Considering “Jumping Ship” to try NCL

[complawyer]

sam ting, totally disagree with you. ive gone on rccl website to only discover the following (1) prices are generally higher (2) cabins are generally smaller,  especially at suite level cabins ( 3) with as many people as an rccl ship can carry, it's like booking an ant hill. im not enthused about sailing with 4-5,000 of my closest friends. 

 

ive been cruising with ncl for 12 years, ive posted before that my criteria for booking is itinerary  and price. while ncl has disappointed  me sometimes during those 12 years in other areas,  they consistently meet my expectations with the price and sailings.

 

when rccl can match that i might consider booking with them.

 

and shrike, while i dont scoff at $50 off per excursion and 15% more off platinum level and above,

remember ncl advertises "free excursions". Even someone like you ,who has either criticized, or commented negatively on basically every post ive written, needs to confirm $50 off is no where near "FREE"

[The Shrike]

2 hours ago, complawyer said:

and shrike, while i dont scoff at $50 off per excursion and 15% more off platinum level and above,

remember ncl advertises "free excursions". Even someone like you ,who has either criticized, or commented negatively on basically every post ive written, needs to confirm $50 off is no where near "FREE"

Reading is fundamental; I made no claim that it was free.  I was simply correcting the comment that the $50 credit only applied to one excursion.

And don't flatter yourself; I doubt I've read 10% of the posts you've written and commented on even fewer.  😜😜😁

[rach1fun]

I have sailed Carnival and NCL multiple times each.  As far as experience, I feel like a newer ship on NCL and a newer ship on Carnival are pretty much the same.  We choose your-time dining on Carnival, and the food seems similar in caliber for both.  The price on the front end is more expensive with NCL, but I like the freedom the Free-at-Sea gives me.  I wouldn't pay for a drink package on Carnival, I'm not much of a drinker at home, but I like the ability to get a drink when I feel like it on vacation.  When I was on Carnival, I would find myself limiting what drinks I would get, because they are $$$.  I once graphed out what apples-to-apples would be on the two lines, and I felt like NCL was a better deal for us.  Even if I'm still paying for the package in the increased price of the cruise, I can pay it ahead and not worry about it. 

[kelkel2]

31 minutes ago, rach1fun said:

I have sailed Carnival and NCL multiple times each.  As far as experience, I feel like a newer ship on NCL and a newer ship on Carnival are pretty much the same.  We choose your-time dining on Carnival, and the food seems similar in caliber for both.  The price on the front end is more expensive with NCL, but I like the freedom the Free-at-Sea gives me.  I wouldn't pay for a drink package on Carnival, I'm not much of a drinker at home, but I like the ability to get a drink when I feel like it on vacation.  When I was on Carnival, I would find myself limiting what drinks I would get, because they are $$$.  I once graphed out what apples-to-apples would be on the two lines, and I felt like NCL was a better deal for us.  Even if I'm still paying for the package in the increased price of the cruise, I can pay it ahead and not worry about it. 

 Ok, that’s something to really think about. Because we purchased the drink package for our upcoming January cruise, and it’s $800 ish for 2 adults. But it includes specialty coffees and such that the ncl doesn’t. So even though I have to pay in advance for it, it seems like a better deal. I wonder what the ncl really “costs” because it’s clearly not free. You pay taxes and like others have said I’m sure it’s just a higher cruise rate. So either way you’re paying for it. But we did pay for it in advance 

[cruiseny4life]

16 hours ago, bowlinmoe said:

We actually just booked an NCL cruise this past week after doing Carnival the past couple times.

 

Regarding the offers, read the fine print.  It's technically not as good as you are led to believe.  The "free excursions", for example, you get $50 towards ONE excursion for ONE person....not $50 towards excursions for both a husband and wife in a stateroom.  For the "free unlimited drink package", it will cost you about $125 in gratuities/fees (assuming this is a 7 day cruise).  This might be a great bargain depending on how much you drink but still...it's something to keep in mind.

 

I think the "free wifi" is something like 120 to 150 minutes during the 7 day cruise.

 

Summary:  The offers are nice but not as good as you think they might be at first glance. 

