Call me a cheerleader if you must

[phoenix_dream]

There are so many posts these days complaining about just about everything on Celebrity.  I wanted to start one doing the opposite.  I have cruised 17 times since the restart (yes, it's nice to be retired!).  I've sailed nine different ships, including M, S, and E.  I've sailed in various cabins from Aqua Class to suites.  Of all those cruises, I can honestly say only one was a bit subpar with service and food and it was not that bad.  The rest ranged from very good to excellent overall.

 

I'm not saying everything was perfect, or that there aren't some cutbacks and changes that bother me but overall I would not hesitate to book with Celebrity again if the price is right.  I know prices are very high now and honestly that has caused me to cut back a bit on upcoming bookings, but I think that is an issue with all cruise lines right now, as are some of the other challenges they are facing.  I've adjusted my expectations accordingly.

 

So how about we have some feedback from those who have had some great sailings in the past few years?  Come on, I know you're out there!

[zitsky]

Well I liked my recent cruise in the Retreat on Beyond.

[buzz031]

We love Celebrity! Love the sliding glass door on the verandas, while other cruise lines have a glass door (just not as nice in my opinion). Love the food in the Blu. Recently went on another cruise line that we thought was as good but decided that Celebrity is just a cut (or two) above the rest!

[prmssk]

We've done 10 cruises since the restart - 3 on Celebrity (Constellation and Eclipse), the rest on Princess, NCL, Royal, Carnival, and even one on Margaritaville at Sea.  And although I enjoyed every one of those cruises because that's just what I do when I am out on the ocean, Celebrity keeps rising to the top for me.  The buffet was night and day better on the Celebrity ships than any of the other cruise lines.  Celebrity handled my dietary restriction so much better than Princess.

 

We had excellent service on the Eclipse just a couple of weeks ago with one of the best stateroom attendants we have ever had and an excellent waiter/assistant waiter team in the MDR.  Service in Luminae on the Constellation (especially for their re-start cruise in November of 2021) was top notch.

 

And even with the inaccuracies in the menus in the app, the app actually works.  I can't say the same about all my cruises on other lines.

 

I will continue to try them all as I do think there is value in other lines and variety is the spice of life but even with the cutbacks and challenges since the restart, I am still happy with the product Celebrity offers and it will still be a line I lean towards when choosing cruises.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We had unrealistic high expectations on our New Year's cruise based on 2 NY cruises in 2011 & 2012. We should have realized both Celebrity and the times have changed. We were at the point where we were ready to cancel our September cruise. Then said, wait a minute, what do we want to do get out of a cruise.  For us, it is relaxation, someone to do housekeeping, cooking, cleaning up, etc. When I'm tired at the end of the day with aches and pains and don't want to cook I know Celebrity will do a better job than me.

We looked back on our 2 other post covid cruises and said, "they were great". So, here we go again in 90 days.

Have things changed, yes but so have things on land. Our favorite restaurant shut down, then their catering/home delivery shut down. Another favorite restaurant drastically changed their menu to the extent it was not recognizable.

Things change, and we have to either adapt or stop cruising with Celebrity.

Right now we are willing to adapt so will board Equinox in 3 months and still have hopes of reaching Zenith..

 

[moonshadow1011]

I have cruised a few times with Celebrity in the past! Our Solstice trip was amazing! The service from the crew in all areas was top notch!

Knowing how many hours a day they work, I appreciate the positive attitude all around.I agree it is important to recognize everyone’s efforts to make it a memorable experience. Happy Cruising!

[jelayne]

We have done 10 cruises since the restart. We have experienced supply chain issues, staffing shortages and low passenger counts but on every cruise we had a very good to excellent time.   We have dined in the MDR, Blu and Luminae and the meals were all enjoyable.  We have experienced many of the changes that have occurred (higher prices, menu reductions, RS fee, etc) but none have taken away from our enjoyment of being on a beautiful ship with great crew, great food, great service and others passengers that are enjoying the experience.

[Mark.Jules]

Cruising as with life, your focus impacts what you get. If you water the weeds, they will grow and take over the beauty. If you water the flowers they will grow and you will notice them more. I do not ignore the weeds, I address them accordingly and then shift my focus to the flowers. 

 

I do not think I have ever been on a perfect cruise, but each cruise is unique and each cruise on X has met my expectations. We love X and will continue to spend our money on a brand that although has changed a bit, continues to provide an excellent vacation. 

 

I hope all who love to cruise can find the line that fits their unique needs, allowing others to do the same free of ridicule, second guessing, and negative comments. 

 

The world is ugly enough, there is no need to take a beautiful thing like cursing and turn it into what we are trying to escape from.

[tserface]

Lamenting lost features, price increases, or various other changes or problems doesn't mean someone doesn't still love Celebrity.  We've been on Celebrity several times since the restart (although we don't have your budget 🙂) and we've enjoyed all of the cruises and have others booked in the future.

