A DCL Platinum does a Celebrity Cruise

[Intr3pid]

Sure it does. She's talking about the hold times on the DCL phone line. If she's using a travel agent, rather than waiting on hold on the phone she's taking 30 seconds to send an email to her agent and then it's the agent's problem.

Neither of you seem to be reading what you are responding to.

 

[DisneyConvert]

Wow. This is what I was not able to find the time/will to ask our T.A. Just getting tired of the Bahamas and wondering if there's cruising beyond DCL . . .

DCL has put itself in a very difficult position -- they are SO, SO good with families and kids AND/BUT the Covid rules & restrictions are not a terribly great fit for kids (too young to vaccinate, mostly immune from the worst aspects of the illness, and limited hours at the Kids Clubs )
Our now-20 year old son who has spent hundreds of hours on 12+ cruises in the Club/Lab/Vibe/Edge would not have been happy.

"it (is) a different experience when what your might be expecting." but it sounds pretty good though. Classy but not too high-end?
** Do things always start on time. DW and I love that about Disney . . . they are so time-respectful
** How are they with food allergies? DW has a bunch and RC did not pass the test(s), so we are cautious.
** Is it a big drinking scene (Carnival) or more laid-back? Neither of us drink, but we have no problems with those who do . . generally. On DCL, I have rarely encountered drunken behaviors.
** Are there a bit-more-edgy comedy choices?
** WiFi on Disney sucks . . . and their small'ish fleet makes it uneconomic to make the changes to fix it.
** Are there sports-beyond-ESPN available on the televised entertainment (i.e. multiple daily baseball games)?

 

[RAD]

Wow. This is what I was not able to find the time/will to ask our T.A. Just getting tired of the Bahamas and wondering if there's cruising beyond DCL . . .

DCL has put itself in a very difficult position -- they are SO, SO good with families and kids AND/BUT the Covid rules & restrictions are not a terribly great fit for kids (too young to vaccinate, mostly immune from the worst aspects of the illness, and limited hours at the Kids Clubs )
Our now-20 year old son who has spent hundreds of hours on 12+ cruises in the Club/Lab/Vibe/Edge would not have been happy.

"it (is) a different experience when what your might be expecting." but it sounds pretty good though. Classy but not too high-end?
Well there aren't any 5 foot mouses running around the place. Yes the cruise ship just felt more formal but not over the top. Example, the wait staff in the dining rooms all were wearing suites or slacks, tie and jacket. For our seven night cruise they had to dress up nights but like DCL formal nights some folks dress up, most don't. But they do say no shorts in the dining rooms at dinner, men need slacks or dressy jeans and a collared shirt, women nice slacks or a dress.
** Do things always start on time. DW and I love that about Disney . . . they are so time-respectful
Every show that we attended started on time.
** How are they with food allergies? DW has a bunch and RC did not pass the test(s), so we are cautious.
Every sit down meal we had they asked if anyone had a food allergy. My wife is allergic to shell fish and told the wait staff. On Disney sometimes someone from the kitchen staff would come out and talk to her, this didn't happen during the Celebrity cruise.
** Is it a big drinking scene (Carnival) or more laid-back? Neither of us drink, but we have no problems with those who do . . generally. On DCL, I have rarely encountered drunken behaviors.
Never saw it on the cruise, but then again the age group, looked lat 50's and older, are past that time of life. Even with at least the basic drink package being included for most fares didn't see people that had been over served.
** Are there a bit-more-edgy comedy choices?
Not on our cruise, in fact the one comic they did have on the cruise was horrible, lots of folks leaving during the show.
** WiFi on Disney sucks . . . and their small'ish fleet makes it uneconomic to make the changes to fix it.
The basic WiFi service is included which is good enough for e-mail and iMessage. Some folks say they can browse the net fine, others saying they couldn't. We were in a suite so we had the streaming service and I was able to stream video from Netflix and Amazon just fine and no issues surfing. We also did a few WiFi voice calls and even FaceTime with no problems. The best part is, the packages don't have a capacity limit like DCL, no need to keep logging on/off to make sure you don't go over your byte limit.
** Are there sports-beyond-ESPN available on the televised entertainment (i.e. multiple daily baseball games)?
There were three ESPN channels on the in room TV's and a couple special events channels. We saw all the NFL playoff games and some NBA games even an NCAA basketball game so they try to show sports games but even when they publish they're showing a game there's the note that satellite coverage issues might prevent it.

