A DCL Platinum does a Celebrity Cruise

Thank you for this! Nice to get some inside view on other lines and costs.

I have promised that the Carnival Brands (Sadly including princess) won't get any of my money due to their egregious environmental blights but I really appreciate this cost perspective.

I think we'll probably try Virgin next. Seems like they have a lot of interesting offerings.

As a non-concierge traveler, it seems like lots of the experiences that other concierge guests get on other lines are things that are regularly included with Disney. Sadly, concierge will never be a consideration for us just due to the cost and no discounts.
Yeah, we have never sailed concierge/suites either. I'd rather take more cruises!
 
Celebrity has had drinks, wifi, and gratuities included (except for deeply discounted fares) for the past few years, so my final on-board bill there has been much much lower than it is on Disney. I do like specialty dining so that adds a bit, but IMO the food in all of the MDRs is excellent so it is pretty easy to avoid specialty dining if you want to (unlike with Royal Caribbean where I feel like it is a must). We've booked suites on Celebrity lately and also find that the $600 OBC covers most of our shore excursions too. It'll be interesting to see if that changes now that they're moving away from the all-inclusive model.

I actually looked at a few cruises in 2021 because of their "All inclusive" model that they had running for a while. I would always make it through and find the "Lowest price" or "Sail free" things as one or the other but not both. so for example, base fare is 1200, but if you book the package with the "free" included items, the base faire is 1800.

Tried to interact with Celebrity about the fact that the "all inclusive" items were not in fact free if the prices were different. Didn't go anywhere.

They're worth a great deal to me in terms of a cruise. They're a big part of why I choose DCL: Disney entertainment (including the theater shows, family game shows, scavenger hunts, funny bingo, silent dance parties, Disney on Demand on the stateroom TV), themed MDRs, waterslides, character interactions, beautifully nautically-themed ship, promenade, pleasant stateroom, Castaway Cay. That's what I think about when I think about taking a cruise. I would never do a Bahamian or Caribbean cruise non-DCL, because I expect all of those things. For a European cruise that was mainly about the ports I'd be more open-minded, perhaps, but for a tropical cruise getaway, I want all of those things I listed.
For some, the attachment to the Disney offerings is minimal. It sounds like you have a similar attachment to me in that, lots of the Disney offerings are WHY we cruise and are things that are easily accessible to cruisers with Disney. We have also decided that the cost of DCL currently (not saying that wont change obviously as they continue to get rid of things) more than meets our expectations for a vacation and the already included options are more than sufficient. I struggle to book a Bahamian/Caribbean itinerary with another line because the Disney offerings are what are expected/anticipated.
 
They're worth a great deal to me in terms of a cruise. They're a big part of why I choose DCL: Disney entertainment (including the theater shows, family game shows, scavenger hunts, funny bingo, silent dance parties, Disney on Demand on the stateroom TV), themed MDRs, waterslides, character interactions, beautifully nautically-themed ship, promenade, pleasant stateroom, Castaway Cay. That's what I think about when I think about taking a cruise. I would never do a Bahamian or Caribbean cruise non-DCL, because I expect all of those things. For a European cruise that was mainly about the ports I'd be more open-minded, perhaps, but for a tropical cruise getaway, I want all of those things I listed.

I can't sail 7 nights in April. I'm a schoolteacher. It's either school holiday cruises or 3-night weekend cruises. Yes, this really limits when and how often I can cruise, which is part of why I'm particular about getting what I want out of a cruise.
Listen, I get it, if you just have to have those Disney touches go for it. The reason I started this thread was to just point out that if you aren't jonesing for Disney there are alternatives out there that provide just as good if not better service and food offerings then DCL for a much lower price.

And since you mentioned needing to do school holidays I looked at December 2023 leaving on 12/16 found a DCL western ion a cat 7A for $5,331.06 and that's with the 'early' pricing available as a platinum CC member. Checking on Celebrity for an Eastern also leaving on 12/16 I found an eastern for $3,291.14 which is there doesn't include any 'exrtra' rate, $2.039.92 less than DCL.

