Long time Princess cruiser on her first Celebrity Cruise

MSC also requires the life vests be taken to Muster Drill.

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I use the "paper towel" test. In rest rooms do you ever see cloth towels? In Princess, No. On Celebrity, Yes. Food is comparable. No sommeliers on Princess, so if you like wine you'd best know What" brand you like. The Jewelry on Celebrity is more high end than Princess. Art auctions are the same...Awful! NO central stairway on Royal class ships. I do hear they will convert a staff stairway to public use. I got caught several times using it on Princess. Sorry, couldn't stand the ridiculous wait for elevators on the Regal.

Thanks for that comparison

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Thanks for reporting in. I will be interested to hear how you feel the two lines compare for you. I've not cruised Celebrity, but might consider it in the future. I have heard great things from people on CC who have cruised both.

jennybenny,

Say it ain't so!! Your not going to the DARK SIDE. :D

Tony

jennybenny,

 

Say it ain't so!! Your not going to the DARK SIDE. :D

 

Tony

Ha! More than likely I won't! [emoji23]

I prefer to pretend if I'm going to branch out that I'll try Regent but not sure I can justify the cost. Thought I had DH convinced to try for our 20th anniversary but now he's saying 25th

We are so used to Princess and know what to expect that I don't know that we would really like another cruise line.

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Hi all,

I was planning to do my detailed food analysis tonight but there is a lightening storm outside, and I'm from California where thunder and lightening are very rare so I've been watching it. It's also affecting the internet, so more tomorrow.

I will say, though that tonight's "evening chic" dinner was great.

And I do think that the Celebrity S class ships are most comparable to the Royal class, and we've only been on the Royal once and it's been a while, so I'll do my best.

it's not rocket science to put on a life vest and walk to your muster station.

 

It may not be rocket science, but at each muster a number of passengers do it incorrectly and need to be shown individually how to do it by the staff.

Following...

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I sailed on my first Celebrity Cruise last December. I was anxious to try them. We sailed on the Summit, Southern Caribbean. I was somewhat disappointed in the food. I found Princess to be better, that said, it's been a few years since I've been aboard Princess. I do have a cruise on the Ruby in September, so I'll post back about that.

We did enjoy the Tuscan Grille. I fell in love with their ricotta gnocchi!!

Could my thoughts about the food relate to Norovirus. I suppose, though I caught that later in the cruise. We only had breakfast once in the buffet. I guess once was enough!!

So back from our port days.

The port on/off was pretty much the same. They do give you hot towels and have water set up with about 3 different add in. One was watermelon mint, another cucumber honeydew, etc. The towels are not just cold - they have ice on them.

Coming back today, I noticed one big difference. We arrived from our excursion at about three, and went directly to the buffet for lunch. No lunch. Pizza, pasta, salads sandwich makings and a few Mexican items. Most of the stations were closed. Given it was a port day, you'd think they could leave lunch open as people come back mid afternoon. I believe Princess has lunch later.

By the way, the balcony rooms are better in that they have a couch and a shower with glass doors that's slightly bigger than Princess. On the down side, there's less storage then on the Grand class ships - the closet faces into the room, and is just a rack. There's about 5 draws in the desk, and some storage over the bed, kind of inconvenient. Oh, and the bathroom does have more storage.

The central stairway on the Royal has been available to passengers since last October and on the Regal since this past May and the Majestic was constructed with a passenger central stairway according to postings here on cruise critic.

Good! Glad to hear that. We did a 14 day B2B in Feb.2016. The food was better on the Regal(especially the buffet) by a long shot over the food on our Jan.2017 Celebrity Eclipse trip. The Eclipse specialty rest. however are still leaps & bounds over Crown Grill/Sabatini's. For the much higher Eclipse prices, they should be. Currently, we're booked for this Jan. on the Riviera(Oceania) & a 14 day cruise Jan.2019 on the Reflection. After that, we might look again to the Regal.

