Royal Caribbean was great - should we try Celebrity next?

[smogfarmgirl]

We just got off the Allure yesterday for our very first cruise. We really enjoyed it! The question now… Do we do another Royal Caribbean cruise, or should we try Celebrity? Pre-pandemic we had booked a cruise on Celebrity, that was canceled in March 2020. So now we are thinking of giving Celebrity a try. For those who have cruised both, what are the biggest differences/similarities, or what puts one above the other for you?

[ssbeard1]

I love celebrity !    They are a class above Royal, NCL, Princess and way above carnival in my opinion.   Their entertainment is top notch and food much better.    That said, when we travel with our grands we pick Royal due to it being more kid friendly.    It’s not as much of a party atmosphere ( which we prefer).     Also, a lot depends on price.   If they are considerably more expensive for same itinerary as Royal - I choose Royal.  

[cruzeluver]

We love both Royal and Celebrity with just about an even number of cruises on both. When we want lots of onboard activities, and a high-energy atmosphere we go with Royal. When we want  a more sedate, relaxing cruise with service and food that is a step up, we go with Celebrity.

[Tom47]

Celebrity does not allow smoking anywhere indoors, but RCI allows smoking in the casino.  We like Celebrity for just the 2 of us, but with grand kids, RCI is better.

[publicpersona]

Previous comments have been spot on. If you find yourself thinking "I'd gladly give up a climbing wall, Flowrider, ice skating and pool games for a little bit of peace and quiet in a wonderfully ethereal solarium and MDR food so good I really don't need specialty restaurants", then Celebrity is worth a try.

 

Oh yeah .. if you like bingo announcements blaring and don't mind being carded just to get a pool towel, then maybe Royal is better for you.

[smogfarmgirl]

5 minutes ago, publicpersona said:

Oh yeah .. if you like bingo announcements blaring and don't mind being carded just to get a pool towel, then maybe Royal is better for you.

😂🤣 I had read a lot about RC before we left, but somehow I hadn’t read anything about those two things! Were people really stealing SO MANY junky pool towels that it makes that whole stupid system worth it?!😂

Edited September 18, 2022 by smogfarmgirl

[Mimiya11]

We were on the Allure several years ago.  To us, the ship was the destination as there was so many interesting places on the ship itself.  We had a blast as there was never a dull moment (although sometimes a bit too hectic) and lots of places to wander.     But.....we only ate in the dining room once as we felt the food was eh in the dining room.  As a result, we ended up paying for specialty restaurants which added a lot to the overall cruise.   

 

Celebrity is our cruise line of choice (been on almost 10) for the food, customer service, and overall atmosphere (as a previous poster said).     

Having said that, if we were going with our grandkids, we would definitely go on another RCI cruise as there is so much for kids to do.   

   

[Aquahound]

I love Celebrity and I definitely say go for it!  Last week, we were parked next to Solstice a couple times, and I was admiring the ship and recalling my great cruises on her.  

 

However, this thread is a bit of a head scratcher to me.  No way would I say Celebrity's entertainment is better.  Also, judging by my last 4 RCI cruises, the daytime announcements have really scaled back.  The only times I found myself annoyed was when people wouldn't shut up when the captain was talking.  I also found the Solarium pools on Quantum Class to be very relaxing.  

 

Two things I certainly agree with though.....Celebrity's free food is better, and RCI's towel check-out procedure sucks.  

[mac66]

We did a number of cruises on Royal then went to Celebrity (X). We liked X better but continued to go back and forth for various reasons i.e, itineraries. We then realized that it's easier to get to Diamond on RCI than it is to get to Elite on X so we focused on RCI until we got to Diamond which is recognized as Elite on X. 

 

We did three X cruises this year as Elites. However, post covid food and service were sub par.  Our next two cruises are back on Royal so we'll see.

Edited September 18, 2022 by mac66

[publicpersona]

2 hours ago, Aquahound said:

No way would I say Celebrity's entertainment is better.

