Over At Celebrity...

[joanagain]

:) i took the plunge and set sail with CELEBRITY (Zenith) last month on a 14 night cruise to the caribbean...and i must say, the ship was small (the way i like them) and in real need of dry dock (which i hear is on its way)...sad to say, i did not miss HAL...the cabin stewards were comparable in attention and friendliness to what we have come to expect from HAL...the dining room service was more than we had experienced on HAL...celebrity waiters made hard work look like an art, skillfully handled..and the food, yes, it was better than any meal we had remembered on HAL...all in all, it was only one cruise, but well worth the experience.

has anyone noticed if the food has improved on HAL...i heard a rumor...

[RevNeal]

Would you mind specifying how the food was better than it is on HAL? I've heard this, repeatedly, but I'm not sure what is meant by it. I've always found HAL food to be better than what I normally eat at home (with the exception of rare occasional meals at the highest quality restaurants); what, precisely, does it mean when one says that Celebrity food is superior?

I truly am curious.

[fllcruiser]

I have always liked Holland America's food, so never felt it needed improving (well okay they can bring the Dover Sole back). I was on Celebrity recently and was happy with the food also ( I like fish and think HAL and Celebrity do it best). The dining staff on Celebrity has always been good with the exception of the wine stewards, have not cared for one yet. Would I sail on Celebrity again, sure, however my first choice would still be Holland America, you get a genuine warm feeling from all the staff that I just have not found on any other ship.

[joanagain]

i am not gourmet...and i do not cook in quantity...i would say that any meal on HAL or Celebrity is going to be better than anything that i prepare at home...and i have never had a bad meal on HAL...

i just think that overall, HAL came in a close second...it is a matter of taste...my taste...in my opinion, Celebrity excelled in presentation, variety, and preparation...i guess it has more to do with who's doing the cooking rather than what's cooking...it is that subtlety of being served a very good meal, night after night...and there were no bad nights...i.e.,the chilled soups were always very good...HAL chilled soup is very good most of the time...i just thought there were consistent hits, no misses, my gosh, i even tasted the baked alaska...and it was good.

[Landlubber54]

...for describing, in a civil fashion, the subtle differences that made YOUR experience with Celebrity ever-so-slightly better than ones with HAL -- and for acknowledging that, while Celebrity's food was wonderful, that did not mean that HAL's was bottom of the barrel. I am relatively new here, and I am already weary of over-the-top reviews -- especially the hypercritical ones...:eek:

[~Nereus~]

I have cruised more on Celebrity than on HAL by a slight margin...

Love them both, dinner better on X, LIDO lunch on HAL is better, fresh OJ on HAL :)

Food is not the deciding factor.. We were on the Veendam when it was sick :( , same on the Zenith second time round in March,.. Beds on HAL were so much nicer, Veendam rooms larger, decor much nicer...

Will do the Veendam again, not the Zenith (after 4, 14 day cruises)... but Celeb and HAL are both great experiences.

You'll get your overdose of calories on both :D

[RevNeal]

joanagain, I appreciate your attempt at qualifying your answer. I also appreciate that it's not an easy thing to do, and that you clearly assert that it's a matter of subjective opinion. I entirely agree.

For me, how food is "presented" means very little -- I could care less if my entree has "verticality" or is laid out on the plate in such a way as to be a work of art. I'm usually only concerned with how it tastes. :) Oh, sure, I'm impressed with stacked pork medallions and a mashed potato pier, but the "work of art" is quickly demolished as I eat it, so what does it matter?

As for service, not having been on Celebrity all I have to go on is what my friends and parents have to say, and in both cases the general opinion was that each had its own strong and weak points, but that -- as my Mom would say: "there's nothing like that Indonesian smile combined with precise, courteous, efficient service." I've always enjoyed both on HAL, and have never experienced less. Perhaps if I had, I would think differently?

[lougee1043]

having gotten off an x ship on 4/2-------i found that the royal suite much larger then an s hal suite-----------an actual separate bedroom rather then the studio apt concept on hal-----------butler was fine but i would have rather had a small credit because imo room service could do everything that i asked of him

appreciate the free laundry/drycleaning on hal s suite as well as the neptune lounge--dont know if the new x ships have one-------------

in the d/r i thought the service was much more attentive and there seemed to be more people there to serve you then on out last hal cruise

while food is subjective and i thought that celebrity was better then hal when we started out but by day 7 the repetition of the same salads etc started to wear on me---------the other difference was in seasonings and i thought the food started to taste a bit bland--that of couse was rectified by the salt shaker---but in the long run i gave the food edge back to hal

i would sail on x again in a heartbeat but there is something about hal that keeps drawing me back and i cant define it---------------age groups appear to be similar and the pax for the most part adhere to the dress code-- anyone care to tell me why hal keeps calling

[bepsf]

I've always heard that X has good quality food - good to hear that it's still true.