And just for grins I priced out a Sky suite, their entry level suite, which gets you all The Retreat benefits (premium WiFi, $600 on board credit to be uses as you want, premium drink package and tips) for $5,800.14, only $469.08 more then DCL for an obstructed veranda room. Compare that to DCL for a cat 3A concierge, which you still have to add on tips, any drinks and WiFi if needed, for $13,381.06

So again, just saying, if you don't need all the DCL touches and are just looking for a cruise on a premium cruise line take the time and look around, you might be surprised how much the DCL pricing premium is.
 
Listen, I get it, if you just have to have those Disney touches go for it. The reason I started this thread was to just point out that if you aren't jonesing for Disney there are alternatives out there that provide just as good if not better service and food offerings then DCL for a much lower price.

And since you mentioned needing to do school holidays I looked at December 2023 leaving on 12/16 found a DCL western ion a cat 7A for $5,331.06 and that's with the 'early' pricing available as a platinum CC member. Checking on Celebrity for an Eastern also leaving on 12/16 I found an eastern for $3,291.14 which is there doesn't include any 'exrtra' rate, $2.039.92 less than DCL.

And just for grins I priced out a Sky suite, their entry level suite, which gets you all The Retreat benefits (premium WiFi, $600 on board credit to be uses as you want, premium drink package and tips) for $5,800.14, only $469.08 more then DCL for an obstructed veranda room. Compare that to DCL for a cat 3A concierge, which you still have to add on tips, any drinks and WiFi if needed, for $13,381.06

So again, just saying, if you don't need all the DCL touches and are just looking for a cruise on a premium cruise line take the time and look around, you might be surprised how much the DCL pricing premium is.
You messaged me, I just answered you. I didn't challenge your preferences, you challenged mine. You should cruise wherever you're happy. DCL isn't for everyone.

I'm actually booked on that exact Fantasy cruise you mentioned for only $4,100: midship oceanview (I don't need a verandah) booked on Gold release day with a placeholder discount. If I really needed to save I'd book an inside and pay about $3,700 and still be cruising Disney during my Christmas vacation, with characters floating by my magical porthole like on our first Fantasy cruise. One reason I'm happy with an oceanview is that all oceanviews on DCL are spacious and comfortable, with large windows, unlike on some other lines.

I don't drink, so drink packages mean nothing to me. I like to unplug and detach from the world on a cruise, so Wifi packages mean nothing to me. I can't afford to sail concierge and don't need it, so DCL's crazy concierge pricing means nothing to me.
 
Last edited:

You messaged me, I just answered you. I didn't challenge your preferences, you challenged mine.
Sorry if you thought I was challenging you, I was just trying to provide pricing for a time of year when you said you could sail since my prior pricing was during a time when you couldn't.
 
Sorry if you thought I was challenging you, I was just trying to provide pricing for a time of year when you said you could sail since my prior pricing was during a time when you couldn't.
I was referring to your first message, where you started by asking me what Disney cruise features were worth to me. Then you sounded a bit put off by my answer.

I don't mind a challenge, though, so I'm fine. Carry on. Glad you've found a line you like.
 
Last edited:
I actually looked at a few cruises in 2021 because of their "All inclusive" model that they had running for a while. I would always make it through and find the "Lowest price" or "Sail free" things as one or the other but not both. so for example, base fare is 1200, but if you book the package with the "free" included items, the base faire is 1800.

Tried to interact with Celebrity about the fact that the "all inclusive" items were not in fact free if the prices were different. Didn't go anywhere.
No one ever said that it was free. Nothing is ever free—you pay for it somewhere, be it in the cruise fare or separately. Even Celebrity never used “free” in its marketing. But given that I would be buying Wi-Fi and a drink package anyway I appreciated it, and it made the total cost of the vacation incredibly predictable because I ended up with basically no onboard charges. It was never a situation where they lured me in with a low cruise fare and then nickel and dimed me to death.

MSC, on the other hand …
 
No one ever said that it was free. Nothing is ever free—you pay for it somewhere, be it in the cruise fare or separately. Even Celebrity never used “free” in its marketing. But given that I would be buying Wi-Fi and a drink package anyway I appreciated it, and it made the total cost of the vacation incredibly predictable because I ended up with basically no onboard charges. It was never a situation where they lured me in with a low cruise fare and then nickel and dimed me to death.

