How social are people on NCL cruises?

[vswan]

I think covid may have something to do with people not wishing to share tables in the mdr.

[Lakesregion]

37 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

NCL is great for solos.  

 

They sponsor solo get togethers every evening, where solos can meet up and make plans together.  

 

I’ve even enjoyed meeting others on excursions, dining at tables where I didn’t know anyone, just having a cocktail at any of the many bars.

 

Solo opportunities are abundant.  Be open to meeting new people, and you’ll have a great time.

Just wondering about age. I will be 84. Are there many 75 - 80 year olds on board in the winter out of NYC?

[New2cruise2022]

I chose NCL because of the Freestyle mentality. I know most of the industry has gravitated to this model, but NCL seems to embrace it as a value. It feels more like vacation to me. 

[phoenix1181]

39 minutes ago, Lakesregion said:

Just wondering about age. I will be 84. Are there many 75 - 80 year olds on board in the winter out of NYC?

Age is just a number!

 

In my experience, there is an older demographic in the fall & winter months when school is in session and on cruises of more than 7 days.

[dbrown84]

33 minutes ago, New2cruise2022 said:

I chose NCL because of the Freestyle mentality. I know most of the industry has gravitated to this model, but NCL seems to embrace it as a value. It feels more like vacation to me. 

I agree.  I've only sailed with NCL because I didn't want to cruise before hearing about freestyle.  I wasn't thrilled about dressing up or assigned eating times when I'm on vacation.  A vacation to me is shorts and slides for 7 days, or more :)

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, vswan said:

I think covid may have something to do with people not wishing to share tables in the mdr.

Our experience of no one wanting to share a table was in 2012, well before Covid.

[JamieLogical]

2 hours ago, Lakesregion said:

Just wondering about age. I will be 84. Are there many 75 - 80 year olds on board in the winter out of NYC?

 

I made great friends with an 87 year old woman and her 93 year old husband on my cruise back in May. I'm 43. On my cruise last week, I was excursion buddies with a woman who was in her 80s and on her first cruise! She chose me as her excursion buddy because of my magenta hair. Easy to find me in a crowd so she didn't get lost and we didn't get separated.

[IronRobi]

I would say the very large majority of people stick to themselves or their group and ignore people around them. But there's always social butterflies on every ship and you'll find some people that will happily be your best friends for the week. Just avoid MSC cruises if you're worried about people being social LOL So many different cultures on their line and they often clash. People screaming at each other in different languages, people shoving, I've seen things escalate to the point I was sure fists were getting thrown. NCL is much more laid back.

[bluetardis]

Before Covid, I had a very active Solo cruisers groups. There is no guarantee, about groups and how active they will be, but I am still friends with some of the people I met on my NCL Hawaii cruise.

[eileeshb]

Every cruise I’ve done was as a solo, and every time the solos at the meet-ups varied across the age range. There was a trio of golden oldies from Florida on one of my cruises, they had all booked last minute and were platinum level in the loyalty program. One of them was a lady in her 90s who had worked in the nuclear submarine program, imagine her surprise when I told her the inventor of the submarine was from my home village (pop 300ish) back in Ireland. That trio used their complimentary specialty dinner vouchers to bring others from the solos meet-ups to meals so they’d have different folks to talk to. The night I was invited the other invitee was a professor from Quebec, on that same cruise another solo was starting up his own travel agency and was invited by one of the chef’s to test out potential vegan dishes at Le Bistro, I was the chosen guest again … the benefit of being Irish, we can talk to anyone !  Oh and on each cruise the other solos were keeping their eyes & ears peeled for other Irish aboard, so far it’s ranged from a single staff member in the spa, to a few dozen in a sparsely populated cruise just after covid.  The most stereotypical one was a cruise where I’d seen/heard no other Irish for the entire week and on the last night I hear the accent on the other side of the staircase, he was a priest working in California and he was the uncle of a surfer I knew from working at contests. 

[Wedgie Wedgie]

10 hours ago, eileeshb said:

… the benefit of being Irish, we can talk to anyone !  

Aye, all 4 of my grandparents were Irish immigrants. The gift of gab and a strong liver works well on NCL!

