DCL v X - My Celebrity Alaska cruise

[GatorMomInNC]

Well, we are back from our 11 night Ultimate Alaska Cruise on Celebrity Solstice. As promised, I am going to do a review/comparison with DCL. I don't plan on doing a detailed trip report so I am putting this in the main board, but maybe I will be too wordy and get moved (??). We'll see.

Background: We cruised on DCL for the first time 4 years ago this month. Last year we (myself, my mother and my 2 sons ages 8 and 11) did our second WBTA and our 5th DCL cruise, making us officially gold on DCL. We have spent 56 days on DCL and have been on every ship but the Dream. I love love love DCL, as do my kids. I currently have three other cruises booked on DCL. Since first sailing DCL we had only sailed one other cruise line (Holland America) and that was because we were joining family members. We enjoyed our HAL cruise but it was no comparison in service or entertainment or food to DCL.


COST and ITINERARY

My husband and I had been on one Celebrity and one RCCL cruise years ago, before we had kids. DH is not a big fan of cruising, but did agree to go on an Alaska cruise, so I began planning this cruise in early 2014. My kids are in year round school and are out in June and September, so I had to find cruises during that time frame. I booked the Celebrity (X) cruise, I booked a NCL cruise, a HAL cruise and a Disney cruise, locking in rates until I could decide for sure which cruise I wanted. Ultimately I cancelled everything but the X and the DCL. On DCL I had 2 rooms booked - an aft facing balcony and a nearby inside room. This was for a 7 day cruise in early June - Vancouver to Vancouver with stops in Ketchikan, Skagway, Juneau and cruising Tracy Arm and 2 sea days. The total cost (with 10% OBB discount) would have been $7700 plus gratuities. I think I would have had $200 in OBC since this was an OBB.

On X, the cost is a little harder to figure out. They give you lots of perks, but they also add them in and then subtract them. Unlike DCL, where the earlier you book, the better the price, with X you might find a better rate or sale later on. I know that I "rebooked" the cruise at least once to take advantage of a sale. Some of the perks I got I don't even know why, to be honest. But ultimately, on X I booked a Family Verandah that sleeps 5 people, for an 11 night cruise (the last one of the season, in mid- late September). Seattle to Vancouver with stops in Ketchikan, Skagway, Juneau and cruising Tracy Arm PLUS Icy Strait Point, Victoria BC and Nanaimo BC and 3 sea days. By the time my PIF date came and, the cost was just under $7k, BUT, that included: pre-paid gratuities ( required since I booked select dining, but 2 of the 5 of us had gratuities included as a perk); 140 minutes of internet (perk); 2 premium alcohol packages (which I upgraded from classic package given as a perk); 3 premium non-alcohol packages (again, upgraded from classic, which was given as a perk); and $475 in OBC (I don't know how I ended up with that!).

I will tell you more about the room in my next post, but my computer is telling me it is shutting down for some sort of upgrade (I hate that!) so I better save this post for now.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

 

[GatorMomInNC]

Okay, so back to cost. Obviously, I went with the X cruise and cancelled the DCL cruise. I really prefer the longer cruise, and with Celebrity I got 4 more nights for less money (over 1k less, when you consider the cost of gratuities). PLUS the drink packages.

ROOM

The room we had was, by far, the BEST room I have ever had on a cruise! There are only 4 of these rooms on the Solstice and I felt lucky to get one. It was perfect for our family of 5. It is 575 square feet, with one small bedroom (2 bunkbeds and an armoire) and one large bedroom (queen bed). The 5th bed is on the couch, but the master BR was so large, we had the stateroom attendant put the extra mattress in there so the kids could sleep with us.

I just posted pics, for the first time on DIS I might add, so hope I did it right.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

The cons of this room (vs 2 on DCL) was that it was all the way forward and we did hear a lot of noise when we were docking. But it really didn't bother me, to be honest. There was only one bathroom, that was more problematic for the 5 of us. I would have preferred 2 bathrooms (which I would have gotten with the 2 rooms on DCL). Or even a split bathroom like on DCL. But it wasn't too bad as we were out and about a lot.