MSC, on the other hand …
The marketing that they used when I was pricing was "Free Drinks, Free Tips, OBC based on what stateroom level you book"

Literally had the word free attached to them. That's the only reason I was willing to argue with Celebrity about it 🤣

MSC... I haven't heard many positives.
 
First let me start by saying I love Disney Cruise Line. I think their staff is tremendous and the ships are beautiful. But as a couple that have grown kids and we're retired it was time to look into doing something else. We've done a Carnival cruise before, never again, and a Royal Caribbean which was nice but didn't come close to DCL in our opinion. So I asked Tracey Heinrichs, our Dreams travel agent, for alternatives and she highly recommended Celebrity cruises.

We already had 7 night book on the Fantasy for a 1/15/22 cruise in a cat 4A cabin, which was $5,406.26 for the two adults. Looking at Celebrity they also had a 7 night leaving on 1/15/22 on their newest ship, the Apex making two of the same stops that the Fantasy was going to. I was looking over all their stateroom option, which they have a lot of, I decided on a Sky Suite for $5,841.30 which is their entry level suite into their Retreat class. To see what that gets you take a look at https://www.celebritycruises.com/things-to-do-onboard/staterooms/suite-class, they do a better job then I could in describing. So yes I was going to pay more then Disney but I get their version of a concierge class room (which Disney wanted $9,676.26 for a 3A) which also include streaming WiFi (yes you could actually stream Netflix), tips, premium drink package (which includes free soda from anywhere) and a $600 on board credit. If you want to see what the Sky Suite looks like check this video tour from another travel agent (don't use them, use Dreams)
. So I cancelled the DCL cruise and had Tracey book Celebrity.

Once you are booked on Celebrity you can use their web site to book your excursions, there isn't the hard opening dates like DCL has and your days depend on which level of Castaway Cay club you belong to, which was nice. A down side though it they want you to pay for any book excursions when you reserve them. We didn't book many and our $600 on board credit covered just about all of them and the spa appointments that the wife made.

A couple weeks before the cruise I got an e-mail from Celebrity informing me of their Move Up program. Basically they show you all the rooms you can bid to upgrade to from your current category. They provide a minimum and maximun recommend bid amount, you can select none, one or more staterooms to bid on and sometime before you depart they will let you know if you won any of the upgrades. You must provide a credit card number when you bid and if the bid is accepted your card is charged the upgrade amount right away, and you can't cancel an accepted bid once it's accepted. Since this cruise was to celebrity our 40th wedding anniversary I put in a bid to upgrade to the next level up suite, the Celebrity suite. The going rate for this suite was $10,569.38, I submitted a bid of $2,210 to upgrade bring my fare up to $$8.051.30, which is still cheaper them the 3A concierge stateroom on the Fantasy. I won that bid and was provided our new suite number the next day. If you want to see a video tour of this suite look at
.

On departure day we arrive at the cruise terminal in Port Everglades and find the line that's used by The Retreat guests. Once your Covid vaccination cards were checked along with our negative Covid test results we were escorted to an elevator which took us to The Retreat lounge in the terminal. We were told to just take a seat and a staff member would be over to finish our check in. Since we had already did the check in using their app they just handed out a update on Covid policies and told us we would be boarding shortly. There is a small bar along with some finger foods to eat while waiting.
Shortly after 11AM we were told we could board the ship, we could enter our stateroom and drop off any carry on bags we wanted before proceeding to lunch. We found our room, the key cards were located there along with a sign on the door they were still preparing the room, so we dropped our bags off in the room and had lunch.

I don't want to do day by day of the cruise but an overview of our experiece. Food was equal to if not better then DCL. On the Apex, and I believe also the Edge, the 'main dining room' is decided into four smaller one, all four will have some of the same meal options every night while each will have some specialty items based on the local they represent. The Tuscan will have some Italian based items, Cyrus Greek, Normandie French and Cosmopolitan American. Of course there are also a few extra cost premium restaurants, once of which has an animated show which John and Kevin did a review of and really loved,
, for a video from their experience.

