DCL vs Celebrity or Princess

[kdh123]

We love DCL and have cruised several times on DCL in the past 10 years. For our next cruise, they don't have the itinerary we would like, at the time we are looking at. Thus, we are considering Celebrity Equinox or Regal Princess instead. We have never cruised Celebrity or Princess. We have cruised Carnival and enjoyed it, but that was a long time ago. It will be two adults and a 16yo. Its a holiday week (Thanksgiving), so I'm not concerned that there won't be other teens/families onboard. I understand some of the differences between the three cruise lines, but I would love to hear how the feel and experience of the cruises vary, what is better and worse, etc from those who have cruised DCL and/or Celebrity/Princess recently. Thank you in advance!

 

[kendall]

There is a thread on Princess and Disney, and here is specifically my experience - https://www.disboards.com/threads/anyone-with-experience-on-princess.3601183/page-6#post-58793090 - we have been on the Regal Princess and I reference it in that post.

We are heading to the Celebrity Edge to check it out in late February, so I will let you know!

 

[cgolf]

We too will be on the edge soon and will be posting a review on the RCCL part of Dis. Hoping the mods will be ok with that since RCCL owns Celebrity.

We have sailed RCCL as 2 adults, no kids, and really had a blast. Not sure if they have the itinerary you are interested in, but may be worth a look.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Celebrity and Princess are both quality cruise lines. Celebrity has great food and on each week-long cruise they have a brunch with a wider variety than Palo, and all passengers are invited without an up-charge. So your 16-yr-old won't be left out. Princess' quality of food is about the same as DCL, except Princess also has fresh-baked French pastry available all day, which is far better than DCL's defrosted Krispy Kreme donuts.

We prefer DCL's nightly entertainment, except the time Celebrity had a passenger who had starred in Phantom of the Opera in Australia, and he was relocating from one "gig" to another, so he entertained on the ship. He was amazing.

 

[owensjro]

We are platinum on DCL and have done 2 Celebrity cruises (Alaska and Med) and love both lines. When I look to book cruises now I check both to see what itineraries/prices work best for us. We are also 2 adults and a 16yo. The only thing we found lacking on Celebrity compared to DCL was the nightly entertainment. Mostly singers and not the variety acts/shows you get with DCL. But that was fine for us as the itineraries we chose we were happy to just sit out on deck and watch the world go by.

 

[hrhdhd]

I have sailed on the Equinox and on the Regal and would do so again on either ship in a heartbeat. The Equinox is a nice ship, not too big, and has plenty of nooks and crannies to hang out in. Note that it's going into a substantial drydock in May that might eliminate some of those spaces and/or change them to revenue-generating areas. An unusual feature is the glass blowing available on the top deck (you can work with a glass blower to make one of several tchotchkes), along with an area called the Lawn, which is, obviously, a grassy area for hanging out.

The Regal is probably the prettiest ship I have ever sailed. The buffet is spectacular--it's huge with multiple stations and there's not the crowding you can find on other ships. It doesn't have a center staircase that goes to the top decks (it stopped at deck 6 or 7 when I sailed it [this may have been changed]), which I didn't think would matter to me but I had a midship cabin on an upper deck and had to walk to either the front or back of the ship to take the stairs.

The food on both was fine, with occasional fantastic meals. We particularly like Tuscan Grill on the Equinox. My DH and I don't sail for the entertainment in particular, but we'll go to a couple of shows (e.g., the comedian, a tribute group or soloist), and those are fine on both ships.

 

[cruisehopeful]

After doing 5 Disney cruises, I did a Princess cruise. I thought Princess was much better for adults overall. Lots of places to hide away from kids (we weren't traveling with kids) and lots of delicious food 24/7. The entertainment though, was a significant downgrade from DCL as far as shows and musicians.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We are gold on DCL but just did our first Celebrity cruise (on the Summit) over Christmas week. We LOVED it! It's much more laid back and more sophisticated than DCL. Summit seemed very quiet in comparison to a DCL cruise. There weren't a lot of kids on the ship, but enough that my DS11 made friends and he really enjoyed the kids club which was smaller and less chaotic than the ones on DCL. The pools were virtually empty which was surprising after experiencing "people soup" on the DCL ships. At night, my DS11 enjoyed going to the kids club while DH and I had fun at the casino. There was also a basketball court on the Summit and my DS11 is a huge basketball fan so he loved playing pick up games with others on the ship every day. I also loved the itinerary which was completely different than anything DCL regularly does (Antigua, San Juan, St. Kitts, etc.). The price point was also significantly lower. We stayed in a suite with a ton of perks. For the price we paid, I could, maybe, have booked an oceanview on DCL. We booked the same week for next year (yet it has a different itinerary which I'm excited about) and, again, booked a suite. I checked the same week on DCL and a comparable stateroom for that week was $20K more than what we are paying on Celebrity. We will go back to DCL at some point (would love to do Marvel day or one of the new ships when they are launched), but, particularly over holiday weeks when prices rise, we are happy with Celebrity. I will reiterate what others have said about the entertainment though - it doesn't hold a candle to DCL's productions.

 

[allashore]

We are gold on DCL but just did our first Celebrity cruise (on the Summit) over Christmas week. We LOVED it! It's much more laid back and more sophisticated than DCL. Summit seemed very quiet in comparison to a DCL cruise. There weren't a lot of kids on the ship, but enough that my DS11 made friends and he really enjoyed the kids club which was smaller and less chaotic than the ones on DCL. The pools were virtually empty which was surprising after experiencing "people soup" on the DCL ships. At night, my DS11 enjoyed going to the kids club while DH and I had fun at the casino. There was also a basketball court on the Summit and my DS11 is a huge basketball fan so he loved playing pick up games with others on the ship every day. I also loved the itinerary which was completely different than anything DCL regularly does (Antigua, San Juan, St. Kitts, etc.). The price point was also significantly lower. We stayed in a suite with a ton of perks. For the price we paid, I could, maybe, have booked an oceanview on DCL. We booked the same week for next year (yet it has a different itinerary which I'm excited about) and, again, booked a suite. I checked the same week on DCL and a comparable stateroom for that week was $20K more than what we are paying on Celebrity. We will go back to DCL at some point (would love to do Marvel day or one of the new ships when they are launched), but, particularly over holiday weeks when prices rise, we are happy with Celebrity. I will reiterate what others have said about the entertainment though - it doesn't hold a candle to DCL's productions.

on Celebrity do most people wear more formal cloths for dinner? or is it similar to DCL, wear what you want?
or on Celebrity does it depend on the dinning room?
have not been on Celebrity in over 14yrs and i remember it being more formal every night

 

[hrhdhd]

on Celebrity do most people wear more formal cloths for dinner? or is it similar to DCL, wear what you want? or on Celebrity does it depend on the dinning room?
have not been on Celebrity in over 14yrs and i remember it being more formal every night

Celebrity has changed "formal" night to something called "Evening Chic," and pretty much for men it means no jeans and a shirt with a collar. In the suite restaurant, it's always smart casual.

No shorts at dinner anytime, except in the buffet.

 

[allashore]

Celebrity has changed "formal" night to something called "Evening Chic," and pretty much for men it means no jeans and a shirt with a collar. In the suite restaurant, it's always smart casual.

No shorts at dinner anytime, except in the buffet.

sounds good to me thx U