Princess vs NCL

[BruceMuzz]

Thre is one major difference between NCL and Princess that is, sadly, rarely noticed or mentioned.

 

When NCL was developing their Freestyle Product about 10 years ago, they spent quite a lot of money to get it right. And it was working pretty well.

 

Then they decided to start slowly inching back on the amount of money they spend for food. Little by little they lowered the quality of the food they were willing to buy. The NCL Senior Management thought they were pretty smart, thinking that the general cruising public was not quality-oriented enough to notice the subtle changes.

 

From 2004 through today, they reduced their food budgets by nearly 50%. NCL now has the lowest food budgets among the mass market lines. Some cruisers saw and tasted the difference. Many did not.

 

NCL spends about half of what Princess spends to feed you every day. If you prefer quality over quantity, the choice is very clear.

[CrusinAgain]

Sorry to hear about your experiences on the NCL Pearl, your comments are very bias though, having cruised both lines several times, I found the experience's on NCL and Princess to be very memorable.

 

As for your comments on the dining options, the specialty restaurants are available for all cruisers, suite's or regular cabins, just call early, book for 2 nights by phone in the morning or when you arrive. Had you done your homework you would have had no problem with this, blame yourself only for not getting reservations.

 

Maybe the experience of being ill on your cruise has left a sour taste, NCL was a great experience for us, the Pearl is a great ship to cruise on.

 

My favorite Cruiseline still is Princess, and will continue to cruise any line which offers an experience we are interested in.

 

Excuse me but I did my homework for the freestyle restaurant reservation system. You had to go to deck 8 and wait in line or call in. You could only make them for 24 hours in advance. They were full by 8:30 a.m. after experiencing a busy signal continuously. What type of freestyle do you call this? They had time slots at 5:30, 7:30, or 9:30. We do not blame ourselves and I don't feel a true freestyle dining experience is getting up early and running down to deck 8 to make reservations is truly free to eat what you want when you want as they advertise. That is a a rigid timeschedule. And no being ill did not leave a sour taste to me because this can happen on any ship.

 

Good for you that your experiences were good, however please do not down me on my experience. That is my opinion and I am certainly entitled to my opinion without your interpretation of how I feel. I am certainly entitled for my opinion of experiencing their cruiseline. Why on earth would I want to go again on something that did not give me even close to what we are use to. I would choose Carnival again over NCL any day of the week. At least their standards are high with good cabin service and dining service.

[CrusinAgain]

Sorry to hear about your experiences on the NCL Pearl, your comments are very bias though, having cruised both lines several times, I found the experience's on NCL and Princess to be very memorable.

 

As for your comments on the dining options, the specialty restaurants are available for all cruisers, suite's or regular cabins, just call early, book for 2 nights by phone in the morning or when you arrive. Had you done your homework you would have had no problem with this, blame yourself only for not getting reservations.

 

Maybe the experience of being ill on your cruise has left a sour taste, NCL was a great experience for us, the Pearl is a great ship to cruise on.

 

My favorite Cruiseline still is Princess, and will continue to cruise any line which offers an experience we are interested in.

 

Excuse me but I did my homework for the freestyle restaurant reservation system. You had to go to deck 8 and wait in line or call in. You could only make them for 24 hours in advance. They were full by 8:30 a.m. after experiencing a busy signal continuously. What type of freestyle do you call this? They had time slots at 5:30, 7:30, or 9:30. We do not blame ourselves and I don't feel a true freestyle dining experience is getting up early and running down to deck 8 to make reservations is truly free to eat what you want when you want as they advertise. That is a a rigid timeschedule. And no being ill did not leave a sour taste to me because this can happen on any ship.

 

Good for you that your experiences were good, however please do not down me on my experience. That is my opinion and I am certainly entitled to my opinion without your interpretation of how I feel. I am certainly entitled for my opinion of experiencing their cruiseline. Why on earth would I want to go again on something that did not give me even close to what we are use to. I would choose Carnival again over NCL any day of the week. At least their standards are high with good cabin service and dining service.