Hope the answers above in blue help.

 

[tidefan]

Wow. This is what I was not able to find the time/will to ask our T.A. Just getting tired of the Bahamas and wondering if there's cruising beyond DCL . . .

DCL has put itself in a very difficult position -- they are SO, SO good with families and kids AND/BUT the Covid rules & restrictions are not a terribly great fit for kids (too young to vaccinate, mostly immune from the worst aspects of the illness, and limited hours at the Kids Clubs )
Our now-20 year old son who has spent hundreds of hours on 12+ cruises in the Club/Lab/Vibe/Edge would not have been happy.

"it (is) a different experience when what your might be expecting." but it sounds pretty good though. Classy but not too high-end?
** Do things always start on time. DW and I love that about Disney . . . they are so time-respectful
** How are they with food allergies? DW has a bunch and RC did not pass the test(s), so we are cautious.
** Is it a big drinking scene (Carnival) or more laid-back? Neither of us drink, but we have no problems with those who do . . generally. On DCL, I have rarely encountered drunken behaviors.
** Are there a bit-more-edgy comedy choices?
** WiFi on Disney sucks . . . and their small'ish fleet makes it uneconomic to make the changes to fix it.
** Are there sports-beyond-ESPN available on the televised entertainment (i.e. multiple daily baseball games)?

There are some very good alternatives. If you weren't cruising with kids, I'd highly suggest Virgin Voyages, but with kids, there are still good options.

We haven't cruised Celebrity, so I think that the previous poster summed that up, but I can suggest that you may want to look at a ship in Princess' Royal class of ships (Royal Princess, Regal Princess, Sky Princess, Majestic Princess, Enchanted Princess). Classy, but not too high-end is EXACTLY how I would describe Princess. Also, there are little touches that we appreciate..

- Wifi. The new Princess ships are what they call "Medallion Class", so you get a little puck for your lanyard that essentially acts as a magic band for your whole trip. You don't even have to scan to open your door. It's pretty cool. These ships were built from the ground up for Wifi coverage. My wife has worked some from the nice open deck behind the Horizon Court and she said that the wifi was excellent. Never had an issue with it. Even streamed a football game with no problem.

- You mention allergies. My DW has a gluten allergy and not only is the head waiter in the MDR usually on top of it, the chefs in the buffet will come out to discuss. On Regal Princess, they would make my wife "off-menu" items just by her asking. On a side note, out of the many cruises that we've done, Regal Princess has by far the best buffet that we've had. Also, I believe that room service is still complimentary.

- Like DCL, there is a poolside grill option. This was one of the many things we found that we missed on RCCL (also, why does the Oasis shut it's ice cream down at 5:30?????)

- Princess ships with an Alfredo's (an included, casual sit-down restaurant) are a plus. When you see all the posts about Princess having the best pizza at sea, this is what they are talking about. There is also pizza out on the Lido deck, but while good, it's not as good as Alfredo's. (Their calzones are really good too...). The burgers on deck are good too, but I have to give credit where credit is due, I think that Guy's Burgers on Carnival takes that award...

- Princess does have a very underrated kid's program IMHO. They partner with Discovery channel, so there is a lot of Shark Week/Mythbusters type stuff. We saw on our last Princess cruise where they took the kids in the galley as a "Jr. Chef" program and let them cook in there. Not sure if that's going on now because of COVID, but all the kids seemed to love it. My DD is now 18, and she actually prefers Princess for teens (don't get me wrong, she loves DCL too...). That being said, she's not a "waterslide/rock wall" kind of person. If you are looking for that, then RCCL, Carnival, or NCL would be what you would want.

- We really like Princess' entertainment too. Not so much the main shows, though some are not bad, but they have a number of spaces where they always have something going on, be it game shows (Yes/No is our favorite), trivia, comedy (usually an early 'Family' and later "Adult" version, educational talks (mainly in Alaska), etc. They also have a LOT of live music, either in the Piazza or in the lounges. Our all-time favorite was when we stumbled into an "Irish Song sing-along" with an Irish band on Emerald Princess. Let's just say I'd want my kids to at least be teens for that one, but man was it fun... Another cool thing (I thought) on our last Princess Cruise on Regal Princess was apparently, the crew had formed an all-crew rock band, so Princess let them play one night. It got the whole ship into it.

