NCL Getaway or CCL Venezia ?

[karinad]

I'm trying to decide on one of these ships for a January Caribbean cruise. Both have similar itineraries but CCL has a longer stay in ports. We've been on both cruise lines but not for the past 5 years. Right now CCL is much cheaper but I have 2 CruiseNext certificates for NCL that don't expire until 2025. We've enjoyed both cruise lines in the past and multiple times on each.

 

I know that things have changed on mostly all the cruise lines. Our latest cruises were on RCCL and they were fine. Has anyone been on both lately? Thanks for helping!

[Szt]

I would choose NCL over CCL any day. But if you’ve been on both and are good with either, it sounds like CCL would be preferable just because of price. 
I will share- the cruise next credits can be extended  At least that’s what we were told. As long as you have a reservation using them before they expire. For example: they expire 03/25.  You book your next cruise for 03/26 in 03/25. Your cruise next certs are your downpayment. But in 01/26 you decide to cruise on another line. So you don’t cancel, you change your NCL booking to a different NCL cruise for 2027. The certs are shifted to that reservation. As long as you have the certs attached to a reservation you can use them for cruises well past the deadline. 
Hope that helps. 

[Joebucks]

What experience are you looking for? Honestly, just asking for random opinions is likely to result in answers stemmed from whatever line they randomly chose, something they felt they got for free, a bad experience they heard about, etc.

[karinad]

6 hours ago, Joebucks said:

What experience are you looking for? Honestly, just asking for random opinions is likely to result in answers stemmed from whatever line they randomly chose, something they felt they got for free, a bad experience they heard about, etc.

We go for the entertainment, food is important. We like seafood but I hear that lobster tail isn't offered on these two. RCCL has limited theirs. We're in our late 60's but dh has played in a rock band for years. We don't get out on the weekends ourselves because of him having gigs on the weekend. Since both of them are 10 day cruises I wouldn't expect a lot of kids on them.

 

Random opinions help because they could strike a nerve.

[karinad]

7 hours ago, Szt said:

I would choose NCL over CCL any day. But if you’ve been on both and are good with either, it sounds like CCL would be preferable just because of price. 
I will share- the cruise next credits can be extended  At least that’s what we were told. As long as you have a reservation using them before they expire. For example: they expire 03/25.  You book your next cruise for 03/26 in 03/25. Your cruise next certs are your downpayment. But in 01/26 you decide to cruise on another line. So you don’t cancel, you change your NCL booking to a different NCL cruise for 2027. The certs are shifted to that reservation. As long as you have the certs attached to a reservation you can use them for cruises well past the deadline. 
Hope that helps. 

Thank you! Originally, the certificates were to expire in 2023 but they extended them to 2025.