[CrusinAgain]

Sorry to hear about your experiences on the NCL Pearl, your comments are very bias though, having cruised both lines several times, I found the experience's on NCL and Princess to be very memorable.

 

As for your comments on the dining options, the specialty restaurants are available for all cruisers, suite's or regular cabins, just call early, book for 2 nights by phone in the morning or when you arrive. Had you done your homework you would have had no problem with this, blame yourself only for not getting reservations.

 

Maybe the experience of being ill on your cruise has left a sour taste, NCL was a great experience for us, the Pearl is a great ship to cruise on.

 

My favorite Cruiseline still is Princess, and will continue to cruise any line which offers an experience we are interested in.

 

Excuse me but I did my homework for the freestyle restaurant reservation system. You had to go to deck 8 and wait in line or call in. You could only make them for 24 hours in advance. They were full by 8:30 a.m. after experiencing a busy signal continuously. What type of freestyle do you call this? They had time slots at 5:30, 7:30, or 9:30. We do not blame ourselves and I don't feel a true freestyle dining experience is getting up early and running down to deck 8 to make reservations is truly free to eat what you want when you want as they advertise. That is a a rigid timeschedule. And no being ill did not leave a sour taste to me because this can happen on any ship.

 

Good for you that your experiences were good, however please do not down me on my experience. That is my opinion and I am certainly entitled to my opinion without your interpretation of how I feel. I am certainly entitled for my opinion of experiencing their cruiseline. Why on earth would I want to go again on something that did not give me even close to what we are use to. I would choose Carnival again over NCL any day of the week. At least their standards are high with good cabin service and dining service.

[RSWBADGER]

Excuse me but I did my homework for the freestyle restaurant reservation system. You had to go to deck 8 and wait in line or call in. You could only make them for 24 hours in advance. They were full by 8:30 a.m. after experiencing a busy signal continuously. What type of freestyle do you call this? They had time slots at 5:30, 7:30, or 9:30. We do not blame ourselves and I don't feel a true freestyle dining experience is getting up early and running down to deck 8 to make reservations is truly free to eat what you want when you want as they advertise. That is a a rigid timeschedule. And no being ill did not leave a sour taste to me because this can happen on any ship.

 

Good for you that your experiences were good, however please do not down me on my experience. That is my opinion and I am certainly entitled to my opinion without your interpretation of how I feel. I am certainly entitled for my opinion of experiencing their cruiseline. Why on earth would I want to go again on something that did not give me even close to what we are use to. I would choose Carnival again over NCL any day of the week. At least their standards are high with good cabin service and dining service.

 

Sorry you were not able to navigate this system, first off you can make reservations for that evening and the next (2), had you done this you would know this. Since the restaurants were full each night your fellow cruisers were obviously were able to make reservations.

 

The reservation system is very similiar to Princess in making reservations to Sterlings, Sabatini's, etc., by phone or waiting in line to book upon embarkation.

 

We ate twice each at the fee restaurants, Le Bistro French Restaurant and Cagney's Steakhouse and once at Mambos (free). I guess we figured it out OK also.

[CrusinAgain]

Sorry you were not able to navigate this system, first off you can make reservations for that evening and the next (2), had you done this you would know this. Since the restaurants were full each night your fellow cruisers were obviously were able to make reservations.

 

The reservation system is very similiar to Princess in making reservations to Sterlings, Sabatini's, etc., by phone or waiting in line to book upon embarkation.

 

We ate twice each at the fee restaurants, Le Bistro French Restaurant and Cagney's Steakhouse and once at Mambos (free). I guess we figured it out OK also.

