Celebrity Reflection vs. NCL Spirit
 

Hello,

My family of 4 (Me, Husband and 2 kids, ages 14 and 17) are looking to do a Mediterranean cruise in June 2016. I have found 2 itineraries that look appealing. One is on the Celebrity Reflection and one on the NCL Spirit. We have cruised on the NCL Getaway and loved it. I realize the Spirit is an older, smaller ship. That is one concern with the NCL trip. My concern with the Celebrity cruise is that the kids will be bored. Is Celebrity a family friendly cruise line or is it more for adults? Any opinions are welcome!

Thanks!

I'm traveling with a 12 and 13 year old and we also looked at the Spirit. The itinerary is fabulous but in the end we could not justify the lack of teen-friendly amenities or the extremely small cabin sizes! We opted for a 10 day cruise on the new Carnival Vista.

While Celebrity has pretty good facilities for teens (there is a special teens club on board), the line is better suited for adults. But Reflection is a Solstice-class ship and a very nice one at that. It's so much nicer and has so many more features than the Spirit that I'd recommend it over NCL. Spirit was built for Star Cruises to do short gambling cruises and was refitted to be a regular cruise vessel. Consequently, it just isn't as nice as other ships.

Now having said that, if you are more interested in ports than ship activities (and if there aren't many sea days on this itinerary), then I think you'd do fine with the Spirit. It would likely be significantly cheaper (if it's not, then book the Reflection regardless).

just traveled with the Celeb. Reflection this month. Loved the ship. Amazing service. Just everything. Ships are all different-- and the Reflection is not geared toward kids at all. No water slide, etc.


Having said that, however, all the kids I saw on board (little groups here and there) seemed very happy. They seem to have quite a few organized group activities for them. I also saw them playing ping-pong, basketball and lawn bowling. I rarely saw them with their parents.