Pamela

Just want to know what to expect on a Celebrity cruise. We're going New Years week with two teens. We've cruised a lot and have written offHAL after our Xmas expereince last year with sanitation and service.

Louise

Hi Pamela, <BR>My family and I took a Celebrity cruise on the Galaxy ship in June'99 and had a wonderful experience. I have two children ages fourteen and seventeen. They actually enjoyed it as much as we did. They are wanting to go back on Celebrity but we are going to try the Carnival out of Texas this year. I have no complaints at all. The service was excellent and the food was absolutely superb. We had a suite on the penthouse deck and got to go to a lot of cocktail parties (felt like VIPS). I think you will enjoy your cruise with Celebrity. A lot of people I know who had cruised with HAL said the crowd was younger on Celebrity and that's the reason we chose them. We are in our late 40's. Go and have fun.

Candi

My husband and I had such a great time on the Galaxy in January, that we took our 18 and 15 year old boys on another cruise in July. They had a great time and said it was the best vacation they ever had. There is lots of stuff geared to teens in the late evening that they loved. They had dinner and the show with us, but then were on their own. They stayed up all night on the last night with about 30 other teens to see the sun rise. We'll definitely go again. <BR>Candi

rose

My husband and I are 40 and we do not have children but we have been on the Horizon, which is Celebrity's oldest ship, twice within the last 2 years and we probably will not try another cruise line. We are just regular people with champagne tastes and we were treated like some one special by all staff on the ship. The ship is immaculate and the service is definately 5 star!! We don't like the drinking and party crowd and that is why we chose Celebrity in the first place. We like to read a book or go snorkeling so there is plenty for us to do. I have no idea what they have for any children, but if you want great value, above average food and service, then Celebrity is the way to go! Thank you.

Tina

My husband and I are also booked on the Galaxy New Years week. This will be our first cruise and we booked a few months ago after reading many favorable reviews on this forum. I just recently checked the reviews on cruise addicts as recommended by a poster recently and the reviews within the last year have been mostly negative sighting poor service, food and lack of entertainment. I am now getting a little concerned. Does anyone have any recent experiences they could share? Thanks so much!!

spots25

we are going on the galaxy x-mas week with 2 teen. is that the week you are going?

Harry

We have taken HAL, Princess, RCCL, and Celebrity and found that in virtually all categories Celebrity wins hands-down! Some problems on their newer ships probably relate to their being new with inexperienced crews. Those problems generally get ironed out within 6 months. <BR> <BR>Here are a few point by point comparions for you (our opinions only!); <BR> <BR>Buffets... Fair on HAL, POOR on RCCL and Princess, excellent on Celebrity <BR> <BR>Buffet Service... Celebrity, Excellent!, Others virtually non-existent except for cleaning up trays. <BR> <BR>Dining Room Food... Fair-Good on HAL, Fair on Princess. Fair on RCCL, Good to Excellent on Celebrity. <BR> <BR>Dining Room Service... Good to Excellent on Celebrity, Princess and RCCL. Fair on HAL (we think the service generally suffers on HAL due to their "no tipping required" policy ... unlesss you let your steward/waiter etc. know you plan to tip at the end of the cruise!). <BR> <BR>Entertainment... Celebrity Fair to Poor although recently on Mercury had an excellent experience with entertainment so maybe things are changing. RCCL... Good/Excellent. HAL Fair/good, Princess Good. <BR> <BR>The cabin service generally follows what we alluded to above concerning dining room service. Depending on the ship, the cabins on RCCL can be quite small while Celebrity cabins are not only a nice size, they seem to have good storage. HAL seems to go for nicer or at least somewhat larger rooms, often with sitting areas for example. <BR> <BR>As for cleanliness, Celebrity again seems to beat the others with Princess and HAL a close second or virtually as good. RCCL, especially some public areas was disappointing. Princess does one thing better than other lines and I have heard this from others and that is embarkation and, disembarkation. <BR> <BR>The general experience we have had is that when we have "strayed" from Celebrity, we might not necessarily have a "bad" trip (actually never. enjoyed all) but the funny thing is, when you get back to Celebrity, you sort of breath a sigh of relief (Ahhhh, that's how it should be!). <BR> <BR>Now, if you really want to be pampered, try Crystal or Seabourne etc but be prepared to pay almost double! I have heard they are fantastic but I cannot justify the price differential. <BR> <BR>So, the bottom line is, you can and should have a good time with most of the majopr cruiselines but for my money, the one that stands out is indeed, Celebrity.

Ken

Pam, <BR> <BR>I will disagree with Harry almost entirely on the food aspect of Celebrity vs. Princess. Having been on both the Millennium (last week) and the Grand (November, 1999) I can tell you the Grand's buffet was far superior in every aspect than Millennium's. The food service, preparation and quality were equal to slightly better on board the Grand. <BR> <BR>Both lines will provide you with a fun trip, but we would choose Grand over Millennium with equal itineraries. But, that is just our opinion.

