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Celebrity Cruises Are Not What They Used To Be. Here's What I Found.
2K views
Jan 28, 2025
It had been 2.5 years since I had cruised on Celebrity Cruises, and knew they had changed many things. I was not really full prepared for just how much and discuss what I found, what I thought and how cruising on Celebrity Cruise line is different to before - and what I think what it means for you ABOUT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS: If you want to get cruising right, Tips For Travellers makes it easy to plan and have the incredible cruise experiences you dream of every time. All my Tips For Travellers advice, tips and tricks tips draw on everything that I have learnt on the 77 cruises I have done to date. BUY MY CRUISE-THEMED T-SHIRTs ————————————————- Check out my T-Shirt range: http://bit.ly/TFTStore SUPPORT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS ————————————————————— Become a Channel Member and get perks: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/Join Become a Patron on Patreon and get perks: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers Make a donation: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=V9STJGYSEMGLJ Buy my book “Cruise Traveler’s Handbook: USA Amazon https://amzn.to/2YVFmG4 and https://amzn.to/3tzIxBn UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3oXbzYc and https://amzn.to/3qawqIQ FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA ——————————————— TikTok: @garybembridge
View Video Transcript
0:00
when i stepped back on celebrity cruises
0:02
where i am now it had been two and a
0:04
half years since my last trip on equinox
0:07
in the caribbean and their head i knew
0:09
changed a lot since then but as i found
0:12
out here much more than i'd realized and
0:14
it's significantly
0:16
changed the way i think about celebrity
0:17
cruises and i want to talk about why and
0:19
how because it may change your thoughts
0:22
about cruising with them too or
0:23
certainly how you go cruising with them
0:25
now if you're new here i'm gary
0:27
bembridge and i'm here to make it fun
0:29
and easy to discover plan and enjoy
0:32
unforgettable cruise vacations
0:35
last time i was on celebrity i cruised
0:37
in a balcony cabin and on this trip on
0:39
celebrity silhouettes i booked a suite
0:42
as a splash out treat my next booking is
0:44
actually on an aqua class cabin on edge
0:47
as i've been recommended to try that
0:49
particular category by fans of the line
0:51
so i probably should not have been as
0:54
thrown by all of this as i was but since
0:57
my last trip celebrity have definitely
1:00
ramped up on this area now quite a few
1:02
followers of my channel say they are not
1:05
fans of cunard
1:07
why because it's very class driven and
1:09
they object to that because they create
1:11
a feeling of what of kind of better and
1:13
worse passengers you cannot have queen
1:15
squirrel princess grill and britannia
1:17
grill but nobody has ever said the same
1:20
thing about celebrity to me which has my
1:23
booking show
1:24
also has three distinct classes but it
1:27
doesn't seem to cause the same angst and
1:29
certainly on this trip i think i've
1:31
worked out why
1:34
first of all let me quickly explain the
1:36
three classes that are here on celebrity
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well first there is the retreat class
1:41
so travelers in suites on celebrity
1:43
which they now are calling the retreat
1:45
or kind of the retreat experience
1:47
i found you'd only have bigger cabins of
1:50
course but they also you've got a butler
1:52
which is called now a personal retreat
1:55
host you have your own dining room
1:57
called the lumini it's got its own
1:58
separate kitchen you've got a retreat
2:00
lounge that's open 24 hours a day it
2:03
serves drinks snacks afternoon tea and
2:05
that's hosted by two retreat concierge
2:09
and then there's a very large access
2:11
controlled outdoor retreat which on
2:13
silhouette here is over two decks which
2:16
again also serves treats lunch and
2:18
drinks now celebrity also has aqua class
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now these passengers
2:22
have their own restaurant too
2:24
it's called blue and that is a focus
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more on healthy dining options
2:28
there you get free access to the thermal
2:31
sweet activities in the spa and you get
2:33
other kind of wellness in-room goodies
2:35
then you've got kind of the regular
2:37
traveler which makes up most of the ship
2:39
and they stay in cabins ranging from
2:41
inside through to balcony and they dine
2:44
in the main dining room so why does this
2:46
three-class system not seem to create
2:48
the same tension and angst as it does
2:51
about cunard now that's because in my
2:53
view the overall experience the ship the
2:56
product the service and the food is
2:59
actually now of a standard that
3:00
everybody feels they're traveling in
