I'm Gary Bembridge, this is tips for Travellers and I want to talk about the stand
out differences about Celebrity Cruises that you really need to know. Celebrity
Cruises is part of the Royal Caribbean group of cruise lines, it's been
operating for over 30 years, it operates in the premium mid to large-sized
ship category, that means it competes with cruise lines such as Holland
America, Cunard, Princess Cruises and probably also
cruises like P & O cruise lines. It currently has a fleet of 11 ships,
building up to 13 over the next year or two. So what are the big differences that
Celebrity Cruises offer you as a cruiser? One of the biggest differences that Celebrity Cruises
have is the decor and design. If you take a look at Cunard for example it
has a Art Deco kind of inspired take, or Holland America very much linked to its
maritime and nautical history, Princess is kind of a classic cruise ship design,
Celebrity Cruises are going for something that's much more contemporary, much more modern
looking, and particularly with some of their newer ships. They have three
classes of ships, the oldest of which is known as the millennium class of ships,
these class ships have around 2,100 guests and these are the oldest of the
ships. The next class one of the most popular class of ships for a long time
and is the Solstice class. The Solstice class holds two thousand
eight hundred fifty guests, and includes ships like the Celebrity Equinox,
Celebrity eclipse, Celebrity silhouette, Celebrity reflection. The most recent and
most modern of the type of ships joining the Celebrity fleet are the Edge class
ships. With the Edge and the Apex, already they've taken delivery of or are in
service, these are very modern looking ships, they look very different to
existing cruise ships out there, and they have lots and lots of innovations in
them. So for example they have the very well-known and much publicised
magic carpet, which moves up and down the side of the ship. This is partly to
help with tendering ports to get people off much quicker, because it's
a big platform and they have big tenders, but they've also introduced a really
modern design led a lot by the UK designer Kelly Hoppen, for example,
revolutionising the cabins, and they've introduced Infinity
Cabins where the balcony is actually included within the cabins, so they
are overall much larger. There's a different look and feel.
What Celebrity have been working on is then Celebrity revolutionising all of
their ships to this new modern design. The timing of that got disrupted by the
whole pandemic and the lockdown, which has pushed back some of those changes.
They will be rolling out a contemporary looking style and feel across all of
their ships, and the Edge class is certainly one of the most innovative and
newest looks in the cruising fleets in the world today. A second really key
difference in Celebrity versus those other lines is, although they offer a
fairly traditional and classic style of cruising, they do have a much more
youthful and contemporary take on it. So you'll find the daily program Celebrity
Life is still packed full of all the things you'd see on the other cruise
lines: trivia, quizzes, dance lessons, lectures, bingo, all those kind of
activities, traditional production shows, guest artists, but you'll find
there's a much more contemporary and modern twist. So for example the
production shows are a little bit more high-tech, they have much more
contemporary and modern songs to them, the dress code is less stuffy than some
of the other cruise lines, so they have to relaxed dress codes. They have their smart
casual plus, which as it suggests is you can dress pretty informally across the
ship, and then they have their more formal nights which are called
chic nights, so it's a much more contemporary, much more modern, much more
relaxed dress code than some of the other cruise lines. They also are
pushing technology, investing a lot in streaming, in the Wi-Fi and they have a
partnership with Apple so you can go to Apple classes you can buy Apple products
on board. They're encouraging their captains to become much more active on
social media, and they have some very well-known social media stars across
their fleet. You'll also find many more late-night
activities like silent discos and definitely on their program you'll find
things going much later into the night to cater for a more youthful mindset. So
definitely a more contemporary twist on classic traditional cruising. For me I
think one of the other big differences they have is the focus on specialty
dining, and I think they probably do it best of all of those cruise lines and
certainly they are the ones that really push
really aggressively. So on the Solstice Class, the millennium class, you're going
to find the traditional dining rooms with fixed dining times and anytime
dining, but you're going to find a wide range of diverse speciality dining
options, which tend to be their own brands which they roll out across the different
ships.So for example on one of my most recent trips, which I did on the Solstice
class and Celebrity Equinox, there were dining concepts such as the sushi on
five, the Murano which was a French dining restaurant, silk harvest
Asian fusion, Tuscan grill which was Italian, as you move to the Edge class