I've rarely been impressed by a complete meal on HAL (except in the Pinnacle) but understanding that I'm a bit of a snob that way doesn't keep me from booking HAL again and again...

[HeatherInFlorida]

I have cruised twice on Celebrity and twice on HAL. I have a cruise on the Summit coming up this October and a HAL cruise next October. So it is evident that I love both lines ... but for different reasons.

The entire dining room experience on Celebrity far surpasses that on HAL. No comparison. I picked up my friends from a Summit cruise just today. They told me that their DR steward told them she had 2 tables ... she had a choice between 2 or 3 but feels she can serve her people better by choosing 2. I don't know how many tables our HAL steward served, but it was definitely more than 3. On our Millennium cruise November 2003 I felt our wonder steward, Peri, was ours alone. He always seemed to be at my side when I needed him. That has never happened to me on HAL. That's not to say HAL is bad! As I said, I love both lines. There's nothing wrong with 2nd place.

As to food, we all know how subjective that is. I would say that the menu itself is superior on Celebrity and the preparation of the food is consistently superior. I have never had a meal on Celebrity that I did not enjoy. I can't say the same for HAL.

In my experience the service is better on Celebrity . It's important to point that out because service varies from cruise to cruise on all ships on all lines. I speak only for my my experience.

But I continue to enjoy HAL better for the people I meet. I just seem to have more "fun" on HAL ships. And I like the ice cream better:) .

[kelmac]

I have cruised twice on Celebrity and twice on HAL. I have a cruise on the Summit coming up this October and a HAL cruise next October. So it is evident that I love both lines ... but for different reasons.

The entire dining room experience on Celebrity far surpasses that on HAL. No comparison. I picked up my friends from a Summit cruise just today. They told me that their DR steward told them she had 2 tables ... she had a choice between 2 or 3 but feels she can serve her people better by choosing 2. I don't know how many tables our HAL steward served, but it was definitely more than 3. On our Millennium cruise November 2003 I felt our wonder steward, Peri, was ours alone. He always seemed to be at my side when I needed him. That has never happened to me on HAL. That's not to say HAL is bad! As I said, I love both lines. There's nothing wrong with 2nd place.

As to food, we all know how subjective that is. I would say that the menu itself is superior on Celebrity and the preparation of the food is consistently superior. I have never had a meal on Celebrity that I did not enjoy. I can't say the same for HAL.

In my experience the service is better on Celebrity . It's important to point that out because service varies from cruise to cruise on all ships on all lines. I speak only for my my experience.

But I continue to enjoy HAL better for the people I meet. I just seem to have more "fun" on HAL ships. And I like the ice cream better:) .

I agree with Heather 100%. I do think HAL does a better job with the food in the Lido area, compared to Celebrity's buffet. We have both a HAL cruise and a Celebrity cruise coming up. So if Celebrity is a 9.8, and HAL is a 9.6, we will continue to cruise both lines.:D Princess, NCL, RCI are a distant third ...,compared to these two wonder cruise lines!!

Enjoy!
Kel

[Randyk47]

We were on the same Galaxy cruise as Lougee1043 and, in fact, we'd met Lou and his charming wife on the Oosterdam the previous year so we have some of the same recent experience. Having said that we found the food on the Galaxy to be much better than the food on the Oosterdam. If I noticed anything it was that there wasn't as much variety on the Galaxy. Hard to put my findger on it but somewhere along the 7th or so day of the 12 day cruise it seemed I was having a "been there, done that" experience at dinner. However, the preceived lack of variety notwithstanding the meals we had were fantastic and better by far than our Oosterdam dinners the year before. We really noticed a difference in the service in the dining room and that's where the Galaxy really out did the Oosterdam. It fondly reminded me of the service I'd had on the Ryndam 10 years previous. The end result is that we'd cruise with Celebrity again if the itinerary and price were right but like Lou we're drawn back to HAL as our first cruising love and are looking at a cruise on the Ryndam next year. HAL is kind of like a good old pair of shoes.....it just feels comfortable.

