PRINCESS vs NORWEGION

[plunker]

We have 3 Princess cruises under our belt and have a 4th booked. Have never cruised with anyone else. Wondering if anyone has cruised Norwegion (specifically the Norwegion Getaway) and could tell me some of the differences. Princess is so great with my sons peanut allergy and I'm hoping Norwegion would be the same. Our kids are 12 and 8 and the Getaway has the water slides, rock climbing wall, and the ropes course. We are considering it but dont want to change and be disappointed. Do they have something like MUTS? Any help from anyone who has cruised them would be appreciated.

[more cruises]

We normally cruise with Princess but have been on the Getaway twice - once during her inaugural year and then once shortly after. We loved her the first time and were sadly disappointed the second. It was like they stripped away the personality of the ship. The only adult pool was a disappointment for us, so super crowded. I also don't care for the overall design of the ship - the promenade deck extends out so if you have a lower balcony you end up looking down on the deck, not down on the water. I feel like these cabins should be classified as obstructed and they aren't. Just beware that if you book a guaranteed balcony or the next higher category balcony this is what you'll probably get.

 

We felt like this ship was designed for families with young children so your kids will probably love it - the water slides and ropes course look amazing. We liked the fireworks. No need to go into the crowded Spice H2O, just go to a high deck, you can see fine.

 

If you go to the magic show insist on sitting center front, it's really not much fun to watch from the side.

 

I don't know that you'll be disappointed with your cruise but you may decide, like we did, that we'll be sticking with Princess

[shumdit1]

Hi, I am an elite on Princess but will sail other lines. I recently sailed on the Breakaway. It is not Princess. It was a nice ship and the young adults with me enjoyed the slides and rope course. Entertainment, comedians, food-nothing compared to Princess. They now charge $7.95 for room service.

[jasbo49]

We've only cruised NCL twice (neither on Breakaway) and Princess four times, so that's a pretty limited bank of knowledge, but here are a few of our observations and opinions.

 

+++There isn't much we liked better on Norwegian, but we thought the entertainment was the best we've seen on any cruise line. This ranged all the way from the production shows to the lounge acts. They had a great comic-magician and a soul-singing duo that my wife just refused to miss after we caught them on the first night.

 

The buffet on the NCL Jewel was a real easy access island affair. I have yet to find a Princess buffet where I liked the traffic flow.

 

You will get a sofa in (most?) NCL cabins. Also, I really liked having a coffee maker in the cabin, as you do on NCL with a balcony or better.

 

---Among the things I didn't like on NCL were the Spartan furnishings. It just doesn't seem like there are very many places, including your cabin, to sit down on something soft and comfortable.

 

While we liked the NCL buffet better, we didn't think the MDR food was on a par with Princess. More things were served lukewarm. Fish entrees were good, but no much else.

 

In our experience, both the cabins and the balconies seemed smaller on NCL.

 

And we had a really bad experience with the hotel manager, who didn't seem to give a rat's behind that our toilet wouldn't flush half the time. For that reason, it's unlikely we'll ever cruise NCL again.

 

Jim

[mek]

The best things about NCL are the extra charge restaurants, but you have to be willing to pay for them. I like their buffets, but food in the MDR is not very good, IMHO.

[misand]

We have been on all the major cruise lines. Our next cruise is the Regal Princess. So far our favorite ship by far was the NCL Getaway. We had a mini suite large balcony. Loved the outdoor space on the ship. Loved the ropes course, plank and zipline. Overall great experience!

[sassyredhat]

We are Platinum with PCL, and we have sailed twice with NCL, however only on NCL Star.

Also, we were in a suite both times on NCL. Our DS and family had an inside cabin.

 

I have to say, NCL does the suite experience fabulously, and that is probably the way we will sail NCL in the future. The prices for our 2 suite cruises were fantastic.

The inside cabins are the smallest I have seen !

However, the beds were really comfortable. With PCL, we usually get an egg crate topper. The crew was very nice and helpful.

 

In our experience with the Star, the buffets were comparable, neither one great, but easier to navigate on NCL.

PCL main dining food is good. We only ate in main dining on NCL 2x and it was pretty good, but a long wait.

We like traditional dining, so the anytime situation was not for us.

 

We did like the shows on NCL, but our 30-40ish DS and DIL, were bored. But, they were bored on PCL too. The baby/kids facilities on NCL were pretty good.

 

We don't do pools, and I cannot remember if NCL has an outdoor screen, but the pool areas were nice and the kids loved them.

 

I would say, It's always good to try something new, but don't expect NCL to be just like PCL.

