Looking for comparisons with NCL...

[jdb in AZ]

If your TA books CCL and doesn't book NCL, Conde Naste or not, I'd get a new TA! CCL is horrid.

She doesn't recommend CCL either.

 

[woody73]

I think the newer ship might be different. My very picky friend (50), who has cruised on Princess, RCCL, etc. 10X said their Easter family cruise on the Epic was the best ever. I also have a 27 year old co-worker who raved about the Epic. I'll let you know soon!

I sailed on the Epic last year and had a great time.

I believe the Pride has an American crew. The only reason anyone goes on the Pride is because it's the only Hawaii cruise that doesn't require a 2 week cruise - spending half of that time GETTING to Hawaii. I've heard that the American crew is horrible. I don't think that experience is common across NCL.

The Pride of America is U.S. flagged, and its service gets awful reviews. But it is the only ship that can do a 7-day Circle Hawaii cruise. Plus it spends the maximum time in ports.

Woody

 

[KashasMom]

I sailed on the Epic last year and had a great time.


The Pride of America is U.S. flagged, and its service gets awful reviews. But it is the only ship that can do a 7-day Circle Hawaii cruise. Plus it spends the maximum time in ports.

Woody

I thought that's what I said.

 

[JOANNEL]

We just did a 12 day Med cruise on the Spirit. It was a great trip. It was port intensive so we really weren't on the ship much. We only had two sea days.
For the money it was well worth it. Disney is definitely better but i would go on NCL again. The cabin is smaller, but clean and comfortable. The freestyle dining was ok, just felt like a normal restaurant, not fun like DCL but we were exhausted every night so only an hour for dinner was fine. Food was hit or miss, prime rib was delicious. Desserts were ok, kind of boring. Breakfast buffet was also boring, but quick and easy. Had two on deck barbecues, food was very good there.

The shows were awful, felt like highschool musicals. The cruise staff was fun, We enjoyed all the trivia's, tastings & nightly shows in the lounges. We ate in two of the upcharge restaurants very good there also.

So go have fun, for DCL you pay more and expect more!!

 

[FJS961]

I came off the POA 3 weeks ago and it was great. The ship was clean and fresh as it had just had a $30 million 2 week dry dock refurb.

We were in a suite and our service was good. We did mostly specialty dining at Cagney's (used to be Lazy J steakhouse), tried la cucina and chefs table at le bistro. We did do one dinner in skyline (main dining) and the food was good but the atmosphere was like a wedding banquet - large, loud venue with a live band playing.

We actually ate off ship for 2 dinners which cost far more than specialty dining nickel and dime-ing but was well worth it. I love, love, love when a ship stays docked overnight!!

The closest thing to a sea day is when the ship leaves Kauai at 2pm and sails up and down the breathtaking Napali coastline. Its spectacular! I recommend a port side balcony for that.

If that ship and crew was sailing Bahamas or Caribbean there is no way I would choose it over other options though.

I am very eager to sail on NCL Breakaway in July - counting the days.

 

[woody73]

I came off the POA 3 weeks ago and it was great. The ship was clean and fresh as it had just had a $30 million 2 week dry dock refurb. . .

Thanks for sharing a recent experience on the Pride of America.

Woody

 

[dato63]

I came off the POA 3 weeks ago and it was great. The ship was clean and fresh as it had just had a $30 million 2 week dry dock refurb.

Thanks for sharing a recent experience on the Pride of America.

Woody

Same here. We happen to love NCL - have sailed them to Alaska & the Caribbean before. We are sailing the Pride of America (also in a suite) in 7 weeks. Nice to read she is all shiney and new.

 

[tvguy]

I came off the POA 3 weeks ago and it was great. The ship was clean and fresh as it had just had a $30 million 2 week dry dock refurb.

We were in a suite and our service was good. We did mostly specialty dining at Cagney's (used to be Lazy J steakhouse), tried la cucina and chefs table at le bistro. We did do one dinner in skyline (main dining) and the food was good but the atmosphere was like a wedding banquet - large, loud venue with a live band playing.

We actually ate off ship for 2 dinners which cost far more than specialty dining nickel and dime-ing but was well worth it. I love, love, love when a ship stays docked overnight!!

The closest thing to a sea day is when the ship leaves Kauai at 2pm and sails up and down the breathtaking Napali coastline. Its spectacular! I recommend a port side balcony for that.

If that ship and crew was sailing Bahamas or Caribbean there is no way I would choose it over other options though.

I am very eager to sail on NCL Breakaway in July - counting the days.

I consider NCL America, which runs the Pride of America, different from NCL. We had a great time on the Pride of America 6 years ago, however, as you have noted, it is a different cruise experience. The ship to me is much less of a destination unto itself, and much more a hotel. It was also our first (and will be our last) experience with Freestyle dining. Freestyle is workable, but the key word is work. We latched onto a server team, and every night made reservations for their table for the next night. NCL won't let you make reservations for the "free" dining rooms more than 24 hours in advance, only the extra cost dining rooms. As for dining, I was expecting them to push the extra cost dining, but was a little surprised at how hard they pushed folks to "eat ashore". And we were a little shocked that the Luau on shore that they were pushing was $100 per person.

 

[luv2sleep]

I came off the POA 3 weeks ago and it was great. The ship was clean and fresh as it had just had a $30 million 2 week dry dock refurb.

We were in a suite and our service was good. We did mostly specialty dining at Cagney's (used to be Lazy J steakhouse), tried la cucina and chefs table at le bistro. We did do one dinner in skyline (main dining) and the food was good but the atmosphere was like a wedding banquet - large, loud venue with a live band playing.

