17th cruise, first that wasn't Carnival, a comparison.

[Chief93]

Just did 9 days in the Greek Isles on the NCL Getaway.  Happy to answer any questions.  Was my 17^th cruise, but my first cruise non-Carnival cruise.  I chose this cruise because Carnival wanted a non-refundable and non-transferable deposit.  To be fair, I’m only comparing the Getaway with my most recent cruises on the Vista, Magic and Valor, as they are about the same size.

 

Someone on the NCL boards described Carnival as the Wal-Mart of cruises, dirty ships etc.  Which simply is not true.  I don’t think the cruise line matters as much as the ship, the itinerary, and the month.  A 3 day Bahamas cruise in July will have a VERY different clientele from an 8 day Caribbean cruise in November. 

 

Embarkation:  Embarkation in Athens was an absolute breeze.  Got out of the taxi, someone immediately took my luggage.  Took maybe 5 minutes to see an agent and board.  Was much, much better than Carnival in Galveston, but to be fair that may have more to do with the actual building in Galveston.

 

Elevators:  First thing I noticed about the Getaway was the elevators.  Same number of elevators in the same location as the Vista.  And even though the ship was full, I never waited longer than 30 seconds for an elevator and they were never crowded.  My last cruise on the Vista trying to get my 85 year old mother to deck 10 on embarkation was an absolute nightmare.  NCL definitely has the advantage here.

 

Cabin:  Had a standard balcony cabin.  It was noticeably smaller that the Vista/Magic/Valor.  The bathroom was larger, however, with an actual shower door instead of a curtain.  I was surprised by the lack of storage space.  Only one closet and no drawers.  But I got all my stuff put up.  The balcony was MUCH smaller, but…and I loved this..the balcony had a sliding door.  So there was no noise coming from your neighbor slamming their balcony door (a pet peeve of mine).  Also, the light was a single small bulb, so if the neighbor left their light on it did not flood your cabin.  All things considered, I felt the cabins were about equal, the larger Carnival cabin vs the small balcony and lack of storage.  The bathroom on NCL was nicer tho.  One more thing, there is only one outlet and it’s nowhere near the bed.  If you have CPAP you will definitely need an extension cord.

 

Bars and drinks:  I had the drink package.  The way NCL operates the drink package is INFINITELY better than Carnival.  No “one every 15 minutes” rule.  Also, no need to bring your partner to the bar for their drink.  Don’t even need to bring their card.  I had no problem going to any bar and ordering 4 drinks at the same time.  That being said, the quality of the drinks is better on Carnival.  The best scotch I could get on NCL was Johnny Walker Black, while on Carnival I could get Aberfeldy 12 year old.  I never did get a really good gin and tonic, which appeared to be because of inferior tonic.  Also, if you want a frozen drink, you have to go to a specific bar, they don’t all have them.  I feel the edge goes to NCL, the convenience outweighing the quality issue.  I did get many an awesome mojito from the Sugarcane bar.

 

Food:  The quality of the food was exactly the same.  The way it was organized was much better on the Getaway.  Even tho the ship was full it was never crowded at the buffet.  The way the buffet is organized with many smaller stations is helpful.  If all you want is a salad, you don’t have to wait in the same line as those wanting an entrée.  The food was also served in smaller pans that were rotated more frequently.  In addition to the MDR there were two other restaurant venues with the exact same menu.  It never felt crowded.  The food is the same, but edge to NCL for the organization.

 

Misc:  There are no irons on board.  My wife hated that.  She likes to iron, and one of our first day cruise rituals is ironing all our clothes once unpacked.  I also VERY much enjoyed the complete lack of a cruise director.  There was one, she seemed nice.  But there were no endless exuberant announcements telling me how much fun I was having.  One last thing, they had an on board offer that I wish I had known about before I cruised.  If you buy 8 $250 future cruise credits, they give you $1,000 OBC.  That’s a deal.

 

I would not hesitate to cruise with NCL again, especially on the Getaway class.  I will probably never sail on a Vista class ship again.  I really don't like them.  But would happily sail on any other Carnival ship.  Again, happy to answer any questions.

