I took my first Celebrity Cruise and it was not what I expected!

I took my very first Celebrity Cruise and it totally surprised me in ways I did not expect now I've cruised with ro caran for decades I've loved it I've reached Pinnacle Club Status you all watch this channel you know my history with royal kin and I absolutely love it but it felt like the right time to try celebrity celebity been doing a lot of cool things lately especially with their Edge class cruise ships and it certainly intrigued me and of course trying other cruise lines in general a little weird mad another line that's crazy but I really think it made sense for me because celebrity and Royal caran are owned by the same parent company and so what would it be like to go on one of celebrity's brand new cruise ships to try it out for myself I wanted to see it so we booked celebrity Apex over Thanksgiving for a seven night Eastern Caribbean cruise now I picked Apex because I wanted a new ship and The Edge class has gotten so much attention that I felt it would be a great first step forward to try celebrity I was never really concerned about having a bad time on board but I was just really curious how much would I enjoy the experience would it feel exactly like rooll ging but I fall in love and never want to go back again and what would my kids think of it all everything leaning up to the cruise in the check-in process for a celebrity cruise felt pretty much the same as Royal Caribbean both Royal Caribbean and celebrity use the same backend for its app and websites so while they are two different apps they look and work exactly the same but with a different color scheme so there was really no surprises there at all until I really got on board the ship I did a status match in the months leading up to the cruise with my Crown and Anchor status both lines will honor your status on either line with diamond diamond Plus or Pinnacle club members getting Elite status in the captain's Club over at celebrity this is one tier below their uppermost level loyalty level having Elite status in Captain's club didn't really get me as much value in my careers as I thought it would I mean it was nice to have it but I was kind of surprised by how useless a lot of the perks were we just really didn't use any because they're just weren't as lucrative as the ones you'll find with Royal Caribbean that was one of the early things that stood out about it now celebrity Apex sales from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale Florida and it has its own terminal and it was a beautiful building set up efficiently easy in Easy out this is like everything that I've come to expect from Royal Crib in so certainly nothing different about the check-in process or embarking on the cruise in looking at which cabin to book for this cruise we went with a cabin category I never would have booked if I didn't find a great deal on it thanks to our friends at Mei travel they had a special agency rate on concierge class infinite Veranda cabins that made it just as cheap to book those rooms as a standard Veranda it can be a little conf us using to understand what concierge class gets you because real crean doesn't have subclasses of Grooms like this the name seems to imply you get a higher level of service but it's not quite like that celebrity has subclasses of cabins that get special benefits including the concierge class and the aqua class in short concierge class gets you an infinite Veranda cabin with some added perks the actual cabin is very similar to a normal Veranda so it's not a suite or anything like that but there are the extra perks included the main perks of Kier class are priority embarcation and debarkation embarcation Day lunch priority dining time in the main dining room canopies and sparkling wine on request upgraded pillow menu the con year service itself and a couple others that I don't think most people ever use but they exist they all sound really impressive on paper but most of these perks will likely go completely unused the best benefits are the embarcation Day lunch so you get a free lunch at a restaurant rather than having to go to the buffet or something like that the concierge service which can help you and bypass a lot of guest services canopies and champagne and priority embarcation everybody cruises differently so how useful all these perks can be will vary but in our experience we barely used any of the benefits the canopies were not the sort of food I liked and I don't drink champagne so that one was completely lost on us the check-in embarcation Day lunch was nice the priority embarcation on the first day I didn't see it so I think it's more about tendering than anything else and the coner service was more or less not as useful as I would hope the Kier team was super friendly and very welcoming and did assist with any issues we had but we just didn't have any problems for them we booked a standard dining time with every night pre- cruise so priority times in the dining room didn't help us and the rest of the benefits either went unused or didn't Factor much into the experience like I really don't care there's an extra haird dryer in the state room or that there was an embossed keyh holder in tote bag we got to take home I think we left them on the ship cuz I just don't care about those things there's no doubt if you drink a lot of champagne or you love champagne probably a friend named Abby then