Should I try another cruise line?

[DT1304]

I have cruised on RCCL on all but 1 of my cruises, with that 1 odd one out being on Carnival.

 

1 cruise was Alaska, 2 were to New Zealand and all the rest, including the Carnival cruise were to South pacific.

 

While I would love to cruise somewhere else, costs of getting to the departure port are excessive so I am thinking about possibly changing cruise lines to try get a slightly different cruise experience. I dont want to be disappointed though, like I was when I tried Carnival after 2 or 3 Royal Caribbean cruises.

 

I would love the opinion of others that have cruised multiple cruise lines.

 

FYI, we are a family of 5 with 3 older kids (22, 20 and 17)

 

The cruiseline we are considering for a change is NCL, but I don't like the fact that their cruises out of Sydney all seem to be one way cruises.

 

 

[SinbadThePorter]

I've tried Holland, Royal, Carnival and P&O Oz, but my preference is for Princess.

 

I agree with you that flying overseas is a major hassle and cost, and that local itineraries are getting a bit stale.

 

I think my next step may be a circumnavigation of Australia with Princess. That or a Tahiti/Hawaii round trip.

 

Never been on NCL, but the way I've heard they do things gives me pause as to sailing with them.

[Cbtours]

4 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

I've tried Holland, Royal, Carnival and P&O Oz, but my preference is for Princess.

 

I agree with you that flying overseas is a major hassle and cost, and that local itineraries are getting a bit stale.

 

I think my next step may be a circumnavigation of Australia with Princess. That or a Tahiti/Hawaii round trip.

 

Never been on NCL, but the way I've heard they do things gives me pause as to sailing with them.

Loved circumnavigation of Sus on princess October 2022 on Princess. Something special about going right round the country 🥰

[DT1304]

5 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

Never been on NCL, but the way I've heard they do things gives me pause as to sailing with them.

I have only just starting researching other cruise lines. What have you heard about the way they do things?

[SinbadThePorter]

1 minute ago, DT1304 said:

I have only just starting researching other cruise lines. What have you heard about the way they do things?

 

Just my opinion, but even though all cruise lines do a bit of "nickel and dimeing", NCL is widely held up as the worst example of it.

 

Then there is this.

https://consumerrescue.org/cruise-fiascos/norwegian-cruise-line-cancel-familys-cruise-over-ground-transfer/

 

A company that can do that to a customer doesn't inspire confidence in me.

[Jandex]

We’ve also mostly sailed RCI - one Carnival, one Princess, one P&O. 
Have you considered Celebrity? 
We are sailing Celebrity for the first time later in the year so can’t give you a definitive opinion but from what I’ve heard - it’s a slight step up from RCI. 
Celebrity Edge is coming to our shores for the 23-24 season, so that might be worth a look.  
 

[DT1304]

I have considered Celebrity. My sister just cruised with celebrity and other family members have done a few celebrity cruises, and they all gave it great reviews.

 

I will definitely check out those 23-24 season itineraries.

[Astro Flyer]

32 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

I think my next step may be a circumnavigation of Australia with Princess.

We recently booked that itinerary on Crown Princess sailing roundtrip Brisbane around Australia in March 2025. That itinerary is still very popular & quickly sold-out from Brisbane (still available from Sydney at about 50% more) and we’re looking forward to visiting your town for the first time & we’ll enjoy several days there possibly staying in the CBD area.

 

And with more demand than supply, airfare from the US for next March is about triple of the cost in 2020 when the same itinerary was canceled due to the pandemic.

To the author of this thread: Nearly all of our cruises have been on Princess which we still feel provides our best cruise experience for the amount paid. We’ve been on a few multi generational family cruises on RCCL which worked well. But for us & people our age who are active seniors, Princess is best for us.

 

Edited May 5, 2023 by Astro Flyer

[SinbadThePorter]

10 minutes ago, Jandex said:

Celebrity Edge is coming to our shores for the 23-24 season, so that might be worth a look.

