Differences between Royal Caribbean and Celebrity

[kochleffel]

What are the differences between Royal Caribbean and Celebrity? An itinerary that I'm interested in is offered by both.

[cruzeluver]

We really enjoy both. Find service to be very good either way. We go with Royal when we want a more lively ship, more active nightlife, more to do on sea days that is not sedentary and just a lot of "wow" factor. We choose Celebrity when a more relaxing cruise is in order and a quieter atmosphere. Demographic on Celebrity will typically be older with Royal getting more families and young couples. While we like the specialty dining on both, we find food in the main dining room better on Celebrity.

[BLAMBKY]

We really enjoy both. Find service to be very good either way. We go with Royal when we want a more lively ship, more active nightlife, more to do on sea days that is not sedentary and just a lot of "wow" factor. We choose Celebrity when a more relaxing cruise is in order and a quieter atmosphere. Demographic on Celebrity will typically be older with Royal getting more families and young couples. While we like the specialty dining on both, we find food in the main dining room better on Celebrity.

I have only been on Celebrity Summitt (smaller, older ship) I knew going in the ship would not compare to Freedom of the Seas in terms of activities but Bermuda port won out. I liked the MDR food better on Celebrity but Royal's shows/overall things to do is better for my family. Try to determine what suits you best and know that even time of the year could change the overall feel of the ship. Summitt was overrun with families with kids of all ages, due to summer. There were too many teens for the teen club and not really available. I also noticed that due to amount of kids running amuck, messes were left behind & tables sat uncleared & dirty on the pool deck. I am going to try Celebrity again in the future but only one of their newer ships with more activities.

[davekathy]

What are the differences between Royal Caribbean and Celebrity? An itinerary that I'm interested in is offered by both.

Break it down further for comparison. What ships?

[cruzeluver]

Break it down further for comparison. What ships?

 

Fair point. Big differences in amenities between Celebrity's M Class and S class. And differences between Royal's ship classes is ten times more so.

[TeeRick]

There are numerous posts on this topic. It is a very common question with subjective answers. Use the Search function to get some opinions.

[JaniceB]

On my 1 cruise on each it was the amount of children or lack of on Celebrity and the more low key pool on Celebrity. We did interact more with the officers on Celebrity because we had different tournaments against them. Pool volleyball and bocce ball were the ones we participated in. It was a lot of fun.

[accio_7]

My TA invited me to an event hosted by Celebrity next week, so this topic really interests me. She recommended the cruise line as I am a huge fan of Royal Caribbean.

 

 

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[kochleffel]

Break it down further for comparison. What ships?

 

Anthem of the Seas and Summit. Anthem is much larger and has more activities, some of them things like iFly that I would never do, so larger is not automatically better.

 

I am in the Celebrity demographic, I suppose, but I'm wary of cruise lines or ships that might have many passengers who are chronically dissatisfied or censorious or, on the other hand, drunk and noisy.

[ScottieLuvr]

Been on both ships and there are substantial differences between Anthem and Summit.

 

Anthem is larger, newer, and has more choices for entertainment, activities and dining. This ship is perfect for families with children and has lots of activities for children. The atmosphere on Anthem is busy, busy, busy. Summit is smaller, older (but very well kept) and has a laid back, slightly more refined atmosphere, and an adult population with a small percentage of children. There is a kids program on Celebrity in general, but it doesn't seem to be as extensive as that of RC's kids program. What Summit lacks in choice for dining it makes up for it in terms of quality. I think food quality has slipped on both lines overall, but feel Celebrity is still a little better than RC.

 

The crew on Summit are very friendly and accommodating, and take the time to talk to you. I felt the crew on Anthem was pushed to its limits and while they were friendly, there was far less interaction with passengers, probably because they simply did not have the time.

 

Bottom line: two very different experiences, just depends on what you want from a cruise. I do think, however, that you would like both ships because RC and Celebrity offer a solid product. Enjoy!

