NCL or Celebrity for Mediterranean?

[NCteacherlovescruising]

My husband and I, along with some friends, are planning a summer 2024 Greece/Italy cruise.  I see what looks like a good deal with NCL today.  Of course, Celebrity hasn't released their itineraries yet.  Should we jump on their Black Friday special or wait to see what Celebrity offers once they open?  

[Sailing12Away]

If you like the itinerary, ship, and price of the NCL cruise then book it. You can always cancel before final payment date with less penalties than Celebrity has for their sailings.

 

Without knowing the particulars of the trips or ships you're trying to compare, or what is important to you and your travel mates in terms of things you like to do, food you like, entertainment you enjoy, etc - it's impossible for us to tell you what to do.

[Illbcruzn4life]

5 hours ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

My husband and I, along with some friends, are planning a summer 2024 Greece/Italy cruise.  I see what looks like a good deal with NCL today.  Of course, Celebrity hasn't released their itineraries yet.  Should we jump on their Black Friday special or wait to see what Celebrity offers once they open?  

could you elaborate on this Grece/Italy cruise in summer 2024. I was looking for the same thing but don't see any pricing that I find reasonable.

 

Not sure what the Black Friday specials are today but looks like they doubled the prices and then gave the 2nd person free today. Maybe I interpreted the deal incorrectly as I don't sail NCL a lot.

[Purple_Pig]

I'm booked on NCL for Greece/Italy 2024.  It was the perfect itinerary / cabin / price.  I couldn't pass it up.

 

Now, I booked it a year ago when it was first released and I've already received one huge price drop for "booking" onboard my last cruise.  They were running a special (ha!  I know, there's always a special) and they let me use it.  But it dropped the price $3K from what I already thought was a fantastic price.

 

I'll keep checking other options but I really doubt I'll be able to match or beat the price.

[Crazy planning mom]

We sailed on the Jade out of Athens in October.  It was a nice older ship with great crew.  The included food was pretty decent and the food in the specialty restaurants was great.  If you do the air promo, make sure you ask for a deviation to arrive at least 1 day early.   Otherwise, you arrive the day of the sailing and it could be dicey.

We had looked at Celebrity when booking but it was more money at the time.   Ironically, we are taking the same Celebrity ship- the Apex  in the Caribbean in Feb 2024.  For me in the Caribbean, the ship is more important.  In the Mediterranean, the ports are more important than the ship.  Celebrity should be rolling out their 2024 itineraries probably next month.  You could always wait to comparison shop.

Edited November 26, 2022 by Crazy planning mom

[phillygwm]

When you're considering the Mediterranean, it's going to be port intensive (one sea day on the itinerary I did) so the ship becomes secondary.  Whichever offers the itinerary you want at the best price would be the one I'd jump at.  Since X hasn't posted that yet, I'd book NCL if it's otherwise acceptable.  I'm always one to revisit my choices periodically in the hopes of a better deal so I'd certainly check again once Celebrity releases its schedule -- and probably again before final payment.

Edited November 26, 2022 by phillygwm

[NCteacherlovescruising]

On 11/25/2022 at 4:33 PM, Sailing12Away said:

If you like the itinerary, ship, and price of the NCL cruise then book it. You can always cancel before final payment date with less penalties than Celebrity has for their sailings.

 

Without knowing the particulars of the trips or ships you're trying to compare, or what is important to you and your travel mates in terms of things you like to do, food you like, entertainment you enjoy, etc - it's impossible for us to tell you what to do.

 

My friends are more familiar with those ports than I, so I will let them chose the itinerary.  None of us are that particular with food, we would enjoy sight seeing.

 

On 11/25/2022 at 7:58 PM, Illbcruzn4life said:

could you elaborate on this Grece/Italy cruise in summer 2024. I was looking for the same thing but don't see any pricing that I find reasonable.

 

Not sure what the Black Friday specials are today but looks like they doubled the prices and then gave the 2nd person free today. Maybe I interpreted the deal incorrectly as I don't sail NCL a lot.

