Long time Celebrity cruisers -first time NCL - will we be disappointed?

[bebe08]

We are in exactly the same boat as the OP.  After several Celebrity cruises we just booked our first NCL...a last minute Caribbean cruise on the Escape for early Jan.  Got an excellent deal including airfare.  To be honest, we were actively looking to try a different cruise line.  We have been to almost all of the Caribbean ports that Celebrity goes to, and have become a bit tired with their dining options.  The menus have barely changed in 5 years.  

 

Our upcoming Escape cruise has 3 new ports for us which we are really looking forward to.  Also looking forward to the Waterfront.

 

We were also very surprised that the premium bvg pck includes drinks up to $15 but not bottled water or special coffees!!!  We are going to bring our own refillable bottles....at least it is better for the environment.

 

We have already made reservations for the shows that take them in advance via the app.  I wasn't planning to make reservations for dinner tho....should we?  It is just 2 of us and for most part will eat mainly in the complimentary venues.

 

 

[smplybcause]

22 minutes ago, bebe08 said:

I wasn't planning to make reservations for dinner tho....should we?  It is just 2 of us and for most part will eat mainly in the complimentary venues.

 

You don't need it for the complimentary ones. If you happen to want to eat during the popular times you might have a small wait. I tend to eat later so have no problem. And I've only had a wait with larger groups. Also if I do run onto a wait I just walk over to another MDR and they usually don't. 

 

If you do end up wanting to do specialty, not having a reservation will likely end up in a long wait or them telling you they have no openings that night. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, bebe08 said:

have become a bit tired with their dining options.  The menus have barely changed in 5 years.

 

1 hour ago, bebe08 said:

will eat mainly in the complimentary venues.

See what I just quoted?  Set yourself up for success by booking at least a few specialty dining dinners.  Take a survey of those who have sailed on X and NCL, which one has better complimentary/MDR food and 99% will say X.  Even most NCL Haven guests who have their own "elevated" restaurant go to specialty restaurants.  Specialty dining will also break up the repetitiveness of the MDR.

[Georgia_Peaches]

1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

See what I just quoted?  Set yourself up for success by booking at least a few specialty dining dinners.  Take a survey of those who have sailed on X and NCL, which one has better complimentary/MDR food and 99% will say X.  Even most NCL Haven guests who have their own "elevated" restaurant go to specialty restaurants.  Specialty dining will also break up the repetitiveness of the MDR.

For the most part, I agree with you.  Except, and not trying to make this thread about food, I will say that the MDR food along with the suite restaurant food in Luminae on our last Celebrity cruise was surprisingly not up to par from previous cruises.  Therefore, I would say it's hit and miss depending on ship.  And although the Haven restaurant is elevated, they don't change their menu during the week so it can get tiring.  We've had good and bad food experiences on both lines.

[AL3XCruise]

I agree with many other posters that some people are discussing thing like reservations as being NCL-specific, while they are actually something found on most mega-ships.  The logistics of so many venues and so many people favor reservations, so cruisers who value spontaneity will like find themselves frustrated with most vessels with 4000+ passenger capacities.

 

I've had good luck with standby lines on the Escape during a winter cruise; during peak season with schools out reservations were much more critical.

 

3 hours ago, bebe08 said:

Our upcoming Escape cruise has 3 new ports for us which we are really looking forward to.  Also looking forward to the Waterfront.

 

The service on the Escape was the best I've experienced any ship I've been on with NCL, Royal, or Celebrity.  Granted its been about a year, but I was very impressed.  I hope you have a similar experience.

 

The waterfront is great place to relax, enjoy the ocean, and have drinks or a meal.  A great alternative to the upper decks you don't need to be in proximity of the pools and associated activities.  To me it is like the promenade deck on some older ships, but with more amenities.

 

In my past experience, I have found X to be more consistent across different ships and times of year than NCL.  I've had NCL cruises where I was glad I was on NCL, and ones on NCL where I wish I'd chosen X.   That said, I haven't been on X in the last few years and posts on here seem to suggest it may be suffering from some inconsistency now as well.

