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JamieLogical's Big NCL vs. Celebrity Thread


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1 minute ago, Treasure Hunter said:

How would you compare the Retreat to the Haven? I am worried about the lack of shade . That’s why I love the Sanctuary ( Princess) when we can get it. As you know even with a suite on Princess it’s not included.

I hesitated to answer. I think you know I love the Haven.  My issue is the Equinox Retreat is a retro fit.  The Celebrity Edge/Apex the retreat was designed for those ships.  The suites Resturant on Celebrity the Lumina is slightly better then the Haven Restaurant because the menu changes every night.  No worries about the lack of shade. Several YouTube videos showing the Equinox Retreat.  I recommend you have your preferences preprint for your butler.  They are very accommodating. I hope I was some what helpful.

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5 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

I hesitated to answer. I think you know I love the Haven.  My issue is the Equinox Retreat is a retro fit.  The Celebrity Edge/Apex the retreat was designed for those ships.  The suites Resturant on Celebrity the Lumina is slightly better then the Haven Restaurant because the menu changes every night.  No worries about the lack of shade. Several YouTube videos showing the Equinox Retreat.  I recommend you have your preferences preprint for your butler.  They are very accommodating. I hope I was some what helpful.

 

5 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

I hesitated to answer. I think you know I love the Haven.  My issue is the Equinox Retreat is a retro fit.  The Celebrity Edge/Apex the retreat was designed for those ships.  The suites Resturant on Celebrity the Lumina is slightly better then the Haven Restaurant because the menu changes every night.  No worries about the lack of shade. Several YouTube videos showing the Equinox Retreat.  I recommend you have your preferences preprint for your butler.  They are very accommodating. I hope I was some what helpful.

You are always helpful. On the Reflection , the Luminae  menu was often strange and we ordered from the MDR menu. Nothing beats the rib lamb chops in the Haven restaurant!

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29 minutes ago, JGmf said:

Can't wait to learn about other cruise lines outside of the NCL orbit.

 

Spend a little bit of time reading threads in the forums here on CC of any other cruise lines of interest to you, and you'll quickly get a good sense of the "culture" of those lines and a great deal of factual information. 

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9 minutes ago, Treasure Hunter said:

 

You are always helpful. On the Reflection , the Luminae  menu was often strange and we ordered from the MDR menu. Nothing beats the rib lamb chops in the Haven restaurant!

Lol, don’t get me started.  Pork chop for lunch, steak & Eggs for breakfast, prime rib for dinner, short rib appetizer and the Chocolate cake desert.  I have to wait until November 2021.  Ok, I feel better now.  Really I loved the Luminae.  Cruise well my friend. 

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Hi Jamie.  We are with you on the September Breakaway which we used our last cruise next certificate on.  We are also doing NCL Epic transatlantic in April.  I think that these may be our last NCL cruises because the prices have gotten so high,  We are doing our first Royal Caribbean in 25 years on the Oasis in October and a lift and shift for November 2022 from a November 2021 Enchanted Princess cruise.  Their prices seem to be more in line.

 

We love NCL but they are pricing us out of this line. 

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Very much looking forward to this comparison, but I am MORE interested in your comparisons after you sail NCL on Breakaway post-covid. Comparing both lines after the shut down should paint a much more accurate picture (not to suggest that the initial picture is worthless), but I'm not sure how relevant any of our pre-covid experiences are going to be moving forward. 

 

I just read a thread on the Celebrity board addressing the cutbacks Celebrity has implemented post-covid. Not sure if those are just initial start up reductions, but based on the quarterly financials released to wall street, I suspect all lines will need to implement pretty significant cost cutting measures to appease shareholders. I'm hoping for cruising to resume close to what we have all grown to enjoy, but my expectations are certainly lowered.

 

Thank you for being one of the first and I hope you have an exceptional vacation.

Edited by BermudaBound2014
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Installment #2

 

Pricing/Perks

Pricing is a bit hard to compare, because I have only ever seriously priced out one solo cruise on NCL. I was scheduled to sail solo on the Bliss out of NYC on March 15, 2020. Of course, cruising shut down on March 13. I was originally booked to sail in a Studio cabin, but as prices dropped and the solo supplement was removed, I upgraded to a balcony. This sailing was just to Port Canaveral and the Bahamas, so not a super exciting itinerary. And like I said, prices were dropping like a rock as more and more people canceled over COVID concerns. Looking back at my confirmation, it looks like the base fare was $1038.45. Port fees and taxes were $199.32. I also paid service charges of $138.60 and $19.80 for the drinks package and dining packages respectively. The daily service charge was $108.50. So the total, before add-ons was $1504.67.

