NCL Suffers By Comparison .....

[eliget]

The beauty of cruising is that there are so many cruiselines out there that if one doesn't work for you there's another one to try!

 

We've sailed RCCL, HAL (2x in suites), Carnival and NCL (we lost count since many were before Latitudes programs!) and have never had luggage put into our cabin.

 

While we have enjoyed all of the cruises that we have taken, our favorite continues to be NCL - they have the best suite perks!

Absolutely!!!! The perks on the suites are the best I have ever experienced. Every single day there was a new surprise left for us in our cabin. Having your own personal butler was wonderful

[cherylroslyn]

So true. We decided not to be too obsessed with one cruiseline to get the royal member benefits. Our first cruise was on Carnival Sensation. It was our first time and had no idea about CC or how things are on ships. Still we had a blast just dining at MDR and buffet. Only on last evening we found they have shows on cruise :-).

 

Second cruise was on NCL Pearl early this year and what a blast we had. Just can't believe if cruises can get any better. Soon we will be sailing on Epic mainly because we liked NCL and their contemporary setup and also want to get on a new ship before it gets an year old.

 

We are already looking forward to our Oasis of the Seas next year and planning to get on Princess cruise. Maybe in couple of years we will figure what suits us best but I already figured with my little cruising experience - itineraries and time play a major role on which cruise we take. Looks like Princess Ruby is our only option to get to South Caribbean during my kids Spring break (Apr 16) . But the cruise starts on a Sunday and we hate that schedule. We want to get home on Saturday and rest before kids hit school on Monday.

 

If we let life's little things bother you, it will get hard to enjoy vacations and even life :D.

We are going to have a great time on the EPIC Kits Va...........29 Days!!!!!!!

[keyworker]

My first cruise EVER will be on the Star next May. We have booked a DOS. Since this will be my first cruise I have nothing to compare it too....therefore I am going to have the most amazing time!!! I am a firm believer that you only get out of something what you put into it!!! So I expect there will be a few hiccups as there are on most holidays but not letting it affect me is the key!! Happy sailing!!

[billie5]

Why would someone (a very frequent contributor, in fact) attack those posters who point out that their experience has been very different? I've just read through the posts and I believe comments have been properly restrained and courteous. Have we gotten to the point that we can not draw attention to questionable statements (like getting luggage placed in the cabin on other lines) or contrary experiences? That would be sad.

 

Bill

[nycruise]

My first cruise EVER will be on the Star next May. We have booked a DOS. Since this will be my first cruise I have nothing to compare it too....therefore I am going to have the most amazing time!!! I am a firm believer that you only get out of something what you put into it!!! So I expect there will be a few hiccups as there are on most holidays but not letting it affect me is the key!! Happy sailing!!

 

I'm sure you'll have a great time on your first cruise.

 

I remember our first cruise, it was on a 50 year old ship, the Britanis, with one bar called the Smoke Bar, and one dining room, 3 decks below sea level, no windows. You had to take all your meals in the dining room, only light breakfast and lunch were offered out on deck. The cabin had one porthole, no T.V., and a regular flush toilet that kept overflowing.

 

And guess what, we loved it and have been cruising ever since.:D

 

It's like anything else, we were all happy with 19" T.V. sets 30 years ago, now everyone thinks a 32" flatscreen T.V. is small.

 

The world keeps moving on.;)

[kitsVA]

We are going to have a great time on the EPIC Kits Va...........29 Days!!!!!!!

 

Very exciting. We plan to start the packing plan this weekend and also will be planning our Spring break with several friends. If it doesn't materialize we will probably going on another cruise. Princess, Celebrity, or Carnival. Whoever wants to take us to South Caribbean and bring us back on a Saturday :-).

[sjbdtz]

Your view, but certainly not mine. Our HAL and Celebrity cruises were of equal overall quality to our NCL cruises. Saying "night and day" is simply nonsense.

 

 

Sotto, to be fair...maybe OP was saying that their NCL cruise was active & bright & sun-filled... "day-like"

 

whereas their HAL cruise was devoid of activity and dark & dreary...."like night"...

 

 

????

[coffeebean]

Totally agree with you on this. I just got off the Jade and while we had a good time I really feel that NCL has gone downhill in the past few years. I thought maybe it was just that specific ship but maybe it's not. Our experience in the dining rooms were the same as yours and by the fifth night of the cruise we decided to eat the rest of our meals in the Garden Cafe. The food was better there and I didn't have to wait 30 minutes just to get a cup of coffee. We didn't let the mediocre food or poor service ruin our cruise at all but I don't think we'll be back on NCL.