- Like DCL (and Virgin), Princess does not charge for in-room movies. They were $11.99 on Oasis. (Not sure if they are included on Celebrity.)

- Every sea day, in the Crown Grill (steakhouse)/Wheelhouse Bar area, Princess does a complimentary British Pub lunch. I love their fish and chips, DW likes the shrimp. It's a nice change.

- Oh, and you don't have to check-out towels like you do on RCCL...

I might even throw Holland America in here as well, but I think that the age demographic would skew even higher on HAL than it would on Princess/Celebrity, but that would depend on the itinerary and the time you go. Any of these lines will have plenty of kids during times when schools are out of session.

 

[Marrila]

A word of caution after what happened to Genting/Crystal last week. Most cruise lines are on shaky grounds with such low occupancies and don't have the sort of cash cows that Disney does.

If you are booking Celebrity etc., book only to sail in the short term and/or put down as little a deposit as you can. Additionally, don't book something you feel you will have to cancel. Their current wait times for refunds are running at 6-8 weeks, and, as for FCCs, we are still waiting to have some from a cancellation last November to be re-issued. If you are used to Disney moving your money around in an instant on the phone, you will be in for a big surprise!

Isn't Celebrity a brand under the Royal Caribbean group?

I didn't have a problem getting a full refund from Celebrity in 2020, fwiw. I hope yours comes thru soon.

 

[Intr3pid]

Isn't Celebrity a brand under the Royal Caribbean group?

I didn't have a problem getting a full refund from Celebrity in 2020, fwiw. I hope yours comes thru soon.

Yes, RCL owns Celebrity. They pledged most of the Celebrity assets - including the new ship, Beyond, still being built - against the large loan they took out late last year. Now, like other cruise lines, they are going through short-term cash flow issues since the holiday sailings fizzled out due to Omicron. So, they are delaying releasing refunds etc. to guests.

 

[soniam]

@tidefan I so want to do a Virgin cruise. They sound amazing! Man, I wish DS would graduate and leave the house already

 

[tidefan]

@tidefan I so want to do a Virgin cruise. They sound amazing! Man, I wish DS would graduate and leave the house already

@soniam , it was amazing. One of our best cruise experiences. The food is amazing. I could live in that hammock on the balcony. We went this past November and booked again for later this Summer. It''s different, but we really enjoyed it.

 

[auntlynne]

My friend and I are looking at a Canada New England cruise on DCL for 6 night with 3 ports. It is a lot for me to put out the amount they are asking. I have looked and even budgeted a 11 night Boston, Maine and Canada cruise on The Celebrity Summit. It's more than the DCL cruise, but has more ports and more nights. It would be my 1st cruise ever and I'm not sure if doing an 11 night cruise would be too much for the first time. One plus for the Celebrity cruise is they have a shower only with no tub. We would need an accessible room on DCL because I have a Neurological condition that makes me not able to step out of a tub without getting off balance and having a lot of bars to hold onto. My own apartment tub has the side cut out of it and I have plenty of bars to grab. The accessible rooms showers flood the bathroom a little and I'm afraid my friend, our Stateroom Host or myself could slip and get hurt if we don't wipe it up enough. If we go with DCL we would possibly have to get an inside room on the Magic, but if we pick Celebrity we can get an oceanview room. The Celebrity cruise is out of Boston and I live about 30 minutes away from the cruise port. My friend would have to fly in from NC and we would stay at a hotel in the town next to mine the night before. The prices of hotels in Boston match the time square hotel prices, so going to the town next to me and taking a car service would be a better choice. It would be easier for me to do the Celebrity cruise than the DCL cruise. I would need to buy some more nice clothing and other things, but not having to pay airfare I would be able to buy what I need. The point I'm trying to make is would you do a 11 night cruise for your 1st ever cruise. I like to think I could do it. Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated.

I hear you about free-standing showers. I look for them when booking hotels (it seems more common in king-bed rooms for business travelers). I nearly panic when there is no grab bar for entering and exiting a tub.

If I had the time and money, I would be on that 11-night cruise in a heartbeat. I love using a cruise as a way to cover a large distance and many ports. We did an 11-night Mediterranean cruise immediately following a 14-night Transatlantic.

