Goldness Princess vs. NCL Star Alaska

[ddljcruisers]

Booked on NCL in a family Suite with suite privileges on NCL Star in June but recently read some negative comments about NCL. Would we be better off without Suite perks on the Princess -Golden Princess in a mini-suite? The cost would be fairly similar.

Thanks!!!!

[Pia1913]

Booked on NCL in a family Suite with suite privileges on NCL Star in June but recently read some negative comments about NCL. Would we be better off without Suite perks on the Princess -Golden Princess in a mini-suite? The cost would be fairly similar.

Thanks!!!!

 

As far as I'm concerned, anything on Princess is better than even being on NCL.

[sunshine nana]

Check the itineraries. You don't want to miss Glacier Bay. Also, the food will be much better for dinner on Princess. Breakfast and lunch at Cagneys on NCL will be good if you have time to eat there, but the dinners will not be good in the MDR on NCL. Our friends took the Star to Alaska in August and had very poor food. They even had a poor dinner in Cagneys.

[CrusinAgain]

Have you been on NCL before? They would have to pay me to go on another NCL cruise. Food was awful as well as the service and the activities. It was a long 9 days on the NCL Pearl.....it was that bad.

 

Take the Golden Princess as Princess and Hal are the pioneers of Alaska and do it right. Those are the only 2 cruiselines I would consider for Alaska.

[Tralynn]

We had considered all of the lines for our upcoming May cruise to Alaska, and after reading everything I could find online and on CC, we narrowed it down to HAL and Princess. Since I've cruised Princess and know I like it, I chose Princess. I then chose the Golden for the itinerary. There was no way I was missing Glacier Bay for my first Alaskan cruise.

 

I'm sure you'll have fun either way you go, but personally, I wouldn't choose a cruise based solely on a few perks. Alaska is too expensive in general to settle. Just figure out what is most important to you.

[cattolica]

First, is it fair that you only post this question on the Princess board? You will obviously get mostly responses that tell you NCL is horrible. Try posting the same question over on the NCL board and see what happens. Bet they say not so nice things about Princess.

 

That being said we have cruised extensively on both lines. We pick our cruises based on timing, itinerary and price. In most cases we would actually prefer NCL, but they don't always fit into to when we can travel, so we cruise Princess.

 

We have always found that both cruise line offer very good food, wonderful service and a wide varieties of activities. DH will tell you the best meal he ever had was in the MDR on an NCL ship. The only thing that Princess does better than NCL is their loyalty program...their perks are better than NCL.

 

Remember, everything about cruising is very subjective. There is will always be people who are having the best time of their lives right next to those who are having the worst.

[CrusinAgain]

The only thing that Princess does better than NCL is their loyalty program...their perks are better than NCL.

 

 

Wow! Just too shocked to say anything else right now.:eek:

[janacin]

We've cruised on both ships you mention. Based on our experiences on NCL, there is nothing that would make us cruise on that line again. The Golden is a great ship. The food is better as well as the service and there is no constant hawking of casino games, pull tab purchases, spa stuff, etc. In all fairness they do excel in entertainment but imho that is not the only reason we cruise.

[cattolica]

My point was that both cruise lines are equal. They both offer a wonderful cruise experience. I have nothing negative to say about either.

 

Wow! Just too shocked to say anything else right now.:eek:

[whatcruiseisnext]

NCL is a step WAY down from Princess. Don't short yourself. Do Princess. You will not be sorry.

[CrusinAgain]

My point was that both cruise lines are equal. They both offer a wonderful cruise experience. I have nothing negative to say about either.

 

In your opinion which is your opinion. My experience with NCL was completely opposite very far from Princess and NCL being equal. I have plenty negative to say about NCL, but glad you enjoy it. Leaves us more choices on Princess.

[ddljcruisers]

Thanks for all the info!! Our only other cruise was this past summer on RCCL

in a suite with perks in the mediterranean and absolutely loved it!! My impression is the Princess is better overall but it sure was nice to have priority

embark/disembark, concierge, dining priority etc.. I have 4 teens (2 are ours and each is bringing a friend) so don't know if that makes a difference? I will take up the suggestion of asking the NCL message board as well.

[CrusinAgain]

Princess has good activities that doesn't require fees like NCL's. Most of the cruise lines tend not to have as many activities in Alaska as other areas since the purpose of the cruise is the scenery however there are generally 3 venues at night offering activities other than clubbing and Princess has movies on TV and generally in the theater as well as the movies under the stars. They also offer alot of game style activities that are a blast with the passengers as well as the normal trivia. This was lacking on NCL. There is also games, basketball and ping pong for the teens as well as a teen area on most Princess ships. I am sure others with current age teens can tell you more. My kids are now married.

[azdmelani]

As far as I'm concerned, anything on Princess is better than even being on NCL.

 

Ditto

[Clutterlady]

If you are doing Alaska, than please take the advice of posters on this board and stick with Princess.

 

NCL is at the bottom of my list as far as cruiselines go. Enjoy:)

[atlasali]

They are just different. We actually enjoyed the different dining venues on NCL. We won a dinner with wine at the Asian venue. It was amazing food. Next cruise we paid and dined there. We love Le Bistro, especially the fondue. On the other hand, I love the main dining room food on Princess and we have never eaten dinner at a Speciality restaurant, never felt the need. Even on our 30-night cruise the menu never repeated (except for Prime Rib). Princess has nicer rooms...NCL has way more comfy beds! But HAL has comfortable beds and bath tubs! NCL Pearl has the best "thermal suite" we have experienced. Great bubble tubs and fabulous views out the front of the ship.

 

Look at the itineraries. I would not want to arrive in Victoria late and be there in the evening. Due to the time and ports; in September 2011, we are cruising on Celebrity's Infinity for 10 nights.

