There are a lot of high-maintenance, “Negative Nellie’s” on Cruise Critic (and in particular, the Celebrity board), especially where food comes in. No one has ever starved on a cruise, and food is very subjective. Most have ships have specialty restaurants that you can book (for an upcharge) and have a more upscale dining experience, if that’s your thing. I can’t speak to what Celebrity was pre-Covid, but I just cruised on one of their Edge-class ships in January and loved everything about it. Food quality seemed on par with what you’d expect from a cruise ship. I had some outstanding meals, some good meals and nothing that I thought was terrible. I love the burgers, but many on Cruise Critic hate them. The pizza was the best I’ve had on a cruise ship. The one slightly negative was that I thought kids would be bored on Celebrity, when compared to Royal Carribean and NCL (but I’m cruising without kids at this point in my life, so I don’t care about that!)
Things to consider about older ships - their rates tend to be less than the newest and the biggest ships. Also, if you’re considering a port heavy itinerary (Greece/Med cruises are often port-heavy), I wouldn’t pay a premium to be on the newest & biggest ships, since you’re going to be spending a lot of time exploring ports.
That’s a good point. In 2012 we had a fabulous Western Med cruise on Norwegian, starting/ending in Barcelona It was a way to have “one bedroom” for tours of Pompei and Rome and Florence (with long bus trips, pricey shore excursions) and Cannes and Marseilles. However we did not have all that much time to enjoy the ship amenities. But we liked the vibe, so a few years later we did a Caribbean cruise.
I’m going on a Royal Caribbean cruise in April. It is the coast of California, so it seems silly to pay for shore excursions in Monterey and San Francisco when everyone speaks English and we could always get an Uber back to wherever we need to be.
All the reviews on CC seem to be that my ship is old and the food is subpar. I’m not sure how bad a salad or avocado toast can be (or what the expectation is to make it so subpar).
I just want to float around for 6 days, not go to the grocery store, not deal with life. My expectations are very low so I expect them to be met. I hope everything is very inconvenient so that I have to walk 500 step to get a treat or see a show. I want to get all my steps in.
My big splurge may be to rent an ebike in Monterey and pedal out to Pebble Beach on the 17 mile ride.
I’ve been on about 25 cruises over the course of the last 18 years or so. My overall take is that the food on cruises is mostly banquet quality, which it pretty much has to be when you consider the number of meals they are serving and the size of modern day ships. There are hits and misses but you need to go into it with realistic expectations. Also I think there’s this carryover mentality from the pre-2000 era where cruising was much more truly all inclusive and also much more expensive compared to a typical vacation – and on much smaller ships. I still see news stories about some cruise mishap or another, describing the cruise as the person’s “trip of a lifetime.” But modern day mass market cruising can be a decent bargain compared to a land based trip. At the end of the day you need to go into it with realistic expectations. And I think many of the complaints you read on Cruise Critic are from people with unrealistic expectations.
Best meals I ever had on a ship was Celebrity Mercury, Alaska itinerary - they had a “secret” dining room, cost $2 p/p - all the items served were fresh caught/raised/grown in Alaska - the staff that wanted to promote to server in the main dining rooms were our servers, so they bent over backwards to ensure the best service - they only had seating for 20, and there were several evenings (over 10 nights) where it was just we 2. I fell in love with the beef stew, Alaskan raised beef, freshest veggies ever and by far the best service with an incredible window table. We only found out about it because my friend is chatty and engaged a worker about the food on night 1.
OP here with an update. We ended up choosing Celebrity - the cost was more reasonable for all four of us and we decided it would offer more offer entertainment for the kids, as well as allowing us more freedom in choosing what to explore in the ports. Really looking forward to it!
This is an old thread - but very appropriate. Friends want us to go on a cruise with them this fall (late to the planning) and the one everyone has agreed upon is a Celebrity cruise. The cruise appears to be fairly full - perhaps a lot of the staterooms are being held by travel agents? Tried booking online on the celebrity website and costco and can only get rooms way at the front of the ship.
Someone suggested that going through a travel agent might be better. Any recommendations?
I hardly ever use a travel agent, when I do, I contact Affordable Tours. They’re super responsive and helpful (I usually just stick with the person who answers my email or call) - I am using them for my Greek island tall ship sailing this late summer, my agent is Harry Little, Toll Free: (800) 935-2620 Ext. 5625, E-mail: harry@affordabletours.com -
Costco is a travel agent. You can call and speak to a live agent if you want.
You can try Vacationstogo, which specializes in cruises. When I called recently, the guy offered to get us the ‘pick your own stateroom’ rate even though this was the first time booking with them (that’s a perk for return travelers)
But if you are booking with little notice, you are going to have a hard time getting the ‘prime’ stateroom. Recently we cruised and picked the center of the ship on a deck with no nightclubs or restaurants above or below. After exploring, we kind of liked the front of the ship. It seemed much quieter than the main section we were in.
They are generally quieter with little foot traffic other than those ‘living’ there, however there can be a lot more movement up front. We had the very most forward cabin (front and center, overlooking the bow) on Celebrity Mercury to Alaska out of Los Angeles, and while the cabin was truly amazing (unobstructed views with 3 huge picture windows), the first 2 nights we hardly slept as we we were sailing against the current and the slamming sound was intense! It really sounded like we were crashing into building after building. Once we were north and in Alaska waters everything calmed down.
Realized I had forgotten to upgrade this thread. I did find a travel agent to go through and the deal we got through them was so much better than the one we could get online (either directly from Celebrity or from Costco).
The agent said they hold a huge block of rooms in every category and they are given these rooms at a block rate - so they can offer pretty significant discounts and on-board credit. Very interesting because the last time we did this, the TA’s offer was nothing different from Costco.
There’s a website -not sure if I can post the link here, but search for competing cruise prices. If you input the cruise you are interested in, they will have several TAs sending you quotes for that cruise. Some of the TAs on the site appear to have good deals, some are very similar to the big box stores. I contacted one of those agents.
One tip I have for those scouting cruise deals… also check on flight prices to port city. For example, it can be pricey to fly into Florida ports for winter cruises. Also affordable hotels may be tough to find night prior.
If you’re sailing in waters that are usually calm, like the Greek Islands, this may not be an issue. I’d be more worried about this in, say, Patagonia, or a winter Atlantic crossing.
I am a ‘bargain’ cruiser and usually only book a month or two before sailing. Inventory is going to be limited at that time and I may have to get a room in the front of the ship. After all, 1/3 of the ship is in the front. Paying more is sometimes an option for getting the stateroom you want, but I’m cheap.
We might still end up at the front of the ship. This particular cruise is pretty fully booked - I mentioned the only insides available were at the front of the ship. The TA’s deal was for guarantee ocean view cabins for the same price with several add-ons. After looking at what cabins we could possibly get assigned, we went ahead. This class of cabins is either mid-ship on the lower decks or way up front on deck 6 and 7 I believe.