[TX_Atlantis_Cruiser]

Celebrity Summit was just upgraded two years ago with some nice new amenities and even though it may be older, it is still a very classy ship with some very nice touches to make your cruise fantastic. I've been on Summit and her sister Connie and they rank among my top five ships in all of my sailings

[CelticMCO]

Far fewer tattoos and body piercings on Celebrity...RCI demo seems to be moving towards the middle aged folks with mountains of credit card debt and not a pot to you know what in but by golly were gonna find money for ink and the Unlimited Beverage Package....

[bighairtexan]

I've earned Diamond status on RCI and Elite + on Celebrity. If I were traveling with kids or grandkids I'd choose RCI in a heartbeat. If I were going as a solo adult or w/ another adult I'd choose Celebrity.

[ToddnMichelle]

Far fewer tattoos and body piercings on Celebrity...RCI demo seems to be moving towards the middle aged folks with mountains of credit card debt and not a pot to you know what in but by golly were gonna find money for ink and the Unlimited Beverage Package....

 

really? in this day and age you have to focus on something as minuscule as tattoos and then make the gross assumption that because of someone's ink you think they have mounds of debt? That's petty. As you can imagine, i'm heavily inked but none of this applies to me. I've worked my butt off in a corporate environment for the better part of 20 years climbing the ranks. I'm happy to add that my current place of employment doesn't "shun" the fact that people have tattoos. I'm bearded and fully sleeved on one arm and as long as nothing is offensive and my beard is groomed, they have no issues with it. Sorry to hear that from your perspective, simply having ink appears to be offensive in your eyes. For what it's worth, I've seen every social class of people acting like drunken idiots on a ship, tattoo'd or not. A person's financial well-being or lack there of, plays no role in their inability to maintain themselves in public. Some of the largest headaches I've ever dealt with on a ship were people of wealth who felt they were entitled to act as they please for that simple fact.

 

The only difference between tattooed people and non-tattooed people is that tattooed people don't care if you aren't tattooed.... Relax a little. Why focus on things that don't directly effect you?

Edited May 17, 2018 by ToddnMichelle

[George C]

We are diamond plus on rccl normally cruise twice a year, recently cruises on summit in a sky suite, suite was very small compared to rccl smaller than junior suites, but perks were way better, there suite lounge had drinks from early morning to midnight and much larger selection a few 12 year old scotch’s etc, also lounge was large with comfortable furniture. Also all there ships have suit dinning rooms which were excellent. The buffet for breakfast and lunch was great on celebrity, I really dislike windjammer on rccl. Entertainment normally is so much better on rccl, but we were on a charter that had Micheal McDonald, America, bj Thomas and many others , we next sail on past s for first time so we will have our first look at rccl suite restaurant, we are in owners suite

[Kmangel]

I have sailed on Celebrity's Silhouette and RCI's Vision of the Seas, so I can't comment on the mega ship experience. One thing I really liked about Silhouette was the coffee station on deck seven. Loved getting up first thing in the morning to get a nice, hot cup of coffee to take to my cabin. The most recent cruise I took on Silhouette, I got a cabin right next to the station to make it even more convenient!

 

The bathrooms on the Vision of the Seas could have stood to be bigger. I am not a very big woman but I struggled in the bathroom stalls outside the Windjammer. And of course the cabin shower with the shower curtain was a real bummer. That is a definite negative compared to the Silhouette that has shower doors.

 

I think the rest of the experience was very similar between the two ships.

[Baron Barracuda]

Have sailed both, and agree with comments above. Royal is better choice for active folks, X more laid back. DW loves i-fly on Anthem while I'll take Cafe Al Bacio on Summit.

 

If you need a tiebreaker consider pricing. While Summit's Bermuda sailings are 7 nights vs 5 for Anthem price for cheapest balcony cabin is about the same. X also throws in a free perk which most folks take as bev pkg. That gives you free alcohol + specialty coffees and soft drinks including bottled water. A bit more for your money.