Recommendation for RCL ship for Celebrity Fans

[Maggie4nc]

What ship should we try for our first RCL cruise?  We usually cruise with Celebrity but would like to see what RCL is like.  We are a couple 53/55, active and no children.

[George C]

Rccl excels in entertainment love any oasis class , ice show , aqua show , jazz club, comedy club, pub, piano bar , broadway play each ship has a different one .

[Biker19]

8 minutes ago, Maggie4nc said:

What ship should we try for our first RCL cruise? 

One of the Quantum class ships - it will feel familiar to the Solstice class you would have sailed with Celebrity.

[BettyCruiser]

Or if you prefer Millennium Class on Celebrity then try a Radiance class.  

[Cruise a holic]

Without a doubt any Oasis class ship.  Our favorite.  Having sailed on many different classes, Oasis the winner.

 

[njkruzer]

Agree as to Quantum or Radiance class ships.  Not fond of Oasis class ships.  Have sailed Infinity and Summit, but not recently. 

[coaster]

Radiance class all the way. An upscale feeling with all the glass and great outdoor dining aft of the WJ. No surprise that Serenade of Radiance class is doing the world cruise. She is well designed for those folks who have the $ to do a sailing like this. We are in the OP's age range also.

Edited September 13, 2022 by coaster

[karena1]

Voyager Class or above.  We love the Promenade and the variety of entertainment.

[Tatka]

Question is more ... are you looking for something similar/identical or something very different to be impressed?

 

We are active 50/51 and love both lines. We like each class of RCI for its own pros (and they have cons too). Where do you want to sail?

 

What is important to you? Will this be colder climate and you want to use Solarium? Is Solarium important to you?

 

On Celebrity we sailed on ships of all classes - Century, Mercury, Summit, Silhouette, Edge. Edge is the closest overall to RCI ships as a combination IMHO.

Edited September 13, 2022 by Tatka

[Rogueperson]

I'm actually  not a fan of the Oasis class mostly because I think its too big.  However, I would recommend Oasis as there is no comparison for any class of Celebrity ship.  Any of the other classes would have some similarity with Celebrity and if you're jumping onto Royal, you want to try something different, Oasis Class is as different as you can get.

[George C]

32 minutes ago, karena1 said:

Voyager Class or above.  We love the Promenade and the variety of entertainment.

I agree definitely want a ship with ice show , voyager class isn’t as crowded as oasis class but still has good entertainment,  which is superior to celebrity. 

[karena1]

26 minutes ago, George C said:

I agree definitely want a ship with ice show , voyager class isn’t as crowded as oasis class but still has good entertainment,  which is superior to celebrity. 

I agree, the ice shows are amazing on all the ships!

 

[North2Alaska10]

I’ve sailed on 3 RCL ships; Serenade, Ovation and Majesty. I much prefer Solstice as their casino and public rooms are maintained much better. Entertainment wasn’t that great on either ship. Speakers were much better on the Solstice. We will continue to try RCL for their great itineraries and restaurants!

[Ride-The-Waves]

Its a true "step down" in comfort, convenience, food quality and service going from RCL to Celebrity,  RCL is more :mass market" catering to those who are not onboard to experience new ports and countries.  We started out sailing with RCL'S Radiance class some 25 years ago then moved to Celebrity Millennium class and Solstice.  Tried Edge once and will never cruise on an Edge class again.  We find RCL's Oasis class horrible: much too crowded, terrible buffets, and overstressed crews.  Stick with Millennium and Solstice for a better experience,

[George C]

Rccl has great entertainment but smoking in the ship casino is terrible, also if you book a suite Celebrity suite restaurant is way better than rccl and they have a suite restaurant on all there ships not just oasis class and newer.

[North2Alaska10]

We did an Alaskan cruise last year on the Serenade. We walked through the casino when it was closed and it smelled terrible. We did attempt the casino a few times when it was open but the smoking was too overbearing. It was a beautiful ship, but it was so outdated they couldn’t open our balconies with our companions. 

