Loyal Royals Try Norwegian

I have been cruising solely with Royal Caribbean since the early 1980’s. Last year our good friends asked us to join them on a cruise on Norwegian. Since they had previously joined us on Royal, we felt obligated to join them on their preferred cruise line. We had plans for a 10 day cruise on the Norwegian Gem.

 

 

Five days prior to that cruise we were notified that the cruise had been cancelled. We were refunded our cruise fare and given a voucher for 50% of the fare towards a future cruise. We weren’t able to rebook a cruise in that short time frame with Norwegian, but luckily were able to sail on Allure instead.

 

 

That 50% voucher was mighty tempting though, so when my daughter suggested a family vacation, which we haven’t been able to do in several years due to schedule conflicts, I told her, go ahead and find something. What she found was a 4 night cruise to Cuba on board the Norwegian Sky. With our voucher, a balcony cabin for DH and myself only cost $110, plus port charges, definitely too good to pass up, or so we thought. We were interested in seeing Cuba as my husband’s father had lived there for several years prior to emigrating to America. Royal’s ships that go to Cuba are even older than the Sky and don’t have balcony cabins, so I felt at the time that we were making the right choice. Besides, it was only a 4 night cruise. It would be just enough to see if another cruise line was right for us.

 

 

We, DH 60, DS 26, DD 22, and I, 57, left for Miami on Sunday July 22 and had an uneventful flight from New York to Miami. We stayed at the Hampton Inn Brickell as it came highly recommended on Cruise Critic and we enjoyed our stay there. We had dinner that night at Havana 1957 to start off our trip to Cuba. After a good breakfast the next morning we took a cab to the port of Miami and did not have to wait too long to board the ship. However,right at check in I noticed the first difference between NCL and RCCL. The port agent barely cracked a smile. I am used to the RCCL agents who are always friendly and smiling and seem as excited as we are that we are boarding the ship.

 

 

Upon boarding I quickly noticed a second difference. This ship was built in 1999 and refurbished only a few years ago. However, it looked like it was decorated in 1965. We walked through the piano lounge that was decorated in dark wood. In fact, it was so dark, I didn’t even realize there was a piano in there. One positive difference however, was that we were able to check our carry on luggage and leave it there until cabins opened at about 2 pm, That was a nice touch, not having to lug our bags with us, especially since my daughter and I had packed solely in carry ons to avoid the extra luggage fees by the airline.

We headed to the dining room for lunch. Yes, another nice touch, the main dining room is open on boarding day for lunch. Apparently either no one else knew this or the other 2000 passengers all preferred the buffet, because there weren’t more than 20 people having lunch there. You would think this would mean we would receive great, attentive service. Unfortunately this was not the case. It took about 15 minutes until our waiter even came over to introduce himself. Our family are big water drinkers. On RCCL, as well as in most restaurants, the wait staff can keep up with our water requirements. Not so here. I left the dining room feeling thirsty after every meal. I don't think my water glass was ever refilled more than once.

 

 

The ship is open bar, so most alcoholic drinks are included in the cost of the fare. When we were seated we found the table to be set with wine glasses and there was a waiter going around to each table offering red or white wine. We are not big wine drinkers, but we each had a glass. Little did we know it would be the last glass of wine we would be offered. At dinner that night, and subsequent nights, there were no longer wine glasses on the tables.I am sure we could have gotten it had we asked, but since we are not big wine drinkers, we did not bother. We just found it unusual that it was not offered again after that first meal.

We had been warned about the quality of the food on NCL bymy parents who had had their first and last cruise with them many years ago.However, our friends have never voiced any complaints and have always beensatisfied with eating in the main dining room rather than the specialtyrestaurants.

 

 

We should have listened to my parents. The choices for lunch were lacking in appeal. I ordered penne with shrimp arrabiata, which was actually quite good, but as my daughter said, “Mom, you never order pasta on a cruise.” She is right, the pasta dish was the only thing that appealed to me as the rest of the menu was mostly burgers and sandwiches. For dessert, I had the Orange Chocolate Mousse which was described as having “cocoa sponge and almond tuile,” whatever tuile is. What was not described was that the orange was actually a layer of jello. While the mousse was decent, I would not have ordered it if I knew it came with jello, definitely not my idea of a good dessert. After we left the dining room it suddenly dawned on me that we had not had any coffee with dessert. In fact, there were no coffee cups on the tables and no coffee or tea was offered. I knew then that I would have to remember to ask for coffee after dinner. And in fact, it was never offered.

