Tatka

What are you worried about. It’s absolutely formal procedure. I usually login ASAP to put arrival (checkin) time first as early as possible, and a bit later add my card (it’s stored on my phone). Never checked how soon it’s verified

Me too.. on 9 cruises with NCL and 22 with RCI. Something obvious cannot be missed on so many tries. I really give lines tries (even to Carnival which after 3 times we decided to abandon). My experience with NCL started in mid 2000 very poorly. On Spirit out of NYC. With ship arriving later and line of families where elderly were losing consciousness and kids crying. With really weak food. With us calling housekeeping three times during same week as our cabin wasn’t done by 2 PM. With fights for loungers and me had to bring a chair (not a lounger!) from aft area as in main pool area even chairs were gone. All other experiences were very different. All our experiences with NCL except for Star out of Venice and Sun out of Miami were from Northeast.

Maybe it was a first cruise after restart, but I was surprised with a number of musical performances everywhere. It reminded me very much our experiences on Jewel, Gem etc. Not sure about boring.

I think pax type/mix really depends on port… We often cruise out of NYC/NJ to Bahamas/Florida and mix is pretty much identical. People just cruise with both lines.

If there is a Beef Wellington, try it.

We sailed in March. We were a bit worried after sailing on Celebrity Edge, Oasis, Anthem last and this year that we would be bored as our cruises on Grandeur out of Baltimore were during Christmas & New Year and filled with great entertainment. Honestly we had a blast! Centrum, Boleros, Schooner and several other lounges were filled with a music. Production show only happened during last day, but everyday theater entertainment was nice. These short movies are not professional, but I think they will give you an idea. 🙂 https://youtu.be/144smdDV7ro https://youtu.be/Ak7pOWClx1c https://youtu.be/6TGzgEBdKgA https://youtu.be/GvVHSaBxhm4 https://youtu.be/p96KFM_LeeM https://youtu.be/2pnP5-rnW0Q Entertainment we fun, including smaller scale entertainment. Food was Royal Caribbean food. Good to very good. Service was very good. The only problems were with some regular drinks being missed from some bars. We loved Diamond lounge. Well lounge itself is not great. It is above Crown lounge, but we took whatever we wanted and sat in Crown Lounge near large windows. I think we spent most sailaways there. (Some are in my videos). We will book it again for next March.

There are even worse situation. When you cruised before 2011 and have enough cruises (10) to be Diamond, but they switched to points and recalculated it the way you lost points. They equated every cruise under 12 days to 1 credit = 7 nights. This way everyone who had 3 dayers and 10 dayers got 1 credit. We had cruises 7, 9, 9, 10, 10 which became 7 X 5 = 35 points (+2 for conversion) instead of 45. Before taking short cruise calculate how much will this cost. 1 drink is $13. 4 a day is $52. For 2 people it is $104. Plus photos ... some discounts if you use them.

Based on your preferences I suggest you try Celebrity Edge class. It is a bit more premium (closer to Viking), but with really nice entertainment and unusual ships. Very modern. No Broadway shows, but entertainment is quite nice.

I think on Enchantment they could. Started from next week after our cruise in March

By the way… I named Oasis class, but there are : Voyager class with 5 ships Freedom with 3 All have ice skating and shows, and tons of entertainment too. They are 140k tons and 160k tons Quantum class of 160k t with 4 or 5 ships with other choices … including Broadway shows, special venue two70 with very unique show like Spectra Cabaret and smaller entertainment. And most importantly amazing Solarium and separate indoor pool for families.

I only sailed on Brilliance (same class as Jewel) only once and we had production shows and other entertainment too. So it’s not something regular, maybe Covid thing? We sailed on Enchantment this March for 12 days. It’s a smaller ship. Like Sun of NCL. We had production shows, all kind of other entertainment in main theater daily. Aside there was entertainment in Centrum, Boleros, Schooner, Stardust (this one I’m not sure about name) and disco. I LOVED entertainment on NCL Dawn in 2018 in East Mediterranean.

We all have favorite lines, but when you somebody says there are more to do in the evening on NCL ... many questions arise. On which ships? I responded to specific post. If you compare Broadway shows... I watched them on both. It is very difficult to compare quality of shows. I say they are pretty much equal in quality. Not all ships have Broadway shows. Other shows? We had great and not so great with both lines. With NCL I prefer midsize ships, although I sailed on several Breakaway and + ships. To me they are congested and pool areas are not adequate. I do like festive atmosphere on Jewel class. And I like ship design. They are lacking covered pools even though they sail pretty often from Northeast, but we sail when itinerary is good/great. I do not use specialty restaurants with either line. Included dining again is a bit tough to compare. NCL had much weaker food when we started in 2000-x, but not it is good. There are no lobsters now and no everyday escargot, but overall I like food.

I think main thing is you are on the ship and use ships WiFi. You can make reservations at any time when on the ship.

Not sure what you mean. After you embark on the ship you are supposed to sail on.

We were off at 7:15 both times.

You need to be on ship's WiFi. It is on all RCI ships. You can do this through Royal App.

With my 22 on RCI and 9 on NCL I honestly do not see a difference in staff happiness or willingness to interact. It is all individual for each staff member.

When comparing lines you must compare ships. They are all different. For example entertainment on Oasis class ships of RCI cannot be compared to anything. Aside from Broadway shows they have Ice Shows (ice shows exist on Voyager and Freedom classes too). As well as Water shows (this feature I haven’t seen anywhere cruises or land) . Each Oasis class ship has Jazz club, Latin music club Boleros (they start from Smaller ships), Schooner piano Bar (all ships) and more This is my unprofessional YouTube video from Oasis. With moving between floors bar, Central Park, Ice show This one with Private island and Nassau in the beginning, but also Jazz club and Water show I personally never bored with Royal on any ship size (including entertainment), but just an example of apples to apples.

Same here. They check cards if show requires reservation. Anyways I haven’t noticed any difference between lines in this regard. At all.

What? I must be sailing on different RCI line. Never ever we felt treated like dirt.

Interesting observation. In 22 cruises with RCI I never witnessed drama between pax... on 9 with NCL it was once on Spirit for loungers. I like NCL for festive ambiance and great shows... but it is difficult to call it more sophisticated. I do not believe PAX varies much. Both are family lines. I wish NCL had adult solariums and/or covered pools.

We cruised with 8 lines for a long time starting from 2003. Only had 5 cruises with Royal (platinum) by 2016. Started cruising more with Royal (although still had some cruises with Celebrity, Princess, Holland, NCL and Cunard) and reached Diamond in 2018, D+ this year. 2 cruises since. But I agree Pinnacle is a pipe dream…

Who will test you on the ship? There is no testing unless you request it. When I responded I meant time on the ship. Flying of course could be a problem. That’s why we drive. Even to Florida. We did go through pre cruise tests on 6 out of 7 cruises after restart. If I had to fly I’d take proctored test with me.

I’ve been on various Christmas cruises, but will compare similar class - Explorer. We had amazing Christmas show on ice Also we had amazing Carols singing session. I’m not a Christian, but we had fun.

Of course more cruises. But it is not a choice for us. We will cruise anyway 5-6 a year. We can afford balconies, but never use them anyway. So for us it is inside cabin unless I must work and have meetings. Out of 53 cruises we had about 13-14 balconies, 2 OV and the rest are insides.