Is there much difference between NCL and CELEBRITY

[portcbob]

Hi fellow cruisers.

 

Have been cruising with NCL on our previous cruises and thinking of taking our first Med cruise with the Celebrity SILHOUETTE. Would there be much differences between these 2 lines and if so what???????

 

Thankyou in anticipation.

 

Cheers Bob.:):):)

[jackdiamond]

A big difference.

[dkjretired]

Hi fellow cruisers.

 

Have been cruising with NCL on our previous cruises and thinking of taking our first Med cruise with the Celebrity SILHOUETTE. Would there be much differences between these 2 lines and if so what???????

 

Thankyou in anticipation.

 

Cheers Bob.:):):)

 

We have been on three NCL cruises in the last three years and five Celebrity in the past four years. One large advantage to most on Celebrity is their smoking policy if you are a non smoker. There is no smoking anywhere indoors on Celebrity including the casino and you are not permitted to smoke in your stateroom or balcony. There are only five places where someone may smoke and one place for Cigars and Pipes.

 

Entertainment hands down went to NCL, they had excellent nighttime shows, second city and lots of lounge entertainers. Celebrity had some shows that were just boring and not as much going on around the ship as NCL.

 

Food on Celebrity is a mile ahead of NCL. Dining room was not real great on NCL compared to the dining room food on NCL. Celebrity has perhaps the best Specialty restaurants on a cruiseline, I was not impressed with them on NCL.

 

If you are getting a suite, NCL's haven area is one of the best suite areas at sea. Celebrity has excellent suites and a good variety of them.

 

Aqua Class on Celebrity ships is a somewhat new concept with the patrons having their own smaller restaurant.

 

Celebrity is much quieter with virtually no announcements and although they do sell things on board it is nothing like the hard sell on NCL much of which is done with announcements.

 

The NCL ships I was on were very nice however the Celebrity ships I would call more elegant.

Edited November 24, 2013 by dkjretired

[riclop]

Its like night and day.

[OCruisers]

There is a world of difference between NCL and Celebrity!

 

People still dress for dinner on Celebrity on Formal Nights.

No constant announcements on Celebrity.

NCL has more in the way of late night activities.

X is more laid back ... NCL is more active.

 

