RCCL vs. NCL

[amartin042]

Ok, so I need some help…My family DH,DS,DS,DMIL,DSIL,DBIL and I are currently booked on the Freedom of the Seas. With one small exception we have always cruised with RCCL, and loved every cruise we have taken with them. The one exception was a 2 night cruise to nowhere that I took with my youngest son on the NCL Pearl. Now I realize that a 2 day cruise probably isn’t a fair comparison of a cruise line, but after that cruise my son and I decided that we would never cruise with NCL again. We had a dirty room when we arrived, the food was awful, except for the one time we paid to go to the steakhouse, and we felt claustrophobic because there were no open spaces like the Centrum on the ship. Now I realize that all this was probably not the norm for NCL, but it sure didn’t make a good first impression. Now on the the reason for my post… my family has been looking at the NCL Epic and all the cool entertainment they are going to have. We are seriously thinking about switching and were wondering what those that have cruised both cruise lines think about the overall NCL experiences they have had vs. RCCL. I am especially interested in the food quality in the MDR on NCL. I know this is a subjective subject, but I would still like to get everyone’s opinion. I am posting this on both boards so that I can get as many opinions as possible. Thanks for any help you can give me in advance.:confused::confused:

Anna

[ChipLondon]

I have sailed both lines, and having given NCL various chances to impress me, I would not sail with them again. I agree that The Epic has some interesting aspects about it, but as yet I am not convinced that I will try her out. I will wait for some reviews before considering a cruise again with NCL.

 

 

Ok, so I need some help…My family DH,DS,DS,DMIL,DSIL,DBIL and I are currently booked on the Freedom of the Seas. With one small exception we have always cruised with RCCL, and loved every cruise we have taken with them. The one exception was a 2 night cruise to nowhere that I took with my youngest son on the NCL Pearl. Now I realize that a 2 day cruise probably isn’t a fair comparison of a cruise line, but after that cruise my son and I decided that we would never cruise with NCL again. We had a dirty room when we arrived, the food was awful, except for the one time we paid to go to the steakhouse, and we felt claustrophobic because there were no open spaces like the Centrum on the ship. Now I realize that all this was probably not the norm for NCL, but it sure didn’t make a good first impression. Now on the the reason for my post… my family has been looking at the NCL Epic and all the cool entertainment they are going to have. We are seriously thinking about switching and were wondering what those that have cruised both cruise lines think about the overall NCL experiences they have had vs. RCCL. I am especially interested in the food quality in the MDR on NCL. I know this is a subjective subject, but I would still like to get everyone’s opinion. I am posting this on both boards so that I can get as many opinions as possible. Thanks for any help you can give me in advance.:confused::confused:

Anna

[murphalina]

Ok, so I need some help…My family DH,DS,DS,DMIL,DSIL,DBIL and I are currently booked on the Freedom of the Seas. With one small exception we have always cruised with RCCL, and loved every cruise we have taken with them. The one exception was a 2 night cruise to nowhere that I took with my youngest son on the NCL Pearl. Now I realize that a 2 day cruise probably isn’t a fair comparison of a cruise line, but after that cruise my son and I decided that we would never cruise with NCL again. We had a dirty room when we arrived, the food was awful, except for the one time we paid to go to the steakhouse, and we felt claustrophobic because there were no open spaces like the Centrum on the ship. Now I realize that all this was probably not the norm for NCL, but it sure didn’t make a good first impression. Now on the the reason for my post… my family has been looking at the NCL Epic and all the cool entertainment they are going to have. We are seriously thinking about switching and were wondering what those that have cruised both cruise lines think about the overall NCL experiences they have had vs. RCCL. I am especially interested in the food quality in the MDR on NCL. I know this is a subjective subject, but I would still like to get everyone’s opinion. I am posting this on both boards so that I can get as many opinions as possible. Thanks for any help you can give me in advance.:confused::confused:

Anna

 

From my experience, the food on RCI and NCL are the same -- average.

I've been on one cruise on RCI, one on NCL, and one on Carnival. Carnival has without a doubt the best food of the three. I remember on RCI ordering some things that I just couldn't eat, but it was never a big deal because you get so many courses that I always had enough. Also, if you don't like something, they will offer to bring you something else. On NCL, I never ordered anything that was completely gross, but everything was just good, not outstanding.

 

That's for the MDR only. The specialty restaurants on NCL were very good. We ate at every specialty restaurant on our ship as I recall, and loved each of them. Of course, it cost us about $50 per meal for the two of us, which really added up and was unnecessary. So I remember being annoyed that I felt like I had to pay extra to get really yummy food.

 

The food on carnival was out of this world. Every single dinner, delicious.