[RichardK]

...for describing, in a civil fashion, the subtle differences that made YOUR experience with Celebrity ever-so-slightly better than ones with HAL -- and for acknowledging that, while Celebrity's food was wonderful, that did not mean that HAL's was bottom of the barrel. I am relatively new here, and I am already weary of over-the-top reviews -- especially the hypercritical ones...:eek:

I totally agree, but as a newbee, beware of the Cheerleaders also!! The HAL Board is somewhat unique as compared to the other boards on CruiseCritic --- i.e., you have a number of people who post only on the HAL Board and nowhere else. To this group it seems that HAL "craps ice cream", therefore objectivity may come into question.

Don't get me wrong, these appear to be wonderful people with a keen enthusiasm for cruising. They just happen to be very "focused" in their viewpoint!

As for me, I've cruised both HAL and Celebrity a number of times. They each have their strong points and weaknesses as was pointed out. However, they remain my favorite two cruise lines. Echoing what a previous poster said, you just can't beat the Indonesian crew. IMHO hands down the very best crew that I have experienced......

[shonuf]

Hubby and I are HAL veterans and lovers. But, Celebrity's price for a Panama Canal cruise on the Galaxy was too good to turn down. We did it in Jan '05.

Normally take a "S" suite on HAL, got a Sky Suite on X. Room was adequate, if in need of refurbishing. Room steward friendly and efficient. LOVED having a butler. He was our wake-up call each morning.

We were very disappointed in the food on the Galaxy, both in the dining room and the Lido, and in both the selection and the quality of the food. Several times we ordered off the menu as there was nothing on the menu that sounded good. Steaks were so tough that the waiter had to cut one for a tablemate, saying it was easier if "you stand up!" Best lunches were from room service. On the other hand, the people in the suite next to ours thought the food was wonderful. (The folks in the suite on the other side agreed with us, they were at our table). Dining room service was good.

When we disembarked, our TA called to see how we liked the cruise. I told him about the food problem and he said he'd had the same complaint from passengers on the previous two cruises.

Hubby said, "Next time, HAL". Would we do Celebrity again, maybe, if the price was right.

[m steve]

Having sailed 2x on X and looking forward to HAL I just returned w/ Princess and feel that X stes the best table with a full complement of glasses and silverware. Princess just put the minimum out, no wine steward and average food. Celebrity meats were hands over P. Ihope that HAL is as good and from web comments I anticipate excellence. I enjoythe replacement of silver between courses as you get more contact w/ asst. waiter, not just dumping food and cleaning up. I also like the crumb cleanup.

[corkpopr]

next month is our 16th cruise and our third with HAL we have done 4 on celebrity, 3 on princess and six with other lines. Celebrity 1st Hal a close second, and Princess a little further back. Norweigan and RCCL far behind and Carnival never ever! Lido much better on HAL ships. Celebrity dining room and private restaurants very much better. Princess casinos the best. ship entertainment always bad on all lines. that being said however i would be happy with a folding lounge chair on the deck of a freighter where i ate with the crew if i had cigars/wine/books.

[HeatherInFlorida]

RichardK, I have to disagree! While I cross between Celebrity and HAL boards (while rarely posting on Celebrity boards because I don't feel altogether welcome there), I would have to say that pretty much everyone sticks pretty much to one line's board. There may be people who cross over a lot ... particularly if trying to decide between cruiselines, but for the most part I see the same people staying on one board. Only a few cross over with any regularity.

Newbies would be more likely to jump around as they read about different cruiselines and ships. You are absolutely right that on each board you will find the people who are basically the cheerleading section, but I'd venture to say that if you read the HAL boards with any regularity, you'd hardly call it a cheering section!!!

Especially lately!!! Yikes:eek:

[blackbird71]

While I have not been on Celebrity in some time, but they were the only cruise line I have been on that brought warm/hot rolls to the table. It is a small thing but something I can compare line to line.

[cheshire999]

I have a question. Not having cruised since they started the alternative dining such as the Pinnacle Grill, does anyone feel that this type of amenity has caused less gourmet fare in the dining room? On all of our past cruises, the dining room fare was almost five star and to hear now that it is "less than" makes me wonder if quality hasn't suffered because they want you to pay extra to eat in the Pinnacle?

[snowcat]

Just got back from our first Celebrity cruise on the Zenith (11-day Western). Food was great, but we decided that we'd have to give the slight edge to HAL, especially in the Lido buffet and in the salad department. Also my husband was disappointed there were no souffles for dessert on Zenith....of course, now that he is home, there are no desserts at all! Our waiters were terrific on both.

[ImpulsivePuppy]

i have been on hal twice, celeb once, i do like celeb better, mainly because there is a little more to do, the service in the dr is a bit better imo on x, but my wife likes hal better so we ocmpromise and are sailing hal next. i do like hal, in fact i have never taken a cruise i did not like. except for princess.

