First Class vs Second cruising on NCL

[InTheCruisingYearsOfLife]

ROTFLMA. Priority evacuation, NICE!:D

 

Oh, THAT'S what Priority Evacuation means? I thought it meant first dibs on the public restrooms in proximity of the theatres after the shows let out.

 

Now that NCL is saving money by using this device and reversing the roll several times, Priority Evacuation is a pretty important perk: http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/08/tpmachine.jpg

 

InThe

[MizDaisy]

Only one was nasty---something like "well, you look like you could be related to Jedd Clampett" (while not smiling)

Others were like "Why do you use your card in the elevator" "I've always wondered what's on deck 14" "mind if we come look" "I bet you overpaid for this cruise" (as long as they're laughing that's OK)

 

Most people were just curious. You're in for a treat! :D

 

 

I'm glad I saw this....I might have been caught off guard when we sail in a CV in May. Now I have lots of time to come up with funny answers. I think I'll tell people I'm secretly visiting the Captain ...."Shhhhh"......:p

 

Glad to know we get advance notice for the lifeboats, I don't run so fast in my old age. :D:D:D

[iheartbda]

I recently discovered something VERY interesting. The steerage class passengers are directly involved in the ship's propulsion system.

Under the guise of 'Special Spa Pass', they are led into the bowels of the ship, where they are forced to turn the propeller shafts in a pseudo log-rolling event.

I simply cannot believe that this practice is condoned world-wide.

Afterward, they are chaged a nickel and a dime for shower services. No towel included.

I thought they just fed them nothing but beans.

[hamrag]

What kinds of things did they say to you? I will be in the courtyard for the first time in 2 days - just want to know what to expect :)

 

Another option, if you are uncomfortable with this, is to exit elevator on deck 13 and walk up a very short flight of stairs and use your keycard to go through the door into the courtyard area.

[Sooners]

Well, I do sort of look like an older fat version of Jedd ;)

 

Dude, I said I was sorry! Get over it!!!:D:rolleyes:

[SeaShark]

Another option, if you are uncomfortable with this, is to exit elevator on deck 13 and walk up a very short flight of stairs and use your keycard to go through the door into the courtyard area.

 

Exactly how is the flight of stairs "very short"?

 

Is the distance between deck 13 and deck 14 somehow shorter than, say the distance between deck 12 and deck 13?

[Planer's Edge]

Exactly how is the flight of stairs "very short"?

 

Is the distance between deck 13 and deck 14 somehow shorter than, say the distance between deck 12 and deck 13?

 

Are you trying to start a fight? :confused:

 

PE

[hamrag]

Exactly how is the flight of stairs "very short"?

 

Is the distance between deck 13 and deck 14 somehow shorter than, say the distance between deck 12 and deck 13?

 

Because it is shorter than the flights in the main mid-deck areas. The point is the access door is only one flight, as opposed to two flights between the other decks.

 

Do you have a specific reason for asking?

[ColinIllinois]

I'm a rookie at this cruising stuff and for my first cruise I'm getting one of the studio rooms on the Epic. I can easily afford much better accomodations but I want my experience (this time) to be about the ship, not my room, and my plan is to spend little time in my cabin except to shower and sleep. Well, unless I hook up with Halle Berry and then we have the whole "dont come knockin if my ship is rockin" thing going on.

 

From what I've read in the posts from you fine people the whole experience is pretty much "first class" from start to finish.

 

Perhaps if I like this cruise enough then the next time I will add in a balcony to see if that adds to the experience.

 

I'm a little worried about the steerage evacuations now though but I guess as long as I can grab something to float with if we hit an iceberg around Nassau I'll be fine.

 

Cheers, Colin

[RichNY]

NCL has recreated First class vs Second class and applied it to cruising and no one seems to be focusing on that point in all the teeth nashing over additional fees.

 

NCL had already paved the first class vs steerage class trail with the neutering of food quality and service in the main dining rooms. Excellent service and terrific food used to be the norm. Now, you have to pay extra for it by going to an up charge restaurant. This is not a matter of perception, it is a fact. I have been cruising for 26 year and things have changed radically. Other cruise lines are following.

 

Most of the newer NCL ships have first class courtyards and the Epic does as well, but with a much larger space devoted to First Class.(ie the courtyard area and suites with courtyard access)

 

Now NCL is taking it a step further on Epic by having a whole area of the ship that is Posh class? Ice Bar class? It appears everyone pays to get in to these venues, thus, up charging those already up charged into First class.