they have gone even further in terms of specially dining, one of the big
innovations being Eden, which is at the rear of the ship it's a big open space
on multi levels and here they have sort of performance art and they have really
contemporary modern sort of dining, but they've also put a whole different take
on the traditional dining room. So instead of having really big fixed
dining venues, they've actually split into four on the Edge class ships and
you're allocated to one of those four dining rooms. So for example they have
Cosmopolitan which is modern contemporary dining, you have Normandy
which has a French spin to it, you have Cyprus which has a Mediterranean spin to
it, and then you have Tuscan which has Italian spin to it. You can actually try
the different dining venues but you are allocated one of those. For other
speciality dining options on the Edge class ships include the Fine cCut
steakhouse, bistro which is French, le petit chef and friends this
is a very contemporary where you have interactive 3d projections going on on
your tables telling a whole story, so kids especially really love it, raw on
five which of course is more sushi, the magic carpet when you're at sea will
often become a restaurant as well, and then as already mentioned you have the
Eden dining option. Big focus on specialty dining, some really interesting
concepts and I think they really do it differently and probably the best of all
of those other competing cruise lines. what are some of the things that are
more similar and not quite as different to the other cruise lines one of the
most obvious ones is fares the fares on celebrity are pretty much the same as
you'll find on princess on her in America on Cunard overall and they have
pretty much the same inclusions and exclusions so excluded from the fair as
with the other lines you're going to find drinks are excluded gratuities are
excluded Wi-Fi is excluded all your excursions are excluded and although
special dining is a big focus that is not included in the fare they do have
extra charges to go to special dining venues and then of course if you do
things like use the Medical Center shopping all those kind of things are of
course not included within the fare usually inclusions obviously your
accommodation you can dine without their din of the specialty restaurants so your
main dining room your buffet diner and your informal dining ranges are drowned
by the pool afternoon tea room service all that stuff is included in the fare
of course all access to the facilities the production shows the daily program
activities pools gyms all that kind of stuff is included within the fare as
they are with the other cruise lines the next thing that is very similar is
excursions you'll find whatever ports you go to the excursions that you'll
find on Celebrity are pretty much the same excursions you'll find on the other
cruise lines so not a huge amount of difference you'll find particularly on
the bigger ships so the Solstice Class ships and the s-class ships you know
which have between two thousand eight hundred three thousand patients because
there's so many passengers they need to have a wide range of excursions so you
will find excursions ranging from as you are on the other cruise lines the most
sedate panoramic touring through to the activity type excursions whether it's
kayaking cycling ziplining that kind of stuff but excursions you'll pretty much
find are the same I wouldn't say that they offer anything particularly
different the other thing that is broadly similar is the passenger mix
lots of couples lots of Americans Brits Australians so quite English language
speaking type of passengers the average age tends to be a little bit older
though you will tend to find on Celebrity of all of those you will
sometimes find particularly at certain times of the year slightly younger age
you're probably going to find the average age is probably netting out more
in the 50s - late 50s age you will find you know a
much more diverse range so you'll find everything from 35 or 30 something year
olds couples on the cruise right through to the older age group again it depends
a lot on the time of the year so if you go in the peak holiday periods you'll
find a much more diverse crowd but if you go out of sort of key holiday
periods quality periods or public holiday periods you'll find it test had
to be older overall speaking the age on celebrity and the time passengers very
very similar although they do talk quite a lot about it being a younger profile
on my experiences so far I've found it slightly this I've basically found it
largely the same however was it him when they brought edge into service they did
see you know the role of reports I read where the average age was slightly young
because it was a much more contemporary concept overall reporting speaking very
similar types of passengers there are a whole bunch of things that celebrity
does offer that's different so if those things really appeal to you then you're
gonna find celebrity the right cruise line for you if you like a traditional
more classic experience that is fundamentally what celebrity offer with
those key differences I have loads more videos about Celebrity Cruises other
cruise lines and cruise tips so why don't you watch another one of those
right now