[LauraAnneC]

11 hours ago, eileeshb said:

Every cruise I’ve done was as a solo, and every time the solos at the meet-ups varied across the age range. There was a trio of golden oldies from Florida on one of my cruises, they had all booked last minute and were platinum level in the loyalty program. One of them was a lady in her 90s who had worked in the nuclear submarine program, imagine her surprise when I told her the inventor of the submarine was from my home village (pop 300ish) back in Ireland. That trio used their complimentary specialty dinner vouchers to bring others from the solos meet-ups to meals so they’d have different folks to talk to. The night I was invited the other invitee was a professor from Quebec, on that same cruise another solo was starting up his own travel agency and was invited by one of the chef’s to test out potential vegan dishes at Le Bistro, I was the chosen guest again … the benefit of being Irish, we can talk to anyone !  Oh and on each cruise the other solos were keeping their eyes & ears peeled for other Irish aboard, so far it’s ranged from a single staff member in the spa, to a few dozen in a sparsely populated cruise just after covid.  The most stereotypical one was a cruise where I’d seen/heard no other Irish for the entire week and on the last night I hear the accent on the other side of the staircase, he was a priest working in California and he was the uncle of a surfer I knew from working at contests. 

That bodes well for me on the Getaway in Feb given that I’m Irish and travelling solo!

[graphicguy]

22 hours ago, Lakesregion said:

Just wondering about age. I will be 84. Are there many 75 - 80 year olds on board in the winter out of NYC?

Age spread is pretty wide.  You’ll find children (depending on their school age and if school is in) to centenarians….everyone in between.  Can’t really tell you about specific ports and seasons.  Guests on individual ships tend to be different.

[tony s]

Let me give my three cents. I have to deal with people in difficult circumstances on my day job and this results in me being away from home a lot. When on vacation we will gladly talk with others. However, when eating I would prefer just the company of my wife whom I don't spend enough time with on non vacation time. Not that we are ant social it is just we prefer "our" time when we can grab it.

[New2cruise2022]

Just now, tony s said:

Let me give my three cents. I have to deal with people in difficult circumstances on my day job and this results in me being away from home a lot. When on vacation we will gladly talk with others. However, when eating I would prefer just the company of my wife whom I don't spend enough time with on non vacation time. Not that we are ant social it is just we prefer "our" time when we can grab it.

With 3000+ people on board, I assume there are people that do this all the time and are more social and even those social people that rarely find time together that save social energies between each other. Well said @tony s

[eileeshb]

10 minutes ago, New2cruise2022 said:

With 3000+ people on board, I assume there are people that do this all the time and are more social and even those social people that rarely find time together that save social energies between each other. Well said @tony s

usually on the cruises I’ve done I’m fairly social but the first one after covid I was just chilling out after having had 2 insane summers of 6 days a week at work (covid caused outdoor sports to explode in Ireland, particularly watersports). I still met other solos on excursions to partner with on the tours even though there was no solos program at the time due to restrictions still in place in Europe.  Basically you can be as social or not as you want. 

[cruiseny4life]

31 minutes ago, tony s said:

Let me give my three cents. I have to deal with people in difficult circumstances on my day job and this results in me being away from home a lot. When on vacation we will gladly talk with others. However, when eating I would prefer just the company of my wife whom I don't spend enough time with on non vacation time. Not that we are ant social it is just we prefer "our" time when we can grab it.

I have to talk with people every day and a lot of times it's giving warnings/terminating people. I'm not a fan of it, but it is what I've chosen to do. My husband and I have two to three hours with each a night, after work and no time in the morning. Weekends are for us. Vacations are for us. 

 

Of course, he enjoys socializing. On our last cruise we made "friends" with three couples. It wasn't my choice, but he talked with them and then seemed to find us everywhere on the ship (bars, excursions, haven, theater, restaurants). I was polite, but certainly didn't really engage as I'm not someone that wants to talk. The husband...well he enjoyed talking about all things under the sun. I'm glad he was able to talk with others. When he talks it gives me an opportunity just to sit there and listen to their conversation. I just hate when the other couple tries to draw me in. 

 

So, tony s, I definitely relate to your point! Now, if I could make an introvert of my husband. 🙂

 

@New2cruise2022, I think you'll find plenty of folks to have a good conversation with, whether you drink, go to shows, trivia, balloon animal making, etc. It won't be me you talk to, but you might find yourself chatting with the husband of a bored looking man. And that'll be fine! 

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

I just hate when the other couple tries to draw me in. 

