Carnival Celebration or Regal Princess?

[keels81]

5 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

It's a different comparison once the second ship in the new class comes out.  When the MG debuted, Carnival pulled the best from various ships in the fleet and they were then trained on the nuisances of the ship and it was a baptism by fire for all of the crew.  With the Celebration, many can shift over from the MG, but there will also be many that are not familiar with the layout since the Excel Class is so different from the rest of the fleet.  So, it's another baptism for some, but just a shift for others. 

 

Exactly. 

Many of the crew on the Mardi Gras now have been told their next contracts will likely be on the Jubilee as many of the opening crew of the Mardi (on the Celebration now) have been promised non-Excel, higher-level contracts after their inaugural Celebration contract. 

[SunnyBeaches72]

9 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

You have previously cruised twice, on Disney and in the Haven on NCL.  Enough said.  You're comparing oranges to apples.  First of all, Disney is a separate animal that has no comparison.  If you liked your stay in the Haven, then you should cruise in the Yacht Club on MSC or the Retreat on Celebrity or the Star Class on Royal.  Carnival has nothing comparable on any ship in their fleet.

You might want to read my entire response.  No Carnival is not comparable to Disney or NCL, but that’s not really the point. The Celebration was a disaster and absolutely not worth going on. The issues were widely noticed by regular Carnival cruisers, including my family, and if you think staff members pushing and shoving customers is ok then I don’t know what to say. Enjoy! 

[CruizinSusan70]

3 hours ago, SunnyBeaches72 said:

You might want to read my entire response.  No Carnival is not comparable to Disney or NCL, but that’s not really the point. The Celebration was a disaster and absolutely not worth going on. The issues were widely noticed by regular Carnival cruisers, including my family, and if you think staff members pushing and shoving customers is ok then I don’t know what to say. Enjoy! 

The Celebration was a disaster to you, certainly not everyone.  If it was, then a ton of people would be trashing them on cruise critic as well as YouTube.  There are always going to be growing pains on inaugural sailings as well as sailings during the first two months.  This was your third cruise, so you didn't know any better.  You needed to go into the cruise with the expectations that it wasn't going to be like the Haven or Disney.  You possibly did and Carnival didn't even meet your lowered standards.  You had a crappy cruise and unfortunately Carnival did not meet the minimum standards you were expecting.

I've cruised almost 50 times and currently have trips planned on six different lines so I know what to expect.  This includes our five day cruise on the Celebration in January.

[SunnyBeaches72]

51 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The Celebration was a disaster to you, certainly not everyone.  If it was, then a ton of people would be trashing them on cruise critic as well as YouTube.  There are always going to be growing pains on inaugural sailings as well as sailings during the first two months.  This was your third cruise, so you didn't know any better.  You needed to go into the cruise with the expectations that it wasn't going to be like the Haven or Disney.  You possibly did and Carnival didn't even meet your lowered standards.  You had a crappy cruise and unfortunately Carnival did not meet the minimum standards you were expecting.

I've cruised almost 50 times and currently have trips planned on six different lines so I know what to expect.  This includes our five day cruise on the Celebration in January.

Have fun! You belong there 

[kwokpot]

4 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The Celebration was a disaster to you, certainly not everyone.  If it was, then a ton of people would be trashing them on cruise critic as well as YouTube.  There are always going to be growing pains on inaugural sailings as well as sailings during the first two months.  This was your third cruise, so you didn't know any better.  You needed to go into the cruise with the expectations that it wasn't going to be like the Haven or Disney.  You possibly did and Carnival didn't even meet your lowered standards.  You had a crappy cruise and unfortunately Carnival did not meet the minimum standards you were expecting.

I've cruised almost 50 times and currently have trips planned on six different lines so I know what to expect.  This includes our five day cruise on the Celebration in January.

I was on the Celebration Thanksgiving cruise. My 26th Carnival cruise, 101st cruise overall. I put the stats not to boast but for perspective.  I enjoyed the cruise and thought the ship was even nicer than the MardiGras which we sailed on 3 times. If people read my posts here on CC you will know I point out both the good and the bad. I was on the Pride this summer in Europe for 32 days and felt that ship had issues with maintenance and food preparation. The Thanksgiving cruise was literally the second paying customer cruise and only the third week with customers. We had an amazing cabin attendant. We did 3 bags of laundry and each came back the same day. There were some service issues in the MDR. Cucina was very good. Didn't get a chance to eat in Chibang or P&A. Rudi's was excellent!  Big Chicken was excellent as ever. So was Street Eats. Spa was great, as was the gym. Never s problem finding a lounger at Serenity. Main Lido pool deck was always crowded and noisy, but that par for the course on any Carnival ship. Was everything perfect, no. But for the 2nd sailing of this brand new ship, it was an enjoyable experience. 

