Taking a break from Celebrity after our Eclipse cruise

We returned to test the Celebrity product now branded modern luxury after a gap of 18 months. This was our 23rd Celebrity cruise, we have also done 18 Azamara, 1 NCL and 1 Costa many moons ago.

Everyone's perceptions of what matters to them on cruises differs so some will read this and say why does that bother them or I don't agree. We are all different. I have seen posts saying Celebrity has lost its direction, I think it's changed its direction. Our conclusion was though the cruise was "fine" - can't get more positive than that - we won't be booking another at present.

I have seen posts inferring it's OK if you're in a suite otherwise it's not great, I have to agree. We were in a suite and yes, Michaels was excellent, great concierge, bar attendant, nice evening entertainment and enough guests to make it not too quiet. Luminae had in Maggie the best sommelier we've ever had, wait staff were OK though some were over the top in their "fawning" but did not pay attention to detail. The food was very good, well seasoned only two meals had to be sent back in 14 days - two ill advised forays onto the main dining room menu. One was not cooked through, the other was tepid with veg that could have done great damage if loaded into an AK48. So it would worry me based on that if I was assigned to the MDR.

Our stateroom attendant was very good and relished looking after the room on his own without an assistant. Our butler was good if a little too eager to please, we finally persuaded him after three days we did not want savouries, cakes, cookies etc unless we asked. We very much liked the afternoon tea being in Michael's- we could choose to go or not, how much we wanted and could meet other guests as well as all the butlers who served there. We think this change is a positive.

But that's where the good service ended. Finding a bar server was as hard as finding Lord Lucan. We gave up and went to the bar for our own drinks in Oceanview, Sunset Bar and Martini Bar. The barman in Passport Bar declined to make an advertised cocktail as he only made them after 6pm, another bar attendant at the Pool Bar said there were no cocktail menus and he could not make any for an hour... So for us bar service in Michael's 10/10 elsewhere 2/10.

Tuscan has gone down hill food was tepid and bland, service lacking and sommelier became completely disinterested when he say we had a premium package. Tried to tell us the only white wine we could have was Chardonnay unless we bought a bottle...not true

This brought us to the other negative it was sell sell sell. Leaving the theatre on Deck 5 is like walking through the Grand Bazaar all the hawking that is going on. Shop staff are not honest in their claims about the products. I buy a certain skin product after good careful advice back home, the ship had the brand but not the colour of product - guess what my tried and tested colour is all wrong and I should only be using the colour they have in stock. Actually she did me a favour I found the product cheaper post cruise in Miami.

The shows were ok, we did enjoy Jerry Sager and Not the Three Tenors in particular the production shows much less so. The enrichment talks were poor and not to our taste or of the calibrate of speaker from cruises on Celebrity a few years ago and the Cruise Director was really good at ignoring guests as we and several others found. We did not like his emotional blackmail the last two nights of please give the shows 10 or the staff contracts might not be renewed.

I will end on a positive we did three shore excursions- one small group, a cook school visit and a chefs tour. Group sizes were 17, 9 and 16 respectively and all were very good.

But the cost of suites now means competitors offering premium products are actually charging the same or less per day. We cannot live just in Michael's and eat only from the Luminae menu. We accept these were good but elsewhere things ain't like they used to be. And if we opted not to be in a suite, well Celebrity would worry us based on our experience of non suite service this cruise.

So we will be taking a break from them for a while and watch developments before any rebooking with them, even though we changed loyalty level after this cruise.

I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with us. Thank you.

Thanks for your review

Thank you so much for your input. I can truly understand, but I think I would tire greatly after using the same product over and over again. As I have stated so many times...I can never understand why people do so. I find variety in "everything" keeps things fresh and exciting and therefore will never be loyal to one particular cruise line. I do however appreciate your honest review. Oh, by the way, we saw the Three Tenors on the Anthem in October.....AMAZING :):):)

Thank you for your balanced review. I have to say that I came to the same conclusion after our last cruise. I am not a seasoned cruiser having only done 4, all on Celebrity and we do not sail in a suite. However, we have seen a significant decline in standards and service over those 4 cruises. This saddens me as I really liked Celebrity and promoted them among my friends. I am keen to do another cruise but my DH absolutely will not consider Celebrity again so its time to look at alternatives.

