Now we know that NCL is the only one for us

[synet165]

:) Hi,

We are New Yorkers who have just returned from the Carnival Victory 5 night cruise to Canada. We have sailed NCL twice before, this was the first time on Carnival.

NEVER AGAIN ON CARNIVAL

NCL FREESTYLE IS THE BEST

We took the Carnival cruise because we live 5 minutes away from the cruise terminal. We must admit that embarkation and disembarkation was fast and great.

That said, everything else was the pits.

They never heard of Purell, the crew was rude, unresponive, passive and not to be seen.

They only time I saw the steward was when he asked me to acknowledge and sign that he had introduced himself.

Carnival Victory doesn't know anything about onboard activites, there was nothing besides towel folding one day. The library, wherever it may be was only open 1 hr. eadh on two of the days. Freestyle Dining is the only way to go.

This was not a choice on Carnival.

If you want to imagine what people do on the Victory if they don't go to the Casino (which you have to walk by to get anywhere) just think of people sitting around in an airport waiting for delayed planes.

We never knew how good NCL was until we tried Carnival and had a basis of comparison.

synet165

NCL Star-Alaska 6/05

NCL Dawn 4/06

Carnival Victory 8/12/06

[synet165]

This is to correct the icon.

[johnql]

I happen to be a huge NCL supporter myself. Love their Freestyle policies.

 

All that said, your post reminds me of a couple that I met on my Dawn cruise last month. We were having lunch at the beach BBQ on Great Stirrup Cay and happened to share a picnic table with a couple on their first NCL cruise. The woman proceeded to tell me how horrible she thought NCL was in comparison to Carnival. She'd been on numerous Carnival cruises and loved them. She tried one Celebrity cruise and hated it. Now, she was referring to the Dawn cruise as a nightmare. I listened politely and told her that I disagreed with her but that was just my opinion based on my experience and my preferences.

 

Just goes to show you - to each his own. We can be thankful that there are different cruise lines with a variety of cruising experiences. Carnival is clearly not your cup of tea, but they definitely have a legion of supporters, too.

[ce2000]

Isn't it great that we have so many choices of cruise lines and ships to choose from. A lot of people significantly prefer one cruise line over another and that is their choice. It is their money, and their choice of how to spend it, and that is great. I have been on 5 cruises with 5 different lines and had a good time on each one. I really enjoy the cruise experience and want to get a taste of each line. You might want to consider Princess, they offer Personal Choice Dinning, it is very similar to NCL Freestyle (no assigned time or table), but Princess also offers traditional dinning for those who prefer that. I have cruised with, (in my order of preference) Celebrity, Princess, RCI, Carnival and NCL. I would cruise any of these lines again. I would like to try HAL sometime.

[LiB]

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise on the Dawn. I was on the Dawn earlier this month. It is a beautiful ship: but I will go back to Carnival over Norwegian any day.

 

We loved the idea of freestyle dining, loved our dinner at LeBisro, and also ate at Bamboo. Unfortunately, those were the only two we were able to get reservations at. All specialty restaurants were completely booked by Monday of our cruise. We went to all the main restaurants, and found the service lacking--except in Aqua. They were exceptional.

 

Cabin sizes were another problem. My husband and I had a balcony cabin which was fine for the 2 of us. Our daughters (2), shared an inside quad with our friends 2 daughters. It was so small that they had to leave their suitcases on the floor in front of the wall to wall beds. They were able to put 1 suitcase in the closet, and hang a few things. (144 vs. 185 sq.ft)

 

The shows were good, the staff friendly. We enjoyed the ports. I also missed not having the captains cocktail party, with hors devours and free drinks (CArnival, Celebrity). It was nice to mingle with the other guests and meet the senior staff. I found that NCL charges for more of the extras.

 

I am not one to complain about these things. I just kind of make the best of things....but while we did have a good time, I didn't feel as satisfied at the end of this particular cruise.

 

To each his own....just enjoy it!!

[kannruss]

Isn't it great that we have so many choices of cruise lines and ships to choose from. A lot of people significantly prefer one cruise line over another and that is their choice. It is their money, and their choice of how to spend it, and that is great. I have been on 5 cruises with 5 different lines and had a good time on each one. I really enjoy the cruise experience and want to get a taste of each line. You might want to consider Princess, they offer Personal Choice Dinning, it is very similar to NCL Freestyle (no assigned time or table), but Princess also offers traditional dinning for those who prefer that. I have cruised with, (in my order of preference) Celebrity, Princess, RCI, Carnival and NCL. I would cruise any of these lines again. I would like to try HAL sometime.

Wow - our poor NCL ranks 5th in your list. We have some major kissing up to do to get you over to our side. Haha.

[kannruss]

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise on the Dawn. I was on the Dawn earlier this month. It is a beautiful ship: but I will go back to Carnival over Norwegian any day.