 

Regardless, I think most X cruisers will enjoy NCL though there may be a few things that aren't quite up to par.  The biggest adjustment is probably the megaship, but as I and other said, that would go for sailing a megaship of any line.  

 

 

 

 

[Love my butler]

Lots of people comment on NCL having great entertainment.  I generally agree, but for frequent cruisers, how many times can you see Footloose, Elements, Rock Me Tongiht or some of the other great shows?  NCL does not change out the shows every often (5 years or more) and even the best shows get boring after a few viewings.  I know, I know, first world problems.

Edited December 14, 2019 by Love my butler

[JohnBoy in NC]

23 minutes ago, AL3XCruise said:

 

 

Regardless, I think most X cruisers will enjoy NCL though there may be a few things that aren't quite up to par.  The biggest adjustment is probably the megaship, but as I and other said, that would go for sailing a megaship of any line.  

 

 

 

 

I agree. Love Celebrity but have done the last 2 cruises on NCL (have Encore in January and Equinox on Jan 2021) and have been happy with the cruise. Again I love variety and to me it’s fun to switch things up from time to time. I also go for value and Celebrity has been high lately....and those CruiseNext offers on NCL are pretty nice. 

[fshagan]

We have cruised Celebrity, Disney, NCL and Princess and Celebrity was, by far, the least favorite cruise. It's only one cruise on one of the ships in the size we prefer, the Infinity. Our complaints were minor in the overall scheme of things, though, and we wouldn't hesitate to cruise X again given the right price and itinerary.

 

For the OP, only the big broadway style shows require a reservation. The normal musical / variety shows in the main theater do not require a reservation in our experience. The big shows are definitely worth it; you can line up 15 minutes before show time for any open seats, and we often do that.

 

We drink a lot of bottled water and also don't like the price of the bottled water package (we don't drink enough alcohol to make the beverage plan, even at "free", worth the cost of the mandatory service fee of ~$20 a day). NCL is moving toward recyclable aluminum and paper cartons for water soon, and I think the Encore has them now.  We usually buy a 6 liter water package but will prefer the 20oz (1/2 liter) cartons when they have them fleetwide. We always calculate in the price of the water package when pricing a cruise out, and it has not yet been a deciding factor for us.

 

We thought the MDR food on X was inferior to the other lines; this is unusual, and most X fans say the food is much better. Our experience on our one X cruise was quite the opposite. So your mileage may vary on this.

 

Here are some specific things I like about NCL:

Embarkation Lunch: When you board you can choose to eat in the buffet like on X, or in one of the main dining rooms. Or, in the pub-style restaurant that is open 24/7 (called O'Sheehan's on most ships, but I think it has a different name on the Encore).

 

Anytime Dining: NCL does this best. On X, we always had to wait 15 to 30 minutes. On the Infinity the dining room was crowded, with very narrow aisles, and the waiters were literally swinging their large trays over our heads to serve people at the tables next to us. NCL, in contrast, has spacious dining rooms with wide aisles. Dinner service is faster on X, Disney and Princess than on NCL; if you have somewhere to be, let the server know. Otherwise they will let you take up as much time as you like, and the service can take a couple of hours if you look like you are in no hurry to leave.

 

Live music entertainment: NCL has more live entertainment than our single X cruise did. We love the live musicians in lounges on all the NCL ships, and the dueling piano shows, and even in the MDR on some of the larger NCL ships.

[bebe08]

18 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

See what I just quoted?  Set yourself up for success by booking at least a few specialty dining dinners.  Take a survey of those who have sailed on X and NCL, which one has better complimentary/MDR food and 99% will say X.  Even most NCL Haven guests who have their own "elevated" restaurant go to specialty restaurants.  Specialty dining will also break up the repetitiveness of the MDR.