Thank you for your balanced review. I have to say that I came to the same conclusion after our last cruise. I am not a seasoned cruiser having only done 4, all on Celebrity and we do not sail in a suite. However, we have seen a significant decline in standards and service over those 4 cruises. This saddens me as I really liked Celebrity and promoted them among my friends. I am keen to do another cruise but my DH absolutely will not consider Celebrity again so its time to look at alternatives.

I wonder if Princess may be a good fit for you? We cruised on the Regal Princess Dec 18-29, and the Eclipse Jan 2-8. We loved the Regal, and the service was top notch. They simply could do not do enough, and very happily, I might add. It was also nice when in the buffet to have the table set with silverware and drink service provided. There was no juggling. I made comment to the server one morning that it was not something we were use to since we have been sailing Celebrity lately. She wondered aloud that if the crew was not providing this service what were they doing? LOL. Crew was plentiful in all areas including the bars.

So sorry to hear about your disappointments.

I also suggest trying Princess. The crew on there always (at least in our experience - lots of cruises over many, many years ) seem happy and a happy ship makes for happy customers.

It's too bad that Celebrity can't learn that lesson.

Same complaints and worse are happening on the Princess board. It's apparently a wide spread decline in the industry.

Thank you for your balanced review. I have to say that I came to the same conclusion after our last cruise. I am not a seasoned cruiser having only done 4, all on Celebrity and we do not sail in a suite. However, we have seen a significant decline in standards and service over those 4 cruises. This saddens me as I really liked Celebrity and promoted them among my friends. I am keen to do another cruise but my DH absolutely will not consider Celebrity again so its time to look at alternatives.

As you are UK based, you might want to try P&O. We love their product as much as we love Celebrity.

My own opinion and advice would to be to steer clear of the larger P&O ships (Oceana is our favourite ship) and also steer clear of school holidays unless of course you have kids of that age! Oh, and with all cruise lines, avoid the 'booze cruise'!!

Cheers

Gerry

Thank you for the detailed review of your experience.

I must say that our experiences are totally different, with the exception of bar service at one or two of the ships' bars, and an occasional dinner in the MDR that has to be sent back and replaced.

I guess the saying rings true "Beauty (and service and food) are in the eye of the beholder."

We were on the Eclipse just before the holidays and agree 100% about the bar staff. We ran into many of the same problems you had. Bartenders that would not make us drinks we wanted, long waits, and generally unfriendly bar staff. We've never run into this on any other cruise on Celebrity or any other brand. Seems to be just this ship. We found the onboard entertainment pretty weak too, not to our taste at all. Other than that we had a pretty good cruise. No complaints about the food or any of the other staff. I'm not put off of celebrity, but I'm sure not going on the Eclipse again.

Do you think it's your 18 on Azamara that are perhaps skewing your view on a mass cruise line? I would think it's hard to go back when once you get used to it

Do you think it's your 18 on Azamara that are perhaps skewing your view on a mass cruise line? I would think it's hard to go back when once you get used to it

No because we went with managed expectations and our comparison is primarily with our experience on Infinity late 2015. We are destination driven and so whilst we had been prepared to consider Celebrity for Antarctica this experience plus the narrowness of the price gap to premium lines has put X off the agenda

We would consider other lines but would be giving up significant benefits now. We do however plan to branch out to river cruising soon.

We were on Constellation before Christmas and it s likely to be our last Celebrity cruise for a while.

I agree about the bar service, we have always had table service in Cellar Masters, not this time.

The CD was dire and thats being kind.

Speciality Restuarants are becoming very expensive.

The cost and quality are both going in the wrong direction.

We are voting with our feet and are looking at MSC (Yacht Club) and Viking Oceans.

Thanks for your review. May I suggest, if you are not satisfied with Celebrity, that you try Crystal, as they are awesome and a step up from Celebrity.

Very Enlightening review. Happy I will be in a suite come March.

