NCL desperately needs more FUN options after 9pm

[NolaZach]

Just got off the Dawn. I'm sure the negatives will start pouring in soon, as much of the Ship of locals familar with CCL were nto happy with the embarkation of NCL compared to CCL.
My gripe is. NO night clubs. NO places after 9pm playing anything other than Rap music.

The ship only had 2 or 3 common decks. (7 and 12) and there were BARS during the day, but at night there was one large lounge and that was it.

My only other cruise was on the much older and smaller Fantasy and it had a lot of options.

As far as food, never a bad meal in the main dining room and Cagney's hit the spot. My strip was PERFECT. Loved it.

The crew were all great, BUT I rarely saw any of the FUN people, I think they wear white and blue polos. I saw 2-3 the entire cruise. There were no small activities, not much in the way of structure. I guess that is Freestyle and in many ways that was great. But I didn't like that we had only one option on the boat after 9.
It's great you have 15 places to eat, but you need more than one late night option. I know I am leaving out the Star bar, but that was mostly suite guests and there was no music.


The complaint I heard over and over was there wasn't much to do.

But I had a great time, I would sail NCL again even with the issues with boarding. (DO NOT DRIVE A CAR TO THE PORT IN NOLA!!)
Ship was beautiful, food other than buffet and Blue Lagoon was outstanding (for what it is). But please NCL, you need stuff to do at night, especially when sailing with a boat full of people that live in a city that never closes it's bars. (I can deal with 1-2a closing times, but just need options)

[C Cruise Dude]

[quote name='NolaZach']Just got off the Dawn. I'm sure the negatives will start pouring in soon, as much of the Ship of locals familar with CCL were nto happy with the embarkation of NCL compared to CCL.
My gripe is. NO night clubs. NO places after 9pm playing anything other than Rap music.

The ship only had 2 or 3 common decks. (7 and 12) and there were BARS during the day, but at night there was one large lounge and that was it.

My only other cruise was on the much older and smaller Fantasy and it had a lot of options.

As far as food, never a bad meal in the main dining room and Cagney's hit the spot. My strip was PERFECT. Loved it.

The crew were all great, BUT I rarely saw any of the FUN people, I think they wear white and blue polos. I saw 2-3 the entire cruise. There were no small activities, not much in the way of structure. I guess that is Freestyle and in many ways that was great. But I didn't like that we had only one option on the boat after 9.
It's great you have 15 places to eat, but you need more than one late night option. I know I am leaving out the Star bar, but that was mostly suite guests and there was no music.


The complaint I heard over and over was there wasn't much to do.

But I had a great time, I would sail NCL again even with the issues with boarding. (DO NOT DRIVE A CAR TO THE PORT IN NOLA!!)
Ship was beautiful, food other than buffet and Blue Lagoon was outstanding (for what it is). But please NCL, you need stuff to do at night, especially when sailing with a boat full of people that live in a city that never closes it's bars. (I can deal with 1-2a closing times, but just need options)[/quote]

[COLOR=Green][SIZE=4][B]I'm puzzled!:confused: Most of my cruises have been with Carnival and what I have noticed is that Carnival's dance lounges are dead on all the of their ships that I have been on. Dazzles on NCL rock into the night with mostly live bands and DJ's (never heard rap on NCL actually I havn't heard it on the others either).

I don't usually participate in most of the activities in the dailys but they seem to have a lot going on. NCL also has dancing in Spinnakers Lounge. Now, NCL does not get into the comedy like Carnival and Carnival's CD and crew get parties going better than NCL. I have never been on the Fantasy class ships. [/B][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[conandrob240]

Depends on the ship. Two sailings on BA and Bliss has been packed every night. Parties well attended. Casino going until all hours. Live music acts crowded well into the night. Bars pretty crowded.

[clean1owner]

I don't know which Dawn you were on, but the one I sailed had more than enough to do well past Midnight. There were times we had to choose between events we wanted to join.

Didn't spend much time in the nightclubs, but ever since I started cruising, they have operated as long as there was demand. I remember one trip where we ran the bar out of booze about 3:30 in the AM!

[OceanDreaming2]

[quote name='NolaZach']Just got off the Dawn. I'm sure the negatives will start pouring in soon, as much of the Ship of locals familar with CCL were nto happy with the embarkation of NCL compared to CCL.
My gripe is. NO night clubs. NO places after 9pm playing anything other than Rap music.

The ship only had 2 or 3 common decks. (7 and 12) and there were BARS during the day, but at night there was one large lounge and that was it.

My only other cruise was on the much older and smaller Fantasy and it had a lot of options.

As far as food, never a bad meal in the main dining room and Cagney's hit the spot. My strip was PERFECT. Loved it.

The crew were all great, BUT I rarely saw any of the FUN people, I think they wear white and blue polos. I saw 2-3 the entire cruise. There were no small activities, not much in the way of structure. I guess that is Freestyle and in many ways that was great. But I didn't like that we had only one option on the boat after 9.
It's great you have 15 places to eat, but you need more than one late night option. I know I am leaving out the Star bar, but that was mostly suite guests and there was no music.


The complaint I heard over and over was there wasn't much to do.

