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No Royal Caribbean Cruise for 484 Days!


BrianAlt

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6 hours ago, BrianAlt said:

But I do have two Celebrity cruises coming up!  One in 90 days as of tomorrow!  All is not lost.

You know Brian, those really don't count on this message board. Don't be surprised if they have you walk the plank when you board the Anthem or do something REALLY outrageous during the Quest! 🤣

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57 minutes ago, GatorCruiser said:

Speaking of celebrity, for those that have done both royal and celebrity, how do  they compare . Which do you prefer ?

Celebrity is an upscale cruise line that tries to promote itself as luxury.  It's an upscale experience and if that is what you seek, you have found the right cruise line.  It tends to have less kids largely because there is less for kids to do.  That applies to kids of all ages.   I enjoy water slides once in a while.  I enjoy a zip line once in while.  I enjoy ice skating once in a while.   I enjoy bumper cars everytime.  Celebrity has none of that.  

For my needs Royal is a good fit because it has all sorts of activities even if I don't use all of them every cruise.  When I feel like acting like a kid they are there for me.  When I want to act grown up the kid centric areas attract the kids away from my grown up moment.   

Royal is more of an entry level, family friendly, multi-generational cruise line.  Everyone from baby to great grandpa can find something to like on Royal.  Even if I don't participate in all there is to do on Royal, sometimes it's fun just watching other people have fun.   

Celebrity is more refined, a bit more bougie.  There are many people who aren't looking for a family cruise.  They have more money and don't mind paying a bit more for the upscale experience without spending the money for a true luxury cruise experience (Silver Sea).  Celebrity is "faux luxury" and that's fine for those who want something more without spending two or three months salary on a luxury cruise.  

Celebrity has shifted to their "Always included" approach.  Their entry level drink package is include, entry level wifi is included, gratuity is included and some OBC is included.  There are options to increase the Always In packages with the "Elevate' and "Indulge" packages that introduce better drink, wifi and OBC features.

I enjoyed my Celebrity cruise but I don't need that every cruise.  They'll be there for me if I ever grow up.   Until then Royal fulfils my more modest budget for cruising often.

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15 hours ago, rjac said:

You know Brian, those really don't count on this message board. Don't be surprised if they have you walk the plank when you board the Anthem or do something REALLY outrageous during the Quest! 🤣

Exactly!  That's the problem!  I have to spend the next year and half with virtually no one to discuss my upcoming cruises!  Very depressing.

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14 hours ago, twangster said:

Celebrity is an upscale cruise line that tries to promote itself as luxury...

I agree with what you said here @twangster.  I really enjoy Celebrity.  I also really enjoy Royal.  They want to be a "luxury line", but they're still mostly mainstream.  Just a bit of a step up from Royal.  Definitely not a giant leap.

One thing you left out (or two) are the Aqua class dining room and the Suite class dining room, Blu and Luminae.  Costal Kitchen on Royal is great, but to me both of these are a step above.  Aqua class cabins are regular balcony cabins with a special dining room designed to be "healthier".  In practice, the food is as healthy as you make it.  You can still eat a plate of bacon every morning if you like.

Also, on Celebrity if you're in a Sky Suite you're considered a full suite guest.  The Sky Suite is like a Jr. Suite on Royal and on Royal you're treated like a semi-suite guest in a Jr. Suite.  

One thing missing on Celebrity are the Broadway style shows.  The shows tend to be more of the revue style shows.  But they also incorporate some terrific acrobatics in some. 

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4 minutes ago, Mike.s said:

Re Royal V Celebrity, once you add in the drinks package and wi-fi the price difference is suprisingly small, that was our experience on our recent UK cruises.

 

The delta is bigger if you are traveling solo (like @twangster) or taking along kids too young to drink (like me), as you are paying for a drink package for people that don't exist, or can't use it.

 

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10 minutes ago, BrianAlt said:

I agree with what you said here @twangster.  I really enjoy Celebrity.  I also really enjoy Royal.  They want to be a "luxury line", but they're still mostly mainstream.  Just a bit of a step up from Royal.  Definitely not a giant leap.

One thing you left out (or two) are the Aqua class dining room and the Suite class dining room, Blu and Luminae.  Costal Kitchen on Royal is great, but to me both of these are a step above.  Aqua class cabins are regular balcony cabins with a special dining room designed to be "healthier".  In practice, the food is as healthy as you make it.  You can still eat a plate of bacon every morning if you like.

 

I guess that makes sense, since the MDR food is also often "a step above" on Celebrity too.  My daughter had the everyday NY Strip on Celebrity Edge most days in August.  When we were on Oasis at the end of October, the quality of the NY Strip was noticeably different on Royal.  I don't think she noticed or cared though, and enjoyed it on both ships.