[njkruzer]

2 minutes ago, North2Alaska10 said:

We did an Alaskan cruise last year on the Serenade. We walked through the casino when it was closed and it smelled terrible. We did attempt the casino a few times when it was open but the smoking was too overbearing. It was a beautiful ship, but it was so outdated they couldn’t open our balconies with our companions. 

Not all balconies open to adjoining balcony.  Has nothing to do with age of ship.

[North2Alaska10]

1 hour ago, njkruzer said:

Not all balconies open to adjoining balcony.  Has nothing to do with age of ship.

Actually the Serenade crew told us it was age of the ship that they don’t open. It was the 1st time we weren’t able to open the balconies on our cruises. I do wonder if the Edge class infinite verandas can connect. 

[njkruzer]

10 minutes ago, North2Alaska10 said:

Actually the Serenade crew told us it was age of the ship that they don’t open. It was the 1st time we weren’t able to open the balconies on our cruises. I do wonder if the Edge class infinite verandas can connect. 

Wouldn't that mean letting someone into your bedroom?!

[ggo85]

We’ve cruised both RCCL and X extensively. Keep in mind that RCCL markets to families (with kids) much more than X.  If you don’t want to be surrounded by kids, select times when most kids are in school.  You will pay less on RCCL for the cabin but less is included than on X, especially in certain cabin categories.  For example, no RCCL equivalent to Blu and I wouldn’t say Coastal Kitchen = Luminae.  
 

The Oasis class have lots to do, but they are huge.  The “smaller” ships are more equivalent in size to X, but have more limited dining and entertainment options. 
 

It might help to know what the OP is looking for on RCCL and what they liked (or didn’t like) about X.  
 

 

[shofer]

DH & I did all classes on Celebrity but the Edge class.  Loved everything about them.  Then hubby saw a video on Symphony of the Seas and was hooked.  Our trip was planned for 2/7/21.  Unfortunately, the day before we were in the ER while hubby was being worked up for a possible cardiac event.   It wasn't that diagnosis but nevertheless, we were a "no show".  Insurance covered everything.  Then Covid happened.  

We finally started that trip on 1/29/22 and loved it.  I'm sure it helped that the ship was at half capacity and had been shut down the previous 3 weeks for deep cleaning and sick crew.  We felt that it had the best entertainment we had ever seen on a cruise ship.  The ice show, specialty talent, Hiro, and Flight were all outstanding.  We honestly felt that Celebrity was almost boring by comparison.  I tried out the water slides and the Ultimate Abyss, ( I was 75 at the time).  We never got off the ship except for Coco Cay on the last day.  I would go back in a New York minute if it weren't too crowded.

 

[Norwich Cruiser]

1.“O” class.

 

2. Quantum class. 

[Cruise a holic]

This past may, we were on the Adventure of the Seas.  The ship was really a mess.  Rusty- plumbing not working in our bathroom, we had service a few times during our cruise to fix it.  Furniture old and dingy- crowded ship- subpar entertainment- suite lounge coffee machine broken most days. Buffet like a school cafeteria  I do not know why people like these older ships?  Perhaps it reminds them of good times years before- but now, things have changed.

[Maggie4nc]

Wow!  Thank you for all the great input!

We have been Celebrity loyalists and have always loved it but it's good to try new things.  This year we tried a couple Princess cruises, we liked them and would travel on them again.  We are looking to RCL RCL as seems to offer high quality with more entertainment options.  The fact they status match is nice too!

We wanted to know where to start looking and now we have a great jumping off place! We will look at RCL for 2023, the Quantum class is most likely going to be our starting point then go bigger or smaller from there.

This all being said, we just booked on Celebrity Beyond for November. Change is hard😜

Thanks again for all of your help!  

[DaKahuna]

On 9/13/2022 at 9:22 PM, North2Alaska10 said:

 I do wonder if the Edge class infinite verandas can connect. 

 

 No they cannot.