Dedicated RC cruiser tries Celebrity

[Merion_Mom]

This will be broken into sections, so as to make it easier to read.

 

There are many reviews of the Summit in the review section and on the Celebrity board.

 

This is going to be a thread about me, and others like me: a dedicated Royal Caribbean cruiser trying Celebrity for the first time.

 

I was on the July 14th 7-nighter to Bermuda. Summit is sailing for the season out of Bayonne, New Jersey, as does the Explorer of the Seas. This is a drive of about an hour and three quarters from where my cabinmate lives (trip to the port) but it was faster getting home. (hour and a quarter) Earlier in the morning, I guess, although both on Sundays.

 

Since the Summit’s passenger load is smaller than Explorer’s, it was easier and less crowded in arriving and in departing, as far as luggage and parking are concerned. I have learned my lesson about porters at disembarkation: they can be worth their weight in gold, even if I *can* roll all of my bags by myself. (my roommate would have had more of a struggle). They not only take care of your bags, they make sure that they get you right in front in the customs line.

 

When parking on the 14th, I chatted briefly with the attendant in Spanish, and then asked with a smile if he could get me a good parking spot. He turned away from where his boss had told me to go, and gave me a spot right at the exit gate back to the terminal. Nice guy! ;)

 

The trip from terminal to ship is exactly like boarding the Explorer.

 

Boarding the Summit, however, involves being offered a glass of champagne or a mimosa. Yummmmm.

 

Like RC, cabins were not ready until a little after 1 P.M. Despite advice to go to Bistro on 5 for crepes, we ventured up to the Oceanview (their Windjammer) and had a little lunch snack.

 

Next comparison: the buffet on the Summit was nowhere as good as the WJ on a Royal Caribbean ship. They don’t begin to have the variety that RC has, nor the complete meals for the long periods of time that RC has. Much of the time that it is open, there are just a few offerings. But they have real ice cream until 11 P.M. up there, and I tried the cinnamon. Yummmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

The cabins were very well-appointed. We had grabbed an Aqua Class guarantee, and that gave us a cabin that was D size instead of E size. We also got the special shower (with sprays going in all different directions, although you controlled which ones were on at any given time), upgraded toiletries, robes and slippers, a Celebrity tote bag as a gift, a “welcome” bottle of Champagne in the cabin, daily pitcher of herbal ice tea, and bottled water which was also left every day. Even if we hadn’t moved the bottled water, our cabin attendant put out two more.

 

The shower was also larger than a standard shower stall in a balcony cabin.

 

The beds were together when we arrived, but our attendant quickly remedied that.

 

There was a full-sized sofa, a vanity with the one outlet & two lower cabinets, a full wall of mirror, flat screen TV with refrigerator below, large closet with two-thirds hanging area and one third drawers (6), a safe and shelf.

 

There was a shallow set of shelves with railings on the wall, like on the Oasis.

 

The hanging area had pull-down racks for shorter items, to double the hanging space, but since Celebrity has gone to those awful non-removable hangers, they couldn’t be used!

 

The balcony was a decent size, with two chairs and a table of nice quality furniture. Besides the obvious, it is a great place to spray on your sunscreen before going to Bermuda - very hot and sunny. (but not nearly as bad as it was at home that week)

[Merion_Mom]

Being in Aqua Class, we were assigned to eat each evening in Blu. You don’t need reservations there; you just walk up and the Maitre D’ seats you. Let me tell you, having this is like eating in a fee-based specialty restaurant every night. AMAZING. Another YUMMMMMMMMMMMM.

 

Every night we walked past the entrance to the MDR where the Select, or MTD, people were waiting to be seated. There were a LOT of people waiting.

 

There is SO MUCH live music always going on around the Summit. There is a combo in the main lounge and in the secondary lounge, and roving musicians, who could be in any of a number of places throughout the day. These included a four man a capella group, the Crewners, who were marvelous. There was a solo acoustic guitar player/singer and a piano player/singer.