 

[aprincessatlast]

Nice report. That room looks awesome! How did you enjoy Nanaimo? We visited that area on a land based trip and really like the areas around it. Curious about the food and kids club on X too, looking forward to more.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

KIDS CLUBS

On X they have the Fun Factory, which is divided by age groups. They have a small room for babies, but you cannot leave babies there, instead it is filled with toys, etc, and parents can come and bring their kids and have a place to play with them. I believe they also have in-room babysitting, but really no drop off nursery like on DCL. Then there is a small area for 3-8, another small area for 8-11, and then a separate teen area. All of these are located in the forward part of the ship on the 15th floor. You take an elevator up and there is nothing else there, except an arcade that leads to the outside deck. There is a sports deck (basketball) that you can access from the kids clubs or from the outside deck area. The ENTIRE FF area (not including the sports deck and arcade, which are open to the public), is probably equal to (or a little more than) the combined size of the edge and teen space on the Magic (well, old Magic, I know they just changed things around). There are lots of board games, xbox, ping pong, etc.

So obviously, the kids clubs on DCL are larger and better themed, etc. BUT, there were only 20 kids on this cruise, and that includes 4 teens and 4 babies, and they didn't spend a lot of time in the clubs. That left 12 children who frequented the kids club, and there were really only 8 that I saw regularly (including my 2 DSs). These kids had 5 counselors all to themselves. The counselors were fantastic - they were flexible and accommodating, professional and enthusiastic. They seemed genuinely happy to be spending all their time with the kids.

Because there were so few kids, they all received really individual attention. After observing my 8 year old for a couple days the counselors agreed that he was mature enough and allowed him to "move up" and sign himself out. But again, with so few kids, they all just became one big family, and they all moved between the spaces - the teen room seemed to be the favorite hangout for my boys, but they also went sometimes and played board or video games with some of the younger kids. My kids LOVED it, said it was better than Disney and NEVER WANTED TO LEAVE!! Seriously, my older boy ate with us 2x in the MDR, and the younger 1x, on an 11 night cruise!! Often times we would go to the Oceanview Café (Cabanas on DCL) and meet up with them and their counselors at lunch time just so we could spend time with them. By the 3rd day they declared they liked X better than DCL.

Now, a couple caveats. Just like on other cruise lines, X only has the kids clubs for weird hours. I am used to DCL - 9am- 1am hours, and really didn't want to have to worry about the "breaks" from noon to 2pm, or 5pm to 7pm, and then closed after 10pm. If you leave your kids during these times (up until 1am) it is $6 per hour extra, per child. And of course, my kids wanted to stay all the time. If I had to constantly keep an eye on my watch to collect my kids - or at least meet them in the room, etc, it would have been a real pain. BUT, X has a service where you can pay an additional amount and buy a package - I think it is call the VIP package, where your kids can stay during those times during the length of the cruise, and the staff will take them to eat. Included in the cost of the VIP package is a backpack, t-shirt, beach ball and private tour (with other VIP kids) of the bridge and backstage with the entertainment staff.

I had read about the VIP on cruise critic, but I couldn't find out from X before the cruise what the cost was. I did know that on a 7 night cruise it was $99. I actually told them I wanted to purchase it before I asked the price, and it ended up being $175 per child! So that right there ate up $350 of my OBC. It was definitely worth it, but I have to factor that into the cost of the cruise to put it on par with DCL, which has such generous kids club hours. In addition, unlike the CMs in the youth program on DCL, on X they are allowed to accept tips so I tipped an extra $100 to the staff as they really were fantastic.

The second caveat is that this cruise had so few children on it, that I think we would have had a completely different experience on a busy summer cruise. I was told that there are as many of 700 kids in the summer, and although they bring on additional staff, so of course there is no way my kids would get the individual attention like they got on this cruise. But, we don't generally sail those summer cruises - we have cruised the WBTA twice and the EBPC once on DCL, and even on those cruises there were at least a couple hundred kids. And of course, I am sure the experience on a busy DCL summer cruise also has its drawbacks.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

Nice report. That room looks awesome! How did you enjoy Nanaimo? We visited that area on a land based trip and really like the areas around it. Curious about the food and kids club on X too, looking forward to more.

