The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[OnePsychLynne]

I know things are probably different now than they were a year or two ago, but what are the things you love, and hate, about NCL?

[tallnthensome]

They were my go to line for a long while and where I found value  ..... Now I find less value with them versus other lines. They've priced themselves off my radar in regards to what I'm getting overall versus other lines. I won't book a cruise where I feel I've gotten taken even before I sail.  I used to think Royal offered the worst value but now NCL is in that spot.  Not cruising with them until the end of 2023 now. 

[OnePsychLynne]

@tallnthensome I did a mock booking for a British Isles cruise on Norwegian Dawn for September 2023 and the prices seemed very reasonable and included "open bar". I'm not at all familiar with NCL's product so is there something I'm missing, or is that when you found the better deals and why you're waiting until 2023 as well? 

[tallnthensome]

13 minutes ago, OnePsychLynne said:

@tallnthensome I did a mock booking for a British Isles cruise on Norwegian Dawn for September 2023 and the prices seemed very reasonable and included "open bar". I'm not at all familiar with NCL's product so is there something I'm missing, or is that when you found the better deals and why you're waiting until 2023 as well? 

I also have an NCL cruise booked at the end of August/September for 2023 to Canada/New England area where then price was right. I found that the sailings for 2022 through the mid summer of 2023 were high. The Open Bar was a great deal a few years back when there wasn’t even a service charge on it . Then came the service charge for the open bar. Now it’s high prices and the service charge. The open used to set NCL apart from other cruises, now it doesnt. They also had more kids sail free sailings and I couldn’t find anything worth wild until 2023 for Canada. I sailed the Bliss just a couple years ago for 15 days with my family of four for like $5300. Had a 12 day Sun cruise to Alaska for four cancelled by Covid that was like $4600. Now they want $5K for just 7 nights in an inside . Even up to $6K. Resorted to just booking carnival to Alaska for 10 days in an extended balancing and $500 OBC for $4700 for my family of four. The deals are just not there on NCL right now and you have to shop around. I just sailed the Carnival Panorama for a week for two just three weeks ago for $669 total . I’m finding NCL pricing not much better than Holland or Princess .

Edited September 19, 2021 by tallnthensome

[complawyer]

to add my 2 cents, we're booked on the star trans-atlantic from lisbon to rio, 14 days, in a suite. although they dont have a haven, the suites are nice, and i thought the prices for the suite category was very reasonable

[lenquixote66]

Love that there are cruises leaving from Manhattan .

 

Hate : nothing

[UKstages]

with regard to prices or sticker shock or whatever... this, too, shall pass.  

 

it's rue that there is extraordinary demand now (or at least there was a few months ago, when the world looked all shiny and bright)... but there is also a lot of unredeemed future cruise credit... in some cases, at greater than 100% value. post after post here on cruise critic contains details of people trading up to the haven based on redeeming their excess FCC... so the higher prices are part of an NCL "deplete outstanding future cruise credit strategy," in my opinion

 

once the boom in cruise ship booking is over and once the plethora of COVID FCC certificates is depleted, i believe there will be some price normalization.

[BirdTravels]

10 hours ago, OnePsychLynne said:

I know things are probably different now than they were a year or two ago, but what are the things you love, and hate, about NCL?

We have been on 3 cruises since restart. One NCL and two Royal Caribbean. NCL was be best cruise by far. 

[J0Y0US]

29 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

We have been on 3 cruises since restart. One NCL and two Royal Caribbean. NCL was be best cruise by far. 

 

What ships? Encore I know but what else? Also what itineraries? What made NCL better?