We've done 7 DCL cruises. On our first NCL cruise now and it's beyond horrible!

[lklgoodman]

We are on the NCL Encore on the last night of 7 night Alaskan cruise. We have done 7 DCL cruises and have loved every single one. I booked this NCL cruise Feb 2022 and was so excited about it. Before booking it I tried to do as much research as possible. The reason we decided to try another line is because my dd is 15yrs old and no longer cares about the characters. We have also seen the shows many times. We love them, but thought it would be great to try something new. This is going to be long, but in all the research I did, I was never told some of these things. I now realize that the people who told me NCL is great have never been on DCL.
We had a family club balcony. Size of room was good and we had big bathroom. The bed was as hard as a rock. We asked for an egg crate matress which was thin as paper and did nothing to help. On all of our DCL cruises our room host would come to our room to introduce themselves. This is our last night and our host has never come to our room to introduce himself, we aren't sure which of the ones we've seen in the hall is our host. There were also clothes from previous people left in our cabin when we arrived and we had no towels. They only clean the room once a day, which is fine. There is no turn down service. First night I had to call to get the sofa made into a bed for my dd. It stayed as a bed the entire time. Anytime we needed more toilet paper, we had to ask for it. We were gone for 7 hrs in Skagway. Came back and cabin hadn't been cleaned. Never got cleaned that day. Majority of the employees on this ship almost never say hi when they see you. There are 3 sit down restaurants. They all serve the exact same menu. The food is good and the servings are huge. We are a family of 3. No food allergies and at every meal we would just get water to drink(rarely got refills) and never asked for any substitutions from what was on the menu. Yet at every meal we were served something wrong. We would get to the restaurants as soon as they opended and even when there were very few people in the restaurants it would take forever to get your meal. We would be seated and then wait 15-20 mins to get menus, 20 mins to place order, 20-30 mins in between courses. People think it's hard to find a place to eat at DCL's buffet, it's worse on this ship. They have NO quick service places to get food. It's been too cold to use pool deck, so no food on the pool deck hasn't bothered us, but on a hot weather cruise, I would hate not having quick service outside. And the absolute worse thing about this cruise is that there has been almost nothing to do unless you want to sit in a bar and drink. We love DCL because they have family activities going on all the time. They had a family pictionary 1 time for the entire cruise. I think there may have been 2 other family activities. We were able to do the race cars 1 time and loved it. Unfortunately they are rarely open and you have to reserve a time so all the times are quickly taken. Same way with laser tag, our reservation for that was canceled due to weather. They do Deal or No Deal game show in the Atrium. This is a family activities they do several times a day. It costs $30 to get a card to play. We watched a few games. The Choir of Men show was good. They have had 2 comics on. They only did 1 family show during the week. All their other shows were 18+ yrs old. They also had a Beatles show 1 night for families. So out of 7 nights, there was only 3 nights of entertainment for families. They had a magician who was good, but he only performed 3 shows. They were during the day. I don't know why he didn't do a night show. Needless to say we will not be cruising on NCL again and I would not recommend them to anyone!! The extra cost for a DCL cruise is worth it!!!

 

[WAstateDVCDaddy]

Sorry you didn’t have a great time. We do a lot of cruises on Princess, and although they’re not the most family oriented cruise line, there’s never been a shortage of things to do, or yummy things to eat. And we’ve always had our cabin stewards introduce themselves and do things proactively, providing great service. Several people on the cruise forums have had some similar feedback to yours on some Princess cruises also, so there’s always the possibility that you just had some bad luck onboard.

On our last cruise (to Mexico) our DD(6) loved the kids club as usual, but then had so much fun seeing the magician that we ended up at the other two magic shows on the cruise. We ran out of time to do other things we wanted to do onboard.

We’ve been wanting to try DCL in the next couple of years, before our daughter ages out of Disney, but it’s hard to swallow the prices compared to Princess for us (cruises are free as long as we frequent the casino while we sail). Definitely will have to bite the bullet next year sometime.

