Can someone give me opinions on NCL?

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Zef H

NCL is a family friendly line. What sets NCL apart from the rest is its relaxed dining, which they call Freestyle Dining. Basically there are no set dinner times and the dress code is very casual (the formal nights are optional).

The claimed advantages of Freestyle Cruising (dine when you want, where you want) sound great on paper. In practice, like everything else, there are good and bad points.

Yes, you can choose to dine when you want. However, if you are going to one of the main restaurants, if you want to dine when everyone else does, you may end up waiting. As it is, this works better on the new ships (Dawn and newer) that were designed for Freestyle Dining than it does on the older ships that were converted to Freestyle Dining.

If you want to dine at a specialty restaurant (free or extra cost) then you need to make a reservation. So how is this different than having a set dinner time? Also, if you want to see the evening shows, you have to time your dinner accordingly.

Even if you eat in main restaurant every night, you might not have the same wait staff every night. So the wait staff never really gets to know you. The one time I ate in the main restaurant on the NCL Star was the worst service I have ever hand on a cruise ship. The waiter was who knows where, the assistant waiter was great. Also, the food in the main restaurant was not as good as the food on Carnival or RCI.

However, the food and the service in the Italian (specialty) restaurant was good. The food and the service in the extra cost restaurants was great. However, that is to be expected (nobody is going to pay extra for the same quality of food and service).

For a family, the Freestyle concept can work. For a group (twenty people in a family reunion for example) there are some weaknesses. You can bet that in a large group, some will show up at the right place at the wrong time, and others will show up at the right time in the wrong place.

Activity wise, atmosphere wise and passenger wise, NCL is very similar to Carnival and Royal Caribbean.

I was on the NCL Star in October 2005. I wrote a long review which addresses your question in greater detail. It is long, about 19 type written pages. Here is a link to the review ...

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=13327

Geaux LSU Tigers!!!

NCL is my favorite line. They don't have assigned dinner tables and times, so you aren't stuck to a schedule. You can eat wherever, whenever, and that is fantastic. It would be fun for your son too, they have children's programs and they all seem to love it.

Tivogal

ncl.com

yes it is family friendly
but there are also some that consider it to be a "party atmosphere" lots of people who are drinking ect.
food is fair, and entertainment is okay.

compare to carnival.com

cruiseclues.com

baylee

I am a young teen, and I went on an NCL cruise last year! It was the best experience of my life! The meals were great, they had family friendly shows and activities, and even the meals were free. If the meal wasn't free, it was the best deal I'd ever seen! I didn't pass a single employee without seeing a cheerfull smile on their face! It was amazing, and it has something for everyone to do, including a daycare center with a slide and toys, and even a teen room where teens could hang out! This is definately the best cruise line to travel on! So go have fun with your little boy!!

sally b

The only advantage of NCL, if you consider it an advantage, is the freestyle dining. It is a lower priced line and that is reflected in the food offerings. What they have is good, but they don't offer as good a menu as many of the others. As far as family friendly and good for your 8 year old, I would look at Royal Caribbean. Some good pricing deals are available and they have an excellent children's program. The kids are in activities geared toward their own age. Their age groups are broken down by 2 years. So your 8 year old won't be in a group with 5 year olds or 12 year olds as he would on many lines where they have to have such limited activities that all ages in the group can participate. At your son's age, his group will likely have scavenger hunts, piazza parties and things that the younger kids can't do. My experience is that you will find more families with kids on RCL than NCL. I have been on 24 cruises and 7 different cruise lines and am now a cruise specialist. If I can be of help, my web address is below.

Dis Gal

I've been on several NCL cruises, and enjoyed all of them. The food and service are great. The shows are good and would be OK for a child, except the latenight comedy acts. They have crude language. I never traveled with a child, but did notice that they have a program for the kids and keep them pretty busy. I would see groups of kids doing activities all over the ship.

josy_italia

My friend worked in several cruise lines ( NCL, Carnival and Royal Caribbean) she told me that the least fun and smallest ships was the NCL.... she also told me that the best Family Friendly is the Carnival Cruise line and that they also have the best food..... that is even beats Royal Caribbean.....
I have been on Royal Caribbean 2 times and on Carnival 4 times and she was totally right......

anyway Have fun on whatever you decide but I would go give Carnival Cruise line a 10!

Bon Voyage!!!

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