Would I like NCL?

I'm looking to book a cruise for my family, (boys 18 & 12) over Easter break 2008 and just found a pretty good rate on the Sun.

I'm a little apprehensive to this Freestyle cruising and wondering if we would like it. We do look forward to dining together at the end of the day, and also formal nights. Is this not the line for us? Is there an upcharge for all the dining rooms I'm reading about?

Thanks for your help!

Freestyle dining doesn't interfere with your ability to dine together at the end of they day. If you enjoy making your own schedule and choosing where you would like to eat, you will probably like Freestyle. Not all restaurants have an upcharge, if you look at info for each ship it will tell which restaurants have a charge - most do not.

As far as formal night, again - Freestyle doesn't affect this. Having just returned from a Carnival cruise, I know that some people dress up and others don't, it doesn't matter about the dining time or setup.

Our family loves Freestyle and prefers it greatly over set dining times. It really helps to keep flexibility in your schedule on both port and non-port days.

Over Christmas, last year, we treated our sons (29 and 24) to the 10 night sailing of the Dawn. Most nights, we had dinner together, but went in different directions for shore excursions. On a scale of 1 to 10, we gave the cruise a 100.

I'm a little apprehensive to this Freestyle cruising and wondering if we would like it. We do look forward to dining together at the end of the day, and also formal nights. Is this not the line for us? Is there an upcharge for all the dining rooms I'm reading about?

Freestyle actually allows you to do all of the things you like on your own terms.

1.) They have at least two optional formal nights where you can dress up or not. You can dress up or you can just go resort casual. (polo shirts and kahki pants.) About 40% will dress up from shirt/tie to tuxes. Both dress types are perfectly acceptable in all dining venues any night and you won't be out of place whichever way you choose. If you want to dress up on more nights or different nights, you can do that as well!

Its your choice!

2.) You can dine with just your family each night or you can ask to be seated with others. You don't have set dining times, you just either walk up to the main restaurants and ask for a table or you can make reservations in the specialty restaurants. Just like on shore. Main restaurants do not take reservations. Very seldom do you have a wait for a table except during the prime dining hours of 6:15-8:00 and then it is usually less than 20 minutes.

You can request the same waiter each night, but they may not always be available as they rotate stations and restaurants.

3.) The two main restaurants, Seven Seas and Four Seasons on the Sun, have no surcharge and are free as is room service and the Garden Cafe (buffet). The other 7 restaurants are called "specialty restaurants" and range from a steakhouse, to japanese to italian to French, etc. These each require reservations (24-48 hours) and have a per person charge of $12-20. (A couple have ala carte pricing.)

Freestyle is all about choice: your choice when to eat, where to eat, with who to eat with, etc. Many who have thought they wouldn't like it, have quickly changed their minds after experiencing it. (and to be fair, yes, there have been a few who have hated it.) I am thinking about an Royal Carribean cruise next year and it scares me to death to think about set dining times, set table mates and especially having to dress up. But I am willing to give it a try before I say I don't like it.

Please ask if you have any more questions.

After previously sailing on HAL, Costa, Carnival, Celebrity, Princess and RCI, we decided to give NCL a try when they had the foresight to start sailing year round out of New York. We loved NCL and especially freestyle dining. We have since sailed 9 times on NCL with more booked in the future. No more flying for us.

yes you would. for all the above reasons and more.

Freestyle doesn't necesssarily mean you can't have an assigned table at an assigned time. If you want to have the traditional table and time, then just ask the headwaiter when you first board. You can't have prime time seating, but you can reserve the same table for say 5:30 or 6 p.m. If you don't make that seating, they do ask that you call and release the table for that particular night.

Who's to say if you'll like it or not, but I always say try it. I've always wanted to cruise Princess and have never done it. I should follow my own suggestion and just TRY IT.

Personally, I think you'll have a great time.

All of the cruise lines offer similar products, they just do things slightly differently. They rent cabins, sell trinkets, drinks, and shore excursions, promote their casinos, bingo, and spas, provide food and a pool.

We tried NCL and it was the worst cruise we have ever taken. The service was poor--our steward did not clean our room either morning or night many days, people took breakfast and lunch trays to the sundecks and they had not been picked up when we went in at dinnertime; the food was worse than school, hospital or camp food.They were always out of silverware and cups and the buffet food was never warm. The activities staff in the youth program and adult events failed to show up several times.

If you want to go to the evening shows, you will find that you need to eat at the times that traditional seatings are offered on other lines. We did not get into the alternative dining on our cruise; they were always booked when they opened to nonsuite guests. Freestyle to us sounded good but in practice was a flop.