 

Lots and lots of trivia games. Games shows like the Love & Marriage Show. (did not attend) Won lots of prizes at trivia, including the much-coveted X. ;)

 

The pool area was always busy, with much lounging about AND swimming. There is a giant Thalassotherapy pool in the adults-only Solarium. The first time that I walked past, all I saw were a lot of grey and white corks bobbing in the water. Yes, the oldies love this pool! Just what the doctor ordered. :D

 

One definite lack was in the realm of air conditioning. Our cabin never got cool enough to suit us. Many areas of the ship were not as cool as I like, either. If you go on this ship, remember this: the coolest place on the ship is the Library. It is completely enclosed, and the AC does not escape or dissipate into other areas. ;) In other words, don't pack that sweater or wrap; you won't need it for the warmth.

 

Re-boarding the ship from Bermuda took somewhat longer than it should have, IMO. The security people were a little TOO thorough in inspecting bags - doubtlessly looking for contraband bottles. It held up the line A LOT.

 

Dinging in and out sounds exactly the same - they obviously use the same machines as RC. (I have been on one Princess cruise, and it was a different tone. :))

 

I am not much of a breakfast eater, but my cabinmate loved her daily hot oatmeal. She even was able to get it in Blu on departure morning, although it was not on the menu. I suspect that they ran upstairs to get it for her. I had a nice blueberry smoothie that morning.

 

One night in Blu, we had to rush out without dessert, because of progressive trivia. :D They volunteered to send our desserts to our cabin! It was a delicious late night snack.

 

Entertainment. I consider myself a bit of an expert here. I know that not everyone goes to the shows, or all of the shows. I do, on almost every single cruise, every night. Even on my 53 night Mariner cruise, where the shows were repeated again and again, I went. (those singers and dancers became like family, and I went to support them). The entertainment on the Summit was FANTASTIC. It really puts RC’s singers and dancers to shame, I hate to say. The choreography, the costumes, the sets, but mostly the execution of the songs and moves was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Truly professional performers. Even though the Summit is smaller than any RC ship, there were 9 dancers and 6 singers. The singers put on a special concert on the last sea day, and it blew me away. They all selected songs from Broadway shows that THEY like to sing, that they don’t GET to sing in these particular production numbers. There were solos, duets and trios. All were amazing, and they did a finale of Seasons of Love (Rent), that was better than the professional road version that I saw here in Philadelphia the first year that it toured.

 

Summit also has a special program, 54 Below. It is a cabaret style show, performed by a current Broadway star. This is about a 15 week program, with a different singer each week. Anthony Rapp (Mark in the original cast of Rent) was on our cruise. He was good, but he did NOT blow me away. There were quite a few on the list that I would have drooled over.

[Merion_Mom]

There is, as one would suspect, a different vibe on a Celebrity cruise. Things are generally lower-key. Yes, there are kids around, but I rarely saw them unaccompanied by their family, and never running or being rowdy at all. Pictures were MORE expensive than on RC, and they didn’t give me a coupon for a free one, so I didn’t get any. The only coupon that I used was for 90 minutes of free Internet. That was nice.

 

In general, the passenger demographic is older. O L D E R. Most are incredibly nice people, but you do get a certain amount of complaining. K V E T C H I N G. ;)

 

There is an iLounge, which is a very nice dedicated computer center. They also sell Apple products there, and it is staffed most of the day and evening. The people were very friendly and very helpful and VERY patient. Wifi was pervasive throughout the ship.

 

Our cruise was also a special "Excite the Senses" cruise, done just once a season per ship, with all sorts of tastings and classes about wine and food. Celebrity had an expert from Kendall-Jackson on board for the entire cruise. Some events were free and some had a cost. I did the wine-and-cheese pairing. It was out of this world, with incredibly top-quality cheeses and wines, and well worth the $35 cost.

 

Not everyone knows this, so I’ll mention it now. While your Royal Caribbean and Celebrity points do not get added together, you can get reciprocal recognition on the other line.

 

This begins at Platinum, which is the equivalent of Select on Celebrity. Celebrity has only three levels. You are treated as Elite on Celebrity if you are D or above. (there will probably be some changes at Celebrity soon). The evening Happy Hour for Elite is only five out of seven nights. It is not open the first night, and they don’t have it the day that there is a party with the officers.