I don't doubt NCL's main dining rooms are just mediocre. DH and I haven't dined in an NCL main dining room for the past several cruises. We always dine in the specialty restaurants. Love the different restaurant decors, the smaller more intimate dining venues, love the food quality, different cuisines, top notch service and we gladly pay the up charge to dine in the specialty restaurants. Our NCL cruises are a notch above the other mass market lines because of the wonderful dining experience we have.

 

I don't list in my signature the different cruises we have done as we will be cruising our 33rd time on Epic in two weeks. We have cruised on HAL, Celebrity, Carnival, Princess, and we are Diamond members on RCCL.

[coffeebean]

Ive been on Celebrity..Holland America...RCCL....and Ive never had my luggage brought into the room.

I have never had our luggage brought into the cabin on HAL, NCL, Princess, RCCL, Carnival or Celebrity.

[camz]

With all due respect to the OP and his opinion, Carnival and Chandris Cruise Lines vs. NCL. I see in his post that he frequently sailed Chandris as well as Carnival. I have been on both of those lines, and in all honesty, NCL is well above in all areas. :)

[swedish weave]

OP could have saved a lot of keystrokes by simply saying he doesn't like NCL.

 

BTW NCL is my favorite !!!

[4 cruisers]

We were big fans of NCL back in the day (2003). We loved the Freestyle concept (which no other line offered), thought the ship (Dawn) was modern and elegant, the staff friendly, the prices fair, the food varied and good, just an overall good cruise experience.

 

When we took the Star to Glacier Bay a couple of years later, believe it or not we missed Glacier Bay. The ship sprung an oil leak and wasn't allowed to enter the National Park to foul the waters. We also noticed that when we left Seattle, we were docked alone at an industrial port, while other ships were clustered together closer to downtown.

 

Glutens for punishment, we took the Star again later that year on a Mexican Riviera cruise from L.A. to Acapulco. Luckily we made it to Acapulco, but the very next cruise and several more after that, couldn't make it that far South due to engine problems. Our cruise experience was okay, nothing more - particularly compared to the Sapphire Princess cruise to Mexico we had taken the year earlier.

 

We pretty much signed off on NCL and sailed Princess, Carnival, RCCL and Holland America, all of which in our opinion give a better overall cruise experience and also some form of Freestyle of their own.

 

Skip forward to last week when we sailed the Pearl on the 5 day Pacific Coastal repositioning cruise. The ship is pretty much a duplicate of the Dawn and the Star, seems we didn't miss much over the past 5 years. The cruise again started from an industrial pier in Vancouver, not Canada Place as originally planned, and boarding was chaotic.

 

The staff seems very robotic and not really engaged with the passengers. Unlike other cruise lines, our bags were left outside our cabin, instead of brought into the cabin and placed on the bed. The cabin stewardess seemed like she was disengaged, hard to put your finger on it, but she didn't seem to like her job.

 

Much like the dining room staff in the 2 main dining rooms, everyone is going through the motions, no warmth at all. The service was slipshod; we were never offered a beverage with our dinner, some evenings the dessert order was taken at the beginning of the meal other nights at the end. Other nights we had to ask to see a dessert menu. Water and coffee were refilled some nights, not others. The food was mediocre at best.

 

So let me ask, why does NCL charge the highest automatic tip of $12 per day, it's surely not the quality of service.

 

The high pressure sales make Carnival seem like amateurs, drinks, drinks, drinks, drinks? That's in about 3 minutes time.

 

The Food in the Garden Cafe was the best of the cruise and that includes the night we ate in Lotus Garden, which was just okay Asian cuisine, not worth the more than $60 it ending up costing us with one drink each and a tip.

 

Speaking of the Garden Café, why did they take up half of the table space with the kiddie area, getting a table was like find a needle in a hay stack and than you had to protect it with one person sitting guard while the other went back for more food or dessert or a beverage.

 

There was plenty of entertainment for a 5 day cruise; we thought the Four Seasons tribute group put on the best show, Sharkbait and the comedian weren’t our cup of tea.

 

When compared to the cruise experience we had on Holland-America earlier this year, it’s like night and day.

 

We enjoyed this cruise primarily due to the 3 wonderful nights we spent in Vancouver/Whistler and a night in Los Angeles. We viewed the Pearl merely as a floating hotel and a means of transportation from port to port

 

The ship’s tours we took in Astoria and Sonoma were well handled, but all in all we need another long break from NCL.

