Disillusioned with Celebrity, looking for a new cruise line to be loyal to

[OlsSalt]

There are lots of great ships and cruise lines in the market.

 

Why would you want to be 'loyal' to any cruise line?

 

Tribal instincts, comfort, familiarity. Same as being loyal to one's alma mater, even though they are many other great colleges and universities. Or loyal to their home town, home state or home teams. Something subliminal. I understand the feeling. Emotional; not intellectual. You are quite correct at the intellectual level. Why loyalty to the intangibles, and disregard of the competitive tangibles.

[mor mor]

We also need to consider how much familiarity breeds contempt.

To both these perceptive comments I want to add that there is a tendency to remember happily something in the past when perhaps being younger we felt better!

[NordicPrince]

Thanks Globalizer. Can you give me some specifics about what was disappointing? Did you experience the time periods of no food, like we did, or was our experience an anomaly?

 

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I am looking at this as a male in my early 60's so that may affect my viewpoint.

 

I'm still perplexed about some of the issues that were in your original post. DW and I have sailed twice in the last 3 years on the Celebrity Equinox. It was our routine to go to the Oceanview Cafe (buffet) about 3-3:15 upon returning to the ship. DW loved the scones and small desserts and would get a drink at the bar. We would then head out to the Sunset Bar for sail away.

 

Of course there is food available. You could order room service and bring it up to the sail away from your room or eat there. You could go to the Mast Grill and get hamburgers and hot dogs. You could go to the coffee cafe and get gratis cakes and cookies. so I'm not buying this "no food" available.

 

Besides, when did you expect to have them set up for dinner in the buffet? Surely you could wait 30 minutes, no one needs to eat 24\7.

 

You didn't say whether you were on Celebrity's newest ships. I think this is a better experience than the older ships.

 

Perhaps the pool waiter could not recognize you needed service. A proper "Excuse me" would help with a raised glass I would think. (I also don't have a problem walking 20 feet to get my own drink if I have to.)

 

So I think if you are going to offer opinions perhaps they should be based on a completely factual basis.

 

Don't get me wrong. I have been on HAL Veendam twice to Bermuda which I liked very much. There were certainly aspects such as the dining staff and the food which were excellent. Certain touches such as the call for dinner and the promenade were very good. The areas for the shows and the lounges were not. Perhaps the newer HAL ships are better in that regard.

 

I do look forward to returning to HAL for their longer cruises to adventurous places when I have more time available to do so. First one I look forward to is Voyage of the Vikings.

 

I hope you find a cruise which is to your liking.

Edited February 19, 2017 by NordicPrince

[irishayes]

Nordic Prince, I have also sealed on the equinox, as well as the summit previously. On both those occasions, yes, there was food in the buffet Upon returning from Port. Plenty of food.

 

On this most recent sailing, there was no food in the buffet Upon returning from the port. This is a marked difference from my previous two Celebrity Cruises, and that is why I was distressed about it.

 

Please do not state "of course there is food available in the buffet." There was not. And if this is a trend That Celebrity is following to keep costs down, I am not a fan.

 

Another person who was on the exact same cruise that I was, stated that the masked girl also was not open during this time so I could not have gotten a hamburger from there.

 

And I resent the fact that you're telling me I am lying. You were not on the summit.

 

 

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[irishayes]

"Another person who was on the exact same cruise that I was, stated that the masked girl also was not open "

 

Sorry, voice recognition wasn't listening to me very well. "The Mast Grille also was not open during this time."

[yvrcruzer]

We have done 3 Celebrity cruises in the last 3 years. Our experience on two of the cruises pretty much mirrored what Globaliser described. The one last year has finished us with Celebrity. The advent of the gourmet entree buckets (aka slop buckets) was the last straw. Celebrities definition of gourmet is somewhat different than mine and after seeing people ducking underneath the sneeze guards to reach the back bucket I decided not to have any gourmet entrees in the buffet. For those that say we have to expect reduced food quality and service because cruise fares are the same or lower than 10 years ago remember RCCL made a profit of over 1 billion US$ last year and they make most of their revenue from on board sales

( http://www.******************.com/category/category/financial-news )

[yvrcruzer]

the ****************** are ****************** followed by .com/category/category/financial-news

[yvrcruzer]

Apparently CC has decided the Royal Caribbean blog is "fake news" Censored me twice now.

[NordicPrince]

Boy talking about getting defensive !!!!

 

No one called you a liar. I just suggested that perhaps you were not giving an accurate view of the exact circumstances of overall food availability. To me, it's such a trivial thing to make a big deal about anyway.

 

Summit is one of the older Celebrity ships. Before totally blasting the Celebrity experience you might say that the experience you had on the newer ships was better than on the Summit. That I think would be a more accurate portrayal.