On the other hand, the menu descriptions do seem to be very "fancy" on Celebrity.  More fancy than they really are.  They like to talk about truffles all the time.  Wife and I aren't huge fans of truffles.  Luckily it seems like all Celebrity does is whisper "truffle" above the plate of food, while vaguely waving one around, sealed in a plastic bag....

 

10 minutes ago, BrianAlt said:

Also, on Celebrity if you're in a Sky Suite you're considered a full suite guest.  The Sky Suite is like a Jr. Suite on Royal and on Royal you're treated like a semi-suite guest in a Jr. Suite.  

One thing missing on Celebrity are the Broadway style shows.  The shows tend to be more of the revue style shows.  But they also incorporate some terrific acrobatics in some. 

Their ships also seem to have fewer (but larger) bars.  On Edge my wife and I kinda missed having a large number of different bar venues to visit during the cruise, compared to most Royal ships.  Indoors, there was really just the martini bar, eden, and the nightclub (which was dead until late at night).  So basically two bars to switch between.

I did like that they have more of an Enrichment/Lecture program on Celebrity.  Not as in depth as Cunard, but still nice to have as an option.

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I found a rare solo deal based on their Simply Sail promo for last minute deals. 

Edge interior for under $500 plus taxes plus gratuity, 7 nights.  No wifi, no drinks other than Elite drinks. 

Like my ventures on a few other cruise lines during the restart, it's $500.  What could go wrong?  Answer: Omicron!  Are you kidding me!  Ugh.     

At least I'll be quarantined in "modern luxury"!  

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1 hour ago, twangster said:

Answer: Omicron!  Are you kidding me!  Ugh.     

At least I'll be quarantined in "modern luxury"!  

I was reading on Cruise Critic that for quarantine on Celebrity, you get moved to a Balcony cabin (vs an oceanview on Royal).  And if you do have a drink package, they will still send you drinks via room service.  I donno if they will send you free Elite drinks during happy hour or not—lets hope you don't need to find out!

 

 

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I have a question about specialty restaurants and gratuities. Since you were just cruising, you may know the answer to this. 

We have already prepaid all of our gratuities for our cruise in March. I have reservations at Chops Grille for one evening. I had to move my reservation from night 2 to night 3. When I cancelled my reservation for night 2, and rebooted it for night 3, the price went down from 49.99/person to 46.99/person. So I am saving a whole $3/person. When I went to check out, there was an 18% gratuity added on, making my total over $110 for 2 people. They did not do this with my original reservation that was $49.99/person. 

Has there even some sort of policy change with paying extra gratuities when eating in a specialty restaurant? How can we prepay all of our gratuities, then when we have to reschedule, all of a sudden we have an extra 18% added on??? I called customer service and they are worthless. 

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54 minutes ago, LisaG0125 said:

I have a question about specialty restaurants and gratuities. Since you were just cruising, you may know the answer to this. 

We have already prepaid all of our gratuities for our cruise in March. I have reservations at Chops Grille for one evening. I had to move my reservation from night 2 to night 3. When I cancelled my reservation for night 2, and rebooted it for night 3, the price went down from 49.99/person to 46.99/person. So I am saving a whole $3/person. When I went to check out, there was an 18% gratuity added on, making my total over $110 for 2 people. They did not do this with my original reservation that was $49.99/person. 

Has there even some sort of policy change with paying extra gratuities when eating in a specialty restaurant? How can we prepay all of our gratuities, then when we have to reschedule, all of a sudden we have an extra 18% added on??? I called customer service and they are worthless. 

They didn't really change the policy as much as they just changed the way they charged it.  Previously the gratuities were written into the price.  Now they just add it in separately.  That's what makes it difficult to compare old prices and new prices.  But gratuities were always covered.

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14 hours ago, LisaG0125 said:

I have a question about specialty restaurants and gratuities. Since you were just cruising, you may know the answer to this. 

We have already prepaid all of our gratuities for our cruise in March. I have reservations at Chops Grille for one evening. I had to move my reservation from night 2 to night 3. When I cancelled my reservation for night 2, and rebooted it for night 3, the price went down from 49.99/person to 46.99/person. So I am saving a whole $3/person. When I went to check out, there was an 18% gratuity added on, making my total over $110 for 2 people. They did not do this with my original reservation that was $49.99/person. 

Has there even some sort of policy change with paying extra gratuities when eating in a specialty restaurant? How can we prepay all of our gratuities, then when we have to reschedule, all of a sudden we have an extra 18% added on??? I called customer service and they are worthless. 

I can't really say.  I had a pre-paid 3-night dining package.

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