3:02
luxury and there's not some kind of
3:04
suspicion that people are being offered
3:06
something that's kind of second class
3:09
and the recent changes made i think in
3:11
reinforce all of that
3:13
so in addition to the new kind of modern
3:16
very luxurious edge class ships since my
3:18
last trip on celebrity they've been
3:20
working through and upgrading their
3:21
older millennium and solstice class
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ships and silhouette that i'm on right
3:25
now has had that revamp so this whole
3:28
solstice class ship feels so much more
3:31
plush
3:32
stylish and much more quality than
3:34
before it's not that i didn't like it
3:36
before but everything now just feels
3:38
much more classy they've used designers
3:40
like kelly hoppen who i know pretty well
3:42
there's a whole bunch of others i've not
3:44
heard of but they all seem to have been
3:46
told to make things look and feel better
3:49
and more luxurious and it feels much
3:50
more like you're staying at a really
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smart upmarket hotel
3:54
food as well i think has absolutely been
3:56
improved they've now got a partnership
3:58
with the michelin star chef called
4:00
daniel boulond
4:02
and they tell you that frequently every
4:04
time there's boards around the ship
4:06
there's it's on his name's on the menu
4:07
now i've not heard of him but it sounds
4:09
like he's pretty well known in the us
4:10
but clearly he's been working to elevate
4:13
the food and everything including the
4:15
food
4:16
in the ocean view cafe buffer i think is
4:18
is better than i certainly remember now
4:19
the upside is if you want to save money
4:22
i think the special dining has much less
4:24
of a reason to go to now except perhaps
4:26
sushi on five or round five as it's
4:28
called an edge class because you can't
4:30
get that in the restaurants
4:31
now one issue i also had with celebrity
4:33
before this revamp is i felt that the
4:36
outside decks on solstice class
4:38
definitely were pretty substandard and
4:40
had lots of wasted space but they've now
4:42
got much nicer places to sit delays
4:45
about and they vary from like the lawn
4:47
club but there's new spaces at the rear
4:49
of the ship there's lots of varied and
4:51
interested places to sit around the pool
4:53
and around the decks now in the edge
4:55
class this is absolutely much better
4:57
they've got the beautiful rooftop
4:58
terrace areas kind of outdoor bars and
5:01
kind of elevated that whole thing but
5:03
the big upgrade that really counts as in
5:05
the cabins these are so much nicer and
5:08
using that word i used earlier so much
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plusher even the linen and the towel
5:12
seem much better so i think this kind of
5:14
overall shift to make the whole ship
5:16
experience shift kind of a little bit
5:18
more up market a bit more luxury kind of
5:20
as a base could be why passengers are
5:22
getting much less uptight about the
5:24
class system that's here on celebrity
5:26
and maybe they're less obvious and over
5:28
about it too although you do hear lots
5:29
about the retreat everywhere
5:31
that shift to spend on the upgrades the
5:34
food of course all comes at a price and
5:37
here's another key change that i do want
5:39
to talk about and this is where when i
5:42
was followers of my channel if they
5:43
would consider celebrity many many
5:45
people raised this one
5:47
as a big issue and that is around fairs
5:50
one really big change from my last
5:52
celebrity cruise is the fares they've
5:55
shifted to a much more all-inclusive
5:57
fare which they call always
5:59
included now as a base the fair now has
6:02
three key inclusions wi-fi for one
6:05
device
6:06
classic string package and gratuities
6:09
you can then upgrade to high levels of
6:11
inclusions and if you go in the retreat
6:13
the suites the fare has the highest of
6:15
those which has got faster wi-fi premium
6:18
drinks package gratuities and a really
6:20
big slug of onboard credit now it's kind
6:23
of hard to do a very detailed comparison
6:25
because so much has happened in cruising
6:27
including the shutdown but my conclusion
6:29
is that the fares have edged up a bit
6:32
more than just those inclusions i feel
6:35
they've gone up even more than that but
6:37
even if not totally right in my
6:39
comparisons when i look and compare to
6:41
other premium lines that have also
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followed this more all-inclusive
6:45
approach like holland america and
6:46
princess and even the new entrant virgin
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voyages celebrity fares generally seem
6:52
higher on similar itineraries of course
6:55
the question is though do you get value
6:57
for money on celebrity i decided with
7:00
the new elevator product certainly on
7:01
this cruise the answer that is probably
7:03
yes
7:04
but i'm not a very frequent celebrity
