Celebrity Reflection cheaper than Carnival Vista. Sort of!

[BobbyD]

Thought I'd share my story. My wife and I spent our 25th anniversary in 2011 in the Mediterranean on the Carnival Magic. Wonderful trip and every aspect of the cruise was awesome. We are now approaching our 30th anniversary in 2016 and decided that we would also go to the Med, with a preference being the Eastern route because we went on a Western route on the Magic. While on the Silhouette in March 2014, I booked a future cruise to the Med, but since itineraries for 2016 had not opened, I booked a "dummy" cruise for summer 2015, knowing that I could transfer it with all the benefits of an onboard booking. Fast forward to this fall when the Celebrity Med itineraries came out. I jumped on an 11 day itinerary on the Reflection to Italy,Greece, Turkey in August 2016 in the same 2A Veranda cabin that we had in March on the Sihouette.

 

I have also been following the construction of the Carnival Vista, scheduled to be completed late spring 2016, with inaugural cruises in the Med. The itineraries just came out last week and I found a cove balcony on the Vista for a 12 day Western Med for $1000 less than my Celebrity cruise. Although it was awesome, I would rather not cruise the same itinerary as we did on the Magic but the price seemed too good to pass up.

 

Well, I haven't pulled the trigger on the Carnival cruise. Why? Even though the cruise is $1000 less and is 1 day longer (not a huge deal), the booking benefits that I received on Celebrity far outweigh the less expensive Carnival cruise. Beverage package, free gratuities, and $750 OBC (not sure how I ended up with this but I'll take it) all add up to more than $1000!! Now, I haven't ruled out Carnival because I fully expect the cruise fare to continue to drop as it did in 2011, and RCI hasn't even published theirs, but in all likelihood I will be on the Reflection in 2016!!! We loved the Silhouette so I am sure the Reflection will be just as wonderful.

 

I hope all of you have as much luck as I did! Happy cruising.

[LEtue]

My friend and I booked the Equinox and once I priced the difference for the Vista it was about $560. We just cruised the eastern Med on the Serenade in October and loved it. So, even though we haven't seen the pricing or itineraries from RCI - we won't be switching. :D

 

I'm really looking forward to returning to Celebrity and although she is Diamond on RCI - this will be her first Celebrity cruise :)