NCL Advice?

[Kwami]

Hello,

Next spring, I'll be taking my first-ever NCL cruise. It's a family thing. We'll be on a 10-night Bermuda/Caribbean cruise on the Getaway, which is pretty much the same as the Breakaway.

I have some questions for those of you who have sailed with NCL before. I haven't been able to find as much information as I'd like, so I'm asking here. I hope that's OK!

1. How is the food at the main restaurants? How is the food at the "specialty" restaurants? We get two specialty meals included. Is it worth buying more?

2. What is there to do all day? On DCL cruises, we enjoy the scheduled activities like trivia, crafts, drawing classes, and that sort of thing. I don't see anything like that on NCL's website, though. We don't drink and we don't gamble, so that seems to limit us a fair bit.

3. I think that there are two adults-only areas. One seems to be free and the other isn't. What's the difference? Is it worth paying for the non-free one?

4. There seems to be only one "Broadway-style" show on the ship's website. Is that it? Just one for the 10 nights?

5. Anything else I should know? I've only sailed with Disney before. This is all new and weird to me.

Thanks!

 

[Makdex71]

Sailed on the Getaway last July out of Port Canaveral for a 7 night cruise.
1. Food in dining room is hit or miss, but I have found that NCL specialty restaurants are usually worth the extra money. We ate at Cagney's Steak House and the Teppanyaki restaurants and both were very excellent. A couple years ago we sailed on the Norwegian Star and spent most of our nights in the specialty restaurants as the service and food were a lot better than the main dining rooms. O'sheehans is the go to 24 hour diner spot and we ate a few meals there during the week and it was typical bar foods with some specials thrown in. There is no grill for basic hamburgers or 24 hour pizza they are just part of the buffet. My wife does not like fish but I heard good things about OceanBlue as well.
2. Activities were scattered throughout the day with stuff all over the ship. The thing that we didn't like is that the adult game shows and comedy shows were sprinkled through out the dinner hours so we were either catching the first part or last part of them. Trivia games were held through out the day and were very crowded. There were a few classes for cooking and arts but nothing like what Disney does. Lot of bingo and deal or no deal shows. Gambling and drinking are what I saw most people doing as they had the drink packages and were there for a good time.
3. The non-free adult area is Vibe and I did get passes for it. It has 2 hot tubs, a bar, and a large sun deck that is only accessible using a key card. The deck chairs have thick cushions and the stewards bring out iced bottles of water with fruit in them and cold towels during sea days to you. Also there are umbrellas as well for shade. NCL limits the amount of people and you never have to fight for a deck chair and never had an issue getting into the hot tub either. No kids and a dedicated bar so you never had to wait for a drink. As crowded as the normal deck gets it was nice getting up late and not having to worry about reserving a chair. The public adults only area at the back of ship was fine but there was no shade and the water area was tiny and usually filled up with people sitting with a big tv screen blasting music. You used to have to rush to get the passes for Vibe when you got on the boat but now you can pre-reserve on the site or calling in.
4. The show we saw was Million Dollar Quartet which was really good. The group that did that also did a show earlier in the cruise with broadway songs with changed up styles. There was also a dance show called Burn the Floor as well. Both were 2 nights each with 2 shows a day in the main theater. Don't know if they have changed any of this but they could have used more nights as you had to book tickets for the main theater shows and some people got left out. Also there is a club called Syd Normans with a house band that was very good. They played a different show every night. You need to line up about 30 mins to an hour to get a seat as there is limited seating, but it was worth it. We tried to see every show as they did a lot of 70's to 90's rock music. In addition to this they also have comedians in the comedy club and sometimes in the main theater.
5. One thing a lot of people on our cruise did not know about was that there is an early priority access pass you can buy. We purchased it so that we could get an advantage that got us on the ship after the haven people first and also got us off the ship prior to most of the regular passengers as well. It also included priority tendering as well since we had a tender port at Great Stirrup Cay. It is similar to Faster to the Fun on Carnival and helps alleviate the large crowds of people getting on and off the ship. After doing NCL for a couple of cruises it is ok but I have said that if I was to sail it again I would need to be in the Haven.

