Norwegian vs Royal Caribbean

[travel12]

My husband and I are Norwegian fans. We like the ships, and are fans of freestyle dining. We want to go back to several of our favourite islands on our next cruise. We both like the Spirit itinerary as it is now. But we are very opposed to the shift to New York for the Spirit next winter. Coming from Canada we get enough of the cold winter. I cannot imagine why anyone would want to waste at least the first and last days ( and maybe more) of precious vacation time departing from New York. I have heard and read all the arguments about closer departures, and no flying, but none make a bit of sense to me.

So that has led us to look at the itineraries of other cruise lines. Royal Caribbean has a very good itinerary with the Empress of the Seas. Not withstanding the size and age of the ship , which we are aware of, I would be interested in hearing the comments of posters in regard to the overall service levels and quality of cruises offered by both Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. I realize it would be back to set meal times, but I just cannot rationalize paying for at least two days of my next winter vacation cooped up inside.

I'll welcome any of your thoughts.

Thanks,

Brenda,

Burlington, Ontario

[NoPiratesPlease]

Brenda, for us departing from New York could only be improved by departing from New Jersey--and either RCI or Carnival does in the summer. Since we LIVE in the New York area (along with something like 30 or 40 million other people), leaving from NYC means: No airplanes. No luggage weight restrictions. No claiming luggage from the airlines (and lost bags). No embarrassing searches--you don't take off your shoes and your belt, and ladies need not fear of rather indelicate searches. It takes us less than an hour from the house to the ship, and when our cruise ends, we don't THEN have to deal with planes--just a car waiting to take us home. On our last Dawn cruise (ending 30 Dec) we got off the ship at 10 and were HOME by 11:30.

 

THAT's why people leave from New York. NCL has found a GREAT niche. We've departed from and returned to NY 3 times (once on a back-to-back--we went to see the Intrepid that Sunday in NY). We also came into NY twice on the QE2 earlier--and LOVED not having to deal with airplanes.

 

I have NO idea why someone would fly from Canada to New York to spend 2 days cruising to the Caribbean, when you could fly to Florida or San Juan or Barbados and go from there. But the short drive/no flight stress reduction EFFECTIVELY gives us 2 more days of vacation.

 

It's like the 3 most important factors in real estate: Location, location, location.

 

PS: We cruised on RCI once and THE most common word was "No!" When we are in an owner's suite that word should be followed by another word, to form the phrase "No Problem!" Unfortunately, on the Monarch, it wasn't.

[Lineaway]

I have been on both and the only difference I can come up with is the food. I thought the food on RCI was mediocre at best (I'm being kind here too) but the food on NCL seemd to be very good to excellent. I believe the big issue will be if people like Freestyle or Assigned dinning.

I thought both cruiselines had fantastic service and entertainment. Rooms on the RCI Enchantment were a bit smaller than I like but the layout makes good use of available space so it really wasn't an issue. RCI seems to have a signature bar on all theri ships that resembles a landing spaceship on top. This is their observation lounge and the views are fantastic. Any other small differences could be atributed to specific ships and not the cruiseline itself. I probably won't go back to RCI but thats mostly because NCL has been consistently the better deal lately.

[chatisfaction]

I have enjoyed both RCI and NCL. Food and entertainment I would give a slight edge to NCL. Friendliness of staff and overall effort to please, I'd give to RCI.

 

I think I prefer traditional dinning to freestle but both do have their advantages. We have been lucky and had pleasant table companions on our cruises. That added to our enjoyment. If you had less congenial dinnermates traditional might not work so well for you. For someone travelling alone I'd definately prefer traditional style dinning.

 

If someone offered me a free cruise, my choice between RCI and NCL - think I'd go for RCI.

[jkrislc]

I've been on RCI five times and NCLA once--never NCL, so I'm not sure if I can offer a great comparison. Nevertheless, I've found all of the lines I've cruised (NCLA, RCI, Carnival, and Princess) to be more alike than different. Personally, I had better food in the dining room on my last trip with RCI on a weekend cruise than I did on the Pride of Aloha, including the specialty restuarant. However, selection/variety was better on NCLA. NCLA also had the best entertainment I have ever seen on a cruise ship, although RCI had more variety in the evenings. RCI's bar prices were cheaper and the drinks were bigger and better. Of course, freestyle cruising ROCKS. You wont have this on RCI, but RCI has a much expanded room service menu, including steaks, and offers nearly the same foods in the buffet that you'll find in the dining room if you don't want to sit with others at a given time.