 

[Minniesgal]

Agree with the poster above Princess is good we actually prefer Princess to Disney cruise line

 

[bbangel]

Agree with the poster above Princess is good we actually prefer Princess to Disney cruise line

This is one of those your mileage may vary cases. We did Princess and most things were fine. It surprised us that there were so few activities before 8 pm. Not sure if that was a ship specific problem or not lol. We would try Princess again but would bring more to do as the expectation seemed to be you would spend your days drinking and in the casino, neither of which we participate in.

 

[Lesverts]

This is one of those your mileage may vary cases. We did Princess and most things were fine. It surprised us that there were so few activities before 8 pm. Not sure if that was a ship specific problem or not lol. We would try Princess again but would bring more to do as the expectation seemed to be you would spend your days drinking and in the casino, neither of which we participate in.

Yep, with every experience your personal priorities and tastes will dictate where you want to spend you time. My hoity-toity aunt and uncle enjoyed NCL and the flexibility it offered. They had some complaints (mostly around how hard it was to use the onboard credit). I am much more relaxed, sit on the balcony and watch the ocean go by, don't need a lot of frill. So NCL may not be for me. I am trying the Norwegian Prima in about 2 years and am looking forward to a different experience. I am also on the younger side for cruising but absolutely loved Holland America. Whereas my much Mom had not enjoyed her time on the line.

 

[goofy4prez]

I've done several cruise lines other than DCL. Many years ago I did a Carnival (never again); We have also done Royal Caribbean, NCL, Princess (Alaska), and Regent Seven Seas. Of them, RCC was nice, but the ship was just way, way too big and crowded for my liking. I loved Princess for our Alaska cruise and found the food good and the service equally as good. And we did really enjoy NCL in the Haven, but outside of the Haven, it was just ok, and agree with several points the OP shared.

Now that we are empty nesters (meaning we are old, LOL), we are now pretty loyal to two cruise lines. DCL and Regent Seven Seas. Each is very different. We still take our daughter (25) with us on DCL and will be bringing her fiance as well on our next cruise. In fact, we have a 1-bedroom suite on the Fantasy for next April. We love Disney but have grown to dislike the recent changes to the park experience (Genie+, ILL$) and the stack em, pack em, and rack em crowds of the parks; however, their cruises satisfy our love for Disney.

And we absolutely love their all-inclusive experience (and I do mean almost everything), impeccable service, and incredible cuisine of Regent Seven Seas along with the relaxing atmosphere and the spectacular decor that is found on their much smaller ships with their largest ship having a maximum of 750 passengers. And while I do love kids, and I do love to see them on a DCL, it is so nice when on a Regent ship and you almost never see children. In our 50's we are among the youngins on one of their ships though. LOL

 

[Cheburashka]

I'm sorry you're having a bad trip. I'll keep your post in mind the next time a poster name-calls people who choose to continue to sail on DCL. Your post reminds me of a similar one another DCL regular made after trying RCCL, and some posters responded saying, what else did he expect, it's a lot cheaper. Lol, that's after so many posts on here telling people that DCL is not worth the price and you can get the same thing on other mass market lines for half the price...

 

[JM_97]

Sorry you had a bad trip. I sailed on NCL to Bermuda and had a great time. It's different than DCL, but not in a bad way. Service was great, lots to do on the ship, and food was very good. Disney had much better on board shopping and the layout was a little confusing at first, but you got the hang of it by Day 2.

Disney is my preferred line, but I would sail NCL again. Everyone's different I guess.

 

[cvjw]

On our last cruise on the fantasy in April, I found another person’s belongings in a cabinet and a dirty pair of underwear (YUK) in the bedside table. Not cleaning the staterooms properly between guests can happen on DCL also!

 

[shh]

I am also on the younger side for cruising but absolutely loved Holland America.

Interesting. You are the first young/youngish person I've seen say that - most say HA has a very elder vibe and they don't care for it. I'm told they're one of the oldest demographics in cruising. But when I look at their offerings, I like what I see - blues clubs, etc.

