Carnival Cruiser back from NCL

[Bunkie103]

:eek: All I can say is WOW! And I don't mean that in a good way. They must have the "OUT OF ORDER" signs printed in bulk so they can put them on anything with moving parts....the pizza oven, the juice machine, the ice cream machine (only one on the ship), the elevators.

 

We are just back from a harrowing trip on the Majesty to Canada out of Philadelphia. It was attractive because we didn't have to fly and wanted to get away to celebrate our 40th Anniversary. The Captain knowingly took us into a storm with gale force winds and 25 foot seas on a ship smaller than the Fantasy. All that aside, Carnival does it so much better.

 

The food wasn't bad and the supper club was actually excellent. It was the idea of things they didn't have. I ordered one of the drinks on their specialty menu but they didn't have the fruit to make it. We went to the Pasta Cafe and they were out of both kinds of pasta that were on the menu.....who does that? Of course they had other kinds of pasta that were okay, but if you don't have enough to serve everyone with a reservation, change the darn menu! In the morning they had no coffee cups....duh! The last morning there was no silverware at the buffet. I wondered if this was the first time they had done a cruise.

 

Bottom line....we're done with NCL. We know a good thing when we see it, and that's Carnival!:D

[yearnin4cruisin]

Glad to hear it! Another post that assures me I should stick with what works, and that's Carnival. No complaints on my end.

[travelntreats]

In defense of NCL.... While I agree with you that Carnival does alot of things better than NCL, you selected an old ship that probably needs to be retired soon ! I think you would have had a better perspective of what NCL offers if you had sailed on one of their newer vessels.

 

Seems odd that the captain would "knowingly" put passengers at risk due to bad weather issues, but it is possible that what you experienced was the better of the choices he had on that sailing due to just plain old bad weather and rough seas.

 

Sorry you had a bad cruise experience, but given the weather, age and size of the ship... I don't think it fits the model of cruises I have had on NCL in the past. And I do not love NCL, but my experiences have been much better than what occured on your sailing.

[yearnin4cruisin]

In defense of NCL.... While I agree with you that Carnival does alot of things better than NCL, you selected an old ship that probably needs to be retired soon ! I think you would have had a better perspective of what NCL offers if you had sailed on one of their newer vessels.

 

I certainly respect your opinion, and no one is perfect, but new or old, I can't come up with a good enough excuse for running out of pasta or drink fixings or not having cups available. To me it's the little things that matter most. These things are poor planning. I can forgive an out of service elevator or other mechanical problem.

[HighSeaslover]

We have been on 6 cruises mostly on Carnival and RCI and I like both, but in January 08 we were on a NCL 9 day cruise, I will NEVER cruise NCL again. All that Freestyle stuff is crap! You have to make reservation everyday for your dinner plans to go to other than the dinning room, it took us 5 days of waking up early to be in line by 7am to get into the pasta restaruant, before we could get reservations. After all that we were very dissappointed, not that the service or food was bad, but wasn't worth getting up early to make the reservation. By the way the pasta place is NOT a surcharge place, but just one of many restaurants they offer. All of the restaurants were like that if you wanted to eat there you had to make a reservation that day and if you don't go they charge you. To me that is NOT Freestyle. There was all kind of stuff like that sounds good for commercials but doesn't work well in real life. We were with two other seasoned cruisers and they agreed, no NCL.. We are now booked on Carnival Glory for this upcoming January cruise.... :)

[MrPete]

Bottom line....we're done with NCL.

 

I made that statement almost 20 years ago.

 

And have stuck to it. :eek:

[Bunkie103]

I certainly respect your opinion, and no one is perfect, but new or old, I can't come up with a good enough excuse for running out of pasta or drink fixings or not having cups available. To me it's the little things that matter most. These things are poor planning. I can forgive an out of service elevator or other mechanical problem.

 

My point exactly! We have sailed Sensation, Fantasy, and Imagination and had no problems at all. As I said initially we picked this ship so we could drive to the port. We had no issue with the ship itself. Actually our cabin was larger than we have had on Carnival, kept spotlessly clean by a wonderful steward and the food was quite good.

 

About the storm....as we were sailing out of Philly the Captain told us we were heading for "gale force winds and a low pressure system". This caused us to miss Bar Harbor and have our stop in St. John shortened considerably, but I understand weather happens, and I have no argument with that. I never mentioned that on Sunday night they shut ALL elevators down and how I was stuck on Deck 10 with a plate of fruit for my DH who had been sick as a dog, and on the verge of dehydration. Ever try walking down 6 flights of stairs carrying a plate of food in 25 foot seas?

[S.S.Oceanlover]

I made that statement almost 20 years ago.

 

And have stuck to it. :eek:

 

I'm with you Mr Pete. We have 20 cruises under our belt but just one on NCL. That was in 1993.

