Ncl or RCI

[yeclano]

I've cruised with Ncl for the last 7 years but I am thinking of changing to another line. My last Ncl cruise was ok overall but something was missing.

 

Any thoughts?

[NECruiser83]

I am one that has only sailed RCI, but I have my first NCL booked for next year. I personally think it is good and get out there and see what others have. I have a feeling after sailing NCL, I won't be loyal to any cruise line. Best price/itinerary/ship is what I will book.

 

If you are going to give RCI a try, I suggest Oasis or Freedom class 😀

 

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[MaryL31]

My thoughts: I have cruised RCI (5 times) and have cruised NCL just twice; both times it was the Sun to Alaska. I much prefer NCL, but I cannot tell you if it is the staff on The Sun which makes me prefer NCL (food was great; very few children because of Alaska in September) or the ship itself. I find RCI is all about status (Diamond, etc). All I can say for sure is that I did not feel like "just a number" but felt treated quite well on NCL versus RCI, where I am a lowly Platinum member-will need 2 mores cruises to become Emerald, but what will it get me? We are cruising RCI in March because we are going with friends who are Diamond Plus and only cruise RCI, but I wish it was an NCL ship. It just seems like NCL makes everything easier, if that makes any sense. Less hassle, and again, I had no idea all week (just disembarked Norwegian Sun yesterday) what status any other cruiser was.

[Aquahound]

I've cruised with Ncl for the last 7 years but I am thinking of changing to another line. My last Ncl cruise was ok overall but something was missing.

 

Any thoughts?

 

I always think its a good idea to try something different. Naturally, after 7 years, the same old product is going to get stale. Definitely try another line. If it's RCI you've narrowed it down to, give Oasis Class a try. The entertainment is the best at sea.

[Lido_Deck]

I've cruised with Ncl for the last 7 years but I am thinking of changing to another line. My last Ncl cruise was ok overall but something was missing.

 

Any thoughts?

 

What is it you are looking for? Do you have children that cruise with you? What is your age demographic? Do you spend a lot of time at the pool? Are the production shows important to you?

 

It's hard to advise you if we know nothing about you, your habits or your likes and dislikes. I've sailed on Carnival, Costa, Celebrity, NCL, Princess and RCCL and they are all different, they are all the same, depending on one's preferences.

[nednrom]

I've cruised with Ncl for the last 7 years but I am thinking of changing to another line. My last Ncl cruise was ok overall but something was missing.

 

Any thoughts?

 

You get tired of the same thing over over - we wanted new itineraries, different ships so we have switched from Royal. Have done Carnival, Princess and now just booked NCL. If you do try it try either the Freedom class or the Oasis class ships.

[jm485]

I've only been on one RCI and one NCL cruise, but there was just something about RCI that I didn't like. My husband -- who doesn't really like cruising -- said that the staff on NCL genuinely seemed to care whether you were having a good time or not. I never got that from the people on RCI.

 

On the other hand, I think RCI's cabins are bigger, and the beverage plan includes coffee and bottled water, so that might be a consideration for you.

 

I also think I must just like smaller ships (2K or fewer passengers) vs. the mega-ships of 3K or more. And I'm not into late night bars or clubs. If you share that, you might want to look at HAL. I got the same vibe from its staff that I got from NCL's.

 

However, if you are looking for big ship and lots of action -- the RCI Oasis class ships would probably be good to try. And Anthem ships are big with lots going on, and they are moving away from the Dynamic Dining concept back to a more "traditional" approach.

 

Another option might be an all-inclusive land trip. There are certainly lots of options!

Edited September 20, 2016 by jm485

[Tiggertastic]

Give rccl a try but be ready for a change up in dress code

 

 

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[yeclano]

My last cruise was on the jade, in the garden villa. I have to say that the room and service were incredible but outside of the room the ship lacked atmosphere. I prefer to travel in the haven but only on the jewel class ships because the haven has become too big and there are too many children on the newer ships.

 

I have sailed RCI once, in the Royal family suite on the voyager. The room was nice but the children on the same floor kept knocking on the door asking if I needed room service.

 

It's not that I don't like children, it's just that I spend 10 hours a day in a classroom teaching them and for one week I want to be free!

 

I am currently looking at booking a cruise at the end of April 2017, to celebrate my wife's birthday. When I looked at RCI nearly all of the top end suites have been taken whereas both GVs have not. This tells me that I'm missing the point somewhere.