Hello all.

 

And they have sommeliers in the dining room - so table has a waiter, assistant waiter and a sommelier.

 

Drinks are way more expensive, and a greater variety I think.

 

That's it for now. More tomorrow.

I have been on the Equinox and the Grand and was happy with both. I will say that having an extra person waiting the table helps with the flow of dinner. The sommelier not only helped us pick a wine to go with dinner, but also took our predinner cocktail orders, something that the assistant waiter had to do on the Grand. Sometimes we wouldn't get our drink until well into our appetizers. So for that I really liked how the Equinox ran their dining room.

I have been on the Equinox and the Grand and was happy with both. I will say that having an extra person waiting the table helps with the flow of dinner. The sommelier not only helped us pick a wine to go with dinner, but also took our predinner cocktail orders, something that the assistant waiter had to do on the Grand. Sometimes we wouldn't get our drink until well into our appetizers. So for that I really liked how the Equinox ran their dining room.

Good point. Last night, someone else took my mixed drink order.

Today's observation - the "promenade" has, like the Royal Regal a couple of bump outs. However, the walkway between them is open, so you can walk from the one by the back stairs to the one by the front stairs, cross to the other side, and walk that, making it sort of a promenade walk, although the sides of the lifeboats aren't as pretty as the open sea on the Grand class ships. I think maybe they've opened that area on the the Regal or Royal but I'm not sure.

Celebrity has never had Promenade decks in the classic sense [at least on the M- or S-class ships; there were 2 or 3 really early -- and beloved -- Celebrity ships that I know nothing about]. This was always one big plus for Princess. But I understand that the new Princess class doesn't have them either? [i.e. Crown has a full, unimpeded-view Promenade that wraps around the entire ship; Royal/Regal have Promenades that stop short near the bow and are blocked by the lifeboats]

On our last night! It was a blast. We had a strange disembarkation experience, but part was a mistake I think.

As you know, on Princess you get a survey asking about disembarkation. We never got that from Celebrity; in fact we didn't get luggage tags. I happened to be in line at guest relations today and noticed people with disembarkation letters. We never saw that either.

When I got to the front, they gave us luggage tags for our preferred time (late, we fly out at 7pm), so no reason to leave early. I was told that they don't send a survey.

And one more thing before I go to bed too late - Silent Disco! Very fun.

I'll try to come up with some final thoughts in the next couple of days.

On our last night! It was a blast. We had a strange disembarkation experience, but part was a mistake I think.

 

As you know, on Princess you get a survey asking about disembarkation. We never got that from Celebrity; in fact we didn't get luggage tags. I happened to be in line at guest relations today and noticed people with disembarkation letters. We never saw that either.

 

When I got to the front, they gave us luggage tags for our preferred time (late, we fly out at 7pm), so no reason to leave early. I was told that they don't send a survey.

 

And one more thing before I go to bed too late - Silent Disco! Very fun.

 

I'll try to come up with some final thoughts in the next couple of days.

They prefer to send the survey via E-Mail. We had our within a few days of returning. We also always got our tags a few days before disembarking. We usually do Luggage Valet, so the tags we got were no longer valid.

They prefer to send the survey via E-Mail. We had our within a few days of returning. We also always got our tags a few days before disembarking. We usually do Luggage Valet, so the tags we got were no longer valid.

By survey, I meant a "when do yo need to be off the ship" survey, not the customer satisfaction survey. I know we put our travel plans into our reservation, so maybe they would have used that if they'd actually given us luggage tags and the disembarkation letter.

It was my sister's first cruise, but I wonder what I would have done if it was my very first cruise as well.

We have been mostly sailing Princess for the last few years, so last year I went on my first Celebrity cruise with my sister and her family. Everyone said that once I sailed on Celebrity, I wouldn't sail any other line. Well, let's just say, I kept waiting to feel that way, but I never did. Don't get me wrong, there were some nice perks being Elite (on RCL, I am Diamond, so I got the Elite status on Celebrity). The evening Happy Hour for Elite was very nice with nice drinks and appitizers...all free! The free wine tasting was also nice as was, the continental/hot breakfast for elites (and suites?).