 

 

Two themes quickly became apparent as far as the food onthis cruise went. One, the food was rarely as described, and two, pasta washeavy on the menu. Most of the fish on the menu was tilapia. Again, not my ideaof what I expect on a cruise.

Some of the food was downright inedible. There was one dessert listed as cherry clafoutis. I honestly did not know what clafoutis is,and apparently the chef did not either. What was served was a dense cake with cherries. When I looked up the definition after I got home, I discovered that the cake is supposed to be like flan.

 

 

Which brings me to another difference between NCL and RCCL,the internet. I could not look up the definition of clafoutis on board because the WiFi barely worked. We has paid $100 per person for WiFi, not including streaming, for 4 nights, way more expensive than on Royal, and for far worse functionality. I couldn’t even access Cruise Critic during the cruise. Perhaps it was intentional.

 

 

Back to the food. Other items not as described included the baked ziti, which was just ziti with a few shreds of mozzarella cheese and the“delectable brownie with caramel sauce” which was a hard, dry cake with 3 drops of sauce. It came with ice cream, which was not listed on the menu. In the buffet one afternoon, there was “chicken parmigiana” which was similar to the baked ziti, a chicken cutlet with a few shreds of mozzarella. A woman in the buffet line said to a staff member,” Is this chicken parmigiana? It doesn’t look like chicken parmigiana. You better change that sign.”

 

 

I will say that a few food items were good. I enjoyed theFrench toast, although the first time I had it they did not give me any maplesyrup. It was so good that I actually did not need it. Luckily, because when Idid get it the second time, it was sour.

I usually try to avoid the buffets as much as possible,although I do enjoy the Solarium Café. I am not a big fan of the Windjammer.However, I would have loved to be eating in the Windjammer rather than the Garden Café on the Sky. The layout of the buffet was small and narrow, and the choices very limited. Desserts were also very limited and more than half the choices were jello. The only cookies to be found on the ship were in the casino, which was small and smoke-filled, so did not get any of our money.

 

The morning of day 2 we arrived in Cuba. Before breakfast and disembarking, we had our “pre-breakfast” on the balcony. DH and I always like to enjoy coffee and fruit before getting dressed and heading to the dining room or buffet for a full breakfast. Like on RCCL, there is a hang tag to place on your door the night before to order breakfast from room service. Also like RCCL, there is a $7.95 charge for a hot breakfast and a free continental breakfast. Unlike RCCL they do not call in advance and actually arrived earlier than our requested time. This meant that I had to get up earlier than the requested time in order to be ready. I quickly learned that coffee for two means one small cup of coffee for each person. By the third and final day of room service I ordered coffee for 4 so that we could each have 2 small cups of coffee.

 

 

When we got off the ship we went through customs and exchanged our money. We had difficulty finding our way to our tour bus. I amused to having Royal staff holding signs and giving directions. We actuallywere pointed in the right direction by a stranger. There were no NCL employees in the area. We had a tour booked through the ship, a 3 ½ hour walking tour of colonial Havana. Like the menu descriptions, the tour was not as described. We did walk around for about 2 hours, which honestly, was enough given how hot it was. The tour seemed to consist mostly of the guide saying “that building used to belong to one family, now it is a hotel.” I think he must have pointed to at least 10 buildings and said the same thing each time. Of course there was the obligatory stop for cigar buying which was fine for us as my husband and son both wanted to bring some Cubans back for friends. Then there was an unmentioned stop for lunch which took about 50 minutes. We did not plan on eating off the ship since I have read warnings about the safety of the water.The men just sat at the open air restaurant while my daughter and I went shopping. There was not much to buy and she finally settled on a colorful cap.I did not buy anything, which is pretty typical of me as I am not big on souvenirs. We then boarded a bus, again not listed in the tour description,and were driven around to see some of the more modern buildings.

 

 

We headed back to the ship and to the buffet for lunch. We decided not to go back out to see any more of Havana as it was way too hot to do anything else. We changed into our bathing suits and headed to the pool.Apparently, most of the passengers had made the same decision. Not only was the pool deck crowded, but someone had decided that this would be the ideal time to close one of the two pools for painting. Only the 6 foot deep adults only pool was open. It was so crowded that you couldn’t even find a place to hold on to at the edge. I am not a good swimmer, so treading water was my only option.

