Experienced cruisers to design next NCL Ship

[luv2kroooz]

10 hours ago, SeaShark said:

 

Ah yes, the "bigger pool" advocates. They are my favorite. Right up there with the "more deck chairs" crowd.

 

What they always gloss over is that the bigger pool means less room for deck chairs, and more deck chairs means less room for a pool.

 

Not to mention that they (apparently) ignore the free surface effect.

A pool deck like the Jewel class.

Functional with multiple pools, spacious, and plenty of deck chairs for all who may want them.

[G-DawgMN]

1 hour ago, PATRLR said:

The buffet on Viva is too small.  Even the people running the buffet know it's too small so they have to prop open the unmarked back door to Food Republic.  Making the statement I did, or taking the action the staff has taken shouldn't require them to come up with a functioning alternative design. 

 

(By the way, propping open a door is a real classy way to run your shiny new high class ship)
 

 

 You can say this on many ships, I know the Epic and Jewel class both have overflow into La Cuicina. I don't think it's possible to make any venue big enough because the bigger it it, the more people will show up.

[SeaShark]

39 minutes ago, luv2kroooz said:

A pool deck like the Jewel class.

Functional with multiple pools, spacious, and plenty of deck chairs for all who may want them.

 

Oh please. Show me one post where someone described the pool deck on a Jewel class ship as being "spacious" or with "plenty of deck chairs". 🙄

[luv2kroooz]

21 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

 

Oh please. Show me one post where someone described the pool deck on a Jewel class ship as being "spacious" or with "plenty of deck chairs". 🙄

See my post above.

[seemoreroyals]

I have no interest in helping to design the next NCL ship.  If I was I am sure there would probably be quite a few that would agree with my ideas.  But there would also be quite a few that would not.  Such is human nature.   We all value different things.  Trying to make everybody happy is an impossible task.

[cruiseny4life]

Oh @yakcruiser, I love the idea of your thread! Ignore all the naysayers. I'm with you! Let's design the sucker. It ain't going anywhere near a ship yard, so who cares if it floats. It'll have all my ideas (and yours and anyone else who actually wants to play along). What's wrong with a little dreaming? 

 

1. A place where I can get all the great, fried delights - HASH BROWNS (this one's for you @schmoopie17 and for me), mozzarella sticks, chicken tenders that are good, maybe those little fried tacos, and plenty of other great fried eats!

2. Covered pool/retractable roof with a lap pool...not Olympic size y'all, 

3. A legit tea house serving afternoon tea. 

4. A nice, big wide open waterfront area, kind of like on Pr1ma and V!va. Fill those beautiful infinity pools to the top at all times, not just in port.

5. Aft sundeck, pool, hot tubs cantilevered over the side, with a real deal grill (yep, I'm dreaming of real flame like Burger King!). 

6. More stops at places like Great Stirrup Cay. I love me some Great Stirrup Cay!

 

I'll think of more and add it later!

 

Oh, just had a thought - maybe I'm not an experienced cruiser. I've only been on six cruises in my life, so ya know...only experienced cruisers know enough to lambast those who are just seeking some dream time. 

[Sailing12Away]

16 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

One of my favorite movies of all time is "Mr. Blandings builds his dream house."  This clip is a bit over 3 minutes but captures exactly what would happen when the Blandings of the cruising world take over with "if this were my ship....."

 

 

The movie is a "must watch" for anybody thinking about having a house built.

My brain immediately went to this, when Homer got to design his dream car.

[Sailing12Away]

13 hours ago, Panhandle Couple said:

And why not have a "Pet Cruise"?  Bring those annoying little yap dogs and cats along in those under arm carriers.  At least they won't run around as much as the kids.  Include a doggie day care, where you can drop the little pooch off after you are tired of carrying him around.

 

We (semi) joke all the time that our dog would love to be a cruise puppy. She would work as a chair holder like at the Oscars and such, holding onto your pool chair while you get a snack at the buffet in exchange for a 10% cut of your munchies. We honestly looked into sailing on Icon just for the fact that there's a dog on board.

