Is it true? NCL gives no service?

[suzyqto]

In a previous post I was asking for help deciding between Norwegian and Celebrity. I just read in this forum that Norwegian gives no or limited service. s this true? If so, then I will go with Celebrity.

[CPT Trips]

It's not true - but Celeb is more traditional in terms of schedule while NCL is "freestyle." Some would say that Celeb is more "upscale."

[Toyz711]

your rooms get cleaned by very nice stewards, you get a nice sit - down dinner in 1 of their main dining rooms or you can choose to go to one of the specialities restaurants. you are greeted at the doors of each dining venue..etc. want to see my towel animals? i have pictures of them:D . chocolates on my pillow each night.

the difference is that i don't pack suits/ties/formal gowns,etc. i can go the whole cruise with DH in slacks and pullover shirts and me in my pants and nice blouse.

at dinner, it's like going out to eat at a restaurant, you go to the dining of choice..the host or hostess will ask "how many in your party" and you are seated. if you want to sit with others, just ask. we like to sit at a table for 2. we don't do many of the surcharge restaurants, don't feel a need..have gotten very good service in the main dining rooms.

on our last cruise our room stewards were outstanding.

[suzyqto]

your rooms get cleaned by very nice stewards, you get a nice sit - down dinner in 1 of their main dining rooms or you can choose to go to one of the specialities restaurants. you are greeted at the doors of each dining venue..etc. want to see my towel animals? i have pictures of them:D . chocolates on my pillow each night.

the difference is that i don't pack suits/ties/formal gowns,etc. i can go the whole cruise with DH in slacks and pullover shirts and me in my pants and nice blouse.

at dinner, it's like going out to eat at a restaurant, you go to the dining of choice..the host or hostess will ask "how many in your party" and you are seated. if you want to sit with others, just ask. we like to sit at a table for 2. we don't do many of the surcharge restaurants, don't feel a need..have gotten very good service in the main dining rooms.

on our last cruise our room stewards were outstanding.

 

Thanks for clearing that up.

[JudyM]

Toyz, you've had better experiences than we have on NCL. First, their "Freestyle" dining resulted in long waits and huge, noisy crowds for the main dining rooms on both of my NCL cruises. On Pride of America last summer, even the surcharge restaurants were completely reserved, for the whole cruise, by Day 2 (except for the Shabu-Shabu, which was terrific). So except for the Shabu-Shabu and one night in the MDR, we had buffet for dinner, not what we hoped for or expected. One good note is that because there is always a wait for the MDR, the hostess now gives out those square plastic blinking/vibrating signallers so at least you don't have to stand in line by the entrance.

 

Second, because NCL charges all passengers a flat $10/day service charge, which they presumably divide up amongst the serving staff, the staff get their tip no matter what - unless you go the the Purser's desk and make a big ugly scene. All my family felt the service was noticeably less attentive and friendly than we were used to, since there was less motivation for individuals to distinguish themselves by good service.

[deepnite10]

on the Star..

 

we hardly saw our cabin steward..

 

our cabin s were made up each day.. but in the 8 day s onboard i think we

saw him at the most twice..whereas on the 3 day cruise on the Monarch

our cabin steward seem d to be in front of our door each time we went out..

 

not to say that the service was less..each time we ask d for something it was there with 15 min s..

 

it may have been the time of the yr..Jan..mostly middle age d and senior s were onboard..very few crowd s in the dining room s..always able to get a table in the spceialty venue s..and though we ate only once in the main dining room..we felt the service their was better than any of the specialty restraunts we tried..

 

and it was nice to be able to plan our meal s around the many activitie s onboard and the many shore excursion s..

[mp006]

My husband and I have been on 3 cruises, one with Celebrity, one with RCL, and one with Norwegian (Jewel). We almost didn't book the NCL cruise because of negative feedback. We, by far, enjoyed the Norwegian cruise the most because of the freestyle dining concept. The service was outstanding, and the food was excellent, especially in the surcharge restaurant, Cagneys.

 

I observed that "traditionalists" on the NCL cruise complained about anything and everything, because they weren't used to the untraditional form of cruising. It is definitely a personal choice. Our choice is freestyle.

[welldone60]

The main differnce that the DW and I found between NCL and RCCL/CCL was the dinning. If you want to eat with the same people each night, go with RCCL/CCL. If you like to dine alone and at any time, go with NCL. As far as service, we have recieved good and "great" on all lines. If you like to dress up for dinner, NCL usally has at least one night where they set up backdrops for photos including photo with the Capt. Food, room service, etc, to us is not much differn't from one ship to the other. Some things are better even between ships on the same line.