After booking NCL we discovered the same thing. Unless you really dig into the terms and conditions you just don't see that the deals aren't as good as they sound. Marketers get away with a lot of flat out lying. Free excursions? Only if it's $50 or under and what worthwhile ones are? Free internet? If you only want 150 or so minutes. Free drinks? Well technically yes, but gratuities. Free meals? Well again, technically yes, but gratuities. Free airfare? You pay double for the first person, so not really. 

 

Even though I'm still pissed at NCL, I recognize that all cruise lines do this and as a consumer it is really my responsibility to know what I'm booking. Ergo, I'll still be cruising NCL. The Haven product is such a great one that I truly don't think I'd find the same experience elsewhere. And by experience, I mean everything from rooms, to restaurant, to dress code (or lack thereof), to thermal spa (I know, extra)...anyway, NCL it is for the foreseeable future.

 

I do have this dream of taking a Cunard sailing. I'd find the absolutely most outlandish tuxedos and other dress wear so that I would adhere to their dress code, but piss the tuxedo and ball gown crowd off. Just a dream...I'm not going to spend a few grand to do that no matter how much fun it sounds!

[wil e coyote]

15 hours ago, The Shrike said:

It's $50 credit for each port.

Just to clarify a little bit, it is $50 credit per excursion for one person - so in the rare cases where you might book more than one NCL excursion at the same port, you get $50 off each. We actually took advantage of this at Harvest Caye.

[The Shrike]

36 minutes ago, wil e coyote said:

Just to clarify a little bit, it is $50 credit per excursion for one person - so in the rare cases where you might book more than one NCL excursion at the same port, you get $50 off each. We actually took advantage of this at Harvest Caye.

Thanks for clarifying.  I thought that might be the case but have never actually taken two excursions in one port so didn't have firsthand knowledge.

[hallux]

33 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

Free airfare? You pay double for the first person, so not really

eh, not really. Picking a random cruise in October, flights on Southwest from my home airport to MCO are $200 MORE expensive (almost 50%, $660 on Southwest compared to $488) than NCL is charging for both guests.  That's on a carrier that NCL doesn't use, other carriers have some flights that cost less than NCL is charging but nowhere near 50% lower than NCL's fare, and most are higher.

[cruiseny4life]

22 minutes ago, hallux said:

eh, not really. Picking a random cruise in October, flights on Southwest from my home airport to MCO are $200 MORE expensive (almost 50%, $660 on Southwest compared to $488) than NCL is charging for both guests.  That's on a carrier that NCL doesn't use, other carriers have some flights that cost less than NCL is charging but nowhere near 50% lower than NCL's fare, and most are higher.

That's good! I've done a few dummy bookings just to see the airfare prices from ROC to wherever (Miami, Orlando, Heathrow) and all have been about twice as high as what I could find on Google Flights. 

[hallux]

18 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

That's good! I've done a few dummy bookings just to see the airfare prices from ROC to wherever

It's not like ALB is a huge airport, wonder why your flights are so much more, and I did check MCO...

[graphicguy]

14 hours ago, complawyer said:

sam ting, totally disagree with you. ive gone on rccl website to only discover the following (1) prices are generally higher (2) cabins are generally smaller,  especially at suite level cabins ( 3) with as many people as an rccl ship can carry, it's like booking an ant hill. im not enthused about sailing with 4-5,000 of my closest friends. 

 

ive been cruising with ncl for 12 years, ive posted before that my criteria for booking is itinerary  and price. while ncl has disappointed  me sometimes during those 12 years in other areas,  they consistently meet my expectations with the price and sailings.

 

when rccl can match that i might consider booking with them.

 

and shrike, while i dont scoff at $50 off per excursion and 15% more off platinum level and above,

remember ncl advertises "free excursions". Even someone like you ,who has either criticized, or commented negatively on basically every post ive written, needs to confirm $50 off is no where near "FREE"

Similar experience.  

 

While I’ve had issues with NCL in the past (surrounding how they did FCCs and refunds at the restart), they do offer some really good value vs Royal, who I sailed more recently.

 

Can you find excursions that are $50 or less?  Sure!  If you consider the excursion worth $50 is an entirely different question.  But, that would make that excursion free.  I’ve also found overall, excursions on NCL are less expensive than Royal’s.