 

This site is called Cruise Critic, not Cruise Cheerleader so it's isn't so odd that people might come on  here to write critiques.  So many times when someone just wants to vent or talk about an unpleasant experience they had, they are met with a slurry of "go to a different cruise line then..." kinds of responses.  That's not fair either.

[cruiserchuck]

We have only done one cruise since the startup (Solstice last April), and thought things were great.  We did not notice any differences from pre-Covid cruises.

 

We were in Aqua, and service was slow at dinner the second night in Blu (our first night there since we went to Le Petite Cafe the first night.)  We spoke with the Maitre D, who apologized, and advised us that we were on the first full cruise since startup, and he had many new waiters.  He told us he would try to seat us with his best waitress going forward, which he did.  Service was great the rest of the cruise.

 

We enjoyed the food in Blu and the MDR for lunch.  The new Clean Cuisine items in Blu were very tasty.  On the last two nights, the filet mignons we ordered were probably the best steaks we ever had on a cruise.  We thought the food quality and variety in the buffet was also as good as ever.   

[lv2cruisgrl]

We have done 5 celebrity cruises within the past year and loved them all.  November we are back on Beyond and we hope it's as good as last time!  

[Ken the cruiser]

We’ve been on 14 different Celebrity cruises, using combined in the form of B2Bs or longer, since cruising started back up, and have always had a great time!! But due to a lack of longer, more unique itineraries, we’re find ourselves periodically drifting to other cruise lines.

But that’s OK too, as it keeps us from getting burned out cruising with the same line all of the time. 

 

[Jim_Iain]

Hi Cheerleader !

 

It is nice to occasionally read an upbeat thread. 

 

I have to jump on you bandwagon and say that I have enjoyed all of the cruises I have taken this year.    Things have changed a little but to be honest I see more things the same than changes and deterioration of service.

 

We ate a number of times in OVC for lunch and with the exception of finding one dish unacceptably cold all was perfect.    A wait person asked me if I was enjoying the meal I pointed out the cold dish,  to my surprise about 20 minutes later a Maitr'D had tracked me down and wanted more information of which dish.   He promised he would make sure it was corrected immediately.

 

I have to say that on a couple days they had Pot Pies -  Chicken and Beef.   They were incredible.

 

Choices were exceptional and changed often.    Surprising stations that I enjoyed -  A Banana Split Station -  A Trifle Station with a variety of items to build you own trifle .... Yum.

 

On one French Themed Day they had Duck Pate, French soft and hard cheeses and many french dishes.  

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, phoenix_dream said:

with Celebrity again if the price is right.  I know prices are very high now

 

1 hour ago, phoenix_dream said:

I've adjusted my expectations accordingly

Disclaimer, we do sailings on X, other cruise lines like carnival, one week in an AI in Mexico and weekend getaways in non-AI hotels/AirBnBs.  We have never sailed on VV or RCI and plan to do one or both this year and probably wouldn't have if X met our food expectations

 

Speaking of food, 95% of the complaints are food related and like it or not, complaining works as X did increase the dinner buffet selections.  We were told on the Solstice this past Feb that Ribeye and Prime rib were gone from fleet; while we're sure it wasn't on the menu on that sailing, we weren't sure if it was fleetwide so am not sure if they brought that back but did have it in March.  Therefore, the only way to manage our expectations on X, is to expect that our next sailing will have more cut backs than our last sailing and that's sad

 

Some of us, myself included, got excited to hear there's a new CEO which gave us a sliver of hope they could possibly improve the food quality but now with the cake cut backs, sounds like it will be the status quo.  Have been on 14 sailing since the restart, we have not seen a single improvement to the food quality

 

Enjoyed your write up and do not consider you a cheerleader if for no other reason than mentioning the price is a factor.  Thanks to the cutbacks, I may have a somewhat negative view but I do respect peoples constructive opinions.  The comments I don't respect are from the actual cheerleaders who say something like "the foods great, quit being picky, its your fault you can't find anything you like"

[phoenix_dream]

1 hour ago, tserface said:

Lamenting lost features, price increases, or various other changes or problems doesn't mean someone doesn't still love Celebrity.  We've been on Celebrity several times since the restart (although we don't have your budget 🙂) and we've enjoyed all of the cruises and have others booked in the future.

 

This site is called Cruise Critic, not Cruise Cheerleader so it's isn't so odd that people might come on  here to write critiques.  So many times when someone just wants to vent or talk about an unpleasant experience they had, they are met with a slurry of "go to a different cruise line then..." kinds of responses.  That's not fair either.

I agree with you. I am not faulting people for posting bad experiences. I just want to hear some good things for a change. That’s the only purpose of my post🙂

[davekathy]

We had a great cruise on the Apex (first time on E class) and looking forward to our October Eclipse cruise. Any changes we notice sometimes are disappointing but we adjust accordingly and still have a great time. 

[NMTraveller]

2 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

I've adjusted my expectations accordingly.