Entertaimnent on the ship was hit or miss. For our sailing they have three main stage shows that were supposed to be preformed, Rockumentry, The Tree of Life (which was cancelled due to technical issues) and Crystalize. Their theater makes use of a giant LED video wall behind the stage, so there's not a lot of physical scenery in their shows like Disney has, it a different experience when what your might be expecting. Here's a couple links to short videos from the two shows so you can see what they were like https://flic.kr/p/2mZde7b .
On the other nights they had a comedian (really bad) and a couple singers that were doing tributes to Tina Turner and Ed Sheeran, not bad but not great either. They also had some smaller acts on a few nights, one called Caravan in The Club, which is like a small night club which they use for multiple events doing the cruise and in The Eden they had either a solo performer or a smaller show, didn't make it to those but taking to others on the cruise said they were good.

Service wise we were blown away by the staff we interacted with. As a guest in The Retreat, your suite has a personal Retreat Host, they used to be called butlers. They are they to make sure all your needs are taken care of and are on call 24x7, you're given their business card with their 'cell' phone number to call them directly. We also met our stateroom attendant which also gave us his business card and his phone number. One night we were going back to the room from diner and our attendant was in the room next to our and we asked if he was done with our room, if he wasn't we needed to go away from awhile since due to Covid protocols the staff isn't allowed in the rooms at the same time as the guests to make contract tracing easier. We were told our Retreat host was in the room so give him a couple minutes. He came to the door to let us in and we found he had been decorating the room for our wedding anniversary. https://flic.kr/p/2mZ9opP https://flic.kr/p/2mZbgA2 https://flic.kr/p/2mZbgBu .

The decor of the ship in my opinion is much like a high end hotel. There's tons of art all over the ship and there are over 5,000 live plants, including a roof top garden which has a grill (extra cost) and seating for viewing their large LCD TV where they show movies and special sporting events. I hate to use this guys videos again but here's a link to a complete tour of the ship, https://youtu.be/T80KXmCgeJ4.

Lastly, what was it like sailing during Covid, strange is the best word to use. First the ship can handle a little over 3,000 passengers, we had 1,091 for our sailing on board. Normally I don't try to make an effort to listen to the daily captains announcement but on a Covid cruise you do so you can hear if there are any cases on board (by the end of the cruise we had 7 passengers and 20 crew that had tested positive). You didn't have to worry about finding a lounger up by the pools since they always had open ones. Didn't need to show up early for show to get a seat, plenty of open ones and reservations for any restaurant wasn't really necessary, a short wait got you in if there was any.

I created a PDF file of their version of the Navigator, called Celebrity Today. I tried to upload it on this site but it was too big, if you can to see if go to https://boards.cruisecritic.com/top...ers-from-apex-11522-sailing/#comment-62516223 where you can download it.

Will be do Celebrity again, in a heart beat, we have two cruises book, and Alaska and British Isle and hope to do many more. While we love DCL their prices are just too high compared to other cruise lines that can provide the same or better level of service in our opinion, sorry Disney.

And PLEASE book any cruise using a Dreams agent and not Harr travel.
Like you, my husband and I decided to book a cruise on the Celebrity Edge last October. We have sailed 16-17 cruises with DCL, with about 12 of those on the Magic due to its itinerary. We booked an Aqua Class room with Veranda. We absolutely loved our cabin with the extended infinity veranda. Wifi included with price of cruise and yes, I watched youtube videos while on the cruise. I would say the food was more fancy than DCL, which I eat like a kid and prefer DCL's food. We ate mostly in the buffet, their pizza was fabulous. We have an upcoming cruise on Discovery Princess for September, but we also still cruise DCL. We were on the Hawaii cruise in May and just booked the DVC member cruise on the Wish for next year. But we are glad to have options. Thanks for your report.
 
Like you, my husband and I decided to book a cruise on the Celebrity Edge last October. We have sailed 16-17 cruises with DCL, with about 12 of those on the Magic due to its itinerary. We booked an Aqua Class room with Veranda. We absolutely loved our cabin with the extended infinity veranda. Wifi included with price of cruise and yes, I watched youtube videos while on the cruise. I would say the food was more fancy than DCL, which I eat like a kid and prefer DCL's food. We ate mostly in the buffet, their pizza was fabulous. We have an upcoming cruise on Discovery Princess for September, but we also still cruise DCL. We were on the Hawaii cruise in May and just booked the DVC member cruise on the Wish for next year. But we are glad to have options. Thanks for your report.
Well, if you like pizza, you’ll like Princess. Slice Pizza on the deck is good enough but go to Gigi’s (which is called “Alfredo’s on many of their other ships) and the pizza is even better!
 