My husband asked me why I booked on a budget cruise. NCL does not charge less for their inferior product; I have priced similar itineraries on HAL and RCI and NCL is actually higher.

Seeing your cruise history indicates that you have experienced much better service and food and might not be happy on NCL.

Freestyle doesn't necesssarily mean you can't have an assigned table at an assigned time. If you want to have the traditional table and time, then just ask the headwaiter when you first board. You can't have prime time seating, but you can reserve the same table for say 5:30 or 6 p.m. If you don't make that seating, they do ask that you call and release the table for that particular night.

 

Who's to say if you'll like it or not, but I always say try it. I've always wanted to cruise Princess and have never done it. I should follow my own suggestion and just TRY IT.

 

Personally, I think you'll have a great time.

You cannot have the traditional dining if you ask the head waiter. I tried on both NCL cruises and the answer was no.

We tried NCL and it was the worst cruise we have ever taken. The service was poor--our steward did not clean our room either morning or night many days, people took breakfast and lunch trays to the sundecks and they had not been picked up when we went in at dinnertime; the food was worse than school, hospital or camp food.They were always out of silverware and cups and the buffet food was never warm. The activities staff in the youth program and adult events failed to show up several times.

If you want to go to the evening shows, you will find that you need to eat at the times that traditional seatings are offered on other lines. We did not get into the alternative dining on our cruise; they were always booked when they opened to nonsuite guests. Freestyle to us sounded good but in practice was a flop.

My husband asked me why I booked on a budget cruise. NCL does not charge less for their inferior product; I have priced similar itineraries on HAL and RCI and NCL is actually higher.

Seeing your cruise history indicates that you have experienced much better service and food and might not be happy on NCL.

You were also on the Majesty. Soon to be the oldest & smallest ship in the NCL fleet when the Crown leaves later this year. The Majesty was not built for Freestyle cruising. It does not have as many specialty restaurants as the newer ships.

The Sun launched in 2001 and was one of the first Freestyle ships built. It has 10 restaurants (if you count the buffet). More and larger specialty restaurants means more availability for reservations.

My daughter has been on 4 NCL cruises and has loved the Kids Club on every single one of them. Hates to leave when the time comes.

I have found the food on NCL to be quite good and I have always had, with a couple of exceptions, good waiters. The good thing about NCL is that if you get a bad waiter, you can avoid them the rest of the cruise. On the traditional lines...you are stuck with them!

The showtimes are 7:30 and 9:30. If you go right when the restaurants open, you can make the early show and have the rest of the evening free. If you like a late dinner, you can go to the 7:30 show and then go and eat. If you like the 9:30 show, you can go to dinner anytime up until about 7:30 and make it. Lots of choices because you are not stuck with one assigned time.

I am looking at Royal Carribean for next summer and looking at prices, tips etc.. I found that I will spend twice as much in tips on RCCL than I did on NCL and the prices that I am looking at (9 days on RCCL vs. 8 days on NCL) are almost identical on a per day basis. HAL is far above that! So with the higher tipping charges....RCCL is higher than NCL. The two things I am dredding most about RCCL are the dress code and the set dining times which offer absolutely no flexability in planning an evening schedule.

My wife and I sailed on Pride of America August 26th, 2006. Although it was our first NCL cruise, we have cruised 6 times previously with RCCL and Carnival. We chose NCL due to the fact that they are the only cruise line serving Hawaii.

In comparison to RCCL and Carnival, we were extremely disappointed with our NCL experience. Prior to this cruise, I had never previously filed a complaint on any cruise - but on this cruise, we complained constantly - and for good reason. Our cabin steward never revealed himself (or herself) during the whole cruise (if we even had one). Our cabin was was only cleaned twice during the entire week - even though we complained daily - most of our complaints were ignored. We constantly had to request supplies, such as clean towels, bathroom tissue, etc. and as often as not, I ended up going down to the purser's desk and retrieved my own after my repeated requests were ignored.

Freestyle dining simply did not work - at least not on this ship. We always waited at least one hour and on some nights, over two hours, just to be seated. And then, service was excruciatingly slow and the food was only marginal at best. The result was - no time for dancing, entertainment, or other evening activities. On one night, they gave us a pager and it went off about about 45 minutes later just as they said it would, but then, after returning with the blinking pager, thinking we would be seated promptly, we still waited more than another hour before being seated! I suppose they give out the pagers so you will know when to come and begin your wait! Interestingly, when the young lady handed me the pager, she said "...The pager only works while you're on the ship..." - the only thing was - at the time, WE WERE AT SEA! I responded, "darn, you mean I can't take my evening swim off the back of the ship."

