Your thoughts on NCL

[cocacola86]

I found the entertainment better on the non 2.0 ships, the food is good especially Guys Burgers, blue iguana burritos and the Chocolate melting cake.

[Sauer-kraut]

I found the entertainment better on the non 2.0 ships, the food is good especially Guys Burgers, blue iguana burritos and the Chocolate melting cake.

 

I thought Guy's burgers were greasy and unappealing. The Blue Iguana stuff was okay, but my shrimp were cold because I wanted shrimp tacos and I had to stand in the burrito line to get them and then get the taco shells from the taco line. Stupid planning there. Melting cake is .....meh Many other desserts there are better. NCL desserts are never really good.

[cocacola86]

If you had to go to one restaurant what would it be? Is it true NCL are smaller

[Warm Breezes]

We have sailed on NCL 5 times. Now that we have found Princess, no more NCL for us.

 

Best to find the cruise line you love and give them your loyalty.

 

I so disagree with this advice. Why limit yourself to one cruise line? Variety is the spice of life. How do you know what you like or don't like unless you try it? Cruise line is never the most important factor for me when choosing a cruise. It all depends on what we are looking to get out of our vacation so the factors we are looking for vary. Usually most important to us is it has to fit our time off with time for travel. After that it could be itinerary, embarkation port, price, or sometimes it is the ship itself.

 

DCL is by far my favorite so far....having said that we haven't sailed them since 2004 because I'm not willing to pay the price to sail them unless I have kids at the age to get the most out of it. After that NCL and CCL run neck and neck for us. I usually give NCL a slight edge for the entertainment but DH likes CCL a little more. We both agree that Princess was the cruise line we least preferred. We didn't have a bad cruise but we did feel the demographics were too old for us (seemed to be mostly FL retirement village groups and snow birds and this was during Spring Break time), the service wasn't up to our other cruises, and the nightly entertainment (after the shows) became repetitive and boring. We will probably sail them again, but probably not for a while.

 

I would love to try other lines but they have never fit our wants for a given vacation. I just don't understand the cruise line loyalty mentality. To me it is just limiting your choices needlessly.

[newmexicoNita]

Never sailed NCL only Carnival and soon to be RC, all I hear about NCL is they nickel and dime, they keep raising the gratuitys, is there anything good about them and what ship is the best for a first time? Not to keen on big ships.

 

Here we go again, if you haven't sailed them and have a RCI cruise already planeed, why do you even care? Learn not to believe eveything you hear. If there was nothing good, the line would not be in business, with new ships coming out almost yearly!!!!

 

Let's say, we have only sailed Carnival once and would not return: is there anything good to say about them?

Edited July 29, 2015 by newmexicoNita

[timmo44]

I've only ever sailed NCL but the thing we like are:

 

1. Dining options. I love that you can pay extra to get more choices if you like - the amount is so negligible compared to the real world and you get very fine dining for your money. If anything it's actually a little annoying that NCL have handed out so many free UDPs recently because it means the speciality restaurants are far busier at the moment and harder to book. I cannot imagine having set meal times, formal dress and especially dining with strangers - I would hate all of that. NCL = freedom of choice.

 

2. The Haven being affordable. The extra benefits you get from NCLs version of business class has us hooked. Once we'd done it there was no going back. Not cheap but not out of reach either.

 

3. The entertainment. Howl at the Moon is a great way to end the night. Fat Cats blues and the tribute bands they have up on the top in Spice H2O.

 

4. The Waterfront boardwalk on the Breakaway and Getaway. When warm we spend more time at these bars looking out to sea than any of the others. We also use this on sea days as a walking track as a lap is approx. 1/4 mile.

 

We find the whole NCL set up very relaxed and therefore relaxing. Do as little or as much as you like when you like. Nothing is ever perfect as you will find thousands of messages about on here but we (Londoners) consider it very good value for money overall.

[timmo44]

If you had to go to one restaurant what would it be? Is it true NCL are smaller

 

Le Bistro is particularly good on Epic and Breakaway. But we also loved Shanghai's on Epic - really good Chinese food and service.

