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Thinking of leaving Carnival and trying NCL!?!?!?

thymcruisers

By thymcruisers,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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sparks1093 Great Review Rare

sparks1093

Posted
Posted
I'm sorry to hear that CCL has lowered their food standards to match that of NCL and that is a real shame.

 

IMHO..you will find better food on CCL

 

It seems you haven't sailed with CCL since they started lowering the food quality.;)

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molole

molole

Posted
Posted
Of course give it a try. Don't let someone's 20-year old experience deter you.

 

I agree with you 100%!

 

OP, based others' recent experiences it sounds like there are some vastly different opinions and it is almost impossible to tell how you might like NCL until you try NCL for yourself and see. :) I am going on my second NCL (first one was only 3 day) to test it out myself. :)

 

I am also Carnival platinum and was loyal for years. Only began to branch out to other lines in the last couple of years and loved the variety.

 

I am not platinum anything but I agree variety is the key. How else can you compare and give opinions unless you have experienced variety? :)

 

I plan to continue cruising with them all.

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halos

halos

Posted
Posted
sadly you are probably correct in that...what a shame that they have lowered the quality

They've kept fares from going up over the past 8 years (or more) so it can't be helped.

It is what it is.

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dburdan

dburdan

Posted
Posted

We will be going on our 14th cruise this June on CCL Legend. Did the same cruise last year. In 2009 we cruise the Inspiration. In 2010, we tried the NCL Dawn to Bermuda. It was my 5th cruise to Bermuda but my first NCL. We chose NCL because CCL and RCL were not offering 7 day cruises to Bermuda and i know that I need that long to enjoy all that Bermuda as to offer.

 

My comparison:

Dining/Food: We hated the Freestyle Dining on NCL. There were 6 of us each night and when we sat in the MDR, we never had the same wait staff although we almost always had the same table. The NCL MDR Service was terrible as was the food. 3 at our table got food poisoning the last evening having all eaten the same thing. Every night we had to ask for a wine list, water refills and one night our coffee came after dessert as we were getting ready to leave. I felt they made the food and service bad in MDR so you would pay for the upcharge restaurants. When I go on a cruise, I already paid. I do not want to pay again for food. We looked forward to the NCL Chocolate Buffet as my wife is a Chocoholic. After we filled out plates, we could barely eat any of it it was so bad. The chocolate ice cream was the best part of that Buffet. So to us, CCL wins the Dining and Food comparison.

 

Ship: We felt the ships were about equal. We really liked the terrace style of the pool area on the NCL Dawn. I love the ease of getting around on CCL Legend. Its a draw here.

 

Entertainment: NCL wins by a mile. Phenominal bands and shows (Side Stage and Fire N Ice). CCL thinks Karaoke is entertainment. The only really good entertainment I've had on recent CCL trips has been when Barry Miller worked the Piano Bar on the Inspiration. That made the trip. The adult Comedy is good too on CCL.

 

Service: In our experience, CCL wins hands down. I already stated the poor MDR service on the Dawn. Our cabin steward was also bad on the Dawn. We just could not get across to him that there were 3 of us in a cabin and we need 3 towels. We never had 3 towels and some days we had no towels. It got to be a joke after awhile. The last evening, our steward never even came to our room. It wasn't cleaned, nor were the beds turned down.

 

For us, the negatives are enough that we choose not to travel NCL anymore. My next Bermuda trip will be with Celebrity

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bobmal99

bobmal99

Posted
Posted

Have sailed both, Dec 2010, got a Jr Suite, 280 sq. ft.

for $481 P/P on a five day cruise on the NCL Dawn.

 

Had a great time, thought the food was fine.

On de-barkation day they had one MDR open for

lunch so we had a nice relaxing lunch, no crowds.

 

Don't think many people realized there was a

MDR open for lunch. Found plenty to do on

sea days.

 

We really loved the anytime dining, and never

had to wait.. Would cruise NCL again if the price

and itineary is what we are looking for.

 

NCL has some of the biggest cabins ever, but you

do pay a hefty price for those cabins.

 

Go with an open mind and have a great time.

Then come back and write a nice review for us.

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mistshar

mistshar

Posted
Posted

We have been on one NCL cruise and after it decided that we would not be going on another one. To us most everything was comparable to Carnival but there were a couple of things that I just couldn't get past.

 

One was they clean the rooms in order instead of when you are gone. Carnival checks to see when you are gone for your meal and that is when they clean your room. So you come back and everything is done. If you want to rest you don't have to worry about them coming in and needing to clean. It was very irritating at night when we got back at night and we wanted to take our showers and get ready for bed and they had not come in yet to turn down the bed and bring fresh towels. It just did not work for us.

