NCL vs. RCCL

[clgaryguy]

Hi everyone,

 

We have only exclusively cruised Norwegian Cruise Lines and we are interested in trying Royal Caribbean. I have read many reviews and it would appear that it comes down to taste and what you like best.

 

We love the relaxed feel on Norwegian and the Free style cruising. We are not much into eating at set times and with people we generally do not know.

 

Aside from that, we are pretty easy...Does Royal Caribbean offer free styling cruising...Do you need to get dressed up to eat. We don't mind wearing a pair of chino's and a nice shirt...But a shirt, tie and jacket is a bit too much for us.

 

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[jackson bernard]

Hi everyone,

 

We have only exclusively cruised Norwegian Cruise Lines and we are interested in trying Royal Caribbean. I have read many reviews and it would appear that it comes down to taste and what you like best.

 

We love the relaxed feel on Norwegian and the Free style cruising. We are not much into eating at set times and with people we generally do not know.

 

Aside from that, we are pretty easy...Does Royal Caribbean offer free styling cruising...Do you need to get dressed up to eat. We don't mind wearing a pair of chino's and a nice shirt...But a shirt, tie and jacket is a bit too much for us.

 

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

They have the same thing in one of the dining rooms. Go whenever you want however you want and sit with whomever you want.

[queenschick9b]

They have their own version of freestyle dining called My Time Dining, and they usually set up one restaurant/floor for those diners. Also, on the newer ships it is all dynamic dining and there is one specified formal restaurant -- this way if you don't want to dress you don't go there and there are still 2 other dining rooms to be in. Dynamic dining is like free style.

 

I'm not sure what the actual dress codes are, but you can look in my history and see my post from my cruise last year. I couldn't fit into my dress pants, and I ended up having to wear jeans on the second formal night. I was at a table towards the front and didn't make a big deal of it and nobody said anything. It was never my intent to not be at the dress code, but nobody stopped me either.

[sdmike]

We're huge fans of NCL but have decided to go on the Anthem of the Seas next summer. They have something called Dynamic Dining which is like freestyle, where you can eat in any of the free venues whenever you want. It's all casual except for one dining room which is formal for the entire trip. There's a lot of complaining on the RCCL boards about folks that go there not wearing suits and ties. My main concern is that people suggest making reservations at the restaurants you want to go to. To me, this is far less freestyle than I like. I prefer to walk up and be seated, not knowing each day what kind of food I want and when I'm hungry. That's the beauty of NCL, and it remains to be seen how this works for me on RCCL.

[clgaryguy]

Great! I will look around about the message board to see anything else...We just booked on the Harmony of the Seas in May; its only a 3 night cruise but we thought it would give us a taste of what we could expect.

[Capella Black]

Hi guys. I'm an RCCL girl, who's now done a one-nighter on NCL (Escape). On RCCL, I always just turn up at restaurants and see if I can be seated, exactly as I did on Escape. Reservations are useful if you're a large group, but for couples/fours I think you should be fine just turning up, so long as you're okay with occasional waits (as there are on NCL!)