Has anyone cruised on Norwegian Cruise Line?

Show all answers

Jen @ Law

I went on an NCL cruise with my husband and our mother's this past summer (also on the Gem). While I prefer more traditional cruiselines overall (that is, I prefer being dressed up for dinner and NOT being surrounded by families) I think there are a lot of reasons to like NCL, and I would consider them if travelling with a family or if I didn't want to pack anything nicer than jeans and a tee-shirt.

I felt that the standard dining room food on NCL was a bit better than Carnival, perhaps even to Princess and inferior to Cunard/Celebrity. The service was good. The ambiance was high energy all the time-- although we spent a lot of time trying to get away from the Vegas like ambiance (hiding out in the spa). On a similar note, the color scheme was probably not my first choice.

I liked the specialty dining experiences we had (although they cost $10-20pp)-- Italian was quite good, the french restaurant was less impressive, the hibatchi chef was great. We never had a wait, but I would caution people who are inflexible in their dining times to be wary.

Another advantage of NCL over it's competitor mass-market ships, in my opinion, was the bathroom layout-- the shower was considerably more pleasant. Several things to do on the ship: waterslide, rock climbing wall, pool tables, etc. We used the bowling alley once, but I woudl not recommend getting a stateroom above or below it- as the noise was unmaginable... we had to forfeit our aft balcony for an inside cabin to be able to sleep at night.

T

Tivogal

With my NCL Cruise, my difficulty was some service issues. the Food was ok, But the quality was marred by the food being brought semi warm or cold to the table. I much prefer princess cruises or holland america.
staff was okay, but just okay. Alot seemed just bored with their responsibilities.
But, that said, I think it is possible to have a pleasant experience on some NCL ships.

have a nice day
cruisecritic.com

Bicycle41

I LOVED NCL. I liked how we were able to eat when we wanted and where we wanted. We went to Bermuda last year on NCL and are planning our next trip to the Bahamas with NCL for the Spring.

Here are some ideas for planning your cruise for cheap and what to pack:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4517915_save-money-cruise.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_4518382_like-pro-list-handy-things.html

johnrklinger

IMHO the mass market lines are pretty even on quality, service, food etc. Each has it's own niche to make it a bit different than the others. On NCL, it's freestyle. That means you eat when and where you want instead of having set dining times / locations. Some people prefer it and some don't like it.

lad

We took a sisters and family cruise on Norwegian several years ago. The food was great and the staff couldn't have been nicer. Our every wish was taken care of with a smile. The pool areas were a little small for all the people wanting to enjoy the sunshine but it was workable. Our daughter was 8 yrs. old and went to the kids cruise, so we had lots of adult time.

TINKERTOY ..... the 1 & only

I have been on about 8 NCL cruises over the past 10 years and our last one was this past November on their new ship (it was new then) the Gem.

Many people like NCL because of their freestyle cruises and you will get some comments on here from them. I hate it because of their freestyle cruising and prefer the traditional cruising instead. I have cruises NCL both before and after they started the Freestyle and so I can compare before and after and also since I have also cruised on Princess, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity can compare it to all of them.

My impression is the food is better on Princess and Celebrity and slightly better on Royal Caribbean. So NCL as far as I am concerned is at the bottom in terms of food. The "freestyle' basically means that you go to dinner any time you want after about 6:00 PM each evening. And evenings are a little more casual on NCL. But the cruises are otherwise the same as on any other cruise ship.

What I do not like about the freestyle is you never get to know your wait staff because you have a different table and waiter each day. And, you can end up sitting with different people each day, unless you arrange for your group or friends to be at the dining hall all at the same time. You can also on some days end up standing in a line waiting to be seated in the main dining room. The service tends not to be as good as when the wait staff is serving you for your entire cruise. And when you pay your gratuities you never know exactly who gets what sine they put all of the money in one pot and divide it among the wait staff.

The Gem that we cruised on was OK for a new NCL ship but nothing special as far as I was concerned. I have found that Princess and Celebrity have the best ships in terms or decor and making you feel like you are on a classy vessel. If you want a lot of good on-board activities then Royal Caribbean is much better than NCL and Princess and Celebrity as well.

On our lats NCL cruise we had some service issues so we will never cruise on them again. But, like I said above, you will get some people commenting here who love NCL.

Way Smarter Than You

No. You'll be the first person to use that cruise line. Let us know how it turns out.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: