My Celebrity comparison to DCL that nobody asked for...

[auntlynne]

Love the thread title.

But kept getting stumped by TL;DR. So looked up your modern slang. I’m old enough to use “bottom line.”

 

[ngl]

Thank you so much for this review! We love DCL and kids are teens now so we may be interested in exploring other lines. It keeps coming back to NCL (newer ships) and Edge class of Celebrity. Appreciate all the points!!

 

[jimmymc]

One question I would have is the cost comparison. I thought celebrity prices were generally equal to if not higher than Disney's so if anyone is familiar about the two and would like to discuss...

For all the cruises I've searches, Celebrity was cheaper. It's hard to compare because Celebrity does longer sailings to some ports Disney doesn't visit. But for things like your standard 7 night Caribbean or Alaskan cruise, Celebrity is 20% to 40% cheaper.

 

[tidefan]

For all the cruises I've searches, Celebrity was cheaper. It's hard to compare because Celebrity does longer sailings to some ports Disney doesn't visit. But for things like your standard 7 night Caribbean or Alaskan cruise, Celebrity is 20% to 40% cheaper.

But wouldn't you need to compare Celebrity against more comparable options like HAL or Princess (or Virgin)?

 

[jimmymc]

But wouldn't you need to compare Celebrity against more comparable options like HAL or Princess (or Virgin)?

The person I responded to specifically brought up Disney. You can compare them to those lines too.

 

[mmmears]

Great comparison.

My family tried Celebrity for the first time this summer after years of only sailing with DCL. What made us jump ship was Disney's lack of (to me) interesting itineraries. I found what I wanted with a few other lines, but Celebrity sounded like the best fit for us for this location.

I agree with most of your points. I'll start with boarding, where it took us about 10 mins from entering the terminal to being on the ship. Last summer, boarding DCL in Barcelona was like a cattle call in an enormous warehouse. I don't know why Disney can't make this quick and painless, but clearly they are light years behind Celebrity in this regard.

I thought the buffet was so much better on the Apex. We tried two specialty restaurants (Eden which was our choice and Rooftop Grill which our friends chose) and both dinners were excellent. We mostly dined in Luminae (the Retreat restaurant) so it's not surprising that we found it much better than the main dining rooms on DCL (and not really a fair comparison). For us, the lack of characters and entertainment didn't matter because we chose this cruise for its itinerary and have problem entertaining ourselves. Not having roving bands of kids causing disruptions (see aforementioned DCL Norway cruise thread) was wonderful. I guess maybe we have aged out of Disney. We had an Aqua Sky Suite and really enjoyed the spa they have there.

DCL did better with the onshore requests/information pre-cruise, and I do think they have better entertainment. Also I love the design of the older ships. The Apex looks much better in person than online though.

I’ve been watching a bunch of Celebrity vlogs lately and I get the “floating hotel” vibe a lot. I’m thinking that Celebrity would be a good line for my Disney loving family (DH and I plus 2 college kids) when the ports are the main focus and DCL would be better for Bahamas/Caribbean? I would really like to do a Norwegian Fjords cruise and Celebrity has really piqued my interest.

Edited to add: Thanks for posting this comparison!

We sailed on the Apex's Norwegian Fjords cruise in July (in the past have sailed DCL's Norway/Iceland/Scotland itinerary) and I thought it was great. We were booked into the Retreat, so had some extras like a suite lounge, sundeck, restaurant, and a butler. The ports were 100% the focus for us but we also had two days at sea and honestly we didn't miss DCL.

 

[brentm77]

But wouldn't you need to compare Celebrity against more comparable options like HAL or Princess (or Virgin)?

Why? The discussion here is to compare it to DCL. The point is that it is a very similar product to DCL in many respects for less money.

 

[ngl]

Great comparison.

My family tried Celebrity for the first time this summer after years of only sailing with DCL. What made us jump ship was Disney's lack of (to me) interesting itineraries. I found what I wanted with a few other lines, but Celebrity sounded like the best fit for us for this location.

I agree with most of your points. I'll start with boarding, where it took us about 10 mins from entering the terminal to being on the ship. Last summer, boarding DCL in Barcelona was like a cattle call in an enormous warehouse. I don't know why Disney can't make this quick and painless, but clearly they are light years behind Celebrity in this regard.

I thought the buffet was so much better on the Apex. We tried two specialty restaurants (Eden which was our choice and Rooftop Grill which our friends chose) and both dinners were excellent. We mostly dined in Luminae (the Retreat restaurant) so it's not surprising that we found it much better than the main dining rooms on DCL (and not really a fair comparison). For us, the lack of characters and entertainment didn't matter because we chose this cruise for its itinerary and have problem entertaining ourselves. Not having roving bands of kids causing disruptions (see aforementioned DCL Norway cruise thread) was wonderful. I guess maybe we have aged out of Disney. We had an Aqua Sky Suite and really enjoyed the spa they have there.