concierge class is a great choice for you but the next time we book a cruise I really don't think we'll be choosing conci class if it costs any more than a regular cabin when I told people I was cruising on celebrities so many people complained about the infant Veranda concept because they said it just ends up being a big window that sucks all of your air conditioning out instead of being a balcony experience now I've read plenty of negative reviews about a lot of things about cruising on the internet and I really wanted to love my infinite balcony design I wanted to tell all those haters they're wrong it's great I wanted to love this room Unfortunately they were right the infinite Veranda is a great cabin with plenty of space for two people the balcony sitting area means you get more space to use inside the room when the balcony isn't quote unquote open that is a nice benefit the problem is you have to weigh whether you would rather have the veranda open and be able to look out and enjoy the breeze or have air conditioning in your cabin for the next like 2 hours on a Caribbean itinerary where the humidity is really high this is a much more diff conundrum as soon as you open the veranda the air conditioning turns off the cold air escapes outside and everything in your room fogs up almost immediately if it's not hot or humid out then this works out really well if you're in Alaska I would love this cabin but in Puerto Rico it was really disappointing so for the entire cruise we pretty much kept our infinite Veranda close for the duration and we managed to have a good time nonetheless it was nice having views of the ocean and the extra space provided by the balcony sitting area was really great as well but essentially we ended up with an overpriced Ocean View Window cabin rather than a true balcony and that kind of felt a little meh I loved how big the cabin felt especially the bathroom the shower was extra large and there was plenty of vanity space so the actual cabin itself totally cool I just don't love the in infant veranda and it makes me a little worried about icon of the seas because they're supposed to have those cabins as well now in terms of celebrity a lot of people want to know what does it feel like how is it different than real Caribbean and there's no doubt the ship has a more plused up enhanced feel to it celebrities Tagle line is they embody Modern Luxury and it definitely manifested itself in the look and feel of celebrity Apex coming from Royal Kine you will quickly notice that little things like the drinks are served in glasses and Buffet plates that aren't made out of plastic chairs everywhere have extra padding drinks are poured freely instead of using jiggers and the entire experience feels more premium it's subtle but I enjoyed having a more plush feel to it all in the same way that a luxury sedan feels compared to a contemporary sedan there are a few areas that this really stands out the Ocean View cafe buffet was amazing like I love the Wind Jammer on Royal Caribbean but the variety of food they have at Ocean View cafe was astounding I couldn't believe we were in a buffet I just wanted to eat there all the time I mean I love the other food as well but o Cafe was fantastic and Cafe abbachio was just so good Cafe Al bachio is the coffee shop on board and it's more than just like Cafe prominade on Ro crian where you can go order your coffee and be on your way it really felt like a coffee and I love that and then the pool deck itself was very plush it felt far more luxurious than the pool deck on Royal Caribbean what I lik about Ocean View cafe though were the stations there were Panini stations there was a freshly grilled meat station more made to order cooking stations that I've ever seen and overall just more choices to be fair I never really went on a real cre cruise ship and wish for all these sort of changes but I certainly welcome them on Celebrity now I talked about the food in the buffet but overall you get some really good food especially if you're a foodie one aspect of celebrity a lot of people told me about was celebrities food gain in short you're going to find a wider variety of foods at any of the restaurants that go beyond what I might expect to find on Royal Caribbean I found a lot of these extra choices to lean heavily into the adventures pallette if you are a to picky eater I think you'll find a lot more to consider on a cruise Beyond a beef dish a pasta a chicken or some vegetables but if you are a picky eater you might just end up ordering the same kind of food you might get on Royal carine anyway now where this really shines is with celebrity specialy restaurants and even I was surprised to find a duck leg coni a tomahawk Ste cut and roasted trout at the various specialty restaurants we went to of course this assumes you would actually order these items or you sck a similar fair that you'd find on Royal Caribbean in my opinion it's better to have too many options than not enough so I like that it wasn't more of the same with the food choices but we also ended up eating pretty much the same kind of food that we got on real Caribbean like I just love the fact there was french onion soup every night and I ordered it we ate most nights in the main dining room which was very akin to the main dining room on R kin before its latest round of menu changes there are four dining rooms on Celebrity Apex and each serves the same menu along