I'm Gary Bembridge and this is another of my tips for travellers. I'm
going to talk about things that I really think you need to know if you're
thinking of cruising with Celebrity: who they are, what's included and not
included in the fare and things to watch out for. Celebrity Cruises offers a
fairly traditional cruising experience, so the format and the structure is very
similar to other Premium cruise lines. However, it's done with a more modern,
vibrant and upbeat twist and angle to it. The ships
themselves are very beautiful. They're very design focused and they are
contemporary and modern, certainly compared to the other premium cruise
lines. If you're the sort of Cruiser that it's looking for a premium Cruise
Line and you like a traditional cruising experience and you're not looking
for a resort ship, you're not looking for lots of gimmicks, you definitely
want to consider Celebrity. Celebrity on average has a slightly younger Cruiser profile than
the other Premium cruise lines. The design, look and feel of the ships, I
think, is different and varied to the other premium Cruise Lines. It's
definitely giving you something different, and they're constantly
evolving that and moving that forward. So, on Edge class you've got even more
innovations with a whole different way by converting balconies into
infinite verandas, which make your cabin bigger. One of the things I've found is a
huge amount of passion for Celebrity, and people who like Celebrity really
love Celebrity and are very loyal to that whole experience. If you want a
more upbeat and more vibrant way of cruising within a premium experience and
a big ship experience, definitely take a look at Celebrity. One of the key things
when you're cruising is understanding what is, and isn't, included in your fare and
what you're going to be paying extra for. Celebrity is very similar to the
other premium cruise lines, and there are quite a few extras above your basic fare.
Let's take a look at first of all at what is included in the fare, and then
I'll talk about what's not included. First of all, of course, your
accommodation is included. There's a wide range of accommodation from inside
cabins right up through to palatial suites. In terms of dining, there is
quite a lot of food included, so you don't have to go to any of the
speciality dining restaurant., In the main dining room, or dining rooms in the
case of Edge, you have early or late sitting or you can have select
dining, where you can just pitch up, book on the app
or on the day by phoning up the booking desk and choosing a time and
of table. If you're traveling in the Aqua Spa you have the
Blu restaurant, which is dedicated for you ,and if you're traveling in a suite
you have a dedicated restaurant which is called Luminae. The Ocean View Cafe,
which I really like, has a great range of food and there are other informal
dining places so, for example, on the Celebrity Equinox you had the Mast Grill
which serves things like burgers, hot dogs and similar informal food. Finally,
you have room service. So, quite a wide range of included dining
options. You also have access to all the facilities across the
ship, and you have all the usual things that you would expect. There is a wide
range of bars and lounges . You have access to the main theatre where you
have the different production shows. On most of the ships you also have
Celebrity Central, which is where they show movies, do a lot of the
talks or have various demonstrations or activities taking place in there. You
have a large casino. Higher up on the ship you also have the pool deck with both
outdoor pools and indoor pools and hot
tubs. The ships also have areas to exercise with a running or
walking track, spaces to play things like table tennis and basketball and
there's a fitness centre. iI's a large fitness centre and one things
you'll notice is that he fitness centre is always busy, because again
passengers on board Celebrity do tend to be much more active, youthful
and more energetic. A number of the ships then have one of their signatures
which is the Lawn Club, which is half an acre of actual physical lawn on the top
of the ships. A great space to go and hang out or have picnics. If you are travelling
with kids there are Kids' clubs, three clubs: 3 to 5, 6 -8 and 9 -11.
The Kids' clubs are included in the
fare but if you want babysitting that is an extra cost. You also have all
the Celebrity Life activity, the various programs and activities that are
happening around the ship through the day and into the evening. Like the other
premium Cruise Lines, there is quite a lot of on costs if you're going on a
Celebrity cruise. Of course, a lot of those are determined by your lifestyle like
how much you drink, whether you want to do speciality dining or how many excursions
you do. There are quite a lot of on costs to your experience.
Many of those you can pre-book, so before I came on the cruise I used the cruise
personaliser and I had chosen and paid for a lot of those in advance. The
good news about that is they'll often give you discounts by
doing that in advance and you can plan out your whole experience before. So,
that's definitely something worth looking. Although
when you board on embarkation day there will also be a lot of offers,
so if you're not sure about what to do look out for those when you embark
because you can potentially save a lot of money. What are the extra
costs that you are going to have to pay extra for above your fare? The first of
those are gratuities as these are not included within the fare and are
an extra cost. You can either prepay them or they add it onto your Sea Pass
account. These are, at the time of recording, $14 50 per day per
passenger, $15 if you're in Concierge Class and if in a Suite $18
per person per day. Speciality dining is an extra cost and they do also offer
packages for specialty dining. The discounts if you buy one of the packages
for specialty dining range from about 20% if you buy a combination of three,
up to about 30% - 40 % if you're buying bigger combinations. To give you a sense
of what specialty dining costs, let me give you what I paid on the Equinox.
Sushi on Five was completely a la carte and you pay based on how much you had, but
that ended up costing around about $35 per person. Tuscan Grill, which was the steak house,
was $45 per person. The French restaurant was about $50
per person and Silk Harvest, the Asian fusion, was $35.
The various fees are of a similar level across all of the different classes
of ships. One of the most talked about speciality dining innovations is Eden on
the new Edge class, which is this more interactive, immersive and slightly unusual
dining experience with performers that interact and move about the space as
you are dining. Drinks will cost you extra.You do get some limited drinks like tea,
coffee and water in the main dining room and Ocean View Cafe. But your alcoholic drinks and
sodas are extra costs. You can order and pay for those ad-hoc or, what appears to be
very popular, but drinks packages. They have a number of drinks
packages with the standard package, which is $45 per person per day, that includes
basically house spirits, a small range of wine, beers and fountain
sodas. The classic package, which is about $55 per person per day at the time
recording, offers a bigger range of drinks and you'll have more branded
products within here, a wider range of beers, wider range of wines and basically a
wider range of everything. Then you have the Premium Package and that cost $69 per
person per day, and that pretty much includes everything that you could
possibly want. One way of looking at it is the classic package covers any drink
that's going to cost you up to $9 and any
drink that's going to cost you up to $15 is included in the premium package. They
also have bottled water packages and soda only packages, and also they
have non-alcoholic versions of all of the packages, which for me (as someone who
doesn't drink alcohol) that was a great option to have a drinks package
that didn't mean I was paying for alcohol that I wasn't going to drink. If
you want premium teas and coffees that's also an extra charge but these are
included within the different drinks packages. Shore excursions are extra, as
they are and other premium cruise lines.They have a wide range of excursions.
I thought the excursions were pretty parity versus other
lines in type and price. Excursions could add quite a significant
amount to the cost of your cruise if you're going out on an excursion every
day as they can cost at least between $50 and $100 per person, so that does mount
up quite a lot. Wi-Fi is also extra. Wi-Fi is relatively costly and they have different
packages. I, for example, bought the one device logged on at a time for the whole
cruise and that cost around about $35 a day for one device, and there are various
slightly cheaper packages if you just want a very
simple browsing experience where you basically just checking email and a little
bit of social media. Of course as you'd expect then there's all the discretion
spending: so if you're gambling, playing bingo, having the spa treatments or laundry. All those
kind of things are ,of course, extra. If you enjoyed this video I'd love it if
you watched many more of my Tips For Travellers videos as they're designed to
help you make more of your very precious travel
time money on land, sea and on rivers.