 

You do know they changed the reservation system since you sailed with NCL right? It has been over a year since you sailed the Pearl. The reservation system was different back then than when we sailed. Our fellow cruisers would have had to be there on deck 8 to get the reservations like we did on the first night and they could only get the slots that the suites left behind. It doesn't matter what you say, it is not dine when you want. And since you know so much, then why were the signage that showed the availability or lack thereof for the restaurants always wrong? Yeah, that had us running around only to find out there was no room. Doesn't matter, from what I heard, the Italian restaurant was bad, the Japanese restaurant was bad, the Asian fee one was not worth it and truly the only good one was Mambo's but it was tiny tiny tiny.

 

And if you followed the Pearl's changes, you would have seen that the Pearl started to go downhill as cruisers than went on Nov. 16th came back right before we left and were very unhappy with all of NCL's cuts and they decided that would be their last time with NCL. Yeah, I did all of my homework.

[RSWBADGER]

You do know they changed the reservation system since you sailed with NCL right? It has been over a year since you sailed the Pearl. The reservation system was different back then than when we sailed. Our fellow cruisers would have had to be there on deck 8 to get the reservations like we did on the first night and they could only get the slots that the suites left behind. It doesn't matter what you say, it is not dine when you want. And since you know so much, then why were the signage that showed the availability or lack thereof for the restaurants always wrong? Yeah, that had us running around only to find out there was no room. Doesn't matter, from what I heard, the Italian restaurant was bad, the Japanese restaurant was bad, the Asian fee one was not worth it and truly the only good one was Mambo's but it was tiny tiny tiny.

 

And if you followed the Pearl's changes, you would have seen that the Pearl started to go downhill as cruisers than went on Nov. 16th came back right before we left and were very unhappy with all of NCL's cuts and they decided that would be their last time with NCL. Yeah, I did all of my homework.

 

Actually when we sailed you were able to make reservations for the entire week ahead of time.:cool:

 

The NCL Freestyle concept is the same as Princess's Anytime Dining, as with Princess's Sterlings, Sabatini's, etc. you cannot walk up and dine when you want.:rolleyes: , you need reservations, correct.

 

Sorry, you were running around the ship staring at the signage, we were relaxing before dinner already having our reservations secured, when dining in specialty restaurants on all cruise lines, reservations are a must.

[whale-watcher]

I think you give an excellent comparison of suite life, but obviously the majority do not have that advantage so we could not experience the true freestyle of variety of restaurants since obviously of course the suites get theirs in first and as you know all of the restaurants other than main dining rooms were very small so not much room for too many of the rest of us. The last night it would have been easy to get in to the restaurants, however I was recovering from the Norovirus so eating was not what I wanted to do as I was just released very late afternoon the morning before returning. Could not understand why the shops closed down at 4 pm on the day before since we were still out at sea obviously since the casino was open so I missed those also. Too much obvious cost cutting on NCL and too bad you did not experience the true cabin service to compare it against a regular cabin on Princess. Saying how great it us about a butler and the service was great is certainly not the real service on NCL as you paid in the double digits for that suite. Maybe trying it in a regular cabin like the rest of us would show you the true NCL. Me...I will stick to the fabulous service of Princess.

Sorry if I offended you, but I was comparing apples to apples...our experiences in the lowest grade of penthouse suite on NCL vs. out experience in a VS on princess. The OP asked for opinions and comparisons, and I can only comment on things that I have directly experienced.

[whale-watcher]

sorry to have offended, but I was comparing apples to apples...we stayed in the lowest grade penthouse on NCL (AE) and a VS on princess. I can only write about things I know and have experienced, and was just answering the OP's question.

[Clutterlady]

Thre is one major difference between NCL and Princess that is, sadly, rarely noticed or mentioned.

 

When NCL was developing their Freestyle Product about 10 years ago, they spent quite a lot of money to get it right. And it was working pretty well.

 

Then they decided to start slowly inching back on the amount of money they spend for food. Little by little they lowered the quality of the food they were willing to buy. The NCL Senior Management thought they were pretty smart, thinking that the general cruising public was not quality-oriented enough to notice the subtle changes.