 

That's entirely possible, since I hadn't priced it before.  I was just browsing for Black Friday sales and it looked like a good deal with the second person free on the cruise and flight.

On 11/26/2022 at 7:57 AM, Purple_Pig said:

I'm booked on NCL for Greece/Italy 2024.  It was the perfect itinerary / cabin / price.  I couldn't pass it up.

 

Now, I booked it a year ago when it was first released and I've already received one huge price drop for "booking" onboard my last cruise.  They were running a special (ha!  I know, there's always a special) and they let me use it.  But it dropped the price $3K from what I already thought was a fantastic price.

 

I'll keep checking other options but I really doubt I'll be able to match or beat the price.

That's awesome!

 

On 11/26/2022 at 10:04 AM, Crazy planning mom said:

We sailed on the Jade out of Athens in October.  It was a nice older ship with great crew.  The included food was pretty decent and the food in the specialty restaurants was great.  If you do the air promo, make sure you ask for a deviation to arrive at least 1 day early.   Otherwise, you arrive the day of the sailing and it could be dicey.

We had looked at Celebrity when booking but it was more money at the time.   Ironically, we are taking the same Celebrity ship- the Apex  in the Caribbean in Feb 2024.  For me in the Caribbean, the ship is more important.  In the Mediterranean, the ports are more important than the ship.  Celebrity should be rolling out their 2024 itineraries probably next month.  You could always wait to comparison shop.

 

I think I would ask for more than 1 day.  I'd like to stay there at least a couple days prior to the cruise to explore.

23 hours ago, phillygwm said:

When you're considering the Mediterranean, it's going to be port intensive (one sea day on the itinerary I did) so the ship becomes secondary.  Whichever offers the itinerary you want at the best price would be the one I'd jump at.  Since X hasn't posted that yet, I'd book NCL if it's otherwise acceptable.  I'm always one to revisit my choices periodically in the hopes of a better deal so I'd certainly check again once Celebrity releases its schedule -- and probably again before final payment.

I believe I read somewhere that Celebrity's will open on December 5th.  I will be on Celebrity in 3 weeks, may book onboard.

[Sailing12Away]

If you're using the NCL air promotion, you can only fly in 2 days early. So keep that in mind if you wanted to spend more time than that - you won't be able to with using their basic air promotion.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

6 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

If you're using the NCL air promotion, you can only fly in 2 days early. So keep that in mind if you wanted to spend more time than that - you won't be able to with using their basic air promotion.

 

Yes, we opted to do 2 days prior and 2 days after.

[eileeshb]

Just one thing to watch out for on those eastern med/Greek isles itineraries is that quite a few of the ports don’t have the docking capacity for every ship size so there is a big chance of having to tender to shore from the ship. It’s what has put me off a lot of those itineraries, I’d much prefer they used one of the smaller ships so docking is possible.

I’ve experienced the disaster that is tendering to great stirrup cay from Norwegian Breakaway which took *hours* even with the earliest non-excursion tender ticket. 

[AstoriaPreppy]

1 hour ago, eileeshb said:

Just one thing to watch out for on those eastern med/Greek isles itineraries is that quite a few of the ports don’t have the docking capacity for every ship size so there is a big chance of having to tender to shore from the ship. It’s what has put me off a lot of those itineraries, I’d much prefer they used one of the smaller ships so docking is possible.

I’ve experienced the disaster that is tendering to great stirrup cay from Norwegian Breakaway which took *hours* even with the earliest non-excursion tender ticket. 

 

One benefit of the Edge class ships are the amazing tendering facilities they've designed. The entry to the tender deck is a huge, open space with a wall of windows (not restricted crew space like other ships), and the actual loading deck to the tenders is the ship's Magic Carpet, which goes to sea-level when tendering. 

 

The tenders themselves are amazing: air conditioned, fold down, theater-style cushioned seats, flat screen TVs, etc. 

 

If you're anti-tender but still want to do the Med/Adriatic/Greek Isles, I couldn't recommend a Celebrity Edge class ship more.