Why try Norwegian

[Crazy planning mom]

8 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Yep. That's why I said there are pros and cons to every line. Everyone has to find the best combination of what they value in a cruise. I enjoyed the go karts and laser tag as well, but to me they weren't worth the loss of deck space. Once I paid the upcharge to do them a couple of times, the novelty wore off and I wished the rest of the ship didn't feel so crowded due to the space they took up.

 Lots of people enjoy these activities.  The OP was asking why people pick NCL.  This wasn't an NCL v. Celebrity thread.

 

Edited September 30, 2022 by Crazy planning mom

[JamieLogical]

3 hours ago, Crazy planning mom said:

 Lots of people enjoy these activities.  The OP was asking why people pick NCL.  This wasn't an NCL v. Celebrity thread.

 

 

The OP's exact questions were: "Would like to know what people like about Norwegian and also do not like. Those that have been on other lines what would you say is similar and what is different?"

 

They mentioned they had previously sailed Celebrity, which is the only other line I have sailed, so I was providing my comparisons in experiences between NCL and Celebrity.

[Turk1]

Thanks for all the input. As I said before most of our cruises have been on Princess. Since the Pandemic things have changed as I'm sure for all the lines. We have always liked Traditional Dining but not opposed to other types. Princess has what they call Club Class Mini-Suites which offers anytime dining in a set aside area which works for us. Always interested in other cruise lines that may offer a little different route we haven't really been on. We enjoy a nice bar where we can sit and "people watch" while relaxing with a frosty beverage. No longer in to the Carnival 20 something cruises. Celebrity is great although a little more expensive than other options. Where does NCL fall price wise compared to say Princess and RCL? Best cabin type? Most definitely a balcony or above.

[DaCruiseBug]

6 hours ago, Xentrix said:

 

Im going on a cruise next week and have paid all the service charges/gratuities upfront, and with the Free at sea plus I get Wi-fi, speciality coffee, any drinks, bottles of wine etc without paying anything on the boat. Sure the FAS plus cost some but the whole cruise (including airtransfer) was cheap IMO so I don't mind. 

 

"Cheap" is a relative term. There's people who think paying $3,000 for 2 people in a balcony cabin is "cheap".

 

You already paid the $16 per day in gratuities which is $224 for 2 people on a 7 day sailing. You paid another $138.60 per person for the "free" drink package plus another $49 per person per day for the "free at sea plus" which comes out to another $686 for 3 people on a 7 night sailing. So right there you have about $1,200 in fees and upgrade costs. And you still don't get free room service!

 

So either you get nickel and dimed for everything on the ship or you still get nickel and dimed (on less things) and you pay $1,200 to NCL up front. Compare that to what MSC and Celebrity charge and you'll see just why NCL is a ripoff!

[Xentrix]

49 minutes ago, DaCruiseBug said:

 

"Cheap" is a relative term. There's people who think paying $3,000 for 2 people in a balcony cabin is "cheap".

 

You already paid the $16 per day in gratuities which is $224 for 2 people on a 7 day sailing. You paid another $138.60 per person for the "free" drink package plus another $49 per person per day for the "free at sea plus" which comes out to another $686 for 3 people on a 7 night sailing. So right there you have about $1,200 in fees and upgrade costs. And you still don't get free room service!

 

So either you get nickel and dimed for everything on the ship or you still get nickel and dimed (on less things) and you pay $1,200 to NCL up front. Compare that to what MSC and Celebrity charge and you'll see just why NCL is a ripoff!

 

For my 7 night Greek Island cruise I pay around 1400 € for a inside cabin, including Free at sea, including gratuities, and including airfare Stockholm-Venice (return trip). For adding the Free at sea plus I pay 270 € more, also including gratuities. Totaling around 1700 €. I'm alone in the cabin so for two the price would have been way lower per person, obviously. 

 

I plan to not spend any money at all on the ship, or max $100 for the entire week, I'll report back after cruise how it went. 

[Diane67B]

15 hours ago, Colorado Buffalo said:

For me I fell in love with 'The Waterfront' which I believe is deck 8.

It's a great outdoor promenade area with outdoor eating & bars as well as

some comfy seating where one can curl up and read a book.

 

If I'm not mistaken The Waterfront is on all Breakaway Class ships and newer.

My absolutely favourite part of the Breakaway Plus category. Also, adding to yours is walking the Waterfront several times a day. Beautiful and relaxing. Unbeatable in my opinion.

[TheycallmeDrew]

56 minutes ago, DaCruiseBug said:

 

"Cheap" is a relative term. There's people who think paying $3,000 for 2 people in a balcony cabin is "cheap".