Yep.  There's good social interaction and bad social interaction.  Good is when some fun loving folks wind up crossing paths, listening to good music, sharing a few jokes, hoisting a few beers.  Bad is when somebody decides that they want to get to know you and interrogate you without mercy.  Where are you from?  What are you doing tomorrow?  Which cabin are you in?  What kind of family do you have?  What do you do for a living?  What are your hobbies (a personal non-favorite - I spend my time doing whatever I feel like and don't need somebody else's opinion of it)?

[New2cruise2022]

1 minute ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Yep.  There's good social interaction and bad social interaction.  Good is when some fun loving folks wind up crossing paths, listening to good music, sharing a few jokes, hoisting a few beers.  Bad is when somebody decides that they want to get to know you and interrogate you without mercy.  Where are you from?  What are you doing tomorrow?  Which cabin are you in?  What kind of family do you have?  What do you do for a living?  What are your hobbies (a personal non-favorite - I spend my time doing whatever I feel like and don't need somebody else's opinion of it)?

I’m as social as anyone, but I struggle with the checkout person at the store asking me if I have any fun plans for the day/weekend. 

[TominNC]

I'm not one to go looking for conversation.  My wife is.  But I'll say hello and respond.  People tend to be friendly.  They're in a good mood, they're having fun.  They're drinking.

 

As mentioned before, play some of the games, go to shows.  Chit chat with people at the bars or at dinner.  People tend to be curious.

[Steff79]

i cruise solo,

i would say people at cruises are social. sometimes a small talk, sometimes longer.

 

the roll calls here are a good way to get in contact with other peoples and you / or some in the roll call can organize meetings/activities.

 

search your cruise:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/66-norwegian-cruise-line-roll-calls/

Edited November 14, 2022 by Steff79

[mypleasure]

I sail with my husband and am a very sociable person. My husband however is not sociable at all. I make friends quite easily thankfully. I sometimes feel like a solo cruiser except for at meal times when he will eat with me LOL. On my last cruise I made friends while waiting to check in and then we found each other again by frequenting the same bar where we made more friends.

[MaggieNY]

We've only sailed with NCL but we find that people are super-friendly. We tend to make friends with people we meet at the different shows or excursions we go to. If you do things you're interested in, you're sure to meet people who share the same interests. We also find that there are certain people we keep running into multiple times during our cruise who we always stop and chat with. Plus Roll Call is a great way to jump-start those friendships.

 

On our 2019 cruise on the Gem, most evenings we were asked if we wanted to share a table with another couple and we almost always did. It was a lot of fun meeting other couples and it was a faster way to get a table if the MDR was getting full. You only get seated with others who also want to share a table, so you'll probably end up with some friendly people. Since we weren't forced to sit with the same couple every night, if we got someone we didn't mesh with, we knew it was only for one night. We had a couple of nights where we wanted to sit by ourselves and we got our own table. You can choose how sociable you want to be each evening. 

 

On our 2021 cruise on the Breakaway, we were never asked if we wanted to share a table. The ship was at 38% capacity so it wasn't important for them to double-up on the seatings to get everyone into the MDR. However, we met hundreds of people on that cruise. I had an accident in Aruba. I had a cast on my leg and had to get around in a wheelchair. Everyone stopped to talk with us. First it was to find out what happened to me, then it was to check up on me and see how I was feeling. One lady actually brought me a sheet of sticky bling to put all over my cast. It was a sucky thing to happen on vacation but people were so friendly and helpful.

 

 

[phillygwm]

On 11/12/2022 at 6:40 PM, New2cruise2022 said:

Beyond organized events, are many people social or do people generally keep to themselves? I get that EVERYONE is different.

This.  I wouldn't want to generalize but there will be (at least) a couple thousand people on your sailing.  Chances are, a fair number of them will be sociable.  I'm personally NOT good in larger groups so I sit out the M&Gs, singles mixer, etc.  I do usually travel with friends and, when I'm not with them, it's because I want to be on my own.  But I did a weekend cruise where I was solo and wound up striking up a conversation with a couple in one of the bars.  We wound up going to dinner together.  

 

My recommendations: 1) If you're good in that environment, attend the mixers, M&G's etc.  2) If you spend a fair amount of time where alcohol is served, you'll inevitably strike up a conversation with people.  If you don't, you're not drinking enough. 🙂

 

[The Traveling Man]

On 11/14/2022 at 8:02 AM, graphicguy said:

Age spread is pretty wide. 

I agree completely.  I find that as the "age-ier" I get, the "wider" spreads more and more, and it ain't pretty.