We actually ate off ship for 2 dinners which cost far more than specialty dining nickel and dime-ing but was well worth it. I love, love, love when a ship stays docked overnight!!

The closest thing to a sea day is when the ship leaves Kauai at 2pm and sails up and down the breathtaking Napali coastline. Its spectacular! I recommend a port side balcony for that.

If that ship and crew was sailing Bahamas or Caribbean there is no way I would choose it over other options though.

I am very eager to sail on NCL Breakaway in July - counting the days.

Great to here that the experience is getting better. Will think about booking it again.

 

[calmpets]

I've sailed DCL six times and NCL three times. They are such different products that I don't think you can actually compare them apples to apples. NCL is casual, eat whenever you want with whomever you want, and includes the basics but surcharges everything else. DCL is more formal, with regimented dining, and includes a few perks at no charge (mainly soda). The service, in my experience, was of equal caliber. DCL is a bit more aggressively friendly, but everyone was personable on NCL I never wanted for anything on either line. Shows are better on DCL, and enrichment-type activites are very similar on either line. I think DCL hand-holds its passengers a bit more. For example, most DCL shore excursions meet on the ship and are escorted to the pier. NCL assumes you can find the pier on your own. One area where NCL is a big winner is in their choice of itineraries. DCL likes to stick with the old stand-bys, where NCL likes to venture out to less frequented ports. Rooms are smaller on NCL, but suites are bigger and offer way more amenities. However, and this is a big however, DCL is literally almost twice the price of NCL. Yikes! I'm booked on a western caribbean cruise in March of 2014, and for my oceanview room on the NCL Dawn I'm paying just over $700pp. I priced the southern caribbean cruises on the DCL Magic for September 2014 (a traditionally cheaper time to travel) and I was looking at almost $1400pp. That's just insane! If I had to quantify the difference in the lines I'd say DCL is worth about a 30% markup from a NCL cruise, but at 100% markup they'll continue to lose me to NCL. Whatever you decide to do, have a great time!

 

[woody73]

. . . One area where NCL is a big winner is in their choice of itineraries. DCL likes to stick with the old stand-bys, where NCL likes to venture out to less frequented ports. . .

This is a big plus for me.

Woody

 

[MandyGirl]

This is a big plus for me.

Woody

Ditto!

 

[KashasMom]

INCL is casual, eat whenever you want with whomever you want, and includes the basics but surcharges everything else.

What is surcharged on NCL that is not surcharged on DCL?

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

What is surcharged on NCL that is not surcharged on DCL?

Soda
It is always the 'free soda'.

I am sure there are differences but this one always comes up .

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Soda
It is always the 'free soda'.

I am sure there are differences but this one always comes up .

What about castaway? I've been to private islands before and you had to pay for every bottle of water etc. Never had a free fresh fruit and lunch buffet and icecream and drinks and snorkeling (with your own equip) on any excursion that I've seen. That day is pretty inclusive. Does NCL include all that with their port?

Also Disney includes all its park hopping to cruisers who have PC as a port. Also pretty cool and inclusive.

 

[calmpets]

What is surcharged on NCL that is not surcharged on DCL?

The soda is the big thing people like to mention. I've heard that certain hours are at a fee for the children's programming, but as I haven't sailed NCL with kids I couldn't tell you for sure. Pizza delivery is $5 for a large pie delivered anywhere you'd like on the ship. After hours room service has a nominal surcharge, but then again there is a 24-hour eatery onboard so you always have a dining option open and don't need to rely on room service. On the bigger ships the high ticket shows (Blue Man Group, etc) are an additional charge. Those are the only things I can think of. Certainly nothing to substantiate doubling the cruise fare.

 

[NancyIL]

What about castaway? I've been to private islands before and you had to pay for every bottle of water etc. Never had a free fresh fruit and lunch buffet and icecream and drinks and snorkeling (with your own equip) on any excursion that I've seen. That day is pretty inclusive. Does NCL include all that with their port?

Also Disney includes all its park hopping to cruisers who have PC as a port. Also pretty cool and inclusive.

It is included in the price of the cruise, but you're paying for it. I have a WDW annual pass and wouldn't need a ticket, but there is no option to save it for a future trip.

 

[woody73]

. . . On the bigger ships the high ticket shows (Blue Man Group, etc) are an additional charge.

I sailed on the Epic last year, and there was no charge for the main shows Blue Man Group or Legends in Concert. Maybe the charge is new.

Woody

 

[KashasMom]

What about castaway? I've been to private islands before and you had to pay for every bottle of water etc. Never had a free fresh fruit and lunch buffet and icecream and drinks and snorkeling (with your own equip) on any excursion that I've seen. That day is pretty inclusive. Does NCL include all that with their port?

Also Disney includes all its park hopping to cruisers who have PC as a port. Also pretty cool and inclusive.

The only private island I remember being on - and it was a while ago - is RCI's. I know we didn't pay for anything. The lunch on CC is nothing to write home about though!

And a Disney park - no big deal for me. Did the Magic from NYC and as far as I was concerned that was a throw-in. Not worth anything to me having lived in Orlando. I would have been much happier with a different port.

 

[kaseyC]

I sailed on the Epic last year, and there was no charge for the main shows Blue Man Group or Legends in Concert. Maybe the charge is new.

Woody

Woody, You are correct. There are no charges for those shows. The only show with a surcharge is the Cirque Dreams Dinner show.