We are older, and PCL is a great fit for us, and we would sail NCL again, but only in a suite. We got so spoiled. :D

 

Patti

[jacketwatch]

I c/p my review of the Getaway below.

 

 

 

Embarkation; Overall we were on the ship in just less than thirty minutes so thats OK but before embarking they wanted to inspect my wifes carry on and found some food we had which they said was not allowed. It was some cooked Indian snacks in a plastic bag and he said it had to be in a sealed bag. This was the first time this has ever happened to us and I must say this was not the way to start our cruise. It wasn't fruit or meat, it was akin to chips so that to us was ridiculous.

 

After got to our room I saw a large bin with luggage and went to see if ours was in it. It was right across from our cabin. Well the steward was pretty pissy about me being in a crew only area. The door was open and I did not see the sign but he wasn't too nice about it to me. Hmmm. Later an officer came by who said he was their supervisor so I told him what happened and he apologized and got our luggage in a timely manner and the next day we got some choco covered strawberries and a bottle of merlot. He cleaned up the mess very well which also included four calls over 6 hrs. for robes which we never got. Finally this same super solved that problem as well.

 

The life boat drill was next and this was frankly not well done. We went to our stations where some gal told us, about say 100 adults to be silent. Then did nothing for five minutes so by then people were talking so she repeated her announcement and again nothing happened for 5 mins. so of course people began to talk again. So now some officer said she wanted 'absolute silence! and she was very stern. Hey earth to you two. JUST START THE DRILL. By the time they did we all listened. Just make one announcement that silence is necessary when the drill starts, then start it. Period. So far it seems the crew we have encountered is not well trained in CS and needs some education. But things improved after that. A Lot!

 

Food: Overall I thought it was on a par with X and Princess. NCL does not have a lobster night but at O'Sheehans pub which is one of the 28 dining venues the Getaway has they at least twice had prime rib and we had it in the MDR so maybe nix it form a pub and use that $$ you save for one night of a lobster dinner. Just a thought. My wife always orders Indian food and here NCL was disappointing. They served it but it was basically what they had from lunch in the cafeteria whereas on our other 12 cruises which include X, Princess, RCL and CCL they mostly made something fresh every night and often took requests so this part was not on a par with what we have become used to. However we spoke to the Maitre'd who prepared a feast for us on the last night so that was very nice. The great thing here is that there are so many choices including a Japanese style noodle bar as well as 4 or 5 extra fee places which we did not try. Again overall the food was up to the standards I have noted on other lines.

 

The balconies are very small. Well at least we had one. The table on the balcony is basically big enough for one plate of food and cup of coffee. Two people on the balcony was ok, albeit a bit snug.

 

The public areas were all very clean and there is plenty to do especially on sea days. However outside of the much more expensive Haven there is but on adult pool which is a joke to accommodate 4K passengers. On top of that there is a smoking section on the pool deck and that is not enclosed. I was especially bothered by that. NCL close that off. No non-smoker and most passengers are in this category want to be exposed to cig smoke, especially by the pool where you hang out for hours. They also had no indoor pool area as well. We missed that. Oh well.

 

As time went by it became clear that the services glitches we first encountered are not the norm. Most of the crew work very hard to please you and it shows. Our cabin attendant was a bit lax and you realize just how important they are as ambassadors to the passengers as you see them most often usually and a friendly rapport goes a long way to make one feel welcome. We missed that with him. His cleaning of our room was ok but spotty. He would leave dirty dishes, forgot to replenish the coffee, and missed a few things like this consistently. It is very nice that NCL has tea and coffee makers in the room however. I have not encountered this before so that was a nice surprise.

 

Entertainment: Well this is where NCL shines. The comedy club featured one of the actors from the movie "barbershop", Frank Townsend. He was a riot. The grammy show features someone who at the least has been nominated for a grammy and we had the pleasure of seeing Shannon McNally who was nominated in a country music category. Well she was a pro and you could see why she got a nod for this award. She put on the best cruise ship show we have seen and its in a club with about 15-20 tables and a small stage so you were up close to her performance.

 

NCL has an atrium with a huge screen and a stage for audience participation shows and the CD, Joel Sanchez MC'd most of them and wow he is fun and the shows were great. . We loved just hanging out here watching the shows or listening to the reggae band, Groove International but the shows featuring the passengers were a riot. They had one similar to DWTS where you paired up a crew member with a passenger and man you should have seen them cut loose. The eventual winners who were both a bit large and did a take off from that scene in Dirty Dancing where Baby runs and jumps into Johnnies arms and he lifts her. Well as they got ready to do this I though OMG! someone is gonna get hurt but they pulled it off and that was it! Winners!!