We had very similar experiences on Equinox in December. Worst of our 3 Celebrity cruises by far, especially the food and service. We've decided to try a different line next year or maybe go back to the all inclusive resorts we used to frequent.

No because we went with managed expectations and our comparison is primarily with our experience on Infinity late 2015. We are destination driven and so whilst we had been prepared to consider Celebrity for Antarctica this experience plus the narrowness of the price gap to premium lines has put X off the agenda

 

We would consider other lines but would be giving up significant benefits now. We do however plan to branch out to river cruising soon.

We took Azamara's Antarctica cruise in a CC suite a few years ago. If they're still doing that one you might take a look. It was excellent!

What drinks were bartenders refusing to make?

What drinks were bartenders refusing to make?

Singapore Sling and it was Peroni beer they wouldn't get from elsewhere

I completely agree with the OP. We were on Reflection from the 24th - 31st December and have never experienced anything as bad with Celebrity as we did on this cruise. Our biggest complaint was the food. The MDR food was absolutely dire! Cold food, waiters rushed off their feet, waiting for a long time between courses, I could go on but you already get the picture. There were no offers prior to sailing for the specialty restaurants with it being the "Christmas" cruise however after paying top $ for Tuscan on Christmas Eve, we vowed we wouldn't return. The change in menu and the quality of the food was just not worth the spend anymore. Close to the end of the week, they were offering deals on the Specialty restaurants, I'm sure they had to just to get people through the door but we voted with our feet and chose to eat in the Ocean View Café several times as we felt it was the only place where we might just get reasonable food!

We are Elite with Celebrity and it is a shame to give up on a cruise line when you've cruised with them so often however for 2017, with the exception of a cruise on Royal's Anthem of the Seas to Canada & New England which has been booked for a long time, we're giving cruising a break after cruising at least 4 times a year since 2010. Not sure where we'll end up but there's a holiday out there for us somewhere.

Same here, with Reflection.

We decided to give up cruising for a while after our cruise on Reflection.

I even stopped reading Cruise Critic!:eek:

However, then I said maybe I should try another entirely different cruise experience, so we booked MSC Divina Yacht Club, and enjoyed it very much. We'll probably book their new ship, Seaside, when it comes out (in the Yacht Club).

Until then, however, we've decided to give Celebrity another chance. Never tried Aqua Class (after YC we wanted to try Celebrity's suite, but the price just wasn't coming down to around the deal we got with MSC), so maybe Blu will be better than the dining room on Reflection.

uktog...thanks for posting your review.

What drinks were bartenders refusing to make?

I could not get the bartender at the world class bar to make me anything not on the menu nor the drinks from Sushi on 5. Never had an issue on previous cruises at this bar, Usually the bartenders there are awesome. The bartender in quasor would not make anything on the cocktail menu we wanted. Every time we asked (which was every night) he was always "out" of something. Regular mixed drinks were no issue and he was actually one of the more personable bartenders. He was always by himself which might have had something to do with it. In the past there's usually been 2 people working the bar in Quasor. Our main complaint was with the attitude of the bartenders. Most of them seemed very unhappy. On every other cruise I've gotten along great with the bar staff and they usually have my drinks made before I order. The Eclipse was the total opposite, it just seemed like most of them wanted nothing to do with the guests. It was a very odd experience, never seen anything like it in nearly 20 cruises. Oh and the Sunset bar ran out of Macallan on day 3 or 4 and even though I asked every night they never got any more for the duration of the cruise. I would have to head down to the Ensemble lounge to get it when I wanted it or drink Glenfiddich. The Martini Bar was awesome and no issues at the Ensemble lounge bar (although I only stopped for a whiskey once or twice).

Thank you so much for your input. I can truly understand, but I think I would tire greatly after using the same product over and over again. As I have stated so many times...I can never understand why people do so. I find variety in "everything" keeps things fresh and exciting and therefore will never be loyal to one particular cruise line. I do however appreciate your honest review. Oh, by the way, we saw the Three Tenors on the Anthem in October.....AMAZING

Other than the Three Tenors comment, I could have written this myself. Familiarity breeds contempt, boredom and unrealistic expectations. We like Celebrity very much but not enough to give up the variety in having different cruising experiences.