 

Where will it all stop? Until people make their voices heard by voting with their spending habits, you can expect NCL and other cruise lines to continue to behave like the airlines and unbundle everything and add a price tag to it. They are already doing it with “special” events on board, jazz brunches, special ethnic dinners etc. They are constantly pushing the envelope. (and expecting you to fill it)

 

I personally find this to be a disturbing trend and it will cause me to rethink how and where I spend my cruise $$.

 

 

Try sailing on the QM2...Cunard has 3 classes......We could only afford steerage....:o...They are so class sensitive we were not allowed to look at the upper crust passengers..we had to look away. No direct eye contact allowed....:rolleyes:

 

 

Bottom line is you get what you pay for....

[MizDaisy]

Because it is shorter than the flights in the main mid-deck areas. The point is the access door is only one flight, as opposed to two flights between the other decks.

 

Do you have a specific reason for asking?

 

 

I have to admit that when I read this, I WAS curious. I'll be there at the end of May so that I can see it for myself, and then it will make sense (I'm not good at reading blueprints, either...have to actually "see" something;))...but anyway....I have bad knees, so the two sets of stairs from deck to deck can be a killer....one set isn't so bad. Thanks for the tip and the explanation.

[Sooners]

I have to admit that when I read this, I WAS curious. I'll be there at the end of May so that I can see it for myself, and then it will make sense (I'm not good at reading blueprints, either...have to actually "see" something;))...but anyway....I have bad knees, so the two sets of stairs from deck to deck can be a killer....one set isn't so bad. Thanks for the tip and the explanation.

 

You still have two sets of stairs, one before and one after the door. At least that is what I remember.

[fin]

One of the goals of America was to reduce or eliminate social class distinctions based on birth or lineage.

 

Economic class is an entirely different matter. Not only has it not been eliminated, it has never been greater. This may be causing some confusion in this thread.

[scamper]

I think that the OP's point is, fares are the same, or in some cases higher, but quality is diminishing.

 

It is true that "you get what you pay for" (in most cases) but people who have cruised for years, as the OP pointed out, often see a degradation of service and quality over the years and its disappointing. I believe the root cause of that is two-fold: One, cruise lines got it into their heads that since a huge percentage of people in the world, especially in the west, have never taken a cruise they therefore needed to flood the market (seas?) with more and more ships. I think they have discovered that just like there are billions of people out there who have never been on a cruise, there are also billions of people out there that have never been on an airplane. In that case, as in the US, airlines (even when the economy was good) started putting smaller regional jets in markets that were once operated (unprofitably) by bigger aircraft. Lesson hopefully learned. Now the cruise lines feel that it is necessary to maintain fares adjusted for inflation in order to fill all those new ships and in doing so reduced the quality and service that was much better 15 and more years ago.

 

Secondly, the cruise lines, like the airlines, have decided to gradually lower quality and service standards assuming that people will take what they get and live with it. People with higher standards won't put up with that sort of thing and will probably spend their dollars on the upscale lines and leave the mass market cruises to the average Joe and Jane who take what they get and are happy with it.

[NEcruisers????]

Did anyone one ever mention the little red lite in the suites . If theres an emergency on the ship this red lite blinks to alert suite passengers to go to their life boat station immediately . Then the general alarm sounds 5 minutes latter. I always thought is was so cute :p

 

Thanks!:) I needed that one today!

[newmexicoNita]

NCL has recreated First class vs Second class and applied it to cruising and no one seems to be focusing on that point in all the teeth nashing over additional fees.

 

NCL had already paved the first class vs steerage class trail with the neutering of food quality and service in the main dining rooms. Excellent service and terrific food used to be the norm. Now, you have to pay extra for it by going to an up charge restaurant. This is not a matter of perception, it is a fact. I have been cruising for 26 year and things have changed radically. Other cruise lines are following.

 

Most of the newer NCL ships have first class courtyards and the Epic does as well, but with a much larger space devoted to First Class.(ie the courtyard area and suites with courtyard access)

 

Now NCL is taking it a step further on Epic by having a whole area of the ship that is Posh class? Ice Bar class? It appears everyone pays to get in to these venues, thus, up charging those already up charged into First class.

 

Where will it all stop? Until people make their voices heard by voting with their spending habits, you can expect NCL and other cruise lines to continue to behave like the airlines and unbundle everything and add a price tag to it. They are already doing it with “special” events on board, jazz brunches, special ethnic dinners etc. They are constantly pushing the envelope. (and expecting you to fill it)

 

I personally find this to be a disturbing trend and it will cause me to rethink how and where I spend my cruise $$.

 

Try Cunard, see if they have something similar? This isn't necessarily bad..If one pays more, shouldn't one expect a little more? I don't see your point, but you have a right to your opinion.