 

We loved the idea of freestyle dining, loved our dinner at LeBisro, and also ate at Bamboo. Unfortunately, those were the only two we were able to get reservations at. All specialty restaurants were completely booked by Monday of our cruise. We went to all the main restaurants, and found the service lacking--except in Aqua. They were exceptional.

 

Cabin sizes were another problem. My husband and I had a balcony cabin which was fine for the 2 of us. Our daughters (2), shared an inside quad with our friends 2 daughters. It was so small that they had to leave their suitcases on the floor in front of the wall to wall beds. They were able to put 1 suitcase in the closet, and hang a few things. (144 vs. 185 sq.ft)

 

The shows were good, the staff friendly. We enjoyed the ports. I also missed not having the captains cocktail party, with hors devours and free drinks (CArnival, Celebrity). It was nice to mingle with the other guests and meet the senior staff. I found that NCL charges for more of the extras.

 

I am not one to complain about these things. I just kind of make the best of things....but while we did have a good time, I didn't feel as satisfied at the end of this particular cruise.

 

To each his own....just enjoy it!!

If you cruise with NCL you will get that captain's party. All the latitudes members are invited

[hotspur]

I found that NCL charges for more of the extras.

Perhaps you'll share with us some of these "extras" that NCL charges for that other lines don't. We've also sailed the overrated Celebrity and HAL lines as well as the late, lamented Renaissance, and my recollection is that what NCL charges "extra" for is also charged for on those lines.

[Lydia B.]

First of all...yes I love the fact that we all have a choices of cruises, seriously we are very lucky Americans. I have done a variety of cruises, but primarily on Carnival and love them...with that said my first cruise on NCL is in April and I just bet I will love it too. Who can complain if you are on vacation on a cruise and being waited on hand and foot!

A question on Latitudes, this is my first NCL cruise, I am already getting Latitudes specials via e-mail (probably because of my deposit and I have already preregistured, not that I am anxious or anyting)...but are we now considered Latitudes members??? I was just curious about the party etc? Any insight someone can give is most appreciated, Lydia of Ohio

[judyf]

I have been on 5 cruises with 5 different lines and had a good time on each one.

 

I feel about the same. I love to try different lines and ships. I would sail any of the lines I've sailed on again and all for different reasons.

 

Of the four big ones I've been on RCCL, NCL, DCL and CCL I like them all for different things and miss different things when I'm on one of the others.

 

Example

 

CCL, I miss the midnight comedians and the late adult shows. I miss the 24 hour calzones and pizzas. The soft serve ice cream all day.

 

RRCL, I miss the parades, the room service menu for breakfast. Johnny Rockets

 

DCL, I miss the dining rooms, you get to go to them all. A good family Disney shows, pin trading and Castaway Cay.

 

NCL, I miss the freestyle dining. Blue Lagoon

 

Just to mention something here that was posted CCL has a captains cocktail party AND a past guest party so you get two parties with free drinks.

 

I love that there's choices for me to make. I don't think there's a cruise ship I wouldn't love to be on for one reason or another.

[bookdoctor1]

First of all...yes I love the fact that we all have a choices of cruises, seriously we are very lucky Americans. I have done a variety of cruises, but primarily on Carnival and love them...with that said my first cruise on NCL is in April and I just bet I will love it too. Who can complain if you are on vacation on a cruise and being waited on hand and foot!

A question on Latitudes, this is my first NCL cruise, I am already getting Latitudes specials via e-mail (probably because of my deposit and I have already preregistured, not that I am anxious or anyting)...but are we now considered Latitudes members??? I was just curious about the party etc? Any insight someone can give is most appreciated, Lydia of Ohio

Lydia, you must complete your first cruise to become Latitudes Members. Where in Ohio are you? We are from Grove City, south of Columbus. We are booked on our 3rd. NCL cruise for next May to the Baltic Capitals. We love freestyle cruising, spent a week in July on the Dawn for our 40th wedding anniversity. Very nice way to celebrate. Vicki

[ce2000]

I see that you are from Ft. Worth. Back in August 2003 I boarded the Carnival Jubilee in Galveston. The best part of this cruise was that most of the passengers on the ship were from Texas. I noticed that Texans are really friendly and know how to have a really good time. Not stuffy at all. Please take no offense to my ranking of NCL, I really did have good time on the Jewell. Honestly there really isn't much difference between first place and fifth place. I base my opinions on just two catagories, my taste in food (what I like you may not like) and how much fun I have onboard (you may not enjoy what I enjoy). I know that everyone has different preferences as to what is important to their cruise. I know that some people prefer to stay with one cruise line, there are perks for this. I was on the Caribbean Princess from Aug. 5 - Aug.12 this year and I bought some items in the gift shop onboard. As I was standing in line waiting to check out, the lady in front of me got 10% off her purchases because she was Princess Elite Member. Since this was my first Princess cruise I didn't get any discount. I'm sure Elite members get other perks also. I hope to board another ship in Galveston someday.

