Lessons Learned First Cruise with Celebrity Cruises

Hey everybody, I'm Josh.

And I'm Rachael.

We just wrapped up our first cruise with Celebrity, and there's a few things we want to share with you, things that we were expecting and things that surprised us.

Let's go!

All right, so this was our first time on Celebrity, and we booked this about a year and a half before. We were on Celebrity Beyond for an 11-night cruise to Panama Canal, Colombia, and the ABC Islands.

This isn't our first cruise, but it was our first cruise with Celebrity. I've done a couple Carnival cruises, Josh had done a Princess cruise, and then together we've mainly done Royal Caribbean cruises over the last 4 years.

Yeah, including over a dozen in those 4 years. And we were able to tier match over from Diamond status to Elite status, so we figured now was the time to try it out.

Yes, and there were a few things that we were expecting as we got ready for this ship, which is simply because Royal Caribbean and Celebrity are sister companies or sister Yeah. So we did know that you could bring on 2 bottles of wine and soda, and that is similar across Royal Caribbean and Celebrity.

Right. And booking the cruise itself was very simple and very similar to Royal Caribbean. You'll see if you go online, they always have sales going. I don't know how you can figure out which one's the best price, but there's always gonna be some kind of sale. If you're not getting a sale, you're doing it wrong.

Yes, agreed.

But you can definitely check the price and make sure to keep checking to make sure you're getting the best deal. The website is great, and all of the pre-cruise sales stuff was the same as with Royal Caribbean. So we were able to book all of our excursions, book our— we booked a couple bottles of wine. We booked our dinner reservations and meal package online.

Yes! Anything that we've previously done, we're like, oh, this looks very similar! So the websites themselves are similar. In addition to the websites being similar, the app you use while on board, almost identical!

Yeah!

Yeah! Very easy to use!

That way you can keep track of what shows you want to go to, when your dinner reservations are, what Excursion time, you have to go to where.

What activities are going on throughout the entire cruise.

It's very easy. You can do texting on there. For some reason, our texting was working between each other. So we didn't have to do it. But there is like a group chat option. So if you don't do Wi-Fi package, which we don't do, you can look at that. You can also look at if you get pictures taken while you're on board. You can be able to look through and see them on your app.

The e-muster, again, on day 1, very easy. You'd watch the safety video on the app and then you go to your assigned muster station, they scan your card and you're good to go. It truly takes 3 minutes max. It's so fast.

A couple things that we did hear about was both related to food. One, it was supposedly better, and 2, there was a dress code. So the dress code is you have to wear pants, which I've gotten really good at wearing shorts to the main dining room or to the specialty restaurants, but you do have to wear pants and you do have to wear closed-toed shoes.

Yes.

Now Rachael was able to get away with flip-flops, but girls can do that.

Yeah, my sandals.

Yeah, so I did bring Bring a pair of Hey Dudes to, uh, have some kind of slip-on shoe during that. So you'll want to be prepared that way, as well as bring a few pairs of slacks.

And then for us in particular, we booked a veranda room, and we have been on an Infinite Balcony veranda room before, so we were anticipating it being very similar to one we've been on.

Right, which the Celebrity Edge class has a lot of Infinite Verandas, and it is a controversial subject where people are— they feel like they have to be pro-balcony or pro-Infinite Veranda. You can be pro-both. We, we enjoy both options. Uh, we I like about it that it basically extends your living quarters.

Yes.

You know, all of the space that would have been a balcony is now inside and you can use it all day long. The window is beautiful and it basically is a window. It's a large window that comes down. So it's like a balcony, but it definitely doesn't have the same wind and feel of a balcony. But it's also, it feels more private to me.

I agree with that. Especially when you do put the window down, you can't lean out and see your neighbors.

Right. A lot of times—

You know that your neighbors are on there, Balcony or not.

Yeah, on the balconies you'll see there's space below, there's space above, you can hear them.

The cracks on the sides of them.

Yeah, we never heard our neighbors once. So that part is really nice. The heat can get a little bit odd, but you can close— there's some interior doors to close it off to help with the heat and humidity in your room if you want to have the window down. A few of the things that surprised us, both for the good and bad. As far as Captain Kate goes, we did hear that she stepped down from Celebrity. On our way to the cruise port. It happened the day that we got there. She posted on Instagram that she is no longer here. So if you are interested in going with Captain Kate, she's no longer with Celebrity.

And the funny part about that for us is we had no idea who Captain Kate was until—

No idea.

What, 6 weeks ago?

No, 6 months ago. Okay, 6 months ago. A friend of ours had told us about her and she was like, oh my God, you're, you're gonna get to be with Captain Kate. You gotta go on there. It's gonna be amazing. Take a picture. Never heard of her. And then all of a sudden we were excited for it and then it never happened. So instead we had Captain Costas. And he was a nice guy.