[Toyz711]

we saw our room steward every morning and usually in the evening. never had a wait for dinner, even with a party of 7. on the smaller ships, like the one i'm doing this dec, there could be a small wait for prime hours...7pm to 8pm. but i know the secret, usually the bigger of the main dining rooms will be where people gather...just go to the smaller of the main rooms. it's amazing how many people never found the 2nd dining room in the week's cruise.

we had our FIL in a room across from us, it was his 1st and last cruise, he was battling cancer. we always knew when he was in his room or if he might not be feeling well....marabel, one of the steward(ess) ALWAYS kept us informed. she was a blessing for the whole trip.

with just DH and i, we are not planning on doing any of the surcharge restaurants. we may change our minds, but it's not our prime concern. we are looking forward to the rack of lamb...if it's 1/2 as good as last time, it will be excellent.

we tipped the room steward more at the end of the week, besides the auto tip. left extra on the 1 surcharge restaurant. they make extra trips for sugar-free desserts for niece, brought extras of veggies when we wanted 2nds, brought another app when FIL mentions that he would like to try something else. even left extra 1 night in the agua room (main dining) they treated our party like royality. FIL really enjoyed that evening.

and, yes, the auto tip is divided (pooled) by the service staff (like some of the other cruiselines are started to do). since you can't search out each and every person that serves you...different wait staff every night (unless you request the same ones). it's just too much effort to find everyone. i always hated tracking down everyone on the last night, this time i relaxed and didn't worry about it.

new rules don't allow cruisers to hog the reservations in the speciality rooms, you can only book tonite and tomorrow night ( 24 hrs ahead). much easier to make the reservations you want. there are (still) a couple of NCL ships that are not made for freestyle and don't have the choices other newer ships do.

(can you tell i have never had a bad cruise?)

[ayeamcdn]

your rooms get cleaned by very nice stewards, you get a nice sit - down dinner in 1 of their main dining rooms or you can choose to go to one of the specialities restaurants. you are greeted at the doors of each dining venue..etc. want to see my towel animals? i have pictures of them:D . chocolates on my pillow each night.

the difference is that i don't pack suits/ties/formal gowns,etc. i can go the whole cruise with DH in slacks and pullover shirts and me in my pants and nice blouse.

at dinner, it's like going out to eat at a restaurant, you go to the dining of choice..the host or hostess will ask "how many in your party" and you are seated. if you want to sit with others, just ask. we like to sit at a table for 2. we don't do many of the surcharge restaurants, don't feel a need..have gotten very good service in the main dining rooms.

on our last cruise our room stewards were outstanding.

I'M REAL SORRY FOR THOSE THAT HAD POOR EXPERIENCES WITH NCL - CUZ WE FOUND WE WERE TREATED GREAT & WE ONLY HAD A CAT. F OV - porthole!

I did hear people complain, but they were doing that on the way up the boarding ramp! A couple next to our room told us "if you complain loud enough they up grade you" When they weren't up graded they weren't very happy, but later in the cruise I spoke with them & they had some good things to say - like "the showers are really nice, aren't they?". - To each their own! (P.S. - Don't tell anyone, but, you can make reservations for dinner in advance & cut the time in line to next to nil!)

[NAS-KARR]

We've only been on one NCL cruise (as u can see below) and it'll be the last cause I don't want to take a chance again.

 

We had an AFT penthouse/suite and the service and cabin were fine,no complaints, but the food was stink-o. It kept you alive is the best I can say for it. This includes the main dinning room and three of the specialty restaurants.

 

Good Luck e CIAO, :mad:

[marcel8004]

From my own experience I can say that I would prefer not to go on NCL again if I had other cruise line choices. Every cruise line I've been on puts chocolate on your pillow, sit down dinners, etc. But for me that's the minimum I would expect on a cruise.

 

I don't think from my two NCL cruises that NCL exceeds the expectations cruisers have come to enjoy. Celebrity is a more traditional cruise line and NCL seems to be marketing to less traditional cruisers. To answer your question, I guess it depends on what you expect in "service".

 

Good luck, happy cruising.