 

 

I was surprised to note that neither of the two pools is handicapped accessible. Not only is there no chair lift, but there is a foot and a half barrier that must be stepped over to access either pool. The adult only pool had only ladders for entry. There were 4 hot tubs, each only big enough to hold 4 people at most. My daughter and I entered one that had one man sitting by himself. We did not stay long as my daughter noticed that shortly after we entered, he started to masturbate. That was the end of the hot tubs for us.

 

 

Day 3 was a sea day and with it came another surprise at the pool. Not only were there no chairs available on the pool deck, but when I opened my pool towel to place it on my chair, I found it to be stained with what appeared to be fecal matter. Of course, the pool was still closed for painting as well. 9 am on a sea day, usually my favorite part of cruising, and all was not starting well.

 

 

I took a picture of the towel and then exchanged it for a new one. That afternoon there as a talk about the ship given by the Captain,Chief Engineer, and Hotel Director. I usually don’t attend these talks because they take time away from the pool. However, I felt I needed to go to this one in order to show my photo to the Hotel Director. My daughter refused to sit with me because she thought I would talk to him about it in front of everyone.However, I waited until the end of the session and then brought the photo to his attention. His eyes opened wide and he asked my for my cabin number. I figured we would get a few cookies or maybe some chocolate covered strawberries delivered.

 

 

We were hoping to eat lunch at the bar/restaurant called Longboards. It is listed as 24/7 comfort food and we figured it would give us a respite from the buffet for lunch. Unfortunately, we discovered that only the bar is 24/7. Food service begins at varying times. One day it started at 6,another at midnight, and on the first night, no food was served at all. NCL really seems to have difficulty with getting their food to be as advertised.

 

 

I did note a couple of nice differences at the buffet however. Silverware and napkins are rolled up and available at each table, as are ketchup and mustard. It is nice not to have to carry the silverware around as you get your food. Anyway, after another unsatisfactory meal at the buffet,we headed back to the pool.

 

 

I have never seen such a crowded, noisy pool deck. Both pools were finally opened, but it is quite obvious that the pools and deck areaare nowhere near big enough to handle 2000 passengers. The music was blasting and any thoughts I had of relaxing with a book on deck quickly ended. I headed back to my cabin to read on the balcony.

 

 

Which brings me to cabin differences between the 2 lines.Basically they are laid out the same and are actually about the same size as RCCLs newer ships, so fine from that perspective. It is the little things though that make the difference. I always read on CC that people recommend bringing power strips. I have never brought one and have never seen the need to bring one, until now. There was only one outlet by the desk, not two, and none by the bed. We had to unplug the TV in order to charge both our phones at night. The balcony has a door that opens outwards, rather than a sliding door.This means that the 2 chairs and tiny, tiny table have to be kept to one side of the balcony and moved each time if you want to have use of the full balcony.The reading lights over the bed are so low down that each night my husband hit his head on them while he was sleeping and woke up each morning with blood on his pillow. The bathroom has a clothesline, but instead of it being across the shower, it goes across the bathroom. This left us with our bathing suits in our faces every time we used the bathroom. It was nice to receive robes, as well as slippers, in our cabin. I have been Diamond on RCCL for quite a while, and of course have been receiving robes since turning Platinum. It is nice that NCL provides them to (almost) everyone. I say this because my kids did not have them in their cabin. My daughter said that her cabin attendant was not very good. One day he took the pool towels that were on the bathroom floor and did not replace them. This was quite upsetting to her because she was aware of the $25 charge for each unreturned towel. She finally left him a note and the towels were replaced.

 

 

When I returned to the cabin to read I found a note requesting me to call a particular extension. The phone was promptly answered by a housekeeping supervisor who informed me she would be on her way to my cabin. A few minutes later 3 officers from housekeeping knocked on the door.They apologized profusely for the towel incident and offered us a complimentary dinner at Cagney’s. We told them we were traveling with our children and asked if they could be included. They agreed and told us they would get back to us with a time once they checked availability. Shortly after I received a call confirming a 6 pm reservation for that evening.

