grand - mini-suite 370 total - $377

 

HAL - Westerdam - inside 185 - $174

HAL - Westerdam - Superior Bal Suite 398 total - $385

 

Bill

[Randyk47]

You nailed it Mike....that's almost exactly the numbers I came up with trying to find a Panama Canal trip. Just couldn't make it work but it was fun to look at some of the ships. Hadn't paid much attention to Raddison before but they look fantastic and would love to give them a try.....now if I only had a rich relative. :-)

 

Until the Galaxy

[Lois R]

Randy...my sister has sailed Radisson...quite a few times...I guess I have a rich relative?

 

Next up...HORIZON Sept 18th to Bermuda!

 

See My Century and Mercury Pictures at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/lovescruising

[Randyk47]

Great pictures Lois. Yep...guess you do have a rich relative....maybe I could hope we're related. :-) Seriously, would love to do one of the "fancy" ships but we're quite happy on Celebrity and HAL. (Can I say HAL on the X part of the board???)

 

Until the Galaxy