Ever try NCL? Need advice...

[mandiecandie5]

Hi I love Princess but am thinking about trying the new Norweigan Jewel ship only for itinerary reasons. Some others in the group like the 'freestyle cruising' idea that NCL offers but isn't that pretty much the same as 'Anytime dining' with Princess. I don't really know if I care for that line, or if they offer something better than what Princess already is offering.....can anyone point out major differences or thoughts. Greatly appreciated. :)

[sally r]

I leave on my first Princess cruise in three days so I can't compare the lines for you. However, we have cruised on NCL three times, the most recent in April. I really enjoy the freestyle. We also enjoyed the option to do/not do the formal nights. I think the best thing NCL offers is the coffee makers in the staterooms!

 

We went on NCL with pretty low expectations and they were honestly exceeded in every venue, be it food, entertainment, service, etc.

[Heytoots]

I agree with Sally R. on this..I am also going on my first Princess cruise this Saturday...and before this, have only cruised with NCL. I love their Freestyle Dining, and the casualness.

They have great entertainment, a wonderful selection of restaurants, a friendly crew...I could go on and on!!

I really don't think you will be disappointed!

 

Barbara

[where next?]

We've sailed on the NCL Dawn twice and Diamond Princess once. We sailed on the NCL Dawn April 2003 on a Western Caribbean itinerary, April 2004 on the NYC to Bahamas/Fla/Private itinerary and April 2005 on the Diamond Princess Mexican Riviera itinerary. Each cruise was with my husband and our two kids - girl now 14 and boy now 10.

 

NCL - We liked... Freestyle style dining - yes it is like Princess PC dining. Food was excellent. Ship was new and beautiful. Kids did not like...salt water pools. Kids pool area was fresh water but shallow. My kids liked their kids program. My husband did not like how NCL tenders...felt like a herd of cattle gettting off onto the private island. Personally, I think if we'd just left earlier like I wanted to this would not have been an issue! He did like NCL's gym alot better. It was larger, I think. I liked their spa area better. Entertainment shows were top notch.

 

Princess - We all LOVED...freshwater pools, tender operation, food choices. My kids loved the kids program and my daughter and I loved the pottery painting on Princess. I liked that my kids could sign themselves in and out of the kids program, within our guidelines. Tendering was much more civil. The pax mix was very friendly...we were new to the west coast and I think the CA crowd was very outgoing and friendly! The spa area was right under the track though so my much looked forward to massage was not relaxing at all,nor was the provider of the service terribly nice. That's just bad luck!

 

If Princess and NCL were going to the same place and the timing was right, my family would choose Princess PRIMARILY for the freshwater pools!! Probably sounds crazy, but my kids really dislike salt water pools and when they are happy.....I'm a relaxed and happy mother!!!

 

I personally have enjoyed all of my cruises and found mostly good and a little bad in all of them. I wouldn't sail out of NY again. That was definately our least favorite cruise and almost ended the desire to cruise for my husband!!!

 

Our next cruise is this April 2006 on the Coral Princess to the Panama Canal. After the NY NCL Dawn cruise, my husband refused to go on another. It took weeks of coaxing and he finally agreed, if we tried Princess since he thought the whole experience would be more upscale.

 

All I can say is that we enjoyed the Diamond Princess so much that I had the next cruise booked just THREE DAYS after we'd returned! My husband has never been that easy when deciding on a vacation!!

 

I hope this helps, but it probably just confuses the issue since all is so personal!!!

[mr green]

Hi I love Princess but am thinking about trying the new Norweigan Jewel ship only for itinerary reasons. Some others in the group like the 'freestyle cruising' idea that NCL offers but isn't that pretty much the same as 'Anytime dining' with Princess. I don't really know if I care for that line, or if they offer something better than what Princess already is offering.....can anyone point out major differences or thoughts. Greatly appreciated. :)

 

I hate to be a party pooper, but I only have one word of advice. 'DON'T'. john

[mandiecandie5]

Hello,

 

Thank you so much for your well thought out answers! Sometimes it helps to hear people's personal experiences because you can relate your own family to the same situations and how they would like or dislike things.

 

Where next-I agree with the freshwater pools, its a huge plus for me. We like dressing up though and having the formal nights....its sounding like NCL is in general less dressy especially if your husband thought princess was more upscale? Or was that for different reasons?

 

We are big spa people also so I think that will play into also.

[KatWag]

Mandie,

 

I think you'll find them very similar. We have sailed Princess 5 times. We did NCL Star in Hawaii a few years ago. Found it very similar in a lot of ways to Princess's Personal Choice dining.

 

From my reading of reviews and posts, it seems like folks are happier on the newer NCL ships which were specifically built for Freestyle Cruising. I often see negative reviews on some of their smaller / older ships.

 

We found the experience to be very similar.

 

We did find that embarkation was better on Princess, but perhaps that was Hawaii and not NCL?

 

You'll have a blast on your trip. Enjoy every moment.

 

Kathy

[Palmist]

My DH and I have been on 3 NCL ships and not one of them met our expectations. The worst was Hawaii on Pride of Aloha. He calls it SOA, Shame of ALoha. On the last day at breakfast he bit into scrambled eggs and had a screw or nut in it. We heard about a woman who broke a tooth on the trip before ours. We did not like the entertainment or the food. But the worst was the attitude of the employees.

 

We have been on 3 Princess ships. Dec. 3 we are on the Caribbean Princess going to eastern Caribbean and can't wait.