 

I have been tempted a few times within the last couple of years but a lot of the reviews still sound the same as when I cruised with them 15 years ago.

 

Bill

[Bunkie103]

I made that statement almost 20 years ago.

 

And have stuck to it. :eek:

 

I am now an initiated member of that club!

[CruiznWithHubby]

In defense of NCL.... While I agree with you that Carnival does alot of things better than NCL, you selected an old ship that probably needs to be retired soon ! I think you would have had a better perspective of what NCL offers if you had sailed on one of their newer vessels.

 

Seems odd that the captain would "knowingly" put passengers at risk due to bad weather issues, but it is possible that what you experienced was the better of the choices he had on that sailing due to just plain old bad weather and rough seas.

 

Sorry you had a bad cruise experience, but given the weather, age and size of the ship... I don't think it fits the model of cruises I have had on NCL in the past. And I do not love NCL, but my experiences have been much better than what occured on your sailing.

 

You make a few good points, but as some pointed out, running out of things is just bad planning,,,especially if it happened alot,,,

 

Even great, well planned restaurants run out of something occasionally,,,but it sounds like it happened alot,,,not just one thing,,,

 

OTOH, I've heard many reports of bad weather for those Canadian voyages,,,could some of it just be colder water conditions make for rougher seas? And in a small ship,,,,,well, it's not supposed to be the same experience as a Caribbean voyage,,,

 

But I don't blame the OP based on that review for not taking NCL again,,,Holly

[madaamt]

Our Ncl cruise was so bad my teenage daughter said Mom, if we have to cruise Ncl again I think I will just stay home. They have requested only Carnival or Rccl. Never again on Ncl... Ever

[Bunkie103]

Our Ncl cruise was so bad my teenage daughter said Mom, if we have to cruise Ncl again I think I will just stay home. They have requested only Carnival or Rccl. Never again on Ncl... Ever

 

That's just about how we feel! I am just thankful that when we took our granddaughters in April it was on the Imagination and they loved it.

[travelntreats]

Well it sounds like Carnival meets your needs and expectations.... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and stay where you are the most satisfied. Did you write a letter of the issues you had on the NCL cruise ? I agree that some of the issues you experienced are shameful.....but if they don;t know it is happening, they can't try to correct the issues.

[DASA]

First let me state i'm a very devoted CCL fan and plan to stay that way.We have our 7th and 8th booked in the next year and half on our schedule now.

 

The wife wanted to go to Hawaii and we looked at a few options and chose NCL's Pride of America.I did some research and was kind of apprehensive about booking it but we did.

 

Surprise surprise on the great experience we had with this cruise.Ncl has their problems like other cruise lines but they were actually a little better then CCL on this particular cruise.

 

Booking reservations on the same day was no problem for us and the food was great.Their only problem we incurred was a lack of quality drinks.Their drink mixtures leave a lot to be desired compared to CCL's.

 

The one thing i enjoyed the most was their fly a way program to come back home. Luggage tags and boarding passes were printed right there for you and getting home was a breeze.

 

Will i try NCL again , yes will i abandoned my beloved CCL never.

 

It might have been the IT. we went on but it was a great cruise.Hawaii is beautiful and i'm glad we did the NCL trip.

 

But give me CCL and the carribean for relaxing cruises and fun packed one's too.

 

 

LIFE IS TOO SHORT SO CRUISE A LOT!!!:D

[travelntreats]

This sounds like how my NCL cruises have been.....but I am NOT devoted to cruise just with them... I have yet to find a cruiseline I was so disatisfied with that would make me not try them again.

 

And as an FYI... I am going on the Fascination for the 2nd time in 2 months since she arrived in JAX.... great ship, great food, great entertainment and staff.....

[Kace]

So what would the reaction have been if the OP had posted about a single bad Carnival experience, and said "never again"?

 

Yes, it sounds like the OP had a bad experience. But that doesn't mean that all of NCL is bad. My first cruise was on the NCL Star, and it was great. Yes, there were areas in which it was suprior to Carnival. After that initial NCL cruise, I have sailed Carnival twice and am preparing for my third. But I'd go back to NCL in a heartbeat if the right itinerary and the right price came across my desk.

[blondeblueeyes]

We too have cruised with NCL, RCCL & Carnival. The juice machines & the ice machines were ALWAYS broken with NCL. Breakfast & Dinner you knew you would wait at least an hour for service of the main dish, had to call to get into any resturant that served half way decent food. And the final straw was walking through the "buffet" everyday to get to the pool & having to smell the awful food on the way through! Cafeteria style to boot!

We have a free cruise next sept on the Star & if I could I'd cash it in someway different! All six of us really disliked the NCL Star & I'm the crazy one for booking a free one next september!! UGH!

