Thinking about trying NCL

[madjohn]

Hello all. I am thinking of trying a NCL cruise. The DW and I have sailed primarily Princess and Carnival cruises. We got 12 under our belt. Thinking about trying a new line to mix it up some.

 

For those who have sailed both Princess, Carnival and NCL, what are the similarities and differences.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Hello all. I am thinking of trying a NCL cruise. The DW and I have sailed primarily Princess and Carnival cruises. We got 12 under our belt. Thinking about trying a new line to mix it up some.

 

For those who have sailed both Princess, Carnival and NCL, what are the similarities and differences.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

I've sailed all three and they're very similar...way more similar than they are different. I'm platinum on Carnival, have sailed Princess once, and have sailed NCL once, with my second NCL cruise coming up in March.

 

The biggest difference with NCL is the dining. I purchased the Ultimate Dining Package and dined at a different specialty restaurant each evening--loved that! The food is better, IMHO, in both the specialty restaurants (except I feel the Carnival steakhouses are better than Cagney's on NCL, but Cagney's is good) and the buffet. Since I had UDP, I ddin't dine in the MDRs, so can't compare there for you. There's more live music on NCL than on Carnival and not as many announcements. I found NCL service to be as good as I've experienced on any ship. I loved the welcome back on the pier--the crew dances and music is playing, and they had cold water, lemonade, and cool and damp cloths. That was a really nice touch.

 

I enjoyed my NCL cruise so much, I foresee they'll be my line of choice for most future cruises. :)

[cynbar]

I haven't sailed Carnival but I have sailed Princess and NCL, and the biggest difference I saw was the dress code. NCL's Freestyle means dress is very casual, all the time -- no requirement to change for the evening unless you want to. I believe a couple of the restaurants require long pants on men, but you can easily find places to eat if you just want to stay in your shorts. There is also a Dress Up or Not night, where some dress fancy but many don"t -- the percentages vary from cruise to cruise, we haven't seen a high percentage dress up but I hear that varies. Also, all NCL ships have a nice variety of specialty restaurants , yes they have a fee but we don't mind that, just figure it into our budget. Otherwise, very similar to Princess with clean ships, friendly staff, lots of bars and lounges --- give it a try.

[GORDONCHICK]

If you love traditional dining, NCL isn't for you. Norwegian does flexible dining so much better than the other lines. Lots more dining options on NCL. I've always found service on NCL much friendlier. These are reasons we've mostly stayed with Norwegian for the most part.

 

And, Norwegian does great M&Gs! If someone on your roll call volunteers to coordinate between the group and NCL, Norwegian will provide a location and refreshments (appropriate for the time of day, ie danishes & the like for morning, cookies in the afternoon, banana bread pound cake around. Noon-ish). But the biggest difference is that Norwegian sends officers to the party (HD, F&BD, etc.). They will usually introduce themselves, sometimes take questions. If you're lucky, the captain may show up (though that's only going to happen if you have a very outgoing captain). They are handy people to meet and they really want your cruise to be great.

[mobu2015]

We've been on Carnival and Princess a few times and just got off the NCL Breakaway today.

 

I agree with the others about the dress code and the dining. NCL was way more casual than the others, even on their "night out" dress up night. I definitely saw a tux or 2 and a couple of long gone but I'd say only a third of those I saw were dressed up in any capacity in the MDR. Most were dressed up when we walked by the specialty restaurants on the "night out" night.

 

NCL also has more dining options than the other two. We only ate at the "free" or included eateries and there was more all around variety available than the other 2 lines. The food was decent but I will say I preferred the way Carnival and Princess include proper descriptions of the food on their menus. This is a very very minor quibble but we found NCL'S MDR menu descriptions lacking and there would invariably be a part of the dish that was a bit of a surprise because the description was misleading (snow peas were a garnish on one dish but in the description the dish stated pasta with snow peas). Like I said, very minor detail but something we noticed nonetheless.

 

As for the age range/feel of the ship, it has a much more modern decor style and a classier feel that fell in line with Princess but the atmosphere was livelier much like Carnival. Our princess cruises were much more subdued with an older average age than this NCL cruise or the Carnival cruises we've taken.

 

I can't say which line we preferred most. We appreciated the modern decor of the NCL breakaway much much more than the often gaudy and outdated looks of the older Carnival ships we've sailed. And we enjoyed the baked Alaska and lobster and a few other more traditonal cruising details that Princess offers (although it's been 3 years since our last Princess cruise so perhaps things have changed there).

 

We cruise for itinerary more than anything so there hasn't been a cruise line we've tried that we wouldn't try again. Although with NCL we were not fans of the so called "freestyle" cruising because it seemed less flexible to us. It sounds great on paper but in reality it involves planning and reservations and scheduling and doesn't feel very "freestyling" to us. But if our plans took us cruising next year we would not overlook NCL for these reasons alone. We had a great vacation on a beautiful ship with an amazing itinerary and wonderful friendly staff. In my very personal opinion you can't go wrong.