Finally bit the bullet and booked on Celebrity.

[soniam]

For sure. I bet there is a lot of shuffling as the cruise approaches. Paying upfront may help a little with people grabbing a spot just to hold it. But, we did get a big onboard credit which made it possible to book some without paying upfront. We tend to do a lot of private excursions, but there are some that are easier with the cruise line. I like that I know we have the cruise ones locked in now, instead of finding out a few months out that the one we wanted is full and scrambling to find a replacement. That happened in Mykonos and it ended up coasting a lot to find a private tour, which would have been easier had we had more notice.

Overall though, the website just works better and has a better layout. Even though I was just using it for the first time, it is intuitive and things seem easier to find.

When we went in 2018, the website was worse than DCL. There are still some weird things about the site. I noticed that the specialty bookings, ie dining and excursions, are technically on a different site. In fact, it was hard to find dining and massages. I had to go to excursions, and then they were there. I also don't recall finding what I had booked for the extras except in the order section of the excursion page. The app is really great for seeing stuff that you have booked even before the cruise. Supposedly, it can be wonky when it comes to booking excursions though. My only complaint was that I didn't know when all of the dining and excursions would be available; we booked 2 years out for this summer. I had to keep checking as stuff dribbled in, but I did get everything I wanted. The excursions and dining were so much less stressful than DCL. Hope you have a great cruise!

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

Just go with an open mind and I think you’ll enjoy it. We are big Disney fans but have also done Royal Caribbean and we love them too. Mainly Oasis class though. So good. I’ll always check now if there is a good deal on DCL (we have done 6 Disney cruises and going on the 7th this summer to Alaska) but we are at the point where I don’t see the value in paying double for DCL. We want to branch out to Celebrity and Princess as well.
Just love cruising! Disney world though… that’s my second home

 

[Sykes]

One thing that is worth mentioning is that Celebrity treats their Junior Suite class (Sky Suites) like full suites, unlike Royal Caribbean and some others, so there are pretty substantial advantages to making the jump from Concierge/Aqua class up there. If the price difference is less than 25% on Edge class ships then I consider it for access to Luminae alone. (The rest of The Retreat is just added bonus.) Sometimes the price difference is much more substantial, though (especially on European sailings).

 

[brentm77]

Can someone enlighten me on what option is best out of picking a dining time or picking anytime dinning on the edge class ships? We don't mind having a set time like DCL. I would prefer that over long waits to be seated. But it sounds like we won't rotate through the restaurants.

 

[Sykes]

Can someone enlighten me on what option is best out of picking a dining time or picking anytime dinning on the edge class ships? We don't mind having a set time like DCL. I would prefer that over long waits to be seated. But it sounds like we won't rotate through the restaurants.

With the standard dining you'll have the same dining room, table, and wait staff every night, but you can still choose to make a reservation and dine elsewhere if you want.

If you choose Anytime dining, you'll give up the option for consistency of wait staff, etc., but you can still make reservations in advance so you won't be stuck waiting in line if you plan your meals in advance. If you don't plan in advance then each of the dining rooms has a walk-up line too, and on my sailings there wasn't really any wait there either, but I guess you could get unlucky.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

In addition to what Sykes said, my TA says that Anytime Dining isn't difficult to get a table if you like to eat early, say 5:30-6:00. Later on there will be a wait.
If you choose Anytime Dining, you must prepay gratuities since you most likely won't have the same servers repeatedly. This makes sense. There would be people who would choose AD just to avoid tipping since they haven't develped a rapport with any of them.

 

[hrhdhd]

There is only anytime dining on the E-class ships. Speaking of wonky websites, the website will offer set dining times but on the ship, it's all anytime.

 

[brentm77]

There is only anytime dining on the E-class ships. Speaking of wonky websites, the website will offer set dining times but on the ship, it's all anytime.

Interesting. Can I take back my praise for the website?

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Do they have Sugar in the Raw for coffee?
Also, how is their room service coffee compared to DCL?

 

[tgropp]

I obviously have been out of the Disney cruise line loop for too long. I am on the Celebrity Equinox docked out of Grand Cayman and lo and behold I looked out my balcony this morning and see the Disney Dream there. I always thought that ship was for three and four nights Bahamian cruises. I sure missed that change

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I obviously have been out of the Disney cruise line loop for too long. I am on the Celebrity Equinox docked out of Grand Cayman and lo and behold I looked out my balcony this morning and see the Disney Dream there. I always thought that ship was for three and four nights Bahamian cruises. I sure missed that change

It was originally but our girl has matured a lot. She’s 12 already.

 

[JWG]

Made the mistake of pricing a 14-day land/sea Alaskan cruise/vacation via HAL in May 2024 and comparing it to our already booked 5+4 day B2B on the Dream in March. HAL was still a little more per person, but 14-days vs. 9 and all in concierege with everything included (premium drinkgs, premium WiFi, tips, etc.). DCL, not so much.

Granted, it's early in the AK season (late March into June) and major spring break week on DCL. But darn.

 

[jujubiee4]

I saw a youtube video of someone dining on Celebrity in the most amazing restaurant. It had
these highback chairs and seemed fantasy almost disney like. Now I can't find the video. I think I want to
make a reservation for Celebrity in 2024 to try out and would like that ship.

