Princess vs. NCL

Food is better on Princess. On a TA the passengers will be older no matter what line. NCL cabins are smaller especially on the newer ships. NCL is famous for nickeling and diming the passengers. Drinks are more expensive, packages are more expensive.

 

Princess is known as a mid level line and NCL is known as a low level cruise line.

 

I agree with a previous poster a TA is not a good cruise to test a first time cruise on a new line.

 

 

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I have to totally disagree with you on a couple of things: I do not find the cabins any smaller on NCL: both lines, like most others do not encourage us to stay in our cabin, this they are all pretty small. Maybe the balconies are larger on Princess, but not the cabins. BTW I am not talking a few feet, I am talking overall. NCL has better bathrooms we think. As for nickel and diming, yes, we hear that a lot, but I don't see much difference. There is nothing one needs to spend money on when sailing unless they choose to. As for food: we all know food is very subjective but I prefer the food on NCL, more choices and I think better taste. I don't know when you last sailed NCL, maybe it was a few years ago. Again food is subjective.

I cruised NCL about 4 months ago. If you will Google the basic cabin, interior, ocean view, balcony, etc. Princess cabins are larger. An NCL interior is 152 sq. ft. and Princess is between 160 and 175. An NCL ocean view is 160 sq. ft. and Princess starts at 175 and up. When it comes to cabin size 10 or 20 sq. ft. makes a big difference.

Food is subjective as I am a meat and potato person so seafood, fish doesn't appeal to me. NCL meat dishes are not good.

NCL drink charges are one of the highest in the industry. You can Google drink prices and packages.

NCL charges for one or two specialty shows, Princess does not.

As you and I have both said, cruising is subjective, it is really all about what the passenger wants.

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Thanks for all your thoughts. I think I will do a TA with NCL and see how it goes. I'm pretty easy to please, just somewhat afraid of the unknown. Give me a glass of wine and a nice cheese plate on my balcony and I will be happy for days.....

Thanks again,

Diane

I would say the biggest thing is the dress code. NCL is much more relaxed.

I have cruised many lines and I have never had a bad cruise.

Most likely it will be an older crowd because of transatlantic, so dress might be a little better. But nowhere near Princess. It seemed every night was pretty dressy not just Elegant night.

Wishing you a smooth sail....one of the most important things.

Kerri

Thanks for all your thoughts. I think I will do a TA with NCL and see how it goes. I'm pretty easy to please, just somewhat afraid of the unknown. Give me a glass of wine and a nice cheese plate on my balcony and I will be happy for days.....

 

Thanks again,

 

Diane

We did a TA on the NCL Star from Copenhagen to Miami in 2014 and it was good. NCL will have some wine tasting events that you can sign up for.

We were confirmed "Norwegians" when we took our first Princess cruise to Hawaii in 2015. The food was awful, entertainment was so-so, lots of folks sick with a contagious cough (not Princess' fault). Not a great introduction! But we're doing five cruises on Princess this year, and four on NCL next year.

The biggest reason we tried Princess is because it has much more varied itineraries. In the Caribbean, it's easier to get a cruise to the ABC Islands. And we don't fly, so the 15-day RT to Hawaii from the West Coast is great. Our next "bucket list" cruise will be Princess' 28-day RT Hawaii, Tahiti & Samoa cruise from Los Angeles in 2019. Can't wait!

Some differences I haven't seen mentioned here are NCL restricts the use of OBC while Princess does not.

Princess allows boarding with water and sodas while NCL does not allow them.

The published dress codes are different for the two lines, but in practice, my experience has been that the suggested, dress codes are very much alike.

Princess provided port lecturers which is very nice in more exotic itineraries. Princess has self-serve laundry which is a savings for me as we typically vacation 3weeks at a time. I find the bathroom design far superior on princess. The open closet creates a separate changing room which is handy.

We prefer the buffet and speciality dining more on ncl. They just offered choices we like including oshehans 24 hour bar food. We also much prefer entertainment on Ncl.

These are some of the more subtle differences I've found after sailing each line several times. Ultimately I let itinerary and price make my decision as these two mass market lines have more in common than different.

