Why NCL?

[KarimaJ]

Oh yes freestyle dining! We love this since we don’t like to dress up on vacation and are never hungry at the same times each day. We like to pick throughout the day so depending what we have eaten, we may not want to eat until 8:30 or so.

 

 

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[Linda the Book Lover]

Oh how I agree on that and wish they also either sailed out of Charleston or had it as a port. But for now we have to live with what we have I guess.

We loved when NCL sailed out of Charleston. I wish they would do so again, made it easy to visit family and friends and then go on a cruise.

[JamieLogical]

I have only been on two cruises so far. My first cruise was with my partner, but we didn't choose the line, ship, or sailing. A buddy cruises every other year for his birthday and chose NCL based on his research into total cost with unlimited drinks. So, we went on the Escape with him and another friend last February. Since then I became addicted to cruising, so I did a lot of my own research on cruise lines. I came to the same conclusion as my partner's buddy. Total price with a drink package is just more affordable on NCL than other lines. A lot of other lines have lower base fares, but by the time you add on the cost of a drink package, NCL is a better deal. Plus, by sticking with NCL we earn Latitudes points and can take advantage of CruiseNext.

 

We've been on two cruises so far and have three more booked. Between those 5 cruises, we've basically earned a whole free cruise for one of us with CruiseNext savings. We have purchased a total of eight CruiseNext deposits for the price of four, so $1000 spent on $2000 worth of deposits. Which means we've saved $1000 on our bookings so far. Plus if you actually BOOK your next cruise while on ship at the CruiseNext desk, you get a free category upgrade on your room. Which is a savings of about $100 ($50 for each of us). We've done that for two cruises so far, so that's another $200 savings. So, in all CruiseNext has saved us $1200, which is the cost of a balcony room for one of us!

[mdsgu]

We book based on itinerary and home port. We are Platinum on Carnival, Gold on RC, and "almost" Silver on NCL. We're close to New Orleans, so it's easy to hop on a cruise there (and the vast majority are Carnival -- RC and NCL are only in NOLA seasonally). We did book NCL in Europe over RC because NCL was having a "kids sail free" promotion along with their drink package; both lines went where we wanted to go, but NCL was throwing in a few goodies. And Amex sweetened the pot with a free dinner at LeBistro and some OBC.

[Seminole1975]

The Entertainment

 

 

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[ElaineKeagy]

We loved when NCL sailed out of Charleston. I wish they would do so again, made it easy to visit family and friends and then go on a cruise.

 

 

 

[emoji106][emoji106] YES!!

 

 

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[firstimer2009]

We had a Med cruise booked on Holland for May 2019, but switched it to NCL for Sept 2019. We had sailed NCL to Alaska in 2009 and I really enjoyed Freestyle dining. HAL only had 2 other specialty restaurants available besides the buffet. Liked that O'Sheehans was open 24 hours for a quick meal. I don't think HAL had anything past 9:00 pm open.

 

So with the Free UBP and 3 Free Dining, we went with NCL. Also booked the front facing Penthouse balcony. Can't wait to sail in and out of Venice with a glass of champagne in my hand from that view!

[dinkydee718]

price is also a major factor in why we haven't done another DCL cruise - a flight to MCO and then 10000 for a 5 person verandah is a tough pill to swallow.

 

I agree. We love DCL but we get a Haven suite on NCL for less than what we pay for two balcony cabins on DCL.

[tallnthensome]

I talked about the my Panama Canal comparison to Carnival earlier ...... We love NCL but are not loyal to any line as I feel most people should not be. There are too many lines, ships, and destinations to be had to and to stick with one line is not for me. We have sailed MSC, Carnival, NCL, Royal, Princess, Holland and booked our first Celebrity. We always look for the best prices and deal and always book every cruise 2 years out. There are times when NCL is not the best, or better deal I should say. I think the Encore pricing is absurd and would never consider it and I am surprised that many are booking on her at the costs I see today and when she was released. They want only a couple hundred dollars less for a 7 day balcony then we paid for our 15 day Panama Canal inside for four on the Bliss coming up. The Encore, I looked at it a lot. Instead, I booked an April 2020 12 day Celebrity Southern on the beautiful Silouhette with great ports NCL doesn't go to, balcony, and 2 drink packages. It was only $500 more for four people than the NCL Encore 7 day (bleh itinerary) with balcony and UBP for 2. Sorry, but I will take five more days on Celebrity for four people for the five hundred bucks and all things pretty much being equal. You have to shop around and sail everyone. The MSC Seaside which we did in April blows away any deal NCL has. Love NCL and they have their deals, then they have their bad deals like the Encore.

[Tatka]

We aren’t loyal to anybody... although we do have our favorites- Celebrity and especially Princess (only 5 and 6 cruises with each due to location).

Royal is making it tougher for us as we just made Diamonds and open bar for 3.5 hours daily... :) among other benefits, cheap and reliable internet are tough to pass.

