Alternatives to NCL?

[cloud_nine]

I would wait until you're platinum with NCL until you loyalty match with MSC as their "black tier" is the only decent tier with MSC and I'm not even sure if platinum is the equivalent to black anymore (it used to be platinum on NCL and diamond on RCI but I'm not sure if it is anymore.) Either way, I don't think bronze (or even gold) will get you much on MSC's status match. 

[willsears94]

 

Loyalty should not matter if you are dissatisfied with a line. Honestly, I am considering MSC Yacht Club regardless of Status Match, despite quite a bit of negative feedback on the line. 

If Loyalty is important, with Celebrity, you can be near the middle tier (Select or Elite)  by the 2nd cruise, depending on your cruise length and room category. 

Edited January 23, 2019 by willsears94

[Trimone]

Be different try P&O, a real good laugh, Very British full of jokers and entertainment, cheap drinks, couple of formal nights and the food is excellent..

[graphicguy]

20 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

The rewards level matching of MSC is intriguing. I am still only Bronze right now, but I will be Gold by the time I return from our Encore transatlantic next fall. At that point I would be 20 points away from Platinum. Wonder if it would be worth getting to Platinum under NCL before sailing with MSC? I could do it in two more cruises (maybe even one if I could find a 10 night Latitudes Rewards sailing).

Jamie....I really enjoyed my MSC cruises.  But, their loyalty (Black in my case) program doesn’t seem to offer as much as NCL’s Platinum.  I do like Platinum on NCL because it gets me some free laundry, a dinner at Le Bistro (when added to the dining package perk, means you have 5 nites of specialty dining for free), priority embarkation and debarkation, and sometimes an accelerated points kicker to the next loyalty level.  You also get a free “behind the scenes” ship tour, which is quite interesting.  Since I’ve sailed as Platinum, I’ve also received $100 OBC from NCL. That’s cruise dependent, though.

 

MSC Black’s best perk is dinner at a specialty restaurant and some priority embarkation/debarkation.  Wouldn’t sneeze at that.  But, not nearly as worthwhile as what NCL offers.

 

I’m a pretty far ways from NCL’s top tier (Ambassador) which gives a free cruise.  Not sure I’ll ever make that tier.

 

That said, I don’t sail NCL exclusively, either.  Like everyone else, I’m price/value driven.  NCL provides a pretty strong story there.  Have to read how some of NCL’s drink changes affects that.  It doesn’t affect me at all because the brands I like to drink, or something similar,, are available on the drink package.

 

Regardling smaller clubs, I love NCL’s FAT CATS.  The house band has always been really good.  Plus, you stay late enough, some of the main show performers drop by to really make for some memorable entertainment.  Plus, on the more recent ships where they have the outdoor promenade, I like hanging out there, where you can hear the entertainment in FAT CATS while watching the water go by.....as I’m sipping on a drink.

[JamieLogical]

So it seems as though we may be sailing with another cruise line far sooner than anticipated. Our inaugural transatlantic on the Encore has been shortened from 11 days to 9 and now sails into NYC instead of Miami. The idea of a northerly route across the Atlantic in November is fairly unappealing. They have also canceled our stop in the Azores, so it is now just a straight shot from Southampton to NYC with no ports. And to cap it all off, the new "pro-rated" amount they are charging us isn't accurately pro-rated AT ALL and the total trip is going to cost us $33 more per day with a much crappier itinerary.

 

Now we are looking at sailing on the Encore in December instead and just doing a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise. Since we had budgeted time off and money for a two-week trip, flying to London, staying a few days there, and an 11 day cruise, we can actually now squeeze another cruise in between my April sailing on the Escape and our December sailing on the Encore.

 

Unfortunately, that means summer months. We are looking at June, July, or August, which are all prime times for kids to be sailing. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I am not a fan of kids. One of the cruises we are looking at is a Western Caribbean on MSC. Anyone know how many kids are usually on an MSC sailing in the summer months? Are there as many kids as with some of the mainstream lines?

[SeaTheW0rld]

Any line would be a better choice. Dancerbob said it best: staying home would be a better choice. 

