First time celebrity from NCL

[marktwothousand]

8+ NCLs under my belt, all big ships plus 1 on RCCL symphony. First time on celebrity…apex in November. What am I in for compared to NCL.

 

I understand its likely to be like night and day in terms of experiences coming from NCL right? How is the nightlife on Celebrity?

[islabahia]

We find the food (which is subjective) much better on Celebrity.  We enjoy the less frenetic atmosphere of Celebrity.  We are Sapphire on NCL and moved to Celebrity when I decided I no longer wanted to walk through cigarette smoke to get to a specialty restaurant.  The crew on Celebrity ships are helpful, whereas we found many of the crew(s) on NCL couldn’t care less.  JMHO

[NutsAboutGolf]

There's a DJ who usually starts at 1030pm-1130pm every night, but it's usually not super active and often you can find more crew members hanging there than passengers.

[gardengalaz]

We've sailed Celebrity many times now, and we can tell you the experience is much quieter and far less action-packed than we've enjoyed on NCL.  Of course, there's a disco and lots of bars and lounges ... evening shows ... even the occasional deck party.  But the crowd seems to be older, more-seasoned cruisers who don't want a lot of craziness nor the crazies that create it.  It's great that the cruise industry offers something for everyone, so just be clear with what YOU enjoy and choose your line and ship accordingly.  That said, Celebrity is a very high quality product in terms of food, service, cabins and live music -- but it's definitely NOT similar to a Royal Caribbean, NCL or Carnival experience.

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by gardengalaz

[tallnthensome]

37 minutes ago, islabahia said:

We are Sapphire on NCL and moved to Celebrity when I decided I no longer wanted to walk through cigarette smoke to get to a specialty restaurant.  

I would have walked from the other direction ........

[Maverick!]

Try the silent disco 🙂

[SWFL Cruisers]

1 hour ago, tallnthensome said:

I would have walked from the other direction ........

Apparently they did, by walking over to Celebrity.

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, Maverick! said:

Try the silent disco 🙂

 

I don't mean this in a negative way, just pointing out that a "silent disco" is the exact opposite of "nightlife".  The full moon deck party is generally as good as it gets for nightlife on X

[Maverick!]

I was sug-jesting in jest. (Hence smiley face :).

Although the 15-21 set was partying up a storm on our recent sailing in the SkyLounge.

[marktwothousand]

Also I gather celebrity has lots less “fun” stuff right? No water slides no go karts no nothing. Any basketball courts. 
 

luckily I will be there with a group so I’ll be busy. But I am expecting a much more mature “make your own fun through socializing” experience. 
 

does the basic drinks pack cover only up to $9 per drink or is that limit for wine only?

[Tyler414]

My only complaint about Celebrity vs. NCL is how the beverage pkg. works on for Celebrity.  On Celebrity it's one drink per person with the drink package, so if you want to grab drink for you and your partner you need both cards... NCL was (at least on my final cruise with NCL) two drinks per person, so you could actually grab your partner a drink without their card.    Other than that, everything IMO is better on Celebrity.   

The basic drink pkg is up to $9 for everything (beer, mixed drinks, wine)  Not a huge wine drinker here, but on Apex I did not see many $9 or less glasses of wine...  If you go over the $9 your account is charged the difference plus 20% gratuity. 

Apex does not have a basketball court, there is table tennis, cornhole (bags) boards, pool volleyball...

Apex is the reason I will probably never get on a NCL ship again (my last NCL cruise was on Encore)

 

[KKB]

17 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

8+ NCLs under my belt, all big ships plus 1 on RCCL symphony. First time on celebrity…apex in November. What am I in for compared to NCL.

 

I understand its likely to be like night and day in terms of experiences coming from NCL right? How is the nightlife on Celebrity?

I have done 1 NCL (Getaway 2019) & 7 Celebrity since 2013, including 2 weeks on the Edge last summer & one week on the Apex this spring. (plus several Princess, RCCL & 1 DCL cruises in last 18 years)

I am sailing Getaway 2 weeks this month.

 

First, I find the mainstream cruiselines that I have sailed to be more alike than different.

I would sail any one of them again (tho likely not DCL with it's inflated prices)

 

That being said, I am OBSESSED with Celebrity's E-class!!

 

We have been sailing Celebrity so often for the last 10 years as we felt that the service & the food are a small tick above the other lines. 

And we both agreed that E-class ships are another tick above--they are GORGEOUS. 

(that being said, NCL's Prima looks pretty darn gorgeous in the photos I have seen)

 

Activities--depends what you want. We love trivia & game shows and Celebrity does a lot of these that are interactive & a lot of fun. (trivia can certainly vary) Their shows are AMAZING. Some of the best at sea. PRODUCTIONS. Only We Will Rock You on RCCL gave E-class shows a run for their $. 

There are multiple musical acts that perform all kinds of music all over the ship. One thing it took me too long to learn was that they each played all kinds of music so keep trying--you might not care for their set in the Piazza, but later in the Club they hit the mark. 

They do a silent disco 2 nights that is a BLAST (if you have never done one, TRUST ME, SO FUN) & a deck party one night (never seemed to be as well received...honestly we usually just walk thru as it's usually to humid/windy to enjoy it much).

We are out to midnight most nights.

 

We like to be BUSY on a cruise (including a couple hours of sun time each day) & we were NEVER bored. Occasionally just grabbed a drink & watched the waves go by--but never more for more than half an hour!! Always another activity we wanted to check out. There were a lot of activities on Lido deck too--golf chipping, cornhole, etc.

