Quote Originally Posted by BrerGnat View Post
But how much cheaper was your Celebrity Cruise to Alaska compared to sailing DCL in Alaska? Probably less than half the price. Casinos make a HUGE amount of money and they are easily avoided if you don't want to gamble.

And I won't be surprised to see drink prices on DCL climb higher as a result of this new rule.
At first our plan was to cruise Alaska w/DCL since it is our favorite cruise line and honestly the only cruise line we have used. Over 1.5 years ago we priced it and basically thought we'd settle for an inside stateroom - not our choice but to do it still on DCL this fit into our budget.

THEN we found out about Celebrity. And for what DCL wanted for an inside state room we maxed out the room on Celebrity with an Aqua Concierge room which is above STD stateroom and concierge level too. AND we still saved money vs. what DCL wanted for the inside room and didn’t have to worry about sailing out of Vancouver either. Which is a travel pain and would have yet upped our price more to transport into Vancouver. Celebrity sails out of Seattle. Deluxe stateroom with verandah on DCL was over 2/3rds vs. what we paid with Celebrity at a higher level. Normally when we cruise DCL we book a Deluxe stateroom w/Verandah. Again – at first we thought we’d settle with an inside state room to just do it on DCL. Glad we didn’t. Both DW and I and our travel friends who we’ve cruised many times with on DCL all agreed that Alaska is about Alaska – and we saw no need to be there with the mouse and pay for it.

Compared ships? Celebrity is not themed like DCL in any way. But the Solstice ship was super just the same. Clean, up to date and very posh. With both outdoor and indoor areas for adults. Size wise it was 2400 passengers. Plenty big. Alcohol was about 1/3 more vs. DCL and they didn’t hound you like your first 2 days where DCL continually tries to press their drink packages. And our Celebrity stateroom was at least as big if not larger to the deluxe staterooms that we have on DCL. The bathroom in our Celebrity stateroom had a much larger shower with closing door and NO FOG mirrors as well. HUGE PLUS!
AND because DCL doesn’t have a great presence in Alaska we didn’t have to mess with tendering from ship to port. Celebrity ships were in port so down the gangway you walk and on port.

Will we sail Celebrity again? YUP in a minute. What we experienced, daily bottles of champagne delivered to our room at no charge, private dining rooms for Aqua guests and a much better buffet selection vs. DCL when we want to travel and go somewhere that the mouse need not attend – Celebrity will be our cruise line of choice.

AND the souvenirs were not anywhere near the price of DCL stuff. We didn’t find one $70 hoodies on Celebrity. But we did find some top end shops like Michael Kors etc on board.

Do we still like the mouse and plan to cruise with him and the gang? SURE – can’t put a price on a feeling or MAGIC. But if we are traveling to a place that we’ve never been – there are much better choices that are just as high quality. I’m all about saving money but I won’t be on a cruise line that has ships that need to be towed back to port or worse…yeah, those cruises are available too. Just not for me.