Princess, NCL, Holland America or Celebrity?

[luckyinpa]

i dont know how celebrity is keeping cruises so cheap but 7 day bermuda is 1700PP which is a steal. maybe because they know they arent going 🙂

 

regal princess is a great ship so i recommend it of course. LOT of indoor space to do things on a rainy day. ive learned this can be important depending on where you go. loved the food and the forward suite had enough storage for a month long cruise. it was very large. also they have a cheaper non booze pack age that includes mocktails AND water. who includes water in packages. not NCL! also on regal it's a very spaced out buffet with tons of room. on ncl breakaway i had people literally digging their dish into my back in line at teh buffet. a quick backscratch showed them how close they were. regarding regal i dont think id necessarily take kids on board though. ncl seemed to have many more acitvities for them

 

NCL haven is a great place to stay. i never have been in the celebrity retreat but from what ive read NCL beats it. its the true ship within a ship. not going all over the place to get to your special private place. also the butler bringing you any food on the ship and whatever snacks you order are nice perks. on the bigger bliss/joy type ships there is a very large observation lounge up front. loved spending private time there. wasnt even busy on christmas day. 

 

 

[Tedferg]

19 hours ago, markeb said:

Ovation is Quantum class. It's smaller than Oasis, but bigger than Freedom, which is two sizes, for lack of a better word, bigger than Radiance. Haven't been on a Quantum Class. I haven't priced an RCL cruise lately, but they did have drink packages in the past.

 

I'd probably ask for experiences on the RCL board. It "could" be a nice ship for that cruise, but it is going to be a bit of a theme park ship...

I got some help on RCI board, apparently Drink package cost varies by ship and maybe itinerary. Strangely I did a test booking and there is no option to add perks nor an indication what price might be. RCI responders said you have to add Drink package in Cruise Planner after booking - a bit odd to me. Makes it hard to compare Princess =X= and RCI. Matter of fact I lost interest in RCI at that point.

[luckyinpa]

30 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

I got some help on RCI board, apparently Drink package cost varies by ship and maybe itinerary. Strangely I did a test booking and there is no option to add perks nor an indication what price might be. RCI responders said you have to add Drink package in Cruise Planner after booking - a bit odd to me. Makes it hard to compare Princess =X= and RCI. Matter of fact I lost interest in RCI at that point.

 

i never sailed royal but the lack of consistent and  public pricing was annoying as heck. love or hate NCL everything is on their site. plain as day.  as was with princess before i went. everyone should know pre booking what booze or pictures are gonna cost on their cruise. no way should you have to book to find pricing. i actually thought that was illegal in the USA for a company to do something like that but i guess not. theres no reason royal cannot set consistent pricing. i'm guessing they buy huge quantities of booze and distribute it throughout the fleet so they know what their costs are going to be. 

[4774Papa]

4 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

I'm also interested in the Arctic Circle sailing, it's not offered often, sometimes just once in the season. I've sailed twice on Jewel (lastly, just the sailing before the refurbishment) and twice on Radiance -- lovely ships for this itinerary, where you'd like to see the scenery from everywhere in the ship.

 

There is the mentioned above sailing, and also one on July 26th, which doesn't include Flam.

 

Curious as to why you prefer Flam over Geiranger, which is THE highlight of the fjord cruises?

 

We did the Norway North Cape cruise on Royal C. and it was great.  We visited six ports, including Geiranger, Flam, Alesund, Stavanger, Tromso and Honningav (SP).   Geiranger had the most amazing fjord, but all the other ports had either a great fjord or other scenic places of note.  Alesund was great for Norway in a Nutshell ( best excursion).  I think Flam had some great scenery and a great train ride.  The North Cape port starting with H, forget the spelling, was great to see some of the Sami people and of course the amazing North Cape and surrounding areas.  

 

[Fouremco]

2 minutes ago, 4774Papa said:

We did the Norway North Cape cruise on Royal C. and it was great.  We visited six ports, including Geiranger, Flam, Alesund, Stavanger, Tromso and Honningav (SP).   Geiranger had the most amazing fjord, but all the other ports had either a great fjord or other scenic places of note.  Alesund was great for Norway in a Nutshell ( best excursion).  I think Flam had some great scenery and a great train ride.  The North Cape port starting with H, forget the spelling, was great to see some of the Sami people and of course the amazing North Cape and surrounding areas.  

 

That would be Honningsvåg. 

 

 

[dani negreanu]

5 minutes ago, 4774Papa said:

Honningav (SP).

 

That's the one - Honningsvag 😁

[Fouremco]

4 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

I'm also interested in the Arctic Circle sailing, it's not offered often, sometimes just once in the season. I've sailed twice on Jewel (lastly, just the sailing before the refurbishment) and twice on Radiance -- lovely ships for this itinerary, where you'd like to see the scenery from everywhere in the ship.

 

There is the mentioned above sailing, and also one on July 26th, which doesn't include Flam.

 

Curious as to why you prefer Flam over Geiranger, which is THE highlight of the fjord cruises?

 

I think that there remains some debate over which is the better port to visit, which is why choosing one of the cruises (RCI, HAL, other?) that visits both ports would be the best bet.

[dani negreanu]

5 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

I think that there remains some debate over which is the better port to visit, which is why choosing one of the cruises (RCI, HAL, other?) that visits both ports would be the best bet.

 

I was curious and went just now to check HAL's itineraries (since RCl is alternating Flam with Geiranger).

 

HAL does it too -- either one or another for the 7 days cruises.

 

If u want both of them -- their 14 days checks all the ports and much more.

 

 

[Miaminice]

@prish

 

I just remembered something you might be interested in...

 

A long time ago we did a holiday cruise on Serenade (Radiance class) just after she’s been refurbished. I wrote a travelogue on a German forum and included a few photos of the changes.