 

Another thing was, one night we were in our room and they came in without knocking. They just opened the door. We did not appreciate that at all. We don't know why they did that because the room was already taken care of. He had no reason to be in our room at that time. It really upset us. When he saw us he just turned around and took off.

 

Anyway we decided that NCL was not a good fit for us.

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fergusonvt

fergusonvt

Posted
Posted
The CCL MDR circa 2008 was spectacular

 

 

I would imagine most lines food were better several years ago. Could be my imagination but several large restaurant chains we go to occasionally seem to have gone downhill over the last 4 or 5 years.

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lizjoemom

lizjoemom

Posted
Posted

Here is a link to my picture sharing site, the front home page should say cruise to Bermuda or something like that! There are some pictures from the Dawn when we went a couple of years ago. Sorry I dont have any pictures of the Main Dining room food, just the French restaurant, I guess I didnt bring my camera to dinner any other time. Also, I posted some of the menus, I dont know about the other NCL ships or if they have changed but this is what they were when we took them. Have fun!

 

http://kaminskifamilyvacations.shutterfly.com/

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lizjoemom

lizjoemom

Posted
Posted
Here is a link to my picture sharing site, the front home page should say cruise to Bermuda or something like that! There are some pictures from the Dawn when we went a couple of years ago. Sorry I dont have any pictures of the Main Dining room food, just the French restaurant, I guess I didnt bring my camera to dinner any other time. Also, I posted some of the menus, I dont know about the other NCL ships or if they have changed but this is what they were when we took them. Have fun!

 

http://kaminskifamilyvacations.shutterfly.com/

 

I just realized after looking at them, the pictures of the menus are hard to see, and you cant zoom in on the website. I will see if I can edit them better so you can see the choices.

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RMM34667

RMM34667

Posted
Posted

I sailed NCL once. It was my third cruise after 1 Princess and 1 CCL. I was so disappointed in every aspect of the cruise. From food (it was horrible) to cabin to entertainment. I guess my expectations were too high after my first two cruises. I vowed to never do NCL again. But now 5 years later with NCL being prices amoung the lowest out there (except the newer mega ships) I do think I might reconsider. I've heard they've made many improvements. But I am gun shy on spending my hard earned money and limited vacation time with the possibility of being disappointed again.

 

Of course we had a good time. It was my parents 50th wedding anniversary and most of my family were together. Just not up to my expectations.

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PreciousCruiser

PreciousCruiser

Posted
Posted

1st two cruises were RCCL, 3rd was CCL, 4th NCL and upcoming is CCL. Cruised on NCL's Spirit 3/4/12. Thought it was great! Booked with them based on the itinerary, price and the time frame I wanted to go. The service, entertainment, ship & food was good in my opinion. The only thing I would comment on was in the MDR I was surprised that there wasn't more of a variety on the menu on a daily basis. Seemed like it did not change much. With that being said, there was always plenty to chose from and I thought the food was good, unlike some others posters. As far as CCL, I loved my 1st cruise with them and expect to love my upcoming one. I also liked the two cruises I took on RCCL. I guess I'm just not that hard to please. I love life too much to sweat the small stuff. And alot of time it is just small stuff (or so the saying goes). I do remember liking the food on CCL on my last cruise, so I guess I'll have to see if the quality has gone down recently as others have mentioned.

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halos

halos

Posted
Posted
Hilarious! Hey wait a second check out my cruise history.

I love your rating system!!! Looks like you have had some fabulous cruises, each being rated pretty high. (With the exception of the Sun that is)

That's how I feel...never had a horrible cruise!!

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STLATL

STLATL

Posted
Posted

We have sailed on Carnival a number of times and NCL once. We had problems from the beginning with NCL (with booking) and the problems continued up until we disembarked. I personally would stick with Carnival (but would also like to try a R.C. cruise!).

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Aplmac

Aplmac

Posted
Posted
sadly you are probably correct in that...what a shame that they have lowered the quality
Wondering why they lowered the food quality? (not that I've noticed..)

Maybe it's because y'all don't want to pay the fuel surcharge, now Oil's been over $70/bbl for the last 3 yrs?

 

SOMEbody's gonna pay for the fuel

and it sho' isn't going to be the Carnival Corp. or its shareholders! :)

.

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halos

halos

Posted
Posted
Wondering why they lowered the food quality? (not that I've noticed..)

Maybe it's because y'all don't want to pay the fuel surcharge, now Oil's been over $70/bbl for the last 3 yrs?

 

 

SOMEbody's gonna pay for the fuel

and it sho' isn't going to be the Carnival Corp. or its shareholders! :)

.

 

 

Fuel and the cost of living in general!!!

Cruise prices have remained steady for close to a decade. Something had to give, hence the cuts.

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