Edited November 29, 2022 by kwokpot

[kwokpot]

2 minutes ago, kwokpot said:

I was on the Celebration Thanksgiving cruise. My 26th Carnival cruise, 101st cruise overall. I put the stats not to boast but for perspective.  I enjoyed the cruise and thought the ship was even nicer than the MardiGras which we sailed on 3 times. If people read my posts here on CC you will know I point out both the good and the bad. I was on the Pride this summer in Europe for 32 days and felt that ship had issues with maintenance and food preparation. The Thanksgiving cruise was literally the second paying customer cruise and only the third week with customers. We had an amazing cabin attendant. We did 3 bags of laundry and each came back the same day. There were some service issues in the MDR. Cucina was very good. Didn't get a chance to eat in Chibang or P&A. Rudi's was excellent!  Big Chicken was excellent as ever. So was Street Eats. Spa was great, as was the gym. Never s problem finding a lounger at Serenity. Main Lido pool deck was always crowded and noisy, but that par for the course on any Carnival ship. Was everything perfect, no. But for the 2nd sailing of this brand new ship, it was an enjoyable experience. 

 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by kwokpot

[CruizinSusan70]

7 hours ago, SunnyBeaches72 said:

Have fun! You belong there 

Just like you belong in the Haven or hanging out with Mickey.  Hopefully your fourth cruise will meet your expectations.  

[CruizinSusan70]

3 hours ago, kwokpot said:

I was on the Celebration Thanksgiving cruise. My 26th Carnival cruise, 101st cruise overall. I put the stats not to boast but for perspective.  I enjoyed the cruise and thought the ship was even nicer than the MardiGras which we sailed on 3 times. If people read my posts here on CC you will know I point out both the good and the bad. I was on the Pride this summer in Europe for 32 days and felt that ship had issues with maintenance and food preparation. The Thanksgiving cruise was literally the second paying customer cruise and only the third week with customers. We had an amazing cabin attendant. We did 3 bags of laundry and each came back the same day. There were some service issues in the MDR. Cucina was very good. Didn't get a chance to eat in Chibang or P&A. Rudi's was excellent!  Big Chicken was excellent as ever. So was Street Eats. Spa was great, as was the gym. Never s problem finding a lounger at Serenity. Main Lido pool deck was always crowded and noisy, but that par for the course on any Carnival ship. Was everything perfect, no. But for the 2nd sailing of this brand new ship, it was an enjoyable experience. 

Very familiar with your posts and I will believe your opinions as opposed to someone who has previously cruised

 twice with Mickey and in the Haven.

We cruised on the MG for four weeks this year and currently have five bookings on the Celebration.  The Golden Jubilee and Latitudes seem to be an upgrade on paper compared to Brass Magnolia and the Fortune Teller and the new varieties of pizza look appealing. 

Will continue to read reviews on CC and check out videos on YouTube but in general we already know what to expect.  Looking forward to experiencing the differences and nuisances between the Mardi Gras and the Celebration over our 33 nights that we have booked.

[Mr305]

I enjoyed the cruise and booked another one for next Thanksgiving, looking forward to sailing Celebration again.  The cruise wasn't a disaster but it was far from perfect and as I stated before, you need to give the crew time to find their rhythm.  Some passengers were out of control which added to the frustrations, but that's present in every cruise.  Some observations or issues I encountered:

 

• MDR slow and disorganized, some crew members couldn't even tell you the hours of operation for a given day.  Overall, lack of experience or familiarity with how Carnival does things.
• Lido only had cantaloupe or honey dew, no berries of any kind or pineapple.  Looking to enjoy a fruit salad, unfortunately, not in this cruise.  Workaround was to order from a restaurant that offered it.
• Acclimating to how the elevator system works, most folks didn't have patience or willingness to understand.  Instead, they just kept pressing buttons or trying to cram into the first one that stopped at the floor.
• Cucina had 1+ hour wait most nights, ChiBang had a two hour wait one night.  The day we chose to eat there, a party of 12 had reserved but most weren't present.  One member of the party kept trying to hold the table not knowing how long it wold take for the rest of them to show up.  Eventually it got canceled but that exchange lasted 20+ minutes.
• Unwillingness to keep spaces clean.  Saw lots of disposable cups left behind when a garbage can was in sight, folks just didn't care to help the crew keep spaces clean.
• Lots of plates left in hallways, people stepping on them as they walked by and creating a bigger mess.  Just leave it in the room or walk it over to lido if it bothers you that much.
• The day we arrived at Amber Cove, the opening of gangways was delayed.  Shortly after, they gave the all clear but as we were walking out, Carnival Freedom showed up.  Procedure is to stop the process until the other ship is fully tied down and gangways deployed.  This took 25+ minutes to complete, lots of folks had excursions and were worried they would miss them.  Security team did a poor job of handling the situation, one guy told me I should have come down earlier.  I mentioned that I in fact did but was told there was a delay with the opening of gangways when I arrived at Deck 3.  He insisted it was a lie, although Lee had advertised the delay himself.  Pure stupidity on his part, lots of fellow cruisers had it out with him.  Most just wanted to know if excursions would be impacted but he couldn't answer the question.  Eventually, an excursion team member showed up and told everyone not to worry, that help calm things down.
• Had my door knocked on three times, twice during the day and once late at night.  Recurring theme the whole cruise with kids, complete lack of supervision by their parents.

 

Not complaining, just sharing what I experienced or saw throughout my cruise.  Celebration will be a success, it's a beautiful ship and once the new shows come online next year, it will make it even better.  The potential is there, except for the cabin bathroom.  🙂

Edited November 29, 2022 by Mr305