LuLu

~~~~

[dkjretired]

We have been on three NCL cruises in the last three years and five Celebrity in the past four years. One large advantage to most on Celebrity is their smoking policy if you are a non smoker. There is no smoking anywhere indoors on Celebrity including the casino and you are not permitted to smoke in your stateroom or balcony. There are only five places where someone may smoke and one place for Cigars and Pipes.

 

Entertainment hands down went to NCL, they had excellent nighttime shows, second city and lots of lounge entertainers. Celebrity had some shows that were just boring and not as much going on around the ship as NCL.

 

Food on Celebrity is a mile ahead of NCL. Dining room was not real great on NCL compared to the dining room food on NCL. Celebrity has perhaps the best Specialty restaurants on a cruiseline, I was not impressed with them on NCL.

 

If you are getting a suite, NCL's haven area is one of the best suite areas at sea. Celebrity has excellent suites and a good variety of them.

 

Aqua Class on Celebrity ships is a somewhat new concept with the patrons having their own smaller restaurant.

 

Celebrity is much quieter with virtually no announcements and although they do sell things on board it is nothing like the hard sell on NCL much of which is done with announcements.

 

The NCL ships I was on were very nice however the Celebrity ships I would call more elegant.

 

I did forget to mention about the dress code differences. Celebrity will have two formal nights on a 7 day cruise. You can avoid them by going to the buffet or any of the Specialty restaurants but if you go to the MDR it is Tux, suit or dinner jacket for men. Shorts are forbidden for dinner in all the dining venues except the buffet. The other nights are smart casual which means pants and a shirt, again no shorts.

[wallie5446]

We are just off the Reflection, sailed with a couple who have sailed NCL a lot, and like the line. They were amazed at the difference between the 2 products. They were glad they came and sailed and tried Celebrity for themselves, because the comments on CC did not truly give them a clear concept of just how much nicer Celebrity truly was. They booked another with some from our roll call.

 

So, bottom line you will really need to sail to ever get a true insight as to the differences in the product's.

[herbanrenewal]

I agree with all dkjretired said.

 

We usually chose our cruise by price and port.

Although there are very different environments on the lines we cruise most with (NCL, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity) we have enjoyed them all.

 

Also, be aware of the large variation within each line. older smaller ships will never have the entertainment wow factor of the newest ships from any line.

 

The general ambiance is fairly consistent with Celebrity more sedate and a quieter atmosphere, while NCL is more flamboyant. Sort of like the decor of their ships. Celebrity's elegant decor vs NCL's tropical floral color explosion....I have to admit I love them both.

[Redtravel]

I am elite. I have sailed on several different cruise lines. I sailed on NCL once. It was back in the days when I did not have much money.. NCL was less expensive than Celebrity or RCL. Food was terrible. Service was horrible. Cabin was nice.. Entertainment was superb. The ship was glitzy. I was attracted to the cruise by the slick brochure. I had not read reviews. I believed a TA who said that NCL was great. She lied. NCL attracts lots of people with their glitzy ships. I prefer other cruise lines that have excellent food and good service. I am sure that you will find loyal NCL guests on the NCL forum. I never read that forum. I hope that you posted on NCL forum. Read reviews, talk to friends, and decide what is important for you.

[franksandy]

Just got off a NCL cruise this last month....and leaving on a Celebrity in 12 days....bigest difference...men do not need any type of Jacket or dress slacks....although all seemed to dress nice....Food was exellent...so was everything else...Best HC cabins of all lines...I've done over 100 cruises. Were looking forward to the no smoking policy in the Casino on our up Coming cruise...

[Cruising89143]

I agree with others that it's night and day difference. I am not a huge fan of NCL. Not bad by any means but just not what we look for in a cruise experience. For us the MDR and lido dining on NCL fell short of any other cruise line that we gave cruised. Specialty dining was very good.

Edited November 24, 2013 by cruisingator2

[islandgirlejfan]

We cruised Norwegian before Celebrity....personally, I just like being on a ship and could do either. We were suite cruisers on Norwegian because we liked the serenity of Cagney's for dining for breakfast and lunch. We booked AQ on Celebrity as we were looking for much of the same and it met our expectations. We are also non smokers, so not having to deal smoke on the balcony is a real plus for us. We could always find something to eat on either line, but Celebrity's food is very good. For what we were paying for a suite, we can cruise twice on Celebrity and have a wonderful experience!

[Turtles06]

I've cruised on both lines and enjoy them both, but as the prior posts say, the lines are quite different. The comments above touch on the major differences (particularly including Celebrity's much more restrictive smoking policies, which I love; NCL is behind the times on this and it may be hard for us to go back to NCL and risk smokers on neighboring balconies), but I want to underscore another huge difference: freestyle dining.

 

NCL was the trailblazer on this, and the concept of eating whenever you want has proven to be so popular that other lines have tried to imitate it, but they really can't, they don't have enough dining venues to do it. And so people on Celebrity who want "Select Dining" (eating whenever they want) can get closed out of that option, or feel they need to make dinner reservations to avoid long waits (kind of defeating the entire purpose of true freestyle). So it's not truly freestyle as NCL does it. That said, the food on Celebrity is generally better, and fixed dining does have its plusses: it's really nice to have the same servers, which I do think improves the level of service.

 

I haven't been on the Silhouette yet, but I have sailed on another S-class ship, the Eclipse, and she was stunning. Far nicer than any NCL ship on which I have sailed.

[herbanrenewal]

I am elite. I have sailed on several different cruise lines. I sailed on NCL once. It was back in the days when I did not have much money.. ....Read reviews, talk to friends, and decide what is important for you.

 

The best piece of advice in this post is to check by reading reviews, and deciding what is important to you.

 

I usually prefer to say I have cruised several different lines rather than state my loyalty reward status (Celebrity elite, Royal diamond approaching diamond +, NCL gold). With my loyalty being to have a wonderful cruise rather than a line, I can certainly vouch that there are huge differences, but differences are not necessarily negative unless they are a negative to you.

[cynbar]