Otherwise, I hated the bingo...pricey and very crowded. I didn't think the service in the MDR was good at all, but the food was tasty and well prepared. We had anytime dining...and we ALWAYS had to wait. They gave us a pager and we waited in the bar right near the restaurant entrance.

I didn't like that there wasn't an atrium/central meeting place. I love to sit in Piazza on Princess near the IC and people watch or meet up with friends. Celebrity didn't have that.

If you have been on as few as one cruise, you know that to a good bit of the clientele, nothing can be presumed to be obvious. I'm sure you've heard the old joke about the most frequently asked question on a ship: "What time does the two-o'clock BINGO game start?"

Or, does this elevator go to the front of the ship? Does the crew sleep on the ship? Where does the elecric power come from?

How small does your face have to be to get a mini-facial? Do these stairs go up or down?

LOL!

MSC also requires the life vests be taken to Muster Drill.

 

 

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Thanks....I was trying to remember if we did or not on MSC.

I happened to be in line at guest relations today and noticed people with disembarkation letters. We never saw that either.

 

I have been on some Princess cruises where if you had said in the personalizer what your disembarkation day flights were you would get the on board letter about disembarkation preference.

But if you did not give that information they just assigned disembarkation times by deck number. I guess they figured if you did not have a flight, you did not care what time you disembarked and this would save them lots of time going over passengers' forms requesting a specific time.

I have been on some Princess cruises where if you had said in the personalizer what your disembarkation day flights were you would get the on board letter about disembarkation preference.

 

But if you did not give that information they just assigned disembarkation times by deck number. I guess they figured if you did not have a flight, you did not care what time you disembarked and this would save them lots of time going over passengers' forms requesting a specific time.

That makes sense. On Princess, we've never put in the info, but on Celebrity we did. However, a 7pm flight doesn't mean we don't need luggage tags, information about how to get off the ship, etc. We got nothing.

My two cents:

We are Elite on Princess and usually cruise 2 or 3 times a year. Never cruised with any other line. Feb 2016 we decided to try Celebrity. We upgraded to Aqua class to receive (roughly) the same perks as Pirincess.

Half way through the cruise I realized "you know, I haven't had to forgive anyone for anything."

We are very forgiving travelers and don't sweat the small stuff. They mess up an order or forget something that I asked for, no big deal. We are on a cruise. We find with Princess we say "no big deal" a few times on the cruise. Never once did we say that on the Celebrity cruise.

We have since sailed with Princess twice more. Then our next two cruises are with Celebrity and the two after that are with Princess.

Not enough of a difference to switch lines completely but an interesting observation if I can so myself.

We are on our first Celebrity cruise next December so thanks for this thread. Excited to try and compare it to Princess and RCCL.

And conversely, I wonder why the other cruise lines don't require that you carry your life vest to become familiar with it. There is no substitute for "hands on" training. None. I have flown well over a million miles in my life and have heard "your life vest is located underneath your seat" a thousand times. But in a panic situation, how many people on board the plane would actually be able to remove and don the life vest without ever seeing or touching it before? If carrying a life vest for a drill is the biggest inconvenience in one's life, then that person is leading a very charmed life.

Any reasonably intelligent person should be able to handle putting it on without instructions. to still have to wear it at the drill is ridiculous.

We are elite on Princess and Celebrity... prefer Princess over X when it comes to food, cabins (we book mini suites), entertainment... the new Royal and Regal are similar to the newer X ships. We actually like the Grand Class on Princess and the older X ships over the newer design... but times marches on and things change. Will be taking our first cruise on the Royal at TA... so will check it out fully. These days we cruise Princess, HAL, Cunard and Celebrity in that order of preference.