[Travel R]

Variety is the spice of life.

 

After a few cruises on RCI, (which we have always enjoyed - and we are still very low on the rewards chain), we tried out Carnival last year because of an super low price. Although we did not love our Carnival experience, we are glad we tried them out. Next year we are sailing on NCL because of the itinerary during the time period we could travel - I look forward to trying it out. If we like it, we may be back - if not, at least we can say we tried.

 

Every cruise line has its own quirks. Someone above mentioned the rewards plateaus on RCI. I have not experienced that caste division while travelling with them. However, being new to NCL, reading these boards, I am taken back by some of the Haven comments (some posts make the me feel like I am travelling in steerage, even in a mini-suite) - but I need to experience NCL for myself before being too critical.

 

Regardless of the cruise line or ship you are on, it is the attitude of yourself travel-mates that will make it a great or horrible experience. Our cruise to Bermuda was literally through a Hurricane with 24+ foot swells where the top deck was closed for two days - but we still had an excellent time.

[franklin7425]

I have sailed in NCL, RCCL, Princess and Carnival. My family and I have very much enjoyed every cruise we've been on. I would rank them:

1. NCL

2. Princess

3. RCCL

4. Carnival

 

NCL wins for best food and friendlies staff. Princess is second because they have the best pool areas and best sea day experience. RCCL wins with their fleet of very different ships and Carnival just gave us an overall good time the two times we sailed with them.

I guess what i'm trying to say is that its vacation...enjoy!!!

[suesings]

It's not that I don't like children, it's just that I spend 10 hours a day in a classroom teaching them and for one week I want to be free!

 

Ahh... they need to do some "Teachers Only" cruises or resorts. I have some close friends who are teachers! Bless you all and you more than anyone deserve child free vacation time!!:D:D

[Lido_Deck]

My last cruise was on the jade, in the garden villa. I have to say that the room and service were incredible but outside of the room the ship lacked atmosphere. I prefer to travel in the haven but only on the jewel class ships because the haven has become too big and there are too many children on the newer ships.

 

I have sailed RCI once, in the Royal family suite on the voyager. The room was nice but the children on the same floor kept knocking on the door asking if I needed room service.

 

It's not that I don't like children, it's just that I spend 10 hours a day in a classroom teaching them and for one week I want to be free!

 

I am currently looking at booking a cruise at the end of April 2017, to celebrate my wife's birthday. When I looked at RCI nearly all of the top end suites have been taken whereas both GVs have not. This tells me that I'm missing the point somewhere.

 

You will probably find more children on RCCL than NCL, so I would suggest you try Princess. In April they have ships sailing from Barcelona, Southampton, Athens and Civitavecchia.

[deliver42]

I agree with the posters that recommended Oasis class. So much to do and fantastic entertainment. As big as the ships are, I didn't find crowding a problem at all, except for the sales and the parades.

[volk904]

I can tell you 3 have cruised 3 times on a Princess and 4 times on RCCL. Only once on NCL but we h ave a second coming up. Our last cruise was on the Oasis. Best ship we have been on by far. Plenty of pools, large adult area up front and we loved the fact that many of the speciality places are open for free at breakfast and lunch. The Park is fantastic.

 

 

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[Debde]

My last cruise was on the jade, in the garden villa. I have to say that the room and service were incredible but outside of the room the ship lacked atmosphere. I prefer to travel in the haven but only on the jewel class ships because the haven has become too big and there are too many children on the newer ships.

 

I have sailed RCI once, in the Royal family suite on the voyager. The room was nice but the children on the same floor kept knocking on the door asking if I needed room service.

 

I am currently looking at booking a cruise at the end of April 2017, to celebrate my wife's birthday. When I looked at RCI nearly all of the top end suites have been taken whereas both GVs have not. This tells me that I'm missing the point somewhere.

 

I now personally prefer the Haven and will not book a RCI suite anymore. NCL really does do a much better job with suite guests then Royal does.

[MikeBTN]

Having sailed both multiple times, I prefer the layout of Royal's ships and their evening entertainment, I prefer the pricing, specialty restaurants (especially w/ SDP/UDP) and "laid-back" atmosphere of NCL (not to say Royal is stuffy, by any means....it's not the QM II). I would imagine after 7 years of traveling exclusively one line, things would get a bit repetitive. I say try something new. What I would recommend you trying would depend on what was "missing" from your last sailing.

 

Also its possible your last sailing was an anomaly, and if you cruised with NCL again, everything would be back to normal.