[blackbird71]

Also my husband was disappointed there were no souffles for dessert on Zenith....of course, now that he is home, there are no desserts at all! Our waiters were terrific on both.

Sidetracking: :D

Deserts....

Ah the 4 nights out of 12 on the Royal Princess in Europe they had souffles for desert.....

And on my just finished Radison cruise the pan of homemade tapioca pudding one day in their "Lido" next to the daily ice cream picks......

But more important, what I call "cruise" size deserts:p. I eat out a lot but almost never do deserts. One reason is the size of the deserts most restaurants serve. While they are big enough for two to share, if you are dinning alone they are just toooooo big. Cruise Line serve a portion that is just right to end a meal IMHO.... :)

[Pincus]

There have been very good replies here.

Having sailed both HAL and X many times, IMHO, the dining room service is better - NOW -- on X. On a recent HAL cruise, our steward had to serve 22-27 diners. That's too many. On our last X cruise, our steward served 12.

There has to be a difference in level of service there.

Pincus

[gizmo]

There have been very good replies here.

Having sailed both HAL and X many times, IMHO, the dining room service is better - NOW -- on X. On a recent HAL cruise, our steward had to serve 22-27 diners. That's too many. On our last X cruise, our steward served 12.

There has to be a difference in level of service there.

Pincus

I agree there has to be a difference in service.

On my last Hal cruise our steward had to serve more than 27. Service has gone down hill because of this.

[joanagain]

this is not a review...just a footnote to my personal observation re my celebrity experience...yes, food does not a whole cruise make...i agree wholeheartedly with C2C..."Food is not the deciding factor.. We were on the Veendam when it was sick, same on the Zenith second time round in March,.. Beds on HAL were so much nicer, Veendam rooms larger, decor much nicer..."

and that "dinner was better on X" but my dining experience in the main dining room does not mean that i flipped overboard onto celebrity.

here are a few other goodies: Embarking in Jacksonville took less than an hour, (while passengers stood in line, no amenities, like seating in the terminal)...surprise! cat 5 outside cabin smaller than we had expected, (HAL is larger) but we got used to it...noticably, in our cabin the carpet was filthy...i was told by the the cabin stewardess that vacuuming would be done in a "couple" of days...as this did not make sense to me, i asked to speak to the head housekeeper,(who was unavailable, but would get back to me)...our carpet was vacuumed shortly therafter...(seems housekeeping was combatting another virus outbreak and every public area was disinfected...perhaps, our cabin was also contaminated...don`t know, just a guess...four passengers at our dining, including my sister, came down with a nagging cough, which confined them to their cabins for a "couple" of days...which was sad, because the beds were uncomfortable unless you were exhausted.

there were comfy armchairs in the library (my favorite place to catnap) unfortunately, no Java Cafe, and a decent cup of coffee at the Cafe Cove (?) set us back 3 bucks a cup...there were at least two dance escorts available...and although we had brought Thank You cards with us, we appreciated that we were provided with preprinted gratuity cards that noted prepaid and additional gratutity for service to be distributed to selected staff.

food was not the deciding factor, but i wanted to give celebrity their due and raise the Bar at HAL...i heard a rumor....

[djludwig@prodigy.net]

I just got back from a week on the Zuiderdam. Last August my family sailed the Celebrity Zenith to Bermuda. While I was VERY happy with the Zuiderdam, the dinner expereince on the Zenith was slightly superior. The food, the level of service and the atmosphere all were SLIGHTLY superior to what I experienced on the Zuiderdam.
I will state however that I am referring to Dinner ONLY. I felt Breakfast and Lunch were to close to call. In fact my wife and son would be fast to point out thar room service on the Zuiderdam beat Celebrity Zenith by a wide margin.

[Landlubber54]

...beware of the Cheerleaders also...

Absolutely right! In some of my previous posts I have mentioned that I try to discount BOTH extremes of the spectrum...:cool:

[Tatka]

I just returned from my second cruise on Celebrity (Mercury this time) and I sailed on Zuiderdam in August.


I'd honestly say that I like buffets on HAL better than on Celebrity and dinners are very close (each line has strong points). I also found lamb on HAL to be better, there seemed to be more sea food, and I loved caviar... On the other hand on X I had several different kinds of escargot and frog legs.

I also think room service selections on HAL are better.

However service was much more superior on Celebrity... in both dining room, buffets, front desk etc.

Both of our head waiters (HAL and X) were from Indonesia and both were friendly, but on Celebrity our waiter was much more professional... he was older (as was our head waiter on Century ) and definitely had more experience. He didn't make a single mistake all cruise long... (learned our tastes very well). Also assistant always took time to talk to us and our 13 years old (and he called Mike by name). Assistant M'D also stopped by every dinner and we had nice conversations. None of them seemed to be overloaded with work and dead tired as our waiters on Z.