First let me start by saying I love Disney Cruise Line. I think their staff is tremendous and the ships are beautiful. But as a couple that have grown kids and we're retired it was time to look into doing something else. We've done a Carnival cruise before, never again, and a Royal Caribbean which was nice but didn't come close to DCL in our opinion. So I asked Tracey Heinrichs, our Dreams travel agent, for alternatives and she highly recommended Celebrity cruises.

We already had 7 night book on the Fantasy for a 1/15/22 cruise in a cat 4A cabin, which was $5,406.26 for the two adults. Looking at Celebrity they also had a 7 night leaving on 1/15/22 on their newest ship, the Apex making two of the same stops that the Fantasy was going to. I was looking over all their stateroom option, which they have a lot of, I decided on a Sky Suite for $5,841.30 which is their entry level suite into their Retreat class. To see what that gets you take a look at https://www.celebritycruises.com/things-to-do-onboard/staterooms/suite-class, they do a better job then I could in describing. So yes I was going to pay more then Disney but I get their version of a concierge class room (which Disney wanted $9,676.26 for a 3A) which also include streaming WiFi (yes you could actually stream Netflix), tips, premium drink package (which includes free soda from anywhere) and a $600 on board credit. If you want to see what the Sky Suite looks like check this video tour from another travel agent (don't use them, use Dreams)
. So I cancelled the DCL cruise and had Tracey book Celebrity.

Once you are booked on Celebrity you can use their web site to book your excursions, there isn't the hard opening dates like DCL has and your days depend on which level of Castaway Cay club you belong to, which was nice. A down side though it they want you to pay for any book excursions when you reserve them. We didn't book many and our $600 on board credit covered just about all of them and the spa appointments that the wife made.

A couple weeks before the cruise I got an e-mail from Celebrity informing me of their Move Up program. Basically they show you all the rooms you can bid to upgrade to from your current category. They provide a minimum and maximun recommend bid amount, you can select none, one or more staterooms to bid on and sometime before you depart they will let you know if you won any of the upgrades. You must provide a credit card number when you bid and if the bid is accepted your card is charged the upgrade amount right away, and you can't cancel an accepted bid once it's accepted. Since this cruise was to celebrity our 40th wedding anniversary I put in a bid to upgrade to the next level up suite, the Celebrity suite. The going rate for this suite was $10,569.38, I submitted a bid of $2,210 to upgrade bring my fare up to $$8.051.30, which is still cheaper them the 3A concierge stateroom on the Fantasy. I won that bid and was provided our new suite number the next day. If you want to see a video tour of this suite look at
.

On departure day we arrive at the cruise terminal in Port Everglades and find the line that's used by The Retreat guests. Once your Covid vaccination cards were checked along with our negative Covid test results we were escorted to an elevator which took us to The Retreat lounge in the terminal. We were told to just take a seat and a staff member would be over to finish our check in. Since we had already did the check in using their app they just handed out a update on Covid policies and told us we would be boarding shortly. There is a small bar along with some finger foods to eat while waiting.
Shortly after 11AM we were told we could board the ship, we could enter our stateroom and drop off any carry on bags we wanted before proceeding to lunch. We found our room, the key cards were located there along with a sign on the door they were still preparing the room, so we dropped our bags off in the room and had lunch.

I don't want to do day by day of the cruise but an overview of our experiece. Food was equal to if not better then DCL. On the Apex, and I believe also the Edge, the 'main dining room' is decided into four smaller one, all four will have some of the same meal options every night while each will have some specialty items based on the local they represent. The Tuscan will have some Italian based items, Cyrus Greek, Normandie French and Cosmopolitan American. Of course there are also a few extra cost premium restaurants, once of which has an animated show which John and Kevin did a review of and really loved,
, for a video from their experience.

Entertaimnent on the ship was hit or miss. For our sailing they have three main stage shows that were supposed to be preformed, Rockumentry, The Tree of Life (which was cancelled due to technical issues) and Crystalize. Their theater makes use of a giant LED video wall behind the stage, so there's not a lot of physical scenery in their shows like Disney has, it a different experience when what your might be expecting. Here's a couple links to short videos from the two shows so you can see what they were like https://flic.kr/p/2mZde7b .
On the other nights they had a comedian (really bad) and a couple singers that were doing tributes to Tina Turner and Ed Sheeran, not bad but not great either. They also had some smaller acts on a few nights, one called Caravan in The Club, which is like a small night club which they use for multiple events doing the cruise and in The Eden they had either a solo performer or a smaller show, didn't make it to those but taking to others on the cruise said they were good.