Myrna

[cynbar]

We are big Princess fans but we tried the Norwegian Sun a couple of years ago for the itinerary, and it was great. The food was wonderful, we enjoyed the option of trying several different restaurants and didn't mind the surcharge, staff was very friendly. The buffet hours were much more limited than Princess and this was a drawback when we came back late from tours, but otherwise, it compared quite favorably with Princess. From what I've heard, you can't equate NCL proper with the Hawaiian edition, that's a whole other ballgame. And I've heard that some of the older NCL ships are not as satisfactory. But you should be fine on the Jewell.

[pugsbest]

I returned from my first cruise on NCL (Wind)in August and I have cruised 2 times on Princess (Grand & Diamond). I enjoyed all the cruises, but NCL was a different experience.

 

The Wind is an older ship, so it just didn't have the facilities of the newer ships. The Jewel would probably have better pools, spa, shops, golf, restaurants, etc. I felt NCL was more layed back than Princess. Very few people were dressed up on the formal nights and I thought the casual nights were very casual. We all felt the evening entertainment was extremely poor, and the longest I could sit and listen was 15 minutes (and that was because I was still drinking my martini!). Eventually we stopped going to the nightly show. There seemed to be a lot more craft activities than were available on Princess and the crew was great. We enjoyed the food, but it wasn't as gourmet as we have had on previous cruises. I did enjoy the way NCL handles disembarkation. They let you stay in your room until they call your color. Much nicer than sitting around crowded lounges. I did notice that the kids were much more unruly on NCL. I work as a nanny and enjoy spending time with kids, but I have never been on a cruise where the pre-teens and teens were so out of control. I don't know if it was NCL or just some really bad luck (and bad parenting), but I went home with a new appreciation for my charges! I will definitely go on NCL again, but a newer ship and either an itinerary with less kids or during school.

[jennew]

I will cruise on almost any line (not carnival though) and if the price is right, I would go with NCL again. It all has to do with WHY you cruise?

 

For me, I like being in the Carribean, an ocean view, having an (almost) all-inclusive vacation, childcare at select times, food that is fairly good and readily available, and just "getting away"

 

Since that is my values, most any cruise will do.

 

HOWEVER, the food was better on Princess. Princess does have better room service and the ship is a little cleaner. I did not like the sea spray on my balcony ALL week on NCL.

 

Our next cruise is on Princess.

[Sillyjilly]

I hate to be a party pooper, but I only have one word of advice. 'DON'T'. john

 

Ditto!

 

NCL is very casual. Very few people dressed up on our cruise. T-shirts and jeans in the dining room, etc.

If you like dressing up, try Celebrity or stick with Princess.

 

Jill

[alolewis]

I hate to be a party pooper, but I only have one word of advice. 'DON'T'. john

 

Can you be more specific why? Just saying things like don't, or it sucks, isn't bvery helpful in helping someonme make an informed decision. looks like you have at least 5 cruises on NCL, couldn't be all bad if you kept going back?

[daWoods]

We've done both, and wouldn't hesitate to do NCL again. We found the service and quality of food comparable.

[where next?]

Hi mandicandie5,

 

Yes, the freshwater pools are a BIG plus. We chose Princess over Royal Caribbean for our first non-NCL cruise because of them! I'll use the spa again on our upcoming cruise, but will go to meet the service provider ahead to make sure it's a good fit. This was the first time I hadn't really liked the masseuse before.

 

My comment regarding to Princess being more upscale, in my opinion, relates to our whole cruise experience on Princess. Everything was just done so well, not that I had complaints with NCL. Formal nights were definately more formal. Also, I liked the PAX mix on Princess but I wonder if that was a function of departing from the West Coast. We were in the wrong lane in the center of LA during Friday night rush hour traffic and where we're from, that's a BIG NO NO!! We expected to get beeped at, at a minimum, but a kind driver waved us in and we were on our way! We loved the whole California scene - Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive in our rental Ford Taurus (!), Hollywood....Just an observation.....................!

[albertiger]

mandie,

on the newer NCL ships, (Jewel, Dawn, Spirit, Sun, Star) they do have 1 of the regular (free) dining rooms set aside for those who wish to dress up. By my signature you see ive cruised NCL quite a bit, i love them but price and itinerary being a factor, i move around. i'll be on Celebrity for the next 2 then trying Caribbean Princess!:D

[alinehu]

Is more or less the same thing I have travel on both cruise lines , both are excellent.On NCL there is even more food and it is veryy good.I been to 25 cruises and I can tell you for sure that I ate more food in NCl than any other:rolleyes:

[A Sixth?]

Only been on the NCL Sun, and am only about to try Princess, but based on my six cruises so far, NCL was the best.

Food, staff everything was great. I loved the freestyle dining. We ate at slightly different times each night, depending on our moods and schedules.

The only thing I hated on NCL was that as a Canadian, they confiscated our passports when we boarded only returning them to us the disembarkation

morning, after a long line up.

Apparently, Princess doesn’t do this (so we’ve been told on the CCBB)

[mr green]

Can you be more specific why? Just saying things like don't, or it sucks, isn't bvery helpful in helping someonme make an informed decision. looks like you have at least 5 cruises on NCL, couldn't be all bad if you kept going back?

 

 

One. I did not know what else was out there.

Two. I went for price, not quality.

Three. The food, service, and entertainment went downhill.

A story after 911. We were supposed to sail from New York on the Sun, but, it was changed to Boston, the next port of call. No problem for me, we went air/sea by NCL. BUT, those who made their own way to the ship WERE NOT INFORMED. True the ship was in Boston an extra day, but I have never seen so many angry passengers in my life. 'Too much trouble to inform the cruisers' was the official reason, that I was told. With the money they saved on fuel, some of it could have been used to inform the passengers. No I will not go NCL again! john