 

Murph

[amartin042]

Thanks for the quick replies...I am hoping to get a lot of opinions so that I can show them to my family before we make the final decision.

[SylvieQuebec]

I am just back from my first cruise with RCL....last summer we tried NCL, on the Norwegian Sun. I have no complaint about the staff and in general nothing went wrong, but it was nothing to compare with RCL and Princess, we will not got with NCL again! The food was very average, the ship itself was plain (ok, the EPIC will no doubt be better).

 

One of the thing I did not like with NCL is that they are really annoying trying to sell you extras...I know all Cruise company tries to make money while you are on board, but NCL was to my opinion really bad, I felt we where sollicited a lot lot more! The cruise package with NCL is usually attractive and has lower prices...but once on board, they really get you!

 

Based on my experience, the standard is higher with RCL and even higher with Princess.

 

As for the freestyle that NCL adverstise, I see no difference...if you take My time dining with RCL, it's exactly the same, except with better ervice. By the way, I did not like the service in the NCL dining room, either we had to wait after our 2nd entree to finally have our wine bottle open or that we had a very fast service, in fact way to fast, we felt they wanted us to eat and leave, no time to relax...while on RCL, it wasn't the case at all....neither with Princess.

 

Anyway, that is my personnal opinion and preference.

[geegee1]

We did an NCL GEM cruise in March 08 and an RC EOS cruise in Feb 09. Overall we liked the GEM the best. Between the ability to freestyle to the kids clubs to overall mood of the ship. When it came to food, we liked the buffet selection on the GEM much better than the WJ on EOS. We also felt that the food in the MDR was a tad better as well. Which is like comparing one High School cafeteria to another.

Personally we did not see any difference in the enthusiasm of the waiters. With the difference being that the ones on EOS knew our names because we sat there most nights. But for us, that is not a big deal. If it came down to price I would pick NCL over another line.

[Bennett'sCruise]

I am just back from my first cruise with RCL....last summer we tried NCL, on the Norwegian Sun. I have no complaint about the staff and in general nothing went wrong, but it was nothing to compare with RCL and Princess, we will not got with NCL again! The food was very average, the ship itself was plain (ok, the EPIC will no doubt be better).

 

One of the thing I did not like with NCL is that they are really annoying trying to sell you extras...I know all Cruise company tries to make money while you are on board, but NCL was to my opinion really bad, I felt we where sollicited a lot lot more! The cruise package with NCL is usually attractive and has lower prices...but once on board, they really get you!

 

Based on my experience, the standard is higher with RCL and even higher with Princess.

 

As for the freestyle that NCL adverstise, I see no difference...if you take My time dining with RCL, it's exactly the same, except with better ervice. By the way, I did not like the service in the NCL dining room, either we had to wait after our 2nd entree to finally have our wine bottle open or that we had a very fast service, in fact way to fast, we felt they wanted us to eat and leave, no time to relax...while on RCL, it wasn't the case at all....neither with Princess.

 

Anyway, that is my personnal opinion and preference.

 

You really cannot compare the NCL Sun to the Jewel of the Seas or the Crown or Grand Princess. TOTALLY different size ships.

We like the smaller ships w/o all the glitz ... in fact, so much that we're back on the NCL Sun for 26 days in the fall. Great staff and crew and our favorite restaurants on any ship we've been on (NCL or RCI). Il Adagio and Pacific Heights.

We have only experienced the best service on NCL ... in fact, our one huge problem with service was on an RCI cruise. It was so bad, we had to laugh and just make the best of it.

Food is so subjective ... I'm not sure why it keeps coming up on these boards. Are there really THAT many food experts out there?

We have been extremely satisfied with food on all cruise lines. Anything I don't have to shop for, prepare and clean up after is fine with me! :rolleyes:

Just my thoughts ...

~dianne

[AtlantaAlly]

We had a group of 10 and were on NCL. We found the dining options a bit annoying. We had to make reservations (every morning at the reservations desk) for 5pm because that was the only time they would seat a party of our size. They estimated waits of 1+hr if we needed a table between 6-8pm. I wasn't very happy with that, but we made do.

 

I like the MTD idea with NCL and would try that with a party of 2-4 but probably no larger. I don't want to have to wait, and I found that there were always lines at the MDRs on NCL.

 

Also- not sure if it's true, but a friend of mine is a TA and NCL ships are actually old ships of another cruise line, and that the sinks, toilets and showers are shorter. I did notice this on the ship- I'll have to dig up a picture:)

[Bennett'sCruise]

 

Also- not sure if it's true, but a friend of mine is a TA and NCL ships are actually old ships of another cruise line, and that the sinks, toilets and showers are shorter. I did notice this on the ship- I'll have to dig up a picture:)

 

That's really pretty funny, actually. I'm a TA. The ONLY ship NCL has that could possibly NEARLY qualify as being a "ship of another cruise line" is the Spirit ... she was originally built for Star Cruise Line for the Asian market. But when she was finished being built, was put into service for NCL as the Spirit.