[LiB]

Hotspur--

 

I was surprised that you are not allowed to use the hottubs or pool in the spa-without paying $15 per day. Never charged for that before. A friend went to play Bingo and was told there was a $60 minimum.

 

I know you didn't comment about the Captain's cocktail party-I know about the Latitudes perks....what I meant was that, to me, it took away a certain ambiance I like.

 

I feel like I'm being attacked for having a different opinion. I respect yours, as I said, to each his own.........enjoy.

[hotspur]

Hotspur--

 

I was surprised that you are not allowed to use the hottubs or pool in the spa-without paying $15 per day. Never charged for that before. A friend went to play Bingo and was told there was a $60 minimum.

 

I know you didn't comment about the Captain's cocktail party-I know about the Latitudes perks....what I meant was that, to me, it took away a certain ambiance I like.

 

I feel like I'm being attacked for having a different opinion. I respect yours, as I said, to each his own.........enjoy.

So the one thing you were charged for on NCL that you say you weren't charged for on other lines is the hot tub and pool in the spa. On Celebrity's Galaxy, Century, and Mercury, by the way, there is a daily or weekly charge for use of the thalassotherapy pool in the spa--unless you are in a suite. If you find a ship where bingo's free we'd all like to know.

 

No one "attacked" you. You made a blanket statement condemning NCL on the NCL board with nothing to support it, and you were asked to give specifics. And it appears that what you referred to as "more of the extras" that NCL charges for turns out to be just one: the pool in the spa. And at least one other allegedly "premium" cruise line charges for that, too. In my opinion, it's a false accusation. Case dismissed. Enjoy Carnival.

[ardie42]

We have done 2 recent cruises on Carnival which we loved. I am a bit unsure of NCL. We are booking with a group and the Sun Western Caribbean was the ittinerary selected. If you choose to go to the speciality restaurants (which are the majority) not only do you have an additional charge but you have a reservation time. So what is the advantage of free style there. I like the traditional idea of dressing for dinner and sharing the day's adventures with your table mates. I guess I will reserve my opinion of the style of cruising on NCL until we actually experience it. I am sure we will find things that we like about that line also.

[rvrgirl]

:) Hi,

We are New Yorkers who have just returned from the Carnival Victory 5 night cruise to Canada. We have sailed NCL twice before, this was the first time on Carnival.

NEVER AGAIN ON CARNIVAL

 

NCL FREESTYLE IS THE BEST

 

We took the Carnival cruise because we live 5 minutes away from the cruise terminal. We must admit that embarkation and disembarkation was fast and great.

 

That said, everything else was the pits.

 

They never heard of Purell, the crew was rude, unresponive, passive and not to be seen.

They only time I saw the steward was when he asked me to acknowledge and sign that he had introduced himself.

 

Carnival Victory doesn't know anything about onboard activites, there was nothing besides towel folding one day. The library, wherever it may be was only open 1 hr. eadh on two of the days. Freestyle Dining is the only way to go.

This was not a choice on Carnival.

 

If you want to imagine what people do on the Victory if they don't go to the Casino (which you have to walk by to get anywhere) just think of people sitting around in an airport waiting for delayed planes.

 

We never knew how good NCL was until we tried Carnival and had a basis of comparison.

 

synet165

NCL Star-Alaska 6/05

NCL Dawn 4/06

Carnival Victory 8/12/06

Sorry I have to disagree. The Victory was one of my favorite ships:)

Maybe you should have sailed the caribbean. Much funner and younger crowd. But from what I'm feelin I think you are from the older crowd.

Maybe you shoud sail Holland America.

[synet165]

Age has nothing to do with a cruise. There are people who are old at 30 and others who are young at 90.

We just wanted things to do during the day and found that Carnival Victory didn't have anything.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Everyone try to be open to other opinions.

We tried Carnival and didn't like it, so back to NCL for us.

To each his own.

synet165

[tomluvsaida]

First of all...yes I love the fact that we all have a choices of cruises, seriously we are very lucky Americans. I have done a variety of cruises, but primarily on Carnival and love them...with that said my first cruise on NCL is in April and I just bet I will love it too. Who can complain if you are on vacation on a cruise and being waited on hand and foot!

A question on Latitudes, this is my first NCL cruise, I am already getting Latitudes specials via e-mail (probably because of my deposit and I have already preregistured, not that I am anxious or anyting)...but are we now considered Latitudes members??? I was just curious about the party etc? Any insight someone can give is most appreciated, Lydia of Ohio

You didn't say when in April you plan on going but if it's the April 23 cruise you should read these before going: This web site: http://www.atlantisevents.com/html/vac/PH07.asp and this thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=390535

If that's what you want I wish you well and have a wonderful time!:)

If it is not I'd suggest re-scheduling.