Yeah, he was really nice. Ah, this one, attendances, shows. My goodness.

Crazy.

They are packed, packed, packed. I don't know if the theater is smaller. I don't know if the venues are smaller or if people just want to go and they're there early. I mean, early.

We would go to the show easily 30 minutes before. For a show in Eden, we went 45 to 60 minutes before to make sure that we had a seat with a view. Be ready to guard your seats and get there early.

Now, speaking of shows, So we did enjoy the entertainment here on Celebrity. It was varied and there were some nights that they didn't have much, it felt like, going on, and other nights it felt packed.

Yeah.

So I don't know if that's a plus or a minus, but there were days that you felt like, like every night had 2 or 3 things you wanted to do. And then the next night you're like, man, maybe one.

Yeah. Last night, for instance, there were 3 different shows that we wanted to go to, plus we had dinner.

Yeah.

And it's all in the same timeframe. So we only made it to 2 shows and then tonight we don't really want to go to the show. So we're okay. We're probably just going to go up to the— hot tub in the Solarium, because we've never been able to make it to the Solarium because those seats— I didn't even have this listed— those seats in the Solarium go like that.

It's crazy.

So if you want to get one, get it early, hold on to it. But, uh, yeah, we never even— we, we walked through the Solarium, but we never got a chance to get in the pool, in the hot tub, or even sit in a chair.

Yeah.

There's a lot of simple things, little, that really add up to Celebrity just feeling right. So some of the things that we wrote down was just that in the shower There's conditioner. When we've been—

There's separate body wash and hair stuff.

Yeah, so on Royal it's one— I don't know.

Product.

One product that cleans all. Um, it's like the most man all-in-one product.

Yeah.

But here, yeah, you have body wash, shampoo, conditioner. And we probably didn't need to bring ours, but we were so used to it from Royal Caribbean that we brought our own.

In addition, they have lotion. We haven't been able to find lotion on any other cruise we've been on.

Yeah.

So they had lotion and I was like, yay!

Um, they do have Kleenex in the bathroom. Always useful. Uh, there's access to towels on the pool deck. Not having to check out the towels with your key card every time was so nice. And not only that, but our room steward would bring us towels for beach days and then refresh them without asking.

Yeah, we didn't ever have to worry about it on that. It was amazing.

That felt nice.

Yeah.

Another— there is a There's just a ledge in the bathroom that you're able to set things on. There's a drawer in the bathroom that you can put your stuff away in.

Yes!

These sound like simple things, but you don't have them on all cruise ships. There's also a plug-in in the bathroom. It's crazy that these are not normal, but Celebrity has them.

Another thing for our room, and this was like one of Josh's favorite things the minute we walked in, is the amount of pillows we had.

So many.

We had 4 Pillows, like regular pillows, and then probably—

4 throw pillows.

4 throw pillows. And I found an extra blanket under the bed that we could use as just napping.

Yeah, we did. Yeah, it was because sometimes in your naps after the beach, you don't want to get all the way into bed. That seems like your bedtime. Where we just like to throw an extra blanket on afterwards, and it was great.

It was wonderful.

Another, bar snacks. We were able to get bar snacks.

Like during the happy— I don't know if it's— no, it wasn't just during happy hour.

We had it at Martini Bar as well as in Eden.

Yeah.

Where just if you're sitting at the bar getting some drinks, it was a delicious bar mix, snack mix kind of thing.

Yeah, it was really good.

Casino drink service kind of felt like they were a little short. This is something that coming from Royal Caribbean where we are Prime status, which means we have gained some tier status with the casino and earn free drinks there. With that, the nice thing is you're able to walk up to a bar area and just get Whatever you want.

Yeah.

Here there was, I think there was like 2 to 3.

Maybe.

2 to 3 waiters at most, um, at nighttime, and they were busy.

They were.

They were, they would go by really fast. They were kind of speaking under—

They were quiet.

Yeah, they weren't loud.

Yeah.

How about that? So sometimes it was a little bit hit or miss when we were able to get a drink or not, which— but one of the positives for Celebrity that we did learn along the way is that once you have 1 point, 1 single point, Which is $5 played, and they don't actually check it, you get free drinks in the casino.

Yeah, which is a huge difference.

Yes, whereas on Royal Caribbean you have to earn 2,500 points, which I think must be, I don't know, like $12,000 through.

And we're not talking just like alcoholic beverages. I believe you can get bottled water and coffee and, uh, like Coke products because we got that this morning.

Yep.

Another piece about the casino that kind of surprised me It seemed big at first, but it really wasn't.

Yeah, it was small.

It was pretty small. The key piece on that though, if you've been on any other ship lately, is it is completely smoke-free.