 

You already paid the $16 per day in gratuities which is $224 for 2 people on a 7 day sailing. You paid another $138.60 per person for the "free" drink package plus another $49 per person per day for the "free at sea plus" which comes out to another $686 for 3 people on a 7 night sailing. So right there you have about $1,200 in fees and upgrade costs. And you still don't get free room service!

 

So either you get nickel and dimed for everything on the ship or you still get nickel and dimed (on less things) and you pay $1,200 to NCL up front. Compare that to what MSC and Celebrity charge and you'll see just why NCL is a ripoff!

Never taken Celebrity so I can’t comment on the cruise itself but I just did a mock booking to compare prices to my February NCL cruise and I either had to choose 0 perks for same price or $1000 more for gratuity and a beverage package I won’t use so not seeing the huge price savings you are promoting. 

Couple of disclosures:

 

1) my ncl cruise has 6 ports so more port fees so actually a point in ncl favor for a same cost cruise 

2) didn’t take the drink package since not going to be on ship most of the time 

3) with 6 ports the $50 per excursion goes along way in savings if booking through the ship which we do

 

So price wise they seem pretty close to me. Either I pay $3200 for Celebrity for all included or I pay $2200 for NCL and add $1000 for fees to there packages. 
 

End of the day looks like my out of pocket is $3200. 
 

So try both, look for deals, itineraries that interest you  and stick with the one you prefer. 

 

[DaCruiseBug]

34 minutes ago, Xentrix said:

 

For my 7 night Greek Island cruise I pay around 1400 € for a inside cabin, including Free at sea, including gratuities, and including airfare Stockholm-Venice (return trip). For adding the Free at sea plus I pay 270 € more, also including gratuities. Totaling around 1700 €. I'm alone in the cabin so for two the price would have been way lower per person, obviously. 

 

I plan to not spend any money at all on the ship, or max $100 for the entire week, I'll report back after cruise how it went. 

 

That's not a horrible deal for Greece in October but you could have gotten an Oceanview cabin on MSC with a drink package for about $900.

[Xentrix]

39 minutes ago, DaCruiseBug said:

 

That's not a horrible deal for Greece in October but you could have gotten an Oceanview cabin on MSC with a drink package for about $900.

As a single cruiser? Then I'm impressed. Especially if the drink package covers as much as the Free at sea plus. And the airtransfer should be around 300-350€ +

[Crusin Karen]

This interests me.  I love CCL.  But my homeport is NY and I prefer to cruise in Feb, March or April and they don't start sailing from here until June.  I have questions about drink package but that's for another thread.  I just have 2 questions:  This is for GEM.    I'd book an OV.  The OV rooms on CCL are big.  Anyone have comparison to NCL?  Also, I guess I'm in the minority but I LOVE to dress up for dinner!!!  I have all my cruise clothes.  Just black pants worn with some sparkly blouses and jewelry.  Will I look out of place?

[pacruise804]

23 hours ago, prov2727 said:

I've only been on Holland and NCL. I liked Holland well enough to book a cruise immediately upon my return. It just happened to be an NCL cruise. But I really liked NC and have booked the rest of my cruises with them. As a single person, I enjoyed the freestyle dining rather than sitting awkwardly at a table of stranger couples. I want to relax and enjoy myself not try to steer conversations away from religion and politics.

 

And then there's the fact that I am a Mountain Dew drinker. Oh, well. That perk is gone. 😭 I can't decide if that is enough of a reason to check out Carnival.

 

I think that Carnival is switching back to Coke also.

 

9 minutes ago, Crusin Karen said:

This interests me.  I love CCL.  But my homeport is NY and I prefer to cruise in Feb, March or April and they don't start sailing from here until June.  I have questions about drink package but that's for another thread.  I just have 2 questions:  This is for GEM.    I'd book an OV.  The OV rooms on CCL are big.  Anyone have comparison to NCL?  Also, I guess I'm in the minority but I LOVE to dress up for dinner!!!  I have all my cruise clothes.  Just black pants worn with some sparkly blouses and jewelry.  Will I look out of place?

I don't think you will look out of place.  I've only done one NCL cruise, but I suspect like Carnival you will find some who dress for dinner and some who don't.  My memory of NCL was I was comfortable dressing up or down as much as I wanted (and I usually dress up a little since cruises are our "date" nights).