[Cruzaholic41]

Never sailed NCL only Carnival and soon to be RC, all I hear about NCL is they nickel and dime, they keep raising the gratuitys, is there anything good about them and what ship is the best for a first time? Not to keen on big ships.

 

Think about this for a second - would such a widespread rumor as this exist if there wasn't any truth to it? Of course not. For those who know the cruise industry, not just NCL zealots, NCL has been known as the NiCkLe and Dime cruise line for a long time, and for good reason. Anyone who says otherwise is seriously kidding themselves. No other cruise line pushes specialty restaurants as hard as NCL does. Other cruise lines have scaled back their on-board sales announcements, but not NCL. No other major cruise line charges $7.95 for room service (that's a BIG nickle and dime there). NCL attempted to block take-out food from all venues, but backlash caused them to rescind that policy.

[Cruzaholic41]

I just read the other day on the Carnival board that Carnival just announced that it is bringing back the live music poolside on a few ships this year and then spreading fleet wide over the next year. Nice to see something being added instead of being cutback for once lol. Hopefully Carnival does something about their stage shows because they have gotten really bad in the last few years. I think NCL blows them off the map when it come to entertainment.

 

Everyone's entertainment is better than Carnival. Of all the major lines, I think Carnival has the worst entertainment. To hear they are bringing poolside bands back out is a step in the right direction.

 

Hi

I've seen Royal Caribbean cruise line referred to as RC, RCCL but never RCI, is it the same thing?

 

RCI is the correct term. The cruise line is called Royal Caribbean International, not Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. RCCL is the parent company - Royal Caribbean Cruises, LTD.

[Warm Breezes]

Think about this for a second - would such a widespread rumor as this exist if there wasn't any truth to it? Of course not. For those who know the cruise industry, not just NCL zealots, NCL has been known as the NiCkLe and Dime cruise line for a long time, and for good reason. Anyone who says otherwise is seriously kidding themselves. No other cruise line pushes specialty restaurants as hard as NCL does. Other cruise lines have scaled back their on-board sales announcements, but not NCL. No other major cruise line charges $7.95 for room service (that's a BIG nickle and dime there). NCL attempted to block take-out food from all venues, but backlash caused them to rescind that policy.

 

I can only speak from my EXPERIENCE and not RUMORS and I am not a NCL zealot (see cruising history)....but from my EXPERIENCE, I don't spend anymore on my NCL cruises than I do on any other cruise lines and when I do spend, it is on similar items as I spend on other lines, so I see no TRUTH in the RUMORS of Nickel and Diming on NCL from my EXPERIENCES. I hardly think I am kidding myself when my wallet backs up my statements at the end of my cruises.

Edited July 29, 2015 by Warm Breezes

[nbsjcruiser]

If you had to go to one restaurant what would it be? Is it true NCL are smaller

 

Cagneys. The specialty restaurants on RCI are not noticeably different when you are talking about size.

[Minoushka]

Of all the lines. nCL has some of the best shows around

They have huge casinos ..if you like they are big

They have great. Specialty restaurants if you do not mind paying extra .My favorites are Cagneys and the Brazilian restaurant ..i tried those on Epic ...actually I tried them all .My son loved the Japanese restUrant ..not my taste but lI enjoyed the chefs chop chop artistry ..did not care for Bistro or small Italian place ...othets were good

Loved cirque show myson loved blueman and some of the legends .Enjoyed Flamenco dancers Howl at the moon dualing pianos,and improv .....and Fat cats ...alll are pretty awesome

Lots of options ..not all free ..but great fun ..it depends on you

[cocacola86]

NCL is for me because?

[wilmingtech]

We have sailed both RCI and NCL. The biggest difference was in the ships. RCI freedom was huge compared to NCL star. The second difference was specialty dining. We got the Ultimate Dining Package and loved every dinner being at a different resteraunt. It was a great variety. We also thought the MDR on NCL was slightly better than RCI. We found the NCL buffet on the Star to be lacking. Interestingly enough on RCI some of the same dishes in the MDR were found in the buffet each night. This seemed to diminish the quality of the food in the MDR (it made it feel like plated buffet food) but added to the quality of the buffet.