 

Entertainment is something that is important to me. I think the production shows from both RC and X are very dependent on how old the shows are. The big production "Broadway" style shows on RC's big ships are probably the best, but the rest of RC's fleet has either tired old shows that have been running for many years, or newer shows with canned music and no discernable theme. Celebrity, unfortunately, is trending more towards canned music as well.

 

Whether RC or X, I give major thumbs up to any show where real musicians are performing (even if highly augmented).

[Driveshaft]

5 hours ago, smogfarmgirl said:

We just got off the Allure yesterday for our very first cruise. We really enjoyed it! The question now… Do we do another Royal Caribbean cruise, or should we try Celebrity? Pre-pandemic we had booked a cruise on Celebrity, that was canceled in March 2020. So now we are thinking of giving Celebrity a try. For those who have cruised both, what are the biggest differences/similarities, or what puts one above the other for you?

We did it the opposite. We are elite on Celebrity and we were not impressed with the food on our last three, We had our first on RCL on the Allure in April and were so impressed with it we are going again this November.

[clskinsfan]

We also love Celebrity. Just a couple of things to remember though. It is a completely different vibe on Celebrity ships. If you are looking for crazy pool parties, belly flop contests...that kind of thing you will not find it on Celebrity. What you will find is a very laid back relaxing cruise with better food and service than Royal (In our opinion). And there are a lot more indoor viewing areas than on Royal mega ships. The sky lounge on Celebrity Solstice class ships is amazing. With expansive views and great drink service. Solstice class ships also have real grass on the upper deck of the ship. Sail away at the Sunset Bar on that class of ship is amazing. As you can tell we REALLY love Solstice class ships. Edge class ships give you more free dining options than Solstice class. But are quirky in our opinion. Give them a try. There really isnt a ton of stuff to dislike. 

[smokeybandit]

Being on one ship is merely sampling RC. Until you've been on a couple ship classes, you really haven't tried RC.

[clskinsfan]

9 minutes ago, Driveshaft said:

We did it the opposite. We are elite on Celebrity and we were not impressed with the food on our last three, We had our first on RCL on the Allure in April and were so impressed with it we are going again this November.

Thanks for this! We are doing our first Oasis class cruise on Allure 40 days from today (Not that I am counting or anything 🙂 ) But I am glad to hear you were impressed with the food on her. 

[Aquahound]

2 minutes ago, publicpersona said:

 

Entertainment is something that is important to me. I think the production shows from both RC and X are very dependent on how old the shows are. The big production "Broadway" style shows on RC's big ships are probably the best, but the rest of RC's fleet has either tired old shows that have been running for many years, or newer shows with canned music and no discernable theme. Celebrity, unfortunately, is trending more towards canned music as well.

 

Whether RC or X, I give major thumbs up to any show where real musicians are performing (even if highly augmented).

 

I'm an entertainment guy too.  My only recent RCI cruises have been on Quantum and Ovation so I can't speak for the whole fleet.  The production shows were excellent, and the casts included several singers and a ton of dancers.  All the other live music throughout the ship was also excellent, including the best cover band I have ever heard on a ship (Ovation....Switched On).

 

But yeah, I love Celebrity's entertainment too.  I appreciate that they still do evening theme parties.  At least, I hope they still do!  

[Cruising89143]

Celebrity is our favorite but still enjoy RCI. For entertainment the newer Oasis and Quantum class ships are very good. Celebrity’s new Edge class will be the best on Celebrity.

 

Food is very subjective but we find it better on Celebrity’s food overall better but RCI does very well in their specialty dining. Again, our experience. Service is more polished on Celebrity but good on both lines.

 

The big differences for us would be the announcements and smoking. Only one announcement daily on Celebrity and no smoking allowed anywhere inside of the ship. 
 

If you’re looking for a more relaxed cruise then Celebrity will be more of the right fit. You can’t go wrong with either ship. 