[DaCruiseBug]

1 hour ago, Xentrix said:

As a single cruiser? Then I'm impressed. Especially if the drink package covers as much as the Free at sea plus. And the airtransfer should be around 300-350€ +

Yes as a single cruise. Airfare from ARN-VCE roundtrip shows $36 on Ryannair as they’re the only ones showing non-stop flights. Even some of the legacy airline with a stop are under $200.

[JamieLogical]

3 hours ago, Crusin Karen said:

This interests me.  I love CCL.  But my homeport is NY and I prefer to cruise in Feb, March or April and they don't start sailing from here until June.  I have questions about drink package but that's for another thread.  I just have 2 questions:  This is for GEM.    I'd book an OV.  The OV rooms on CCL are big.  Anyone have comparison to NCL?  Also, I guess I'm in the minority but I LOVE to dress up for dinner!!!  I have all my cruise clothes.  Just black pants worn with some sparkly blouses and jewelry.  Will I look out of place?

 

I don't think you will look out of place. One of the things I do love about NCL is that you can dress up or dress down and you will see people all along the spectrum, so you never really feel too dressed up or too dressed down. It's such an even mix.

[spanishguy1970]

Our first cruise on NCL was in 2009 a Transatlantic out of Barcelona on the NCL Gem. We love the ship, freestyle dining, casual dress which now i am told other cruise lines are adopting. We love seeing new ships and comparing within the same fleet. We enjoy the MDR, have always found meals we enjoy and other times not so much, We like Moderno specialty restaurant, other people don't, Some people like Cagneys, we don't, we have found better steaks in the MDR. I guess is all about personal choice. We haven't done any other cruise line, and that's because we feel the grass on not always greener on the other side, we like the itineraries we choose, and everyday find a new itinerary we have not done. We have considered another cruise line, mainly Celebrity but mostly because we knew a lady who love the cruise line but for the time being we like NCL ships.

[Xentrix]

6 hours ago, DaCruiseBug said:

Yes as a single cruise. Airfare from ARN-VCE roundtrip shows $36 on Ryannair as they’re the only ones showing non-stop flights. Even some of the legacy airline with a stop are under $200.

 

Ok thats a good deal. The 300-350€ was based on what the flight that NCL included in the deal cost when I booked. Sure there was cheaper options but I would't fly Ryanair for several reasons. 

 

I might be "ripped off" going with NCL but if so I´m still happily ripped off as long they deliver what I expect. 

[DaCruiseBug]

3 hours ago, spanishguy1970 said:

We haven't done any other cruise line, and that's because we feel the grass on not always greener on the other side

 

3 hours ago, spanishguy1970 said:

We have considered another cruise line, mainly Celebrity but mostly because we knew a lady who love the cruise line but for the time being we like NCL ships.

 

So you won't try another cruiseline because the grass isn't always greener on the other side? But if you never try then how do you know?

 

Most people I know took their first cruise on Carnival and thought it was amazing (myself included). Then people tried other cruiselines and saw just how crappy Carnival is compared to the competition.

[spanishguy1970]

28 minutes ago, DaCruiseBug said:

 

 

So you won't try another cruiseline because the grass isn't always greener on the other side? But if you never try then how do you know?

 

Most people I know took their first cruise on Carnival and thought it was amazing (myself included). Then people tried other cruiselines and saw just how crappy Carnival is compared to the competition.

Because again we don’t need to know, is our choice. We like where we are, we enjoy the itineraries and why do we need to go somewhere else if we are ok where we are for now, does that mean we won’t somewhere else? Absolutely not it just means as long as NCL has the itineraries we like we will continue to sail with them. 

[Crazy planning mom]

20 hours ago, Turk1 said:

Thanks for all the input. As I said before most of our cruises have been on Princess. Since the Pandemic things have changed as I'm sure for all the lines. We have always liked Traditional Dining but not opposed to other types. Princess has what they call Club Class Mini-Suites which offers anytime dining in a set aside area which works for us. Always interested in other cruise lines that may offer a little different route we haven't really been on. We enjoy a nice bar where we can sit and "people watch" while relaxing with a frosty beverage. No longer in to the Carnival 20 something cruises. Celebrity is great although a little more expensive than other options. Where does NCL fall price wise compared to say Princess and RCL? Best cabin type? Most definitely a balcony or above.

Hi Turk.  Prices vary depending on ship.  You pay a premium for the Prima and Viva.  When I priced out my upcoming cruise, Princess was more.  NCL is sometimes more than expensive than RCL but when you figure the free at sea perks, it's not always more.  The club balcony suite is a little bigger than a regular balcony.