 

We DID find a wider demographic on E-class (well, other than our 5 day spring break cruise on the Costellation that was 75% FSU students🤪) Perhaps that's also what draws me to E-class--younger energy.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by KKB

[KKB]

14 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

I don't mean this in a negative way, just pointing out that a "silent disco" is the exact opposite of "nightlife".  The full moon deck party is generally as good as it gets for nightlife on X

Huh? A large crowd all singing loudly & dancing isn't nightlife?

The silent discos were MUCH bigger parties than the deck parties on Edge & Apex.

Edited August 1, 2022 by KKB

[NutsAboutGolf]

24 minutes ago, KKB said:

Huh? A large crowd all singing loudly & dancing isn't nightlife?

The silent discos were MUCH bigger parties than the deck parties on Edge & Apex.

In context to the OPs original question, the nightlife isn’t as big as it is on NCL.

[KKB]

6 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

In context to the OPs original question, the nightlife isn’t as big as it is on NCL.

Huh, I don't particularly remember any "different" nightlife on our NCL ship. 

Not saying it wasn't there...just no memory! 
I do know that since it was a poker room that Bliss had no activities besides poker tournaments.

That damn casino is so smoky we couldn't gamble.

I do realize we never even saw Spice H20 but again not a fan of deck parties at night.

There is the comedy club & dueling pianos.

Syd Normans (my fav) had stuff a few nights though not late--maybe done by 11?

 

Celebrity usually has a late comedian show a couple nights a week. 

The Club on Apex had dancing several nights late.

That plus silent disco & a couple deck parties, Celebrity has options...

What am I missing?

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by KKB

[NutsAboutGolf]

40 minutes ago, KKB said:

Huh, I don't particularly remember any "different" nightlife on our NCL ship. 

Not saying it wasn't there...just no memory! 
I do know that since it was a poker room that Bliss had no activities besides poker tournaments.

That damn casino is so smoky we couldn't gamble.

I do realize we never even saw Spice H20 but again not a fan of deck parties at night.

There is the comedy club & dueling pianos.

Syd Normans (my fav) had stuff a few nights though not late--maybe done by 11?

 

Celebrity usually has a late comedian show a couple nights a week. 

The Club on Apex had dancing several nights late.

That plus silent disco & a couple deck parties, Celebrity has options...

What am I missing?

 

 

Perhaps this will be a better way to explain it; Carnival has a buffet, MDR and specialty restaurants, is the food on Carnival the same as it is on Celebrity?  Replace "food" with "nightlife".

[scidee]

2 hours ago, Tyler414 said:

My only complaint about Celebrity vs. NCL is how the beverage pkg. works on for Celebrity.  On Celebrity it's one drink per person with the drink package, so if you want to grab drink for you and your partner you need both cards... NCL was (at least on my final cruise with NCL) two drinks per person, so you could actually grab your partner a drink without their card.    Other than that, everything IMO is better on Celebrity.   

The basic drink pkg is up to $9 for everything (beer, mixed drinks, wine)  Not a huge wine drinker here, but on Apex I did not see many $9 or less glasses of wine...  If you go over the $9 your account is charged the difference plus 20% gratuity. 

Apex does not have a basketball court, there is table tennis, cornhole (bags) boards, pool volleyball...

Apex is the reason I will probably never get on a NCL ship again (my last NCL cruise was on Encore)

 

 

We have sailed 15 times, most recently in June, and my husband has never had a problem getting a drink for me as well as himself.    Since covid all that was asked for was your cabin number.  Prior to covid 2 cards, 2 drinks, 1 person.  I do remember back in the early days there were some limits but not is the last 7 or 8 years. 

[Tyler414]

33 minutes ago, scidee said:

 

We have sailed 15 times, most recently in June, and my husband has never had a problem getting a drink for me as well as himself.    Since covid all that was asked for was your cabin number.  Prior to covid 2 cards, 2 drinks, 1 person.  I do remember back in the early days there were some limits but not is the last 7 or 8 years. 

Thats my point, Celebrity = 2 cards, 2 drinks, 1 person.  NCL = 2 cards, 4 drinks, 1 person.

[kearney]

17 minutes ago, Tyler414 said:

Thats my point, Celebrity = 2 cards, 2 drinks, 1 person.  NCL = 2 cards, 4 drinks, 1 person.

Dh tips bar servers...so he had no issues getting doubles

[Travelicious]

As someone else suggested above, I find there are more similarities than differences.  I have not found the food on Celebrity, at least in the main dining room, to be superior to that on NCL.  But, as of the last time I cruised on Celebrity, they still had a night during each cruise that lobster was served in the MDR.  I've enjoyed sailing on both line numerous times, but more on NCL.  I'm not much of a nightlife person, so can't really offer much there.

[Tyler414]

1 hour ago, kearney said:

Dh tips bar servers...so he had no issues getting doubles

Guess the $75+ I tipped the bar servers wasn't enough 😞 

[kearney]

42 minutes ago, Tyler414 said:

Guess the $75+ I tipped the bar servers wasn't enough 😞 

Really, he did this on at least two cruises that I recall..but they were during the covid restart period when crew was particularly happy to see passengers. Now if I recall it happened after several days into the cruise and we had established a relationship at the bar we hung out at...so it may be unusual

[marktwothousand]

Can I get any good drinks for up to $9? Many of the fun drinks and martinis are $12-$15 on NCL

Edited August 1, 2022 by marktwothousand

[Tyler414]

5 minutes ago, marktwothousand said:

Can I get any good drinks for up to $9? Many of the fun drinks and martinis are $12-$15 on NCL

I've only had the premium drink pkg on Celebrity... An upgrade from classic to premium is about $18 per day.  For me its totally worth it, but you would have to determine that yourself.  The drink menus and prices should be available to you on the app, do some calculations and see if it's worth it for you.

[hasentreelake]

Agree with Tyler414.   
We always choose premium and are happy we do.  Well worth it In Our Opinion....