Originally Posted by
upnorth
Celebrity is like the target chain and Princess Cruises etc though of Target quality have prices like Eddie Bauer. The interesting thing is that Celebrity prices are pretty close to Carnival prices this summer mainly because RCCL is in a very poor financial shape (BB2 junk bond rating and there is a sell rating) whereas CCL owner of Princess and Carnival is more sound. Thus from a consumer point of view, if one thinks RCCL will not go bankrupt this year, then Celebrity offers best value for money.
I'm not quite sure exactly what your analogies mean, but we did our first cruise on Princess, to Alaska, last fall, and in terms of quality, I'd rate it far above what I think of the Target chain.
Schedule: exactly as promised
Service: dining room not perfect, but other than that, excellent. Room steward was exceedingly helpful
Food: good to almost very good, portions large, lots of choices
Shore excursions: again, exactly as promised, and really pretty good
Cabin: no complaints, and the one problem we had with the sink was fixed in 45 minutes
Kid's room: my son gave that ***** in his rating.