 

[Kwami]

Sailed on the Getaway last July out of Port Canaveral for a 7 night cruise.
1. Food in dining room is hit or miss, but I have found that NCL specialty restaurants are usually worth the extra money. We ate at Cagney's Steak House and the Teppanyaki restaurants and both were very excellent. A couple years ago we sailed on the Norwegian Star and spent most of our nights in the specialty restaurants as the service and food were a lot better than the main dining rooms. O'sheehans is the go to 24 hour diner spot and we ate a few meals there during the week and it was typical bar foods with some specials thrown in. There is no grill for basic hamburgers or 24 hour pizza they are just part of the buffet. My wife does not like fish but I heard good things about OceanBlue as well.
2. Activities were scattered throughout the day with stuff all over the ship. The thing that we didn't like is that the adult game shows and comedy shows were sprinkled through out the dinner hours so we were either catching the first part or last part of them. Trivia games were held through out the day and were very crowded. There were a few classes for cooking and arts but nothing like what Disney does. Lot of bingo and deal or no deal shows. Gambling and drinking are what I saw most people doing as they had the drink packages and were there for a good time.
3. The non-free adult area is Vibe and I did get passes for it. It has 2 hot tubs, a bar, and a large sun deck that is only accessible using a key card. The deck chairs have thick cushions and the stewards bring out iced bottles of water with fruit in them and cold towels during sea days to you. Also there are umbrellas as well for shade. NCL limits the amount of people and you never have to fight for a deck chair and never had an issue getting into the hot tub either. No kids and a dedicated bar so you never had to wait for a drink. As crowded as the normal deck gets it was nice getting up late and not having to worry about reserving a chair. The public adults only area at the back of ship was fine but there was no shade and the water area was tiny and usually filled up with people sitting with a big tv screen blasting music. You used to have to rush to get the passes for Vibe when you got on the boat but now you can pre-reserve on the site or calling in.
4. The show we saw was Million Dollar Quartet which was really good. The group that did that also did a show earlier in the cruise with broadway songs with changed up styles. There was also a dance show called Burn the Floor as well. Both were 2 nights each with 2 shows a day in the main theater. Don't know if they have changed any of this but they could have used more nights as you had to book tickets for the main theater shows and some people got left out. Also there is a club called Syd Normans with a house band that was very good. They played a different show every night. You need to line up about 30 mins to an hour to get a seat as there is limited seating, but it was worth it. We tried to see every show as they did a lot of 70's to 90's rock music. In addition to this they also have comedians in the comedy club and sometimes in the main theater.
5. One thing a lot of people on our cruise did not know about was that there is an early priority access pass you can buy. We purchased it so that we could get an advantage that got us on the ship after the haven people first and also got us off the ship prior to most of the regular passengers as well. It also included priority tendering as well since we had a tender port at Great Stirrup Cay. It is similar to Faster to the Fun on Carnival and helps alleviate the large crowds of people getting on and off the ship. After doing NCL for a couple of cruises it is ok but I have said that if I was to sail it again I would need to be in the Haven.

Thanks! That's all really helpful!

Where can you buy the priority pass? How far in advance can we book shows and other reservations?

 

[edith76]