 

From 2004 through today, they reduced their food budgets by nearly 50%. NCL now has the lowest food budgets among the mass market lines. Some cruisers saw and tasted the difference. Many did not.

 

NCL spends about half of what Princess spends to feed you every day. If you prefer quality over quantity, the choice is very clear.

 

Agree 100%.The difference in food compared to Princess and yes, even Carnival was very great in MY opinion. The only decent food we had was eating at 2 pay venues, LeBistro and Cagneys. Trying to get into the other restaurants was a joke. If you think I'm going to be put on hold for 30 minutes or stand in a long line just to get reservations.......well, not going to happen. Seems to really defeat the idea of "freestyle"?!!

 

Would I sail NCL again....maybe. Looking at their Bermuda run, and I can eat on land!! Don't get me wrong, except for the food issue, we didn't have a bad cruise. Just wish they would get the food issue and the "freestyle" concept down right:)

[CrusinAgain]

Actually when we sailed you were able to make reservations for the entire week ahead of time.:cool:

 

 

Sorry, you were running around the ship staring at the signage, we were relaxing before dinner already having our reservations secured, when dining in specialty restaurants on all cruise lines, reservations are a must.

 

Wow....shows your lack of knowledge...no they changed that before our cruise, in fact by at least several months.

 

Glad you had a relaxing dinner, perhaps you had a suite, perhaps you got up at the crack of dawn to get those few seats, that isn't my idea of dine when you want. You just don't get it. The signage was there was a great idea but it did not work obviously.

[RSWBADGER]

Wow....shows your lack of knowledge...no they changed that before our cruise, in fact by at least several months.

 

Glad you had a relaxing dinner, perhaps you had a suite, perhaps you got up at the crack of dawn to get those few seats, that isn't my idea of dine when you want. You just don't get it. The signage was there was a great idea but it did not work obviously.

 

Do you know how to read? Post #80.

 

Sorry you were not able to navigate this system, first off you can make reservations for that evening and the next (2), had you done this you would know this. Since the restaurants were full each night your fellow cruisers were obviously were able to make reservations

 

When we sailed NCL, you could make reservations for the entire week, this changed in January 2007 to 2 nights. If you actually did your research, like reading my posts you would have known that. Now I know why you had so much trouble figuring out the reservation system on the Pearl. Enjoy your world, according to you.:D

[RSWBADGER]

Good grief....stop insulting my intelligence. What a jerk! All you are doing is badgering and acting like you know so much more when you hadn't sailed the Pearl in a year.

 

They changed that system a few months before my cruise in November - your Jan. 07 reservation system was not the same in November. Sorry you can't read.

 

I would not depend on your posts seeing you are not up to date.

 

Here I'll recap it for you.

 

We sailed December 2006 (You could book reservations for the entire week), they changed the system late January 2007 (Could book 2 nights at restaurants), what don't you understand? :)

[CrusinAgain]

Here I'll recap it for you.

 

We sailed December 2006 (You could book reservations for the entire week), they changed the system late January 2007 (Could book 2 nights at restaurants), what don't you understand? :)

 

 

You don't understand that they changed it again after you sailed in Jan. 07. 24 hours that was it. Understand?

 

And now I see you are on the same sailing of the Crown? I haven't seen you at rollcall and I didn't see this clock until just now.

[newmexicoNita]

Sorry to hear about your experiences on the NCL Pearl, your comments are very bias though, having cruised both lines several times, I found the experience's on NCL and Princess to be very memorable.

 

As for your comments on the dining options, the specialty restaurants are available for all cruisers, suite's or regular cabins, just call early, book for 2 nights by phone in the morning or when you arrive. Had you done your homework you would have had no problem with this, blame yourself only for not getting reservations.

 

Maybe the experience of being ill on your cruise has left a sour taste, NCL was a great experience for us, the Pearl is a great ship to cruise on.

 

My favorite Cruiseline still is Princess, and will continue to cruise any line which offers an experience we are interested in.

We have only had t trouble getting dining reservations once on NCL. On the Star last fall we waited until next to the last night to try for the Italian restaurant, no luck. We also had some trouble on Princess a few weeks ago. We did get reservations for Sabatinis but we didn't get the night or the time we wanted. For us, both lines are great, we had some problems with Princess, but I think they were isolated situations. NCL is our line of choice, this isn't to say we would not cruise any line again. We look for value and itinerary. If two lines have similar prices and itinerary NCL wins out. otherwise we choose another line.

 

Nita

[newmexicoNita]

Thre is one major difference between NCL and Princess that is, sadly, rarely noticed or mentioned.

 

When NCL was developing their Freestyle Product about 10 years ago, they spent quite a lot of money to get it right. And it was working pretty well.

 

Then they decided to start slowly inching back on the amount of money they spend for food. Little by little they lowered the quality of the food they were willing to buy. The NCL Senior Management thought they were pretty smart, thinking that the general cruising public was not quality-oriented enough to notice the subtle changes.

 

From 2004 through today, they reduced their food budgets by nearly 50%. NCL now has the lowest food budgets among the mass market lines. Some cruisers saw and tasted the difference. Many did not.

 

NCL spends about half of what Princess spends to feed you every day. If you prefer quality over quantity, the choice is very clear.

Bruse, don't you think this may change with the implementation of 2.0?

 

Nita

[newmexicoNita]

Excuse me but I did my homework for the freestyle restaurant reservation system. You had to go to deck 8 and wait in line or call in. You could only make them for 24 hours in advance. They were full by 8:30 a.m. after experiencing a busy signal continuously. What type of freestyle do you call this? They had time slots at 5:30, 7:30, or 9:30. We do not blame ourselves and I don't feel a true freestyle dining experience is getting up early and running down to deck 8 to make reservations is truly free to eat what you want when you want as they advertise. That is a a rigid timeschedule. And no being ill did not leave a sour taste to me because this can happen on any ship.

 

Good for you that your experiences were good, however please do not down me on my experience. That is my opinion and I am certainly entitled to my opinion without your interpretation of how I feel. I am certainly entitled for my opinion of experiencing their cruiseline. Why on earth would I want to go again on something that did not give me even close to what we are use to. I would choose Carnival again over NCL any day of the week. At least their standards are high with good cabin service and dining service.

We choose to make our reservations just after breakfast for the next night. never had a problem and the ship was sold out. I don't know why you had so much trouble but I do know booking for the early part of the cruise is easier.

 

Nita

[newmexicoNita]

You don't understand that they changed it again after you sailed in Jan. 07. 24 hours that was it. Understand?

 

And now I see you are on the same sailing of the Crown? I haven't seen you at rollcall and I didn't see this clock until just now.

he is saying exactly that, but it is actually 36 hours; you can make them one morning for the next night. This was the original policy when freestyle started; then people complained so in 2005 the policy was changed to making reservations as far in advance as one wanted. That caused many to say, it took away from the meaning of freestyle, so Jan of last year as has been mentioned the policy changed again.

 

Nita

[RSWBADGER]

You don't understand that they changed it again after you sailed in Jan. 07. 24 hours that was it. Understand?

 

And now I see you are on the same sailing of the Crown? I haven't seen you at rollcall and I didn't see this clock until just now.

 

Here's some threads for you to read to understand their reservation policy and a quote from cc cruiser DaBoilerz on 1/22/2008:

 

You can make reservations in 3 places on the Pearl: 1)The Garden Cafe (floor 12...creates a HUGE bottleneck at breakfast each morning), 2) Mambos on the 8th floor, and 3) Telephone (I think it is 55 or 50. I just pressed the reservation button on the phone in the room). You can make reservations each morning at 8AM (so I assume you can when you get on the ship) for anytime up until the following day. You can make reservations for all the specialty restaurants which includes the non-pay ones of Mambos and La Cucina. But it does not include the main dining rooms. [i'll discuss this later] There is a 4th option, but ONLY if you have above a MiniSuite. If you have a concierge, they can make the reservation for you (AF MiniSuite does not count).