 

Also you mention you want to try to avoid children.....since you sail in suites with NCL, you may want to look at luxury lines like Crystal & Azamara. Should have less children and even the lower class of ships will get top-notch service.

[SheehanDJ]

I've cruised with Ncl for the last 7 years but I am thinking of changing to another line. My last Ncl cruise was ok overall but something was missing.

 

Any thoughts?

 

What was missing was that little bit of anxiety and wonder.

 

You are a pro at NCL, you know what to expect on their ships even ones you have never been on.

 

We were the same until this past May except going from RCCL to NCL. We always enjoy our cruises, but even going on ships we had never been on, ultimately it was still a RCCL ship. They did things the RCCL way. If you had asked me before the Empress fiasco if I would ever jump ship (sorry, couldn't help it) to another cruise line I would have immediately said no. Why should we, RCCL meets and exceeds all our needs, it is home.

 

Then the Empress thing left us with booked flights and time off work 10 days before vacation. Our choice was either have a staycation or go on the Getaway as it matched up to days and the price. Getaway it was.

 

Now, we enjoy both cruise lines and are looking at others too. In 9 days we will be back on RCCL for a southern, and next September will be on the Escape.

 

People will say the food, service, etc are better or worse on either cruise line dependent upon where their loyalties lie. The fact is, just looking at food and service, they are the same. The food, probably literally the same as more than likely all the cruise lines are getting their food from the same vendor. The service, on both cruise lines you will find both good and bad servers.

 

Bottom line, it really comes down to RCCL and NCL just do some things differently and it is really a personal thing on how much it bothers you. We HATED the pool on Getaway, but would give anything to have H2O available on the Adventure here in a few more days. Why in the world wouldn't RCCL have fish on the carpet swimming toward the front of the ship, this should be a no brainer. Why in the world wouldn't NCL have the days of the week on the carpet in the elevators, again no brainer.

 

Now we come to dining. NCL is all about a different venue every night. RCL only has one venue (excluding specialty restaurants). We found going to a different venue every night kind of cool, however, we missed not having the same table mates and server every night. We missed having cruise ship dinner friends along with the cruise ship bar friends. We missed sitting down and have our favorite pre-appetizers either waiting or quickly delivered by our waiter who knew we were going to order them. I think going from RCCL to NCL was a bit easier than it would be going from NCL to RCCL dinner wise. Keep an open mind though, and all will be well.

 

Book another cruise line, if you enjoy cruising you will have a great time. You will miss somethings NCL does, and you will wish NCL would adopt some of the things the different line you go on does.

[Lido_Deck]

You will probably find more children on RCCL than NCL, so I would suggest you try Princess. In April they have ships sailing from Barcelona, Southampton, Athens and Civitavecchia.

 

A caveat to my recommendation of Princess:

 

The production shows on Princess are really bad because their approach to producing a show is bassackwards. Princess will hire a cast and then bring in a show rather than choose a show and cast for the individual parts for that show. The result is someone that is light on talent trying emulate Billy Joel or Elton John, but just can't pull it off.

 

For those that say the entertainment is better on RCCL I would bet they have not been on NCL's newer ships that have Tony Award winning shows such as "Burn the Floor" and "After Midnight" performed by actual Broadway talent instead of "wannabe talent" that are on cruise ships as a last resort because they aren't talented enough for Broadway.

[Aquahound]

For those that say the entertainment is better on RCCL I would bet they have not been on NCL's newer ships that have Tony Award winning shows such as "Burn the Floor" and "After Midnight" performed by actual Broadway talent instead of "wannabe talent" that are on cruise ships as a last resort because they aren't talented enough for Broadway.

 

You'd lose that bet. I've been on both. The entertainment on Escape was good, but it wasn't Oasis Class quality. And yes, the shows on Oasis, Quantum and Freedom Classes (excluding Independence of the Seas) are performing by artists from Broadway, not a generic cast of singers and dancers.

 

RCI's Tony award winning shows are Mama Mia, Saturday Night Fever, Cats, Grease and Hairspray. Plus, there are the ice shows and Aqua Theater shows which are excellent, and unlike anything you'll see on NCL or any other line.

[Lido_Deck]

You'd lose that bet. I've been on both. The entertainment on Escape was good, but it wasn't Oasis Class quality. And yes, the shows on Oasis, Quantum and Freedom Classes (excluding Independence of the Seas) are performing by artists from Broadway, not a generic cast of singers and dancers.