 

For my upcoming Equinox sailing, I also did not have to pay the solo supplement and I am staying in a veranda (balcony) stateroom. The base fare was $1743.00. Port fees and taxes were 134.78. Because tips are included, I didn’t pay any service charges on the drinks package or a daily service charge. So the total before add-ons was $1877.78.

 

That works out to a difference of $373.11. But, again, it’s a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. The itinerary on the NCL sailing was not as good (Port Canaveral & Bahamas versus St. Maarten, Tortola, and Nassau). Plus, prices were artificially low in the month or so leading up to the COVID cancellations.

 

As for perks, there are some similarities and some differences. Here is what is included:

 

NCL’s Free at Sea

  • Premium Beverage Package
  • Specialty Dining Package (now 2 meals per 7 day sailing)
  • 250 WiFi Minutes
  • $50/port Shore Excursion Credit

Celebrity’s Always Included

  • Classic Beverage Package
  • Surf WiFi
  • Tips

Now let’s look at these items a bit more in depth so we can understand the differences.First, and most important to me, the drinks packages! NCL’s Premium Beverage Package included drinks up to $15, while Celebrity’s Classic Beverage Package only includes drinks up to $9. However, NCL charges you a service charge on the drinks package that currently totals $19.80 per day. While Celebrity does not charge a service charge and you can upgrade to their Premium Beverage Package for only $10.80 per day. For a complete list of what is included with each package, here are the PDFs from both line’s websites.

While both included WiFi packages are the “slow” version that does not support streaming, NCL’s included WiFi is limited to 250 minutes or 1000MB, while Celebrity’s is unlimited. I’m afraid I haven’t investigated the cost of upgrading the WiFi on either line, since I try not to use the internet much on vacation.

 

A definitely down side to Celebrity is that no Specialty Dining is included. I have not purchased any specialty dining meals for my Equinox sailing, so I am afraid I won’t be able to compare those for you.

 

NCL’s $50 shore excursion credit seems like a point for NCL, but now that I have booked some excursions through Celebrity. I can assure you that it is not! I think the cheapest excursion I have ever done through NCL was ~$75/person (basically a ferry ride between the boat and Hamilton in Bermuda for the Harbour Nights Festival). Usually they are over $100 for just simple bus tour type excursions. On Celebrity, I booked a 2.5 hour bus tour of St. Maarten for $31.99 and a 3.5 hour open-air, safari jeep tour of Tortola for $39.00. So I don’t think that $50 credit on NCL is all it’s cracked up to be.

 

Finally, the included tips on Celebrity mean no service charges on your drink package and no daily service charge, so that is a big plus for me!
 

Edited by JamieLogical
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2 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

Very much looking forward to this comparison, but I am MORE interested in your comparisons after you sail NCL on Breakaway post-covid. Comparing both lines after the shut down should paint a much more accurate picture (not to suggest that the initial picture is worthless), but I'm not sure how relevant any of our pre-covid experiences are going to be moving forward. 

 

I just read a thread on the Celebrity board addressing the cutbacks Celebrity has implemented post-covid. Not sure if those are just initial start up reductions, but based on the quarterly financials released to wall street, I suspect all lines will need to implement pretty significant cost cutting measures to appease shareholders. I'm hoping for cruising to resume close to what we have all grown to enjoy, but my expectations are certainly lowered.

 

Thank you for being one of the first and I hope you have an exceptional vacation.

Looks like given the restart they are actually doing quite well, the concerns were a couple of things missing from a buffet (which seems fair given reduced passengers), and a couple of other reports of slow service (one from OP, one from a different person), which were addressed in one case.  I am sure they will ramp this up as they get more and more sailings under their belts, and they up the number of passengers and crew on board.

 

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1 minute ago, oteixeira said:

Looks like given the restart they are actually doing quite well, the concerns were a couple of things missing from a buffet (which seems fair given reduced passengers), and a couple of other reports of slow service (one from OP, one from a different person), which were addressed in one case.  I am sure they will ramp this up as they get more and more sailings under their belts, and they up the number of passengers and crew on board.

 

 

I'm not 'sure' of anything post pandemic, but if I was betting I'd agree and say it is likely the two things missing from the buffet will return. However; have you had a chance to actually examine the quarterly financial reports from each of the big 3?  IMO it is unlikely post pandemic cruising will mirror pre-pandemic. Bottom line, something has to give.