No reason you shouldn't enjoy each - especially if you embrace the differences :)

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On a recent Princess t/a we had lobster on 3 nights. The buffet had a scrumptious Eggs Benedict on heaps of snow crab ... at night.

Baked French onion soup. Escargots,almost table side preparation of pasta and some desserts.

The big thing is not the dress code, it's whether you prefer to dress up or not.

Epic is not a good ship for endless days at sea. Its t/a also attracts a vagabondish crowd as it is almost always the cheapest.

On a recent Princess t/a we had lobster on 3 nights. The buffet had a scrumptious Eggs Benedict on heaps of snow crab ... at night.

 

Baked French onion soup. Escargots,almost table side preparation of pasta and some desserts.

 

The big thing is not the dress code, it's whether you prefer to dress up or not.

 

Epic is not a good ship for endless days at sea. Its t/a also attracts a vagabondish crowd as it is almost always the cheapest.

The Epic was our least favorite NCL ship. It is a large ship with over 4000 passengers and we always felt crowded.

The pool area was so small and crowded that it was unusable.

Thanks for all your thoughts. I think I will do a TA with NCL and see how it goes. I'm pretty easy to please, just somewhat afraid of the unknown. Give me a glass of wine and a nice cheese plate on my balcony and I will be happy for days.....

 

Thanks again,

 

Diane

Hi Diane,

i only traveled with Aida and Princess before, my first with NCL will be in 3 weeks. Liked the shared tables for dinner on Princess a lot as i travel solo and met many lovely people this way. NCL does not have shared tables (anymore) and as you read before no fixed dinner times. If you like your dinner at the same time each night you can make reservations from 100 or 90 days before the Cruise even for the free MDRs online. Thats what i did - saves a lot of calories for me as i have the tendency to eat way too much at a Buffet 😂.

Enjoy your Cruise!

Tried Carnival, HAL,RCL and Princess. Settled with Princess years ago. We are pretty seasoned cruisers and love Princess. We have found a great trip we would love to take with NCL. Can anyone tell me what I will find different on NCL over Princess.Its a Transatlantic so we plan on spending a few day on board. Will we be happy?

 

Brownie9

 

Diane

First and foremost: Transatlantic cruises are totally different than regular closed loop, roundtrip cruises, mostly because there are fewer children which is the main difference between the two cruise lines. NCL's target market is families with children while Princess' target market is "empty nest" couples.

I was on a Princess Cruise last year when I saw a whiny, 10 or 11 year old boy following his mother around whining about how boring the cruise was and there was nothing to do because there was no rock climbing wall and no water slide, wah, wah, wah. I wanted to tell him, "Good! Now go home and don't come back!"

One other major difference is entertainment and shows, which Princess absolutely sucks at, while NCL has incredible Broadway productions.

I have to totally disagree with you on a couple of things: I do not find the cabins any smaller on NCL: both lines, like most others do not encourage us to stay in our cabin, this they are all pretty small. Maybe the balconies are larger on Princess, but not the cabins. BTW I am not talking a few feet, I am talking overall. NCL has better bathrooms we think. As for nickel and diming, yes, we hear that a lot, but I don't see much difference. There is nothing one needs to spend money on when sailing unless they choose to. As for food: we all know food is very subjective but I prefer the food on NCL, more choices and I think better taste. I don't know when you last sailed NCL, maybe it was a few years ago. Again food is subjective.

Well, I would disagree with you...I'm Elite on Princess and Platinum Plus on NCL. I'm an Inside and occasional OV (only if I get a free upgrade) kind of guy and Princess cabins are without question larger with a much better layout.

Well, I would disagree with you...I'm Elite on Princess and Platinum Plus on NCL. I'm an Inside and occasional OV (only if I get a free upgrade) kind of guy and Princess cabins are without question larger with a much better layout.

Are the new Princess beds better than the old beds? We actually quit booking Princess because of the beds back in 2010.

