NCL vs Celebrity

[furkidsmom]

We just got off the Constellation and found that DH's family reunion trip next year is Hawaii on the Pride of Aloha.

 

We have done 3 cruises on Celebrity - the Mercury, the Summit and now the Connie. I am concerned that we will not get the level of service we are used to. We were also Concierge Class on this cruise and are now TOTALLY spoiled! :D

 

Anyone done both lines? How do they compare?? :confused:

[romy]

I'm curious to know as well. We've sailed Celebrity twice (both Caribbean trips) and are on NCL's Dream for the Baltics in early August.

 

I'm feeling somewhat prepared that the ship won't be quite as nice as the Century as I've heard many people say this particular cruise is about the ininerary more than the ship.

 

We are Captain's Club members on Celebrity and are going with family who are Lattitudes members on NCL, so we're excited about the differences.

 

Thanks

[kitty9]

You cannot even begin to compare NCL to Celebrity. NCL is, in my opinion after sailing on them, your basic mass market line. Nothing really special or outstanding. My friend, who's a cruise specialist, has had clients coming back from the NCL Hawaii cruises and said that the food and especially the service, is not at all good. Plus, just look at the fact that NCL had to cancel one of their Hawaii cruises because their crew was "exhausted". That doesn't bode well for NCL and their mostly American crew. If they're becoming exhausted after only a few cruises, it just doesn't sound good. I mean, have you ever heard about a cruise line having to cancel a cruise because their crew was tired? Sounds to me like the American crew has no idea how tough it is to work on a cruise ship.

 

I don't care for freestyle cruising and the one major complaint about that is if you go down to the dining room at the time when most passengers care to eat, there have been long waits to be seated. The waiters seem more rushed and there's not the personal touch that you get when you dine at the same table with the same waiter.

 

For me, NCL is just no longer a choice, even if the price were decent. Plus, there isn't a casino on the Pride of Aloha.

[furkidsmom]

Plus, there isn't a casino on the Pride of Aloha.

 

Considering the fact that there are Casino ships all over the US, why is there no Casino on the POA??? Anyone know?? :confused:

[fodorspeter]

We were in a penthouse suite on the Star and had concierge service. Freestyle is better on NCL because they have so many more options than the average cruise ship - I believe their were nine restaurants on the Star including the two regular dining rooms.

 

I think the best thing you will find about the Pride is the two overnight ports - Maui and Kauai. This gives you time to enjoy the nightlife on these two great islands.

 

We've sailed with RCCL, Celebrity, Princess and NCL and NCL would rate third best for food and service.

 

Peter

[karfest]

There is no gambling in Hawaii so there is no gambling on a ship that only cruises Hawaii. When the NCL Star was only doing Hawaii, it did not have a casino but they have since added one now that it is moving to Mexico. I'm sure NCL would LOVE to have a casino if state law allowed it.

 

I also liked NCL, but there seems to be variances between the ships. The Pride of Aloha is having some issues, keep reading reviews and asking questions.

[Liat]

We have taken 12 cruises since 1999. Six

have been on Celebrity ships: Mercury, Galaxy twice, Millennium and Infinity twice, including Hawaii. We have sailed on Carnival's Elation, NCL's Norwegian Sun, HAL's Veendam and Princess' Regal Princess and Sun Princess. (The 12th was on Enchanted Isle a ship owned by the now defunct Connodore Lines). Celebrity's food and dining room service are clearly the best. They do not overload the wait staff so your waiter and his (or her) assistant have time to serve you; get to know you and your preferences, and chat with you. All the other lines; even HAL which has very good food; are rushed in service. All the ships we have been on were clean and well maintained. Most of the room service was excellent, although we noted that NCL was a little slower in making up the rooms.

Entertainment varied. We did not like NCL's offerings, thought Princess was pretty good and Celebrity had some excellent shows and some less so. The theater on Elation had major sight line problems which detracted from the shows. HAL was okay, but just okay in entertainment. The sea day shipboard events on Celebrity were way above anybody else's, especially when we had four consecutive sea days going to Hawaii on Infinity and five straight sea days on Galaxy's transatlantic repositioning trip.

We mostly do our own tours, although we think that Princess has the largest selection.

For overall value we believe that Celebrity is the clear winner among the major lines.

