Each cruise line has its fans and caters to a different market segment. Shorter trips have a younger clientele while longer ones are filled with retirees. But each ship seems designed to fit a certain style of passenger too. Our first cruise (Royal Caribbean) was glitzy, colorful, and youthful. Its slogan was “We are the nation of why not?” This second cruise (Celebrity) was more elegant. I wouldn’t say stodgy at all. In fact, while it had a more dressy, affluent, and mature demographic, there was plenty of action. But from this video (which you can compare to a similar one on the other ship I shared last week) you can see the stress was on elegance and quality design. … In your experience, which cruise line offers the most enjoyable ambiance and clientele?
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
We love sailing on Celebrity. We’ve tried the more boisterous (Carnival) ships and found the experience jarring. We like the elegance of dining at the same table every night and going to the dining room for almost all meals. We have found, however, that ear plugs come in handy in the show lounge. The professionals on board all the ships like to set the volume on the music way too loud. Once the earplugs are in place, I can enjoy the shows in comfort.
i have taken one ETBD tour. it was wonderful! i certainly hope that i will be able to go on more of the tours that are offered through Rick Steves’ company. but i have taken several cruises. these trips, too, have been wonderful.
i am happy to see that rick steves’ is exploring the world of cruising. at times, his criticisms of cruising and cruise passengers have seemed too harsh to me. perhaps this experience will cause him to re-evaluate.
i will be interested to re-visit this blog to hear rick steves’ further impressions, as he cruises the mediterranean.
we like sailing with celebrity. prices are usually favorable, and we like the restful atmosphere the ships provide. on the last cruise we took, through the panama canal, a boise state university professor was onboard the ship to offer lectures on the different business, historical, and social aspects of the building of the canal. the ship doesn’t just fill your tummy. they try to get a little something into your head too. free water-painting kits were available and water-painting classes were taught, completely free of charge, to interested passengers. so, besides the restful atmosphere of the ship, we also appreciate the enrichment programs offered onboard.
other cruise lines that we have sailed with include carnival (not our favorite, but nice for young families and noisier socializers), oceania (not cheap!!! but excellent itineraries and beautiful smaller ships), holland america (very nice), and princess(quite nice too).
we’ve always sailed RCCL, it seems to be a good combination of youthful enthusiasm and composed luxury. we’ve never had a bad cruise. i don’t know that i’ll do a european cruise, but we love them for tropical destinations.
I’ve done three cruises. One out of San Diego to Acupulco, another out of Canaveral to Belize, and a third from Copenhagen to the Baltic capitals. The first two were with Carnival and the third was with Princess.
I enjoyed each of the cruises. My focus was on destinations more than the ship. We preferred open seating to reserved dinner seating, generally our focus is on activities rather than dining. We liked eating when we wanted to rather than building a schedule around a meal.
Some rules are true for every ship. Shorter cruises get younger crowds, weekend cruises will have lots of young passengers, seven night cruises get a mix of families and retired, two weeks or more will likely be populated almost entirely by white haired people.
Food depends on where you are. Carnival was better than Princess, but I believe it was mostly due to budgeting for expensive Baltic vs. cheap Mexican food sources.
Carnival was very aggresive with selling once on board. The more upscale you go (higher the initial fare) the less in-your-face sales pitches you have to endure. Watch what you spend on board. Cruises can be a great deal but it’s easy to run up a large tab on drinks, gambling, spa services or other on-board purchases.