I have experienced anytime dining on several ships, and I really don't think it compares to freestyle. NCL ships are devoted to the concept, whereas anytime dining on other lines feels more like an afterthought, imo. You're kind of tossed in there, "competing" (for lack of a better word) for the attention of waiters who have already got to know their week's regulars. Relationships are established and sometimes there's a lot of friendly chit chatting with the waiters and their passengers, which is fine, except for all that friendly chit chat takes time and it means my anytime dining meal usually arrives lukewarm. That's been my experience with it anyway

We have done six NCL cruises and nine on Celebrity. Our last three cruises on Celebrity we did Select Dining instead of fixed early dining.

I don't see the difference. On Celebrity, there is a specific area of the MDR used for Select Dining that is separate from fixed dining. The wait staff are different. We liked the fixed dining because we had the same staff and table mates on every meal. However, we liked the flexibility of dining when we wanted as well as not being stuck at a bad table.

Enjoying the dining depends a lot on the quality and training of the staff. We have found Celebrity's staff to be consistently well trained. However, our last cruise was on the NCL Sun and we discovered the most wonderful waiter in the MDR and kept going back to his area every evening. He was fantastic. That way, we managed to combine the flexibility along with knowing the wait staff.

I do agree that there is an atmosphere on NCL that is a little different from Celebrity. NCL usually has a bit younger passengers.

Are the new Princess beds better than the old beds? We actually quit booking Princess because of the beds back in 2010.

Well, I guess...I never had a problem with the old beds, so I haven't paid much attention to the new beds.

Thanks for all your thoughts. I think I will do a TA with NCL and see how it goes. I'm pretty easy to please, just somewhat afraid of the unknown. Give me a glass of wine and a nice cheese plate on my balcony and I will be happy for days.....

 

Thanks again,

 

Diane

We've ordered the boiled shrimp plate from the "gifts" list before several cruises. Pricey but totally worth it. Found the cheese plate to be basic stuff we could have picked up from the buffet. Go for the shrimp.

We had cruised with Princess Royal, HAL and found a great deal on Norwegian Jade. It was listed as 3.5star and our others 4.5 star so we downgraded our expectations but found it much better than we expected. We didn't get the chance to go on NCL again until last year when we went on Epic. We hated the ship, too many people and not enough living space. Continually noisy and no quiet places to read etc. After 7 days I needed a rest.

In my opinion NCL has the best entertainment. I thought the booking thing would be a pain but i just did it on the TV in my room. We saw Burn the floor twice (loved it). There were so many shows we went to 2 a night. We never booked for dinner.

looking forward to cruising on he Jade again soon.

Forgive me if I'm picking up on somebody else's comment, but I did notice a question about booking entertainment that doesn't seem to have been posted on. We sail with both lines and would agree with a lot of the comments here. Princess better for food, excursions, on board activity range ( largely cos NCL has become very family orientated). NCL better at entertainment (but can be excruciatingly loud), service in freestyle dining.

My main point would be that if your NCL has premier shows eg Cirque du Soleil, book in advance. We boarded the Epic for a week long Med cruise last summer and found every show fully booked. After finding several people remarking that there was space in certain shows made me think it's worth showing up and waiting in case of no shows. As it happened, there were two or three very good lounge piano, guitar performers so we were happy enough.

I like NCL better

We generally sail Celebrity and Princess but have thoroughly enjoyed our 2 NCL cruises, both in the Med. Entertainment on NCL is better and more varied than the other 2 lines, and atmosphere is livelier. We also love NCL's better options for specialty restaurants and we don't mind paying extra, just figure it into the cost of the cruise. But I have to disagree with others about the dress code ----- I find it is the biggest difference between NCL and the other two. On Princess and Celebrity, most cruisers "clean up" for the evening and dress neatly. On NCL, except for in a couple of the specialty restaurants, anything goes. Many cruisers went to dinner in rumpled shorts and even sweatpants. This may be a positive or a negative to you, depending on your viewpoint, but I do think it makes for a different evening ambiance than you'll be used to on Princess.

