AstoriaPreppy

I never could figure out how/why those made it past the bowling alley removal. They did an amazing job refitting the entire lounge, but then kept some random, old slot machines in the corners? It was a head-scratcher.

TBH, I'm impressed they did as much with the redo of the "bar central" area." That space has always been weird for passenger flow and bar seating. This seems much better than the past refit attempt at pulling out the high-top tables and just plopping chairs in the middle the a corridor. Also, 10/10 on the redo of Le Bistro, which feels much less heavy and stuck in the past. The old decor always had a sort of cut rate Russian Tea Room vibe for me... I'm not sad to see those ridiculously framed French impressionist Gauguin prints get tossed.

As a regular Celebrity cruiser (who has also sailed NCL a bunch), it's good to set realistic expectations re: dining. If you think the MDR food on Celebrity is reasonable quality and well-flavored, you're going to be disappointed with the MDR food on NCL. I've always framed NCL MDR food as having a "banquet at the old Holiday Inn by the airport" quality to it. Celebrity MDRs use higher quality proteins, and the flavors, preparation and presentations are more creative than what you'll find on NCL. From our experience, the specialty dining on NCL is closest to what you'd find in the MDR on Celebrity. (Celebrity speciality dining is another step up from that) When we sail NCL, we've almost always purchased a speciality dining package to make up the nights we don't have included as a free promo. If you google "NCL dining packages" it will take you to the page where you can price this out. When you use one of these dining package meals, ignore the a-la-carte pricing in the restaurant: you get apps, a main and dessert. Some other thoughts: You will have to pre-book stuff on NCL, including shows and meals. "Freestyle" is more marketing than any anything else at this point. With restaurants, don't worry if you can't book online in advance, they hold a chunk for booking onboard. If you're a pool-deck person who likes a chair, you might want to consider Vibe passes. Celebrity pool decks tend to be huge, resort-style setups, but NCL's are a lot smaller (space is taken over by the Haven). Booking Vibe guarantees a space (and bar) that isn't completely mobbed. If you're doing lots of port days, this may be less of an issue. Be prepared for the balconies on NCL (specifically the Escape) to feel *tiny* compared to Celebrity. A standard balcony on the Solstice is 55 sq ft... on Escape, it's 32. The staterooms on NCL also feel narrower to me. Also, be prepared for some lines. NCL cruisers are very okay queuing up for shows, but also at bars: when we sailed the NCL Gem out of NY most recently, they'd removed stools from one of the pool bars and placed a queue with rope and stanchions. That said, NCL is a more relaxed feel than Celebrity, which is why a lot of cruisers love it. Shorts and casual wear are pretty much okay everywhere 24/7, with the exception of one MDR and the French restaurant. Coming from Celebrity, I'd encourage you to keep an open mind and give NCL a try... just be prepared for some differences and you'll be fine.

I'd just note that NCL room service pots of coffee barely deserve to be labeled "coffee" in comparison to a basic Starbucks drip brew. Still, no standard cruise ship coffee will ever come close to the infamous Princess "syrup coffee" that was essentially reconstituted liquid Nescafe that came out of a spigot in the buffet. I still have confusion over that product even being offered for human consumption.

It's still hilarious to me that NCL doesn't give Haven passengers a premium beverage package as part of the stateroom (like Celebrity suites). That planet is called a the meatpacking district in Manhattan... never an NCL cruise ship.

That's like saying all Julia Child did was push her TV show and books, instead of focusing more on cooking ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Adding to Ken's comments about itineraries, the Princess onboard experience in Alaska very immersive. Sled dog puppies onboard one day, axe throwing with lumberjacks the next. A full-time naturalist onboard pointing out wildlife and narrating regularly. Local food specials offered on the ship (i.e. Tracy's crab cakes), Alaskan seafood offered for dinner every night, Alaska brewery beers onboard, etc. Princess also owns 5+ lodges (and runs their own bus fleet and train cars), so they really excel at land tours in the interior. The only other line that I think is comparable is Holland America, but I've never sailed them in Alaska.

I think that's a fair assessment, and you absolutely pay for the "enrichment" a line like Princess offers. We often do NCL when we're looking at a great itinerary, at a great value. We've got a 13 day Adriatic, Greek Isles and Italy NCL cruise booked next summer specifically for those reasons.

This is fascinating... the only NCL enrichment I've ever seen on any cruise was the "singing conductor" in Skagway on a Pearl sailing Alaska at the start of the season in 2015. Otherwise, nothing.

This is one of the oddest things about NCL to me. The complete (and intentional) lack of any sort of enrichment content; no lectures, cultural performers, food/drink, etc. While we enjoy the freestyle vibe, it gets frustrating on longer cruises where any sort of context to frame your experience would be valuable. We first experience this quirk when sailing NCL in Alaska, and discovered there was no naturalist giving talks, answering questions on deck, narrating scenic cruising outside of Glacier Bay, etc.... even Carnival has full-time naturalists onboard their ships in Alaska!

