Celebrity or Costa?

[psheik]

We love celebrity and were thinking of trying Costa Atlantica for a Northern European cruise. Is it as nice as the Celebrity Constellation? Does the food and service compare?

[JeffCoud]

I have sailed on Celebrity 10+ times and now will be on my 5th Costa in a few weeks (although largely all of these were caribbean cruises) but I would say Celebrity and Costa are very different products. I would describe Celebrity as being somewhat more upscale. Costa is sort of Carnival with a european spin. Even in Europe Costa are the "fun ships" as it were. I would say Celebrity is likely to be quieter, more low key. One thing to look at very carefully with Costa in Europe are the port times...they tend to be shorter than the US-oriented lines, well more so in the Med and Greek islands. The Baltics could be ok, but compare the differences if there are any, but look at that carefully and see that it's ok. The Atlantica is a bit older but a nice ship.

 

Jeff

[mdwilkie]

I agree with Jeff. I've been on 2 Costa cruises on the Mediterranean and I did the Celebrity Constellation Northern Europe (Baltics) cruise in 2006. I think Celebrity had better shore excursions and spent more time at the ports than the equivalent Costa north European cruises. But Costa is definitely a more fun experience, and probably cheaper. I may be in a minority but I liked the food much better on Costa - much less rich. Also, you'll likely find much more English spoken on Celebrity than on Costa. On our Celebrity cruise all of our shore excursions were in English; on our last Costa cruise all of our shore excursions were bilingual, and some weren't even offered in English.

 

Cheers,..

Mike

[MSBYRDY]

We've done about 20 Celebrity cruises and are leaving on our first Costa in a week. I understand it's an entirely different experience, so can't wait to see for myself.

Marilyn

[JeffCoud]

Hey Marilyn! Will be very interested to hear your impressions of Costa. It IS totally different from X, but hey it's what I can afford right now and I like the euro-ness of it all. So report back ok!! :)

 

Jeff

[Pupsweet]

We've booked out first Costa cruise in two weeks (we are Celebrity-coholics) ... I'll let you know when we get back how it compared for us. :)

[Coastaljen]

I am dying to hear your views also. Right now I am deciding between two trips of Asia on Princess and Costa. Costa sounds really neat, but I travel solo. I am not sure I would like it as much.

[bobar]

Hands down I would sail Costa!!! My one and only Celebrity cruise was the worst of my 33 cruises,enough said:cool: