Comparison of Royal Caribbean and celebrity

[tazmancruiser]

We are diamond members. Close enough to diamond plus I don't count the cruises anymore or post past cruises. I like to keep my life private.

But I will attempt to scribe some obserations. We sailed celebrity reflection April 4th.

 

First we are retired. I had our third cruise booked to hawaii out of diego booked, paid for! Wife backs out she doesn't want the long flight.

 

Jumped through "hoops" and booked celebrity reflection, beautiful ship, excellent service.

 

Wife thought Royal is still classier. Of course I disagreed.but she did like the ship.

I started noticing little things. The bath rooms had full time attendant, cleaning all the time, with rolled cloth towels. I thought waiters dressed in black pants and white shirts was more professional. They couldn't do enough for you.

 

My room attendant was great. Couple small "glitches". He was on them righ now.

Entertainment flowed out from the center of the ship. The group "house band" was the best I ever heard, shows were a ten.

Food could have been better, but ok, we did not pay for the specialty dining.

Nice not having to listen to the announcements all day and I didn't miss the singing waiters.

Again good cruise, but let's face it. We have cruised Royal Caribbean for a long time. We like RC

[tazmancruiser]

Reflection had a lot of bars withe small groups entertaining. Very comfortable and romantic.

Stay away from pool used covered area. Lounges are ok for sleeping but hard on neck reading. I had hard time walking because of bad knees. Reflection did good job getting me off ship to bus.

Wife spent her time in spa getting massage hair done. She said haie stylist restyed her hair and she loves it. Good thing it was only a seven day cruise, she loves being pampered.

Mixed group on ship, not many kids.

Did our normal shopping on the islands. Wife has her favorite jewelers.

One night wife missed dinner and waiter sent dinner room, food still hot.

Again we needed the rest. There was days wife slept till noon.

We spent a lot of time on balcony.

Next cruise I want to surprise her with a owners suite.

First I got to get my knees working better.

[impatientlywaiting]

Royal stopped the announcements all day long! It was so nice not to have to hear those anymore! :). Once one of our cruising buddies makes Diamond we are going to try Celebrity so glad to read your comments.

[George C]

I want to give Celebrity another chance but our cruise the food in MDR was terrible, after a couple of meals there we had dinner in specialty restaurants every night, also did not care for entertainment, but it was a beautiful ship and specialty restaurants were great ( also they upgraded us to a really nice aft Sky suite which was great) , we will try them again but prefer RCCL

[boonert]

We cruised Celebrity last year and while it was nice- it was a cruise after all, you can't beat that- we still thought it was a step down from Royal Caribbean. We thought the food was good but not quite as good as RCI. The waiters were very nice but not as attentive as RCI. We didn't have any problems or issues- we just thought it was not quite as nice as RCI

[John&LaLa]

Royal stopped the announcements all day long! It was so nice not to have to hear those anymore! :). Once one of our cruising buddies makes Diamond we are going to try Celebrity so glad to read your comments.

 

No lack of announcements on Oasis last week.

[printingchick]

Thank you for this post. I've been thinking about trying celebrity. I'm a huge fan of Royal's Radiance Class, but not so much the very large ships. (Voyager Class is as big as I'm comfortable with.) Good to hear from someone who made the move and enjoyed the experience.

[DarthGrady]

Thanks for sharing the comparison.

 

I've only done one cruise with X so far, but I enjoyed it a lot. The two things I liked most were the freely available pool towels and the lack of tacky PA announcements. Both of which RCI has thankfully started doing as well.

[PSCruiser]

Thank you for this post. I've been thinking about trying celebrity. I'm a huge fan of Royal's Radiance Class, but not so much the very large ships. (Voyager Class is as big as I'm comfortable with.) Good to hear from someone who made the move and enjoyed the experience.

 

If you are a fan of Radiance class (as am I) I think you will like Solstice class on Celebrity.

Sorry, but my future cruise list reflects my opinion that X gives me the cruise product I'm looking for, without the ever increasing gimmicks of RC - all the ones they are installing to please those ever-so-important new cruisers.

[American Bear]

Thank you for this post. I've been thinking about trying celebrity. I'm a huge fan of Royal's Radiance Class, but not so much the very large ships. (Voyager Class is as big as I'm comfortable with.) Good to hear from someone who made the move and enjoyed the experience.