 

 

I will say that service in the steakhouse was far better than in the main dining room. It was the first and only time I saw smiles on the employee’s faces and the only time my seat was held out for me. I am certainly not big on formalities, but this is one small thing that RCCL does well. They have always made me feel like I am special when I am on board and holding out a chair is a simple gesture that doesn’t cost anything. The food was better than in the dining room, but still had some failures. My daughter’s steak was overcooked. If we had been paying for the meal she would have sent it back, but since we weren’t, she just ate it without comment. The creamed corn was just a pile of corn with cream on it. There was no indication in either appearance or taste that they were cooked together. This was also where we had the dry, hard brownie. I would not have been happy if we had paid extra for this meal. We did tip our server $20 and I think she was very surprised as she knew it was a comped meal.

 

I haven’t said anything yet about the nighttime entertainment. This is an area where RCCL blows NCL out if the water. Of course, I realize that there is no way any small ship can offer entertainment comparable to RCCLs megaships. However, I expect a decent comedian, especially when he performs 3 of the 4 nights. The production show was basically just singing and dancing with no theme. The stage was very small and looked too crowded when all the dancers were on stage at once. I had no interest in seeing the second production show on the last night as it was not particularly enjoyable the first night. The singer in the piano lounge was entertaining the first night. We expected to enjoy him nightly for the rest of the cruise.However, we quickly discovered that he does the exact same routine every night.We did not stay long the second night, and when we passed by the lounge the third night, we heard him doing the same material again. By the same material I mean not just the same songs, but the same comic lines as well. No change from one night to the next.

 

 

This brings me to the layout of the ship. My son, who has cruised only on Voyager class ships very quickly realized the fault of the ships layout. There is no central hallway that the Promenade provides to go from one area to another. You literally have to walk through the main lounge and through the piano bar to get to the theater. You also have to walk through the smoke-filled casino to get to the gift shops, the coffee bar, or the photo gallery. There is a three story atrium and one of the two main dining rooms is found there on deck 5. The other main dining room is virtually hidden. It is in an area that is totally separated from the rest of the ship and can only be accessed via the aft elevators or staircase. Interestingly, it is the only area that is decorated in a more modern, upscale way. The rest of this deck is where Guest Services is located and where picture taking is done each evening, on and next to the staircase. It is a very cramped area. Deck 6 has the main lounge,piano bar and theater, and Deck 7 has casino, gift shops, and coffee bar. If DH had not wanted to check out the gift shop, I never would have discovered the coffee bar, and from the emptiness of it, I’m not sure that everyone else didn’t have difficulty finding it as well. Likely it was added during a refurbishment as it basically was just a bar in the hallway. The Atrium Bar specialized in mojitos, so it was my daughter’s favorite spot. Every evening there was live music in an area right next to the bar. Unfortunately, there were only 10 chairs, so very difficult to get a seat, and no dance floor.

 

 

Day 4 was our last day and we were looking forward to spending it at Great Stirrup Cay, NCL’s private island in the Bahamas. It has been many years since I have been to Coco Cay, but I have been to Labadee many times. My favorite activity is renting a mat and floating for hours and this was my plan here. The morning started out fine. We tendered over without difficulty and picked up our mats. We did like that the lounge chairs are already layed out so there is no need to tip anyone for doing this for you. However, they are uncomfortably close together. My kids were deterred from going into the water at first due to the large number of jellyfish, but they eventually overcame their concerns and we did enjoy being in the water for a couple of hours. Once the buffet opened, we decided to head for lunch. I had avoided the burgers on the ship because I knew I would be eating one at the buffet. Wrong. I took one bite and had to stop because it was so hard, it was inedible. I know they have to cook them well-done, but this had surpassed that state long ago. The chicken was tender, but flavorless. When I later asked my daughter what she thought of the jerk chicken, her immediate response was, “that was jerk chicken?” The hot dogs and ribs were fine, but my daughter said that one of her ribs was tough.

 

 

I will say that the buffet was well layed out and much less cramped than the buffet on the ship, with several different areas to get food.There were a couple of nice touches too that RCCL could learn from. They used real dishes and silverware, not paper and plastic. Much better for the environment and there was no issue of dishes flying off the table. Also, there were dispensers for the condiments, rather than the little packets. I always have difficulty opening those little relish packets for my hot dog on Labadee.

 

 

The island itself is not as nice as Labadee. Like I said earlier, I have not been to Coco Cay in many years, almost 30, so I really don’t recall what it is like there, although I am certainly aware of the changes being made currently. In fact, Coco Cay is the neighboring island and we could see the construction cranes in the distance. We could also see Mariner of the Seas which was there at the same time and we looked at it longingly. Great Stirrup Cay seems to have not been developed very much by NCL. There are no concrete paths, so you are walking on sand to get everywhere. The bathrooms only have open, outdoor showers, so you would have to bring a change of clothes if you wanted to get rid of the sand in your bathing suit. Also, because there are not that many activities on the island, most everyone is on the beach or in the water.