Service wise we were blown away by the staff we interacted with. As a guest in The Retreat, your suite has a personal Retreat Host, they used to be called butlers. They are they to make sure all your needs are taken care of and are on call 24x7, you're given their business card with their 'cell' phone number to call them directly. We also met our stateroom attendant which also gave us his business card and his phone number. One night we were going back to the room from diner and our attendant was in the room next to our and we asked if he was done with our room, if he wasn't we needed to go away from awhile since due to Covid protocols the staff isn't allowed in the rooms at the same time as the guests to make contract tracing easier. We were told our Retreat host was in the room so give him a couple minutes. He came to the door to let us in and we found he had been decorating the room for our wedding anniversary. https://flic.kr/p/2mZ9opP https://flic.kr/p/2mZbgA2 https://flic.kr/p/2mZbgBu .

The decor of the ship in my opinion is much like a high end hotel. There's tons of art all over the ship and there are over 5,000 live plants, including a roof top garden which has a grill (extra cost) and seating for viewing their large LCD TV where they show movies and special sporting events. I hate to use this guys videos again but here's a link to a complete tour of the ship, https://youtu.be/T80KXmCgeJ4.

Lastly, what was it like sailing during Covid, strange is the best word to use. First the ship can handle a little over 3,000 passengers, we had 1,091 for our sailing on board. Normally I don't try to make an effort to listen to the daily captains announcement but on a Covid cruise you do so you can hear if there are any cases on board (by the end of the cruise we had 7 passengers and 20 crew that had tested positive). You didn't have to worry about finding a lounger up by the pools since they always had open ones. Didn't need to show up early for show to get a seat, plenty of open ones and reservations for any restaurant wasn't really necessary, a short wait got you in if there was any.

I created a PDF file of their version of the Navigator, called Celebrity Today. I tried to upload it on this site but it was too big, if you can to see if go to https://boards.cruisecritic.com/top...ers-from-apex-11522-sailing/#comment-62516223 where you can download it.

Will be do Celebrity again, in a heart beat, we have two cruises book, and Alaska and British Isle and hope to do many more. While we love DCL their prices are just too high compared to other cruise lines that can provide the same or better level of service in our opinion, sorry Disney.

And PLEASE book any cruise using a Dreams agent and not Harr travel.
I know you're retired but did you happen to notice whether they had any activities for the teen and tween crowd? Like teen lounges and such? How much smoking and gambling was on the ship? Was it easily avoidable?
 
I know you're retired but did you happen to notice whether they had any activities for the teen and tween crowd? Like teen lounges and such? How much smoking and gambling was on the ship? Was it easily avoidable?
When we went the ship was only about 50% full, saw no teens and just a few children. I know there is a kids/teen area on the Apex but didn’t look into it. There is no smoking in the casino and you didn’t need to walk through it to get somewhere, the hallway wrapped around it.
 
I know you're retired but did you happen to notice whether they had any activities for the teen and tween crowd? Like teen lounges and such? How much smoking and gambling was on the ship? Was it easily avoidable?
Not Celebrity related, but Princess (which is similar)...

When we were on Regal Princess, the teens had their own deck area, complete with hot tub outside the teen area ("Beach House"). Our then 16 YO DD loved it, so much so that she says that Princess is her second favorite (after Virgin, we took her on that right after she turned 18, but that would have NOTHING to do with teen activities :) )...

1659023976961.png
 
Well, if you like pizza, you’ll like Princess. Slice Pizza on the deck is good enough but go to Gigi’s (which is called “Alfredo’s on many of their other ships) and the pizza is even better!
Thank you, I will absolutely try it.
 

GET UP TO A $1000 SHIPBOARD CREDIT AND AN EXCLUSIVE GIFT!

If you make your Disney Cruise Line reservation with Dreams Unlimited Travel you’ll receive these incredible shipboard credits to spend on your cruise!



























DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter

Back
Top