DCL did better with the onshore requests/information pre-cruise, and I do think they have better entertainment. Also I love the design of the older ships. The Apex looks much better in person than online though.



We sailed on the Apex's Norwegian Fjords cruise in July (in the past have sailed DCL's Norway/Iceland/Scotland itinerary) and I thought it was great. We were booked into the Retreat, so had some extras like a suite lounge, sundeck, restaurant, and a butler. The ports were 100% the focus for us but we also had two days at sea and honestly we didn't miss DCL.

I noticed you sailed in The Retreat. We have only sailed DCL in Concierge. Everytime I read reviews of DCL and kids everywhere, chaos boarding, etc we never experienced that and wonder if it is because of being "isolated" a bit in Concierge? (We are not buffet eaters so maybe we just do not hit the high traffic areas?) Agree that the one thing pushing us away from DCL is the lack of new itineraries and our kids are teens now. Would love to get comparisons for DCL Concierge v. The Retreat on Celebrity!

 

[tidefan]

Deleted

 

[tidefan]

Why? The discussion here is to compare it to DCL. The point is that it is a very similar product to DCL in many respects for less money.

Well, having never been on Celebrity, I’d like to know how it stacks up against others that are similar, such as Princess and Virgin as well as DCL.

 

[brentm77]

I noticed you sailed in The Retreat. We have only sailed DCL in Concierge. Everytime I read reviews of DCL and kids everywhere, chaos boarding, etc we never experienced that and wonder if it is because of being "isolated" a bit in Concierge? (We are not buffet eaters so maybe we just do not hit the high traffic areas?) Agree that the one thing pushing us away from DCL is the lack of new itineraries and our kids are teens now. Would love to get comparisons for DCL Concierge v. The Retreat on Celebrity!

I haven't sailed the Retreat, but plan to the first time my wife and I cruise Celebrity alone. It seems like the benefits are better than concierge DCL, and the upgrade price is much more reasonable. You get the butler like DCL, and dedicated spaces like DCL, but you also get your own dining room with an upgraded menu, which is supposed to be really good. You also get some other perks, like a lounge for excursion disembarking and dedicated lanes. If you go to the higher level suites in Retreat, you then get spa access, daily laundry and pressing, and complimentary specialty dining. It's a pretty good deal when you compare the price to value ratio between it an DCL concierge, which I also haven't sailed, but have no interest in whenever I review the perks.

Speaking of laundry, that's another con (for some) on Celebrity. There is no self-serve laundry. We carry on only, so we usually need to do a load or two mid-week. On the one hand, it was great to force myself to spend $60 and let someone else do it all. On the other hand, it's nice to throw a quick load in on DCL sometimes, since sending out laundry takes a day unless you pay a 50% upcharge. It's sort of a wash (no pun intended) for me and wouldn't sway me either way, but it was nice not to do any laundry on this last cruise.

On a side note, in the behind the scenes tour, they told us that guest laundry is done in a separate secured laundry facility, with very limited access to prevent any items from going missing. But the main laundry area was much more impressive than I had realized, with giant machines the press sheets and tablecloths, fold towels, etc. They had separate elevators just for dirty stuff coming down and clean stuff going up. They had similar system to make sure dirty dishes never mixed with clean. At every turn, they took cleanliness and preventing cross contamination seriously.

 

[tink1970]

I noticed you sailed in The Retreat. We have only sailed DCL in Concierge. Everytime I read reviews of DCL and kids everywhere, chaos boarding, etc we never experienced that and wonder if it is because of being "isolated" a bit in Concierge? (We are not buffet eaters so maybe we just do not hit the high traffic areas?) Agree that the one thing pushing us away from DCL is the lack of new itineraries and our kids are teens now. Would love to get comparisons for DCL Concierge v. The Retreat on Celebrity!

I only sail in DCL Concierge now and did my sailing in a 1 BR Celebrity Suite (with Retreat amenities) so my above thoughts might cover some of your questions. Unfortunately, the ship was an older "M class" so I'd say it was a much less ...nice experience (my impression only) than Wonder/Magic and although Celebrity "revolutionized" the space...we'll say I was not impressed with the Retreat overall compared to DCL CL level-except dining--probably due to the ship within a ship concept imposed on a ship built way before and then forced "revolutionized" into said concept. The newer ships, obviously, were designed with this concept so it flows much, much better.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like to ask specific questions-don't want to take over the thread and again, my experience is definitely comparing "M" class (so older Celebrity ships) with the older concierge class (although I've sailed all DCL types in concierge).