7:06
traveler as you've heard so i started to
7:08
ask people on the cruise who are and the
7:11
most common answer i got was you can see
7:13
where the money is going so i think that
7:16
is as close to a yes this is good value
7:18
as you can probably get but definitely
7:20
as i've been planning my future cruises
7:22
celebrity like for like cruise attendees
7:25
seem to cost a bit more than on similar
7:27
lines but i do think these upgrades have
7:29
made it worth it probably telling is
7:32
i've actually already booked my next
7:34
quiz as i mentioned earlier kind of
7:35
based on this one
7:37
however other than costing more probably
7:40
an improved luxury feel and quality what
7:42
about the people it's attracting and the
7:45
cruise experience and the entertainment
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itself
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is that different and has that changed
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to
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based on my past experiences now in the
7:53
premium category i think you can rank
7:55
the lines from traditional classic
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through to very modern and contemporary
8:00
so based on that i would rank them as q
8:02
naught on one end you know very
8:03
traditional very classical then holland
8:05
america
8:06
then princess then celebrity and then
8:09
the new premium entrant virgin voyages
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is the most kind of modern and
8:12
contemporary celebrities cruise format
8:15
the entertainment and the daily program
8:17
i still found it to be extremely
8:19
traditional it's got the usual trivia
8:21
enrichment talks lots of shopping lots
8:24
of shopping movies kind of under stars
8:26
production las vegas review shows guest
8:29
singers guest magicians live music in
8:31
the bars and so on it's basically the
8:33
same as on the other established premium
8:35
lines it's really not that different at
8:38
all to be previously either the shows on
8:41
edge class are bigger and more glitzy
8:43
they're even more out there but overall
8:45
the overall kind of daily program is the
8:47
same so on this cruise anyway they're
8:49
definitely still attracting travellers
8:50
seeking a more classic cruise experience
8:53
but i would say with the move to more
8:55
modern decor and the new edge class
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ships they do seem to be attracting a
8:59
slightly but not dramatically younger
9:01
crowd than on the more traditional say
9:03
cunard hot in america and even princess
9:06
i do see a shift there
9:08
this definitely seems to be more
9:09
families appearing 30 something couples
9:12
without kids lots of gay couples you
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know the line is really promoting its
9:16
diversity credentials and that seems to
9:18
be showing up in the passenger mix now
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someone in my early 60s i would say i
9:22
was very comfortably within the average
9:24
age but it felt a different mix and
9:27
overall a more kind of youthful attitude
9:29
crowd if you like to my recent cruises
9:31
on those other premium lines for sure
9:34
solar travelers i would say are still
9:36
fairly underrepresented in my view on
9:38
celebrity but they do seem to be moving
9:40
a bit on that so silhouette here has got
9:42
four inside solar cabins
9:45
uh the other millennium and solstice
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class i believe don't have any solar
9:49
cabins but the new ships have got more
9:51
options i think edge has eight when i
9:52
looked at it apex has 24 and it seems
9:54
that beyond is gonna have 32 solar
9:56
cabins including ones with balconies
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those infinite balconies so it's still
10:00
fairly limiting for solar travelers
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surcharges are high so the shift in
10:04
celebrity it was much more marked than
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i'd expected to be kind of a ramp up of
10:08
the different classes especially the
10:10
retreat suites class
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you know pulling the line much more
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luxurious i felt it's differentiated to
10:16
the other premium lines but still it's
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mostly a 40s 50s 60s audience i suspect
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but of course time will tell but
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consider that now to find out more about
10:25
how to make the most of a cruise on
10:27
celebrity take a look at this short
10:29
playlist where i start with a really big
10:31
watch out and something to avoid so see
10:34
you over there
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