Good point.  I was thinking we would wait and see what we thought of the complimentary dining before booking specialty dining but perhaps there won't be availability.  We've always though Celebrity should have a more casual pub style dining venue....something in between MDR and the buffet.  We are hoping O'Sheehans will fit that bill.  We have booked the supper club.  I will take a look at speciality dining and see what is available to book.

[cementhands]

I used to love celebrity but now.

Both of us love the Ncl Gem because of activities. Live bands and dancing parties nightly.

Celebrity offer a pathetic silent disco. Cheap way to say you offered an activities. We’re elite on celebrity and separately diamond on RCL. Platinum on Ncl. Now retired I’m leaning towards Ncl.
We need activities to work off the food. No activities no room for the extra food we enjoyed onboard. Gotta have zumba and dancing. Celebrity is a ghost town after 9 pm.

[XuGator]

Thanks everyone for the insight. It does sound like some of the adjustment will be because of the Encore being considered a megaship. I guess the biggest ship we have ever sailed on is probably The Regal Princess around 3600. Almost all of our cruises are on Celebrity in the 2500-3000 pax range and we really like that number I think. I know on Princess at 3600 passengers, it didnt seem overly crowded and we didn't have to make reservations and the Encore is only 400 more people but I guess around 4000 is when they start having capacity issues in the theater and need for reservations.  We are excited to try NCL especially for their offerings of activities and entertainment they have on board. Maybe one day they will update their bev package to include water. I still think that is pretty ridiculous.

[beerman2]

On 12/13/2019 at 4:29 PM, XuGator said:

I appreciate your response two wheels but you kind of proved my point. Just like I dont want to be charged for toilet paper, I dont want to be charged sales tax on drinks in a US port when I have the drink package.

However you are charged , it's in the total cost of your cruise fare. You do pay it up front, more expensive cruise.

 

It's that age old saying "pay me now or pay me later"! Pax can twist it anyway they want, but the fact is the tax paid on drinks in US ports does come from the pax.

[XuGator]

1 hour ago, beerman2 said:

However you are charged , it's in the total cost of your cruise fare. You do pay it up front, more expensive cruise.

 

It's that age old saying "pay me now or pay me later"! Pax can twist it anyway they want, but the fact is the tax paid on drinks in US ports does come from the pax.

There is a glaring difference though. When associated costs are baked into my cruise fare - I know what Im paying going into it. There is an element of transparency that way. Charging me a tax per drink in certain US ports has a cheap feel to it. The same with others who have indicated NCL charges for un-returned towels or that there is some type of towel check out system (I dont know if this is true or not as we havent sailed NCL yet) but that seems second rate to me.

[mjkacmom]

28 minutes ago, XuGator said:

There is a glaring difference though. When associated costs are baked into my cruise fare - I know what Im paying going into it. There is an element of transparency that way. Charging me a tax per drink in certain US ports has a cheap feel to it. The same with others who have indicated NCL charges for un-returned towels or that there is some type of towel check out system (I dont know if this is true or not as we havent sailed NCL yet) but that seems second rate to me.

NCL is not a luxury cruise line. I prefer to pay a lower fare, return towels, and pay $2 in drink taxes. If this is going to bother you, cancel. Seriously, going on this cruise with your attitude pretty much guarantees you will I’ll not have a good time.

[XuGator]

18 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

NCL is not a luxury cruise line. I prefer to pay a lower fare, return towels, and pay $2 in drink taxes. If this is going to bother you, cancel. Seriously, going on this cruise with your attitude pretty much guarantees you will I’ll not have a good time.

Lol - my attitude? Not wanting to be nickel and dimed at every turn? That is not my idea of vacation. I dont think it takes a luxury cruise line to not pass on ridiculous taxes to passengers who already purchased an unlimited beverage package. They should incorporate the extra couple of dollars into their upfront fees. I also don't think it takes a luxury cruise line to not charge a passenger a fee because they may have walked back to their stateroom and left their towel sitting by the pool. Its funny that there are actually people defending these practices. These are simple things NCL could adjust to enhance their product. I am just hoping I dont run into 5-10 more surprises like this when we set sail. That was the intent of this post, to acquire upfront knowledge of these tactics so we can be prepared and enjoy our vacation.

