Celebrity vs. NCL: Help me decide.
 

I'm trying to decide between the Celebrity Zenith and the Norwegian Crown for a 7-day Bermuda cruise out of NY/NJ in October 2007. My husband and I are in our late 30s. We have two kids, who will be 13 and 7 at the time of the cruise. I'd like opinions from anyone who has been on either (or both) ships. Thanks!

Go with Celebrity for sure. Their reviews are consistently very good vs. NCL's which is spotty. And that is putting it mildly. Try this site for tons of passengers reviews:
www.cruisecritic.com.

Celebrity!!!!!!

We did a similar NCL cruise with our teens (14 and 18 at the time) 2 summers ago Boston-Bermuda. Some of it depends on time of year and what your kids like to do. We went in July and there would have been activities for your younger kid, but teen activities were few.

Our dtr (the 14 yr old) had a fine time on days at sea, sunning, reading, eating, playing Bingo with me - our son felt less entertained at sea, but both loved Bermuda. In October, there would be far fewer kids on any cruise.

I love reviews on cruisecritic, but like with all reviews, read them carefully and see what exactly caused some people to rate a specific cruise lower. There are some, for example, that give very low ratings when their chief complaint was bad weather - certainly not the cruiselines fault. But there are also many valid points.

October is still hurricaine season, and there was a cruise the year we went that had its itinerary changed from Bermuda to Canadian Maritimes!

Celebrity

Not NCL. In my experience, the "free-style dining" was a disaster. Crowded dining rooms with long waits. You could never get into the most popular dining rooms. And, of all things on a cruise, the places to get something to eat CLOSED! So, if you were a night owl, you couldn't find anything to eat. Also, every day, out by the pool it was hamburgers and hot dogs all the time. This was not my experience on other cruise lines.

Celebrity