Norwegian Cruise Line

[MILEMRKR63]

Thanks in advance to those who reply.

 

I am sailing solo on my first Norwegian cruise in December on the Spirit for 10 nights from NYC.

 

Please tell me about your experience with Norwegian and the fellow family crowd.

 

Again, thanks in advance.

[Brucemcdou]

MileMrkr63 - You don't say what your previous cruising/cruiseline experience is, if any, but you may want to search the board of your "regular" cruiseline and look for postings that compare NCL with that cruiseline. I think it makes a big difference which direction you're coming from, so to speak: a regular Carnival cruiser would react differently to NCL than a regular Celebrity cruiser, for example. Along with reading member reviews of your particular ship (the Dawn?) that should give you a general idea of the ship and the cruiseline.

 

My partner and I have only taken one NCL cruise, in Hawaii four years ago on the NCL Star. That was before they switched to American-flagged ships in Hawaii, so they had to include a side-trip down to Fanning Island. We went in mid-January, so schools were back in session, and our fellow passengers were mostly older folks from the south-east, for some reason. Compared to our other cruise experiences on Celebrity and Princess, we thought that NCL was more downscale, as was their passenger demographic. I wrote a pretty extensive review of that trip that should still be on the Cruise Critic review section along with cruisereviews dot com. The most distinct difference from other cruise lines is that they are entirely "Freestyle Dining," as they call their no-assigned dining. People either hate it or love it; we prefer to have an assigned table and get to know our tablemates and our waiters. We didn't get to know many people on this cruise and I think that's the primary reason why. Don't get me wrong, we had a good time, but we like to spend a lot of time together when we cruise, enjoy our balcony, read and play scrabble, etc.

 

Regarding g/l presence onboard, our Hawaii NCL Star cruise was unusal had the lowest presence of g/l passengers of any cruise we've ever been on. It may be very different on a cruise out of NYC. The three gay couples on the entire cruise (three - count 'em!) migrated to the piano bar where the (gay) piano player made sure we all met each other. Of course, there was the usual good g/l representation among the crew and staff, entertainers, spa and shop staff, etc.

 

As a solo, I think you'll need to make an extra effort to meet people than on other cruises, because of the Freestyle Dining.

[MILEMRKR63]

Thanks for your response.

 

I have sailed 26 times on lines such as Cunard, Seabourn, Celebrity, Carnival, RCCL, Princess and Disney, just never NCL. I am confident I will have no trouble meeting people on the ship. I was just curious as to how the crowds tend to be on NCL.

 

I look forward to this cruise and the time to enjoy sailing solo for 10 nights.

[Ephraim]

My partner and I have sailed twice and NCL and three times on Princess. We have a very favourful opinion of NCL for many reasons....

 

We like the freedom to dine when we want to. We don't mind waiting a little while for a table, but also aren't 6PM or 8PM diners, we are 7PM diners.

 

We like the shows on NCL. They have an inhouse entertainment department that seems to do a nice job. And we love the singer that we had on the last cruise. She calls herself the Chocolate Godess" Hers and our only regret was not having met her, she said the she would have loved to have had dinner with us.

 

The crew was very friendly. We especially liked the woman on the cruise staff, they were there to have fun and to make us have fun.

 

The casino was more commaraderie than elsewhere. We met a lot of people in the casino, and at the black jack table, people played for the table. But that could be just those two cruises.

 

What we didn't like.... How American passengers sometimes treated the foreign staff. They worked her, and were really nice to us. Sure, they had trouble with English sometimes, but I don't speak their language, they are trying to speak mine. I can be a little patient with them.

 

We met a lot of very nice people on NCL. And there was always lox available for breakfast at the buffet (no need to ask, it was piled, high!) And they were careful with the norwalk virus, asking people to clean their hands before walking into the buffet line. Something that I haven't seen on Princess. On Princess, I always wash my hands TWICE if I go to the buffet. Once when I come in, and a second time before I eat, since I don't know how many people have or haven't washed their hands before touching the shared serving cutlery. On NCL, there was an antiseptic ball at the end of the line as well.

 

The only complaint we had was the night that they serves hors d'oeuvres. The cheese wasn't served with toothpicks already in them. So, we avoid them.

 

Many people say that NCL is on the same class as Carnival. I don't agree. I think it's on the same par as Princess, just a bit cheaper, and not so stuck up.

[tjosh7]

Regarding NCL, partner and myself LOVE this cruiseline. OK, I have only cruised once on NCL and twice on Carnival, and partner - same plus several times on NCL. Staff is very gay friendly, and friends of Dorothy meetings scheduled without having to ask - I think it's a company policy.

 

We really like the freestyle dining. NCL seems to have many more tables for 2 people, which we really like.

 

Hope you enjoy your cruise.