Will Norwegian cruise line ever add new itineraries to expand their horizons

[sjnyc323]

As you all know I love love love NCL but I am wondering and hoping that they will add new itineraries and ports of call to explore. They are building all these new ships and itinerary never changes. It would be a shame if itineraries become so stagnant and people jump ship so to speak to other cruise lines in order to visit ports of calls that NCL doesn't offer their passengers.

 

Suzanne

[<3 <3 <3]

As you all know I love love love NCL but I am wondering and hoping that they will add new itineraries and ports of call to explore. They are building all these new ships and itinerary never changes. It would be a shame if itineraries become so stagnant and people jump ship so to speak to other cruise lines in order to visit ports of calls that NCL doesn't offer their passengers.

 

Suzanne

 

Check this thread out. Norwegian Cruise Lines posted a response in it. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1856460

[jlacy1987]

I agree. I would prefer to sail out of NOLA since it is only 5 hours away and we can drive down the day we sail and drive home as soon as we get back. But I think we can only do Cozumel, Belize City, Roatan, and Costa Maya only so many times before it just gets boring.

 

You can't tell me that there aren't other ports they can hit out of NOLA. They could easily do NOLA, a stop in Florida, then Bahamas. Or NOLA, Cozumel, Cayman Islands (while skipping Jamaica).

[Savoy Truffle]

On my recent Dawn cruise, the Future Cruise Consultant said that NCL was going to be sailing to Martinique and Guadeloupe pretty soon. That would be nice.

[sverigecruiser]

On my recent Dawn cruise, the Future Cruise Consultant said that NCL was going to be sailing to Martinique and Guadeloupe pretty soon. That would be nice.

 

Unfortunalely the Future Cruise Consultants don't always know what they are talking about. I once asked why NCL stopped cruising to Fanning Island and was told that because of the sealevel raisning, Fanning Island was disappearing. Other cruiselines still go there...

[emcelh]

Unfortunalely the Future Cruise Consultants don't always know what they are talking about. I once asked why NCL stopped cruising to Fanning Island and was told that because of the sealevel raisning, Fanning Island was disappearing. Other cruiselines still go there...

That's true, they don't always know. They might be right in this case though. The Pearl will be calling at Martinique on a few 10 day cruises from Miami in 2015/2015.

[4774Papa]

We starting cruising on NCL and still do, but also cruise on Celebrity, since they go to Asia, Australia/NZ, South America, the Black Sea and a full British Isles cruise.

 

There has been some speculation that NCL will go back to South America.

[sjnyc323]

They really need to expand itineraries to keep the passengers coming and to keep up with other lines already offering these ports of calls already.

 

Suzanne

[polySeraph]

We starting cruising on NCL and still do, but also cruise on Celebrity, since they go to Asia, Australia/NZ, South America, the Black Sea and a full British Isles cruise.

 

There has been some speculation that NCL will go back to South America.

 

4774Papa, My husband and I are currently shopping around for other cruise lines that go places that NCL doesn't. Have you cruised on other lines besides Celebrity? If so, which lines, in your opinion, do the best job of "imitating" Freestyle dining? We would prefer not to dress formally (or eat in the buffet on formal night) and we would rather not spend the dinner hour making polite small talk with strangers.

 

We loved our South American cruise aboard the Sun a few years back.

[xenagurl]

I'd love to do a transpacific with...Norwegian.

[OceanDreaming2]

I'd love to do a transpacific with...Norwegian.

 

We'd be right there with you! :D

[Sauer-kraut]

The way Carnival is pulling out of US ports you think NCL would be able to stick a ship here and there. For instance: CCL leaving Baltimore, Mobile and Charleston so maybe moving things that way for a bit.

 

 

I loved Martinque, I did that on my first cruise ... Southern Caribbean route departing from Puerto Rico. Barbados, Martinque, Dominica, St Thomas. I wish NCL would do that route!!

[jlacy1987]

The way Carnival is pulling out of US ports you think NCL would be able to stick a ship here and there. For instance: CCL leaving Baltimore, Mobile and Charleston so maybe moving things that way for a bit.

 

 

I loved Martinque, I did that on my first cruise ... Southern Caribbean route departing from Puerto Rico. Barbados, Martinque, Dominica, St Thomas. I wish NCL would do that route!!

 

I could definitely get behind a Mobile port. That's less than 4 hours from me and closer than NOLA!

[xenagurl]

We'd be right there with you! :D

 

 

We need an "I would like to take a Transpacific Cruise" thread here!

[4774Papa]

4774Papa, My husband and I are currently shopping around for other cruise lines that go places that NCL doesn't. Have you cruised on other lines besides Celebrity? If so, which lines, in your opinion, do the best job of "imitating" Freestyle dining? We would prefer not to dress formally (or eat in the buffet on formal night) and we would rather not spend the dinner hour making polite small talk with strangers.

 

We loved our South American cruise aboard the Sun a few years back.

