HELP!! Any RCCL cruises been on Norweigan Dream?

[cruiselovers]

After 7 RCCL, and several Celebrity and Princess cruises, we are looking for an affordable cruise over Christmas...We found Norweigan Dream, which is so much cheaper than a lot of alternatives...We sailed on NCL Norway 4 times, and have a great time...I know this is no Voyager Class ship, but has anyone sailed on her and have any constructive advise?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Retired not Expired]

After 7 RCCL, and several Celebrity and Princess cruises, we are looking for an affordable cruise over Christmas...We found Norweigan Dream, which is so much cheaper than a lot of alternatives...We sailed on NCL Norway 4 times, and have a great time...I know this is no Voyager Class ship, but has anyone sailed on her and have any constructive advise?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

I have not been on it but can tell you it is an older ship not set up for NCL's freestyle so it can have some problems there. It is also scheduled to be taken out of the inventory. Many love it but some have had problems on it.

 

If you are thinking about trying NCL again, I would do it on one of the newer ships.

[leoandhugh]

we have sailed on the Dream and her sister ship N Wind several TransAtlantic repositioning cruises. The ship is older, does not have all the bells and whistles of the newer ones, but they are very comfortable. Both ships were "stetched" several years ago adding cabins and expanding the dining room. There is usually one dining venue which operates as free style each night, but they tend to fill early, we have found the cabins in various categories to be comparable in size to newer ships. my one concern would be, knowing that they plan to transfer the ship next year to a subsidiary, the day to day maintenance may not be top of the line

[xstitch cruiser]

We were on the Dream about tow years ago on the Baltic cruise. The ports of call were wonderful and of all the cruises we were on, the shore excursions were probably the best organized on this cruise. We had an inside cabin and it was fine. We had plenty of storage space for all of our things. The interior of the ship was okay. The food on the lido deck was probably the worst of all the cruise shipes we were on. School lunches are probably better. The food in the dining room was okay. Nothing to write home about but okay. The staff on the ship were very nice. Our last day at sea the ship experienced engine problems and we sat in the middle of the Baltic sea for hours. There was no electricity and we were not allowed to go outside because of the sea conditions. It was very uncomfortable. The last I heard anything they were still experiencing engine problems. I think I would look at another ship.

[Carol51]

We were on the Dream for a trip to Norway in 1992 or 1993 - wonderful experience, one of the best cruises I've ever taken.

We were on the Dream for a transatlantic in December 2001 and it was probably the worst cruise I've taken. Cabin stewards had twice as many cabins to clean as before. It was freestyle, but not really set up for freestyle. Crew seemed overworked and stressed. We met a gentleman who had sailed NCL about 20 times - and he said he would never sail with them again, It was still better than a week at work, but I was disappointed. I'd recommend taking a shorter cruise on a different line or at least making sure it was a newer ship.

I have heard they've improved slightly (and I am thinking about using them for Hawaii now that we are in California) but it would have to be a really great price before I would sail her again.

[DeepWaterMariner]

We sailed the Dream in July, 2005 to Alaska (Freestyle) and also in 2001 to the North Cape (before Free Style began). I think you'll find the food to be not as good as RCI, Celebrity, or Princess but still ok. We enjoyed the Free Style dinning, even thought the Dream was not built for it, as a change of pace from our other cruise ship experiences. The Dream has two main dinning rooms that serve the same menu, both are Free Style. There is also an Italian dinning room which serves the same menu every day which we enjoyed. Le Bistro, found on all NCL ships, is very good but there is an extra charge. As mentioned before on this thread, the room used for the Lido Buffet is very small and the food is just ok. Since the ship wasn't built for Free Style they seem to try and adjust by having some very good BBQ's on deck which helps to spread the dinners around. We didn't have a problem with waits to get into eat but we were flexible. If it looked like we would have to wait we would go to another dinning room.

 

The entertainment on our last Dream cruise was excellent. As someone mentioned, the Dream was stretched which makes it a non-ideal arrangement but workable. It has been my experience that any ship that is stretched doesn't have as good a layout as the original design.

 

You will not find the Dream to be a glitzy or fancy as the new ships on RCI, Celebrity (with the exception of the Zenith), or Princess.