 

Really, I think it is a give and take overall. Personally, I'd pick based on itinerary, price, and then cruiseline/ship IMHO. I'll probably favor RCI in the future if itinerary and price are the same, but that's only because I'm now earned the higher level of frequent cruisers, which offers some nice benefits.

[Dolphins]

If you live in Canada and must fly to a cruise, it wouldn't make much sense to fly to New York when you can fly to Florida. However, we in the New York area really appreciate sailing out of New York and avoiding having to fly anywhere. This weekend, hundreds of local residents missed their Florida cruise because they were stranded in New York airports. In contrast, the Norwegian Dawn sailed without incident Thursday with every cabin occupied.

We have sailed on both RCI and NCL and think it comes down to your dining preferences. If you like traditional dining go with RCI and if you like the many freestyle dining options, go with NCL. Both lines, and many others, offer similar Caribbean itineraries so there are many choices available.

We are more than satisfied sailing out of New York to Florida nad the Bahamas; the Caribbean; Bermuda and Canada/New England. That's more than enough choices for us and I won't miss going to an airport.

[awatt]

We have sailed both NCL and RCCL several times,and really enjoy both. Food in my opinion is similar. Entertainment better on NCL. RCCL has the edge over NCL for service, the staff is so friendly and accomadating. NCL pricing in general is a better value.

 

I would sail on either again and again. Decision will be based on ship,price and itinerary. Love the Radiance class ships.would recommend them for your first RCCL cruise should you choose RCCL.

[travel12]

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful responses. I am glad that Norwegian has filled a need for New Yorkers. I just am sorry that the Dawn and soon the Spirit are sailing from there.I love the Spirit itinerary and enjoyed sailing on the Dawn when it left from Miami.

 

Brenda

[NoPiratesPlease]

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful responses. I am glad that Norwegian has filled a need for New Yorkers. I just am sorry that the Dawn and soon the Spirit are sailing from there.I love the Spirit itinerary and enjoyed sailing on the Dawn when it left from Miami.

 

Brenda

 

 

Brenda, I'm sure there will be other ships you'll like--it's a BIG market!

 

My problem with RCI has been the lines and the word "No". I had wondered how they had gotten to be a "premier" cruise considering the following ratios

1) Lowest staff-to-guest ratio (between 1:3 and 1:4, versus the Dawn, 1:2)

2) Lowest per-guest square footage, especially in the cabins.

 

The answer was: It was all hype.

 

We were in an owner's suite and called room service to get my little boy a burger. We were told "No. The kitchen is preparing for dinner now (it was 4:00) so you can't have a burger." My wife exploded (Never get in MsEscada's way when she's angry) and was on the phone to the concierge and whoever, who then went to the head chef who, appropriately said "I have NO idea what room service is talking about. I will make ANYONE a hamburger at ANYTIME!" But that was what we ran into ALL the time. Either the lines were very long, or the answer was "no".

 

Sure, maybe on other ships, on other cruises, RCI might be better, but why would we chance it? Fool me once,...you know the rest. Somebody had a MISERABLE experience their first time on NCL on the Dream. NCL's lost them, and that's NCL's tough luck. Same logic as us and RCI. Cunard kept us one extra cruise after a rotten experience on the QE2 (we went on Caronia again), which was our 5th time on Cunard and 2nd on the Queen. We were travelling with English friends and anything I asked for in my American accent got a "no" but anything my friend asked for in his English accent got a "Certainly Sir!" We used that to our advantage, but why should we have to?

 

I've become convinced that the nastiest ship on the seas can be a delight with the right staff--and good food, and the most fantastic ship (like the QM2) a nightmare with the wrong staff. I don't think it can be hammered into the staff's brains too many times that their job is OUR vacation pleasure. By "our" I mean ALL cruisers.