 

Celebrity does not give balcony discounts, but does give upgrades. This means only “book the lowest level of balcony, but get the next level of balcony cabin”. Explore their website; you’ll see what I mean.

 

Being in Aqua Class means that I earned TWO cruise points. (they are still doing a point per cruise, not days)

 

I haven’t included any information about our time IN Bermuda, since I am trying to limit this to comparisons between Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. If you want to know something, though, just ask!

[Merion_Mom]

Reading another thread just now reminded me of a VERY important difference.

 

No announcements.

 

The Captain has a daily 10 A.M. report from the bridge. <sigh> (Captain Leonardos)

 

There may be one announcement a day about one important thing.

 

Other than that, NO ANNOUNCEMENTS ON THE PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM.

 

Such a nice relief!

[G85 SS]

I don't think there is anything else I could think of to ask as you have pretty much hit everything I would normally ask when comparing two lines(even though they are sister lines).

 

It does surprise me about the buffet though. I figured they would try to keep a decent amount of food options there as well. But that wouldn't bother me so much as I tend to not go to the buffets all the time and eat at other places throughout a given ship.

 

Thanks for this little review though. I have been deciding if I want to try out Celebrity as well and this review has pretty much told me I should. I will be keeping my eyes on Celebrity Reflection when it comes to Fort Lauderdale. :)

[ticktoneer]

Excellent review and great information.

 

Thanks Merion_Mom !!

[MMOMOM]

Thanx for the great 'comparison review'! We too are 'mostly' RCCI cruisers .... done HAL once and Carnival twice, but RCCI the rest of the time. We look all the time at Celebrity and wonder .... and looks like we should try it! :) Especially have been wondering about Bermuda ... seems like Celebrity should be the line we try when we do go to Bermuda, which we haven't done as of yet. My husband would love all the musical entertainment you described, but he really enjoys the buffet for breakfast especially (and also lunch/snacks, etc.) so he may have something to say about that, LOL!! However, everything else sounds wonderful. The comparable loyalty crossover sounds good too as he loves the Diamond lounge before dinner. Not sure when we'll do this thing as we do have a Next Cruise Certificate we got last time on the Oasis and I know we can't use that, plus you said no 'suite/balcony' discount .... but I always shop the sales!! I'll be keeping my eyes open for sure! :D Thanx again! :)

[asylum575]

I feel the same way.

We love RCCL and really enjoyed our Celebrity cruises. I thought the MDR food was better on Celebrity. The whole experience was bit more polished.

 

If the Summit could get into Hamilton, I would take that cruise once a year. We cruised to Bermuda in 2011 on Summit and noticed HAL had a ship in Hamilton. I thought both ships were of similar size.

 

Kings Wharf has improved over the years and it looks like they are investing in the area to improve it. They did a lot of work to accommodate the NCK Breakaway.

 

I just really miss getting off the ship in Hamilton.

[micmacmissy]

We really love Celebrity too. We only tried RCCL when we decided to bring the kids- we figured they'd enjoy the bells and whistles (rockwall, flowrider, minigolf, promenade).

 

But for the adults only cruises, we do Celebrity all the way.

 

I agree with you- the Windjammer was better than the Oceanview, except for the homemade ice cream.

 

As for entertainment, I thought entertainment on both lines was amateurish (but we're NYers and we've done a lot of NYC/Broadway so our expectations are probably skewed in that area).

 

Overall vibe, in my opinion, was better on Celebrity- it seemed on RCCL we couldn't find a good live music venue between 6-9pm, everything started much later. Love the pre-post dinner live music on Celebrity, always something good to catch, without having to stay up til 10:30pm to see live music.

 

And the solarium- hands down to Celebrity on this one. Those thalassotherapy pools are unbelievable. We live in them on sea days, and make a beeline for them when we return to the ship on port days!

 

Glad you enjoyed your trip! I really want to do Summit southern caribbean but have to convince the hubs!

[superduper123]

Thanks for posting. I have only ever cruised on Royal Caribbean, but I do anticipate that I may someday "outgrow" it. And if I do, I suspect Celebrity will be my choice.

