Celestyal Cruises, reviewed honestly

Who Celestyal Cruises genuinely suits

Guests who want the Greek islands hit hard and fast: multiple ports on a single short sailing, authentic Greek hospitality, and access to smaller island harbours the largest ships can't get near. Celestyal is a destination engine built around Athens, not a floating resort.

When you'd be better off elsewhere

Anyone expecting a big, high-tech ship with a wide choice of venues. Celestyal Discovery and Celestyal Journey are mid-sized, functional and focused squarely on port density rather than onboard facilities.

What the ships are actually like

Two ships, both mid-sized at around 1,260 guests each, and both older builds given a fresh life: Celestyal Discovery (formerly AIDAaura, launched 2003) and Celestyal Journey (formerly the Holland America Line ship Ryndam, launched 1994). Neither is a newbuild, and neither pretends to be; the appeal is where they go, not the hardware.

You are buying islands, not the ship

Every sailing leaves from Athens, or seasonally Thessaloniki, so you are flying to join whatever happens. That is unlikely to surprise you: almost nobody pictures a Greek islands holiday beginning anywhere but an airport.

The thing worth adjusting is the ship. Both are mid-sized, functional and have had previous lives under other names, and if you have arrived from a mass-market brochure expecting a dozen venues and a glass atrium, you will notice the difference on the first afternoon.

What you get in exchange is the part the big ships cannot do. Three or four islands in a long weekend, harbours the giants cannot enter, and time ashore where the food and the evening are actually Greek. Judge it on where it takes you and it is superb value. Judge it on the hardware and you will feel short-changed.

Where Celestyal Cruises sits

Class

Mass Market, on our ladder from Mass Market through Ultra-Luxury.

A sample sailing

Celestyal Discovery, 7 nights: Idyllic Aegean from Athens, guide price from £799pp.

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