 

We were on the Pearl repositioning and our experience was like we were on a different ship! Food and Bev. director, Tony Lockett would have helped you in a MINUTE if he heard you were having food or service issues! We've known Tony since the Star was sailing in Hawaii and he is one of the NICEST, caring individuals we have ever encountered on any ship! He is always amazingly thoughtful and if he hears of anyone having a special occasion, he is ON IT! This is why I hate to read about problems that he didn't even have a chance to rectify! Now I must add that the Hotel Director this trip was the coldest, oddest officer I have ever encountered! I was stunned at the show when he took credit for the food and beverage department along with all the other departments! He then waved his arms like he was Richard Nixon. I am wondering if this doesn't have something to do with the poor morale you noticed in the staff?!

 

The port experience at Balentine WAS awful. NCL should have let us all know of the port change from Canada Place!!!!!!!! We along with most other cruisers had a very expensive cab ride/wait to get to the ship! Nowhere to sit which was tough on many people! We have had similar problems on Princess at Canada Place, so I think the repositionings are something Vancouver will never figure out.

 

We love Astoria just for the "Baked Alaska" restaurant and Chef Chris. We missed The Galoping Gourmet by only one day! He was the visiting chef at the Baked Alaska the day before we docked!!! (don't know if any of you remember him!? We grew up watching him!). Amazing northwestern cuisine and wine. We almost chose the repositioning for this stop! I know we might be considered weird.:rolleyes:

 

San Francisco's pier was not the greatest location for sure! I do think that since it is not a regular port for the Pearl, we probably get last choice...

 

We've sailed HAL in Europe. It was a lovely ship, but we really didn't feel connected to most of the staff on that ship and we really didn't care for the food. I wouldn't say we'd never sail them again, but in general, we'd pick NCL over HAL. Celebrity is great. RCI was good to us. Our luggage wasn't put on the bed on any of these trips...but honestly if we couldn't handle them, I'd ask our room steward and prob. tip for the extra help.

 

In all fairness, we ate at specialty restaurants every night. Really enjoyed every meal.

 

When we took the Star to Mexico, a Princess ship was anchored near us in Cabo San Lucas and when we went to get a tender back, we got at the end of a HUGE line in the hot sun...shortly after we got in line, an NCL officer came and informed everyone that the line was for Princess, not NCL...there was no line for us! We were grateful we were on NCL that day.

 

Sorry you feel you wasted a cruise on NCL when you could have been on HAL. At least you'll know for the future to stick with what you know you like. I guess that's the same (but different;))for us! Cheers!

[Sauer-kraut]

I just wanted to address the OP that even on Cunard our suitcases were not placed on the bed. They had the plastic cover on one bed where suitcases were to be laid when unpacking, but we hefted them onto the bed ourselves.

 

The daily service charge on Cunard also ranges between $11 & $13 per day depending on cabin category, so no, NCL is NOT the highest in the industry.

 

HAL is $11 so what's a dollar? Not going to put me off of NCL because of it. ;) In fact, I actually like the service charge, its painless and more egalitarian for the staff. Just my opinon.

[DocJohnB]

I have never had our luggage brought into the cabin on HAL, NCL, Princess, RCCL, Carnival or Celebrity.

I have on some, some of the time. On others, never. Sort of luck of the draw, I would guess. But for 4 or 5 feet, sure doesn't bother me one way or the other.

[Hunwolf]

I have on some, some of the time. On others, never. Sort of luck of the draw, I would guess. But for 4 or 5 feet, sure doesn't bother me one way or the other.

 

This. We had ours delivered into our cabin years ago on the Nordic Empress. But not on our recent cruises on RCCL or Princess.

 

But...I could care less.

[4 cruisers]

Sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise. I'm glad you have found lines that you are happy with.

 

The one thing I have to say that I completely disagree with is you assessment of the warmth of the staff.

 

I have sailed every line that you mention oloving and the staff on those line, though quite nice, pale in comparison to the incredibly warm and sweet staff on NCL.

 

I believe that NCL recruits in the Philipines and the people from the Philipines must be some of the warmest most giving and loving on the planet......

 

 

I can not wait to get on my upcomming cruise to reunite with many of the staff member sthat I still keep in touch with from past cruises.... There is nothing robotic about any of these people. They have always waited on my hand and foot as ifI am some sort of celebrity....my stewards never even let me take my key card out and they run sown the hall like sprinters to open the door for both myself and mu daughter....

 

The $12.00 is my opinion is a great starting point for tipping...but for me it is not adequate for the level of service I receive and I make sure that my stewards, waiters, and bartenders receive the extra compensation I feel they deserve.