 

[Husky1987]

3 hours ago, Aquahound said:

Two things I certainly agree with though.....Celebrity's free food is better, and RCI's towel check-out procedure sucks. 

 

The towel check-out procedure on Royal works very well, if by "check-out" you mean grabbing towels that have been left by chair hogs around the pool for hours on end.  

[barb in ga]

We mostly cruise Royal and almost always on the bigger ships for the variety of entertainments and food choices. We are sailing on Allure on Sunday for our 4th time, which makes 20 cruises on Voyager class and above. We do love the live music and the shows on all the Oasis Class ships, especially the Aquashow and ice skating shows.

 

We are always happy with the food on Royal, but I will agree that the food on Celebrity is a step above. We don't use the waterpark, slides, zipline, but love all the other options. Our Celebrity sailings left me with disappointment over the entertainment. If the itinerary and price were right, we would book Celebrity again.

Barb

[DaKahuna]

 We have sailed multiple times on both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity.  Our preference is really Celebrity mainly because it fits our demographic better.  We are in our early 70's, mobile, and able to take one or two cruises, or sometimes more, a year.  

 

Celebrity offers better quality in the way of service and food, in our opinion, than Royal Caribbean.  That is not to say Royal Caribbean is poor in either categroy, it's just that Celebrity seems to us to be better. 

 

One of the things we like most about Celebrity is that they have a lot of 'longer than 7 day' cruises.  Our next two Celebrity cruises are for 15 and 12 days respectively.  Our next Royal Caribbean cruise is 8 days, and we just finished a B2B of 7-days each. 

 

As other have said, if you are looking for a quieter atmosphere, fewer young children (under 21), and great service and food, Celebrity is a better choice, in our opinion, than Royal Caribbean.  

 

P.S sailing in a Suite on Celebrity is a much different, and I would say better, experience than Sky Class on RCL. Celebrity really takes care of their Suite class passengers. 

[publicpersona]

9 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

Our preference is really Celebrity mainly because it fits our demographic better.  We are in our early 70's, mobile, and able to take one or two cruises, or sometimes more, a year.  

 

When we took our first Celebrity cruise close to 20 years ago, we thought the clientele was too old and people move too slow. In the last several years, though, I've noticed they were now our age and move about the same as us.  🙂

 

[moposh]

16 hours ago, smogfarmgirl said:

Were people really stealing SO MANY junky pool towels that it makes that whole stupid system worth it?!

I think people left them on excursions they took the towels on.  

[moposh]

I also think it depends on itinerary.  I have only done RCI.  I was going to go on an Ireland-Iceland cruise on Celebrity in 2020.  I wish they would have that itinerary again.  While they do have Ireland-Iceland cruises, they aren't leaving from Ireland.

[klfhngr]

Done about 8 Royal and 2 X cruises. The first X cruise (Equinox) was awesome, the last one in May was not so great! Service was terrible, food was blah. If you like to be entertained and lots of stuff to do, stay on Royal! We were told X was short staffed in May (it was a 10 day Med cruise on Reflection out of Rome). We might try a newer X ship, but that's a maybe. We did a Carnival cruise last Oct. and it was great! We're now jumping on Royal NoS in Oct., we'll compare all 3 lines.

Edited September 19, 2022 by klfhngr

[wolfcathorse]

we tried Equinox this past April and were not impressed. Service in MDR was super slow, seems like not enough staff. There was no feeling of being on a premium cruiseline. We won't go back. We're trying NCL next March.

[RandomUser123]

I only did Celebrity once way back in 2010 for a Mediterranean cruise for my honeymoon on Celebrity Constellation. Since it was very port intensive with just 1 sea day I do not recall much of the actual ship itself but in my opinion it was the best food I had on a cruise in the Main dining room and the entertainment onboard the ship in the evening I recall was great. Although I assume now the ship is probably considered an older ship.