with a subset of special dishes unique to the restaurant our waiters gave us a secondary menu that had a copy of what those special items are in the other restaurants in case we wanted to order off of them moreover the waiters were willing to substitute items and order things off the other menus so if there was a special item in tusin and I was in Normandy they would totally be able to help us up with that when I asked about an Indian curry dish option the head waiter arranged to have it every night that I would be dining there when my youngest daughter just wanted pasta while dining at rooftop garden our waiter ran downstairs to the main dining room to get it so the service was phenomenal and they definitely took special requests again similar to how Royal carbine used to do it before the latest menu changes speaking of the menu it's worth noting That Celebrity still has a main dining room menu that has a classic section on it where a subset of the evening menu never changes this means you can get esar go french onion soup and a grilled chicken on every night of the cruise in addition to the rotating options now I like the new menus on realan I don't really need to go back to the old ones but it was interesting to go back to that effectively and see how that worked you know I like the choices that Ro Kine has there but I did appreciate that celebrity offered like french onion soup every single night I don't need french onion soup every single night but I enjoyed it the one major letdown though of my celebrity Crews was there was not nearly as much to do as on Ral kban if there was one area that celebrity crew that made me wish I was back on real crean it was the entertainment and the activities there were activities shows and events offered but far fewer than on real crean there's maybe one or two trivia sessions a day and at night the offerings really slowed down now I'm not a party animal or somebody that goes from activity to activity on my cruises but Apex skewed heavily towards a let's sit down and relax kind of vibe that's perfectly fine but it made me realize how much I really missed having a pub singer or going to the Schooner bar or going to trivia or having multiple shows to see chip had a silent disco DJ music and other typical entertainment of the sort but there were far fewer sessions many of the instrumentalists would play like more coffee house versions of songs which kept the pace slower now every Cruise Line has a stereotype about it and celebrities is that it usually caters to an older crowd than you might find on Royal Caribbean and I can certainly see there's some truth to that in that it was a bit tamer in terms of the ship's energy and level of F that isn't to say there isn't anything happening on board you'll find events in the app but there isn't as much as you find on Royal crian I can keep myself entertained in the daytime but I really miss having lots to do after dinner and I was disappointed in the lack of options so to be perfectly honest with all of you I was in bed by 10 p.m. on most nights because they just wasn't a lot happening now on the flip side I absolutely loved that the casino on Celebrity Apex is 100% smoke free on real Korean ships smoking is allowed in the casino and it tends to become the indoor smoking Lounge just as much as a a place to gamble and smoke at the same time the fact smoking is allowed in Royal Caribbean casinos doesn't stop me from going there but it certainly was a nice change to have a smoke for your casino because I don't smoke considering that the US CDC estimates just 11 a half% of Americans smoked in 2021 it's clear the celebrity has adopted this idea that if 88% of the population doesn't smoke that maybe the casino doesn't need to be smoking as well now I'm not here really to start a debate about smoking or not that's not the purpose of this I just wanted to point out that if you are a nonsmoker and the smoking in Royal casinos stop you from going there well celebrity might be a good option for you the other major disappointment about my cruise was always included when celebrity Cruis is announced it would offer a cruise that bundled Wi-Fi drinks and gratuities I thought it was genius in reality though it's really not that effective we booked always included Fair which at the time included basic Wi-Fi drink package and gratuities since then celebrity has removed the gratuities from that option the Wi-Fi that's included is abysmally slow and useful for text and not much else for my kids it's fine cuz they don't really need it and can use a break from the real internet for anybody else it just plain stinks compounding the problem is how much celebrity charges for their Wi-Fi compared to Royal Caribbean to upgrade my Wi-Fi package I would have to pay additional $230 for one device or $412 for two devices for my seven night cruise that's on top of the cost of the always included package now the drink package that people receive with the always included is fine you get the classic beverage package if you're an adult or the Z proof if you got kids now they're fine if you're cool with really basic drink options but I found it very limiting and worse where the price of the cruise line charges for drinks if you don't have a drink package a Mel of ultra on Celebrity cost $11 that's crazy but this is what happens when everybody has a drink package it artificially inflates the prices of individual drinks now as a