Celebrity presents itself as a "premium" cruise line and with that comes certain expectations. On this cruise they fell quite short of those expectations and made us wonder why we would bother looking at Celebrity again.
Cruise ships, after all, are basically floating resorts and it's expected that they need to do certain things well - communication of activities, food and entertainment.
The entertainment on this cruise was very good - excellent visiting entertainers, good Celebrity musicians and dancers.
The food on this cruise was just mediocre - some excellent meals but way too many bland/generic tasting meals and too little variation at the buffet. Room service food was just inedible. Note: We did not eat in any of the specialty restaurants, only in the Main Dining room and buffet.
Communications - mostly this was okay but there were multiple instances where the activity list presented in the smartphone app was different that that printed on the daily planner.
Service is the final major component and this is one area where there was a major problem - the ship appeared significantly understaffed. Our room attendant was excellent but the wait staff at the restaurants and at the buffet were simply overwhelmed. Not enough hands on deck!
Bottom line - although we still enjoyed the cruise, I would have serious reservations about booking another Celebrity cruise when our experiences with Holland America, Royal Caribbean and even Norwegian have been better or much better, and are generally at a better price point.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Easy and fast - only took a few minutes total to get through security and onto the ship.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
Food was hit and miss. Had some really good meals in the main dining room along with some mediocre ones. The buffet was okay - Indian dishes particularly well done, Asian dishes particularly bland and generic. Pizza was decent and available at all times.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
"Normal" cruise ship activities - exercise classes (wife does zumba), fitness center (quite crowded on the sea days), trivias, movies, dancing. Usually plenty to do.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
For the most part, the entertainers on board, including the Celebrity performers, were quite good. The main exception to this was the initial production show ("Life") which we thought was quite so-so.
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
Normally cruise ships score highly here but not on this cruise. The individuals that served us were excellent but the cruise was clearly understaffed and the service struggled to keep up with the demands. This included our wait staff in the main dining room who were clearly overwhelmed with the number of tables they had to take care of. In the buffet area it was common to see food stations devoid of service staff - including areas that *required* service staff to carve ham/pork/turkey. Just not enough workers.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Liked the ship. Looked very well maintained and was clean.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Happened to get an "accessible" cabin and it was very spacious and well laid out. Being an inside room, the extra space made it very comfortable. Although located near the front of the ship and close to the elevators, it was reasonably quiet.
Nice walkable town with pleasant downtown areas. In the past we did an excursion to Peggy's Cove (very nice), but on this occasion we walked through the Victorian Garden and visited the Titanic Grave Site at Fairview Lawn Cemetery.
Small walkable town. Grabbed a taxi in town to visit the Quidi Vici fishing town a few miles away. Back in St. John's we visited the interesting Anglican Cathedral there and walked through the neighborhoods with the colorful houses for which the town is famous.
Did a "Greenlanders" excursion - coffee and chat with a local. The town is small (3500 people) but very interesting to walk around. Lots of colorful houses. Had to tender into town, but well worth it.
Absolutely stunning fjord - some of the best scenery I've ever seen. This was the single best day of the entire cruise. Of course, we had good weather... ;-)
Took an independent excursion to the Lake Myvatn area - Godafoss, Nature Baths, Lava fields, Mud pots. Beautiful area of a beautiful country. Didn't actually get to walk around Akureyri itself.
Disembarkation day - took the ship excursion that included a visit to the Perlan Museum along with an airport drop off. The museum was very good and it was certainly convenient to get to the airport.
I sailed on the Summit end of June and at that time food service staff seemed adequately staffed and all food on the Buffett and MDR were good. I wonder if there has been some turnover or if many had to quarantine for this trip
*Cruiseline.com is not a booking agent or travel agency,
and does not charge any service fees to users of our site. Our partners
(travel agencies and cruise lines) provide prices, which we list for our
users' convenience. Cruiseline.com does not guarantee any specific rates or
prices. While prices are updated daily, please check with the booking site
for the exact amount. Cruiseline.com is not responsible for content on
external web sites.
Contact us
Submitting...
Need help from a personal vacation planner?
Loading...
Find the perfect cruise with weekly tips and cruise deals for as little as $30/night!
Sign up for weekly cruise deals
Join other subscribers and get the best
cruise deals of the week in your inbox every Thursday.