 

Freestyle is NCL’s calling card.  No cruise line does that better.  You show up to a dining venue and you get seated.  Sometimes a brief wait, but not often and not for long.

 

Royal….whew…their any time dining requires you to pick a time to dine.  True, it could be “anytime”, but you still have to make a reservation.  Even if you don’t make a reservation, you can wait in a long line to be seated.  But, even with a reservation, there is always a long wait.  You’d think for a cruise line that has been sailing for a while, they would have the process down pat.  But, over the years, the bottleneck has caused the same frustration with Royal.

 

Mentioned this previously, but my most recent sailing on Ovation of the Seas (one of their large ships), they had to shut down those coming to the Windjammer Buffet because they could not accommodate any more people.  This was in the “last resort” for dining, meaning people were turned away in the buffet after being unsuccessful getting a seat in one of the MDRs.  Even trying to punt all of those dining options, and tried to get a slice of pizza.  Result?  Another long line.

 

For NCL’s shortcomings, they have been better in my experience than Royal.  That has been even more true since the restart.

[cruiseny4life]

25 minutes ago, hallux said:

It's not like ALB is a huge airport, wonder why your flights are so much more, and I did check MCO...

I know! I've got to look at SYR and ALB more often. I always forget about them as I'm so used to flying out of Rochester, even though I now live in the Utica area. Oh well - when the time's right, I'll get back on a ship. 

[Liljo22]

On 6/27/2022 at 3:08 PM, bowlinmoe said:

We actually just booked an NCL cruise this past week after doing Carnival the past couple times.

 

Regarding the offers, read the fine print.  It's technically not as good as you are led to believe.  The "free excursions", for example, you get $50 towards ONE excursion for ONE person....not $50 towards excursions for both a husband and wife in a stateroom.  For the "free unlimited drink package", it will cost you about $125 in gratuities/fees (assuming this is a 7 day cruise).  This might be a great bargain depending on how much you drink but still...it's something to keep in mind.

 

I think the "free wifi" is something like 120 to 150 minutes during the 7 day cruise.

 

Summary:  The offers are nice but not as good as you think they might be at first glance. 

I get what you are saying about the fine print but the perks are still better than what you are going to get on Carnival and RCCL which is nothing.  I just paid $4,200 on the Liberty of the Seas for my family of 4 in a balcony and still had to pay $950 for the drink package for my wife and I.  I skipped the specialty dining package because even the Chops +1 was almost $100 each person.  Just did the chat feature on the app for $1.99/device/day because the Vroom was crazy expensive. 

 

For my last NCL cruise on the Getaway, I paid $3,000 and that included drinks(including gratuities) for my wife and I, specialty dining, Wifi(which I upgraded to unlimited for less than $100 on day 2, and $50 per port excursions which I was able to use on activities on Harvest Caye and for a little off the water park in Costa Maya.  That's a huge savings off what I ended up spending with RCCL last week.

 

Honestly, I wouldn't have even done the RCCL cruise but it was my MIL birthday cruise and she is platinum with them.  I had a hold on a cruise on the Carnival Dream in a balcony for $1700 with $200 on board credit. 

 

I comparison shop when I am picking a cruise and go with what I feel is the best deal.  If Carnival/NCL/RCCL are around the same price, I am going to go with NCL because of the perks.  

Edited June 28, 2022 by Liljo22

[Liljo22]

10 hours ago, kelkel2 said:

 Ok, that’s something to really think about. Because we purchased the drink package for our upcoming January cruise, and it’s $800 ish for 2 adults. But it includes specialty coffees and such that the ncl doesn’t. So even though I have to pay in advance for it, it seems like a better deal. I wonder what the ncl really “costs” because it’s clearly not free. You pay taxes and like others have said I’m sure it’s just a higher cruise rate. So either way you’re paying for it. But we did pay for it in advance 

Are you saying that you are going to purchase over $500 in specialty coffees because thats the only reason that buying the drink package would be a better deal.  