[reapfm]

I know some won't like this, but rather than cruise NCL, I would stay at home. Service just wasn't there!!! Long waits for the dining room, whether we went to main or smaller dining rooms. The waiters knew they would be getting their tips, so they didn't care whether they refilled your glasses, were not pleasant, seemed annoyed if you asked questions, etc. We thought perhaps the first NCL "freestyle" cruise we did was a flook...so we tried again, and then gave them a 3rd chance. Nothing improved...our last cruise on NCL was dubbed "The McDonald's of Cruising". We have done 19 cruises and several were on NCL before "Freestyle" and it had been our favorite cruise line....but....enough is enough.....NO MORE. We enjoy RCI, Celebrity, Princess, Cunard but NCL is a definite no, no, no!:mad:

[Tinabrn]

I had excellent service in my recent cruise on the Dawn, and you can read about it in my review. I had the best cabin stewards I have had in 15 cruises, and found all the service to be outstanding in each and every area of the ship. Food maybe not quite as good as some others, but no waits for dining rooms at the times we chose to eat. Very very good shore excursions and outstanding entertainment on this ship. I am taking Celebrity in February ..but I know there is usually quite a price difference between the two.

[krydstogt]

hello again,

 

As I mentioned in my first post on NCL vs Celebrity, we have cruised 3 times on NCL.

 

My only complaint, actually not really a complaint, was the dining room food, didn't find it as good as on other ships.

We occasionnally had to wait for seating in the diningroom, but it was not that bad, also we always requested a table for 2, had we been willing to share, we would have been seated faster.

As one of the other post pointed out, one can always make reservation for a certain time to dine.

 

Our NCL cabin staff have always been tops, always had wonderful interaction with the Staff . This past April we cruised on Cunards QM2 for the first time, this was out 5th cruise with Cunard, but on this particular cruise, we never saw our Steward ( Yes, the cabin was made up each day) untill the 6th day of the cruise, we found that a bit strange.

 

The daily "Tip money", be it $10 or $11 pp. every ship we have cruised on, have had that system.

 

We like to cruise 2 times a year, so one cruise is 'the Dress to the hilt', the other relaxed clothing, meaning no suits, no ties, no long dresses. So we choose a cruiseline there will fit that bill.

 

Some years ago, when we were quite new to the world of cruising, our dinner companions on Carnival Legend had cruised a lot and with many different cruise line. I asked, which cruise line was the best, and the answer were: " Every cruise line have something special to offer, therefore no favorite."

We have found that to be generally true, therefore we will cruise with NCL again, even though we find the food lacking a bit.

 

But for the trip with your family, we still recommend Celebrity over NCL.

 

Good luck, Krydstogt

[Toothfairy754]

your rooms get cleaned by very nice stewards, you get a nice sit - down dinner in 1 of their main dining rooms or you can choose to go to one of the specialities restaurants. you are greeted at the doors of each dining venue..etc. want to see my towel animals? i have pictures of them:D . chocolates on my pillow each night.

the difference is that i don't pack suits/ties/formal gowns,etc. i can go the whole cruise with DH in slacks and pullover shirts and me in my pants and nice blouse.

at dinner, it's like going out to eat at a restaurant, you go to the dining of choice..the host or hostess will ask "how many in your party" and you are seated. if you want to sit with others, just ask. we like to sit at a table for 2. we don't do many of the surcharge restaurants, don't feel a need..have gotten very good service in the main dining rooms.

on our last cruise our room stewards were outstanding.

So they do have the towel animals. I am glad to hear that as I know my cruising family wants to see them.

[Toyz711]

i was surprised, i was hoping for 1...but got 4. i would...slowly...open the door to see what surprises i had waiting for me. got a kick out of them. one of them, my DH saw first...found me in the casino...he couldn't keep from laughing. it was the alligator!! what i really liked, being greeted every time we walked any where...the girls (ladies) down at the blue lagoon were the sweetest. even my DH said it was so pleasant to just walk by.

we make my own good time, we just enjoy traveling...but that crew just made it so much nicer that i thought. my other cruises were on much smaller ship....i just didn't think you could keep the friendly, happy feeling serving so many people...but they did.

if just wish i had done more to let the ship know how much we appreciated the way maribel treated us and my FIL. he was so sick, without explaining everything to her, she just got IT. we did tip more and write her in the comment cards, but we should have gone to the purser's desk and tell someone.