 

-Sean

[DMH15]

Think about this for a second - would such a widespread rumor as this exist if there wasn't any truth to it? Of course not. For those who know the cruise industry, not just NCL zealots, NCL has been known as the NiCkLe and Dime cruise line for a long time, and for good reason. Anyone who says otherwise is seriously kidding themselves. No other cruise line pushes specialty restaurants as hard as NCL does. Other cruise lines have scaled back their on-board sales announcements, but not NCL. No other major cruise line charges $7.95 for room service (that's a BIG nickle and dime there). NCL attempted to block take-out food from all venues, but backlash caused them to rescind that policy.

 

 

NCL innovates. Do you really think the other mainstream lines won't follow suit with room service fees in the future?

[chrisc71]

Carnival is already on the extra charge room service:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=6286

 

Granted it is for certain items but still a charge.

 

Also every mainstream line has a specialty dining that carries an extra charge. I have been on two NCL and about to take my third and never felt pressured to eat in the extra charge places.

 

The reason you hear more about it on Norwegian is it is part of their brand. Eating what you want, where you want.

 

BTW I am no zealot either and would cruise any of the lines.

[hansolosmom]

I so disagree with this advice. Why limit yourself to one cruise line? Variety is the spice of life. How do you know what you like or don't like unless you try it? Cruise line is never the most important factor for me when choosing a cruise. It all depends on what we are looking to get out of our vacation so the factors we are looking for vary. Usually most important to us is it has to fit our time off with time for travel. After that it could be itinerary, embarkation port, price, or sometimes it is the ship itself.

 

Amen to this! We've tried several different lines for different reasons, itinerary, time of year, proximity of departure port etc.

DCL is wonderful and I love it, but as our family grew, we needed more than they could offer on Wonder & Magic (their only ships at the time my boys were young). Maybe dh & I will do them to Alaska for our 25th anniversary because of their high level of service. We've loved Princess and RCI. I personally didn't like our trip on Celebrity but the rest of my family did. I'm trying out Breakaway this coming winter with my mom & my sister and possibly going on Carnival next summer.

I'm one of those people who will roll with it and find something to do and have fun. I find food to be food, none of the cruise lines have anything spectacular that you don't pay extra for and I don't usually do pay restaurants. Same thing with entertainment, I've never seen anything awful (meh! maybe) and I've seen some great stuff. I think a cruise result can be based more on attitude going in than what happens during the cruise.

[Cruzaholic41]

Op - Ask this question on a more neutral board and you'll receive far more answers like mine. Truthful ones, that is. The CEO of NCL said it himself - he said it was his goal to squeeze another $50 out of every passenger. If that's not a quote to support his nickle and diming, I don't know what is. It's hard to dispute these facts.

 

Carnival is already on the extra charge room service:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=6286

 

Granted it is for certain items but still a charge.

 

Also every mainstream line has a specialty dining that carries an extra charge. I have been on two NCL and about to take my third and never felt pressured to eat in the extra charge places.

 

The reason you hear more about it on Norwegian is it is part of their brand. Eating what you want, where you want.

 

No, the reason you hear about it more on NCL is not because of Freestyle - it's because NCL ships have up to 9 or 10 specialty restaurants on board. No other cruise line has as many fee venues for food as NCL.

 

And about the room service fee, yes, CCL does have a small fee for some items. Even RCI has a small fee for late night service. But none of the other lines charge $7.95. There a big difference there, and that difference is exactly one of the ways NCL nickle and dimes more than the other lines. This is all fact, not my opinion.

 

The "feeling pressured" point you made has nothing to do with the subject at hand. Of course the nickle and dime options are just that - options.

 

NCL innovates.

 

Yes, they do - at nickle and diming!