 

Will soon be on our 8th NCL cruise. Love fun atmosphere, nice entertainment. There are cons too. Smaller cabins, absence of covered pools (especially noticeable when we sail from local ports)

[Maniacal Cruiser]

 

UBP - Love not having to worry about a large liquor bill at the end of a 7 night cruise. That being said, the UBP is not "free" and you pay the service fees and the cost is definitely worked into the price of the sailing. It's a great luxury to have the ability to try as many drinks as you want over the course of your vacation.

 

 

 

Yes it is if you select it during the never ending FAS promotion.

[dog]

What exactly are the 4 free options listed on their website now? How much is each worth?

drinks

wifi

specialty dining

excursion

Please direct me to a link that explains it.

[dinkydee718]

What exactly are the 4 free options listed on their website now? How much is each worth?

drinks

wifi

specialty dining

excursion

Please direct me to a link that explains it.

 

https://www.ncl.com/cruise-deals/choice

[Barb Nahoumi]

We like NCL's freestyle cruise atmosphere, which does not have set dress-codes for dinner. Resort casual is fine with us. The crews are very helpful and friendly, food, service, and entertainment are all very good.

 

Also, they sail from Boston, which is so handy for us.

[thunter1224]

What is "Howl at the Moon" ? I will be on the Bliss next year.. but don't see that on the ship.

[LrgPizza]

What is "Howl at the Moon" ? I will be on the Bliss next year.. but don't see that on the ship.

There isn't one on Bliss. It's a chain of piano bars located all around the USA, and some have been put on a few of the NCL ships, specifically Epic, Breakaway, Getaway, and Escape.

[Lady Patriot]

dh and I always wanted to take a cruise. Long story short, we lived in Charlotte NC at the time the Majesty was sailing to the Western Caribbean out of Charleston (a 4 hour drive away). We decided to just take a cruise and if we liked it we could take more; if we didn't then we would never do it again.

 

We liked the Freestyle dining especially. We had been in rough seas 3 out of the 7 days, one of our ports was cancelled, another port (Cozumel) had been pretty much totalled by Hurricane Wilma. We were one of the first ships into Cozumel after Hurricane Wilma destroyed nearly all of the island. We were going to skip that stop too, but Cozumel begged us to come in to get the economy going again. It would have been a cruise to nowhere otherwise. Unless you're into pub crawling, Key West is a complete waste of time and effort.

 

Even after all that we were ready to go on our next cruise.

 

Anyway, the Freestyle Dining and the Free at Sea packages are the best. NCL is convenient for us because we can drive to NOLA. It's cheaper and we don't have to mess with the airlines.

 

We had the UBP, so I drank my face off, not thinking we might hit very rough (16') seas for the next 22 hours. :eek:

[Tatka]

Nowdays most of cruise lines adopted freestyle.

The only difference is that other lines still offer possibility to have assigned dining in addition to anytime, my time, your time dining.

[Zwervend]

This thread has been very helpful!

 

I just booked my first NCL cruise on POA in May of 2019. I treated myself to an aft balcony cabin and am very much looking forward to returning to Hawaii.

 

I've previously cruised twice on Holland America (Alaska and Canadian Maritimes) and while the scenery was spectacular, I was one of the youngest people on the ship which resulted in 80% of the active excursions that I signed up for being canceled. I'm a doer, not a tour bus rider. I'm hoping that NCL attracts a bit of a more active customer base. I also travel solo (did it for work for many years and prefer it), which seemed to really perturb and perplex many of the dinner companions I was sat with on HA.

 

I know that NCL's ships are larger than HA, there's more variety of dining available, no forced formal attire events and generally more to do on-board. What else, either good or bad will I want to know? I will largely take ship's excursions. How far in advance is it wise to book those? Are NCL transfers the best way to get from airport-hotel-ship-airport?

[Gopherpharm]

I have my first NCL Cruise this fall after sailing RCL, Carnival and Princess. I’m expecting NCL to be very similar to RCL/Carnival and this thread seems to agree.

 

 

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[susan1957]

Late night food is FAAAAARRRRR better on NCL. CCL only has very greasy ½ cooked nasty pizza.

What does NCL offer for late night food

[YVRBassElectric]

Nowdays most of cruise lines adopted freestyle.

The only difference is that other lines still offer possibility to have assigned dining in addition to anytime, my time, your time dining.

I booked anytime dining with RCCL 2015, when We boarded we were forced into 8:30 pm set dining - anytime was oversold - it will be very hard for me to give RCCL another chance

[JamieLogical]

What does NCL offer for late night food

 

O'Sheehan's/The Local is open 24/7 (except that they shut down for a bit between breakfast and lunch while they switch over) and the Buffet usually has a "Late Night Snack" are open after dinner.

[KarimaJ]

For Late Night the buffet usually has nachos, cheese, I had crepes a couple times, candy, fries, pasta dish, etc...

 

 

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[richstowe]

Why NCL? As another in the no loyalty crowd, I start each cruise search with all options open . I do believe that Norwegian has more additional fees that the others. That's ok provided that's taken into consideration when comparing cruise options. My Epic Mediterranean cruise was much cheaper than the competition. My upcoming Breakaway cruise was also available as a deal. If the starting price was the same, I'd pick Princess, HAL or Celebrity .

Let me end by saying, I love ALL my cruises.