If you do decide to jump ship, please sail one of their newer ships-I left my cruise vowing to never sail Celebrity again and it took @mmmears Norwegian trip v. my DCL (in concierge) Norwegian with unruly children everywhere (even in the lounge-my post cruise comments took up an extra stapled sheet of paper-thankfully the Concierge Desk has a stapler) to consider relaxing my rigidity.
I suspect the newer ships might fit your style well, in all honesty-my impression is they have what we like about DCL Concierge and the food is even really good in Luminae (and none of the shows/pressure for 5s!).

 

[mmmears]

I noticed you sailed in The Retreat. We have only sailed DCL in Concierge. Everytime I read reviews of DCL and kids everywhere, chaos boarding, etc we never experienced that and wonder if it is because of being "isolated" a bit in Concierge? (We are not buffet eaters so maybe we just do not hit the high traffic areas?) Agree that the one thing pushing us away from DCL is the lack of new itineraries and our kids are teens now. Would love to get comparisons for DCL Concierge v. The Retreat on Celebrity!

I haven't sailed concierge on DCL, which is why I feel like I can't make an apples to apples comparison (although the Retreat is less expensive than DCL concierge in my experience). I didn't try DCL concierge because, for my family, the benefits weren't worth the cost. With Celebrity, they were. We had Luminae (and although there were kids in the Retreat most people there weren't traveling with them) and we never saw a child in there at dinner. We went for the itinerary (DCL isn't choosing the two fjords that are considered the best - Geiranger and Flam - and that was a dealbreaker for me). The Retreat sun deck is also really nice with plenty of seating plus a bar and small restaurant. We spent more time up there than expected (given it's a cold itinerary) and our friends did, too.

We only saw tons of kids at dinner on our last DCL cruise because we spent most of our time on the ship by the adult pool area (and they weren't letting people bring in their kids there). The family pools were packs and very loud though.

I was really worried that this cruise wasn't going to be as nice as DCL but it was far better than expected. Happy to answer any questions if you have them.

 

[DCLMP]

I love all the I only cruise concierge posts. I'm ecstatic when I get a deal on a balcony room. I'm not complaining I've traveled and cruised a lot to the point where it's become embarrassing. Concierges sounds amazing don't think I could ever bring myself to do it.

 

[2010dvcfan]

Thank you for taking the time to detail your experience it is much appreciated. We are exclusive DCL cruisers we are on headed to Alaska in 17 days, I did struggle with the price of Alaska cruises on DCL and Celebrity line was the one I was most considering.

It was all the unknowns that convinced me to stick with the brand I am not only comfortable with but aware of the quality and cleanliness.

Again,thank you sharing.

 

[Saratoga2005]

Thanks for taking the time to write up your experience. We just returned home a little disappointed from our 8th cruise on DCL and I've been taking a hard look at Celebrity as an alternative.

 

[brentm77]

Thanks for taking the time to write up your experience. We just returned home a little disappointed from our 8th cruise on DCL and I've been taking a hard look at Celebrity as an alternative.

I felt a little disappointed with some aspects of our two most recent DCL cruises too. It's strange, because I had a fantastic time in many respects, but something was a little off. It's hard for me to determine how much of it was redundancy, particularly with the food, onboard activities, and shows, and how much of it is a real decline in quality. I do think some of it is the loss of small little things over years that are now starting to have an effect bigger then their individual losses. It hasn't been anything major for us, just something that wasn't the same as past cruises. I still love DCL, but hope the next cruise, whenever it may be, is a little more like our experiences in years past. But, I do think it made me also appreciate Celebrity more. Having an entirely new ship experience, with noticeably better and diverse food, certainly helped me enjoy it.

 

[brentm77]

Thank you for taking the time to detail your experience it is much appreciated. We are exclusive DCL cruisers we are on headed to Alaska in 17 days, I did struggle with the price of Alaska cruises on DCL and Celebrity line was the one I was most considering.

It was all the unknowns that convinced me to stick with the brand I am not only comfortable with but aware of the quality and cleanliness.

Again,thank you sharing.

I get it. We did that for many years too. It's such a big investment of both money and time, I don't see anything wrong with going with a brand you love. We did DCL in Europe for the same reason and it remains my all time favorite trip. We were fortunate that Celebrity turned out well for us in Alaska, but it would have been very disappointing if it hadn't.

 

[DCLMP]

I get it. We did that for many years too. It's such a big investment of both money and time, I don't see anything wrong with going with a brand you love. We did DCL in Europe for the same reason and it remains my all time favorite trip. We were fortunate that Celebrity turned out well for us in Alaska, but it would have been very disappointing if it hadn't.

You never know until you take chance and try something new.

 

[DCLMP]

Thanks for taking the time to write up your experience. We just returned home a little disappointed from our 8th cruise on DCL and I've been taking a hard look at Celebrity as an alternative.

Why only Celebrity?