Which cruise to choose?

Good evening everyone!!

My girlfriend and I are looking at going on our first cruise next year but can't decide which way to go!

Option 1 - Thomson Cruise Coral Islands followed by Caribbean Gems 21/2/18 on the Thomson Celebration - 2 weeks with the all inclusive package total price is around £3200 with an outside cabin. What are Thomson cruises like? Is there enough to do for the 3 sea days aboard Thomson cruises? What do people think of the itinerary?

Option 2 - Celebrity Cruises China and Vietnam 4/3/18 on the Millennium - 17 nights total with hotels - in an outside cabin (with classic drinks package and $300 on board spend and tips pre paid) £3900. With this we are buying flights separate as we will be going to Hong Kong a day earlier and leaving a day early (already cleared this with Celebrity). Are celebrity worth the extra £700? What are the like for sea days? And what is the none specialty food like on board? Also does the itinerary look good to people? I have always wanted to visit China and Vietnam myself so hence liking the sound of this.

We will both be 24 and 22 at the time, we aren't massive drinkers so probably won't go over on the drinks package entitlement on celebrity. We aren't sunbathers for days on end (can do it for a few hours on sea days I imagine) hence me being a little more swaying towards the celebrity one!

Sorry for the very dense post but I wanted to try and get it all into one without opening loads of threads!

Thanks!

Ryan

Suggest you post on the specific cruise line boards for response from those with direct experience on each sailing.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=497

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28

You can then assess comments on each and make an informed decision.

Personally, I would choose Celebrity for its Asia itinerary.

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I don't know, but think two weeks is a long time for a first cruise.

I don't know, but think two weeks is a long time for a first cruise.

NEVER long enough....lol. OP, both of these sound wonderful. Good luck in your decision .:cool:

Although we loved our cruise on Celebration, be aware that she's a very old ship... we'll go with Thomson again, but I'm not sure we'd go on Celebration unless it's a very special itinerary. The crew are fantastic- up there with the best- and they're extra special because there's no tipping, so the friendliness seems more genuine somehow. There was always something to do on board- we even had acting and singing lessons! We saw one of T's newer ships when we were in the Caribbean this winter, and I'd be happy on her.

Saying that, and there are a lot of people who like Celebration, and prefer the smaller, older ships for their atmosphere.

And, no, a fortnight isn't too long for a first cruise- many people start with that length, as we did, and just a week doesn't feel like a proper cruise now!

Can't speak to Thomson, we do like celebrity though. Curious how you are narrowed on two cruise options that are on different sides of the world. We cruise as a means of seeing many destinations, as opposed to the cruise being the destination. So we always decide where we want to go and then choose the cruise. Start with a place and general time frame and you'll find dozens of cruise options that work for that.

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We pick a cruise on itinerary and that we don't have to fly, so we cruise out of ports in California. I have not noticed much difference in the cruise lines that we have picked. Celebrity is a good line as was Princess, Cunard, HAL and Carnival. We do not drink enough to justify a drink package. We like to cruise for a couple weeks, we did 36 days once and it was too long for us.

Both are truly nice options.

From a cultural perspective I would opt for the second cruise with so much to see in Asia. The only thing I will warn you is you are likely to see few passengers in their 20's on a cruise of that length that time of year. However, you will really see so much in these cities and are of ages where it is so easy to get around that I would highly recommend it.

Good luck with whatever you do.

Keith

Thank you for all your help everyone! To answer a few questions -

They are the ones we have narrowed it down to due to being just what we want and a good price, I would love to do the Caribbean with celebrity but as they go out from the USA (where as Thomson start in the Caribbean islands) it seems a bit much for say 4/5 days at see on a 10 day cruise. As for the Asia one we chose that as the Immersion one was slightly too expensive as we would have to come back a day early again for my partners work so would have to get a separate flight from Singapore.

We would love to sail without flying but as our only real options are Southampton and Liverpool the itineraries are a little bland for the price for us! How I would love to live somewhere that did good itineraries!

I'm not particularly expecting many of our age group to be on the 2 week cruises seeing as we are probably a little younger than the average cruising crowd, but that suits us better, usually in bed early and don't drink much! (Yes we are in our 20s haha!!)

Good luck with your decision.

Two nice options.

Keith

I'd definitely go for the Celebrity cruise round Asia. I did a similar itinerary a few years back, also my first cruise, and loved the experience. The culture is very different from UK with lots to see and do. Having done both Asia and the Caribbean I find Asia has more interesting ports of call while the Caribbean is more relaxing and I'm more likely to stay on board. We're booked on the next cruise after the one your looking at sailing from Hong Kong as Beijing and Nagasaki are both on my bucket list.

There's also the difference between the cruise lines to consider. Celebrity are more up market than Thomson and IMO are better quality.

Thomsons use older ships - even their newer ships are ex Royal Caribbean or similar. That said the Millennium is one of Celebrities older ships although it was refurbished last year.

Thomsons is very geared to the UK market with mostly British passengers similar to your Thomsons land based hotels. Celebrity is more geared to US passengers with a reasonable cross section of nationalities on board.

How this helps make your decision although I'm sure you will enjoy whichever one you choose.

Based solely on the itineraries, take the Millennium in Asia - did it last Oct/Nov and thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you can afford it, I recommend an overnight junk cruise at Ha Long Bay rather than the long trip into Hanoi.

By the way, the Celebrity Summit sails 7 night cruises (and occasionally 10 night) out of San Juan with only 1 day at sea.

Two weeks is not too long, where you have activities spread throughout the cruise, and you have an interest in the places visited, and you are travelling with good company.

My first two cruises (Trans-southern Atlantic from Capetown to Buenos Aires with NO ports just pre and post hotel stays, and Hawaii from San Diego 5 seadays - 5 islands - 5 seadays) were almost my ONLY two cruises! But after a few years I was persuaded to do a seven-day Alaska, and then a full-transit Panama Canal with Mexican Riviera, and subsequently three more (not counting China and Russian river trips), with two more booked (plus another Yangtze River one).

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

JMO -- but I like the option 2 better.

You mentioned that you aren't big drinkers. Have you asked celebrity what the price of your cruise might be without the drink package? HAL has been jacking up cruise fares to cover the drinks package thus people are now starting to ask what the price would be without the package and they have found a big savings.

We've been on celebration twice, she's older and small and entertainment is limited and they have very limited number of balcony cabins. The entertainment is either in the theatre central on the ship, horizon bar or one other bar. They have 1 main dining room and a small buffet. They try to give you a 5 star service and we've enjoyed it but as they now charge what celebrity do and that gives us no competition on the ship and celebrity wins.

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Thanks for your help everyone! We have preliminary decided on the celebrity cruise! Found better prices for flights and for the cruise so shall be booking it within the next week! All your advice was greatly appreciated!!