Edited July 29, 2015 by Cruzaholic41

[chrisc71]

Op - Ask this question on a more neutral board and you'll receive far more answers like mine. Truthful ones, that is. The CEO of NCL said it himself - he said it was his goal to squeeze another $50 out of every passenger. If that's not a quote to support his nickle and diming, I don't know what is. It's hard to dispute these facts.

 

 

 

No, the reason you hear about it more on NCL is not because of Freestyle - it's because NCL ships have up to 9 or 10 specialty restaurants on board. No other cruise line has as many fee venues for food as NCL.

 

And about the room service fee, yes, CCL does have a small fee for some items. Even RCI has a small fee for late night service. But none of the other lines charge $7.95. There a big difference there, and that difference is exactly one of the ways NCL nickle and dimes more than the other lines. This is all fact, not my opinion.

 

The "feeling pressured" point you made has nothing to do with the subject at hand. Of course the nickle and dime options are just that - options.

 

 

 

Yes, they do - at nickle and diming!

 

If all the lines charge for specialty dining and room service why is only NCL guilty of nickel and diming? Or in your words "more so" Yes they charge 7.95 today. and by next year one or all of the lines will follow suit.

[Cruzaholic41]

If all the lines charge for specialty dining and room service why is only NCL guilty of nickel and diming? Or in your words "more so" Yes they charge 7.95 today. and by next year one or all of the lines will follow suit.

 

Uh, you need to go back and read my post a little closer. You totally mis-comprehended it.

[jason3695]

I so disagree with this advice. Why limit yourself to one cruise line? Variety is the spice of life. How do you know what you like or don't like unless you try it? Cruise line is never the most important factor for me when choosing a cruise. It all depends on what we are looking to get out of our vacation so the factors we are looking for vary. Usually most important to us is it has to fit our time off with time for travel. After that it could be itinerary, embarkation port, price, or sometimes it is the ship itself.

 

 

 

DCL is by far my favorite so far....having said that we haven't sailed them since 2004 because I'm not willing to pay the price to sail them unless I have kids at the age to get the most out of it. After that NCL and CCL run neck and neck for us. I usually give NCL a slight edge for the entertainment but DH likes CCL a little more. We both agree that Princess was the cruise line we least preferred. We didn't have a bad cruise but we did feel the demographics were too old for us (seemed to be mostly FL retirement village groups and snow birds and this was during Spring Break time), the service wasn't up to our other cruises, and the nightly entertainment (after the shows) became repetitive and boring. We will probably sail them again, but probably not for a while.

 

 

 

I would love to try other lines but they have never fit our wants for a given vacation. I just don't understand the cruise line loyalty mentality. To me it is just limiting your choices needlessly.

 

 

Im with you. I'm hardly loyal at all. Sailing princess for the first time next year and msc the year after that. I'm not loyal to any business, I'm loyal to vacations that I want to take.

[cocacola86]

Do they have movie screen on the pool decks?

[Sizzlechest]

Do they have movie screen on the pool decks?

 

The Jewel class and Dawn class ships don't. The Breakaway class ships have it in the rear, but not where the main pools are. It's one thing that Carnival did better in their ship design. However, there are movies indoors in the big screen at the atrium. However, the quality on the pre-Breakaway ships aren't very good.

[mfantasia]

I think that NCL is very similar to Royal and Carnival. We went only to the buffet and it was superior to any other cruise buffet. We didn't go to any restaurant, because in Europe, we prefer to go to restaurants in the ports and we loved the freestyle of NCL.

IMO, Royal, Carnival and NCL charges for extra/options are not so different. It is worth it, we really enjoyed the trip.

[zqvol]

Never sailed NCL only Carnival and soon to be RC, all I hear about NCL is they nickel and dime, they keep raising the gratuitys, is there anything good about them and what ship is the best for a first time? Not to keen on big ships.

 

There is no more nickel and diming on NCL than there is on CCL and any other mass market line. It is entirely possible to spend not one penny after you board the ship and you will have a great time. The free options are more than adequate if that is the way you want to go. (I would urge you however to leave the service charges that go to the crew alone.)