Anyone know what I am talking about?

 

[Sykes]

I saw a youtube video of someone dining on Celebrity in the most amazing restaurant. It had
these highback chairs and seemed fantasy almost disney like. Now I can't find the video. I think I want to
make a reservation for Celebrity in 2024 to try out and would like that ship.

Anyone know what I am talking about?

You may be thinking of Le Petit Chef. A version of it is available on most (all?) ships, but the experience varies a bit from ship to ship.

 

[jujubiee4]

You may be thinking of Le Petit Chef. A version of it is available on most (all?) ships, but the experience varies a bit from ship to ship.

Thank you. I just looked up La Petit Chef and that was not it. However after just now watching a
video of it I want to try this also!

With some further digging just found out the original restaurant I wondered about is on Royal.

 

[Hubie]

Glad I discovered this post. We've been on 7 DCL cruises and loved all of them. We're now booked on the Oct. 13th, 14-nt Pacific cruise from Honolulu to Sydney. I've been considering other cruise lines due to cost, but DW is not interested in leaving DCL. She keeps mentioning the casinos and smokers as her main negatives of the other lines. Maybe with time, and more information I'll be able to convince her to at least try Celebrity.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

Glad I discovered this post. We've been on 7 DCL cruises and loved all of them. We're now booked on the Oct. 13th, 14-nt Pacific cruise from Honolulu to Sydney. I've been considering other cruise lines due to cost, but DW is not interested in leaving DCL. She keeps mentioning the casinos and smokers as her main negatives of the other lines. Maybe with time, and more information I'll be able to convince her to at least try Celebrity.

I can tell you that on Royal Caribbean (4 ships now we’ve been on) I have not smelled smoke from the Casino unless we walked through it.
They do have one area on the pool deck that is smoking but once we discovered where it was, it was non-issue.
I am very sensitive to smoke and this did not bother me. Rarely went into the Casino.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Glad I discovered this post. We've been on 7 DCL cruises and loved all of them. We're now booked on the Oct. 13th, 14-nt Pacific cruise from Honolulu to Sydney. I've been considering other cruise lines due to cost, but DW is not interested in leaving DCL. She keeps mentioning the casinos and smokers as her main negatives of the other lines. Maybe with time, and more information I'll be able to convince her to at least try Celebrity.

OP here. I can totally relate to how your wife feels. After trying RC twice, I lost all desire to try other lines. We found that so many times we had to cut through the casino to get to where we were heading or otherwise, go up or down a deck to get from one end of the ship to the other. I also missed how DCL offers 2 shows to correspond to dining times so no matter which dinner group you're in, you can still see the show. Not so with RCCL. More than one we had to choose between dinner or the show so we at the buffet in order to catch the show.

Normally by this point in winter, I'm disgusted from scraping ice off my car's windshield 100x, tired of allowing an extra 30 mins to get to work, being careful how I drive, careful how/where I walk, just plain sick of bundling up in the cold, and need some warm sun on my skin.

This year has been the mildest winter in NJ I can recall. Even more bizzare we have been overstaffed in my area of the hospital where I work so I was able to flex for 10 days this month without using any vacation time. I caught up on so many things I'd been needing to get done. I am sooo not stressed and really don't need a vacation, and would rather save the $$ but dh is so busy at work all week plus working so much OT and he's the one wanting to try something different. So I am willing to compromise for him. The fact that it's $1000 less than DCL and includes drinks, WIFI and gratuities makes it a bit easier to tolerate. I'd rather let him have his way now so that he doesn't complain when it's time for our WBPC in October. If I have to hear 14 nights of, "This is fine but I'm ready to try something different." it would not be a good cruise.

 

[Hubie]

OP here. I can totally relate to how your wife feels. After trying RC twice, I lost all desire to try other lines. We found that so many times we had to cut through the casino to get to where we were heading or otherwise, go up or down a deck to get from one end of the ship to the other. I also missed how DCL offers 2 shows to correspond to dining times so no matter which dinner group you're in, you can still see the show. Not so with RCCL. More than one we had to choose between dinner or the show so we at the buffet in order to catch the show.

Normally by this point in winter, I'm disgusted from scraping ice off my car's windshield 100x, tired of allowing an extra 30 mins to get to work, being careful how I drive, careful how/where I walk, just plain sick of bundling up in the cold, and need some warm sun on my skin.

This year has been the mildest winter in NJ I can recall. Even more bizzare we have been overstaffed in my area of the hospital where I work so I was able to flex for 10 days this month without using any vacation time. I caught up on so many things I'd been needing to get done. I am sooo not stressed and really don't need a vacation, and would rather save the $$ but dh is so busy at work all week plus working so much OT and he's the one wanting to try something different. So I am willing to compromise for him. The fact that it's $1000 less than DCL and includes drinks, WIFI and gratuities makes it a bit easier to tolerate. I'd rather let him have his way now so that he doesn't complain when it's time for our WBPC in October. If I have to hear 14 nights of, "This is fine but I'm ready to try something different." it would not be a good cruise.

Well, hope you have a great cruise with Celebrity and then tell us all about it. I do know that the DCL-WBPC cruise was wonderful when we did it. We didn't want to get off of the Wonder when we arrived at San Diego.