 

Don’t mind the German text... maybe the photos will give you an impression of Radiance class. Nice ships but more traditional than Celebrity.

 

The link leads you directly to the part with the photos. 
http://www.shipedia.eu/forum/219-reiseberichte-royal-caribbean/31392-reisebericht-serenade-of-the-seas-mittelmeer-holiday-cruise-24-12-2012-bis-04-01-2013.html?start=30

 

[prish]

15 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

I was curious and went just now to check HAL's itineraries (since RCl is alternating Flam with Geiranger).

 

HAL does it too -- either one or another for the 7 days cruises.

 

If u want both of them -- their 14 days checks all the ports and much more.

 

 

Dani, the Nordkaap sailing almost always has only Flam or Geiranger, makes sense as they need to go much further up north. We did the southern fjords some years back and really enjoyed the Norway in a Nutshell train journey from Flam, my choice was based on that. But from what 4774Papa says it can be done from other ports too, so I need to research it some.

 

Geiranger fjord was stunning, we later took a tour up to Dalsnibba and the Eagles Rd. All of Norway was gorgeous and we always rate that cruise as one of the best.

[drsel]

23 hours ago, luckyinpa said:

i dont know how celebrity is keeping cruises so cheap but 7 day bermuda is 1700PP which is a steal. maybe because they know they arent going 🙂
 

If you think 1700 for a 7 night Cruise is a steal for Celebrity, then I wonder what you think this is--

I paid only $460 per person for a 9 night Cruise on Celebrity Constellation, in an ocean view with the unlimited classic alcoholic beverage package included!!!

Wasn't this absolutely amazing ?

 

All you need to do is wait for the last minute price drops.

Edited January 29, 2021 by drsel

[CroozFanatic]

1 hour ago, drsel said:

If you think 1700 for a 7 night Cruise is a steal for Celebrity, then I wonder what you think this is--

I paid only $460 per person for a 9 night Cruise on Celebrity Constellation, in an ocean view with the unlimited classic alcoholic beverage package included!!!

Wasn't this absolutely amazing ?

 

All you need to do is wait for the last minute price drops.

 

Amazing

[nocl]

On 1/28/2021 at 11:54 AM, luckyinpa said:

 

i never sailed royal but the lack of consistent and  public pricing was annoying as heck. love or hate NCL everything is on their site. plain as day.  as was with princess before i went. everyone should know pre booking what booze or pictures are gonna cost on their cruise. no way should you have to book to find pricing. i actually thought that was illegal in the USA for a company to do something like that but i guess not. theres no reason royal cannot set consistent pricing. i'm guessing they buy huge quantities of booze and distribute it throughout the fleet so they know what their costs are going to be. 

No because they are optional purchases, one does not have to purchase them.  If they were mandatory then the information would be part of the original booking. A little like them having to provide the price of all of the items in the onboard store prior to one booking.

 

 

[rosepetals]

On 1/25/2021 at 7:24 AM, prish said:

Thanks a lot, I too have heard good things about HAL. NCL to be avoided if it’s in the similar league as Carnival, we’re not interested in entertainment and activities, especially since Europe is so port intensive. 
 

Any specific ships you recommend? Or any we should avoid? 😉

We were on the HAL Nieuw Amsterdam in 2012 for a 12 day cruise. Stateroom was very nice (esp the bath tub to soak in after a long day), but found the food substandard to what was offered on our Celebrity cruises. This was the main reason we switched and now love Celebrity.

[emmas gran]

I have to disagree with rosepetals, we were on Amsterdam not Nieuw Amsterdam in 2013 for 27 nights Hong Kong to Cape Town. Food was very good.

[rosepetals]

12 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

I have to disagree with rosepetals, we were on Amsterdam not Nieuw Amsterdam in 2013 for 27 nights Hong Kong to Cape Town. Food was very good.

...different strokes for different folks....glad you enjoyed yours

[Moonglo]

On 1/26/2021 at 3:25 PM, Ray in NH said:

Hi All,

Interesting thread -- just stumbled upon it today.  This is one of those threads where it is "difficult" to find much consensus.

For whatever it may be worth, here is my "two-cents" worth, based upon over 125 cruises, on 12 different cruise lines (ocean and/or river), covering in excess of over 1300 cruise-days

I'll limit my ranking to the four named cruise lines.

1) Celebrity (15 cruises/141 days)

2) Holland America (20 cruises/295 days)

3) NCL (3 cruises/29 days)

4) Princess (3 cruises/36 days)

 

I guess the number of cruises/days on each of these four rated lines is somewhat telling?  We do enjoy variety, and trying new lines/itineraries.

 

The best part of something like this survey is going back and re-living some very enjoyable places, people, and experiences.

Of course, what we have most enjoyable/memorable, may have no impact on your personal experience.  The beauty of cruising is the memories we retain for future remembrances.

 

Hoping you enjoy whatever cruise you decide to enjoy.

 

NRayH

 

what you said "The beauty of cruising is the memories we retain for future remembrances" is so very true. Its what keeps me going through all this pandemic craziness.......the thinking of past cruise trips and memories we've made...........as well as all the future planning and memories ahead for all of us.  My mom, who is 85 and years ago was an avid cruiser with my dad taking numerous cruises using many cruise lines made many wonderful friendships and memories with all of their experiences.  Even though in present day my mom has become quite forgetful in her at present memory........BUT if I bring up her past cruise trips that memory is as  sharp as the day it was made.

 

(lifting a glass) here's to future happy travel memories for all of us. Cheers!

[drsel]

You always remember the best days of your life even after 20 or 30 years.

Cruising like all my holidays are the best days of my life!

I may have forgotten what I ate for dinner last night, but I remember each and every day, each and every city I visited in Europe 12 years ago