But I hesitate to try them because I've read they're much more lenient on smoking - won't do much if people smoke on balconies, etc. (Of course this was 2017-2018ish. Maybe that's gotten better.) I'm asthmatic, so have to be careful of that.

 

[Sanchez]

I'm sorry you're having a bad trip. I'll keep your post in mind the next time a poster name-calls people who choose to continue to sail on DCL despite the high prices. Your post reminds me of a similar one another DCL regular made after trying RCCL, and some posters responded saying, what else did he expect, it's a lot cheaper. Lol, that's after so many posts on here telling people that DCL is not worth the price and you can get the same thing on other mass market lines for half the price...

I've noticed that several posters here who like NCL refer to the Haven. It seems that is the way to go if you really want to sail NCL. Some of the cruisers on here who prefer or equally like other mass market lines are referring to the concierge-level offerings of those lines, so that's something to keep in mind before switching to another mass market line if you've only ever sailed DCL. And I'm not surprised that entertainment is better on Disney than on other lines. That would be my expectation, given that Disney is an entertainment company first and foremost.

So you are taking one person’s position as validation for your decisions? How many lines have you been on?

I’ll take a standard balcony in Princess over the same category on DCL.

 

[CarolynFH]

DH and I sailed with RCCL several years ago and hadn’t cruised for many years so didn’t do well choosing our cabin. What we disliked most was that to get to the dining room we had a choice of making our way through the smoky casino or walking the length of the shopping mall. We’re looking forward to not having a casino in our way on the Magic!

 

[lklgoodman]

DH and I sailed with RCCL several years ago and hadn’t cruised for many years so didn’t do well choosing our cabin. What we disliked most was that to get to the dining room we had a choice of making our way through the smoky casino or walking the length of the shopping mall. We’re looking forward to not having a casino in our way on the Magic!

On this NCL ship the casino has an enclosed smoking section so we never smelt smoke while walking through it. The only time I smelled any smoke was when we walked by a bar on the pool deck. It was right by the kids splash zone. That area is a no smoking area, but they were letting people smoke. There was a smoking section further along on the deck, I don't know why they weren't telling them to go it. But no other areas smelled like smoke.

 

[tidefan]

Agree with the poster above Princess is good we actually prefer Princess to Disney cruise line

We love Princess as well (just had a fantastic cruise aboard Regal Princess to the British Isles). I will say that there is a difference between the Royal class ships and the Grand class ships, especially in the buffet, so that is something to consider.

We have gotten to where we have our preferences in cruise lines. However, I think that this is a very personal thing. What one family may like may be completely different from others, so that's OK. For instance, everyone seems to like RCCL, but it's not really for us (don't care for the food options - you have to pay for most of the better stuff). We have sort of settled in to going on DCL (if we can - still love it), Princess, Virgin Voyages (one of our new favorites), or.... one of the new Carnival ships (think Mardi Gras, Celebration, or Jubilee). We tried Mardi Gras and all really loved it. It's very different than their older ships.

That said, it's good to try a bunch of different ships (as sometimes ships within lines can be VERY different) and see what works for your family! It's great to have a bunch of options...

 

[71 Truck]

My wife and I had been on 12 seven day Disney cruises before we had been on our first NCL cruise. The first thing I had to do was stop comparing them to Disney. For the most part they are two completely different cruises even tho they went to the same islands as Disney.

We were on the NCL Breakaway leaving Port Canaveral February 29th 2020. The first thing we noticed was the boarding process. Unlike Disney who announces you boarding on NCL you just get on the ship. Once we had eaten lunch our cabin was ready. The cabin was clean and we talked to our room steward who introduced himself. He told us if there was anything we needed to let him know. During the week or room was cleaned early and we never ran out of towels or other items in our room.

Dinning was a different experience because we were used to the rotational dinning Disney is famous for. Service and selection were good however we found the buffet a better fit for out schedule and verity of food.

Entertainment and activity s were definitely different from our Disney experience however I was trying not to compare NCL to Disney.

Overall we had a good time on NCL but in the back of my mind I wanted to be on the Fantasy. We wanted to try something different that was a lot less money than Disney and NCL fit the category.