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=698586&highlight=pearl+reservations

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=8971625&pp=25

[BrianTom]

And now I see you are on the same sailing of the Crown? I haven't seen you at rollcall and I didn't see this clock until just now.

 

I laughed so hard when I saw this. Maybe you two could knock back a few drinks laughing about how crazy these thread can get when you are trying to make a point.

 

Enjoy the cruise.

[CrusinAgain]

Here's some threads for you to read to understand their reservation policy and a quote from cc cruiser DaBoilerz on 1/22/2008:

 

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=698586&highlight=pearl+reservations

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=8971625&pp=25

 

Isn't that what I said? I said on the 8th floor Mambos in person or on the phone at 8 a.m. if you could get thru since it was constantly busy. That was nothing new - I knew the suites got first dabs. If you got thru at 9 a.m. everything would be gone except 10 pm - they close at 10 pm. Yes, we probably could have made the next day the day before but that is not freestyle - that is knowing what time you want to go to what restaurant a full day in advance. They need to either make them where everyone has a fair shake and not the suites swipe them up or make them first come first served and have that signage that works or don't have them at all. Those of you that have sailed know the ropes of having your way to be the first in line and perhaps know what you want to eat 24 hours in advance. This isn't the way to attract new customers to NCL. Yes it sounds wonderful hearing a selection of over 9 restaurants until you get there and see they only hold around 25 people each.

 

I'll take the Anytime Dining at Princess and not be stressed by running down to the 8th floor bright and early or wear my finger out listening to a busy signal trying to call.

[CrusinAgain]

I laughed so hard when I saw this. Maybe you two could knock back a few drinks laughing about how crazy these thread can get when you are trying to make a point.

 

Enjoy the cruise.

 

Ya think?:D

[CrusinAgain]

We choose to make our reservations just after breakfast for the next night. never had a problem and the ship was sold out. I don't know why you had so much trouble but I do know booking for the early part of the cruise is easier.

 

Nita

 

Nita, I know they were having a major turnover of personnel and that could be why the service was so slow. I know our steward had over 35 rooms to do and his assistant was new that cruise. If you remember right before our cruise those cruisers of Nov. 16th came back and were not happy and they had all been on that ship before and if you remember that I posted my concerns and they said it was so obvious all the cutbacks since their last cruise. I had hoped to make NCL another choice but that isn't going to happen. I am sorry you did not like Princess as much either. I guess all of us have areas that we like more than the other. At least you tried Princess and I tried NCL.

[RSWBADGER]

he is saying exactly that, but it is actually 36 hours; you can make them one morning for the next night. This was the original policy when freestyle started; then people complained so in 2005 the policy was changed to making reservations as far in advance as one wanted. That caused many to say, it took away from the meaning of freestyle, so Jan of last year as has been mentioned the policy changed again.

 

Nita

 

I think if they (CruisinAgain) understood the reservation system better they would have enjoyed their cruise, there seems to have been alot of frustration with it.

We loved the restaurants on the Pearl, we also love cruising with Princess. Different experiences.

[chrisbd1]

I was on the NCL Dawn in November 07. We waited 4-5 minutes to get into the main dining room at 7-ish. I made reservations for the next night-once for Cagney's for 6:30 and once for Le Bistro for 6. Both reservations were made at 4pm the day before. I never had to stand in line to make a reservation and never called at 8am. I wasn't in a suite. Our ship was sold out, so I was sharing the ship with a whole bunch of people.

 

I had the same Prime Rib at the main dining room that I had at Cagney's, the one at Cagneys was MUCH larger, though. Both were perfectly medium rare BTW. I'm still wondering what I was doing right, since so many people have problems with dining.