[Sansouci]

I know some won't like this, but rather than cruise NCL, I would stay at home. Service just wasn't there!!! Long waits for the dining room, whether we went to main or smaller dining rooms. The waiters knew they would be getting their tips, so they didn't care whether they refilled your glasses, were not pleasant, seemed annoyed if you asked questions, etc. We thought perhaps the first NCL "freestyle" cruise we did was a flook...so we tried again, and then gave them a 3rd chance. Nothing improved...our last cruise on NCL was dubbed "The McDonald's of Cruising". We have done 19 cruises and several were on NCL before "Freestyle" and it had been our favorite cruise line....but....enough is enough.....NO MORE. We enjoy RCI, Celebrity, Princess, Cunard but NCL is a definite no, no, no!:mad:

 

NAS-KARR, JudyM and reapfm, I'm sorry to report that my experience with NCL was much closer to yours than to other posters here. I cruised the Hawaiian Islands on NCLA's Pride of Aloha and found service to be indifferent and, at times, downright surly. Rarely have I experienced such poor service, period. My cabin was always made up, but I saw my room steward just once -- on the very last morning as I was preparing for debarkation! Food was mostly awful and the premium restaurants were only slightly better, but not worth the extra price. Would you believe that I actually lost 3 lbs. on this cruise? And not that I judge a cruise based on towel animals, but I was disappointed that I never had even ONE awaiting me at the end of the day! Had it been my first cruise, I never would've even known about these delightful creatures! So different from Celebrity and even Carnival!

 

If you can afford it, suzyqto, I say go with Celebrity; you won't regret your decision. Please let us know what you decided and how you fared.

[CPT Trips]

NCL American (doing the Hawaiian round trips) is really a separate line. Few of the all American service staff have cruiseship experience and they just do not get how to give quality service.

Even NCL cheerleaders will acknowledge that.

[Sansouci]

NCL American (doing the Hawaiian round trips) is really a separate line. Few of the all American service staff have cruiseship experience and they just do not get how to give quality service.

Even NCL cheerleaders will acknowledge that.

 

My next cruise is on the NCL Sun, Nov. 3-10.:rolleyes: After my disappointing experience on the NCLA PoA cruise, this would never be my choice. However, I'm joining other family members on a jazz-themed cruise for the Jazz Party at Sea. Will share my thoughts when I return. Wish me luck.

 

Deb

[CPT Trips]

On the Sun there is a nice tapas restaurant - Las Ramblas up on the sports deck, port side aft. I'm not certain of the exact hours . . . maybe 5 or 6 opening. You can either enjoy drinks and tapas as a snack before a late dinner or make it a meal (they may require reservations for meals).

We found it very enjoyable. It was normally uncrowded in the early evening and we lucked into a very personable drink waiter.

Just realized that "tapas" may be unfamiliar to folks. It is Mediterranean (Spanish or Portugeuse) small plate . . . hot and cold appetizers that in combination can be quite filling. We found it fun to sample things we would not order a meal of . . . some we liked, some . . . .

Now one spot won't make or break a cruise, but it can certainly add to the enjoyment!

[Sansouci]

NCL American (doing the Hawaiian round trips) is really a separate line. Few of the all American service staff have cruiseship experience and they just do not get how to give quality service.

Even NCL cheerleaders will acknowledge that.

 

Earlier I posted to this forum to share my disappointing experience on the NCLA's Pride of Aloha. Yesterday I returned from my first real NCL cruise on the Norwegian Sun and I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised.:eek:

 

I don't think I have ever been treated with more attentiveness on Carnival, or even Celebrity for that matter, than I was on this cruise! Personable and hard-working cabin stewards were always around to attend to every need. We were part of a larger group on board for a themed jazz cruise and most of the concerts took place in the Sun's comfortable lounges (Dazzle Disco, Windjammer, and my personal favorite -- the extraordinary Observation Lounge). The servers in the lounges circulated very efficiently around the room to make sure that those who wanted drinks got them very quickly. At dinner in the Seven Seas (main dining room) we loved the way the staff lined up to greet us at the door. We are very jaded diners, so we're pretty critical about food; however, we thought most of the meals in the dining room and the specialty restaurants were tasty and we felt more relaxed being able to dine in resort casual attire. I must also relate my experiences at the breakfast and lunch buffet: since I'm anticipating having a knee replacement in the next couple of weeks, I have to use a cane to walk for the time being. Not just once, but on several occasions while struggling through the buffet line, attentive ship's officers came to my rescue, offering to carry my food to the table and bring me beverages. I think NCL must be reading these boards!;)

 

And yes, I got my towel animals, as well as chocolates on my pillow, this time around. :) When next year's jazz cruise convenes on board the Norwegian Dawn, I'm pretty sure I'll be there!

[CPT Trips]

Well, that's a relief ;) and good news too!

Did you try the Tapas?

If you liked the Sun, just wait for the Dawn

[Millie6]

My DH and I have sailed on NCL four times (Star - Mexican Riviera; Sun - Alaska; Spirit (I think) - Panama Canal; Pride of America - Hawaii) and Celebrity once. (Actually, DH is on his second Celebrity (Galaxy) as we speak, in the Med.)