 

Edge looks interesting as does Virgin's Resilient Lady, but the itineraries are very staid.

[Astro Flyer]

11 minutes ago, Jandex said:

We are sailing Celebrity for the first time later in the year so can’t give you a definitive opinion but from what I’ve heard - it’s a slight step up from RCI. 

We sailed our first Celebrity cruise in December & to us it was similar to Princess like our Aussie friend told us. Some things were better & some were not as good and thought food & service were similar. Our experience was that onboard spending such as for drinks & specialty dinners were considerably more expensive on X.
 

We’ve booked our first Oceania cruise for later this year to experience a smaller ship more upscale cruise experience. While the price is more expensive it does include things we use…non-alcoholic drinks, specialty dinners, internet and taxes/fees in their prices.

 

[SinbadThePorter]

58 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

we’re looking forward to visiting your town for the first time & we’ll enjoy several days there possibly staying in the CBD area.

 

Don't forget the bay islands. Moreton and North Stradbroke islands are well worth a visit.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Think about what you like best about Royal Caribbean. Do you want all those things on a different cruise line or do you want a totally different experience? Do you always cruise as a family or are your kids starting to want to go their own way?

 

Royal Caribbean has very large ships with lots of onboard stuff. Will you and your family be happy on smaller ships with less diversity of onboard activities? 

 

Australia and NZ have limited ports but it sounds like you haven't explored all the Australian options:

- South Australia? Port Lincoln is a fascinating place to visit, as is Kangaroo Island

- Tasmania? If the ship stops at Burnie then a day trip to Cradle Mountain allows you to see a diverse range of the Northern Tasmania scenery. Hobart has plenty of scope for interesting excursions. Even just going up Mt Wellington is interesting (and cold) - a mountain that height (above the snow line) right next to a major port city is unique in Australia.

- Queensland? Airlie Beach, Cairns and Port Douglas are the main port stops, plus you get a decent number of sea days if cruising from Sydney or Melbourne.

 

Each cruise line has it's own ambience. Some are floating amusement parks, others are more traditional and thosectend to attractcan older demographic. 

 

We're retired. We've enjoyed all the cruises we've done but some more than others. We prefer Princess and also enjoyed Celebrity, but did not like Holland America as much. Carnival and Royal Caribbean aren't a good match for us. 

[lyndarra]

1 hour ago, DT1304 said:

I have only just starting researching other cruise lines. What have you heard about the way they do things?

Some cruise lines do things differently.

I have done a few RCI cruises and enjoyed them very much. One was on Ovation which was fine but it felt a bit like cruising in a floating shopping mall. The others were on Radiance, a much smaller ship, which felt very comfortable and more to my liking. On Radiance we did two half circumnavigations of Oz.

For port variety I recommend you consider Holland America. I have also cruised on Princess and Carnival. For comfort, service, dining, (without going to big dollar, all inclusive, luxury cruise lines) my preference is Celebrity which I think is by far the best except for Holland which is a close second.

 

[GUT2407]

On 5/6/2023 at 9:10 AM, SinbadThePorter said:

 

Just my opinion, but even though all cruise lines do a bit of "nickel and dimeing", NCL is widely held up as the worst example of it.

 

Then there is this.

https://consumerrescue.org/cruise-fiascos/norwegian-cruise-line-cancel-familys-cruise-over-ground-transfer/

 

A company that can do that to a customer doesn't inspire confidence in me.

I can’t say I saw any difference in the nickel and dime stakes with NCL than with anyone else.

[GUT2407]

When I try a new line I become extremely itinerary focused, so even if the ship isn’t to my liking I still have a good time.

 

We have sailed with most of the “mass market” lines and they all have pros and cons, but in the end two ships from the same line are likely to be as different as ships from different lines.

[OzKiwiJJ]

18 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

When I try a new line I become extremely itinerary focused, so even if the ship isn’t to my liking I still have a good time.