[bfoot34]

My husband and I are Norwegian fans. We like the ships, and are fans of freestyle dining. We want to go back to several of our favourite islands on our next cruise. We both like the Spirit itinerary as it is now. But we are very opposed to the shift to New York for the Spirit next winter. Coming from Canada we get enough of the cold winter. I cannot imagine why anyone would want to waste at least the first and last days ( and maybe more) of precious vacation time departing from New York. I have heard and read all the arguments about closer departures, and no flying, but none make a bit of sense to me.

So that has led us to look at the itineraries of other cruise lines. Royal Caribbean has a very good itinerary with the Empress of the Seas. Not withstanding the size and age of the ship , which we are aware of, I would be interested in hearing the comments of posters in regard to the overall service levels and quality of cruises offered by both Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. I realize it would be back to set meal times, but I just cannot rationalize paying for at least two days of my next winter vacation cooped up inside.

I'll welcome any of your thoughts.

Thanks,

Brenda,

Burlington, Ontario

 

I would go on Royal Caribbean anytime before NCL. I have been on two NCL cruises and two Royal Caribbean. RC much, much better.

[mikefast]

I have sailed NCL twice and RCCL twice. Both the NCL ships left out of the Port of Houston, and the RCCL left out of Galveston. Parking at the Port of Houston was far better than at Galveston, just a short walk back to the ship. I sailed on the old NCL Sun, the NCL Sea, and the RCCL Rhapsody of the Sea. The Rhapsody is bigger, newer, fancier, smoother, and quieter, but I would sail any of them again without hesitation. I thought the food on the old Sun was probably the best, but the food on the Rhapsody was better than on the Sea. That could very well be individual taste however as you can see from the past posts that some prefer NCL. The entertainment however was better on NCL. We are leaving in April for the Pride of Aloha, and then going back on teh Rhapsody in September.

[newmexicoNita]

i think it depends on what you are looking for and the itinerary. Freestyle wins for us thus we have trouble going back to traditional dining but do on occassion. I think the food is equal depending on the ship. I agree with the last poster, the Sea food isn't as good as some, but still not bad. Heck, I had plenty of choices, got escargot, Lobster, Lox for breakfast and never had to lift a finger. What more could I ask for? Unlike some others, I actually like the NCL service better, but this also depends on the ship and the crew on any given day or week. I just find the NCL staff friendlier than RCI. The cabins are about the same, on the small side for the most part. The Sun has great cabins though. if I were you I would give RCI a try just for conparison and you won't be disappointed even if you choose to come back to NCL like we have. NMNita

[travel12]

Hello again: I guess I have one further question to ask. For those of you who do depart out of New York for a winter get away, what do you do for the first and last days? obviously,sunning and tanning are out, so how do you spend your time on those , to me anyway , "wasted days" ?

[rossbabsy]

First, Second, last and next to last, Health Club, Massages. Casino, Bingo, Forums, Movies, eating etc.

[travel12]

Pardon me if this sounds rude. Perhaps my idea of a winter getaway is different from yours.... but... can't you do any of those anytime, anywhere? If I am paying big bucks for a vacation, those would not be on my " to die for " wish list.

[jeannep]

Travel 12

 

We really enjoy all the activities on the ship. Where else can you do bingo, trivia, cooking classes, arts and crafts, martini clinic etc all in one day. To tell you the truth, we don't enjoy sitting around the pool. Nothing wrong with that but we really like to keep moving.

 

I see that you said the Spirit is moving to New York. That is the first time I heard that. Where can I read more info?

 

No matter what line you go on there are pros and cons. Freestyle is great but I also like meeting other table mates. As you can see, I love to cruise anywhere, any way.

 

Enjoy!

Jeanne

[KristinaAnne]

NoPiratesPlease had much the same thoughts that I do concerning the treatment of passengers by the staff on RCCL. This past November I cruised along with 46 other family members on a Thanksgiving cruise aboard the Enchantment of the Sease. The itinerary and pricing just happened to work best for our large group. Being an avid NCL fan and cruiser; I was curious in what to expect from Royal Caribbean, but seeming as how they are one of the larger "family" cruiselines I was open-minded.