We are Elite on Princess & have sailed them and Carnival exclusively for 18 years, until 2 weeks ago when we went on the NCL Sky to Cuba. The best ship/service ever! Freestyle dining was nothing like Princess anytime where you had to fight for a table for two at primetime. We kept thinking "what is wrong with us , putting up with all the abuse from Princess maitre'ds." On NCL we were able to make reservations at anytime we wanted (Princess does not take Anytime reservations between 5:30 and 7:30) would be called by our names by hostess & waiters. Never on Princess. We were very happy with the food in main dining room & liked the different choices ie O'Sheehans, Outdoor café, crepes made to order.

Also, they don't kick you off the ship so early on debarkation morning. We are looking at NCL for our next cruise, possibly canceling the Princess one we have booked in November.

We generally sail Celebrity and Princess but have thoroughly enjoyed our 2 NCL cruises, both in the Med. Entertainment on NCL is better and more varied than the other 2 lines, and atmosphere is livelier. We also love NCL's better options for specialty restaurants and we don't mind paying extra, just figure it into the cost of the cruise. But I have to disagree with others about the dress code ----- I find it is the biggest difference between NCL and the other two. On Princess and Celebrity, most cruisers "clean up" for the evening and dress neatly. On NCL, except for in a couple of the specialty restaurants, anything goes. Many cruisers went to dinner in rumpled shorts and even sweatpants. This may be a positive or a negative to you, depending on your viewpoint, but I do think it makes for a different evening ambiance than you'll be used to on Princess.

I have to agree with you on the dress codes. We love casual, but think too many, cruising on NCL have taken casual to a new low. I think on our last cruise I spent more time people watching than anything else, amazed by how some were dressed or not dressed might be a better way to put it. As I said, we do like casual but let's clean it up a little. As for Princess though, I do remember one night, many years ago,sitting next to an older man( older than us anyway) who was actually wearing cargo shorts and yes, the kind that had more wrinkles than his face. I was shocked. All these years later I have to wonder how he got seated.

Food is better on Princess. On a TA the passengers will be older no matter what line. NCL cabins are smaller especially on the newer ships. NCL is famous for nickeling and diming the passengers. Drinks are more expensive, packages are more expensive.

 

Princess is known as a mid level line and NCL is known as a low level cruise line.

 

I agree with a previous poster a TA is not a good cruise to test a first time cruise on a new line.

 

 

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Who am I to dispute such a learned and experienced colleague. Please suffer my novice opinion of this. NCL has been on a journey over the past few years with an IPO establishing NCLH and the acquisition of Prestige Cruises which includes Oceania and Regent and with that and the departure of Mr. Sheehan. It appears NCL has improved it's quality in most if not all areas. While we are in no way cruise loyalist who take "breaks" from cruise lines to try something else, we are relatively experienced and objective. Princess is a good line, however, there isn't enough space between their level of service and Norwegian's to see any daylight. Telling an inexperienced person that NCL is a low end company only demonstrates your lack of experience and objectivity. Yes, there are profit centers on NCL ships, but CCL, RCCL and others have the same thing. Yes a Trans Atlantic might not be the best way to experience a new line, but that would go for any line. Princess included.

Who am I to dispute such a learned and experienced colleague. Please suffer my novice opinion of this. NCL has been on a journey over the past few years with an IPO establishing NCLH and the acquisition of Prestige Cruises which includes Oceania and Regent and with that and the departure of Mr. Sheehan. It appears NCL has improved it's quality in most if not all areas. While we are in no way cruise loyalist who take "breaks" from cruise lines to try something else, we are relatively experienced and objective. Princess is a good line, however, there isn't enough space between their level of service and Norwegian's to see any daylight. Telling an inexperienced person that NCL is a low end company only demonstrates your lack of experience and objectivity. Yes, there are profit centers on NCL ships, but CCL, RCCL and others have the same thing. Yes a Trans Atlantic might not be the best way to experience a new line, but that would go for any line. Princess included.

WillandTam,

Thank you for your learned opinion of my post. Since I have only taken 45 cruises, I bow to your esteemed an d superior knowledge of cruise lines. I will say I was only quoting thousands of reviews and posts about NCL and Princess. I sail equally between Royal, Norwegian and Princess and love all three. Each has their low and high points. Again, thanks for setting the record straight about my review.

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