Pinnacle Club member in Crown and Anchor Society I've really gotten used to the complimentary drinks per day going all the way back to Diamond and I really missed my daily complimentary drink vouchers and how nice it was to have that perk now obviously somebody who cruises a lot with royal caran that's available to me if you're brand new to crising that's not going to apply to you celebrity did have a happy hour for its top tier members but it was only two hours a day and it was a very limited drink menu if you remember the old real kban Crown and Anchor Society free drinks in the Diamond Lounge that very limited menu it's basically what they offered there and yeah it just wasn't great so always included just seemed like a waste of money in my opinion now in terms of other things I liked and didn't like about the cruise let's some of these number one Magic Carpet was fantastic this is essentially a bar moves up and down the side of the ship and I love the views up here there's breezes it's great for sitting it's my favorite place to go on a c day I really like that quite a bit as I mentioned Cafe Al bachio is the coffee house I always wanted on a cruise ship I loved the vibe there it is like the perfect place to have a book bring your laptop or just drink your cup of coffee it was really really good something else I love and I hope that real can steal this idea is the theater with a protruding stage so the theater on Celebrity Apex has a stage and a digital screen behind it and it was absolutely beautiful I'm not sure the video here is doing it justice but it was phenomenal it really made the audience feel part of the show totally different Dynamic completely I've seen a lot of Royal caran shows on Royal crian ships real kbea needs this kind of theater especially when you consider that real Kia is no longer adding Broadway shows to their newest ships Odyssey Wonder icon of the Seas none of them have traditional Broadway shows Now icon does have Wizard of Oz but I digress the point is if Royal K is going to stop paying for musicals that need a traditional stage this theater with a protruding stage is way better and they should totally borrow this idea now the ship size and layout was really nice Apex is 1,4 Ft long which makes it slightly longer than a Radiance class ship but smaller than a voyager it's really easy to get around and basically all the public venues that are not a pool are between deex three four and five so getting around was super easy there were two other things that I really didn't love about celebrty Apex number one there was like no bar service in most bars or lounges it was very difficult to sit down in a chair not at the bar but somewhere in the bar or lounge and get a drink because no waiters ever came by in the casino I never got a drink cuz there were no waiters in there on Royal crian if you sit at a bar you're going to be inundated by waiters coming to take your order on apex it was the complete opposite now it could have been our sailing maybe I just had some bad luck but it was just very strange I talked to a lot of other people on board the ship to make sure it wasn't just me but they were all reporting the same thing so I don't know guys help me out in the comments is that normal and lastly I talked about this earli in the video but the elite perks man I miss Roy cariban crry and anchor Society so as I mentioned I status matched from Roy Caribbean to celebrity and I got the second highest tier Elite in Practical terms there was no reason to really use the benefits provided the top ones were access to a daily coffee house style breakfast and evening cocktail hour 30% off Wi-Fi 15% off drink packages complimentary access to Persian Garden on one p day I have no idea what that is and one complimentary bag of laundry on every sailing now I did use the Wi-Fi discount but I really didn't find as much value as what I might get with Royal Caribbean so for everybody who complains about real K crry and anchor Society let me tell you something it's a dark reality in the other crw lines and I can't even imagine what it's like on other lines that aren't even owned by ran anyway we had a great time at celebrity Apex it was nice I not starting celebrity Cru blog.com and throwing away realan blog by any means I love my cruise we had a nice time there but I'm really excited to go back on a realan cruise ship because it is the kind of pace and style and vibe that I'm looking for in a cruise we had a really good time there was really no major problems we encountered it just wasn't my style of cruising and I missed those little things that real carbine had I appreciated what Apex had it just wasn't enough to make me become a super duper huge Celebrity Cruise fan I can appreciate it I'll go on more sailings but it's just isn't like my cup of tea off the bat let me know in the comments below if you sailed on both celebrity and Royal crean how would you compare the two and your thoughts on Celebrity Apex let me know in the comments below while you're down below our video hit the like button subscribe to our Channel and turn on notifications that way YouTube lets you know have a brand new video to share this has been Matt from Royal caran blog.com we'll talk again real soon

Channel: Royal Caribbean Blog

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Id: F5JEi9X55p8

Length: 18min 15sec (1095 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 30 2023