[Liat]

We have taken 12 cruises since 1999. Six

have been on Celebrity ships: Mercury, Galaxy twice, Millennium and Infinity twice, including Hawaii. We have sailed on Carnival's Elation, NCL's Norwegian Sun, HAL's Veendam and Princess' Regal Princess and Sun Princess. (The 12th was on Enchanted Isle a ship owned by the now defunct Commodore Lines). Celebrity's food and dining room service are clearly the best. They do not overload the wait staff so your waiter and his (or her) assistant have time to serve you; get to know you and your preferences, and chat with you. All the other lines; even HAL which has very good food; are rushed in service. All the ships we have been on were clean and well maintained. Most of the room service was excellent, although we noted that NCL was a little slower in making up the rooms.

Entertainment varied. We did not like NCL's offerings, thought Princess was pretty good and Celebrity had some excellent shows and some less so. The theater on Elation had major sight line problems which detracted from the shows. HAL was okay, but just okay in entertainment. The sea day shipboard events on Celebrity were way above anybody else's, especially when we had four consecutive sea days going to Hawaii on Infinity and five straight sea days on Galaxy's transatlantic repositioning trip.

We mostly do our own tours, although we think that Princess has the largest selection.

or overall value we believe that Celebrity is the clear winner among the major lines.

[DEL67]

I agree with Liat. We have been on NCL, Celebrity, HAL, RCCL, Carnival and several smaller lines. Although the concept of freestyle is great we felt that the food, service and shows on NCL were the definitely the worst we have experienced. We also found that freestyle meant waiting on lines even after we reserved a specific time because we were tired of the wait. And when we tried to go later to avoid the lines, they ran out of many menu choices!

[donnajo]

I too, agree with above posts. Have sailed on RCCL, NCL, Celebrity and Princess. NCL was our least favorite as far as food quality and service.

However, if the cruise is FREE, that's a different story.

Have been on 13 cruises since 1994. Our NCL cruise was in 1999 and we have yet to book another on one of their ships.

Good Luck!

Donna

[smudge's mom]

Celebrity vs NCL It depends upon what how important to you the "dining" aspect of your cruise is. If you like all the things others mention as being the reason they like assigned seating, then Freestyle is not going to be for you.

 

Compare Freestyle to dining at a land restaurant - you can ask for a certain person's table, but if you just walk in and ask for "first available" you will be seated with a different wait staff each night. Service will be different each night also - because, like in a land restaurant, you get different servers each time you eat there. The waits for a table will vary also - depending upon your flexibility about size of table and time you dine.

 

For those of us who like to eat - when, where, with whom we chose - Freestyle is a great way of dining. For me, the Celebrity over two hour long dinners with some people we weren't all that crazy about were butt numbingly, excruciatingly long. But then again, NCL's service was often times scatter brained. But, the freedom of eating when I was actually hungry and not when I was assigned to eat - tipped the scales to NCL for me.

 

We have only experienced one Celebrity cruise while we've cruised with NCL three times to three different places on three different ships. Each NCL cruise was a different experience. Food and service varied from ship to ship.

 

As far as Celebrity's food - it was all right, but those who rave about it are overstating, in my opinion. Their desserts and bread baskets were unimaginative, while the meals were pretty much like any other cruise we've been on - some poor, some good, some excellent. It seems that the quality of seafood and meat has been going down. That's a worry.

 

However, the food on NCL wasn't much to rave about either - especially the buffets - Celebrity buffets and the ambience in the buffet area - is superior to NCL but not by all that much - again, it varied from ship to ship.

 

But if you are open to a new way of eating, the other things about NCL are just fine. NCL's staff was excellent, the newer ships are very comparative to Celebrity's "like" ships - all in all - the onboard experiences - other than the very "unlike" dining experiences - were comparable. However, I do agree - there were less announcements on Celebrity.

 

We are going on another Celebrity cruise in January. Hopefully, we will have wait staff that can serve the dinner courses with less than a half hour between each course. And I'll be interested in seeing whether the food lives up to the raves I've been hearing all over their board. I don't remember it as being all that good, but it's been over two years now, so I need a Celebrity "refresher" course.

 

But to tell you the truth - we've never had a bad cruise. They have all had their pluses and minuses, but I've never come off a ship unhappy that I chose that cruise.