Hawaii, on the other hand was great. Excursions were well done and very interesting. Since it was our first time to see the islands, and since we have always had such wonderful cruise experiences on other cruise lines, cruising seemed like the logical choice for seeing multiple islands. If we had it to over again, we would investigate other options before going on another NCL cruise.

NCL entertainment was one of their better points, but still at least a couple of stars below either RCCL or Carnival.

Overall, there simply is no comparison between NCL and RCCL or Carnival - RCCL and Carnival are light-years ahead. Since most of the NCL crew are American, it's sad to say, but many of them need attitude adjustments and basically just "don't seem to give a damn." I would hope that our experience with NCL was was an isolated case, but I don't think we'll be giving them a second chance to find out. If someone offered us a free NCL cruise, we'd have to think real hard about whether we'd rather spend our precious vacation time on NCL for free or pay to have a much better experience on another line - I've had enough time to think - I'll pay!

Again, JRT has it exactly right.

Again, JRT has it exactly right.

And doesn't know the difference between NCL and NCLA:rolleyes: .

NCL is different than the other cruise lines. Freestyle just did not work for my family and we were disappointed with the quality of food in the main dining rooms for lunch and dinner. Breakfast in the main dining room was good. I was on the NCL Jewel and it is a very nice ship. If you decide to book an NCL cruise, go with an open mind. It will be different than the other lines you have tried. Many people prefer NCL Freestyle over the more traditional lines, and you may also.

I'm sure you will have a great time but we didn't like our experience on Pride of Aloha last week.

you can look up for those reviews.

Since most of the NCL crew are American, it's sad to say, but many of them need attitude adjustments and basically just "don't seem to give a damn."

This statement is in error and needs corrected. Only the crews of NCL-A ships....the three "Pride of....." ships are American. That is because U.S. law requires that. On the other NCL ships, I have met very few, if any Americans on staff. (and those I did meet were either performers or Cruise Directors staff.)

I will admit that the service I got on the POA in 2004 was far below what I have received on the other NCL ships. Before discrediting the entire cruise line, give the international ships a try. Don't condemn the whole line just because of one cruise on their subsidary line that has been having problems.

We received great service on Pride of America, it was comparable to service we have received on other NCL ships and those of other lines. The young workers were very friendly and worked hard to do their jobs.

Obviously, we all have different expectations and requirements for a good experience on our cruise. Thats why I love CC, I can read about everyone else's experiences and use them to help me pick the cruise that I think will work best for me and my family.

We received great service on Pride of America, it was comparable to service we have received on other NCL ships and those of other lines. The young workers were very friendly and worked hard to do their jobs.

It is interesting that the reviews for the POAm and POH are coming in much better than the POA reviews. Perhaps when the POH leaves Hawaii, they can move some of that fine crew over to help solve the apparent mess on the POA. One bad ship however does not speak to an entire cruise line however.

To each their own. NCL has slipped in the past few years. Although they came up with the Freestyle idea, their service has been lax as of late. I will be on RCCL next time.

It is interesting that the reviews for the POAm and POH are coming in much better than the POA reviews. Perhaps when the POH leaves Hawaii, they can move some of that fine crew over to help solve the apparent mess on the POA. One bad ship however does not speak to an entire cruise line however.

I've never been on an NCL cruise, but we're booked for PofAm in Sept. '08. So I'm basically talking about my *** here, LOL. However, it seems like there are two things going on:

1.) NCLA gets more complaints about its service because it has American workers, and the assumption (for better or worse, true or false) is that "American = better paid = ruder and care less".

2.) Pride of Aloha gets more complaints than Pride of America and Pride of Hawaii, because Aloha is an eight-year-old refurbished ship that wasn't built with Freestyle Dining in mind (not to mention the fact that, being built in 1999, Aloha is simply suffering more mechanical problems than it's two new sisters, e.g. the broken A/C recently).

If the three Pride ships are mostly American workers, and none of them are following the Hawaii to Europe, then I assume they'll be reducing their labor pool (since they only need to staff two ships and not three). In that case, I would think the quality of the employees will rise, since they'll more than likely be getting rid of the weaker employees first. So, I would expect the service level on the Aloha to rise slightly. However, you still have the "problem" of American workers, so I doubt it would rise that much.

What NCLA probably needs to do is to replace the Aloha with a newer ship. That's probably not cost-effective for them, though (otherwise, they'd be leaving the Hawaii where she is and removing the Aloha).