Many cruise lines have picked up some of the freestyle dining concept. Celebrity has Select Dining, which allows you to eat whatever time you wish and they have some specialty restaurants. Although, most people still dine at a fixed time. We have done it both ways and each has its advantages.

 

I researched Celebrity, Princess, Royal Caribbean and Holland America for our first cruise to South America. I picked Celebrity because of itinerary and price. We are now elite on Celebrity after cruising five times. We have done one through the Panama Canal to Chile, one Caribbean, one around 3/4ths of Australia, one Transatlantic and one British Isles cruise.

 

Princess is probably the closest to Celebrity in style but like Holland America, tends to be more expensive than Celebrity. Royal owns Celebrity and has more shorter cruises than we like.

 

Celebrity excels in the food. Their MDR is as good as NCL's specialty restaurants. Their entertainment is as good.

 

We still like NCL, especially since their prices are generally a bit lower than the other cruise lines. Also, freestyle is great, with the super variety of specialty restaurants.

 

We will avoid the huge ships like Epic. We prefer the smaller ships.

Next NCL cruise we have booked is on the Star out of Copenhagen to Norway, Iceland, etc.

[sverigecruiser]

I don't think that more caribbean itineraries should be the most interesting thing they can do, even if I should love more southern caribbean and longer cruises in the caribbean.

 

I think that cruises in other parts of the world should be more interesting!

[dalgirl]

NCL's response on the other thread:

 

"Hi Everyone,

Thank you for your feedback. Our itinerary planning team is constantly exploring new itinerary options, to determine destination that are most exciting for our guests. We are going to be testing a new itinerary from New Orleans this fall that visits: Montego Bay; George Town, Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico and hope that we see you on board!

Norwegian Cruise Line "

 

There is really nothing new or "exciting" here - they have been going out of New Orleans, and those ports are like all the other ports and have been done to death.

 

If they are constantly exploring new itinerary options, they need to get out an atlas;)

 

I have decided that in order to get as much out of the new ships as they can that they pick the most boring, over cruised areas, hoping that passengers tired of the same old ports will stay onboard and spend their money:cool:.

 

Sorry, I am feeling very cynical today and wishing that they would travel to Australia and Indonesia, or somewhere really "exciting." It is hard once you have cruised to Russia to think Montego Bay is exciting:p I guess I am going to have to "jump ship." (pun intended:D)

[polySeraph]

Many cruise lines have picked up some of the freestyle dining concept. . . .

 

 

. . . . We will avoid the huge ships like Epic. We prefer the smaller ships.

Next NCL cruise we have booked is on the Star out of Copenhagen to Norway, Iceland, etc.

 

Thanks for the candid assessment on the other lines. It's helpful to see them compared to NCL.

 

We've loved the NCL's laid-back approach to dining. Both of us have had jobs which involved suiting up in the "uniform of the day" (tux, sport jacket, little black dress, etc, etc) and making polite small talk with people we don't know at dinners and social events. Being on a traditional cruise line with the traditional fixed dining is too much like work for us.

 

We prefer the smaller ships also. Our main priority in cruising has been to see some corner of the earth that was previously unknown to us. It appears that NCL is going in a different direction with the larger ships and with increased emphasis on the ship as the destination. We wish them well and we hope that we continue to board NCL ships in the future. . . at least for our last-minute Caribbean cruises.

 

You will really enjoy that Norway-Iceland-Faroes cruise. We were on a similar itinerary last fall on the Sun. If you go to the last page of our roll call for that itinerary (Click here) and scroll down to my last post, you'll find links to the resource spreadsheet for our sailing. We had lots of researchers on that particular roll call and every time someone would post a link, I would copy and paste it into the spreadsheet. There's quite a lot of good material in there, including links to around 20 hours of video.

[4774Papa]

Thanks for the candid assessment on the other lines. It's helpful to see them compared to NCL.

 

We've loved the NCL's laid-back approach to dining. Both of us have had jobs which involved suiting up in the "uniform of the day" (tux, sport jacket, little black dress, etc, etc) and making polite small talk with people we don't know at dinners and social events. Being on a traditional cruise line with the traditional fixed dining is too much like work for us.

 

We prefer the smaller ships also. Our main priority in cruising has been to see some corner of the earth that was previously unknown to us. It appears that NCL is going in a different direction with the larger ships and with increased emphasis on the ship as the destination. We wish them well and we hope that we continue to board NCL ships in the future. . . at least for our last-minute Caribbean cruises.

 

You will really enjoy that Norway-Iceland-Faroes cruise. We were on a similar itinerary last fall on the Sun. If you go to the last page of our roll call for that itinerary (Click here) and scroll down to my last post, you'll find links to the resource spreadsheet for our sailing. We had lots of researchers on that particular roll call and every time someone would post a link, I would copy and paste it into the spreadsheet. There's quite a lot of good material in there, including links to around 20 hours of video.

Thanks poly, this is a wealth of information.

[sjnyc323]

I am hoping for some new itineraries soon. Will wait and see

 

Suzanne