[mjkacmom]

Interesting, I’ve ironed on NCL, called housekeeping and they brought me an iron and ironing board, I think they come quickly to retrieve it so I’m guessing there aren’t many.

[cyntil8ing]

Thanks for the review.

 

I took my first Norwegian cruise on the Escape last year with my daughter. We really enjoyed it. It felt "throwback" in many regards, from getting your cabin keys in the terminal, to lots of daily paper arriving with ads, to tablecloths on dining tables. It was fun. I LOVED the Waterfront! Spent so many hours there. Quiet, comfortable outside shaded seating with a view and great bar service! The Howl at the Moon dueling piano bar was awesome! Went there nearly every night. The supper club concept was fun, though the food wasn't very good. It was a once-and-done, but I am glad we had it to try.

 

Since we enjoyed it so much, I took son and hubby on the Joy this summer. Just didn't feel it on this cruise. Way too many people in too little space. For dinner, we had to wait in line to get a pager, wait for the pager to go off, then wait in another line, albeit shorter, to be seated. For shows, we had to either make reservations and show up 15 minutes ahead of time to not lose them, or wait for 45 minutes or more in a standby line. And my fellow passengers were the loudest bunch of folks I have ever heard. Everyone seemed to converse by yelling at one another. Exhausting! Even the Waterfront, that place of quiet on the Escape was filled with the loud people this time. Not sure what the difference was from my Escape cruise, both left out of NYC (not to disparage my dear Northeastern folks) but it was enough to scare the boys from trying again. 

[Chief93]

45 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

Interesting, I’ve ironed on NCL, called housekeeping and they brought me an iron and ironing board, I think they come quickly to retrieve it so I’m guessing there aren’t many.

This may be specific to the Getaway, but was told by guest services there was no iron option, only option was sending it to the laundry and paying.

[Chief93]

37 minutes ago, cyntil8ing said:

Not sure what the difference was from my Escape cruise, both left out of NYC (not to disparage my dear Northeastern folks) but it was enough to scare the boys from trying again. 

I have also had this experience.  Every ship is different, and every embarkation point is different.  

[LatinaInTexas]

Getaway last year was my first NCL cruise and I thought everything overall about the cruise was a bit better than on Carnival.

After two more cruises this year I still feel the same way. I still enjoy Carnival but would rather sail Norwegian.

[Diamond-56-Plus]

You sum it up about the same as I would.  If you buy 8 $250 future cruise credits, they give you $1,000 OBC This sounds like a great deal

[Roscoe13]

10 hours ago, Chief93 said:

Just did 9 days in the Greek Isles on the NCL Getaway.  Happy to answer any questions.  Was my 17^th cruise, but my first cruise non-Carnival cruise.  I chose this cruise because Carnival wanted a non-refundable and non-transferable deposit.  To be fair, I’m only comparing the Getaway with my most recent cruises on the Vista, Magic and Valor, as they are about the same size.

 

Someone on the NCL boards described Carnival as the Wal-Mart of cruises, dirty ships etc.  Which simply is not true.  I don’t think the cruise line matters as much as the ship, the itinerary, and the month.  A 3 day Bahamas cruise in July will have a VERY different clientele from an 8 day Caribbean cruise in November. 

 

Embarkation:  Embarkation in Athens was an absolute breeze.  Got out of the taxi, someone immediately took my luggage.  Took maybe 5 minutes to see an agent and board.  Was much, much better than Carnival in Galveston, but to be fair that may have more to do with the actual building in Galveston.

 

Elevators:  First thing I noticed about the Getaway was the elevators.  Same number of elevators in the same location as the Vista.  And even though the ship was full, I never waited longer than 30 seconds for an elevator and they were never crowded.  My last cruise on the Vista trying to get my 85 year old mother to deck 10 on embarkation was an absolute nightmare.  NCL definitely has the advantage here.

