Questions for experienced cruisers, am I missing something ?

[OutbackAddict]

For various reasons we don't think florida will be an option for 2022 so are considering a cruise instead, like the look of a couple of 7 nighters cruising Greece etc departing from Venice which the dates work for us (end August).

One is NCL jem I think ? and the other RCI brilliance of the seas, now I know on NCL with their all free at sea upgrade a lot more is included than on RCI however for two ajoining balcony staterooms the costs are coming out at around 7k on NCL but under 4k on RCI so which would be the better option, do I save us a lot of money or is it a false economy ? How do the two companies and 'boats' stack up against each other, is there anything else I should be aware of ?
Basically any good advice greatfully accepted

[OutbackAddict]

Forgot to mention the only obvious difference between the two cruises was the NCL one has more stops whereas the RCI one has a couple of at sea days

[dismamx2]

I don't know much about either of these ships but we personally prefer NCL over RCI but I always consider both when booking a cruise, I'll always price them up and work out like for like. Work out if you would purchase drinks packages, specialty dining etc if you booked RCI, for us anyway it usually breaks even so we would go with the ship/itinerary we prefer.

Our July '22 cruise was 1.5k cheaper with RCI but we booked with NCL as I figured drinks packages, dining, wi-fi would cost that and we like NCL

[Smilesonfaces]

Also consider gratuities. The NCL will include them with their package whereas RC is approx $15 a day per person including children. Drinks package will be approx £50 a day possibly more on RC. I would work out a like for like price with WiFi, drinks and tips and the overall price probably will be the same.

If you don’t drink much alcohol then price up the drinks you may have. RC drinks prices are expensive and there’s also 18% tip.
If you google Cruise Mummy she has really good op to date drinks prices on her site.

[OutbackAddict]

Have booked RCI as price was so much better. Couple of questions, I see RCI now departs from Ravenna, any one got any experience of transfers too and from as its a fair distance out, also can anyone recommend any good cruising forums for advice as the Dibb cruise one seems pretty quiet these days

[soraia]

Originally Posted by OutbackAddict

Have booked RCI as price was so much better. Couple of questions, I see RCI now departs from Ravenna, any one got any experience of transfers too and from as its a fair distance out, also can anyone recommend any good cruising forums for advice as the Dibb cruise one seems pretty quiet these days

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Yes! Head over to cruisecritic and you can get full in depth reviews and descriptions of any ship, see pictures etc and they also have a very active forum for all cruise lines, ports of call and such like. You can access them on cruisecritic on the top right corner under "boards".

Enjoy!

[Smilesonfaces]

There will be Facebook groups for your sailing and also cruise critic. . I did find a lot of cruise forum contributors a little bit aggressive though. Definitely not friendly dibbers !

[disney_l81]

Originally Posted by Smilesonfaces

There will be Facebook groups for your sailing and also cruise critic. . I did find a lot of cruise forum contributors a little bit aggressive though. Definitely not friendly dibbers !

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Definitely agree! Found Facebook groups to be much friendlier- though I do tend to avoid some of the P & O groups- too much for me personally

[Jan]

If you want to join cruisecritic make sure you are on the US website not the UK one.