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1 minute ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

I'm not 'sure' of anything post pandemic, but if I was betting I'd agree and say it is likely the two things missing from the buffet will return. However; have you had a chance to actually examine the quarterly financial reports from each of the big 3?  IMO it is unlikely post pandemic cruising will mirror pre-pandemic. Bottom line, something has to give.

I agree that based on what we are seeing in financials it will be a wait and see as to how they may attempt to make up the difference (have to pay off new debt somehow)....that being said, pasta on the buffet is probably one of the cheapest things you have ever seen on a ship.  :)  I think it may be more in line with dropping a second room cleaning each day so they can save on hotel staff costs.  More of the initiatives might be pushing harder on asking you to keep your used bathroom towels to save on hotel laundering costs.  It's sweeping big items that save staff or energy that I think they will look at, rather then a single food or entertainment item.  How about cutting staff at the atrium service desks since the new apps have ways of doing a lot of the things that were done there?  Also, less staff at the embarkation points for the same reason.

Again, for me, I am looking for sweeping changes.

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33 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

Installment #2

 

Pricing/Perks

Pricing is a bit hard to compare, because I have only ever seriously priced out one solo cruise on NCL. I was scheduled to sail solo on the Bliss out of NYC on March 15, 2020. Of course, cruising shut down on March 13. I was originally booked to sail in a Studio cabin, but as prices dropped and the solo supplement was removed, I upgraded to a balcony. This sailing was just to Port Canaveral and the Bahamas, so not a super exciting itinerary. And like I said, prices were dropping like a rock as more and more people canceled over COVID concerns. Looking back at my confirmation, it looks like the base fare was $1038.45. Port fees and taxes were $199.32. I also paid service charges of $138.60 and $19.80 for the drinks package and dining packages respectively. The daily service charge was $108.50. So the total, before add-ons was $1504.67.

 

For my upcoming Equinox sailing, I also did not have to pay the solo supplement and I am staying in a veranda (balcony) stateroom. The base fare was $1743.00. Port fees and taxes were 134.78. Because tips are included, I didn’t pay any service charges on the drinks package or a daily service charge. So the total before add-ons was $1877.78.

 

That works out to a difference of $373.11. But, again, it’s a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. The itinerary on the NCL sailing was not as good (Port Canaveral & Bahamas versus St. Maarten, Tortola, and Nassau). Plus, prices were artificially low in the month or so leading up to the COVID cancellations.

 

As for perks, there are some similarities and some differences. Here is what is included:

 

NCL’s Free at Sea

  • Premium Beverage Package
  • Specialty Dining Package (now 2 meals per 7 day sailing)
  • 250 WiFi Minutes
  • $50/port Shore Excursion Credit

Celebrity’s Always Included

  • Classic Beverage Package
  • Surf WiFi
  • Tips

Now let’s look at these items a bit more in depth so we can understand the differences.First, and most important to me, the drinks packages! NCL’s Premium Beverage Package included drinks up to $15, while Celebrity’s Classic Beverage Package only includes drinks up to $9. However, NCL charges you a service charge on the drinks package that currently totals $19.80 per day. While Celebrity does not charge a service charge and you can upgrade to their Premium Beverage Package for only $10.80 per day. For a complete list of what is included with each package, here are the PDFs from both line’s websites.

While both included WiFi packages are the “slow” version that does not support streaming, NCL’s included WiFi is limited to 250 minutes or 1000MB, while Celebrity’s is unlimited. I’m afraid I haven’t investigated the cost of upgrading the WiFi on either line, since I try not to use the internet much on vacation.

 

A definitely down side to Celebrity is that no Specialty Dining is included. I have not purchased any specialty dining meals for my Equinox sailing, so I am afraid I won’t be able to compare those for you.

 

NCL’s $50 shore excursion credit seems like a point for NCL, but now that I have booked some excursions through Celebrity. I can assure you that it is not! I think the cheapest excursion I have ever done through NCL was ~$75/person (basically a ferry ride between the boat and Hamilton in Bermuda for the Harbour Nights Festival). Usually they are over $100 for just simple bus tour type excursions. On Celebrity, I booked a 2.5 hour bus tour of St. Maarten for $31.99 and a 3.5 hour open-air, safari jeep tour of Tortola for $39.00. So I don’t think that $50 credit on NCL is all it’s cracked up to be.

 

Finally, the included tips on Celebrity mean no service charges on your drink package and no daily service charge, so that is a big plus for me!
 

