NCL v Princess

We've fairly recently returned from a Grand Princess cruise which we thoughly enjoyed. We're now looking at trying the Jewel. Does anyone have any thoughts as to how Princess and NCL compare overall - especially with regard to the quality of food, entertainment, shops and pool areas?

This is just my opinion...I sailed The Grand Princess twice about four years ago and I have sailed NCL about 16 times since 1998. Never been on Jewel.

The food was about the same. More options/restaurants on NCL and freestyle dining but I do remember that 17 course meal on the Grand that lasted from 9pm-1am!

The entertainment was better on NCL. The shows had better quality entertainers.

The shops are about the same.

Nothing matches the pool areas yet on the Grand Princess especially the one that has the roof!

NCL is my favorite cruiseline but the Grand Princess is my favorite ship.

Coka

The one thing I really appreciated on Princess was the covered pool open 24 hours a day. That is something NCL needs on their ships sailing year round out of New York. If you really enjoy freestyle dining on NCL as we do, the only cruise line that comes close is Princess and their Personal Choice Dining.

I tend to agree with the posters who feel that all the mainstream lines are fairly comparable. Personal preferences lead to cruisers favoring one line over another. It all depends on one's priorities and what one focuses on. It's also important to stay away from comparing lines overall. It's much fairer to compare ships but even then, it's not unusual to read radically different reviews from pax who were on the same sailing. Go figure.

The biggest difference between NCL and Princess is that there is no traditional dining on NCL - no fixed dining times and no assigned tablemates. Also, dressing up on the formal night(s) is optional. If you're like me and these two criteria are not important to you, then NCL's Freestyle should suit you fine. If traditional dining and the so-called ambiance of formal night are important, you might be somewhat disappointed.

I happen to love dining when I want (when I'm actually hungry, or when it fits my schedule) and not having to rush following a late excursion to a fixed seating. I love choosing from among the diversity of dining venues offered by NCL's newer ships. I also love having the option of asking for an intimate table for two, or a larger table when I'm in the mood to meet fellow cruisers, or being able to dine with newfound friends from onboard.

Finally, I very much prefer being able to decide for myself how I want to dress. I don't want to worry about following a traditional ship's guidelines. NCL's Freestyle dress code deems "resort casual" attire as appropriate every night. That suits me just fine.

We just returned from the Norwegian Dawn last sunday. Having cruised 8 times on Princess I did not want to go onboard and try to compare cruiselines but it was not hard.

First of all the food in the dining rooms were somewhat the same with a little edge toward Princess in amounts served. The The Garden Villa buffet was not even close to Princess. The food was very bland. There were no omelet staions for breakfast, the eggs previously cooked and left on the warming tray to be made hard to eat. I never tried there lunch at the buffet because nothing appealed to me there. The barbaque was sub par to say the least. The one bright spot was the made extemely delicious cookies. The rest of desserts in the buffet were' too good.

The shows were just ok. Not much in the line of production shows as Princess.

The rooms are about the same size as Princess except the balcony is half the size with 2 chairs and one tine end table. I had to bring out the table from the room just so we could have breakfast on the balcony.

The bathroom deffinately goes to NCL. Showers are twice the size as Princess and there is much room to move around.

Staff on board NCL are very friendly as in Princess except we did not have the personal touch from our room steward as we are used to. We never really got to know our steward except to say hi. (did not even find out his name).

One other thing was I tried to get a robe for my wife and was told my room steward that we were not on the right deck to recieve one (we were on deck 9) whereas with Princess you could be rooming next to the boilers and recieve one.

This is just my personal opinion and would I sail NCL again? YES, because any day at sea is better than any day on land.

NCL Dawn

thanks for all your comments. Although we did enjoy the Grand Priness very much, my criticisms were that the production shows were poor, and I expected a little more choice as regards evening entertainment. The flexible dining option was great in terms of deciding when to dine and the food in the main two restaurants was excellent - I was disappointed however in the lack of realistic choices as regards where to dine. It seems to me that in relation to both the entertainment and dining options NCL might offer a bit more choice. Am I right?

thanks for all your comments. Although we did enjoy the Grand Priness very much, my criticisms were that the production shows were poor, and I expected a little more choice as regards evening entertainment. The flexible dining option was great in terms of deciding when to dine and the food in the main two restaurants was excellent - I was disappointed however in the lack of realistic choices as regards where to dine. It seems to me that in relation to both the entertainment and dining options NCL might offer a bit more choice. Am I right?

In relation to dining, NCL will offer a lot more choice. As for entertainment, I found little difference between NCL and Princess but wish NCL would change their production shows more often so that their sizable repeat clientele won't have to see the same shows over and over.

What time do the nightly headliner shows start? How do you work that around the free dining times? Are there late night Comedy adult only shows on NCL? Thinking of trying something different, but worried about spending our one vacation a year and a lot of money ( 2 cabins: 2 adults and 2 kids)and being disappointed.

How are the shows, how are the ship activities during the day? What kind of activities to do with the kids? We are use to Voyager class ships on RCCL with so much to do.

Thanks for the input.