[mjkacmom]

In spite of living 20 minutes from 2 cruise ports, my first cruise on NCL was when I was 38. I had no desire to cruise, didn’t want to eat with others, dress up, hang out with folks my grandparents age. A friend actually talked me into it, I figured I’d give it a shot. My next cruise was DCL, was not a fan of a set dining time, trying to get all the kids ready in time. On port days, we’d get back on the ship in the afternoon, everyone starving, grab something to eat and no one was hungry for dinner. I do not like buffets outside of breakfast. We actually purchased the UBP on NCL when it first came out and wasn’t perk. I’d like to try RCL.

[saltsandknit]

Choosing a cruise line depends on how you like to vacation. I have been on Princess, Carnival and Royal, I prefer NCL for a cost perspective I like a drink package, a dining package and wifi is necessary my husband has to work since he owns a business. I find food and entertainment better, I like the slower vibe, I have no desire to dress up more than a sundress and sandals for dinner. The local is a must when we need a snack after midnight. When you factor in all the costs all the cruise lines are the same price and if you watch you can get some great deals. We like to dance and find the jewel class ships the best for us. The crew is friendlier on NCL. We have made some great friends on NCL that we still communicate with. I love the spa as well. Will you enjoy it yes, will it be what you expect from Princess no, but I will say Princess is my least favorite line .

[graphicguy]

Funny...I've always felt each person's wants and needs to be a little different than the next person.  That's why there are so many cruise lines.  They are probably more similar than different, but they each offer their own tone that sets them apart.

 

I know I've cruised the majors.  I can look at my cruise history and see what I prefer.  But, that doesn't mean I won't look elsewhere for better value.

 

Pricing for a cruise is a bit like buying a new mattress.  Good luck trying to compare apples to apples.  I've been pricing cruises for 20+ years.  Sometimes (OK, just about all the time) I price cruises out daily. I do it for sport.  As such, it becomes relatively clear where the deals are.  But, the deals can vary widely from Cruiseline to Cruiseline.  Who knows what their formulas are for pricing.  But, it's complex.  Generally speaking, I know Alaska cruises right now CAN BE a good deal as the weather is getting colder.

 

But, outside of price, what each person prefers their experience to be is different.  Personally, Carnival is probably the last cruise line I'll look at when it comes to pricing out cruises.  But, Carnival is wildly popular.  It's just my preference.  Some feel that way about NCL, or Royal.

 

My preferences are what they are.  I look at NCL and Celebrity first.  If I find nothing that appeals there, then I look at the rest.

 

Only one sure way to find out what you do/don't like about a cruise line.  Sail them.  Try something you haven't tried before.  At the very least, it will be something different.  

 

Even when things went sideways, I've always had fun on a cruise.  Short of the Titanic, Concordia, Princesses' COVID cruise or Carnival's "p00p cruise", I don't see how you wouldn't have fun.

[CruizinSusan70]

On 9/29/2022 at 9:05 AM, Turk1 said:

We have been cruising for a long time. Most of the time we book Princess. Have also done Royal, Holland, Carnival and Celebrity. Have never been on Norwegian but we are considering it now. Would like to know what people like about Norwegian and also do not like. Those that have been on other lines what would you say is similar and what is different? We like Traditional dining but have heard dining is different on Norwegian. Any info you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Have also done various lines over the past 30 years.  I would recommend you try one of the Prima Class ships, it should be a game changer for NCL similar to how the Excel Class has raised the bar for Carnival.  Believed in this class so much we booked the Prima three times before March of 2023.  Good luck with your decision.

[CruizinKittie40]

I changed from Carnival to NCL because of the BOGO/half price flights and the solo cabins.  Carnival just cannot compete. 

[graphicguy]

@cruiseny4life….Indeed.  Could have snagged a 7 might Haven Forward Suite for late Oct/early Nov sailing to NE/Canada for around $275/night/pp.  And that price was all in. It’s sold out now.  Kind of thought about it.  But, as it stands, after FCCs, OBCs, perks, I’m all in on the same cruise for around $180 (sailing solo) in a MA category.  Nice cabin.  Great price.

 

So, bottom line, while the Haven was a great deal, sailing on a ship in a very nice non-Haven cabin cabin for less than I can live in my own house for a week was just too tempting.

[CruizinSusan70]

On 9/29/2022 at 3:39 PM, SimplyAlbert said:

We love freestyle dining, and the free at sea promo (I realize we pay for it, just like the all-inclusive feel).  

NCL is not all inclusive.  Daily service charge, unlimited wifi and coffee and water in the drinks package are all items that are extra with NCL, but are included on Celebrity and Princess with their packages.