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If the other cruiselines go "Freestyle"...

laughoutloud

By laughoutloud,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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NJBear

NJBear

Posted
Posted
would you still cruise with NCL?

 

It was an open mind that led me to NCL "freestyle" ..it will be an open mind that will let me try other lines in addition to NCL that offer freestyle as well once they are up and running for awhile as well<g>

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flvol77

flvol77

Posted
Posted
would you still cruise with NCL?

 

Princess is a form of freestyle...its a little different...and I will be able to tell you for sure how different in 47 days...

 

The one line I would like to try is RCCL, but not until they at least have an anytime dining option, I know some that work for the company down in Miami and they have said they think it will be a long time for RCCL ever trys it.

 

For now its Princess and NCL....and those are going to be the two lines I travel with.

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kimdave68

kimdave68

Posted
Posted
Princess is a form of freestyle...its a little different...and I will be able to tell you for sure how different in 47 days...

 

The one line I would like to try is RCCL, but not until they at least have an anytime dining option, I know some that work for the company down in Miami and they have said they think it will be a long time for RCCL ever trys it.

 

For now its Princess and NCL....and those are going to be the two lines I travel with.

 

For real. I mean if I cannot be "on time" for dinner at home, how in the heck am I supposed to do that on vacation? I can't stand that and I prefer not to get room service every night or settle for a lackluster buffet.

 

I really like the idea of eating whenever I want. It (assigned dining) may be a "sailing tradition" and I respect that but if there's an alternative (which there is) I'm game. :)

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flvol77

flvol77

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Posted
For real. I mean if I cannot be "on time" for dinner at home, how in the heck am I supposed to do that on vacation? I can't stand that and I prefer not to get room service every night or settle for a lackluster buffet.

 

I really like the idea of eating whenever I want. It (assigned dining) may be a "sailing tradition" and I respect that but if there's an alternative (which there is) I'm game. :)

 

Its funny my wife really wanted to go on RCCL instead of NCL....so for a week I wrote down when we ate dinner....it went from 5:00 to 9:15....then when we were on our cruise three weeks ago I also wrote down when we went to dinner....from 5:45 - 8:30 and one time we had a lite dinner in the buffet (cafe caribe which is nice on princess) and then we had a steak at 12:30 am....

 

So after showing her all the times we ate I asked so will it be 6:15 or 8:30, she said neither and that is what brought us to NCL

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newmexicoNita

newmexicoNita

Posted
Posted

I think my loyalties would still be NCL as I like more than just freestyle but I would be more open than now. We do choose our cruises for many reasons, not just freestyle. We have done Celebrity since freestyle was introduced and most likely would choose NCL over Celebrity even if they had freestyle. I know we are in the minority, but we just don't see what the Celebrity hype is all about. We have cruised RCI as well: I am sure, unless the price was better we would stick with NCL. We didn't care for the service on RCI. Now we will be sailing HAL in just a little over 2 months. We are looking forward to a new experience.

 

NMNita

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Cruise_More_Often

Cruise_More_Often

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Only if the other cruiselines get a credit card as good as NCL's MasterCard is or if NCL (or B of A) discontinues it, perish the thought.

 

We decided to book a Dawn Princess round-trip to the Mexican Riviera out of San Francisco, because it's so close to our town and so convenient. After having the reservation about a month, we cancelled and booked the Star. We'll use our MasterCard points for our final payment, and driving to LA isn't so bad.

 

Honestly, it's like throwing away money when you have those points and don't use them on NCL!

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superjerryw

superjerryw

Posted
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Freestyle dining is only one facet of a cruise. I pick my cruises based mostly on intinerary and price. Lately, I have been selecting cruises that leave from close to home so I don't have to put up with flying to the port city. As long as NCL keeps a ship or two near my home they will always be an option no matter what the other cruise lines do.

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mbisson

mbisson

Posted
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Only if the other cruiselines get a credit card as good as NCL's MasterCard is or if NCL (or B of A) discontinues it, perish the thought.

 

I was wondering if this would get mentioned! I enjoy freestyle and using the card has let me cruise for a lot closer to free.

 

But I also sneak in an occassional cruise with RCI as well ;)

 

-Monte

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Tom O. Great Review Rare

Tom O.

Posted
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Princess, as previously mentioned, has anytime dining. They also have traditional dining. With Princess, all dining rooms have the same menu, so the only advantage of their anytime dining is that you can eat when you feel like it.

I have had both traditional and anytime on Princess and I prefer the traditional. With anytime there is usually a line you have to stand in. With traditional I just walk into the dining room and go to my table, no need to be seated. Aparently a lot of other people feel the same way as I do, because both early and late traditional are always waitlisted, wheras anytime is never waitlisted. In fact Princess has recently had to change some of their dining rooms from anytime to traditional to help reduce the waitlist problem.

I don't think offering both ways is workable, a cruise line needs to go one way or the other.

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seahorse

seahorse

Posted
Posted
Princess, as previously mentioned, has anytime dining. They also have traditional dining. With Princess, all dining rooms have the same menu, so the only advantage of their anytime dining is that you can eat when you feel like it.

I have had both traditional and anytime on Princess and I prefer the traditional. With anytime there is usually a line you have to stand in. With traditional I just walk into the dining room and go to my table, no need to be seated. Aparently a lot of other people feel the same way as I do, because both early and late traditional are always waitlisted, wheras anytime is never waitlisted. In fact Princess has recently had to change some of their dining rooms from anytime to traditional to help reduce the waitlist problem.

I don't think offering both ways is workable, a cruise line needs to go one way or the other.

 

I agree.....you can`t have it both ways. If they have to change their restaurants then there shouldn`t be a wait for Personal Choice:D

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shoreguy

shoreguy

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I certainly would and I would try other lines even if the don't. There is more to Freestyle then open seating. It will be very hard for another line to offer a comparible program without a major investment. They will have to suffer thtru the ugly early days of Freestlye that NCL has gotten past.

 

It will be a full ten years and a complete refresh of the fleet before the complete value of Freestyle can be enjoyed fleet wide. Others will need to redesign ships adding many more dinning options and provide free and moderate priced alternate dinning loctions. Redesign galleys to cook to order for free style.

 

Not something that a market leader is going to invest in, risk the current loyal client base, and say to the industry we want to copy number #3 :rolleyes:

 

Freestyle not only offers me the choice of when to eat but a wide variety of what and where.

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ute_fan

ute_fan

Posted
Posted

If the other lines go freestyle I'd be more likely to try them. However, as long as the NCL MBNA card functions are well as it does, it would have to be a really good itinerary and even better price. Why do I want to cruise line XXX for $1500, when I can cruise on NCL, and pay $500 after my normal annual $1000 in MBNA certificates :D ?

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