[newmexicoNita]

On 1/22/2019 at 2:37 PM, JamieLogical said:

I just began cruising last February. My first ever sailing was on the Escape and I loved every second of it. I have since sailed on the Gem in June and the Escape again in October. I am sailing on the Bliss in under two weeks and booked to sail on the Escape yet again in April. We're also booked on the Encore's inaugural transatlantic in November. So, far, I have loved sailing with NCL, but I do have some thoughts and concerns about continuing to sail with them beyond our transatlantic next fall. I guess, what I am looking for in this thread is info from people who have sailed with multiple cruise lines. What cruise line would you consider to be most like NCL or the best alternative to NCL? I'll list off some of the things I love about NCL to help you understand more of what I am looking for:

 

• Casual attire... I am a jeans and t-shirt kind of person. I always pack one dress to wear to specialty restaurants, but otherwise like to feel comfortable walking around the ship, attending shows, dining in the buffet and MDRs in my jeans and sneakers.
• Specialty Dining... I love the variety of specialty dining available on NCL ships and the fact that you can get the SDP as a perk or purchase it ahead of time and have a set number of meals in specialty dining restaurants.
• Drink Package.... I don't think of myself as a heavy drinker on land. I might have something like 8 drinks a week in my real life? But on a cruise, I want to be able to have 8-10 drinks a day! I don't have expensive taste in liquor and I am not a wine drinker at all, so the current price hikes and $15 cap on drinks isn't hurting me, but I could see how it might be an issue if it continues, or if they continue to raise the "price" of the UDP and, by extension, the service charges associated with taking it as a perk.
• Chipper Staff... One of the things that has constantly impressed me on my cruises so far is how up-beat and happy the staff appear to be, despite their thankless jobs and grueling hours. I don't know how they do it! But I am so appreciative of it. It makes for a really lovely and relaxing time. It is important to me in considering any other cruise line that the staff be friendly and attentive. I have been blessed with some great room stewards so far and would hate to have a negative experience when switching cruise lines.
• Live Music... We aren't big on the large theater productions. They can be fun, but we could take them or leave them. What we do love is live performers in small venues where we can sit with a couple of drinks and enjoy the music. We found the Gem to be better for this than the Escape, but I understand a lot can depend on which musicians they have on board for any given sailing.
• Sailing out of NYC... This isn't critical, but it's definitely nice. For some of our "in between" cruises we've taken on shorter notice (the Gem in June and my upcoming sailing on the Escape in April), being able to sail out of NYC reduces the cost of the trip and the logistics of planning with no need for a hotel or flights.
• Large, Modern Ships... We enjoyed our time on the Gem, but agreed we prefer the larger and newer ships.

 

I will say that we don't care at all about pools, water slides, and loungers in the sun, so top deck activities aren't a huge priority.

 

Hopefully you guys will have some suggestions and insights for us!

Even though I am not a supporter of Carnival: I think that would be your next best bet, considering what you like and do not like. Princess, HAL and Celebrity may be too subdued for you. They are more for the older cruisers and those who like a little more formality. We have sailed all mass marketed brands and you won't find any service better than on NCL> It is good to try new things, and Carnival has larger cabins than many other lines. RCI is ok but for some reason we just don't feel any special love for them either. To be honest we haven't cruised them for about 10 years,: the reason, we just never felt any RCI ships had a real personality. 

[JamieLogical]

55 minutes ago, SeaTheW0rld said:

Any line would be a better choice. Dancerbob said it best: staying home would be a better choice. 

 

 

Better choice than NCL or MSC? Were you responding to my original post or my most recent one where I was asking about MSC?

[SeaTheW0rld]

17 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

Better choice than NCL or MSC? Were you responding to my original post or my most recent one where I was asking about MSC?

I've never been on MSC, but I've heard it's similar to Costa (which I really like). 

[Linda the Book Lover]

On 1/23/2019 at 12:13 PM, cloud_nine said:

I would wait until you're platinum with NCL until you loyalty match with MSC as their "black tier" is the only decent tier with MSC and I'm not even sure if platinum is the equivalent to black anymore (it used to be platinum on NCL and diamond on RCI but I'm not sure if it is anymore.) Either way, I don't think bronze (or even gold) will get you much on MSC's status match. 

