Honeymoon Help

Hi All, We are having trouble deciding between the NCL Norwegian Spirit 12 day Grand Mediterranean and 2 Celebrity Cruises, the 10 night Celebrity Equinox (France, Italy & Corsica) and the 11 night Celebrity Reflection (Greece, Turkey Italy). We are going in May 2015 and can't decide which is the best for a Honeymoon. I keep seeing mixed reviews. Any help would be greatly appreciated! :)

I would chose Celebrity over NCL always. Then, choose the itinerary that appeals to you most. Med cruises are so port intensive that you're off the ship a lot, and are exhausted from touring when you get back. You will see mixed reviews for everything.

Normally, I would usually pick the one that is the longest. But for a honeymoon, Celebrity has a better romantic atmosphere and will give you a better honeymoon experience. I myself was torn between Princess and Celebrity but Celebrity won out. Mine is a 15 night Panama Canal Crossing on the Infinity next November.

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Reflection is a new ship and that should be considered as well. I usually decide by the ship vs the cruise line.

We are looking at the Norwegian Jade Greece Itinerary that starts with the four day Venice tour.

I also would choose celebrity and look closely at itinerary

Reviews will always have lots of contradictions and remember they are all personal experience and often only the poor experiences are listed

Italy and turkey would be

My itinerary choice for honeymoon there and yes it will be very tiring with so many Piet days

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I recommend NCL because the price is usually a lot less expensive than Celebrity and you may be able to afford a Penthouse Suite or better - which would be awesome for a honeymoon.

NCL Jade is also a wonderful ship for Med cruises.

If you can afford a suite, do get one as it is an awesome experience. Either way, the staterooms on these ships are beautiful and I know you will enjoy NCL.

When you consider price and that you are off the ship most of the day almost everyday on a Med cruise, and that the shore excursions are more expensive, then it makes sense to choose the less expensive cruise.

The other thing, since you are in port all day most days, budget some money to eat at restaurants onshore.

Recently returned from B2B NCL Alaska then Solstice 12N to Hawaii.Had not been on NCL in 7 yrs. No improvement. My friend said never again. A honeymoon is so special. The class and wonderful food of Celebrity and its latest ship, Reflection is called for. You will not be disappointed.An ultra expensive cabin is not necessary.

I've been on the Celebrity Eclipse on a Med cruise - sister ship of the 2 you are considering. At ages 52 and 53, we were among the youngest onboard. This may have been due to the time of year - early May. We got a lot of special attention from the staff because of our ages, which was pretty funny. I would say the majority of passengers on our cruise were age 70+. The casino was dead, there was not a lot of entertainment and no dancing past about 10pm. By midnight, the ship was totally quiet. This was a port intensive Med cruise, so this was not a big problem for us...The food was excellent in the MDR. I liked the tea shop, Cafe Il Baccio. We went to Cellar Masters - which was mostly empty during our cruise and had a nice wine tasting. We enjoyed Qsine - be sure to bring a group to that restaurant so you can eat as many different things as possible. I thought that Murano was a beautiful restaurant but the food was kind of retro 1980's - not as good as it could be - overly fussy and not the best flavor profiles and we had a bad waiter. I'm a chef and I wouldn't want that waiter working in my restaurant. He actually instructed us on how to eat the various courses, which I found bizarre. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I eat caviar pretty often and don't need an explanation about how to eat it. The wine sommelier in that restaurant was much better and more personable. I didn't like the lawn club and I was disappointed that the spa didn't have a thalisotherapy pool which is something I really enjoy on cruises. However, we were off the ship a great deal doing tours on almost every day of the cruise. The two days onboard were spent resting and recovering from all the touring we had done since there wasn't all that much to do onboard. I slept in on those days and then went to Cafe il Bacio to read books on my IPad. There is an open air bar at the back of the ship that was great for sail aways. We liked the martini bar. I had bought the premium drinks package for us, so we were able to try lots of different martini's during the 13 day cruise. On this ship, I was able to get us the Family Verandah cabin which is a 2 bedroom cabin with living room and dining room - the second largest cabin on the ship. It doesn't have butler service, but our stateroom attendant was very good and he brought us room service breakfast every morning before our tours. This cabin only had a standard balcony bathroom, which I thought odd because the cabin is normally for 5 guests. The way the bathroom is designed, the toilet feels crowded by the shower on one side and counter on the other side. I'm a small person, but to me, this arrangement was too tight. I can't imagine how it would be for a large man. At any rate, for 2 of us, it was a nice cabin, though the furnishings left something to be desired.

I've been on 3 different Celebrity ships now and done 3 cruises on NCL. To me, there are pros and cons to both Celebrity and NCL. It's really a question of what you think you would enjoy more and the price.