Thanks!

[sailawayjack]

Thanks for posting. I have only ever cruised on Royal Caribbean, but I do anticipate that I may someday "outgrow" it. And if I do, I suspect Celebrity will be my choice.

Thanks!

 

:cool:Thanks for the review Merion. I am getting ready to try my first Celeb cruise in three weeks. Leaving PHL for Amsterdam for a 12 night Baltic. I have loved RCCL (still do), but I want to see if there is something better out there. I really do not like to see folks wearing shorts in MDR for formal night. Takes something away. If you have rules---enforce them, or eliminate them. Hoping food may be better, even thought RCCL cruise in May of this year was very good and improved. Will let everyone know:cool:JACK IS SAILING AGAIN

[emmy]

Good Morning and thank you Carol for this comparison. 33 more days til my cruise on Summit to Bermuda my first time to that island but only second cruise on Celebrity.

 

Was wondering if you found the island and dockyard area crowded since

larger NCL Breakaway is there in port with Summit for all 3 days?

 

Chose this itinerary because of the 3 full days in Bermuda.

[booze brothers]

Reading another thread just now reminded me of a VERY important difference.

 

No announcements.

 

The Captain has a daily 10 A.M. report from the bridge. <sigh> (Captain Leonardos)

 

There may be one announcement a day about one important thing.

 

Other than that, NO ANNOUNCEMENTS ON THE PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM.

 

Such a nice relief!

 

 

 

Carol, So happy you posted !

 

We're cruising the Reflection in March, first time Celebrity in over 20 yrs.

 

Have been reading the Celebrity boards but hearing it first hand, is wonderful. thanks,

 

 

mimi

[Aquahound]

Thanks for the review Carol. I agree with everything you wrote. Thanks for mentioning the roaming a cappella group. I noticed they were not on my recent Millennium cruise and someone on the Celebrity boards told me they did away with them. I guess they were wrong.

[cathykb]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree with most everything you said, except the kvetching.....but I am comparing it to sailing the same route (NYC to Bermuda) on RCI. We have done the sailing on both lines 7 times over the years, and I don't really see any difference in passenger's behavior.

 

We can agree to disagree - happy you had a great time.

[molly361]

Thanks for the review Carol. We have been on Celebrity twice but it has been quite awhile. We also seem to stick with RCL.

[Cruising89143]

Carol, thanks for the review. Sounds like you really enjoyed the X experience. I know that for us it was really a nice experience and a nice change from RCI.

 

The one thing that we noticed on Celebrity was how much nicer the fellow guests were. No kids running around, no pushing and shoving to get on an elevator. Just a nicer group of people. Our age group on board the Reflection ran much younger than I thought would be on board. Maybe it was due to being a March cruise but we had very few kids on board that sailing.

 

One note about the Oceanview Cafe. On the Reflection we felt that it blew the Windjammer away in both quality and selection. Especially in the evening. Maybe the S class has more variety due to the size of ship.

 

Thanks for taking the time to give a comparison of both lines. :)

[Clarea]

I appreciate the review Carol. One question - did you compare the price of a similar cruise on Explorer? I'm not even sure Explorer does the same length of cruise to Bermuda. Just curious if there's a significant price difference.

[kccrzr]

Thank you for your comparison/review. It was very informative. I have been playing with the idea of sailing Celebrity but think I will stick with RCI for the time being.

[maxs mom]

Hey Carol!

Great to see that you tried Celebrity. We branched out a couple of years ago and tried Aqua Class on the Eclipse. We were blown away!! I think Blu was my favorite part. I agree with all of your comparisons. At some point, though......you MUST book a Solstice Class ship (Aqua Class, of course). you would be amazed at those beautiful ships!

Thanks for reporting on your trip!

[Aquahound]

The one thing that we noticed on Celebrity was how much nicer the fellow guests were.

 

I have noticed that also. In my experience, our Celebrity cruises have had a lot less rude passengers than our RCI cruises.