Thanks. Our day in Nanaimo, which was our last, was also one of the best as far as weather. There were a lot of people sunning themselves on deck (I will do a short review of pool areas later, as well as the food). My mom got off the ship and she said it was a quaint little town with very friendly and helpful locals. From the ship the scenery was stunning, but we didn't get off. In fact, we didn't get off the ship for 3 of the ports!! We had fantastic, blew-me-away scenery and excursions in the 3 ports we did get off, but since I really love my sea days and staying on the ship (if you can't tell by the fact I have done 2 TA and one PC cruise!), I just chilled the rest of the cruise. I had planned to get off in Victoria, Icy Strait Point and Nanaimo, but in the end I just relaxed on the ship and enjoyed the scenery, the trivia, the food and my drink package. It was also the last day so I had to pack.

I also wanted to say that a lot of people discouraged us from sailing in September, but it ended up being a great decision. The weather, overall was fantastic. We had 2 rainy sea days and Juneau was rainy, but we had lots of sunshine in Nanaimo, Victoria, Ketchikan and Skagway. The leaves had begun to change in Skagway and there was new snow fall on the mountains. Plus, we got great deals on jackets and souvenirs as we were one of the last ships sailing. On the ship itself, all of their Alaska stuff was 75% off and I got some great deals.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

Entertainment
I think this is where DCL really outshines Celebrity, especially if you are looking for something to do as a family.

Celebrity prides themselves on live music - there are musicians playing in the atriums, the bars, etc. They have a live band accompany their shows. In theory this is great, and I know a lot of people would prefer this to the 'canned' Disney tunes on DCL, but for me, personally, I love singing along to Disney songs as I walk around the ships.

As for the evening entertainment - I only ended up going to 4 shows in the main theater as none of the rest interested me. The first night was their naturalist, who usually gave a talk in the mornings, but they counted that as "show" on the first night. Another night they premiered (or so I heard) a new musical called "Broken Strings". But it was really just a serious of popular songs with the singers/dancers pretending to be dating/breaking up/getting back together as they sang. The dancers and singers were really good and had a lot of energy and talent, but there was no plot and I really, really missed the Disney Broadway-style type shows, with a PLOT, etc.

The other nights there was a couple comedians (I went to one and he was good, but I was glad my kids weren't with me as it wasn't really geared towards "families"). There was a piano player and some violinists and some singers, none of which I went to see.

The best show was another new premier called "Rock City", and this was the only show my kids went to. The reason they were interested is they had gotten their "backstage tour" that day and met all the performers. This was the best of the shows, as it not only had great singing and dancing it incorporated some cool gymnastics. I did enjoy it, and my kids did also, even though there was some things in it I would not consider "appropriate" it wasn't too bad.

On DCL it is a family ritual that we eat together (usually because the kids love our servers so much) and then go see the shows (or reverse that order when we have late dining). I will buy popcorn and candy and it is really great family time at the end of the day, even if they spent the day in the kids club. That is what I missed the most on Celebrity -- that family time and watching the shows together. I was okay with the facts the kids didn't eat with us, but I missed seeing the shows with them. And on DCL I rarely miss a show - even the ones I have seen multiple times - but on Celebrity I wasn't drawn to most of the acts. Again, the singers and dancers were very talented, but I just wasn't interested in the secondary acts.

Oh, they did have ventriloquist Michael Harrison playing in a smaller secondary theater and we did all go see him and that was great. We had seen him before on DCL of course.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

So as I am sitting on hold to cancel my DCL Med cruise I thought I would finish this review. What the heck is up with the new Disney website? Took me like 10 minutes to find a way to log into my Castaway Club account, and then only my old cruises showed up. So then I had to call in to cancel, and the first time I kept getting some weird message ("please enter your 5 digit...something"). Anyway

FOOD

Okay, so the usual caveat that food is subjective. I had sailed Celebrity before and remembered the food as really great, but I have a theory that the more you cruise the more jaded you become about food. I enjoyed the food in the MDR - to me it was about the same as DCL. In fact, I could swear some of the dishes were exactly the same. We had select dining and pre-paid our tips. My mother and I ate 9 out of the 11 nights in the MDR and my husband about half that. We liked the first table we got since it was next to a window, so for the first few nights we requested the same server/table. The service was fine - not like on Disney where you practically want to cry when you say goodbye, but good. They did forget a lot of little things we would ask for, but no big deal. Another night we didn't want to wait, so we had the first available table and I found those servers slightly better. For the first time ever on a cruise I didn't feel the need to tip extra - maybe if we had used the same servers the whole time, but since we didn't I just didn't bother.

