Anyone else think it is time for a separate NCLA board

[flag fan]

I am of mixed minds on this. When I was researching my Pride of Hawaii cruise I found all the NCL threads irrelevant and only read the NCLA ones. On the other hand, NCL and NCLA really treat themselves as one cruise line and their style of cruising--freestyle and less formal, which sets them apart from other lines is the same for both NCL and NCLA. While different cruise lines have different threads, they are clearly different from each other, even if owned by a parent company--Cunard and Carnival are totally different cruise experiences, much more different than NCL and NCLA. On the other hand, Celebrity and Azamara have different boards even though they book Azamara on the Celebrity website. I guess I come down on the side of keeping only one board. NCL and NCLA are more alike than different and the main impetus for separating them seems to come from NCL loyalists who don't want their favorite cruise line associated with NCLA. I have always found this attitude annoying and, like it or not, NCL has not made NCLA a separate cruise line. Until it does, the cruise line should only have one board.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

far different wait times if any.

 

 

Not true. You can wait just as long for a table on one of the international ships vs one of the American ones. Gonna come out sometime and try it for yourself soon??!!:)

[Lotteryfan]

While I would like to see two different boards I can see some problems with this.

 

First, visitors to these boards will continue to blast NCLA on the NCL boards which will force the moderator to move the threads to the correct board, thereby causing more work for her.

 

Then, these people who posted their comments on the wrong board will be upset because although their thread was moved, they might believe that their thread was taken away, possibly causing them to blast the moderator and creating even more work for her when the second post has to be moved or deleted.

 

I think this thread begs for an opinion from the moderator to see how she feels on the suggestion and I hope that she responds shortly.

[heelfan94]

While I would like to see two different boards I can see some problems with this.

 

First, visitors to these boards will continue to blast NCLA on the NCL boards which will force the moderator to move the threads to the correct board, thereby causing more work for her.

 

Then, these people who posted their comments on the wrong board will be upset because although their thread was moved, they might believe that their thread was taken away, possibly causing them to blast the moderator and creating even more work for her when the second post has to be moved or deleted.

 

I think this thread begs for an opinion from the moderator to see how she feels on the suggestion and I hope that she responds shortly.

You summed up what I was thinking. I love the idea but implementation is a different story. Lots of folks who post here now have no idea they were on an NCLA cruise as opposed to NCL. I still voted for yes, though. :)

[wulfdreamer]

All the other cruise companies have boards by brand. Why should the two cruiselines run by NCL Corp be lumped together. This is no different at this point then putting Cunard and Carnival on the same board or Celebrity and RCCL. The products are totally different. In my opinion dividing the board would help resolve a lot of the confusion. Your thoughts ?

I was of somewhat mixed opinion about a separate board until I read the thread "6-25-07 Pride of Hawaii 'Service Charge'." I think there are too many people out there that don't know the difference in product or are confused by the different policies. There should be a place for them to go to get the information.

[Host CMLA]

While I would like to see two different boards I can see some problems with this.

 

First, visitors to these boards will continue to blast NCLA on the NCL boards which will force the moderator to move the threads to the correct board, thereby causing more work for her.

 

Then, these people who posted their comments on the wrong board will be upset because although their thread was moved, they might believe that their thread was taken away, possibly causing them to blast the moderator and creating even more work for her when the second post has to be moved or deleted.

 

I think this thread begs for an opinion from the moderator to see how she feels on the suggestion and I hope that she responds shortly.

I appreciate the thought you put into this aspect of adding new boards. Yes, it does require additional work on my part. While I don't mind doing it, I do believe the issues you bring up will be a problem. New and old members and new and old cruisers will continue to blur the lines between NCL and NCLA. There will be a lot of cross contamination of topics and redundancy by people posting to both boards.

 

One of the ongoing issues on every board is making sure a thread is on the topic for that board. To a lot of people just because their cruise in on NCL/NCLA their topic belongs on this board. But no, your cruise may leave from New Jersey but getting directions to the port isn't an NCL question. It's an East Coast Departures question and there's a whole different group of people over there that answer questions. By keeping the boards on topic, you get access to more members and more information. Separating NCL and NCLA topics might turn into, "Why'd you move my post, etc?" because NCL and NCLA are not distinguished very well even by NCL.

 

Lastly, to my knowledge, no one has asked the board administrator to separate the boards. It may be something she should consider but if no one does anything except post to this thread, there's no guarantee she'll ever know the members discussed it.

[shoreguy]

Lastly, to my knowledge, no one has asked the board administrator to separate the boards. It may be something she should consider but if no one does anything except post to this thread, there's no guarantee she'll ever know the members discussed it.