 

Our very large group took up a large part (almost half) of the deck 8 mini-suites, including all 4 aft mini-suites. We took the balcony barriers down and had a very very large private "deck". The majority of the time our stateroom doors were left open for the other family members to come and go to the back balconies as they pleased.

One sea-day afternoon myself, and 6 cousins were sitting in my room and decided to order lunch, as the buffet was overly crowded. Before we called we asked some other family on the balcony, and had a pretty good list to order. I called room service and was put through to a rather rude crew member who seemed flustered and angry at my order. Before I even started my order he informed me that the wait was 30-35 minutes and that I should get lunch from the buffet on the pool deck. The room service menu states to allow 30-40 minutes, so I told him that I appreciate his warning but wanted to order and have it delivered. When I started the list (consisting of about 5 hot dogs, 2 hamburgers, 1 turkey sandwhich, 6 fries, 2 cookies, and 8 iced teas) the crew member stated that I could not order that much food, that I could order food for only 4 people that were staying the room and not "20", as he put it. I informed him that I had family in the room, and that we all paid the same fare for our mini-suites which includes all of our food; regardless of whether they order from their room or mine. I told him that if he preferred, I could send them all back to their rooms and we could all order seperately instead of my one order (which I would think would be more convenient!). He said he would "do it this time" but could not in the future. He then told me that I could not order iced tea from room service. I asked why, because it clearly states on the room service menu that I could. He said that they were busy with lunch orders and could not carry iced teas to the room!!! I was so angry at this point that I hung up the phone and went to the front desk immediately. The front desk apologized and put in the room service order for me, which took an hour and ten minutes to get to my room!!!!

It may have been just that crew member, just that day, or just that ship; but the overall attitude of the room service EVERY time that we called was that they were too busy to provide room service! I hard this from many of my family members on the same cruise.

This was only one of the bad experiences of my cruise.

 

Upon my RCCL cruise, I also missed NCL's very very comfortable bedcovers. My RCCL suite had a scratchy blanket and a sheet. :-)

 

Another difference that I noticed between the two was the treatment of suite passengers. Although we only had a junior suite, we received much higher perks aboard the NCL Dawn in the mini-suite. RCCL provided no concierge, no robes, and no overall "special treatment". Not that this is a big deal to me, but when you pay the higher priced fare for a higher category cabin; it's not just the bigger room that you're expecting!

 

And finally my biggest problem during my cruise... my last day printout of charges. (Although this is already my least favorite part of the cruise!)

In our junior suite was myself, my fiance, my sister, and her fiance. Two weeks before the cruise I had called and transferred $500 onto my SeaPass card for myself and my fiance to use. I gave the phone representative my name, as well as my fiance's name, so that we had a "joint account" and the money would be there. All seemed fine until the first day and my fiance's card didn't work. A simple trip to the purser's desk remedied this.

The night before disembarkation I made a trip to the purser's desk and requested a printout of charges. On this printout were charges made by myself, my fiance... and my sister! I have no idea why they would link her to my account, as I never gave them her name or information; and she gave them her credit card during check-in for her own charges.

I assumed that the purser's desk could simply seperate the charges, and all would be well. Not so. I visited the desk and told them of my problem. The woman at the desk then told me that I HAD to have put her on there, and that there was no way to seperate the charges. I insisted that there MUST be a way because what if it were a case where my account was linked with a stranger's?! The woman rudely informed me that there was nothing I could do, and that I would have to seperate them manually and reconcile it with my sister. This would be easy, but my sister was paying her $600 balance with a credit card; and I used only $350 of the $500 I put on the card (I was sick with the flu for the first 3 days of the cruise, awful, but atleast it saved me money!). My sister could have put the $450 account balance on her credit card, but did not have sufficient cash to refund me my $150, as we had another post-cruise week stay in Florida, and no way to withdraw from her credit card. After a 3 hour argument with numerous purser's desk employees; we gave up and I went without the $150 until we could return home and my sister could give it to me.

