Celebration Cruise Line will sail from Port Everglades to Nassa...

yvette wrote:

wow! someone please help because me and my husband was planning on doing this same trip[ in august 2009 so please let me know if we should do this!! we will have to catch a plane from norfolk ,virginia to get to florida to take this cruise.

We were also told we would have to travel on this ship and that the Regal Empress was not being used. We really don't know what to expect. We tried to cancel but was told because of the time we would have to go on this line and if not satisfied with the ship we would be reimbused. I just don't know who to believe. Also in Virginia

We are also in Virginia. Don't really know what to expect since we were suppose to travel on the Regal Empress and after reading the reviews was impressed at all. Called and talked with one of the customer care rep and was told we would have to travel on the Celebration Cruise Line and once the trip was taken and we were not satisfied with the trip we would than beable to be refunded 100% but we had to take the cruise. I don't know what to expect.

We could not have had a better trip !! I can only assume that those who had such a terrible time were either first-timers or just plain complainers. We were four seasoned travelers and two newly found friends - and we ALL had a wondereful time. Yes, the ship is old, but it is nicely refurbished. It was meant to be a short haul ferry boat for use on the Mediteranean - and therefore not meant for sleeping and made short trips in moderate weather. Of course it was not designed for week-long trips, and especially was not designed for weather in Florida (average summer heat over 90* and very high humidity. If you had taken the time to talk to the wait staff or the cabin stewards, you would have found out that they work nearly 18 hours a day to make their passengers happy and as comfortable as possible. Their construction crew works 24/7 to improve the hardware on the ship - section by section, and DO respond as quickly as they can to legitimate complaints.
Finally, the FOOD was as good as any premium cruise line afloat today - equal to, or better than we ever had before. The staff in the dinning areas were VERY attentive, and almost fell over themselves to please the 6 of us - we could not have been treated better !!!!!
Yes, there areas for improvement of the ship - and they are working hard to fix those areas. If you want superior accomodations, then pay a lot more for your cruise on another line. But you will not find a more friendly crew anywhere else for the price you pay here!
KUDOS for Celebration, and their crew!!!!!!!!

yvette wrote:

wow! someone please help because me and my husband was planning on doing this same trip[ in august 2009 so please let me know if we should do this!! we will have to catch a plane from norfolk ,virginia to get to florida to take this cruise.

Did you end up going on the cruise? Please let me know as we are looking into it as well for November 2009. There seem to be mixed reviews.

I think the mixed reviews are because some sort of promotion company uses Celebration Cruises (used to use Imperial Majesty) for thier "free cruises." (I think the company's name is Carribean Cruises, not to be confused with Royal Carribean). My sister got involved in one of the promotions, and I will save you the details, but we ended up cancelling & receiving a partial refund (thank goodness).

I do not think that the cruise line is bad for the general public (who books it through Celebration Cruises). It is the people who are promised a bunch of lies from this promotion company, and then blame it on the cruise line. For example, we were promised a large room, fancy resort, were not told about any time share, etc... the tip-off for me is when they told me I would not receive any confirmation details until 2 weeks prior to my trip! This company is in poor standing with Florida's BBB.

So, as long as you have not responded to any "free cruise" emails/ mail that you have received, I think this is a pretty affordable cruise. I would warn anyone to avoid this promotion company. Otherwise, the details of the trip are clearly laid out for you via thier website & there are plenty of good reviews.. any bad reviews containing anything about a "free cruise" or "time share" should be disregarded in my opinion, as they were probably overpromised from a promotion company.

Hopefully this helps. We actually took our refund from the promotion company and booked the cruise straight with Celebration. Looking forward to it!

I just wanted to give an example of another post- my guess is that this lady was given an "upgrade" by the promotion company, and when she called for the refund, she was actually calling the promotion comp. rather than the cruise line.

"All I can say is dont get on this ship it is a rip off.We heard the cabins where very small so we did a upgrade before we got on the ship it cost us 349.00 and they told us we would have a king size bed what we had was 2 roll away beds put together so it was a double I've been trying to call and see if i can get my money back for the upgrade and left my phone # many times and no one as got back to me. we just got off this so called ship on the 17 of April everyone we talk to about the cruise were very unhappy. We where told it was a newer ship it is very old and it smelled awful please beware of the flase pictures they use on the web the ship looks nothing like it and beware of the timeshare people who say you won a wonderful cruise they dont tell you ,you have to sit for almost 5hrs of them trying to talk you into a timeshare you say no and then they get another person to talk to you and it goes on and on then they set you up in a run down hotel not fit for a dog i ca go on and on please dont go and waste your time or money "

Hi All:
I'm a home-based travel agent. You really to get what you pay for. This is simply a short no frills cruise that includes food. The fuel and gratuity charges are absolutely routine. I've been on the Regal Empress and a few Carnival ships so far. There are some features that I don't like in each. If you need to get your feet wet (literally) or fast weekend fun the short cruise is that way to go.

Beware of the posts from the people saying the Celebration is great, they are employees of Celebration. The ship is what it is, a 30 year old ferry with 10 million in renovation, which is in the world of ships, chump change! Do your self a favor, pay a few dollars more and get on a real state of the art ship like The Oasis of the Seas.

Maybe you are right, Chuck, but we went on the cruise last week and had a great time!!! Ok, it's not Carnival or one of the other big cruise line but the food and entertainment was fun. We found it was a "get your feet wet" excursion to see if we really liked cruising. The seas were a bit rocky but not unbearable...it actually lulled us to sleep after dancing the night away. It's not a huge ship...only 700 feet long and including crew, I believe there were not more than 1200 on board.

If you get a chance, go on it but be willing to do the time share thingy...starts at $23,000 and we were offered it for $8,900 and still turned it down.

OH NO!!!! I am terrified! My husband and I are planning this as just one part of our honeymoon. After our cruise we will be going to St. Lucia for a week. I don't know what to think about all the good and bad reviews. Its either Loved or Hated. I didn't do some survey for it, I was actually looking at cruises and one of the websites there was a "Enter for you chance to Win a 3 Day Cruise" so I did. Do I think it was strange that I actually won, yeah but why not extend our honeymoon for a few more days. Did anyone do the 3 days in Orlando and 3 Days in Ft Lauderdale? How was that? All that was included in the package. Please help me ease my fears....

Hi NewlyWed....There were lots of people that did the orlando and ft lauderdale combination....even someone on their honeymoon. Go with an open mind and remember it is a timeshare promotion. You have to listen to their demo but be adamant that you are not interested and they won't harp on you. If you have never been on a cruise before you'll probably enjoy it. If you have been on a cruise before then you may be disappointed as it is not a very big ship. Overall we had a good time.

Cheers