 

I started this to get a sense of what all the current members that use this board thought about the idea. Lots of good points made on both sides of the idea. I certainly did not think it was my place to ask Laura to change the current structure because I felt it may be a good idea.

 

I would be happy to drop Laura a note or you can asking her to take a look at the pole and see if she thinks it makes sense. I think the input of many is far better then one lone opinion.

[hazeleyez3]

As others have mentioned, the two are not seperated by the cruise line, and as far as Lattitudes goes... they both count (for example, I have taken 2 NCL cruises, the NCLA cruise is counting as my 3rd). This does not happen with other lines.

 

Then there are the ships:

 

The POH that will be turning into the Jade next year. People who are traveling on the Jade may have questions that former POH cruisers can assist on.

 

The POAM or POA sister ship is part of the NCL fleet, and many times people can answer questions regarding sister ships.

 

Some of the restaurants are the same (Le Bistro and Cagneys).

 

I realize the tipping is different, however, the other prices are the same. When you look at Carnival and Princess, you will see that Carnival doesn't charge for lemonade and juices are available 24/7, whereas juices are only available in the morning on Princess and lemonade is extra.

 

The cabin catergoeries are the same, so again, NCL cruisers can get assistance from NCLA and vice versa.

 

They both have the dailies, and the same type specials.

 

Although they may be 2 seperate lines, they are much more similar than lets say Princess and a Carnival lines.

[98Charlie]

 

One of the ongoing issues on every board is making sure a thread is on the topic for that board. To a lot of people just because their cruise in on NCL/NCLA their topic belongs on this board. But no, your cruise may leave from New Jersey but getting directions to the port isn't an NCL question. It's an East Coast Departures question and there's a whole different group of people over there that answer questions. By keeping the boards on topic, you get access to more members and more information. Separating NCL and NCLA topics might turn into, "Why'd you move my post, etc?" because NCL and NCLA are not distinguished very well even by NCL.

 

 

I appreciate your comment and all the work our moderators do to keep threads on topic and move posts where they should be.

 

But I do think NCLA and NCL should be separated on CC boards even though NCL does not separate them yet on their internet site.

 

I say yet with the knowledge that NCL execs, CD's and other staff members do read these boards and assimilate what cruisers are saying here. If CC separates the NCLA and NCL for comments, etc., then NCL execs just may get the drift that they need to create two different Web sites for the two entities.:)

 

Dianne

[House_Atreides]

Simply because I'm growing weary of hearing how awful NCLA is on the whole.....

[ehough]

As someone who is cruising NCLA (and has never cruised NCL), I do think it could be beneficial. Obviously I am uninformed from a logistics issue, but from a hypothetical standpoint, I think it could be a good thing. To be honest I rarely read threads that are strictly NCL simply because it's rare for them to apply to NCLA. I find it frustrating sometimes to fish through several NCL threads to find one that applies to NCLA.

 

Sure, technically NCL considers them one and the same, but that doesn't mean we have to. In fact, many posters realize the vast differences between NCL and NCLA, regardless of how NCL classifies it.

 

Perhaps, if such a hypothetical board were in existence, we could have a sticky of some sort at the top of both the NCL and NCLA boards that would specify what they have in common. For example, if someone has an issue with the website, they could post it on NCL and probably get more responses. If someone has an issue with the specific restaurants on NCLA, then they could post that in the NCLA forum and hopefully get more specific responses. Basically I think some sort of reminder about what the lines have in common would help those who are less informed about the differences between NCL and NCLA to post in the correct forum.

 

Just my two cents.

[MommyJamiex4]

LOL Not that my option matters either way, But YES I think the boards should be seperate. I am going on a NCLA ship in Nov and would like to read about that ship and others like it. I go to the NCL board and see info about every single ship out of every single port. This is why I usually spend my time on the ports board. Its more direct for what I am looking for. Not to mention, I get sucked into reading about everyones trip from everywhere just because I love cruising. Dh hates this because I already have an idea of where we are going for our next 10 cruises,LOL!

[DearOldDad]

I think seperating them is a good idea. But it's really up to Laura and Cecilia on what they perceive as best for the board and its members, and whether they want to deal with the extra work and hassles.

 

I 've also been tracking the Hawaii destination board as most of the questions/comments/complaints are from POH/POA/POAm cruisers.

[cruisequeen10]

After reading quite a few of negative posts on the NCLA, I will definitly not sail with them, but of course will stay with NCL. They are one of the best. Hopefully more passengers will give NCL a chance and don't lump the 2 together.

