Carnival or Norwegian... Advice?????

[Stick93]

Disaster is not fair - I liked the Horizon but thought it would be more technologically advanced and have more bells and whistles than other new ship we have been on. Maybe it was a bit disappointing to see that carnival didn't upgrade it much from the Dream class. In fact I think the design of the Dream class is a bit better. I would still go back on a Vista class ship like I would go back on a Fantasy class ship or any other classes in between...But if Norwegian was less and I got perks with my reservation, see you later I am there.

[Stick93]

10 hours ago, NightOne said:

 

Vista class ships do have smaller comedy clubs but that was part of the original design. The Sunshine series of ships are more of a re-design and rename vs a refurb.

🙂

They are a rename, but my opinion is it was a refurb... Sorry but they didn't really think out of the box or come close to bringing these ship to the advancement of new ships built at similar or todays times. But this is a totally different topic that has been beaten up on a different post. 

 

 

 

[PhillyFan33579]

3 hours ago, bakersdozen12 said:

 

Disaster?! Hardly. There are many people, myself included, that love this class of ship. 

 

I am not a big fan of Vista class ships but I agree with your comment and wouldn’t call these ships a disaster. However, I would say the SkyRide is a major disappointment due to how frequently it is closed for one reason or another. 

[jbethel11]

2 hours ago, Stick93 said:

But if Norwegian was less and I got perks with my reservation, see you later I am there.

EXACTLY! If Norwegian's price wasn't so high I would be perusing the NCL forum more frequently. 

[Amadawn1]

My biggest disappointment was taking the Norwegian Star in May 2011 to Alaska.  It had been 10 years since our last cruise.  NCL failed/decided not to notify us that this sailing was a 75% chartered cruise with internet Amway sales people. Talk about being fish out of water....We were treated like we had no business being on that cruise.  I was so disappointed.  I swore never to sail NCL again.....but ended  up doing so for four "Chartered" Sail Across the Sun Cruises.  But I can guarantee the Sail Across the Sun chartered cruises were 100% there for the SATS cruise.  I still will not sail NCL unless I have no choice.

[beerman2]

10 hours ago, Amadawn1 said:

My biggest disappointment was taking the Norwegian Star in May 2011 to Alaska.  It had been 10 years since our last cruise.  NCL failed/decided not to notify us that this sailing was a 75% chartered cruise with internet Amway sales people. Talk about being fish out of water....We were treated like we had no business being on that cruise.  I was so disappointed.  I swore never to sail NCL again.....but ended  up doing so for four "Chartered" Sail Across the Sun Cruises.  But I can guarantee the Sail Across the Sun chartered cruises were 100% there for the SATS cruise.  I still will not sail NCL unless I have no choice.

Curious why you think NCL should have informed you it was a charter? It's there ship, their business and all cruise lines prefer to sail to full capacity. They had 25% to book and that's exactly what they did or try to do. 

 

 

Hell i sailed on a charter before with the BBW's. (Big Beautiful Women). Let's just say it was interesting to say the least.

 

It wasn't right to be treated bad, I'll give you that. However did you not knowing it was a charter and you not being happy about that contribute to the experience. I'm guessing some issues are related.

[Amadawn1]

3 hours ago, beerman2 said:

Curious why you think NCL should have informed you it was a charter? It's there ship, their business and all cruise lines prefer to sail to full capacity. They had 25% to book and that's exactly what they did or try to do.

I think for me, common courtesy by a cruise line to inform non charter cruisers that a ship is 75% or more chartered is not unreasonable.  They should allow the non charter cruiser to decide if that particular cruise is for them, or would another option be better.  Another NCL example from last year?  Several families that unknowingly booked on the over 75% chartered "Gronk's Party Cruise (Rob Gronkowski) They definitely complained about the atmosphere and lewdness their children were exposed to.  So I guess it just depends on your point of view.  Yes it's their business and they can do what they want.  They've just lost my business.  There are plenty of cruise lines to choose from.

[Stick93]

4 hours ago, Amadawn1 said:

They've just lost my business.  There are plenty of cruise lines to choose from.

 

That is until the next cruise line does this to someone. These stories happen time to time. There are cruise search engines that will tell you is there are special large or themed cruises going out. Sorry this happened to you - thanks for sharing and hopefully people who read this or participate in these discussions protect themselves if this is an issue. 

[Amadawn1]

 

30 minutes ago, Stick93 said:

There are cruise search engines that will tell you is there are special large or themed cruises going out. Sorry this happened to you

Thank you Stick93.  Yes, and I'm much better with my research these days.  That cruise was in 2011.  I've learned a lot since then.  I think we really have to do our homework nowadays and at least we have the ability to do much of it online, too. I still feel bad for those new to cruising that end up in a situation like that.  We were contacted two years ago by HAL.  The cruise I had booked first week in November had ended up as a charter 4 months before sailing.  They told us our cruise was cancelled and would be refunded, but that if we were able, there were two other sailings that same month that they could switch us to.  We said yes, and ended up on a Thanksgiving week cruise for $200 less total cost of the cruise and they threw in an additional $100 OBC.  To me that's customer service and how the cruise lines should operate.  I have never had what happened on that 2011 NCL cruise ever repeat on any other cruise line I've sailed.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Same thing happened to us on Carnival. Multiple venues were closed/off-limits to "regular" guests during the cruise. It was some national fraternity meeting (Fantasy class ship.. can't recall which one). That was a rowdy and boisterous cruise. Another one on Carnival (Red Hat society, or something like that)... that one, even though areas were blocked off again, was not as "in your face" as the other group (they probably drank a LOT less)!

 

(edit... we were not informed ahead of time)

 

Tom

[beshears]

Amadawn1, I was "surprised" when you mentioned you being disappointed by the Norwegian Star ship. The reason I say this, we were on the Star years ago, and it was a brand new ship!  To say the least, by the time we left the ship, I never seen so many people at Guest Services "complaining," and also many people on our airline flight, hearing them "complain" about this ship.  We then thought............Guess it wasn't us that didn't like this ship in more ways than one.  I said they would have to give me a FREE cruise on this ship before I would do it again.  To say the least (it may be better now), it was such a boring ship, with hardly anything to do, or see.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

13 hours ago, beshears said:

Amadawn1, I was "surprised" when you mentioned you being disappointed by the Norwegian Star ship. The reason I say this, we were on the Star years ago, and it was a brand new ship!  To say the least, by the time we left the ship, I never seen so many people at Guest Services "complaining," and also many people on our airline flight, hearing them "complain" about this ship.  We then thought............Guess it wasn't us that didn't like this ship in more ways than one.  I said they would have to give me a FREE cruise on this ship before I would do it again.  To say the least (it may be better now), it was such a boring ship, with hardly anything to do, or see.

 

In my opinion, ANY ship (NCL) prior to the Epic is not of interest to me. They're all just too tired and uninspiring. Of course, that's just my opinion - others seem to love them.

 

Tom

[fabby50]

I often wonder, when I read reviews of people that went on the same cruise as I did, or stayed at the same resort, if we were really on the same ship/staying at the same resort at the same time.  I guess we're just easy to please.  I have read some horrible reviews about cruises/resorts where we had a wonderful time.