 

Nita

[iheartbda]

Try sailing on the QM2...Cunard has 3 classes......We could only afford steerage....:o...They are so class sensitive we were not allowed to look at the upper crust passengers..we had to look away. No direct eye contact allowed....:rolleyes:

 

 

Bottom line is you get what you pay for....

 

Rumor has it that you'll go blind if you do.:p

[ben55124]

OP - Here's a cruise line just for you...

 

http://www.freightercruises.com/

 

 

I'll just continue thanking the suite+ passengers for subsidizing my interior rooms.

[Beauts]

Hmmm...well, I'm sailing the Spirit in April..and..I am on deck 4, yes, in "steerage". And to be very honest, I really don't care. I'm just so thrilled to be going on a cruise!! Do we expect the very same service in a deck 4 oceanview that we got in our suite on the last cruise we took? Nope. Not where the room is concerned. Do we expect the same service elsewhere in the ship? Yup. Would we expect slightly better service in a "specialty" restaurant vrs the main dining room? Probably. Do I care that there won't be a coffee maker in our cabin when we arrive so we may have to ask for it? Again, nope! Basically, the way I see it, you kind of get what you pay for, unfortunately. For us, we are quite happy to be down in the bowels of the ship, lol, and it's really all in how you look at it because to our friends, they think we are extremely lucky and "well to do" (ya right..) just to be taking a 12 day cruise!

If we want to be waited on and treated like the passengers in the "Owners Suite", well then....I guess we'd just save up the $$ to be able to purchase an Owner's Suite!

Hope I haven't offended anyone...that's just my very humble opinion.

[RichNY]

Rumor has it that you'll go blind if you do.:p

 

Is that it ???......I asked what would happen and I was told was..."BAD THINGS"...and I thought I would turn into a pillar of salt..:p

[MrLee]

Exactly how is the flight of stairs "very short"?

 

Is the distance between deck 13 and deck 14 somehow shorter than, say the distance between deck 12 and deck 13?

 

Only if you have the keycard. Actually , if you have the keycard it becomes an escalator. ;)

[NMLady]

With that attitude, you will NEVER have a bad cruise !! My kind of people !!:D:D

 

THANKS!! And you're right that we've never yet had a bad cruise and never expect to. I feel that the most important things to bring on a cruise are a GOOD ATTITUDE and PATIENCE towards some of the passengers and UNDERSTANDING when things go wrong, which sometimes happens.

 

There have been things we haven't liked, but life is full of disappointments so why should a cruise be different.

 

Regarding OP's statement: if there really was class discrimination then there would be parts of the ship where cheapies like me aren't allowed. But nothing is off limit to me, so there's no class distinctions. Those are evidently in the eye of the beholder.

I've often shared a table with those in suites and have enjoyed their company and conversation. None have ever looked down their nose at me.

[Mooder]

"No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." Eleanor Roosevelt

 

As someone else mentioned, a class system wouldn't allow everyone the same restaurants and areas of the ship. I love that once I'm out and about on the ship, no one knows or cares how much I paid for my cabin.

[cruiseman111111]

"No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." Eleanor Roosevelt

 

As someone else mentioned, a class system wouldn't allow everyone the same restaurants and areas of the ship. I love that once I'm out and about on the ship, no one knows or cares how much I paid for my cabin.

 

Oh, they care. "They" talk about you behind you back if you don't wear minks, diamonds and gold, lioke "they" do. LOL

[rian90]

Hey, I am just glad they haven't eliminated 2nd class for all us folks who have better or more important things to spend our money on! And I mean, kids, college for kids, food, mortgage, those sorts of things... :)

 

Those that can afford it can go 1st class, and with my blessing, if that means anything, of course.

 

I will spend money to eat sushi every night..okay, not every night, but $15 for all you can sushi is pretty good compared to what I pay here!

 

I will sit on my balcony, drink my coffee ordered from room service, and send my kids emails from our little netbook we have hooked up in our room! That is luxury to me.

 

And then when dinner comes, I can choose to wear my jeans and sneakers to the main dining room if I want or I can put on a skirt and a nice top with pretty sandals.

 

I can find a deck chair some where on the deck, away from the fancy posh folks and their perfect bodies and read a detective novel or a juicy romance novel while sipping on my club soda or a drink of the day (without the souvenir cup).

 

What more could I want! And the best part is I don't have to pay huge amounts of money to do this and I can choose where I wish to spend whatever money we have left in our vacation budget. I plan to spend most of it on land for good Italian or Greek food...and a few gifts for my kids.

 

As for those in their suites? Good for them. I hope they have a good of a time as I do because I don't think all the extra amenities would make my vacation any better than it will be already. :)