 

Cabin:  Had a standard balcony cabin.  It was noticeably smaller that the Vista/Magic/Valor.  The bathroom was larger, however, with an actual shower door instead of a curtain.  I was surprised by the lack of storage space.  Only one closet and no drawers.  But I got all my stuff put up.  The balcony was MUCH smaller, but…and I loved this..the balcony had a sliding door.  So there was no noise coming from your neighbor slamming their balcony door (a pet peeve of mine).  Also, the light was a single small bulb, so if the neighbor left their light on it did not flood your cabin.  All things considered, I felt the cabins were about equal, the larger Carnival cabin vs the small balcony and lack of storage.  The bathroom on NCL was nicer tho.  One more thing, there is only one outlet and it’s nowhere near the bed.  If you have CPAP you will definitely need an extension cord.

 

Bars and drinks:  I had the drink package.  The way NCL operates the drink package is INFINITELY better than Carnival.  No “one every 15 minutes” rule.  Also, no need to bring your partner to the bar for their drink.  Don’t even need to bring their card.  I had no problem going to any bar and ordering 4 drinks at the same time.  That being said, the quality of the drinks is better on Carnival.  The best scotch I could get on NCL was Johnny Walker Black, while on Carnival I could get Aberfeldy 12 year old.  I never did get a really good gin and tonic, which appeared to be because of inferior tonic.  Also, if you want a frozen drink, you have to go to a specific bar, they don’t all have them.  I feel the edge goes to NCL, the convenience outweighing the quality issue.  I did get many an awesome mojito from the Sugarcane bar.

 

Food:  The quality of the food was exactly the same.  The way it was organized was much better on the Getaway.  Even tho the ship was full it was never crowded at the buffet.  The way the buffet is organized with many smaller stations is helpful.  If all you want is a salad, you don’t have to wait in the same line as those wanting an entrée.  The food was also served in smaller pans that were rotated more frequently.  In addition to the MDR there were two other restaurant venues with the exact same menu.  It never felt crowded.  The food is the same, but edge to NCL for the organization.

 

Misc:  There are no irons on board.  My wife hated that.  She likes to iron, and one of our first day cruise rituals is ironing all our clothes once unpacked.  I also VERY much enjoyed the complete lack of a cruise director.  There was one, she seemed nice.  But there were no endless exuberant announcements telling me how much fun I was having.  One last thing, they had an on board offer that I wish I had known about before I cruised.  If you buy 8 $250 future cruise credits, they give you $1,000 OBC.  That’s a deal.

 

I would not hesitate to cruise with NCL again, especially on the Getaway class.  I will probably never sail on a Vista class ship again.  I really don't like them.  But would happily sail on any other Carnival ship.  Again, happy to answer any questions.

Wait, what?  Carnival changed to 15 minutes between drinks?  I prolly get special treatment because they only make me wait 5 minutes between drinks.

[CruiseAdict218]

Great comparison, sailing my first NCL cruise next year on none other than the Getaway to Bermuda, really excited to try them out. Regular Carnival cruiser with some other lines in between. 

[Linsuesue]

I have also on sailed on Carnival(14) and NCL(3). I agree with many of your points and have experienced a few differences. I think Carnival has better food in the dining room and NCL has better food on their buffet. YMMV😀 I think the staff on Carnival is friendlier. On one of our NCL cruises, we never did meet our room steward. His part time helper we met in the hallway handled whatever we needed. The storage in every Carnival room is superior to the storage in any of the NCL ships I have cruised. The elevators on NCL Encore were a nightmare. Slow and always full. I didn’t like having to get a reservation for the main show in the theater on NCL. The way NCL handles large groups for excursions was terrible. Cramming everybody into the theater to be released to go on your excursion was beyond chaotic. Getting off the Encore in Los Angeles was a nightmare! It took us about an hour and a half to get through the terminal to customs. Some embarkations for both of the cruiselines were easy, but that has a great deal to do with the port. If every cruise port used Port Valet like Carnival does in Seattle, cruising would be a dream!❤️🛳️

[sparks1093]

6 hours ago, Roscoe13 said:

Wait, what?  Carnival changed to 15 minutes between drinks?  I prolly get special treatment because they only make me wait 5 minutes between drinks.