Edited December 17, 2019 by XuGator

[mjkacmom]

8 minutes ago, XuGator said:

Lol - my attitude? Not wanting to be nickel and dimed at every turn? That is not my idea of vacation. I dont think it takes a luxury cruise line to not pass on ridiculous taxes to passengers who already purchased an unlimited beverage package. They should incorporate the extra couple of dollars into their upfront fees. I also don't think it takes a luxury cruise line to not charge a passenger a fee because they may have walked back to their stateroom and left their towel sitting by the pool. Its funny that there are actually people defending these practices. These are simple things NCL could adjust to enhance their product. I am just hoping I dont run into 5-10 more surprises like this when we set sail. That was the intent of this post, to acquire upfront knowledge of these tactics so we can be prepared and enjoy our vacation.

Charging for towels helps prevent folks from bringing them on excursions and leaving them wet and sandy on the beach. It also helps with folks leaving towels on chairs, not bothering to return them and open up seating for others. I get it, this offends you. Me, I’d rather save money on my fare, if taxing me $2 for drinks in port keeps the fare lower, so be it. It’s like going to Outback and expecting Peter Lugers.

[XuGator]

2 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

Charging for towels helps prevent folks from bringing them on excursions and leaving them wet and sandy on the beach. It also helps with folks leaving towels on chairs, not bothering to return them and open up seating for others. I get it, this offends you. Me, I’d rather save money on my fare, if taxing me $2 for drinks in port keeps the fare lower, so be it. It’s like going to Outback and expecting Peter Lugers.

I understand the intent but maybe I am not clear on the towel policy. It makes a little more sense on port days where passengers would take these off ship. Is this the only time a check out is required? Or do you have to check out towels on sea days as well? I am not offended in the least but if my 8 year old sets his towel down somewhere on the ship, I don't think I should have to worry about being charged.

 

Lastly I disagree that you are saving any money on your fare for the few bucks charged on drinks in port. Comparing this to an Outback to Peter Lugers jump is ridiculous. It would be like me going to Outback but being charged for my straw with my drink.  I don't think my expectations are unrealistic at all. I also just want to understand all of these types of charges (that I deem petty) so it doesn't have an adverse affect on our vacation.

[ColeThornton]

It's the old "1 plus 2 equals 3 and also 1 and 1 and 1 equals three".

 

Different ways of doing things with the same result.   Just like cruise line policies.

[mjkacmom]

5 minutes ago, XuGator said:

I understand the intent but maybe I am not clear on the towel policy. It makes a little more sense on port days where passengers would take these off ship. Is this the only time a check out is required? Or do you have to check out towels on sea days as well? I am not offended in the least but if my 8 year old sets his towel down somewhere on the ship, I don't think I should have to worry about being charged.

 

Lastly I disagree that you are saving any money on your fare for the few bucks charged on drinks in port. Comparing this to an Outback to Peter Lugers jump is ridiculous. It would be like me going to Outback but being charged for my straw with my drink.  I don't think my expectations are unrealistic at all. I also just want to understand all of these types of charges (that I deem petty) so it doesn't have an adverse affect on our vacation.

You are given towels in your cabin (at least that’s how it was when we sailed last), and you can check out towels by the pool. At the end of your cruise you need to have turned in towels or left them in your cabin. I have five kids, I get it, we had no problem collecting extra towels on the pool deck before dinner if my kids left them behind. If you are going to let small issues bother you, yes, it will affect your vacation, I don’t know how it couldn’t.

[Two Wheels Only]

1 hour ago, ColeThornton said:

It's the old "1 plus 2 equals 3 and also 1 and 1 and 1 equals three".

 

Different ways of doing things with the same result.   Just like cruise line policies.

 

People are different and they tend to prefer things a certain way. 

 

I once asked if someone wanted to buy a loaf of bread.....