 

RCI's Tony award winning shows are Mama Mia, Saturday Night Fever, Cats, Grease and Hairspray. Plus, there are the ice shows and Aqua Theater shows which are excellent, and unlike anything you'll see on NCL or any other line.

 

The Big Easy? When did you leave Key West?

 

Anyway...Let's call it a draw because you have not been on all the "Away" ships to see "Legally Blonde," "Burn the Floor," "After Midnight." "The Brat Pack," "Rock of Ages" and club entertainment like "Howl at the Moon" is very popular.

[Aquahound]

The Big Easy? When did you leave Key West?

 

Anyway...Let's call it a draw because you have not been on all the "Away" ships to see "Legally Blonde," "Burn the Floor," "After Midnight." "The Brat Pack," "Rock of Ages" and club entertainment like "Howl at the Moon" is very popular.

 

I'll agree with you about Howl at the Moon. That was fun....although, I thought the venue sucked. It got too crowded in that small room and those wood chairs were not comfortable.

 

I left KW about 2 months ago due to a work promotion. I don't regret the move but boy do I miss that place every day. It was my home for 20 years.

[Lido_Deck]

I'll agree with you about Howl at the Moon. That was fun....although, I thought the venue sucked. It got too crowded in that small room and those wood chairs were not comfortable.

 

I left KW about 2 months ago due to a work promotion. I don't regret the move but boy do I miss that place every day. It was my home for 20 years.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. Moving from a place home to people who are not all there to a place home to people who are really not all there is a culture shock.

[mom2tcdx2]

I have sailed in NCL, RCCL, Princess and Carnival. My family and I have very much enjoyed every cruise we've been on. I would rank them:

1. NCL

2. Princess

3. RCCL

4. Carnival

 

NCL wins for best food and friendlies staff. Princess is second because they have the best pool areas and best sea day experience. RCCL wins with their fleet of very different ships and Carnival just gave us an overall good time the two times we sailed with them.

I guess what i'm trying to say is that its vacation...enjoy!!!

 

 

See we all have a different opinion. I would rank NCL last on the list, with Carnival being first. I found the food on NCL to be my least favorite (and maybe MSC, which isn't on your list).

 

I found the friendliest staff to be on Carnival and Royal, with again least being on NCL. Out of every cruise I can remember crew members from Royal, Carnival, Disney and Princess, yet with 4 NCL cruises I don't really remember any staff member at all. No cabin stewards, no bartenders, no dining staff. Pretty much forgettable.

[jtdlmc]

My two cents' worth:

 

We have sailed on Carnival (Legend and Liberty) and Royal Caribbean (Freedom of the Seas) with our first NCL cruise booked on the Epic in 2018 (haha yes, a long time to wait!, but may stick an Alaskan cruise in next year).

 

I preferred Carnival over RCI for staff, food and cabin.

 

As someone else mentioned, the staff on RCI just didn't seem to be as friendly overall - some were as friendly as can be, others not so much. On Carnival it seems they are all friendly and glad you are there.

 

We found dining better on Carnival. The buffet had more options and the offerings changed a lot more than on RCI. RCI had a huge buffet with lots of stations but each station had the same things and maybe only one or two main dishes changed each night, everything else was the same. The dining room food was probably about the same on both. Carnival had more options that we liked - Guy's Burgers, Burrito bar, bbq at lunch. The Freedom class ships on Royal have the Promenade with a bunch of different complimentary options, but it was always so busy down there we didn't try much of it. RCI says it has "anytime dining" but it really doesn't - you must make reservations before you cruise if you want to eat between 6 and 8 pm. They would not even give us a stand-by option when I asked at the dining podium to go at a different time than what was available when I made our reservations for "anytime" dining. Carnival has true "anytime dining" and we only ever had to wait once on embarkation night for about 10 minutes.

 

Cabins. Carnival's seem much larger than RCI. We had a corner aft cabin on Freedom of the Seas and it was smaller than our regular balcony cabins on Carnival. Our friends had regular balcony cabins on FOS and they were tiny.

 

Having said all that, I would definitely advise you to try other lines. We have only ever wanted to try Carnival, RCI and NCL but some day one of the other lines may interest us. I don't think we would ever stick to one main cruise line (the perks certainly don't entice us), we may have our favourite but will sail on other lines depending on price and itinerary.

Edited September 21, 2016 by jtdlmc