RCL or Norwegian for Med cruise

[DonRobertoSanJuan]

We are looking at a Western Med cruise and have a choice between RCL and NCL. We have cruised celebrity and RCL and while we loved the great service and good food on Celebrity, we had a horrible Carib cruise on Adventure, floating around the Carib instead of making our destinations. We care about itineraries and then look at cruise lines. The itineraries for RCL and NCL are almost the same on this cruise. We can get a suite at NCL for the price of a balcony on RCL. Has anyone experienced both RCL (Liberty) and NCL (Epic)? What are the most strikingt differences?

[Clarea]

Smoking on the balcony is allowed on NCL if that's important to you.

[wahoowa12]

DH and I were on RCL Med cruise last summer; my friend and her DH were on NCL Med cruise the same time. Both families like both lines for the most part. The major difference we found when comparing notes is it seemed that RCL had a lot more European guests while NCL had more North American/British guests. We also found NCL to be a bit more sedate and elegant. (Just our own observations) We had no problems arriving on time to any of the ports. In fact, we enjoyed our RCL cruise so much that we booked the Allure for later this month.

[bayoubabe516]

I'm looking at the same thing but I'm adding the MSC Divina into the mix. Just about the same route but several hundred cheaper. We feel like the cruise is very port intensive and we won't be on the ship much except to sleep.

 

 

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[brpb0344]

Hi:

We are doing a Western Med. on Allure of the Seas - the biggest ship Royal has out of Barcelona Spain in June 2015 and we are making 5 different ports in 7 days so I think that's a great cruise for you to look into. Spain, France and Italy are the countries.

[newcastlemam]

Hi, we are doing the allure out if Barcelona 7 nights next October but I then want to do ncl epic 10 nights out if Barcelona in 2016 as I wanted to do both ships :) xx

 

 

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[brpb0344]

Sounds like a great plan. If we like the western med. then next year maybe we'll do the eastern med. As of now have no idea where that one goes to but plenty of time to explore that.

[newcastlemam]

Well we are doing the med next year but can't decide between the med or canaries for 2016 but defo doing epic lol x

 

 

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[SBNDers]

My wife and I just returned from a Mediterranean cruise on NCL. This was our first NCL cruise and had a great experience.

 

Based on our preferences, which may be tolerable for one may not work out for another, this is what we found....

 

- First, choose the itinerary that gives you the most of what you want.

- Price

- Size of ship. If the first two parts are very similar, we would definitely choose the smaller of the available ships. We were on the Spirit with 2,000+ passengers. Since this was so port intensive, everyone wants to get off the ship first each morning and I can't imagine 6,000 people trying to do this. That being said, I'm sure the larger ships have some sort of method which is tried and true, so I can't totally vote against them.

 

Again, I'm not sure how the other lines handle their European routes, but on NCL we were greeted at the dock after a LONG day of touring in the hot sun, with water, juice and scented COLD wash cloths. You've never seen so many sour, tired looking faces brighten up so fast. Also, Gio our cruise director was down on the dock many afternoons greeting us as we returned. Another NCL perk we have never encountered on previous cruises was at the pool. They walked around with spray water mist bottles, fruit kabobs, cold washcloths and frozen pop ices.

 

In any event, there is good and bad in everything, but cruising no matter the line, itinerary or time of year is the only way to go.

 

Have a great cruise.

[Tiggertastic]

Here is the comparison

 

Cabin - ncl, bigger and better for the price

Entertainment - epic, the blue man is brilliant so is the cirque dinner

Pool - liberty, epics main pool is a bit small

Over 18s space - epic, private day area with its own pool and no kids before 6

Teen and kids clubs - epic (my son says)

Service - epic, the officers are visible all the time

Outside evening entertainment - epic has something every night

Mdr food, liberty is slightly better but epic has more choice

Specialty rests - epic has over 10 to choose from

 

I'd go for epic