 

If you're not into the floating shopping malls, and are happy with smaller ships like Radiance, Celebrity would be a good choice.:) (We're Radiance Class fans also.)

We'd rate Celebrity a definite step above RCL (food, service, etc.).:)

[American Bear]

If you are a fan of Radiance class (as am I) I think you will like Solstice class on Celebrity.

Sorry, but my future cruise list reflects my opinion that X gives me the cruise product I'm looking for, without the ever increasing gimmicks of RC - all the ones they are installing to please those ever-so-important new cruisers.

 

Agreed.

They're almost telling you to go to Celebrity.:D

[tazmancruiser]

It is two bad royal builds ships bigger and bigger. Get on utube and you can see how large the new ships are. This may have been alright for me 20 years ago but today I have trouble walking from one end of the ship to another.

I read a review from a person complaining about the food on reflection. She said a earlier cruise on another celelebity cruise the food was excellent .

She went on to say "I think the food is the one thing all cruiser expect to be exceptional. That is the thing cruisers want the most" it is the highlight.

I agree. But I am not going to pay any cruise line $50 to eat in ther specialty resturants. Much less stand in line for 2 hrs to pay to ride a"cherry picker" up in the air for a few minutes to take a "selfie picture".

I stood in line 40 yrs ago a six flags. That stuff is entertainment for the families and the younger generation.

Royal knows that is where the money is and the are going after it.

[Missus Makkem]

Just a bit of info, no charge to ride the cherry picker or as we called it the Hamster ball.

[alonzo14]

Thank you for your comparison of RCI and Celebrity. I have been on both. Going on Royal again this October. There are a few things Royal does better than Celebrity. They are both lines with the most beautiful ships in the cruise industry! I wouldn't hesitate to cruise either one. The food on both lines isn't what it once was. We were in Aqua class on Celebrity and the food was very good in the Aqua class restaurant. We didn't eat in the MDR so I have no comparison to yours.

[tazmancruiser]

My mistake

I was watching a utube review on one of the new ships.

Please excuse

Thank u for the correction

[Big_G]

We like them both for their differences and Reflection is the wife's favorite of all ships. We too think Celebrity is a step up from Royal in food and service. They absolutely have a better craft beer selection on Celebrity. We'll continue to sail both.

[FunCruiser56]

We have sailed both and currently have a cruise booked with each line. I will say that we do prefer Celebrity- the Solstice Class ships are just wonderful. We are not much into rock climbing, ice skating or surfing but that's OK a cruise is a time to enjoy and wind down. Both have pluses and we sure can enjoy. We are just thankful we can afford to cruise and enjoy life so much.

[Dall]

We have been on 10 RCI cruises, including Oasis, Explorer, Freedom. We went on our first Celebrity (Silhouette) a year ago. It was by far the best cruise food/service wise we have been on. Definitely thought it a step above RCI. We loved the little touches, champagne on boarding, the cool towels as you are returning from port. I was really impressed one day it was raining as we were returning to the ship, they had umbrellas for us to use to get from the building to the tenders. We ate in the main dining room every night. Of course a big nudge for us to try Celebrity was the offer of free beverage package :D

[John&LaLa]

Thanks for sharing the comparison.

 

I've only done one cruise with X so far, but I enjoyed it a lot. The two things I liked most were the freely available pool towels and the lack of tacky PA announcements. Both of which RCI has thankfully started doing as well.

 

In addition to the announcements, Oasis also makes you check out pool towels

[DarthGrady]

In addition to the announcements, Oasis also makes you check out pool towels

Well that's shame. Another two reasons why my cruise on her in October will probably be the last for a long time. I like the little ones better anyway.

[John&LaLa]

Well that's shame. Another two reasons why my cruise on her in October will probably be the last for a long time. I like the little ones better anyway.

 

What will you do when Freedom leaves

[DarthGrady]

What will you do when Freedom leaves

More cruises from Tampa apparently. ;)

[John&LaLa]

More cruises from Tampa apparently. ;)

 

Not long enough. :(

[Clarea]

not long enough. :(

No B2B?

Edited April 25, 2015 by clarea

[John&LaLa]

:eek:

No B2B?

 

9 days on Brilliance takes you to Key West once and Cozumel twice. And don't forget an extra mustard drill.

Edited April 25, 2015 by John&LaLa