Celebrity pricing for solos can be problematic. I did the math right after they moved to the Always Included model and noted that solos get a raw deal when the single supplement is at the standard 200%. Basically a solo is paying the added cost of two drink packages, two WiFi logins, and two daily service charges. If you want to take advantage of the perk upgrades, you’re still paying double and getting less in return. If I wanted to book anything other than a Single Infinite Veranda, I’d set my price point at a max of 170% single supplement to compensate. 
 

Technically NCL has the same issue due to Free At Sea. However, I still have the option of a Sail Away rate. Also, I’m only charged for one set of service/drink/dining gratuities. 

NCL’s included drink package has better booze options. Celebrity includes all those non-alcoholic drinks for which NCL requires the upgraded drink package. Either I pay extra for Blue Moon and Flor de Caña rum or pay out of pocket for espressos and bottled water. (or book an NCL Studio with access to free espresso!)

 

At the moment I’m more inclined towards the Princess price structure which allows me to add Princess Plus (tips, drinks, WiFi) at a per-person rate unlike Celebrity’s per-cabin rate. Not sure about the Princess experience - seems more traditional than my preference but in 58 days I’ll be onboard Majestic Princess…

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6 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

Again, for me, I am looking for sweeping changes.

 

I agree, big changes are likely, but I think they will  be much bigger than cutting back on the second room cleaning. Right now, there doesn't appear to be significant changes on ships that are sailing, at least not enough to make up for the high interest bearing notes. I think changes will continue to evolve well into the next 5 years.

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Just not having to have a battle to get extra towels by the pool is worth it...I've sailed both lines, prefer NCL with folks under 30, for everything else, give me Celebrity.

 

Oh yeah, Jamie, re the drinks up to 9, you'll find that selection is most of the time equal to NCL...plus you get bottled water, etc...NCL's drink prices have been inflated since Free At Sea began.

 

All this is obviously pre covid....that said, looking at sailing Aug 1 2021 on Equinox.  

 

I think you'll have fun on both lines...

Edited by PTC DAWG
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5 hours ago, coastcat said:

NCL’s included drink package has better booze options. Celebrity includes all those non-alcoholic drinks for which NCL requires the upgraded drink package. Either I pay extra for Blue Moon and Flor de Caña rum or pay out of pocket for espressos and bottled water. (or book an NCL Studio with access to free espresso!)

 

This reminded me that even though I posted links to the PDFs, I didn't really go into much detail about the differences between the drink packages. Celebrity's does include bottled water and specialty coffees, which I know a lot of people point out as a failing of NCL's package. The reason I decided to go ahead and pay the extra $10.80/day to upgrade to the Premium package on Celebrity is that Bailey's isn't included in their Classic package! I love a shot of Bailey's in my coffee in the morning, plus, my go-to after-dinner drink is a "Blind Russian", which is a White Russian made with Bailey's instead of cream. Also, the Equinox has Craft Social and I wanted to be able to drink whatever beer I wanted from there.

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6 hours ago, coastcat said:

(or book an NCL Studio with access to free espresso!)

 

I recently upgraded one of my bookings from a studio to an inside cabin, in order to get all the Free at Sea offers. It happened that very few studios remained, and as a result the new fare for a studio was more than twice the fare for an inside, so a simple rebooking wasn't appealing. But it means that I lose access to the coffee machine in the studio lounge. Of course I can get coffee in the morning by room service, with continental breakfast, but NCL's regular coffee is... the less said about it, the better. On the other hand, it will mean an opportunity to bid for an upgrade, which you can't do from a studio.

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7 hours ago, coastcat said:

Celebrity pricing for solos can be problematic. I did the math right after they moved to the Always Included model and noted that solos get a raw deal when the single supplement is at the standard 200%. Basically a solo is paying the added cost of two drink packages, two WiFi logins, and two daily service charges. If you want to take advantage of the perk upgrades, you’re still paying double and getting less in return. If I wanted to book anything other than a Single Infinite Veranda, I’d set my price point at a max of 170% single supplement to compensate. 
 

Technically NCL has the same issue due to Free At Sea. However, I still have the option of a Sail Away rate. Also, I’m only charged for one set of service/drink/dining gratuities. 

NCL’s included drink package has better booze options. Celebrity includes all those non-alcoholic drinks for which NCL requires the upgraded drink package. Either I pay extra for Blue Moon and Flor de Caña rum or pay out of pocket for espressos and bottled water. (or book an NCL Studio with access to free espresso!)

