Norwegian Dawn vs. Princess Crown or Carnival Legend

[Sailingagain0123]

We are trying to sort out which trip to book for spring break. I am more familiar with Princess, Celebrity and Carnival. Although the ratings are good for the NCL ships, I keep reading that the food isn't very good and the ships and rooms are dirty.

The NCL prices also seem to be dropping in comparison to the other lines.

Is there something I should know before making a decision?

[bklynangel]

We are trying to sort out which trip to book for spring break. I am more familiar with Princess, Celebrity and Carnival. Although the ratings are good for the NCL ships, I keep reading that the food isn't very good and the ships and rooms are dirty.

The NCL prices also seem to be dropping in comparison to the other lines.

Is there something I should know before making a decision?

Ncl isnt bad at all. The service is better than on Princess and it more of a relaxing cruiseline. I like the freestyle dining the best. It depends on what you like. Try it, you might like it but I do say, don't expect everything to be perfect...because it's not.

[steviek49]

We are trying to sort out which trip to book for spring break. I am more familiar with Princess, Celebrity and Carnival. Although the ratings are good for the NCL ships, I keep reading that the food isn't very good and the ships and rooms are dirty.

The NCL prices also seem to be dropping in comparison to the other lines.

Is there something I should know before making a decision?

 

I have cruised with Princess, NCL, HAL and CCL.

We have tried inside cabins, outside cabins, ocv w/ balcony and now booked on a mini-suite.

All together = 8 cruises.

Although each cruiseline and indeed each ship is alittle different my family and I have had a wonderful cruise each time.

Our general impressions are Princess and HAL was a bit more refined than CCL and NCL. Service was alittle better on Princess and HAL but not by much. Food was quite good on all ships with NCL having many more choices. Dining room service was spot-on on HAL and Princess and good on NCL and CCL but not as consistent. I have found my room steward to be excellent on every cruise.

The ships are different though. In my short sampling (and this may be due to itinerary) I found Princess and especially HAL to be a bit older crowd and quieter ships. CCL has a very upbeat personality and always something going on. WOW factor on CCL ships especially the atrium lobbies w/ glass lifts and big slide by the pool. NCL ships (newer ones) are also quite beautiful with the Sun Class and Dawn class ships having wonderful ambience with atrium lobbies w/ glass lifts as well.

Finally, I generally book by itinerary and price. Since I and my family have never had anything less than an enjoyable cruise we check out on-line similar desired itineraries and compare prices. Sometimes the prices for similar itinerary, ships and dates and similar catagory cabins can differ by thousands of dollars and I am not exagerating.

For example we (family of 4) just recently booked a 7 night Western Meditteranean cruise for Aug. 2009. We compared 4 ships leaving out of Barcelona. RCI Voyager, NCL Gem, Costa Concordia (I think) and MSC Spledida. The difference for similar dates, 7 night Western Med, either a Jr. Suite (for 4) or 2 cabins (one balcony and one inside) was well over $2000.00.

Now one may argue that they like one of these mainstream cruiselines over another but to us $2000.00 is ALOT of money. So we chose NCL Gem -mini suite.

I'm sure others have different opinions but that's been our experience.

[elron]

We been on all the cruiselines you have mentioned and we think NCL was just as enjoyable as the the others. The Dawn was clean on our cruise three weeks ago.

 

If NCL price is a big $$ savings, give them a try. If it's the same amount of $$ or close, stick to what you feel comfortable with.

[Sailingagain0123]

I will be travelling with my 16 year old daughter. Does the curtain in a mini-suite pull all the way across? She sleeps later than I do...by hours!!

[davejohn]

I will be travelling with my 16 year old daughter. Does the curtain in a mini-suite pull all the way across? She sleeps later than I do...by hours!!

 

Yes, it pretty much closes off the sitting area from the sleeping area.

[NikkiPoooo]

I am not a huge fan of the Carnival Legend, in fact if I had to rate all the ships I've been on that would come in dead last. For it's size it offer very little more than Carnival's smaller ships and actually even less depending on the ship. The supper club wasn't worth the pricetag and just about the only thing I really liked about it over the smaller ships was the option of having a balcony.

[herb]

We've sailed on all 3 ships you've mentioned. As far as which ship is the "nicest" we would choose Crown Princess, but I have to be honest that both Carnival Legend and Norwegian Dawn were both nicely decorated....

 

as far as cleanliness...... all 3 were definitely well taken care of.

Food is subjective... we didn't care for Freestyle Dining on NCL but that's not to say the food wasn't good... no complaints regarding food on the other 2 ships either.

On all 3 cruises we always found items we really liked and items we wish we hadn't even taken a bite out of

 

Which ship to take???? Since I don't know what itineraries each ship is sailing I couldn't honestly answer that question.

[newmexicoNita]

We are trying to sort out which trip to book for spring break. I am more familiar with Princess, Celebrity and Carnival. Although the ratings are good for the NCL ships, I keep reading that the food isn't very good and the ships and rooms are dirty.

The NCL prices also seem to be dropping in comparison to the other lines.

Is there something I should know before making a decision?

Let me put it this way, the time I see a dirty cabin on any cruise will be a first. One time there was a small piece of paper under our desk on our Sun cruise a few years ago, my daughter and I watched to see how long it would remain there? Guess what, it lasted 2 days, the first day, apparently it wasn't vacumed up but the second it was. We read reports that our Princess ship last year was dirty and showing age, not true...It is easier to complain than complement it seems. Heck if people think the NCL ships or any other ships are not clean, please don't come to my house....

 

Now, the difference in the lines: you will find more similarities than differences: Carnival is a little more active, Celebrity a little more elitist I would say and Princess will have a slightly older crowd, but going during spring break none of this may hold true.

 

Cabins on Celebrity, NCL and Princess are going to be similar in size, with NCL having nicer bathrooms (again depending on the catagory you book) Carnival has larger cabins.

 

Foodwise, as always, this is such a subjective topic I hate to even give an opinion, except to say, Celeabrity is close to the top...

 

As for dropping prices? right now NCL has the big promo going, but other lines are following..I don't think you will find NCLs prices all that much lower than other lines except they often have lower 3rd and 4th person rates, again I say often. Spring break could be a totally different thing.

 

Nita