[DaisyL]

I've cruised on both NCL and NCLA and I vote YES, separate them. They are completely different and it gets frustrating trying to explain the differences in many of my responses.

 

My experience on NCL Dawn has been much better than the experience on NCLA PoAm and I would have no problem responding to both.

[BruceMuzz]

I'm willing to bet that Colin Veitch wishes they had separate boards. The overwhelmingly negative comments and reviews about NCLA are really hurting the reputation and revenues of NCL.

[kayow]

Try cruising on Royal Caribbean ships and you'll notice the difference right away.

[cliffd64]

Try cruising on Royal Caribbean ships and you'll notice the difference right away.

 

Wow, what an appropriate and on-topic reply here on the NCL board!

[Zeno]

Try cruising on Royal Caribbean ships and you'll notice the difference right away.

 

What on earth does this rude and inappropriate post have to do with the topic at hand???

[KeystoneCruiser]

Try cruising on Royal Caribbean ships and you'll notice the difference right away.

 

Yes, I agree that cruisin on Royal Caribbean is a problem. We are working on a group cruise for next year and the best itinerary choice is on Royal Carribean.

 

I am trying to convince my family and friends it will be ok to cruise there. The complaints I am fighting:

1.) Being told WHEN to eat with assigned dining

2.) Being told WHO to eat with with assigned table mates

3.) Being herded like cattle into the public rooms by 8:00 a.m. on the last morning instead of being able to stay in cabin until time to disembark.

4.) Trapsing all over the ship the last night with envelopes full of money to tip employess instead of it simply being added to your bill.

and the biggest complaint I am fighting:

5.) Being told that you have to dress up for dinner due to some antique dress code.

 

 

You are right, it is so much easier on NCL with Freestyle. But I am making headway. I just had another friend agee to go. He said he guess he could "lower himself" to go on RCCL for one cruise.

[RachieLnnn]

As others have mentioned, the two are not seperated by the cruise line, and as far as Lattitudes goes... they both count (for example, I have taken 2 NCL cruises, the NCLA cruise is counting as my 3rd). This does not happen with other lines.

 

Then there are the ships:

 

The POH that will be turning into the Jade next year. People who are traveling on the Jade may have questions that former POH cruisers can assist on.

 

The POAM or POA sister ship is part of the NCL fleet, and many times people can answer questions regarding sister ships.

 

Some of the restaurants are the same (Le Bistro and Cagneys).

 

I realize the tipping is different, however, the other prices are the same. When you look at Carnival and Princess, you will see that Carnival doesn't charge for lemonade and juices are available 24/7, whereas juices are only available in the morning on Princess and lemonade is extra.

 

The cabin catergoeries are the same, so again, NCL cruisers can get assistance from NCLA and vice versa.

 

They both have the dailies, and the same type specials.

 

Although they may be 2 seperate lines, they are much more similar than lets say Princess and a Carnival lines.

 

I agree. There are too many similarities between NCL and NCLA and many opportunities to share information. I don't think they should be separated.

 

If you are tired of seeing complainers about NCLA, perhaps you should take it a little less personally and not make it your personal crusade to lure those disgruntled with NCLA back to NCL. That might be a bit less tiring.

[mbisson]

Try cruising on Royal Caribbean ships and you'll notice the difference right away.

 

 

I've cruised both RCCL & NCL 5 times. Like em both but give the edge to NCL mainly due to freestyle, so what's your point?

[Tarheelbelle]

All the other cruise companies have boards by brand. Why should the two cruiselines run by NCL Corp be lumped together. This is no different at this point then putting Cunard and Carnival on the same board or Celebrity and RCCL. The products are totally different. In my opinion dividing the board would help resolve a lot of the confusion. Your thoughts ?

Shoreguy I totally agree. The very day that Azamara was announced as separate from Celebrity, there was an Azamara board. I have posted this idea before in the threads about NCLA.

[MrLee]

Shoreguy I totally agree. The very day that Azamara was announced as separate from Celebrity, there was an Azamara board. I have posted this idea before in the threads about NCLA.

 

 

Probably the fact that Cruise Critic has an official relationship with Royal Caribbean has something to do with it.

[Host CMLA]

Probably the fact that Cruise Critic has an official relationship with Royal Caribbean has something to do with it.

They have a relationship to host Cruise Critic parties. But that has nothing to do with how the board is run. Again, no one has asked for a separate board. The OP hasn't even asked for it and it's his thread. It looks like this is just a place to discuss a new board but no one wants to actually see about getting it. I never asked for a separate board because I don't think one is needed. But if other members do, they should speak up.