 

 

After lunch, my family decided they had had enough and wanted to return to the ship. I can never get enough of floating in the water,or at least on a mat in the water, so I decided to stay. I did not stay for long though. The water was so crowded I had difficulty getting through the crowds to find an area where I could float unobstructed. I felt like I was at Coney Island on July 4th. New Yorkers will understand how crowded Coney Island gets. I can’t imagine how crowded it gets when one of the larger NCL ships is there. My beach day came to an early end.

 

 

Our final morning we had breakfast in the dining room and then waited for our color to be called. It was nice that we were able to choose our own luggage tags and time to get off the ship, rather than be given an assigned time. We chose the last available time since our flight home was not until almost 2 pm, no need to rush, luckily. Apparently both the escalator and both elevators in the terminal were broken. We stood on line on the deck in the heat of Miami in July for about an hour until we were able to disembark.

 

 

Our flight home was not as uneventful as our flight to Miami. There was a brief delay in boarding due to thunderstorms in the area,but that was the least of the delays. Once we got to the New York area, there were more thunderstorms and all three NY area airports were closed. We circled for about 20 minutes before the pilot announced that we were being diverted to Philadelphia so that we could refuel, as we would not have enough fuel to continue circling until we could land at LaGuardia. DH was not happy because he had to be back at work the next morning. He thought that we would be spending the night in Philly. His sense of geography is not very good and he finally calmed down when DS and I both told him that he could easily get into NYC the next morning by taking Amtrak or renting a car and driving since it is only 90 miles away.

Ultimately we took off again and 17 minutes later touched down at LaGuardia, only a 10 minute drive from our home in Queens. We were very happy to be home and done with our vacation on NCL.

 

 

We certainly enjoyed our family time together. DD and DS must have known better than we did that the entertainment offerings would be lacking and they had brought several games with them from home. We spent several hours of the last two evenings playing games in Longboards. We got a lot of envious looks from the other passengers. DD and I had discovered that the games in the card room consisted only of chess, checkers, and backgammon. She also discovered a stereo system with a cassette player. A definite surprise given that CDs existed for at least a decade before the ship was built.

 

 

We were also glad to have had the opportunity to have experienced a different cruise line at a discounted price and for only a short stay. A longer cruise might have been downright torturous. And paying full price would definitely have made me unhappy.

 

 

As I have said, there are some things that NCL does better,such as the plates and silverware, as well as the condiment dispensers on their private island, holding your carry on luggage on boarding day, and the ability to choose your own disembarkation time. However,poor service, bad food, dark décor, virtually non-functional internet, and poor entertainment far outweigh the few nice touches. Maybe the newer, larger ships are better, but based on our experience we will not find out. NCL really needs to upgrade this ship. Not only have they lost DH and myself as soon to be retirees who hope to be going on several cruises a year in our retirement, but they have also lost DD and DS,who have many, many years of cruising ahead of them.

Did NCL once on Sky and we both said NEVER AGAIN. Hubby said they should paint Sky grey and take it to a war zone it was so bad. Royal has small ships also, but the service is always outstanding! Sky was terrible, we are not picky by any means but could not find one good thing to say about that ship.

 

Bar layout awful - felt like I was in a line at McDonald's to get a drink - Order here, pick up here - how stupid is that! No seats at the bar at all. Drink pkg included - except they don't tell you all the alcohol is 40 proof not 80. Hubby asked to see the bottle. Asked if he could upgrade to a premium package and get real booze and was told NO, had to pay full price.

 

Asked the band if they knew a song we love and they said yes. Asked them to play it, they said NO. On Royal they play it for us all the time

 

Food - it was awful and I am not a food person. Dried out pans, just terrible.

 

Friends have told us not to judge NCL on Sky. My answer is - If the small ships don't get it right, the big ones won't either. We took this cruise only to see their private island since we are at CocoCay all the time and see their island across the way. Because of wind we did not get in. So the one thing we wanted to get out of that cruise we did not get.

 

we will continue to stay mostly on royal. Once we make Pinnacle, we will go back to looking at Celebrity or Princess also. But NCL - not a prayer on this earth will I cruise them again.

