How would you rank NCL's ships?

[Peachypooh]

11 hours ago, Scubadoc said:

Stealthdog and peachypoo - what do you like best about the pearl. Why do you rank it first? We travel on the pearl in September and have not been on Norwegian and 10 years.  

Hello. We love the Pearl and have been on her three times. We have always found the cleaning crew to be friendly and good at their jobs. The officers have been friendly too. It is clean, the food is good and we never had a problem with them missing ports. I am editing this to add that the mid size of the ship is easy to navigate and thee are lots of areas to enjoy the outdoors while the ship is underway.

Edited July 16 by Peachypooh

[v3cruiser]

Would love to sail on breakaway+ ship!  Sailed on Getaway last year and really enjoyed the shows, bar variety, and especially the waterfront!! 

 

We've primarliy sailed on jewel class ships which we really like but the breakaway+ ships have two features we love and thats the waterfront and the observation lounge!!

 

Also sailed on Epic when it first came out and was a pretty great experience. 

 

So hard to rate!!

 

[Asawi]

1. Gem

2. Spirit

3. Bliss

4. Star

5. Dawn

 

Those are the only ones I've travelled so far. I will be on Escape later this year, so I'm pleased that so many seem to like her. Although Star is far from my favourite her itineraries have been great so both my Star cruises have been awsome anyway and I'm sure my upcoming Star cruise will be as welll!

[Pens fan]

1 hour ago, Ellis1138 said:

 

I remember in the middle of my Pride of America cruise realizing with amusement "This is the worst cruise I've been on!" (Not counting things like the Portland-Yarmouth or Staten Island ferry).  

And even as "the worst", it was still an enjoyable time.

The PoA is best treated like a really nice ferry that you take island to island, instead of flying. If you approach it with that in mind, you won't be disappointed.

The sad thing is that was our mindset going into the cruise.  Our TA who is also a friend had run a group cruise on POA a few months earlier and warned us about the service issues.  We went in knowing all that but were still prepared to have a great time in Hawaii.   I've never met a cruise I didn't like!  If I'm not cooking or cleaning and it's taking me to cool places, I'm good.  Had it just been the lousy food and service - and it was truly lousy - we'd have been fine.  But when you don't have a functioning toilet for the last three out of seven days (was never fixed despite numerous calls and complaints), narrowly escaped getting hit in the head with a flying spatula at Teppanyaki - honestly had to duck as it flew past my head, and come down with what I'm pretty sure was food poisoning (thankfully did not coincide with the toilet outage 🤪) that ship is a hard pass for me.  There are issues.  

Edited July 16 by Pens fan

[graphicguy]

Agree with the statement that itinerary and other guests have a HUGE impact on how I view a ship.  

 

I've sailed on some very nice ships, but because other guests were....ummm....way too narcissistic and/or rude, the ship was viewed more negatively by me.

 

I've yet to be on a sailing that was totally in the rain.  That would make me dislike a ship, too.  That said, I was on the infamous "listing cruise" about 5 years ago on the Escape.  It was hit by a rogue wind blast which literally threw me out of bed.  Ended up being one of the best cruises I've taken.

 

Knowing what to expect from an itinerary helps when it comes to perception f cruise ships, too.  I've been to Bahamas, Cancun and Cozumel so many times, I could probably walk their ports blindfolded.  But, I've seen others who have never been to those ports and are inundated by the sales, the taxis, etc.  They ended up blaming the ship for their "encounters".  

 

Rude, selfish passengers are a sure fire way to make me dislike a ship.  Again, not the ship's fault.  Never had a crew member treat me poorly, though.

[Stealthdog]

18 hours ago, Scubadoc said:

Stealthdog and peachypoo - what do you like best about the pearl. Why do you rank it first? We travel on the pearl in September and have not been on Norwegian and 10 years.  