 

For the higher cruise rate, NCL is not usually way out of line of what the other cruise lines are coming in at.  If they were consistently $500 more per person than Carnival or RCCL then yes you can say you are paying more because of the drink package.   

Edited June 28, 2022 by Liljo22

[Boggs Family]

We have cruised Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Princess, and Celebrity over the years.

 

I like analogies...so I rank them like this...from a retail perspective...

 

Carnival = Wal-Mart 

RCC = Target

Norwegian, Princess, and Celebrity are a mix of Macy's, Nordstrom, & etc...depending on the ship and itinerary.

 

Effectively...anything will be an upgrade over Carnival.  😉

 

We used Princess for an Alaskan cruise.  We're using NCL for our upcoming Med cruise.  Haven't used RCC since our kids graduated from the kids club age.  And don't see ourselves on Carnival at any point in the future.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Boggs Family

[bowlinmoe]

39 minutes ago, Boggs Family said:

We have cruised Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Princess, and Celebrity over the years.

 

I like analogies...so I rank them like this...from a retail perspective...

 

Carnival = Wal-Mart 

RCC = Target

Norwegian, Princess, and Celebrity are a mix of Macy's, Nordstrom, & etc...depending on the ship and itinerary.

 

Effectively...anything will be an upgrade over Carnival.  😉

 

We used Princess for an Alaskan cruise.  We're using NCL for our upcoming Med cruise.  Haven't used RCC since our kids graduated from the kids club age.  And don't see ourselves on Carnival at any point in the future.

 

I did a Carnival cruise about 12 years ago on one of their older, smaller ships.  Hated it.  From that point on, I could understand why people joked about Carnival.

 

However, I've gone on a couple of their newer ships in the past 5 years (Horizon in 2019 and Vista in 2018 ) and I have to say....those Carnival ships were really nice.  Nicer than the NCL Getaway we went on in 2015.

 

TLDR:  I don't agree with all of the Carnival hate I see in the NCL forum.  But I'd guess you'd see Red Sox hate in a Yankees forum so it is what it is. 😁

[Black Magic]

We are trying NCL after several Carnival(Dream and Vista class) and one RCC.  We are a family of three(sometimes 4 when we bring a friend for my son) and we vehemently prefer Carnival over RCC.  I feel that it boils down to what you like to do on YOUR vacation.  We enjoy the outdoor activities, as well as fun indoor games and shows.  RCC seemed to roll up the sidewalks after 9pm(4pm if you like the outdoor features).  Sure there were bars and a casino, but nothing fun for the family.  We are hoping to find that NCL has a less stuffy attitude than RCC.

[graphicguy]

33 minutes ago, Black Magic said:

We are trying NCL after several Carnival(Dream and Vista class) and one RCC.  We are a family of three(sometimes 4 when we bring a friend for my son) and we vehemently prefer Carnival over RCC.  I feel that it boils down to what you like to do on YOUR vacation.  We enjoy the outdoor activities, as well as fun indoor games and shows.  RCC seemed to roll up the sidewalks after 9pm(4pm if you like the outdoor features).  Sure there were bars and a casino, but nothing fun for the family.  We are hoping to find that NCL has a less stuffy attitude than RCC.

NCL has late night entertainment, usually by the house entertainers, in one of the venues on the ship.  They really let loose and do a great job.

 

Again, depending on ship, there are outdoor venues where there are bars and couches to hang out late at night.

 

Spice H2O gets its party going late at night, too.

 

So, plenty of late night outdoor activities.  Not certain any are geared for children, but plenty for adults.

[bowlinmoe]

9 hours ago, graphicguy said:

NCL has late night entertainment, usually by the house entertainers, in one of the venues on the ship.  They really let loose and do a great job.

 

Again, depending on ship, there are outdoor venues where there are bars and couches to hang out late at night.

 

Spice H2O gets its party going late at night, too.

 

So, plenty of late night outdoor activities.  Not certain any are geared for children, but plenty for adults.

 

Any good, adult oriented stories from these late night parties? 

 

[graphicguy]

2 hours ago, bowlinmoe said:

 

Any good, adult oriented stories from these late night parties? 

 

Spice H20 late night seems to always generate stories that begin with. “…should have seen what happened after you all left…!!!!!!”