Visiting lots of ports is tiring, but the advantage of knowing where you will eat dinner, sleep -without having to repack is such a positive. Each day, it was like returning home.

You don’t have to buy a new wardrobe (unless you want to). Cruising seems to continue on a slope from formal to casual, with some exceptions ((Cunard). My MSC cruise with a lot of Cubans and Columbians was a nice fashion show that I hadn’t experienced in several years.

Here’s hoping you get a chance to try cruising, wherever, whenever.

 

[DLR70]

There are some very good alternatives. If you weren't cruising with kids, I'd highly suggest Virgin Voyages, but with kids, there are still good options.

We haven't cruised Celebrity, so I think that the previous poster summed that up, but I can suggest that you may want to look at a ship in Princess' Royal class of ships (Royal Princess, Regal Princess, Sky Princess, Majestic Princess, Enchanted Princess). Classy, but not too high-end is EXACTLY how I would describe Princess. Also, there are little touches that we appreciate..

- Wifi. The new Princess ships are what they call "Medallion Class", so you get a little puck for your lanyard that essentially acts as a magic band for your whole trip. You don't even have to scan to open your door. It's pretty cool. These ships were built from the ground up for Wifi coverage. My wife has worked some from the nice open deck behind the Horizon Court and she said that the wifi was excellent. Never had an issue with it. Even streamed a football game with no problem.

- You mention allergies. My DW has a gluten allergy and not only is the head waiter in the MDR usually on top of it, the chefs in the buffet will come out to discuss. On Regal Princess, they would make my wife "off-menu" items just by her asking. On a side note, out of the many cruises that we've done, Regal Princess has by far the best buffet that we've had. Also, I believe that room service is still complimentary.

- Like DCL, there is a poolside grill option. This was one of the many things we found that we missed on RCCL (also, why does the Oasis shut it's ice cream down at 5:30?????)

- Princess ships with an Alfredo's (an included, casual sit-down restaurant) are a plus. When you see all the posts about Princess having the best pizza at sea, this is what they are talking about. There is also pizza out on the Lido deck, but while good, it's not as good as Alfredo's. (Their calzones are really good too...). The burgers on deck are good too, but I have to give credit where credit is due, I think that Guy's Burgers on Carnival takes that award...

- Princess does have a very underrated kid's program IMHO. They partner with Discovery channel, so there is a lot of Shark Week/Mythbusters type stuff. We saw on our last Princess cruise where they took the kids in the galley as a "Jr. Chef" program and let them cook in there. Not sure if that's going on now because of COVID, but all the kids seemed to love it. My DD is now 18, and she actually prefers Princess for teens (don't get me wrong, she loves DCL too...). That being said, she's not a "waterslide/rock wall" kind of person. If you are looking for that, then RCCL, Carnival, or NCL would be what you would want.

- We really like Princess' entertainment too. Not so much the main shows, though some are not bad, but they have a number of spaces where they always have something going on, be it game shows (Yes/No is our favorite), trivia, comedy (usually an early 'Family' and later "Adult" version, educational talks (mainly in Alaska), etc. They also have a LOT of live music, either in the Piazza or in the lounges. Our all-time favorite was when we stumbled into an "Irish Song sing-along" with an Irish band on Emerald Princess. Let's just say I'd want my kids to at least be teens for that one, but man was it fun... Another cool thing (I thought) on our last Princess Cruise on Regal Princess was apparently, the crew had formed an all-crew rock band, so Princess let them play one night. It got the whole ship into it.

- Like DCL (and Virgin), Princess does not charge for in-room movies. They were $11.99 on Oasis. (Not sure if they are included on Celebrity.)

- Every sea day, in the Crown Grill (steakhouse)/Wheelhouse Bar area, Princess does a complimentary British Pub lunch. I love their fish and chips, DW likes the shrimp. It's a nice change.

- Oh, and you don't have to check-out towels like you do on RCCL...

I might even throw Holland America in here as well, but I think that the age demographic would skew even higher on HAL than it would on Princess/Celebrity, but that would depend on the itinerary and the time you go. Any of these lines will have plenty of kids during times when schools are out of session.