 

We saw a great song and dance show called Burn the Floor and it was very high energy and very well done. We also saw the magic show at the Illusionarium and this too was good though the seating was not tiered so if you were in the back your view was somewhat blocked. However overall we saw well enough. it was a dinner show and the fee was about $25.00 pp and it was worth it IMHO. They served filet and prawns and it was pretty good.

 

There was a crew talent show which featured some surprisingly good singers and dancers and it too was very entertaining.

 

On the last night the crew performed a rousing final show which sent us off very happy to be so well entertained. Folks most of the crew are very hard workers but there are some who need more training and for this I think service its a notch below the service we have received on X and Princess, bear in mind it was not bad, just not quite as good. The guy running the internet cafe was frankly lazy. I did not purchase an internet package because he could not even look up from his pc to help me. He handed me a pamphlet and told me to follow the instructions and they buried himself in his phone. As this cafe is next to the atrium where we saw a lot of shows we saw him often and he was either on his pc or his phone. Once some people took chairs meant for the PC's and used them to watch the shows and people who came to use the pc's had no where to sit. However I doubt he noticed this or of he did didn't care enough to intervene. That being said would we cruise NCL again. Absolutely. They do put out a wonderful product and there are enough positives to win out the day. However we did miss one thing. Breakfast in the MDR on other lines would include a large table being filled so you had a chance to meet people. We requested shared tables on the Getaway but never got them for breakfast or dinner and we missed the opportunity to meet people this way and I think most folks like to meet new people too so I hope NCL could consider something to promote shared tables unless you prefer privacy which you can always ask for.

 

Unfortunately they had a fireworks which we missed but I hear it was awesome and we will be sure to see it again if available.

 

Disembarkation was a breeze and I like the fact that you can stay in your cabin until you have to leave to get your luggage. Their transfer to MIA was only $16.00 per person, very reasonable.

 

We had a fun time and someday will cruise NCL again given the right ship and itinerary. As I have always wanted to see the USS Missouri in pearl Harbor perhaps the POA cruise will be in our future. A friend of mine did this cruise and was very pleased and he too requested Indian food and had no problems. We have done land vacations on the major islands so hopefully a cruise will be in our future.

 

Again well done NCL. We are happy to have another cruise line to consider when we cruise again. My wife thinks and I agree that this ship would be great for a new years cruise.

 

We are looking f/w to our next cruise, the Sapphire out of Singapore next Feb. and again I think overall Princess has a better standard when it comes to CS. NCL had some shining moments and they are way better than they were say 9 yrs. ago when their CC reviews were getting scores in the 2-3 range so they have come a long way I think.

__________________

 

__________________

2002 RCL Splendour of the Seas, western Med.

2003 CCL Destiny, so. Caribbean

2005 Sapphire Princess, Alaska

2006 Tahitian Princess, French Polynesia

2007 Star Princess, the Baltic

2008 RCL Adventure of the Seas, so. Caribbean

2009 Island Princess, Panama canal full transit

2009 CCL Triumph, NE/Canada.

2011 Celebrity Constellation, Holy land

2012 Celebrity Equinox eastern Med.

2014 CCL Legend, western Caribbean.

2014 Diamond Princess, Japan

2015 NCL Getaway, eastern Caribbean.

Edited July 8, 2015 by jacketwatch
clean up

[caribill]

I c/p my review of the Getaway below.

 

 

 

 

Thanks. I enjoyed reading it.

[riclop]

We have 3 Princess cruises under our belt and have a 4th booked. Have never cruised with anyone else. Wondering if anyone has cruised Norwegion (specifically the Norwegion Getaway) and could tell me some of the differences. Princess is so great with my sons peanut allergy and I'm hoping Norwegion would be the same. Our kids are 12 and 8 and the Getaway has the water slides, rock climbing wall, and the ropes course. We are considering it but dont want to change and be disappointed. Do they have something like MUTS? Any help from anyone who has cruised them would be appreciated.

 

For kids NCL will be better but for adults Princess by a land slide.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the Getaway review. :)

[minabruuke]

We tried the NCL Epic a few years ago and came right back to Princess. We truly had an awesome time on our Epic cruise but there were a few things that stopped us from wanting to go back to NCL.