[MrPete]

To each his own.

 

You're right.

 

We just wanted things to do during the day and found that Carnival Victory didn't have anything.

 

But I'd be curious to see a copy of your capers.

 

We find there are just TOO many things to do. On ALL lines And we found ourselves exhausted by weeks end. And that is including bringing and wearing a tie on formal night.

 

BTW, on a five day trip, did you get to meet a whole bunch of new people?

[hotspur]

We have done 2 recent cruises on Carnival which we loved. I am a bit unsure of NCL. We are booking with a group and the Sun Western Caribbean was the ittinerary selected. If you choose to go to the speciality restaurants (which are the majority) not only do you have an additional charge but you have a reservation time. So what is the advantage of free style there. I like the traditional idea of dressing for dinner and sharing the day's adventures with your table mates. I guess I will reserve my opinion of the style of cruising on NCL until we actually experience it. I am sure we will find things that we like about that line also.

First off, several of the Sun's specialty restaurants do NOT have an extra charge. Secondly, the large majority of dining room seats are in the main dining rooms, where no reservation is required. If you are "booking with a group," I would presume you could dine with members of your group every night and "share the day's adventures" with them. If you like to "dress for dinner," you should feel free to do so. Nothing is going to prevent you.

[samtig]

We have done 2 recent cruises on Carnival which we loved. I am a bit unsure of NCL. We are booking with a group and the Sun Western Caribbean was the ittinerary selected. If you choose to go to the speciality restaurants (which are the majority) not only do you have an additional charge but you have a reservation time. So what is the advantage of free style there. I like the traditional idea of dressing for dinner and sharing the day's adventures with your table mates. I guess I will reserve my opinion of the style of cruising on NCL until we actually experience it. I am sure we will find things that we like about that line also.

 

We have been on 3 Carnival & 2 Norwegian cruises. All were great, just different. Cruised on the Sun in Dec. & I must say this is our favorite ship overall so far. Ship was very clean, staff exceptional, & food was really good. The only ship with better food, in our opinion, was the Carnival Conquest. We enjoy freestyle dining as well as traditional. Advantages to both. We enjoyed the Sun so much we scheduled another cruise in Dec. Hope you have a great time!

[angelsx4]

I LOVED NCL, but I really wish I could somehow combine my past experiences with Carnival AND NCL. I liked the food and top notch service we had with Carnival, and LOVED the Freestyle experience with NCL. We never even knew WHO our room steward was, our room was just magically cleaned. We knew all the other room stewards(we took our kids and the boys/dh were in the cabin next to us girls) and they seemed to all be good friends, always talking and joking around, and one of them was steward for the boys. We asked who ours was, and they joked that he was hitting the bottle. ???? When we were on our last Carnival the service was laughable because there was SO much of it. The food was amazing on Carnival, our waitor was FAB, and I somehow adopted my own personal waitor when I asked if there were any preservatives on the fruit on the first day. Whenever this waitor saw ANY of our party he rushed to bring over refills or take our plates, etc...(that was just in the buffet). We filled out a comment card for him and I tipped him seperately because he really did deserve a promotion or something. I always felt rushed to get out of the Versailles on the Star, where we were able to take our time on Carnival. But I hated being set-up with rude, inconsiderate table mates. We should have asked to change after the first day, our bad. And we loved all the specialty restaurants on Star. So???

 

But, all in all, I would highly recommend both lines, but explain the differences. I think it is all about personal choice and preferences.

[CStorm]

Hotspur--

 

A friend went to play Bingo and was told there was a $60 minimum.

 

 

It's $60 for Bingo :eek: :eek: :eek: ??!! My DH will NEVER let me play for $60 a game!!

[joanskid]

I have to throw my 2 cents in here.

 

Everyone has their own opinions, that's what makes this world so great.

 

My opinion (or one of them) is please do not judge Carnival based on the Canada/New England cruise. We have sailed on Carnival several times, Pricess once, and soon to be POAM. Our least favorite one so far was last fall on Carnival Triumph to Canada/New Enland. It's just not the same in any way as the Caribbean or Mexico CCL cruises.

 

We had a good time, but it just wasn't what we have grown to expect from CCL cruises.

[johnql]

If you choose to go to the speciality restaurants (which are the majority) not only do you have an additional charge but you have a reservation time. So what is the advantage of free style there.

I don't see why having to make a reservation contradicts the notion of Freestyle. Freestyle means having the freedom to dine when you want, where you want and with whom you want. Therefore, you simply choose the specialty restaurant and decide the time that suits you the best. That, to me, is far better than being locked in to a fixed dining schedule with fixed tablemates, especially if you end up with incompatible tablemates.