Mostly NCL Cruiser recently completed first RCI cruise

[dolita22]

My daughter and I just returned from a 9 day cruise on Explorer of the Seas. While we enjoyed ourselves it was just missing something. I am not complaining we did enjoy ourselves. The best way to describe it is this cruise was missing the easy rhythm of an NCL Cruise. Good thing I brought my books with me because we often found ourselves with nothing of interest to do.

Pros on EOS: nice cabins, beautiful large pool areas, funky soda machines Cons| limited choices for dinning, buffet had no variety, shopping was rediculous with overkill tactics in the promenade nightly, debarkation and embarkation madness at Port Liberty.

 

We missed: Freestyle Dinning, Specialty Dining and O'Sheehans, quality of musicians, friendliness of staff, nightly parties and overall quality of Cruise Director and Staff.

 

For the right deal I would not exclude RCI from possibilities. However, I will look first to NCL.

 

We felt very much like you did after our cruise in the Indy in February. It was our honeymoon cruise, and while we enjoyed the cruise, there was something that was missing for us as well. The itinerary is what drew us in - absolutely loved having 8-nights (St. Maarten, St. Kitts, San Juan, Labadee) - but we realized on that cruise that we much prefer NCL and Freestyle over Royal.

 

Overall, we felt food and entertainment are both better on NCL.

Entertainment seemed to be lacking on our Indy cruise. When there wasn't a show being performed, the only other options were to go to a bar and drink or go to the art auction.

 

Glad you enjoyed yourselves! Never hurts to check out something new. :-)

 

For us, we can't wait for our NCL cruise next year!

[daveeboy]

I find this all very interesting, I am going on the Jade next summer having only ever cruised on Royal. I am looking forward to the freedom of dining and seeing what the entertainment is like on the Jade.

 

I am sure I will see lots of opinions on the subject but what should I look out for on the Jade.

[Homecruiser]

What is nice about this thread is there is no bashing. This is not full of NCL zealots ...just a bunch of people stating a preference. In my opinion if you like RCI you will not be totally disappointed with the Jade. The Jewel class ships are really nice. While they have elements of free style like dinning choices, the entertainment is similar in the main venues. Shows of some sort every night. Not the big productions like on NCL or RCI mega ships. My favourite cruise was on the Gem, sister ship to the Jade. I hope you enjoy your first cruise on NCL. No cruise is a bad cruise but there will be differences both good and not so good. In my opinion never enough to ruin your vacation. Just go with the freestyle flow and you will be fine.

[Barb Nahoumi]

Okay, that makes sense. I thought that your "backbone of the industry" comment implied that first time cruisers were providing a high percentage of the industry's revenue (which didn't make much sense to me). I can certainly see why the lines would want to lure first-timers.

 

We were ALL first-timers once. I was invited to try my first cruise in 1999, with my friends who have all cruised before. That was on the Carnival Triumph, when she was a fairly new ship.

 

Today, I am a Platinum Cruiser on NCL. Cruises are like a potato chip------"Ya can't have just one."

[mw_1970]

My daughter and I just returned from a 9 day cruise on Explorer of the Seas. While we enjoyed ourselves it was just missing something. I am not complaining we did enjoy ourselves. The best way to describe it is this cruise was missing the easy rhythm of an NCL Cruise. Good thing I brought my books with me because we often found ourselves with nothing of interest to do.

Pros on EOS: nice cabins, beautiful large pool areas, funky soda machines Cons| limited choices for dinning, buffet had no variety, shopping was rediculous with overkill tactics in the promenade nightly, debarkation and embarkation madness at Port Liberty.

 

We missed: Freestyle Dinning, Specialty Dining and O'Sheehans, quality of musicians, friendliness of staff, nightly parties and overall quality of Cruise Director and Staff.

 

For the right deal I would not exclude RCI from possibilities. However, I will look first to NCL.

 

 

Have to say I really like RCI.

 

I know what you mean about the lack of dining options but have to say in my opinion the food and service in the MDR's is superior to the NCL ships I have sailed and we have rarely felt the need to dine in a speciality restaurant and also I feel the MDR's are a lot classier.

 

Explorer is a funny ship. It's a very, very quiet ship and was our least enjoyable of the RCI cruises we did. I found the ports pretty dull and I will agree that Cape Liberty port is utter chaos and very slow at embarking and disembarking.

 

We have sailed RCI Liberty twice and whilst similar to Explorer is much more of a fun ship. Apparently you get an older crowd on the Explorer 9 night route.

 

I will agree that the choice of Specialities on NCL is an attraction and I love Cagneys, the asian and I also agree that (where available), O'Sheehans is great !