 

Our first NCL trip was nice (Star) - good food, reasonable service, clean rooms. The Sun was not as good. The Spirit a bit less, but not unbearable - we do try to have fun and ignore the bad stuff.

 

We waited forever to get into the dining room on the Sun and Spirit, even with the buzzers, you never really knew how long you would have to wait. One night we got a buzzer and decided we'd have a drink in the lounge first, so asked to be buzzed after 30 minutes or so. Buzzer went off 10 minutes later, just when our drinks arrived.

 

They have signs on the ships that supposedly let you know how full each of the restaurants are, but they're fairly unreliable.

 

On the Sun, in the specialty restaurant, we did have the best rack of lamb we've ever had. DH even had a second helping - with no arguements with the server.

 

Now, the Pride of America was in a class all by itself. We had heard that the Hawaiian ships had had such bad reviews and complaints that NCL had established a school in Kentucky (I think) and all staff had to attend, for six weeks I think. So we hoped for the best and tried to be optimistic.

 

The crew on the POA must have been the ones that were expelled from that school for ignorance, arrogance and just general stupidity.

 

Our linens weren't changed once the whole cruise (seven days), and I don't think that they were clean when we got there. They were definitely stained (I hope, rather than fresh "spots", yech!!!:eek: ).

 

Neither was our frig cleaned, or even emptied when we arrived on board.

 

Our dining room waiter didn't want to bring us our appetizers one at a time - he said it was easier for him to bring them all at once. We managed to get him to deliver them one at a time, but we could see them sitting on the waiters' station, waiting for us to finish the previous one. The food in the dining room was no better, or different for that matter, than the food in the buffet.

 

I had lobster in one of the specialty restaurants (my birthday and normally, my favourite dish). It was soggy and fishy, and still cost an extra $10 or $15 over and above the surcharge for the restaurant (which was either $15 or $20).:mad:

 

Our cabin wasn't above the showroom, but it was adjacent to the staff only area that was - at the very front of the boat, and we were treated to a repeat performance of the last concert of the night, after we had already seen it that performance, when we went back to the cabin. (We figured out that they lip-sync the concerts - why they were playing it again was beyond us - it wasn't that good!:confused: )

 

We were also able to hear the laundry machines running late at night - it took a couple of nights, but we finally recognized the spin cycle. Our steward showed me what vicinity the laundry room was in, which really quite a ways from our cabin - unless she showed me the wrong area - but none the less, we heard it every night.

 

On debarkation day, we went back to our cabin and retrieved our luggage after breakfast, just as the steward and her helper were arriving to "clean". Part way down the hallway, against our better judgement, DH decided to go back and had the steward a tip. As he was opening the door, we heard her telling her helper that "you can always tell the cheap ones - they'll squeeze every last bit out of their toothpaste tube". (We had had an almost empty tube in our bathroom that we weren't disposing of, because it wasn't empty - duh.) We were so stunned to hear something so stupid, and even more stupidly being said loud enough and in a vicinity where passengers could hear, that we went in and gave her the tip anyways.

 

There were other complains we've had about NCL, but thankfully, I've forgotten most of them.

 

Celebrity on the other hand (South America in Feb. of this year), with the exception of some really poor handling of bad weather (see threads in the Celebrity reviews - Feb 1st storm, I think), was fabulous.:)

 

Our food was excellent, as was the service - both cabin and dining room. We didn't try the specialty restaurant because it was $30 pp, or $56 (I think - there's also a thread about that) for dinner with a wine pairing, and we would have been limited to one appetizer, entree and dessert (we like to have a couple of appetizers, or maybe a few instead of an entree - we would have been allowed only two appetizers pp if we both wanted to forfeit an entree :-{), and the maitre d' was really snooty to me when I went down to look at the menu and make our reservation. (We don't like snooty!)

 

The entertainment was so much better that it made NCL look like total amateurs.

 

So there's my brief comparison of NCL and Celebrity lol! As far as I'm concerned - there is no comparison.

 

That being said, the OP needs to decide what they want to do - take a cruise or a short cruise and another land portion. It's all a matter of individual tastes.

 

Bon voyage!:cool:

[Millie6]

PS - Also on our last day - while in the dining room having "breakfast":( we overheard the people at the next table talking about the terrible service and they went down to join a very long line at the customer service desk, all demanding to have the service charges removed from their room bill.

 

We also heard wait staff arguing and swearing in the kitchen, while we were having the same excuse for breakfast.:mad: