New to NCL but not cruising. What will we like?

[cssmom]

We have decided to try cruising with NCL to Bermuda next year. We have traveled with Carnival (not our favorite), Holland and Celebrity. Loved both our cruises with Holland and Celebrity. We have never been to Bermuda so we are looking forward to it. What would you say are your favorite things about NCL? We are on the Crown. We don't know much about NCL but like the idea of smaller ships and free style dinning. Are there things to do with teenagers. Our children will be 18, 17 and 13 at the time of the cruise. Thanks

[ute_fan]

You're just opposite from us. All 3 of our cruises have been on NCL. My main reason for cruising NCL originally, and the feature that keeps us coming back, is the freestyle cruising. I never thought I'd like cruising. I didn't want to sit with assigned tablemates, I hated the idea of having to dress up in a formal dress, as I don't own one and didn't want to spend the money for something I might never wear again, and I didn't want to have to pick either an early or late seating time. We never adhere to a schedule at home -- why should I want to on vacation:rolleyes: .

 

For us, NCL has dealt successfully with my preconceived notions about cruising. There are no assigned eating times, tables, or tables mates. You can choose when you want to eat, and who you want to eat with. We've never eaten in any of the specialty restaurants, as we were perfectly satisfied with the main dining rooms. If we decide we want to try the specialty restaurants, I'm curious to see what I think, especially since they seem to have gone to a reservation system, but I digress. For instance, on our last cruise, we ate 3 or 4 nights with just our family of 4. The other nights we chose to eat with various members of our roll call. We normally choose to eat fairly early so we can get to the first show, and by doing that, the only night we had any wait at all was about 10 minutes on "formal night".

 

Speaking of formal night, it's optional. You can choose to dress up to the nines, or you can continue to dress in your "resort casual" clothing, or anything in between. My family enjoys having our photo taken, so we have worn what my kids would refer to as our "church clothing". My DD and I wear dresses, but not formals, and my DH and DS wear slacks, sports coats and ties.

 

By the time we cruised for the first time and then decide to go the next 2 times with my kids, they were over the age-limit for the teen club, so I'm afraid I can't help you there. Most of the posters seem to indicate that their kids enjoy it, but I can't give you an opinion one way or another.

 

Will you enoy NCL? I can't tell you that. My family loves it, but we don't have anything to compare it to. If you go, try it with an open mind, realizing that NCL's freestyle is intentionally different than HAL and Celebrity, you'll probably enjoy it more than if you're comparing every little thing to HAL and Celebrity.

 

One other small comment -- the Crown is one of NCL's older ships, and wasn't designed for freestyle. You won't have as many specialty restaurants as you do on the newer, larger NCL ships, but if you're looking for a smaller ship you should do fine. Two of our cruises were on the old NCL Sea, which was definitely small and has now left the fleet. We had a great time. My only complaint is that I'm now hooked on cruising and spend way too much time reading these boards and planning my next cruise :D .

 

Good luck!

[cssmom]

Thanks for your reply. I am hooked on cruising also so I can relate. I will definitely keep an open mind. I am looking forward to a more relaxed eating arrangement. We never adhere to a schedule at home so this won't be any different.

 

Thanks again

 

Karen

[ute_fan]

If you enjoy the service you get from having an assigned waiter on "traditional dining" cruises, here's a suggestion that isn't publicized by NCL. You can request assigned seating, either early or late during the dining hours, but it doesn't sound like that's what you're looking for.

 

What we have done, that works well especially on the smaller ships without the wide variety of alternative restaurants, is to request to be seated in a particular waiter's area once we find one we like. On our last cruise on the Sea, I think we requested and were seated in Cheryl's area 5 out of the 7 nights. It gives you the added benefit of being able to have a waiter who knows your likes/dislikes about food, drinks, etc., but still gives you the flexibility of dining at the time that works for you. Occassionally you may find that there isn't a table in his/her area, but most of the time they've gone out of their way to accomodate our request.

 

Happy cruising!

[Zeno]

It is really hard to say what you will like or dislike. I can only say that I cruised on NCL after 3 'traditional" cruises and I LOVED the whole Freestyle concept - dining, dress code, disembarkation etc BUT I don't care if my waiter is the same every night and I don't like to wear formal outfits.

 

As others have said, since you will be on a smaller ship not designed for Freestyle, you won't really be getting the full effect (i.e. you won't have as many dining choices).

I hope you have a pleasant cruise (even if Freestyle turns out not to be for you).