Richard

We just got back from a cruise on the Millenium (Europe Oct.13- Oct.23)and our experiance was different from most of the others. The ship was beautiful. The rooms were small compared to RCCL and Holland America. The brochure said that our suite would have a whirlpool tub. It did not. The CR desk said "sorry, the brochures were printed before the ship was finished". We found that they charged (nickled and dimed) for just about everything. ie. $17/hr to sit in the steam room, $1.00/min. for internet access, $30.00 surcharge for caviar and my wifes massage was $189.00 for 55 minutes. The food was marginal and any special request was just not done on Celebrity. Overall, I would rate our experiance 6-7 out of 10. Our experiance on the Holland America Masdam was a solid 9. Good luck.

gardenbabe

We were on the same cruise as Richard --- The Millenium Oct 13. I agree it was the worst cruise of 4 i've been on! <BR> <BR>The ship is big & beautiful. That's where the good stops! Food not great or plentiful. I lost 3 lbs & that's hard for me to do! If you didn't get to the restaurant by 8am you had to stand in line 45 mins to 11 hr cafeteria style. Always out of coffee & OJ. The waiters agreud with you & never got the order right---neither did the cabin steward. <BR>It didn't matter if you were reaching for a slice of pizza on Ocean Deck, they'd shut the overhead doors practically right on your hand! <BR> <BR>minibars were locked the last night & the posted prices of $1.75/coke were inflated to $3.02 & a gratuity of $.39 tacked on. if you bought wine in port not only were you charged the posted $6.00 "corkage fee" but also a $6.00 gratuity! <BR> <BR>The ship changed the itinerary & this dramatically affected the ability to shop & sightsee! <BR> <BR>Tendering & having to take a bus an additional 2 1/2 hr to Genoa from Milan & then being told we could not board the ship until 3:30 when we arrived @ 11 was rediculous! <BR> <BR>The land tours were complete rip-off! Hire a cab & negotiate a decent price --pay @ the end. <BR> <BR>We felt more pampered & rested on a cheap 3 day Bahama cruise!

ian

Pamela: <BR> <BR>We have cruised on Crystal, RCCL, and Celebrity. Celebrity is an excellent choice, especially if you have teens (we have two-13 and 15). We were on the Mercury in December '99 for the Western Caribbean cruise. Our children had a wonderful time, we hardly saw them. One word of caution. If you are going south and plan to do some snorkelling in <BR>Grand Caymen, I would recommend that you <BR>DO NOT take the ship's offering. The tour has a very short time for actual swimming, and you are with 150 or so lemmings. We took Captain Marvin's tour. <BR>It was half the price, ten times as good, with three times more time in the water. There were only eight of us on the tour and we got personal attention and guidance from the operator. <BR> <BR>Have a great time, you are making the right choice.

Harry

I noted that there are some quite negative reviews concerning the Millenium below. Having been on virtually all Celebrity's ships apart from the Millenium I am convinced that as a new ship, she's experiencing crew and other problems relating to inexperience etc. The descriptions of their food and service problems are quite atypical of what you read and experience with Celebrity and I would still stick by my reviews as outlined below.

hector

I was on the Horizon departing Aruba 11/18/00. I have nothing but good things to say about Celebrtiy. The food is great, so is the service, the entertainment was very good. <BR> <BR> Our cruise wasn't full to capacity so perhaps that further enhanced the attention we were spoilled with.

hector

I forgot to mention a small anectode to reinforce how good the service was on Celebrity. I fancy olive oil with my bread before the main meal. The first night I requested olive oil, the waiter and his assistant, without my asking, had a bottle of olive oil waiting for me on the table each night. <BR> <BR> Also, my wife and I had taken aboard a couple of Corona beers that we didn't consume on land. That night when we went to retire, they were sitting in the ice bucket, with ice. Alot of attention to detail.

gardenbabe

I have sent a letter to Celebrity via my Travel Agent & she has called many ---@ least 5-6 times to complain about the terrible cruise we had on the Millenium. She was told there were so many complaints about the August sailing they couldn't keep up with them & had appointed one person to "handle them." After 2 months, being shuffled around on the phone & many empty promises of satisfaction, I am rathful!!! I am tempted to take up filing a class action suite against Celebrity. Any other dissatisfied customers please e-mail me.

Mudpie

I've been on several Celebrity cruises and they were quite nice (never been on Millinium). I was concerned about what happend to you on the HAL ship you mentioned...?? We've been on several HAL cruises as well and I actually rate them higher than Celebrity....We are in our 30's and I've found that the age varies more on the itinerary than the cruiseline itself. I would normally recommend Celebrity (although I think HAL is a step-above) but am hesitant since you were not pleased with HAL. You might want to look at Radisson or Crystal, Seabourne or an upscale cruise line to really feel pampered.... <BR>My concern here though would be a lack of other teens on a luxury line. Good Luck