All of this confusion was irritating to say the least, and it caused me to be very uneasy with the way RCCL handled my money and my account. If my sister could so easily be linked to my card, without my authorization, and then to have them refuse (or have no ability) to correct the problem THEY caused, then who can say it couldn't happen to 2 strangers or non-family members. Luckily I could do without the immediate refund of money, and I trusted my sister would give it to me when we returned home 2 weeks later, but if that had been anyone else I wouldn't have been so comfortable with it all.

 

To end this long post....... I have never had anything but good things to say about NCL. My first and final cruise on RCCL was mediocre. The ship was beautiful and the sailing was smooth, but their overall efforts to please and the quality of service were both deplorable. In the future I would cruise RCCL again if I had to, but prefer to take my hard-earned cruising money elsewhere.

[shoreguy]

Travel 12

 

 

I see that you said the Spirit is moving to New York. That is the first time I heard that. Where can I read more info?

 

 

Enjoy!

Jeanne

Here is the Press Release from last June:

 

http://www.ncl.com/news/pr/pr063004.htm

[Dolphins]

Pardon me if this sounds rude. Perhaps my idea of starting a winter vacation is different than yours. Unless you want to risk missing your ship, you must fly to your Florida winter cruise a day early. I would rather spend the first night of my winter getaway dining and dancing on a cruise ship than dining and watching TV in a Florida motel. Starting my vacation by going through airport security, claiming my luggage in Florida and dragging it to a motel, spending a night there and dragging my luggage to the pier the next day is not on my "to die for" wish list. I can think of few better places to begin and end my vacation than aboard a beautiful cruise ship.

[NoPiratesPlease]

(sigh...)

 

I guess somethings don't change on Royal Caribbean. We were on them the one time in 1998.

 

The question about what to do on sea days when going from NYC to the Carib in winter struck me as naive (actually, worse, but I don't want to be rude). When I'm at home, there are a thousand things that need to be done, and I'm always putting them off. When on those sea days, we have NOTHING to do but indulge ourselves. Sure, we COULD do them at home, but we don't. We enjoy dancing--we've gotten out 3 times in the last year. But at sea, we dance almost every night.

 

I mean, you could ask "Why go on a cruise to the Caribbean in the summer? There's nothing there you can't do at home!" But if that were so, there would be a lot less summer cruises than there are! I mean there's dining and dancing and gambling and swimming and sunning. Heck, in the summer you can do ALL of that and more in Atlantic City! Why EVER go on a cruise?

 

You go on a cruise to GET AWAY! Leaving from New York means instead of spending a day getting to the ship, and THEN a day at sea, you simply spend two days at sea. And believe me, I would MUCH rather spend a day at sea than a day getting to the airport, getting searched at the airport, waiting another 2 hours in the airport for my flight, flying in a cramped seat for several hours, waiting at ANOTHER airport for an hour for my luggage, waiting for ground transportation, and then FINALLY getting to the ship's check-in. I dunno--I think being at sea is a LOT more fun than that. Maybe I'm crazy...

[chatisfaction]

KristinaAnne

 

Boy it does sound like you ran into a lot of problems on your RCI cruise. I can see why you wouldn't be in a hurry to cruise with them again. Lucky for me I've never had those kind of problems with either line.

Not that this helps now - but I have had charges show up on my card from other members of my party on both lines and so I've got in the habit of checking my account a couple of times during the cruise. On both lines once I informed them of the errors the charges were reversed. I don't know if I just was fortunate with the staff I encountered or if finding the mistake earlier in the cruise helped. On NCL it took them a little while to look into it then they left a message on my cabin phone saying it had been fixed.

 

I hope you noted your problems on the comment cards.