 

I would urge you to try a Freedom Class ship (or above) on RCI as I believe you would enjoy these. On Liberty there is a fantastic Latin Music bar called Boleros which was packed every night with live Salsa band and Salsa dancing. Great fun.

[mw_1970]

On EOS there were 2 dining options. Portofinos and Johnny Rockets. I believe she will get a few more specialty restaurants when she is refurbished. We went to Johnny Rockets and passes on Portofinos.The burger was good but not great and because we were the only people in the place for all but the first 5 minutes of our meal the fun aspects were just not as fun as they should have been. The only other food choices were the MDR, Buffet and a small cafe in the promenade that served small sandwiches, limited pizza slice choices and some sweets. Pizza was never visible ..to minimize people choosing it. We pretty much stuck to the main dining room. food was good not great and after a few days meals were pretty much repetitive. This did not turn me off the cruise. It simply was not what I was used to and not preferred over NCL. I think it is good to check out other offerings. It certainly made me appreciate what NCL offers. On the other hand I certainly understand that there are others who Prefer the RCI offering. To each his own.

 

Explorer also has Chops Grill Steakhouse if I recall ?

[spielbank]

My family has sailed both NCL and Royal - Diamond members with Royal. We sailed Independence 4/12/14 and it was the worst cruise we have EVER been on. I think of all their ships, this is by far the worst and their customer service regarding our issues was terrible. NCL has always met our expectations and beyond. Our next cruise is Getaway next April.

[Homecruiser]

No Chops on the Explorer. I Guarantee we would have found it. the did offer some additional charge entrees in the MDR for some Chops offerings ...$30 for chops steak and lobster.

[bellabaloo]

We prefer rccl over ncl ships overall. However, the haven is by far the best! I'd book the haven any chance we could over any other line...pending flights, etc. While we enjoyed the breakaway and freestyle, we really missed getting to know the different staff members and having their special touches. We also prefer the rccl kids place as well. I wonder if it is because our first two cruises were with rccl? We are going back to rccl for our next one and I bet we'll miss freestyle a lot more! Lol!

[Homecruiser]

Hard to say. I do believe as suggested that it depends on the ship. These choices are simply up to the individuals and are highly dependent on crew, passenger demographics and ports. You already have some established preferences. Chances are they will not change. My intent as nit to change anyone's preference. I can understand some of the things you have indicated as better on RCI For me at the end of the day overall my preference is the NCL offering.

 

BTW I have cruised a couple of times on Carnival and had a good time on those occasions. That being said it ranks well below RCI and NCL.

[kellyrie]

I think I was most surprised with the lack of choices of things to do on EOS. There was always something going on but at any given time there only seemed to be one or two things. I also found it weird that a lot of the bars closed down in the areas that there wasn't something scheduled. The food in the main dining room I found to be better than on any NCL cruise I have taken but I did miss the specialty restaurant choices. The buffet was better than some NCL cruises and not as good as others. We didn't have issues with Bayonne, although it was different than NY and Boston it was running pretty smoothly in both directions (guess we got lucky there). Our stateroom was nice- we had a minisuite or whatever they call it and our steward was fantastic (probably the second best we have ever had and better than our penthouse steward on NCL) We will definitely try RCI again but probably wouldn't go on the EOS again.

[mw_1970]

No Chops on the Explorer. I Guarantee we would have found it. the did offer some additional charge entrees in the MDR for some Chops offerings ...$30 for chops steak and lobster.

 

I stand corrected.

[SMerritt]

My daughter and I just returned from a 9 day cruise on Explorer of the Seas. While we enjoyed ourselves it was just missing something. I am not complaining we did enjoy ourselves. The best way to describe it is this cruise was missing the easy rhythm of an NCL Cruise. Good thing I brought my books with me because we often found ourselves with nothing of interest to do.

Pros on EOS: nice cabins, beautiful large pool areas, funky soda machines Cons| limited choices for dinning, buffet had no variety, shopping was rediculous with overkill tactics in the promenade nightly, debarkation and embarkation madness at Port Liberty.

 

We missed: Freestyle Dinning, Specialty Dining and O'Sheehans, quality of musicians, friendliness of staff, nightly parties and overall quality of Cruise Director and Staff.

 

For the right deal I would not exclude RCI from possibilities. However, I will look first to NCL.

 

Sounds like our Oasis cruise and then some.......

 

And YES!!! "shopping was rediculous with overkill tactics in the promenade nightl"

 

We had a Loft Suite - Embarcation at FLL was a miserable Zoo