Sailed on the Getaway last July out of Port Canaveral for a 7 night cruise.
1. Food in dining room is hit or miss, but I have found that NCL specialty restaurants are usually worth the extra money. We ate at Cagney's Steak House and the Teppanyaki restaurants and both were very excellent. A couple years ago we sailed on the Norwegian Star and spent most of our nights in the specialty restaurants as the service and food were a lot better than the main dining rooms. O'sheehans is the go to 24 hour diner spot and we ate a few meals there during the week and it was typical bar foods with some specials thrown in. There is no grill for basic hamburgers or 24 hour pizza they are just part of the buffet. My wife does not like fish but I heard good things about OceanBlue as well.
2. Activities were scattered throughout the day with stuff all over the ship. The thing that we didn't like is that the adult game shows and comedy shows were sprinkled through out the dinner hours so we were either catching the first part or last part of them. Trivia games were held through out the day and were very crowded. There were a few classes for cooking and arts but nothing like what Disney does. Lot of bingo and deal or no deal shows. Gambling and drinking are what I saw most people doing as they had the drink packages and were there for a good time.
3. The non-free adult area is Vibe and I did get passes for it. It has 2 hot tubs, a bar, and a large sun deck that is only accessible using a key card. The deck chairs have thick cushions and the stewards bring out iced bottles of water with fruit in them and cold towels during sea days to you. Also there are umbrellas as well for shade. NCL limits the amount of people and you never have to fight for a deck chair and never had an issue getting into the hot tub either. No kids and a dedicated bar so you never had to wait for a drink. As crowded as the normal deck gets it was nice getting up late and not having to worry about reserving a chair. The public adults only area at the back of ship was fine but there was no shade and the water area was tiny and usually filled up with people sitting with a big tv screen blasting music. You used to have to rush to get the passes for Vibe when you got on the boat but now you can pre-reserve on the site or calling in.
4. The show we saw was Million Dollar Quartet which was really good. The group that did that also did a show earlier in the cruise with broadway songs with changed up styles. There was also a dance show called Burn the Floor as well. Both were 2 nights each with 2 shows a day in the main theater. Don't know if they have changed any of this but they could have used more nights as you had to book tickets for the main theater shows and some people got left out. Also there is a club called Syd Normans with a house band that was very good. They played a different show every night. You need to line up about 30 mins to an hour to get a seat as there is limited seating, but it was worth it. We tried to see every show as they did a lot of 70's to 90's rock music. In addition to this they also have comedians in the comedy club and sometimes in the main theater.
5. One thing a lot of people on our cruise did not know about was that there is an early priority access pass you can buy. We purchased it so that we could get an advantage that got us on the ship after the haven people first and also got us off the ship prior to most of the regular passengers as well. It also included priority tendering as well since we had a tender port at Great Stirrup Cay. It is similar to Faster to the Fun on Carnival and helps alleviate the large crowds of people getting on and off the ship. After doing NCL for a couple of cruises it is ok but I have said that if I was to sail it again I would need to be in the Haven.

We have sailed on most of the NCL ships and really love them. Cruisecritic boards would be very helpful if you have questions about the Getaway. They only release a small amt of reservations ahead of the cruise. I have never had a problem booking when we got onboard for shows or dining. As for the shows even without reservations you just go but the people with reservations get to go in first. The only place that has ever been too crowded was Syd Norman's.

 

[SleepyDeb]

I did a review of DCL vs NCL (specifically the Getaway) in 2018 here. Some of it addresses food.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/my-view-of-dcl-vs-ncl.3663955/

 

[Anna131517]

I haven’t sailed on that ship but sailed with NCL several times before and once after the pandemic. On our most recent cruise, the main dining room food and service took a huge hit. If you can afford a suite to get all your meals at a better restaurant it may be worth it on such a long cruise. Or book more specialty dining reservations. Because everyone has some free specialty dining now we found it difficult to get reservations so book as soon as possible.

NCL doesn’t have as much going on during the day. I like getting spa treatments, reading a book, or just walking around during sea days. We’re also not big drinkers or gamblers.

 

[Kwami]

I haven’t sailed on that ship but sailed with NCL several times before and once after the pandemic. On our most recent cruise, the main dining room food and service took a huge hit. If you can afford a suite to get all your meals at a better restaurant it may be worth it on such a long cruise. Or book more specialty dining reservations. Because everyone has some free specialty dining now we found it difficult to get reservations so book as soon as possible.

It's a family vacation and the others didn't get Haven rooms, so we didn't, either. Maybe we'll book the extra two specialty dining package, though. That would be 4/10 nights, which is something.