[capeboy96]

Hey Brenda,

 

I've cruised twice on both lines and looking forward to escaping the cold next week to sail on the Norwegian Star. Both lines I would say offer a very similar product. Your main difference is that by going on RCI you lose the freestyle dining. They do have an alternative restaurant and buffet onboard which does offer you some flexibility. I was on the Empress last summer on an 8 night cruise to Bermuda. Enjoyed it a lot and wouldn't hesitate to sail on her again. She is in good shape and was recently refurbished. In general, I prefer smaller ships to huge ones. Sailed on the Grand Princess over Christmas and found it to be way too big for my liking. Met very nice people only to never run into them again over the course of the 10 day cruise. My only "complaints" about the Empress would be 1.) cabin size. They are significantly smaller than I am used to and that goes for all categories. We did have adequate room for 8 days and knew ahead of time space was an issue. If you're only in your room to sleep like we are this will be no problem. 2.) Elevators. We were in the back where only one elevator functioned the entire week. My friend can't do a lot of stairs so we waited sometimes for quite a while. There were a lot of kids on board which was surprising since it was Labor Day and school had just started. You'll be fine if you go when school is in session.

[piediscalzo]

I have not sailed NCL yet, (I will be sailing in March) but I did sail on RCCL's Splendour last spring. We changed our plans at the last minute and booked two low cost staterooms so that we could bring friends with us. I know it's not supposed to matter but I thought that was why our service was so bad. Now that I am seeing these other posts I realize maybe it wasn't just us down in steerage. First our luggage was delivered to the wrong staterooms and we received the wrong passengers luggage. That was rectified pretty quickly but I was worried about who may have gone through our things in the privacy of their own room. The card in our room claimed we had three room stewards (two of whom we never saw and one who introduced himself to us on the first night and was nowhere to be found the rest of the cruise. We did not receive turn down service two or three nights of the cruise and only received the silly little extras (towel animals, chocolates, etc.) on the last night. (Maybe because we didn't prepay gratuities) We were unable to contact room service or told they couldn't bring bottled water to us when we called. I don't remember which. I had gotten pretty sick from jellyfish stigs (always check your bathing suit for stowaways :-) and really needed water to flush the poison out of my system so my husband kept trekking up to the bar to get it for me. I was also unable to get non-drowsy benadryl or dramamine form the gift shop or infirmary. (just a pet peeve because I can't imagine why anyone would want to be drugged into tiredness on vacation. next time I'll carry it with me ) We were also told by a few staff members that the crew quarters were pretty bad on that ship. Maybe the quality of the service is diredtly related... Not that there's an excuse. We had heard for ages that Carnival was really substandard in comparison to RCCL, NCL, etc. We NEVER had service like this on Carnival. I wouldn't say I'd never give RCCL another chance. Everyone has problems with staff sometimes but after seeing how widespread it seems to be their price would have to be the selling feature. I don't find them better than anyone else we've sailed with. By the way, our friends, first time cruisers, were more than thrilled with the whole thing. Once you've gotten the right kind of service it's hard not to be disappointed when people don't go the extra mile.

[lonig]

I like to fly to someplace warm when I am on vacation. Michigan winters are cold and the last two cruises I have taken, I intentionally flew to San Juan and cruised from there. It was -8 when we left and 81 when we got there in February so it was wonderful. I cruised both Carnival and Princess out of San Juan and both ships were wonderful. Each ship had their own style but both were extremely enjoyable. I traveled with two college age daughters, my sister and her two college age daughters on the Carnival trip and my two sisters and 4 other female friends on the Princess and we were well taken care of on both. The younger group enjoyed the activity of the Carnival trip and the females on Princess felt like Princesses. We got what we paid for on both trips. I am taking my daughters again on the Pride of Aloha in May to celebrate both their graduating from college that month. It will probably be the last family trip the three of us will take together by ourselves, I know we will enjoy it because we like to have fun and take any annoyances in stride. May cannot come soon enough!

[SunnyMary]

We have cruised NCL twice (once on the Sea and once on the Dawn) and twice on Royal Caribbean (twice on the Empress of the Seas). Although we loved NCL (and Celebrity once), overall, I think we preferred RC. The Empress will always have a special place in our hearts. I thought I would find much more to do on a larger ship (Dawn) with its 12 lounges, etc., but if only 1 band is playing in all those lounges, what difference does # of lounges make? And hubby and I have differing opinions on Freestyle - there are advantages to both styles of dining. I wouldn't hesitate to choose RC if the itinerary/port are what you want, as long as you're aware that it's smaller, older, etc. Enjoy your trip!