 

For me it was a combination of a bunch of things - layout of the ship was fantastic.  I loved O'sheehans location overlooking the atrium, the outdoor space felt really big particularly for a smaller ship.  It had a fantastic crew and one of the best group of fellow passengers we have seen on a cruise.  Also, one of my favorite thermal spas across all cruise lines.  We don't really care about the kids-focused things (slides, go-carts, etc) so the smaller ships sometimes feel better to us than the bigger ships, and in the case of the Pearl, it did.  Its probably my 3rd favorite ship on all sailings (after Celebrity Beyond and Royal Symphony of the Seas). 

[stinkyharriet]

I have been on 4 NCL ships.  The Joy (twice), Escape, Getaway & Prima.  I enjoyed all of the ships but my favorite cruise was on the Escape, to Canada & New England last year.  I’m not sure if it was the ship or the itinerary but I’ll find out in February when I’m on the Escape again to the Caribbean.  During a spring break week when NYC schools are off.  I’m also doing the Canada/New England cruise again this year on the Breakaway so I’ll have that chance to compare ship/itinerary first. There were very few kids on that trip and that was fantastic.  There were loads of elderly people (70s+) and they didn’t hang out in the bars and smaller lounges.  Never had to wait for a drink.  

 

The Getaway was very, very smoky.  All three decks around the casino were pretty bad for a non-smoker with asthma.  I stayed away from that area as much as possible.  I think they may have enclosed a section of the casino during the recent dry dock but I’m not sure.  The Joy has that separate smoking room and it does help a lot.  The Joy also has an observation deck on deck 15 which is fantastic!

 

I really liked the Prima but again, my cruise was during spring break and there were so, so many kids on board.  I definitely want to go back on the Prima but she seems to be in NYC at times that don’t work for me.  

[KDebreuil]

My list for the 6 ships that I've been on.

 

1. Jewel

2. Pearl

3. Spirit

4. Star

5. Dawn

6. Breakaway

 

I really like having an inside forward viewing lounge, so that separates my list as the Star, Dawn and Breakaway do not have this feature.  The Breakaway takes last place as I disliked the smokey casino in the middle, and there never seemed to be enough spaces for the people on the ship.  The Atrium was always crowded, and I don't know why they have people standing in line for an hour or more to get into Syd Norman's or Headliners. 

 

All of the Jewel class ships seem to have the right balance of space for people and functions, they are my favourite.

[PhillyTravelBug]

1. Bliss

2. Prima

3. Getaway

4. Sun

[pghflyer]

1. Jewel

2. Jade

3. Epic

4. Star

[KKB]

On 7/14/2024 at 5:52 PM, astera said:

I have been on the Norwegian Escape recently and absolutely loved it. As a Royal Caribbean regular this has opened my eyes to other options and frankly I would like to sail with NCL again on my next cruise as the food was way, way better than on RC, and the included Free at Sea package was a game-changer.

 

If you like bigger ships in general with lots of things to do, multiple entertainment choices, plenty of bars, etc., which NCL ships would you recommend and how would you rank them alongside the Escape?

1--Getaway & Breakaway

2--Prima (and Viva by default)

3--Encore (and Bliss, Joy & Escape by default)

Have not tried any other classes

[WarfRatWA]

1. Escape

2. Encore/Bliss

3. Prima (I assume Viva too, haven't been aboard)

 

I would rank NCL at the top of the mass market cruise lines, subjectively speaking.  However, we tend to only sail in the Haven on NCL.  Since there are several definitions of mass market, it also depends on what cruise lines are included.

 

[delaware32]

Of the mega ships my favorite is the Bliss. On the middle-sized ships, I really like any of the Jewel class ships as well as the Dawn (not Jewel class). The Spirit was ok as was the POA. The ship at the bottom for me, was the Sky. We had been on the Sun and thought the Sky would be similar. Wrong. We are scheduled to do the Viva so I'm looking forward to checking her out. We've sailed NCL a great deal and the newest builds are the only ships in the new class that we haven't experienced.