DCL and Princess are our favorites! We just got off the Wonder last week and when we were in Ensenada, the Majestic Princess also happened to be in port that day. There was an epic horn battle as the Majestic Princess left port. They definitely won the battle with their Love Boat horn playing over and over. Disney played their horn in response, then Princess sounded theirs again. So fun!

 

[insureman]

A word of caution after what happened to Genting/Crystal last week. Most cruise lines are on shaky grounds with such low occupancies and don't have the sort of cash cows that Disney does.

If you are booking Celebrity etc., book only to sail in the short term and/or put down as little a deposit as you can. Additionally, don't book something you feel you will have to cancel. Their current wait times for refunds are running at 6-8 weeks, and, as for FCCs, we are still waiting to have some from a cancellation last November to be re-issued. If you are used to Disney moving your money around in an instant on the phone, you will be in for a big surprise!

Just an FYI Celebrity is owned by Royal Caribbean. Edit: Someone posted that info already.

 

[MrsScooby]

My friend and I are looking at a Canada New England cruise on DCL for 6 night with 3 ports. It is a lot for me to put out the amount they are asking. I have looked and even budgeted a 11 night Boston, Maine and Canada cruise on The Celebrity Summit. It's more than the DCL cruise, but has more ports and more nights. It would be my 1st cruise ever and I'm not sure if doing an 11 night cruise would be too much for the first time. One plus for the Celebrity cruise is they have a shower only with no tub. We would need an accessible room on DCL because I have a Neurological condition that makes me not able to step out of a tub without getting off balance and having a lot of bars to hold onto. My own apartment tub has the side cut out of it and I have plenty of bars to grab. The accessible rooms showers flood the bathroom a little and I'm afraid my friend, our Stateroom Host or myself could slip and get hurt if we don't wipe it up enough. If we go with DCL we would possibly have to get an inside room on the Magic, but if we pick Celebrity we can get an oceanview room. The Celebrity cruise is out of Boston and I live about 30 minutes away from the cruise port. My friend would have to fly in from NC and we would stay at a hotel in the town next to mine the night before. The prices of hotels in Boston match the time square hotel prices, so going to the town next to me and taking a car service would be a better choice. It would be easier for me to do the Celebrity cruise than the DCL cruise. I would need to buy some more nice clothing and other things, but not having to pay airfare I would be able to buy what I need. The point I'm trying to make is would you do a 11 night cruise for your 1st ever cruise. I like to think I could do it. Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated.

Making your first cruise an 11 night is a little risky, but the only person I know of personally that didn't like cruising was my brother-in-law. He found the closeness of the hallways and the cabins made him a bit claustrophobic... Also, if pools are really important to you (as they are to one of my sisters) then a resort hotel would be a better choice usually as they have room for larger pools. But if you don't see yourself having a problem with things like that then you should be fine.

 

[AgentCooper]

For a first time cruiser (a few years ago) I found the Celebrity “Alaska Inside Passage” itinerary was particularly calm and the sights and ports were amazing.

 

[Intr3pid]

Just an FYI Celebrity is owned by Royal Caribbean. Edit: Someone posted that info already.

Yes, most everyone knows that.

 

[tidefan]

DCL and Princess are our favorites! We just got off the Wonder last week and when we were in Ensenada, the Majestic Princess also happened to be in port that day. There was an epic horn battle as the Majestic Princess left port. They definitely won the battle with their Love Boat horn playing over and over. Disney played their horn in response, then Princess sounded theirs again. So fun!

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I sail all cruise lines it’s healthy to have a variety of experiences the only thing I’m loyal to is my family!

 

[DLR70]

I love it!

 

[tidefan]

I sail all cruise lines it’s healthy to have a variety of experiences the only thing I’m loyal to is my family!

Since the cruising restart, we have done a DCL cruise, a Virgin Voyages cruise, a Royal Caribbean cruise, and a Carnival cruise. Next month, we head out on a Princess cruise! (Yes, we had a lot of FCC that needed to be used...)

 

[insureman]

Yes, most everyone knows that.

Yes. That's why there's an edit after my comment.

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

Since the cruising restart, we have done a DCL cruise, a Virgin Voyages cruise, a Royal Caribbean cruise, and a Carnival cruise. Next month, we head out on a Princess cruise! (Yes, we had a lot of FCC that needed to be used...)

Question, What did you think of the beds in the virgin staterooms?