But I had a great time, I would sail NCL again even with the issues with boarding. (DO NOT DRIVE A CAR TO THE PORT IN NOLA!!)
Ship was beautiful, food other than buffet and Blue Lagoon was outstanding (for what it is). But please NCL, you need stuff to do at night, especially when sailing with a boat full of people that live in a city that never closes it's bars. (I can deal with 1-2a closing times, but just need options)[/QUOTE]

Were you on the 2 day cruise to nowhere? That could explain why you didn't see many of the cruise director's staff. Not sure why the lounges were closed by 9pm??? We were just on the 14 day cruise prior to the 2 dayer and there was plenty of activity after 9! And we had the geriatric cruise!

[gerry1.10]

[quote name='NolaZach']Just got off the Dawn. I'm sure the negatives will start pouring in soon, as much of the Ship of locals familar with CCL were nto happy with the embarkation of NCL compared to CCL.
My gripe is. NO night clubs. NO places after 9pm playing anything other than Rap music.

The ship only had 2 or 3 common decks. (7 and 12) and there were BARS during the day, but at night there was one large lounge and that was it.

My only other cruise was on the much older and smaller Fantasy and it had a lot of options.

As far as food, never a bad meal in the main dining room and Cagney's hit the spot. My strip was PERFECT. Loved it.

The crew were all great, BUT I rarely saw any of the FUN people, I think they wear white and blue polos. I saw 2-3 the entire cruise. There were no small activities, not much in the way of structure. I guess that is Freestyle and in many ways that was great. But I didn't like that we had only one option on the boat after 9.
It's great you have 15 places to eat, but you need more than one late night option. I know I am leaving out the Star bar, but that was mostly suite guests and there was no music.


The complaint I heard over and over was there wasn't much to do.

But I had a great time, I would sail NCL again even with the issues with boarding. (DO NOT DRIVE A CAR TO THE PORT IN NOLA!!)
Ship was beautiful, food other than buffet and Blue Lagoon was outstanding (for what it is). But please NCL, you need stuff to do at night, especially when sailing with a boat full of people that live in a city that never closes it's bars. (I can deal with 1-2a closing times, but just need options)[/QUOTE]

Dont understand either. It sounds like you were on HA where it is indeed dead after 9pm unlike on an NCL ship where thre is all kinds of activities from late comedy routine, dancing with the stars, white hot party, several live music duo/trio of different kind from the atrium to bars and live band at Dazzles and Spinnaker till at least 1130 every night. Also their nightly second show is always at 9 or shortly after.

So I am a bit at a loss with what happened on your sailing.

[NolaZach]

I was told it was understaffed. After I had time to reflect. The good does outweigh the bad and we all had a great time. I can see if the staff was short.
Possibly I am romanticizing my first ship. I have a cruise in Feb and then I DO plan on taking a NCL next year.
I think a lot of it had to do with it being the first cruise from NOLA for that ship.

Another crazy thing.. No Muster drill. A large part of the ship missed the muster drill as we did not board until 5:30, the ship did not leave port until almost seven.

Food we found to be great, except for one meal at the Blu Lagoon.
I really enjoyed the MDR and breakfast buffet.

My review of the ship as a whole was favorable. It's just I didn't like that it shut down at 9.
But again the high winds kept all the activites away from the pool deck. 8/10 of my group were cruise virgins and ALL said they want to cruise again.
So I really didn't want to come off as a NCL hater. As I plan to sail with them again. (on the same ship too)

Just need more than two days.

[Rottweiler Puppy]

Plenty of stuff to do on NCL Getaway.

[NH Cruisers]

Two trips for me on the DAWN and I will say the Pearly Kings Pub was a major nightly draw. With the Kareoke it was a blast, and the bar keep really got into it. Ringing a big brass bell and all. Singing Sweet Caroline, ba, ba, baaa! Good Times. Can't contain my excitment for our May cruise to Bermuda. Edited November 26, 2014 by NH Cruisers

[sfaaa]

You do know buffet is open till midnight right?

[SuiteTraveler]

NOLAZach, you don't come across as a hater. I was going to suggest that next time you cruise NCL, go on the Epic, Breakaway or Getaway. These are the 3 newest NCL ships and they are action packed day and night to say the least. The Dawn is one of NCL's older ships. It is lovely, but it's still an older ship and very, very different from the newer ships. What I have found is that, for me, I like the newer ships in pretty much every cruise line because they have MORE of ...EVERYTHING! For some folks it is so much more it is overwhelming, but for me, it is WONDERFUL and I pick and choose these newer ships and just have an awesome time. If I am cursing the Mediterranean, then I don't care about the ship as much because it is a port intensive cruise where you are off the ship touring most days 8am to 5pm if not longer. So then, the ship is more about a good place to sleep. As you try different cruises you will get a better idea of what you like and don't like. There are many cruise styles. Some want an elegant and traditional cruise, some want a party cruise, some want a cruise with lots of entertainment and activities, some cruise for special interest reasons, some want a family cruise, some want a romantic cruise. There is no right or wrong. Just keep trying cruises.

[Medtech2]

I agree with previous posters that you should definitely try Getaway or Breakaway. I was exhausted by the time I fell into bed!

And I hate to break it to you, but the Fantasy is now 1st for being most boring ship at sea. It may have been fun 5 years ago but no more....