 

Since chilly weather possible, an indoor swimming pool/hot tub would be important to me.

 

Princess has coffee cards and the International Cafe. Warm chocolate chip cookies...yum.

[itzmered]

You are on the Princess board and most Princess faithfuls will tell you NCL is terrible. I thought the suite perks on NCL were fabulous! The food was pretty good and we had a great time on NCL. I am also looking forward to my Princess Cruise in 11 days.

[DMRick]

My point was that both cruise lines are equal. They both offer a wonderful cruise experience. I have nothing negative to say about either.

I agree. It's like asking on the Disney board which is better, Disney or Universal. I think you have to read reviews from both cruiselines from people who liked both, and decide from those. We enjoyed our Princess cruise and have another booked. However we also very much enjoyed our NCL cruises. We loved different things about each of them.

As for NCL's reward program, I loved giving them $250 towards our next cruise, then they gave me $100 obc immediately, and we had the $250 towards out next cruise. Princess was a better deal, if we didn't mind waiting for it, although even better if we went on a long cruse next time! Both had good points even with the reward program.

[DMRick]

They also offer alot of game style activities that are a blast with the passengers as well as the normal trivia. This was lacking on NCL. There is also games, basketball and ping pong for the teens as well as a teen area on most Princess ships.

 

Everything above has been available on our NCL cruises as well. We had the same games (Quest, Newlywed, pictionary, scavanger hunt, etc) as on Princess.

THey also have the same teen games, basketball, pingpong.

[Umbarger]

There is nothing wrong with NCL. Granted the food isnt quite as good. You are certainly not going to go hungry on NCL. However, Suite perks on NCL as very nice and you get spoiled big time. I find everything else as in entertainment, service etc to be the same.

Make sure and look closely at the itinerary. Do both cruises go to Glacier Bay?

[CrusinAgain]

Everything above has been available on our NCL cruises as well. We had the same games (Quest, Newlywed, pictionary, scavanger hunt, etc) as on Princess.

THey also have the same teen games, basketball, pingpong.

 

Sorry to tell you this but no the Pearl that week did not have Quest, pictionary, or scavenger hunt and even if they were to have it on another cruise of NCL those weren't even the activities I was referring to. I still do have my Dailies from that cruise and I do know the Dawn that was doing the same route but in reverse had better activities than the Pearl. The Pearl is far too much into how they are going to fee you including the bowling alley. We got so desparate we went to the art auction to take up some time. Quest I think started on RCI and now Princess offered it this last trip but those who take the cruise more than once pretty much know what is going to be asked to show.

 

Also the boards of the restaurants were not working on our cruise so we had to go from restaurant to restaurant trying to find availability as if you don't get hold of them early in the morning and a reservation for that "freestyle" time of knowing what you want for dinner and when you will end up in the buffet or the main dining room.

 

I will say NCL did have really good Beef Wellington and I liked that they provided coffeemakers in their cabins. At the time they had free self serve washers and dryers but I read that they yanked them.

[DCT61]

I have not sailed with Princess yet, but am very much looking forward to my upcoming trip. I know we will have a fantastic time...we always do. We have sailed twice with NCL and have enjoyed our trips with them very much. We found the experience in a suite with NCL to be far superior to Celebrity or Holland America. Food is subjective, so I would never base my choice on that. I wont go hungry. I would probably pick Princess over NCL in this case because of the lack of an indoor observation lounge on the Norwegian Star. Recently, the Star went into drydock and had its forward facing observation lounge replaced with suites. The lounge was moved aft, to a virtually windowless space originally designed to be a casino, but became the ships shopping gallery. In Alaska, indoor viewing areas are important...and the Star seems to be lacking in that aspect.

[goose30]

Princess is a step WAY down from NCL. Don't short yourself. Do NCL. You will not be sorry

[DMRick]

That's too bad that you didn't have the fun games at night on your cruise. We've been on a few NCL cruises and we've had games every night.

Just like NCL had charges for certain things, so did the Princess cruise we were on. If we didn't want to participate, we didn't. All the activities were not free, although, again, like our NCL cruises, most were.

 

I guess I'm not sure what activites you are referring to...those are the types of activities along with crafts on the Princess. Both ships had cullinary activities, although nothing like HAL does them. Princess had a ship tour, but it was way out of my price range. They both had an olympic type activity, where you participated in exercising each day. NCL gave us a sweatshirt at the end, Princess gave out a medal and I think a pack of cards. We didn't have a lack of free things to do on either ship, although they both had things you could pay for (bowling on one, golf on the other). When we were on the Pearl, they did have the games, so I can only go by my experience. Plenty of people had no idea what the Quest game was (including myself at that time), and everyone had a good time.

 

I think the suggestions by another person, that talks about the observation area on the Star, is much more important on an Alaskan trip, than which ship plays the best games, IMO.

 

Sorry to tell you this but no the Pearl that week did not have Quest, pictionary, or scavenger hunt and even if they were to have it on another cruise of NCL those weren't even the activities I was referring to. I still do have my Dailies from that cruise and I do know the Dawn that was doing the same route but in reverse had better activities than the Pearl. The Pearl is far too much into how they are going to fee you including the bowling alley..

[ddljcruisers]

Only the Princess goes to Glacier bay but there is an excursion off of NCL Star (pretty expensive) that gets right up to Sawyer glacier and Tracey Arm and I'm told that that is even better than Glacier Bay as you get very close to the Calving Glacier. In Glacier Bay it's a National Park and are very protected so you can only watch from the ship at a distance. Obviously seeing both would be ideal but considering I have young teens with us, I think the experience of taking the catamaran close to the glacier would be very exciting.