I went over to MSC with Platinum and was matched to Black. Unfortunately with the NCL tier changes to the addition of Platinum Plus and Ambassador, now Planium no longer matches to Black. You will be matched to Gold.

[Tatka]

If you check my signature I listed all ships I sailed on with every lines. We also prefer, but not always do .. sail from Northeast and mostly from NY/NJ area.

 

Even NCL provides a different experience on different ships. You won't have as much live music with large NCL ships as on Jewel or Dawn class, especially Dawn.

 

My preference of similar lines in this order Royal, MSC ..... Carnival (we don't sail with them anymore)

However I cannot find exact match to NCL with any of these lines.

 

IMHO, especially if you sail in colder time RCCL Anthem is a GREAT choice and better than Breakaway/Getaway.

It is not the best cruise ship  from RCCL , as it can be congested more than other their ships (Breakaway/Getaway btw is not very different in this regard) but has unique features like beautiful adult only  Solarium (just check photos online) and separate indoors pool.

 She also has nice variety of clubs with live music. I know you don't like production shows, but Spectra's Cabaret played in amazing two70 club is something else.

RCCL has also Adventure which is large and nice ship.

I believe they will be sending Oasis for spring-fall of 2020. This is amazing innovative ship.

 

As for drink packages... they are about $65 now I believe... but on NCL it is not always a real perk though. I am looking at my upcoming cruise on Gem (14 days) and the difference in inside cabin is 900+ vs 1500+ for cabin without and with 1 perk ...

 

We liked MSC, but we only been on smaller Poesia and 130K Divina. Live music was the best on Poesia. Food was MSC's weakest point. We have not sailed on Seaside, so cannot comment.

 

Carnival... I won't even concentrate on other aspects (food, service etc was good). We couldn't adjust to the ambiance or lack of it. I am sure there were many nice cruisers, but then there were many not so nice.. and many activities catered to well.. Not our cup of tea, although we are not snobs by any mean.

 

Btw even though we reached high levels with RCCL (and they offer great perks like 3.5 a day open bar for Diamonds and free photos and some other stuff), my favorite lines are Princess and Celebrity. I'd try them too.

[Adian80]

I just sail RCCL last month (first time in 4 years) and am sailing NCL this month (my last 3 cruises previous to last month were NCL.)

 

Honestly, I was impressed with RCCL.  We were in a hump balcony 5 night and paid $1500, paid for the drink package for 2 (includes bottled water, specialty coffee, and fresh squeezed juice) at $52 per day plus gratuity ($289 pp), and got unlimited internet for 2 devices for around $100 total.  They have several specialty restaurants that we didn't try, but would assume they are similar to NCL.  We did Mytime dining, so it was very similar to NCL.  I personally made a reservation, but you don't have to (you may have to wait a few minutes at popular times, but you do on NCL as well.)  Dress code was fairly laid back and I wore jeans, a nice top, and flats several times and no one batted an eye.

 

We'll see what happens with our cruise booked this month with NCL.  For this one we paid $2300 for a 5 night balcony that included drink package, 2 night dining, 100 internet minutes, shore excursion, and airfare.  The price is fairly comparable in my opinion.  With the changes to the drink prices I am considering changing our Alaska cruise in August to another line, but we shall see how it goes this month.  

[Oceansaway17]

no other cruise line builds hallway with solo rooms and solo lounge.

A few ships try hard but they put a few rooms for solos - guess where- yup way down low and in the front of ship near theatre

 

RCI does try to put a few in the middle of ship scattered, but for the most part, NCL cares the MOST for solo travelers.

[jbethel11]

On 1/22/2019 at 3:46 PM, Alegeeter said:

I think most of what you find important is pretty standard across lines. Sure, other lines have formal nights but you certainly don't need to participates. If modern ships out of NYC is important then Royal Caribbean might be your best choice for an alternative. 

 

I agree with that, only Royal Carribean and Norwegian currently have YEAR ROUND modern ship sailing from NYC. Carnival brings renovated/new ships only in the late spring-early fall months. 