 

Ours isn't a tiny yappy lap dog though. She's a beefy 85lb mushball and honestly probably wouldn't do well on the ship. But nice to dream.

 

In reality though - NCL needs to look into having different classes of ship for the different groups of consumers that want to sail with them, rather than trying to make a one size fits all approach. Have your big mega ships with your go karts, water slides, virtual reality, ropes courses, etc etc etc for the families and big kids who enjoy those things. Then have a floating spa oasis with lots of pools, hot tubs, peaceful quiet serene promenades with lots of nooks and crannies to snuggle up with a book or a nap in the sun for those looking to just escape. 

In all honesty, I want NCL to put out a small ship to compete with Celebrity's Flora to hit up all the little nook & cranny islands that you can barely see on a map. Places these mega ships can't go. Intimate places that many of us adventurers would love to visit, but becomes time/cost prohibitive to get to. Port intensive, itinerary focused luxury yachts that focus on the destination and not the ship itself. Places besides just the Galapagos. If they were to put out a ship like that.... whew.... talk about a game changer for us at least. 

[cruiseny4life]

Told you I'd be back!!

 

Entertainment (for a weeklong cruise):

 

Comedy - at least two comedians doing two shows per night. One PG-whatever, one R/X-Rated with no underagers allowed. In the newly redesigned 200-seat Improv. 

 

Broadway Shows - Wicked, Book of Mormon, Aladdin, Harry Potter, Avenue Q, Hamilton 

 

Bands/Singing Acts

 - A diva (Madonna, Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, Beyonce, Niki Minaj, Taylor Swift)

 - 2000's era music (Eminem, Outkast, Gwen Stefani, Rihanna, Missy Elliott, Black Eyed Peas, Shakira, Katy Perry, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shaggy, Kelly Clarkson, Nelly, Avril Lavigne, Good Charlotte, The Killers, Plain White Ts)

 - Boy Bands/Girl Bands

 - Shawn Mendes - he's his own category....because it's Shawn!!

 - Folk (Rogue Valley, The Head and the Heart, Mumford & Sons, Noah Kahan, The Lumineers, Lord Huron, Vance Joy, Passenger, Edward Sharpe, Jake BuggNoah and the Whale)

 - Broadway songs (just like Broadway Unplugged on Getaway)

 - Country (Zac Brown Band, Alabama, Kenny Chesney, Dolly Parton, Brooks & Dunn, Rascal Flatts, Dixie Chicks, Walker Hayes, Dan and Shay, Kane Brown, Thomas Rhett)

 

Entertainment Acts - I'm not really into this, so someone else can take up the mantle here

 

Organized times to play board games/card games

[cruiseny4life]

23 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

We (semi) joke all the time that our dog would love to be a cruise puppy. She would work as a chair holder like at the Oscars and such, holding onto your pool chair while you get a snack at the buffet in exchange for a 10% cut of your munchies. We honestly looked into sailing on Icon just for the fact that there's a dog on board.

 

Ours isn't a tiny yappy lap dog though. She's a beefy 85lb mushball and honestly probably wouldn't do well on the ship. But nice to dream.

I'd love to have a place for our pups. In the dream world @yakcruiser has created, I would be so grateful if a cruise line created a ship where we could take our dogs. There could be a great Central Park (RCL) like space for the dogs to relieve themselves, with an off leash dog park. Rooms could be designed with dog beds right in front of the doors/windows so our best friends could have the sun splashing in on them as they lay down after a long swim in the dogs-only pool. 

 

Oh, what a wonderful way to cruise this could be! 

 

(Y'all, remember it's a dream world)

[schmoopie17]

How about a decent beer choice on ships without a District? 

 

That's my only requirement. I'm easy to please. (Well, not really...but it felt good typing it).

[cruiseny4life]

3 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

How about a decent beer choice on ships without a District? 

 

That's my only requirement. I'm easy to please. (Well, not really...but it felt good typing it).

