just back from NCL cruise, prefer RCCL

[punkmuse]

hello all,

my husband and i have done 2 super fantabulous cruises with Royal Caribbean in the past and this time around we chose to do an NCL cruise because of price and mainly itinerary (Central America). while we did enjoy ourselves and would not call the vacation BAD by any stretch of the imagination, about 2 days in we both agreed we thought RCCL was waaaay better.

 

our last RCCL cruise was in 2005 and i hope it has not changed since but we thought the food and service was far superior on Royal Caribbean.

we did not enjoy freestyle dining whatsoever. the motto (i think) is something along the lines of "each whatever you want whenever you want" but we found ourselves constantly trying to eat at the wrong time. we would be in between meal times and since i am a vegetarian the smaller "snack" cafes were not an option as all they had were hamburgers and hot dogs and fruit (fruit is yummy but i dont consider it a meal).

the buffet was the same exact food everyday which i was ok with being a veggie and often having a limited array of choices anyways but my husband, a meat eater, did not like it. there was no variety.

 

we felt we were forced to go to pay resteraunts becuase the food in the main dining rooms was dreadful. we found out very quick that the food in the pay resteraunts were a crapshoot. the first one we went to was absolutely dreadful. a couple after that were pretty good but nothing close to the "speciality resteraunts" on Royal Caribbean. it was like eating at Fridays or something. there was not a lot of choices for a vegetarian at the pay resteraunts and twice i was served something that i believed to be vegetarian that they garnished with BACON. EWWWW!!

 

the service in the resteraunts was NOT VERY GOOD. we were pretty much ignored by waiters who were over worked. they were never rude but we barely saw them.

 

i guess i enjoy traditional cruising. i like that everynight at an allotted time i can sit down to a fancy meal that was included in the price of my cruise and have someone who gives a crap about me serve me and ask me when i order a vegetarian entree if i want bacon on it :eek:

 

our next cruise will definitely be on Royal Caribbean, i hope the quality has not changed.

[Kellie Poodle]

My last RCI cruise was about 5 weeks ago and the service and the food were good.

 

We did an NCL cruise in the summer of 05 and we will never, ever, ever take another. The dining experience was like Friday night at Applebees, but I think Applebees might have slightly tastier food. ;)

 

As a long-time cruiser, I think that the people who prefer NCL just "eat" they don't "dine"

[punkmuse]

good to hear that the service is still good. my parents want to do a family cruise next year with our whole family and my husband and i are pushing for RCCL.

[kooljamming]

My last RCI cruise was about 5 weeks ago and the service and the food were good.

 

We did an NCL cruise in the summer of 05 and we will never, ever, ever take another. The dining experience was like Friday night at Applebees, but I think Applebees might have slightly tastier food. ;)

 

As a long-time cruiser, I think that the people who prefer NCL just "eat" they don't "dine"

 

What does this mean? Is there no end to how RCCL crusiers can judge and put down others.......Walmart, trailer park now eaters vs diners.

 

OP

Thanks for the review. We have done RCCL, Carnival and Princess with NCL on our to do list. I like traditional dining but tried anytime/freestyle recently on Princess. For a tradionalist, I enjoyed it. You will find changes, some for the better others not so. RCCL is a great product I am sure you will enjoy.

 

Safe Travels and Much Blessings!