What Was Your Best NCL Cruise Experience Ever?

Please name the ship, basic itinerary, and factors that made it the best. I need cruise ideas as I am starting to get into a rut. Only NCL ships please.

CM

NCL Star, Garden Villa (first time!) and the feeling when seeing that HUGE stateroom, private area for the first time! think this was back in 2011? And it was only a Mexican Riviera itinerary.....but that cabin? spoiled us forever! We have enjoyed the Garden Villas on numerous occasions since.....but that first time remains in my memories of favorite cruises!

Platinum Plus. I have had many wonderful cruises.:D Never a bad one.;p That is why I cruise. Hopefully my best is still to come.

Probably a cruise on the Epic from Barcelona to The Canary Islands 4 or so years ago in the Haven. Our first Med cruise, our first time in the Haven, first time in Barcelona, on the largest cruise ship to ever dock at Morocco. We’ve been back to the Canary Islands on a land-based holiday. The ports, the ship, the service were perfect.

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My first cruise was on the Norwegian Sunward II when I was six or seven to the Bahamas and it's still the best I've had with NCL. Last cruise wasn't so great, hopefully September's cruise will be best one yet.

The Getaway is my family’s favorite ship. We had so much fun on the excursions last Christmas (we built our own) and loved every minute. https://gotravellife.com/2018/01/03/about-us/. Great entertainment on board, daughter loves the teen club and enjoyed the Haven experience. All around fun.

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Hard to pin down just one but I think I would say the Jewel when she made her maiden voyage from Dover England to NYC. Just being on a brad new ship, glitches and all was so much fun and we met so many wonderful people. The itinerary was right up our alley. Unlike many transatlantic cruises we did the northern route so not so many days at Sea. We did Ireland, Iceland and some other fun and new ports to us. WE ended up in NYC. The biggest downer was missing Newfoundland. due to weather.

2008... Pearl to Alaska... Daughter's graduation ( 1- high school and 1- college) presents... 1st cruise, family time and Alaska. Will always be my favorite cruise!!:D

NCL Sun, South America - Santiago, Chile - Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires - Rio - Buenos Aires. Round the Horn in calm water! Fabulous time. Balcony cabin. Great crew, love the Great Outdoors. 👍❤️😊

14 day Caribbean on the Breakaway out of NYC in January, 2015. Didn't have high expectations because it was our first mega-ship and we prefer the smaller, quieter ones. We had done a couple Celebrity and Princess and just had it in our head that NCL was more like Carnival and less like Celebrity (we were wrong). Also sailing out of NYC we expected a lot of NY, NJ, and New England folks (sorry, but you guys can be a bit intense compared to our rural, midwest folks we normally hang out with). We got our first balcony and absolutely loved it. We also loved the Breakaway and the opportunities a larger ship offers such as more music venues/performers and different dining options. There were many places to avoid the dreaded crowds. There was a very diverse crowd with a ton of international guests which we loved observing and meeting. It was our longest cruise to that date and we loved that. But the best part was the giant storm we encountered on the way home. Three days at sea back to NYC and the 2nd we hit a major storm. I took a picture of the TV screen and it said 38 foot waves and 70 mph wind. We had been on about 8 cruises prior to this one and always kind of enjoyed the wave action. We always wondered what "real waves" would be like, now we know. The captain started warning us when we left Antigua, which was our final port. On the first day at sea he made several announcements about the storm we would be encountering. At dinner he came on and let everyone know the ship would be getting into it from midnight to about 2 AM and it would be at it's worst from about 6 AM to early afternoon. He was right! Needless to say we were seriously primed for the storm. I was so excited I couldn't sleep. We were on the lowest balcony deck and the spray from the waves was hitting our balcony. Not mist, honest to goodness spray from the waves. They shut off the deck, obviously, where the shuffleboard is, which we were over top and hundreds of waves would wash over it. We went up to the buffet as soon as it was to open and had to physically hold onto the plates on the table or they would slide. It was definitely a bit intense the higher on the ship you went. Early afternoon it started to die down and the next day was smooth as silk. What an experience!! And isn't that one of the reasons most of cruise, to experience things we don't normally get to!

2016 - Pearl to Alaska

With 2 daughters in college probably the last family vacation alone with wife and all 3 kids.

First time in a suite Non Haven - 2 bedroom with all of the perks of free at sea including UBP and UDP before switch to SDP.

Great excursions, Spa, spotting humpbacks and Orcas from the balcony.

2016 Mexican Riviera aboard the Jewel. The food and specialty restaurants were great, we loved the shows, and Iain Bagshaw (who's now with Marella) was an awesome CD with a droll sense of humor. The weather and itinerary were both awesome, with the highlight being our bar-hopping shore excursion in Mazatlan, which ended with the tour guides pouring out multiple shots of tequila for everyone on the moving the bus whilst we all caroused and sang all manner of songs badly. We normally NEVER tip tour guides, but those guys got $20 from us as were getting off the bus. They made a nice-but-routine shore excursion into a total blast.

Gosh where to start

1) jewel to Baltic’s, first ever Ncl, loved the specialty restaurants and made friends for life

2) pearl in the Caribbean, we got married

3) Epic, been on the ship 7 times, love the entertainment

4) Escape, best ship layout by far, had vibe passes, made lots of new friends, district brew house lovely

5) breakaway, had a haven spa suite, service impeccable

Epic has the memories, I’ve done it with my husband, trip with son and mum for birthdays, twice with groups of friends, one with a great friend.