What would be your draft beer list? 

[bluefish17]

I think lots of cruisers have valid opinions about all sorts of things. But if you disagree with someone, there is no excuse to mock them about not being a marine design engineer or whatever. Accept that there are more valid opinions than just yours and say something constructive.

 

I have noticed that on many ships there are large spaces that are empty at certain times of the day. So I think NCL has tried to fix that such as by having the theater convert into a nightclub later in the night.

But this design is not a perfect solution and it seems NCL is making changes as they go along. One problem is that a lot of people on the ship want to do the same thing at the same time.

 

My advice for people cruising on this class of ships is to "zig when they zag" i.e. try to figure out what everyone else will do, and then don't do that. If you want shade outside, don't go up to the 17 pool deck to look, go to the shaded side of deck 8, etc. NCL could help by expanding hours in some venues like the buffet.

Edited January 16 by bluefish17
spelling

[graphicguy]

This was on 3 Royal cruises, but there was a couple who had what they alleged was a "service dog" that they dressed up in little outfits and wheeled around in a baby carriage. They would also sit their dog on a dining chair in the MDRs and feed it from the table.

 

I never understood that.  If you can't leave your pet at home when you cruise, find another venue that allows pets for your vacation.  They should not be allowed on cruise ships.  It scares the pet and is way inconsiderate of other guests.

 

Is it Cunard that invites pets to accompany their guests?

 

 

[schmoopie17]

17 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

What would be your draft beer list? 

There are very few "national" beers that I like or drink. Being a craft beer kind of guy, I tend to like local/regional craft beers...which NCL will never have. Unless I'm on a ship with a District, I tend to avoid beer altogether. Why waste the calories on garbage? That's when my bourbon and mixed drink gene kicks in. 

[seemoreroyals]

As I mentioned earlier I would not be very good at designing the next NCL cruise ship.  But I would be very good at designing a new itinerary for them.

 

The closest two ports to where we live are NOLA and Galveston.   The only 7 day cruises offered from these two ports go to Cozumel, Costa Maya, Roatan, and Harvest Caye.  

 

I would gladly offer my services to help them go somewhere else on a 7 day cruise from either one of these ports.  We have been to Cozumel so many times that we only get off the ship to get our daily walk in.  Same way with the private island.  It is nice enough there but once you have been there done that a few times it makes more sense to us to stay on the ship with free food and free drinks.

 

I would like to see them leave out of Galveston or NOLA and take a more easterly route which might include something different like Key West,  Bahamas, the other private island Great Stirrup Caye, and back.  We like sea days so for us if we had one less port day and one more sea day that would work.

 

Or if there is not enough time to do this  substitute Tampa Bay for GSC.  I have looked all the way through 2025 and see no 7 day eastern route itineraries out of Galveston or NOLA.  There has to be some way they can make an eastern trip out of one of these two ports work.

 

 

[SeaShark]

17 minutes ago, bluefish17 said:

I think lots of cruisers have valid opinions about all sorts of things. But if you disagree with someone, there is no excuse to mock them about not being a marine design engineer or whatever. Accept that there are more valid opinions than just yours and say something constructive.

 

 

Perhaps there might be less "mocking" if people wouldn't present their opinions/ideas/desires as absolute fact. We all know that ships are designed by educated marine engineers, so if you somehow feel that your education/experience somehow trumps theirs, it is simply helpful to explain just why that is. Easy to say "triple the size of the pool" when you don't have to explain where that large pool would go. Perhaps some constructive criticism with some viable and well thought out alternatives and implementation plans would be better received.

 

It's akin to saying "we can simply eliminate homelessness by giving all of the homeless a house". Easy to say, but not so much when you dive into the nuts and bolts of it...

[UKstages]

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

A place where I can get all the great, fried delights - HASH BROWNS (this one's for you @schmoopie17 and for me), mozzarella sticks, chicken tenders that are good, maybe those little fried tacos, and plenty of other great fried eats!