 

On the Epic the food in the main dining rooms was awful, as was the service. One of my entrees was so terrible that I couldn't choke it down (that is unusual for me, I may not like something but I still usually eat it as I hate wasting food). It sat in front of me for almost an hour (I tried to get his attention many times) before the server finally took it away and sat a dessert menu down without saying a word. I wanted a different entree but I wasn't willing to wait for him to come back again. On the other hand, the specialty restaurants were truly phenomenal. On Princess I am perfectly content in the main dining room but on NCL I would feel the need to pay more for specialty dining and I just don't want to fell like I have to pay more to have a decent dinner on a cruise. Even if the food quality in the Epic main dining room was better, I'd have still found the menus very boring. I also felt like dining hours, in the buffet for example, were too limited on the Epic.

 

My other problem with the Epic was with the abundance of cigarette smoking. I have allergies to cigarette smoke and thus can't tolerate being around it. My husband doesn't like it but the first and only time I have ever heard him complain about it was on the Epic. He actually stated that he didn't want to go on another NCL cruise just because of the loose smoking policies(he is not into food like I am so he could care less about the food quality). We had a chain smoker on the balcony next to us which rendered our balcony completely useless if we wanted to breathe comfortably. We could look down at the lifeboats and see cigarette butts all over the tops of them, that is just plane scary on a ship. We had ash on our balcony every day from the room above us. We had to call the emergency line early on in the cruise because there was very obviously something burning somewhere near our room. Around the ship we felt like we just couldn't get away from the smoke. We had done our research so we knew about the vast casino that caused smoke to drift through the center of the ship and we knew people could smoke on their balconies but we just could not have imagined how hard it would be to avoid the cigarette smoke which is quite easy to do on Princess.

 

We did find the entertainment on NCL to be far superior to that on our Princess cruises. My husband also loved the rock climbing walls and water slides.

 

We truly had a great time on our NCL cruise but the negatives were too negative for us and we just can't think of any negatives of that gravity on Princess.

[MacGuffin]

Hi. We are Elite with Princess and have sailed all Grand class plus Regal. Had a terrible experience on the Norwegian Pearl - the ship was tacky, cheaply made and the food was terrible. Vowed to never go on NCL again. However, all the publicity and decent to good reviews enticed us onto the Getaway and we splurged for the Haven. Long story short, we'll never do NCL again. Twice burned, twice shy. I'll try to be brief: Princess feels like a ship, Getaway like a new Miami Beach hotel. The ship was very nice, similar to the new Celebrity ships. But the compliments stop there. Grand class ships have FOUR outdoor pools for 3,000+ passengers, Getaway had ONE for 4,000+. We never failed to marvel at the stupidity of this design! Princess has MUTS, Getaway has Spice H2O, a cramped area on the rear of the ship with poor traffic flow and very, very limited seating for the one movie they showed. It felt like sitting in front of a jumbotron vs. MUTS drive in movie feel. Regal had excellent shows, on par with NCL, but really NCL's Burn the Floor and Legally Blond were just amped up versions of typical cruise ship shows with better dancers. Princess Crown Grill and Sabatini's are excellent extra charge dining options, and the dining in general is very good. The main dining on Getaway was not good, and the extra charge were good, but equivalent to Princess free dining. But my biggest shock with Getaway was EVERY SQUARE INCH of public space came with a fee or was designed to take your money! A rainy sea day forced us inside, but our only options were casino, bars or shops. That's it!!! There are literally NO free lounges to hang out it! The Getaway theater was closed, as were all specialty restaurants. The only no charge public spaces are a small game room/library, a secondary atrium with a big screen TV that showed reruns of Cake Boss to support the Cake Boss cakes on sale right behind you, Flamingo Grill, a very good alternative free buffet that did get boring after 6 days of eating the same menu, and the screamingly chaotic main buffet. That's it: excluding the small gym, only 4 free public spaces!! The ship and even the Haven and Thermal Suite were always crowded. So... while the Getaway did have A LOT of kids and families, be prepared to pay for EVERYTHING and fight for deck chair space. We went on a lark to see what all the fuss is about and missed our Ruby Princess every single day.

[tootsiescurly]

The best things about NCL are the extra charge restaurants, but you have to be willing to pay for them. I like their buffets, but food in the MDR is not very good, IMHO.

 

We thought the restaurants were just ok, nothing special. Food for the most part was not very good no matter where you ate. This being said, food is always subjective.

[Loonbeam]

Norwegian is a tale of two lines from what a lot of people tell me. There's the newer ships...and many of the others.

 

We did a short cruise on the breakaway, I did a fairly extensive Breakaway/Royal comparison here. Structurally, the Breakaway and Getaway are almost the same...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2153272

[Cruise a holic]

We normally cruise with Princess but have been on the Getaway twice - once during her inaugural year and then once shortly after. We loved her the first time and were sadly disappointed the second. It was like they stripped away the personality of the ship. The only adult pool was a disappointment for us, so super crowded. I also don't care for the overall design of the ship - the promenade deck extends out so if you have a lower balcony you end up looking down on the deck, not down on the water. I feel like these cabins should be classified as obstructed and they aren't. Just beware that if you book a guaranteed balcony or the next higher category balcony this is what you'll probably get.