Will we go on NCL again,yes. Will we go back on Disney, of course but we can do more NCL cruses than we can do Disney.
We had a Disney cruise scheduled for later this year,then we canceled it to go on NCL. However due to circumstances presented to us a few weeks ago we are back on Disney with several NCL cruises for next year.

 

[JM_97]

we can do more NCL cruses than we can do Disney.

Yep. As much as I love Disney, it's not always financially possible to cruise with them every single time. Don't mind paying a little extra but you can have a great time on other lines for basically half the price.

 

[Lesverts]

Interesting. You are the first young/youngish person I've seen say that - most say HA has a very elder vibe and they don't care for it. I'm told they're one of the oldest demographics in cruising. But when I look at their offerings, I like what I see - blues clubs, etc.

But I hesitate to try them because I've read they're much more lenient on smoking - won't do much if people smoke on balconies, etc. (Of course this was 2017-2018ish. Maybe that's gotten better.) I'm asthmatic, so have to be careful of that.

Holland America has an older demographic, lots of walkers. But, the food is generally very good. The nice atmosphere of live music around the ships, a more relaxed feel and overall value for money spent is very high. Another big thing is that HAL has an older staff. They retain their staff at much higher rates then other lines and also take a lot of transfers from Princess.

Did not notice the smoking that much, but when my primary line is Celebrity with the almost non-existent smoking it was noticeable. But I'd have the same experience on Royal/Carnival/Princess etc because of that as well.

 

[71 Truck]

Yep. As much as I love Disney, it's not always financially possible to cruise with them every single time. Don't mind paying a little extra but you can have a great time on other lines for basically half the price.

My wife and I have done Guaranteed rates in the past and have done very well. The only thing is you have to be able to cruise in the time frame they offer the rates for.
Since we have no children we are flexible when we can sail.

Our last cruise back in November 2022 was guaranteed ocean view rate. We were sailing with a group of friends for a person in the party's birthday and when we asked our travel agent to make sure we were at their table for dinner she asked for their reservation number so she could put in the request.
Not only did Disney put us at their table but they gave us a room right next to the group we were with.

This is why I love Disney so much because they make things happen.

 

[shh]

my primary line is Celebrity with the almost non-existent smoking it was noticeable

my #1 preference was celebrity too - but haven't cruised since 2017, so can imagine there's many post covid changes.

The nice atmosphere of live music around the ships, a more relaxed feel and overall value for money spent is very high.
Thank you for mentioning live music. This is really important to me and even back in 2017, noticed there was less and less of it at celebrity. And many of the other mass lines have cut back on it as well. I really don't like djs and no offense to anyone else's taste, but despise hip hop/rap, trance/electronic and the tired "wedding" cliched party tunes (i.e kool and the gang, village people, etc).

LOVE violins, acoustic, jazz, old school blues, rock, country and pretty much every other genre of music.

 

[Snowwhyt]

Throwing out a comparison: MSC, Royal C, DLC.
Entertainment: each has a different client and serves them well enough but MSC was my least favorite of the group. Disney had more clean adult entertainment and that was perfect for our 5 adults(ages 25-80)
Food: DCL was best. MSC you could bump up your dinners for $ at MDRs. Royal was fine but not spectacular in the variety category like DCL. No food in any cruise line has been bad Royal and MSC had dinner you could get and most chain restaurants with minimal spice.
Deck food: 1) Disney, 2) Royal, 3) MSC(burger, fries, pizza slices.
Room: I don’t believe I’m going to say this but MSC had the most effective bathroom set up. Except one(not a double) outlet in ceiling. So I had no love for that. And fewer outlets than the original Magic setup so no love there either. It was a newer ship so who knows if it’s going to hold up with age. Might look rundown fast.
MSC was way too loud. Hooting and hollering in the champagne bar was the same at every location on the ship.
Royal would be better for active teens than most lines.
Been thinking about NCL and Celebrity cruise lines. Food and entertainment is most important to us. Seems like food for NCL might not be what we look for though.
Thank you for the review.