 

excellent idea!

 

may i suggest locating this adjacent to the medical center?

[cruiseny4life]

2 minutes ago, UKstages said:

 

excellent idea!

 

may i suggest locating this adjacent to the medical center?

Fair enough!!

 

Medical Center.....Artery Bypass Cafe.....Multi-stall bathrooms

 

Good call! 

Edited January 16 by cruiseny4life

[RocketMan275]

6 minutes ago, seemoreroyals said:

Or if there is not enough time to do this  substitute Tampa Bay for GSC.  I have looked all the way through 2025 and see no 7 day eastern route itineraries out of Galveston or NOLA.  There has to be some way they can make an eastern trip out of one of these two ports work.

The problem is cost.  To do a seven day Eastern out of NOLA would require faster ships which means more fuel burned which runs up the price of the cruise.  That, or you could eliminate a couple of port days but that would upset those who don't like sea days.

Trade-offs.

 

[Laszlo]

18 hours ago, yakcruiser said:

After reading all the complaints about the design flaws on the different NCL ships, especially the Prima/Viva I wonder what a ship designed by the experienced cruisers on Cruise Critic would look like compared to their existing ships? Feel free to add any ideas about what you would add/subtract from current designs. 

My idea would be to go back to the Jewel Class ships...... This would never happen because its all about getting as many passengers on a ship. That along with go carts, games and water parts. We have one more cruise on the Gem in June. After that will most likely start sailing Oceania

[cruiseny4life]

1 minute ago, Laszlo said:

My idea would be to go back to the Jewel Class ships...... This would never happen because its all about getting as many passengers on a ship. That along with go carts, games and water parts. We have one more cruise on the Gem in June. After that will most likely start sailing Oceania

We'll miss you on the NCL boards! I guess I'll have to jump over to Oceania to say hi every now and then!

[cruiseny4life]

14 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

There are very few "national" beers that I like or drink. Being a craft beer kind of guy, I tend to like local/regional craft beers...which NCL will never have. Unless I'm on a ship with a District, I tend to avoid beer altogether. Why waste the calories on garbage? That's when my bourbon and mixed drink gene kicks in. 

When I did drink beer (I stopped around 2018), I always looked for the local beer too. Thankfully I lived in Montana at the time where there are a lot of great quality breweries. I definitely don't want to see any of the national beers and Alaskan Amber is too national for me. I could go for a nice icy, frothy Yuengling. 

 

On my dream ship, each ship could just pick up brewskis from breweries within 250 miles of the port they're sailing from. Then they could promote locally-sourced beer. Yum! 

 

I'm not so sure any of those Montana breweries are within 250 miles of a port though.....

[yakcruiser]

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

I'd love to have a place for our pups. In the dream world @yakcruiser has created, I would be so grateful if a cruise line created a ship where we could take our dogs. There could be a great Central Park (RCL) like space for the dogs to relieve themselves, with an off leash dog park. Rooms could be designed with dog beds right in front of the doors/windows so our best friends could have the sun splashing in on them as they lay down after a long swim in the dogs-only pool. 

 

Oh, what a wonderful way to cruise this could be! 

 

(Y'all, remember it's a dream world)

I like this! My pup would have been in heaven on a cruise ship.

 

56 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

This was on 3 Royal cruises, but there was a couple who had what they alleged was a "service dog" that they dressed up in little outfits and wheeled around in a baby carriage. They would also sit their dog on a dining chair in the MDRs and feed it from the table.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately this is why the dog idea would never work. I do love all the ideas. Keep'em coming

[schmoopie17]

30 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

 

On my dream ship, each ship could just pick up brewskis from breweries within 250 miles of the port they're sailing from. Then they could promote locally-sourced beer. Yum! 

 

Awesome idea. Too bad you're not running NCL's F&B Department.

 

A couple of Carnival's ships have actual Brewpubs onboard. I've never cruised Carnival and I don't know how good the beer is, but it has to be better than NCL's uninspired standard beer list.