Cruise Line Hierarchy?

[SimonB]

I’m not an expert by any means but I’ve heard Celebrity are pretty decent. My only experience is Cunard and think they aren’t expensive in the scheme of things but aren’t child oriented (our Fjords cruise last summer had a handful of kids and our late teen/early 20’s kids had a ball with other younger passengers.

[Loopylooloo]

Celebrity is way more upmarket! Maybe you are confused with Carnival or Costa?
The Celebrity ships are elegant, and tend to attract adults who like fine dining etc. Our kids really enjoyed it too. We have taken two or three Greek island cruises on Celebrity Reflection, and Silhouette and they were stunning.

Here is a video blog we did from Reflection a few years ago (taken from my blog mybigfatcruise) mybigfatcruise/post/65925...atest-fabulous

[limmy]

Didn't mean to offend anyone. I'm only going by my boss saying she didn't enjoy Celebrity. It's good to know they're up there.
Characters have no appeal to us so that's not an issue at all.
Food and entertainment is what we are after so I shall have a look.
Thank you. 😄

[limmy]

Originally Posted by Loopylooloo

Celebrity is way more upmarket! Maybe you are confused with Carnival or Costa?
The Celebrity ships are elegant, and tend to attract adults who like fine dining etc. Our kids really enjoyed it too. We have taken two or three Greek island cruises on Celebrity Reflection, and Silhouette and they were stunning.

Here is a video blog we did from Reflection a few years ago (taken from my blog mybigfatcruise) mybigfatcruise/post/65925...atest-fabulous

See more...

That's really helpful, thanks. Mayve she said Carnival. I know my boss had a bad cruise. I'll ask again x

[staceymum]

We’ve only cruised DCL but we docked next to carnival in Nassau and it was clear that they cater for a different crowd. Not judging anyone but having to do the conga up the gang plank while someone chants into a megaphone is not really my thing 🤣. They did look like they were enjoying it though 😊

[Bootrip2]

I find it quite amusing with the hierarchy thing, pick a cruise for the facilities it offers and places it goes to unless you are rich enough to hire a cunard line for exclusive use there will always be someone higher up than you!

[bonnies mum]

Have done Carnival, RC and Princess and would rate them in that order.
Would happily do any of them again.
Have yet to do Celebrity but they are on my list as have heard good reports. Our dinner companions on a RCI cruise had cruised Celebrity the previous year, they said they were very good though a little more sedate than RCI.

[TGT]

I've now done 3 cruise lines:
Disney, Norwegian and Pullmantur

Disney - fabulous, lovely food, service, atmosphere - but very expensive (the 3-nights to the Bahamas was sadly about our limit!) - I think £1200ish each for 3 adults in a balcony cabin.

Pullmantur - just got back last week. Never heard of them, Spanish line owned by Royal Caribbean. Perfectly good cruise for $680 for 7 nights in the Med (including gratuities and alcohol, included Gordon's gin, but not Bailey's), Spanish beer Mondelo included. Food was good (though not very hot), entertainment - especially at sea - was a bit lacking, but otherwise fair price. All announcements in Spanish, many in English but not all. Excursions a reasonable price but English version of one was cancelled as not popular. Supposedly no jeans after 6pm in restaurants but not enforced

My favourite to date: Norwegian
Not over-priced, drinks included in suite price, in a non-suite £99 free at sea package will get you all alcohol to £15/drink - so you can get multiple glasses of wine with dinner but a bottle will cost you, you do have to pay tax on drinks but it's not hideous. There is a packed programme of activities day and night so usually something to do, food good (not that hot) and many places to eat. There's no set time for dinner so you can go where you want for free (or specialty places for an extra fee). There's no strict dress code so jeans are allowed in all places all the time and this is what I want from a cruise - I don't do dressing up and don't want to do it on my holidays.

My mom has done Fred Olsen and said it was a bit 'downmarket' so never tried them
She's also done MSC and loved the smaller ships with them, but did have to dress up

I would do another Pullmantur cruise, but you need to be tolerant of the repetitive translations (or no translation) but the staff were all lovely (except the IT Manager who was a grouch). For the price they are hard to beat.

Once I win the lottery I may go back to Disney, but until then it's Norwegian for me.

[Omega1]

A cruise line hierarchy will be different for different people - it’s so subjective. We’ve done around 50 cruises but we don’t look for ships with lots of stuff like flowriders, climbing walls, zip lines, kids clubs etc. What makes us happy is a great itinerary, good value for money, good food, decent entertainment and service. Our favourite cruise lines are Princess, Holland America and Celebrity. Ok for us were NCL and RCL. Not so good was Costa.
We’re always open to try different things so our next two cruises are with MSC (Genoa to Rio) and Costa 😳 (Indian Ocean) both are great itineraries and fantastic vfm. We go with an open mind.

[Lisa123wm]

Only cruised with RC and P&O.
RC are definitely better than P&O imo - would gladly cruise with RC again, but not P&O.