[tallnthensome]

6 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

So it seems as though we may be sailing with another cruise line far sooner than anticipated. Our inaugural transatlantic on the Encore has been shortened from 11 days to 9 and now sails into NYC instead of Miami. The idea of a northerly route across the Atlantic in November is fairly unappealing. They have also canceled our stop in the Azores, so it is now just a straight shot from Southampton to NYC with no ports. And to cap it all off, the new "pro-rated" amount they are charging us isn't accurately pro-rated AT ALL and the total trip is going to cost us $33 more per day with a much crappier itinerary.

 

Now we are looking at sailing on the Encore in December instead and just doing a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise. Since we had budgeted time off and money for a two-week trip, flying to London, staying a few days there, and an 11 day cruise, we can actually now squeeze another cruise in between my April sailing on the Escape and our December sailing on the Encore.

 

Unfortunately, that means summer months. We are looking at June, July, or August, which are all prime times for kids to be sailing. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I am not a fan of kids. One of the cruises we are looking at is a Western Caribbean on MSC. Anyone know how many kids are usually on an MSC sailing in the summer months? Are there as many kids as with some of the mainstream lines?

Kids are found in larger numbers in the out of school months on every line. However, you'll experience few kids period on Celebrity, HAL, and Princess. We did the Western on the Seaside in April of last year during spring break. we never found the number of kids to be anything of concern. The Seaside has a great aqua park and the Jungle pool as well. This is where most of the kids including ours congregated. The main pool had fewer kids and remember the aft pool is adults only which is enforced and somewhat rare anymore on many ships. There are plenty of spaces on the MSC Seaside where you'll be away from kids. 

[JamieLogical]

16 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

Kids are found in larger numbers in the out of school months on every line. However, you'll experience few kids period on Celebrity, HAL, and Princess. We did the Western on the Seaside in April of last year during spring break. we never found the number of kids to be anything of concern. The Seaside has a great aqua park and the Jungle pool as well. This is where most of the kids including ours congregated. The main pool had fewer kids and remember the aft pool is adults only which is enforced and somewhat rare anymore on many ships. There are plenty of spaces on the MSC Seaside where you'll be away from kids. 

 

 

Thank you so much for that clear response. I have been having a hard time getting good info out of anyone about it. I think we will suck it up and deal with the kids. The price for the sailing we are looking at is just too good to pass up. Even if we tack on the cost of upgrading to the premium drink package and purchase a specialty dining package, it's going to come in hundreds of dollars cheaper than a similar sailing at a similar time with NCL.

[AKR2011]

@JamieLogical I appreciate this thread a lot. I've been thinking a ton about NCL recently and think like you do. Husband and I do not have kids and work with kids, so we like to travel between during November/December (not during holidays) to avoid them. Longer cruises also help us to avoid kids. We cruise every couple years and have been very loyal to NCL since we started cruising together in 2011. We enjoy the UBP, but are also afraid of what will be cut with that next. If Jameson goes, I'll admit that would be a game changer that would steer me away immediately. We do love the shows, though, and we enjoy the smaller ships on itineraries that are 10 days or less. We did 14 days on The Dawn, and we were done with it by the end. 14 days on the Escape, and we were never bored. However, we like to see a new show each night, and that's not available on the bigger ships.

 

I admit that I cannot help you make a choice, but I am with you on looking into a new line. We just made Platinum on NCL and have thought about going to MSC for the match, but now you need to be Platinum-Plus to get their black level. Also, their website confuses me. And Royal just seems overwhelming, and when I price it out, it always seems to be more expensive. I am intrigued by Carnival - I haven't been since high school! - but that fear of a million kids always holds me back. I like the free options that they offer like Guy's Burgers and the Blue Iguana Cantina. But there aren't a ton of other specialties, and you still have to pay for the drink package. Decisions, decisions...

 

Anyway, I wish you the best in your decision. I enjoy reading your post and am right there with you! I look forward to hearing how it goes down the line.

[Stealthdog]

We are trying MSC this October for the first time (NY to Quebec), and yes the Platinum now translates to gold, but to be honest even their Black status is really a bunch of "meh."  Platinum-Plus is needed for Black Status match.  We are doing Yacht Club and the perks of that are already better than any status program they have. 

