Seabourn Encore vs Celebrity Refection

[LCH123]

A friend and I have been on 15 plus cruises (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, Holland American, Disney, and Crystal.) We have enjoyed every cruise.

We are both 60, pretty active and healthy, and enjoy the outdoors, cooking, learning about other cultures/food, etc. We are considering two different cruises that work with the air we have already purchased....

Seabourn Encore in May from Barcelona to Rome for 7 nights with these ports:

Port Mahon, Spain

Marsielle, St Tropez and Ajjacio, France

Monte Carlo

Portovenere, Italy

 

OR

Celebrity Reflection for 10 nights (Rome to Rome) with these ports:

Messina, Sicily, and Naples/Capri, Italy

Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini and Athens, Greece,

Valetta, Malta

 

Any advice is appreciated.

[Essiesmom]

Well, you are not even comparing apples and oranges, more like fruits and vegetables. I would love to be able to sail on a Seabourn ship, but I much prefer the itinerary of Reflection, plus it is a longer cruise. If you are flying from OK to Barcelona, it is a shame to only sail for 7 nights. Unless you are adding a land portion, too. EM

[Hlitner]

Tough comparison. Consider if you were visiting NYC and had a choice between 7 nights in the Ritz Carlton or 10 nights in the Hilton. The answer depends on your own priorities. Personally, we would opt for 10 nights on the Reflection because itinerary is our own priority. But if one is really into a high quality cruise ship....then Seabourn does make sense.

 

Hank

[SuiteTraveler]

Europe is ALL about the ports, so choose the cruise that interests you most of all. You sound like a pair of foodies and certainly either cruise goes to areas with some of the best cuisines in the world. Which group of ports are you most interested in?

 

As far as ships go, the food on Seabourn is going to be majorly better than that on Celebrity which is not getting the raves it used to get. But on the other hand, a cruise in the Med usually consists of getting up in the morning, eating breakfast, getting off the ship and not coming back until dinner time. So, the ship really is nothing more than a floating hotel. However it is the maiden year for the Encore and I suspect that the ship will be amazing and have the best Seabourn employees onboard - so really, it should be a fabulous cruise.

 

The Celebrity Reflection is a nice ship. It was built in 2012 and is scheduled to be refurbished in October 2017, so I am sure some of the decor/fabrics/carpets/furniture is in need of TLC. I would not go on this ship at this time expecting it to be in excellent condition. The other thing about Celebrity ships I am not a fan of is the bathrooms until you get into a suite. Supposedly a committee of women designed these bathrooms, but it seems the only innovation they made was to add a ledge to put your foot on if you are shaving your legs. (But nowadays, fewer and fewer women shave their legs as it is inexpensive and most convenient to have laser hair removal.) The toilet is tightly wedged between the sink counter and the shower and the shower does not have a handheld shower wand, just a fixed shower head which makes it a real challenge to rinse off. The other thing that was done was to create a faux vessel sink and then put a faucet which is too big that extends over the middle of the vessel making it very hard to wash your face without hitting the faucet or getting water everywhere. On the plus side, there are some small cabinets for storage in the bathroom. The stateroom furniture is hard and uncomfortable and covered with vinyl.

 

I do know that all bathrooms on Seabourn ships are much nicer than those in the lower than suite cabins on Celebrity.

 

Like another poster above wrote, you are comparing an old Hilton (Celebrity) to a new Ritz Carlton. Totally different vibes and totally different condition.

[Shorex]

Take one Seabourn cruise and you'll never want to go back to Celebrity. If you have air to accommodate either cruise, then you could spend a few extra days in either Barcelona or Rome.

 

On Seabourn there is no tipping, no extra charge for any specialty restaurant, some dishes designed by Thomas Keller, open bars (no charge), free flowing wine at dinner (no charge), in suite frig stocked with your preferences (no charge), a deck party like none you've ever seen before, and more.

 

Yes, the Med is port intensive and it is a personal decision. Mine would be Seabourn, hands down. Full disclosure: we've done eight cruises on Seabourn, one on Celebrity, even so, Crystal is our preferred line. But we would be happy to be on any Seabourn ship anywhere.

[LCH123]

Thanks for the advice! Crystal is also my preferred line. We are also doing a land portion.