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My wife loved the Baltics experience on NCL (we were on the Star), my favorite is the Eastern Mediterranean (Jade).

While experiencing the old world was amazing, the beauty of sailing New Zealand on the Jewel was also compelling.

Closer to home, it is hard to not love Alaska on any ship.

The Jade on a back to back departing from Venice around the Adriatic. Venice sailaway, Santorini, the Acropolis, Olympia... Just so many fantastic sites to see, with great weather and friendly cruise. The cruise really flowed for some reason and I was able to completely and utterly relax. The Jade has turned out to be my favourite ship - big enough to have most things I want, but small enough to not feel crowded or impersonal.

Other stops included Dubrovnik, Split (a wonderful surprise!), Mykonos, and Corfu. I'm not going to forget having a go at propelling a gondola (badly).

NCL Sun, South America - Santiago, Chile - Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires - Rio - Buenos Aires. Round the Horn in calm water! Fabulous time. Balcony cabin. Great crew, love the Great Outdoors. 👍❤️😊

You are not the first to mention the Sun on the South America itinerary. I think I may have to add that to my list. The Sun is my new favorite small ship.

CM

2016 Mexican Riviera aboard the Jewel. The food and specialty restaurants were great, we loved the shows, and Iain Bagshaw (who's now with Marella) was an awesome CD with a droll sense of humor. The weather and itinerary were both awesome, with the highlight being our bar-hopping shore excursion in Mazatlan, which ended with the tour guides pouring out multiple shots of tequila for everyone on the moving the bus whilst we all caroused and sang all manner of songs badly. We normally NEVER tip tour guides, but those guys got $20 from us as were getting off the bus. They made a nice-but-routine shore excursion into a total blast.

Do you recall your embarkation port?

Do you recall your embarkation port?

Yes. The cruise ran from LA to Puerto Vallarta to Mazatlan to Cabo San Lucas back to LA.

We've been on Breakaway three times and will be on the repositioning cruise from NY to New Orleans in October. All three cruises were from NY and for reasons of weather, the second and third were lousy for ports - but the ship, its people, and the entertainers made up for it. We love the layout and food choices and activities, and most of all the entertainment. We've had some wonderful moments with the cast of Rock of Ages and Howl at the Moon performers.

Please name the ship, basic itinerary, and factors that made it the best. I need cruise ideas as I am starting to get into a rut. Only NCL ships please.

CM

The Norwegian Star from NYC to Bermuda in September (quite a few years ago). Having never been to Bermuda I booked for the itinerary. Took my sister in law for her very first cruise. We sailed past the Statue of Liberty and that was awesome. The 3 days in Bermuda were wonderful and easy to explore on my own. Bought the transportation pass and used the buses and boats to get around. Beaches were some of the most beautiful I've seen. Lots of them are near empty so you can have almost a totally private beach day without paying premium costs. The ship was great and the entertainment super. Met some of the greatest people on this cruise and we are still friends today.

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The NCL Bliss 15 day Panama Canal may 10-25 of this year. Cruised in a beautiful, spacious Haven Aft Suite. Had a great view of the transit through the canal. Food, Service, Entertainment was the best we have ever had on previous cruises on Getaway and Escape and all other non NCL cruises.

What turned us back into cruisers:

I was trying to use a timeshare week about to expire in 2010. Called the company and the rep tried to put us on the Epic in a Spa Suite for 1 week. At that time I’d never heard of Cruise Critic or even the Epic. I was on line at the same time and mentioned to her that for that money we could do 2 weeks in a regular balcony with spa passes. I didn’t know that I would be missing out on the Haven. I also never knew about price drops before final payment, etc, or that using that week really didn’t amount to much, maybe $300 towards the cruise.

BUT, we ended up having the most amazing cruise that we have never been able to repeat. It was absolutely perfect. Both eastern and western itineraries. The Legends Show performers switched between the 2 weeks so we got 2 different shows, (plus we snorkeled with “Madonna” and “Tina Turner”) Slam Allen was in Fat Cats and all the other performers would come in after their shows to hang out and jam. They even let DH come up and jam on the Bass. We were there every night.

Klaus was HD and stopped us to chat each and every time he saw us. Our steward Marlon was superb, and was like a silent unseen ninja, straightening our cabin multiple times a day and always greeting us with a smile and warm Hello. In fact, all of the stewards we passed in the halls on our deck seemed to know our names and shouted hello every time.

Silas Cook was CD and he also took the time to get to know us. We chatted it up so much that he actually ran down the gangway when we were disembarking to give me a hug. That was so sweet.

Anil Kumar was head chef and he and DH hit it off. He managed to provide me with lamb for dinner every night in many different inventive ways.

We chose to participate in every dance party they had and ended up being videotaped just about every night, at a time when they offered a souvenir DVD of the cruise for $29.95. We basically had a custom DVD of our trip! I really wish they still did that. It was a bargain!

There was not one thing we could think of that was not just perfect, seriously. And it is still the trip against which I have measured all the others.

Being upgraded a week before our Alaskan cruise to a forward facing penthouse (from a balcony on the sun) for less than a $1,000. Waking up at 4 in the morning and watching us cruise thru the unspoiled mountains was absolutely breathtaking. Not a ripple in the water. The blues, pinks and purples were magical.