The Oceanview Café I thought was really good overall. They have primarily the same dishes every day, but usually one thing changes. They had good stir fry and tacos at lunch. They also have pasta, sandwiches, salads, sushi, etc. My kids loved the pizza. The ice cream station has soft serve and scooped. I am GF so that limited my choices. They did have GF bread you could ask for. Every morning for breakfast I would get 2 slices of GF bread and order the eggs benedict without bread, then put them together to make my own GF eggs benedict. We didn't eat in the MDR for breakfast or lunch at all, another first for me.

Next to the indoor pool is the Aqua Spa Café. They had smoothies and yogurt sundaes, both for a fee, although the smoothies were included in my drink package. I tried a smoothie and it was horrible, IMHO. It was room temperature, which is weird to me. They had a couple healthier alternatives, like curry chicken salad at lunch and oatmeal for breakfast. The chicken salad was good.

I ate once at the Mast Grill, which has hamburgers and hotdogs. Their GF bun was so gross I took it off and ate the burger on its own. It was okay.

Café el Bacio, the coffee bar with desserts - X's equivalent of Cove Café - was awesome. Always busy. I have to tell you that I am 50 years old and have never had coffee before. But the specialty coffee drinks were included in my drink package, and there was one drink - Afrogado, I believe it was called - that I wanted to try. It was a scoop of their Gelato (which you have to pay extra for normally) with a shot of espresso and chocolate service. Well, I loved it and became hooked for the duration of the cruise! Fortunately, I haven't felt the urge to have any coffee since I returned, so I don't think I developed an addiction.

They have 4 specialty restaurants - a cheaper crepes place and 3 fancier restaurants. We only ate at one - the Asian restaurant. We only did that because it was our anniversary and we still had OBC left to spend. It was really good, but for the upcharge for the 2 of us ($70 plus tip - and this was the cheapest of the three "fancy" restaurants) I think we could have had just as good a meal here at home. Of course, I did have drinks which were included in my package.

So, overall the food was good, but I definitely missed the Disney servers.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

SERVICE

Overall the crew and the service was great. Again, in the MDR it wasn't as "magical" as Disney, but we also had different servers and our kids weren't with us. It was nice to be able to be more flexible about when we wanted to eat, especially since we weren't going to hardly any shows. I really don't think we met an unfriendly crew member on the whole cruise, they were really excellent. My husband and I had the premium drink package which was AWESOME!!! I mean, it was so great to get whatever you want whenever and not worry about the cost. I worried that because X gives away or sells so many drink packages that we would have a hard time getting a drink, but we only had an issue when the bars were packed before and after dinner and shows. We paid an 18% gratuity on the package, but we spent so much time at one particular bar (the molecular bar, which was just fantastic) that we tipped both of those bartenders extra at the end of the cruise. Our room steward was fantastic and we also tipped him extra. Guest services was bigger and better staffed and was more like a hotel lobby with lots of nice places to sit.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

Oh, I forgot to talk about room service during my food review. The food quality was pretty low, although they did have a cheese and fruit platter similar to the one on DCL which was good. But the eggs at breakfast were GROSS - one time they were orange and my 8 yr old wouldn't eat them because he said they looked "rotten". Another time I ordered an omelet which was gray inside. They have "premium" items you pay extra for, but we didn't get anything from that menu. When we ate at the specialty restaurant my Mom took advantage of a service that X has where you can get your MDR food delivered to your room at no charge. She said the food was excellent, but a little cold (our stateroom was at the far front of the ship and the MDR was aft).

 

[krisinparis]

Great review!

 

[coloradocutie]

Completely great review!
Curious… why are you canceling your DCL Med cruise?

 

[GatorMomInNC]

Completely great review!
Curious… why are you canceling your DCL Med cruise?

Thanks so much!

I booked the last DCL med cruise of the season back to back with the WBTA. But my mom wanted a stop in Venice, and I went ahead and booked a 12 night RCCL cruise that goes to Venice and Turkey also (for the same cost as the 7 night on DCL). I also booked in one of their family rooms, which isn't as nice as X's family rooms, but slightly larger than DCL's and 2k less. I kept the WBTA booked, because if my husband can't go with us I might chuck it all and just do that.

