My Thoughts: Comparing Norwegian with Celebrity

[JessLCH]

Thanks for your comparison. Having sailed both, I pretty much agree with most of what you said. Celebrity is definitely more upscale and has better food. However, we keep coming back to NCL. We really prefer casual dress and freestyle dining as well as NCL suites and villas. For family cruising, NCL is the better fit for us. Though I do miss Celebrity's food quality.

[flashdog_1]

Having only sailed on X and HAL prior to our first NCL cruise, I was immediately taken with the inclusiveness of the passengers on NCL. We were on the pool deck before sail away, enjoying the music when a crowd of people indicated I should join them in a bunny hop or something like that. I'd never seen that on X, but later posters said they had (maybe not embarkation day). So it sort of depends on where you spend your time on the ship. For instance, if you hang out in the library you're not going to bunny hop! ha

 

I do not mean to imply that X passengers are non-inclusive, but it does seem so. But then, the make up of the passengers changes from cruise to cruise. If you encounter other newbies, it will be different than if you're hanging out with old timers.

 

I loved the no announcements except the noon report on X. No reminders of Bingo like on NCL.

 

I must say that the ambiance on NCL brought out the party/friendly side of me (my youth perhaps) and liberated me from being so conscious of whether I was behaving and dressing properly.

 

And yes, you CAN get very good prices on X, usually when prices drop after final payment, but we got ours before final payment. We were booked on NCL Sun to Alaska in an inside cabin on the Oslo deck which I wasn't too hep about, when I saw an X cruise on Mercury for the same price, one deck below the pool deck (very convenient for our constant spa use), same port of embarkation, same date. (got to see Sitka instead of Skagway which I'd seen on my first X Alaska cruise). So we switched and didn't have to change hotel or air arrangements. Just check to see how much port time you have if you compare sailings. We had less time in port on Mercury.

 

We love the food on X. It's always a treat to find something wonderful on the menu, or something you've never tried. X does fish very well. I eat it almost nightly. And X is pretty consistent from ship to ship (same menus), where NCL varied greatly.

 

Have fun on your cruise.

[CTCruisers]

Thanks for posting a balanced review with explanations of your comparisons. This was informative and useful.

[Bridge Maven]

 

I must say that the ambiance on NCL brought out the party/friendly side of me (my youth perhaps) and liberated me from being so conscious of whether I was behaving and dressing properly.

 

 

Flashdog, I enjoyed reading this comment because most cruise critic reviews imply that a ship's ambiance is either very quiet and refined or filled with obnoxiously loud people who had too much to drink and there is nothing in between. On the other hand, I also feel there is something in between where a passenger can have a lot of fun doing things they might not have an opportunity to do at home, without feeling self conscious about it.

 

My husband and I are elite members of Celebrity's Captain's club and took our first NCL cruise by default this past summer because NCL Dawn had the best itinerary from NYC to Bermuda. To our surprise, we loved NCL and will be taking another NCL cruise on Gem next month.

[flashdog_1]

The towel animals are so cute, which Celebrity doesn't do.

 

We always had towel animals. Not necessarily every night, but we've had them on all cruises with X.

 

Maybe with Celebrity's My Time Dining you won't have to endure the Baked Alaska Parade. That was so welcome to me on NCL that that didn't happen!

 

Thanks Bridgemaven,

We only tried NCL because my DH hates to wear a suit for formal night and instead of cruising with me on X after an 11 nighter w/3 formal nights, he suggested I take my adult daughter instead. I did do that and she loves X.

 

But I found I also liked the atmosphere on NCL ships. The only thing I missed was X's classical music "concerts" before dinner, although someone in our roll call told me one of the NCL pianists was playing some classical but I missed it.

[librarycin]

We always had towel animals. Not necessarily every night, but we've had them on all cruises with X.

 

Maybe with Celebrity's My Time Dining you won't have to endure the Baked Alaska Parade. That was so welcome to me on NCL that that didn't happen!

 

Lucky you! Now, I've only done 2 Celebrity cruises, but we didn't get towel animals on either one.

 

LOL about the baked alaska parade! :D I think it's kind of silly myself and wasn't too upset when I missed it on my second X cruise because I wasn't in the dining room that night. And I definitely didn't miss it on NCL! ;)

 

You also mentioned the lack of announcements on X except at noon, which I kind of like as well.