Yes, it was very nice to have a non-smoking casino. We did notice that there are several smoking areas, and we loved how they were— they were nice areas, but they didn't force everybody through them. Like on Royal Caribbean, you find on one half of the pool deck is just a smoking section, and you You will notice it. We'll walk through it even on accident every now and then. Whereas this, you don't accidentally walk through the smoking section, but it's also not like they're in a bad spot.

No, because I noticed there was, I think there was one on Deck 5, there's one on Deck 12 or 14.

Yep, there's one outside of Eden, and then there's one towards the back where you just don't casually walk through it, but it, it's a nice area.

Yeah.

It just helps to keep it separated. One downside. So we did not get the water package. We did not get a drink package. So normally we order the water in the room. We had some issues when we were booking and credit card wasn't going through. So we were just like, ah, whatever, we'll be fine. Well, we struggled to find water stations.

Absolutely, yeah.

Like areas to fill up your own water bottle, areas where you could even like fill up a glass of water. On Royal Caribbean, it's really nice. There's always a water spot at Cafe Promenade, which is somewhere in the middle of the deck. And then up at the buffet, at the bare minimum, you can get water. that way. We have not found a water station.

Like a centrally located one.

Right, other than the buffet.

Yeah, and Eden Cafe has it.

Or Mass Grill has one too.

Yeah, and Eden Cafe has one, but it is, um, so random.

Only when it's open.

Yeah, it just doesn't—

Yeah, because that's only open for like 2 hours for breakfast, 2 hours for lunch, and then it's closed. So that was just— it was a bit of a hassle for somebody who didn't do a drink package. So know that going in. Either order the water package to be delivered to your room, or, you know, I, I know a lot of people do drink packages. We just try not to.

Coming from Diamond status from Royal Caribbean, we did notice one major change at Celebrity is they have an Elite Happy Hour where rather than getting 4 free alcoholic drinks or any kind of drink throughout the day like on Royal Caribbean, you do have a happy hour which is from 5 to 7 PM at a limited amount of bars with a limited Menu, but you can have an unlimited amount of drinks. So depending on what you think about the drinks and your choices, you may end up with having more drinks this way. I don't know that one is better than the other; it's just it's definitely different. And you can't use your free status drinks until five p.m. on Celebrity, whereas you could have it the moment you wake up on Royal.

Twice a day housekeeping is on Celebrity.

It is.

It has been off Royal Caribbean for a couple years now, and we forgot how nice. It truly is. It's just so nice, especially like this is a hot weather cruise, so a lot of times you're showering twice a day, and it's really nice to be able to come back to your room, have a fresh towel, have your bed made up after you have to pass out after some day drinking at the beach. It was so nice.

And I love the evening turndown service they provide. They provide— they turn down your bed, they provide chocolates on your pillow, and here on Celebrity they have not gotten rid of the— I think it's called their Celebrity Today, which is their new newsletter thing, and I read that every night before going to bed.

Yeah, yeah, you still get the paper copy, which I do remember that being one of the biggest things I loved every— when I first started cruising, to be able to see what's going on tomorrow.

Yeah, we didn't bring a highlighter, but no, I mean, there is that possibility.

As far as excursions go, I thought that it was pretty standard compared to Royal Caribbean. Sure, uh, you get on board, you have your tickets that are right on your desk. It'll tell you where to go, when to go there. I thought everything was extremely organized.

Yeah, it was very organized.

So a lot of times you would go meet down in the theater or else just off the ship because these were small ports. So we had basically the entire dock to ourselves. So sometimes you'd either line up in the theater or line up on the dock, and it was perfect. We had no issues.

Yeah.

Not one issue.

Yeah.

Overall, Josh, it's been 11 nights here on Celebrity. 10 currently, but it's going to be 11 nights here on Celebrity. Would you do it again?

Absolutely. We already signed up for it.

Yeah, we've already booked another one.

Yeah, we did spend enough time in the casino, so we did earn a free cruise. Earn a free cruise, which is prepaid, prepaying for another cruise. But, uh, yeah, I thought it was a great experience. I thought the staff was amazing.

I was gonna say, overall service is just top-notch and cleanliness. Cleanliness.

We were saying even— oh, another thing, bathrooms. The public bathrooms, there is basically a person cleaning at all times.

Yes.

And also, it's one of those small things, in the public bathrooms they have cloth handwashing towels for drying your hands. For drying your hands.

Yeah, it was—

it was nuts.

It was an amazing experience. I can't wait to do it again.

Celebrity Beyond has far exceeded our expectations.

I agree. Hopefully you feel that this We hope this video helped you decide whether Celebrity is the right cruise line for you or not. If you're enjoying our videos, don't forget to hit that like and subscribe.

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