Lots of repeat cruisers stay on the ship in various ports, but especially as a cruising newbie, I'd encourage you to experience Tortola. The island has has some of the best beaches in the Caribbean, and an excursion to the Baths in Virgin Gorda is a 10 out of 10 experience. Separately, on port days you'll notice ship programing is dramatically reduced. There will be a few things happening, but it won't be packed with trivia and activities like a sea day is. That said, it's often much easier to get a spot by the pool or in a lounge for quiet reading or relaxing.

This is mostly a Royal/Celebrity thing. On our Anthem of the Seas cruise last winter, we spent many mornings in the solarium having screwdrivers and mimosas made out of freshly squeezed OJ from the commercial machine. Celebrity's spa cafe also has a full juice bar in the solarium, and the bigger ships have this in the buffet too. Fireball seems to be a supply chain issue. We've done Celebrity, Princess and Carnival since the restart, and had zero luck finding it on any ship on any line. Super disappointing, as it's a vacation/holiday drink for me: absolutely not something I'd consume in my day-to-day life. Worth pointing out that while Carnival's Cheers has a 15 alcoholic drink limit a day, coffees and teas are unlimited.

I'd say older Carnival staterooms are... less design focused than NCL? As others have pointed out, in the 2000s, the Carnival stateroom color palate was lots of peach, beiges, and browns, with acres of laminate counter space. It was functional: tons of storage space, lots of room to spread out, but certainly not high-end. The newer ships (Vista forward) have really worked hard to go for a much more resort-like blue and cream that I think works a lot better, and is more what you'd expect in 2022. I'd point out the bathrooms are still small, with shower curtains (a deal-breaker for people, which changed on Mardi Gras). Re: functionality and livability, we've always found the Carnival rooms fine, if not luxe. Having substantial extra space means we've never needed to get creative with the living situation like when sailing in a smaller NCL room. And Carnival does put the extra space to use. We recently sailed in an Oceanview on the Horizon, and our stateroom had the normal bathroom (sink, shower, toilet) and then a second bathroom with a shower/tub combo and sink. And a full sofa in the room. Although just the two of us, it made turnaround time when getting ready for dinner or coming back from a beach day almost effortless.

This is not the case. Carnival has (for decades) made larger than average staterooms the standard on their ships. The Destiny through Vista class ships are known for their sizable cabins (especially compared to NCL). A standard oceanview cabin on a ship like the Carnival Conquest is 220 sq ft. A standard oceanview cabin on a ship like the Breakaway is 161 sq ft. Even interiors are notably larger: On the same ships, Carnival interiors run 170 sq ft, while NCL offers 135 sq ft. Another difference I appreciate: Carnival upper berths since the Destiny always fold into the ceiling... some of the NCL ships I've been on just have them mounted to the wall in already narrow cabins.

I find the comments about NCL being a more "sophisticated" passenger base funny. I've sailed lots on both lines, and find the only difference to be that many of the passengers on NCL think they're too good for Carnival. I'd echo the comments about Carnival's included fast-casual dining options: Blue Iguana, Guy's Burgers, the BBQ place, the (actually good) cruise ship pizza. NCL cruisers rave about the buffet, but that's because it's basically the only option, other than O'Shehans. I'd also say that Carnival's specialty dining restaurants are actually fantastic, and a steal at $15 or $20 a pop... especially compared to some of NCL's options. Carnival has also worked hard to upgrade their mixology and bar programs. All Carnival ships have venues where you can get actual craft cocktails, which are hard to find on NCL. Separately, Carnival's staterooms are *massive* compared to NCL. That said, NCL does offer a lot more unique cruise options (ports, sailings, etc). It's why we're not loyal to one line over the other!

One benefit of the Edge class ships are the amazing tendering facilities they've designed. The entry to the tender deck is a huge, open space with a wall of windows (not restricted crew space like other ships), and the actual loading deck to the tenders is the ship's Magic Carpet, which goes to sea-level when tendering. The tenders themselves are amazing: air conditioned, fold down, theater-style cushioned seats, flat screen TVs, etc. If you're anti-tender but still want to do the Med/Adriatic/Greek Isles, I couldn't recommend a Celebrity Edge class ship more.

To but it bluntly, Greenland isn't really designed for traditional cruise ship experiences (shore ex, etc). We sailed Celebrity this summer from NJ to Iceland, and stoped in Qaqortoq, Greenland on the way. WE also sailed Prince Christian Sound. The "excursions" in Qaqortoq were essentially wandering the town with a local, since there was so little to see. There were only one or two excursions otherwise: very limited boat tours to other sites in the area (ruins of a church or a hot spring on an island). This will be the same for almost any mass market line that sails to Greenland, NCL included. Norway is much more traditional, in the sense of tourism, infrastructure, capacity and excursions. Also, we really enjoyed sailing Prince Christian Sound, and while spectacular, it's surprisingly barren... especially compared to other fjords we've sailed in around the world.

