Will a NCL cruiser like MSC or Costa?

We are doing the Baltic Breakaway next May, but it is only 9 days so we would like to do an extension, either before or after the cruise. We ruled out Iceland after reading some reviews. Then we considered Oslo for a few days.

Now we are considering another cruise instead. We would love to do the Jade to Norway but it is a really expensive cruise. Then we found two cruises, one on MSC and one on Costa that is much more reasonable. There is also a third on Pullmantur.

Do you think we would like or hate these cruises? Are they very formal. I know they do everything in several languages but even though my DH can get by with his Italian and is very fluent in Spanish, we really love the free style cruising and the evening shows.

Costa is loads of fun ..I did Atlantica and Mediterranea ...beautiful dining room be prepared for European cuisine but it was good .I loved the toga party a real hoot

MSC was soso ....they go to great places but their meal times are very restrictive ...i have never gone back on MSC ...cabins are tiny ..our CD was the rudest man in the world ...so you choose ..For me it would be Costa

We did a Costa cruise this spring in the Mediterranean and loved it. There seemed far more things for us on the ship and the piano bar was a blast. It is helpful if you can understand other languages, we met so many couples from different nationalities and had the best time.

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An NCL regular ( dexddd ) is trying out MSC now .

Ask him here = http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2532066

:cool:

I'm think about MSC seeing his live review.

We are doing the Baltic Breakaway next May, but it is only 9 days so we would like to do an extension, either before or after the cruise. We ruled out Iceland after reading some reviews. Then we considered Oslo for a few days.

 

Now we are considering another cruise instead. We would love to do the Jade to Norway but it is a really expensive cruise. Then we found two cruises, one on MSC and one on Costa that is much more reasonable. There is also a third on Pullmantur.

 

Do you think we would like or hate these cruises? Are they very formal. I know they do everything in several languages but even though my DH can get by with his Italian and is very fluent in Spanish, we really love the free style cruising and the evening shows.

We loved our first MSC cruise and immediately booked a new cruise with them but we were in the Yacht Club and maybe that's why we loved it.

Iceland is incredible. What did you read about it that made you reconsider?

MSC was soso ....they go to great places but their meal times are very restrictive ...

Dining restrictions on MSC depend on which experience you book. The Yacht Club, for ex., has no restrictions and is about as freestyle as NCL.

We are, in fact, in the process of debating between an MSC and an NCL cruise i'm largely the same itineraries. With cruise the few times on MSC both in the yacht club and then a regular balcony cabin and quite a number of times on Norwegian. MSC is much, much more European- we enjoyed the announcements in five different languages, meeting people from all over the world and the fairly authentic Italian cuisine. This is more the case for European than Caribbean cruises on MSC. Depending on which "experience" you book on MSC, and what is included on your NCL package prices can be wildly different. We have enjoyed both lines on what we think of as our "don't really care we were going; just want to enjoy the cruising" trips. One more exotic itineraries, (and if we could afford it, on all of our cruises) we would do Seabourn!

We have done Norwegian getaway out of Miami and MSC Fantasia from Rome. We have another trip booked with getaway in October and will not sail MSC again.

In general we found staff on NCL much nicer than on MSC.

Food wise MSC is typical Italian with NCL more international. NCL is superior in regards to speciality dining.

We travel with our kids and found the kids program superior on NCL.

Thinking about it I can't really pin point anything that I liked better on MSC.

When that is said we still had a god trip with MSC it is just another experience...

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Following..... as we are considering an MSC cruise from Miami....either Divina or the new Seaside....

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Thinking about it I can't really pin point anything that I liked better on MSC.

The Yacht Club price vs The Haven price favors MSC.

Happy to see a few positive experiences with Costa here! I'm 99% sure I'm jumping ship (pun intended :p ) from my 13 night Epic Transatlantic to a 24 night Costa Transatlantic - for about 60% of the price. All-inclusive drinks, panorama suite with a wrap balcony, and a suite restaurant (among other suite perks) for that much less money and that many more ports/days sealed the deal. Nice to see some NCL fans have enjoyed Costa! But who knows - maybe I'll take both of them! ;p

Part of what made our Costa cruise so wonderful for us was being upgraded 3 levels for free, what a spectacular bonus that was for us! It was a spur of the moment cruise that celebrated our 20th anniversary, hubby's birthday, and only our 3rd time ever without the kids.

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I really think every cruise line offers something positive! Having said that, NCL is my number 1 cruise line from my PCC down to every other experience I've had onboard an NCL ship.... Epic being my least favourite... whatever other ship I'm on, being my favourite ;p

However, I don't compare cruise lines, I compare experiences and if MSC Divina were an NCL ship/crew/staff it would be number 1, get my drift? I love cruising and both NCL and MSC have some really positive experiences. I take what I can get from each and every vacation, land or cruise, they all have something to offer.

One thing that stood out for us on MSC was the price and what we found was that we could get an aft balcony (large enough for 2 loungers) for the price of an inside on an NCL cruise ship. Yeah, I know, I said no comparing cruise lines but hey, some things can't be ignored... price is one of them. We loved our NYE cruise on MSC Divina not just b/c of the price, it really was a great experience.

Enjoy your cruise no matter who it's with.. it's all up to you :D

I've done MSC Fantasia twice and a NCL Epic b2b, loved both!

If you're cruising for the ports then 100% go for MSC, the ship excursions are awesome and one fraction of the price of what ncl charges for it.

In fact, the average Msc excursion is around €50.

If dining times are a deal breaker then NCL is indeed best.

Happy cruising!

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Here is a link to the review I wrote after our MSC Meraviglia Cruise this summer.

I have made some comments where I compare NCL and MSC. (Mostly Haven vs Yacht Club.)

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=586592

We are doing the Baltic Breakaway next May, but it is only 9 days so we would like to do an extension, either before or after the cruise. We ruled out Iceland after reading some reviews. Then we considered Oslo for a few days.

 

Now we are considering another cruise instead. We would love to do the Jade to Norway but it is a really expensive cruise. Then we found two cruises, one on MSC and one on Costa that is much more reasonable. There is also a third on Pullmantur.

 

Do you think we would like or hate these cruises? Are they very formal. I know they do everything in several languages but even though my DH can get by with his Italian and is very fluent in Spanish, we really love the free style cruising and the evening shows.

Costa seems to be way more loud (in all ways possible) to MSC or NCL, I think of them as an European Carnival.. Pullmantur seems even less attractive to me. I would choose NCL or MSC for such an unique trip. :)

What are your plans for Oslo? Two days may be sufficient for that city, with Swedish Göteborg nearby via a beautiful coastal drive. Just an idea.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. We are not Haven/Yacht Club travelers, just ordinary balcony users. The sailings I'm looking at are Norway fjords out of Copenhagen. I've read some reviews that said the european sailings are very different than the carribbean sailings which have many more american travelers.

In Oslo I was thinking about either doing "Norway in a Nutshell" or renting a car and driving around after sightseeing.