 

We have sailed with most of the “mass market” lines and they all have pros and cons, but in the end two ships from the same line are likely to be as different as ships from different lines.

Not quite as each line has a particular style and ambience. But certainly food, entertainment and service can differ between ships of the same line 

[MMDown Under]

58 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Not quite as each line has a particular style and ambience. But certainly food, entertainment and service can differ between ships of the same line 

I don’t recall being on the same ship twice but I’ve been with the same cruiseline twice and Hurtigruten more timesl. I’d go with them more often if I lived closer to their cruises.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

I don’t recall being on the same ship twice but I’ve been with the same cruiseline twice and Hurtigruten more timesl. I’d go with them more often if I lived closer to their cruises.

We've certainly done enough Princess cruises to have experienced a fair amount of variety in the quality in some areas. Although we cruised on Celebrity three times it was always on Solstice but even that varied from cruise to cruise - each cruise was roughly two years apart.

[arxcards]

Loyalty is a strange thing. I would think that brand loyalty should come from loving their product, but now with commercialised loyalty schemes it seems loyalty can be bought with the ambition of achieving a few free drinks at the bar, or getting free mini-spirit bottles & free laundry.

 

Try them all until you know what you love and what you don't. I have found there is no perfect cruise line for us, but cruising is cruising and most lines have things we like enjoy more on their ships than we do on others.

[MMDown Under]

I imagine cruising on the same ship all the time would be like Aussies who camp in the same camp spot every year for the long Summer holidays.

[lyndarra]

4 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

I imagine cruising on the same ship all the time would be like Aussies who camp in the same camp spot every year for the long Summer holidays.

And, a heck of a lot do. I've also met Poms who holiday every year in Devon.

[clairebearinaus]

I'm not very loyal at all - have cruised with RCI, Carnival, P&O, Celebrity, Princess and Cunard.

 

They all have their pros and cons but I've never had a bad cruise. I choose who to cruise with based on itinerary, price/perks and the amenities/reviews of the individual ship.

 

Celebrity is probably my favourite by a small margin but that's after only 1 cruise with them.  They have some really interesting overseas itineraries, I'm sailing from Singapore to Mumbai with them next year.

 

 

 

 

[clairebearinaus]

Oh I should add, we are 50s with kids similar ages to yours (17-21).  Kids prefer RCI.

[DT1304]

13 hours ago, arxcards said:

Loyalty is a strange thing. I would think that brand loyalty should come from loving their product, but now with commercialised loyalty schemes it seems loyalty can be bought with the ambition of achieving a few free drinks at the bar, or getting free mini-spirit bottles & free laundry.

 

Try them all until you know what you love and what you don't. I have found there is no perfect cruise line for us, but cruising is cruising and most lines have things we like enjoy more on their ships than we do on others.

I agree with you, and I am not loyal to RCCL for the few free drinks.

 

I tried Carnival and did not enjoy it as much as RCCL. I have also looked at other lines and RCCL was the best fit in terms of price, itineraries at my desired times etc.

 

I think celebrity is the next one I will try based on comments here as well as referrals from many family and friends that have cruised Celebrity.

[DT1304]

On 5/6/2023 at 10:58 AM, lyndarra said:

Some cruise lines do things differently.

I have done a few RCI cruises and enjoyed them very much. One was on Ovation which was fine but it felt a bit like cruising in a floating shopping mall. The others were on Radiance, a much smaller ship, which felt very comfortable and more to my liking. On Radiance we did two half circumnavigations of Oz.

 

 

Yeah I totally agree. I have done a few of cruises on radiance, a couple of Voyager and explorer, and also on Ovation and Quantum. I agree that the smaller ships are more to my liking. I love Radiance. Possibly I am a bit biased as my first cruise ever was on radiance, and my favourite cruise that I have done (Alaska) was also on radiance.