I wouldn’t base my opinion of NCL on a short cruise on one of the oldest ships. On our last Gem cruise, there was always food available, 24/7 in osheehans, a poolside bbq on sea days, and a nice variety of options in the aft of the ship all of the time. It stinks about the pool, but there really isn’t a good time. I think there are sliding balcony doors on the other ships. Entertainment of the mega ships is awesome. We found the food to be good (except for the pasta, my kids finally figured that out).

First of all the "SKY", please you cannot comment on NCL by going on that ship. I myself thought at the beginning of my cruise days (only 5 years ago), that I would be "loyal to royal" but that is not the case. My last 6 cruises have been on NCL and I loved it. But anyone with the ability to a little research would realized that gong on the "Sky" would be no comparison. Everyone has do to do their research on their cruises. I am NOT loyal to any one cruise line. In my short time cruising I have been on 3 different cruise lines, 21 cruises, and 13 different ships. You have to do your homework, and apparently you did not. Have I been on the Sky, no and I don't intend to.

My D+ daughter went on the NCL Bliss to Alaska early this summer. From her report, they've figured out how to do things right on their newest ship. She was quite impressed. I think she even bought a couple of future cruise certificates. I will tell her not to use one on the Sky.

rncruiser: I enjoyed reading your very well-written summation. Thank you for sharing your family's experiences. :)

I also enjoyed reading your personal experience with NCL. Thank you so much for the time it took writing it and the amazing detail your insights provided.

NCL lost me for life on our 1 and only cruise with them - caught the room attendant red handed going through our stuff. Kid is very lucky to be alive.

 

 

Can happen on any line, but held him for security & complained to the HD who would "check it out". Never saw the cabin dude again, but never heard anything from anybody either during or after the cruise. Never even said they were sorry.

Our first two family cruises were on the Sky and it sounds like she's really gone down hill. While there is no way to compare a 4 day cruise to a 7 day one would expect that they would at least get the food right.

Thanks for the detailed review, ncl which i used to love and cruised 13 times in is only line we will never cruise again, by the way used to live real close in Kew gardens

You basically only do RC cruise & actually admit you are loyal to RC.

 

Then goes on NCL's oldest ship.

 

Of course you are going to complain and go in with a negative opinion before you even start.

 

You are pre-programmed to think everything should be RC.

 

Perhaps try one of the new ships for a fair comparison...

My in laws were loyal to Norwegian, until they had an awful cruise on Epic, then they tried Allure. We have converted them, and they’ll never go back :)

 

 

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Considering the age of Sky and that it hasn't been refurbished in 5 years, I can see where it might need some work and has little room for flashy restaurant venues, but I really do question some of your comments. For example, Main Dining Room menus are fleet wide and contain an assortment of fish: salmon, grouper, swordfish, and I think I did see one mention of tilapia, plus seafood: scallops, calamari, shrimp...

 

And I have no idea what you meant by saying Great Stirrup Cay had no concrete walkways. DH and I were there just 8 months ago and 3/4ths of the island had a large concrete walkway down the middle of the island with sand paths going down to the beaches. The rest, the area beyond the new tower, was still under construction when I was there.

Thanks for your detailed review. We love Royal but gave NCL a try two yrs ago on the Epic. It wasn’t terrible (except for the cabin bathroom layout [emoji15]) but definitely wasn’t what we were used to. Everyone has their likes and dislikes about all the different lines but I feel like Royal is a great middle of the road line in all aspects.

 

 

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I did not go into this cruise expecting the Sky to be anywhere close to Oasis, Quantum, or even Voyager class ships on Royal as far as entertainment or the “wow” factor that those ships have. I did expect edible food and good service, neither of which we had. Sour maple syrup, over cooked burgers, tough gnocchi, and a dessert that my daughter said she wanted to spit out, are not what we expected. If there was shrimp, scallops, calamari, salmon, swordfish or grouper offered as main courses at dinner I would have ordered them. I did have the shrimp arrabiata for lunch the first day. Shrimp did not appear on any of the dinner menus that we had, nor was shrimp cocktail offered, other than in the steakhouse. I had that and I received all of 3 shrimp.

I know that Royal has recently changed their menus and the choices are more limited, but I have seen those menus and can still find good choices. I have never had a bad meal on a RCCL cruise. As a diamond member I have obviously sailed many nights in RCCL. In the 4 nights I sailed on NCL I had several bad meals.