 

One note about the Oceanview Cafe. On the Reflection we felt that it blew the Windjammer away in both quality and selection. Especially in the evening. Maybe the S class has more variety due to the size of ship.

 

Yes, there is a big difference between the S Class and M Class Oceanviews. S Class is more similar to WJ in that it is an island design with lots of choices. M Class is the old, line-up design and they have a lot less selection.

[KeywestK]

Thanks for such a thorough comparative review. We, too, are long-time RCI cruisers and we did our first X cruise on Eclipse in February. I loved the ship and the vibe, and really only had two complaints about our experience. Their beautiful Solarium pool was, IMO, unusable because they kept the air-conditioning too cold. And their MTD was a mess with a capital M! Hopefully both of those issues will be remedied if/when we plan our next X cruise.

[marys350]

Thanks for your balanced and positive review of the Summit.

 

We started out as a loyal Royal Caribbean cruisers, but now enjoy both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. We make our booking decisions based on the itinerary that we like and the price. We have sailed on the Summit three times (Alaska; 8 day Caribbean/Bermuda repositioning cruise in April 2011; and a Southern Caribbean cruise after the ship was refurbished in 2012). On Royal Caribbean, we have sailed on the Sovereign class, Voyager class, and Radiance class of ships. The Summit and other Millenium class ships on Celebrity are comparable in size to the Radiance class on RCCL (Summit is 91,000 tons, 965 ft. long; Jewel of the Seas is 90,090 tons, 962 ft. long). Hope to try Royal's Freedom class and Celebrity's Solstice class of ship in the future.

[big al]

Nice & honest review, Carol...I'm glad you at least tried another cruise line..why people don't even try another cruise line is still a mystery to me...DW & I have cruised on RCI ( 12X), Carnival ( 6x), NCL ( 5X), Celebrity, Princess, HAL, & Disney once each ( w/ Disney Dream 2nd time on DCL in Nov..)...it's so cool going to experience other cruise lines...I would have been very upset about the cabin A/C.. I like it cold when I sleep...it's funny- when I ask people if they ONLY go to one hotel chain ALWAYS, they say, "of course not"..when I ask if they ONLY go to one restaurant chain, they say, "Of course not"..when I ask if they ONLY go to one city/ location for a vacation, you hear, "of course not, we like to go to different places and see the world"......funny then, why do soooo many people tell you they haven't/ won't/ not interested in trying another cruise line?? Obviously being Diamond on RCI, we love Royal...BUT I can assure you, having experienced Disney's service & shows & Castaway Cay private island ( BEST IMO, next is Half Moon Cay from HAL) WAS TERRIFIC...the 2 toilets in your cabin are real nice, too...the escargots in Le Bistro on NCL & the Fruit Fondue dessert ( a bowl of pineapple is carved out and filled with fruits, then dipped in chocolate fondue..YUM!!) are to die for!! Or the crepes that HAL grills outside their Explorer's Lounge just before dinner..that was nice..yes, HAL & Celebrity ( maybe Princess as well) have a more "mature" clientel..Disney, Carnival & NCL are younger and RCI I feel is kinda in the middle..I love the Freedom & Oasis class ships- so much to do, but I'll be the first to say the MDR food for me has always been fair or just "OK". We love Chops, and 150 Central Park was fabulous, but so was Palo on Disney, Le Bistro, Teppanyaki ( Japanese steakhouse), & Cagney's on NCL...VARIETY is the spice of life..next up, Disney Dream in Nov., then Oasis next Oct .'14, then maybe either NCL Getaway ( RCI Diamond friend just got off new Breakaway & loved it!!) new Princess Regal or RCI Anthem Of Seas in 2015...Happy cruising!!

[hcat]

I enjoyed the comparison from OPs perspective.... Good discussion topic. We are mostly Celeb cruisers who also cruise on Royal now & again for variety & livelier Vibe...

 

our main plusses for Royal are the live music groups on board--far superior than Celeb; more going on at night and less formal feel. Generally, however, we think celeb. wins most categories.

 

Suggest OP try an S class ship--they are best of both worlds to us!!!.

 

We are trying Oasis the fall but not sure what to expect from such a large vessel...