 

Store A has a loaf of bread for $2 "out the door".

Store B has a loaf of bread for $1 plus a 20 cent stocking fee, a 30 cent cashier service charge, a 25 cent bag fee, and a 10 cent receipt printing fee.

 

...which store would you recommend?

 

I find it strange that there are differing opinions on which store to recommend when (to me) the answer is obvious when the breads are identical. 

 

If it's a question of which store has better bread, then opinions will determine if store A is worth the extra cost. I understand that part but differing opinions of "all inclusive" vs "nickel and dime" come down to total cost from my perspective. 

 

Edited December 17, 2019 by Two Wheels Only

[beerman2]

49 minutes ago, XuGator said:

I understand the intent but maybe I am not clear on the towel policy. It makes a little more sense on port days where passengers would take these off ship. Is this the only time a check out is required? Or do you have to check out towels on sea days as well? I am not offended in the least but if my 8 year old sets his towel down somewhere on the ship, I don't think I should have to worry about being charged.

 

Lastly I disagree that you are saving any money on your fare for the few bucks charged on drinks in port. Comparing this to an Outback to Peter Lugers jump is ridiculous. It would be like me going to Outback but being charged for my straw with my drink.  I don't think my expectations are unrealistic at all. I also just want to understand all of these types of charges (that I deem petty) so it doesn't have an adverse affect on our vacation.

If you compare the price on Celebrity vs. NCL and pay 💰💰 more is that worth the maybe $10-$12 in taxes on drinks you would pay?

 

Maybe it's the principle of "how" the taxes are collected/paid that gets you. But again the bottom line is ALL pax are going to pay it on both lines.

 

Your 8 year old should be responsible enough to take care of their towel and I'm guessing they will be in close proximity to you near the pools. I'm pretty sure Carnival and RCI have that same policy ( end of cruise towel needs to be left in cabin)

 

NCL is very good at passing out fresh towels at the gangway on port days and collecting them at the pier when returning to ship.

 

 

 

[PhillyTravelBug]

On 12/13/2019 at 2:49 PM, XuGator said:

Thanks everyone for the responses. We are sailing on the Encore. We do not have the Haven and are booked in a standard balcony.

I have sailed the past three cruises on NCL (bliss, getaway, sun) and now have my first Celebrity cruise booked for next summer on the Apex.  The Encore looks to be a beautiful ship and you will really enjoy the observation lounge. The Bliss is a sister ship and it has been my favorite so far. There is enough for everyone and the encore looks like an improved version. I hope you enjoy NCL as much as I have so far.

[DinaS]

2 hours ago, mjkacmom said:

You are given towels in your cabin (at least that’s how it was when we sailed last), and you can check out towels by the pool. At the end of your cruise you need to have turned in towels or left them in your cabin. I have five kids, I get it, we had no problem collecting extra towels on the pool deck before dinner if my kids left them behind. If you are going to let small issues bother you, yes, it will affect your vacation, I don’t know how it couldn’t.

 

On our last cruise in October on the Escape, they were no longer putting towels in cabins.  You had to go to the pool to get your towels, and supply your cabin number.  We switched them out a couple of times, and then just left them in the cabin when the cruise ended.  

[fshagan]

20 hours ago, XuGator said:

Lol - my attitude? Not wanting to be nickel and dimed at every turn?

 

To be honest, I think you'll be disappointed with NCL. I would never spend my money on a vacation where I had as many reservations as you have cited so far. NCL will seem like a nickle and dime festival if sales tax on drinks while in port bother you.

 

NCL's business is built on a pay-for-extras business model, where specialty dinners, dinner shows, and specialty treats and fancy coffee are extra cost items. Those of us who don't use those items are happy with the arrangement because we're not paying for "included" things that others enjoy, but that we don't care about.

 

I think you will find a ton of things wrong with NCL in the "nickle and dime" department. I don't think you will be happy. That could lead you to think you have wasted your money and time when you could be enjoying yourself on another line.