Celebrity definitely has more staff members and it's noticeable in both buffets and dining rooms.

PAX was on the older side during this (X) cruise and it looked like most of the passengers where older than 60.. (some of them much older), many in wheelchairs , but there were still enough waiters in the buffets to offer help to carry my food. ( Once I was asked 4 times during 1 trip to the table;) )

Same applies to the state room attendants service. I love smiling attendants...but when my room not made by 12 PM - 1 PM 4 times during 7 day cruise?:confused: (HAL)

Loved production shows on both lines. (didn't go to the other shows)

All being said we loved both experiences and if itinerary and price was right would gladly sail on both.:)

[bepsf]

Tatka--


How have you been? Haven't seen you over here on the HAL boards in a while! :)

Glad you had a great experience on X - Maybe HAL needs to hire back some more of the dining room staff....

[peaches from georgia]

However service was much more superior on Celebrity... in both dining room, buffets, front desk etc.
.........
Celebrity definitely has more staff members and it's noticeable in both buffets and dining rooms.


Glad to see you posting back here. And enjoyed your review. HAL is making such a huge mistake. 90% of the current complaints about HAL relate to the cut in staff, both directly and indirectly.

[Tatka]

Thank you for welcoming me back :) ,

We just returned from California Coastal (on Mercury) last night.

San Francisco - Monterey - LA - Catalina - Ensenada - San Diego - San Francisco.

Loved California... Probably would love to live there if it was closer to Europe and other popular destinations.

Absolutely loved Monterey ... 17 miles drive , Carmel and route 1 drive were out of this world! Add to that that Enterprise didn't have car we requested (Dodge Stratus) and we got Cadillac :) !!! Also had great weather everywhere except for some rain in San Diego.


Mercury is a vry nice ship in great condition... I would recommend to try her.

I hope to post pictures soon.:)

Oh..and I re-read my post...sorry for grammatical errors.

[~Nereus~]

All being said we loved both experiences and if itinerary and price was right would gladly sail on both.:)

Agree with it all... Anyone who enjoys one line will enjoy the other..

Anyone who has not tried both, should... Two different companies but both offer an excellent product.

[dakrewser]

Loved California... Probably would love to live there if it was closer to Europe and other popular destinations.


It's only about 3 hours further away from Europe - and a lot closer to Hawaii, Australia, Alaska, Japan, China, etc. :)

It's even closer to Russia than the east coast. Maybe not Moscow, but Vladivostok is much closer!

[calicruzer]

Loved my last HAL cruise, but think I'll head back to Celebrity for the next one.

Just missed the superb service especially in the dining room. The little extras like great waiters, carrying my tray in the buffet and cold towels waiting at the gangway are all things I missed on HAL.

The dining room food was much better, but like others, I thought the buffet on HAL was better.

My kids really felt there wasn't enough to do on HAL and want to go back to Celebrity. Too bad there aren't any great Caribbean sailings this summer, or we'd do it!

We just can't make ourselves try RCCL, now that we have been spoiled by X and HAL. Thought about doing the Radiance this summer to Alsaka, but am a bit worried that we won't like it.

[Tatka]

We just can't make ourselves try RCCL, now that we have been spoiled by X and HAL. Thought about doing the Radiance this summer to Alsaka, but am a bit worried that we won't like it.

As a person who tried all 3 lines in the last 2 years I say they all have own advantages and disadvantages.

IMHO, RCCL is lower than the HAL and X in food quality category, although I wouldn't call food "bad", it just wasn't excellent. We received great and friendly service from both state room attendant and waiter. I'd rate dining room service lower than X (Mercury/Century) , but higher and faster than on HAL (Zuiderdam). State room we had (inside) was smaller than on Zui and X but very nicely appointed and clean. Actually our HAL large inside beat X and RCCL by size. (it was almost 200 sq ft!!!), and bedding was the best.

RCCL ship (Splendour) had feature that none of X and HAL ships we sailed had. It was open 24 hours a day beautiful solarium pool made in old Roman style. Pool hours were very convenient for us who had very long trips every day (Med cruise). Also Splendour has 2 story windows in the dining room and you have beautiful views while eating. Actually at any place on the ship you have great views.

From what I heard Radiance (and all Radiance class ships) the most beautiful ships. They are built on the same base as Millennium class of Celebrity.

I am thinking of trying Radiance class also.

Good luck with any cruise you choose.