 

At the moment I’m more inclined towards the Princess price structure which allows me to add Princess Plus (tips, drinks, WiFi) at a per-person rate unlike Celebrity’s per-cabin rate. Not sure about the Princess experience - seems more traditional than my preference but in 58 days I’ll be onboard Majestic Princess…

 

I've never sailed with Celebrity but I am booked in a Single Infinite Veranda (SIV) on Celebrity Edge on Oct 2-9, 2021. As a solo cruiser, that's why I wanted to try one of those SIVs. It's interesting that Edge has 16 SIVs, Apex has 24 and Beyond will have 32. It appears Celebrity is increasing it's marketing towards  us solo cruisers.

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59 minutes ago, MorganClark said:

 

I've never sailed with Celebrity but I am booked in a Single Infinite Veranda (SIV) on Celebrity Edge on Oct 2-9, 2021. As a solo cruiser, that's why I wanted to try one of those SIVs. It's interesting that Edge has 16 SIVs, Apex has 24 and Beyond will have 32. It appears Celebrity is increasing it's marketing towards  us solo cruisers.


My dh doesn’t read the forum much so I feel pretty safe saying I like sailing solo just as much as with him (maybe more…..likely more lol). Total freedom- which is why I am only interested in solo balconies. I’m totally content to just sit and watch the sea for hours. I’m thrilled to learn celebrity is increasing solo capacity- as you know I’m sold on the quantum class solo balconies (they have lounge chairs too), but  I’m chomping at the but to try a SIV!  Thanks for the info 🙂

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3 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

This reminded me that even though I posted links to the PDFs, I didn't really go into much detail about the differences between the drink packages. Celebrity's does include bottled water and specialty coffees, which I know a lot of people point out as a failing of NCL's package. The reason I decided to go ahead and pay the extra $10.80/day to upgrade to the Premium package on Celebrity is that Bailey's isn't included in their Classic package! I love a shot of Bailey's in my coffee in the morning, plus, my go-to after-dinner drink is a "Blind Russian", which is a White Russian made with Bailey's instead of cream. Also, the Equinox has Craft Social and I wanted to be able to drink whatever beer I wanted from there.


Is it ncl or celebrity (or both) that allow you to just pay the price difference? I like bailies too, but one or two a trip is plenty for me .

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19 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:


Is it ncl or celebrity (or both) that allow you to just pay the price difference? I like bailies too, but one or two a trip is plenty for me .

 

They both allow you to pay the price difference on drinks.

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On 7/7/2021 at 3:03 PM, kochleffel said:

One concern that I have about Celebrity is that there is more social stratification: while NCL has the Haven, Celebrity has two classes of staterooms that have their own, private dining rooms (separate from each other). It did strike me, when I inquired in the Celebrity forum about the itinerary, that many people advised me to book only the Retreat or Aqua Class.

 

I was worried about the same thing before my first Celebrity cruise. I didn't like the idea that we didn't have access to certain areas. We booked anyway and I found that there was really only one time I felt excluded, and that was after we met some fun friends that were Platinum, and we couldn't join them in their bar at happy hour. We didn't care that we couldn't access the premium areas because the service on Celebrity was FANTASTIC!!! Seriously, if I had to try to find one thing to complain about, it's that the shows weren't that great. But the cruise directors were amazing, so the events and activities made up for the shows. I'm sure I'm missing something, but I just can't see the value of the Retreat when the whole experience is already so good. We got a great deal, which ended up cheaper than a similar NCL sailing, because gratuities were included. 

 

I've always wanted to sail NCL and I like that they have way more itineraries to chose from. For our next cruise, we are not in the Haven, and I'm hoping that I never even notice. 

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4 hours ago, kochleffel said:

 

I recently upgraded one of my bookings from a studio to an inside cabin, in order to get all the Free at Sea offers. It happened that very few studios remained, and as a result the new fare for a studio was more than twice the fare for an inside, so a simple rebooking wasn't appealing. But it means that I lose access to the coffee machine in the studio lounge. Of course I can get coffee in the morning by room service, with continental breakfast, but NCL's regular coffee is... the less said about it, the better. On the other hand, it will mean an opportunity to bid for an upgrade, which you can't do from a studio.

The best thing I can say about NCL's coffee is... um... it's plentiful and readily available. I tried the room service continental breakfast once; if I do it again, tea will be the beverage of choice. 

 

If we end up on the same Breakaway/BA+ ship one of these days, I'll sneak you espressos from the Studio Lounge!

 

So how good is Celebrity's coffee? I'm looking forward to trying out Café al Bacio on Edge - it looks like a great spot to chill out with a latte and a book. 

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