There really is a big difference -- we love Celebrity but have enjoyed our NCL cruises, but our expectations are different. The dress code is really the main difference, NCL is casual all the time and Celebrity is not. On Celebrity, everyone with few exceptions will change and dress for the evening. On NCL, it's freestyle, and we often saw people wearing shorts and sweatpants and just about everything in the evening, including what they wore all day. Celebrity still observes formal nights although it is possible now to avoid this, Blu (for AQ passengers only) and the specialty restaurants are always smart casual and there is a somewhat limited dinner buffet. But Celebrity cruisers are well put together, every night. Dinner is much more of an event on Celebrity than NCL, and there is much more of an emphasis on the MDR food and the service --- on NCL, dinner seems more like just something to eat before getting on with the entertainment. Celebrity is more dignified, sedate, quieter while NCL is looser, livelier with more entertainment and evening options. It's just a different environment. Our NCL cruises were both in the Med and we enjoyed the lack of pressure to dress for the evening after a long and active port day ---- we're on Reflection in Europe next May, so we'll have to see how we adjust.

[Tiggertastic]

we love both cruise lines and they are both our favorites - I will try not to repeat what others have listed but may by mistake

 

NCL has a greater choice of specialty restaurants upto 13 on nCL compared to 3 on celebrity - where the MDR and buffet on celebrity are better than NCL

 

The entertainment is completely different - celebrity is more refined - jazz, quartet where NCL we find more down to earth

 

We chose my itinerary and date so when we go on celebrity we pack for the formals and on NCL we know not to bother

 

We find the roll calls completely different too - on celebrity there is a lot more pre cruise chat than NCL and a lot more opportunity to meet people on celebrity where NCL we find, as they don't do any set seating at dinner or table sharing, you miss the chance to meet others

[pnsnkr]

 

NCL has a greater choice of specialty restaurants upto 13 on nCL compared to 3 on celebrity - where the MDR and buffet on celebrity are better than NCL

 

 

Your count doesn't seem to be apples-to-apples. Silhouette has the following:

- four specialty restaurants

- three cafe's: Bistro on 5; The Porch; and, Gelateria of Cafe al Bacio

- Don't forget the Cabanas for rent where you can order food for a fee

[chisoxfan]

I've cruised on both lines and enjoy them both, but as the prior posts say, the lines are quite different. The comments above touch on the major differences (particularly including Celebrity's much more restrictive smoking policies, which I love; NCL is behind the times on this and it may be hard for us to go back to NCL and risk smokers on neighboring balconies), but I want to underscore another huge difference: freestyle dining.

 

NCL was the trailblazer on this, and the concept of eating whenever you want has proven to be so popular that other lines have tried to imitate it, but they really can't, they don't have enough dining venues to do it. And so people on Celebrity who want "Select Dining" (eating whenever they want) can get closed out of that option, or feel they need to make dinner reservations to avoid long waits (kind of defeating the entire purpose of true freestyle). So it's not truly freestyle as NCL does it. That said, the food on Celebrity is generally better, and fixed dining does have its plusses: it's really nice to have the same servers, which I do think improves the level of service.

 

I haven't been on the Silhouette yet, but I have sailed on another S-class ship, the Eclipse, and she was stunning. Far nicer than any NCL ship on which I have sailed.

 

Agree with your comments on smoking. However, while NCL touts the freestyle experience in dining our past two cruises did not illustrate that NCL was particularly good at this. Just off the Jade there were MDR waits approaching 45 minutes (in some cases like embarkation). The MDR routinely handed out free champagne drink cards when there was a wait for a table and these had to be printed by the thousands as everyone seemed to be using them every night. We also waited for tables on EPIC.

Not sure what the deal was on the Jade - specialty dining seemed slow, service was slow which would of hurt turnarounds. So yes in my mind NCL invented freestyle dining (a welcome developement) but I am not sure that this would have any merit for choosing them over another mainstream line.

We have had no wait issues on X that we recall. JMHO

[ariawoman]

We have been on three NCL cruises in the last three years and five Celebrity in the past four years. One large advantage to most on Celebrity is their smoking policy if you are a non smoker. There is no smoking anywhere indoors on Celebrity including the casino and you are not permitted to smoke in your stateroom or balcony. There are only five places where someone may smoke and one place for Cigars and Pipes.

 

Entertainment hands down went to NCL, they had excellent nighttime shows, second city and lots of lounge entertainers. Celebrity had some shows that were just boring and not as much going on around the ship as NCL.

 

Food on Celebrity is a mile ahead of NCL. Dining room was not real great on NCL compared to the dining room food on NCL. Celebrity has perhaps the best Specialty restaurants on a cruiseline, I was not impressed with them on NCL.

 

If you are getting a suite, NCL's haven area is one of the best suite areas at sea. Celebrity has excellent suites and a good variety of them.

 

Aqua Class on Celebrity ships is a somewhat new concept with the patrons having their own smaller restaurant.

 

Celebrity is much quieter with virtually no announcements and although they do sell things on board it is nothing like the hard sell on NCL much of which is done with announcements.

 

The NCL ships I was on were very nice however the Celebrity ships I would call more elegant.

 

Having done a ship inspection of the Breakaway yesterday - the above is very true. Additionally, the food was horrible. And I mean horrible, and we were served food that supposedly came from the specialty restaurants which people pay extra for! I couldn't believe it.

 

The ship was nice, though a bit awkward. The smoking in the casino permeated outward to common areas which personally detracts me.

 

The staff was very friendly, but I've not found a line where they aren't.

 

One plus that the particular ship i saw yesterday had over X was the availability of "Studio" cabins - so solo cruisers have an option that doesn't force them to pay single supplement. That said, those cabins were teeeeeny tiny, but doable to avoid single supplement in my opinion.

 

It would appear they've gotten rid of live musicians in shows too, and used canned music. Not sure if this is fleet wide, or just on the ship I was touring. That disappoints me, as the celebrity orchestra is typically top notch and the party band has typically been quite good.

 

It's all going to be about what factors you need to consider. Price, destination, time, etc.

 

Please do let us know what you decide and how it goes!

Edited November 25, 2013 by ariawoman

[wallie5446]

We had neither on the Reflection last week, except in the Atrium for a short time. The guy with a computer acting like a DJ at the pool was not good.

Edited November 25, 2013 by wallie5446