In our experience it is only 5 minutes between drinks. We enjoyed our NCL cruises and when we cruised on them we thought overall they were a little better than CCL but haven't found one in our price range for quite some time now. They are a little better, but not $1k better. There are deals to be had, of course, so one should shop around.

[mz-s]

Norwegian is on the list of lines I want to sail but every time I’m shopping for a cruise something kicks them out of contention. Price, itinerary, etc., one day I’ll book one. 

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[wolft927]

22 hours ago, noshoobie said:

Stay safe!!

 

11 hours ago, Roscoe13 said:

Wait, what?  Carnival changed to 15 minutes between drinks?  I prolly get special treatment because they only make me wait 5 minutes between drinks.

One of the reasons we wont sail Carnival again is because of their drink package. 15 max per 24 hour period from 6am to 6am. NCL has no limit. Now for some 15 drinks is excessive, but when i am on vacation, on a sea day would be very easy for me to have 15 drinks during that time frame. Nothing against Carnival and there ships, have cruised them several times, but we now cruise pretty much ncl exclusivly. Also would like to see Carnival have something comparable to the Haven. 

[Saint Greg]

18 hours ago, Diamond-56-Plus said:

You sum it up about the same as I would.  If you buy 8 $250 future cruise credits, they give you $1,000 OBC This sounds like a great deal

 

Yes...now the way I understand it is those Cruise Next Certificates cost $250 but have a full value of $500. You can use it as OBC on the cruise you purchased it on. But if you don't they retain a full value of $500 each for future cruises. And they sometimes have double up, triple up promotions where you can use 2-3 certificates on one cruise.

 

I've been using Cruise First which you can buy online at any time. A $300 certificate for $150. You can only use one per booking. But they have specials where they sell $500 CFCs for $250. Those are the ones I buy and use. I try to keep one on my account at all times. I used the two I had last month and was able to get another one a couple weeks ago.

[Saint Greg]

5 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

In our experience it is only 5 minutes between drinks. We enjoyed our NCL cruises and when we cruised on them we thought overall they were a little better than CCL but haven't found one in our price range for quite some time now. They are a little better, but not $1k better. There are deals to be had, of course, so one should shop around.

 

Must be the different categories or something. I know as a solo I'm getting much better deals on NCL. Especially when you factor in drinks since I've been paying just $150 gratuities a week for a drink package on NCL and Carnival I have to pay about $500 a week. I have five cruises booked with NCL.

[Saint Greg]

22 hours ago, mjkacmom said:

Interesting, I’ve ironed on NCL, called housekeeping and they brought me an iron and ironing board, I think they come quickly to retrieve it so I’m guessing there aren’t many.

 

Another thing I didn't know my first NCL cruise is you can request a coffee machine for the room and they'll keep it stocked up for you.

 

While I'm thinking of things I didn't know. Anyone who is a veteran should sign up for that program. You get 10% off of cruises. They gave me a nice NCL challenge coin and a ship specific pin and patch.

[sparks1093]

13 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Must be the different categories or something. I know as a solo I'm getting much better deals on NCL. Especially when you factor in drinks since I've been paying just $150 gratuities a week for a drink package on NCL and Carnival I have to pay about $500 a week. I have five cruises booked with NCL.

Yes, I think overall solos turn out better on NCL.

[Chief93]

On 7/25/2024 at 3:46 PM, ggTexasGal said:

If you can carry it onboard, (or, pack in your luggage) you may have as many bottles as you wish.

 

21 hours ago, Roscoe13 said:

Wait, what?  Carnival changed to 15 minutes between drinks?  I prolly get special treatment because they only make me wait 5 minutes between drinks.

I mis-spoke.  I meant no 15 drink limit in a day

Edited October 11 by Chief93
incomplete

[Chief93]

15 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

They are a little better, but not $1k better. There are deals to be had, of course, so one should shop around.

