Which cruise should we go on? NCL Epic or Celebrity Eclipse

[HalfMoon]

Having never sailed on either cruiseline I'm not sure which one would be better for us. We are in our early thirties with a 7 month old daughter. Looking to book a balcony since we expect that we will be spending a lot of time in our cabin.

 

NCL offers a great infant rate with no mandatory gratuity. Celebrity's total pricing ends up to be about $300 more. (This is for Western Caribbean 7 nights). Which cruiseline would you choose?

[youngestof9]

Having never sailed on either cruiseline I'm not sure which one would be better for us. We are in our early thirties with a 7 month old daughter. Looking to book a balcony since we expect that we will be spending a lot of time in our cabin.

 

NCL offers a great infant rate with no mandatory gratuity. Celebrity's total pricing ends up to be about $300 more. (This is for Western Caribbean 7 nights). Which cruiseline would you choose?

 

I recently answered someone's question about going on the Liberty vs. the Epic

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1359525

 

also a review of a recent Epic trip if you'd like to read my opinion.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1345275

 

I know it would be different cruising with an infant than my older kids, but there is a lot to see and do aboard, even if your child is too young for kids club.

 

We were docked next to the Eclipse one day :)

[cinanina]

I have travelled on both cruiselines and prefer Celebrity 1 million times over NCL. To me there is no comparaison, it's just my personal experience. I would definitly pay more to travel on CC, they are better organised, service is better, food is better, kids club is better, cabins had the same level of confort and NCL had a better looking ship although I far preferred the Celebrity ship due to pool design and buffet design but there to be honest NCL had a better ship. Other than that, everything was better on CC, excursions, prices on board for extras like spa or shopping, game room, deck space... specially to me the biggest difference was really the treatment, I found CC crew to be super polite and calm, we had a cabin "attendant" (don't know the correct name) who was an angel, quiet and always there but invisible, left us everything spotless, was so attentive, I have never seen anything like that, the most correct person. Our waiter on MDR was allways the same, whereas in NCL there's no sitting reserved so appart from waiting you allways get different tables and different waiters. Our waiter was from Colombia and he was super professional, got to knows and chat a bit, telling us about next day's activities or port information but without being intrusive or too talkative. Everyone was really nice and relaxed, small jazz bands in one deck at night while mega shows are going on other areas of the ship, so they try to fill different expectations. I really enjoyed CC and highly recommend it. :) Even the security staff was nice :)

 

If I could I would only travel with them but unfortunately here in Europe the difference is way beyond 300$, more on the line of 6000$ difference or more for the same itinerary... :cool: because of the kids sail free thing... CC does not have that and if the starting price is already more than double from another cruiseline (lets say from 1000$ pp to 2700$ with CC) when you add the 3rd and 4th passenger... it's crazy... from 2000$ with one cruiseline you can go up to 8000$ with CC... :cool: