Can't Decide....

[lfeather]

We are trying to decide our Spring 2007 cruise and are looking at a few different cruises. HAL's Westerdam 7 night Southern Caribbean or alternatively Celebrity's Constellation 10 night Caribbean. We have always cruised with Royal Caribbean and might go with them in '07. Going to another cruise line kind of scares me!! But it might be time to try something new. So I would like to hear from those have cruised Royal and any of the other cruise lines (Celebrity or HAL) to get your impressions. Thanks in advance!!

[Bill N]

Celebrity is an excellent cruise line. A little more upscale and refined than RCCL (also owned by RCCL). We cruised on the Summit 2 years ago and had a great time. The Constellation is a sister ship to the Summit (Millennium, Infinity, Summit, Constellation), and really beautiful. You won't find rock climbing walls on the Celebrity ships, as they're geared to a slightly older crowd. The service is excellent service and the food is very good. It all depends on what you look for in a cruise experience, but if you're looking for something a bit more elegant, then you can't go wrong with Celebrity.

[lfeather]

We had a cruise booked on the Summit in March 2002 (a 10 night) and Celebrity cancelled it the week before we were supposed to leave. Azipod problems. So we scrambled and found another cruise, that whole experience was somewhat painful. But now we are thinking about trying again. Not sure because we have two kids going with us 14 and 9. I still think they would have fun even though there aren't some of the recreational amenities (golf, rock climbing, etc.)

[Janet524]

You really can't go wrong with either Celebrity or Holland America, though I would give a slight edge to HAL. We're diamond plus C&A members and that makes it hard to go to HAL (only 3 cruises to date with them) because of all the C&A benefits we get. We ususally make a final decision based on itinerary. All things being equal, we'll go RCCL.

[lfeather]

We are also C&A Diamond members and just not having to wait in line to get on the ship is priceless. I was a little aprehensive about HAL because I am told (don't know for sure) that the crowd tends to be older. Not that there is anything wrong with that....we have kids and want everyone to be comfortable, our family as well as other passengers.

[Schplinky]

We tried Celebrity after having a great time on RCL. I don't know if it was an off week on Constellation but we had really mediocre service. Our dinners dragged on as other tables were served ahead of us, the pool "butlers" refused to help us find a seat or remove long abandoned towels and we felt the food [that week] was no better than RCL. The specialty restaurant was light years ahead of RCL and the interiors of the ship were pretty in a subdued way but we felt that the "cut above" experience we had heard folks rave about was missing, at leats that week. We felt the crowd on that cruise (a week in the southern caribbean) was about 15 years or so older than on Navigator in the eastern caribbean. In terms of refined, folks did seem to remain dressed in their dinner clothes more but there were the same bingo announcements, pool games and gold by the inch sales as RCL.