Is Celebrity the new Carnival?

[NMTraveller]

3 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

 

Apples and Oranges.  On similar sailings, you’re paying at least 50% more on Oceana vs Celebrity for a balcony room

 

 

I have not seen 50% more for most cruises.  But even assuming that it is with all of the nickel and dime fees X has it is still fairly close in cost.

 

Once you add in the cost of room service,  specialty dining,  drink packages on X those extra fees add up very fast.

[RichYak]

4 hours ago, gkbiiii said:

This does not make sense, as these are former Celebrity cruisers, who left the line due to the poor condition of the Line; to find standards somewhere else.  I'm surprised Cunard is never mentioned, but I do understand why Oceana & Viking Ocean are where many cruisers are going. 

It doesn't make sense because it's misinformation. The notion that when apples leave Celebrity, they suddenly become oranges is simply a distortion of the truth.

[RedIguana]

16 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

So they have added slides, flowriders etc?  I think not.

Well I was referring to the overall cruise experience, notwithstanding the amenities on the larger class of RCL ships. When RCL acquired celebrity back in the late 1990's, they were more alike than different, although Celebrity was a touch more upscale. There were no flowriders or large waterslides. They were both a more upscale version of cruising than Carnival. The first rock climbing wall was in 1998, the first flowrider in 2006. Since that time (late 1990's early 2000's), Carnival and RCL have both been building ships and pricing to attract large numbers of passengers on kid centric ships (or at least very family friendly). In the process they have lost the more upscale cruising experience they used to be (to be fair most mass market lines have dropped some as ships became larger). They have added their suite classes to make up for some of it. In the 90's you had to be in a JS or above just to have a balcony. So yes, as RCL has trended towards Carnival, Celebrity is morphing to replace what RCL used to be. 

[Tenderpaw]

On 9/30/2023 at 8:04 AM, RedIguana said:

So yes, as RCL has trended towards Carnival, Celebrity is morphing to replace what RCL used to be. 

This statement has a lot of truth.  We did a 18 nighter on Celebrity and found the service to be Royal level pre covid.  They still had a lot of live entertainment, although i think Royal still does too.  Food on Celeb was very disappointing and was not even pre Covid Royal level.  They cut that and Royal has too.

 

This said, a long Carnival cruise will be fine as the trouble makers can't afford the time or the money for those types of cruises.  I'd go on a 14 night Carnival Journey cruise anytime.