All the other NCL ships were definitely built by NCL for NCL. The oldest ship NCL has was built in 2001.

ALSO, as to your group dining prob on NCL ... perhaps your TA should have fixed that before you left home. It can be done easily ... Just gotta know how ... :rolleyes:

~dianne

[Kellie Poodle]

OP, my experience on a 7 day NCL cruise was not any different than yours. The ship was dirty, the crew was inefficient and sometimes arrogant and the food in the MDR was not very good. Their buffet was terrible. I wouldn't sail on another one of their ships if they gave me a free trip.

[PaulMCO]

One cruise on NCL is enough to make any other cruise line to be *****

[lhall85917]

We come from a different background, mainly having cruised NCL and this will be our first Royal cruise. We have enjoyed NCL a great deal - especially the newer, bigger ships. NCL had a wonderful credit card that made a huge difference in making our decision - each year we had about $1000 in credit toward a cruise. In December they made changes so now the credits are much smaller so we are looking at all other options. One thing that I feel confident in stating is that the suite perks are better with NCL than virtually any other line so that is why we booked a balcony for our Independence trip but will book suites when sailing NCL (especially longer cruises).

 

In general most cruise lines are more alike to us than different. We like the freestyle dining and have enjoyed great entertainment and wonderful service with NCL. I'm sure that we will find new things to enjoy with Royal - looking forward to the promenade, ice rink and other "new" things.

 

Everyone has their own likes and dislikes, for us it is the itinerary, newer ships and price to consider when booking.

[amartin042]

Thank you for all the replies!!! I think we are leaning toward keeping our booking on the Freedom of the Seas. One of these day's we will try the Epic just for the entertainment, but I think that we will wait and see what the reviews are like before we make that decision. We have never sailed on the Freedom Class, the largest that we have sailed is the Serenade. And we loved everything about that cruise. We are really looking forward to the Promenade and the Flowrider on the FOS.:D

[debshomespun]

As you can see in my signature, my preferred cruiseline is RC. We have taken 2 NCL cruises. 9 nights on the Pearl in 07, and 14 nights on the Dawn in 09. We enjoyed both cruises. The food was not quite as good on NCL as RC, but again, that is a very personal choice. The RC ships do have the WOW factor. Having been on 3 Voyager class and 2 Freedom class cruises, I would say it would be best for you to stick with the RC Freedom cruise. You have not yet experienced this class ship, and there will be a definite WOW factor. The ice rink show is fantastic, and the Royal Promenade is a great advantage to have. Also, you can all enjoy the flow rider. It is lots of fun too. My DH and his brother just had a great time on the flow rider on the Liberty last month. We are planning a family cruise for next winter, and I am looking at the Liberty 8 night cruise, since most of the family has only cruised on the Voyager class, and since they all love RC, think they are ready to try out the Freedom Class with all the bells and whistles!

[SylvieQuebec]

You really cannot compare the NCL Sun to the Jewel of the Seas or the Crown or Grand Princess. TOTALLY different size ships....

 

Well, NCL Sun and Jewel of the Seas could be compared...79 000 tonnes vs 90 000 it's similar. The Grand Princess is 110 000, yes bigger, but we are not comparing with 130 000 ships! To this point, size doesn't really matter, smaller ship can be very pleasant, very nice and fancy, the SUN was unfortunatly quite plain...the pool deck is dead plain and the atrium is so small that no events could be held there. Thumbs up for the Observer Lounge which was my favourite.

 

I have tried Il Adagio restaurant once, wasn't really good, but it doesn't mean it's not a good restaurant, I ordered Osso Bucco, took too long to have my plate, they even had to apologize, and yet, I wasn't complaining about the wait, but it was just not normal.... the Osso Bucco wasn't even tender, I think the line cooks did not do it right...anyway, I'm sure it's usually note like this, it just happened while I was there, which is unfortunate but I understand mistake. I did not try other alternative restaurant, which I am sure where good, however, I was annoyed again that for half the menu items you had to pay an extra, on top of the extra we have to pay to eat there (ex: French Bistro).

 

Yes we talk about food a lot because food is a big thing on cruise, we want to eat well...

 

Anyway, of course if we try NCL again, on a different ship, on a more modern ship, our experience could be different and I could better comment, however each cruise company has it's own way to do things, some like it, some not...staff where very nice on the Sun, but the general idea of NCL freestyle and and pushing sales of whateher items/bingo/raffles etc. while onboard, just not for me, I am just not the clientele they are looking for, we each have our preferences.