Celebrity Cruises please don’t enter the booze cruise culture

There are many things Celebrity cruises get right such as the service they pride themselves on, the aqua spa,  the dining experiences etc. However there is one thing they got wrong and for me spoilt their brand reputation and that is a 2 night mini cruise from Southampton – aka booze cruise.

Last weekend myself and my colleague Elizabeth (and what seemed like half of cruise.co.uk) boarded the Celebrity Eclipse for the 2 night weekend mini cruise to Le Havre.  Check-in at Southampton was easy and open when we arrived at 10:30, with boarding then commencing at 11am.  Our cabins weren’t quite ready so we headed up to the top to have a drink from the bar only to find that despite having a drinks package included at the time of booking – this was not printed on my card (or the rest of the passengers cards) so our time on board started with a 20 minute queue to get this rectified. Once this was done we headed back to get a cocktail only to then be told that on the standard package this was not included and when I asked what was apparently only beer and chardonnay. So back to guest relations to pay for an upgrade which i then discovered 4 hours later this had been a con to get you to upgrade as actually on the standard package beer, wine, cocktails, and soft drinks were all included.  Nearly all weekend there were big queues at the bar (in some cases 3 people deep) and not enough staff to help – think Celebrity were overwhelmed by all of this, however on the second day there were pop up bars to try to ease the congestion.

The ship itself was still lovely and I had a balcony cabin on deck 7 and this was a good size with tea and coffee facilities in the cabin.

In the evenings there was entertainment on in the main theatre – the first night was a comedian and the second night was their own production show, there were musicians and singers in some of the bars,  you also go to the silent disco which was a lot of fun for whose who were dancing as well as the onlookers. The ship had a fairly big casino if you fancy a flutter.

We ate in the Oceanview Cafe (buffet restaurant) at lunch and breakfast on both days and you did have to walk round all the stations as there was a lot of variety, and then in the evening we ate in the main dining room and sadly for me the food here was lacking the usual celebrity standards – but the one good thing about this cruise was as there was lots of big parties all wanting to sit together it was very easy to get a table for 2.

Whilst on board we heard lots of new to celebrity passengers saying they wouldn’t sail on Celebrity again, and also new to cruise passengers saying they would never cruise again . Which was sad to hear as cruising is great fun if you pick your ship and itinerary right, and also Celebrity are a very good cruise line.  I had a regular past passenger on sails on the Eclipse a couple of times a year and would also agree that the mini cruise did not reflect the Celebrity product or cruise line in a very good light – so if you were on this trip and put off then please give them another try.

We decided not to get off in Le Havre as there was still so much of the ship to explore and we have been to Le Havre many times.

The thing i think they got wrong compared to the likes of P&O who do lots of mini cruises/booze cruises is that on Celebrity drinks were free in the package so maybe people were drinking more, but on P&O you have to pay per drink as they do not do drinks packages.

Were you on board and what was your thoughts? Or have you been on a mini cruise./booze cruise and what did you think?

This weekend I am lucky to be a guest of NCL for 2 nights sailing from Southampton to Hamburg so will let you know all about that trip next time.

Have a good couple of weeks and hope the sun stays out

Kerry

xx