[Seas2mountains]

On 7/16/2024 at 6:17 AM, Ellis1138 said:

 

I remember in the middle of my Pride of America cruise realizing with amusement "This is the worst cruise I've been on!" (Not counting things like the Portland-Yarmouth or Staten Island ferry).  

And even as "the worst", it was still an enjoyable time.

The PoA is best treated like a really nice ferry that you take island to island, instead of flying. If you approach it with that in mind, you won't be disappointed.

Thank you for the warning. We will embark on POA in 63 days. Would you trust sending your laundry in on POA or not? We have had great laundry experiences on NCL shops  but think we should probably avoid using it on POA. 
 

[Ellis1138]

58 minutes ago, Seas2mountains said:

Thank you for the warning. We will embark on POA in 63 days. Would you trust sending your laundry in on POA or not? We have had great laundry experiences on NCL shops  but think we should probably avoid using it on POA. 
 

That one I can't answer, since I've never used any cruise ship laundry service. NCL has no self service laundromats. I didn't hear anything particularly bad about PoA's laundry but they also never ran the "fill a bag for $34" special. Some folks on the ship went to laundromats on the islands.

 

I bring along a small bottle of Dr Bronner castille soap, Tide To Go pen and I only pack polyester hiking/outdoor clothing that doesn't wrinkle and dries in like 10 minutes.

I bring a Ziploc XL Big Bag, put in the dirty clothing, add some soap and water. I close the bag and shake shake for a few minutes, then open it a tiny bit and drain the water. I hang the clothing in the shower on the line and use the hand held shower sprayer to rinse the soap out and then let everything dry overnight.

 

Edited July 20 by Ellis1138
typo

[zqvol]

7 hours ago, WarfRatWA said:

1. Escape

2. Encore/Bliss

3. Prima (I assume Viva too, haven't been aboard)

 

I would rank NCL at the top of the mass market cruise lines, subjectively speaking.  However, we tend to only sail in the Haven on NCL.  Since there are several definitions of mass market, it also depends on what cruise lines are included.

 

At best NCL is a middle of the road mass market line. Celebrity, HAL, Princess, and VV are all well above NCL.

[WarfRatWA]

3 minutes ago, zqvol said:

At best NCL is a middle of the road mass market line. Celebrity, HAL, Princess, and VV are all well above NCL.

Like I said, depends on the definition of mass market..Celebrity and VV are not mass market in my opinion..they are premium.  I prefer NCL over Princess and HAL...by a wide margin.

[zqvol]

3 minutes ago, WarfRatWA said:

Like I said, depends on the definition of mass market..Celebrity and VV are not mass market in my opinion..they are premium.  I prefer NCL over Princess and HAL...by a wide margin.

In my definition premium include Azamara, Oceania, and others like that. Luxury include Regent, SilverSea, Seaborne, and Sea Dream of the lines in the US. I know there are other luxury lines. 

[9tee2Sea]

dont like the big ships ( Bliss et al).  Prefer Jewel class.  But any ship that dosent sink is a good ship

[KKB]

On 7/20/2024 at 11:40 AM, zqvol said:

At best NCL is a middle of the road mass market line. Celebrity, HAL, Princess, and VV are all well above NCL.

Can't comment on HAL or VV.

While i would put Celebrity & Princess SLIGHTLY over NCL, they are more alike than different.

We  are finding that there are things we love about various ships/lines...and things that each one excels at. 

If we could just take the best of each & make a perfect ship!

 

[hallux]

On 7/20/2024 at 12:40 PM, zqvol said:

At best NCL is a middle of the road mass market line. Celebrity, HAL, Princess, and VV are all well above NCL.

At the very least I consider Celebrity, HAL and Princess to be the more up-market lines within their respective umbrella ownership groups (Royal and Carnival), NCL is the mainstream line in NCLH and in some aspects bests the mainstream lines in the other groups.