 

 

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A little research would have saved you from this cruise that your daughter picked . That was $110 ill spent.

 

 

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Drink pkg included - except they don't tell you all the alcohol is 40 proof not 80. Hubby asked to see the bottle.

Never heard that anywhere before. Are you absolute certain he just didn't see "40% alcohol by volume" and mistook that as the proof?

 

In the US, Vodka cannot be sold below 80 proof (40% alcohol). And frankly, I've never once ever anywhere seen any Vodka below 80 proof.

Never heard that anywhere before. Are you absolute certain he just didn't see "40% alcohol by volume" and mistook that as the proof?

 

 

 

In the US, Vodka cannot be sold below 80 proof (40% alcohol). And frankly, I've never once ever anywhere seen any Vodka below 80 proof.

 

 

 

On a related note, on our June Radiance trip, I am POSITIVE that they refilled the regular vodka bottles with something else... on cruises I usually do a vodka/cranberry/sprite 0, and I swear that 90% of them that I got onboard this time tasted “off”... almost like they were made with a vanilla vodka or something?

 

 

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My son 25 and his girl friend 24 sailed on the Breakaway last year to Bermuda. He only had Princess to compare it to. His description of the food and service was pretty much the same as yours. He also didn't like the idea of having to book entertainment so he only saw the comedian who was just ok. He said never again even if I was paying for it.

 

You had mentioned that NCL was the choice cruise line for your friends. I was just curious if they had any positive or negative comments when they sailed with you on Royal?

Have been on Sky numerous times; never had to walk through smoky casino to get to anything. Except for rear-most dining room it's an easy ship to get around; certainly easier than any Carnival/Princess ship. No word on Outriggers; beautiful observation bar and lounge with panoramic windows on 3 sides? Or the Plantation club? Odd about Longboards; we had dinner there one evening and it was great. Never heard of food service first starting at midnight. No word on the late night buffets they have with fresh food cooking? On our cruise to Cuba entertainment was QUITE active; the production singers and dancers also participate in shows with guests; the American Idol-style show involving crew and guests is great.

 

I can walk in a cabin on NCL Sky and not get itchy, black feet. Not something I can say about Enchantment of the Seas. And on the Sky we had a proper sitdown breakfast, multi-course from menu. On Enchantment they, I am not kidding, served leftover bean burritos in Park Cafe and had the buffet, no dining room service. And I was on the two ships only two weeks apart.

 

I do admit both ships are pretty limited in features and best in the 3/4 day market. It is too bad NCL has cut the Cuba itinerary to basically one long day, instead of the two true days it used to be.

 

Sounds like you were looking for a vacation instead of a new experience.

I’m Diamond Plus but have also cruised on Princess several times and Carnival once (never again). I keep getting free NCL cruise offers from Caesars Entertainment and contemplated taking one of them. Based on this review, I’ll only sail with them if it’s a great itinerary. Thanks for the info.

Never heard that anywhere before. Are you absolute certain he just didn't see "40% alcohol by volume" and mistook that as the proof?

 

 

 

In the US, Vodka cannot be sold below 80 proof (40% alcohol). And frankly, I've never once ever anywhere seen any Vodka below 80 proof.

 

 

 

I tend to believe that the vodka was not 80 proof. I drink very infrequently and get lightheaded from the first sip. Never once did I feel lightheaded during this cruise.

 

 

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Never heard that anywhere before. Are you absolute certain he just didn't see "40% alcohol by volume" and mistook that as the proof?

 

In the US, Vodka cannot be sold below 80 proof (40% alcohol). And frankly, I've never once ever anywhere seen any Vodka below 80 proof.

I agree with your statement (40%). Who sells 40 proof Vodka? I can't believe it would be any cheaper than the cheapest 80 proof. NCL wouldn't want that reputation. It would have gotten out a long time ago.

 

Why didn't the OP tell security about the pervert in the hot tub?? If that would of been my 22 year old daughter that dude wouldn't of had anything to show anyone anymore!!

 

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We did a Transatlantic on the Epic we felt the food was much better but the entertainment was lacking compared to RCL. The layout we really cannot compare since the Epic is a one of a kind ship for a reason.

This year we are trying a smaller RCL ship as we felt that the Allure was too big. There is a reason why there are different cruise lines and each has strengths.

 

If any cruise line was truly below the others in many areas they would not stay in business any more than a restaurant chain can survive.

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