 

We felt like this ship was designed for families with young children so your kids will probably love it - the water slides and ropes course look amazing. We liked the fireworks. No need to go into the crowded Spice H2O, just go to a high deck, you can see fine.

 

If you go to the magic show insist on sitting center front, it's really not much fun to watch from the side.

 

I don't know that you'll be disappointed with your cruise but you may decide, like we did, that we'll be sticking with Princess

 

Ironically, my experience of Princess was very disappointing. We found that the Ships, especially the Caribbean Princess was very crowded. The "adult" pool is a very small pool off of the spa with very little seating. Because of the crowing by the main pools, we reserved the Santuary for the entire week on the Caribbean princess the second time, and the Crown princess. The theatre was also very crowded, if you weren't seated 1/2 hour before the show- you were lucky to find a seat. A recorded announcement was played every few minutes stating reserving seats wasn't allowed, yet many people did reserve seats. No employee was enforcing this rule which made the announcement even more irritating. The buffet was meager at best- very small- the same few

items daily with very little variations. Food in main dining room fair. Fortunately we were in a suite and had breakfast in Sabatini's daily- that was a treat.

 

While I haven't sailed on NCL yet, we do have a cruise booked for August. To avoid the crowding as I am sure many children will be on board, we have reserved a suite in the Haven. NCL also has an adult only area called Vibe which is supposed to be great for those in standard cabins. The cost of rental for the week is much cheaper that in the Princess Santuary.

 

I would highly recommend Celebrity for those who want a truly well rounded cruise that is more Adult oriented. My second recommendation is RC, Oasis class ships.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[mek]

We tried the NCL Epic a few years ago and came right back to Princess. We truly had an awesome time on our Epic cruise but there were a few things that stopped us from wanting to go back to NCL.

 

On the Epic the food in the main dining rooms was awful, as was the service. One of my entrees was so terrible that I couldn't choke it down (that is unusual for me, I may not like something but I still usually eat it as I hate wasting food). It sat in front of me for almost an hour (I tried to get his attention many times) before the server finally took it away and sat a dessert menu down without saying a word. I wanted a different entree but I wasn't willing to wait for him to come back again. On the other hand, the specialty restaurants were truly phenomenal. On Princess I am perfectly content in the main dining room but on NCL I would feel the need to pay more for specialty dining and I just don't want to fell like I have to pay more to have a decent dinner on a cruise. Even if the food quality in the Epic main dining room was better, I'd have still found the menus very boring. I also felt like dining hours, in the buffet for example, were too limited on the Epic.

 

My other problem with the Epic was with the abundance of cigarette smoking. I have allergies to cigarette smoke and thus can't tolerate being around it. My husband doesn't like it but the first and only time I have ever heard him complain about it was on the Epic. He actually stated that he didn't want to go on another NCL cruise just because of the loose smoking policies(he is not into food like I am so he could care less about the food quality). We had a chain smoker on the balcony next to us which rendered our balcony completely useless if we wanted to breathe comfortably. We could look down at the lifeboats and see cigarette butts all over the tops of them, that is just plane scary on a ship. We had ash on our balcony every day from the room above us. We had to call the emergency line early on in the cruise because there was very obviously something burning somewhere near our room. Around the ship we felt like we just couldn't get away from the smoke. We had done our research so we knew about the vast casino that caused smoke to drift through the center of the ship and we knew people could smoke on their balconies but we just could not have imagined how hard it would be to avoid the cigarette smoke which is quite easy to do on Princess.

 

We did find the entertainment on NCL to be far superior to that on our Princess cruises. My husband also loved the rock climbing walls and water slides.

 

We truly had a great time on our NCL cruise but the negatives were too negative for us and we just can't think of any negatives of that gravity on Princess.

 

We were on the Epic the first year she sailed. Unlike many, I loved the cabins and having a coffee maker was great. The steakhouse was the only extra charge restaurant we ate at besides the MDR and we had a great meal there. I was most disappointed in the entertainment. I hated Blue Man, but my adult son thought it was great. I think part of the problem was the ship was so large and it was the first cruise where we realized my DH needed a transport chair to get around on a ship. I think we probably missed some things because it was so difficult for him to get around. Fortunately, he saw the light and we have used a transport chair since the Epic - now if I could convince him to get a scooter........

Edited July 11, 2015 by mek