NCL - cruising in Australia/NZ?

[aussielozzie18]

We have an opportunity to cruise with NCL out of Sydney but I know nothing about them.

 

 For those of you who have cruised with them here in Aus/NZ can you tell me what they are like?  Are the on board charges  in AUD or not?  What is the demographic and which of the other mainstream cruise lines are they similar to?

 

Looking at their itineraries -  they are mainly one way Sydney to NZ or reverse, with one four day loop cruise to Hobart.  The prices atm seem high to me.
 

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by aussielozzie18

[arxcards]

$US onboard account. They often have promos that include your choice of gratuities, specialty restaurants, internet, drinks packages which help to keep the onboard spending down.

 

The prices generally are up a bit, but often with the above promos. We haven't sailed on their current Oz based ship, but have cruised on Jewel & Pearl both here and abroad. Our local cruise was (I think) 9 nights on Norwegian Jewel, to Noumea and a couple of other island stops.

 

We quite enjoy NCL, and will likely do a lap of Hawaii on Pride of America not to far down the track. Those are even more expensive, due to the added expense of POA being the only large US registered cruise ship.

 

For us they compare similarly to Royal in many ways. Not quite the same, but a similar demographic and service quality. It is a pity their seasons are so short [here] atm.

Edited August 4, 2023 by arxcards
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[GUT2407]

We sailed with them once, if we were still cruising wouldn’t hesitate to go with them again. US$ if memory serves, probably describe it as a more casual line, they do tend to price slightly higher but we snagged a pretty good deal. We did a Tassie cruise.

[Philandjulie]

We have cruised with NCL 13 times (out of 17 cruises).  Their free at sea deal is fantastic and we love how most things are included in the upfront cost.  We have done the Australia/NZ Xmas cruise which we loved.  Mostly though, we have to travel to cruise with them and have done 3 Transatlantics and a few others.  If we didn't really enjoy them, we wouldn't travel that far.  Except for spring break/school holidays, the ages are anywhere from late 20s to early 100s LOL we are late 50's and enjoy the demographics of the ships.