NCL Vs. Princess

[CCSSDRC]

I like Princess, but was looking for other alternatives. I like the anytime dinning and was thinking about trying NCL for their free style dinning. Any objective pros and con comments would be appreciated.

[dogdoc2002]

My partner and I sailed on NCLA's Pride of America last July. We haven't yet sailed with Princess (that's this summer :) ). We chose Princess for our Alaska cruise because they had a better itinery than NCL, but still had a similar dinning set-up

 

A few of the differences I've noticed when comparing is that NCL seems to have a few more choices, in particular with the specialty restaurants. Plus, one of their specialty restaurants (the Italian one) is free; On Pride of America, we ate in the buffets, which were ok (cold food on occ, but nothing major), the main dining rooms, which we thought were pretty good, the Italian restaurant (fantastic), as well as the steak house and Le Bistro- both also excellent. Biggest downside to the freestyle dining is that the specialty restuarants tend to fill up quite quickly for the week, but we never had a problem with the main dining rooms.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Dogdoc2002

[Clutterlady]

Sailed on NCL last year. Our opinion was that the food in the dining room was pretty bad (our opinion). LeBistro and Cagneys, both extra charge, we very good. As far as the other restaurants go, unless you made reservations the first day...........well you were out of luck. Seems to defeat the "freestyle" concept??!! The NCL Dawn was a very nice ship, entertainment was very good, service was so..so. Would probably sail NCL again if the price were right and love to sail out of NYC, only 1 1/2 drive for me. Princess is still our line of choice:) Had consistantly good meals in the dining room, very good service, clean rooms, very friendly staff. Princess ships have a little more ambiance than NCL.

[Opinions]

We were on the NCL Jewell to Canada in 2005 and on the Star Princess to Canada in 2006...I enjoyed both cruises...In my opinion the service was better on NCl...The food in the dining room was better on Princess and slightly better in the buffet on NCl...Entertainment was about the same.

 

Of course the main difference is NCL is all freestyle and no required formal nights...Princess has Traditional and Anytime with required formal nights in the dining room.

[willysgrandma]

NCL is much less formal. I thought the food on both was about the same - nothing special.

 

IMO, Princess ships are much nicer than NCL. As one person said, there is not as much choice in dining as there is on Princess.

 

If you don't like dressing up, you might prefer NCL.

 

I'd go with whichever one had the itinerary that I liked the best.

[johnql]

As one person said, there is not as much choice in dining as there is on Princess.

Is this what you meant? It's my understanding that the newer ships on NCL have more choices in dining than Princess.

[dsfitz]

I've done both a NCL and a Princess cruise to Alaska. Very similar in almost all respects, as others have said. Thought food was very good on both. I would go with whichever one you got a better deal on.

[flvol77]

We cruised NCL Jewel in Nov 2006 and Star Princess in Jan 2007 - There maybe more choices as in food on NCL, but you have to pay for them - yes they have speciality restaurants and that is the only place to receive a decent meal -

 

NCL does the asian dining well, Chin Chin and Teppanyaki were both awesome and the sushi was very good.

 

Mama's was horrible and La Bristro was very upsetting to say the least.

 

There service in the main dining rooms was very bad - I have had better service at a McDonalds -

 

The buffet was the same thing everyday and all the food was cooked with TONS of oils.

 

Princess is head shoulders above NCL in service and food.

 

- With that being said I loved the islands that we went to, and I like the fact that NCL changes its itineraries out of Miami every year.

 

I would give NCL another try because I heard a lot of people on the ship complaining about their food that had traveled with NCL many times. Plus it was the first week back in Miami and they lost 150+ staff to the Jewel - But the price would have to be really right.

[booklady26]

Evening attire seems to be a HUGE issue on these boards so I'll comment on that first.

 

The first time I sailed freestyle with NCL, we dressed in "resort casual" attire on captains night. While the cruise line states that is permissible, I have to tell you, we felt underdressed. Most men wore at least jackets and ladies were in dressier pants outfits or dresses on captains night. So I don't think it's as casual as some would believe. On subsequent NCL cruises, we dressed up a bit more. Hubby wore a jacket and tie and I wore a nice pant suit. Some people might think that's "dressing down" but not me.