[travelntreats]

So what would the reaction have been if the OP had posted about a single bad Carnival experience, and said "never again"?

 

Yes, it sounds like the OP had a bad experience. But that doesn't mean that all of NCL is bad. My first cruise was on the NCL Star, and it was great. Yes, there were areas in which it was suprior to Carnival. After that initial NCL cruise, I have sailed Carnival twice and am preparing for my third. But I'd go back to NCL in a heartbeat if the right itinerary and the right price came across my desk.

Any week on any given cruiseline/ship and sail date can have good and not so good experiences. I just try to make lemonade out of lemons if the situation arises or try to get the problem solved while onbaord if possible. But I personally would never shun a cruiseline because of a bad experience on one ship. Kinda like a restaurant experience that does not fit my expectations... I will not totally give up on them unless they do not try to appease or make effort to correct the problem. JMHO

[Kace]

And the final straw was walking through the "buffet" everyday to get to the pool & having to smell the awful food on the way through! Cafeteria style to boot!

We have a free cruise next sept on the Star & if I could I'd cash it in someway different! All six of us really disliked the NCL Star & I'm the crazy one for booking a free one next september!! UGH!

 

I'm sorry, but you don't have to walk through the buffet to get to the pool. Much like on many CCL ships, you have to walk through the buffet to get to the pool if you choose the aft elevators. But if you use midship elevators (again similar to CCL), you don't have to go near the buffet.

 

If you're so unhappy about being forced to sail NCL again with a free cruise, I'm sure there are many people who would be willing to take it off your hands....

[Deloresgardella]

We cruise on NCL seaward about 10 years ago had a great time. Two of my daughters and their family and some in-laws. We had three cabins. That was before they had any time dining. The staff was great with the younger kids. I going on Carnival next September the first time in 20 years. Have been on Princess and RCI, plus some that is no longer in sevice, since. Was not impressed with RCI. was my first time on one of their ships. Even though I had no really complaints. We went to the Med, which was a great itinerary. I have been on 13 cruises never a bad one some better than others. I am really looking forward to my cruise in Sept. Have heard such good things about Carnival Spirit.

Delores

[Bunkie103]

Well it sounds like Carnival meets your needs and expectations.... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and stay where you are the most satisfied. Did you write a letter of the issues you had on the NCL cruise ? I agree that some of the issues you experienced are shameful.....but if they don;t know it is happening, they can't try to correct the issues.

 

Haven't written yet, but probably will. Since we have no plan to ever cruise with them again there's not much they can say. We were booked on the Norway in 2003 prior to "the boiler explosion" and were treated so badly, that this cruise was kind of "lets give it a try" but now I'm done for good. I will definitely try RCCL and Princess in the future.

[sa_girl]

Last year we sailed the NCL Pearl and Carnival Victory back to back and our Pearl cruise was amazing from the food to the crew everything was far superior to the Victory. Infact everything about our Victory cruise was awful but we will give Carnival another go this December when we sail on the Legend. So what I am saying is that you cannot judge a cruise line by one bad sailing because if that was the case we would never sail or try Carnival again. If you think lately of all the bad reviews some of the Carnival ships have received, with all things going wrong, thats life it can run smoothly for ages and then it all goes wrong. Maybe you were just unlucky onNCL and had one of those 'everything goes wrong' cruises. I understand why you would be disappointed as were extremely disappointed on the Victory but we haven't judged the whole cruise line by this.

[vipvinny]

We agree. No more NCL for us. We sailed them twice. The first one was out of Florida in 2001. I rate it fair. We sailed the Spirit from N.Y. in 2006. There is no rating low enough for that cruise.

[halos]

Last year we sailed the NCL Pearl and Carnival Victory back to back and our Pearl cruise was amazing from the food to the crew everything was far superior to the Victory. Infact everything about our Victory cruise was awful but we will give Carnival another go this December when we sail on the Legend. So what I am saying is that you cannot judge a cruise line by one bad sailing because if that was the case we would never sail or try Carnival again. .

 

LOL...it's totally ironic doncha think??? If someone were to come on here after taking their first CCL cruise, and have complaints and swear off the line forever, all the CCL lovers would come out in droves and BLAST the person. BUT since it's someone trashing an NCL cruise, they get a pat on the back.

 

God figure. :rolleyes:

[yearnin4cruisin]

LOL...it's totally ironic doncha think??? If someone were to come on here after taking their first CCL cruise, and have complaints and swear off the line forever, all the CCL lovers would come out in droves and BLAST the person. BUT since it's someone trashing an NCL cruise, they get a pat on the back.

 

God figure. :rolleyes:

 

I don't think anyone is getting a pat on the back. People are voicing their opinions. For me, it just reaffirms that I should stick with Carnival.