 

The Celebrity sailings I have been on have had noticeably fewer kids on it than RCI and NCL.  The longer the cruise and higher the cost, the least likely there will be many kids on it.  But, even on a ship with a large amount of children, there are typically some adult-only spaces (like Casinos) and sometimes curfews.  You will be able to find ways to avoid kids if you want.

 

Try some different cruise lines and see what they feel like.  I've found there are things I like and dislike on each line I've been on.  None are perfect, but all have been great.  I love the RCI ships, the NCL entertainment, the Carnival pricetag, and the Celebrity food and service.  If only all 4 could be combined into one. :)

[4774Papa]

On 1/22/2019 at 3:37 PM, JamieLogical said:

I just began cruising last February. My first ever sailing was on the Escape and I loved every second of it. I have since sailed on the Gem in June and the Escape again in October. I am sailing on the Bliss in under two weeks and booked to sail on the Escape yet again in April. We're also booked on the Encore's inaugural transatlantic in November. So, far, I have loved sailing with NCL, but I do have some thoughts and concerns about continuing to sail with them beyond our transatlantic next fall. I guess, what I am looking for in this thread is info from people who have sailed with multiple cruise lines. What cruise line would you consider to be most like NCL or the best alternative to NCL? I'll list off some of the things I love about NCL to help you understand more of what I am looking for:

 

• Casual attire... I am a jeans and t-shirt kind of person. I always pack one dress to wear to specialty restaurants, but otherwise like to feel comfortable walking around the ship, attending shows, dining in the buffet and MDRs in my jeans and sneakers.
• Specialty Dining... I love the variety of specialty dining available on NCL ships and the fact that you can get the SDP as a perk or purchase it ahead of time and have a set number of meals in specialty dining restaurants.
• Drink Package.... I don't think of myself as a heavy drinker on land. I might have something like 8 drinks a week in my real life? But on a cruise, I want to be able to have 8-10 drinks a day! I don't have expensive taste in liquor and I am not a wine drinker at all, so the current price hikes and $15 cap on drinks isn't hurting me, but I could see how it might be an issue if it continues, or if they continue to raise the "price" of the UDP and, by extension, the service charges associated with taking it as a perk.
• Chipper Staff... One of the things that has constantly impressed me on my cruises so far is how up-beat and happy the staff appear to be, despite their thankless jobs and grueling hours. I don't know how they do it! But I am so appreciative of it. It makes for a really lovely and relaxing time. It is important to me in considering any other cruise line that the staff be friendly and attentive. I have been blessed with some great room stewards so far and would hate to have a negative experience when switching cruise lines.
• Live Music... We aren't big on the large theater productions. They can be fun, but we could take them or leave them. What we do love is live performers in small venues where we can sit with a couple of drinks and enjoy the music. We found the Gem to be better for this than the Escape, but I understand a lot can depend on which musicians they have on board for any given sailing.
• Sailing out of NYC... This isn't critical, but it's definitely nice. For some of our "in between" cruises we've taken on shorter notice (the Gem in June and my upcoming sailing on the Escape in April), being able to sail out of NYC reduces the cost of the trip and the logistics of planning with no need for a hotel or flights.
• Large, Modern Ships... We enjoyed our time on the Gem, but agreed we prefer the larger and newer ships.

 

I will say that we don't care at all about pools, water slides, and loungers in the sun, so top deck activities aren't a huge priority.

 

Hopefully you guys will have some suggestions and insights for us!

We cruise NCL, Celebrity and Royal C.

 

We prefer Celebrity first, but we look at itinerary and  price before making our decision.  We don't like NCL's beverage package with the ridiculous value it is given as well as the 20% gratuity.  Also, the wine selection is poor for reds.  On our last NCL cruise, we declined the beverage package and bought our own wine, paid the $15 corkage fee per bottle and spent less on alcohol than we would have spent JUST on the 20% gratuity on NCL.

 

NCL's main strength is its entertainment.   All three of these lines have gone to allowing any time dining, which is what we prefer. Royal C. has great entertainment, perhaps slightly better than NCL and its prices are beating the other two lines, because it doesn't price bundle with beverage packages that we don't want.