Rick Steves "fake" and not real experiences? I've seen a lot of hot takes on CC, but this is certainly one of the oddest. Would you care to expand? I've never seen him share anything less than honest American perspectives on European travel. Long lines, crowds, and ripoffs are all part of his content regularly, unlike lots of TV/mags/socials/YouTube that just present picture-perfect travelogues. He also just released a new series/book this year.

As someone who has only sailed in an NCL suite once, my biggest pro-tip would be to make sure you meet the butler on day 1, and address any service issues with the concierge. Our butler was MIA until dinner time on day 2, when he apologized for being too busy day 1. He explained that he was responsible for room service deliveries and "servicing the espresso maker." We found that particularly funny as we have the same Nespresso machine in our apartment and it doesn't require any sort of servicing other than emptying pods. I explained that our only requirement was that snacks should be sugar-free since my father in law has diabetes, which immediately went out the window as he just brought us the same cookies and chocolate covered strawberries as every other suite each afternoon. Other than a 1.5 hour wait for BLTs after returning from a day ashore, and a drop-off of breakfast one morning, we never saw him over the next 10 days. We never received any sort of meal setup, snacks, escorts to dinner, etc. We actually saw him wheeling a passenger in a wheelchair to dinner past us in the bar one evening and had a very peculiar "I don't really want to talk to them but need to acknowledge them" sort of interaction when I said hi. Our whole butler experience was just... odd? In retrospect, a lot of this was on us... had we realized he wasn't really engaging or performing like butlers generally should, we would have talked to the concierge (his boss). It wasn't until the end of the cruise talking to other suite passengers about what a butler actually did that we realized we'd been getting pretty poor service. Apparently they're supposed to set a table with tablecloth and not just leave a pile of room service trays and cambros on the table... who knew? We certainly didn't, and he wasn't going to give us any indication that he was underperforming. That said, he didn't hit us up for a tip at all, which was refreshing.

As a very frequent flyer for work, I can say this is not the case for most US mainline carriers as of Nov 2022. Parties on the same flight booking/record are consistently seated apart, especially if booked on a basic fare... it's why you get the crazy "seat negotiations" between passengers on many flights, and gate agent/crew regularly reminding people to sit in their assigned seats for accuracy.

It's not just Americans. Venice has a love/hate relationship with tourists like few other places in the world. Also, Venice is expensive because everything has to be brought in from the mainland or lagoon, and there's finite space. It's not a gouging dopey tourists thing... locals deal with the same issues. It you keep that in mind, you'll probably have an amazing time. I'd recommend reading or watch Rick Steves' content on Venice (and most other places in Europe). He offers very realistic perspectives on the city.

I think Celebrity really set the bar with their "revolutionizing" of the Millennium and Summit pre-pandemic. It's pretty astounding, but I'm not sure NCL would ever consider something on this level. Unlike refurbs that are mostly soft goods or carpeting, Celebrity gutted the staterooms on the ships down to the wall studs, and completely re-designed the cabins. In addition, multiple the public areas (MDR, buffet, spa) were similarly gutted and remodeled. https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=3955 Unfortunately, the refurbs for the sister ships (Infinity & Constellation) have been put on hold thanks to money flow issues. Not sure we'll ever see a re-do like these two in the industry any time soon.

If you are interested in using your Peloton shoes on public bikes (hotels/cruise lines), you’ll need to remove your delta cleats and purchase Delta/SPD cleat adapters. Basically they’re SPD cleats that have been modified with a three screw design for use on delta cleat shoes. Check Google or amazon for options. I’d also recommend bringing your own headphones… the gym loaner ones are awful. All bike speakers have been disabled so none of the more sensitive gymgoers are offended by Cody screaming “get up and shake your ti**ies” in the middle of a ride. Also, there was a sign on the Summit in August about reserving bikes at the spa desk, but no one ever did. It was first come first serve, and usually no wait.

I can't be the only one who remembers when the Garden Cafe was 100% garden-themed? I sailed on the Gem and Pearl before their refits, and there were tacky silk flowers EVERYWHERE (except for the bordello-themed nightclub/bowling alley).

I think part of the issue for the OP (and anyone embarking on a cruise in Tenerife) is that most of the capacity to the island is going to be along the lines of Ryanair or EasyJet... cut-rate holiday airlines for British tourists from airports without connections to flights from North America. You'd probably have better luck with flights to a major city/port, like Rome or Barcelona. Separately, is it just me or is it weird that NCL is even sailing from Tenerife? I always thought that was the holiday spot 20-something kids got into drunken fistfights over sun loungers before vomiting in the pool?