So I think I have pretty much compared everything on DCL vs. X. Oh, except internet - definitely much, much faster on DCL (or at least on the Magic the last time I cruised). Oh, and I didn't like having the casino on board but other than $20 on slots I managed to keep my husband from wasting any money in there. Also, X has a LOT more shops than DCL and they are always standing outside as you walk by trying to get you to go to some sort of even - guess the carats, weight, etc. We did stop into the fancy watch shop because my husband has a weakness in that area, and boy did I get the hard press to buy! I thought it was funny because I wear a Swatch (I have like 10) and even though I have fancier watches, I never really wear them because I love my Swatches and I kept telling the sales guy that, but he persisted until I finally got out of there. I did find that slightly annoying, but I just told myself that if other guests spending their money in the shops and casinos helps subsidize my cruise, then I can deal with it.

Overall we had a FANTASTIC cruise, I did book another X on board. I am really happy we were able to do an 11 night versus a 7 night, which is all DCL offers in Alaska. The first 6 days I was doing a lot of excursions and it was go go go, but the last 5 days I just relaxed and didn't get off the ship. I had a lot of concerns about sailing X - mainly that my kids wouldn't have a good time or would be bored or we would be made to feel like 2nd class citizens because we had kids (if you have visited the CC site for Celebrity, you know what I mean). I did miss the DCL shows and theming and touches and the more family oriented times and yes, "the magic", but the trip was about seeing Alaska and relaxing and having a great time and it accomplished all of that.

I just asked my kids and the 8 year old said that this was his favorite cruise ever. My 11 year old, who told me on the cruise that he likes X better than DCL, is now back-pedaling and saying he missed the DCL servers and shows and prefers DCL (which I am actually happy to hear, because I did miss that family time!). Our next cruise (a surprise for them!) is in December on the Magic and I am really looking forward to being back on my favorite ship and seeing our first Premear at Sea of Star Wars on 12/18!! I am still a die hard DCL fan and I will almost certainly book another on board. We still haven't been on the Dream and it would be nice to complete a "Grand Slam." But for a port intensive cruise like Alaska and the Med, I don't think I can justify spending more money for less nights on DCL versus another cruise line.

I didn't get into excursions as I meant this to be more of a comparison of cruise lines than a trip report, but we had some great ones, including: Harv and Marv whale watching in Juneau, the lumberjack show in Ketchikan and Chilikoot Charters in Skagway (bus to Yukon, train back). If anyone has any questions I will be glad to answer. Thanks for reading, I know I ramble a bit when I write....

 

[RedHatDisney]

Thanks for the great tr. Love reading the comparisons........find in valuable in planning future cruising.

 

[MeLaNie9]

DH and I also cruised Celebrity to Alaska and thought it was a great trip - the price couldn't be beat compared to DCL and we had a special room/dining package where we had a room in a special area of the ship and we could eat every breakfast and dinner in Blu which is one of the specialty restaurant. We had only 1 or 2 breakfasts there but had every dinner there and it was quite good. We liked the Oceanview Cafe and DH was ecstatic about the sushi service which was daily before dinner. I agree about the entertainment - we only went to one show which was their cirque de soliel type show. It was just ok. We actually watched a number of movies in our room which was good for us because we never see movies in the theater. Our ship also had the glass blowing show which we watched multiple times - each show was awesome! Our only hesitation in going back to Alaska with the kids on a non-DCL ship is our son with a food allergy - DCL has always done a great job with this (particularly on the Dream) and I don't really know how any other cruise lines are on this.

 

[perditax]

DH and I also cruised Celebrity to Alaska and thought it was a great trip - the price couldn't be beat compared to DCL and we had a special room/dining package where we had a room in a special area of the ship and we could eat every breakfast and dinner in Blu which is one of the specialty restaurant. We had only 1 or 2 breakfasts there but had every dinner there and it was quite good. We liked the Oceanview Cafe and DH was ecstatic about the sushi service which was daily before dinner. I agree about the entertainment - we only went to one show which was their cirque de soliel type show. It was just ok. We actually watched a number of movies in our room which was good for us because we never see movies in the theater. Our ship also had the glass blowing show which we watched multiple times - each show was awesome! Our only hesitation in going back to Alaska with the kids on a non-DCL ship is our son with a food allergy - DCL has always done a great job with this (particularly on the Dream) and I don't really know how any other cruise lines are on this.

Glad to hear the positive view on Blu. I have an Aqua Class room on my upcoming first Celebrity cruise in December, and the Blu reviews go back and forth.