 

Service is super on Celebrity and I think Royal C and NCL are good, with Royal getting the edge.  On Celebrity the MDR is so good, we don't do the specialty dining, but we do like it on NCL and Royal C.

[Sailing12Away]

In my younger days my family always sailed with RCC. Now that I'm adulting myself (just hit 40 this year) we opted to go with NCL last May, and have 3 more trips booked with them coming up. The thing which swayed us and has kept us with NCL is the overall vibe and targeted clientele of the lines. 

 

We've always been told that Carnival is the Walmart of cruising. Sure, there are exceptions, and not every Carnival sailing is wrought with issues and bar brawls, but if I was a betting woman and had to pick which cruise line would show up next in the news with unruly passengers, you know where my money is going. Not to sound snobbish, but if the price of the trip is low enough, it will be affordable to more categories of passengers. Some of which lack basic etiquette and manners. 

 

On the flip side, I've heard that Celebrity/Princess is the geriatric cruise line. Bingo games, 50's lounge music everywhere, more quiet and subdued. Also not my cup of tea.

 

Royal tends to be more family focused - rock climbing walls, surfing pools, zip lines.... and like Jamie, I have no kids and can tolerate them in small mild doses, but a ship that caters to families with children is also not ideal for us. 

 

When we get our hearts set on a destination I always check several other cruise lines, but I've not yet found one that matches the itinerary we want, the time period we want, and when you do a true comparison with similar sized rooms and perks (UBP is a must for us), NCL has always come out on top. I'd love to try MSC one day as I've heard good things about them (we would enjoy the more European flair that it seems to have with regards to food and entertainment, although others prefer the more American-ized ships like NCL), but they're always a solid 1-2K more than NCL for a similar sailing. 

 

I do find it interesting though that Jamie prefers ships that leave out of NY, whereas me, being only 20 miles from the NY dock, I have zero interest in cruises leaving out of here. Unless you're sailing in the summer (with kids and higher prices), you can't even go outside and enjoy the ship and views for the first 2 days of your trip. We prefer using the ship as a means to get to some awesome places, and don't care much for sea days. So I would much rather fly somewhere and get to my destinations, than take 3 days sailing there.

[JamieLogical]

5 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

I'd love to try MSC one day as I've heard good things about them (we would enjoy the more European flair that it seems to have with regards to food and entertainment, although others prefer the more American-ized ships like NCL), but they're always a solid 1-2K more than NCL for a similar sailing. 

 

I was thinking the same thing about MSC being more pricey, but after doing mock bookings on both, this is what I have come up with:

 

The sailing we are looking at right now is September 7 on the Seaside (built in 2017) out of Miami to Ocho Rios, Jamaica - Georgetown, Cayman Islands - Cozumel, Mexico - Nassau, Bahamas. Definitely not the best itinerary and we have done it before. But, the closest comparable itinerary on NCL at the same time is September 1 on the Breakaway out of Miami to Roatan, Honduras - Harvest Caye, Belize - Costa Maya, Mexico - Cozumel, Mexico.

 

For a  Balcony with the upgraded drink package, free wifi, and 3 meals specialty dining on MSC, the total for the two of us is $2571.66.

 

For a Balcony with drink package, 250 minutes of wifi, $50 shore excursion credit, and  3 meals specialty dining on NCL, the total for the two of us is $3,068.22.

 

Even if we maxed out that shore excursion credit (which we probably wouldn't with those ports!), we would still come out ahead on the MSC cruise. We can also get discounted airfare with the NCL sailing that would save us roughly $100 per person, but we don't have any interest in doing that since we wouldn't get to choose our airlines or flights, wouldn't be able to fly in a day early, and would have to pay NCL's airport transfer fees.

[Cafedumonde]

If it is September,  kids will be minimal.   But a week or two earlier, packed with kids.   Msc does very reduced prices for kids.  We haven't been on msc but did a lot of research on msc because we had the Seaside booked in May 2018.  We ended up cancelling.   

[PaulInPGH]

13 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

In my younger days my family always sailed with RCC. Now that I'm adulting myself (just hit 40 this year) we opted to go with NCL last May, and have 3 more trips booked with them coming up. The thing which swayed us and has kept us with NCL is the overall vibe and targeted clientele of the lines. 