 

On Princess, we dress formally on formal nights. Tux for hubby and cocktail attire for me.

 

The cabins on Princess are larger and nicer. We had a minisuite on the Norwegian Dawn which is not much bigger than a regular verandah stateroom on the Crown Princess. Our minisuite on the Crown was MUCH bigger.

 

I though the entertainment better on NCL. There's not much difference in daytime activities between the two.

 

If you're sailing in cooler or colder weather out of NYC, the Dawn does have an indoor spa pool which is nice. Don't expect a full size pool. It's adjacent to the spa and has very limited seating. Children are not allowed because it is part of the spa.

 

I found quality of food in the dining room and buffets better on the Crown. Service a bit better on Princess also. That's not to say NCL is horrible. I found it pretty good overall. I just thought Princess was a bit better.

 

The biggest difference in dining is the choice of restaurants on NCL. In addition to the buffet and main dining rooms, there's an italian, steak, french style bistro, tex mex &/or tappas, asian with sushi and teppanyaki room and a "fast food" type place on the Dawn. No charge for the main rooms, buffet, fast food, italian or tex mex. We just loved all the choices. Food and service in all of the extra charge venues is excellent. We've never made it to the tex mex or italian. Some friends have told me that the italian is not very good.

 

We never had a problem getting a reservation in any of the alternate venues except for the teppanyaki. There's only 1 room that seats about 12 or 15 people and they have 2 or maybe 3 seatings a night. After our first freestyle cruise on the Sun we learned to make a reservation for that restaurant as soon as we board.

 

Crown Princess has 2 alternative venues, steak and Italian. Food at both is very good but I found service to be a little slow. Reservations are usually easy to get.

 

If I had to choose between the 2, I would take Princess. But NCL isn't bad either.

 

I'm the kind of person who tries to "accentuate the positive". We have our 39th cruise coming up next month and I've learned never to compare one to the other. Each cruise and cruise line has things I've liked and things I wasn't so crazy about.

 

Some people take one thing that maybe went wrong or wasn't too their liking and then trash the entire cruise. There really is no such thing as a bad cruise.

[CrusinAgain]

This will be our 4th time on Princess next month and we have an upcoming trip on the NCL Pearl. Food quality changes from ship to ship and voyage to voyage. We went on the CB twice and both times the quality of the food was different. We also went on two different Carnival ships and the quality was different so can't say just going on one ship of a cruiseline that the whole cruiseline is bad or good food. The cooks and servers keep changing along with the quality and tastes.

 

Right now reports are saying that the NCL Pearl is really good service and quality food and the Caribbean Princess has gone down in service and quality in food (which was really good when we went on her). So to me it is like craps...never know what you are going to get. :)

 

I would read alot of reviews keeping in mind certain things do vary from voyage to voyage and go with the one that has the best itinerary for the best bang for your buck.

[iancal]

We like both, actually never had a bad cruise. I was on the NCL last Feb 06. Great ship. Entertainment much better than Princess, food on par but I really liked personal choice. Was travelling with my elderly father...boy did he get excellent service. I like NCL coffee...you can get a decent cup of coffee on NCL, including expresso or caps in the dining room gratis. If you like coffee, and are going Princess then buy the coffee card and avoid that reconstituted stuff. Very close attention to hygene on that voyage-sanitizers with crew members forcing you to use them everywhere. No so on any of our Princess trips. My DW was on NCL Star in March 06. She thought Princess food was better, service about the same, NCL entertainment much better (and they had a lecturer on board), but she very much disliked the pool area on the NCL Star. She liked personal choice. We were both on the Star Princess in Dec. Great ship, food, and staff. Entertainment (especially the f/m vocalist) was very good-floor shows in Princess theatre were mediocre at best. I am convinced that it is more a function of ship and ship's crew on that particular voyage. DW does not really want to go on NCL Star again. Actually her favorite is Celebrity but Princess is also very good. Different tastes I guess.