Quick Questions about NCL

[luige]

I've always been a RCCL cruiser and am considering a trip on NCL.

 

According to the NCL website, disembarkation takes place 2 hours after docking. Is this true? On RCCL we're using walking off within 1 hour.

 

My wife also enjoys all the trivia and other fun type things. Does NCL offer this also?

 

My wife also perfers the larger ships as can sometimes get a little queasy. Has anyone had anyproblems on the Dawn in the Caribbean?

 

Thank you

[Don Haynes]

With express disembarkation you could be off the ship in less than an hour. Trivia games are a part of many activities on NCL. Most of the time NCL ships, even the small ones, have very little motion. Only in rough seas and in storms will I get somewhat dizzy, and I have never yet got seasick on a NCL ship. I'm Coast Guard retired.

[garycarla]

PS - I hope you get your answers, but this board is of course all about NCL, and of course just about everybody has questions. Therefore your subject line does not help you to get answers.

 

But - as mentioned, getting off the ship is usually much earlier than 2 hours, but ships tend to give conservative estimates. It also depends on where the ship has been and where it arrives. It also depends on when the "hour" is calculated from. Some ships might say they arrive at 8am and disembark at 9am. In reality they arrive at 6am and take care of the customers stuff between 6 and 8.

 

I think just about all ships do stuff like trivia, etc. to keep passengers busy.

[cnj1019]

We were on the Jewel last week so here goes. We have cruised many times before on carnival and royal carribean and were dissapointed in NCl. Now dont get me wrong i dont think there is such a thing as a terrible cruise. We felt that the food was very good on the Jewel. The shows were a different story. Other than the Cirque show the others did not compare to any other line we went on. We also felt that the Cruise directors staff were not very entertaining or professional. The cruise director had no personality. When you seen him around the ship,very rare, he did not say anything to anyone.. They never wore any type of uniform and we thought some of them wore the tackiest clothes. You never knew who was working there or was cruisers, except for the name tags.The other thing i have never seen before was the staff always ate at the buffets and went to the shows. It did make us mad many times having to wait behind an employee to get something to eat, Very unprofessional. The room stewards were a different story. They were what you expect, very friendly and always working. There was one guy named aris on the cruise director staff that was entertaining, Thier trivia shows were not put together very well as on other ships either.It seems like they were doing them all for the first time. We did enjoy second city and the quest show.

 

Disembarking is another story. We arrived in Miami around 4:00am and got off the ship around 8:45. We were the first ones off. We got on the ship at pier 10 and got off at pier 55. Nobody told us this in the beginning or we would have parked closer to 55. They said they would have shuttles take us to the parking area. Once we got off there was nobody to tell you what to do. We waited for about 40 minutes for a shuttle along with many others and nothing ever came.. Finally i walked about 20 min to the parking area and drove back for luggage.

We have decided that Royal Carib would never have treated us like this. Our feeling the whole trip is we were putting NCL out with us being there. We wont be going back..

 

Royal Carribean here we come///

[johnql]

According to the NCL website, disembarkation takes place 2 hours after docking. Is this true? On RCCL we're using walking off within 1 hour.

You might have been misled by NCL's bad wording. The 2-hr statement refers to disembarkation at the end of the cruise. It does NOT refer to when you can leave the ship in each port stop. The process at each port on NCL is no different than any other cruise line - fairly soon after docking, longer if a tender is needed.

 

My wife also enjoys all the trivia and other fun type things. Does NCL offer this also?

Yes, NCL offers onboard activities that are pretty much the same as all other mainstream ships.

 

My wife also perfers the larger ships as can sometimes get a little queasy. Has anyone had anyproblems on the Dawn in the Caribbean?

 

Thank you

I've been on the Dawn twice and never had a problem with motion sickness, but that's me. It varies with each individual, but I think I can safely say that the Dawn is relatively stable.

[Tahoestarr]

So many of things you mentioned are reflected on the CD and his staff. If you have a bad one, then it can suck! But that can happen on any cruise line. Regarding the buffet, I just got off of my first Princess cruise, and always saw and interacted with staff eating in the buffet. As I spoke with one crew member, they weren't allowed to eat if there was a line of passengers, they had to wait until there was no line.

 

Alot of what happens after docking has nothing to do with the cruise line. It kind of depends on customs, and how they handle things. So again, that would depend on the port you were sailing out/in of. Perhaps they didn't know they would have to disembark at a different dock on arrival. Things can change at a drop of a hat.

 

I'm sorry that you've had a bad experience in certain areas....that can suck, but, trust me, this is something that can happen on any line. In LA, disembarkation on RCCL can be a nightmare! But still loved the cruise! Also, we got lucky in San Francisco, cause I had heard that disembarkation there was a nightmare....but we had a good day :)

[cnj1019]

well the problem was they knew we would be getting off at another pier all the time as the pearl is in miami every other week. That is why the move the jewel each time to a tent. All i ask is to be given the info so we could have made other arrangements ahead of time. then it would have been no big deal. I did not mention that we did see the shuttle finally after 1 hour as we were leaving. It was 1 small van for hundreds of people and luggage//

[Tahoestarr]

now that sucks!