Yeah, the inside cabin was comparable in price to Carnival, but the balcony was easily $1,000 more than Carnival.  I did get a pretty good deal tho

[KKB]

On 10/9/2024 at 12:54 PM, Chief93 said:

 

 

Bars and drinks:  I had the drink package.  The way NCL operates the drink package is INFINITELY better than Carnival.  No “one every 15 minutes” rule.  Also, no need to bring your partner to the bar for their drink.  Don’t even need to bring their card.  I had no problem going to any bar and ordering 4 drinks at the same time.  That being said, the quality of the drinks is better on Carnival.  The best scotch I could get on NCL was Johnny Walker Black, while on Carnival I could get Aberfeldy 12 year old.  I never did get a really good gin and tonic, which appeared to be because of inferior tonic.  Also, if you want a frozen drink, you have to go to a specific bar, they don’t all have them.  I feel the edge goes to NCL, the convenience outweighing the quality issue.  I did get many an awesome mojito from the Sugarcane bar.

  

Misc:  There are no irons on board.  My wife hated that.  She likes to iron, and one of our first day cruise rituals is ironing all our clothes once unpacked.  I also VERY much enjoyed the complete lack of a cruise director.  There was one, she seemed nice.  But there were no endless exuberant announcements telling me how much fun I was having.  One last thing, they had an on board offer that I wish I had known about before I cruised.  If you buy 8 $250 future cruise credits, they give you $1,000 OBC.  That’s a deal.

 

1--NCL JUST changed the drink package...better offerings but tips are now $30pp/cay

2--Don't be fooled by the wording on the Cruise Next certificates. The $1K OBC is applied to the cost of the CN certificates. Now, they are still a good deal, but that is misleading (just bought 4 onboard last month--was even able to use 4 for the cruise departing the next day so I ended up doing B2B)

[Joebucks]

On 10/9/2024 at 1:54 PM, Chief93 said:

Bars and drinks:  I had the drink package.  The way NCL operates the drink package is INFINITELY better than Carnival.  No “one every 15 minutes” rule.  Also, no need to bring your partner to the bar for their drink.  Don’t even need to bring their card.  I had no problem going to any bar and ordering 4 drinks at the same time.  That being said, the quality of the drinks is better on Carnival.  The best scotch I could get on NCL was Johnny Walker Black, while on Carnival I could get Aberfeldy 12 year old.  I never did get a really good gin and tonic, which appeared to be because of inferior tonic.  Also, if you want a frozen drink, you have to go to a specific bar, they don’t all have them.  I feel the edge goes to NCL, the convenience outweighing the quality issue.  I did get many an awesome mojito from the Sugarcane bar.

 

This one gets me here. Something is "infinitely better" because you don't have to wait 15 minutes (it's actually 5) and you don't have to lug another card around, oh no! Yet the quality of the item that is so important in the first place, is vastly inferior. 

 

My last time with Cheers, I drank the hell out of some Macallan. There is nothing infinitely better about more convenient Johnnie Walker instead.

[sparks1093]

13 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

 

This one gets me here. Something is "infinitely better" because you don't have to wait 15 minutes (it's actually 5) and you don't have to lug another card around, oh no! Yet the quality of the item that is so important in the first place, is vastly inferior. 

 

My last time with Cheers, I drank the hell out of some Macallan. There is nothing infinitely better about more convenient Johnnie Walker instead.

Come to think of it I did enjoy that Old Fashioned made with Blanton's (not ordinarily into whiskeys but when I have Cheers I like to expand my repertoire a bit).

[Chief93]

5 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

Something is "infinitely better" because you don't have to wait 15 minutes (it's actually 5) and you don't have to lug another card around, oh no! Yet the quality of the item that is so important in the first place, is vastly inferior. 

 

Exactly.  The convenience of taking four drinks back to the cabin to enjoy on the balcony whilst the b&c showered was INFINITELY better.  And, a careful review of my original post fails to find any usage of the word "vastly."  I simply said the quality of the drinks was better on carnival, and lamented the choice of tonic on NCL.  As I said, I never did get a really good gin and tonic.  But I had many that were adequate.