NCL doesn’t have as much going on during the day. I like getting spa treatments, reading a book, or just walking around during sea days. We’re also not big drinkers or gamblers.

That's what I'm worried about. It seems like we're expected to sit around drinking or go to the casino, which isn't at all interesting to me. Oh, well.

Thanks!

 

[Makdex71]

Priority pass and Vibe I called the reservations phone number to add. The shows I booked on one of the touch screens around the ship as soon as I got on as they were not available to book on the website or app prior to getting on the ship. Do it as soon as you can as people started booking when they got on board and filled up pretty quickly. We were on a full ship though. They do scan your room card before entering the theater to verify you have a ticket for the shows that require a reservation. The Norwegian ship restaurants do post availability and wait times around the ship on screens so that you can see what restaurants are busy or have availability for walk ups.

 

[CarolynFH]

You may already be aware, but you can get good information on Cruise Critic https://www.cruisecritic.com/ as well, both from their articles and their forums.

 

[edith76]

It's a family vacation and the others didn't get Haven rooms, so we didn't, either. Maybe we'll book the extra two specialty dining package, though. That would be 4/10 nights, which is something.


That's what I'm worried about. It seems like we're expecting to sit around drinking or go to the casino, which isn't at all interesting to me. Oh, well.

Thanks!

There are activities all day long like trivia, games, wii, a craft, etc. They often list groups like veterans or mine - needleworkers - where you can meet up with other passengers. You will get a schedule in your room everyday. Depending on the cruise there are different activities during the day that sometimes include a featured performer or a speaker. I don't gamble and if I drink it is only wine at dinner. The 2 extra dinners are a nice add on especially if you have not sailed with NCL before and want to try several of them. Overall dining is more relaxed. The buffet has a larger variety of choices and we have found the food to be better quality than Disney although we were on the Magic a few weeks ago and they seemed to be making an effort to improve the food. (It was really bad on the Dream in April as was service). Food may be subjective but 1 or 2 times a year we do an NCL and DCL with a few days in between so it is easy to compare similar menu items. Depending on the ship and particular cruise there will be one or two big shows at night and the rest of the nights are a variety. Burn the Floor is a personal favorite and think you have MDQ which was also good. Relax and have fun. And check cruise critic.

 

[auntlynne]

I sailed NCL Encore to AK in Sep 2021.

The food was comparable to DCL but sometimes seemed better due to being different menus than Disney.

I had 2 included specialty dinners - chose Onda and Le Bistro. Excellent food. But I would not pay extra for more than what came in the Free at Sea package.

I did enjoy eating in a dining room for lunch, something I don’t do on Disney. Nice change from doing lunch buffets on cruises. But I also utilized the buffet for dinner, depending on the menu.

I was happy not having a “show” during my dinner.

Adult entertainment was more adult than I enjoy. And I miss a dedicated movie theater - they used the Atrium for nearly every activity - including movies.

Several cruise lines seem to be eliminating shows that have high fees for licensing. And are revamping their menus. Seems like NCL and Royal are both tweaking their offerings.

 

[loislane]

Following along. We sail NCL next February and I've also been wondering as non-partying non-gamblers what to expect. We are actually sailing as part of a large radio station group, so I know there will be some activities offered for us through that, but was curious about what NCL has to offer.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

It's a family vacation and the others didn't get Haven rooms, so we didn't, either. Maybe we'll book the extra two specialty dining package, though. That would be 4/10 nights, which is something.


That's what I'm worried about. It seems like we're expecting to sit around drinking or go to the casino, which isn't at all interesting to me. Oh, well.

Thanks!

I feel the same as you and am not into drinking or casino. I was not ecstatic about NCL entertainment. We sailed 6/2019 on a Med Cruise. The food was good, but we were also in Italy and Greece so we ate in port a lot. If you have a lot of sea days, I would be more hesitant to want to be on NCL. If you are good at relaxing and entertaining yourself, it's not a problem. I just like to have active stuff to do.