Friday, November 9, 2018

Comparing Celebrity and Princess

Being our first cruise on Celebrity, Mary and I are frequently comparing the experience to what we expect on a Princess ship.  Overall it's been a pretty good experience, but some things are definitely different.  Admittedly some of these may be ship-specific observations and may not apply to other Celebrity ships.
Some Observations:
  • Celebrity has a lot more art on board in public areas - this does give a bit of an upscale "feel" to the ship.
  • Elevator service is pretty fast.  This could be due to having 2200 passengers instead of 3000 but it is appreciated.
  • The Buffet - on this ship the buffet is spread out around the entire back half of the ship so if you want pancakes for breakfast you have to locate that station which is quite a ways from the main service lines.  Even the serving lines are in a big "U" which makes for lots of walking to figure out what is being served.  On Princess the serving lines are much more concentrated so it's easy to see what is available.
  • No drink service is the buffet eating area!  Unless you are ordering from the bar you have to get your own beverages.  We increasingly appreciate this service in the Princess buffet. 
  • The main dining room service is hard to compare since we do Anytime Dining on Princess and are "first seating" with our travel group on this ship. But the service does seem to be rather slow.  We are typically there for over 1 1/2 hours  (one time nearly 2 hours) while on Princess we typically finish in dinner in just over 1 hours.  Also we are a bit disappointed in the main courses.  One night we had to struggle a bit to find something we'd like.  While we feel Princess has backed off a bit on their Main Dining Room quality, it is still better than what we've experienced on this ship.  
  • No self-service laundry.  As with NCL, Celebrity offers a "fill the bag" price about half way thru the cruise, but having self service laundry for a few $/load on Princess is much much less expensive.
  • Lots of local music.  On Princess you often find musicians playing during the day in the main atrium, but here they are often in many of the public areas and sometimes during meal time.  A nice touch.
  • The production shows are not what we've come to expect on Princess.  We were surprised that you could get into the early show juts a few minutes before the show started and the theater is not full.  Maybe its due to being a smaller ship, but on princess you need to be seated around 30 minutes before the early show to get a good seat and the theater is typically full by 15 minutes before the show. 
Overall Celebrity seems to be a pretty good line, but I doubt we'll be taking it unless we find an itinerary that we especially like and can't find on Princess.

2 comments:

Warren said...

I have enjoyed the photos so much! We are freezing here. Snowstorm blew through this morning and left maybe an inch or 2. It melted off the concrete but stayed on the grass and rooftops. Way too early for this white stuff!! Enjoy your last days before you head home to this winter weather. Looks like you are following the Pacific Princess into port at Naples right now. See ya soon, Sylvia

Anonymous said...

Thanks Bill , hoping you are enjoying your last part of your holiday . Pat