 

I was on the Veendam when they were having terrible terrible problems with the A\C among other things. If I were to base my overall view of HAL based on that experience on one of the older ships I think it would be an unfair review.

 

I do hope you find cruising happiness on your return to HAL.

[dogo88]

We have branched out from HAL for similar reasons. After almost 40 years of cruising, and HAL being our exclusive cruise destination for many of them, it grew stale. Older ships with maintenance issues, and a continued migration from features that we found positive, we went back to NCL, and tried RCCL for the first time a few years ago.

 

What others who have done this, have posted here, is that there is a lot more competition out there for similar cruise $s. And the level of that competition is very high. While no cruise line and/or ship does everything perfect to our tastes, the trade offs are worth exploring. That's why we're off to Celebrity this fall. And while any cruise can be a poor performer, reviews and research on Celebrity have indicated it's at a similar level or higher than HAL.

 

Will we stop going on HAL? No. Will we be spending our cruise $s across other lines? Yes.

So enjoy your return to HAL. Hopefully it will be a good one. We're off to Celebrity and fully expect to have an awesome cruise.

 

Dan

[CILCIANRQTS]

I've just got back from my first Celebrity cruise, and remembered this thread. I didn't have any choice of cruise line, as this was a music charter and the company has made a decision to change lines from HAL to Celebrity. The ship that it's using for the foreseeable future is Celebrity Summit.

 

When we left Fort Lauderdale, we were right behind Eurodam. It made me wonder how the Celebrity experience would shape up in comparison to the HAL product which we know well both from charters and normal cruises, including all the changes it's undergone in recent years.

 

A week later, we were back in Fort Lauderdale right next to Eurodam again, with a strong feeling of homesickness. As a cruise experience, the Celebrity week was without doubt the most disappointing mainstream cruise I've ever had. When we next get a chance to plan a cruise where we have a choice, it's most unlikely to be on Celebrity. If we have no choice because we do another music charter, we'll be forewarned and forearmed (and the music on the charter is so good that we might well just put up with the downsides).

 

So I would strongly recommend giving HAL a go. It's not perfect, by any means. But in comparison to what we had last week, we think it's likely to be significantly better.

 

We bailed on Celebrity because of this charter. We had an aft facing balcony on deck 11, plus drink package, etc. at a great price because we booked during a prior cruise.

Then Celebrity chartered the cruise out from under us and offered peanuts as compensation. Folks on CC told me "all the lines do it", but I don't have to reward X for bad behavior!

We're boarding HAL on Wednesday for the first time and won't soon be returning to X!

[CILCIANRQTS]

I've just got back from my first Celebrity cruise, and remembered this thread. I didn't have any choice of cruise line, as this was a music charter and the company has made a decision to change lines from HAL to Celebrity. The ship that it's using for the foreseeable future is Celebrity Summit.

 

When we left Fort Lauderdale, we were right behind Eurodam. It made me wonder how the Celebrity experience would shape up in comparison to the HAL product which we know well both from charters and normal cruises, including all the changes it's undergone in recent years.

 

A week later, we were back in Fort Lauderdale right next to Eurodam again, with a strong feeling of homesickness. As a cruise experience, the Celebrity week was without doubt the most disappointing mainstream cruise I've ever had. When we next get a chance to plan a cruise where we have a choice, it's most unlikely to be on Celebrity. If we have no choice because we do another music charter, we'll be forewarned and forearmed (and the music on the charter is so good that we might well just put up with the downsides).

 

So I would strongly recommend giving HAL a go. It's not perfect, by any means. But in comparison to what we had last week, we think it's likely to be significantly better.

 

We bailed on Celebrity because of this charter. We had an aft facing balcony on deck 11, plus drink package, etc. at a great price because we booked during a prior cruise.

Then Celebrity chartered the cruise out from under us and offered peanuts as compensation. Folks on CC told me "all the lines do it", but I don't have to reward X for bad behavior!

We're boarding HAL on Wednesday for the first time and won't soon be sailing X again!

[AncientWanderer]

I'm 4 Star with HAL and Platinum with Princess -- have sailed with all the mainstream cruise lines. There have been many cutbacks over all the lines. (What happened to good cheeses and desserts made with butter??) But anyhow, HAL has been my favorite because the itineraries are so interesting and the crew so unfailingly pleasant. Still, our last couple cruises were "off" and I was miffed at HAL and not sure if I wanted any more cruises. But....just booked another very long Med cruise with HAL because, again, the itinerary is so interesting and I know we'll love the crew.

Ships vary within any line, but I guess I have to still say give HAL a try. It is nice to have "loyalty," because if routines are somewhat familiar, it's easier to feel like home away from home. There is still a lot to like about HAL.

[dogo88]

Hopefully you will come back here after your HAL cruise and tell folks how it was compared to Celebrity and your expectations.

 

I know I will be reporting back after my Celebrity cruise on Oct.

 

Dan