 

We've always been told that Carnival is the Walmart of cruising. Sure, there are exceptions, and not every Carnival sailing is wrought with issues and bar brawls, but if I was a betting woman and had to pick which cruise line would show up next in the news with unruly passengers, you know where my money is going. Not to sound snobbish, but if the price of the trip is low enough, it will be affordable to more categories of passengers. Some of which lack basic etiquette and manners. 

 

On the flip side, I've heard that Celebrity/Princess is the geriatric cruise line. Bingo games, 50's lounge music everywhere, more quiet and subdued. Also not my cup of tea.

 

Royal tends to be more family focused - rock climbing walls, surfing pools, zip lines.... and like Jamie, I have no kids and can tolerate them in small mild doses, but a ship that caters to families with children is also not ideal for us. 

 

When we get our hearts set on a destination I always check several other cruise lines, but I've not yet found one that matches the itinerary we want, the time period we want, and when you do a true comparison with similar sized rooms and perks (UBP is a must for us), NCL has always come out on top. I'd love to try MSC one day as I've heard good things about them (we would enjoy the more European flair that it seems to have with regards to food and entertainment, although others prefer the more American-ized ships like NCL), but they're always a solid 1-2K more than NCL for a similar sailing. 

 

I do find it interesting though that Jamie prefers ships that leave out of NY, whereas me, being only 20 miles from the NY dock, I have zero interest in cruises leaving out of here. Unless you're sailing in the summer (with kids and higher prices), you can't even go outside and enjoy the ship and views for the first 2 days of your trip. We prefer using the ship as a means to get to some awesome places, and don't care much for sea days. So I would much rather fly somewhere and get to my destinations, than take 3 days sailing there.

We're also looking at trying something new after five straight NCL cruises. I'm not sure if you've looked at some of the MSC itineraries in Europe, but when I looked at some pricing for cruises this coming October, I was blown away by how good their pricing is compared to similar NCL cruises. Pricing for a balcony cabin was about half the cost of an NCL balcony. The Yacht Club was also priced $3,000 less than a Haven cabin on NCL. I've not looked at anything other than cruises from Italy, so no clue how they compare throughout the rest of the world, but I would strongly consider MSC, at least at the current pricing, should you be venturing to Europe.

 

Cheers.

[Tatka]

On 1/30/2019 at 2:40 PM, Adian80 said:

Honestly, I was impressed with RCCL.  We were in a hump balcony 5 night and paid $1500, paid for the drink package for 2 (includes bottled water, specialty coffee, and fresh squeezed juice) at $52 per day plus gratuity ($289 pp), and got unlimited internet for 2 devices for around $100 total.  They have several specialty restaurants that we didn't try, but would assume they are similar to NCL.  We did Mytime dining, so it was very similar to NCL.  I personally made a reservation, but you don't have to (you may have to wait a few minutes at popular times, but you do on NCL as well.)  Dress code was fairly laid back and I wore jeans, a nice top, and flats several times and no one batted an eye.

 

I agree. NCL is overcharging for drink package and wifi horrendously comparing to Royal

On Royal wifi is $19.99 streaming! and very often it is on sale with 20-30% down

Also how NCL can charge $99 for so limited drinking package is beyond me.

 

On my upcoming cruise I am paying $357 for internet. Would be twice less on Royal.

Edited January 31, 2019 by Tatka

[Tatka]

20 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

On the flip side, I've heard that Celebrity/Princess is the geriatric cruise line. Bingo games, 50's lounge music everywhere, more quiet and subdued. Also not my cup of tea.

We started to sail with Celebrity and Princess at early 30ies with 11 years old and never had geriatric cruise. We did sail during holidays or summer though. It was always a good mix of all ages. Royal does have nicer teen program. Our son loved it the best

 

Our "oldest" cruise was actually on Royal Caribbean (we are Diamonds now) to New England/Canada in September. We at early 40 felt like grand kids. People were celebrating 60-th anniversaries, 95 birthdays.

 

Itinerary and time of the year are important.