That would not count you as a cheerleader.

 

For myself I am trying to figure out if the decline in food quality warrants booking specialty restaurants.

[Ken the cruiser]

48 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

I agree with you. I am not faulting people for posting bad experiences. I just want to hear some good things for a change. That’s the only purpose of my post🙂

I apologize, but I forgot to mention on our recent 33-day transpacific cruises on the Eclipse, the cruise director, Eddy Jenkins, and the entertainment program he organized for the entire cruise, from production shows to guest entertainers to 3-4 lectures on each of the many sea days of our cruise, was truly awesome and just another reason among many why we have such a fantastic time when we cruise with Celebrity! 😁

[SusieAV8R]

3 hours ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

We had unrealistic high expectations on our New Year's cruise based on 2 NY cruises in 2011 & 2012. We should have realized both Celebrity and the times have changed. We were at the point where we were ready to cancel our September cruise. Then said, wait a minute, what do we want to do get out of a cruise.  For us, it is relaxation, someone to do housekeeping, cooking, cleaning up, etc. When I'm tired at the end of the day with aches and pains and don't want to cook I know Celebrity will do a better job than me.

We looked back on our 2 other post covid cruises and said, "they were great". So, here we go again in 90 days.

Have things changed, yes but so have things on land. Our favorite restaurant shut down, then their catering/home delivery shut down. Another favorite restaurant drastically changed their menu to the extent it was not recognizable.

Things change, and we have to either adapt or stop cruising with Celebrity.

Right now we are willing to adapt so will board Equinox in 3 months and still have hopes of reaching Zenith..

 

We have enjoyed Celebrity M & S class since 2007.  DH and I prefer cruising now to the land-based vacations we used to take because cruising is always changing; nothing is stagnant.  Post covid, the relaxation (from work and house-related choirs) and predominantly adult company has been greatly appreciated.  Yes it was great initially with only 25% capacity (felt like our own private ship) but now we find full capacity has its advantages too.  I must be fair though....post covid, we have only travelled in the PS, so I get terribly spoiled and I have nothing to complain about.  We have cruises on X booked out to April 2025, (We hit zenith after our upcoming September cruise on Equinox....hi CHEZMARYLOU!  🙂 )

[bjahil47]

We have been on 2 cruises since the reset and have a B2B in September.  They were both great cruises.  Only issue we had were the butlers were not around very often.  I think they had more rooms to cover as they were not working with full employees yet.  Still great cruises!

[theopup]

What an interesting post.

 

We have not cruised since 2018, only a few land holidays

 

Have booked for the first time with Princess for a 7 day Caribbean cruise in February, only since they have our 2 favourite ports - Grand Turq & Cayman Islands, and our first European cruise in July 2024on the Celebrity Ascent.

 

We will see how we like these 

[mayleeman]

Anyone else notice that most of the happy posts are from people in suites or Aqua, and most of the complaining this year has been from Concierge and below?

[zitsky]

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Hi Cheerleader !

 

It is nice to occasionally read an upbeat thread. 

 

I have to jump on you bandwagon and say that I have enjoyed all of the cruises I have taken this year.    Things have changed a little but to be honest I see more things the same than changes and deterioration of service.

 

We ate a number of times in OVC for lunch and with the exception of finding one dish unacceptably cold all was perfect.    A wait person asked me if I was enjoying the meal I pointed out the cold dish,  to my surprise about 20 minutes later a Maitr'D had tracked me down and wanted more information of which dish.   He promised he would make sure it was corrected immediately.

 

I have to say that on a couple days they had Pot Pies -  Chicken and Beef.   They were incredible.

 

Choices were exceptional and changed often.    Surprising stations that I enjoyed -  A Banana Split Station -  A Trifle Station with a variety of items to build you own trifle .... Yum.

 

On one French Themed Day they had Duck Pate, French soft and hard cheeses and many french dishes.  

Now I may try the buffet on my next Aqua cruise.

[olemissreb]

I haven't cruised on X since 2013, and haven't cruised at all since 2019 (on RC).  My sister and I are now booked on Summit in 2025.  She and I have cruised before, but our boyfriends are both newbies, so we're really looking forward to showing them the joys of cruising.  Hoping we'll have sunny skies, smooth sailing and great food and relaxation!

 

Of all the cruises I've been on, X has been my favorite.  Summit will be my 3rd M class ship - the only class I've sailed on so far.  I tend to lean toward the smaller ships, but maybe one day I'll get on one of the "behemoths".  🙂

[Jim_Iain]

15 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

That would not count you as a cheerleader.

 

For myself I am trying to figure out if the decline in food quality warrants booking specialty restaurants.

Curious if you have experienced the "decline in food quality" or just going on complaining on the boards.    Personally I have not noticed any decline that would dissuade me from eating in Luninae every night.     Even all the times I visited the buffet I found the quality to that pre-covid.  It may also depend on the ship and the perception of the writer.