 

You can bash the ships, itineraries, food, decor.....but the staff on NCL is the friend;iest at sea in my opinion.

 

Your post is very well put! I agree wholeheartedly. We want to cruise with you!!!!!!!! Have a great trip (and I know you will!).

[rickechambers1@aol.com]

Frankly, I don't want an army of cruise line personnel in my cabin, just the room steward and their assistant. The smaller the number the better...

 

I have always carried my carry-on bag aboard myself. Why wait hours for your bags? Plus in this era of bed bugs infestations, I don't want any bag on my bed. I am quite able to empty my bag from the floor/deck... :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

You see it as a possible lack of service, I see it as a service I don't want...

 

If you ever get a Garden Villa...you'll have lot's of company. Concierge Simone, Butler John, and our stateroom attendant came and went all the time. We did not mind at all...they always had good news or some kind of surprise during each visit...that's the kind of company you want! At one point, we were in our living room and my friend had well over $100,000 in jewelry spread on the couch and we were trying new pieces on...Simone came right in and she joined in and tried on a 4 carat diamond ring...but ended up liking a smaller diamond ring instead. It was great fun.

 

In a room that size, you'd never know if others were in there or not anyway.

[4 cruisers]

Why would someone (a very frequent contributor, in fact) attack those posters who point out that their experience has been very different? I've just read through the posts and I believe comments have been properly restrained and courteous. Have we gotten to the point that we can not draw attention to questionable statements (like getting luggage placed in the cabin on other lines) or contrary experiences? That would be sad.

 

Bill

 

 

I must have missed something:confused:

[STARFISH*4]

OP sorry you didnt like the NCL experience as you can see from my signature...LOVE NCL:D, so there are some of us out there who dont feel that NCL suffers...hope you can find a line to your liking!!

[Wingtips56]

Bags: the porters don't have access to your room, which is probably a good thing. It's up to your steward to bring the bags in for you. You may get there before the steward does, the steward can't lift them, or they just may not do it ...maybe they don't have to? We're usually killing time in our room waiting for the bags to change out of our travel clothes, so we bring them in ourselves as soon as we hear them drop outside. But we've found them in the room too, sometimes.

 

I think Canada Place at Vancouver may only have slips for two big ships .... probably first come, first served unless paying-off someone. Plus a ship leaking oil/diesel wouldn't be welcomed on their showplace waterfront.

[love2bonboard]

I must have missed something:confused:

 

 

Yes, there was a person with a really nasty response. The Cruise critic police was good enough to delete the post. I had responded to the rude post and they deleted it, as well (since I referenced the rude post). Good for Cruise Critic!!!!! I get really upset at how angry and mean some of the posters are and I'm glad they are being deleted.

[flowerchild]

Why would someone (a very frequent contributor, in fact) attack those posters who point out that their experience has been very different? I've just read through the posts and I believe comments have been properly restrained and courteous. Have we gotten to the point that we can not draw attention to questionable statements (like getting luggage placed in the cabin on other lines) or contrary experiences? That would be sad.

 

Bill

 

I've noticed this type of behavior more and more lately, too...it is getting out of control.

[BikerG]

If you want ultimate pampering, sail with Silverseas, BUT prepare to spend a whole lot more! Luggage will be in room and you will have a Butler that will unpack and repack for you if you want and all drinks and gratuties are included. Smaller ship and personalized service.

[salty dingo]

Sounds like the OP is ready to move out of the mass market cattle carriers and into a premium cruise line.

 

All their complaints seem like the norm on all mass market cruise lines, to me!

[INDIANA JOE]

nycruise- Sorry you didn't enjoy NCL on this cruise. We enjoyed our time and it was only our 2nd cruise ever ( both on the Pearl ). Our cabin stewards , Dino and Richard were efficent and friendly. Enjoyed talking to them some about their families back home. In the Summer Palace for breakfast one morning we got the chance to talk to our server about her daughter back in the phillipines ( staying with grandmother) . Made us appreciate a lot of things.

Yes Ballentyne was a disaster but probably not Ncl's fault. Same with San Francisco.

We enjoyed Sharkbait's comedy and about died laughing (good therapy in these hard and trying times). Loved the Oh What A Night performance.

Only one meal was not quite up to our standards . We have never dined at 4/5 star restaurants so we have been pretty happy with the selections on board.

sorry don't want to sound like I am attacking you, just giving my opinions. We loved this cruise and will definitely sail NCL again.