Has anyone been on a Norwegian cruise, what was your experience like?

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TINKERTOY ..... the 1 & only

I have been on many Norwegian cruise ships and at one time NCL was my favorite cruise line. However, after NCL was bought by Star Cruises and they instituted the "Freestyle Cruising", I do not recommend NCL, especially for people who have been on a number of cruises before because of the "freestyle" cruising. Since Star Cruises took over NCL the line it has an Asian flavor; Star is an Oriental company. Some of the performers and musicians were Asian and they had Karioke every evening. Not my cup of tea. It means that you do not have to specify a dining option; don't have a table and waiter assigned to you. Even when we reserved a dinner time, we did not get the same table and waiter.

"FREESTYLE" means you can go to dinner in the main dining room any time of the evening. It means you don't have to "dress up" for dinner ,but just go "sports casual". But it also means that you may be standing in line awaiting a table on some days (like we had to a couple times); not what you want on a cruise. Since you go when you want, you rarely get the same waiter and so never really get to know your waiter and he/she never learns what you prefer. The option to this being pushed on NCL is their optional dining restaurants. However, these dining options can cost $10 to $20 a person for dinner each night. This is not what you want after paying for a cruise which is supposed to be all inclusive.

The optional restaurants are nice, including French, Chinese/Sushi, Tex-Mex, Italian, and steak house restaurants. But who wants to go pay to eat on a cruise ship where all the meals are supposed to be included. We always skipped the optional restaurants and just got to the main dining early. That worked fine, except on "at sea" days when everyone wanted to go eat early.

Other wise the ships are great and offer about the same amenities that other offer. We did two NCL cruises the past 3 years, one to MExico and another to the Southern Caribbean. Both ships were nice as was the food and entertainment.

great_travel_agent

Yes...NCL is a good cruise line. The Freestyle cruising is somewhat different from the traditional structured cruising. Some prefer it, others don't. If you don't like Freestyle, you can arrange to have your meals at certain times, certain tables, and specific wait staff. The food overall was adequate. Some better than others, but not anything that I would consider bad. The overall cruise experience (destination:Alaska, wait staff, stateroom) was excellent. Whatever you do....don't base a cruise solely on food. As with any cruise, you need to decide on the destination, when, what activities are you looking for, etc. Then chose a cruise line that is best suited to your criteria. So many people pick the cruise line, then try to adjust their plans to the itinerary due to price or date, then they are disappointed. Decide what you want for your hard earned money, then match the cruise to you!

If you need help, email me...I will be glad to assist.

ROSETTA S

i just got back from one it was my first time cruising and i loved norwegian ill always go throughthem they are so friendly and clean and you cn eat when you want i was on the spirit i loved it so much my aunt and uncle are now going on one to and ill do it next year too

K Girl

I have. Their motto is "freestyle cruising." That means things like there is no seat assignments or dress codes for dinner. Its anything goes. They treated you like you were rich and made sure you knew you were on vacation. There was lots of stuff to do. 24 hour food and room service. There could have been more of the younger crowd, people 18-30 on the boat that were single and down for the party thing, but it was still fun. Oh, and they highly, highly discourage any "fraternizing" with the help.

cherryâ™¥blossoms

ya. its freestyle cruising. u can go to eat dinner, watch shows, spas and do whatever u want without doin it with an appointment. its really great. u can have freedom from the cruise when. dont worry, ull have fun!

momsezno

Go to the "Boards" at CruiseCritic.com. There is a board just for NCL, as well as for many other topics.

tspbrady

I took NCL on a hawaii cruise 3 yrs ago. The ship was brand new and beautiful, but that was it.

One of the big reasons why I go on cruises is for the awsome food. NCL, well, sucked. Most cruises I've been on have incredible decedent desserts - rich chocalate cake, cheesecakes, etc... but not NCL! They were mostly jello.

Not only that, but they do this "Freestyle cruising" thing, which means that one or two restaurants are "included" in the price, and the food there is marginal. If you want better food, you can go to one of the "special" reasutaurants - but you have to PAY. Can you believe that - pay for food on a cruise????

Also, they build in the tip to you on-board account, so you are automatically charged. Our service was OK to poor at best, but they kind of make it so you would feel like a heel going down to the purser to tell them to remove or reduce the tip.

NCL is my LEAST favorite cruise lines (but it's definately better than not cruising at all!)

Have fun!

Yarn Junkie

I sailed with Norwegian for my first cruise. I selected them because of the free style cruising--being newly widowed, I didn't want to deal with formal dining and eating with tons of strangers. The food was okay, but cruising is more than just food. The on-board activities were great, with nice logo prizes. Piano bar was awesome, and the staff was fabulous. I would sail with them again.

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